{"collection":"Hinduism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/hin/vp/vp104.htm","path":"hin/vp/vp104.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp104.htm","text":"The Vishnu Purana, translated by Horace Hayman Wilson, [1840]\nThe Y\u00e1dava race, or descendants of Yadu. K\u00e1rttav\u00edrya obtains a boon from Datt\u00e1treya: takes R\u00e1va\u0144a prisoner: is killed by Para\u015bur\u00e1ma: his descendants.\nI WILL first relate to you the family of Yadu, the eldest son of Yay\u00e1ti, in which the eternal immutable Vish\u0144u descended upon earth in a portion of his essence 1; of which the glory cannot be described, though for ever hymned in order to confer the fruit of all their wishes--whether they desired virtue, wealth, pleasure, or liberation--upon all created beings, upon men, saints, heavenly quiristers, spirits of evil, nymphs, centaurs, serpents, birds, demons, gods, sages, Brahmans, and ascetics. Whoever hears the account of the race of Yadu shall be released from all sin; for the supreme spirit, that is without form, and which is called Vish\u0144u, was manifested in this family.\nYadu had four sons, Sahasrajit, Krosht\u0301i, Nala, and Raghu 2. \u015aatajit was the son of the elder of these, and he had three sons, Haihaya, Ve\u0144u 3, and Haya. The son of Haihaya was Dharmanetra 4; his son was Kunt\u00ed 5; his son was S\u00e1hanji 6; his son was Mahishmat 7; his son\nwas Bhadrasena 8; his son was Durdama; his son was Dhanaka 9, who had four sons, Kritav\u00edryya, Krit\u00e1gni, Kritavarman, and Kritaujas. Kritav\u00edryya's son was Arjuna, the sovereign of the seven Dw\u00edpas, the lord of a thousand arms. This prince propitiated the sage Datt\u00e1treya, the descendant of Atri, who was a portion of Vish\u0144u, and solicited and obtained from him these boons--a thousand arms; never acting unjustly; subjugation of the world by justice, and protecting it equitably; victory over his enemies; and death by the hands of a person renowned in the three regions of the universe. With these means he ruled over the whole earth with might and justice, and offered ten thousand sacrifices. Of him this verse is still recited; \"The kings of the earth will assuredly never pursue his steps in sacrifice, in munificence, in devotion, in courtesy, and in self-control.\" In his reign nothing was lost or injured; and so he governed the whole earth with undiminished health, prosperity, power, and might, for eighty five thousand years. Whilst sporting in the waters of the Narmad\u00e1, and elevated with wine, R\u00e1va\u0144a came on his tour of triumph to the city M\u00e1hishmat\u00ed, and there he who boasted of overthrowing the gods, the Daityas, the Gandharbas and their king, was taken prisoner by K\u00e1rttav\u00edrya, and confined like a tame beast in a corner of his capital 10. At the expiration of his long reign K\u00e1rttav\u00edrya was killed by Para\u015bur\u00e1ma, who was an embodied portion of the mighty N\u00e1r\u00e1ya\u0144a 11. Of the hundred sons of this king, the five principal were \u015a\u00fara 12, \u015a\u00farasena, Vrisha\u0144a 13, Madhu 14, and\n[paragraph continues] Jayadhwaja 15. The son of the last was T\u00e1lajangha, who had a hundred sons, called after him T\u00e1lajanghas: the eldest of these was V\u00edtihotra; another was Bharata 16, who had two sons, Vrisha and Suj\u00e1t\u00ed 17. The son of Vrisha was Madhu 18; he had a hundred sons, the chief of whom was Vrish\u0144i, and from him the family obtained the name of Vrish\u0144i 19. From the name of their father, Madhu, they were also called M\u00e1dhavas; whilst from the denomination of their common ancestor Yadu, the whole were termed Y\u00e1davas 20.\nThis page consists solely of footnotes.\n416:1 Or, 'in which Krish\u0144a was born.' It might have been expected, from the importance of this genealogy, that it would have been so carefully preserved, that the authorities would have closely concurred in its details. Although, however, the leading specifications coincide, yet, as we shall have occasion to notice, great and irreconcilable variations occur.\n416:2 The two first generally agree. There are differences in the rest; as,\n| V\u00e1yu. | Br\u00e1hma. | Bh\u00e1gavata. | K\u00farma. | \n| N\u00edla | Nala | Nala | N\u00edla | \n| Ajita | Anjika | Aripu | Jina | \n| Raghu | Payoda | Aripu | Raghu | \n[paragraph continues] The Br\u00e1hma and Hari V. read Sahasr\u00e1da for the first name; and the Linga has Balasani in place of Nala. The Agni makes \u015aatajit also a son of Yadu.\n416:3 Ve\u0144uhaya: Bh\u00e1gavata, &c. Utt\u00e1nahaya: Padma. Vet\u0301t\u0301ahaya: Matsya. They were the sons of Sahasr\u00e1da: Br\u00e1hma and Hari V.\n416:4 Dharmatantra: V\u00e1yu. Dharma: K\u00farma.\n416:5 K\u00edrtti: V\u00e1yu.\n416:6 Sanjneya: V\u00e1yu. Sankana: Agni. Sahanja of Sahanjani pura: Br\u00e1hma. Sanjnita: Linga. Sanhana: Matsya. Sohanji: Bh\u00e1gavata.\n416:7 By whom the city of M\u00e1h\u00edshmat\u00ed on the Narbadda was founded: Br\u00e1hma P., Hari V.\n417:8 So the Bh\u00e1gavata; but the V\u00e1yu, more correctly, has Bhadrasre\u0144ya. See p. 407. n. 12.\n417:9 Kanaka: V\u00e1yu, &c. Varaka: Linga. Andhaka: K\u00farma.\n417:10 According to the V\u00e1yu, K\u00e1rttav\u00edrya was the aggressor, invading Lank\u00e1, and there taking R\u00e1va\u0144a prisoner. The circumstances are more usually narrated as in our text.\n417:11 See page 402. K\u00e1rttav\u00edrya's fate was the consequence of an imprecation denounced by \u00c1pava or Va\u015bisht\u0301ha, the son of Varu\u0144a, whose hermitage had been burnt, according to the Mah\u00e1bh\u00e1rata, R\u00e1ja-dharma, by Chitrabh\u00e1nu, or Fire, to whom the king had in his bounty presented the world. The V\u00e1yu makes the king himself the incendiary, with arrows given him by S\u00farya to dry up the ocean.\n417:12 Urjjita: Bh\u00e1gavata.\n417:13 Vrishabha: Bh\u00e1gavata. Dhrisht\u0301a: Matsya. Dhrish\u0144a: K\u00farma. Prishokta: Padma. Vrish\u0144i: Linga. Krish\u0144\u00e1ksha: Br\u00e1hma.\n417:14 Krish\u0144a, in all except the Bh\u00e1gavata.\n418:15 King of Avanti: Br\u00e1hma and Hari Van\u015ba.\n418:16 Ananta: V\u00e1yu and Agni; elsewhere omitted.\n418:17 Durjaya only: V\u00e1yu, Matsya.\n418:18 This Madhu, according to the Bh\u00e1gavata, was the son of K\u00e1rttav\u00edrya. The Br\u00e1hma and Hari V. make him the son of Vrisha, but do not say whose son Vrisha was. The commentator on the latter asserts that the name is a synonyme of Payoda, the son of Yadu, according to his authority, and to that alone.\n418:19 The Bh\u00e1gavata agrees with our text, but the Br\u00e1hma, Hari V., Linga, and K\u00farma make Vrisha\u0144a the son of Madhu, and derive the family name of Vrish\u0144is or V\u00e1rsh\u0144eyas from him.\n418:20 The text takes no notice of some collateral tribes, which appear to merit remark. Most of the other authorities, in mentioning the sons of Jayadhwaja, observe that from them came the five great divisions of the Haihaya tribe. These, according to the V\u00e1yu, were the T\u00e1lajanghas, V\u00edtihotras, \u00c1vantyas, Tu\u0144d\u0301ikeras, and J\u00e1tas. The Matsya and Agni omit the first, and substitute Bhojas; and the latter are included in the list in the Br\u00e1hma, Padma, Linga, and Hari V. For J\u00e1tas the reading is Sanj\u00e1tas or Suj\u00e1tas. The Br\u00e1hma P. has also Bh\u00e1ratas, who, as well as the Suj\u00e1tas, are not commonly specified, it is said, 'from their great number.' They are in all probability invented by the compiler out of the names of the text, Bharata and Suj\u00e1ti. The situation of these tribes is central India, for the capital of the T\u00e1lajanghas was M\u00e1hishmat\u00ed or Chul\u00ed-Maheswar, still called, according to Col. Tod, Sahasra-b\u00e1huki-basti, 'the village of the thousand-armed;' that is, of K\u00e1rttav\u00edryya. Annals of Rajasthan, I. 39. n. The Tu\u0144d\u0301ikeras and V\u00edtihotras are placed in the geographical lists behind the Vindhyan mountains, and the termination -kaira is common in the valley of the Narmad\u00e1, as Bairkaira, &c., or we may have Tu\u0144d\u0301ikera abbreviated, as Tu\u0144d\u0301ari on the Tapti. The \u00c1vantyas were in Ujayin, and the Bhojas were in the neighbourhood probably of Dh\u00e1r in Malwa. These tribes must have preceded, then, the Rajput tribes, by whom these countries are now occupied, or Rahtores, Chauhans, Pawars, Gehlotes, and the rest. There are still some vestiges of them, and a tribe of Haihayas still exists, at the top of the valley of Sohagpur in Bhagel-kha\u0144d\u0301, aware of their ancient lineage, and though p. 419 few in number, celebrated for their valour. Tod's Rajasthan, I. 39. The scope of the traditions regarding them, especially of their overrunning the country, along with \u015aakas and other foreign tribes, in the reign preceding that of Sagara (see p. 373), indicates their foreign origin also; and if we might trust to verbal resemblances, we might suspect that the Hayas and Haihayas of the Hindus had some connexion with the Hia, Hoiei-ke, Hoiei-hu, and similarly denominated Hun or Turk tribes, who make a figure in Chinese history. Des Guignes, Histoire des Huns, I. 7, 55, 231. II. 253, &c. At the same time it is to be observed that these tribes do not make their appearance until some centuries after the Christian era, and the scene of their first exploits is far from the frontiers of India: the coincidence of appellation may be therefore merely accidental. In the word Haya, which properly means 'a horse,' it is not impossible, however, that we have a confirmatory evidence of the Scythian origin of the Haihayas, as Col. Tod supposed; although we cannot with him imagine the word 'horse' itself is derived from haya. Rajasthan, I. 76.","title":"The Vishnu Purana: Book IV: Chapter XI","type":"page"}