Vp4 20

Created by Jijith Nadumuri at 22 Jul 2011 11:12 and updated at 22 Jul 2011 11:12

VISHNU PURANA

BOOK 4.

CHAPTER 20.

Descendants of Kuru. Devapi abdicates the throne: assumed by santanu: he is confirmed by the Brahmans: Bhishma his son by Ganga: his other sons. Birth of Dhritarashtra, Pandu, and Vidura. The hundred sons of Dhritarashtra. The five sons of Pandu: married to Draupadi: their posterity. Parikshit, the grandson of Arjuna, the reigning king.

PARIKSHIT, the son of Kuru, had four sons, Janamejaya, srutasena, Ugrasena, and Bhimasena 1. The son of Jahnu was Suratha; his son was Viduratha; his son was Sarvabhauma; his son was Jayasena aravin; his son was Ayutayus; his son was Akrodhana; one of his sons was Devatithi, and another was called Riksha; his son was Dilipa; his son was Pratipa, who had three sons, Devapi, santanu, and Bahlika. The first adopted in childhood a forest life, and santanu became king. Of him this verse is spread through the earth; "santanu is his name, because if he lays his hands upon an old man, he restores him to youth, and by him men obtain tranquillity (santi)."

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In the kingdom over which santanu ruled there was no rain for twelve years. Apprehensive that the country would become a desert, the king assembled the Brahmans, and asked them why no rain fell, and what fault he had committed. They told him that he was as it were a younger brother married before an elder, for he was in the enjoyment of the earth, which was the right of his elder brother Devapi. "What then am I to do?" said the Raja: to which they replied, "Until the gods shall be displeased with Devapi, by his declining from the path of righteousness, the kingdom is his, and to him therefore you should resign it." When the minister of the king, Asmarisarin, heard this, he collected a number of ascetics who taught doctrines opposed to those of the Vedas, and sent them into the forest; where meeting with Devapi, they perverted the understanding of the simple minded prince, and led him to adopt heretical notions. In the meantime, santanu being much distressed to think that he had been guilty of the offence intimated by the Brahmans, sent them before him into the woods, and then proceeded thither himself, to restore the kingdom to his elder brother. When the Brahmans arrived at the hermitage of Devapi, they informed him, that, according to the doctrines of the Vedas, succession to a kingdom was the right of the elder brother: but he entered into discussion with them, and in various ways advanced arguments which had the defect of being contrary to the precepts of the Vedas.
the Brahmans heard this, they turned to santanu, and said, "Come hither, Raja; you need give yourself no further trouble in this matter; the dearth is at an end: this man is fallen from his state, for he has uttered words of disrespect to the authority of the eternal, untreated Veda; and when the elder brother is degraded, there is no sin in the prior espousals of his junior." santanu thereupon returned to his capital, and administered the government as before; and his elder brother Devapi being degraded from his caste by repeating doctrines contrary to the Vedas, Indra poured down abundant rain, which was followed by plentiful harvests 2.

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The son of Bahlika was Somadatta, who had three sons, Bhuri, Bhurisravas, and sala 3.

The son of santanu was the illustrious and learned Bhishma, who was born to him by the holy river goddess, Ganga; and he had by his wife Satyavati two sons, Chitrangada and Vichitraviryya. Chitrangada, whilst yet a youth, was killed in a conflict with a Gandharba, also called Chitrangada. Vichitraviryya married Amba and Ambalika, the daughters of the king of Kasi; and indulging too freely in connubial rites, fell into a consumption, of which he died. By command of Satyavati, my son Krishna dwaipayana, ever obedient to his mother s wishes 4, begot upon the widows of his brother the princes Dhritarashtra and Pandu, and upon a female servant, Vidura. Dhritarashtra had Duryodhana, Duhsasana, and other sons, to the cumber of a hundred. Pandu having incurred the curse of a deer, whose mate he had killed in the chase, was deterred from procreating children; and his wife Kunti, bare to him in consequence three sons, who were begotten by the deities Dharma, Vayu, and Indra; namely, Yudhishthira, Bhima, and Arjuna: and his wife Madri had two sons, Nakula and Sahadeva, by the celestial sons of Aswini. These had each a son by Draupadi. The son of Yudhishthira was Prativindhya; of Bhima, srutasoma; of Arjuna, srutakirtti; of Nakula, satanika; and of Sahadeva, srutakarman. The Pandavas had also other sons 5. By his wife Yaudheyi, Yudhishthira had Devaka.

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[paragraph continues] The son of Bhima by Hidimba was Ghatotkacha, and he had also Sarvatraga by his wife Kasi. The son of Sahadeva by Vijaya was Suhotra; and Niramitra was the son of Nakula by Karenumati. Arjuna had Iravat by the serpent nymph Ulupi; Babhruvahana, who was adopted as the son of his maternal grandfather, by the daughter of the king of Manipura; and, by his wife Subhadra Abhimanyu, who even in extreme youth was renowned for his valour and his strength, and crushed the chariots of his foes in fight. The son of Abhimanyu by his wife Uttara was Parikshit, who, after the Kurus were all destroyed, was killed in his mother s womb by the magic Brahma weapon, hurled by Aswatthaman: he was however restored to life by the clemency of that being whose feet receive the homage of all the demons and the gods, and who for his own pleasure had assumed a human shape Krishna(). This prince, Parikshit, now reigns over the whole world with undivided sway 6.

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