Mahabharata – 145

by

Sankar Mukherjee and

Dr Ramesh Chandra Mukhopadhyaya
                          Aadivamsavataran Parva

The race of Bharata

Bharata the son of Dushmanta of the Puru race ascended the throne in due time.He then set out to conquer the world.His divine chariot was irresistible.He conquered all the kings.The mighty generous king Bharata had great foresight & a tender heart.Hence  he became famous a monarch.Like Indra the king of heaven he performed numerous sacrifices.The great sage Kanva presided over those sacrifices. Bharata perforfed a horse sacrifice called ‘Gobitat’.Then he performed hundred horse sacrifices at the bank of the Yamuna,three hundred horse sacrifices at the bank of the Saraswati & four hundred horse sacrifices at the bank of the Ganga.Thus the mother & the son,the son of Dushmanta & Shakuntala together performed many sacrifices.They gave away untold wealth to the masses as well as to the brahmins during the sacrifices.And from Bharata the clan Bharata became famous in the world.

And Bharata begot on his three wives nine sons. But none of them were like their father.Therefore Bharata was not at all happy with them. Their mothers became angry & killed them all.The procreation of children by Bharata, therefore, became in vain.

The monarch then performed numerous great sacrifices & by the grace of great sage Bharadwaja obtained a son named Bhumanyu.

And then king Bharata, regarding himself blessed having a son, installed Bhumanyu as the crown prince.And Bhumanyu begot upon his wife, Pushkarini six sons.They were Suhotra,Diviratha Suhota, Suhavih,Suyajuh & Richika. The eldest of them was Suhotra.He    became the king.The great king Suhotra performed many Rajasuyas and horse-sacrifices.Suhotra used to enjoy the whole earth surrounded by the seas & full of gems.Suhotra virtuously ruled & sustained his subjects properly.The earth was filled with elephants,horses,kine,& human population increased.Enormous growth of the paddy& the whole earth was filled  with hundreds and thousands, of sacrificial stakes. Harmony prevailed on earth. But since she was loaded with lot of wealth & happiness that she became heavy & seemed to sink into the nether world.Suhotra begot on his wife, daughter of the Ikkhaku race, three sons -- Ajamidra,Sumidra,& Purumidra.The eldest of them,Ajamidra,became the king after Suhotra. And he begot six sons,--Riksha was born in the womb of Dhumini, Dushmanta & Parameshthi in the womb of Nili & Jahnu, Jala and Rupina were born in the womb of Kesini. All the clans of Panchalas descended from Dushmanta and Parameshthi.And the Kushikas were the sons of Jahnu of immeasurable prowess.

And Riksha who was elder than  Jala and Rupina became the king.The narrator of the Mahabharata Vaisampyana said to the king Janamejaya at the snake sacrifice that  from Riksha Samvarana was born.He was the forefather of the race of Janamejaya.