Prithu, the first consecrated king of ancient India

There are two versions in the Shanti Parva of the Mahabharata with regards to the origin of the state. In the first version, it is said that Vishnu appointed his mind-begotten son Virajas as king, and he was followed by his successors up to Prithu. In the second version it mentions that when people felt the need for a State then Prajapati appointed Manu Vaivasvata as king and people agreed to pay a portion of their earnings to him as tax.

Conditions before the accession of Prithu as a King

Prithu’s father Vena is described in the Puranas as a wicked person who had prohibited the performance of sacrifices and giving alms, which had infuriated the rishis and made them kill Vena with their yogic powers. But a more reasonable version behind the killing of Vena by the rishis is given by J.P.Mittal. Accordingly, the rishis had the best lands near the river, while the lands of the common people were facing shortages of water due to drought. Vena is said to have issued a proclamation that everybody should have a right over the land possessed by the rishis. On hearing this, the rishis felt angry, as so far nobody had dared to take their land. They attacked Vena and killed him. The people rose against the rishis, and anarchy prevailed. The rishis realized the necessity of a ruler for the protection of the people and their properties. The rishis apologized to Prithu for killing his father and asked him to take the responsibility of ruling over the kingdom. Prithu restored the land owned by the rishis on the condition that during famine or in any other calamity all people would have a right over it for which the rishis agreed.

Consecration of Prithu

After the rishis vested the office of kingship to Prithu, a number of officials were appointed to help Prithu discharge his functions. Sage Sukracharya was appointed as his priest, Valakhilya sages and Sarasvata Ganas as ministers, Garba as astrologer and Suta and Magadha as royal panegyrists. The Suta (Pauranika), Magadhas (Vamsha-Shamsaka or genealogist) and Vandin (Stavaka or eulogist) used to awaken the king in the morning with their blessings.

Prithu was the first king of ancient India

Though Viraja is mentioned as the first ruler, he did not rule but chose renunciation. So also his son Kirtiman and grandson Kardama. The next to come were Ananga, Atibala and Vena. Among them, Atibala was addicted to passion and Vena was killed by the rishis. In the view of Om Prakash, the predecessors of Prithu were Prajapatis, i.e., patriarchs - the successive heads of the tribes and it was Prithu who was the first king of ancient India and this is evidenced from the following facts given below.

• The mention of the high officials taking charge of their respective offices takes place only during Prithu’s reign.

• It was Prithu who made settlements and habitats called Gramas, Puras, Pattana, Durga, Kheta, etc. Hence after the name of Prithu, the Bhu (earth) was called Prithvi. According to Bhagavata Purana, before Prithu there was no conception of villages and towns and people were living fearlessly wherever they liked.

• Prithu made improvements in husbandry, agriculture and trade.The Atharvaveda gives credit for introducing the art of ploughing to Prithu. He is also said to have taught the art of mining to his people.

• Bhagavata Purana calls Prithu as Adiraja.

Prithu ruled before Vaivasvata Manu

That Prithu was an earlier king than Vaivasvata Manu is evident from the fact that while there is reference to Prithu in Vedic literature as the first consecrated monarch (Krishna Yajurveda, Taittariya Brahmana i.7.7.4), there is no such reference to Vaivasvata Manu. Also, while Mahabharata connects Prithu’s ancestry to Viraja, the Puranas connect his ancestry to the 6^th Manu, Chakshusa and both the versions say that Prithu was the son of Vena. Among the rulers mentioned in the Puranas who ruled after Vaivasvata Manu we do not find the name of Vena. This proves that Prithu was earlier than Vaivasvata Manu, the seventh Manu.

The Vayu Purana, Padma Purana and Harivamsha state that Prithu flourished in the Vaivasvata Manvantara. The Puranas mention six past Manus, the present Manu (Vaivasvata Manu) and seven future Manus, each ruling over an astronomical period of time. But the fact is that the 2^nd, 3^rd , 4^th and 5^th Manus were all grandsons of the first Manu, Svayambhuva, while the 6^th Manu was a descendant of the second son of Svayambhuva Manu. Hence all the Manus from the first to the sixth ruled within a span of five to six generations. Probably for this reason the original Purana Samhita mentions only two Manus, Svayambhuva and Vaivasvata. Being a distant descendant of the first Manu, the gap between the reign of Prithu and Vaivasvata Manu may not have been too wide, and hence the above Puranas have stated that Prithu flourished in the Vaivasvata Manvantara.

Prithu was a benevolent and democratic monarch. The practice of distributing grains to the people in times of famine started during his time, and it was the king’s duty to store grains. His rule commenced a period of prosperity and ended anarchy, which had prevailed following the death of his father, Vena. In the history of ancient India, the period of Prithu’s rule is considered a golden period.

Reference

• Om Prakash – The Problem of the first traditional king, Purana, vol – vii No.I, January 1965

• B.P.Mazumdar – Manus in the Puranas, Proceedings of the Indian History Congress, vol – 32, vol I, 1970

• P.L.Bhargava – The Origin and development of Puranas and their relation with Vedic literature, ABORI, vol 58/59, Diamond Jubilee Volume, 1977-78

• Vettam Mani – Puranic Encyclopaedia, Motilal Banarasidass, Delhi, 1975 F.E.Pargiter – Ancient Indian Historical Traditions, London, 1922

• J.P.Mittal – History of Ancient India (A New Version), vol – I, From 7300 B.C. - 4250 B.C., Atlantic , 2006

• S.G.Kantawala – Legend of Prthu Vainya in the Vishnu Purana, Legends in Puranas, Rashtriya Sanskrit Sansthan, New Delhi, 1995

• V.R.Ramachandra Dikshitar – Hindu Administrative Institutions, University of Madras, 1929

A Brief note on the Upanayana rite

The ideal set before the Brahmins in the Dharmasastras was one of poverty, simple living and high thinking, of forsaking the active pursuit of riches and cherishing cultural preservation and advancement. Manu lays down the general rule that when not in distress a Brahmin should acquire wealth only just sufficient to maintain himself and his family.¹ The Mahabhasya of Pantanjali quotes as an agama (Vedic passage) the words ‘a Brahmana should study and understand without any motive (of profit) dharma, the Veda with its six subsidiary lores’. According to Manu, a Brahmana should always and assiduously study the Veda alone; that (Veda study) is his highest dharma; everything else is inferior dharma (4.147).² In another verse Manu says that the study of Vedas is the highest tapasya of a Brahmin (2.166) and a dvija (twice born) who not having studied the Vedas, tries to acquire other forms of learning is degraded to the status of Shudra with all his progeny, even in his life. (Manu Smriti 2.168).³ These statements in the Dharmasastras shows that study of the Vedas was the summum bonum for a Brahmin and this began after he underwent the samskara (sacrament) of Upanayana.

Meaning of Upanayana

The literally word of Upanayana means ‘leading or taking near’ and originally meant taking near the acharya for instruction.⁴ In the Atharva Veda the word Upanayana is used in the sense of “taking charge of a student’. Here it is meant the initiation of a child by a teacher into sacred lore. Even in the Sutra period the proposal of the student for studentship and its acceptance by the teacher is the central point in the Upanayana samskara. But later on, when the mystic significance of the Upanayana increased, the idea of the second birth through the Gayatri mantra overshadowed the original idea of initiation for education.⁵

Main purpose of Upanayana

The commencement of Vedic studies was the original purpose of undergoing the Upanayana samskara. In the most ancient times, it was probable that the father himself always taught his son but later the student went to a guru and stayed in his house for studies. Accordingly, the would-be student would go to a teacher with a samidh (fuel stick) in his hand and tell that he desired to enter the stage of studenthood and begged to be allowed to be a brahmachari living with the teacher. The teacher who accepted the pupil instructed him the Savitri (Gayatri) mantra and started teaching him the Vedas. The student had certain duties to perform like tending his guru’s cattle, refraining himself from singing and dancing, sleeping on a cot, consuming honey, etc. He was supposed to earn his food through begging. For undergoing the Upanayana, there was no elaborate ceremonies like those described in Grhya Sutras.⁶

Originally education was the main purpose of undergoing the Upanayana samskara and ritual or ceremoniously taking the initiate to the teacher an ancillary item. It was not only at the first initiation of a boy but at the beginning of every branch of the Veda, that Upanayana was performed. In the Upanishads we come across a number of cases where a person underwent the rite of Upanayana when approaching a guru for learning a new branch of philosophy.⁷

Yajnopavita reduced to cord of threads

Today the person who undergoes the Upanayana ceremony starts wearing a sacred thread called janivara or janeoo consisting of three or six threads across his left shoulders and under his right arm. The sacred thread as such is not mentioned in the Grhyasutras. It was a later substitute for the upper garment called yajnopavita, which was put on at the time of a sacrifice.

The root meaning of the word yajnopavita implies that it is a covering for the body (upaviti) to be donned during the ceremonies (yajna). A deer skin served as a covering (upaviti) for the body of the twice born during his prayer hours as a protection against cold.⁸

The earliest reference to Yajnopavita is found in Taittiriyaranyaka (2.1) where it is described as consisting of the skin or the cloth worn in a certain manner. However during the time of Manu it seems to have become a mere thread twisted in a particular manner. According to Medhatithi it is called Yajnopavita because it is connected with sacrificial performances. The Grhyasutras also do not seem to speak of habitual wearing (of sacred thread). Apastamba has declared that it should be worn while saluting teachers, old men and guests and also when doing homa, japa, meals, achamana and recitation of the Vedas.⁹

According to P.V.Kane, from the fact that many of the Gryasutras are entirely silent about the giving or wearing of the sacred thread in Upanayana and from the fact that no mantra is cited from the Vedic literature for the act of giving the yajnopavita (which is now the centre of the Upanayana rites), while scores of Vedic mantras are cited for the several component parts of the ceremony of Upanayana, it is most probable, if not certain that the sacred thread was not invariably used in the old times. Originally the upper garment was used in various positions for certain acts and the cords of threads came to be used first as an option and later on exclusively for the upper garment.¹⁰

Performance of Sandhyakarma

The performance of Sandhyakarma is an obligation for one who undergoes the Upanayana ceremony and this includes the recital of the Gayatri mantra. According to Shankhayana Gruha Sutra, Sandhya should be performed twice in the morning and evening, sitting in a forest, with fuel sticks in hand, or just with folded hands, observing silence, facing east Gayatri japa should be uttered until the disk of the sun appears in the morning and until the stars appear in the evening.¹¹ The Baudhayanadharmasutra says Sandhya should be performed near the river, holding Darbhas in the hand and sitting on the Darbha grass.¹² Earlier recitation of the Savitri (Gayatri) was the only important ritual in the Sandhya rite but later Prayoga manuals introduced Nyasa, Mudra and Bhasmadharana to it.¹³

Upaakarma, new session for Vedic studies

Dharmashastras refer to a rite called Upaakarma or Upaakarana which means opening, starting or beginning. In several sutras, Upaakarma is spoken as adhyaayopakarma or adhyaayopakarana and adhyaaya means the study of the Vedas. This rite was performed as a beginning of the session in the year for Vedic study.¹⁴ In modern times without knowing the significance of this rite, Brahmins change their sacred thread on the day of Upaakarma.

Sacred thread, a decorative badge

Earlier Upanayana was a voluntary ceremony. Whoever desired to learn approached his guru and performed the initiation ceremony and Upanayana was confined to literary and priestly families only.¹⁵ Later as new branches of learning evolved, it was felt that to preserve the sacred literature the service of the entire community had to be utilized and hence Upanayana was made a compulsory samskara. Also, it was believed that Upanayana possessed sanctifying power.¹⁶ But when Upanayana became a compulsory samskara people gradually forget its real purpose and in the words of Raj Bali Pandey, the Upananaya became a ceremonial farce and the sacred thread an insignificant decorative badge.¹⁷

Reference

1. P.V.Kane – History of Dharmasastra, vol 2, part I, 1941, p.110

2. Ibid, p.107

3. Rabindra Kumar Pana – Manusmrti (II & III chapters), Edited and translated, Paramamitra Prakashana, New Delhi, 1999

4. P.V.Kane – Op.Cit, p.268

5. Raj Bali Pandey – Hindu Samskaras, A Socio-religious study of the Hindu Sacraments, Vikrama Publications, Banaras, 1949, pp:194-95

6. P.V.Kane – Op.Cit, pp:271-283

7. Raj Bali Pandey – Op.Cit, pp:196-198

8. V.Raghavendra Rao – Evolution of the Yajnopavita, Quarterly Journal of Mythic Society, vol 39, no 1, July 1948, p.49

9. Mahamahopadhaya Ganganatha Jha – Yajnopavita, Sir Asutosh Memorial Volume, p.62

10. P.V.Kane – Op.Cit, p.291

11. Bhagyashree Bhagwat – Sandhya: Ritual and Development in B.K.Dalai, R.A.Muley Edited, Vedic Studies (Problems and Perspectives), Pratibha Prakashan, 2014, p.224

12. Ibid, p.225

13. Ibid, p,226

14. P.V.Kane – History of Dharmasastra, vol 2, part II, 1941, p.807

15. Raj Bali Pandey – Op.Cit, p.207

16. Ibid, p.209

17. Ibid, p.196