Kasi

Created by Jijith Nadumuri at 24 Jul 2011 08:31 and updated at 24 Jul 2011 08:31

VISHNU PURANA NOUN

vp.3.18 dog. His wife was born as the daughter of the Raja of Kasi, with a knowledge of the events of her preexistence, accomplished in every science, and endowed with every virtue. Her father was anxious to give her in marriage to some suitable husband, but she constantly opposed his design, and the king was prevented by her from accomplishing her nuptials. With the eye of divine intelligence she knew that her own husband had been regenerate as a dog, and going once to the city of Vaidisa she saw the dog, and recognised her former lord in him. Knowing that the animal was her husband, she placed upon his neck the bridal garland, accompanying it with the marriage rites and prayers: but he, eating the delicate food presented to him, expressed his delight after the fashion of his species; at which she was much ashamed, and, bowing reverently to him, thus spake to her degraded spouse: "Recall to memory, illustrious prince, the ill timed politeness on account of which you have been born as a dog, and are now fawning upon me. In consequence of speaking to a heretic, after bathing in a sacred river, you have been condemned to this abject birth. Do you not remember it?" Thus reminded, the Raja recollected his former condition, and was lost in thought, and felt deep humiliation. With a broken spirit he went forth from the city, and falling dead in the desert, was born anew as a jackal. In the course of the following year the princess knew what had happened, and went to the mountain Kolahala
vp.3.18 she exclaimed, "recollect yourself: away with this uncouth form, to which the sin of conversing with a heretic has condemned you!" The Raja was next born as a crow; when the princess, who through her mystical powers was aware of it, said to him, "Thou art now thyself the eater of tributary grain, to whom, in a prior existence, all the kings of the earth paid tribute 9." Having abandoned his body, in consequence of the recollections excited by these words, the king next became a peacock, which the princess took to herself, and petted, and fed constantly with such food as is agreeable to birds of its class. The king of Kasi instituted at that time the solemn sacrifice of a horse. In the ablutions with which it terminated the princess caused her peacock to be bathed, bathing also herself; and she then reminded satadhanu how he had been successively born as various animals. On recollecting this, he resigned his life. He was then born as the son of a person of distinction; and the princess now assenting to the wishes of her father to see her wedded, the king of Kasi caused it to be made known that she would elect a bridegroom from those who should present themselves as suitors for her hand. When the election took place, the princess made choice of her former lord, who appeared amongst the candidates, and again invested him with the character of her husband. They lived happily together, and upon her father s decease satadhanu ruled over the country of Videha. He offered many
vp.4.5 Siradhwaja ploughing the ground, to prepare it for a sacrifice which he instituted in order to obtain progeny, there sprang up in the furrow a damsel, who became his daughter Sita 4. The brother of Siradhwaja was Kusadhwaja, who was king of Kasi 5; he had a son also, named Bhanumat 6. The son of Bhanumat was Satadyumna; his son was suchi; his son was Urjjavaha; his son was satyadhwaja; his son was Kuni 7; his son was Anjana; his son was Ritujit; his son was Arishtanemi 8; his son was srutayus; his son was Suparswa; his son was Sanjaya 9; his son was Kshemari 10; his son was Anenas 11; his son was Minaratha 12; his son was Satyaratha; his son was Satyarathi 13; his son was Upagu 14; his son was sruta 15; his son was Saswata 16; his son was Sudhanwan; his son was Subhasa; his son was Susruta 17; his son was Jaya; his son was Vijaya; his son was Rita; his son was Sunaya 18; his son was Vitahavya;
vp.4.8 Sons of ayus. Line of Kshatravriddha, or kings of Kasi. Former birth of Dhanwantari. Various names of Pratarddana. Greatness of Alarka.
vp.4.20 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.
vp.4.20 [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.
vp.5.21 Thus having spoken, the human Kesava summoned mentally the deity of the wind, who came upon the instant, and said to him, "Go, Vayu, to Indra, and desire him to lay aside his pomp, and resign to Ugrasena his splendid hall Sudharman: tell him that Krishna commands him to send the royal hall, the unrivalled gem of princely courts, for the assemblage of the race of Yadu." Accordingly Vayu went, and delivered the message to the husband of sachi, who immediately gave up to him the hall Sudharman, and Vayu conveyed it to the Yadavas, the chiefs of whom thenceforth possessed this celestial court, emblazoned with jewels, and defended by the arm of Govinda. The two excellent Yadu youths, versed in all knowledge, and possessed of all wisdom, then submitted to instruction, as the disciples of teachers. Accordingly they repaired to Sandipani who, though born in Kasi, resided at Avanti to study the science of arms, and, becoming his pupils, were obedient and attentive to their master, exhibiting an example to all men of the observance of instituted rules. In the course of sixty four days they had gone through the elements of military science, with the treatises on the use of arms, and directions for the mystic incantations, which secure the aid of supernatural weapons 2. Sandipani, astonished at such proficiency, and knowing that it exceeded human faculties, imagined that the sun and moon had become his scholars. When they had acquired all that he could teach, they said to him, "Now
vp.5.34 Paundraka, a Vasudeva, assumes the insignia and style of Krishna, supported by the king of Kasi. Krishna marches against, and destroys them. The son of the king sends a magical being against Krishna: destroyed by his discus, which also sets Benares on fire, and consumes it and its inhabitants.
vp.5.34 When the king of Kasi heard of the preparations of Kesava, he sent his army (to the aid of Paundraka), himself bringing up the rear; and with the force of the king of Kasi, and his own troops, Paundraka, the false Vasudeva, marched to meet Krishna. Hari beheld him afar off, standing in his car, holding a discus, a club, a mace, a scimitar, and a lotus, in his hands; ornamented with a garland of flowers; bearing a bow; and having his standard made of gold: he had also the Srivatsa mark delineated on his breast; he was dressed in yellow garments, and decorated with earrings and a tiara. When the god whose standard is Garuda beheld him, he laughed with a deep laugh, and engaged in conflict with the hostile host of cavalry and elephants, fighting with swords, scimitars, maces, tridents, spears, and bows. Showering upon the enemy the shafts from his saranga bow, and hurling at them his mace and discus, he quickly destroyed both the army of Paundraka and that of the king of Kasi. He then said to the former, who was foolishly wearing his emblems, Paundraka", you desired me by your envoy to resign to you all my insignia. I now deliver them to you. Here is
vp.5.34 my discus; here I give up my mace; and here is Garuda, let him mount upon thy standard." Thus speaking, he let fly the discus and the mace, by which Paundraka was cut to pieces, and cast on the ground; whilst the Garuda on his banner was demolished by the Garuda of Vishnu. The people, beholding this sight, exclaimed, "Alas! alas!" but the valiant king of Kasi, adhering to the imposture of his friend, continued the conflict, till sauri decapitated him with his arrows, shooting his head into the city of Kasi, to the marvel of all the inhabitants. Having thus slain Paundraka and the king of Kasi, with all their followers, sauri returned to Dwaraka, where he lived in the enjoyment of heavenly delights.
vp.5.34 When the inhabitants of Kasi saw the head of their king shot into their city, they were much astonished, and wondered how it could have happened, and by whom the deed could have been done. Having ascertained that the king had been killed by Krishna, the son of the monarch of Kasi 4, together with the priest of the family, propitiated sankara; and that deity, well pleased to be adored in the sacred place Avimukta, desired the prince to demand a boon: on which he prayed, and said, "O lord, mighty god, through thy favour let thy mystic spirit arise to destroy Krishna, the murderer of my father." "It shall be so," answered sankara: and from out of the southern fire upsprang a vast and formidable female 5, like flame out of fire, blazing with ruddy light, and with fiery radiance streaming amidst her hair. Angrily she called upon Krishna, and departed to Dwaraka; where the people, beholding her, were struck with dismay, and fled for protection to Madhusudana, the refuge of all worlds. The wielder of the discus knowing that the fiend had been produced by the son of the king of Kasi, through his adoration of the deity whose emblem is a bull, and being engaged in sportive amusements, and playing at dice, said to the discus, "Kill this fierce creature, whose tresses are of plaited flame." Accordingly Sudarsana, the discus
vp.5.34 The army of Kasi, and the host of the demigods attendant upon siva, armed with all kinds of weapons, then sallied out to oppose the discus; but, skilled in the use of arms, he consumed the whole of the forces by his radiance, and then set fire to the city, in which the magic power of siva had concealed herself 6. Thus was Varanasi burnt, with all its princes and their followers, its inhabitants, elephants, horses, and men, treasures and granaries, houses, palaces, and markets. The whole of a city, that was inaccessible to the gods, was thus wrapped in flames by the discus of Hari, and was totally destroyed. The discus then, with unmitigated wrath, and blazing fiercely, and far from satisfied with the accomplishment of so easy a task, returned to the hand of Vishnu 7.

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