The DNA analysis of the human remains found in Tianyuan in Beijing showed that it belonged to a person who lived 40,000 years before present. It also showed that today's Asians and Native Americans could trace their ancestry to the likes of that man of that time. My article written on that report was published earlier here:
Asians (Indians & Chinese) shared same genetic origin with Native Americans.
Yet another article written by me sheds more light on the movement and mix-up of people in Sundaland – China – Siberia corridor. It can be read here:
Date of Indian civilization pushed upto 7500 BC!
The movement of people in the immediate past, say within 3500 to 5000 years BP is shown below.
The dispersal of people around Sundaland can be accounted by means of the Lapita pottery, the megalithic sites etc. This goes upto the settlements in the Andes – in the Incas.
But looking far back into tens of thousands of years, we have to depend on Hindu Puranas and genetics to know what happened and how it happened. The movement of people in that distant past can be shown as below as per Hindu sources.
The numbers 1 and 2 show the shuttling of people from Siberia to Sundaland and vice versa. This happened with the change in solar heat that shifted with the gradual change in the tilt of the axis of the earth. The last shift had happened between 25,000 to 40,000 years BP. According to Oppenheimer's model of genetic trail, East Asians had spread towards North east Asia (number 1 in the above picture) and from there crossed the Berring Strait to enter North America. The Beijing man comes in the upper limit of that period, namely 40,000 yrs BP.
In the picture below I have shown the location of Beijing in black ring and another location in pink colour. This location is Xinjiang which is home to a lake called " Sayram".
Sayram Lake
This name strikes a resemblance with another water body on the other side of China, in Kazakhsthan! It is a city called SayrAm which got this name from the river SayrAm on the banks of which it is situated. As of today people of SayrAm remember a 3000 year history, but that also tells its further ancestry into periods before that. River SayrAm drains into Arys Darya, which is a tributary of Syr Darya which is one among the famous the rivers of this region that include Amu Darya (Amudha Dhara = the flow of nectar). The tributaries of Amu darya are Vakhsh river also known as Chakshus river. There is another river by name Panj river – sounds Sanskrit.
Location of Syr Darya and Amu Darya
In Mahabharata we find the references to Chakshus river. The 6th Manvantra was also known as Chakshu. The present Manvantra is the 7th one headed by Vasivavata Manu whom I have been saying is the one who entered River Saraswathy at the end of last Ice Age around 13,500 years ago. The Chakshus Manvantra signifies the previous growth of mankind. It is probable that the Chakshus manvantra growth of mankind happened before the Ice age – around 25,000 to 40,000 years BP!
Let me first explain the terrain of this region. In between China and Kazakhthan in this region, was situated Ili river – the Ila varsham of Puraravas. The Ili rivers and the Ila varsham are shown below.
On both sides of this Ili region are Sayrams! In China they say that this name 'Sayram' means blessing. Perhaps the lake with its water reserve was considered as a blessing. But on the other side, in Kazhakhsthan, there are many researchers who are hell bent on looking at everything other than the original ones as they are accustomed to look at Persian sources, Greek sources, Arab sources and so on but not at Indian sources, if it is not from a migrant Aryan connection! The meanings and interpretations they have given are many and varied. But looking from Indian source I can offer an explanation.
In Atharvana Veda 16-7 there is a verse saying that Suyaman was the son of Chakshus. This verse talks about scorching the heaven and the earth which is nothing but a description of a scorching Sun. The reference therefore seems to be to a time of hot days. Each manvantra itself is activated by the Sun's impact on climate and vegetation. The human growth and migrations had followed the sun's path and behaviour. So it is reasonable to assume that Suyaman and Chakshus as told in AV verse refer to a time period when Sun was harsh. The interesting information about the city of Sayram is that the river from which the city has got its name, is known by the name Sayram Su! (Is this Su a corrupt word of Suyaman?) It joins Arys Darya whose tributary is "Sayramsu". It further joins Syr Daryu whose sister river is Amu Darya or Chakshu river. How these names came here unless this region was connected with human growth of the Chakshus manvantra (the previous manvantra)?
The word SayrAm sounds like something to do with Ram but there is a Sanskrit word, सर्म (sarma)which means 'flowing' or 'running'. This meaning goes well with water flows and it is also possible to assume that the original name for these water bodies came from sarma but got corrupted in course of time.
Of interest to us for this article is that there is a connection between these regions as a semi circle around the Himalayas in its North east and Northern section. It can be depicted as follows.
The genetic trail derived by Stephen Oppenheimer puts the year 40,000 years as a cut-off year when human migrations went northward. The finding at Beijing cave fits in this scheme. The black ring in the above picture is Beijing. The red ring is the location of Sayram lake and the blue ring in Khazakhsthan is the location of Sayram city. The rectangle is the location of the Altai mountains where another finding was made of a man who also lived 40,000 years BP. The surprise element of this finding is that his gene was related to today's people of Australia and Papua New Guinea. Read here:
http://www.nature.com/news/2010/101222/full/4681012a.html
This means there was movement of people from Deep south / Australia to Altai Mountains. The route was through Sundaland and China! The date tallies with Oppenheimer's date of northern migration of man.
The trail that I have shown in the illustration above the previous one, shows a semi circular habitation around the North and North east of Himalayas. The period of 40,000 yrs BP perhaps signified the Chakshus Manvantra when Suyuman, the son of Chakshus was the Sun giving enough heat for people to live in this part of the world.
However by 25,000 years ago a reverse migration seems to have occurred in the same corridor – from Siberia to Sundaland. That was when the Ice age had set in the Northern hemisphere and people were forced to move towards the south. I derive this from the narration in Mahabharata, Chapter 13-93. Let me narrate it here.
Source http://ancientvoice.wikidot.com/src-mbh-13:section-93
The narration starts with Sivi or Saivya who was dead and whose body the 7 sages (of Ursa Major) were preparing to eat. Sivi is the sanskrit term for Typha angustifolia, which grows in certain Northern latitudes only. The entire plant is edible. But a time came when this plant no longer grew due to climatic changes. The narration of sages preparing to eat the dead Sivi shows that times were so bad that people were left nothing but the dead and dried Sivi plants to eat. I locate the place of this plant in the narration at Altai mountains where Denisovan gene was discovered from a fragment of a bone. Let me justify this in the course of this write-up.
The sages were offered kines which they refused, as they didn't want to subsist on flesh. They started moving in search of food and met a man with his dog on their way. This man was called as 'Sunasakha' which means 'friend of slaughterer'. This man and his dog looked well fed. From the name Suna sakha and his hunger-free state, it is deduced that many people died due to hunger and this is said euphemistically that the friend of slaughterer looked well fed. His dog also looked well fed, meaning to say that the dogs had scavenged on the dead people.
The story goes further until the sages reached a Lotus-pond. There, they had to tell the etymological meaning of their names to Yatudhani (demoness of night). The etymological meaning of the names of 7 sages, the consort Arundhati, their servants Ganda (raised grass land for grazing) and Pasusakha (friend of kines)- all had a connected meaning of starting life and family and getting cattle wealth. The sages were spared by the demoness as she could not understand the etymological meaning of their names and she is subsequently killed by Sunasakha (friend of the slaughterer).
The sages collected the lotus stalks for eating, but these stalks were stolen by Sunasakha. Ultimately it turned out that Suna sakha was Vasava (Indra, the lord of people) who ordained that people started with their routine life. With that Indra and the 7 sages (of Ursa Major) retired to their abodes.
The derivation from this narration is that 2 plants mark the 2 limits of human settlements. The 2 plants namely Sivi (Typha angustifolia) and lotus are complete foods. Even in times of starvation, people had managed to subsist on these 2 plants. Lotus is entirely consumed by Chinese, Thais etc - in other words by people who live in the location close to Sundaland. Taking this as a cue, I am locating the region of Typha angustifolia to the north of China because that makes an easy route for people to have migrated northward or southward during times of distress. The northern most location for Typha angustifolia in this stretch is Altai Mountains! Since we have evidence of Denisovan genes connected to Australian aborigines in this region (Altai), I deduce that a former migration had occurred in this corridor - from Australia to Sundaland to China to Altai.
The narration of Mahabharata is about southward migration. The narration centered around the 7 sages (sapta rishis who are responsible for human birth and growth as per Hindu texts) and the etymology makes it known that the narrator is coming to tell about the gradual shift of survivors from North to South with shift in the axis of earth as seen in the shift of pole star connected to Ursa Major. The probable destination at that time must have been the now submerged Sundaland! The latitudinal location of Sundaland makes it conducive for Lotus to grow there.
The mention of dog in this narration makes an interesting reading. Usually dog is mentioned at several places as a friend of man in the Hindu texts. In the final days of Pandavas, the eldest Pandava was accompanied with a dog which was described as Yama (lord of death)! In this narration too, dog looked hefty and well fed - perhaps due to availability of dead material in the wake of dying life forms. This dog is introduced in the narration right from the beginning the sages started moving out in search of food. This makes me wonder whether I must just take it as a symbolic Yama in the form of dog (signifying death all through the way) or the real dogs that once lived in the North (Altai mountains) and migrated to Sundaland and subsequently to Australia along with the people. The genetic study of Altai and Siberian dogs with the Indonesian, Australian and Indian dogs might give more answers.
However I wish to point out that there exists a study that dogs were domesticated 33,000 years BP but were disrupted during the Ice age. Read this news report:
This fits with Mahabharata narration of dog accompanying Sunasakha! Perhaps dogs survived and migrated along with man to the southern hemisphere then.
In all these narrations, we must notice that the migration did not involve Indian people. India was sparsely populated at the time of Ice age. Graham Hancock's vegetation maps show that only the coastal regions were habitable 20,000 years ago. The western ghats stood as a barrier to enter South India and semi desert region of North west India and absence of rivers due to Ice age did not encourage people to enter North India.
The western coast as shown above covering Gujarat was peopled with Vaivasvatha Manu and his people. That western stretch was the Dravida land! There were no Cheras and no Cholas at that time. The Pandyas were in deep south in the scattered lands of Indian Ocean.
But by 10,000 + years, conditions vastly changed. With the first flood after the end of Ice age (13,000 yrs + BP), Vaivasvatha Manu entered Indian main land via river Saraswathy and with him started the growth of a new Age of Vaivasvatha man vantra.
The earlier Chakshus manvantra which I think flourished 40,000 yrs ago in the north of Himalayas died out with the setting of Ice age. The Post Ice age Manvantra was from Indian ocean settlements. The common thread in these are Vedic culture and Sanskrit. Infact we read narrations in Puranas and Mahabharata that when Vaisvasvatha Manu entered India and reached Himalayas, there were already people living there, the Sarada land of women were already there. But at no time it must be construed that there was an Aryan migration from North to India. The routes of these movements were different and from south to north – 40,000 yrs ago and 13,500 years ago but never a north to south migration happened in the Indian sector. It happened on the eastern side of India (East Asia) from Altai to Sundaland. Then from Sundaland to India Danavas migrated and via India they moved to Europe.
Let me reproduce the illustration again. The 1-2 corridor is what I explained from Mahabharata and the genetic trail of Beijing and Altai man.
When Sundaland started experiencing volcanic eruptions and inundations, the movement had happened to Number 3 as far as Madagascar. It is also probable that independent settlements existed in the scattered regions with Madagascar as its western most limit. The ancient Tamils were settled there.
By 7000 yrs BP, Sundaland became what it now looks. By then a section of the people had moved towards India (no 4) and via India to Europe.
The present day Europeans were the descendants of Danavas who once peopled Sundaland and regions in the south Indian Ocean.
The Daityas who also inhabited Sundaland moved to China and Japan. As Bhaskara told in "Siddhnatha Shiromani" there are only 4 races of people in the last 1000s of years. We, the Manavas (descendants of Manu), the Daityas (Chinese / Mongols) , the Danavas ( Europeans) and Rakshasas (Africans) . I will write this part in another article.
Given below is the news report on the genetic finding of the Beijing man. After that I have reproduced the narration from Mahabharata on the movement of people which I have explained above. It is an important narration as we come to know of the etymological meanings of the 7 sages of the Vedic lore.
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From
http://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1151909/tianyuan-man-scientists-unlock-secrets-ancient-dna
Tianyuan Man scientists unlock secrets of ancient DNA
Sunday, 17 February, 2013, 5:38am
By
Stephen Chen
Scientists who cracked the provenance of Beijing bones have proved to be trailblazers in retrieving and analysing ancient human DNA
An archaeologist explores the Zhoukoudian Caves in Beijing, which have yielded Peking Man and Tianyuan Man. Photo: SMP
The discovery of ancient human bones in Tianyuan Cave, in Zhoukoudian, Beijing, 10 years ago caused a sensation. They showed Tianyuan Man died about 40,000 years ago.
It was the first time that early human remains had been found in the area since the discovery of Peking Man in 1920s. But Peking Man's skull and other specimens were lost in the chaos of the Japanese invasion during the second world war.
The remains of Tianyuan Man consisted of more than 30 fragments, including lower jaw and leg bones, but no skull - not enough to tell how closely the ancient human related to present-day Chinese. Some palaeoanthropologists were not even sure the bones belonged to a male.
Tianyuan Man reclined quietly in the fossil room of the Institute of Vertebrate Palaeontology and Palaeoanthropology in Beijing. He was almost forgotten until a team of Chinese and German researchers reopened the dusty box and scrutinised the bones with the newest tools of DNA analysis.
What they found was important: Tianyuan Man's DNA came from people who were ancestors not only of many present-day Asians but also Native Americans. It also suggested that people in China at the time were already different from Europeans. The results were published last month in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in the United States.
But the biggest surprise in the study by the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Max Planck Society was not the results, but the method used to achieve them.
It was the first time scientists had found an effective method to retrieve and analyse ancient human DNA from remains outside permanent frost zones.
Detective work on ancient DNA has become a science fiction cliché, with DNA preserved in amber being used to resurrect dinosaurs in the Hollywood blockbuster Jurassic Park. In real life, however, it has never been so easy, and palaeoanthropologists had only been able to recover the DNA of Neanderthals in Germany and Denisovans in Russia, extinct homo species who lived in arctic-like cold.
For the team studying the Tianyuan remains, contamination posed the first challenge.
Institute deputy director Gao Xing said that when palaeoanthropologists found the bones a decade ago they had not considered the possibility of DNA analysis and took no precautions against contamination. Researchers passed the bones from hand to hand for examination and at the press conference announcing the find, the bones were laid out on a table for viewing and photos. Many people were so close that their breath could have carried their DNA to the bones.
Max Planck Society researcher Fu Qiaomei , the first author of the paper, said she had flown one of the bones to Germany and prepared the samples with laborious procedures in the finest laboratory for ancient DNA analysis. They were delighted to find the DNA had not been contaminated by modern people.
But the scientists immediately encountered another problem. The DNA of Tianyuan Man accounted for less than 0.03 per cent of the total DNA extracted from the sample; the rest was mostly the DNA of germs. No commercially available equipment could analyse such a tiny amount of material.
A new method had to be developed to overcome the shortage of material, which had doomed many previous attempts to decode ancient DNA.
Fu said the traditional approach in DNA analysis was like casting a net in a lake - useful when fish were abundant but ineffective when there were only a few small fish in the water. "We came up with a method similar to pole fishing," she said. "With the right bait we could fish out the ancient DNA to fill up a more or less complete genome template."
The method worked, and the results solved some suspenseful scientific puzzles about Tianyuan man. Although some Chinese researchers had theorised that he was an ancestor of present-day Chinese, the scarcity of bones made it a wild guess at best. But the DNA results confirmed it, showing that Tianyuan Man was not only an ancestor of Han Chinese but also of many people in Asia, including Thais and Koreans. He was also quite similar to Native Americans.
Scientists have more or less agreed that the first ancestor of humans originated in Africa millions of years ago, but they still have heated debates on the origins of modern humans.
Some scientists proposed in the 1980s that all present-day humans could be traced back to an African Eve who left the continent more than 220,000 years ago.
In recent years, however, the African Eve theory, which relied heavily on the evolution of the mitochondrial genome, has come under fire.
Some palaeoanthropologists in China, for instance, said fossil evidence showed that present-day Chinese evolved from a population that had survived bitter ice ages and resisted the invasion of new migrants from Africa.
The new technology used to study Tianyuan Man will enable scientists to study the DNA of much more ancient humans and cast more light on the ongoing debate. Gao said they hoped to establish a long, continuous record of human evolution from numerous bones unearthed in China, dating from a few hundred years ago to hundreds of thousands of years ago.
"We have many challenges in palaeoanthropology today," Gao said. "We have difficulty establishing a meaningful link between two prehistoric sites. We are running short on specimens. We are puzzled by the culture of early humans. But the future looks bright."
This article first appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition on Feb 17, 2013 as Tianyuan Man has come a long way
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Mahabharata, Anusasana parva chapter 93:-
(The narration is in the context of giver and taker, but as the narration says it is for us to derive the inner content which is nothing but a former migration of people, perhaps during the sandhi (intermediary) period between the 6th and 7th Manvantra. The narration begins with the hungry sages preparing to eat the dead body of the son of a king for whom they conducted a yajna in olden times. This is absurd if we go by outer meaning. Also, the king of the same kingdom whose dead prince's body that the sages were preparing to eat, met them but was not at all annoyed by them preparing to eat the prince. This shows that there is some inner meaning in all these. The narration further on demands that one must know the etymological meaning of the names and also makes us think how the meanings are derived. Read on. )
If the giver happens to be righteous, the receiver incurs little fault. If on the other hand, the giver happens to be unrighteous the receiver sinks in hell. In this connection is cited an old history of the conversation between Vrishadarbhi and the seven Rishis, O Bharata. Kasyapa and Atri and Vasishtha and Bharadwaja and Gautama and Viswamitra and Jamadagni, and the chaste Arundhati the wife of Vasishtha, all had a common maidservant whose name was Ganda. A Sudra of the name of Pasusakha married Ganda and became her husband. Kasyapa and others, in days of old, observed the austerest penances and roved over the world, desirous of attaining to the eternal region of Brahman by the aid of Yoga-meditation. About that time, O delighter of the Kurus, there occurred a severe drought.
Afflicted by hunger, the whole world of living creatures became exceedingly weak. At a sacrifice which had been performed in former times by Sivi's son he had given away unto the Ritwiks a son of his as the sacrificial present. About this time, unendued with longevity as the prince was, he died of starvation. The Rishis named, afflicted with hunger, approached the dead prince and sat surrounding him. Indeed, those foremost of Rishis, beholding the son of him at whose sacrifice they had officiated, O Bharata, thus dead of starvation, began to cook the body in a vessel, impelled by the pangs of hunger. All food having disappeared from the world of men, those ascetics, desirous of saving their lives, had recourse, for purposes of sustenance, to such a miserable shift. While they were thus employed. Vrishadarbha's son, viz, king Saivya, in course of his roving, came upon those Rishis. Indeed, he met them on his way, engaged in cooking the dead body, impelled by the pangs of hunger The son of Vrishadarbha said, The acceptance of a gift from me will immediately relieve you all.
Do you, therefore, accept a gift for the support of your bodies! Ye ascetics endued with wealth of penances, listen to me as I declare what wealth I have! That Brahmana who solicits me for gifts is ever dear to me. Verily, I shall give unto you a thousand mules. Unto each of you I shall give a thousand kine of white hair, foremost in speed, each accompanied by a bull, and each having a well-born calf, and, therefore, yielding milk. I shall also give unto you a thousand bulls of white complexion and of the best breed and capable of bearing heavy burdens. I shall also give you a large number of kine, of good disposition, the foremost of their kind, all fat, and each of which, having brought forth her first calf, is quick with her second Tell me what else I shall give of foremost villages, of grain, of barley, and of even the rarer and costly jewels. Do not seek to eat this food that is inedible. Tell me what I should give unto you for the support of your bodies'
The Rishis said, O king, an acceptance of gifts from a monarch is very sweet at first but it is poison in the end. Knowing this well, why do you, O king, tempt us then with these offers? The body of the Brahmana is the field of the deities. By penance, it is purified. Then again, by gratifying the Brahmana, one gratifies the deities. If a Brahmana accepts the gifts made to him by the king, he loses, by such acceptance, the merit that he would otherwise acquire by his penances that day. Indeed, such acceptance consumes that merit even as a blazing conflagration consumes a forest. Let happiness be thine, O king, as the result of the gifts thou makest to those that solicit thee' Saying these words unto them, they left the spot, proceeding by another way. The flesh those high-souled ones had intended to cook remained uncooked.
Indeed, abandoning that flesh, they went away, and entered the woods in search of food. After this, the ministers of the king, urged by their master, entered those woods and plucking certain figs endeavoured to give them away unto those Rishis. The officers of the king filled some of those figs with gold and mixing them with others sought to induce those ascetics to accept them. Atri took up some of those figs, and finding them heavy refused to take them. He said, We are not destitute of knowledge. We are not fools! We know that there is gold within these figs. We have our senses about us. Indeed, we are awake instead of being asleep. If accepted in this world, those will produce bitter consequence hereafter.
He who seeks happiness both here and hereafter should never accept these Vasishtha said, If we accept even one gold coin, it will be counted as a hundred or even a thousand in assigning the demerit that attaches to acceptance. If, therefore, we accept many coins, we shall surely attain to an unhappy end hereafter Kasyapa said, All the paddy and barley on earth, all the gold and animals and women that occur in the world, are incapable of gratifying the desire of a single person. Hence, one possessed of wisdom should dispelling cupidity, adopt tranquillity Bharadwaja said, The horns of a Ruru, after their first appearance, begin to grow with the growth of the animal. The cupidity of man is even like this. It has no measure Gautama said, All the objects that exist in the world are incapable of gratifying even a single person. Man is even like the ocean, for he can never be filled even as the ocean can never be filled by all the waters that are discharged into it by the rivers
Viswamitra said, When one desire cherished by a person becomes gratified, there springs up immediately another whose gratification is sought and which pierces him like a shaft Jamadagni said, Abstention from accepting guts supports penances as their foundation. Acceptance, however, destroys that wealth viz, the merit of penances Arundhati said, Some people are of opinion that things of the world may be stored with a view to spend them upon the acquisition of righteousness by gifts and sacrifices. I think, however, that the acquisition of righteousness is better than that of worldly wealth Ganda said, When these my lords, who are endued with great energy, are so very much afraid of this which seems to be a great terror a weak man as I am fear it the more Pasusakha said, The wealth there is in righteousness is very superior. There is nothing superior to it. That wealth is known to the Brahmans. I wait upon them as their servant, only for learning to value that wealth
The Rishis all together said, Let happiness be his, as the result of the gifts he makes, who is the king of the people of this land. Let his gift be successful who has sent these fruits to us, enclosing gold within them Bhishma continued, Having said these words, those Rishis of steadfast vows, abandoning the figs having gold within them, left that spot and proceeded to whatever destination they liked The ministers said, O king, coming to know of the existence of gold within the figs, the Rishis have gone away! Let this be known to thee' Bhishma continued, Thus addressed by his ministers, king Vrishadarbhi became filled with wrath against all those Rishis. Indeed, to take vengeance upon them, the monarch entered his own chamber. Observing the austerest of penances, he poured on his sacred fire libations of ghee, accompanying each with Mantras uttered by him. From that fire there then arose as the result of the incantation, a form capable of striking every one with fear. Vrishadarbhi named her as Yatudhani.
That form which had been from the incantations of the king, looking as terrible as the Last Night, appeared with joined hands before the monarch. Addressing king Vrishadarbhi, she said, What shall I accomplish Vrishadarbhi said, Go and follow the seven Rishis, as also Arundhati, and the husband of their maid-servant, and the maid-servant herself, and comprehend what the meanings are of their names. Having ascertained their names, do thou slay all of them. After slaying them thou mayst go whatever destination thou likest Bhishma continued, Saying, So be it! the Rakshasi who had been named Yatudhani, in her proper form, proceeded to that forest in which the great Rishis wandered in search of food. Indeed, O king, those great Rishis, with Atri among them, roved within the forest, subsisting upon fruits and roots. In course of their wanderings they saw a mendicant of broad shoulders, and plump arms and legs and well-nourished face and abdomen. Of limbs that were all adipose, he was wandering with a dog in his company.
Beholding that mendicant whose limbs were all well-developed and handsome, Arundhati exclaimed, addressing the Rishis, None of you will ever be able to show such well-developed features Vasishtha said, The sacred fire of this person is not like ours for while he is able to pour libations on it, morning and evening, none of us are able to do the same. It is for this reason that we see both him and his dog so well-developed'' Atri said, This man does not, like us, feel the pangs of hunger. His energy has not sustained, like ours, any diminution. Acquired with the greatest difficulty, his Vedas have not, like ours, disappeared. Hence, it is that we see both him and his dog so well-developed Viswamitra said, This man is not, like us, unable to observe the eternal duties inculcated in the scriptures. I have become idle. I feel the pangs of hunger.
I have lost the knowledge I had acquired. This man is not like us in this respect. Hence I see both him and his dog so well-developed Jamadagni said, This man has not to think of storing his annual grain and fuel as we are compelled to, do. Hence I see both him and his dog so well-developed' Kasyapa said, This man has not, like us, four brothers of the whole blood who are begging from house to house, uttering the words, Give, Give' Hence it is that I see him and his dog so well-developed' Bharadwaja said, This man hath no regret like ours for having condemned and cursed his spouse. He hath not acted so wickedly and senselessly. Hence I see both him and his dog so well-developed'
Gautama said, This man bath not like us only three pieces of covering made of Kusa grass, and a single Ranku-skin, each of which again, is three years old. Hence it is that I see both him and his dog so well-developed' Bhishma continued, The wandering mendicant, beholding those great Rishis, approach them, and accosted them all by touching their hand according to the custom. Conversing then with each other about the difficulty of obtaining sustenance in that forest and the consequent necessity of bearing the pangs of hunger, all of them left that spot. Indeed, they wandered through that wilderness, all bent upon a common purpose, viz, the plucking of fruits and the extraction of roots for sustenance. One day, as they were wandering they beheld a beautiful lake overgrown with lotuses. Its banks were covered with trees that stood thickly near one another. The waters of the lake were pure and transparent. Indeed, the lotuses that adorned the lake were all of the hue of the morning sun. The leaves that floated on the water were of the colour of lapis lazuli.
Diverse kinds of aquatic fowls were sporting on its bosom. There was but one path leading to it. The banks were not miry and the access to the water was easy. Urged by Vrishadarbhi, the Rakshasi of frightful mien who had sprung from his incantations and who had been named Yatudhani, guarded the lake. Those foremost of Rishis, with Pasusakha in their company, proceeded towards the lake, which was thus guarded by Yatudhani for the object of gathering some lotus stalks Beholding Yatudhani, of frightful aspect standing on the banks of the lake, those great Rishis addressed her, saying, Who art thou that thus standest alone in these solitary woods? For whom dost thou wait here? What, indeed, is thy purpose? What dost thou do here on the banks of this lake adorned with lotuses Yatudhani said, It matters not who I am.
I deserve not to be questioned respecting my name and race and purposes. Ye that are possessed of ascetic wealth, know that I am the guard set to watch this lake The Rishis said, All of us are hungry. We have nothing else to eat. With thy permission we would gather some lotus-stalks Yatudhani said, Agreeably with a compact, do ye take the lotus-stalks as ye please. Ye must, one by one, give me your names. Ye may then, without delay, take the stalks Bhishma continued, Ascertaining that her name was, Yatudhani and that she stood there for slaying them after knowing, from the meanings their names, what the extent was of their power, Atri, who was famishing with hunger, addressed her, and said these words Atri said, I am called Atri because I cleanse the world from sin.
For, again, thrice studying the Vedas every day, I have made days of my nights. That, again, is no night in which I have not studied the Vedas. For these reasons also I am called Atri, O beautiful lady Yatudhani said, O thou of great effulgence, the explanation thou hast given me of thy name is incapable of being comprehended by me. Do thou, therefore, go and plunge into this tank filled with lotuses
Vasishtha said, I am endued with the wealth that consists of the Yoga attributes of puissance, etc I lead, again, a domestic mode of life, and am regarded as the foremost of all persons that lead such a mode of life. In consequence of being endued with such wealth, of my living as a householder, and of my being regarded as the foremost of all householders, I am called Vasishtha' Yatudhani said, The etymological explanation of thy name is perfectly incomprehensible to me, in as much as the inflections which the original roots have undergone are unintelligible. Rio and plunge into this lake of lotuses
Kasyapa said, I always protect my body, and in consequence of my penances I have become endued with effulgence. For thus protecting the body and for this effulgence that is due to my penances, I have come to be called by the name of Kasyapa' Yatudhani said, O thou of great effulgence, the etymological explanation thou hast given of thy name is incapable of being comprehended by me. Go and plunge into this lake filled with lotuses
'Bharadwaja said, I always support my sons, my disciples, the deities, the Brahmanas, and my wife. In consequence of thus supporting all with ease, I am called Bharadwaja' Yatudhani said, The etymological explanation thou hast given me of thy name is perfectly incomprehensible to me, in consequence of the many inflections the root has undergone. Go and plunge into this lake filled with lotuses
Gotama said, I have conquered heaven and earth by the aid of self-restraint. In consequence of my looking upon all creatures and objects with an equal eye, I am like a smokeless fire.
Hence I am incapable of being subjugated by thee. When, again, I was born, the effulgence of my body dispelled the surrounding darkness. For these reasons I am called Gotama' Yatudhani said, The explanation thou hast given me of thy name, O great ascetic, is incapable of being understood by me. Go and plunge into this lake of lotuses
Viswamitra said, The deities of the universe are my friends. I am also the friend of the universe. Hence, O Yatudhani, know that I am called Viswamitra' Yatudhani said, The explanation thou hast given of thy name is incomprehensible to me in consequence of the inflections the root has undergone. Go and plunge into this lake of lotuses
Jamadagni said, I have sprung from the sacrificial fire of the deities. Hence am I called Jamadagni, O thou of beautiful features Yatudhani said, The etymological explanation thou hast given me, O great ascetic, of thy name, is incomprehensible to me in consequence of the diverse inflections the root has undergone Do thou go and plunge into this lake of lotuses
Arundhati said, I always stay by the side of my husband, and hold the earth jointly with him. I always incline my husband's heart towards me. I am, for these reasons called Arundhati' Yatudhani said, The explanation thou hast given me of thy name is perfectly incomprehensible to me in consequence of the inflections the roots have undergone. Go and plunge into this lake of lotuses
' Ganda said, The Ganda means a portion of the cheek. As I have that portion a little elevated above the others, I am, O thou that hast sprung from the sacrificial fire of Saivya, called by the name of Ganda
Yatudhani said, The explanation which thou hast given me of thy name is perfectly incomprehensible to me in consequence of the inflections which the root has undergone. Go and plunge into this lake of lotuses
Pasusakha said, I protect and tend all animals that I see, and I am always a friend to all animals. Hence am I called Pasusakha, O thou that hast sprung from the sacrificial fire of king Vrishadarbhi' Yatudhani said, The explanation thou hast given me of thy name is perfectly incomprehensible to me in consequence of the inflections which the roots have undergone. Go and plunge into this lake of lotuses
Sunahsakha said I am incapable of explaining the etymology of my name after the manner of these ascetics. But know, O Yatudhani, that I am called by the name of Sunahsakha' Yatudhani said, Thou hast mentioned thy name only once. The explanation thou hast offered I have not able to catch.
Do thou, therefore, mention it again, O regenerate one Sunahsakha said, Since thou hast been unable to catch my name in consequence of my having mentioned it only once, I shall strike thee with my triple stick! Struck with it, be thou consumed into ashes without delay Bhishma continued, Struck then, on the head, by the Sannyasin, with his triple stick which resembled the chastisement inflicted by a Brahmana, the Rakshasi who had sprung from the incantations of king. Vrishadarbhi fell down on the earth and became reduced to ashes Having thus destroyed the mighty Rakshasi, Sunahsakha thrust his stick into the earth and sat himself down on a grassy plot of land. The Rishis then, having, as they liked, plucked a number of lotuses and taken up a number of lotus-stalks, came up from the lake, filled with joy. Throwing on the ground the heap of lotuses which they had gathered with much toil, they plunged once more into it for offering oblations of water to the Pitris. Coming up, they proceeded to that part of the bank where they had deposited the lotus-stalks. Reaching that spot, those foremost of men found that the stalks were nowhere to be seen
The Rishis said, What sinful and hard-hearted man has stolen away the lotus-stalks gathered by our hungry selves from desire of eating' Bhishma continued, Those foremost of regenerate persons, suspecting one another, O crusher of foes, said, We shall each have to swear to our innocence! All those ascetics then, famishing with hunger and worn out with exertion, agreeing to the proposal, took these oaths'
Atri said, Let him who has stolen the lotus-stalk touch kine with his foot, make water facing the sun, and study the Vedas on excluded days
Vasishtha said, Let him who has stolen the lotus-stalks abstain from studying the Vedas, or leash hounds, or be a wandering mendicant unrestrained by the ordinances laid down for that mode of life, or be a slayer of persons that seek his protection, or live upon the proceeds of the sale of his daughter, or solicit wealth from those that are low and vile
Kasyapa, said, Let him who has stolen the lotus-stalks utter all kinds of words in all places, give false evidence in a court of law, eat the flesh of animals not slain in sacrifices, make gifts to undeserving persons or to deserving persons at unseasonable times, and have sexual congress with women during daytime
Bharadwaja said, Let him who has stolen the lotus-stalks be cruel and unrighteous in his conduct towards women and kinsmen and kine. Let him humiliate Brahmanas, in disputations, by displaying his superior knowledge and skill. Let him study the Riks and the Yajuses, disregarding his preceptor! Let him pour libations upon fires made with dry grass or straw
Jamadagni said, Let him who has stolen the lotus-stalks be guilty of throwing filth and dirt on water. Let him be inspired with animosity towards kine. Let him be guilty of having sexual congress with women at times other than their season. Let him incur the aversion of all persons. Let him derive his maintenance from the earnings of his wife! Let him have no friends and let him have many foes! Let him be another's guest for receiving in return those acts of hospitality which he has done to that other
Gotama said, Let him who has stolen the lotus-stalks be guilty of throwing away the Vedas after having studied them! Let him cast off the three sacred fires! Let him be a seller of the Soma plant or juice!Let him live with that Brahmana who resides in a village which has only one well from which water is drawn by all classes and who has married a Sudra woman
Viswamitra said, Let him who has stolen the lotus-stalks be fated to see his preceptors and seniors and his servants maintained by others during his own life-time. Let him not have a good end. Let him be the father of many children! Let him be always impure and a wretch among Brahmanas! Let him be proud of his possessions! Let him be a tiller of the soil and let him be filled with malice! Let him wander in the season of rains. Let him be a paid servant! Let him be the priest of the king!
Let him assist at the sacrifices of such impure persons as do not deserve to be assisted at their sacrifices
Arundhati said, Let her who has stolen the lotus-stalks always humiliate her mother-in-law! Let her be always vexed with her husband! Let her eat whatever good things come to her house without sharing them with others! Disregarding the kinsmen of her lord, let her live in her husband's house and eat, at the day's close, the flour of fried barely! Let her come to be regarded as unenjoyable in consequence of the stains that would tarnish her! Let her be the mother of a heroic son
Ganda said, Let her who has stolen, the lotus-stalks be always a speaker of falsehoods! Let her always quarrel with her kinsmen! Let her bestow her daughter in marriage for a pecuniary consideration!
Let her eat the food which she has cooked, alone and without sharing it with anybody! Let her pass her whole life in slavery! Indeed, let her who has stolen the lotus-stalks be quick with child in consequence of sexual congress under circumstances of guilt
Pasusakha said, Let him who has stolen the lotus-stalks be born of a slave-mother. Let him have many children all of whom are worthless! And let him never bow to the deities
Sunahsakha said, Let him who has removed the lotus-stalks obtain the merit of bestowing his daughter in marriage upon a Brahmana, who has studied all the Samans and the Yajuses and who has carefully observed the vow of Brahmacharya, Let him perform the final ablutions after having studied all the Atharvans All the Rishis said, The oath thou hast taken is no oath at all, for all the acts which thou hast mentioned are very desirable for the Brahmanas!
It is evident, O Sunahsakha, that thou hast appropriated our lotus-stalks Sunahsakha said, The lotus stalks deposited by you not being seen, what you say is perfectly true, for it is I who have actually stolen them.
In the very sight of all of you I have caused the disappearance of those stalks! Ye sinless ones, the act was done by me from desire of testing you! I came hither for protecting you. That woman who lies slain there was called Yatudhani. She was of a fierce disposition. Sprung from the incantations of king Vrishadarbhi, she had come here from the desire of slaying all of you! You ascetics endued with wealth of penances, egged on by that king, she had come, but I have slain her. That wicked and sinful creature, sprung from the sacrificial fire, would otherwise have taken your lives. It was for killing her and saving you that I came here, ye learned Brahmanas! Know that I am Vasava!
Ye have completely freed yourselves from the influence of cupidity. In consequence of this, ye have won many eternal regions fraught with the fruition of every wish as soon as it rises in the heart! Do ye rise, without delay, from this place and repair to those regions of beatitude, ye regenerate ones, that are reserved for you' Bhishma continued, The great Rishis, highly gratified at this, replied unto Purandara, saying, So be it' They then ascended to heaven in company of Indra himself. Even thus, those high-souled persons, though famishing with hunger and though tempted at such a time with the offer of diverse kinds of enjoyable articles, refrained from yielding to temptation. As the result of such self-denial, they attained to heaven. It seems, therefore, that one should, under all circumstances, cast off cupidity from oneself. Even this, O king, is the highest duty. Cupidity should be cast off.
The man who recites this account of the deeds of the righteous Rishis in assemblies of men, succeeds in acquiring wealth. Such a man has never to attain to a distressful end. The Pitris, the Rishis, and the deities become all pleased with him. Hereafter, again, he becomes endued with fame and religious merit and wealth.
