[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [Reference works](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference) › [Puranic Encyclopaedia: A Comprehensive Dictionary with Special Reference to the Epic and Puranic Literature](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.mani-1975) › c8.1556 # Puranic Encyclopaedia: A Comprehensive Dictionary with Special Reference to the Epic and Puranic Literature c8.1556 Purāṇic Encyclopaedia: A Comprehensive Dictionary with Special Reference to the Epic and Purāṇic Literature c8.1556 - **Language:** English ### [c8.1556](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.mani-1975.c8.1556) NIṢĀDA I. A forest dweller. The grand sire of the niṣāda tribe living in forests was one Niṣāda. Those forest-dwellers came to be known as niṣādas as they were the descendants of this Niṣāda. The Purāṇic story about the origin of Niṣāda is as follows :— Once upon a time there lived a King called Vena. A very immoral ruler, he was hated by the people. As dharma declined in the country due to the misrule of Vena the maharṣis killed him with darbha grass sanctified by mantras. Then the maharṣis saw dust rising up everywhere and people told them that the poor people, in the absence of king, had turned into thieves and the dust was formed by the onrush of the thieves. To remedy the problem thus created the maharṣis churned the thigh of Vena, who had died childless, for a son, and from the thigh was born a male child, dark in colour, dwarfish and with a compressed face. Sadly he asked the brahmins (maharṣis) what he should do. They asked him to sit (niṣīda) and hence he became Niṣāda (forest-dweller). His descendants settled down on mount Vindhya and they by their sinful lives divested Vena of his sins. Vena was absolved of his sins through the Niṣādas, and thus the Niṣādas became responsible for the ending of Vena's sins. (Viṣṇu Purāṇa, Part 1, Chapter 13). - [Previous: c8.1555](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.mani-1975.c8.1555) - [Next: c8.1557](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.mani-1975.c8.1557) - [Up: c8](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.mani-1975.c8) ## Cites (1) - [Viṣṇupurāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.visnu) — Vyāsa, Sanskrit --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.mani-1975.c8.1556](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.mani-1975.c8.1556) · Pramāṇa