Bhagavatapurana 9.15

English (machine translation) 9.15

Language: English

9.15.1

The son of Bādarāyaṇa said: / From the womb of Urvaśī were born six sons of the son of Ilā, O King: / Āyus, Śrutāyus, Satyāyus, Raya, Vijaya, and Jaya.

9.15.2

The son of Śrutāyus was Vasumat, and Śrutañjaya was of Satyāyus; / the son of Raya was Eka, and the son of Jaya was Amita.

9.15.3

Bhīma was the son of Vijaya, then Kāñcana, and from him Hotraka; / his son was Jahnu, who drank the Gaṅgā in a single mouthful. / The son of Jahnu was Puru, and his son was Balāka, and Ajaka [his].

9.15.4

From him was Kuśa; and the sons of Kuśa were Kuśāmba, Vasu, / and Kuśanābha—these four; and Gādhi was the son of Kuśāmba.

9.15.5

The brāhmaṇa Ṛcīka asked for his daughter Satyavatī; / deeming the bridegroom unsuitable, Gādhi said to the descendant of Bhṛgu:

9.15.6

'Let a thousand horses with one ear black and having the luster of the moon / be given as the bride-price for the girl; we are Kuśikas.'

9.15.7

Thus addressed, knowing his intention, he went to Varuṇa; / and having brought and given those horses, he married the fair-faced maiden.

9.15.8

Beseeched by his wife and mother-in-law out of a desire for offspring, / the sage cooked sacrificial porridge with mantras for both and went to bathe.

9.15.9

Meanwhile, Satyavatī was asked by her mother for her own porridge; / considering it superior, she gave it to her mother, and ate her mother's herself.

9.15.10

Knowing that, the sage said to his wife: "You have done something terrible! / Your son will be a fierce wielder of punishment, and your brother the foremost knower of Brahman."

9.15.11

Appeased by Satyavatī saying, "May it not be so," the Bhārgava [said], / "Then it shall be your grandson." From that Jamadagni was born.

9.15.12

And she became the most holy Kauśikī, purifying the worlds. / Jamadagni indeed married Reṇukā, the daughter of Reṇu.

9.15.13

By her the Bhārgava sage had sons headed by Vasumat; / the youngest of them was born renowned as Rāma.

9.15.14

Him they call a portion of Vāsudeva, the end of the race of the Haihayas, / who thrice seven times rid this earth of kṣatriyas.

9.15.15

He destroyed the arrogant warrior class, a burden to the earth and hostile to brāhmaṇas; / covered with passion and darkness, he struck them down even for an insignificant offense.

9.15.16

The King said: / What was that offense committed by the unrestrained rulers against the Lord, / by which the race of the kṣatriyas was wiped out again and again?

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Śrī Bādarāyaṇi said: / The lord of the Haihayas was Arjuna, a bull among kṣatriyas; / having propitiated Datta, a portion of a portion of Nārāyaṇa, through personal services,

9.15.18

he obtained a thousand arms, invincibility against enemies, / unimpeded power of the senses, beauty, luster, valor, fame, and strength;

9.15.19

and mastery of yoga with lordship in which powers such as minuteness are present; / he moved through the worlds with unobstructed motion, like the wind.

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Surrounded by jewels of women, sporting in the waters of the Revā, inflamed with pride, / wearing a Vaijayantī garland, he blocked the river with his arms.

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His own camp flooded by the reversed waters of the river, / the ten-headed [Rāvaṇa], thinking himself a hero, could not bear his valor.

9.15.22

Having committed an offense, he was captured sportingly in the presence of the women / and imprisoned at Māhiṣmatī, then released by him like a monkey.

9.15.23

Once, however, wandering on a hunt in a deserted forest, / he chanced upon the hermitage grounds of Jamadagni.

9.15.24

To that king with his army, ministers, and mounts, the sage rich in asceticism / offered hospitable welcome by means of his sacrificial cow.

9.15.25

Seeing that jewel that surpassed his own wealth, / the Haihaya did not respect it, but desired the sacrificial cow.

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Out of pride, he urged his men to seize the sage's sacrificial cow, / and they carried her off by force to Māhiṣmatī, crying along with her calf.

9.15.27

Then, after the king departed, Rāma returned to the hermitage; / hearing of that wickedness of his, he was enraged like a struck serpent.

9.15.28

Taking up a terrible battle-axe, quivers, armor, and bow, / intolerant, he ran after him like a lion chasing a herd-leader.

As he was entering his city, [the king] saw that best of the Bhṛgus rushing toward him with power, holding a bow, armed with arrows and an axe, / clad in a black-antelope skin, endowed with matted locks shining like the sun.

9.15.30

He dispatched seventeen most terrifying akṣauhiṇī armies / equipped with elephants, chariots, horses, and foot-soldiers, with clubs, swords, arrows, spears, sataghnis, and javelins; the single lord Rāma destroyed them all.

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Wherever he struck with his axe, with the swiftness of mind and wind, slaughtering the enemy host, / there their arms, thighs, and necks were severed, and their charioteers and mounts were slain, falling to the earth.

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Seeing his army struck down in the mire of torrents of blood on the battlefield / by Rāma’s axe and arrows, its armor, banners, bows, and bodies broken, the Haihaya rushed forward in fury.

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Then Arjuna, with his arms, fixed arrows simultaneously onto five hundred bows / aimed at Rāma; Rāma, the foremost of weapon-wielders, severed them all at once with the arrows of a single bow.

9.15.34

When he rushed forward violently again in battle, hurling mountains and trees with his own hands, / Rāma forcibly severed his arms with the sharp edge of his axe, like those of a serpent.

9.15.35

He severed the head of him whose arms had been cut off, like the peak of a mountain; / their father having been slain, his ten thousand sons fled in fear.

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Having recovered the much-tormented sacrificial cow along with her calf, the slayer of enemy heroes / arrived at the hermitage and gave her back to his father.

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Rāma described that deed performed by him to his father and his brothers; / hearing that, Jamadagni said:

9.15.38

"Rāma, Rāma, mighty-armed one, you have committed a sin, / in that you have needlessly killed a king who embodies all the gods.

9.15.39

"We indeed are brāhmaṇas, my son, who have attained worshipfulness through forgiveness, / by which the divine teacher of the universe attained the supreme state of Brahmā.

9.15.40

"Through forgiveness, the splendor of a brāhmaṇa shines like the brilliance of the sun; / the Lord Hari, the supreme master, is swiftly pleased with the forgiving.

9.15.41

"The killing of an anointed king is graver than the killing of a brāhmaṇa; / cleanse this sin by attending sacred shrines, my dear, keeping your mind fixed on Acyuta."

Translations (1)

The Srimad Bhagavatam — S. Subba Rau 1928, English

Linked texts (1)

Bhāgavatapurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit