Yuvānāśva
Yuvānāśva · yuvan-aśva
Yuvānāśva was a king of the Ikshvāku solar dynasty. He was the father of the great emperor Māndhātā. The Mahābhārata tells how Yuvānāśva, who wished for a son, drank the consecrated water meant for his wife. He became pregnant and gave birth to Māndhātā himself.
The Agni Purāṇa gives his place in the line of Ikshvāku and tells that Yuvānāśva gained his son Māndhātā by keeping the Ananta vrata to Śrī Hari. It also names him among the great kings called on to protect a king at his abhisheka.
The Bhāgavata Purāṇa gives him as the son of Senajit in the line of Ikshvāku. Childless, he went to the forest with his hundred wives; there the maharshis had him perform a yāga to Indra, and in the night, thirsty, he drank the water they had consecrated to bring a son. Māndhātā was born from the right side of his belly, and by the grace of the devas and the maharshis Yuvānāśva lived, did tapas in that very place and attained moksha. Later he adopted his grandson Ambarīsha as his own son.
The ritual for a son
Yuvānāśva was a righteous king, but he had no son, and this grieved him deeply. He engaged ṛshis (seers) to perform the puṃsavana, a special ritual to bless his wife with a son. The ṛshis filled a vessel with water and consecrated it with powerful mantras. They left it in the ritual chamber overnight. The queen was to receive it in the morning. This is told in the Vana Parva, Chapter 126 of the Mahābhārata.
The king drinks the water
During the night Yuvānāśva woke in great thirst. He went into the ritual chamber in the dark. He could not see what he was drinking, and he drank from the vessel of consecrated water that was meant for his wife.
The power of the mantra worked within the king himself, and he became pregnant. When the time came, the child came out from his left side. Yuvānāśva survived.
Indra nurses the child
Indra came and nursed the child. He placed his own index finger in the boy’s mouth. He gave the child the name Māndhātā. Māndhātā grew to be the greatest world-conqueror of his age.
Yuvānāśva in the Agni Purāṇa
In the line of Ikshvāku
In Chapter 273, the account of the Sūrya vaṃśa, Agni gives the line from Ikshvāku, the son of Vaivasvata Manu, each the son of the one before: Vikukshi, Kakutstha, Suyodhana, Pṛthu, Viśvagaśva, Vāyu, Yuvānāśva and Śrāvanta, who founded the city of Śrāvantī in the eastern quarter. From Śrāvanta the line ran through Bṛhadaśva to Kuvalāśva, who killed the rākshasa Dhundhu and so was named Dhundhumāra. Then, through Dṛḍhāśva, Haryaśva, Nikumbha, Saṃhatāśva and Raṇāśva, it came to a second king named Yuvānāśva, the son of Raṇāśva, and his son was Māndhātā. Māndhātā had two sons, Purukutsa and Mucukunda.
Māndhātā born by the Ananta vrata
In Chapter 196, among the vratas kept on the nakshatras, Agni teaches the Ananta vrata, which gives every desire. In the month of Mārgaśīrsha, when the Mṛgaśiras nakshatra comes, one takes gomūtra (cow’s urine) and worships Śrī Hari. That Ananta gives all desires and endless fruit, and to one who keeps this vrata he gives endless puṇya even in the coming birth. One worships the lotus feet and the other limbs of Ananta, and at night eats food without oil. The homa for Ananta is of ghee from Mārgaśīrsha to Phālguna, of rice from Caitra to Āshāḍha, and of milk from Śrāvaṇa to Kārttika. By keeping this very Ananta vrata, Yuvānāśva had a son named Māndhātā.
Called on to protect a king
In Chapter 219 Pushkara teaches Paraśurāma the mantras of a king’s abhisheka (consecration bath). Among them is this blessing: “May Yama Dharmarāja of firm resolve, Citragupta, Daṇḍa, Piṅgala, Mṛtyu and Kāla; the Vālakhilyas and the other munis; the maharshis Vyāsa, Vālmīki and the rest; Pṛthu, Dilīpa, Bharata and Dushyanta; the very mighty Śatrujit; Manu, Kakutstha, Anenā, Yuvānāśva, Jayadratha, Māndhātṛ, Mucukunda and Purūravas protect you.”
Source: Agni Purāṇa, Chapters 196, 219, 273
Yuvānāśva in the Bhāgavata Purāṇa
Śrī Śuka Maharshi tells Parīkshit of him in the line of Ikshvāku.
His place in the line
After Kuvalayāśvaka, called Dhundhumāra because he slew the rākshasa Dhundhu, only three of his twenty-one thousand sons survived the fire from Dhundhu’s mouth: Dṛḍhāśva, Kapilāśva and Bhadrāśva. The line ran on from Dṛḍhāśva, each the son of the one before: Haryaśva, Nikumbha, Barhaṇāśva, Kṛśāśva and Senajit, and Senajit’s son was Yuvānāśva. The same chapter names an earlier king Yuvānāśva, the son of Candra and father of Śābasta, who built the city Śābastī.
The water that brings a son
Yuvānāśva had no offspring. Grieving, he entered vānaprastha (the forest life of tapas) with his hundred wives. There the compassionate maharshis, with minds deeply concentrated, had him perform a yāga whose devatā was Indra.
In the night King Yuvānāśva became very thirsty. He entered the yajñaśālā (the hall of the yajña), saw the knowers of the Veda asleep, took the water that had been consecrated with mantras, and drank it himself. The maharshis woke and saw the kalaśa (water-pot) empty. “Whose deed is this? Who has drunk the water that brings the birth of a son?” they asked. When they learned that the king, impelled by Īśvara, had drunk it, they were astonished. “Ahā! Daiva-bala (the strength of the divine will) alone is strength,” they said, and bowed to Īśvara.
The birth of Māndhātā
When the time came, a son was born, breaking open the right side of Yuvānāśva’s belly; he would become a cakravartī. The maharshis said: “This child cries and sobs for breast-milk. What shall he drink?” Indra said, “He shall drink me. Child, do not cry,” and put his index finger into the boy’s mouth. Because Indra said māṃ dhātā, “he shall drink me”, the boy was named Māndhātā. Indra also named him Trasaddasyu, “the one before whom the dasyus tremble”, for Rāvaṇa and the others who trouble the people would fear him.
By the grace of the devas and the maharshis, Yuvānāśva did not die. He did tapas in that very place and attained moksha.
Māndhātā, the son of Yuvānāśva, became mighty by the tejas of Śrī Hari and ruled the earth of seven khaṇḍas as sole sovereign. By Bindumatī, daughter of Śaśabindu, he had three sons, Purukutsa, Ambarīsha and the yogī Mucukunda, and fifty daughters.
Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 9, Chapter 6
Ambarīsha adopted
Of Māndhātā‘s sons Ambarīsha was the very best, and Yuvānāśva, his grandfather, adopted him as his own son. Ambarīsha‘s son was Yauvanāśva, and Yauvanāśva’s son was Hārīta; they became the founders of gotras in the line of Māndhātā.
Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 9, Chapter 7
Named by Mucukunda
When Śrī Kṛshṇa gave darśana to Mucukunda in his cave, Mucukunda told of himself: “O Purushottama, I am a kshatriya of the Ikshvāku line. They call me Mucukunda. I am the son of Māndhātā, who was the son of Yuvānāśva.”
Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 10, Chapter 51
Per Bhavishya Purāṇa
Śrī Kṛshṇa tells Yudhishṭhira of the Dharaṇī Vrata, named so because Dharaṇī Devī performed it. King Yuvanāśva performed it, gained an excellent son named Māndhātā, and in the end reached the eternal brahmapada.
Source: Bhavishya Purāṇa, Uttara Parva, Chapter 83
Per Brahma Purāṇa
The Sūta tells the munis the line of Ikshvāku. After Dhundhumāra came Dṛḍhāśva, Haryaśva, Nikumbha and Saṃhatāśva. Saṃhatāśva’s daughter was Haimavatī, famed as Dṛshadvatī, and the text names her son as Prasenajit. Prasenajit’s wife was Gaurī, a great sādhvī, who by her husband’s śāpa became the river Bāhudā. Prasenajit’s son was Yuvānāśva, the second king of that name in the line, and his son was Māndhātā, the conqueror of the three worlds. Māndhātā married Bindumatī, also called Caitrarathī, the supremely beautiful daughter of Śaśabindu, the eldest of ten thousand sisters, and by her had two sons, Purukutsa and Mucukunda.
Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 7
Sources
- Mahābhārata, Vana Parva, Chapter 126
- Mahābhārata, Śānti Parva, Āpaddharma Parva, Chapter 159
- Agni Purāṇa, Chapters 196, 219, 273
- Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 9, Chapters 6–7; Skandha 10, Chapter 51
- Bhavishya Purāṇa, Uttara Parva, Chapter 83
- Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 7