{"collection":"Hinduism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/hin/vp/vp113.htm","path":"hin/vp/vp113.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp113.htm","text":"The Vishnu Purana, translated by Horace Hayman Wilson, [1840]\nDescendants of Kuru. Dev\u00e1pi abdicates the throne: assumed by \u015a\u00e1ntanu: he is confirmed by the Brahmans: Bh\u00edshma his son by Gang\u00e1: his other sons. Birth of Dhritar\u00e1sht\u0301ra, P\u00e1\u0144d\u0301u, and Vidura. The hundred sons of Dhritar\u00e1sht\u0301ra. The five sons of P\u00e1\u0144d\u0301u: married to Draupad\u00ed: their posterity. Par\u00edkshit, the grandson of Arjuna, the reigning king.\nPAR\u00cdKSHIT, the son of Kuru, had four sons, Janamejaya, \u015arutasena, Ugrasena, and Bh\u00edmasena 1. The son of Jahnu was Suratha; his son was Vid\u00faratha; his son was S\u00e1rvabhauma; his son was Jayasena \u00c1r\u00e1vin; his son was Ayut\u00e1yus; his son was Akrodhana; one of his sons was Devatithi, and another was called Riksha; his son was Dil\u00edpa; his son was Prat\u00edpa, who had three sons, Dev\u00e1pi, \u015a\u00e1ntanu, and B\u00e1hl\u00edka. The first adopted in childhood a forest life, and \u015a\u00e1ntanu became king. Of him this verse is spread through the earth; \"\u015a\u00e1ntanu is his name, because if he lays his hands upon an old man, he restores him to youth, and by him men obtain tranquillity (\u015b\u00e1nti).\"\nIn the kingdom over which \u015a\u00e1ntanu ruled there was no rain for twelve years. Apprehensive that the country would become a desert, the king assembled the Brahmans, and asked them why no rain fell, and what fault he had committed. They told him that he was as it were a younger brother married before an elder, for he was in the enjoyment of the earth, which was the right of his elder brother Dev\u00e1pi. \"What then am I to do?\" said the R\u00e1j\u00e1: to which they replied, \"Until the gods shall be displeased with Dev\u00e1pi, by his declining from the path of righteousness, the kingdom is his, and to him therefore you should resign it.\" When the minister of the king, Asmaris\u00e1rin, heard this, he collected a number of ascetics who taught doctrines opposed to those of the Vedas, and sent them into the forest; where meeting with Dev\u00e1pi, they perverted the understanding of the simple-minded prince, and led him to adopt heretical notions. In the meantime, \u015a\u00e1ntanu being much distressed to think that he had been guilty of the offence intimated by the Brahmans, sent them before him into the woods, and then proceeded thither himself, to restore the kingdom to his elder brother. When the Brahmans arrived at the hermitage of Dev\u00e1pi, they informed him, that, according to the doctrines of the Vedas, succession to a kingdom was the right of the elder brother: but he entered into discussion with them, and in various ways advanced arguments which had the defect of being contrary to the precepts of the Vedas. When the Brahmans heard this, they turned to \u015a\u00e1ntanu, and said, \"Come hither, R\u00e1j\u00e1; you need give yourself no further trouble in this matter; the dearth is at an end: this man is fallen from his state, for he has uttered words of disrespect to the authority of the eternal, untreated Veda; and when the elder brother is degraded, there is no sin in the prior espousals of his junior.\" \u015a\u00e1ntanu thereupon returned to his capital, and administered the government as before; and his elder brother Dev\u00e1pi being degraded from his caste by repeating doctrines contrary to the Vedas, Indra poured down abundant rain, which was followed by plentiful harvests 2.\nThe son of B\u00e1hl\u00edka was Somadatta, who had three sons, Bh\u00fari, Bh\u00fari\u015bravas, and \u015aala 3.\nThe son of \u015a\u00e1ntanu was the illustrious and learned Bh\u00edshma, who was born to him by the holy river-goddess, Gang\u00e1; and he had by his wife Satyavat\u00ed two sons, Chitr\u00e1ngada and Vichitrav\u00edryya. Chitr\u00e1ngada, whilst yet a youth, was killed in a conflict with a Gandharba, also called Chitr\u00e1ngada. Vichitrav\u00edryya married Amb\u00e1 and Ambalik\u00e1, the daughters of the king of K\u00e1\u015b\u00ed; and indulging too freely in connubial rites, fell into a consumption, of which he died. By command of Satyavat\u00ed, my son Krish\u0144a-dwaip\u00e1yana, ever obedient to his mother's wishes 4, begot upon the widows of his brother the princes Dhritar\u00e1sht\u0301ra and P\u00e1\u0144d\u0301u, and upon a female servant, Vidura. Dhritar\u00e1sht\u0301ra had Duryodhana, Duhs\u00e1\u015bana, and other sons, to the cumber of a hundred. P\u00e1\u0144d\u0301u having incurred the curse of a deer, whose mate he had killed in the chase, was deterred from procreating children; and his wife Kunt\u00ed, bare to him in consequence three sons, who were begotten by the deities Dharma, V\u00e1yu, and Indra; namely, Yudhisht\u0301hira, Bh\u00edma, and Arjuna: and his wife M\u00e1dr\u00ed had two sons, Nakula and Sahadeva, by the celestial sons of A\u015bwin\u00ed. These had each a son by Draupad\u00ed. The son of Yudhisht\u0301hira was Prativindhya; of Bh\u00edma, \u015arutasoma; of Arjuna, \u015arutak\u00edrtti; of Nakula, \u015aat\u00e1n\u00edka; and of Sahadeva, \u015arutakarman. The P\u00e1\u0144d\u0301avas had also other sons 5. By his wife Yaudhey\u00ed, Yudhisht\u0301hira had Devaka.\n[paragraph continues] The son of Bh\u00edma by Hid\u0301imb\u00e1 was Ghat\u0301otkacha, and he had also Sarvatraga by his wife K\u00e1\u015b\u00ed. The son of Sahadeva by Vijay\u00e1 was Suhotra; and Niramitra was the son of Nakula by Kare\u0144umat\u00ed. Arjuna had Ir\u00e1vat by the serpent-nymph Ulup\u00ed; Babhruv\u00e1hana, who was adopted as the son of his maternal grandfather, by the daughter of the king of Manipura; and, by his wife Subhadr\u00e1 Abhimanyu, who even in extreme youth was renowned for his valour and his strength, and crushed the chariots of his foes in fight. The son of Abhimanyu by his wife Uttar\u00e1 was Par\u00edkshit, who, after the Kurus were all destroyed, was killed in his mother's womb by the magic Br\u00e1hma weapon, hurled by Aswatth\u00e1man: he was however restored to life by the clemency of that being whose feet receive the homage of all the demons and the gods, and who for his own pleasure had assumed a human shape (Krish\u0144a). This prince, Par\u00edkshit, now reigns over the whole world with undivided sway 6.\n457:1 This, although it occurs in other authorities, appears to be an error, for these are the sons of a subsequent Par\u00edkshit (see the next chapter, p. 461). The Matsya omits Par\u00edkshit here, and the Bh\u00e1gavata states that he had no children. In most of the Pur\u00e1\u0144as, however, the line of Par\u00edkshit is continued, but there is very great confusion in the lineage. According to the V\u00e1yu, Janamejaya was the son of Par\u00edkshit, whose son was \u015arutasena, whose son was Bh\u00edmasena. Janamejaya had also a son named Suratha; but Suratha was also the name of the son of Jahnu, from whom the line continues as in the text. The Br\u00e1hma P. and Hari V. also make Suratha the son both of Janamejaya and of Jahnu; and they observe that there are two Rikshas, two Par\u00edkshits, three Bh\u00edmasenas, and two Janamejayas, in the lunar race. Some of the confusion probably originates with the Mah\u00e1bh\u00e1rata, which, as before noticed, gives two lists from Puru to \u015a\u00e1ntanu, differing from one another and from all the lists of the Pur\u00e1\u0144as. In the first of these lists such collateral names have been retained as appear to have furnished our text and that of other Pur\u00e1\u0144as with distinct persons: thus making the members of one fraternity so many descents. Of the two lists, however, the second is probably to be regarded as the more recent, if not more correct; for Vai\u015b\u00e1mp\u00e1yana repeats it at Janamejaya's request, because the latter is not satisfied with the summary account which the former had first communicated to him. Mah\u00e1bh. vol. I, p. 136 and p. 138.\n458:2 The Mah\u00e1bh\u00e1rata merely states that Dev\u00e1pi retired to a religious life. The story of his heresy is narrated, much as in the text, in the Bh\u00e1gavata, V\u00e1yu, &c. The Matsya adds, that he was also leprous; on which account his subjects contemned him. p. 459 He was probably set aside in favour of his younger brother, either on that account or on that of his heresy; such a disposition being conformable to Hindu law. According to the Bh\u00e1gavata and Matsya he is still alive at a place called Kal\u00e1pa gr\u00e1ma, where, in the Krita age of the next Mah\u00e1yuga, he will be the restorer of the Kshatriya race.\n459:3 The Matsya says that B\u00e1hl\u00edka had a hundred sons or lords of the Bahl\u00edkas.\n459:4 Before her marriage to \u015a\u00e1ntanu, Satyavat\u00ed had a son, Krish\u0144a-dwaip\u00e1yana or Vy\u00e1sa, by Par\u00e1\u015bara: he was therefore the half brother of Vichitrav\u00edryya, and legally qualified to raise up offspring to him by his widow. This law is abrogated in the present age. The whole story of the sons of \u015a\u00e1ntanu is told at length in the Mah\u00e1bh\u00e1rata.\n459:5 The Mah\u00e1bh\u00e1rata names some of them rather differently, and adds some particulars. Thus Yaudheya was the son of Yudhisht\u0301hira by his wife Devik\u00e1, daughter of Gov\u00e1sana of the \u015aaivya tribe. The son of Bh\u00edmasena was Sarvaga, by Balandhar\u00e1, princess of K\u00e1\u015b\u00ed; he had also Ghat\u0301okkacha by Hid\u0301imb\u00e1. Abhimanyu was the p. 460 son of Arjuna by Subhadr\u00e1. The wives and sons of the other two are the same, but Kare\u0144umat\u00ed is termed a princess of Ched\u00ed, and Vijay\u00e1 of Madra.\n460:6 In the details immediately preceding, the Pur\u00e1\u0144as generally concur, deriving them probably from the same source, the \u00c1di Parvan of the Mah\u00e1bh\u00e1rata, and employing very frequently the same words. The period at which the chapter closes is supposed to be that at which the Vy\u00e1sa, who arranged or compiled the Pur\u00e1\u0144as, is believed to have flourished. Par\u00edkshit died of the bite of a snake, according to the Mah\u00e1bh\u00e1rata, \u00c1di P. The Bh\u00e1gavata is supposed to have been narrated to him in the interval between the bite and its fatal effect.","title":"The Vishnu Purana: Book IV: Chapter XX","type":"page"}