Pṛthu

Pṛthu was the first cakravartī (emperor of the whole earth) and the first king to rule the earth under dharma, as the Purāṇas tell. He was born from the right arm of the king Vena. The ṛshis (seers) and the devas knew him at once as an aṃśa (a partial manifestation) of Bhagavān Vishṇu, whom the Bhāgavata Purāṇa also calls Śrī Hari.

His first great act was to subdue the Earth, Bhū-devī, who had swallowed all the seeds in protest against Vena’s adharma. He milked her in the form of a cow, levelled the land and settled the people. From him the Earth received the names Pṛthivī and Medinī. The Bhāgavata Purāṇa tells his whole life, from his birth to his liberation (moksha), and says that his queen Arcī was an aṃśa of Lakshmī-devī.

Birth from Vena’s arm

The ṛshis ended the reign of the adharmic king Vena with a śāpa (a curse). The kingdom had no rightful heir and the world fell into disorder. The Bhāgavata Purāṇa says the ṛshis killed Vena with their huṃkāras (angry sounds). From his churned thigh they drew out the Nishāda, who carried Vena’s pāpa (sin). Then they saw dust rising on every horizon and thieves roaming without check. They knew that the royal line of the rājarshi Aṅga must not end, so they churned Vena’s arms.

From the arms a shining pair arose, a man and a woman. The brahma-vettas (knowers of Brahman) at once saw the mark of Śrī Hari’s aṃśa on the man. Brahmā himself came and saw the cakra-mark of Śrī Hari, who carries the mace, on the man’s right palm, and the lotus-mark on his feet. The ṛshis said: “This one is the world-protecting aṃśa of Śrī Hari. The woman who comes with him never leaves Śrī Hari in any age. She is the avatāra of Lakshmī-devī.” The man would be known as Pṛthu and the woman as Arcī. (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, 4th Skanda, Chapter 15)

The Padma Purāṇa (Bhūmi Khaṇḍa, Chapter 29) says the ṛshis churned Vena’s body after his end. The Nishāda came from the left thigh and Pṛthu from the right arm. Pṛthu came out blazing like Agni, bearing weapons, his body marked with the signs of Bhagavān Vishṇu’s aṃśa. The ṛshis, the devas and all who were present knew him at once. Celestial drums sounded, flowers rained and the gandharvas sang. Pṛthu was consecrated as the first rightful king of the earth.

The setting in the Padma Purāṇa

The Bhūmi Khaṇḍa places the coming of Pṛthu inside a larger account. Brahmā had already appointed the lords of each domain of existence (Chapter 27):

• Candra for the plants
• Varuṇa for the waters
• Kubera for the yakshas
• Yama for the pitṛs
• Sūrya for time

Pṛthu’s kingship on earth completes this order. A sovereign who governs with dharma and wisdom is the principle at work at every level of creation, and Pṛthu shows it in human form.

Coronation and the gifts of the devas

The brāhmaṇas performed Pṛthu’s coronation with great splendour. Rivers, seas, mountains, serpents, cows, birds, beasts, svarga and Bhū-devī herself brought offerings. Pṛthu, dressed and adorned, shone like a second Agni beside his queen Arcī, who was adorned in the same way. Then the devas came forward one by one with their gifts:

• Kubera gave a golden throne.
• Varuṇa gave a white umbrella that dripped water like moonlight.
• Vāyu gave two fly-whisks.
• Dharma gave a garland of undying glory.
• Indra gave a magnificent crown.
• Yama gave a staff by which enemies are brought under control.
• Brahmā made a Vedic armour.
• Sarasvatī gave a peerless necklace.
• Śrī Hari gave the Sudarśana cakra, and Lakshmī-devī gave inexhaustible wealth.
• Rudra gave a sword whose scabbard bore ten moon-discs, and Pārvatī gave a shield with a hundred bosses.
• Candra gave horses that knew neither tiredness nor death.
• Viśvakarmā gave a divine chariot.
• Agni gave a bow made of goat-horn and cow-horn.
• Sūrya gave arrows as swift as his own rays.
• Bhū-devī gave sandals that could carry the wearer anywhere in an instant.
• The gandharvas gave mastery of music and dance, and the power to be unseen.
• The mahārshis gave blessings that never fail.
• The seas and the mountains granted that Pṛthu’s chariot would pass through them without a block.

Then the sūtas and māgadhas (bards) began to praise him. Pṛthu laughed and stopped them gently. He said: “My deeds are not yet known to the world. How can you praise qualities I have not yet shown? Praise Śrī Hari, whose virtues are real. Come back when I have earned your words.” The bards were moved by his humility and kept their stutis (hymns of praise) for a later time, as he had asked. (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, 4th Skanda, Chapter 15)

The bards’ stuti

When the bards at last sang Pṛthu’s glory (Chapter 16), they hailed him as Śrī Hari himself come down, too great to describe even for Brahmā. They said:

“He will uphold the limits of dharma and punish those who break them. He alone carries the forms of all the lokapālas (guardians of the directions) at the right time. Like Sūrya he gives light to all alike. Like Bhūmi he bears every burden with patience. Like Candra his moonlike face delights his people. Like Varuṇa he is deep beyond measure. Like Agni, born of the araṇi (fire-stick) that was Vena, he burns his enemies away. Like Vāyu he moves everywhere unseen. Like Yama he is fair in judgement.”

They said that he would perform one hundred Aśvamedha yajñas on the banks of the Sarasvatī, that Indra would steal the hundredth horse, and that he would meet Sanatkumāra in his garden and receive pure ātma-jñāna (knowledge of the self). They ended: “The very bearer of the Cakra has come down in this Pṛthu.” (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, 4th Skanda, Chapter 16)

Subduing Bhū-devī

After Pṛthu was crowned, his subjects came to him thin with hunger. The Earth had held back the seeds and herbs that Svayambhū Brahmā had made at the beginning. She had swallowed them, because the realm was lawless and she judged it pointless to give them out. The Padma Purāṇa says she did this in protest against Vena’s adharma, and that crops failed and famine spread.

Pṛthu’s lips shook with anger. He strung an arrow to his bow and went after Bhū-devī. She took the form of a cow and fled in every direction, through the lokas, through svarga and through the space between. Wherever she ran, Pṛthu was already there with his bow raised. She found no shelter, so she turned back and spoke to him with folded hands. In the Padma Purāṇa she says to him: “Do not kill me. All beings stand on me.”

In the Bhāgavata Purāṇa she accepted his rule and asked whether it was dharma to kill a woman, above all one who is the very support of the world. If she broke, all beings, Pṛthu too, would sink with nothing to hold them. Pṛthu did not give way. He said she ate the offerings of the yajñas and gave nothing back. Such a creature deserved the same treatment as a cow that does not give milk although it grazes every day. A ruler who lets the hungry suffer when the cure is in his hands is no ruler at all.

Bhū-devī then praised him as Ādi Varāha, who had earlier lifted her out of the first waters. She praised him also as the Parameśvara himself, who had now come down in the form of Pṛthu to guard dharma through Vena’s adharma. She asked him to level her uneven surface so that rainwater would stay on her, and to take the herbs by dohana (milking). (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, 4th Skanda, Chapters 17–18)

Milking the Earth

In the Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Pṛthu made Svāyambhuva Manu his calf, held out his own hands as the vessel, and milked out all the herbs, grains and life-giving plants as milk. Then each group of beings milked the Earth in its own way, with its own calf, vessel and milker:

• The mahārshis made Bṛhaspati the calf. Their minds, speech and ears were the vessel. They milked the Vedas as pure milk.
• The devatās made Indra the calf and used golden vessels. They milked amṛta (the drink of immortality), which gave strength to their senses, minds and bodies.
• The asuras made Prahlāda the calf and used iron vessels. They milked strong drink.
• The gandharvas and apsarases made Viśvāvasu the calf and used a lotus as the vessel. They milked sweet music and beauty.
• The pitṛ-devatās made Aryaman the calf and milked svadhā.
• The siddhas made Kapila the calf and the sky their vessel. They milked the eight siddhis (powers).
• The yakshas, rākshasas, bhūtas and piśācas made Rudra the calf and milked blood into skulls.
• The serpents made Takshaka the calf and milked venom.
• The animals made Nandīśvara the calf and milked grass.
• The trees made the Vaṭa the calf and milked many saps.
• The mountains made Himavān the calf and milked minerals and metals.

So every being, from the ṛshis to the animals, the trees and the mountains, received from Bhū-devī what suited its nature. Pṛthu was pleased and accepted Bhū-devī as his daughter. (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, 4th Skanda, Chapter 18)

The Padma Purāṇa (Bhūmi Khaṇḍa, Chapter 29) says that Pṛthu became the first calf himself, and that the Earth gave out her stored plenty through milking. In its list, each group used a suitable calf and vessel:

• The ṛshis used Meru as calf. Their vessel gave Vedic knowledge.
• The devas used Indra as calf. Their vessel gave amṛta.
• The pitṛs used Yama as calf. Their vessel gave soma for the world of the ancestors.
• The nāgas used Takshaka as calf. Their vessel gave the poison they need.
• The asuras used Prahlāda as calf. Their vessel gave māyā (power of illusion).

The Vishṇu Purāṇa (Chapter 22) says that the devas, ṛshis, pitṛs, nāgas, asuras and yakshas each milked the Earth with different vessels and different first calves, and received what is by nature their food.

The Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa on the milking

The Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa says Pṛthu used Cākshusha Manu as the calf, and milked grains and trees. The Bhāgavata Purāṇa says Svāyambhuva Manu was the calf. The Vāyu Purāṇa also uses Cākshusha Manu as the first calf, as the Brahmāṇḍa does, and the Matsya Purāṇa uses Svāyambhuva Manu. The Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa then lists the other groups of beings in this table:

The Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa says the asuras drank māyā and so became masters of illusion. The nāgas drank venom and so became great-bodied and strong with poison. Mountains became very firm because they milked their own essence. Trees grow again even when cut, because they milked living sap in that first milking.

Levelling and settling the earth

The Padma Purāṇa says that mountains and forests covered the land, so farming and living in one place were not possible. Before Pṛthu there was no organised settlement, only wild country and wandering. Pṛthu levelled the rough ground with his great bow and made flat land for fields, villages and cities. From this act the Earth received the name Pṛthivī, which means “she who belongs to Pṛthu” or “the broad and level one”. Her second name, Medinī, comes from the medas (marrow) of Madhu and Kaiṭabha, from whom the Earth was first made.

In the Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Pṛthu levelled the earth after the milking. He used the tip of his bow to break the mountain peaks and made the land nearly flat, so that rainwater would stay and farming could be done. Then he built grāmas (villages), paṭṭaṇas (towns), nagaras (cities), forts of many kinds, herders’ hamlets, cattle-keeping settlements, farming villages, mountain villages and mines. He settled all peoples and began civilised life. Before this, people had lived wherever they chose. After him, all beings lived in their proper places without fear. (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, 4th Skanda, Chapter 18)

The Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa says that in the Cākshusha Manvantara the earth’s surface was vishama (rough and uneven). There were no proper towns, villages, farming or trade routes. Pṛthu levelled the earth by breaking the mountain peaks with the tip of his bow, called dharmakoṭi, and took away all unevenness so that rainwater would gather and keep life going. The Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa says that from this event onward, in the Vaivasvata Manvantara, settled life with its grāmas and nagaras became possible.

The Vishṇu Purāṇa also shows Pṛthu levelling mountains, making plains and settling civilisation. He is the first ruler whose command reaches every realm.

A golden age and the first rājā

Under Pṛthu the earth gave plenty. Rain fell at the right times, crops grew in abundance, cows gave milk freely and rivers ran clear. The Padma Purāṇa calls him the first rājā in the full sense, one who makes the people rejoice (rañjana). Before Pṛthu there were powerful rulers, but with Pṛthu kingship became a task of dharma. The king guards the earth and feeds his people. The duties of a king and his link with the lords of each domain began with Pṛthu. Every later teaching on rāja-dharma (the dharma of kings) in the Purāṇas looks back to his reign as its model.

The Mahābhārata account

The Mahābhārata tells of Pṛthu’s birth and coronation in the Śānti Parva, Chapter 59, in the words of Bhīshma. It says:

• Pṛthu came from Vena’s right arm (dakshiṇa-bāhu) when the ṛshis churned Vena’s body with mantras. He was born fully armed with armour (kavaca), sword (khaḍga), arrows (bāṇa) and bow (dhanu). He already knew the Vedas and daṇḍanīti (the science of governing and punishing).
• At the coronation Lakshmī herself came out from the forehead of Bhagavān Vishṇu as a golden lotus. Dharma, Artha and Lakshmī were set up in the kingdom together.
• Śukrācārya was made Pṛthu’s purohita (family priest). The Vālakhilyas and the Sārasvata gaṇa served as ministers. Garga became the court jyotisha (astrologer).
• The earth was named Pṛthivī after him because he levelled it with the tip of his bow. He filled the great hollows that had formed during Vena’s misrule, when Bhūmī had swallowed all the seeds.
• The word rājan comes from his name. He rañjayati (delights) the prajā (people), so one who delights the people is called a rājā.
• In his reign there was no old age, no famine, no distress of mind, no disease of the body, no danger from serpents or thieves, and no harm among beings. The oceans stood still at his will. Bhūmī gave seventeen kinds of crops of her own accord.

The Śānti Parva tells this account to show the divine authority behind kingship. Bhagavān Vishṇu enters the king through the king’s tapas (austerity). A king who follows dharma stands for Bhagavān Vishṇu on earth. A king who follows adharma, like Vena, loses this support and is destroyed.

The Vishṇu Purāṇa account

The Vishṇu Purāṇa tells of Pṛthu in two chapters of the Pradhamāṃśa (the first part). Chapter 13 gives the birth. Pṛthu comes out fully formed from Vena’s churned right arm, blazing with divine splendour, with his bow and armour appearing with him. The Purāṇa stresses that Pṛthu is a direct partial avatāra (aṃśa) of Bhagavān Vishṇu.

Chapter 22 gives a longer account of the milking of the Earth. As in the other Purāṇas, Pṛthu milks the earth as a cow and receives crops and food for people. The same chapter weaves in teachings on the vibhūtis (manifest glories) of Bhagavān Vishṇu, which are his presence in all excellent things. It makes clear that Pṛthu’s own excellence as the first king is itself a vibhūti of Bhagavān Vishṇu.

The Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa: lineage, birth and coronation

The Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa (Pūrva Bhāga, Chapter 36) tells of Pṛthu within the family line of the Cākshusha Manvantara. Its line of descent runs: Dhruva, Sṛshṭi, Prācīnagarbha, Udāradhi, Dīnjaya, Ripu, Cakshusha, Cākshusha Manu, Ūru, then Aṅga (the first of six sons born to Ūru’s wife Āgneyī), Vena and Pṛthu.

The ṛshis, led by Marīci, took hold of Vena’s right arm (dakshiṇa-hasta) and churned it like an araṇi. Pṛthu came out blazing with divine light. He already carried the great Ājagava bow, arrows and armour, and shone with the marks of the aṃśa of Śrī Hari. The ṛshis cried: “Rejoice! This is your king!” All the great rivers, seas and mountains brought offerings for the abhisheka (royal bath of consecration). Brahmā came with the Āṅgirasa devas, and Pṛthu was consecrated with pure waters, herbs and garlands.

The Vāyu Purāṇa: lineage and sons

The Vāyu Purāṇa (Uttarārdha, Chapters 1–2) gives the line from Dhruva as: Dhruva, Pushṭi, Prācīnagarbha, Udāradhi, Divañjaya, Ripu, Cākshusha (Cākshusha Manu), Ūru, Aṅga, Vena and Pṛthu.

Its account of Vena’s wrong deeds is like the Bhāgavata account. Vena forbade all yajña and demanded that every offering be made to him alone. When the ṛshis, led by Marīci, faced him, he would not give way. The ṛshis churned his left arm, and the dark Nishāda came out. Then they churned his right arm, and Pṛthu blazed forth, fully armed with the Ājagava bow and armour.

After Pṛthu, the Vāyu Purāṇa gives this line:

• Pṛthu had two sons, Antardhāna and another brave son.
• Antardhāna’s wife Śikhāṇḍī bore Havirdhāna.
• Havirdhāna had six sons by Dhishaṇā, a woman of the Shaḍāgneya line. They were Prācīnabarhi (also called Prācīnabarhisha), Śukra, Gaya, Kṛshṇa, Prājājīna and Bhagavān Prācīnabarhi.

Prācīnabarhi became a great Prajāpati and ruled the earth with strength, learning, tapas and valour. He married Savarṇā, a daughter of the ocean who was born in the great deep. Through her he had the ten Pracetasas, all equal in dharma and in mastery of dhanurveda (the science of archery). The Pracetasas did tapas for 10,000 years under the ocean. Later their wrath-fire burned the plants of the earth. This comes before the full creation by Daksha.

The Matsya Purāṇa account

The Matsya Purāṇa tells the story of Vena and Pṛthu in Chapter 10, within the line that links the Manvantaras to the royal families. It tells of Vena’s wickedness in forbidding all yajña, and of how the ṛshis ended Vena with kuśa grass used as a brahma-daṇḍa (a staff of Brahman). Then they churned his body, first drawing out the Nishāda, who held Vena’s evil, and then Pṛthu from the right arm. In the Matsya Purāṇa, Svāyambhuva Manu is the calf through whom the Earth’s produce was drawn out, and then different kinds of beings milked the Earth for their needs. This set up the plenty of the present creation. Pṛthu is named the first true king (rājā), and the Earth took the name Pṛthvī from him.

The Hari Vaṃśa account

The Hari Vaṃśa (Hari Vaṃśa Parva) tells of Pṛthu within the line that runs from Svāyambhuva Manu through the Cākshusha family to the Vaivasvata Manvantara.

Lineage. Svāyambhuva Manu, Uttānapāda, Dhruva, Ślishṭi, Ripu, Cākshusha (Cākshusha Manu), Ūru, Aṅga, Vena and Pṛthu. (Chapter 2)

Birth. The ṛshis first churned Vena’s left thigh, not the right arm. From it came the dark, frightening Nishāda, who held Vena’s pāpa and became the father of the Nishāda line of hunters and fishers. Atri Maharshi calmed him by saying nishīda (“sit”). Then the ṛshis churned Vena’s right arm, and Pṛthu blazed forth with bow, arrows and armour from the moment of his birth. (Chapter 5)

Chief among kings. After Brahmā performed Pṛthu’s coronation, he set all creation in order by appointing rulers over each domain. Pṛthu was declared the chief (mukhya) of all rājas, above the rulers of all other kinds of beings. At the same time Brahmā named Prahlāda king of the rākshasas and Candra king of the brāhmaṇas and plants, and so on through all creation. (Chapter 4)

The Rājasūya. The Hari Vaṃśa names Pṛthu as the first king to perform the Rājasūya yajña among all who have held that rank. It also says that the custom of sūta-māgadhas as stutipāṭhakas (bards who recite the glory of kings) began at Pṛthu’s own yajña. By his milking of the Earth as a cow, all herbs and grains were restored to the world. (Chapter 5)

Sons. It names Pṛthu’s two sons as Antanu and Pālita, matching Antardhāna and Pālita in other Purāṇas. The line went on through Antanu’s son Havirdhāna. His six sons by Dhishaṇā included Prācīnabarhi, from whom the ten Pracetasas came. (Chapter 2)

The hundred Aśvamedhas and Indra’s theft

Pṛthu decided to perform one hundred Aśvamedha yajñas at Brahmāvarta, the holy land on the bank of the Sarasvatī where the river flows east. Svāyambhuva Manu had also performed yajñas in that land. Śrī Hari himself came to these yajñas, with Brahmā, Śiva, all the lokapālas, gandharvas, siddhas, vidyādharas and bhakta-daityas (daityas who were devoted to Śrī Hari). At these yajñas the Earth became a kāmadhenu (the cow that gives every wish). Milk, curds, ghee and sweet drinks flowed as rivers, great trees dripped honey, mountains gave all four kinds of food and the seas gave heaps of jewels.

When the hundredth Aśvamedha was going on, Indra saw that Pṛthu was gathering puṇya (merit) that would be greater than his own, and he could not bear it. Unseen, he stole the yajña horse. The mahārshi Atri saw him and told Pṛthu’s son, later named Vijitāśva, to go after him. Vijitāśva saw Indra in a pāshaṇḍa disguise, in the form of a naked ascetic with matted hair and a body smeared with ash. He took the form for dharma itself and did not loose his arrow. Atri urged him to strike in spite of the disguise. Vijitāśva chased Indra, who left the horse and vanished. Atri showed that Indra tried again, dressed as a skull-bearing figure, and again Vijitāśva followed and won back the horse. Each disguise that Indra wore and dropped became the seed of a pāshaṇḍa sampradāya (a false path), forms of adharma that would confuse later generations.

When Pṛthu learned of Indra’s repeated interference, he raised his bow to destroy him. The ṛtviks (yajña priests) held him back and said: “Let us call Indra here with our āhvāna mantras and destroy him in the yajña.” Before they could act, Svayambhū Brahmā appeared and stopped them. He said: “Indra’s name is Yajña. He is the body of Śrī Hari himself, and it is not right to destroy him. It is enough that his repeated pāshaṇḍa disguises have lessened his own tejas (radiance). Also, these pāshaṇḍa forms that Indra made are now spreading among the people and harming dharma. Stop the yajña at ninety-nine, which is already glory enough. You are both aṃśas of Śrī Hari, and you must not set yourselves against each other.” Pṛthu obeyed Brahmā and made peace with Indra, who fell at Pṛthu’s feet in shame. Pṛthu embraced him and let go of all anger. (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, 4th Skanda, Chapter 19)

The darśana of Śrī Hari and Pṛthu’s stuti

When the yajñas were over, Śrī Hari came down in person to give Pṛthu darśana (a sacred sight). He is present everywhere, the master of yajña, and lives as the self in the heart of all beings. He offered Pṛthu a vara (a boon). Pṛthu was overcome with bhakti (devotion) and his eyes filled with tears of joy. He could not look straight at Śrī Hari. He could only press him to his heart in an inner embrace, and he reached out his palm toward Garuḍa’s head to steady himself.

Then Pṛthu spoke his famous stuti. He refused every worldly vara. He said: “Śrī Hari, you are the master even of those who give varas. I do not want the worldly pleasures that come from you, for they only stir the mind. What I ask is this: may I have ten thousand ears to hear your kathās (stories). The nectar of your lotus feet flows from the mouths of mahātmās as your gātha (song). Even a moksha (liberation) without that nectar would be no moksha for me.”

He went on: “Your speech, which takes the form of the Vedas, binds a person. You said ‘ask a vara,’ but what vara should one without knowledge ask, except you yourself?” He said that mahātmās serve Śrī Hari even after they gain knowledge of the self, because Śrī Hari himself loves them and they love him beyond all māyā. He ended: “With the same longing with which Lakshmī-devī serves you, I shall serve you.”

Śrī Hari was deeply pleased and said: “May your bhakti in me stay unshaken.” Then he left for Vaikuṇṭha so unwillingly that even the devas who attended him saw the delay. It seemed that his gaze, resting on Pṛthu with grace, made it hard to go. (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, 4th Skanda, Chapter 20)

Pṛthu’s form

At the great satra (long yajña), Pṛthu stood in the assembly like the moon among the stars. The Bhāgavata Purāṇa describes his form:

• His body was dark green (śyāma), tall, with long and strong arms.
• His eyes were the colour of lotuses, his nose was fine and his face pleasant, a joy to look at.
• His shoulders were broad and his teeth were fine.
• His chest was wide and deep.
• His waist narrowed like a pippala leaf, broad above and tapering below, with three folds on the belly. His navel was deep.
• His thighs were golden and his neck was shaped like a conch.
• His dark, fine, curly hair lay in thick coils.
• He wore fine clothes and an uttarīya (upper cloth). For the yajña he had put aside his ornaments and wore a black-antelope skin, which showed the natural beauty of all his limbs even more.

(Bhāgavata Purāṇa, 4th Skanda, Chapter 21)

The great upadeśa

At the satra, Pṛthu rose in the assembly and gave a calm, deep and unhurried upadeśa (teaching) to the brāhmaṇas, devatās, pitṛ-devatās and citizens who had gathered. He said:

“The mahārshis have made me the protector of the people. My duty is to guard the sādhus (good people), punish the wicked and set all beings in their own svadharma (duty). A rājā who collects taxes but does not guide his people in dharma takes on their pāpa and destroys his own good fortune. So give up the habit of finding fault, and fix your mind on Śrī Hari, who is beyond all proofs. Follow your svadharma, and in this way honour him through your own work. All the devas to whom you offer shares of the offering live in the forms of the brahma-vettas. Feeding a brahma-vettā is the highest homa (fire offering). One who serves the brahma-vettas daily and keeps their company soon purifies his antaḥkaraṇa (inner instrument of mind) and attains moksha. As long as I live I shall wear the dust of their lotus feet on my head.” (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, 4th Skanda, Chapter 21)

Rescue of Vena

In the stuti that Pṛthu gave at the satra, he said: “Even Vena, who was ended by the śāpa of the ṛshis, escaped naraka (hell) through the puṇya of his son Pṛthu.” Spoken before the assembly, these words show that the stored puṇya of a righteous son can free an ancestor from naraka. It is for this that a son is called putra, the one who protects from the naraka called pum. (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, 4th Skanda, Chapter 21)

Teaching from Sanatkumāra

As the bards had said at his coronation, the day came when Pṛthu met Bhagavān Sanatkumāra alone in the garden next to his palace. He honoured Sanatkumāra with bhakti and received the highest adhyātma-yoga, the inward yoga in which the practitioner knows Īśvara as the self. By this yoga Pṛthu served Purushottama Śrī Hari. His antaḥkaraṇa was purified step by step through ārādhana (service) of Śrī Hari. His bhakti grew. From bhakti came vairāgya (detachment) and knowledge of the self. With that sharp knowledge he cut the bond of saṃsāra, the false sense of being the body, the breath, the mind, the intellect and the ego, and all his doubts melted away. He knew the truth of the self, the sense of difference ended and all desires fell away. Then he put aside even the adhyātma-yoga itself, because once the songs of Śrī Hari had become his highest love, he felt no pull toward yogic powers. (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, 4th Skanda, Chapters 22–23)

Tapas in the forest and liberation

When Pṛthu had done what he came to do, which was to protect the people, set up dharma and settle the earth, he gave the kingdom to his sons. He went to the forest with Arcī and took no attendants. The citizens grieved deeply as he vanished into the forest. The Earth, like a daughter losing her father, seemed to weep at his going.

In the forest he began the hardest tapas of the vānaprastha (forest-dweller). He ate only roots and fruits, then dry leaves, then only water, then only air. In summer he sat among five fires, one in each of the four directions and the sun above. In the rains he sat in the downpour. In winter he stood in water up to his neck. He slept on the ground. He kept brahmacarya, practised prāṇāyāma (breath control) and ruled the five senses of knowledge and the mind.

At the time of liberation Pṛthu did the layanakrama, the melting of the gross into the subtle and the subtle into the causal. He placed his life-force at the mūlādhāra and drew it upward through svādhishṭhāna, maṇipūra, anāhata, viśuddhi and ājñā-cakra, into the brahmarandhra. He dissolved the body of five elements back into the great elements. He dissolved the senses into their subtle elements, the mind into the senses, the senses into the subtle five elements, these into the ego that is the origin of the elements, the ego into mahat, mahat into māyā, and māyā into the jīva. Then, through knowledge and detachment, even the subtle body was let go. He became brahma-bhūta, one with pure consciousness. (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, 4th Skanda, Chapter 23)

Arcī’s satī

Arcī had been with Pṛthu all through his tapas in the forest. She served him with full devotion and grew very thin from the hard life, yet she felt only joy whenever Pṛthu touched her with his hand in blessing. When she saw that all signs of life had left his body, she mourned briefly. Then she laid his body on a funeral pyre on a mountain slope. She performed the cremation, bathed in the river, offered water, bowed to the devas who live in svarga, walked around the pyre three times and, with her mind fixed on Pṛthu’s lotus feet alone, entered the fire.

Thousands of devīs came down with their husbands and praised her as Lakshmī herself serving the master of yajña. They said: “She has gone beyond us all. She reaches the same loka that the great Pṛthu, king of kings, has reached.” A great rain of flowers fell on the slope of Mount Mandara, and celestial drums sounded. (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, 4th Skanda, Chapter 23)

The fruit of hearing his story

The Bhāgavata Purāṇa says that whoever reads, hears or recites Pṛthu’s carita (life story) with faith reaches the same loka that Pṛthu reached. A brāhmaṇa gains the radiance of Brahman, a kshatriya becomes a king, a vaiśya gains wealth and standing, and a śūdra is raised among the best. The account gives puṇya, fame and long life, and frees one from the faults of the Kali Age. (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, 4th Skanda, Chapter 23)

Sources

• Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Bhūmi Khaṇḍa, Chapters 27–29
• Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, 4th Skanda, Chapters 14–23 (Chapters 15–23 for the account of his life given here)
• Brahmāṇḍa Mahā Purāṇa, Madhyama Bhāga; Pūrva Bhāga, Chapter 36
• Vishṇu Mahā Purāṇa, Pradhamāṃśa, Chapters 13 and 22
• Mahābhārata, Śānti Parva (Rājadharmānuśāsana Parva), Chapter 59
• Vāyu Mahā Purāṇa, Uttarārdha, Chapters 1–2
• Matsya Mahā Purāṇa, Chapter 10
• Hari Vaṃśa Purāṇa, Hari Vaṃśa Parva, Chapters 2, 4 and 5