Harivamsha 15

English (machine translation) 15

Language: English

15.1

Mārkaṇḍeya said: / When that god had vanished, by the command of that lord, / divine sight endowed with discernment appeared to me, O sinless one.

15.2

Then I saw those brahmins, the sons of Kauśika, / in Kurukṣetra, O son of the river, about whom the lord had spoken to me.

15.3

Brahmadatta was the king who was the seventh brahmin among them, / renowned by the name Pitṛvartin for his character and conduct.

15.4

Śuka’s daughter Kṛtvī bore that king / from Aṇuha, the foremost of kings, in Kāmpilya, the best of cities.

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Bhīṣma said: / Just as the illustrious Mārkaṇḍeya of great ascetic heat spoke,

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I shall proclaim his lineage, O king; listen to it.

15.5

Yudhiṣṭhira said: / Whose son was Aṇuha, and at what time did he live— / that king, best among upholders of dharma, whose son was of great renown?

15.6

Of what prowess was King Brahmadatta, / and how did the seventh among them become a ruler of men?

15.7

For the blessed Śuka, worshipped by the world and yogic in self, the lord, / would not give his daughter, the renowned Kṛtvī, to one of little prowess.

15.8

I wish to hear this in detail, O you of great splendor; / you ought to recount the conduct of Brahmadatta.

15.9

And how those brahmins fared in the cycles of rebirth / as told by Mārkaṇḍeya, please tell me that.

15.10

Bhīṣma said: / That ruler of men was contemporary with the royal seer Pratīpa, / my grandfather, O king, as I have heard.

15.11

Brahmadatta was a great king, a yogin, the best of royal seers, / understanding the cries of all beings, dedicated to the welfare of all beings.

His friend was Gālava, a teacher of yoga of great renown, / who, having produced the phonetic science by ascetic heat, introduced the step-recitation; / and Kaṇḍarīka, endowed with yoga, was his minister.

15.13

In all their other births, all of them were companions; / through seven births, the seven were of boundless splendor, / just as the greatly radiant Mārkaṇḍeya of great ascetic heat spoke.

15.14

I shall proclaim his ancient lineage, O king; listen to it, / of Brahmadatta, the great-souled Paurava.

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The heir of Bṛhatkṣatra was righteous Suhotra.

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And to Suhotra was born an heir named Hastin.

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By him this city of Hastināpura was formerly founded.

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And Hastin had three most righteous heirs:

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Ajamīḍha, Dvimīḍha, and Puramīḍha.

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Of Ajamīḍha upon Dhūminī, O king, was born Bṛhadiṣu.

15.15

The heir of Purumitra was King Bṛhadiṣu, O king. / Bṛhadiṣu's son was glorious Bṛhaddhanus. / The son of Bṛhadiṣu was known as Bṛhaddharma; / famous as Bṛhaddharma was that most righteous king.

15.16

Satyajit was his son, and Viśvajit was his son; / and the son of Viśvajit was king Senajit.

15.17

Senajit had four sons regarded highly by the world: / Rucira, Śvetakāśya, and Mahimnāra, / and King Vatsa, lord of Avanti, to whom belonged the Vatsakas.

15.18

Rucira's heir was glorious Pṛthuṣeṇa; / Pṛthuṣeṇa's son was Pāra, and from Pāra was born Nīpa.

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Pāra's splendid son was the renowned Nīpa.

15.19

Nīpa had a hundred and one sons of boundless power, / great chariot-warriors, O chief of kings, heroic and strong-armed; / all those kings were known as the Nīpas.

15.20

The propagator of their line, increasing the fame of the Nīpas, / was a king in Kāmpilya named Samara, who was fond of battle.

15.21

Samara had three sons who were supreme knowers of dharma: / Pura, Pāra, and Sadaśva; Pāra's son Pṛthu shone forth.

15.22

From Pṛthu was born Sukṛta, so named through his meritorious deed; / endowed with all virtues, his son was Vibhrāja.

15.23

Vibhrāja's son was king Aṇuha; / he shone as Śuka's son-in-law, the glorious husband of Kṛtvī.

15.24

Aṇuha's son was the royal seer, lord Brahmadatta; / his son, master of yoga, was Viṣvaksena, scorcher of foes.

15.25

Vibhrāja was born again through his meritorious deed / as the son of Brahmadatta, renowned as Viṣvaksena.

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His two eyes were plucked out by the worshipful bird,

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who had long resided, O king, in the dwelling of Brahmadatta.

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Then another son was born to Brahmadatta,

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known as Viṣvaksena, possessed of great strength and valor.

15.26

Viṣvaksena's son was King Daṇḍasena; / and prince Bhallāṭa was formerly slain by the son of Rādhā.

15.27

The son of Daṇḍasena was a heroic, noble enhancer of the family; / Bhallāṭa's son was the wicked Janamejaya.

15.28

He became the king who brought about the destruction of those Nīpas, O king, / on whose account all the Nīpas were destroyed by Ugrāyudha.

15.29

That haughty Ugrāyudha was slain in battle by me; / full of arrogance, delighting in insolence, and ever devoted to injustice.

15.30

Yudhiṣṭhira said: / Whose son was Ugrāyudha, and in which lineage was he born? / And for what reason was he slain by you? Tell me that.

15.31

Bhīṣma said: / The heir of Ajamīḍha was the wise king Yavīnara; / his son was Dhṛtimat, and his son was Satyadhṛti.

15.32

Born as Satyadhṛti's son was the majestic Dṛḍhanemi; / and Dṛḍhanemi's son was the ruler Sudharman.

15.33

Sudharman had a son, Sārvabhauma, lord of subjects, / renowned on earth as Sārvabhauma, a sole emperor at that time.

15.34

In his great lineage was born Mahān, the joy of the Pauravas; / Mahān's son is recorded by name as Rukmaratha; / and the son of Rukmaratha was the ruler named Supārśva; / Supārśva's son was the righteous Sumati; / and from him was born the valorous king Saṃnatimat, named Saṃnati.

15.35

The son of that Saṃnati was the mighty Kārta, / a pupil of the noble Hiraṇyanābha of Kosala. / By him those Sāma compendia were proclaimed in twenty-four versions; / they are remembered as the Eastern Sāmans, and the Sāma-chanters were named Kārtas. / That hero, joy of the Pauravas, was Kārtir Ugrāyudha, / by whom, advancing with prowess, the grandfather of Pṛṣata, / King Nīpa, the ruler of the Pañcālas, was slain.

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The heir of Ugrāyudha was the glorious Kṣemya.

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From Kṣemya came King Suvīra; from Suvīra came Nṛpaṃjaya;

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from Nṛpaṃjaya came Bahuratha. These are remembered as Pauravas.

15.36

And that Ugrāyudha, O dear one, evil-minded, always stirring up enmity, / possessing a blazing discus and mighty, brought about the end of the Nīpas.

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Ugrāyudha was wicked-minded, subservient to women, and always corrupt.

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He seized a princess and assaulted the wife of a sage.

15.37

Filled with arrogance after slaying the Nīpas and other kings in battle, / when my father had died, he announced his offensive demand to me.

15.38

To me lying on the ground, surrounded by ministers, / O chief of kings, a messenger of Ugrāyudha came and spoke these words:

15.39

"Today, O Bhīṣma, give your mother, the renowned Gandhakālī, / that jewel among women, to be my wife, O bull of the Kurus!

15.40

In that case, your thriving kingdom and armed forces—there is no doubt— / and your position in the kingdom / with its fourfold army today / I will grant as you desire, for I am the rightful possessor of treasures on earth.

15.41

If you desire the welfare of your realm, of your life, or of your line, / abide by my command; otherwise there will be no peace for you."

15.42

Lying upon a bed on the ground, I was addressed by him; / conveyed through a messenger, these words were like a flame of fire.

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Those words of that wicked-souled man burned my body.

15.43

Then, having perceived the intention of that evil-minded man, O unswerving one, / I gave orders for battle to all the army commanders.

15.44

"Seeing this blazing discus of mine, exceedingly hard to conquer, / enemies flee in battle at its mere sight, O Bhārata."

15.45

Seeing that Vicitravīrya was a child and relying on me, / my mind overcome with rage, I resolved on war.

15.46

Then I was restrained by ministers skilled in counsel, / by sacrificial priests resembling gods, and by friends, O bull among men,

15.47

and by affectionate men learned in the scriptures; / they declared to me sound reasons for desisting from battle, O sinless one.

15.48

The ministers said: / "That wicked one has his wheel turned [to victory], and you are in a state of ritual impurity, O lord. / And war is never the foremost recourse.

15.49

We shall first employ conciliation, and likewise bribery and dissension. / Then, having become pure and having bowed to the deities,

15.50

having had blessings pronounced by the vipras, having made oblations to the fires and had the twice-born recite auspicious words, / and being authorized by the brahmins, you shall indeed advance to victory.

15.51

Weapons must not be employed, nor battle entered upon / by one who is in ritual impurity—such is the ruling of the elders.

15.52

First with conciliation, bribery, and the like, or next through dissension, / you will strike him down through prowess, just as Maghavat struck Śambara."

15.53

"The word of the wise, and especially of the elders, must be heeded in due time"— / having heard this, I turned back, O ruler of men.

15.54

Then that entire procedure was employed by those skilled in the treatises, / and at that time, O best of Kurus, the supreme ritual was begun.

15.55

Even when conciliated at first with conciliation and other means by those deliberating on the treatises, / that evil-minded one could not be brought to reason.

15.56

The wheel of that man devoted to adharma had indeed rolled on, / but through his desire for another's wife, O dear one, it was turned back immediately.

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For there exists nothing in this world that cuts short life

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so much as a man's pursuit here of another's wife.

15.57

I did not know his supreme wheel had turned back; / but it was ruined by his own action, and had previously been condemned by the virtuous.

15.58

Having purified myself, taking up my quiver, mounting my chariot, and issuing forth from the city, / having had blessings pronounced by the vipras, I fought the enemy.

15.59

Then, coming together with strength and the power of weapons, / there was a battle like that between gods and asuras, raging frantically for three days.

15.60

Burned at the front of the battle by the fiery power of my weapons, / facing forward, that hero gave up his life, O subduer of enemies.

15.61

Meanwhile, my dear, Pṛṣata arrived from Kāmpilya, / once the lord of the Nīpas was killed and King Ugrāyudha was slain.

15.62

Regaining Ahicchatra, his own ancestral realm, that exceedingly splendid king, / the father of Drupada, [ruled] then with my very assent, O king.

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Then Drupada became king, [and] Droṇa was turned away by him.

15.63

Then, having swiftly conquered Drupada in battle, / Ahicchatra along with Kāmpilya was ceded by Arjuna to Droṇa.

15.64

Accepting both, Droṇa, best among victors, / gave Kāmpilya back to Drupada, as is known to you.

15.65

Thus has been told to you in full the lineage of Drupada at first, / and indeed of Brahmadatta, and of the heroic Ugrāyudha.

15.66

From this I shall recount to you an ancient story / sung by Sanatkumāra to Mārkaṇḍeya as he questioned him,

15.67

concerning the fixed fruit of the ancestral rite and of good deeds. / Understand that, O great king, descendant of Bharata, across seven births:

15.68

the deeds of Gālava, and of Kaṇḍarīka, / and of Brahmadatta as the third, yogins observing chaste studentship.

Linked texts (1)

Harivaṃśa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit