The Bhagavata Purana by Ravi M. Gupta

Author:Ravi M. Gupta
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: REL032030, Religion/Hinduism/Sacred Writings, HIS017000, History/Asia/India & South Asia
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Published: 2016-11-22T05:00:00+00:00

Rāma’s reign as the ideal monarch is described in chapter 11, followed by accounts of other kings in Rāma’s dynasty, including a rendition of the ancient love story of Purūravā and Urvaśī. Chapters 15 and 16 narrate the story of a “partial” avatāra of Bhagavān named Paraśurāma. This vengeful son of the brāhmaṇa sage Jamadagni is famous for slaying countless misguided kṣatriyas. First he kills the thousand-armed Kārtavīryārjuna, along with his armies, for having stolen his father’s wish-fulfilling cow (kāmadhenu); then later, after Kārtavīryārjuna’s sons had murdered Jamadagni in revenge, Paraśurāma attacks and kills all the sons (making a mountain of their heads) and then repeatedly (twenty-one times) rids the entire earth of kṣatriyas.

The story of King Yayāti is told in chapters 18 and 19, echoing a similar account in the Mahābhārata. Yayāti is cursed by his father-in-law to lose his youth, but his youngest of five sons, Pūru, agrees to exchange his youth for his father’s old age, making it possible for Yayāti to resume conjugal enjoyment. Eventually, however, he becomes disgusted with himself for his indulgent ways, and both he and his wife, Devayānī, become renounced and devoted to the service of the supreme Lord.

As Book Nine comes to a close, we hear of King Duṣmanta and his wife, Śakuntalā, who parent Bharata (an episode also recounted in the Mahābhārata, made famous as a great love story by the later Sanskrit drama of Kalidāsa, Abhijñānaśakuntalam). Finally, at the very end of chapter 24, Śuka prepares Parīkṣit to hear about the life of Krishna in Book Ten and the beginning of Book Eleven, summarizing in only two stanzas his entire life.

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