Matsyapurana 23
English (machine translation) 23
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23.1
The sages said: / How did Soma become the overlord of the ancestors, O expert in scriptures, / and which kings who increased fame were born of his lineage?
23.2
Sūta said: / Instructed anciently by Brahmā regarding the rite of creation, / the lord Atri formerly performed incomparable ascetic heat for the sake of creation.
23.3
The bliss-bestowing Brahman, the destroyer of the world's afflictions, / dwells within Brahmā, Viṣṇu, the Sun, and Rudra, beyond the reach of the senses.
23.4
Bringing peace to one of peaceful mind, it dwelled within his eye, O brāhmaṇas, / bestowing supreme bliss through the majesty of his austerity.
23.5
Because the lord of Umā presided over him along with Umā, / and beholding him, Soma became a child from an eighth portion of him.
23.6
Down from his two eyes flowed that watery splendour, / illuminating the entire universe, both mobile and immobile, with moonlight.
23.7
The directions received that splendour in the form of women, desiring a son; / becoming an embryo, it remained in their wombs for three hundred years.
23.8
Then, unable to bear it, the directions released that embryo; / gathering that embryo and making it one, the four-faced [god]
23.9
—Brahmā—turned him into a youth, a man bearing all weapons. / Then, placing him on a chariot with a thousand horses, composed of Vedic power, the lord,
23.10
Pitāmaha, led him to his own realm. / There it was proclaimed by the Brahman-seers: “Let this one be our master!”
23.11
Brahmā and the others, along with the seers, gods, gandharvas, / and also medicinal herbs, praised him with collections of mantras having Soma as their deity.
23.12
As he was being praised, an even greater manifestation of splendour arose from him; / from the canopy of his brilliance, the host of divine herbs arose on earth.
23.13
Therefore his light is greater at night always; / for this reason Soma became the lord of herbs, and he is also called the lord of the twice-born.
23.14
And this lunar orb, which contains the nectar-essence of the Vedic splendour, / constantly wanes in the dark [fortnight] and waxes in the bright.
23.15
Dakṣa, the son of Pracetas, gave him twenty and seven / daughters endowed with beauty and charm, full of brilliant lustre.
23.16
Then for ten thousand thousands of padmas, / the cool-rayed [moon] performed austerity, wholly devoted to meditation on Viṣṇu.
23.17
Then the blessed lord Nārāyaṇa, Hari, the supreme self Janārdana, / was pleased and said to him: “Choose a boon!”
23.18
Then Soma chose the boons: “May I conquer the realm of Śakra! / May the direct eaters [of oblations] reside in my dwelling!
23.19
At my rājasūya sacrifice, let the hosts of Suras headed by Brahmā be my priests! / Let Śiva, the spear-wielding Hara, be our guardian against demons!”
23.20
Told “So be it” by Viṣṇu, he undertook the rājasūya sacrifice; / Atri was the hotṛ, Bhṛgu the adhvaryu, and the four-faced [god] was the udgātṛ.
23.21
Hari himself assumed the role of the brahman-priest as overseer; / Sanaka and the others are remembered as the members of the assembly in the rite of the rājasūya.
23.22
The ten Viśvedevas were the camasādhvaryu priests there; / the three worlds were given by him as the sacrificial fee to the priests.
23.23
Then, when the concluding bath was completed, nine goddesses, / their limbs burning with the arrows of Kāma, longing to look upon his beauty, served him:
23.24
Lakṣmī, leaving Nārāyaṇa; Sinīvālī, [leaving] Kardama; / likewise Dyuti, [leaving] Vibhāvasu; Tuṣṭi, [leaving] the imperishable Dhātṛ;
23.25
Prabhā, leaving Prabhākara; Kuhū herself, [leaving] Haviṣmant; / Kīrti, [leaving] her husband Jayanta; Vasu, [leaving] Kaśyapa, son of Marīci;
23.26
and Dhṛti, leaving yellow Nandin—they all resorted to Soma alone then. / And Soma, too, made love to them then as though they were his own.
23.27
Though he had committed such an offense, the host of their husbands at that time / could not inflict any harm upon him with curses, weapons, or other means.
23.28
Even so, the moon shone, illuminating the directions in tenfold fashion; / having attained hard-to-attain sovereignty sanctified by the seers, / Soma then achieved sole lordship over the seven worlds through austerity.
23.29
Once he saw [a woman] in a garden, adorned with various flower ornaments, / her limbs exceedingly exhausted even by plucking a blossom, from the fatigue of her large hips and heavy breasts;
23.30
and she was Tārā, the wife of the preceptor of the gods, with broad, lovely eyes charming as the arrows of Anaṅga. / Afflicted with love, the lord of the stars seized her by the hair in a secluded place.
23.31
Afflicted with love herself, she took pleasure with him whose mind was captivated by her beauty and lustre; / after sporting for a long time, the moon took Tārā and went thence to his own home.
23.32
Even in his house, there was no satisfaction in the arrival of pleasures for him who was passionately devoted to Tārā; / Bṛhaspati, burned by the fire of separation from her, had his single-pointed mind intent on meditation upon her.
23.33
The lord of speech could not pronounce a curse upon him, nor could he injure him / by means of all the mantras, weapons, fire, poisons, various stratagems, or even black magic rites.
23.34
Then, out of misery, burned by love, he begged Soma for his wife; / although begged, bound by the bond of her pleasure, he did not give Tārā back to Bṛhaspati.
23.35
When the moon would by no means give her up, [even when asked] by Maheśvara along with the four-faced [god], / the Sādhyas, the Maruts, and the world guardians, Śiva became filled with rage.
23.36
He who is famed on earth as Vāmadeva, whose lotus feet are worshipped by numerous Rudras— / then Giriśa, the wielder of the Pināka, along with his disciples, bound by the power of his affection for Bṛhaspati,
23.37
the enemy of Pura seized his bow Ajagava and set out, attended by the lords of spirits and Siddhas, / to do battle with Soma, his face terrible with the fire of his particularly blazing third eye.
23.38
Along with him went the leaders of the troops and the sixty-four cohorts joined with twenty [more]; / the lord of the yakṣas followed, accompanied by many hundreds of millions mounted on chariots.
23.39
With a padma, an arbuda, and three hundred thousand, twelve [hundred] chariots / of vetālas, yakṣas, serpents, and kiṃnaras, Soma too went there, his fury grown great,
23.40
accompanied by an army of lunar mansions, Daityas, and Asuras, his splendour magnified by Śanaiścara and Aṅgāraka. / The seven worlds experienced terror, and the earth shook along with its continents and oceans.
23.41
The wielder of the Pināka advanced straight toward Soma, brandishing the vast fire of blazing weapons; / then that great battle took place between the two armies with fearsome, terrifying hosts.
23.42
It escalated, destroying all creatures, taking the sole form of the blazing of sharp weapons and divine missiles; / then, with fierce, sharp weapons, the entire armies of both sides went to destruction against one another.
23.43
Brilliant weapons fell, burning heaven, earth, and the netherworld; / Rudra released the Brahmaśīrṣa missile in anger, and Soma released the Soma missile of unfailing power.
23.44
By the falling of those two, fear arose in the oceans, the earth, and the intermediate space; / seeing that pair of missiles swelling for the destruction of the worlds, Pitāmaha too [acted]—
23.45
Then, entering between them, he somehow restrained them along with the Suras: / 'Why has such an act, bringing ruin to the people without cause, been committed even by you, O Soma?
23.46
Because you have fought an exceedingly terrible battle to abduct another's wife, O Soma, / you will be an inauspicious planet among men, even though calm, especially at the end of the bright fortnight. / Restore this wife to the lord of speech; there is no dishonour in restoring another's possession.'
23.47
Sūta said: / The moon said, 'So be it,' and withdrew from the battle, fully calmed. / Bṛhaspati, having taken back his Tārā, went gladly to his own home with Rudra.
Translations (1)
- The Matsya Puranam — A Taluqdar of Oudh 1916, English
Linked texts (1)
- Matsyapurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit