Vaivasvata Manu

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Vaivasvata Manu
PredecessorChaksusa Manu
Successor
Saranyu (mother)
SpouseShraddha
ChildrenIkshvaku, Dhrishta, Narishyanta, Dishta, Nriga, Karusha, Saryati, Nabhaga, Pranshu, Prisadhra[1]
Ila[2]

Vaivasvata Manu (

kalpa (aeon) of Hindu cosmology
.

He is the son of

Saptarishi to safety.[3]

Ancestry

According to the Puranas, the genealogy of Shraddhadeva is as follows:[4]

  1. Brahma
  2. Marichi, one of the 10 Prajapatis created by Brahma.
  3. Kashyapa, son of Marichi and his thirteen wives, among which Kala is prominent. Kashyapa is regarded as one of the progenitors of humanity.
  4. Vivasvan or Surya, son of Kashyapa and Aditi
    .
  5. Saranyu
    (Saṃjñā). He is also known as Satyavrata and Shraddhadeva.

Legend

Shraddhadeva is stated to be the king of the Dravida Kingdom during the epoch of the Matsya Purana.[5] According to the Matsya Purana, Matsya, the avatara of Vishnu, first appeared as a shaphari (a small carp) to Shraddhadeva while he washed his hands in a river flowing down the Malaya Mountains.[6]

The little fish asked the king to save him, and out of compassion, he put it in a water jar. It kept growing bigger and bigger, until the king first put it in a bigger pitcher, and then deposited it in a well. When the well also proved insufficient for the ever-growing fish, the king placed it in a tank (reservoir), that was two yojanas (16 miles) in height above the surface and on land, as much in length, and a yojana (8 miles) in breadth.[7][8] As it grew further, the king had to put the fish in a river, and when even the river proved insufficient, he placed it in the ocean, after which it nearly filled the vast expanse of the great ocean.

It was then that Vishnu, revealing himself, informed the king of an all-destructive deluge which would be coming very soon.[9][10][11] The king built a huge boat which housed his family, saptarishi, nine types of seeds, and animals to repopulate the earth, after the deluge would end and the oceans and seas would recede. At the time of deluge, Vishnu appeared as a horned fish and Shesha appeared as a rope, with which the king fastened the boat to the horn of the fish.[12]

The boat was perched after the deluge on the top of the highest peak of Himavat called Naubandhana.[13][14] After the deluge, Manu's family and the seven sages repopulated the earth. According to Purana, Manu's story occur before 28 chaturyuga in the present Manvantara which is the 7th Manvantara. This amounts to 120 million years ago.[15][16][17]

This narrative is similar to other flood myths like the Gilgamesh flood myth and the Genesis flood narrative.[18]

Descendants

Shraddhadeva married Shraddha and had ten children including

Solar dynasties, respectively.[19]

The Mahabharata states:[20][21]

And Manu was endowed with great wisdom and devoted to virtue. And he became the progenitor of a line. And in Manu's race have been born all human beings, who have, therefore, been called Manavas. And it is of Manu that all men including Brahmanas, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas, Sudras, and others have been descended, and are therefore all called Manavas. Subsequently, the Brahmanas became united with the Kshatriyas. And those sons of Manu that were Brahmanas devoted themselves to the study of the Vedas. And Manu begot ten other children named Ikshvaku, Dhrishta, Narishyanta, Dishta, Nriga, Karusha, Saryati, Nabhaga, Pranshu, Prisadhra and a daughter Ila. They all betook themselves to the practices of Kshatriyas (warriors). Besides these, Manu had fifty other sons on Earth. But we heard that they all perished, quarrelling with one another.[22]

Theosophy

In

Theosophy, the "Vaivasvata Manu" is one of the most important beings at the highest level of Initiation of the ancient Vedic sages, along with Maitreya, and the Maha Chohan. According to Theosophy, each root race has its own Manu who physically incarnates
in an advanced body of an individual of the old root race and physically progenerates with a suitable female partner the first individuals of the new root race.

References

Citations

  1. ^ "Vaivasvata Manu: 3 definitions". 29 June 2012.
  2. ^ "Story of Ilā". 28 January 2019.
  3. ^ The Hare Krsnas – The Manus – Manus of the Present Universe
  4. ^ Francis Hamilton (1819). Geneaolgies of the Hindus: extracted from their sacred writings; with an introduction and alphabetical index. p. 89. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  5. .
  6. .
  7. ^ DRISCOLL, Ian Driscoll; KURTZ, Matthew Atlantis: Egyptian Genesis, 2009.
  8. ^ Sacred Texts. Section CLXXXVI
  9. ^ S'rîmad Bhâgavatam (Bhâgavata Purâna)Canto 8 Chapter 24 Text 12
  10. ^ Ragozin, Zénaïde Alexeïevna (14 March 2008). The story of Vedic India as embodied ... – Google Books. Retrieved 8 December 2010.
  11. ^ Matsya Purana, Ch.I, 10–33
  12. ^ Matsya Purana, Ch.II, 1–19
  13. OCLC 45040117.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link
    )
  14. ^ The Matsya Purana Archived 26 March 2014 at the Wayback Machine
  15. ^ "G. P. Bhatt (ed.), The vayu purana, part-II, 1st ed., 784—789, tr. G. V. Tagare. In vol.38 of Ancient Indian Tradition and Mythology, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1988". Retrieved 10 April 2016.
  16. ^ "J. L. Shastri (ed.), The kurma-purana, part-I, 1st ed., 47—52, tr. G. V. Tagare. In vol.20 of A.I.T.&M., Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1981". Retrieved 10 April 2016.
  17. ^ "J. L. Shastri (ed.), The Narada purana, part-II, 1st ed., p. 699, tr. G. V. Tagare. In vol.16 of A.I.T.&M., Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1981". Retrieved 10 April 2016.
  18. .
  19. ^ Thapar 2013, p. 308-309.
  20. ^ Mahabharata Book 1:Adi Parva:Sambhava Parva:Section LXXV, p. 183.
  21. ^ The Laws of Manu Archived 17 April 2013 at the Wayback Machine, translated by George Bühler.
  22. ., p. 638.

Sources