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A Classical Dictionary of Hindu Mythology and Religion, Geography, History and Literature - John Dowson, 1820 - Complete Book

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He accompanied them back to their city, the desired rain fell, and he married iSanta. This *S^anta was the adopted daughter of Lomapada ; her real father was RITU-PARNA— RUBRA. 269 Dasa-ratlia, and it was i^/shya-snnga who performed that sacri- fice for Dasa-ratha which brought about the birth of Rama. i?/TU-PARiVA. A king of Ayodhya, and son of Sarva- kuma, into whose service Nala entered after he had lost his kingdom. He was "skilled profoundly in dice." i?/TU-S ANKARA. 'Tlie round of the seasons.' A poem attributed to Kali-dasa. This poem was published by Sir W. Jones, and was the first Sanskrit work ever printed. There are other editions. It has been translated into Latin by Bohlen. ROHIiVl. I. Daughter of Kasyapa and Surabhi, and mother of horned cattle, including Kama-dhenu, the cow which grants desires. 2. Daughter of Daksha and fourth of the lunar as- terisms, the favourite wife of the moon. 3. One of the wives of Vasu-deva, the father of Knsh?ia and mother of Bala-rama. She was burned with her husband's corpse at Dwaraka. 4. Krish/ia himself also had a wife so called, and the name is common. ROHITA. 'Red.' A red horse; a horse of the sun or of fire. I. A deity celebrated in the Atharva-veda, probably a form of fire or the sun. 2. Son of King Haris-chandra. He is also called Rohitaswa. The fort of Rohtas is said to derive its name from him. See Hari.s-chandra. ROMA-HARSHAiVA. See Loma-harsha?ia. RUDRA. 'A howler or roarer; terrible.' In the Yedas Rudra has many attributes and many names. He is the howl- ing terrible god, the god of storms, the father of the Rudras or Maruts, and is sometimes identified with the god of fire. On the one hand he is a destructive deity who brings diseases upon men and cattle, and upon the other he is a beneficent deity supposed to have a healing influence. These are the germs which afterwards developed into the god >S'iva. It is worthy of note that Rudra is first called Maha-deva in the "WHiite Yajur- veda. As applied to the god 6'iva, the name of Rudra generally designates him in his destructive character. In the Bnliad- ara7iyaka Upanishad the Rudras are " ten vital breaths (prdna) with the heart (inanas) as eleventh." In the VisliTiu Purawa the god Rudra is said to have sprung from the forehead of Brahma, and at the command of that god to have separated his nature into male and female, then to have multiplied each of these into eleven persons, some of which were white and gentle, 270 RUDRA-SAVARNA—SABALASWAS. others black and furious. Elsewhere it is said that the eleven Eudras were sons of Kasyapa and Surabhi, and in another chapter of the same Purawa it is represented that Brahma desired to create a son, and that Rudra came into existence as a youth. He wept and asked for a name. Brahma gave him the name of Rudra ; but he wept seven times more, and so he obtained seven other names : Bhava, iSarva, Isana, Pai'upati, Bhima, Ugra, and Maha-deva. Other of the Purawas agree in this nomenclature. These names are sometimes used for Rudra or ^S'iva himself, and at others for the seven manifestations of him, sometimes called his sons. The names of the eleven Rudras vary considerably in different books. RUDRA-SAVARiYA. The twelfth Manu. See Manu. RUKMIIS". A son of King Bhishmaka and king of Yidarbha, who offered his services to the Pa7i6?avas and Kauravas in turn, but was rejected by both on account of his extravagant boast- ings and pretensions. He was brother of Rukmim, with whom K?7'sh?ia eloped. Rukmin pursued the fugitives and overtook them, but his army was defeated by Kri'shwa, and he owed his life to the entreaties of his sister. He founded the city of Bhoja-ka/a, and was eventually killed by Bala-rama. RUKMIA^i. Daughter of Bhishmaka, king of Yidarbha. According to the Hari-vansa she was sought in marriage by K?-ish?2a, with whom she fell in love. But her brother Rukmin was a friend of Kan^a, whom K?'ish7ia had killed. He therefore opposed him and thwarted the match. Rukmi?ii was then betrothed to iS'isu-pala, king of Chedi, but on her wedding day, as she was going to the temple, " Krishna saw her, took her by the hand, and carried her away in his chariot." They were pursued by her intended husband and by her brother Rukmin, but Knsh?za defeated them both, and took her safe to Dwaraka, where he married her. She was his principal wife and bore him a son, Pradyumna (q.v.). By him also she had nine other sons and one daughter. "These other sons were Charu-deshwa, Su-deslma, Charu-deha, Su-shena, Charu-gupta, Bhadra-charu, Charu-vinda, Su-charu, and the very miglity Cliaru ; also one daughter, Charu-matl." At K?'ish?ia's death she and seven other of his wives immolated themselves on his funeral pile, RtJIMA. \Yife of the monkey king Su-grlva. /S'ABALAaS^WAS. Sons of Daksha, one thousand in number, SACHI—SAGARA. 271 brought fortli after the loss of the Harya.9was. Like their pre- decessors, they were dissuaded by Narada from begetting oil- spring, and " scattered themselves through the regions " never to return. aS^ACHL Wife of Indra. See Indra^ii. SADHYAS. A Garnx or class of inferior deities ; the per- sonified rites and prayers of the Vedas who dwell with the gods or in the intermediate region between heaven and earth. Their number is twelve according to one authority, and seven- teen according to another, and the PuraTias make them sons of Dharma and Sadhya, daughter of Daksha. SAGAKA. A king of Ayodhya, of the Solar race, and son of King Bahu, who was driven out of his dominions by the Haihayas. Biihu took refuge in the forest with his wives. Sagara's mother was then pregnant, and a rival wife, being jealous, gave her a drug to prevent her delivery. This poison confined the child in the womb for seven years, and in the interim Bahu died. The pregnant wife wished to ascend his pyre, but the sage Aurva forbad her, predicting that she would give birth to a valiant universal monarch. When the child was born, Aurva gave him the name of Sagara (sa, ' with,' and garcij * poison '). The child grew up, and having heard his father's history, he vowed that he would exterminate the Haihayas and the other barbarians, and recover his ancestral kingdom. He obtained from Aurva the Agneyastra or fire weapon, and, armed with this, he put nearly the whole of the Haihayas to death and regained his throne. He would also " have destroyed the /S'akas, Yavanas, Kambojas, Paradas, and Pahlavas," but they applied to Yasishifha, Sagara's family priest, and he induced Sagara to spare them, but "he made the Yavanas shave their heads entirely ; the Sakas he compelled to shave (the upper) half of their heads ; the Paradas wore their hair long ; and the Pahlavas let their beards grow in obedience to his commands." Sagara married two wives, Su-mati, the daughter of Kasyapa, and Kesini, the daughter of Kaja Yidarbha, but having no children, he besought the sage Aurva for this boon. Aurva promised that one wife should have one son ; the other, sixty thousand. Kesini chose the one, and her son was Asamanjas, through whom the royal line was continued. Su-mati had sixty thou- sand sons. Asamanjas was a wild immoral youth, and his 272 SAGARA—SAHA-DEVA. father abandoned him. The other sixty thousand sons followed the courses of their brother, and their impiety was such that the gods complained of them to the sage Kapila and the god Vish/iu. Sagara engaged in the performance of an As^Ya-nledlla or sacrifice of a horse, but although the animal was guarded by his sixty thousand sons, it was carried off to Piitala. Sagara directed his sons to recover it. They dug their way to the infernal regions, and there they found the horse grazing and the sage Kapila seated close by engaged in meditation. Conceiving him to be the thief, they menaced him with their weapons. Disturbed from his devotions, " he looked uj^on them for an instant, and they were reduced to ashes by the (sacred) flame that darted from his person." Their remains were discovered by Ansumat, the son of Asamanjas, who prayed Kapila that the victims of his wrath might be raised through his favour to heaven. Kapila promised that the grandson of An.sumat should be the means of accomplishing this by bringing down the river of heaven. Ansumat then returned to Sagara, who comj^leted his sacrifice, and he gave the name of Sagara to the chasm which his sons had dug, and Sagara means ' ocean.' The son of Ansumat was Dilipa, and his son was Bhagiratha.