Bhagavatam Genealogy and a question

[Guest guest]

Namaste

 

This is to draw your attention, if you don’t mind, to the

following presentation of Genealogy from the Creator Brahma

downwards, as presented in the first half of Shrimad

Bhagavatam. I have tried to put them all in one chart (as

an Excel document). I would appreciate your comments. I

shall welcome suggestions for improvement of either the

content or the manner of presentation or in my use of

software. This is part of my work of preparation for some

lectures on Bhagavatam.

 

http://www.geocities.com/profvk/VK2/BhagavatamGenealogy.html

 

Well, I have one substantial question for those who want to

get into the details of the content. Those who are not

interested in the details or who have no emotional

attachment to Bhagavatam may not have to read further.

 

Kashyapa and Diti are parents of Hiranyaksha and

Hiranyakashipu. Diti was the daughter of Daksha-Prajapati

and was one of the 13 daughters he gave in marriage to

Kashyapa (Bhagavatam VI – 6 – 25). But this Daksha is the

second birth of the famous Daksha Prajapati who quarelled

with Shiva and was the cause of his daughter Sati’s

immolation (Bh. IV -4, 5, 6). This second Daksha came in

the line of Dhruva – Vena – Prachetas; in fact he came 13

generations after Dhruva. Dhruva himself was Svayambhuva

Manu’s grandson. All this means Diti was given in marriage

to Kashyapa, almost 15 generations after Svayambhuva Manu

started as Manu and contributed to the creative work of

Brahma. But it is said in III – 13- 15 by Svayambhuva

Manu that the earth is submerged in waters and it has to be

redeemed. We know the story of Varahavatara and how the

Lord redeemed the earth from Hiranyaksha. Thus it

transpires that at the very first attempt of Svayambhuva

Manu’s creative work, the earth was not there and

Hiranyaksha had done his mischief of hiding away the earth

under waters.

 

So now my question is this: Before Hiranyaksha’s birth

there have been at least thirteen generations of people.

At least some of them, like Dhruva himself, like Vena and

like Prachetas, all have lived on earth. If they did not

live on earth, shall we take it that they all lived and

toiled in Janoloka or Tapoloka? Something is not being

rightly interpreted here. My understanding of the

chronology is the following sequence of events:

 

1. Jaya-Vijaya story.

2. Hiranyaksha and Hiranyakashipu are born

3. Hiranyaksha hides the earth in waters

4. Svayambhuva Manu finds no place for his people to live

5. Fifteen generations after start of creation, the parents

of Hiranyaksha (Kashyapa and Diti) are married.

6. Diti asks Kashyapa to mate with her during Sandhya time

and consequent to this sacrilege, the two demons are born.

 

Do you see the relevance of my question? Can some one help

me understand this? I am not questioning the internal

consistency of Bhagavatam. I am sure the Iskcon devotees

know it right. Instead of discussing this on the list,

please write to me off the list to my email id. Thank you.

 

PraNAms to all students of Shrimad Bhagavatam.

Profvk

 

 

 

 

Prof. V. Krishnamurthy

 

Ongoing new series of pages on my website: 'Bhagavatam and Advaita Bhakti'

starting with

http://www.geocities.com/profvk/VK2/Bhagavatam_Introduction.html