Devapi

Created by Jijith Nadumuri at 23 Jul 2011 10:54 and updated at 23 Jul 2011 10:54

VISHNU PURANA NOUN

vp.4.20	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.
vp.4.20	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)."
vp.4.20	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.
vp.4.20	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.
vp.4.24	Thus age after age Brahmans, Kshatriyas, Vaisyas, and sudras, excellent Brahman, men of great souls, have passed away by thousands; whose names and tribes and families I have not enumerated to you, from their great number, and the repetition of appellations it would involve. Two persons, Devapi of the race of Puru, and Maru of the family of Ikshwaku, through the force of devotion continue alive throughout the whole four ages, residing at the village of Kalapa: they will return hither in the beginning of the Krita age, and, becoming members of the family of the Manu, give origin to the Kshatriya dynasties 84. In this manner the earth is possessed through every series of the three first ages, the Krita, Treta, and Dwapara, by the sons of the Manu; and some remain in the Kali age, to serve as the rudiments of renewed generations, in the same way as Devapi and Maru are still in existence.

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