Puranic Stories

Courtesy:Sri.Gopala Krishnan

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PURANIC STORIES

Dear friends

There are eighteen Maha puranas. It is believed that, after composing the
Mahabharata Veda Vyasa composed the eighteen Maha puranas. These Maha puranas
were revealed to his chief disciple Loma harshana. From Lomaharshana, the
Puranas passed on the others.

We know many stories told in puranas. But perhaps some of us may not know in
which purana the story is appearing. Certain stories appear in many puranas,
some times with slight difference also.

Many stories I have written to the groups appearing in the puranas. I am
starting a new series about interesting Puranic stories appearing in MATSYA
PURANA. Matsya purana is told by Vishnu to Manu.

In these postings THE STORIES WILL BE TOLD VERY BRIEFLY SINCE THEY ARE ALREADY
POSTED EARLIER. I hope this can be interesting one to many readers. Any
suggestions made by the members to improve this posting will be highly
appreciated.

Sincerely
Gopala Krishnan

1. Matsyavatharam story

We all know about Dasavatharam and Matsyavatharam is the first one.

Matsyavatharam story in brief is saving earthly beings in a boat by Vaivaswatha
Manu during the big flood and tying the boat to the horn of fish which was the
incarnation of Mahavishnu. When floods receded procreation could so again
started. This Vaivaswatha Manu was the son of Sun God and father of King
Ikshvaku. Matsyavatharam happened after millions of years after earth and its
beings are created.

2. Creation of Universe story

In the beginning only darkness and Brahman (Not Brahma) in the universe. The
creation story in brief is as follows.

When the time of creation came darkness was removed and Brahman divided itself
to three- Brahma, Vishnu and Maheswara.
First water appeared. Vishnu slept in water.

A golden egg appeared in the water and Brahma resided in to it. After many years
he split it in to two and came out. This egg is Hiranya garbahm and very often
our sasthrikal refer in his manthra recitation- "Hiranyana Garbha Garbhastham
Hema beejam Vibhangithae?"

From one side of the egg, the Heaven and from the other side Earth came up. All
the land masses, the oceans, the rivers and the mountains, had been inside the
egg in embryonic form. Brahma made them manifest.

First the sun was born. Since it appeared first he is called Aditya.

Brahma's first act was to meditate. It was while he was meditating that the
Vedas, the Puranas and the other shastras (sacred texts) emerged from Brahma's
mouth.

Ten sons were born to Brhama from his mental power. They were the saptharishies
Marichi, Atri, Angiraasa, Pulasthia, Pulaha, Krathu and Vasistha. Other three
were Prachetha, Brighu and Narada.

From his right toe Daksha was born. Dharma was born from his chest.

Brhama created two more beings from his body for procreation. Male was called
Manu and female was called Satrupa. Brahma married Shatrupa and the son born to
them was Svayambhuva Manu.

Svayambhuva Manu after much thapasya got of Tapasic power a wife Ananti. Ananti
had two sons named Priyavrata and Uttanapada. They had one daughter Prasuti.
Prasuti later became the wife of king Daksha.

Prachinavarhi was the son of Uttanapada. Prachinavarahi married Savarna, the
daughter of the ocean, and they had ten sons. These sons were known as the
Prachetas. The ten Prachetas married a woman named Marisha. That is, all of them
had the same wife.

Daksha was the son of the Prachetas and Marisha. He married Prasuti daughter of
Swayambhumanu and Satrupa.

2. Persuading Daksha's sons not indulging in procreation by sage Narada

We have the story of Daksha marrying Prasuti and had thousand sons and Daksha
desired them to have procreation. But Sage Narada persuaded them from it. Daksha
cursed Narada to be a bachelor.

3. Sixty daughters of Daksha

We have the story of 60 daughters of born to Daksha. Some of them were married
to sage Kashyapa. Kashyapa's procreation with his wife forms the word today.
A few were married to Dharma and few others were married to other sages.

27 of them were married to Moon god. We know the favouritism story of Moon God
Chandra with Rohini and Daksha's warning and later cursing for favouritism and
Hence the increasing and decreasing of Kalas for Moon.

Daksha's daughter Sati was married to Lord Siva. The details about these sixty
daughters are told in Matsya purana.

4. Birth of Indra, Mitra and varuna

Indra, Mitra and Varuna the nature Gods told In Rig Veda were born as sons of
sage Kashyapa with his wife Aditi.

5. Prahalada and Mahabali

We know the story of Prahalada who was a devotee of Vishnu. We know about the
Narasimha avathara of Lord Vishnu by which Hiranya Kasipu, father of Prahalada
was killed for his adamancy that Prahalada should say Hiranyaya Nama and not
worshipping Vishnu.

Every body know the story of Mahabali and later becoming king of Pathala after
he was sent down earth in the Vamana avathara.

Hiranyakshipu was the son of sage Kashya-pa with his wife Diti. His son was
Prahalada and Virochana was born to Prahalada. Mahabali was the son of Virochana
and Vanasura was the son of Mahabali.

The details of all these persons are told in Matsya purana.

My acknowledgement- Sri Dilip kumar Raveendran had earlier posted in US Brahmins Group as series Matysa purana. This article has inputs from his posting.

6 How the earth got the name Prithwi?

There was a king by name Pithru who was born from the body of another king by name Vena churning his body by sages. Pithru was a very nice king in opposition to Vena who exhausted every thing and bad in nature.

People were dissatisfied since nothing was there when Pithru became the KIng. Pithru felt earth is not giving food grains and decided to fight with earth. Earth pleaded if she is destroyed every thing will be lost and asked the king to milk her. (Make use of)

King Pithru did so and the country prospered. From king pithru the earth got the name Prithvi.

7. Relation between Lord Yama and Saneeswara

Both Lord Yama and Saneeswara are first cousins, father being Lord Soorya and mothers Samjana and chaya. Lord Yama was born to mother Samjana.

{My note -Soorya had two sons and a daughter from Samjana. They were Vaivaswatha manu, Yama and Yami. Yami later became River Yamuna.

Soorya had two sons and two daughters from Chaya. They were Savarnani manu,Sani, Thapti and Vishti. Tapthi later became river}

Samjana could not bear the heat of Sun God. She made her identical figure and named her as Chaya. Samjana left leaving Chaya with Lord soorya, to join her father Viswakarma for some time . Soorya did not felt much the difference of Chaya, being both identical. Saneeswara was born to Chaya.

From the above it is clear Yama is the elder brother of Saneeswara.

8. How Lord Yama became king .

As the days went on, Chaya started showing partiality to her children. So one day not able to see this partiality Yama raised his feet to kick his step mother Chaya. Chaya cursed his feet should bear wound which will never get cured.

Lord Sani told his father Sun God what happened. Sun God became clear Chaya is different from Samjana. To mitigate the effects of the curse, Surya gave Yama a bird which ate up all the worms. Thereafter, Yama went to a tirtha named Gokarna and started to pray to Shiva Later Yama went to do Tapasya to Lord Siva.

Shiva granted Yama the boon that he would be the god of death. He would mete out punishments to sinners in accordance with the sins (papa) that they had committed. He would also keep account of the store of merit (punya) that righteous people accumulated.

9. Birth of Aswini kumars

We know Aswini Kumars are the twins born to Sun God soorya and his wife Samjana in the form of mare.

Let me brief the story again. After leaving Chaya with Sun God Samjana spent some time with father and then took the form of a mare and started wandering.

On getting the clarification that Chaya was the creation of Samjana , Sun God located her in the form of mare. He too adopted the form of a horse and joined her. As horses, they had two sons. Since ashva means horse, the sons were known as the Ashvinis.

They became the physicians of the gods and were also known as Nasatya and Dasra. After the Ashvinis were born, Surya and Samjna gave up their forms of horses and returned to their usual forms.

10. How Vishnu got chakra and Lord Siva the trident (Soolam)?

Viswa karma came to know of all the details. He shaved of some portions from the body of Sun God so that Samjana could bear the heat. This shaved portion energy was used by Viswa karma to make Vishnu's discus (Chakra), Siva's trident (Soola) and Indra's Vajrayudaha.

11. Why we should not visualise Sun's feet while praying?

After Viswakarma's shaving of energy made the sun's visage much more pleasant and bearable. The only parts of Surya's body that were not thus modified were his feet.

No one can bear to look at Surya's feet and it is forbidden to visualise the sun-god's feet when one is praying to him.

MY ACKNOWLEDGEMENT- Sri Dilip kumar Raveendran had earlier posted in US Brahmins Group as series Matysa purana. This article has inputs from his posting.

12 Urvashi and Pururava story

I have written many times in my postings about the love affair between king Pururava and Apsaras Urvasi. King Pururava could traverse between Devaloka and Earth, on one such occasion he saved Urvasi from miscreants, which made her fall in love with Pururava and Indra, granted a married life to her for some period.

13. Who was king Pururuva?

Members may recollect, in yesterday posting you would have read Vaivaswatha manu was the son of Sun God with samjana. Vaisvasvata Manu's eldest son was Ila (According to Matsya purana).

When Vaivasvata Manu became old, he retired to the forest. Ila was appointed the ruler in his place. Ila set out on a voyage of conquest and travelled throughout the world.

There was a forest named sharavana, frequented by Shiva and Parvati. Shiva had decreed that any man who entered the forest would become a woman. King Ila did not know about this rule and set foot in the forest inadvertently and he immediately got transformed into a woman. He even forgot all about his earlier life. He started wandering in the forest.

The moon-god, Chandra, had a son named Budha ( Our planet Budha) . While Ila was wandering around, Budha came upon there and Budha fell in love with her. The two borne a son and he was named Pururava and Pururava so became ancestor of the lunar line (Being born to Moon God).
14. Do Ila became male later?

Meanwhile, Ikshvaku and the other brothers of Ila started to look for Ila. When they could find no trace of their brother, they asked the sage Vashishtha if he knew of Ila's whereabouts.

Vashishtha used his mental powers to find out what had happened. He asked the princes to pray to Lord Shiva and Parvati. That was the only way to make Ila a man once more.

The prayers pleased Shiva and Parvati and they found out what the princes wants. Siva said "Ila can never be made a man once again. At best, we will alternate Ila between being a man for one month and a woman for one month."

As a man, Ila came to known as Sudyumna and had three sons named Utkala, Gaya and Haritashva.

15. King Brahmadatta who knew all languages

Brahma dattha is a common name among Nampoothiri Brahmins of Kerala. Until I read the matsya purana translation, I was never knowing so much is there about Brhamadattha. Since I have not posted about Brhama Dattha I will go a little bit in detail.

King Kousika had seven sons. They became the disciples of sage Garga. Once during famine time Garga ordered them to graze in the near by hill top grass. Being very hungry they killed one of the cows after rituals and ate it. They lied to sage the cow was eaten by tiger. Because of the sin in the next birth they became seven hunters with quality of jathis maras. ( Knowing previous birth)

The hunters fasted until death and they were born as seven deer. The seven deer too fasted un to death and were born as seven birds.

During that time king of Panchala by name Vibhraja came to forest. One of the birds desired to be born as son to King and other two as sons to ministers of the king. The remaining four did not desire any thing and they were born as the sons of a Brahmin.

THE BIRD BORN AS THE SON OF KING WAS BRAHMADATTHA. In due course he married a princess Kalyani. This Kalyani was nothing but the re birth of the cow they had killed earlier while disciples of sage Garga.

Brahmadattha could understand the language of all creatures on account of a prayer made by king Vibhraja. Once he made a big laugh hearing the conversation between two ants. The queen not knowing about his capacity could not make it out and felt he was laughing at her. On that restless night brahmadatta had a dream of Lord Vishnu that, he will understand every thing next day morning.

The four sons born to Brahmin wanted to do Tapasya. They told their aged father that he need not worry; king Brahama dattha will help, just tell him disciples of sage Garga.
The next day the Brahmin approached the king and told Disciples of sage Garga. King Brahma dattha realised about his materialistic pursuits. He gave as much wealth as the Brahmin required and joined his brothers to do meditation. His two sons born as minister's sons too joined him.

King Brhama dattha before proceeding declared his son Viswak sena as heir of the kingdom. Are we referring him in Vishnu sahasranama?

MY ACKNOWLEDGEMENT- Sri Dilip kumar Raveendran had earlier posted in US Brahmins Group as series Matysa purana. This article has inputs from his posting.

16 Birth of Chandra

Sage Atri, mind born son of Brahma once performed a very difficult tapasya. A tremendous amount of energy was released as a result of this meditation and the moon-god, Chandra or Soma, was born from this energy. (There are other versions also of this story)

Brahma appointed Chandra as the ruler over all stars, planets and herbs (oshadhi).

At appropriate time twenty-seven of Daksha' daughter was married to Chandra. These were the nakshatras (constellations). The story of Chandra's favour to ROHINI STAR has already told by me in earlier postings. Rohini is in Edava rasi and Moon get exalted in Edava rasi because of his special happiness while being with her.

We know Daksha's daughter Sathi was married to Lord Siva and Dakshyagam story. Some of the Daksha's daughters were married to sage Kashyapa also and we know the creation of beings in the word. So Chandra in essence is a co- brother to sage Kashyapa and Lord Siva.
17. Birth of Planet Mercury (Buddha)

Once Chandra performed a rajasuya yajna (royal sacrifice) and the ceremony was an outstanding success. The preceptor of the gods sage Brihaspati attended it with his wife Tara.

Chandra's eyes fell upon Tara and her movements so much impressed her that Chandra forcibly abducted her. On several occasions Brihaspati asked Chandra to return Tara, but he did not listen. A terrible war then raged between the gods and demons over Tara.
The gods fought on Brihaspati's side ( Brihaspathi being Deva guru) and the demons fought for Chandra. Lord Shiva also fought on the side of the gods seeing the injustice.

A war started between Lord Siva and Chandra themselves using destructive weapons . These destructive weapons were such that they could burn up the entire universe if the war continued. Brahma decided that it was time for him to intervene. "Stop this nonsense at once," he told Chandra. "What you have done is most improper. Return Tara at once to Guru."

Chandra obeyed Brahma and returned Tara. But Chandra and Tara had already had a handsome son by the time named Buddha. ( Some puranas say Tara was conceived by the time and later she gave birth to a son Buddha)

Buddha became very skilled in the handling of elephants. In fact, the knowledge of tackling and handling elephants goes back to Buddha.

18. King Yayati and Puru

In my previous posting I had told about Buddha marrying Ila and son Pururava was born who married apsaras Urvashi and about their children born to them. Nakusha was a king in this lineage. King Yayati was the son of Nakusha.

Yayati was a Good king. He had two wives. Sharsmishta in the royal lineage and Devayani daughter of Sukracharya.

I have already made postings about Devayani , her relation with Kachha (son of Guru) came to learn from Sukracharya with out giving identity and failed love of Devayani with Kachha and later marrying king Yayati.

Puru was the son of Devayani born to Yayati and Yayati handed over the kingdom to Puru. (Yayati was very pleased with Puru on his giving young age to Yayati story)

19 Who was Tarakasura?

Diti performed Tapasya a 2nd time on sage Kashyapa to have a son who can kill Indra.( The first attempt was spoiled by Indra in the last phase which gave rise to Maruts)

Kashyapa agreed with stipulated conditions again. This time Diti succeeded and a son was born to them. He was Vajranga.

Vajranka defeated Indra and captured, but released him on request of all Devas. As a gift Brahma created a woman Varangi and Brahma married her to Vajranga. Vajragna started penance.

But after some time again Indra started disturbing Varangi when she was mediating and Vajranga too mediating in water.

Knowing about the atrocities of Indra Vajranga again performed Tapasya for a son to kill Indra and pleased with his penance Brahma granted a son to him.

This son born to Vajranga and Varagi was Tharaka.

20 Taraksuara vadham

The story of killing of Tarakasura is told in detail in Matsya puranam.

Tharaka performed Tapasya on Brahma and Brahma granted him boon that he can be killed only by a son of Lord Siva and Tharaka himself can be invisible too as he desire. He further laid the condition he can be killed by a son of Lord Siva who is seven year old. This too was agreed by Brahma.

At that time Lord Siva was performing Tapas after immolation of Sati in Daksha yaga. Taraka started ruling demons as a good king and later started attacking Deva loka after arranging good army of demons.

Devas got getting killed. The invisibility helped Taraka much to conquer. The only possibility to defeat Tarakasura was to get a child for Siva who was mediating.

Detailed description of how Parvathi daughter of Himavan ultimately got married to Lord Siva is not necessary because every body know the story.

The seven great sages went and told Shiva about Parvati's tapasya and Shiva agreed to marry Parvati. The marriage took place amidst a great deal of fanfare. All the rivers and the mountains came to attend the ceremony.

So did the sages, the gods, the gandharvas, the apsaras and the yakshas. Brahma himself acted as the priest for the marriage ceremony.
To Balance the weight of all those assembling in Himalayas, sage Agasthya was sent to South. Sage Agasthia witnessed the marriage standing at Chengannur in Kerala, southern part of India.

Later Parvathi and Siva came there in person and at that time she had her monthly period. Hence the legend behind the monthly periods of Chengannur Devi . This I have posted in my series "Believe it or not"

The son born to Lord Siva was destined to kill Tarakasura. The son born was Karhtikeya (After Parvathi became Gowri) and he killed Tharaka with his own weapons at the age of seven.

21. Who is Koushika? How Parvathi became Gowri?

Initially Parvathi was dark complexioned. Siva once teased her for the complexion. Parvathi performed tapasya on Brahma. Brahma appeared before Parvathi pleased on her Tapasya.
From her body a woman appeared called Koushika and her kosha of black complexion got transferred to the new woman. Brahma ordered Koushiki to go to Vindhya Mountains. So Koushiki is also called Vindhya vasini.

Parvathi got named as Gowri after her complexion became fair. Karthikeya was born after some days Parvathi became Gowri.

I hope the stories told in the posting are interesting. Every effort is taken for simplicity, depicting chronologically and with clarity. Member's suggestion for further improvement is welcome.

 

 

knr
--
If God brings you to it, He will bring you through it.
Happy moments, praise God.
Difficult moments, seek God.
Quiet moments, worship God.
Painful moments, trust God.

  Every moment, thank God