Brahma Purana (critical study)
by Surabhi H. Trivedi | 1960 | 254,628 words
This is an English study of the Brahmapurana—one of the eighteen major Puranas. This text occupies an important place in the Pauranic literature. This study researches the rich an encyclopaedic material for social, religious, philosophical, mythological, political, geographical and literary study found in the Brahma-Purana. It also includes a lingu...
26. Description of Kubera
Kubera is mentioned in the Atharvaveda as chief of the 'good people' (Punyajana), or other people (itarajana) and as concerned with concealment. In the Satapatha Brahmana and in later vedic texts he is mentioned as king of the Raksasas, and in the Taittiriya Aranyaka (1.316) he is mentioned as the lord of wishes and as possessor of a wonderful car(apparantly the later Puspaka). In later mythology, he is the king of the Yaksas as well as of the Kinnaras and Guhyakas, while the Raksasas are the subjects of his half-brother, Ravana. According to Brahma purana, he is the son of Visravas, grandson of Pulastya, Prajapati's son (97.2,15). It is said that Visravas had two wives, by the former he had one son, Kubera; the latter was a Raksasi, and by her
616 he had three sons, viz. Ravana, Kumbhakarna and Vibhisana. Kubera was the lord of Lanka and possessed the aeroplane which was given to him by lord Brahma, but being advised by the mother, Ravana fought with Kubera, defeated him and expelled him from Lanka, made it his own capital. Kubera, then by the advice of Pulastya, went to the river Gautami and worshipped lord Siva, and obtained from him the boon of being the lord of treasures (A.97). References to Kubera are met with in other works also. 288