Appearance Of Lord In Devaki's Womb

As per the dictate of Lord Vishnu, Yogamaaya implanted six foetuses in the womb of Devaki. All the six children were killed by Kansa immediately after their birth. Yogamaaya transplanted the seventh issue of Devaki into the womb of Rohini who was residing at that time in Gokul. Then Lord Himself appeared as the eighth issue of Devaki. Since the time of His arrival, radiance of Devaki increased manifold. At the same time, Yogamaaya also appeared as an issue of Yashoda in Gokul. Seeing the arrival of Lord Himself as the eighth issue of Devaki, the gods prayed Him with devotion.

 Then on the eighth day in the darker phase of Bhaadrapad, Lord took birth. At the time of His birth, the wind suspended its motion. The reverse attained extremely purified state whereas dense clouds gathered in the sky and caused drizzling. Seeing the child born with auspicious Swastik mark on his chest, Vasudev recognised Him and prayed Him. At the same time, he and Devaki also feared that Kansa would kill their eighth son also. So, they prayed the Lord to hide His divine appearance. Lord assured them that their ordeals would end soon.

 Then Vasudev put the child in a winnower and started his journey on foot to Gokul carrying the winnower on his head. Because of the influence of Yogamaaya, all the guards fell asleep while the gates of the prison opened automatically. It was raining heavily at that time. So when Vasudev reached in the open, Sheshnag spread its hood over him to shade the Lord from rain. In Gokul, Nand's wife Yashoda too gave birth to a girl child but because of Yogamaaya's influence she did not know anything about the birth. Vasudev arrived there and putting Lord beside the sleeping Yashoda, he took her baby and returned to his prison in Mathura.

 As soon as the baby reached in the prison, she began to cry loudly. Her cries awakened the guards who ran to inform Kansa about the child's birth. Kansa at once arrived there and snatching the baby from Devaki's lap, he dashed her on the wall. But before he could throw the baby, she slipped from his grip and taking eight armed Jagdamba's appearance, established in the air. Laughing loudly then, mother Jagdamba said- "O Kansa! You cannot kill me. Your killer has taken birth. Lord Hari had been your death in your previous births. In this birth also He will kill you. So from now on, make efforts for your benefit only. Saying this Jagdamba vanished. Worried by the words of Yogamaaya, Kansa called a meeting of his prominent demons and said -"These evil gods have hatched a conspiracy to kill me. But being a brave man, I do not take these gods into account. You have yourself witnessed how Indra fled before the shower of my arrows. You would also remember how the clouds rained heavily in my kingdom when Indra had forbidden them from raining on a kingdom and I had pierced them with my arrows.

 All the things on earth except my father-in-law Jarasandh bow before me in fear. I don't care for the gods. Even their efforts to kill me make me laugh. But still I must not take the word of Jagdamba lightly that my killer had taken birth. We should therefore kill all the children who have taken birth within the past few days." Instructing the demons Kansa approached Vasudev and Devaki in the prison and released them apologising his cruel action in the way of killing their innocent children.

Incrarnation Of Lord Krishna

Vasudev, the son of Shoorsen was married to Devaki, the daughter of Devak. On that occasion of their marriage, Devaki's cousin Kansa was driving their chariot. At that time, a celestial voice declared that the eighth son of Devaki would kill Kansa. Kansa in the excitement was ready to kill Devaki ten and there but Vasudev convinced him saying that he would himself hand over all his children to him. Thus assured by Vasudev, Kansa dropped the idea of killing Devaki.

 When the marriage of Vasudev and Devaki was taking place, Prithvi approached Brahma in the guise of a cow. She complained to Brahma that population of mean-minded people was increasing and that she was not more able to bear the burden of their anti-religious deeds. Prithvi said- "O Lord! The same demon Kaalnemi whom Lord Vishnu had killed in his previous birth has taken incarnation of Kansa, the son of Ugrasena. Many other fearsome demons Arishth, Dhenuk, Keshi, Pralamb, Sunda, Banasura and many more have taken over the rule and tormenting the religious people in many ways. They keep million strong forces. I am unable to bear their burden. So kindly do something to get me rid of this burden."

 Hearing the words of Prithvi, Brahma said to the gods- "Prithvi speaks the truth. Indeed she is carrying too much burden. Let us all go to the shore of Ksheersagar and pray Lord Vishnu and intimate Him about all this matter." Then accompanied by the gods, Brahma arrived at the coast of Ksheersagar and prayed Lord Vishnu. Pleased by their prayer, Lord Vishnu appeared before them in His universal form and said- "Brahmaji! Believe my words and be assured that whatever you and these gods desire shall realise." Thus assured by the Lord all the gods and Brahma prayed once again. Pleased by their prayer, Lord Vishnu plucked a black and a white hair from his head and said-"Both these hair of mine shall take incarnation on earth and remove the miseries that the people face there. All of you take partial incarnation on earth to attenuate the strength of the demons. This black hair of mine shall take birth as the eighth son of Devaki and kill Kansa who is an re-incarnation of Kaalnemi."

 While this conversation was on, Devarshi Narad appeared before Kansa and informed him that Lord Vishnu would take birth as the eighth son of Devaki. Hearing the words of Narad, Kansa angrily put Vasudev and Devaki behind the bars. There in his abode, Lord Vishnu instructed Mahamaaya (personified illusion) to implant the six foetuses who were in Pataal in the womb of Devaki, one by one. He knew that all of them would be killed by Kansa. Then he instructing Mahamaaya to implant his part Shesha who would appear as the seventh issue of Devaki, in the womb of Rohini, the second wife of Vasudev so that he could appear as her son instead of Devaki's. Lord instructed Mahamaaya to appear in the womb of Yashoda in Gokul while He Himself would appear as the eighth issue of Devaki. He also told Mahamaaya that He would take birth on the eighth day of the darker phase in the month of Bhaadrapad while she would take birth on the ninth day and that immediately after His birth, Vasudev would himself carry Him to Gokul and leaving me beside Yashoda, he would carry her back to Mathura.

Description Of Kuru Vansh

In the lineage of Kuru, there occurred a King Prateep. He had three sons- Devapi, Shantanu and Vaahlik. Devapi had taken an abode in the forest in his childhood. Hence Shantanu came to become a king after their father Prateep.

 Once in the kingdom of King Shantanu, there was no rainfall for twelve years at length. Perplexed by the continuous drought-like situation, Shantanu consulted learned Brahmins. Brahmins informed him that he had no genuine right on the kingdom, which in fact belonged to his brother Devapi. They also told him that as long as Devapi was not fallen from his supreme position, the drought would continue. Alternatively, handing over the kingdom to Devapi might also result in the end of the drought.

 Then Shantanu's minister Ashmasari appointed certain Brahmins who always spoke in anti-Vedas ways. Their continuous preaching disinclined Devapi's mind from Vedas. On the other hand one day, King Shantanu proceeded towards the forest along with Brahmins and his courtiers to hand over the kingdom to Devapi. There the Brahmins tried to convince Devapi to accept the onus of the kingdom. They were sighting anecdotes from the Vedas to corroborate their argument. But Devapi criticised Vedas and spoke in anti-religious ways. At that Brahmins instructed the king to return to the kingdom, as there was no use to convince Devapi. They also assured Shantanu that since Devapi had been disinclined from Vedas, he had lost his right to the kingdom and the famine would also come to an end.

 Shantanu's younger brother Vaahlik had a son Somadutta. Bhuri, Bhurishrava and Shalya were the sons of Somadutta. In later course Shantanu got married to Ganga and had a son Bheeshma. From his second wife Satyavati, Shantanu had two sons- Chitrangad and Vichitraveerya. Chitrangad was killed by a Gandharva whereas younger Vichitraveerya was married to the princesses of Kashi, Ambika and Ambalika. He was so busy in carnal pleasures with his two wives that soon he contracted tuberculosis and died because of it. Despite their indulgence in carnal pleasures, Ambika and Ambalika could not bear a child from Vichitraveerya. Hence in order to continue their lineage, Satyavati inspired Ambika and Ambalika to appear naked before Vedavyasa and beget a child. Since Ambika closed her eyes while she appeared naked before Vedavyasa, she begot a blind son, Dhritarashtra. Similarly, Ambalika grew pale when she appeared naked before Vedavyasa. Hence she begot a son Pandu who was congenitally afflicted with jaundice. Not satisfied by the outcome, Satyavati once again persuaded Ambika and Ambalika to appear naked before Vedavyasa. But the queens sent a maidservant Vinita before Vedavyasa. Vinita appeared naked before Vedavyasa without any fear or shyness. Hence she begot an extremely wise son Vidur.

 In later course Dhritarashtra got married to Gandhaari, the princess of Kandahar whereas Pandu received two wives Kunti, the daughter of Shoorsen and Madri, the princess of Madra. Dhritarashtra had one hundred sons and a daughter Dushala. Duryodhan was the eldest among the one hundred sons of Dhritarashtra. Pandu on the other hand had five sons among whom Yudhishthir was the eldest.

 All the five sons of Pandu were born with the help of five gods- Dharma, Vaayu, Indra and Ashwini kumars because Pandu was carrying a curse that he would die if he ever tried to copulate. Pandu's five sons- Yudhishthir, Bheema, Arjun, Nakul and Sahadev came to be known as Pandavas. Five Pandavas were married to Draupadi, the daughter of Panchal King Drupad. From Draupadi each of the Pandavas had a son. Their names were Prativindya from Yudhishthir, Shrutsen from Bheema, Shrutkirti from Arjun, Shrutaneek from Nakul and Shrutkarma from Sahadev. Besides them Yudhishthir had a son Devak from Yaudheyi. From Hidimba, Bheema had a son Ghatotkachch and from Kashi a son Sarvak. From Vijaya, Sahadev had a son Suhotra whereas from Renumati, Nakul had a son Nirmitra. Arjun was the most prowessive among the Pandavas. Apart from Draupadi he had three more wives- Ulupi who belonged to the Nagas, Chitrangada, the princess of Manipur and Subhadra, the sister of Lord Krishna. From these three wives Arjun had three sons-Iravaan from Ulupi, Vabhruvaahan from Chitrangada and Abhimanyu from Subhadra. In the battle of Mahabharat all these sons of the Pandavas fought valiantly and sacrificed their lives. It was Abhimanyu's son Parikshit who continued the lineage of Pandavas and ruled the earth till right now.

Puru Vansh

The lineage of Puru grew as Puru- Janmejaya- Prachinvaan- Praveer- Manasyu- Abhayad- Sudayu- Bahugat- Sanyati- Ahamyaati- Raudraashva. Raudraashva had ten sons among whom Riteshu was the most prominent. Riteshu had three sons among whom Apratirath was most prominent. Lineage of Apratirath is as follows- Apratirath- Aileen- Dushyant and Bharat. King Dushyant had fallen in love with Shakuntala, the daughter of sage Vishwamitra and elf Menaka.

 They got married secretly in the forest and after a few days, King Dushyant returned to his kingdom promising Shakuntala that he would call her as soon as he reached his palace. He had given Shakuntala his ring as a memento. But while Shakuntala was crossing the river on her way to the palace, the ring slipped from her finger and was swallowed by a fish. In the absence of the ring, King Dushyant refused to identify Shakuntala. So, she returned to the hermitage of sage Vishwamitra and gave birth to a child who later on became famous as Bharat.

 Bharat had been very prowessive since his childhood. His first meeting with King Dushyant was also very dramatical. It is said that once King Dushyant was hunting in the forest and he saw a boy who was counting the teeth of a lion. Impressed by the bravery of the boy, the king enquired about his parentage and reached the hermitage where sage Vishwamitra narrated him the whole story. Meanwhile a fisherman had also recovered the ring from the fish and handed it to the king who had thus recalled the whole story. In the hermitage, King Dushyant came to see Shakuntala and he candidly accepted her and his son Bharat.

 Bharat had three queens and nine children. Since none of the children resembled him in features, he expressed his doubts about their paternity. Fearing the wrath of Bharat, his queens killed all the children. Then with a desire to have a son, Bharat organised a Marutsoma Yagya. As a result he got Bharadwaj as his son. Bharadwaj's second name was Vitath. His lineage grew as follows- Vitath- Manyu.

 Manyu had many sons like Brihatkshatra, Mahaveer, Nara, Garg etc. Their lineage grew as follows Nara- Sanskriti- Gurupreeti and Rantidev. Garg had a son Shini who became famous as Gaargya and Shainya also. Mahaveer lineage is as follows- Durukshay- Trayyaruni- Pushkarinya and Kapi. In the lineage of Brihatkshatra occurred a king Hasti who founded the city of Hastinapur. Hasti had three sons- Ajmirh- Dwijmirh and Purumirh. Among the sons of Ajmirh were included Panchals and a daughter Ahilya. Ahilya was married to sage Gautam. They had a son Shatanand. Satyaghriti was the son of Shatanand. Once Satyaghriti happened to sight the extremely amorous and beautiful elf Urvashi. Her mere sight was enough to cause the ejaculation of his semen, which fell on a reed and divided into two parts. From these two parts were born a boy Krip and a girl Kripi. King Shantanu discovered Krip and Kripi in the forest and brought them to his palace. In later course, Kripi was married to Dronacharya, the teacher of Kauravas and Pandavas. Ashwatthama was the son of Dronacharya. One of the king named Kuru in the lineage of Ajmirh established the sacred region of Kurukshetra.

Description Of Kroshtu Vansh

Lineage of Kroshtu grew as follows- Kroshtu- Dhwajnivan- Swati- Rushanku- Chitrarath- Rashibindu. Rashibindu had one lakh queens and ten lakh sons among whom Prithusharva, Prithukarma, Prithukirti, Prithuyasha, Prithujay and Prithushan were prominent. In their lineage later on occurred a king named Jyamadh. He was so dedicated to his wife Shaivya that despite being childless, he did not dare to marry other women because of her fear.

 Once, Jyamadh took part in a fierce battle in which he defeated all his enemies. While he was about to return, he heard pitiable cries of a woman. He saw a beautiful young lady who was crying for her protection. Jyamadh was so infatuated by her beauty that he took her to his kingdom. When they reached at the gate of the palace, the king saw that the queen Shaivya was waiting for him along with a big crowd. When Shaivya saw a beautiful young lady sitting beside the king on the chariot, she began to shout at him. The horrified king tried to explain that the young lady was his daughter-in-law. The queen shouted even louder that when they did not have a son, whence the daughter-in-law came. But the king explained that he had selected a wife for her would-be son.

 As the effect of their conversation queen Shaivya soon conceived and gave birth to a son inspite of her advancing age. They named the son as Vidarbh. In due course of time, Vidarbh got married to that lady whom his father had brought home earlier. They had three sons- Krath, Kaushik and Romapad. Romapad had received preaching from Narad.

 Lineage of Krath grew as follows- Krath- Kunti- Ghrishti- Nighriti- Dashaard- Vyoma- Jimoot- Vikriti- Bheemrath- Navrath- Dasharath- Shakuni- Karambhi- Devraat- Devakshatra- Madhu- Kumarvansh- Anu- Kurumitra- Anshu- Satvak. Satvak was the forefather of a clan that was named after him.

Description Of Yadu Vansh And Tale Of Sahastrarjun

Yayati's eldest son Yadu had four sons- Sahastrajit, Kroshtu, Nala and Nahush. Sahastrajit had a son Shatajit who had three sons Haihaya, Hehaya and Venuhaya. Lineage of Haihaya grew as- Dharma- Dharmanetra- Kunti- Sahajit- Mahishmaan- Bhadrashrenya- Durdabh and Dhanak. Dhanak had four sons- Kritveerya, Kritaagni, Kritdharma and Kritauja.

 Kritveerya had a prowessive son Arjun. Arjun had worshipped Dattatreya and by his blessings acquired one thousand arms. Since then he came to be known as Sahastrarjun. Dattatreya had blessed him with many other boons like rule of entire earth, fostering of his subjects in religious ways and killing by some human being famous in all the three worlds. At that time, there was no other king equal to Sahastrarjun in virtues. He ruled the entire earth for eighty-five thousand years.

 Once Sahastrarjun was enjoying his past time on the waters of Narmada when he happened to have an encounter with Ravan, the king of Lanka. Sahastrarjun captured Ravan easily and imprisoned him at an isolated place in his kingdom. With time ego of Sahastrarjun had crossed all limits. He began to terrorise the sages and other religious people. When his atrocities increased beyond tolerance level, Lord Vishnu took a partial incarnation as Parashuram, the son of sage Jamadagni and Renuka. As per the prediction of sage Richeek, Parashuram grew with Kshatriya - like virtues. He had in fact taken incarnation to relieve the earth from the atrocities of egoist kings. Parashuram had received arms training from none other than Lord Shiva. He was very obedient to his father and had beheaded his own mother by the Parashu (axe) that he had received from Lord Shiva at the dictate of his father. In due course Parashuram not only got Ravan released from captivity but also killed Sahastrarjun.

 Sahastrarjun had one hundred sons among whom Shur, Shursena, Vrishasena, Madhu and Jayadhwaj were prominent. Jayadhwaj had a son Taaljunga. Taaljunga had one hundred sons among whom Vitihotra and Bharat were prominent. Bharat again had one hundred sons whereas Madhu also had hundred sons among whom Vrishni was prominent. After the name of their forefather Yadu, this clan came to be known as Yaduvansha.

Tale Of Yayati

Nahush had six sons- Yati, Yayati, Sanyati, Aayati, Viyati and Kriti. Yayati had two wives, Devyani, the daughter of Shukracharya and Sharmishtha, the daughter of Vrishparva. Devyani gave birth to Yadu and Turvasu whereas Sharmishtha gave birth to Druhayu, Anu and Puru. Because of a curse of Shukracharya old age had descended on Yayati prematurely.

 Yayati then requested his eldest son Yadu to exchange his youth with his old age but Yadu refused. Then Yayati requested each of his sons one by one but all of them refused plainly for the fear of getting old prematurely.

 At last Yayati's youngest son Puru gladly accepted his request and gave him his youth. Regaining the youth, Yayati once again indulged in carnal pleasures with both his queens. But everyday his desire for pleasures increased like a fire flared up by ghee. After one thousand years Yayati realised his mistake and decided to expiate for his sin. Thus, Yayati returned Puru his youth and acquired his old age once again. Then crowning Puru as the king, he took an exile to the forest.