Markandeyapurana 59
English (machine translation) 59
- Language
- English
Contents
- 59.29 — 2 parts
59.1
Mārkaṇḍeya said: / Thus the realm of Bhārata has been related according to truth, O sage; / the four ages—Kṛta, Tretā, Dvāpara, and Kali—
59.2
occur here alone, and here indeed the fourfold order of castes exists, O twice-born; / four, three, two, and one hundred years
59.3
men live here, O brahmin, successively in the Kṛta, Tretā, and following ages. / To the east of the great-souled Devakūṭa, king of mountains,
59.4
lies the realm called Bhadrāśva situated to the east; learn of that from me. / Śvetaparṇa, Nīla, and Śaivāla, the best of mountains,
59.5
Kaurañja, and Parṇaśālāgra: these are the five family mountains. / Born of them are many other smaller mountains.
59.6
Distinguished by them are inhabited lands of various forms by the thousands; / then there are mountains resembling the white water-lily, with pure ridges and very auspicious,
59.7
and others of this kind by the hundreds and thousands. / The Sītā, Śaṅkhāvatī, Bhadrā, and Cakrāvartā,
59.8
and many wide rivers carrying floods of cool water [flow there]. / In this realm, men have a radiance equal to a conch-shell or pure gold;
59.9
they consort with celestial beings, are meritorious, and have a life span of a thousand years; / among them there are no inferior or superior, and all are of equal appearance.
59.10
By nature they are endowed with eight qualities, such as endurance and others. / There too the horse-headed god, four-armed Janārdana,
59.11
is equipped with head, heart, organ, feet, and hands, and with three eyes; / in this manner, the territories of that Lord of the universe are to be known.
59.12
Now learn from me about the western realm, Ketumāla: / Viśāla, Kambala, Kṛṣṇa, Jayanta, Hariparvata,
59.13
Viśoka, and Vardhamāna—these are the seven family mountains; / there are thousands of other mountains on which groups of people dwell.
59.14
The Maulayas, who are of huge body, the Śākapotakambhakas, / and those headed by the Aṅgulas—hundreds of peoples dwell there,
59.15
who drink the great rivers Vaṅkṣu, Śyāmā, and Kambalā, / Amoghā, Kāminī, Śyāmā, and thousands of others.
59.16
Here too the life span is equal to the former [realm], and here too the blessed Lord Hari / having the form of a Boar, in his feet, mouth, heart, back, and sides,
59.17
occupies regions associated with triads of asterisms, and auspicious asterisms. / Thus this Ketumāla has been described to you, O best of sages.
59.18
Hereafter I shall speak of the northern Kurus; learn of them from me here. / There the trees bear honey-fruits and are endowed with perpetual flowers and fruits;
59.19
garments and ornaments are produced among their fruits, / for they bestow all desires, yielding fruits of every desire.
59.20
The earth is made of jewels; the wind is fragrant, always pleasant; / humans who have fallen from the world of the gods are born there.
59.21
Couples are born together and remain together for an equal duration of time; / they are attached to each other and resemble cakravāka birds.
59.22
Their life span lasts indeed fourteen and a half thousand [years]; / Candrakānta, the king of mountains, and Sūryakānta, another [mountain],
59.23
are the two family mountains in that realm, and between them a great river, / the Bhadrasomā, flows across the earth carrying a flood of sacred and pure water.
59.24
There are likewise thousands of other rivers in that northern realm, / and others that flow with milk and flow with ghee.
59.25
There are lakes of curds there, and likewise other subordinate mountains; / there are diverse fruits with a flavor like nectar
59.26
in the forests in those realms by the hundreds and thousands. / There too is the blessed Lord Viṣṇu, facing eastward, possessing the form of a fish,
59.27
divided into nine parts, O brahmin, three by three among the asterisms; / and the directions are likewise divided ninefold, O best of sages.
59.28
Candradvīpa is in the ocean, and another is Bhadradvīpa; / there too [a mountain] is celebrated as sacred inside the ocean, O great sage.
59.29
Thus this northern realm of Kuru has been described by me, O brahmin; / now hear about the realms beginning with Kimpuruṣa as I tell of them.
59.29.p1
Thus ends the fifty-ninth chapter in the glorious Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa, named “The Description of Uttarakuru.”
59.29.p2
Sixtieth chapter - 60
Translations (1)
- The Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa — Frederick Eden Pargiter 1888, English
Linked texts (1)
- Mārkaṇḍeyapurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit