The Bhagavata Purana
by G. V. Tagare | 1950 | 780,972 words | ISBN-10: 8120838203 | ISBN-13: 9788120838208
This page describes The History of Puru’s race—Birth of Bharata which is chapter 20 of the English translation of the Bhagavata Purana, one of the eighteen major puranas containing roughly 18,000 metrical verses. Topics include ancient Indian history, religion, philosophy, geography, mythology, etc. The text has been interpreted by various schools of philosophy. This is the twentieth chapter of the Ninth Skandha of the Bhagavatapurana.
Chapter 20 - The History of Pūru’s race—Birth of Bharata
[Sanskrit text for this chapter is available]
Introductory:
This chapter gives the following descendants of Pūru up to Vitatha as follows:
Pūru—>Janamejaya—>Pracinvān—>Pravīra—>Namasyu—>Cārupada—>Sudyu—>Bahugava—>Saṃyāti—>Ahaṃyāti—>Raudrāśva—>Ṛteyu—>Rantibhāra—>Sumati—>Raibhya—>Duṣyanta—>Bharata—>Bharadvāja—>Vitatha.
The story of Duṣyanta, Śakuntalā and the birth of Bharata is given in details in Mahābhārata Ādi. Chs. 69-74.
Śrī Śuka said:
1. I shall now narrate to you the history of Pūru’s line wherein you are born, Oh descendant of Bharata. In this family sprang up many royal sages and Brāhmaṇas who propagated their own lines.
2. Janamejaya was born of Pūru; Janamejaya’s son was Pracinvān. His son was Pravīra who begot Namasyu. To him was born Cārupada.
3. Sudyu sprang from Cārupada; Sudyu had a son Bahugava; thence was born Saṃyāti; his son was Ahaṃyāti whose son was Raudrāśva.
4-5. Raudrāśva begot on a celestial nymph Ghṛtāci ten sons viz. Ṛteyu, Kukṣeyu, Sthaṇḍileyu, Kṛteyu, Jaleyu, Santateyu, Dharmeyu, Satyeyu, Vrateyu and the youngest known as Vaneyu—even as ten sense organs (both conative and cognitive) are evolved from the chief vital air, the Soul of the world.
6. From Ṛteyu was born Rantibhāra. He had the following three sons viz. Sumati, Dhruva and Apratiratha. Kaṇva was the son of Apratiratha, Oh King!
7. Kaṇva’s son was Medhātithi. From him were originated Praskaṇva and other Brāhmaṇa clans. Sumati had a son called Raibhya, and Duṣyanta was regarded as his son.
8-9. While on a hunting excursion, (king) Duṣyanta happened to visit the hermitage of Kaṇva. Having seen a beautiful damsel beautifying the surroundings with her effulgence, and enchanting like the Māyā of the Lord, he instantaneously got infatuated. And though surrounded by some of his soldiers, he spoke to that charming lady.
10. Overjoyed at her very sight, he felt all his fatigue relieved. Tormented by sexual passion, he smilingly asked her, in soft words.
11. “Who are you, Oh beautiful lady (with eyes like lotus-petals)? Whose daughter are you, Oh charming damsel? what is your object in staying in a tenantless forest?
12. Oh lady of a beautiful waist! As I perceive it, you are obviously a girl from a royal family. For the mind of the descendants of Pūru, hardly finds delight in unrighteous paths.”
Śakuntalā replied:
13. “As the venerable sage Kaṇva knows it, I am the daughter of Viśvāmitra, abandoned by my mother Menakā in the forest. What should we do for you, Oh warrior?
14. Be pleased to take a seat, Oh lotus-eyed one, and accept our hospitality. Enjoy the boiled rice of wild paddy. You may stay here, if it pleases you.”
Duṣyanta said:
15. “Oh lady of beautiful eyebrows! Born as you are in the line of Kuśika, all this (hospitality) is quite proper and natural. Maidens of royal families select of their own accord, their life-mates”.
16. When she consented to it, he married Śakuntalā duly according to Gāndharva custom prescribed (for Kṣatriyas) in Dharmaśāstra, as the king was expert in the knowledge of what should be done at particular time and place according to Dharma.
17. The royal sage of unfailing procreative capacity, deposited his semen in his queen. Next morning he returned to his capital. In due course, she was delivered of a son.
18. Kaṇva carried out the appropriate religious rites of the boy, in the forest. With his tremendous strength, the child used to catch hold of lions and played with them.
19. Taking with her, her son who was born of a portion of Lord Hari, and was of invincible prowess, the excellent lady sought the audience of her royal consort.
20. When the king did not accept his wife and child, though both of them were blameless and irreproachable, an incorporal voice from heaven announced, while all beings were listening.
21. “The mother is simply a receptacle. The son belongs to his father alone, of whom he is born. Nay, the father is himself (no other than) the son. Therefore, Oh Duṣyanta, bring up your son. Do not neglect Śakuntalā.
22. Oh King, a son who propagates the line of the family takes away his father out of the abode of Yama.[1] You have deposited Bharata in the foetus (i.e. you are the real father). What Śakuntalā stated is the truth.[2]
22(A). A. Bring up your son Bharata who is imbued with a ray of Vāsudeva. He is friendly towards Brāhmins, true to his promise, capable of knowing and appreciating virtues and excellences and enhancing your reputation.
22(B). He is possessed of superior energy, is generous, grateful and ready to wait upon the elders.” Hearing this incorporal voice from the heaven, the king accepted his son.
23. When the father (Duṣyanta) expired, he (Bharata) became an emperor of great renown. The great glory of Bharata who was born from the ray of Lord Hari, is still eulogised on the earth.
24. He had the sign of discus on right palm and that of a lotus on the soles of his feet. That powerful king, the sole emperor of the earth was consecrated (on the throne) by the performance of Mahābhiṣeka. He performed many sacrifices.
25. With fifty-five sacrificial horses he performed (horse) sacrifices along the course of the Gaṅgā (from its source to the sea) with Dīrgha-tamas (the son of Mamatā) as his sacrificial priest.
26. Along the course of the Yamunā, he tied seventy- eight sacrificial horses (i. e. performed seventyeight horse-sacrifices on the bank of the river as it flows to join the Gaṅgā), liberally distributing wealth (among the Brāhmaṇas). The sacred fire of Bharata, the son of Duṣyanta was set up on an exceedingly excellent place where the thousand Brāhmaṇas (engaged in the sacrifice) divided among themselves cows (gifted by Bharata), each receiving his share of thirteen thousand eighty-four (Badva[3]) cows.
27. Having thus tied to the sacrificial post one hundred and thirtythree horses, he sprang a surprise on the earthly kings. The son of Duṣyanta surpassed gods with his affluence, and he became one with Viṣṇu who is adorable to gods.
28. At the conclusion of the sacrificial ritual maṣṇāra[4] (or at a sacred place called Maṣṇāra), he donated as gift, fourteen lakhs of elephants of the mṛga type[5] black in colour, with their white tusk plated with gold.[6]
29. No king of the past could accomplish the great eminence of Bharata. Nor can kings of the future do so any more than one can reach the celestial world by hands.
30. During his expedition for the conquest of the world, he defeated the tribes Kirātas, Hūṇas, Yavanas, Āndhras, Kaṅkas, Khaśas and Śakas and killed the Mleccha kings who were inimical to Brahmins or Vedas.
31.[7] By sending messengers, he restored to the gods, the celestial damsels who were formerly abducted to Rasātala by Asuras, after vanquishing the gods and occupying various parts of that region.
32. While he ruled, both heaven and earth supplied desires and needs of his subjects. His sovereignty extended all over the world for thrice nine thousand (27000) years.
33. The tradition goes that the emperor realized that his sovereignty the fame of which had spread over all the worlds, his imperial glory and affluence, his unchallenged authority and implicit obedience to commands, nay even his life and sense-organs were unreal and so he renounced the world.
34. He had three queens all from the state of Vidarbha. When he remarked that his sons did not look like him, they, being afraid’ of being abandoned by him (suspecting their character), killed them all.
35. When his family line was (in the danger of being) extinct, the Marut gods gave him Bharadvāja as a son, when the emperor was propitiating them with sacrifice Marutstoma (forgetting a son).
36. When Mamatā, the wife of his brother (Utathya), was pregnant, Bṛhaspati attempted to have a sexual intercourse with her, and was prevented (by the child in the womb with strong loud protests). He (Bṛhaspati) cursed the child in the womb (to become blind). He discharged per force his semen (in her), but the blind child in the womb prevented its entry by his foot. The seed that fell out on the ground assumed the form of a child.
37. To Mamatā who wanted to give away that child as she was terribly afraid of being abandoned by her husband, gods spoke the following verse which contains the etymology of the name of the child (which is nothing but the quarrel between Bṛhaspati and Mamatā each throwing the responsibility of bringing up that child on the other).
38. (SṚ. records this controversy between Mamatā and Bṛhaspati as follows):
(Said Bṛhaspati:) “Oh foolish woman! Nourish (this child). (If you say that you are afraid of your husband that is baseless as) this child is born of us two brothers (by me through the Kṣetra viz. the wife of my brother)!” (Replied Mamatā) “Bṛhaspati! You nourish this child because he is born of us two (when you raped me)”, Saying these words (bhara dvājam) both the parents went away (abandoning the child). Hence he is called Bhara-dvāja.
39. Though urged by gods (to bring up the child), they thought him as a useless son and abandoned him. The Maruts nourished the child and it was given to Bharata when his family was going to be extinct. (Vitatha should be regarded as the name of Bharadvāja, after his adoption by Bharata).
Footnotes and references:
[1]:
v.l.: In case of dispute between the father and the mother both claiming the child, the father's claim is upheld by Yama (Dharmaśāstra).
[2]:
[3]:
[4]:
No commentator from Bhāvāratha Dīpikā to Bhaktamanorañjanī is sure of the exact significance of the word maṣṇāra. Padaratnāvalī: ‘At the conclusion of a particular observance (vrata) called Maṣṇāra.’ All of them state that (alternatively) Maṣṇāra is the name of a holy place.