Matsyapurana 20
English (machine translation) 20
- Language
- English
20.1
The ṛṣis said: / How did those heirs of Kauśika attain that supreme yoga? / How can the exhaustion of karma come about through five connected births?
20.2
Sūta said: / There was a righteous, great ṛṣi named Kauśika in Kurukṣetra. / Learn of his seven sons by name and by deed:
20.3
Śvasṛpa, Krodhana, Hiṃsra, Piśuna, and Kavi, / Vāgduṣṭa, and Pitṛvartin; they were then disciples of Garga.
20.4
When their father had died, a severe famine befell them, / and a great drought, terrifying to all the worlds.
20.5
While tending a milch cow in the forest at Garga’s command, those whose wealth was asceticism [said]: / “Let us eat this brown cow, being severely afflicted by hunger.”
20.6
As they were contemplating this sin, the youngest brother then said: / “If she must necessarily be killed, let her be consecrated by means of a śrāddha.
20.7
Being consecrated in a śrāddha, she will surely protect us from sin.” / Having been permitted by his brothers, saying, “Do so,” Pitṛvartin then,
20.8
attentive, performed the śrāddha, having made use of her again; / assigning two brothers to the deities, and three to the father in succession,
20.9
and similarly making one a guest, while he himself was the giver of the śrāddha, / he performed the śrāddha with mantras, devoted to the ancestors, remembering [them].
20.10
Even the calf without the cow was delivered to the guru: / “The cow was killed by a tiger; let this calf be accepted.”
20.11
Thus that cow was eaten by those seven whose wealth was asceticism, / relying on Vedic authority, fearless in a cruel deed.
20.12
Then, drawn along by time, they became hunters in Daśapura; / they attained recollection of past births, imbued with devotion to the ancestors.
20.13
Because even that cruel deed had been performed by them under the form of a śrāddha, / on that account they were born in the house of hunters who commit cruel deeds.
20.14
And through the majesty of the ancestors they were born with recollection of past lives. / Then, through the practice of dispassion, resorting to fasting to death,
20.15
the seven were born as deer on Mount Kālañjara, remembering their past lives / before Nīlakaṇṭha, imbued with devotion to the ancestors.
20.16
There too, having relinquished their breaths through knowledge and dispassion in accordance with dharma, / observed by the people, by fasting to death at the sacred bathing place,
20.17
those seven yogins were born as cakravāka birds on Lake Mānasa. / Hear all of them by name and by deed, O best of twice-born men:
20.18
Sumanas, Kumuda, Śuddha, Chidradarśin, Sunetraka, / Sunetra, and Aṃśumant—these seven had mastered yoga.
20.19
Three of them, fallen from yoga, wavered, being of small understanding, / on seeing that [king] shining in the garden, accompanied by women,
20.20
sporting with various amorous gestures, possessed of great strength and valor, / born of the Pañcāla lineage, with abundant troops and mounts.
20.21
One among those water-birds conceived a desire for kingship: / the brāhmaṇa who was Pitṛvartin, the performer of the śrāddha, affectionate toward the ancestors.
20.22
The other two, seeing the two ministers with abundant troops and mounts, / formed a wish for ministership in this mortal world, O best of twice-born men.
20.23
Those among them who were free of desire became best of twice-born men. / One became the son of Vibhrāja, known as Brahmadatta.
20.24
And the other two became the sons of ministers, Kaṇḍarīka and Subālaka. / Brahmadatta, having been consecrated by the wise royal priest,
20.25
became the valorous king of Pañcāla, skilled in all scriptures, / a knower of yoga, and a understander of the cries of all creatures.
20.26
That king had an auspicious wife, the daughter of Devala, / renowned by the name of Saṃnati, who had previously been the brown cow.
20.27
Because she had been employed in an ancestral rite, she became a teacher of sacred knowledge. / Together with her, that prince ruled the kingdom.
20.28
Once, having gone into the pleasure-grove with her, the king / saw a pair of insects agitated by an amorous quarrel.
20.29
Conceiving a passion for an ant, the lustful insect, / his limbs fevered by the five arrows [of Kāma], spoke with a choked voice around [her]:
20.30
“Nowhere in the world is there a passionate woman equal to you, / slender-waisted, broad-hipped, walking toward my broad chest,
20.31
golden-complexioned, with beautiful hips, sweet of speech, with a lovely smile, / with distinctly visible eyes and tongue, fond of molasses and sugar!
20.32
You eat when I have eaten; you bathe likewise when I have bathed; / you are sorrowful when I am abroad, and trembling with fear even when I am angry.
20.33
Why, tell me, O lovely one, do you remain with an angry face?” / But she, filled with anger, said to him: “Why do you speak to me, rogue?
20.34
"Forsaking me, you, filled with lust, / gave modaka flour to another female yesterday when you were taking it away!"
20.35
The male ant said: / "O fair-complexioned one, I gave it to another because she resembled you. / Therefore, O furious one, you should forgive this single fault of mine.
20.36
I will never do this again anywhere, O lady of good vows! / By truth, I touch your feet; be gracious to me, bowing low before you."
20.37
Sūta said: / Hearing his words, she was then appeased; / the female ant gave herself to him for delight.
20.38
Brahmadatta, too, having understood all of that, was filled with wonder, / because he knew the speech of all living beings by the grace of the wielder of the discus.
Translations (1)
- The Matsya Puranam — A Taluqdar of Oudh 1916, English
Linked texts (1)
- Matsyapurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit