Canto LXXIII - End of the Auttama Manvantara

Mārkaṇḍeya names the gods of the Auttama Manvantara and their lord, and mentions the kings and ṛṣis.

Mārkaṇḍeya spoke:

Listen while I speak of the gods, the Indra, the ṛṣis, the kings in this third manvantara of the Prajāpati Auttama.

Thus the first group of gods was the Svadhāmans,^[1] who acted according to their name; and another also, the second group of the thirty gods, was the Satyākhyas.^[2] Now the gods in the third group were the Śivākhyas,^[3] O best of munis: now they were auspicious by nature; they are declared to have destroyed sin. And the fourth group of the gods therein was the Pratardanākhyas,^[4] O best of munis, in the period of Auttama Manu. And the gods in the fifth group therein were the Vaśavartins,^[5] O brāhman; now all of them indeed had natures corresponding to their names, O great muni. And these five groups of gods are reported to have fed of the sacrifices. All the groups were twelve in the manvantara which appertained to that best of Manus. Their lord^[6] was illustrious; may he become the spiritual preceptor in the three worlds! Having offered a hundred sacrifices, he was verily named Suśānti.^[7] Now a song, which is embellished with the words composing his name in order to avert portents emanating from him, is sung by men on the earth even to this day,—“Sweetly serene is the kindly ruler of the gods, he bestows sweet serenity.” He is attended by the Śivas and Satyas^[8] and other groups of gods and also by the Vaśavartins.^[9] Without birth^[10] was he, absolutely pure, supernatural.

Very powerful and valiant were that Mann’s sons, renowned, like unto the thirty gods. The descendants of his sons ruled over the earth as kings during the manvantara of that Manu of supreme splendour. Of his four ages were reckoned in truth seventy-one and a half, of the ages called Ṛrita, Tretā and so on, which I have declared in the account of the Age. By the innate splendour of the austerities of that most excellent high-souled Manu his seven sons became the seven ṛṣis in that period.

This third manvantara I have declared to thee. Now the fourth is called the period of Manu Tāmasa, who born of an animal’s womb illuminated the world with his fame; hearken to the birth of that Manu, as I tell thee, O brāhman. And the exploits of all those^[11] Manus transcend the cognizance of the senses; and the birth of the high-souled Manus is to be known as such, and their majesty also.