Vairāja (City of Brahmā)

Vairāja, “the city of Virāṭ”

Vairāja is the city of Brahmā on one of the three peaks of Meru, as Śrī Kṛshṇa tells Yudhishṭhira in the Uttara Parva of the Bhavishya Purāṇa. The other two peaks hold Vaikuṇṭha, the city of Vishṇu, and Kailāsa, the city of Śiva.

The Brahma Purāṇa names Vairāja as the abode of Brahmā so called by the śruti: in Vyāsa‘s account of the avatāras, Brahmā, having granted his vara to the daitya Hiraṇyakaśipu, returns there, served by the hosts of brahmarshis.

The worlds on Meru

In his brief account of the Bhuvana-kośa, Bhagavān Śrī Kṛshṇa tells Yudhishṭhira that Meru and the other mountains came from the outer membrane of the cosmic aṇḍa. Meru enters 16,000 yojanas below the ground, stands 84,000 yojanas above it, and its summit spreads 32,000 yojanas; the earth is a lotus and Meru its pericarp. On the three peaks of Meru are the three cities of Brahmā, Vishṇu and Śiva: Vairāja, Vaikuṇṭha and Kailāsa. In the east and the other directions are the cities of Indra and the other dikpālas.

Source: Bhavishya Purāṇa, Uttara Parva, Chapter 2

Per Brahma Purāṇa

The munis asked Vyāsa to tell them of the avatāras of Bhagavān Vishṇu, and Vyāsa told them as Caturmukha Brahmā had told it. In the Kṛta yuga, Hiraṇyakaśipu, the first among the daityas, kept a fast for eleven thousand five hundred years, kept mauna (silence) and performed fierce tapas. Pleased with his calm, his restraint, his brahmacarya and the niyamas of his tapas, Bhagavān Svayambhū, Brahmā, came to him himself, in a vimāna bright as the sun and yoked with haṃsas. With him came the Ādityas, the Vasus, the Maruts, the devas and the Rudras; the yakshas, rākshasas and kinnaras; the directions and the intermediate directions; the rivers, the oceans, the nakshatras, the muhūrtas and the great grahas; and the siddhas grown great in tapas, the learned and the puṇya ṛshis.

Brahmā granted Hiraṇyakaśipu the vara he asked and gave him divine arrows by which his wishes would be fulfilled. Then Brahmā, served by the hosts of brahmarshis, went to his own abode, which the śruti calls Vairāja. There the devas, nāgas, gandharvas and munis came to him, fearing what the asura would do with the vara, and Brahmā told them that the fruit of tapas must be enjoyed, and that at its end Bhagavān Vishṇu would slay him.

Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 213

Sources

• Bhavishya Purāṇa, Uttara Parva, Chapter 2
• Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 213