॥ ॐ नमो भगवते वासुदेवाय ॥
Thursday, 29 December 2022 VI.06 - Brahma advises Daksha to extend his progeny through daughters. The various wives of Sage Kashyapa and their famous progeny.
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This chapter discusses the progeny of the daughters of Daksha. Lord Brahma asked him not to be discouraged by the way his many sons were converted to a non-worldly spiritual path by Narada. The daughters, who were later begotten, were spared the influence of Sage Narada who was merely an actor in the drama of life called Maya.
There are so many names mentioned in this chapter that anyone would be overwhelmed. Also, many gods are mentioned. It appears that the circular nature of Time and creation in the Srimad Bhagavatam implies that we come across the same personalities again and again in different contexts. I am not going into all the names.
Ten of the daughters of Daksha were given in marriage to Yama/Dharmaraja, thirteen to Sage Kashyapa, and twenty-seven to the moon god, Chandra. In this way, fifty daughters were distributed, and of the other ten daughters, four were given to Kashyapa and two each to Bhoota, Angiras and Krishashva. Because of the union of these sixty daughters with various exalted personalities, the entire universe was filled with various kinds of living entities, such as human beings, gods, demons, animals, birds and serpents.
Kashyapa, who is also named Tarkshya, had four wives — Vinata (Suparna), Kadru, Patangi and Yamini. Patangi gave birth to many kinds of birds, and Yamini gave birth to locusts. Vinata gave birth to Garuda, the carrier of Lord Vishnu, and to Anooru, or Aruna, the chariot driver of Surya, the Sun-god. Kadru gave birth to different varieties of serpents.
Krittikas were all wives of Chandra, the Moon-god. It seems he was partial to Rohini, one of the wives, and this caused Daksha to curse him. This made him childless. In fact, we read that the waxing and waning of the moon are due to this curse. However, because Prajapati Daksha had cursed him to suffer from disease and decay, the moon god could not beget children in any of his wives.
Kashyapa’s wives produced children from whom the population of the entire universe has come. Their names were Aditi, Diti, Danu, Kashtha, Arishtha, Surasa, Ila, Muni, Krodhavasha, Tamra, Surabhi, Sarama and Timi. From the womb of Timi, all the water creatures took birth, and from the womb of Sarama, ferocious animals like tigers and lions took birth.
From the womb of Surabhi, the buffalo, cow and other animals with cloven hooves took birth, from the womb of Tamra the eagles, vultures and other large birds of prey took birth, and from the womb of Muni, the angels took birth.
The sons born of Krodhavasha were the serpents known as Dandashooka, other types of serpents and mosquitoes. All the various creepers and trees were born from the womb of Ila. The Rakshasas, bad spirits, were born from the womb of Surasa.
The Gandharvas were born from the womb of Arishtha, and animals whose hooves are not split, such as the horse, were born from the womb of Kashtha. From the womb of Danu, came sixty-one sons.
Paulomas and Kalakeyas, sons of Kashyapa, were physically very strong and expert in fighting, and their aim was to disturb the Yajnas performed by the great sages. Arjuna went to heaven and singlehandedly killed all these demons, and thus Lord Indra became extremely affectionate toward him.
Rahu and one hundred Ketus attained important planetary positions.
Aditi's children were the gods, including the Bhagavan himself. The names of the sons of Aditi are Vivasvan, Aryama, Pushan, Tvashtha, Savita, Bhaga, Dhata, Vidhata, Varuna, Mitra, Shatru and Urukrama.
Sanjna, the wife of Vivasvan/Surya, the sun god, gave birth to the twins Yama and the river Yamuna. Yami, while wandering on the earth in the form of a mare, gave birth to the Ashvini-kumaras.
Chaya, another wife of the sun god, begot two sons named Shani and Savarni Manu, and one daughter, Tapati.
And so on.
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॥ ॐ नमो भगवते वासुदेवाय ॥
