Markandeyapurana 49
English (machine translation) 49
- Language
- English
Contents
- 49.80 — 2 parts
49.1
Krauṣṭuki said:
The downward-flowing creation of humans has been described by you; / O brahmin, tell in full detail how Brahmā created it,
49.2
and how he created the varṇas, of what qualities they were, O noble-minded one, / and what duty is taught for each, beginning with the brahmins—tell that.
49.3
Mārkaṇḍeya said:
Formerly, as Brahmā meditated on truth while creating, / he then created from his mouth a thousand couples, O sage.
49.4
When born, they came forth with sattva predominant and radiant with their own splendor; / he then produced from his chest another thousand couples.
49.5
All of them had rajas predominant, and were energetic and impatient; / again, from his thighs he produced another thousand couples.
49.6
With rajas and tamas predominant, they are recalled as active and eager; / and from his feet he produced another thousand couples.
49.7
All of them had tamas predominant, lacking splendor and of meager intellect. / Then those creatures produced as couples, full of rejoicing,
49.8
seized by mutual passion, took to copulation; / from that time onward in this kalpa, couples came to be produced.
49.9
The monthly courses that women have did not exist then; / therefore they did not give birth then, though practicing sexual intercourse.
49.10
At the end of their lifespan they would give birth once to a single couple; / from that time onward in this kalpa, couples came to be produced.
49.11
By mental meditation alone there was born at once for those creatures / each pure sense-object, such as sound, characterized by fivefold traits.
49.12
Such was that human creation formerly produced by Prajāpati; / it was those born of its lineage by whom this world was filled.
49.13
They resorted to rivers, lakes, oceans, and also mountains; / in that yuga they wandered about, affected little by cold or heat.
49.14
They attained natural satisfaction in sense-objects, O noble-minded one; / they had no obstacle, no hatred, and no envy.
49.15
Resorting to mountains and oceans, they were entirely without houses; / indeed, they moved about free of desire, their minds ever joyful.
49.16
Piśācas, serpents, rākṣasas, envious people, / beasts, birds, crocodiles, fish, reptiles,
49.17
invulnerable beings, or egg-born creatures—they were the offspring of adharma. / There were no roots, fruits, or flowers, no seasons and no years.
49.18
Time brought pleasure at all times, with no excess of heat or cold. / As time passed, a wondrous perfection arose for them.
49.19
And then they experienced satisfaction in the morning and at noon; / whenever they wished again, satisfaction occurred without effort.
49.20
And as they desired, an exertion of the mind arose; / then, through the subtleness of the waters, a perfection shining with various tastes arose for them,
49.21
and another arose that granted all desires. / With bodies that required no purification, those creatures possessed steadfast youth.
49.22
Offspring were born to them as pairs without any sexual intention; / their birth and appearance were equal, and they died together.
49.23
They lived with one another free of desire and hatred, / all having equal appearance and lifespan, without distinction of base and superior.
49.24
The measure of the lifespan they lived was four thousand human years, / and there were no disasters arising from affliction.
49.25
Now and then, by fortune, that earth was entirely favorable everywhere; / just as creatures go to destruction in the course of time,
49.26
so those perfections gradually went to destruction everywhere. / When all those were lost, men falling from the sky,
49.27
mostly those wishing-trees designated as 'houses' appeared; / from them arose every kind of enjoyment for those people.
49.28
From those [trees] they maintained themselves at that dawn of the Tretāyuga; / then, in the course of time, sudden passion arose among them.
49.29
Through the monthly occurrence of menses, conception occurred again and again; / then, through the arising of passion in them, those trees called houses,
49.30
O brahmin, and also the branches of other trees, fell down. / From their fruits were produced garments and ornaments,
49.31
and in those very [trees] was produced for them honey, endowed with fragrance, color, and flavor, / not made by bees, of great potency, in leaf-cup after leaf-cup.
49.32
On that they indeed subsisted at the beginning of the Tretāyuga. / Then, after a lapse of time, filled with greed again,
49.33
their minds possessed by possessiveness, they seized those trees. / Because of that offense, those trees also perished for them.
49.34
Then pairs of opposites arose, beginning with cold, heat, and hunger. / In order to counteract those opposites, they first built cities,
49.35
in desert wastes, strongholds, on mountains, and in caves; / and they took shelter in strongholds: forest, mountain, and water [fortresses],
49.36
and likewise artificial fortresses. Measuring again and again with their fingers, / they first established standard measures for the purpose of measurement:
49.37
the atom is the ultimate subtle [unit], the speck of dust, the earth-particle, / the tip of a hair, a louse-egg, a louse, and then the belly of a barley corn;
49.38
in succession they are said to be eightfold. Eight barley corns are a finger-breadth; / six finger-breadths are a foot, and twice that is recalled as a span.
49.39
Two spans make a cubit, measured around from the brāhmya tīrtha; / four cubits make a bow, a staff, a nāḍikā, and a yoke.
49.40
Two thousand bows make a gavyūti, and four times that / is declared as a yojana by the wise; this is the supreme standard for measurement.
49.41
Of the four kinds of fortresses, three arise naturally, / but the fourth, the artificial fortress, they indeed constructed with effort:
49.42
a city, a small town, likewise an estuary-fortress, O twice-born, / and a branch-town, as well as an inland town and a dramī,
49.43
a village along with a cattle-station layout, and in them separate dwellings, / having raised ramparts and surrounded on all sides by moats.
49.44
A city is a quarter of a yojana wide, and an eighth part [of a yojana] long, / sloping toward the northeast, auspicious, and with an exit in a pure lineage.
49.45
Half of that is a small town, and a quarter of it an inland town; / less than that by an end-part is called an estuary-fortress.
49.46
A city devoid of walls and moats is called a kharvaṭa; / another is a branch-town, enjoyed by ministers and feudal lords.
49.47
Likewise, a settlement consisting mostly of Śūdras, with farmers of their own wealth, / in the midst of lands fit for field cultivation, is called a village.
49.48
The settlement that is made by people originating from another city or town / for the sake of an enterprise should be known by people as a settlement.
49.49
Populated mostly by the wicked, without fields, moving on others' land, powerful, / and dependent on the king's favorites, such a village is called a dramī.
49.50
Where cattle-herders with goods mounted on carts dwell without a marketplace, / with herds of cows, having dwellings on land according to desire, that is a cattle-station.
49.51
Thus, having built cities and other [settlements] for their own dwelling, / they made homes for residence against the pairs of opposites.
49.52
Just as the trees previously had the form of houses for them, / remembering all that, those subjects built dwellings in the same way.
49.53
Branches of a tree spread this way, and others spread that way; / bent down and raised up, in that same way they fashioned the rafters.
49.54
The branches which were formerly on the wish-fulfilling trees, O best of the twice-born, / became the rafters of houses; therefore, the term ‘hall’ applies to them.
49.55
Having counteracted the pairs of opposites, they thought of means of livelihood, / for the wish-fulfilling trees had perished completely along with the honey.
49.56
Those subjects were agitated by dejection, afflicted with thirst and hunger. / Then a power became manifest to them at that time, at the start of the Tretā[yuga]:
49.57
another livelihood attained effortlessly—rain according to their desire. / The rainwater that flowed downwards here,
49.58
by that contained rain, currents were channelled into downward-flowing rivers; / those drops of water which previously fell upon the surface of the earth,
49.59
from the conjunction with the earth, plants then came into being: / fourteen cultivated and wild varieties, not ploughed and unsown.
49.60
Trees and shrubs bearing flowers and fruits in season were born. / This was the first manifestation of plants in the Tretā[yuga].
49.61
The subjects subsisted on those plants in the Tretāyuga, O sage. / Then, succumbing to sudden passion and greed,
49.62
the subjects seized rivers, fields, mountains, / trees, shrubs, and plants, as their own according to their strength.
49.63
Because of that fault, those plants perished before their eyes, O twice-born; / the earth swallowed those plants all at once, O noble-minded one.
49.64
When they had disappeared again, those subjects, bewildered once more, / afflicted with hunger, went for refuge to Brahmā, the Supreme Lord.
49.65
Knowing truly that the earth had then swallowed them, / the Lord, the all-pervading ruler, made Sumeru the calf and milked [her].
49.66
This earth as a cow was then milked by him, and crops upon the earth's surface / were produced—those seeds, both cultivated and wild.
49.67
Plants ending with the ripening of fruit are recalled as seventeen varieties: / rice, barley, wheat, small grain, sesame,
49.68
priyaṅgu millet, udāra grain, koradūṣa, along with panic seed, / black gram, mung bean, lentil, niṣpāva, with horse gram,
49.69
pigeon pea, and chickpea—these are recalled as seventeen varieties. / Such were the species of cultivated plants in ancient times.
49.70
The plants used for sacrifice, both cultivated and wild, are fourteen: / rice, barley, wheat, small grain, sesame,
49.71
these with priyaṅgu as the seventh, and horse gram as the eighth, / śyāmāka millet, wild rice, yattila, with gavedhukā grass,
49.72
kuruvinda, markaṭaka, and that which is bamboo-barley. / These are recalled as the fourteen cultivated and wild plants.
49.73
When the produced plants did not sprout again, / he then devised a means of livelihood for their growth,
49.74
Lord Brahmā, the self-existent, and manual skill born of work. / From that time onward, plants grew ripened by cultivation.
49.75
When the livelihood was perfected, then the Lord himself established / bounds of conduct for them, according to justice and according to virtue.
49.76
and the duties of the castes and life-stages, O best of upholders of dharma, / and the realms of all the castes that duly observe dharma and wealth:
49.77
The realm of Prajāpati is declared for brahmins engaged in ritual acts; / the realm of Indra for kṣatriyas who do not flee in battle;
49.78
the realm of the Maruts for vaiśyas who follow their own duty; / the realm of the Gandharvas for the śūdra castes who attend upon service.
49.79
Whatever realm is remembered for the eighty-eight thousand / chaste seers of upward-drawn seed, that very same is for those who dwell with the guru;
49.80
and whatever realm is remembered for the Seven Seers belongs to forest-dwellers; / that of Prajāpati to householders; the abode of Brahman to renunciants; / and the immortal realm to yogins: such is the allotment of realms.
49.80.p1
Thus ends the forty-ninth chapter, in the section on creation, in the glorious Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa.
49.80.p2
Fiftieth chapter — 50
Translations (1)
- The Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa — Frederick Eden Pargiter 1888, English
Linked texts (1)
- Mārkaṇḍeyapurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit