{"collection":"Hinduism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/hin/vp/vp063.htm","path":"hin/vp/vp063.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp063.htm","text":"The Vishnu Purana, translated by Horace Hayman Wilson, [1840]\nOf the seven regions of P\u00e1t\u00e1la, below the earth. N\u00e1rada's praises of P\u00e1t\u00e1la. Account of the serpent \u015aesha. First teacher of astronomy and astrology.\nPAR\u00c1\u015aARA.--The extent of the surface of the earth has been thus described to you, Maitreya. Its depth below the surface is said to be seventy thousand Yojanas, each of the seven regions of P\u00e1t\u00e1la extending downwards ten thousand. These seven, worthy Muni, are called Atala, Vitala, Nitala, Gabhastimat, Mah\u00e1tala, Sutala, and P\u00e1t\u00e1la 1. Their soil is severally white, black, purple, yellow, sandy, stony, and of gold. They are embellished with magnificent palaces, in which dwell numerous D\u00e1navas, Daityas, Yakshas, and great snake-gods. The Muni N\u00e1rada, after his return from those regions to the skies 2, declared amongst the celestials that P\u00e1t\u00e1la was much more delightful than Indra's heaven. \"What,\" exclaimed the sage, \"can be compared to P\u00e1t\u00e1la, where the N\u00e1gas are decorated with brilliant and beautiful and pleasure-shedding jewels? who will not delight in P\u00e1t\u00e1la, where the lovely daughters of the Daityas and D\u00e1navas wander about, fascinating even the most austere; where the rays of the sun diffuse light, and not heat, by day; and where the moon shines by night for illumination, not for cold; where the sons of Danu, happy in the enjoyment of delicious viands and strong wines, know not how time passes? There are beautiful groves and streams and lakes where the lotus blows; and the skies are resonant with the Ko\u00efl's song. Splendid ornaments, fragrant perfumes, rich unguents, the blended music of the lute and pipe and tabor; these and many other enjoyments are the common portion of the D\u00e1navas, Daityas, and snake-gods, who inhabit the regions of P\u00e1t\u00e1la 3.\"\nBelow the seven P\u00e1t\u00e1las is the form of Vish\u0144u, proceeding from the quality of darkness, which is called \u015aesha 4, the excellencies of which neither Daityas nor D\u00e1navas can fully enumerate. This being is called Ananta by the spirits of heaven, and is worshipped by sages and by gods. He has a thousand heads, which are embellished with the pure and visible mystic sign 5: and the thousand jewels in his crests give light to all the regions. For the benefit of the world he: deprives the Asuras of their strength. He rolls his eyes fiercely, as if intoxicated. He wears a single ear-ring, a diadem, and wreath upon each brow; and shines like the white mountains topped with flame. He is clothed in purple raiment, and ornamented with a white necklace, and looks like another Kail\u00e1sa, with the heavenly Gang\u00e1 flowing down its precipices. In one hand he holds a plough, and in the other a pestle; and he is attended by V\u00e1ru\u0144\u00ed (the goddess of wine), who is his own embodied radiance. From his mouths, at the end of the Kalpa, proceeds the venomed fire that, impersonated as Rudra, who is one with Balar\u00e1ma, devours the three worlds.\n\u015aesha bears the entire world, like a diadem, upon his head, and he is the foundation on which the seven P\u00e1t\u00e1las rest. His power, his glory, his form, his nature, cannot be described, cannot he comprehended by the gods themselves. Who shall recount his might, who wears this whole earth, like a garland of flowers, tinged of a purple dye by the radiance of the jewels of his crests. When Ananta, his eyes rolling with intoxication, yawns, then earth, with all her woods, and mountains, and seas, and rivers, trembles. Gandharbas, Apsarasas, Siddhas, Kinnaras, Uragas, and Ch\u00e1ra\u0144as are unequal to hymn his praises, and therefore he is called the infinite (Ananta), the imperishable. The sandal paste, that is ground by the wives of the snake-gods, is scattered abroad by his breath, and sheds perfume around the skies.\nThe ancient sage Garga 6, having propitiated \u015aesha, acquired from him a knowledge of the principles of astronomical science, of the planets, and of the good and evil denoted by the aspects of the heavens.\nThe earth, sustained upon the head of this sovereign serpent, supports in its turn the garland of the spheres, along with their inhabitants, men, demons, and gods.\n204:1 In the Bh\u00e1gavata and Padma P. they are named Atala, Vitala, Sutala, Tal\u00e1tala, Mah\u00e1tala, Ras\u00e1tala, and P\u00e1t\u00e1la. The V\u00e1yu has Ras\u00e1tala, Sutala, Vitala, Gabhastala, Mah\u00e1tala, \u015ar\u00edtala, and P\u00e1t\u00e1la. There are other varieties.\n204:2 Allusion is here made, perhaps, to the description given in the Mah\u00e1bh\u00e1rata, Udyoga Parva, p. 218, of N\u00e1rada's and M\u00e1tali's visit to P\u00e1t\u00e1la. Several of the particulars there given are not noticed in the Pur\u00e1\u0144as.\n204:3 There is no very copious description of P\u00e1t\u00e1la in any of the Pur\u00e1\u0144as. The most circumstantial are those of the V\u00e1yu and Bh\u00e1gavata: the latter has been repeated, p. 205 with some additions, in the first chapters of the P\u00e1t\u00e1la Kha\u0144d\u0301a of the Padma Pur\u00e1\u0144a. The Mah\u00e1bh\u00e1rata and these two Pur\u00e1\u0144as assign different divisions to the D\u00e1navas, Daityas, and N\u00e1gas; placing V\u00e1suki and the other N\u00e1ga chiefs in the lowest: but the V\u00e1yu has the cities of the principal Daityas and N\u00e1gas in each; as in the first, those of the Daitya Namuchi, and serpent K\u00e1l\u00edya; in the second, of Hayagr\u00edva and Takshaka; in the third, of Prahl\u00e1da and Hemaka; in the fourth, of K\u00e1lanemi and Vainateya; in the fifth, of Hira\u0144y\u00e1ksha and Kirm\u00edra; and in the sixth, of Pulom\u00e1n and V\u00e1suki: besides others. Bali the Daitya is the sovereign of P\u00e1t\u00e1la, according to this authority. The Mah\u00e1bh\u00e1rata places V\u00e1suki in Ras\u00e1tala, and calls his capital Bhogavat\u00ed. The regions of P\u00e1t\u00e1la, and their inhabitants, are oftener the subjects of profane, than of sacred fiction, in consequence of the frequent intercourse between mortal heroes and the N\u00e1ga-kany\u00e1s, or serpent-nymphs. A considerable section of the Vrihat Kath\u00e1, the S\u00faryaprabh\u00e1 lambaka, consists of adventures and events in this subterraneous world.\n205:4 \u015aesha is commonly described as being in this situation: he is the great serpent on which Vish\u0144u sleeps during the intervals of creation, and upon whose numerous heads the world is supported. The Pur\u00e1\u0144as, making him one with Balar\u00e1ma or Sankarshana, who is an impersonation or incarnation of \u015aesha, blend the attributes of the serpent and the demigod in their description.\n205:5 With the Swastika, a particular diagram used in mystical ceremonies.\n206:6 One of the oldest writers on astronomy amongst the Hindus. According to Mr. Bentley, his Sanhit\u00e1 dates 548 B. C. (Ancient Astron. of the Hindus, p. 59.)","title":"The Vishnu Purana: Book II: Chapter V","type":"page"}