Nishadha
Nishadha
Nala has other meanings too: see all meanings of Nala. Pushkara has other meanings too: see all meanings of Pushkara.
Nishadha was an ancient kingdom of Bharatavarsha. The Mahābhārata names it as the realm of Nala, the son of Vīrasena, who is the hero of the Nala-Damayantī Upākhyāna. Nala ruled it in good order and dharma until it was lost in a dice game. The game was set up by his brother Pushkara under the influence of the asura Kali. After Nala came back and won, Nishadha was restored to his rule. The Mahābhārata also names the kingdom elsewhere in its lists of kingdoms.
The Vāmana Purāṇa tells of an earlier king of Nishadha, Vapushmān, in the Uttama manvantara, whose son Jyotishmān and his queen became the parents of the Maruts of that age. It names the Naishadhas among the peoples at the foot of the Vindhya, tells how the daitya Prahlāda served Amareśvara Mahādeva at Nishadha on his tīrtha-yātrā, and gives Bhagavān Vāmana’s own word that at Nishadha his form is Amareśvara.
Nishadha under Nala
Under Nala, Nishadha was a well-governed kingdom, known for the excellence of its king. Nala was handsome, skilled with horses and firm in dharma, and he knew the Aśvahṛdaya. The kingdom was the setting for the happy early years of Nala and Damayantī‘s marriage, before Kali entered and the dice game changed their lives.
When Nala lost the dice game, Nishadha passed into Pushkara‘s hands. When Nala returned and beat Pushkara at dice with the Akshahṛdaya, Nishadha was restored to him.
Source: Mahābhārata, Vana Parva, Chapters 52–79.
Where it lay
The text does not fix the place of Nishadha by modern geography. Various Purāṇic traditions link the kingdom of Nishadha with central or north-central India. It is a different thing from the Nishadha mountain and from the Nishādas, a tribal people, who are named elsewhere in the epics.
Nishadha in the Vāmana Purāṇa
Vapushmān, Jyotishmān and the Maruts
Pulastya Maharshi told Nārada Maharshi how the Maruts were born in each manvantara. In the Uttama manvantara Vapushmān, lord of the land of Nishadha, ruled his kingdom with the radiance of the sun. He had a virtuous son, firm in dharma, named Jyotishmān. Jyotishmān performed tapas (austerity) for sons on the bank of the Mandākinī. His wife, the daughter of the Devaguru, served her husband and lived a life of tapas too, gathering fruits, flowers and samidhs (fuel-sticks for the sacred fire) and honouring guests, until she grew thin to the bone.
The Saptarshis saw her shining with the tejas of tapas in the forest and asked why she did such hard tapas. When she told them that she and her husband had taken a vow of tapas for sons, they gave her a vara (boon): “Mother, go home. You will have seven sons.” The rājarshi returned to the city with his wife, and in time the queen conceived. While she was still with child, the king died. Though the ministers begged her not to, that pativratā (a wife wholly devoted to her husband) placed his body on the pyre and entered the fire herself. From her womb a lump of flesh flew out and fell into the water outside; by the coolness of the water it became seven parts, and from them arose the Maruts of the Uttama manvantara.
Source: Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 46.
The Naishadhas at the foot of the Vindhya
In their teaching to the rākshasa king Sukeśī, the maharshis of the Magadha forest named the janapadas (peoples and lands) of Kumāra-dvīpa by direction. Among the twenty janapadas at the foot of the Vindhya they named the Naishadhas, with Kārusha, Mekala, Utkala, Daśārṇa, Bhoja, Kosala, Anūpa, Vītihotra and Avanti.
Source: Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 13.
Amareśvara of Nishadha
On his great tīrtha-yātrā (pilgrimage), Prahlāda, the great bhāgavata, came from Avantī, where he had seen Mahākāla, to Nishadha. There he served Amareśvara Mahādeva, and from there he went to the Mahodaya kshetra for darśana of Hayagrīva. Pulastya Maharshi said that one who sings this account of the yātrā, hears it or passes it on to others is freed from every pāpa (sin).
Bhagavān Vishṇu was born to Aditi as Vāmana, and Bharadvāja Ṛshi performed his upanayana. Before Vāmana went to Bali‘s aśvamedha at Kurukshetra, Bharadvāja asked him where his tejas-aṃśas (portions of his splendour) abide, and Vāmana named the holy places of his forms one by one: “In the land of Avantī, Vishṇu; at Nishadha, Amareśvara; in the land of Pāñcāla, the Pāñcālika deva.” Amareśa, “lord of the immortals”, is also among the names of the pāpa-śamana stotra of Agastya Maharshi.
Of all these places Bhagavān Vāmana said that they are sanātana (eternal), purātana (ancient) and pavitra (holy); they give dharma, they are full of tejas and 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 these forms attain all four purushārthas: dharma, artha, kāma and moksha. “This is certain,” said Bhagavān Vāmana.
Source: Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapters 57, 61, 63.
Per Bhāgavata Purāṇa
When Kaṃsa, with Pralamba, Baka, Cāṇūra and his other companions, set about the destruction of the Yādavas, the oppressed Yādavas fled to the regions of Kuru, Pañcāla, Kekaya, Śālva, Vidarbha, Nishadha, Videha and Kosala, while some kinsmen followed Kaṃsa and served him.
Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 10, Chapter 2
In his account of the kings to come in the Kali yuga, Śrī Śuka Maharshi tells Parīkshit that seven kings of the Bāhlika line will be lords of the Āndhra country and seven of the Kosala country, and the same line will also rule the Vidūra country and the Nishadha country, all of them at the same time.
Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 12, Chapter 1
The Earth, in her song, names Nala, king of Nishadha, among the great kings who held her as “mine” and passed away, leaving only their account.
Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 12, Chapter 3
Sources
- Mahābhārata, Vana Parva, Chapters 52–79
- Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapters 13, 46, 57, 61, 63
- Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 10, Chapter 2; Skandha 12, Chapters 1, 3