Daksha

Daksha, “the able one”

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

Daksha is one of the greatest Prajāpatis, the lords of creatures. His story runs through the Purāṇas and covers two cycles of creation. In the first cycle he is the father of many daughters, among them Satī, whom he gave to Bhagavān Śiva. His long hatred of Bhagavān Śiva led to the Daksha Yajña, where Satī gave up her life by yoga, Vīrabhadra destroyed the yajña (fire ritual), and Daksha lost his head and was brought back with a goat’s head. In a later cycle Daksha was born again, from Mārishā, as the son of the ten Pracetasas. Brahmā anointed him overlord of all the Prajāpatis to lead creation in the new age.

The Vāmana Purāṇa tells the account of his yajña in its own way. There Daksha, best of the Prajāpatis, began a great kratu (yajña) at Kanakhala when Uttarāyaṇa began. He gave offices to the devas and ṛshis and invited all his daughters and their families, but left out Bhagavān Śiva, because he bore a skull as Kapālī, and Satī with him. When Satī Devī heard of it on Mount Mandara from her niece Jayā, she gave up her life there and then. From the hair-pores of Bhagavān Śiva came Vīrabhadra and the lion-faced Rudragaṇas, who overcame Dharma and the devas, and then Bhagavān Śiva himself entered the yajñaśālā (the hall of the yajña), struck down Pūshā and Bhaga, and burned the whole hall to ash. The same Purāṇa names Daksha as the father of Aditi, mother of the devas, and of Dharma’s wife Dākshāyaṇī. It tells that his śāpa (a curse) made the kalās of the moon wane, places him among the Prajāpatis who serve Brahmā in his sabhā, and tells that he brought forth the Sarasvatī as Vimalodakā at Gaṅgādvāra.

First cycle: the daughters of Daksha

Daksha belongs to the first generation of the Svāyambhuva Manvantara. He married Prasūti, a daughter of Svāyambhuva Manu, and had twenty-four daughters. The daughters named are:

  • Thirteen given to Dharma: Śraddhā, Maitrī, Dayā, Śānti, Tushṭi, Pushṭi, Kriyā, Unnati, Buddhi, Medhā, Titikshā, Hrī and Mūrti. Each stands for the virtue her name means.
  • One given to Agni: Svāhā. She bore the three sacred agnis (Pāvaka, Pavamāna and Śuci). Their 45 descendants make up the 49 Agnis of the Vedic yajña.
  • One given to the Pitṛdevatās: Svadhā. She bore Dhāriṇī and Vāyuna.
  • One given to Bhagavān Śiva: Satī.

Dharma and Mūrti had the sons Nara and Nārāyaṇa. When they were born the whole universe rejoiced: minds grew calm, rivers ran pure, forests bloomed, and divine music was heard. (Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, 4th Skanda, Chapter 1)

Enmity with Bhagavān Śiva

Brahmā raised Daksha to be ruler of all Prajāpatis, and his pride grew very great. At a great satra yajña (a long ritual session) of the Prajāpatis, everyone present stood up to honour Daksha when he came in. Only Brahmā and Bhagavān Śiva did not. Daksha was furious that Bhagavān Śiva stayed seated. He spoke against Bhagavān Śiva in public. He dressed his insults as praise. He mocked Bhagavān Śiva for living in the cremation ground, for his ghosts, his skulls and the ash on his body, saying these broke the Vedic rules of propriety. Then he pronounced a formal śāpa (a curse): Bhagavān Śiva shall receive no havis (offering) in any yajña.

Nandiśvara cursed Daksha in return. Bhṛgu then cursed Bhagavān Śiva’s followers. Bhagavān Śiva left calmly. (Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, 4th Skanda, Chapter 2)

The Daksha Yajña

Daksha held the great Bṛhaspati-sava yajña. He invited all the devas and ṛshis but left out Bhagavān Śiva on purpose. Satī went to it without an invitation. She found Bhagavān Śiva dishonoured and his share withheld. She spoke strongly against Daksha, and then gave up her life by yoga in the yajña maṇḍapa (the hall of the yajña). (Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, 4th Skanda, Chapter 4)

Destruction and revival

When Bhagavān Śiva heard of Satī‘s death, he made Vīrabhadra from his jaṭā (matted hair) and sent him with an army of gaṇas. They tore the yajña apart. Bhṛgu‘s beard was torn off, Bhaga‘s eyes were gouged out, and Pūshan’s teeth were knocked out. Daksha’s head was cut off in the way an animal is killed at a yajña (paśu) and thrown into the dakshiṇāgni (the south fire).

Brahmā led the devas to Kailāsa and pleased Bhagavān Śiva. Bhagavān Śiva ordered everything restored. The head of the goat of the yajña was fixed on Daksha’s body, and Bhagavān Śiva’s kind glance brought him back to life. Daksha saw Bhagavān Śiva before him, and his heart was cleared of hatred. He was full of shame and love, and remembered Satī. He wept and offered a moving stuti (praise) to Bhagavān Śiva: “You punished me and then restored me. This is double grace. Your punishment itself is protection.”

The yajña was begun again and completed, and Bhagavān Vishṇu appeared. From then on Daksha lived with unwavering dharmabuddhi (a mind set on dharma). Satī was born again as Pārvatī, daughter of Himavān. (Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, 4th Skanda, Chapters 5–7)

Second cycle: son of the Pracetasas

In the cycle after the Svāyambhuva Manvantara, Daksha was born again from Mārishā, the woman of the trees, as the shared son of the ten Pracetasas. His earlier insult to Bhagavān Śiva and the destruction of the yajña that followed meant he had to take a new birth and begin again. From birth he outshone all with his tejas (radiance). He was called Daksha because of his great skill (dakshatā) in action (karma).

Brahmā anointed him supreme overlord of all Prajāpatis and told him to lead the work of creation (sṛshṭi) in the new age. (Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, 4th Skanda, Chapter 30)

Tapas at Aghamarshaṇa and the Haṃsaguhya Stotra

Daksha first tried to make children by manasaṃkalpa (mental resolve), but this creation did not flourish. He then went to the foot of the Vindhya mountains, to the sacred Aghamarshaṇa tīrtha. It is famed as a great tīrtha that destroys pāpa (sin). There he did hard tapas (austerity) and bathed three times a day in its cleansing waters.

To please Bhagavān Śrī Hari, who is indriyātīta (beyond all the senses), Daksha offered the Haṃsaguhya Stotra, the “secret of the paramahaṃsas.” This great prayer speaks to Bhagavān Śrī Hari as the one self-luminous (svayam-prakāśa) consciousness. Its reflection in the body, senses and mind, which are made of the guṇas, appears as the jīva (the living being). Bhagavān Śrī Hari lives with the jīva in the body-city as the witness of all the worlds (sarvajagat-sākshī), and is not recognised. He stays beyond all these, beyond all holding back of the senses, and beyond all denial of the world. Yet he comes down as an avatāra (incarnation) for his devotees.

Bhagavān Vishṇu appeared to Daksha on Garuḍa. He had eight arms and was dark as a rain-cloud. He showed the Śrīvatsa and the Kaustubha, and Nārada, Nanda and the lokapālakas (guardians of the directions) stood around him. He told Daksha to marry Asiknī, daughter of the Prajāpati Pañcajana, and to have many children through her. (Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, 6th Skanda, Chapter 4)

The Haryaśvas and the Śabalāśvas

Daksha had ten thousand sons by Asiknī, the Haryaśvas, and told them to bring forth children. They went to Nārāyaṇa-saras for tapas. Nārada Maharshi met them and taught them through nine hidden sayings (vyāja-vacanas). These sayings show that creation bound by karma is useless without ātma-jñāna (knowledge of the ātmā). They taught:

  • the need to know the deha-indriya-mano-saṃghāta, the gathering of body, senses and mind (the “earth”)
  • knowing Īśvara as the turīya Ātman, the fourth state
  • knowing the ātma-jyoti (light of the ātmā), which leaves no rebirth once it is seen
  • ending the tādātmya, the false oneness with the ever-changing buddhi (intellect)
  • crossing the river of māyā through bhakti-jñāna (devotion and knowledge)
  • seeing the consciousness of the Ātman within the twenty-five tattvas (principles)
  • knowing kāla (time), which consumes all

The Haryaśvas worked out these riddles by their own viveka (discernment). They became firm in the knowledge of the ātmā and left on the path from which there is no return.

Daksha grieved. Svāyambhuva Brahmā comforted him, and Daksha had a thousand more sons, the Śabalāśvas. They also went to Nārāyaṇa-saras. Nārada came again with a simpler teaching: “Know the path your brothers took.” The Śabalāśvas followed their brothers. In grief and anger Daksha gave Nārada a śāpa that he would have no fixed home. Nārada accepted the śāpa calmly, which is the mark of a true sādhu. (Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, 6th Skanda, Chapter 5)

The sixty daughters and their lineages

By Asiknī, Daksha had sixty daughters. They were given in marriage as follows:

Through these daughters the three worlds were filled with beings. The account includes the Marudgaṇas born from Diti, the twelve Ādityas from Aditi (ending with the Vāmana avatāra), the Rudras from Bhūta’s wife Sarūpā, the Pitṛdevatās from Svadhā, wife of Aṅgiras, Garuḍa and Anūru from Vinatā, and the Dānava lines from Danu. Daksha cursed Candra (the moon) because he was too devoted to Rohiṇī. Candra had no children from his twenty-seven wives. (Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, 6th Skanda, Chapter 6)

The Kedāra Khaṇḍa account

The Kedāra Khaṇḍa of the Skanda Mahā Purāṇa opens its whole narrative with the Daksha Yajña. It treats this as the first event from which all the later sacred history of the Kedāra region flows. In this account Daksha held his great mahāyajña at Kanakhala, a sacred place near Haridvāra on the Gaṅgā. He invited all the devas and ṛshis but left out Bhagavān Śiva on purpose, giving him neither an invitation nor a share of the havis.

Satī Devī, then living as Daksha’s daughter, heard of the great yajña. She went to her father’s court although Bhagavān Śiva advised her not to. She found Bhagavān Śiva wholly dishonoured. When she faced Daksha, he abused her husband in public, in the most scornful words. He called him a dweller in the cremation ground, a wandering ascetic unfit for a share of the yajña, and not fit company for the dignified devas. Satī could not bear this insult to Parameśvara. She also did not wish to go on living in a body born from the womb of Bhagavān Śiva’s enemy. She entered the fire of the yajña and gave up her life.

Nārada carried the news to Bhagavān Śiva. He tore out a lock of his jaṭā and from it brought Vīrabhadra and Kālikā into being. At his command they came down on Kanakhala at the head of his great army of gaṇas. They destroyed the whole yajña, wounded and punished the devas who resisted, and cut off Daksha’s head. After Brahmā pleaded, Bhagavān Śiva showed his grace. Daksha was revived with a goat’s head and the yajña was finished. Kanakhala was made holy for ever by Satī’s sacrifice and became a tīrtha of the first rank. (Skanda Mahā Purāṇa, Māheśvara Khaṇḍa, Kedāra Khaṇḍa, Chapters 1–5)

The Śiva Purāṇa account: Satī Khaṇḍa

The Śiva Purāṇa tells Daksha’s story through all 43 chapters of the Satī Khaṇḍa.

Tapas at Kshīra Sāgara

In this version Daksha did hard tapas at the Kshīra Sāgara (Ocean of Milk). He received a vara (a boon) from Devī Durgā-Bhavānī that she would be born as his daughter. So the birth of Satī came from Daksha’s own devotion to the Devī. (Śiva Purāṇa, Rudra Saṃhitā, Satī Khaṇḍa, Chapter 5)

The insult at Prayāga

The nearest cause of the quarrel was an event at Prayāga. Daksha came to a great assembly with much show. All present stood up to honour him, except Bhagavān Śiva and Nandī. Daksha insulted Bhagavān Śiva in public. He called him amaṅgala (inauspicious), kulahīna (without family line), yajña-bāhya (unfit for a share of the yajña), and lord of ghosts. Nandikeśvara (Nandī) cursed Daksha to have an animal’s face at his death. Daksha cursed Nandī and the gaṇas in return. This open break led Daksha to leave Bhagavān Śiva out of his yajña on purpose. (Śiva Purāṇa, Rudra Saṃhitā, Satī Khaṇḍa, Chapter 21)

Satī’s visit and her words

Bhagavān Śiva warned her, but Satī came to the yajña without an invitation. Daksha did not rise to greet her and did not speak to her. He had given Bhagavān Śiva no share in the havis, and it was plain to all. Satī spoke to him in a formal speech. She answered his insults one by one and spoke to the silence of the devas who shared the blame. Daksha answered with only more scorn. After Satī gave up her life, and after the ākāśavāṇī (voice from the sky) that followed, Daksha went on with the yajña, seemingly unmoved. (Śiva Purāṇa, Rudra Saṃhitā, Satī Khaṇḍa, Chapters 26–31)

Beheading and revival with a goat’s head

When Vīrabhadra came down on the site of the yajña, Daksha hid in a hole in the vedi (the altar). Vīrabhadra found him there and cut off his head. The devas praised Bhagavān Śiva with a stotra (hymn of praise) at Kailāsa, and Bhagavān Śiva agreed to restore him. Daksha was given the head of the goat of the yajña in place of his cut-off head. This met Nandī’s earlier śāpa about an animal’s face, but in a way that let him live. He was revived and went forward to finish the yajña. (Śiva Purāṇa, Rudra Saṃhitā, Satī Khaṇḍa, Chapters 37, 42)

Bhagavān Śiva’s teaching to Daksha

After the yajña was finished with the full part of Bhagavān Śiva, Bhagavān Śiva taught Daksha about the four kinds of devotees (ārta, the one in distress; jijñāsu, the seeker; arthārthī, the seeker of wealth; and jñānī, the knower). He taught the oneness of the Trimūrti. He also taught the rule that devotees of different devas must not condemn one another. (Śiva Purāṇa, Rudra Saṃhitā, Satī Khaṇḍa, Chapter 43)

Per Vāmana Purāṇa

In the Vāmana Purāṇa, Pulastya Maharshi tells the account to Nārada Maharshi in his āśrama. Among Nārada’s first questions is this: why did Satī Devī, the daughter of Daksha and the dear ardhāṅgī (wife, half of his body) of Śaṅkara, give up her body, take birth again in the house of Himavān, lord of mountains, and marry Śaṅkara once more? (Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 1)

The kratu of Daksha

Bhagavān Śiva and Satī Devī spent the rainy season seated on the clouds, and when the lovely autumn came they returned to Mount Mandara. When autumn had passed and Uttarāyaṇa had begun (the text names Utthāna Ekādaśī here), Daksha, best of the Prajāpatis, began a kratu. He gave each guest a place and an office:

  • He invited the twelve Ādityas, the best of the devas headed by Indra, and Kaśyapa Maharshi, and made them sadasyas (members of the assembly).
  • He invited the ṛshis with their wives: Arundhatī and Vasishṭha, Atri and Anasūyā, Dhṛti and Kauśika, Ahalyā and Gautama, Amāyā and Bharadvāja, and Candrā and Aṅgiras. He appointed these knowers of the Veda as yājakas (officiating priests).
  • He called Dharma together with Ahiṃsā Devī and made him dvārapāla (door-keeper) of the yajña enclosure.
  • He gave Arishṭanemi the task of bringing the samidhs (sacred fuel).
  • He gave Bhṛgu Maharshi charge of the mantra-saṃskāra (the consecration by mantras).
  • He gave Candra, with Rohiṇī, charge of the wealth of the yajña.
  • He invited all his sons-in-law, his daughters and his daughters’ sons to the kratu, all except Satī and Śaṅkara.

Nārada asked why Daksha did not invite Maheśvara, the lord of all the worlds, the eldest and the first. Pulastya answered that though Bhagavān Śiva is in every way the eldest and the most worthy, Daksha did not invite him because he was Kapālī, one who bears a skull in his hand. Then, at Nārada’s asking, Pulastya began to tell how Bhagavān Śiva came to bear the skull: at the dawn of creation he nipped off the fifth head of Brahmā with the tip of his fingernail, and the head clung to his left palm and would not fall away. (Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 2)

“In this way,” Pulastya said, “Bhagavān Hara became Kapālī, and for that reason Daksha did not invite him.” Though his daughter Satī was fit to take part in the yajña, Daksha did not invite her either, because she was the wife of a Kapālī. (Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 4)

Satī gives up her body

Meanwhile Jayā, the daughter of Gautama, came to Mount Mandara and had darśana of Satī Devī. Seeing her come alone, Dākshāyaṇī asked where Jayā’s sisters Vijayā, Jayantī and Aparājitā were. Jayā answered that they had all been invited to the yajña of their maternal grandfather Daksha and had gone. She herself was travelling with her parents Ahalyā and Gautama and had come that way to see her. “The ṛshis and their wives, the devas, Candra with his wives, all the moving and unmoving beings of the fourteen bhuvanas have been invited and have gone to the yajña,” she said. “Why have you not set out, pinnī (mother’s younger sister)? Did your father not invite you?”

Hearing these words, which fell on her like a thunderbolt, Satī Devī gave up her prāṇas (life-breaths) there and then, and Jayā wept and lamented over her. (Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 4)

Later in the Purāṇa, Śrī Hari tells the devas that the great tapasvinī who gave up the body born of Daksha will be born from the womb of Menā (Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 22). Bhagavān Śiva himself tells the Saptarshis that his beloved Dākshāyaṇī Satī gave up her life by yoga-śakti on account of Daksha, and has now been born again as Umā, the daughter of Himavān (Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 26).

Vīrabhadra at Kanakhala

Bhagavān Śiva came at the sound of the weeping and asked Jayā why Satī lay there like a creeper cut down by an axe. Jayā told him that Satī had come to this state on hearing that all her sisters had gone with their husbands to Daksha’s yajña, and Indra and all the devas with them. Then the eyes of Rudra turned copper-red, and terrible sparks burst from every limb of his body. From his hair-pores came forth the lion-faced Rudragaṇas, with Vīrabhadra at their head, and went to Kanakhala, where Daksha was performing the yajña.

Vīrabhadra, lord of the gaṇas, holding a terrible śūla, took the west and the north of the yajñaśālā. Jayā, holding a gadā (mace), stood at the east and the south. In the middle stood Śarva, bearing the triśūla, in a terrible form. The ṛshis headed by Indra, the yakshas and the gandharvas saw the lion-faces and were afraid.

Dharma, the door-keeper of Daksha’s yajña, took up his bow, with arrows like venomous serpents, and ran against Vīrabhadra. Vīrabhadra took a triśūla blazing like fire, a bow, arrows and a gadā in his four hands. Dharma took eight arms and held in them the khaḍga (sword), carma (shield), gadā, prāsa (barbed lance), paraśu (axe), aṅkuśa (goad), bow and arrows. The two great heroes struck each other until their bodies, wet with blood, shone like flowering palāśa trees. At last Dharma, struck down by Vīrabhadra’s fierce shower of arrows, bowed his face and withdrew, and Vīrabhadra entered the yajña enclosure.

All the devas there rose against him: the eight Vasus, the nine Grahas, the twelve Ādityas headed by Indra, the eleven Rudras, the Viśvedevas, the Sādhyas, the siddhas, gandharvas and kiṃpurushas, the pannagas (serpents), the yakshas, the khagas (birds), the cakradharas and others. The text names among those present Dharmakīrti of the Vaivasvata line and the fierce, mighty-armed Bhojakīrti of the Soma line. The daityas, the dānavas and all the others gathered there faced Vīrabhadra with their weapons. He scattered them with his streams of arrows and broke all their weapons to pieces, and the devas, badly hurt by his astras, submitted to him.

When Vīrabhadra entered the great yajñaśālā, shining with the ghee offerings of the maharshis, the ṛtvijas (priests of the yajña) left their vedis and took refuge in Nārāyaṇa. Bhagavān Vishṇu gave the maharshis abhaya (freedom from fear), took up his divine bow Śārṅga and rained fire-arrows on Vīrabhadra. The arrows fell useless from his body. Vīrabhadra warded off the divine astras of Śrī Hari with his triśūla, his gadā and his arrows, struck Mādhava’s gadā to the ground with his triśūla, and warded off the hala (plough) and the musala (pestle). Then Bhagavān Vishṇu, whose banner bears Garuḍa, released the Sudarśana cakra. Vīrabhadra cast down his śūla, took the body of a fish and swallowed the cakra. Bhagavān Vishṇu came upon him with the speed of lightning, threw him to the ground and pressed him hard with his arms, until Vīrabhadra fell and the cakra came out of his body. Bhagavān Vishṇu took back his cakra and let Vīrabhadra go.

Vīrabhadra told Śaṅkara what had happened. Bhagavān Śiva placed Vīrabhadra and Bhadrakālī in their appointed places and himself, triśūla in hand, entered Daksha’s yajñaśālā. Seeing Mahādeva, Tripurāntaka, come in, all the munis trembled. (Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 4)

The yajña burned to ash

Seeing Kapardī come with copper-red eyes, Bhagavān Vishṇu at once left the assembly and concealed himself in a kubjāmra (a dwarf mango tree). The eight Vasus fled, and the path by which they fled became the river named Sīkā, which was called the Sarasvatī. The eleven Rudras left their places and fled. The Viśvedevas, the Aśvins, the Sādhyas, the Maruts, and Sūrya and the Agnis ate the puroḍāśa (the rice-cake offering of the yajña). The Moon, with the nakshatras and the night, flew up into the sky to his own dwelling. Kaśyapa and the other maharshis, who were reciting the Śatarudriya, stood with joined palms in agitation. Daksha’s wife, seeing Rudra’s strength beyond Indra and all the devas, wailed most piteously.

Bhagavān Śiva struck many devas to the ground with blows of his hand, some with his feet and some with his śūla, and others he dissolved in the flames of the fire of his third eye. Pūshā leapt on him with outstretched arms. Bhagavān Śiva caught both his hands in one hand, squeezed them until blood ran from the finger-tips, and whirled him round and round as a lion whirls a fawn, until his long arms shrank and became short. When Pūshā rose, baring his teeth and laughing, and called out again and again, “O Kapālī, do not go, come!”, Śambhu struck him on the mouth, and all his teeth fell to the ground. Pūshā fell senseless, like a mountain broken by the vajra. When Bhaga looked at him with blazing eyes, Bhagavān Śiva crushed Bhaga’s eyes with a blow of his fist, and the devas cried out “hā, hā!” Then the twelve Ādityas, Indra, the Maruts and the Agnis fled in every direction, while Prahlāda and the daityas fell before Bhagavān Śiva in sāshṭāṅga (prostration with the eight limbs) and stood with folded hands.

Then Bhagavān Śiva looked all around, flames of fire pouring from his eyes. Some of those present hid from his sight, some bowed, some fled, and some died of fear. By the heat of the fire blazing in his three eyes, everything was burned to ash in a moment. As the yajña fires went out, the devatā of the Yajña took a divine deer form and flew up into the sky with Dakshiṇā. Maheśvara, in the form of Kāla, set the Pāśupatāstra on his bow and went after it. In that endless form of Kāla he struck the yajña-deer with his arrows, and the deer, freed from all its pains, remained in the sky together with the stars. Pulastya then described to Nārada the form of Bhagavān Śiva as Kālarūpī, each limb made of a rāśi, and the twelve rāśis, and called the account of the destruction of Daksha’s adhvara (yajña) by Tryambaka Mahādeva supremely holy. (Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 5)

After the yajña

After the death of Satī Devī, while Bhagavān Śiva roamed after destroying Daksha’s yajña, Kandarpa struck him with the Unmādana astra, the maddening arrow (Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 6). After Satī’s death Bhagavān Śiva took the dīkshā of brahmacarya (the vow of celibacy), was immersed in tapas, and gave up the command of the devas’ army (Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 22).

The Purāṇa praises Bhagavān Śiva again and again as the destroyer of Daksha’s yajña. Brahmā and Bhagavān Vishṇu call him Dakshādhvara-nāśaka in their stotra before the liṅga (Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 6). In the year-long vrata of Śiva that begins with the Kālāshṭamī, the rite of the month of Āshāḍha is a bath with bilva water, pūjā with white dhattūra flowers, dhūpa (incense) of pilhaka, naivedya (food offering) of pūpas cooked in ghee and dakshiṇā (the gift to the priest) of ghee and barley, and the devotee praises him aloud as “Daksha-yajña-nāśaka” (Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 17). Aṅgiras names him Dakshādhvara-nāśaka when the Saptarshis come to Himavān to ask for Umā (Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 26).

His daughters and his śāpa

  • Satī Devī, the wife of Bhagavān Śiva (Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapters 1, 4, 22 and 26).
  • Dākshāyaṇī, the wife of Dharma. Dharma, of divine body, is a mind-born son of Brahmā, and their four sons are Hari, Kṛshṇa, Nara and Nārāyaṇa (Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 6).
  • Aditi, the mother of the devas, called Dākshāyaṇī and Dakshakumārī. When she kept her vrata on Māgha śuddha saptamī for Indra’s sake, Sūrya-Nārāyaṇa came forth from the orb of the sun, stood before the daughter of Daksha, and promised to be born from her womb (Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 50).
  • Jayā, the daughter of Ahalyā and Gautama, speaks of Daksha as her maternal grandfather and of Satī as her pinnī (Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 4).

On his tīrthayātrā Prahlāda came to the Prabhāsa kshetra on the shore of the ocean, where the Sarasvatī meets the sea, and had darśana of Someśvara. In this very place, the Purāṇa tells, the moon, lord of the stars, whose kalās had waned by Daksha’s śāpa, worshipped Śaṅkara, and by the grace of Kapardī and the anugraha (favour) of Śrī Vishṇu regained his lustre. (Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 57)

Among the Prajāpatis

Bhagavān Śiva, telling Brahmā how the Sthāṇu liṅga came to be, recalls the beginning of creation. The creator whom Brahmā had brought forth by his mere saṅkalpa (resolve) created all the living beings and the Prajāpatis, Daksha and the others, and they divided all beings into four kinds. (Vāmana Purāṇa, Saro Māhātmya, Chapter 28)

When Kaśyapa brought the defeated devas to Brahmaloka, they saw Daksha in Brahmā’s sabhā. Daksha, the Pracetases, Pulaha, Marīci, Bhṛgu, Atri, Vasishṭha, Gautama, Nārada and other brahmaṇyas (those devoted to Brahman) worship Brahmā there, together with the elements, the Vedas and all the powers of creation in bodily form. (Vāmana Purāṇa, Saro Māhātmya, Chapter 3)

When Prahlāda sought Śrī Hari in dhyāna and saw the child Vāmana in Aditi’s womb, he saw within that small infant the whole universe, and among all things the Prajāpatis beginning with Daksha. (Vāmana Purāṇa, Saro Māhātmya, Chapter 8)

The Sarasvatī flows to Kurukshetra in seven forms. The sixth of them is Vimalodakā: Daksha, when he was consecrated for a yajña, brought forth the holy Sarasvatī at Gaṅgādvāra in the form of Vimalodakā, and at the call of the mahātmā Maṅkaṇa she too came to Kurukshetra, the place of King Kuru‘s yajña. (Vāmana Purāṇa, Saro Māhātmya, Chapter 16)

Sources

  • Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, 4th Skanda, Chapters 1–7 and 30
  • Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, 6th Skanda, Chapters 4–6
  • Skanda Mahā Purāṇa, Māheśvara Khaṇḍa, Kedāra Khaṇḍa, Chapters 1–5
  • Śiva Purāṇa, Rudra Saṃhitā, Satī Khaṇḍa, Chapters 1–43
  • Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapters 1–2, 4–6, 17, 22, 26, 50, 57; Saro Māhātmya, Chapters 3, 8, 16, 28