Matsyapurana 43

English (machine translation) 43

Language: English

43.1

Sūta said: / Having heard this from Śaunaka, King Śatānīka / was filled with supreme joy and shone like the full moon.

43.2

Then the king duly honored Śaunaka / with jewels, cows, gold, and various kinds of garments.

43.3

Having received all that wealth sent by the king, / and having given it to the brāhmaṇas, Śaunaka disappeared.

43.4

The sages said: / “We wish to hear in detail the lineage of Yayāti; tell us / how it was established in the world through his sons, headed by Yadu.”

43.5

Sūta said: / “I shall proclaim the lineage of Yadu, the eldest [son] of supreme splendor; / listen to me speaking it in detail and in proper order.

43.6

Yadu had five sons, resembling the sons of the gods, / great chariot-warriors, wielders of great bows; learn their names:

43.7

Sahasrajit was the eldest, then Kroṣṭu, Nīla, Antika, and Laghu. / The heir of Sahasrajit was the king named Śatajit.

43.8

Śatajit also had three heirs of supreme renown: / Haihaya, Haya, and the one who was Veṇuhaya.

43.9

The heir of Haihaya was the renowned Dharmanetra; / the son of Dharmanetra was Kunti, and his son was Saṃhata.

43.10

The heir of Saṃhata was the king named Mahiṣmant; / the son of Mahiṣmant was the majestic Rudraśreṇya.

43.11

He was a king in Vārāṇasī, as told before; / the son of Rudraśreṇya was the king named Durdama.

43.12

The wise son of Durdama was the valiant Kanaka; / Kanaka had four heirs, world-renowned:

43.13

Kṛtavīrya, Kṛtāgni, and likewise Kṛtavarman; / and Kṛtaujas was the fourth; from Kṛtavīrya then [arose] Arjuna.

43.14

He was born with a thousand arms, a king who was lord of the seven continents; / for ten thousand years the lord of the earth performed severe austerities.

43.15

Kārtavīrya propitiated Datta, born of Atri; / four boons were given to him by him, O best of men.

43.16

First, the best of kings chose a thousand arms; / and restraint by the good if he should practice unrighteousness;

43.17

protecting the earth by righteousness after conquering it in battle; / and that his death should come from a superior while engaged in combat.

43.18

By him this whole earth with its seven continents and mountains, / surrounded by the seven oceans, was conquered according to kṣatriya law.

43.19

A thousand arms arose for that wise one when he wished, / and a chariot and a standard arose: so we have heard.

43.20

Ten thousand sacrifices of that wise one, celebrated without hindrance / throughout the continents of the kings at that time, are heard of.

43.21

All the sacrifices of that great king had abundant sacrificial gifts; / all their sacrificial posts were of gold, and all their altars were of gold.

43.22

All were adorned by the gods who arrived together in their celestial aerial chariots, / and were continually beautified by Gandharvas and Apsarases.

43.23

At his sacrifice, the Gandharva Nārada sang a song, / having beheld the majesty of that royal sage Kārtavīrya:

43.24

"Surely kṣatriyas will never attain the state of Kārtavīrya
by sacrifices, gifts, ascetic penances, valor, or sacred learning.

43.25

For across the seven continents, bearer of sword, discus, and bow,
a charioteer roaming the continents, the yogic master perceives thieves.

43.26

For eighty-five thousand years that king of men,
abounding in all jewels, was indeed a universal sovereign.

43.27

He alone was the guardian of cattle, he alone was the protector of fields;
he alone was Parjanya with rain; through yogic mastery Arjuna became [all these].

43.28

He who, with a thousand arms hardened in skin by bowstring strikes,
shines like the autumn sun with a thousand rays.

43.29

This glorious one, having conquered the serpent, son of Karkoṭaka,
among men in Māhiṣmatī, settled in that city.

43.30

This king would meet the surge of the ocean in the rainy season,
sporting against the current, burgeoning with joy.

43.31

As he sports and frolics, garlanded with wreaths of reversed currents,
the Narmadā approaches timidly out of fear of his brow-furrow waves.

43.32

He alone plunged into the great ocean with his thousand arms,
and made the Narmadā swell, raging in the rainy season.

43.33

When the great ocean is agitated by his thousand arms,
the great Asuras dwelling in the netherworld become completely paralyzed.

43.34

Its great waves shattered into powder, great fish and whales hiding away,
its masses of foam scattered by the wind, unbearable as it is tossed by whirlpools—

43.35

churning the ocean with a thousand arms, he makes it so;
and trembling in alarm as if from Mandara's agitation, dreading the production of nectar,

43.36

the great serpents then keep their heads motionless,
like clumps of plantains motionless in a windless place at evening.

43.37

Thus binding the haughty Rāvaṇa with five arrows upon his bowstring,
having overpowered him forcefully along with his army in Laṅkā,

43.38

conquering him, binding him, and bringing him away, he confined him in Māhiṣmatī.
Then Pulastya, going there to pacify Arjuna,

43.39

released the rākṣasa, offspring of Pulastya, appeased by Pulastya here.
From his thousand arms arose the sound of bowstrings and palms,

43.40

like the thunderclap of a thousand clouds at the cosmic age's end.
Ah, how marvelous was the strength of Destiny, that this descendant of Bhṛgu cut off

43.41

that thousand arms of his, like a forest of golden palmyra trees!
When Āpava, being enraged, cursed the lord Arjuna:

43.42

'Since my renowned forest has been burnt down, O Haihaya,
therefore another will undo the difficult deed done by you.

43.43

Having first cut off your thousand arms swiftly with power,
a powerful ascetic brāhmaṇa, that descendant of Bhṛgu, will kill you.'

43.44

Sūta said:
Then Rāma became death to the wise king because of the curse,
and indeed the royal sage himself had chosen that boon of old.

43.45

He had a hundred sons, among whom five were great chariot-warriors,
skilled in weapons, powerful, heroic, righteous, and of great might:

43.46

Śūrasena, Śūra, Dhṛṣṭa, Kroṣṭu,
and Jayadhvaja the slayer, and Avanti, O ruler of people.

43.47

Jayadhvaja's son was Tālajaṅgha of great might;
his hundred sons are renowned indeed as the Tālajaṅghas.

43.48

Five lineages of those great-souled Haihayas are renowned:
the Vītihotras, Śāryātas, Bhojas, and Avantayas,

43.49

and the valiant Kuṇḍikeras, as well as the Tālajaṅghas.
Vītihotra's son was the valiant Ānarta;
his son was Durjeya, the tormentor of foes.

43.50

Righteously protecting his subjects in good faith, O great king,
was the thousand-armed king named Kārtavīryārjuna,

43.51

by whom the earth up to the ocean was conquered with the bow.
Whoever recalls his name upon rising at dawn,

for him there is no loss of wealth, and he recovers what was lost.
Whoever narrates here the birth of the wise Kārtavīrya,
purified in soul through proper sacrifices, is honored in the heavenly realm."

Translations (1)

The Matsya Puranam — A Taluqdar of Oudh 1916, English

Linked texts (1)

Matsyapurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit