Kuśa Dvīpa
Kuśa Dvīpa, “the island of kuśa grass”
Kuśa Dvīpa is one of the seven dvīpas (island-continents) of the earth. The Vāmana Purāṇa places it next after Śālmali Dvīpa and its ocean of surā, twice the size of the one before, and surrounded by the ocean of ghee. Its people, like those of the other dvīpas from Plaksha to Śāka, live without yugas, enjoying divine pleasures like the devas. Bhagavān Vāmana tells Bharadvāja Maharshi that in Kuśa Dvīpa he dwells as Kuśeśaya.
The seven dvīpas and their oceans
The account is given in Pulastya Maharshi‘s telling to Nārada Maharshi, as Brahmā told it long ago. Sukeśī, son of the rākshasa king Vidyutkeśi, had received from Parama Śiva a city that moves through the sky, and he lived by dharma. He went to the āśramas of the maharshis in a forest of Magadha, bowed at their feet and asked them what gives the highest good in this world and the next. When they had taught him the dharmas of the twelve kinds of beings, he asked them to tell once more the dharmas of humans.
The ṛshis began with the earth. Like a boat on a great mass of water, the circle of the earth, fifty crore yojanas in extent, rests on the waters of the ocean. On it Brahmā built a lofty mountain, like the pericarp in the middle of the petals of a lotus, and all round it, in the four directions, Prajāpati created the holy race of men in the various dvīpas. Each dvīpa and each ocean is twice the size of the one before:
- Jambū Dvīpa, in the middle, one lakh yojanas in measure, and around it an ocean twice its extent.
- Plaksha Dvīpa, twice the size, and around it the ocean of sugarcane juice (ikshu-rasa).
- Śālmali Dvīpa, twice that, and around it, twice as large, the ocean of surā.
- Kuśa Dvīpa, twice that, and around it, twice as large, the ocean of ghee.
- Krauñca Dvīpa, twice the size of the ocean of ghee, and around it, twice as large, the ocean of curd (dadhi).
- Śāka Dvīpa, twice the size of the ocean of curd, and around it, twice as large, the ocean of milk (kshīra), on which Śrī Hari lies on the couch of Śesha.
From Jambū Dvīpa up to the ocean of milk, all of these together extend forty crore ninety-five lakh yojanas. Beyond them lies Pushkara Dvīpa, with the ocean of sweet water around it, each extending four crore fifty-two lakh yojanas; and one lakh yojanas beyond all these, on every side, spreads the egg-shaped shell of the brahmāṇḍa.
Source: Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 11
The life of its people
The maharshis told Sukeśī that separate practices of dharma are laid down for the seven dvīpas. For the people who live in the dvīpas from Plaksha to Śāka, Kuśa among them, there have been no yugas from the beginning. They always enjoy divine pleasures, like the devas, and for them pralaya comes only at the end of the kalpa.
Source: Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 11
Bhagavān Vishṇu as Kuśeśaya in Kuśa Dvīpa
After his upanayana, Bhagavān Vāmana told Bharadvāja Maharshi that he would go to Kurukshetra, where Bali was performing the aśvamedha yajña by the power of the tejas-aṃśas, the portions of Vāmana’s own splendour. Bharadvāja asked where these portions abide, and Vāmana named the places of his forms (vibhūti-sthānas) on earth, in the lower worlds, in the upper lokas and in the seven dvīpas.
Of the seven dvīpas he said: in Jambū Dvīpa, “I am Caturbhuja”; in Kuśa Dvīpa, “I am Kuśeśaya”; in Plaksha Dvīpa, “I am renowned as Garuḍavāhana”; in Krauñca Dvīpa, “they call me Padmanābha”; in Śālmala he is Vṛshabhadhvaja; in Śāka Dvīpa, Sahasrāṃśu, the thousand-rayed; and in Pushkara Dvīpa, Dharmarāṭ, the king of dharma.
At Gopratāra on earth, too, he named Kuśeśaya among his forms, with Trailokyanātha and Varada.
All these places, Bhagavān Vāmana said, are eternal, ancient and holy. They give dharma, they are full of tejas, they destroy pāpa, and they are always to be praised. Devas, humans and sādhyas who practise darśana (seeing), sparśana (touching), kīrtana (praising) and smaraṇa (remembering) of the devatās in these places attain all four purushārthas: dharma, artha, kāma and moksha. “This is certain.”
Source: Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapters 62–63
Sources
- Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapters 11, 62–63