Pramāṇa · Search · About · API

Markandeyapurana 56

English (machine translation) 56

Language
English

Contents

56.1

Mārkaṇḍeya said:
From the abode of Nārāyaṇa, the origin of the world, which upholds the earth,
thence flowed that goddess, the Gaṅgā who flows in three paths.

56.2

Having entered the moon, the source of nectar and reservoir of the waters,
she then, purifier through contact with the converging rays of the sun,

56.3

fell upon the back of Meru, and from there she went in four directions.
Falling from the edges of the peaks and slopes of Meru, she was turned aside,

56.4

her waters scattering, and fell unsupported,
her waters equally divided among the buttress-ranges, Mandara and the others.

56.5

Falling upon all four, her rock-heaps of foothills cleft by the waters,
the eastern one, known as the Sītā, went to the Caitraratha forest.

56.6

Flooding that, she went to the lake-forest Varuṇoda,
and to Mount Śītānta, and from there to the other mountains in turn.

56.7

Flowing on and reaching the earth, she reached the ocean from Bhadrāśva.
Likewise, the one named Alakanandā on Gandhamādana in the south,

56.8

having gone to the forest on the buttress of Meru, Nandana, delighting the gods,
and having inundated Lake Mānasa with great velocity,

56.9

having reached the king of mountains and its delightful peak,
and from there [overflowing] all the mountains mentioned in order to the south,

56.10

having flooded them, she reached the great mountain Himavat.
There Śambhu, whose banner bears the bull, held her and did not release her.

56.11

The all-pervading lord was propitiated by Bhagīratha with fasts and praise;
released there by Śarva, she went in seven streams to the southern ocean.

56.12

The great river entered threefold in the east, inundating [the land],
and to the south with one stream following Bhagīratha’s chariot.

56.14

Likewise on the western buttress, Vipula, that great river,
known as Sucakṣu, went to the Vaibhrāja mountain.
Flooding Lake Śītoda from there, the great river
reached Mount Sucakṣu, and from there went to Triśikha.

56.15

From there, falling in turn upon the peaks of the mountains,
and reaching Ketumāla, she entered the salt ocean.

56.16

Likewise she went to Mount Supārśva, the buttress of Meru;
known there as the Bhadrasomā, she went to the forest of Savitṛ.

56.17

Purifying that, she reached Lake Mahābhadra;
and from there the great river went to Śaṅkhakūṭa.

56.18

From there, having reached in turn the mountains Vṛṣabha and the others,
she reached the great ocean, having flooded the Northern Kurus.

56.19

Thus has this Gaṅgā been described to you by me, O best of the twice-born,
as well as the layout of Jambūdvīpa and its realms as they truly are.

56.20

The creatures dwell in all of them, beginning with Kiṃpuruṣa,
mostly happy, free from affliction, devoid of inferiority or superiority.

56.21

In all nine realms there are seven clan-mountains each;
and in each country there are rivers issuing from the mountains.

56.22

The eight realms, O best of the twice-born, beginning with Kiṃpuruṣa,
have waters springing from the earth; here in Bhārata the water comes from clouds.

56.23

Pertaining to trees, innate, regional, produced from water, mental,
and born of action—such is the perfection of human beings in these eight realms.

56.24

Perfection from trees is born of wish-fulfilling trees; the innate
is declared natural satisfaction; and the regional is of the country;

56.25

that produced from water is through subtlety of the waters; mental is joined with meditation;
and that born of dharma is explained as stemming from action such as worship.

56.26

In these there are no stages of cosmic ages, no mental agonies, nor physical diseases;
and there is no undertaking of merit or demerit in them, O best of the twice-born.

56.26.p1

Thus ends the fifty-sixth chapter, named 'The Descent of the Gaṅgā', in the glorious Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa.

56.26.p2

Fifty-seventh chapter – 57

Translations (1)

Linked texts (1)