Canto CIX - Praise of the Sun

Mārkaṇḍeya tells the story of king Rājyavardhana.—After the king had reīgned many years, his queen sorrowed over finding a grey hair in his head—He comforted her and resolved to depart to the forest—His vassals and subjects tried to dissuade him and in vain—They performed many austerities in order to propitiate the Sun and went to Kāmarūpa and continued their worship—At length the Sun appeared to them in bodily shape.

Krauṣṭuki spoke:

Adorable Sir! thou hast well declared the birth of the Sun’s offspring, the majesty of the primeval god and his nature at very full length. Nevertheless I desire, O best of munis, to hear more about the Sun’s majesty comprehensively; deign therefore with favour to tell me of it.

Mārkaṇḍeya spoke:

Be it heard then! I tell thee of the majesty of the primeval god, Vivasvat, what he did formerly when worshipped by mankind.

There was a famous king, Dama’s son, named Rājyavardhana;^[1] he, lord of the earth, kept the earth well protected. Now the realm, being protected by that high-souled monarch in righteousness, increased day by day in people and wealth, O brāhman. And joyous and thriving exceedingly were all the subordinate kings on the earth without exception, while he was king; and so also were his people, both town and country folk. No portent visited them, nor sickness, nor the fear that comes from serpents, nor was there fear of drought there, while Dama’s son was king. And he offered up great sacrifices, and gave gifts to those who asked; he enjoyed even the pleasures of sense without hindrance to true righteousness. While he ruled the kingdom thus and protected his people duly, seven thousand years passed away as if a single day.

Now the daughter of Vidūratha, king of the South, was his queen, Māninī by name and high-spirited^[2] indeed. One day she, the fine-browed noble lady, shed tears when his head had not been dressed with ointment, in the sight of the king’s folk. When her tear-drops fell on the king’s body, he saw Māninī was of tearful countenance then and questioned her. In sooth beholding her weeping and shedding tears silently, Rājyavardhana asked Māninī, “Why is this?” But she, being prudent, when questioned by her husband, replied then, “It is nothing.” The king questioned her a gain.^[3] And after the king had questioned her often, she, the slender-waisted lady, showed him a grey hair growing among his abundant locks. “Look at this, O king; is this a cause of vexation to me, most luckless that I am?” And the king laughed thereat.

With a smile quoth he to his wife—while listened all the kings and citizens, and the kings who were assembled there—“Away with grief, O wide-eyed lady! thou must not weep, pretty one! Birth, growth, decline of life and other changes befall all living beings. I have studied all the Vedas; I have offered sacrifices by thousands; I have given alms to brahmans; and I have begotten sons, O lady of finest countenance; I have enjoyed along with thee pleasures which are very hardly attainable by mortals; and I have protected the earth well; I have borne myself ably in battles; I have laughed with my beloved friends; and I have sported in the heart of the woods. What else is there which I have not done, that thou art frightened at grey hairs, O lady? Let my hair become grey; let wrinkles come to me, O beauteous one; let my body pass into weakness; for I have been successful, O Māninī! Because thou hast shown me a grey hair on my head, O lady, here then I take medical treatment therefor through resorting to the forest. First in childhood there is childhood’s action similarly' there is action which is natural in youth; and also such as is fitting in early manhood; in old age there is resort to the forest. Since those who lived before me did so, lady, and also those who lived before them, I see no reason whatever then for thee to shed tears. Away with thy vexation! Does not the sight of this grey hair cause me elevation? Weep not; it is futile.”

Mārkaṇḍeya spoke:

Then the kings and citizens who were in his presence did him reverence, and the kings addressed Rājyavardhana with conciliatory words, O great ṛṣi:—

“It is not for thee to weep with this thy wife, O king; it is we who must weep here, or rather all living beings. Since thou, O master, speakest the word indicating that thou wilt dwell in the forest, life falls therefore from us who have been tenderly cherished by thee, O king. We will all go, O king, if thou goest to the forest. All the inhabitants of the earth will thereby suffer loss in all their ceremonies without doubt, when thou, O master, shalt take up thy abode in the forest; and if that loss tends to injure righteousness, let that course be discarded. Seven thousand years this earth has been guarded by thee; have regard, O king, to the great merit that has accrued therefrom! The austerities, which thou, O great king, wilt perform while dwelling in the forest, are not worth^[4] the sixteenth part of this thy guardianship over the earth!”

The king spoke:

“Seven thousand years I have protected this earth; now this my time has come to dwell in the forest. I have begotten children. Now that I have seen my children and their descendants, Death truly will not allow me a very few days. Understand, O citizens, that this grey hair on my head has become a messenger from ignoble Death, who is very sharp in his actions. Being such, I will place my son in my kingdom, and abandon worldly pleasures, and will, as a dweller in the forest, perform austerities until Tania’s troops arrive for me.”

Mārkaṇḍeya spoke:

Being desirous of departing to the forest the king then enquired of the astrologers about the best days and moments for anointing his son in the kingdom. And on hearing the king’s speech they became confused in mind; they who were skilled in the scriptures knew not the day nor moment nor the hours.^[5] And the astrologers spoke to the king with voices inarticulate with tears;—“Our various knowledge has perished after that we have heard this thy speech, O king.”

Then people came in a multitude both from other cities and also from dependent countries, and next from that city. Springing up, O muni, the most eminent brahmans, their heads quivering with emotion, addressed the king who desired to depart to the forest;—“Be gracious! Protect us, O king, as we have been protected a long time past. The whole world will sink down, when thou, O king, hast betaken thyself to the forest. Do thou then so act, O king, that the world sink not. And while we, snch as we ore, live ourvery short time, O hero, we desire not to see the regal throne deprived of thee, O lord.”

Mārkaṇḍeya spoke:

Thus both they and other dvijas heading the citizens, and kings, dependants and ministers appealed to him, and appealed again and again; but when he does not withdraw his determination to take up his abode in the forest, and returns them the answer, “Death will not suffer it,” both his ministers and dependants, and the citizens, and the aged men and the dvijas, assembled together and took counsel, “What must be done here?" While they took counsel, O brahman, this resolution developed there among those who were devotedly attached to that most righteous king—‘Giving ourselves over absolutely to deep meditation, we will with composed minds propitiate the Sun with austerities and beseech him for this king’s life. Being all resolved alike there on that object, some of them paid adoration to the Sun with their own bodies, by presenting to him the argha offering and presents and other oblations in due course; others gratified the Sun by maintaining silence, and others by repeating the Ṛc, Yajus and Sāman hymns; and other dvijas abstaining from food and lying down on river sandbanks, wearied with austerities, made propitiation of the Sun; and others, applying themselves to the oblation to Fire, day and night repeated hymns composed to the Sun; others casting their eyes on the Sun remained standing there. Even thus, applying themselves to those several ri7tes, did they work in manifold ways with exceeding determination in order to propitiate the Sun.

Now while they were striving thus to propitiate the Sun, a Gandharva named Sudāman came near and spoke thus—“If ye desire, O dvijas, to propitiate the Sun, let this then be done, whereby the Sun will become well-pleased. Therefore—there is a forest named Guru-viśāla, frequented by the Siddhas, in very mountainous Kāmarūpa—go there verily in haste. There perform your propitiation of the Sun with minds completely composed; the Siddhas’ friendly region is there; there ye shall obtain all your desires.”

Mārkaṇḍeya spoke:

On hearing this his speech, those dvijas went to that forest and beheld the sacred and beautiful shrine of the Sun there. Those brahmans and men of other castes, diminishing their food, and being indefatigable, O brāhman, offered worship there enriched with incense, flowers and oblations; and with composed minds, celebrating his worship with flowers, ungnents and other gifts, with incense, perfumes and other fragrance also, with prayers, sacrificial oblations, food, lamps and other offerings, those dvijas gratified the Sun, O brāhman.

The brāhmans spoke:

Let us approach the Sun as our refuge, the god who in splendour surpasses gods, Dānavas and Yakṣas, the planets, and the heavenly bodies; the lord of gods, who dwelling also in the sky makes everything around brilliant, and penetrates the earth and the atmosphere with his rays; even him who has the names Āditya, Bhāskara, Bhānu, Savitṛ, Divākara, Pūṣan and Aryaman, Svarbhānu;^[6] him who has flaming rays, who is the fire which shall destroy the universe at the end of the four ages, difficult to be gazed at, who persists to the end of the final dissolution; the lord of yogins, and the never-ending one; who is red, yellow, white and black; him who dwells in the oblation made to Fire by ṛṣis, and among the gods of sacrifice; imperishable, sublime, secret, who is the supreme gate to final emancipation from existence; and who traverses the sky with hymns in the form of horses which are yoked together at his rising and setting; who is always intent on circumambulating Meru reverently. And we have sought unto the light-giver, who is not true and yet true, who is a sacred multiform place of pilgrimage, who is the permanence of the universe, and īs be yond thought; him who is Brahmā, who is Śiva, who is Viṣṇu, who is Prajāpati; who is the wind,^[7] the atmosphere and water, the earth and its mountains and oceans; who is the planets, the constellations, the moon and other heavenly bodies, trees bearing blossom and fruit, other trees and herbs; who sets in motion righteousness and unrighteousness, among created beings, those which are manifest and those which are not manifest. Brahmā’s body, and Śiva’s, and Viṣṇu’s is the body, of thee, the Sun, whose special nature is three-fold indeed. May the Sun be gracious! May the Sun, of whom, as lord without beginning, all this world composes the body, and who is the the life of the worlds—may he be gracious to us! May the Sun, whose first^[8] form is luminous and can hardly be gazed upon because of its circle of splendour, and whose second form is the gentle lunar orb—may he be gracious to us! And may the Sun, from those two forms of whom this universe has been fashioned consisting of Agni and Soma—may he, the god, be gracious to us!

Mārkaṇḍeya spoke:

While they are thus entirely worshipping him with praise and faith, the adorable Sun became pleased after three months, O brāhman. Thereupon issuing from his orb, with the same splendour as his disk possesses, the Sun, who is hardly to be gazed at, descended and displayed himself to them. Those brāhman folk bowing in faith then prostrated themselves before the Sun, who is without beginning, as he manifested himself in bodily shape, while they quivered with thrills of awe; exclaiming “Reverence, reverence be to thee, the thousand-rayed one! Thou art the cause of everything—brilliant every whit. Thou art to be invoked against harmful assault, being the site of all sacrifices; and to be meditated upon by those skilled in religious devotion. Be thou gracious!”

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

He is mentioned in the Viṣṇu Purāṇa. IV. i. Dama was son of Nariṣyanta and grandson of the great Marutta. The story of these three kings is told in cantos cxxix to cxxxvi below, and the Purāṇa ends abruptly with Dama. Rājyavardhana is called Rāṣṭra-vardhana in the Vāyu Purāṇa,

[2]:

Māninī.

[3]:

For bhūpaḥ, read bhūyaḥ.

[4]:

For nārhanti read nārhati?

[5]:

Horā (the Greek word); or “the rising of the zodiacal signs.”

[6]:

As a name of the Sun, not in the dictionary.

[7]:

Vāyu.

[8]:

For eka-bhāsvaraṃ read ekam bhāsvaraṃ ? The Bombay edition reads ekaṃ akṣaram “whose first form is imperishable.”