The Vishnu Purana

by Horace Hayman Wilson | 1840 | 287,946 words | ISBN-10: 8171102127

The English translation of the Vishnu Purana. This is a primary sacred text of the Vaishnava branch of Hinduism. It is one of the eighteen greater Puranas, a branch of sacred Vedic literature which was first committed to writing during the first millennium of the common era. Like most of the other Puranas, this is a complete narrative from the cr...

Chapter XVIII - Lineage of Anu, the son of Yayati

ANU[1], the fourth son of Yayāti, had three sons, Sabhānara, Cākṣuṣa, and Paramekṣu[2]. The son of the first was Kālānara[3]; his son was Śriñjaya; his son was Purañjaya; his son was Janamejaya; his son was Mahāmani[4]; his son was Mahāmanas, who had two sons, Uśīnara and Titikṣu. Uśīnara had five sons, Śivi, Triṇa[5], Gara[6], Krimi, Dārvan[7]. Śivi had four sons, Vṛṣadarbha, Suvīra, Kaikeya, and Madra[8]. Titikṣu had one son, Uṣadratha[9]; his son was Hema[10]; his son was Sutapas; his son was Bali, on whose wife five sons were begotten by Dīrghatamas, or Anga, Banga, Kaliṅga, Suhma, and Puṇḍra[11]; and their descendants, and the five countries they inhabited, were known by the same names[12].

The son of Anga was Pāra[13]; his son was Divaratha; his son was Dharmaratha[14]; his son was Citraratha; his son was Romapāda[15], also called Daśaratha, to whom, being childless, Daśaratha, the son of Aja, gave his daughter Śāntā to be adopted[16]. After this, Romapāda had a son named Caturaṅga; his son was Prithulākṣa; his son was Champa, who founded the city of Campā[17]. The son of Champa was Haryyaṅga; his son was Bhadraratha, who had two sons, Vrihatkarman and Vrihadratha. The son of the first was Vrihadbhānu[18]; his son was Vrihanmanas; his son was Jayadratha, who, by a wife who was the daughter of a Kṣatriya father and Brahmani mother, had a son named Vijaya[19]; his son was Dhriti; his son was Dhritavrata; his son was Satyakarman; his son was Adhiratha[20], who found Karna in a basket on the banks of the Ganges, where he had been exposed by his mother, Pritha. The son of Karṇa was Vṛṣasena[21]. These were the Anga kings. You shall next hear who were the descendants of Puru.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

By some unaccountable caprice the Brāhma P. and Hari V., unsupported by any other authority, here substitute for Anu the name of Kakṣeyu, a descendant of Puru, and transfer the whole series of his posterity to the house of Puru.

[2]:

Pakṣa and Parapakṣa: Vāyu. Parameshu: Matsya. Parokṣa: Bhāgavata.

[3]:

Kālānala: Vāyu. Kolāhala: Matsya.

[4]:

Mahāśāla: Agni. Mahāśīla: Bhāgav.

[5]:

Nriga: Agni. Vana: Bhāgavata.

[6]:

Nava: Matsya. Śama: Bhāgavata.

[7]:

Vrata: Agni. Suvrata: Matsya. Dakṣa: Bhāgavata. According to the Brāhma P. and Hari V. the five sons of Uśīnara were the ancestors of different tribes. Śivi was the progenitor of the Śaivas; Nriga of the Yaudheyas; Nava of the Navarāṣṭras; Vrata of the Āmbaṣṭhas; and Krimi founded the city Krimilā.

[8]:

Bhadra and Bhadraka: Matsya, Agni. These sons of Śivi give name to different provinces and tribes in the west and north-west of India.

[9]:

Ruṣadratha: Agni. Tuṣadratha: Matsya.

[10]:

Pheṇa: Agni. Sena: Matsya.

[11]:

Odra, or in some copies Andhra: Bhāgavata.

[12]:

See p. 185. n. 3; p. 188. n. 46, 49, 50; and p. 190. n. 73. Of Suhma it may be remarked, that it is specified in the Siddhānta Kaumudī as an example of Paninī's rule; 17.3.24; by which Nagara compounded with names of countries in the east becomes Nāgara, as Sauhmanāgara, ‘produced, &c. in a city of Suhma.’ The descendants of Anu, according to the Mahābhārata were all Mlecchas. The last named work, as well as the Vāyu and Matsya Purāṇas, have an absurd story of the circumstances of the birth of Dīrghatamas, who was the son of Ujāsi or Utathya, the elder brother of Vrihaspati by Mamatā, and of his begetting Anga p. 445 and the rest. They agree in assigning descendants of all four castes to them; the Vāyu stating that Bali had ### and the Matsya ascribing it to a boon given by Brahmā to Bali: ‘Do thou establish the four perpetual castes.’ Of these, the Brahmans are known as Bāleyas: ###. The Matsya calls Bali, the son of Virocana, and ‘existing for a whole Kalpa;’ identifying him therefore, only in a different period and form, with the Bali of the Vāmana Avatāra.

[13]:

Anāpāna: Vāyu. Khanāpāna: Bhāgavata. Adhivāhana: Agni. Dadhivahana: Matsya.

[14]:

This prince is said in the Vāyu to have drank the Soma juice along with Indra.

[15]:

The Matsya and Agni insert a Satyaratha.

[16]:

This is noticed in the Rāmāyaṇa, in the story of the hermit Ṛṣyaśriṅga, to whom Śāntā was given in marriage. Her adoptive father is called in the Rāmāyaṇa, as the is in the Agni and Matsya, Lomapāda: the meaning is the same, ‘hairy foot.’ Rāmāyaṇa, IX. X. See also Prelude to the Uttara Rāma Cheritra, Hindu Theatre, I. 289.

[17]:

The Bhāgavata differs here from all the other authorities in omitting Champa, the founder of Campapurī, a city of which traces still remain in the vicinity of Bhagalpur, having inserted him previously amongst the descendants of Ikṣvāku (see p. 373. n. 12). Campā is every where recognised as the capital of Anga, and the translators of the Rāmāyaṇa were very wide of the truth, when they conjectured that it might be Angwa or Ava.

[18]:

Vrihaddarbha: Brāhma. The Bhāgavata omits the two successors of Champa, and makes Vrihadratha, Vrihatkarman, and Vrihadbhānu, sons of Prithulākṣa.

[19]:

The Vāyu, Matsya, and Hari V. make Vijaya the brother of Jayadratha. The Bhāgavata agrees with our text. The mother of Vijaya from her origin was of the Sūta caste, the genealogist and charioteer. Manu, X. 47. Her son was of the same caste, children taking the caste of the mother: consequently the descendants of Vijaya, kings of Anga, were Sūtas; and this explains the contemptuous application of the term Sūta to Karṇa, the half brother of the Pāṇḍus; for he, as p. 446 will presently be mentioned, was adopted into the Anga family, and succeeded to the crown.

[20]:

Some variety prevails in the series of princes here, but this arises from not distinguishing the collateral lines, the descendants of Jayadratha from those of Vijaya. The Vāyu and Matsya give the latter as in our text, but they agree also with the Agni and Brāhma in the successors of Jayadratha, as Driḍharatha or Vrihadratha, and Janamejaya or Viśvajit.

[21]:

Sūrasena: Vāyu. Vikarṇa: Brāhma.

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