Mahabharata – 87

By 

Sankar Mukherjee

&

Dr. Ramesh Chandra Mukhopadhyaya
                                            AadivamsavataranaParva

Vrihaspati had a fine sister. A woman, she was engaged in ascetic penances,& she studied the Vedas by heart.She used to roam all over the globe, before marriage & delivered lectures on the Vedas.She was absolutely free from any attachment. She became the wife of Prabhasa, the youngest of all Vasus. And she gave birth to famous  Viswakarma, the founder of all arts. And Viswakarma  was the carpenter & he invented different arts.He was the maker of all kinds of ornaments.  And it was he who constructed the celestial cars of the gods. Mankind are enabled to live because of the inventions of that famous Viswakarma. And he is worshipped, for that reason, by men. And he is eternal and immutable.

And the great Dharma, the giver of all happiness, assuming a human shape, came out through the right breast of Brahma. And Dharma had three excellent sons capable of charming every creature. And they are Sama, Kama & Harsha And by their influence they are maintaining the mortal world. And the wife of Kama is Rati.The wife of  Sama is Prapti; and the wife of Harsha is Nanda. And on them the worlds of mortals are made to depend.

And the son of Marichi is Kasyapa. And Kasyapa's descendant are the gods and the Asuras. And,therefore, Kasyapa, is the Father of the almost all the world. And Tvashtri the wife of Surya in the form of a mare gave birth, in the skies, to two greatly fortunate twins, the Aswinis.

 And Oh  king ! the sons of Aditi are twelve. Indra was the eldest of them & the youngest of them all was dwarf Vishnu on whom the world is dependant.

These are the thirty-three gods (the eight Vasus, the eleven Rudras, the twelve Adityas, Prajapati, and Vashatkara). I shall now inform you about their descendants & classification according to their Kulas & Ganas. The Rudras were one flank, the Saddhyas another flank, the Maruts are a separete flank.The Vasus, the Bhargavas, & the Viswedevas were of different flanks. Garuda & Aruna the son of Vinata, and the famous Vrihaspati are known to be among the flank of Adityas. The twin Aswins belong to Guhyaka flank. Plants belong to the animal flank.

Oh King!These are the flanks & the history of the birth of gods  I recited to you elaborately. And the humans by  reciting this washes of all his sins.

The great Bhrigu came out, opening  the heart of Brahma. The learned Sukra is Bhrigu's son. And the learned Sukra become a planet and was engaged as per the desire of Brahma in pouring and withholding rain, and in dispensing and remitting calamities.Sukra traverses through the skies for sustaining the lives of all the creatures in the three worlds.

The intelligent & the wise of rigid vow the learned Sukra & Vrihaspati, became the spiritual guides of both the Daityas and the gods.

 And thus  Sukra & Vrihaspati were  employed by the creator as counsellors. Bhrigu begot another son named Chyavana.Chyavana  in course of time was a great ascetic of rigid vow. And he came out of his mother's womb in anger and became the cause of his mother's release from the hands of the Rakshasa Puloma.

 And Arushi, the daughter of Manu, became the wife of the wise Chyavana & she gave birth to Aurva  who  came out opening the thigh of Arushi. And Aurva in his childhood was famous & influential  for his great spirit &  for his wisdom.Aurva’s son Richika.And Richika’s son was Jamadagni.And  Jamadagni had four sons. And the youngest of them all was Rama.And Rama was superior to all his brothers.And he was skilful in all the weapons, and became the killer of the Kshatriyas.And he had his passions under complete control.