More on the Manvantaras
The Markandeya Purana Describes the Birth of Manus
The amazing stories of the births of Raivata, the fifth Manu, Chakshusha, the sixth Manu, and Bhoutya, the fourteenth Manu.
This article continues the descriptions of the Manus given in the Markandeya Purana. A Manu is the person in charge of a manvantara.
Raivata the Fifth Manu
A son was born to sage Ritavak after a long time. Unfortunately the boy turned out to be very evil. He went to the extent of kidnapping someone else’s wife. This saddened the sage and his wife. They went to the learned sage Garg to understand the reason for their misfortune. Garg told them the fault lay neither in their karma nor in the karma of their son. The fault lay in the fact that the child was born under the Revati (Pisces) constellation, which is very inauspicious as far as births go. Ritavak was furious at Revati and cursed the constellation to fall down on earth. The constellation fell on Mount Kumuda and turned the surrounding area into a verdant paradise. From a lake in that region emerged a very beautiful girl, Revati. Sage Pramuch adopted her as his daughter. When she reached a nubile age he wished that she married Durgam, a descendant of Swayambhav Manu. She insisted that she would marry only if the Revati constellation was returned to heaven. Pramuch arranged that. Since Durgam was a descendant of a Manu, he desired that his son should become a Manu. With the blessings of sage Pramuch a son, Raivata, was born to Revati and Durgam. He was learned, righteous and invincible and in due course became the fifth Manu.
Chakshusha the Sixth Manu
The sage Amritara and his wife Bhadra had a son, whom they named Ananda. Once Ananda smiled when his mother was showering affections on him. Bhadra asked the baby why he was smiling. Ananda replied that a mother’s love is selfish and later in life a mother uses this love for emotionally blackmailing her children. Bhadra got angry and forsook her child. A she demon grabbed the unattended boy and replaced him with the son of King Vikranta. Then she exchanged Vikranta’s son with a third baby and ate the third child. Vikranta brought up Ananda believing him to be his own son. When Ananda was in his youth he revealed the secret to Vikranta and called the real prince back to the royal household. Ananda then decided to take up a life of penance. However Brahma appeared and prevented that. In an earlier life Ananda had been born from Brahma’s eyes and therefore Brahma renamed him Chakshusha, the Sanskrit word for eyes being “chakshu”. Chakshusha then married Vidharbha, the daughter of King Ugra, and later became the sixth Manu.
Bhoutya the Fourteenth Manu
Bhuti was a hot-tempered sage, who would hurl curses at the slightest provocation. Even the elements of nature were afraid of him and gave him what he wanted without his asking. Once his brother, Suvarcha, was conducting a sacrifice and invited Bhuti to participate. Bhuti left his hermitage in the charge of his assistant Shanti. In Bhuti’s absence the sacrificial fire went out and a frightened Shanti appealed to Agni, the demi-God of Fire for help. Agni, aware of the fate Shanti would meet if he did not help, relit the fire and told Shanti to ask for two more boons. Shanti asked that his master’s fiery nature be changed and that his master be blessed with a son. When Bhuti returned to his hermitage he was a changed man. Soon his wife gave birth to a son, Bhoutya, who would become the fourteenth Manu.
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