An Index to the Names in the Mahabharata, with Short Explanations and a Concordance to the Bombay and Calcutta Editions and P. C. Roy's Translation c5.s3.374

c5.s3.374

[Dhundhumāropākhyāna(m)] (“the episode about the slayer of Dhundhu”). Cf. Dhaundumāra(m) upākhyāna(m). § 474 (Mārkaṇḍ.): The great r̥shi Uttaṅka, in his hermitage in the wilderness, by severe penances for numberless years obtained that Viṣṇu appeared to him, and having been praised by him (vv. 13494-13503 (a), granted him that he should always remain virtuous and devoted to Viṣṇu, and that he should obtain a yoga power and urge Kuvalāçva (son of Br̥hadaçva of Ikṣvāku’s race), who had been furnished with yoga power from Viṣṇu, to kill the Asura Dhundhu (III, 201).—§ 475: After the death of Ikṣvāku, Çaçāda was king in Ayodhyā. List of Çaçāda’s descendants: Çaçāda > Kakuṭstha > Anenas > Pr̥thu > Viçvagaçva > Adri > Yuvanāçva > Çrāca > Çrāvastaka (who built Çrāvastī) > Br̥hadaçva > Kuvalāçva > 21,000 sons.—§ 476: Having installed Kuvalāçva on the throne, Br̥hadaçva retired into the forest as an ascetic. Then Uttaṅka asked him first to slay the Daitya chief Dhundhu (son of Madhu and Kaiṭabha), who dwelt underground in the sea Ujjālaka, which was full of sand, in the desert, practised austerities with a view to destroy the gods and the three worlds, Brahmán having granted him that he could not be slain by gods, Daityas, Rākṣasas, Yakṣas, and Gandharvas. “Every year, when he sleeps covered with sand and begins to breathe, the earth trembles for seven days, and the sand raised by his breath shrouds the sun.” He then told him the boon granted by Viṣṇu (see § 474) (III, 202). They agreed that Kuvalāçva should slay the Daitya, and Br̥hadaçva retired to the forest.—§ 477: Asked by Yudhiṣṭhira, Mārkaṇḍeya related: During the cataclysm, when Viṣṇu, wearing a crown and the Kaustubha, and dressed in yellow (pīta) silk, stretched over many yojanas, lay sleeping on the hood of Śeṣa, who encircled the earth, and a lotus sprang from his navel, and from that lotus Brahmán, who is the four Vedas with four faces, the Dānavas Madhu and Kaiṭabha began to terrify Brahmán. Viṣṇu awoke, and offered to grant them a boon, and as they wished to grant him a boon, he chose that they should be slain by him, and at their request he promised to slay them on a wholly uncovered spot, and that they should become his sons; as only his thighs were uncovered, he there cut off their heads with his discus (III, 203).—§ 478: Their son was Dhundhu. Description of his penances, and the boon he obtained from Brahmán, etc. (see § 476). When Kuvalāśva, with his 21,000 sons and his troops, and Uttaṅka set out, an aerial voice was heard, the gods showered flowers, etc., and the gods, Gandharvas, and great ṛṣis came to behold the encounter. At the request of Uttaṅka, Viṣṇu filled Kuvalāśva with his own energy. He let his sons excavate the sea of sands in seven days, and then they aroused the Dānava, assailing him with arrows, etc. He swallowed the arrows and vomited flames, which consumed all the sons of Kuvalāśva, but were extinguished by a stream of water flowing from the body of Kuvalāśva, who then burnt him with the Brahmāstra, whence he was named Dhundhumāra ("slayer of Dhundhu"). The gods and great ṛṣis granted him the boon that he should always be able to give wealth to brahmans, etc. Then the gods and great ṛṣis went away to their abodes. Kuvalāśva had three sons left—Dṛḍhāśva, Kapilāśva, and Candrāśva, from whom sprang the Ikṣvāku kings. Blessing upon the reader (III, 204).