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Matsyapurana 4

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4.1

Manu said: / ‘Ah, O Lord! This union with one’s own daughter is exceedingly distressing. / How did the lotus-born [creator] incur no sin through this act?

4.2

And how could there be mutual marital relationship / among his children of the same clan? Sever my doubt, O Lord!’

4.3

Matsya said: / ‘This original creation is divine, born from the quality of passion; / likewise, its sense organs are beyond the senses, and its bodies are beyond the senses.

4.4

Consisting of divine splendor, O king, and arisen from divine wisdom, / it cannot be fully explained by mortals with eyes of flesh.

4.5

Just as serpents know the path of serpents, and all birds know the sky, / only divine beings know the way of the divine, not human beings.

4.6

What is fit to be done and unfit to be done by the gods does not produce good or evil fruit [for them]; / therefore, O ruler of kings, deliberation upon that by men is not auspicious.

4.7

Moreover, the four-faced [god] is the presiding deity of all the Vedas; / likewise, Gāyatrī is declared to be a bodily part of Brahmā.

4.8

Whether formless or possessing form, they are declared to be a couple. / Wherever the venerable Viriñci is, there is the goddess Sarasvatī; / wherever Bhāratī is, right there is the lord of progeny.

4.9

Just as sunlight is nowhere seen devoid of shadow, / in the very same way, Gāyatrī does not leave the side of Brahmā.

4.10

Brahmā is recorded as the collection of the Vedas, and Sāvitrī resides in them; / therefore, O mighty one, there could be no sin in his approaching Sāvitrī.

4.11

Even so, the lord of progeny formerly bowed his head in shame; / because of having approached his daughter, Brahmā cursed the flower-weaponed god:

4.12

‘Because, overpowering me, you agitated my mind with your arrows, / therefore Rudra will before long reduce your body to ashes!’

4.13

Then the god of desire propitiated the four-faced one: / ‘You ought not to curse me without cause here, O giver of honor!

4.14

I was created in this manner by you alone, O four-faced one, / as the producer of sensory agitation in all embodied beings.

4.15

“Without distinction of woman and man, the mind should be agitated by you / everywhere, at all times, with effort”—so you yourself said formerly, O Lord!

4.16

Therefore, I am guiltless, yet I have been cursed by you in this way, O Lord! / Show grace, O venerable one, so that I may attain my own body again.’

4.17

Brahmā said: / ‘When the epoch of Vaivasvata has arrived, one born in the Yādava lineage, / a mortal named Rāma, relying on the strength of my essence,

4.18

Having descended as a destroyer of Asuras, will dwell in Dvārakā. / You will then attain sonship to his brother who is his equal.

4.19

Having thus attained a body and fully enjoyed worldly pleasures, / then, at the end of the Bhārata dynasty, having become the son of the king of Vatsa,

4.20

And having obtained sovereignty over the Vidyādharas until the cosmic dissolution of beings, / attaining pleasures in accordance with dharma, you will go to my presence.’

4.21

Having thus received both a curse and a boon, the flower-weaponed [god of love], / filled with both sorrow and delight, departed as he had come.

4.22

Manu said: / Who is this one named Yadu, in whose lineage Kāma was born? / And how was the flower-weaponed one burned by Rudra, and why?

4.23

Whose descendant was Bharata, and what was the ancient creation? / Explain all this to me from the beginning, for I have doubts.

4.24

Matsya said: / She who arose from half his body, Gāyatrī who expounds the sacred knowledge, / that goddess who was the mother of Manu, Śatarūpā possessed of a hundred senses—

4.25

[from her arose] Rati, Manas, Tapas, Buddhi, Mahān, and Diksambhrama. / Then he begot seven children upon Śatarūpā.

4.26

Those who were the mind-born sons of that wise one, Marīci and the others, / to them belonged this ancient realm, consisting of all knowledge.

4.27

Then he created Vāmadeva, who bears an excellent trident, / and the lord Sanatkumāra, elder even to the ancients.

4.28

The lord Vāmadeva created the twice-born from his mouth, / the warriors from his arms, and the commoners and servants from his thighs and feet.

4.29

He created lightning, thunderbolts, and clouds, red streaks and Indra's bows, / and the Vedic meters first, and after that Parjanya.

4.30

Then the three-eyed lord created the hosts of the Sādhyas once more, / and eighty-four tens of millions devoid of old age and death.

4.31

As Vāma was creating those immortals, he was restrained by Brahmā: / 'Creation cannot be of this kind, devoid of old age and death!

4.32

Only that creation which consists of good and evil is praised.' / Standing thus restrained by him at the beginning of creation, he therefore became Sthāṇu (the Motionless One).

4.33

The wise Svāyambhuva Manu, having performed austerities very difficult to perform, / obtained a wife endowed with beauty, Anantā by name.

4.34

Manu begot Priyavrata and Uttānapāda upon her. / The daughter of Dharma, wise, a proud woman named Sūnṛtā,

4.35

of slow and graceful gait, obtained sons from Uttānapāda: / Apasyati, Apasyanta, Kīrtimant, and Dhruva.

4.36

The lord of progeny, Uttānapāda, begot [them] upon Sūnṛtā. / Formerly, Dhruva, having performed austerities for three thousand years,

4.37

obtained a celestial, immovable station by a boon from Brahmā. / Placing that very Dhruva before them, the Seven Sages remain.

4.38

A daughter of Manu named Dhanyā bore Śiṣṭa from Dhruva; / and Agni's daughter Succhāyā bore sons from Śiṣṭa:

4.39

Kṛpa, Ripu, Jaya, Vṛtta, and Vṛka of wolf-like splendor. / Ripuñjaya [begot] Cakṣus upon Vīriṇī, the daughter's daughter of Brahmā.

4.40

Upon the daughter of Vīraṇa, Cakṣus begot Manu. / That Manu Cākṣuṣa indeed, upon the royal maiden Naḍvalā,

4.41

begot ten heroic, faultless sons: / Ūru, Pūru, Śatadyumna, Tapasvin, Satyavāc, Kavi,

4.42

Agniṣṭut, Atirātra, and the unconquered Sudyumna; / and Abhimanyu was born as the tenth upon Naḍvalā.

4.43

Ūru's wife, Āgneyī, bore six sons of great splendor: / Agni, Sumanas, Khyāti, Kratu, Aṅgiras, and Gaya.

4.44

The daughter of the ancestors, Sunīthā, bore Vena from Aṅga. / The sages churned the arm of the unlawful Vena; from his hand arose / the one named Pṛthu of great majesty, and he begot two sons.

4.45

Antardhāna begot the son of Marīci upon Śikhaṇḍinī. / Upon Havirdhāna, the daughter of Agni, Dhiṣaṇā, bore six sons: / Prācīnabarhis, Sāṅga, Yama, Śukra, Bala, and Śubha.

4.46

The venerable Prācīnabarhis was a great lord of progeny; / by that son of Havirdhāna, numerous creatures were brought forth.

4.47

Upon Savarṇā, the daughter of the ocean, the lord fathered ten sons, / all known as the Pracetases, masters of the science of archery.

4.48

Protected by their austerities, trees grew luxuriantly everywhere in the world; / and by the gods' command, fire burned them, O son of the Sun!

4.49

Soma's daughter became their wife, famous by the name Mārīṣā. / From them she bore an foremost son, Dakṣa.

4.50

Immediately after Dakṣa, the daughter of Soma brought forth / trees, all kinds of medicinal herbs, and the river Candravatī.

4.51

Of Dakṣa too, who was a portion of Soma, eighty tens of millions [were born]. / I shall explain their detailed extent, which is well established in the world.

4.52

Some men were two-footed, and some were many-footed; / some had wrinkled faces, peg-like ears, and ears that served as blankets;

4.53

some had horse-faces and bear-faces, and some had lion-faces; / some had dog-faces and boar-faces, and some had camel-faces.

4.54

The righteous-minded one begot all kinds of barbarians in great numbers. / Having created [them] by his mind, Dakṣa afterwards begot females.

4.55

He gave ten to Dharma, thirteen to Kaśyapa, / and twenty-seven, named the lunar mansions, he gave to Soma; / from them arose the whole world: gods, Asuras, human beings, and the rest.

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