VISHNU PURANA. BOOK IV CHAP. XXIV.

 

VISHNU PURANA. BOOK IV CHAP. XXIV.

 

Future kings of Magadha. Five princes of the line of Pradyota. Ten S'ais'unagas. Nine Nandas. Ten Mauryas. Ten S'ungas. Four Kanwas. Thirty Andhrabhrityas. Kings of various tribes and castes, and periods of their rule. Ascendancy of barbarians. Different races in different regions. Period of universal iniquity and decay. Coming of Vishnu as Kalki. Destruction of the wicked, and restoration of the practices of the Vedas. End of the Kali, and return of the Krita, age. Duration of the Kali. Verses chanted by Earth, and communicated by Asita to Janaka. End of the fourth book.

 

THE last of the Vrihadratha dynasty, Ripunjaya, will have a minister named Sunika, who having killed his sovereign, will place his son Pradyota upon the throne: his son will be Palaka; his son will be Vis'akhayupa; his son will be Janaka; and his son will be Nandivarddhana. These five kings of the house of Pradyota will reign over the earth for a hundred and thirty-eight years.

 

The next prince will be S'is'unaga; his son will be Kakavarna; his son will be Kshemadharman; his son will be Kshatraujas; his son will be Vidmisara; his son will be Ajatas'atru; his son will be Dharbaka; his son will be Udayas'wa; his son will also be Nandivarddhana; and his son will be Mahanandi. These ten S'ais'unagas will be kings of the earth for three hundred and sixty-two years.

 

The son of Mahananda will be born of a woman of the S'udra or servile class; his name will be Nanda, called Mahapadma, for he will be exceedingly avaricious. Like another Paras'urama, he will be the annihilator of the Kshatriya race; for after him the kings of the earth will be S'udras. He will bring the whole earth under one umbrella: he will have eight sons, Sumalya and others, who will reign after Mahapadma; and he and his sons will govern for a hundred years. The Brahman Kautilya will root out the nine Nandas Upon the cessation of the race of Nanda, the Mauryas will possess the earth, for Kantilya will place Chandragupta on the throne: his son will be Vindusara; his son will be As'okavarddhana; his son will be Suyas'as; his son will be Das'aratha; his son will be Sangata; his son will be S'alis'uka; his son will be Somas'armman; his son will be Sas'adharman; and his successor will be Vrihadratha. These are the ten Mauryas, who will reign over the earth for a hundred and thirty-seven years.

 

The dynasty of the S'ungas will next become possessed of the sovereignty; for Pushpamitra, the general of the last Maurya prince, will put his master to death, and ascend the throne: his son will be Agnimitra; his son will be Sujyeshtha; his son will be Vasumitra; his son will be Ardraka; his son will be Pulindaka; his son will be Ghoshavasu; his son will be Vajramitra; his son will be Bhagavata; his son will be Devabhuti. These are the ten S'ungas, who will govern the kingdom for a hundred and twelve years.

 

Devabhuti, the last S'unga prince, being addicted to, immoral indulgences, his minister, the Kanwa named Vasudeva will murder him, and usurp the kingdom: his son will be Bhumimitra; his son will be Narayana; his son will be Sus'arman. These four Kanwas will be kings of the earth for forty-five years. Sus'arman the Kanwa will be killed by a powerful servant named S'ipraka, of the Andhra tribe, who will become king, and found the Andhrabhritya dynasty: he will be succeeded by his brother Krishna; his son will be S'ri S'atakarni; his son will be Purnotsanga; his son will be S'atakarni (2nd); his son will be Lambodara; his son will be Ivilaka; his son will be Meghaswati; his son will be Patumat; his son will be Arishtakarman; his son will be Hala; his son will be Talaka; his son will be Pravilasena; his son will be Sundara, named S'atakarni; his son will be Chakora S'atakarni; his son will be S'ivaswati; his son will be Gomatiputra; his son will be Pulimat; his son will be S'ivas'ri S'atakarni; his son will be S'ivaskandha; his son will be Yajnas'ri; his son will be Vijaya; his son will be Chandras'ri; his son will be Pulomarchish. These thirty Andhrabhritya kings will reign four hundred and fifty-six years.

 

After these, various races will reign, as seven Abhiras, ten Garddhabas, sixteen S'akas, eight Yavanas, fourteen Tusharas, thirteen Mundas, eleven Maunas, altogether seventy-nine princes, who will be sovereigns of the earth for one thousand three hundred and ninety years; and then eleven Pauras will be kings for three hundred years. When they are destroyed, the Kailakila Yavanas will be kings; the chief of whom will be Vindhyas'akti; his son will be Puranjaya; his son will be Ramachandra; his son will be Adharma, from whom will be Varanga, Kritanandana, S'udhinandi, Nandiyas'as, S'is'uka, and Pravira; these will rule for a hundred and six years. From them will proceed thirteen sons; then three Bahlikas, and Pushpamitra, and Patumitra, and others, to the number of thirteen, will rule over Mekala. There will be nine kings in the seven Koalas, and there will be as many Naishadha princes.

 

In Magadha a sovereign named Vis'wasphatika will establish other tribes; he will extirpate the Kshatriya or martial race, and elevate fishermen, barbarians, and Brahmans, and other castes, to power. The nine Nagas will reign in Padmavati, Kantipuri, and Mathura; and the Guptas of Magadha along the Ganges to Prayaga. A prince named Devarakshita will reign, in a city on the sea shore, over the Kos'alas, Odras, Pundras, and Tamraliptas. The Guhas will possess Kalinga, Mahihaka, and the mountains of Mahendra. The race of Manidhanu will occupy the countries of the Nishadas, Naimishikas, and Kalatoyas.

 

The people called Kanakas will possess the Amazon country, and that called Mushika. Men of the three tribes, but degraded, and Abhiras and S'udras, will occupy S'aurashtra, Avanti, S'ura, Arbuda, and Marubhumi: and S'udras, outcastes, and barbarians will be masters of the banks of the Indus, Darvika, the Chandrabhaga, and Kashmir.

 

These will all be contemporary monarchs, reigning over the earth; kings of churlish spirit, violent temper, and ever addicted to falsehood and wickedness. They will inflict death on women, children, and cows; they will seize upon the property of their subjects; they will be of limited power, and will for the most part rapidly rise and fall; their lives will be short, their desires insatiable, and they will display but little piety. The people of the various countries intermingling with them will follow their example, and the barbarians being powerful in the patronage of the princes, whilst purer tribes are neglected, the people will perish. Wealth and piety will decrease day by day, until the world will be wholly depraved. Then property alone will confer rank; wealth will be the only source of devotion; passion will be the sole bond of union between the sexes; falsehood will be the only means of success in litigation; and women will be objects merely of sensual gratification. Earth will be venerated but for its mineral treasures; the Brahmanical thread will constitute a Brahman; external types (as the staff and red garb) will be the only distinctions of the several orders of life; dishonesty will be the universal means of subsistence; weakness will be the cause of dependance; menace and presumption will be substituted for learning; liberality will be devotion; simple ablution will be purification; mutual assent will be marriage; fine clothes will be dignity; and water afar off will be esteemed a holy spring. Amidst all castes he who is the strongest will reign over a principality thus vitiated by many faults. The people, unable to bear the heavy burdens imposed upon them by their avaricious sovereigns, will take refuge amongst the valleys of the mountains, and will be glad to feed upon wild honey, herbs, roots, fruits, flowers, and leaves: their only covering will be the bark of trees, and they will be exposed to the cold, and wind, and sun, and rain. No man's life will exceed three and twenty years. Thus in the Kali age shall decay constantly proceed, until the human race approaches its annihilation.

 

When the practices taught by the Vedas and the institutes of law shall nearly have ceased, and the close of the Kali age shall be nigh, a portion of that divine being who exists of his own spiritual nature in the character of Brahma, and who is the beginning and the end, and who comprehends all things, shall descend upon earth: he will be born in the family of Vishnuyas'as, an eminent Brahman of Sambhala village, as Kalki, endowed with the eight superhuman faculties. By his irresistible might he will destroy all the Mlechchhas and thieves, and all whose minds are devoted to iniquity. He will then reestablish righteousness upon earth; and the minds of those who live at the end of the Kali age shall be awakened, and shall be as pellucid as crystal. The men who are thus changed by virtue of that peculiar time shall be as the seeds of human beings, and shall give birth to a race who shall follow the laws of the Krita age, or age of purity. As it is said; "When the sun and moon, and the lunar asterism Tishya, and the planet Jupiter, are in one mansion, the Krita age shall return."

 

Thus, most excellent Muni, the kings who are past, who are present, and who are to be, have been enumerated. From the birth of Parikshit to the coronation of Nanda it is to be known that 1015 years have elapsed. When the two first stars of the seven Rishis (the great Bear) rise in the heavens, and some lunar asterism is seen at night at an equal distance between them, then the seven Rishis continue stationary in that conjunction for a hundred years of men. At the birth of Parikshit they were in Magha, and the Kali age then commenced, which consists of 1200 (divine) years. When the portion of Vishnu (that had been born from Vasudeva) returned to heaven, then the Kali age commenced. As long as the earth was touched by his sacred feet, the Kali age could not affect it. As soon as the incarnation of the eternal Vishnu had departed, the son of Dharma, Yudhishthira, with his brethren, abdicated the sovereignty. Observing unpropitious portents, consequent upon Krishna's disappearance, he placed Parikshit upon the throne. When the seven Rishis are in Purvashadha, then Nanda will begin to reign, and thenceforward the influence of the Kali will augment.

 

The day that Krishna shall have departed from the earth will be the first of the Kali age, the duration of which you shall hear; it will continue for 360,000 years of mortals. After twelve hundred divine years shall have elapsed, the Krita age shall be renewed.

 

Thus age after age Brahmans, Kshatriyas, Vais'yas, and S'udras, excellent Brahman, men of great souls, have passed away by thousands; whose names and tribes and families I have not enumerated to you, from their great number, and the repetition of appellations it would involve. Two persons, Devapi of the race of Puru, and Maru of the family of Ikshwaku, through the force of devotion continue alive throughout the whole four ages, residing at the village of Kalapa: they will return hither in the beginning of the Krita age, and, becoming members of the family of the Manu, give origin to the Kshatriya dynasties. In this manner the earth is possessed through every series of the three first ages, the Krita, Treta, and Dwapara, by the sons of the Manu; and some remain in the Kali age, to serve as the rudiments of renewed generations, in the same way as Devapi and Maru are still in existence.

 

I have now given you a summary account of the sovereigns of the earth; to recapitulate the whole would be impossible even in a hundred lives. These and other kings, who with perishable frames have possessed this ever-during world, and who, blinded with deceptive notions of individual occupation, have indulged the feeling that suggests, "This earth is mine--it is my son's--it belongs to my dynasty," have all passed away. So, many who reigned before them, many who succeeded them, and many who are yet to come, have ceased, or will cease, to be. Earth laughs, as if smiling with autumnal flowers, to behold her kings unable to effect the subjugation of themselves. I will repeat to you, Maitreya, the stanzas that were chanted by Earth, and which the Muni Asita communicated to Janaka, whose banner was virtue. "How great is the folly of princes, who are endowed with the faculty of reason, to cherish the confidence of ambition, when they themselves are but foam upon the wave. Before they have subdued themselves, they seek to reduce their ministers, their servants, their subjects, under their authority; they then endeavour to overcome their foes. 'Thus,' say they, 'will we conquer the ocean-circled earth;' and, intent upon their project, behold not death, which is not far off. But what mighty matter is the subjugation of the sea-girt earth to one who can subdue himself. Emancipation from existence is the fruit of self-control. It is through infatuation that kings desire to possess me, whom their predecessors have been forced to leave, whom their fathers have not retained. Beguiled by the selfish love of sway, fathers contend with sons, and brothers with brothers, for my possession. Foolishness has been the character of every king who has boasted, 'All this earth is mine--every thing is mine--it will be in my house for ever;' for he is dead. How is it possible that such vain desires should survive in the hearts of his descendants, who have seen their progenitor, absorbed by the thirst of dominion, compelled to relinquish me, whom he called his own, and tread the path of dissolution? When I hear a king sending word to another by his ambassador, 'This earth is mine; immediately resign your pretensions to it;' I am moved to violent laughter at first, but it soon subsides in pity for the infatuated fool."

 

These were the verses, Maitreya, which Earth recited, and by listening to which ambition fades away like snow before the sun. I have now related to you the whole account of the descendants of the Manu; amongst whom have flourished kings endowed with a portion of Vishnu, engaged in the preservation of the earth. Whoever shall listen reverently and with faith to this narrative, proceeding from the posterity of Manu, shall be purified entirely from all his sins, and, with the perfect possession of his faculties, shall live in unequalled affluence, plenty, and prosperity. He who has heard of the races of the sun and moon, of Ikshwa.ku, Jahnu, Mandhatri, Sagara, and Raghu, who have all perished; of Yayati, Nahusha, and their posterity, who are no more; of kings of great might, resistless valour, and unbounded wealth, who have been overcome by still more powerful time, and are now only a tale; he will learn wisdom, and forbear to call either children, or wife, or house, or lands, or wealth, his own. The arduous penances that have been performed by heroic men obstructing fate for countless years, religious rites and sacrifices of great efficacy and virtue, have been made by time the subject only of narration. The valiant Prithu traversed the universe, every where triumphant over his foes; yet he was blown away, like the light down of the Simal tree, before the blast of time. He who was Kartaviryya subdued innumerable enemies, and conquered the seven zones of the earth; but now he is only the topic of a theme, a subject for affirmation and contradiction. Fie upon the empire of the sons of Raghu, who triumphed over Das'anana, and extended their sway to the ends of the earth; for was it not consumed in an instant by the frown of the destroyer? Mandhatri, the emperor of the universe, is embodied only in a legend; and what pious man who hears it will ever be so unwise as to cherish the desire of possession in his soul? Bhagiratha, Sagara, Kakutstha, Das'anana, Rama, Lakshmana, Yudhishthira, and others, have been. Is it so? Have they ever really existed? Where are they now? we know not! The powerful kings who now are, or who will be, as I have related them to you, or any others who are unspecified, are all subject to the same fate, and the present and the future will perish and be forgotten, like their predecessors. Aware of this truth, a wise man will never be influenced by the principle of individual appropriation; and regarding them as only transient and temporal possessions, he will not consider children and posterity, lands and property, or whatever else is personal, to be his own.