Vasumanas (Vana Parva)

Vasumanas is one of four righteous kings who rise to svarga (heaven) together in a divine chariot after the Aśvamedha yajña of Aṣṭaka. The account is in the Vana Parva of the Mahābhārata, Chapter 198, in the narrative called Rājanya Mahābhāgya. The other three kings are Aṣṭaka, Pratardana and Śibi.

This is the Vasumanas of the Vana Parva. Other figures with the same name appear elsewhere (see the last section).

Who he is

Vasumanas is a kṣatriya king whose righteousness and dāna (giving) earned him svarga. The name joins vasu (wealth, excellence) and manas (mind).

He appears with Aṣṭaka (the son of Viśvāmitra), Pratardana, and Śibi (Auśīnara, the son of Uśīnara). The teaching on dāna that includes these kings is found in Chapters 193–200 of the Mārkaṇḍeya Samāsyā Parva.

In the svarga chariot

After Aṣṭaka performs his great Aśvamedha, the four kings mount a divine chariot together and rise toward svarga. Nārada joins them on the way. The devarṣi answers their questions and tells how their merit ranks.

  • Aṣṭaka will return from svarga first. His pride in his gift (“these are the cows I gave”) lessens the purity of his dāna.
  • Pratardana will return second. His gift of a horse, given on the spur of the moment, is true but smaller in scope.
  • Vasumanas will return third, after Pratardana and before Śibi. His dāna is purer than Pratardana’s but does not reach the standard set by Śibi.
  • Śibi will stay in svarga the longest. His dāna is without any attachment to himself and without any thought of return. It was also of the most extreme kind: he gave his own flesh, and the life of his son, when asked.

The chapter speaks of Vasumanas’s own dāna, but with less detail than it gives for Aṣṭaka’s moment of pride or Pratardana’s gift of a horse. His place in the order is clear: above Pratardana and below Śibi.

Others named Vasumanas

  • A different Vasumanas, who receives Śiva’s darśana, appears in other Purāṇic sources. He is a separate person.
  • In Purāṇic family lines, a Vasumanas sometimes appears as a king of the Solar or Lunar dynasty, in different places.

The Vasumanas of Vana Parva Chapter 198 is the one who rides in the chariot with Aṣṭaka, Pratardana and Śibi.

Sources

  • Mahābhārata, Vana Parva, Chapter 198
  • Mahābhārata, Vana Parva, Mārkaṇḍeya Samāsyā Parva, Chapters 193–200