Harivamsha 13

Mārkaṇḍeya said: / Having been addressed thus by the blessed radiant god of gods, / by Sanatkumāra, I again questioned the imperishable god

concerning a doubt, the highest of the immortals, the blessed one, O tamer of enemies. / Learn that in full from me, from the beginning, O son of Gaṅgā:

“How many groups of ancestors are there, and in which world do those groups exist, / the foremost among gods, who nourish Soma for the gods?”

Sanatkumāra said: / Seven are these groups of ancestors in heaven remembered as, O best of reciters: / four possessing form, and three of them formless.

I shall declare their world and origin; hear that, / as well as their power and greatness in detail, O rich in ascetic heat.

The three supreme groups among them that bear the form of dharma— / I shall declare their names and worlds; hear that.

The worlds named Sanātana, where the radiant formless / groups of ancestors abide—they are the sons of the Prajāpati

Virāj, O best of the twice-born, known as the Vairājas; / the groups of gods sacrifice to them with rituals prescribed by the rules.

Swift as thought, consumers of svadhā, endowed with all desires,

these great-souled ones, abandoning yoga, exist.

Having fallen from yoga and reached the Sanātana worlds, / they are born again at the end of a thousand yugas as expounders of the veda.

Regaining that memory and the supreme Sāṃkhya-yoga, / these perfected ones attain the course of yoga from which return is hard to find.

These, dear friend, are the ancestors who increase yoga for yogins, / who formerly nourished Soma by the power of yoga.

Therefore, ancestral offerings should be given to yogins, O best of the twice-born; / this is the supreme, first rule concerning the Soma-drinkers.

Their mind-born daughter was named Menā, the excellent wife / of the great mountain Himavat, whose son is said to be Maināka.

Maināka's son is the glorious great mountain named Krauñca, / the foremost among mountains, white, covered with various jewels.

And on Menā, the king of mountains begot three daughters: / Aparṇā, Ekaparṇā, and the third, Ekapāṭalā.

Practicing immense ascetic heat hard even for gods and Danavas to perform,
those three [daughters] tormented the worlds of the stationary and the moving.

Ekaparṇā resorted to a banyan tree, and Ekapāṭalā to a pāṭalā tree;

the two having resorted [to them], Aparṇā, homeless, practiced ascetic heat,

for ten thousand years, difficult even for gods and Danavas to perform.

Ekaparṇā took food consisting of a single leaf,
and Ekapāṭalā took a single pāṭalā flower.

Only when a full thousand [years] had elapsed did the two take food.

One among them was without food; her mother forbade her,
saying, 'U mā' ('O, do not!'), forbidding her in distress out of motherly affection.

Addressed thus by her mother, that goddess practicing severe austerities,
that beautiful maiden became renowned in the three worlds simply as 'Umā'.

By that very name she became famous here, steadfast in the duties of yoga.

This world shall endure possessing these three maidens, O Bhārgava,

scorched by the ascetic heat of these [maidens], as long as the earth will hold.

All three have ascetic heat as their body, endowed with the power of yoga;
all of them are highly fortunate, and all possess enduring youth;
they are mothers of the worlds and chaste students,
all of them speakers of the brahman, and all of them celibate.

Umā, the foremost of them, the eldest and fair-complexioned,
endowed with great yogic power, attended upon Mahādeva.

Her adopted son was Uśanas, the descendant of Bhṛgu.

Ekaparṇā was given as wife to Asita Devala, the great-souled
and wise teacher of yoga, O great brahmin.

The prosperity among those maidens, the third, Ekapāṭalā,

attended upon the son of Śataśalāka, Jaigīṣavya.

His sons are traditionally known as Śaṅkha and Likhita, not born of a womb.

Know that Ekapāṭalā belonged to Jaigīṣavya likewise;
these two highly fortunate maidens attended upon teachers of yoga.

There are realms named Somapadā where the sons of Marīci,
the ancestors, dwell in heaven, and the gods revere them;
they are all known as Agniṣvāttas, of boundless power.

The ancestors renowned there are heard of as the Agniṣvāttas.

Their mind-born daughter was the river named Acchodā,
from whom arose that divine lake named Acchoda.

Those ancestors had never been seen before by her.

Then she of pure smile beheld the formless ancestors.

Born from their mind, she did not recognize her own ancestors.

Ashamed by that distress, she, fair-complexioned,

beholding Vasu, moving through the sky, chose him as father,
the renowned son of Āyu, famous by the name Vasu,

accompanied by the apsaras Adrikā, standing in a celestial chariot in heaven.

Through that transgression of the mind, acting at her desire,
having solicited another father, she fell, fallen from yoga.

Falling, dropped from heaven, she saw three celestial chariots;
in them she saw those ancestors, the size of a speck of dust.

Falling, she saw the three celestial chariots nearby;

there she saw her own ancestors, the size of a speck of dust,

extremely subtle, indistinct, like fires placed within fires.
Afflicted, falling head downwards, she said to them: 'Protect [me]!'

Addressed by them, 'Do not fear,' remaining in the sky,
she then propitiated her own ancestors with a humble voice.

Those ancestors said to the maiden who had fallen from her power through transgression:
'Deprived of your divine power through your own fault, you are falling, O you of pure smile!

For deities reap the fruit of actions right here
with those very bodies by which the actions are performed in heaven.

A human, however, [reaps] the good and bad in another body; such is the rule.

Actions bear fruit immediately in divinity, [and] after death in humanity;
those actions done in divinity indeed exist in humanity;
therefore, daughter, you will reap here after death the fruit of your ascetic heat.'

Spoken to thus by the ancestors, she propitiated her own ancestors;
having reflected, they all bestowed grace upon her out of compassion.

Knowing the inevitable matter, they then said to her:
'You will become the daughter, the offspring of that King Vasu
when he is born on earth among humans, the great-souled one;
becoming his daughter, you will regain your own worlds, difficult to attain.

Born in the womb of a fish, you will become the daughter of the king.

You will bring forth a brahmin, the heir of Parāśara;
that brahmin seer will divide the single Veda into four.'

and the two sons of Mahābhiṣa and Śaṃtanu, who enhance fame: / Vicitravīrya who knows dharma, and the lord Citrāṅgada;

and the elder Vicitravīrya, and Citrāṅgada after him.

Having brought forth these sons, you shall attain the worlds again. / Reaching this, O very fortunate lady, through your own contemptible deed / and from an offense against the ancestors, you will obtain a contemptible birth.

You shall become a daughter of that very king in Adrikā; / you will be born from the womb of a fish in the twenty-eighth Dvāpara [Yuga].

Thus addressed, the daughter of the fisherman, Satyavatī, incomparable, / was then born in the womb of a fish as the daughter of that king Vasu.

Adrikā had become a fish at the confluence of the Gaṅgā and the Yamunā.

In her that maiden was born by the semen of the king.

Those worlds named Baibhrāja shine in heaven, fair to behold, / where the ancestors renowned in heaven are called the Barhiṣads.

All the hosts of Dānavas, Yakṣas, Gandharvas, and Rākṣasas, / Nāgas, Sarpas, and Suparṇas of boundless might, revere them.

These are the great-souled sons of the Prajāpati Pulastya— / great-souled, very fortunate, endowed with splendor, practicing ascetic heat.

These three auspicious hosts, embodied forms of dharma, have been proclaimed.

Their mind-born daughter, renowned by the name Pīvarī, / is yoga, the wife of yoga, and likewise the mother of yoga; / having reached the Dvāpara Yuga, she will be the foremost of the upholders of dharma.

Born in the lineage of Parāśara, Śuka by name, of great ascetic heat, / a great yogin, the best of the twice-born, will exist in that yuga, / produced from Vyāsa upon the fire-drill, blazing like a smokeless fire.

In that daughter of the ancestors, Pīvarī, he will father / a daughter and four sons, masters of yoga, possessing great strength.

and four sons, masters of yoga, skilled in the Vedas:

Kṛṣṇa, Gaura, Prabhu, Śaṃbhu, and likewise a daughter Kṛtvī; / a sixth [child], a daughter Kīrtimatī, mother of yoga and a female yogin; / the daughter Kṛtvī, Kīrtimatī, yoga, the mother of yoga, / who was the queen of Aṇuha and the mother of Brahmadatta.

Having fathered these masters of yoga of great vows, the righteous one, / of boundless intellect, having heard the teachings on dharma from Janaka and Vyāsa, / the great yogin will then attain the state from which there is no return;

resorting to the path endowed with the rays of the sun, from which there is no return;

drunk in by the sun's rays, he will not come again;

which is that untroubled, imperishable, eternal brahman abode.

The formless ancestors are the embodied forms of dharma, O sage, / where the tale concerning the lineage of the Vṛṣṇi and Andhaka families arose.

These three have been told by me; learn of four others from me, / whom I shall declare, O best of the twice-born; for they are considered embodied, / arisen in Svadhā from Kāvya fire, the sons of Kavi.

The ancestors named Sukālas, [descendants] of the Prajāpati Vasiṣṭha, / devoted in the worlds of the gods shining with radiance, O Bhārgava, / replete with all desires—twice-born men revere them.

Their mind-born daughter, renowned in heaven by the name Gauḥ, / was given in your own lineage, O twice-born, as the queen of Śuka.

Renowned as Ekaśṛṅgā, the enhancer of the fame of the Sādhyas, / she stands enveloping the worlds that contain Marīci.

Those sons of Aṅgiras who were formerly reared by the Sādhyas / are called the Upahūtas, radiant ancestors in heaven; / the hosts of kṣatriyas, desiring fruits, revere them, my dear.

Their mind-born daughter is renowned by the name Yaśodā, / who was the wife of Viśvamahat and the daughter-in-law of Vṛddhaśarman, / the mother, my dear, of the great-souled royal seer Dilīpa.

Gāthās were sung formerly at his sacrifice by delighted great seers, / then in the age of the gods, my dear, at that great rite, the horse sacrifice:

Having thus heard of the birth of the fire of the great-souled Śāṇḍilya, / those men who, well-composed, behold Dilīpa the sacrificer, / the truthful, great-souled one, also conquer heaven.

Dilīpa the sacrificer was then seen by the wise,

at whose concluding ablution of the horse sacrifice they went to heaven along with him.

The ancestors named Susvadhās, [descendants] of the Prajāpati Kardama / born from Pulaha, are great-souled bulls among the twice-born.

They dwell as birds moving at will in worlds in heaven; / the hosts of vaiśyas, desiring fruits, revere them, my dear.

Their mind-born daughter is renowned by the name Virajā, / the mother of Yayāti, O brahmin, and the queen of Nahuṣa.

By ascetic heat or with effort they are seen with one's own eye.

Thus these ancestors are gods, and the gods are again ancestors.

These three hosts have been spoken of; learn from me the fourth, / who were born in Svadhā, the Somapas, sons of Kavi.

The śūdras revere them, the sons of Hiraṇyagarbha; / Mānasas are the names of those worlds in heaven where they dwell.

Their mind-born daughter is Narmadā, the best of rivers, / who sustains creatures, flowing toward the southern region, / who was the wife of Purukutsa and also the mother of Trasaddasyu;

the mother of Trasadasyu and the wife of Purukutsa;

she was the wife of Purukutsa, and Trasaddasyu was her son.

Following their approach, my dear, the Prajāpati Manu, / in yuga after yuga, institutes śrāddha rites when dharma is lost,

by the primal creation of all the ancestors, O best of the twice-born; / therefore, according to his own duty, they call him Śrāddhadeva.

A silver vessel, or one adorned with silver, / offered for all, placing svadhā foremost, pleases the ancestors in a śrāddha.

Having nourished Soma, Agni, and the son of Vivasvat, / also in the fire during the northern course of the sun, or, in the absence of fire, in water;

or upon copper-colored he-goats, or brown cows,

upon those sprinkled with horn-water, upon lovely daughters-in-law,

upon childless cows or those with calves, pure balls of food must be given.

He who pleases the ancestors with devotion, the ancestors please him; / the ancestors bestow nourishment and abundant offspring, / as well as heaven, health, and whatever else is desired.

The ancestors, for one desiring nourishment or desiring offspring,

the grandfathers bestow nourishment, offspring, and heaven,

lifespan, wealth, happiness, heaven, and health.

The ancestors would bestow with love whatever else is desired.

Even beyond the rites for the gods, O sage, the rites for the ancestors are superior; / for the ancestors are remembered as the prior nourishment of the gods.

They are swift to be pleased and free from anger, the supreme nourishment of the world, / and always steadfast in grace; bow down to them, O Bhārgava.

You are devoted to the ancestors, O seer among brahmins, and devoted to the good, without doubt. / I shall ordain your highest good today; see it yourself directly.

I grant you divine sight endowed with discernment, O sinless one; / heedful, O Mārkaṇḍeya, behold this destiny.

For neither the divine path of yoga nor the supreme state of the ancestors / can be seen with the physical eye, even by an accomplished one such as you.

Having spoken thus to me standing before him, the lord of gods, / having bestowed sight endowed with discernment rare even for the gods, / went to his desired abode, blazing like a second fire.

Learn that, O best of Kurus, which was witnessed by me / through the grace of that god, which is hard for mortals on earth to comprehend.