+* Dwapar Yuga: Doubts & Discussions *+ - Page 15

hey frds ,

Narakasura was Varaha's son? That's news to me. At any rate, Bhudevi was said to be the wive of any king who ruled over any land, from what I understand.

A new question struck me while I was watching the episode last night, but it harks back to the original story about Narakasura. As one knows, after Varaha rescued Bhudevi, she gave birth to Narakasura. Now, Varaha did his stuff in the Satya Yuga, whereas Narakasura didn't meet with his end until the Dwapar Yuga. I doubt that Bhudevi could have kept Naraka gestated for all those yugas until the Dwapar Yuga started. Hence, my assumption was that he was born in the Satya Yuga. That would have given him the entire 1 million years of the Treta Yuga, and some of the 10 million of the Satya Yuga, to have done much of his activities, particularly capturing 16,100 damsels.

I find this puzzling. After Narakasura's birth, Vishnu had 4 more avatars - Narasimha, Vamana, Parashurama & Rama, before Krishna came along. Let's assume that Narakasura was a boy when Hiranyakashipu was killed (although Hiranyakashipu took some thousands of years to get Brahma to grant him the boon that made him indominable except for those boundary conditions). Vamana, given his role, couldn't have fought him. But Parashurama presumably could have, and so could Rama. And given that Rama, after his rajya-abhishek, had most of Aryavarta accept his suzerainty, it's somewhat strange that he didn't come into conflict w/ Narakasura, whose Pragjyotisha implies today's Assam.

Hence my question. Does anyone have any idea why Vishnu waited until Krishna's avatar to destroy Narakasura, instead of doing it much earlier, say, under Parashurama or Rama?

More basic trivial question: if Vishnu was a boar and Bhudevi a woman, how did Narakasura become an asura?

There is another version.

Originally posted by: _Vrish_

I have 2 questions:

1. During the Dwarka fratricide, when did Ugrasena die? Did he die during the brawl that killed Satyaki, Pradhyumna, Charudeshna, Samba & others, or did he die w/ Vasudeva after Krishna's passing? Or did he accompany Arjun but die on the way? Or did he die earlier and if so, who ran Dwarka? Vasudev or Balarama?
2. Did Balarama have any sons & grandsons? I've read in some places of Balarama's daughter Vatsala, who was said to have married Abhimanyu, but not in mainstream literature. But did Balarama have any wives other than Revathy, and any sons? And if he did have sons, did he have any descendents who survived the fratricide, like Vajra did?

Originally posted by: varaali

Re : Balarama and Revati's projeny, I was going through Hari Vamsa today and was surprised to find that Balarama had fathered a son- Nishtha- thru Revathi. I am not sure whether he survived the fratricide, it is unlikely. Will look for more information

Originally posted by: _Vrish_

So Kush and all his brother/cousins, as well as Angad (Vali's Angad, not just Lakshman's) were the first rulers of the Dwapar Yuga?

Likewise, would Parikshit and Vajra have been the first rulers in Kalyug?

vaarali

I recall that when Arjun was preparing to evacuate Dwarka after doing the shradhs of all the Yadavas killed, he was told that Kaliyug would start the day after the city was empty, and that it would submerge. I mentioned it in page 4, below Khalrika's original question.

Your citation suggests that Kalyug started the moment Krishna was killed by Jara's arrow. Incidentally, the SB and MB accounts of Krishna's end do differ in the following ways:

• In Mahabharat, Kalyug starts after Arjun takes the last denizen out of Dwarka. In SB, it seems to start after Krishna died.
  
• In Mahabharat, Arjun never found the bodies of Krishna & Balarama, and only did their shradhs, whereas he cremated all the other Yadavas - Satyaki, Pradhyumna, Kritavarma, Samba, Anirudha, et al. In SB, he cremated all of them
  
• In Mahabharat, Vasudev died in a yogic trance the night after handing over everything to Arjun, and his wives did agni-samadhi. In SB, he, Ugrasena, his wives all died on seeing Krishna's body and were cremated
• In Mahabharat, Krishna's wives all accompanied Arjun to Indraprastha, after which 5 of them did agni-samadhi, 3 of them went to Kalpa on Himavat and took sanyas, while the 16,100 drowned in the river Saraswati. In SB, all of them did agni-samadhi in Dwarka
• In Mahabharat, in addition to Vajra, Kritavarma's son Bali was given his own kingdom for the Andhakas, while Satyaki's son too was given a kingdom beside the Ganga. So Arjun may have decided to split the tribes in order to prevent future internecine tensions. Does SB mention anything about Satyaki's & Kritavarma's progeny, or do they just mention Vajra?

Incidentally, the Kali they talk about when Kalyug is described - it's not the Godess Kali, is it?

As an aside, what was the political relationship b/w Dwaraka and Indraprastha/Hastinapur? Was Dwarka a vassal of the Pandavas, or just an ally on an equal footing (given that Krishna didn't get Ugrasena to ever do a Rajasuya or Ashwamedha yagna, but always Yudhisthir)

Originally posted by: _Vrish_

I think Kalyug started with the submersion (is that a word?) of Dwaraka. After Arjun had done the shradhs for Krishna, Balarama, Vasudev, Ugrasena and all the Yadavas, Vrishnis and Andhakas, he was told that 7 days from that day, the oceans would rise and submerse Dwaraka, and Kalyug would start. So he quickly evacuated the Yadava survivors and left for Mathura. So Kalyug didn't start w/ the end of Parikshit, but w/ the end of Dwaraka.

Once Arjun got to Mathura (some accounts have it as Indraprastha, but I've read of successors to the Pandavas who moved the capital from Hastinapur to Indraprastha), he crowned Vajra as king, and left Subhadra as the caretaker/regent for him (so did the Pandavas leave Uttara to do the same for Parikshit?)

So yes, Vajra ruled the Yadavas after that. His kingdom didn't merge w/ the Pandavas.

Exit question: when the Pandavas did the Rajasuya and Ashwamedha yagnas, what was the status of Dwaraka wrt them? Was it a vassal, an ally or what? In a Rajasuya yagna, the Pandavas would have exacted tribute from all rulers, including allies, but I can't imagine them asking Ugrasena (indirectly Krishna) for tribute. And for the Ashwamedha yagna, I'm guessing there was no way for the horse to get to Dwaraka, since it was an island? Or did Yudhisthir give Krishna the honorary co-host status like he did in the Rajasuya yagna that angered Shishupala? At any rate, what was the status of Dwaraka wrt Indraprastha in both these cases?

They Kali who presides over Kali Yuga is not Goddess Kali, but Kali Purusha, who is the cause of all the bad that happens during this yuga.

Janaki,