Avatars and Varshas - Answer

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SRIMATHE RAMANUJAYA NAMAHA.

 

 

ramanuja, "Sankarkumar" <Ommuruga41> wrote:

>

>

> "In Bhagavatam in the description of varshas, all avatars of Lord

> are mentioned. But why do the avatars not parallel the varshas. The

> avatars seem to go all over, especially in the 5th conto.. Even in

> entire Bhagavatam the avatars are all over the place. There must be

> some significant meaning for this. Will you pl. explain to me?

> thanks"

 

The description in Canto 5 is comparable to the 5 land forms of

ancient Tamils, each having a specific God for worship.

 

The description is about worship in varshas or countries, that were

parts of larger landmass or islands or Dweepas which were 5 in

number. As how we find worship of different gods in different places,

so too in these varshas. Each varsha had a specific following as a

result of which each varsha had a specific moorthy (or avatara or

form of Vishnu) for meditation and worship.

 

This can be substantiated by cross reference to description of these

varshas found in Bheeshma parvam, 6 th & 7th chapters. (Mahabharatham)

 

The varshas described in this parvam are about the land forms that

existed prior to the onset of kali yuga, or in other words, about 5000

years ago. The 5 th canto of Srimad Bhagavatham expresses the kind of

worship that were followed in those lands. This is not about any

specific avatara, but about the predominance of a particular God as

goal of worship in those days and in those varshas.

 

The Gods that have been predominantly meditated upon were naturally

the avatars that have happened before Krishnavatara and other forms of

Sriman Narayana.

 

Let me tabulate what has been given in this chapter.

 

(1) BhadrAshva varsha > Hayagreeva or Dharma.

 

(2) Hari varsha > Narasimha.

 

(3) KetumAla varsha > Hrishikesha.

 

(4) HiraNmaya varsha > kUrma

 

(5) Uttara kuru varsha > VarAha

 

(6) Kimpurusha varsha > Rama.

 

(7) Bharatha varsha > Narayana.

 

>From this the following insights emerge.

 

Ø Not all varshas have been covered. Not necessarily. The description

of these is related by SUta in the context of what is Truth, what is

spiritual Truth and what people did to follow the Truth. As a matter

of giving examples, the sage is expressing how the people of

different varshas have been singing His praise in the way that has

been peculiar to their lands. One instance is Hari varsha. This is a

place having the descendants of Prahlaadha. Naturally they were the

worshippers of Lord Nrusimha. If we go by the nature of these varshas,

( some clues emerge from Sanjaya's description in Bheeshma parvam)

there is nothing surprising about the way a particular God has gained

prominence in a particular varsha. We will elaborate further in this

mail.

 

Ø The avatars till Rama have been worshipped, probably with the

exception of Vamana. But it doesn't mean that Vamana was not

worshipped. What is mentioned in Bahgavatham here, is only a random

sample of who worshipped whom. There are many other varshas left out

of this description and the land connected with Vamana avatara must

have been having Vamana as the presiding God.

 

 

Ø Here let me tell what I understand about how gods had been

everywhere. One interesting information we find in Vamana purana is

that Prahladha went to a temple of Vamana, to worship Him. The

location seems to be somewhere in the southern bank of the river

Ganga. The sage who is hearing this from another, asks how could

Prahlaadha had worshipped Vamana whose avatar has not yet taken

place. It was replied that the Lord had taken the Vamana avataras many

times in the past (before humbling Bali) and this temple is of Vamana

in one such avatara.

 

Ø The probability of all the 10 avataras occurring in every mini-yuga

cycle of 28,800 years which constitutes one revolution around the

saptha rishi mandala has been discussed in my series on Rama's date

archived at raamabhakthi bringing out justification

/ evidence to show that many rounds of avataras have happened in one

Maha yuga of 43,20,000 years and to be precise, 150 rounds of 10

avataras each in the Maha yuga of 4 yugas and 15 rounds of 10 avatars

in Kali Maha yuga alone. Added to this is the Manvantras. There must

have been pretty many times that the avatars have taken place than

what we think. A deeper look into related smrithi texts give this

picture. This can be corroborated by geological and archeological

evidence too.

 

 

Ø A rationale for why all avatars are at all places –sometimes jumbled

in order – can also be substantiated from chapter 10 of Gita, where

Bahgavan identifies Himself with many beings. The names of those

beings are jumbled, i.e., from different manvantras as not one of them

can be identified along with the other of the same group from the same

purana. Different puranas give their names differently. In other words

you will find the names of maruts, sadhyas, rishis etc from different

manvanthras, running all over this chapter. The reason may be to show

how He has been through - across all times, at all Ages.

 

Now a detailed account on varshas and their Lords.

 

The chapters mentioned above give detailed report on varshas and

dweepas, as seen by Sanjaya upon gaining Divine vision to see the War.

Before training his vision to the war field, he looks around the

world, obliging the request by Dhritharaashtra. Anyone working on

landforms in ancient world, can take up a study of these chapters and

the subsequent ones to arrive at a precise picture of lands, the

people and their culture.

 

One can see then that the entire landmass was brimming with sanatana

dharma. Everywhere there was worship of Vishnu's different forms

Infact the Bharata varsha was the only place among those other places

where rajas and tamas were predominant. Sanjaya expresses this in

detail in the next chapter after finishing the description of the

landmass. It seems (from a reading of these chapters) that all the

avatars have taken place in bharata varsha, because there was no need

for Bahgawan to take avatars to establish Dharma at other places as

those places were full of dharmic people!

 

The Meru running east to west and south to north was central to all

existence. That the sun and the heavens revolved around it shows that

this formed the axis or central part from which directions were

calculated. (A similar version on how the celestial longitude was

calculated somewhere to the east of the Greenwich has been detailed in

'da vinci code' by Dan Brown. His version is substantiated by many

undeniable authentic sources from very ancient civilizations.). In my

reasoning this is somewhere on the line passing through Tanzania where

there is a volcano called Meru with a rivulet called jambhoo passing

down on its side. This area is closer to the Equator.

 

It will be evident from a close study of the texts of Indian Astronomy

that Latin America was known to ancient Indians, who called it

Pataladesa. The Surya Siddhanta, a textbook of Astronomy, composed

before 500 A.D. identifies and describes Patala desa in very clear and

definite terms in the chapter of geography (chapter xii). This area is

just on the other side of Bharata varsha in the globe. This coincides

with the west course of South America.

 

One interesting connection that comes to my mind is that Bali who was

humbled and sent to Patala would become the Indra of the next

manvanthra. From purans we get the description of what happens after

manvanthra – pralaya. After 100 suns (100 years of scorching the land

by sun), it would rain for 100 years when all life forms would perish.

But some able bodied ones would survive and migrate to another planet.

Once situation becomes normal, these people (descendants of these

people) would return to earth and start new races.

 

Since Bali is said to be the next Indra and since Surya Sidhanta

identifies the land at the other side of the globe as Patala, a

curious thought comes whether the descendants of the people there (of

Bali) are the ones mentioned in Puranas (particularly Linga purana) as

continuing (or initiating) their progeny in the next manvanthra. The

talk prevalence of once ancient wisdom in this region (particularly

Peru) adds sap to this thought.

 

 

Coming to the topic, there are many clues that all the varshas were

part of a great humanity of sanatana dharma and rishis of yore had a

very good knowledge of them.

 

To quote an example here, Lieutenant Speake, when planning his

discovery of the source of the Nile, secured his best information from

a map reconstructed out of Puranas. (Journal, pp. 27, 77, 216;

Wilford, in Asiatic Researches, III).

It traced the course of the river, the "Great Krishna," through

Kusha-dvipa, from a great lake in Chandristhan, "Country of the Moon,"

which it gave the correct position in relation to the Zanzibar

islands. The name was from the native Unya-muezi, having the same

meaning; and the map correctly mentioned another native name, Amara,

applied to the district bordering Lake Victoria Nyanza.

 

 

"All our previous information," says Speake, "concerning the

hydrography of these regions, originated with the ancient Hindus." The

ancient history is now completely buried with the re-naming of the

lake as Lake Victoria.

 

 

Another notable feature emerging from this is the meaning of

Kusha-dweepa. Kusha means dharbhai and Kusha dweepa is a land of

darbhai (the grass lands of Africa) Each dweepa had acquired its name

from the predominant tree or plant in that area (like the jambhoo

dweepa where India is, was once full of Jambhoo (naaval maram) trees)

 

This Kusha –dweepa was the biggest of all dweepas, as per the

description of Sanjaya. This land was known to have many medicinal

plants.

 

 

Coming to our discussion on varshas, it seems that it is here in

Kusha-dweepa, Ketu mAla varsha was located. Sanjaya says that the

people of this varsha are black in colour and strong in body! The land

north of this varsha had people who were white in complexion. That was

Shwetha varsha, says Sanjaya. Sage Narada was said to be belonging to

Shwetha varsha.

 

It is in KetumAla, Kubera spent his time, as per Sanjaya's

description. The people of this land worshipped Hrishikesha (5th

chapter of Bhagavatham), the One who has controlled all Indriyas or

who controls all indriyas. The prevalence of kusha grass goes with

japa or meditation. One reasoning we draw here is that the people of

KetumAla were all the time engaged in mediation by controlling their

indriyas and concentrating on Hrishikeshan. (This is about one of the

varshas mentioned in Bhagavatham, numbered 3 in the list furnished

above, based on the order it appears in Bhagavatham.)

 

>From the hymn mentioned in Bhagavatham it is also known that this was

a land where Lakshmi and her attendants worshipped Hrishikesha.

Connecting this with Kubera's residence here, we can understand that

this land was a land of prosperity.

 

We have another information from Surya Siddhanta, about the four great

cities situated on the opposite ends of the world, equidistant from

one another. 1. Yamakotipura in BhadrAshva varsha in the east, Lanka

in BhArat varsha in the south and 3. Romak in KetumAlavarsa in the

west and Siddhapura in Kuruvarsha in the north.

 

 

The celebrated astronomer Bhaskaracarya mentions the time difference

between the important cities situated in different parts of the world

in his Siddhanta Siromani (Goladhyaya) thus:

" When the sun rises at Lanka, the time as at Yamakotipura to the east

of Lanka, will be midday. Below the earth at Siddhapura, it will be

twilight then, and at Romakadesa, the time will be midnight."

 

If one tries to decipher this, YamakOti pura is somewhere in the

pacific 180 degrees E. This could have been part of Indonesian or

Japanese island groups which could have drifted to their present

location. Please browse www.a tributetohinduism.com to know how these

areas have had sanatana dharma culture since time immemorial. Japan

has some old inscriptions in Sanskrit older than any found in India.

 

This YamakOti pura in BhadrAshva varsha worshipped Hayagreeva or

Dharma as their object of concentration. (1st in the list) The hymn on

this in Srimad Bhavatham extols the way Vedas were restored and Dharma

established. Yama is known as Dharma devata known for his impartiality

between good and evil. It is inferred that this land in those days

must have had the connection with the story of restoration Vedas.

 

Let me go through the other ones in quick (!?) succession. (May God

give me the power to write in brief instead of this kind of lengthy

mails)

 

The second is Hari varsha, where it is mentioned in Bhagavatham that

Prahalladha and his followers worshipped Lord Nrusimha.

 

Then comes Ramyaka, Hiranmaya and uttara-kuru, worshipping Matsya,

Kurma and Varaha respectively.

Uttara kuru is described as north of Hymavada. This seems to be beyond

the northern limits of Himalayas. If this is so, the description will

become logical with the so-far available archeological and geological

evidence we have. There was a sea or water body before Himalayas

lifted up. Fossils of marine life are found at the top of Himalayas.

The once sea area which had now become a land could have become

Ramyaka worshipping Matsya.

 

The Hiranmaya had been the anchor for this elevation of mountains.

Therefore Kurma became their Lord. Further north Uttara kuru was the

land uplifted and therefore had Varaha as their Lord . This area is

likely to be Russia or Siberia and the name kuru in the names of

Russians (like Kuruschev) is an interesting point to ponder.

 

The 3 avataras mentioned in the above 3 lands is about the mini yuga

avatars coinciding with the elevation of the Himalayas. In every round

of mini-yuga, these avatars are happening though the initial ones had

taken place in satya maha yuga in the distance past. What we say in

sankalpa, as shweta varaha is about the avatara at Maha yuga scale.

The time period coincides with the birth of land forms on the surface

of the earth about 3-4 billion years ago.

 

 

The description is related to the sequences of land as these from

Nepal upwards North as found in Sanjaya's words. From the description

of the lands nearby, it seems Nepal was the Kimpurusha varsha, where

Sita's birth place was situated. Therefore the inhabitants of that

land worshipped Rama. It is worthy to recall here that Ayodhya was

deserted after Rama's departure (refer Kalidasa's Raghu vamsam), and

came back to some life and activity about 1000 years ago. But worship

of Rama had remained alive in Kimpurusha.

 

The bharatha varsha had Sriman Narayana as their Lord, as it was here

He was born to establish Dharma. As per Sanjaya's description, the

people of other varshas were the ones who have slipped from their

Achaara in their heavenly abodes and were born in those lands to shed

their karma. They led an ascetic or devotional life and left for

their former abodes once the time period was over. There was no

report of acrimony and chaos in those lands as were found in Bharatha

varsha. This shows why avatars have happened in Bharatha varsha - to

establish Dharma.

 

The worship of different forms of God in these varshas can be thus

explained.

 

Regards,

jayasree saranathan