History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c95.291

v7.c95.291

In all this long passage there is not a word whether Sanatkumāra and Nārada belonged to a brāhmaṇa or kṣatriya class. Skanda is known in classical Sanskrit as the God of War (as in Gītā X. 24 'Senānīnām-aham Skandaḥ') and in the Vanaparva 229. 22-23 he is mentioned as the commander of the armies of gods and the Śāntiparva mentions that Nārada approached Devala for knowledge about the creation and dissolution of the world (chap. 275=267 of Cr. ed.). From this Deussen at once draws the conclusion that Sanatkumāra must have been a kṣatriya and Nārada a brāhmaṇa. In the Mahābhārata, Manusmṛti and the Purānas both of them are semi-divine sages and beyond varna or caste. Gītā X. 13 speaks of Nārada as Devarṣi, the Vāyu-purāna speaks of Parvata and Nārada as sons of Kaśyapa and as included among Devarṣis (Vāyu 61. 85). The Manusmṛti includes Nārada among the first ten Prajāpatis (I. 25). The Brahmapurāṇa (I. 46-47) describes both Skanda and Sanatkumāra as sons of Brahmā. The Nāradīyapurāṇa (Pūrvabhāga, 2. 3) speaks of Sanaka, Sanandana, Sanatkumāra and Sanātana as the mind-born sons of Brahmā and Sanatkumāra as *brahmavādin* and as expounding all Dharmas to Nārada. The Vāmanapurāṇa (60. 68-69) describes the same four as sons of Dharma and Ahiṃsā, and as exponders of Yogaśāstra. To crown all, Kūrmapurāna²⁵⁶¹ I. 7. 20-21 speaks of these four along with Kratu as Vipras (brāhmaṇas), yogins, and as mind-born sons of Brahmā. Sanatkumāra might have been literally or metaphorically called 'Skanda', because he attacked and routed *Avidyā* just as God Skanda routed armies of asuras, if at all the myth about Skanda was known in times before the Upaniṣads.