Putra
Putra · put-tra, “the one who saves from Put”
Grammar: masculine noun. The text explains it as put, the naraka called Put, and tra (from the root trai, to protect): “the one who saves from Put”.
Meaning: a son, above all the son who by his deeds frees his father and the pitṛs (ancestors) from naraka.
In the scriptures: Sanatkumāra asks Brahmā: “Since I am your disciple, am I not your son? What difference is there between a son and a disciple?” Brahmā answers that a son is greater in the carrying out of dharma-karma: “He who saves from the naraka called Put is a putra; he who removes the remaining pāpa (śesha-pāpa) is called a śishya (disciple). This is a statement of the śruti.” Sanatkumāra then asks him to explain the Punnāma naraka, the naraka named Put (Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 34).
Brahmā lists the sixteen narakas, each a group of pāpa-deeds, and says that this whole group of pāpas is called the Put naraka. To get out of these, and to win the favour of the divine, one should beget a son and gain protection through him; the divine, pleased, grants a good son (satputra), who frees the pitṛs from naraka. “That is why, O Sādhya, a son got the name putra.” The son is greater than the disciple: the son protects from all pāpas, the disciple only from the remaining ones, so a wise man should have both sons and disciples (Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 35).
In the Saro Māhātmya, Nārada tells the son of Vena that his father has been born among the mlecchas, with wasting and leprosy. The king grieves and reflects that a putra is the one who protects the pitṛs from their fears, and begs Nārada to tell him how his father may cross over. On Nārada’s counsel he brings his father to the Sthāṇu tīrtha in Kurukshetra (Vāmana Purāṇa, Saro Māhātmya, Chapter 26). When Vena is freed, he says to his son: “Child! Having such a good son as you, I have escaped from the ocean of naraka” (Vāmana Purāṇa, Saro Māhātmya, Chapter 27).
Related terms: Śishya · Dāyāda · Naraka · Pitṛ · Aurasa · Kshetraja
Sources
- Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapters 34, 35
- Vāmana Purāṇa, Saro Māhātmya, Chapters 26, 27