The Lunar Line
Atri was a very powerful sage. He was always busy meditating. For three thousand years he performed tapasya, with his arms raised up into the air. He stood there, immobile like a tree-trunk. As a result of this wonderful tapasya, energy issued out of his body. The goddesses who preside over the ten directions assimilated this energy and produced Chandra. It was in this sense that Chandra was the sage Atri’s son.
Brahma gave Chandra a divine chariot to ride on. This chariot was drawn by one thousand white horses. Chandra ascended the chariot and rode around the earth twenty-one times. While he was doing so, some energy from his body fell down on the earth. This was the origin of the herbs. Brahma appointed Chandra ruler over herbs, seeds, brahmanas and the water.
Chandra performed a royal sacrifice (rajasuya yajna). The success of this ceremony however served to turn Chandra’s head. The preceptor of the gods was Brihaspati and Brihaspati’s wife was named Tara. Although Chandra had already been married to twenty-seven of Daksha’s daughters, he abducted Tara. The gods and the sages requested Chandra to return Tara, but he would not listen. A terrible fight then raged between the gods and the demons, the gods fighting on Brihaspati’s side and the demons on Chandra’s. After Tara’s name, this samgrama (war). Finally, Brahma intervened and sorted the matter out. Chandra returned Tara to Brihaspati.
But Chandra and Tara had a son named Budha. You will remember Ila, Vaivasvata Manu’s daughter. Budha married Ila and their son was called Pururava. Pururava was the originator of the lunar line.
Pururava and Urvashi
Pururava was a good king who performed many yajnas. He ruled the earth well.
Urvashi was a beautiful apsara. Pururava met Urvashi and fell in love with her.
“Please marry me,” he requested.
“I will,” replied Urvashi, “But there is a condition. I love these two sheep and they will always have to stay by bedside. If I ever lose them, I will remain your wife no longer and will return to heaven. Moreover, I shall live only on clarified butter.”
Pururava agreed to these rather strange conditions and the two were married. They lived happily for sixty-four years.
But the gandharvas who were in heaven felt despondent. Heaven seemed to be a dismal place in Urvashi’s absence. They therefore hatched a conspiracy to get her back. On an appropriate occasion, a gandharva named Vishvavasu stole the two sheep. As soon as this happened, Urvashi vanished and returned to heaven.
Pururava pursued Vishvavasu and managed to retrieve the sheep, but by then, Urvashi ahd disappeared. The miserable king searched throughout the world for her. But in vain. Eventually, Pururava came across Urvashi near a pond in Kurukshetra.
“I was your wife,” replied Urvashi. “I no longer am, since the condition was violated. However, I agree to spend a day with you.”
When one year had passed, Urvashi returned to Pururava and presented him with the son she had borne him. She spent a day with him and vanished again. This happened several times and, in this fashion, Urvashi bore Pururava six sons. They were named Ayu, Amavasu, Vishvayu, Shatayu, Gatayu and Dridayu. (In some Puranas, a seventh son named Valayu is mentioned.)
Yayati
In the lunar line, there was a king named Nahusha. He had six sons and the youngest was named Yayati. After Nahusha, Yayati became king.
(It is strange that the youngest son should have become the king. The Mahabharata and the Padma Purana however suggest that Yayati was the eldest.)
Yayati had two wives. Shukracharya was the preceptor of the gods and Yayati married Devayani, Shukracharya’s daughter. The king of the danavas was Vrishaparva and he had a daughter named Sharmishtha. Yayati also married Sharmishtha. Devayani gave birth to Yadu and Turvasu and Sharmishtha gave birth to Druhya, Anu and Puru.
Yayati loved Sharmishtha more. Shukracharya therefore cursed Yayati that he would suffer from the untimely onset of old age. When this happened, Yayati was miserable. He was still not content with what he had savoured of the pleasures of life.
He told his son Yadu, “Please take my old age and give me your youth in return. I will return your youth to you when I have finished pleasuring the joys of the world.
“That I will not,” replied Yadu. “Your old age is due to your own sins. Why on earth should I accept it? Please ask my brothers instead.”
These words angered Yayati and he curses Yadu that Yadu or his descendants would never be kings. Yayat next asked Turvasu, but again met with a refusal. A similar curse was therefore imposed on Turvasu and on Druhya and Anu after him. The only son who readily accepted Yayati’s requested was Puru.
Yayati blessed Puru and took his youth from him. Armed with this borrowed youth. Yayati savoured the pleasures of the world and also performed many yajnas. When a thousand years had thus passed. Yayati got tired of material pursuits. He returned Puru’s youth and got back his own old age. Yayati retired to the forest, after having crowned Puru the king.
As for Yadu, he was given some minor kingdoms that lay to the west. In similar fashion, Turvasu was given some kingdoms towards the south-east. Druhya and Anu received kingdoms that lay towards the west, as had Yadu.
The descendants of Yadu were known as the Yadavas. In this line was born Krishna. Also in this line was born Arjuna. (This is not the same as the Arjuna of the Mahabharata. This Arjuna is known as Kartavirya Arjuna to draw a distinction with the other Arjuna.
Kartavirya Arjuna
There used to be a king named Kritavirya and Kritavirya’s son was known as Kartavirya Arjuna.
Arjuna performed tapasya for thousands and thousands of years. Through this meditation, he pleased the sage Dattatreya and obtained four wonderful boons from the sage. The first boon gave Arjuna a thousand arms. The second boon gave him the power to use his persuasion to bring back evil people to the righteous path. The third boon was that he would conquer the entire earth and rule it according to the dictates of righteousness. The fourth and final boon was that Arjuna would meet his end at the hands of an individual who was in very way his superior.
Having obtained these boons, Arjuna conquered the whole earth and ruled it well. He performed ten thousand wonderful yajnas. The gods, the sages, the gandharvas and the apsaras always attended these ceremonies. Do you know for how many years Arjuna ruled? He rules for eighty-seven thousand years. One of Arjuna’s amazing deeds was his defeat and capture of Ravana, the king of Lanka.
The sun-god, Surya, once came to visit Arjuna in the disguise of a brahmana. “I am hungry,” said Surya. “Please give me some food to eat. I will reward you well. I am Surya.” (If the sun-god proclaimed that he was Surya, the point of the disguise is not at all clear. The only conceivable explanation is that Arjuna would not refuse a brahmana’s request.) “What sort of food will please you?” asked Arjuna. “What will I bring?” “I want to eat up all the material objects that there are on earth,” replied Surya. “Please burn them up so that I may eat my fill.” “How do you expect me to burn up all these objects?” asked Arjuna. “I am only a human and have very limited powers.” Surya then gave Arjuna many divine arrows and a wonderful quiver to keep these arrows in. These arrows had the property that they burst into flames as soon as they were shot. With these arrows, Arjuna burnt up everything and Surya ate his fill. Hermitages, villages, cities and forests burned. Varuna was the god of the oceans and Varuna had a son named Ashvina. This son performed a lot of tapasya and became a sage named Vashishtha or Apava. (This Vashishtha is not to be confused with the Vashishtha who was one of the seven great sages.) Vashishtha performed tapasya under the water for ten thousand years. When he finished his meditations and returned to his hermitage, he found that the entire place had been burnt up by Arjuna. Vashishtha was greatly incensed. “Since you have not spared my hermitage, I curse you,” said Vashishtha. “No one who bears your name will ever again become a king. There will be a Pandava named Arjuna, the son of Kunti. But he will not be a king simply because he will bear your name. I also curse you that you will be killed by Parashurama.” Arjuna was eventually killed by Parashurama. (Parashurama is regarded as Vishnu’s sixth incarnation. The story of how and why he killed Arjuna is given in several other Puranas.) The Gods and the Demons The gods and the demons did not like each other and fought several wars with each other. There were twelve such terrible wars. On one particular occasion, the demons were defeated by the gods. Extremely disheartened, they went to visit their preceptor, Shukracharya. (Shukracharya was the son of the sage Bhrigu.) The demons told Shukracharya. “We have been defeated by the gods. We have no option but to go and reside in the underworld.” “Don’t be so disconsolate,” replied Shukraacharya. “I will protect you. I know that Brihaspati, the preceptor of the gods, has obtained wonderful powers by praying to the fire-god, Agni. The gods thrive on these powers. I will pray to Shiva and obtain powers that can counteract these. Till I come back, please be patient. Why don’t you give up arms and live as hermits till I return?” The demons agreed to this proposition. They informed the gods that they had given up arms and that the gods could do as they willed. They had become hermits and would not fight. Meanwhile, Shukracharya started to pray to Shiva. Shiva appeared before Shukracharya and discovered what the sage desired. Shiva was prepared to grant these powers, subject to a condition being met. Shukracharya would have to meditate for a thousand years. And throughout this period, he would not be allowed to speak and would have to live on smoke. Shukracharya began this process of meditation. The gods got to know what was happening and decided that this was the opportune time to attack the demons. “What are you doing?” said the demons. “We have given up arms. Thi is not the time to fight.” But the gods would not listen. The demons therefore fled to Bhrigu’s wife and asked her to protect them. Through her powers, the saintly woman completely paralysed Indra so that he could not move. At the sight of what had happened to their leader, the gods fled in disarray. “Why are you running away?” asked Vishnu. “As for you, Indra, enter my body. I will take you away from this place.”
Indra entered Vishnu’s body and Vishnu proceeded to take him away. This angered Bhrigu’s wife and she threatened to burn up both Indra and Vishnu. But before this could happen, Vishnu sliced off the lady’s head with his sudarshana chakra ( a bladed-discus).
Bhrigu was aghast at this act. “Killing a woman is a sin,” he told Vishnu. “You have committed a crime. For this crime, I curse you that you will have to be born several times on earth. As for my wife, through my powers I will resurrect her.”
This is what Bhrigu did and this act terrified Indra. He got extremely worried that once Shukracharya returned, there would be no way of controlling the demons. Indra had a daughter named Jayanti. He told her, “Shukracharya is meditating. Please go and try to distract him. Make sure that his meditation is not successfully completed.”
Jayanti did as her father had asked her to. She started to frequent Shukracharya’s hermitage and served him faithfully. In due course, Shukracharya’s meditation was completed and he obtained the desired boon from Shiva. Once this task was accomplished. Shukracharya noticed Jayanti.
“Who are you and what are you doing here?” he asked. “Why have you been serving me thus? In any case, I am pleased with what you have done for me. Please tell me what boon you desire.”
“Be my husband for ten years,” answered Jayanti.
Shukracharya agreed. Shukracharya and Janati had a daughter named Devayani.
Meanwhile, Brihaspati adopted Shukracharya’s form and started to live with the demons. The demons were naturally glad to have their teacher back. They did not realize that the person whom they took to be their teacher was actually Brihaspati. After the ten years were over, Shukracharya returned and found that the demons were following Brihaspati.
“Who is this person whom you are following?” he asked. “Give him up. I am the real Shukracharya.”
“Not at all,” retorted Brihaspati. “I am the real Shukracharya.”
The demons did not know what to make of this. The two looked exactly alike and there was absolutely no way of telling them apart. Eventually they concluded that the person with whom they had been associating for the past ten years must be their real guru (teacher). This choice so angered Shukracharya that he left in a huff. When the demons realized their mistake, they sought to pacify Shukracharya and bring him back. But the harm had already been done. The demons could not exploit the powers that Shukracharya had gained.
Vishnu’s Incarnations
Because of Bhrigu’s curse, Vishnu had to be born several times on earth. These are known as avataras (incarnations). The Vayu Purana now catalogues Vishnu’s ten incarnations. These are as follows.
(1) Matsya or fish.
(2) Narasimha or half-man and half-lion
(3) Vamana or dwarf.
(4) Dattatreya, the sage.
(5) Bhavya.
(6) Parashurama.
(7) Rama.
(8) Vedavyasa.
(9) Krishna.
(10) Kalki.
(It needs to be mentioned that this list is at variance with more usual lists of the ten incarnations. The more common list and order is the following:
(i) Matsua; (ii) Kurma or turtle; (iii) Varaha or boar; (iv) Narasimha; (v) Vamana; (vi) Parashurama; (vi) Rama; (viii) Krishna; (ix) Buddha; and (x) Kalki.)
Epilogue
Lomaharshana finished his recital of the Vayu Purana and told the assembled sages, “You are indeed lucky. You have heard that which is most sacred. This holy act will undoubltedly take you straight to heaven. A person who listens to a recital of this sacred text is rewarded with wealth, health and a long life. All the sins that a listener may have committed are forgiven. Do you know how the knowledge of this Purana was passed down through the ages? It passed from Vayu to Ushana, from Ushana to Brihaspati, from Brihaspati to Savita, from Savita to Mrityu, from Mrityu to Indra, from Indra to Vashishtha, from Vashishtha to Sarasvata, from Sarasvata to Tridhama, from Tridhama to Dhananjaya, from Dhananjaya to Kritanjaya, from Kritanjaya to Trinanjaya, from Trinanjaya to Bharadvaja, from Bharadvaja to Goutama, from Goutama to Niryantara, from Niryantara to Vajashrava, from Vajashrava to Somashushma, from Somashushma to Trinavindu, from Trinavindu to Daksha, from Daksha to Shaktri, from Shaktri to Parashara, from Parashara to Jatukarna and from Jatukarna to Vedavyasa. I learnt the Purana from the great Vedavyasa himself. This is a lineage of sages that is truly sacred.”