Draviḍa

Draviḍa · draviḍa

Draviḍa is a country of the south in the Bhāgavata Purāṇa. Its rulers include the rājarshi Satyavrata, who found Bhagavān Matsya in his palms in the Kṛtamālā river, and King Indradyumna of the Pāṇḍya line, who was reborn as Gajendra. The yogīśvara Karabhājana tells King Nimi that in the Kali yuga very many bhaktas of Nārāyaṇa are born in the Draviḍa country, and that its rivers, the Tāmraparṇī, Kṛtamālā, Payasvinī, Kāverī, Pratīcī and Mahānadī, purify the hearts of those who drink their water.

Malayadhvaja’s sons

In the account of Purañjana that Nārada Maharshi tells King Prācīnabarhis, Purañjana is reborn as the princess of Vidarbha. Malayadhvaja, the Pāṇḍya king, skilled at conquering the cities of his enemies, defeated the kings in battle and married her, for she held valour itself as her bride-price. By her he had a dark-eyed daughter and then seven sons, and those seven became kings in the Draviḍa country.

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 4, Chapter 28

King Indradyumna

Śuka Maharshi tells Parīkshit that in his previous birth Gajendra, the king of elephants, was the famous king Indradyumna, of the Pāṇḍya dynasty. He was the foremost king in the Draviḍa country, and he had firm devotion to the Vishṇu-vrata.

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 8, Chapter 4

Satyavrata and Bhagavān Matsya

At the end of the past kalpa, when Brahmā slept, the pralaya called Brāhma took place, and the asura Hayagrīva stole the Vedas that came out of Brahmā’s mouth; Śrī Hari took the form of a fish. In that kalpa there was a great rājarshi named Satyavrata, a bhakta of Nārāyaṇa, who did tapas taking only water as his food. One day, as he offered tarpaṇa in the Kṛtamālā river, some fish came into the water in his cupped palms. Satyavrata, lord of the Draviḍa country, let them go with the water into the river, and the fish pleaded with him for protection. So began the account of the Matsya avatāra. That same Satyavrata, in this kalpa, is Śrāddhadeva, the son of Sūrya, whom Śrī Hari set in the place of Manu.

When Parīkshit later asks Śuka for the lines of the Manus, he recalls what he has heard: that Satyavrata, lord of the Draviḍa country, served Śrī Hari in his form as Matsya and gained ātma-jñāna, and that he became the Manu Śrāddhadeva, whose sons are Ikshvāku and the others.

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 8, Chapter 24; Skandha 9, Chapter 1

The land of bhaktas in Kali

Nārada tells Vasudeva how the nine yogīśvaras answered King Nimi. Karabhājana, describing how Śrī Hari is worshipped in the four yugas, says that the people of the Kṛta, Tretā and Dvāpara yugas wish to be born in the Kali yuga, because in the Kali yuga bhaktas whose highest goal is Nārāyaṇa alone are born here and there, and in the Draviḍa country very many such bhaktas are born.

In the Draviḍa country are six rivers: the Tāmraparṇī, the Kṛtamālā, the Payasvinī, the supremely pure Kāverī, the Pratīcī and the Mahānadī. Those who drink their water mostly have their inner faculty purified, and bhakti for Vāsudeva arises in them.

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 11, Chapter 5

Sources

• Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 4, Chapter 28; Skandha 8, Chapters 4, 24; Skandha 9, Chapter 1; Skandha 11, Chapter 5