| KARTVIRYA ARJUN Kartvirya Arjun, Kartvirya Arjun; also known as Sahastrabahu Arjun or Sahastraarjun) was a legendary king of an ancient Haihayas kingdom with capital at Mahishmati which is on the banks of Narmada River in the current state of Madhya Pradesh. Kartvirya was son of Kritavirya, king of the Haihayas. According to the Purans, Haihaya was the grandson of Sahasrajit, son of Yaduvanshi. This is his patronymic, by which he is best known; he is also referred to simply as Arjun. He is described as having a thousand hands and a great devotee of god Dattatreya. One of the several such accounts states that Arjun conquered Mahishmati city from Karkotak Nag, a Nag chief and made it his fortress-capital.
Arjun Kartvirya is not to be confused with Arjun Pandav, another major character in the Mahabharat. Kartvirya Arjun was the longest ruling Chakravati Samrat of Vedic era.
Names
:
Lord
Vishnu as Dhanak :
Encounter
with Ravan :
This epic contains 24,000 verses split into 500 chapters in Six Cantos. (Baal Kaand: refer Ch IV:2) [The six cantos are Baal Kaand, Ayodhya Kaand, Aranya Kaand, Kishkinda Kaand, Sundar (Lanka) Kaand and Yuddh Kaand.].
Kartvirya is considered to be the contemporary of Ravan. The story goes that once when Kartvirya Arjun was having a bath in the river Narmada along with his wives, he stopped the force of the river with his thousand arms from both sides. The teenage Dasgriv (Ravan), who was singing the hymns of Shiv and praying to him, made him lose his concentration. Enraged, he challenged the former for combat in which Ravan was defeated and was put to humiliation. Then, on request of his paternal grandfather Pulastya the great emperor Arjun released Ravan.
Another account states that when Ravan came "in the course of his campaign of conquest to Mahishmati (the capital of Kartvirya), he was captured without difficulty, and was confined like a wild beast in a corner of his city."
The Vayu Puran states that Kartvirya invaded Lanka, and there took Ravan as prisoner, but later he was killed by Parshuram and Ravan was rescued from Arjun.
Encounter with Parshuram :
In the Mahabharat Van Parv, according to the story of Akritavan, Kartvirya Arjun became drunk with power, despite all the boons he had acquired. He lost control of his senses and began to oppress humans, Yakshs and the very gods themselves. Kartvirya even had the audacity to insult Indra in front of Shachi. Around this time, other Kshatriyas too had become drunk with power and oppressed innocents for pleasure.
Arjun once troubled Varun and asked him if there was anyone equal to him in power. Varun replied that only Jamadagni's son, Parshuram rivalled Arjun. Enraged, Arjun went to Jamadagni's hermitage to see Parshuram's power.
The Purans recount that Kartvirya Arjun and his army visited a rishi named Jamadagni, who fed his guest and the whole army with offerings from his divine cow Kamadhenu. The king demanded the cow for the betterment of his subjects; Jamadagni refused because he needed the cow for his religious ceremonies. King Arjun sent his soldiers to take the cow. As the conflict developed among the Jamadagni and the King, Arjun lost his temper and chopped off the head of Jamadagni. When Parshuram (Jamadagni's son and one of the Dasavatars of Vishnu) returned to the hermitage, he was informed of the context by his mother. In revenge, Parshuram killed the entire clan of Arjun and the King with a battleaxe given to him by Shiv, eventually killing all kshatriyas, thus conquering the entire earth, which was then ruled by Brahmans. He enacted this wholesale eradication of the kshatriyas for 21 generations.
In another legend, Kartvirya Arjun visited the hermitage of Jamadagni, and was received by that sage's wife Renuka with all respect; but he made an ill return for her hospitality, and carried off by violence "the calf of the milch-cow of the sacred oblation." For this outrage Parshuram cut off his thousand arms and killed him.
In another legend, Kartvirya sent seventeen Akshauhinis to fight against the alone Parshuram who was on foot. The Brahman single-handedly slew the entire army and spared no one alive. Kartvirya arrived in his divine golden chariot which could go anywhere unobstructed. The King himself was a powerful archer, capable of simultaneously wielding five hundred bows and shooting five hundred arrows at a time. Parshuram broke Arjun's bows, slew his horses and charioteer and destroyed the chariot itself with his arrows.[citation needed]
Arjun hurled many weapons, rocks and trees at Parshuram, but the sage parried all these. Parshuram hacked off his thousand arms with his arrows and dismembered him with his axe.
In another place a different character is given to him, and more in accordance with his behavior at Jamadagni's hut. "He oppressed both men and gods," so that the latter appealed to Vishnu for succor. That God then came down to the earth as Parshuram for the special purpose of killing him.
The Mahabharat mentions him as one of the best warriors and introduces his divine origin, attributing it to the Padmini Ekadasi. It is said that there was none who could rival him in Sacrifices, Charity, Learning, Austerity, Battlefield Exploits, Feats, Strength, Mercy, Generosity or Power.
In the controversy regarding his name the clarification is given as below; Sahasra is the correct prefix that means "a thousand", not SahasTra. However, it is invariably misspelled as the latter. The same prefix is spelled when referring to the crown chakra: "Sahasrara Chakra" or when it occurs in family names (example: Sahasrabuddhe) without a T. Also see Sahasraling. The confusion arises because the Hindi letter "Sa" merges with "ra" and looks like "tra".
The
origin of Vrishal Kshatriya :
In this way Dravids and Abhiras and Pundras, together with the Savaras, became Vrishals through those men who had Kshatriya duties assigned to them (in consequence of their birth), falling away (from those duties). Then the Kshatriyas that were begotten by.
Later on, as Patanjali's Astadhyayi mentions, Abhiras appear in 150 BC. Later on, Abhiras established the Traikutak dynasty with kings such as Ishwarsen, Indradutt, Dahrasen & Vyaghrasen. Dahrasen even performed Ashwamegh Yagya. Traikutikas were known for their Vaishnav faith, who claimed to be Yadav of Haiheya branch.
Later on, in 10th century, Chudasamas are mentioned as the Abhira Ranak, in Hemachandra's reference to Graharipu in Dvyashraya. Merutung claims in his prose that Abhira Ranak, Navaghan defeated Jaysimha eleven times, but Jaysimha went himself twelfth time after capturing newly fortified Vardhamanpur (now Wadhwan (wadhwan is located in Surendranagar District, Gujarat, Bharat)).
Source :
https://en.wikipedia.org/ |