Vidarbha
Vidarbha
Kuśa has other meanings too: see all meanings of Kuśa. Citraratha has other meanings too: see all meanings of Citraratha. Satyaketu has other meanings too: see all meanings of Satyaketu. Śaibyā has other meanings too: see all meanings of Śaibyā. Śveta has other meanings too: see all meanings of Śveta. Sūratha has other meanings too: see all meanings of Sūratha. Vīrabāhu has other meanings too: see all meanings of Vīrabāhu. Babhru has other meanings too: see all meanings of Babhru. Bhīma has other meanings too: see all meanings of Bhīma. Keśinī has other meanings too: see all meanings of Keśinī. Nimi has other meanings too: see all meanings of Nimi. Kuśadhvaja has other meanings too: see all meanings of Kuśadhvaja. Vidūratha has other meanings too: see all meanings of Vidūratha.
Vidarbha is a kingdom that the Vāmana Purāṇa names twice: Lopāmudrā, the wife of Agastya Maharshi, is the daughter of the king of Vidarbha; and Suratha, the truthful and wise king who loved Citrāṅgadā, the daughter of Viśvakarmā, is the king of Vidarbha. Separated from her by Viśvakarmā’s śāpa (curse), Suratha performed severe tapas at Badarī until the rājarshi Indradyumna found him, and at last he married Citrāṅgadā at the Hāṭakeśvara kshetra on the Sapta-Godāvarī, with the devas present.
The Agni Purāṇa names Vidarbha as the land of Lalitā, the princess who, in a former birth as a mouse, kept a lamp alight in a temple of Śrī Mahāvishṇu and by the puṇya of that lamp became the chief of a great king’s hundred queens; and as the land of the princess in whom Pradyumna begot Aniruddha.
The Bhāgavata Purāṇa tells of Vidarbha as the kingdom of the great king Bhīshmaka, whose capital is Kuṇḍinapura, also called Kuṇḍinanagara. Bhīshmaka had five sons, Rukmī the eldest, and one daughter, Rukmiṇī, an avatāra of Lakshmī Devī. Rukmī wished to give her to Śiśupāla, king of Cedi, but Rukmiṇī had chosen Śrī Kṛshṇa and sent him a message by a brāhmaṇa. Śrī Kṛshṇa came from Ānarta to Vidarbha in a single night, and as Kuṇḍinapura stood adorned for the wedding and the kings of Śiśupāla’s party gathered there, he carried Rukmiṇī away from the temple of Gaurī Devī. Rukmī vowed not to enter Kuṇḍina again until he had slain Śrī Kṛshṇa and brought back his sister, and built the city of Bhojakaṭa to live in. The Bhāgavata also names Vidarbha as the land where Purañjana was born again as a princess, the land of the three queens of Bharata, son of Dushyanta, a land where the Yādavas took refuge from Kaṃsa, and a land whose kings came to Samantapañcaka.
Lopāmudrā, daughter of the king of Vidarbha
When the Vindhya mountain grew along the length of the sky and blocked the course of Sūrya, Agastya Maharshi asked the mountain to bend and give him a way, and commanded it to lie low until he returned. Then he went by the path of the sky to the southern direction and settled there. He set up a lovely āśrama with golden toraṇas (arches), left there his wife Lopāmudrā, the daughter of the king of Vidarbha, and went to his own āśrama. In every season, at the parva times, the Maharshi stays in that āśrama in the sky; at other times he goes to his own āśrama in Daṇḍakāraṇya.
Source: Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 19
Suratha, king of Vidarbha
Pulastya Maharshi tells Nārada Maharshi how Prahlāda counselled Andhaka with the account of King Daṇḍa; and King Daṇḍa and Arajā, the daughter of Śukrācārya, tell this account between them. Long ago, in the Deva-yuga, Citrāṅgadā, the daughter of Viśvakarmā, went with her friends to Naimishāraṇya to bathe in the Kāñcanākshī Sarasvatī. A king named Suratha, son of Kusudeva, came there, saw her and was overcome by desire. Though her friends forbade her, she gave herself to him. Arajā takes up the account: hearing of it, Viśvakarmā pronounced a śāpa on his daughter, and at once the river Sarasvatī carried Suratha off thirteen yojanas in her current. Citrāṅgadā, parted from him, wandered by way of Śrīkaṇṭha and the Sapta-Godāvarī to Pushkara, and there she told the gandharva maiden Vedavatī: “Suratha, king of Vidarbha, who had come there, saw me.” Among all the people at Pushkara she had not found her husband.
Source: Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapters 37, 39
The rājarshi Indradyumna, lord of Śākala, searching the earth with the ṛshis Ṛtadhvaja and Jābāli and with Śakuni, came to the Badarī āśrama. There they found a young tapasvī, burning in severe tapas, his jaṭās covered with dust, so thin that he drew breath with great difficulty. Indradyumna told him: “Child, do not give up your body. You are my brother’s son. Come, let us search for your beloved.” Ṛtadhvaja said that it was he who had left Citrāṅgadā at the Sapta-Godāvarī tīrtha, and for the sake of Sudeva‘s son they all set out for the Sapta-Godāvarī.
There, when Viśvakarmā had regained his own form and Indra had come with the Maruts, the suras and the Rudra-gaṇas, Indradyumna proposed four marriages: “Suratha will marry the daughter of Viśvakarmā.” Gālava Muni served as ṛtvij and performed the wedding homas, the gandharvas sang auspicious songs, and Suratha took the hand of Citrāṅgadā. Afterwards the kings went to their own cities with their wives and lived in every happiness.
Source: Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 39
Per Agni Purāṇa
Lalitā, princess of Vidarbha
Agni Deva taught Vasishṭha Maharshi the dīpadāna vrata, the vow of giving lamps, which gives bhukti (enjoyment) and mukti (release). One who gives lamps for a year in a temple or in a brāhmaṇa’s house gains all his desires; one who gives lamps in Cāturmāsya goes to Vishṇuloka, and one who gives them in the month of Kārtika goes to svarga. “There was no vrata greater than the gift of lamps before, there is none now, and there will be none.”
Lalitā, a princess of Vidarbha, by the puṇya of the gift of lamps alone became the wife of a great king and the chief among his hundred queens. That pativratā once gave a thousand lamps in a temple of Vishṇu. Her co-wives asked her about the greatness of the gift of lamps, and she told them her former birth. Long ago Maitreya, the purohita of the king of Sauvīra, built a temple of Śrī Mahāvishṇu on the bank of the river Devikā and gave lamps there in the month of Kārtika. A female mouse, running from a cat, pushed up the wick of one lamp with the tip of her mouth, and the lamp, which was about to go out, blazed up again. “That mouse was I,” Lalitā said. “Without intending it, I am enjoying the fruit of the puṇya of pushing up the wick of a lamp in a temple of Vishṇu, and from it I gained the memory of my former birth. That is why I always give lamps.” All her co-wives heard her account, and by the power of the gift of lamps they reached svarga.
Source: Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 200
The princess of Vidarbha, mother of Aniruddha
In the account of the avatāra of Śrī Kṛshṇa, Agni Deva tells that Pradyumna and others were born to Śrī Kṛshṇa in Rukmiṇī, and that to Pradyumna, in the princess of Vidarbha, was born Aniruddha, who loved battle. To Aniruddha were born Vajra and others.
Source: Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 276
Per Bhāgavata Purāṇa
Bhīshmaka and his children
Śuka tells Parīkshit that a great king famed as Bhīshmaka ruled the country of Vidarbha. He had five sons and one daughter of great beauty. The eldest son was Rukmī; after him came Rukmaratha, Rukmabāhu, Rukmakeśa and Rukmamālī, and the excellent Rukmiṇī was their sister. Rukmiṇī, daughter of Bhīshmaka, is an avatāra of Lakshmī Devī. When visitors to the house sang of the beauty, valour, qualities and wealth of Śrī Kṛshṇa, the giver of moksha, she listened from close by and knew that he alone was the husband fit for her; and Śrī Kṛshṇa too decided that she was the wife fit for him. Her kinsmen wished to give her to Śrī Kṛshṇa, but Rukmī, who hated Śrī Kṛshṇa, set their wish aside and resolved to give his sister to Śiśupāla, king of Cedi.
Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 10, Chapter 52
Rukmiṇī’s message from Vidarbha
Learning Rukmī’s intention, the princess of Vidarbha, whose gaze was on Śrī Kṛshṇa alone, thought it over and at once sent a trusted brāhmaṇa to Śrī Kṛshṇa at Dvārakā. Śrī Kṛshṇa came down from his golden throne, seated him and honoured him, and the brāhmaṇa gave him her message. She had heard of his qualities and had given her heart to him; she had chosen him alone as her husband and offered him her whole being; let not Śiśupāla touch her, as a jackal would the share of the lion. “The muhūrta of my wedding is tomorrow. Come secretly to Vidarbha, surrounded by your army commanders. Overcome Śiśupāla king of Cedi, Jarāsandha king of Magadha, and their armies. Valour alone is my bride-price. Carry me off and marry me by the rākshasa rite.” And she gave him the means: on the day before the wedding, the bride comes out of the inner apartments in a great procession for the darśana of the family devī, Pārvatī Devī. If she did not receive his grace, she would give up her life, already thin with vratas and fasting; if not in this birth, then may his grace come to her even after a hundred births.
Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 10, Chapter 52
Śrī Kṛshṇa comes to Vidarbha
Śrī Kṛshṇa learned the nakshatra fixed for the wedding and told his sārathi Dāruka to make the chariot ready. The chariot was yoked with the horses Śaibya, Sugrīva, Meghapushpa and Balāhaka. Śrī Kṛshṇa had the brāhmaṇa mount it and mounted himself, and drawn by the swift horses they reached the land of Vidarbha from the land of Ānarta by the end of a single night.
Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 10, Chapter 53
Kuṇḍinapura adorned for the wedding
King Bhīshmaka, lord of Kuṇḍinapura, overcome by love for his son Rukmī, had the arrangements made to give Rukmiṇī to Śiśupāla. The streets, royal roads and crossroads of the city were swept and sprinkled with water, and the city was adorned with many-coloured banners, flags and toraṇas. The women and men of the city wore garlands, flowers, fragrant pastes and ornaments, and the houses were prosperous and filled with the smoke of aguru incense. Bhīshmaka honoured the pitṛdevatās and the devatās according to rule, fed those learned in the Veda and had the puṇyāhavācana performed. Rukmiṇī bathed, raksha threads were tied on her hands for auspiciousness, and she was adorned with new garments and great ornaments. The best of brāhmaṇas tied the raksha on her with mantras of the Ṛgveda, Yajurveda and Sāmaveda, and the purohita learned in the Atharvaveda performed a homa for the pacification of the grahas. The king gave the knowers of the Veda gold, silver, garments, sesame mixed with jaggery and milch cows.
King Damaghosha, lord of Cedi, had the rites for his son Śiśupāla’s wedding performed and set out for Kuṇḍinanagara with elephants flowing with mada, chariots hung with golden garlands, foot soldiers and horses. Bhīshmaka, king of Vidarbha, went out to meet him with joy and lodged him in a palace made ready beforehand. Śālva, Jarāsandha, Dantavakra, Vidūratha, Pauṇḍraka and thousands of others of Śiśupāla’s party, who hate Śrī Kṛshṇa and Balarāma, came to Kuṇḍinanagara ready for war, resolved to fight together if Śrī Kṛshṇa came to carry off the bride. Balarāma, hearing of this and that Śrī Kṛshṇa had gone alone, followed quickly with a great army of elephants, horses, chariots and foot soldiers, out of love for his younger brother.
In the inner apartments Rukmiṇī waited, longing for Śrī Kṛshṇa’s coming, with only three yāmas left before the wedding and the brāhmaṇa not yet returned, until her left thigh, left arm and left eye throbbed, signalling the good to come. Then the brāhmaṇa came, full of joy, and told her that Śrī Kṛshṇa had come and would take her away; and she, not knowing what else she could give him, bowed to him.
Hearing that Balarāma and Śrī Kṛshṇa had come to see his daughter’s wedding, Bhīshmaka went out to meet them with gifts and the sound of music, honoured them duly with sweet things, spotless garments and gifts, and arranged a splendid residence for them, their army and their followers. In the same way he honoured all the kings assembled, each according to his valour, age, army and wealth.
Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 10, Chapter 53
The people of Kuṇḍinapura
Hearing that Śrī Kṛshṇa had come, the people of Kuṇḍinanagara came and drank in his lotus face with their eyes to their hearts’ content. Bound by overflowing love, they said to one another: “Rukmiṇī alone, and no one else, is fit to be his wife, and he, without fault in body or mind, is the husband fit for Bhīshmaka‘s daughter. If we have done even a little puṇya, may the creator of the three worlds be pleased by it and bless us! May Bhagavān Śrī Kṛshṇa marry the princess of Vidarbha!”
Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 10, Chapter 53
Rukmiṇī at the temple of Gaurī Devī
Rukmiṇī went from the inner apartments to the temple of the Devī on foot, in silence, with her mothers and companions, meditating on the lotus feet of Śrī Kṛshṇa, guarded by armoured soldiers, to the sound of maddeḷas, śaṅkhas, tappeṭas and bherīs. Courtesans walked with gifts and naivedyas, brāhmaṇa wives with garlands, sandal and ornaments, and singers, sūtas, māgadhas and vandīs sang stotras around her. At the temple of Gaurī Devī she washed her feet and hands, did ācamana and entered the presence of the Mother of the world. The elderly brāhmaṇa wives had her bow to Gaurī Devī, the half-body of Śiva, and to Śiva. She prayed: “Jaganmātā, I bow again and again to you, who are with Gaṇeśa and Kumārasvāmī. You grant auspiciousness. May Bhagavān Śrī Kṛshṇa be my husband! Approve this wish of mine.” With water, sandal, akshatas, dhūpa, garments, garlands of flowers and of gems, ornaments, gifts, naivedyas and rows of lamps she worshipped Bhavānī and Śiva, each separately, and with these and with salt, appams, tāmbūla, necklaces, fruits and pieces of sugarcane she honoured the brāhmaṇa women whose husbands were living. They gave her prasāda and blessed her. Then she gave up her vow of silence and came out of the temple holding a maid-servant’s hand.
As she walked slowly, the kings gathered there saw her beauty and were bewildered as by the māyā of Śrī Hari; seated on elephants, horses and chariots, they let fall their weapons and fell to the ground. Under the pretext of the procession she was offering her beauty to Śrī Kṛshṇa alone. Then she saw Śrī Kṛshṇa. As she was about to mount her chariot, Śrī Kṛshṇa, the husband of Lakshmī, lifted her onto his chariot with Garuḍa on its banner and carried her away before the eyes of the enemies, and as a lion goes from among wolves taking its share, he went from there at ease with Balarāma and the others. To the proud kings under Jarāsandha‘s command it was a great defeat: “The cowherds have stolen the fame of us bowmen, as deer might steal the fame of lions.”
Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 10, Chapter 53
Rukmī’s vow and Bhojakaṭa
Rukmī, who could not bear that Śrī Kṛshṇa had carried off his sister, pursued him with an akshauhiṇī army. Putting on his armour and taking his bow, he vowed in the hearing of all the kings: “I will kill Śrī Kṛshṇa in battle and bring Rukmiṇī back. If I cannot, I will not enter Kuṇḍinanagara.” He was defeated, and let go with only his life. Then he built for his dwelling a great city famed as Bhojakaṭa, a name the text glosses as “Bhoja’s vow”, and since he had said he would not enter Kuṇḍinanagara without slaying Śrī Kṛshṇa and bringing back his sister, he lived there in wrath. Śrī Kṛshṇa brought Rukmiṇī to Dvārakā and married her according to rule, and at the great festival people of the Kuru, Sṛñjaya, Kaikeya, Vidarbha, Yadu and Kunti lines met one another in the city and rejoiced.
Later, to please his sister, Rukmī gave his daughter Rukmavatī to Rukmiṇī’s son Pradyumna, and their son Aniruddha was born in the famous city of Bhojakaṭa. He also gave his son’s daughter Rocanā to Aniruddha, and Rukmiṇī, Balarāma, Śrī Kṛshṇa, Sāmba, Pradyumna, Cārudeshṇa and others went to Bhojakaṭa for the wedding. There Rukmī, the prince of Vidarbha, urged on by the king of Kaliṅga and other kings, played dice with Balarāma, rejected the ākāśavāṇī that declared Balarāma the winner, and mocked him; and Balarāma raised his iron club and slew Rukmī. Then the Yādavas set Aniruddha and Rocanā on a chariot and went from Bhojakaṭa to Dvārakā.
Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 10, Chapters 54, 61
Rukmiṇī, princess of Vidarbha
In Dvārakā the Bhāgavata calls Rukmiṇī again and again the princess of Vidarbha, the daughter of the king of Vidarbha. To her, as the daughter of the king of Vidarbha, Manmatha was born of Śrī Kṛshṇa as Pradyumna; and when Pradyumna returned from the house of Śambara, Rukmiṇī, the princess of Vidarbha, came, and her heart remembered her lost son. When Śrī Kṛshṇa tested her love in jest, he called her “daughter of the king of Vidarbha”, and she knew that he spoke only in jest. At the brāhma-muhūrta the princess of Vidarbha, embracing Śrī Kṛshṇa, did not welcome the hour that would part them.
Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 10, Chapters 55, 60, 70
Other princesses of Vidarbha
Nārada tells King Prācīnabarhis that Purañjana, because in his last hour he meditated only on his wife, was born again as the daughter of the ruler of Vidarbha, the best among kings, a maiden of surpassing beauty. Malayadhvaja, the Pāṇḍya king, defeated the kings in battle and married the Vidarbha princess, who held valour itself as her bride-price, and she later went with him to the Malaya mountain and served him as a sādhvī. At the end Avijñāta, her friend from of old, told her: “You are not the daughter of the Vidarbha king, and this Malayadhvaja is not your husband.”
Bharata, son of Dushyanta, had three dear wives who were daughters of the king of Vidarbha. When Bharata said of their children, “These are not fit for me,” the queens, fearing he would abandon them, killed those children.
Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 4, Chapter 28; Skandha 9, Chapter 20
A refuge of the Yādavas, and its kings at Samantapañcaka
When Kaṃsa oppressed the Yādavas, they fled to the lands of Kuru, Pañcāla, Kekaya, Śālva, Vidarbha, Nishadha, Videha and Kosala.
At the total eclipse of the sun, when people from every region gathered at Samantapañcaka, the Yādavas saw there the kings of Matsya, Uśīnara, Kausalya, Vidarbha, Kuru, Sṛñjaya, Kāmboja, Kekaya, Madra, Kunti, Ānarta and Kerala. At the close of his yajña there, Vasudeva honoured with abundant gifts his kinsmen and the kings of Vidarbha, Kosala, Kuru, Kāśi, Kekaya and Sṛñjaya.
Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 10, Chapters 2, 82, 84
Per Bhavishya Purāṇa
The Uttara Parva of the Bhavishya Purāṇa, where Śrī Kṛshṇa teaches Mahārāja Yudhishṭhira the vratas, names three kings of Vidarbha.
King Kuśadhvaja
In ancient times in the land of Vidarbha there lived a very mighty king named Kuśadhvaja. One day he went into the forest to hunt and, mistaking him for a deer, killed a brāhmaṇa tapasvin with an arrow. After death, by that pāpa, he went to the terrible Raurava naraka. After suffering its torments for a long time he went into the fearful birth of a serpent, then a lion’s birth, and several other despised births. Because he had kept the Tāraka Dvādaśī vrata in a former birth, by its power he was released from these births quickly, one after another. At last he became again a dharmic king of Vidarbha. He kept the Tāraka Dvādaśī vrata with bhakti, ruled for a long time without an enemy, and on dying reached Vishṇuloka.
Source: Bhavishya Purāṇa, Uttara Parva, Chapter 65
King Bhīma
In ancient times in the country of Vidarbha there was a mighty king named Bhīma, father of Damayantī and father-in-law of King Nala. He questioned Pulastya Muni: “Prabho, the jīvas of the world are ever troubled by many sorrows, and of these garbhavāsa (dwelling in the womb) is the greatest sorrow. Beings are seized by many diseases. Seeing their state I feel great pain. What means is there by which, with little effort, a jīva can be freed from the sorrows of saṃsāra? If there is some vrata or dāna, tell me.”
Source: Bhavishya Purāṇa, Uttara Parva, Chapters 73–74
King Citraratha and Lalitā
In the Vidarbha country lived a king named Citraratha. He had many sons and one daughter, Lalitā, endowed with every auspicious mark and very beautiful. She had been born as his daughter after her former birth, and she became the chief queen of Cārudharmā of Kāśī.
Source: Bhavishya Purāṇa, Uttara Parva, Chapter 130
Sources
- Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapters 19, 37–39
- Agni Purāṇa, Chapters 200, 276
- Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 4, Chapter 28; Skandha 9, Chapter 20; Skandha 10, Chapters 2, 52–55, 60–61, 70, 82, 84
- Bhavishya Purāṇa, Uttara Parva, Chapters 65, 73–74, 130