Hi Friends!
Today let us continue the meandering tales we started last time, about the names of the days, and the individuals they are named after. Some repetitions may be expected. And as usual, as we are trying to connect various tales, there is some pick-and-choose, and some inconsistencies. I promise, I will try and keep them to the bare minimum.
Day 4 – Wednesday
The fourth day of the week is called BudhaVaar, or the Day of the Wise One. It is named after BudhaDeva, the graha who is the representative of the planet Mercury. Budha was a wise, knowledgeable and extremely attractive individual.
We had discussed the story of Budha‘s birth earlier. Let’s have a quick recap.
Chandra was married to the twenty seven Nakshatraani‘s, the female deities associated with the constellations. It seems he wasn’t content still, and he had romantic dalliances with Lady Tara, literally the Star. There was an issue with this, as Tara was married to Sage Brihaspati, the divine preceptor of the devas, and a graha in his own right. There was a lot of conflict due to this, but after the Trinity of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva intervened, Tara demurely returned to her husband. After a short time, Tara was blessed by a boy who was bright in all ways, i.e. he was resplendently attractive, as well as intelligent. Brihaspati was extremely proud of this son, and showed him around to all his divine acquaintances. Chandra noticed the similarity with himself, and staked claim on Budha, as HIS son. When discreet questioning of Tara was done, veracity of Soma’s claim was accepted, and Budha was henceforth called Soumya, or the Son of Soma (i.e. Chandra). He was taken care of by Chandra‘s favourite wife, Lady Rohini. He hence earned the additional sobriquet of Rauhineya, or son of Rohini.
Budha was a disciple of Lord Shiva, and had his abode near the Sharavana (the forest of reeds), which was beloved of Parvati. This place had an interesting privacy screen. Extremely irritated by the throng of visitors who came to pay their obeisance to Shiva, and took away her privacy, she ordained that all males who enter this region turned to females. This is how the first born son of Vaivaswata Manu (the son of Aditya Vivaswan) turned from Iladeva to Iladevi. She/he married Budha, and their only son, Pururavas was the first king of the Dynasty of the Chandra, or ChandraVansha.
In this celebrated dynasty were born many notables including the Vishnu avataar Krishna Vaasudeva (literally the dark one, who was son of Vasudeva), Bhishma Devavrata (mortal incarnation of the eldest Vasu Dyaus/Prabhasa), as well as the celebrated heroes known collectively as the Pandavas, i.e. the five sons of Pritha Kunti (the sister of Vasudeva, hence the paternal aunt of Krishna Vaasudeva). In addition another favourite son of Chandra and Rohini was incarnated in this dynasty. He was the attractive and powerful Varchas, whose very name gave us the Sanskrit/Hindi term for absolute power, i.e. varchaswa. He incarnated as Abhimanyu, the son of the middle Pandava, Arjuna (himself the son of Aditya Indra), and Lady Subhadra (youngest daughter of Vasudeva, hence the half-sister of Krishna Vaasudeva). Varchas was so beloved of his divine father Chandra, that it was ordained that Abhimanyu would die young, and return to his divine parents. Not before he became the father of King Parikshita, who took over the rule of ChandraVanshi empire, after the Pandavas.
So Budha is an important character in Indian mythology, yet lesser celebrated compared to his numerous descendants. So let’s give him his due by taking a deep breath, and aligning ourselves to knowledge or bodha, in the middle day of the week.
Day 5 – Thursday
The fifth day of the week is called BrihaspatiVaar or GuruVaar, the Day of the Preceptor. It is named after Sage Brihaspati, the graha who is the representative of the planet Jupiter. He was also the preceptor, or guru of the Devas. Brihaspati is supposed to be very learned and a fount of creative solutions for difficult problems.
He was the son of Sage Angiras, one of the Saptarishis, the mind-born sons of Lord Brahma. In some tales (and hymns), Brihaspati is called the son of Agni, the fire god. The story behind it is quite interesting, and brief. Once Sage Angiras was engaged in extreme tapas, penance that increases the heat and hence gives strength, knowledge and power. His tapas was so powerful that he blazed more bright and hot than fire itself. This made AgniDeva accept his supremacy, and considered him as a stronger fire god than himself.
Born to such a father, it was natural that Brihaspati himself was learned and powerful from birth. In fact he is the one of two sages who also gets the status of a graha (the other being his arch nemesis and the preceptor of the Asuras), and the only who also gets the status of a deva. He had many sons, and quite a few of them are considered fire gods in their own right (following in the footsteps of their grandfather Sage Angiras), and invoked during yagnas. Let’s look into the stories of the other sons of Brihaspati who directly or indirectly contribute to the richness of the mythological tales of Indra. As these are going to be quite long, let’s cover the remaining two days of the week (and the additional two grahas) in another post, and delve into the stories of Brihaspati’s progeny.
Strange Tales of the Sons of Brihaspati
Kacha – The Son Who Learned
Brihaspati was married to Tara (whose son with Soma we discussed above). Also born to her, and who was undoubtedly the son of Brihaspati, was a studious son called Kacha. Both Brihaspati and the preceptor of Asuras knew Sanjeevani Vidya (literally the science of rejuvenation). These came in handy to rejuvenate their injured disciples, and sometimes revive those who died in the inevitable Deva-Asura conflicts. Sadly for the Devas, Brihaspati‘s vidya was dependent on difficult to acquire raw materials and of less efficacy. To solve this problem, Kacha was sent to learn the Sanjeevani Vidya from the Asura guru, who had got it from Lord Shiva, the Destroyer. There, Kacha soon gained the favour of the daughter of his teacher. This lady was named Devayani. Interesting name for someone who lives with the asuras. We shall discuss this incongruity when we talk about HER father, the next graha.
Any how, the Asuras came to know that Kacha was apprenticing with their preceptor to learn the highly secret science. Though the Asura guru kept the vidya out of the curriculum, but the guru-putri was quite partial to Kacha, so it was possible he would succeed in his quest soon. So they started orchestrating accidents which culminated in Kacha‘s death. Multiple times, and every time met success. No need to be confused at this, as every time Kacha died, Devayani became extremely disturbed, and to assuage her pain her father would revive Kacha using the vidya.
The leaders of the gang decided to up the ante. So one day they got hold of the son of sage, and cut him to pieces. Then they cooked the flesh well, and fed the same to the Asura guru. This time when Devayani came all teary-eyed to ask her father to revive her favourite batchmate, he realised that it would not be that easy. As, he found the only way to revive Kacha was to kill himself. But that would not do. So he taught Kacha (who was in his stomach) the MritaSanjeevani Vidya, and revived him, which was suicidal. After tearing his way out of his guru’s tummy, used his new-found knowledge to revive his guru. So the Asuras in their attempts to thwart Kacha‘s quest, actually made it possible for him to succeed. His aim finally fulfilled, Kacha asked for his guru‘s leave. At this Devayani expressed her interest in marrying him. At this Kacha gave the infallible logic that having been reborn from her father’s stomach, he viewed her now as a sister, and hence could not accept her proposal. This made the two ex/never-to-be lovers to exchange curses. Devayani cursed Kacha, that he would never be able to again use his knowledge of the Sanjeevani Vidya. At this Kacha explained that he didn’t need to, as he would teach to others who would.
those who can, do. others who can’t, teach!
snide remark that rings true in case of Kacha
Kacha in return cursed Devayani that she would never marry a brahmana. How this curse worked to the advantage of Devayani, and the richness of mythological tales, we shall talk about later. Just a teaser, it made the waxing and waning fortunes of the ChandraVansha even more interesting.
Vitatha – The Son Who Ruled
Mild Warning: The following section may have certain aspects that would need parental guidance, for my younger readers
the blogger who would prefer to be safe, rather than sorry
Brihaspati had an elder brother called Sage Utathya. His name consists of facts (“tathya“) with the prefix denoting arising from (“u“/”ud“), hence may mean the “One Who Arises from (Is Supported by) Facts”. So I guess, he was a very learned person. Not much is known about this learned angiraasa (descendant of Sage Angirasa), other than that his wife’s name was Mamta (literally “maternal instincts”), and he had left her alone when she was pregnant with their child. This child was destined to be very learned. So much so that he had started imbibing knowledge even in the womb, and had good knowledge of vedas, and ability to communicate while still an embryo.
One fateful day, Utathya‘s younger brother Brihaspati suggested that she bear a child of his, in addition to his brothers.
At this the embryo inside Mamta‘s womb objected loudly, as that would cause a lot of discomfort to him. At this Brihaspati got angry and cursed the unborn child to be blind for his disrespectful conduct. This child when born was named Dirghatamas (literally Long Darkneess).
Not getting into the details, Brihaspati used his power as the preceptor of the gods, and ensured that Mamta bear him a child, who was a double of his brother’s child in her womb. This individual was named The Second (“dvaja”) Who Was Maintained (“bhara”), or Bharadvaja. This unfortunate child was neither accepted by Brihaspati (his father), nor Mamta (his mother), nor Utathya (the husband). The Maruts, who knew the pain of being hurt while in the mother’s womb took him under their stewardship.
In the meanwhile there was a major crisis in the ChandraVansha. The current king, King Bharata had three wives, but none of his sons were found suitable to continue his dynasty. In a few macabre versions, his wives realising that their sons would not measure up to their illustrious father, had themselves killed them. Any way, Bharata was without a proper heir to his throne. So the MarutDevas gave their ward Bharadvaja to Bharata for adoption. This individual was also called Vitatha, which literally means Not The Real One; maybe a play on not being the son of Utathya, as well as him not being the “real” son of King Bharata. He grew up to be an able and strong ruler, and his descendants also include King Shantanu, who in turn was was the father of Bhishma Devavrata, and the great-grandfather of the Pandava heroes.
Meanwhile Dirghatamas, the cursed son of Utathya, continued being learned and blind. He was blessed with many children, one of whom was Sage Gautama. In later life the blind Dirghatamas started being quite cranky, and picked up a few bad habits. Once fed-up with his tantrums his wife (may be supported by her sons) put him on a raft, and set it adrift down the river. Down the river he was rescued by King Bali, who was also from a minor ChandraVanshi family. After some convoluted incidents (which we may cover later), Dirghatamas blessed the wife of the king with five sons. These sons were named Anga, Vanga, Kalinga, Pundra, and Sunga. They founded five new kingdoms, which are now covered by the eastern states of India like West Bengal, Odisha and Bihar. A few of them were later annexed by kings claiming descent from Dirghatamas‘ half brother, Vitatha (Bharadvaja). Later Anga was given as gift by one of the princes of that dynasty, to Karna, an illustrious son of Aditya Vivaswan, and Pritha Kunti.
Sage Gautama, son of Dirghatamas, has many stories associated with him, including the most well known one: involving the dalliance of Aditya Indra with Gautam‘s wife Ahalya, subsequent cursing of Indra and Ahalya, and the way the curses were reversed.
A quick aside the sister of Utathya and Brihaspati was called Angiraasi (or the daughter of Angirasa). She was the wife of Vasu Prabhasa, and had asked her husband (and his seven brothers) to steal the cow of Sage Vashistha. This angered the normally mild-mannered sage enough to curse the Ashta-Vasus to be born as mortals, and Prabhasa to live a long and painful life as Bhishma Devavrata.
Kesari – The Son Who Had A Famous Son
In addition to the longer tales wherein genealogy is mentioned in details, there are two epics wherein some interesting genealogy is mentioned in passing.
In the epic story of the great war amongst the descendants of King Bharata (“MahaBharata“) during the Dwaapar Yuga, it is mentioned that the devas and asuras fought this war as a proxy war, as they were forbidden to start an outright war. The various asuras took birth as various kings, and sons of kings; such as Kaalanemi as Kamsa, Kali as Suyodhana, and Viprachitti as Jarasandha. They did this to have complete control of BhooTala of mortals; the middle world between SvargaLoka of devas, and the RasaaTala of asuras. To counter the same, some devas took incarnations, like Vishnu as Krishna Vaasudeva, Yama as Vidura, and Varchas as Abhimanyu. Some devas were far too busy, so they fathered heroic men, such as twin devas AshwinKumaras fathered the youngest Pandavas, the twins Nakula and Sahadeva.
Similarly during Treta Yuga, Ravana (the incarnation of the cursed Jaya) received the boon from his great-grandfather Lord Brahma to be undefeatable by any other than naras (men) and vanaras (either vana-naras, i.e. forest dwelling men, or apes). He usurped the island of Lanka from his half-brother Kubera. Using his Brahma-given power, and the riches he got with Lanka, he defeated the kingdoms of men as well as devas, and extracted tribute. To end his reign (and commutate his curse), Lord Vishnu took a fully mortal incarnation as Raghava Rama, giving up all his divine powers. To support him in this endeavour, the various devas fathered heroic vanaras with vanara women. Vishwakarma (either Aditya Tvastr or the skilful son of Vasu Prabhasa) fathered the future bridge-builder-extraordinaire, Nala. Agni fathered Nala‘s brother, Nila. The twin AshwiniKumaras fathered the long-lived twins Mainda and Dvivida.
To help in this divine endeavour, Brihaspati fathered a son, named Kesari (literally the one with long hair, or a lion). Though Kesari did fight like a lion in the war between Rama and Ravana, his true contribution is much greater through his son with his wife Anjana, the well known vanara with super-heroic strength, Hanuman.
In fact Anjana too had a background connection with Brihaspati. She was originally a divine damsel, named Punjikasthali. She used to serve the preceptor of devas, but angered Brihaspati once due to her inattention. She was cursed to be born as a mortal, and was reborn as Anjana Maata. Popular names of Hanuman include KesariNandan (“son of Kesari”) and Anjaneya (“son of Anjana”).
Let me leave you with a lesser known regional story about the mother of Hanuman. In Ramakien, a South-East version of the story of Rama, the daughter of Kodom (parallel of Sage Gautam) was cursed by her mother (the parallel of Ahalya) to give birth to a monkey child, who was the hero Hanuman, born with the help of Phra Phai (parallel of VayuDeva) and the strength of Phra Isuan (parallel of Lord Shiva).
So if we connect the dots between these stories, the grand-daughter of Dirghatamas (son of Brihaspati‘s elder brother) married the son of Brihaspati, and their son was the hero Hanuman.
This post was longer than usual, but hope you liked the connected stories above. Let’s see if the last two days of the week have as interesting stories as these.
Tales from Indian Mythology from a Story Keeper 
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