Puranic encyclopaedia
by Vettam Mani | 1975 | 609,556 words | ISBN-10: 0842608222
This page describes the Story of Daksha included the Puranic encyclopaedia by Vettam Mani that was translated into English in 1975. The Puranas have for centuries profoundly influenced Indian life and Culture and are defined by their characteristic features (panca-lakshana, literally, ‘the five characteristics of a Purana�).
Story of ٲṣa
Two ٲṣa.
In most of the ʳܰṇa references about two ٲṣa occur. In some purāṇas both are referred to as one and the same person, whereas in some others both are considered as separate persons, so much so the stories concerning both are interlocked and entangled very often. The fact is that there was only one ٲṣa, whose life was of two stages. The first ٲṣa was killed at the sacrifice of ٲṣa, at which point, ends the first stage, or the first ٲṣa. The second stage was the rebirth of the same ٲṣa. A short biography of ٲṣa including both stages is given below:�
created by his mind, the seven great hermits, Ѳī, ṅg, Atri, Pulastya, ղṣṭ, Pulaha and Kratu. So these seven hermits are called the Mānasaputras (sons born from mind) of . After this, from the anger of , Rudra was born, and from his lap 岹, from his right thumb ٲṣa, from his mind the Sanakas and from his left thumb a daughter named īṇ� were born.
"īṇ� 峾 tasyā stu asiknītyāpi sattamā"
From this passage which occurs in ʳܰṇa it may be assumed that 'ī' was another name of īṇ�. ٲṣa did penance in the mountain of Vindhya for a long time. It is mentioned in 岵ٲ, Skandha 8, that Ѳ屹ṣṇ appeared before ٲṣa and gave him ī as his wife.
Several sons were born to ٲṣa by his wife ī. The last one was a daughter named ī who became the wife of Ś. At this time ٲṣa performed a sacrifice. As he was not invited to that sacrifice, Ś sent ī and ī and killed ٲṣa. Though the devas put the head of a goat in place of the lost head and brought ٲṣa to life again, no reference is made about the life of ٲṣa after the sacrifice. Thus the first stage of the life of ٲṣa ends. (ٱī 岵ٲ, Skandha 7).
After this, once the Pracetases (the ten sons of Barhis) were engaged in penance and the earth was not properly cultivated in consequence of which big trees grew up and the whole of the earth was changed into a big forest. The sky was covered with tree tops. It was difficult even for the wind to pass through them and thus the forest thrived for ten thousand years. The pracetases got out of the sea after penance and entered the shore. When they saw the big forest they got angry and the ten of them discharged fire and wind from their faces. The wind up-rooted the trees and the fire dried them. Thus almost the whole of the trees were consumed. Then Candra, the King of the medicinal herbs came there and told the Pracetases "Oh, Kings, hold your anger. I will make the trees conclude a treaty with you. The beautiful ṣ� who was born to the trees is my foster-daughter. I give her to you as your wife. From half the portion of your minds and half the portion of my mind the great and wise 貹پ ٲṣa is going to take birth in her womb".
The Pracetases controlled their anger and accepted ṣ� as their wife, at the words of Somadeva (Candra) and as the son of the ten pracetases the Prajāpati ٲṣa was born. With this the second stage of the life of ٲṣa begins. The important occurrences in the two stages of the life of ٲṣa are given below in their order.
ٲṣa’s creation of the prajas or subjects.
Once called ٲṣa and ordered him to create or subjects. Accordingly ٲṣa created the gods, the hermits, the Gandharvas (Demi-gods), the Asuras, the serpents etc. Seeing that the subjects he created were not proliferating as required he thought of creating subjects by coition of male and female; and he begot by his wife ī five thousand sons, and they were called Ჹⲹś. They in their turn were about to create subjects when 岹 appeared before them and said "Oh, Ჹⲹś, you are mere children and ignorant of the secrets of this world. How do you intend to create subjects? You fools, since you have the power to go up and down and lengthwise and breadthwise, why don't you try to find out the extremities of the earth?" Hearing the words of 岹, they all ran in different directions and have not returned since. Thus ٲṣa lost the Ჹⲹś. ٲṣa again begot thousand sons by ī and they were called Śś. Seeing that they also were about to create subjects 岹 scattered them also, by some tricks. The Śś who had gone to see the end of the earth have not yet returned.
ٲṣa got angry with 岹 and cursed him thus: "You also, like my children shall wander from place to place all over the earth". From that dry onwards 岹 became a wanderer, without a fixed dwelling place. The wise Prajāpati ٲṣa again begot sixty damsels by ī. Ten of the girls were given to Dharmadeva, thirteen of them to śⲹ貹, twentyseven of them to Soma, and four of them to ṣṭԱ. Of the rest two were given to ٰܱܳ, two to ṅg and two to the wise ṛśāśv. The names of the wives of each are given below:�
śⲹ貹.
Aditi, Diti, Danu, ṣṭ, ܰ, Khasā, Surabhi, վԲ, 峾, ǻś, Irā, ū, Muni.
Dharmadeva.
ܲԻī, Vasu, ۲ī, Laṃbā, Գ, Ѳܳٱī, ṅk, ѳܳū, , վś.
Soma.
śܰ, ṇi, ṛtپ, dzṇ�, Mrgaśiras, Tārakam (Ardrā), Punarvasu, Puṣyam, Āśleṣam, Janakam, ʳܲī, Uttaraphālgunam, Hastam, 侱ٰ, ī, Viśākham, Գܰ, ṣṭ, Mūlam, Purvāṣāḍham, Uttarāṣāḍham, Śṇa, Śṣṭ, Pracetas, Purvaproṣṭhapadam, Uttaraproṣṭhapadam, 𱹲ī.
The names of the wives given to ṅg, ṣṭԱ, ٰܱܳ and ṛśāśv are not mentioned.
Besides these damsels, twentyfour daughters were born to ٲṣa of his wife ʰūپ who was the sister of ٳԲ岹. Dharmadeva married thirteen of them also, named Ś, ṣmī, ٳṛt, ճṣṭ, ѱ, ʳṣṭ, , Buddhi, , Vapus, ŚԳپ, Siddhi, īپ. Of the rest, پ was given to ṛg, ī to Ś, ṃbūپ to Ѳī, ṛt to ṅg, ʰīپ to Pulastya, ṣa to Pulaha, Santati to Kratu, Բū to Atri, Ū to ղṣṭ, to Agnideva and to the Manes. (վṣṇ ʳܰṇa, ṃśa 1, Chapter 15).
Sacrifice of ٲṣa.
Once ٲṣa performed a sacrifice called Bṛhaspatisavana. To this sacrifice he did not invite his daughter ī or her husband Ś. ٲṣa did not invite them because of three reasons according to the ʳܰṇa.
(1) Once ٳܰ, the son of Atri, went to Jambūnada and meditated with the mantra or spell of 'Māyābīja' and worshipped 岹 (mother of the world) the goddess there. The goddess was much pleased and gave him as a token of her pleasure the garland of flowers she wore from which nectar was oozing. ٳܰ wore it on his head and went to the palace of ٲṣa, the Prajāpati. When he saw such a wonderful garland which was not of this world, he wanted to have it and ٳܰ instantly gave it to ٲṣa. He placed it in a prominent place in his bedroom and enjoying the wonderful fragrance of it he conjugated with his wife, and polluted that pure garland by his lust. Ś and his wife came to know of this and they scolded ٲṣa, who kept this bitterness in his heart and when the sacrifice was performed, he decided not to invite them. (ٱī 岵ٲ, Skandha 7).
(2) Ś was considered as a polluted man by ٲṣa as he had always been carrying with him the skull of and so he thought it wrong on his part to admit his daughter and son-in-law to the sacrificial hall. The story of how Ś came to have the skull, is given below.
In days of old when the whole world was under the single ocean (of the great flood) the sun, the moon, the fire, air everything was destroyed and darkness prevailed. All the vegetations were destroyed. All the emotions and non-emotions disappeared. The supreme Lord was sleeping for so many thousands of nights together. At the end of the night he assumed the attribute of 'Rajoguṇa' (activity) and got ready to create the universe. From the face of the Supreme Lord and creator of the universes came out with five faces. In the same way, Ś with three eyes and matted hair, and trident and rosary of beads (Elaeo carpus) and with attribute of 'Tamas' (darkness—destruction) also came out. Both and Ś were filled with egoism and both began to quarrel with each other. It was a contest as to who was greater. The contest ended in attack. Ś plucked off the fifth head of , when the same face, flushed with anger, scolded Ś. The head fell into the hands of Ś, who could not throw it down as it didn't come off from his hand. cursed Ś and made him polluted. Since Ś became polluted, his wife ī also was considered as polluted by ٲṣa. (Vāmana ʳܰṇa, Chapter 2).
(3) Once the 貹پs performed a sacrifice. , վṣṇ and Ś were present there. ٲṣa, who had been invited by the 貹پs also was present. When ٲṣa entered the hall his son-in-law Ś did not rise up. This arrogance of Ś made ٲṣa angry. ٲṣa made up his mind to take vengeance on Ś, and performed a sacrifice known as Bṛhaspatisavana. To that sacrifice he did not invite Ś or ī.
Hearing that her father was conducting a sacrifice ī came uninvited. But ٲṣa did not even look at her. īdevi whose heart was broken at this treatment made a fire and jumped into it and died. Ś became furious when he came to know of this. Being overwhelmed with sorrow and anger he beat his matted hair on the ground, from which two monsters, ī and ī, came out. They ran to ٲṣa’s sacrificial hall and destroyed everything they saw, killed everybody, caught hold of ٲṣa and cut off his head. Then they began to create havoc in the whole world. The hermits and sages began to take to flight. Men and animals shivered. Thus the three worlds began to tremble with fear. The gods approached Ś with supplication to curb his anger. The gracious Śṅk was pleased to recall the monsters. After that everybody requested him to bring ٲṣa back to life. But the search made for the head of ٲṣa was futile. At last took the head of a goat and joined it to the headless trunk of ٲṣa. Thus he was brought to life again.* (ٱī 岵ٲ, Skandha 7).
Cursing Candra.
Candra had married twentyseven daughters of ٲṣa. But he showed particular attachment to dzṇ�. The other twentysix wives could not bear this. They made a complaint to their father ٲṣa. ٲṣa called Candra and advised him to show equal attachment to all his wives and not to show any partiality to anyone. Candra did not gainsay his father-inlaw, but he did not make any change in his disposition. After a few days all the daughters except dzṇi went to the palace of ٲṣa and told him that they were going to stay with him. This time ٲṣa got angry and called Candra and cursed him to become a sick man (of consumption).
From that day onwards Candra became a patient affected with consumption. All the vegetations in the world began to weaken. It appeared that the world was about to be destroyed. So the gods approached ٲṣa and requested him to show some leniency towards Candra. ٲṣa accordingly called Candra and told him that he would be affected by consumption only for a fortnight and after that he would recover gradually. Candra went to Prabhāsa tīrtha and Sarasvatī tīrtha and dipped in water. He began to recover from that day. It is according to the curse of Daksa that Candra (Moon) waxes and wanes. (Ѳٲ Śⲹ Parva, Chapter 35).
Other information.
(1) ٲṣa has another name 'Kan'. "ٲṣa the Prajāpati is a son of ten fathers. He has two names. They are ٲṣa and Kan." (Ѳٲ ŚԳپ Parva, Chapter 208, Stanza 7).
(2) When the emperor ṛt milked the earth, ٲṣa was crowned as the King of the subjects. (See under ṛt).
(3) It occurs in Ѳٲ, Parva, Chapter 11, Stanza 18, that ٲṣa was a member of the assemibly of .
(4) ٲṣa was one of those who visited īṣm in his bed of arrows. (Ѳٲ ŚԳپ Parva, Chapter 47).
(5) Mention is made in Ѳٲ, ŚԳپ Parva, Chapter 166 that the devas, the manes, the gandharvas, the celestial maids, the ṣa, animals and birds, fishes and all living creatures were born from the daughters of ٲṣa.
*). Though ٲṣa was brought to life again with the head of a goat there is no mention of him again in the ʳܰṇa. We hear of ٲṣa again as the son of ṣ�.*. Though ٲṣa was brought to life again with the head of a goat there is no mention of him again in the ʳܰṇa. We hear of ٲṣa again as the son of ṣ�.