Vishnu Puranam : ( 04/04/2013. )

The Prachetas   Among Prithu’s descendants was a king called Prachinvarhi who married the daughter of the ocean, Savarna. Ten sons, the Prachetas, were born of this marriage. They performed very difficult tapasya (meditation) for ten thousand years under the ocean.   Maitreya asked Parashara, "Why did the Prachetas perform difficult tapasya for ten thousand years?" And this was Parashara’s answer.   Brahma had asked Prachinvarhi to ensure that the world became full of people and Prachinvarhi passed on the task to his sons. But the Prachetas did not know how to go about this task. Their father told them to pray to Vishnu, for didn’t Vishnu offer the solution to all problems? It was after paying to Vishnu that Brahma had created the universe at the beginning of the original creation. On hearing their father’s instructions, the Prachetas prayed for ten thousand years.   When the ten thousand years were over, Vishnu appeared before them on the top of his

The Kings Vena and Prithu  Some generations further down from Dhruva, there was a king called Vena. Vena was not a good king at all. He announced that there would be no sacrifices on earth. There was absoultely no reason for praying to Vishnu, wasn’t king Vena superior to even Vishnu? The sages tried to persuade the King to change his ways, but Vena was not in a mood to listen. The sages therefore decided that Vena should die. They chanted mantras over a straw and killed Vena with the straw. The problem however was that who would rule the kingdom in Vena’s place? Vena did not have any children. The sages then began to knead the dead king’s thighs. After the kneading, a dwarf who looked like a short pillar came out of the thighs. "What shall I do?", asked the dwarf. "Sit," said the sages and the dwarf came to be called nishada from the word for sitting. Later, the sons of Nishada came to live in the Vindhya mountains. The sages then began to knead the