Romaharshaṇa Sūta

Romaharshaṇa · roma-harshaṇa, “the one whose words raise the hair”

Romaharshaṇa Sūta, also called Lomaharshaṇa, is the narrator of the Vāyu Mahā Purāṇa. He is one of the great transmitters of Purāṇic knowledge in the Vaivasvata Manvantara (the present age of Manu).

He was a direct disciple of Bhagavān Kṛshṇadvaipāyana Vyāsa, and he learned the whole body of the Purāṇas from him. He told the Vāyu Purāṇa to Śaunaka and thousands of ṛshis who had gathered at Naimishāraṇya for a twelve-year satra (a long yajña). What he told was what Vāyu himself had spoken in an earlier cosmic cycle.

In the Vāmana Purāṇa, Romaharshaṇa Muni is the narrator of the Saro Māhātmya, the glory of the sacred lake of Kurukshetra. Seated in the Kurujāṅgala kshetra between the rivers Sarasvatī and Dṛshadvatī, he tells the brāhmaṇas the extent and the names of the lake, the whole account of Bhagavān Vishṇu‘s avatāra as Vāmana, the birth of the Sarasvatī, and the round of the tīrthas of Kurukshetra, one by one. His hearers call him Maharshi and “the best of paurāṇikas”, and the Purāṇa tells how Śaunaka and the munis of Naimishāraṇya once asked him how they might gain the fruit of yajña.

Name and title

The narrator is called both Romaharshaṇa and Lomaharshaṇa. The name means “one whose hair stands on end” from wonder. The Purāṇas use both forms. The Telugu text of the Vāyu Purāṇa uses Lomaharshaṇa.

The Vāmana Purāṇa also uses both forms. In the Saro Māhātmya he is Romaharshaṇa Muni, and at the opening of Chapter 9 and again in Chapter 16 he is Lomaharshaṇa. His hearers address him as Maharshi and as paurāṇika-śreshṭha, “best of the paurāṇikas”, the tellers of the Purāṇas (Saro Māhātmya, Chapter 13), and the Purāṇa calls him paurāṇikottama, the foremost of the paurāṇikas (Saro Māhātmya, Chapter 16).

He carries the title Sūta. This is not only the name of a jāti (birth-group). It is a recognised role. The Sūta was the keeper and teller of the Purāṇas, the Itihāsas and the royal genealogies (vaṃśāvalis). His work was to receive this knowledge from the brahmarshis and give it to the assembled people at great yajñas. Romaharshaṇa Sūta is regarded as the foremost Sūta of the Vaivasvata Manvantara. The Vāyu Mahā Purāṇa, Chapter 1, says this.

Disciple of Vyāsa

Romaharshaṇa is a direct disciple (śishya) of Kṛshṇadvaipāyana Vyāsa. Vyāsa is the twenty-eighth Dvāpara Vyāsa, the one who divided the Vedas for the present age. Vyāsa also composed the Mahābhārata, and he gathered and arranged the knowledge of the Purāṇas. He chose Romaharshaṇa as the student best fitted to carry it forward. He gave him:

  • The eighteen Mahāpurāṇas
  • The Itihāsas and the teachings that go with them
  • The genealogies of kings and ṛshis across all the manvantaras

This made Romaharshaṇa the sūta-guru, the master teacher of the Purāṇic tradition for the Vaivasvata age. The Vāyu Mahā Purāṇa, Chapter 1, tells this.

At the Naimishāraṇya satra

The Vāyu Purāṇa begins with the gathering of Śaunaka and thousands of great ṛshis at Naimishāraṇya. They are there for a twelve-year satra, one of the grandest occasions of Vedic life. Romaharshaṇa Sūta comes to the gathering, and the ṛshis receive him with honour.

Śaunaka and the ṛshis ask him to tell the sacred knowledge of the Purāṇas. They ask him in particular for the teaching that Vāyu himself had spoken before, in an earlier cosmic cycle, at this same place. Romaharshaṇa agrees. The Vāyu Mahā Purāṇa is his telling to this assembly. The Vāyu Mahā Purāṇa, Chapter 1, tells this.

Naimishāraṇya is a forest set apart for great yajñas. The ṛshis gathered there at the meeting point of the yugas to keep sacred knowledge safe.

The chain of transmission

The teaching of the Vāyu Purāṇa passes along this chain:

  1. Vāyu, the deva of the wind (prāṇa), tells the ṛshis at Naimishāraṇya in an earlier cosmic cycle.
  2. Kṛshṇadvaipāyana Vyāsa gathers it and passes it on.
  3. Romaharshaṇa Sūta receives it.
  4. Śaunaka and the ṛshis gathered in the present cycle hear it from him.

Romaharshaṇa is the human link who brings this teaching to the present age. The Vāyu Mahā Purāṇa, Chapter 1, gives this chain.

The Purāṇa saṃhitā lineage

Romaharshaṇa received the Purāṇas from Vyāsa. He then arranged this knowledge into saṃhitās (collections) and taught them to his own disciples. Chapter 60 of the Vāyu Purāṇa names his thirteen chief disciples:

Ātreya, Sumati, Dhīmanta, Kāśyapa, Akṛtavraṇa, Bhāradvāja, Agnivarṇa, Vasishṭha, Mitrāyu, Sāvarṇi, Somadatta, Suśarman and Śāṃśapāyana.

All thirteen are called dṛḍhavrata (firm in their vows). Three of them became the chief compilers (saṃhitākartās) of separate Purāṇa saṃhitās:

  1. Kāśyapa compiled the Kāśyapikī Saṃhitā.
  2. Sāvarṇi compiled the Sāvarṇikī Saṃhitā.
  3. Śāṃśapāyana compiled the Śāṃśapāyanikī Saṃhitā.

The fourth is the Lomaharshaṇikī Saṃhitā, also called the Pūrva-saṃhitā. Romaharshaṇa compiled it himself. It was the basis of all the later versions. These four Purāṇa saṃhitās are the main witnesses to the whole body of the Purāṇas as handed down from Kṛshṇadvaipāyana Vyāsa through Sūta.

The three branches that came from Romaharshaṇa’s teaching are the Lomaharshaṇikas (the first school), the Kāśyapikas and the Sāvarṇikas. The Vāyu Mahā Purāṇa, Chapter 60, tells this.

Place in the Purāṇic tradition

Romaharshaṇa appears in more than the Vāyu Purāṇa. Many Purāṇas mention him as the one who passed on Purāṇic knowledge. The first skandha of the Bhāgavata Purāṇa also opens at Naimishāraṇya, where Śaunaka‘s assembly hears a related narrative. There Sūta, who is Ugraśravā, the son of Romaharshaṇa, narrates the Bhāgavatam.

The meeting of Romaharshaṇa and Śaunaka is thus one of the basic frames of the whole Purāṇic tradition. A great yajña becomes the occasion for a teacher to give sacred knowledge to an assembly of seekers.

Sūta’s pilgrimage in the Kailāsa Saṃhitā

In the Kailāsa Saṃhitā of the Śiva Purāṇa, Sūta Romaharshaṇa is the outer narrator. He first receives teachings from Vyāsa at Naimishāraṇya. These include the dialogue of Pārvatī and Parameśvara at Kailāsa. He then tells them to ṛshis who meet him at Kāśī after their darśana (sight) of Viśveśvara.

The Kailāsa Saṃhitā also tells of Sūta’s own tīrtha-yātrā (pilgrimage). He travels from Kāśī south to Kanyākumārī. He goes on to Śrīkāḷahasti, on the river Svarṇamukhī. Last he goes to Kumāraśikhara on Meru. There he sees the arrival of Vāmadeva Maharshi and the great teaching dialogue between Vāmadeva and Kumārasvāmi. Chapters 10–23 of the Kailāsa Saṃhitā give what Sūta saw there and then told to the ṛshis at Kāśī.

Narrator of the Saro Māhātmya

The Saro Māhātmya, the last part of the Vāmana Purāṇa, is Romaharshaṇa’s telling to the brāhmaṇas at Kurujāṅgala. He speaks to them as munis, maharshis, vipras and “best of brāhmaṇas”, and they put their questions to him chapter by chapter.

The question at Kurujāṅgala

Romaharshaṇa Muni was seated in the Kurujāṅgala kshetra, between the rivers Sarasvatī and Dṛshadvatī. The brāhmaṇas came to him and asked him to tell the glory of the holy lake: its extent, the tīrthas in it and their extent, the devatās who are there, and with these the account of the birth of Vāmana.

Hearing the brāhmaṇas, Romaharshaṇa was filled with joy, and the hair of his body stood on end. He bowed, and began to speak. First he offered his salutations to Brahmā seated on the lotus, to Nārāyaṇa together with Lakshmī, and to Rudradeva. Then he told the glory of the Brahmasarovara.

He gave the extent of the lake in three ways. In former times Brahmā declared that the lake from Rantuka to Aujasa, and from Pāvana to Caturmukha, is the Saṃnihita sarovara. In the time between the Dvāpara and Kali yugas, the mahātmā Bhagavān Vyāsa told its extent: the Sannihita lake spreads from Viśveśvara to Asthipura, and from Jaradgavi-kanyā to Oghapati. Then Romaharshaṇa gave the measure he himself had learned from the Vāmana Purāṇa, which he called supremely puṇya-giving: from Viśveśvara to Devavara, and from Narapāvana to the Sarasvatī, the lake of half a yojana spread between these is the Saṃnihita.

He told how devatās, ṛshis and others take refuge in that holy tīrtha and serve it for svarga and moksha. Brahmā, steady in yoga, served the lake for the work of creation; Vishṇu performed tapas there for the work of sustaining; and Rudra entered the middle of the lake and attained the radiant Sthāṇu-pada. The place was first called Brahmavedi, then Rāmahrada, and then Kurukshetra, because King Kuru ploughed it. It is also called Kurukshetra Samantapañcaka and the Uttaravedi, the northern altar, of Brahmā. The Vāmana Purāṇa, Saro Māhātmya, Chapter 1, tells this.

The account of Vāmana

Then the brāhmaṇas said: “O Maharshi, now tell us the māhātmya of Vāmana, the special features of his birth, and how he subdued Bali and gave the kingdom to Indra.” Romaharshaṇa answered: “O munis, I shall tell you the origin and the greatness of the mahātmā Vāmanadeva, and of his dwelling in this Kurujāṅgala land. Hear it with love.”

He told the whole account over nine chapters, answering the brāhmaṇas as they asked:

  • The line of Hiraṇyakaśipu, Prahlāda, Virocana and Bali; the rule of the daityas; Bali’s consecration as king of the daityas, and the coming of Lakshmī Devī and the devīs who followed her to Bali (Chapter 2).
  • When the brāhmaṇas asked what the defeated devas did, and how Bhagavān Vishṇu, the deva of the devas, took the form of Vāmana: Indra going to his mother Aditi on Meru, and the journey of the devas with Kaśyapa to the sabhā of Brahmā (Chapter 3); Brahmā’s words to the devas, Aditi and Kaśyapa (Chapter 4).
  • Kaśyapa’s stotra to Śrī Purushottama at the place called Amṛta (Chapter 5); Nārāyaṇa’s answer, and Aditi’s tapas and stotra in Aditivana (Chapter 6); Bhagavān Vāsudeva’s darśana to Aditi (Chapter 7).
  • Told to the vipras: Bali’s question to his grandfather Prahlāda when the daityas lost their tejas, and Prahlāda’s answer (Chapter 8).
  • Then, as Lomaharshaṇa began the next chapter: Bali seeking Prahlāda’s grace, the birth of Vāmana, Brahmā’s stotra, the gifts to the vaṭu (the young brahmacārī), and his walk to Bali’s yajña (Chapter 9).
  • The yajña of Bali: Śukrācārya‘s counsel and Bali’s reply on dāna, the asking of three steps, the virāṭ form, the three steps, the gift of Sutala to Bali, and the return of the kingdom of svarga to Indra (Chapter 10).

The Vāmana Purāṇa, Saro Māhātmya, Chapters 2–10, tells this.

The Sarasvatī and the tīrthas of Kurukshetra

Next the ṛshis asked him how the Sarasvatī was born, the best of the rivers that flow through Kurukshetra; how this holy stream joined the lake, set up many tīrthas on her banks and flowed westward, now seen, now unseen; and they asked for the whole line, in order, of the most ancient tīrthas. Romaharshaṇa told how the Sarasvatī arose from a plaksha tree, and how Mārkaṇḍeya, seeing her, bowed his head and praised her with a stotra (Chapter 11). He told how she entered Kurukshetra at Rantuka and turned westward, and said that a thousand tīrthas, served by maharshis, are there: “By the grace of Parameshṭhī (Brahmā) I shall describe them; listen” (Chapter 12).

“Best of paurāṇikas,” the ṛshis said, “tell us now the seven vanas, the nine rivers, the tīrthas, the phala of bathing in them, and which tīrtha, served in which way, gives which phala: all of it in detail.” He answered, “O ṛshis,” and named the seven vanas in the middle land of Kurukshetra: Kāmyaka, Aditi, Vyāsa, Phalakī, Sūrya, Madhu and Śīta. Then he named the nine rivers: Sarasvatī, Vaitaraṇī, Āpagā, Gaṅgā, Madhusravā, Vāsu, Kauśikī, Dṛshadvatī and Hiraṇyavatī. “Munis,” he said, “now hear with love the glorious phala of bathing in the tīrthas. By remembering them or by approaching them, all impurities are destroyed.” And he began the round of the tīrthas at Rantuka (Chapter 13), and went on from there to Rāmahrada, the five lakes of Bhārgava Rāma, and onward, addressing the brāhmaṇas as he went (Chapter 14).

The Vāmana Purāṇa, Saro Māhātmya, Chapters 11–14, tells this.

Śaunaka’s question at Naimishāraṇya

In telling how the seven Sarasvatīs came to Kurukshetra, the Purāṇa recalls a question once put to Lomaharshaṇa himself. Śaunaka and the other great munis in Naimishāraṇya asked Lomaharshaṇa, the foremost of the paurāṇikas: “Tell us the way by which we, walking the good path, may gain the fruit of yajña.” That great one bowed his head to the ṛshis and said: “The place where the Sarasvatī river is gives great yajña-phala.”

Then the ṛshis, devoted to svādhyāya (Vedic recitation), gathered in one place and remembered the Sarasvatī. As soon as those engaged in the sattra meditated on her, the Sarasvatī came to their place of yajña for their bathing. When Maṅkaṇa Maharshi meditated on her, this Sarasvatī, named Kāñcanākshī, came from Naimisha to Kurukshetra. The Vāmana Purāṇa, Saro Māhātmya, Chapter 16, tells this.

Sources

  • Vāyu Mahā Purāṇa, Chapters 1 and 60
  • Śiva Purāṇa, Kailāsa Saṃhitā, Chapters 1–10
  • Bhāgavata Purāṇa, first skandha (mentioned for Sūta Ugraśravā)
  • Vāmana Purāṇa, Saro Māhātmya, Chapters 1–14, 16