Upadeva (son of Devaka)

Upadeva · upa-deva

Upadeva has other meanings too: see all meanings of Upadeva.

Upadeva was one of the four sons of Devaka, of the Kukura line of the Yādavas. His sisters, among them Devakī, were all given in marriage to Vasudeva, so Upadeva was the maternal uncle of Śrī Kṛshṇa. He is not Upadeva, the son of Akrūra.

The Kukura line

The Brahma Purāṇa gives the line of Andhaka. The daughter of Kāśyapa bore four sons to Andhaka: Kukura, Bhajamāna, Sanaka and Balabarhisha. Kukura’s son was Vṛshṇi, his son Kapotaroma, his son Tiviri, his son Punarvasu, and his son Abhijit. Abhijit had twin sons, famous as Āhuka and Śrāhuka. The ancients sing a gāthā of Āhuka, the Bhoja king: no one without sons, without a life of a hundred thousand years, of impure deeds or not a performer of yajñas could stand in his following, and he had ten thousand elephants, ten thousand armoured men with banners and ten thousand chariots that thundered like clouds.

Āhuka, in Kāśyapī, had two sons like sons of the devas: Devaka and Ugrasena.

Devaka’s sons and daughters

Devaka had four sons: Devavant, Upadeva, Sandeva and Devarakshita. He had seven daughters, and gave all of them in marriage to Vasudeva: Devakī, Śāntidevā, Sudevā, Devarakshitā, Vṛkadevī, Upadevī and Sunāminī.

Upadeva’s uncle Ugrasena had nine sons, Kaṃsa, Nyagrodha, Sunāma, Kaṅka, Subhūshaṇa, Rāshṭrapāla, Sutanu, Anāvṛshṭi and Pushṭimant, and five daughters, Kaṃsā, Kaṃsavatī, Sutanu, Rāshṭrapālī and Kaṅkā.

The Purāṇa gives the phala of this account: by hearing and holding in mind the line of the Kukuras, of great radiance, one gains the growth of one’s own line and lives in happiness.

Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 15

Sources

• Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 15