The story of Prithu

OM! Glory to Vasudeva! Victory be to you, Pundarikaksha; adoration be to you, Vishvabhavana; glory be to you, Hrishikesha, Mahapurusha, and Purvaja.

Maitreya said,

“Best of Munis, tell me why was the right hand of Vena rubbed by the holy sages, in consequence of which the heroic Prithu was produced.”

Parashara said,

“Sunitha was originally the daughter of Mrityu, by whom she was given to Anga to wife. She bore him Vena, who inherited the evil propensities of his maternal grandfather. When he was inaugurated by the Rishis monarch of the earth, he caused it to be every where proclaimed, that no worship should be performed, no oblations offered, no gifts bestowed upon the Brahmans. He said,

"I, the king, am the lord of sacrifice; for who but I am entitled to the oblations."

The Rishis, respectfully approaching the sovereign, addressed him in melodious accents, and said,

"Gracious prince, we salute you; hear what we have to represent. For the preservation of your kingdom and your life, and for the benefit of all your subjects, permit us to worship Hari, the lord of all sacrifice, the god of gods, with solemn and protracted rites; a portion of the fruit of which will revert to you. Vishnu, the god of oblations, being propitiated with sacrifice by us, will grant you, Oh king, all your desires. Those princes have all their wishes gratified, in whose realms Hari, the lord of sacrifice, is adored with sacrificial rites."

Vena exclaimed,

"Who is superior to me? who besides me is entitled to worship? who is this Hari, whom you style the lord of sacrifice? Brahma, Janardana. Shambhu, Indra, Vayu, Ravi (the sun), Hutabhuk (fire), Varuna, Dhata, Pusha, (the sun), Bhumi (earth), the lord of night (the moon); all these, and whatever other gods there be who listen to our vows; all these are present in the person of a king: the essence of a sovereign is all that is divine. Conscious of this, I have issued my commands, and look that you obey them. You are not to sacrifice, not to offer oblations, not to give alms. As the first duty of women is obedience to their lords, so observance of my orders is incumbent, holy men, on you."

The Rishis replied,

"Give command, great king, that piety may suffer no decrease. All this world is but a transmutation of oblations; and if devotion be suppressed, the world is at an end."

But Vena was entreated in vain; and although this request was repeated by the sages, he refused to give the order they suggested. Then those pious Munis were filled with wrath, and cried out to each other,

"Let this wicked wretch be slain. The impious man who has reviled the god of sacrifice who is without beginning or end, is not fit to reign over the earth."

And they fell upon the king, and beat him with blades of holy grass, consecrated by prayer, and slew him, who had first been destroyed by his impiety towards god.

Afterwards the Munis beheld a great dust arise, and they said to the people who were nigh, "What is this?" and the people answered and said,

"Now that the kingdom is without a king, the dishonest men have begun to seize the property of their neighbours. The great dust that you behold, excellent Munis, is raised by troops of clustering robbers, hastening to fall upon their prey."

The sages, hearing this, consulted, and together rubbed the thigh of the king, who had left no offspring, to produce a son. From the thigh, thus rubbed, came forth a being of the complexion of a charred stake, with flattened features (like a negro), and of dwarfish stature. "What am I to do?" cried he eagerly to the Munis. "Sit down" (Nishida), said they; and thence his name was Nishada. His descendants, the inhabitants of the Vindhya mountain, great Muni, are still called Nishadas, and are characterized by the exterior tokens of depravity. By this means the wickedness of Vena was expelled; those Nishadas being born of his sins, and carrying them away.

The Brahmans then proceeded to rub the right arm of the king, from which friction was engendered the illustrious son of Vena, named Prithu, resplendent in person, as if the blazing deity of Fire bad been manifested.

There then fell from the sky the primitive bow (of Mahadeva) named Ajagava, and celestial arrows, and panoply from heaven. At the birth of Prithu all living creatures rejoiced; and Vena, delivered by his being born from the hell named Put, ascended to the realms above. The seas and rivers, bringing jewels from their depths, and water to perform the ablutions of his installation, appeared. The great parent of all, Brahma, with the gods and the descendants of Angiras (the fires), and with all things animate or inanimate, assembled and performed the ceremony of consecrating the son of Vena. Beholding in his right hand the (mark of the) discus of Vishnu, Brahma recognised a portion of that divinity in Prithu, and was much pleased; for the mark of Vishnu's discus is visible in the hand of one who is born to be a universal emperor, one whose power is invincible even by the gods.

The mighty Prithu, the son of Vena, being thus invested with universal dominion by those who were skilled in the rite, soon removed the grievances of the people whom his father had oppressed, and from winning their affections he derived the title of Raja, or king. The waters became solid, when he traversed the ocean: the mountains opened him a path: his banner passed unbroken (through the forests): the earth needed not cultivation; and at a thought food was prepared: all kine were like the cow of plenty: honey was stored in every flower. At the sacrifice of the birth of Prithu, which was performed by Brahma, the intelligent Suta (herald or bard) was produced, in the juice of the moon-plant, on the very birth-day: at that great sacrifice also was produced the accomplished Magadha: and the holy sages said to these two persons,

"Praise you the king Prithu, the illustrious son of Vena; for this is your especial function, and here is a fit subject for your praise."

But they respectfully replied to the Brahmans,

"We know not the acts of the new-born king of the earth; his merits are not understood by us; his fame is not spread abroad: inform us upon what subject we may dilate in his praise."

The Rishis said,

"Praise the king for the acts this heroic monarch will perform; praise him for the virtues he will display."

The king, hearing these words, was much pleased, and reflected that persons acquire commendation by virtuous actions, and that consequently his virtuous conduct would be the theme of the eulogium which the bards were about to pronounce: whatever merits, then, they should panegyrize in their encomium, he determined that he would endeavour to acquire; and if they should point out what faults ought to be avoided, he would try to shun them. He therefore listened attentively, as the sweet-voiced encomiasts celebrated the future virtues of Prithu, the enlightened son of Vena.

"The king is a speaker of truth, bounteous, an observer of his promises; he is wise, benevolent, patient, valiant, and a terror to the wicked; he knows his duties; he acknowledges services; he is compassionate and kind-spoken; he respects the venerable; he performs sacrifices; he reverences the Brahmans; he cherishes the good; and in administering justice is indifferent to friend or foe."

The virtues thus celebrated by the Suta and the Magadha were cherished in the remembrance of the Raja, and practised by him when occasion arose. Protecting this earth, the monarch performed many great sacrificial ceremonies, accompanied by liberal donations. His subjects soon approached him, suffering from the famine by which they were afflicted, as all the edible plants had perished during the season of anarchy. In reply to his question of the cause of their coming, they told him, that in the interval in which the earth was without a king all vegetable products had been withheld, and that consequently the people had perished. They said,

"You are the bestower of subsistence to us; you are appointed, by the creator, the protector of the people: grant us vegetables, the support of the lives of your subjects, who are perishing with hunger."

On hearing this, Prithu took up his divine bow Ajagava, and his celestial arrows, and in great wrath marched forth to assail the Earth. Earth, assuming the figure of a cow, fled hastily from him, and traversed, through fear of the king, the regions of Brahma and the heavenly spheres; but wherever went the supporter of living things, there she beheld Vainya with uplifted weapons: at last, trembling with terror, and anxious to escape his arrows, the Earth addressed Prithu, the hero of resistless prowess. The Earth said,

"Know you not, king of men, the sin of killing a female, that you thus perseveringly seek to slay me."

The prince replied;

"When the happiness of many is secured by. the destruction of one malignant being, the death of that being is an act of virtue."

The Earth said,

"But, if, in order to promote the welfare of your subjects, you put an end to me, whence, best of monarchs, will your people derive their support."

Prithu rejoined,

"Disobedient to my rule, if I destroy you, I will support my people by the efficacy of my own devotions."

Then the Earth, overcome with apprehension, and trembling in every limb, respectfully saluted the king, and thus spoke:

"All undertakings are successful, if suitable means of effecting them are employed. I will impart to you means of success, which you can make use of if you please. All vegetable products are old, and destroyed by me; but at your command I will restore them, as developed from my milk. Do you therefore, for the benefit of mankind, most virtuous of princes, give me that calf, by which I may be able to secrete milk. Make also all places level, so that I may cause my milk, the seed of all vegetation, to flow every where around."

Prithu accordingly uprooted the mountains, by hundreds and thousands, for myriads of leagues, and they were thenceforth piled upon one another. Before his time there were no defined boundaries of villages or towns, upon the irregular surface of the earth; there was no cultivation, no pasture, no agriculture, no highway for merchants: all these things (or all civilization) originated in the reign of Prithu. Where the ground was made level, the king induced his subjects to take up their abode. Before his time, also, the fruits and roots which constituted the food of the people were procured with great difficulty, all vegetables having been destroyed; and he therefore, having made Swayambhuva Manu the calf, milked the Earth, and received the milk into his own hand, for the benefit of mankind. Thence proceeded all kinds of corn and vegetables upon which people subsist now and perpetually. By granting life to the Earth, Prithu was as her father, and she thence derived the patronymic appellation Prithiví (the daughter of Prithu). Then the gods, the sages, the demons, the Rakshasas, the Gandharvas, Yakshas, Pitris, serpents, mountains, and trees, took a milking vessel suited to their kind, and milked the earth of appropriate milk, and the milker and the calf were both peculiar to their own species.

This Earth, the mother, the nurse, the receptacle, and nourisher of all existent things, was produced from the sole of the foot of Vishnu. And thus was born the mighty Prithu, the heroic son of Vena, who was the lord of the earth, and who, from conciliating the affections of the people, was the first ruler to whom the title of Raja was ascribed. Whoever shall recite this story of the birth of Prithu, the son of Vena, shall never suffer any retribution for the evil he may have committed: and such is the virtue of the tale of Prithu's birth, that those who hear it repeated shall be relieved from affliction.

Prithu had two valiant sons, Antarddhi and Pali. The son of Antarddhana, by his wife Skikhandini, was Havirdhana, to whom Dhishana, a princess of the race of Agni, bore six sons, Prachinabarhis, Shukra, Gaya, Krishna, Vraja, and Ajina. The first of these was a mighty prince and patriarch, by whom mankind was multiplied after the death of Havirdhana. He was called Prachinabarhis from his placing upon the earth the sacred grass, pointing to the east. At the termination of a rigid penance the married Savarna, the daughter of the ocean, who had been previously betrothed to him, and who had by the king ten sons, who were all styled Prachetasas, and were skilled in military science: they all observed the same duties, practised religious austerities, and remained immersed in the bed of the sea for ten thousand years.”