Aurasa
Aurasa, “born of one’s own breast, one’s own son”
Grammar: adjective and masculine noun, from uras (the breast, the heart): “born of one’s own breast”, that is, one’s own son.
Meaning: a son born to a man by his own wife, of his own body; the first of the kinds of dāyāda (sons who inherit).
In the scriptures: when Sanatkumāra asks Brahmā (Pitāmaha) what a dāyāda is, Brahmā names the first six: aurasa, kshetraja, datta, kṛtrima, gūḍhotpanna and apaviddha. To these six the ṛṇa (debt), the piṇḍa, the dhana (wealth), the kriyā (rites), the gotra-sāmya (sameness of gotra), the kula-vṛtti (family calling) and the pratishṭhā (standing) pass naturally from the parents. Then he explains each, and first the aurasa: the son born to one’s wife from oneself, the very image (pratirūpa) of the father (Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 35).
The Vāmana Purāṇa uses the word in this sense throughout:
- Devī Pārvatī pronounced a śāpa on the devas who had schemed that she should have no aurasa, no son of her own body: from then on none of the devas would have sons by their wives (Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 28).
- Śumbha told Raktabīja, “I am the aurasa son of Danu; my name is Śumbha” (Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 29).
- Naming the newborn Skanda, Bhagavān Śiva said, “Under the name Guha he is my aurasa son” (Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 31).
- The apsarā Ghṛtācī promised Citrāṅgadā that in ten months a son of her father’s own body would be born to him through her (Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 39).
- Dhundhu, of great strength, was the aurasa son of Kaśyapa Muni, born from the womb of Danu (Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 52).
Related terms: Dāyāda · Kshetraja · Datta · Apaviddha · Putra
Sources
- Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapters 28, 29, 31, 35, 39, 52