Bali () is a king featured in
Hindu literature. He is described to be the son of Sutapas and his wife Prishni. He rules a region named Anava, an eastern country as a member of the
Chandravamsha
The Lunar dynasty (IAST: Candravaṃśa) is a legendary principal house of the Kshatriyas varna, or warrior–ruling varna (Social Class) mentioned in the ancient Indian texts. This legendary dynasty was said to be descended from moon-related ...
(Lunar dynasty).
Legend
Bali marries Sudeshna. The
Harivamsha states that he performs a penance to appease
Brahma
Brahma (, ) is a Hindu god, referred to as "the Creator" within the Trimurti, the triple deity, trinity of Para Brahman, supreme divinity that includes Vishnu and Shiva.Jan Gonda (1969)The Hindu Trinity, Anthropos, Bd 63/64, H 1/2, pp. 212– ...
, who promises him that he would become a great sage and will live till the end of the
age
Age or AGE may refer to:
Time and its effects
* Age, the amount of time someone has been alive or something has existed
** East Asian age reckoning, an Asian system of marking age starting at 1
* Ageing or aging, the process of becoming older
...
. The deity also blesses him with great knowledge, the love of his subjects, invincibility in battle, and tells him that he would reestablish the varna system in his land.
One day, Bali saw the blind sage
Dirghatamas
Dirghatamas () was an ancient Indian sage well known for his philosophical verses in the Rigveda. He was the author of Suktas (hymns) 140 to 164 in the first mandala (section) of the Rigveda.
Background
Dirghatamas was one of the Angirasa rish ...
clinging to a raft, and floating on the river
Ganges
The Ganges ( ; in India: Ganga, ; in Bangladesh: Padma, ). "The Ganges Basin, known in India as the Ganga and in Bangladesh as the Padma, is an international which goes through India, Bangladesh, Nepal and China." is a trans-boundary rive ...
. After his rescue, the sage told him that his own wife and sons had performed the deed due to the fact that he had been unable to support them. The king summoned his wife Sudeshna, and asked her to produce sons from him. Sudeshna, detesting the idea, decided to send her maid Dhatreyi, a
Shudra
Shudra or ''Shoodra'' (Sanskrit: ') is one of the four varnas of the Hindu class and social system in ancient India. Some sources translate it into English as a caste, or as a social class. Theoretically, Shudras constituted a class like work ...
woman, to lay with the sage. Eleven babies were born, and the sage soon learnt that the mother of his children was not the queen, but her servant maid. Bali pacified the sage's anger, and this time
Dirghatamas
Dirghatamas () was an ancient Indian sage well known for his philosophical verses in the Rigveda. He was the author of Suktas (hymns) 140 to 164 in the first mandala (section) of the Rigveda.
Background
Dirghatamas was one of the Angirasa rish ...
and Sudeshna lay together to produce five sons. In other accounts, the mere touch of the sage caused Sudeshna's pregnancy. After renouncing all worldly affairs, he divided his country into five kingdoms, one for each of his sons:
*Anga (founder of the
Anga kingdom
Anga was an ancient Indo-Aryan tribe of eastern South Asia whose existence is attested during the Iron Age. The members of the Aṅga tribe were called the Āṅgeyas.
Counted among the "sixteen great nations" in Buddhist texts like the Ang ...
)
*Vanga (founder of the
Vanga kingdom
Vaṅga was an ancient kingdom and geopolitical division within the Ganges delta in the Indian subcontinent. The kingdom is one of the namesakes of the Bengal region. It was located in eastern and southern Bengal. Vanga features prominently in ...
)
*Kalinga (founder of the
Kalinga kingdom)
*Pundra (founder of the
Pundra kingdom
Pundravardhana or Pundra kingdom (), was an ancient kingdom of Iron Age India located in the Bengal region of the Indian subcontinent with a territory that included parts of present-day Rajshahi and parts of Rangpur Division of Bangladesh a ...
)
*Suhma (founder of the
Suhma kingdom
Suhma kingdom was an ancient kingdom during the Late Vedic period on the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent, which originated in the region of Bengal. The kingdom included present day districts of undivided Midnapore and parts of Hoogly an ...
)
See also
*
Pratardana
*
Yayati
*
Pratipa
References
External links
* The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa Translated into English Prose'', Bharata Press, Calcutta (1883–1896)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bali
Lunar dynasty
Mahabharata