Puranic Encyclopaedia: A Comprehensive Dictionary with Special Reference to the Epic and Puranic Literature c9.2928.3

c9.2928.3

1) General information. A hermit who recounted the Purāṇas to other hermits at Naimiṣa forest. He was a disciple of Vyāsa. Vyāsa composed the Purāṇas and taught them to his son, hermit Śuka who was a man of abstinence and who was not born of womb. At this time Vyāsa had another disciple named Sūta. It is stated in Devī Bhāgavata, Skandha 9, that this Sūta who was a fellowdisciple of Śuka, who had learned all the Purāṇas directly from the teacher Vyāsa, and was capable saying stories so convincingly, was the son of the hermit Lomaharṣa. 2) In Naimiṣāraṇya. Sūta who had learned the Purāṇas directly from Vyāsa, happened to reach Naimiṣāraṇya once. (See under Naimiṣāraṇya). Naimiṣāraṇya is the abode of hermits in the Kali-age. In days of old, hermits, who were miserable because of the evils of Kaliyuga, which was fast approaching, gathered here at the end of Dvāparayuga. They went to the world of Brahmā to consult about the means and ways of preventing the evils of Kaliyuga. Having heard their complaints Brahmā brought a wheel of the figure of mind and placing it before the hermits told them thus: "You follow this wheel. The place where this wheel falls down will be a place of purity, which will not be affected by the evils of Kali-age. There you can live in peace, without being affected by the evils of Kali-age till the coming of the Satyayuga." Saying these words Brahmā set the wheel rolling in front of them. The hermits followed it.