Satyaketu (Kāśī line)
Satyaketu · satya-ketu, “whose banner is truth”
Satyaketu is a king of the Kāśī line of the lunar vaṃśa, descended from the rājarshi Alarka. The Brahma Purāṇa gives this line twice. In the first telling he is a mahāratha, the son of Dharmaketu and the father of Vibhu; in the second he is the son of Sukumāra and an embodiment of dharma. He is a different person from Satyaketu, the son of Akrūra.
His line in Chapter 11
The Purāṇa gives the line of the Kāśī kings down from Divodāsa‘s son Pratardana. Pratardana’s son was Vatsa, and Vatsa’s son was Alarka, a brahmajñānī, true to his vow. Alarka’s son was Sannati; his son was Sunītha; from Sunītha came Kshema; then Ketumanta, Suketu and Dharmaketu, each the son of the one before. Dharmaketu’s son was the mahāratha Satyaketu. Satyaketu’s son was Vibhu, and after him the line ran Anarta, Sukumāra, Dhṛshṭaketu, Veṇuhotra and Bhārga.
Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 11
His line in Chapter 13
When the Sūta tells the munis the line of Pūru, he comes again to the Kāśī kings. Alarka, king of Kāśī, devoted to brāhmaṇas and true to his word, remained a youth for sixty-six thousand years by the grace of Lopāmudrā, and in the last part of his life he killed the rākshasa Kshemaka and built the beautiful city of Vārāṇasī. Alarka’s son was Kshemaka; his son was Varshaketu; his son Vibhu; his son Ānarta; his son Sukumāra; and Sukumāra’s son was Satyaketu, an embodiment of dharma.
Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 13
Sources
- Brahma Purāṇa, Chapters 11, 13