Dhīvara
Dhīvara, “a fisherman”
Grammar: masculine noun; a fisherman. The plural dhīvaras names the people who live by fishing.
Meaning: a fisherman; one of the peoples whose birth the Purāṇa tells in the account of King Vena.
In the scriptures: the Sūta Lomaharshaṇa tells the munis how the maharshis, unable to correct the proud King Vena, seized him and churned his left thigh. From it was born a man, dark and short, who stood in fear with joined palms. Atri Maharshi said to him, “Nishīda” (sit down), and so he became the first ancestor of the Nishāda line. After that, from bodily impurity, the dhīvaras, the fishermen, were begotten, and from that line came the koyas and the other hill peoples (Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 4).
In the Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa: Sauti tells Śaunaka how the mixed jātis were born. A kshatriya, by a vaiśya woman, begot the Kaivarta, the fisherman. The Kaivarta, through a Tīvara woman, became a Dhīvara, and a Dhīvara by a Tīvara woman begot the Rajaka, the washerman (Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa, Brahma Khaṇḍa, Chapter 10). In Śrī Kṛshṇa‘s teaching to Nanda on what may be eaten, one who is very greedy for fish and eats without making the offering becomes king of the fishermen and a cat for seven births (Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa, Śrī Kṛshṇa Janma Khaṇḍa, Chapter 85).
Related terms: Nishāda · Vena · Jāti
Sources
- Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 4
- Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa, Brahma Khaṇḍa, Chapter 10; Śrī Kṛshṇa Janma Khaṇḍa, Chapter 85