The Benefits of Listening to Markandeya Puraan

The birds said- 'O Jaimini! This was the way, sage Markandeya had narrated the divine tales to Kraustuki. A person who either studies this Puraan or listens to it achieves great accomplishment. All his desires are fulfilled and he enjoys a long life. He becomes free from all his sins. Markandeya Puraan is the seventh among all the eighteen Puraans. Listening to it helps a man to atone for all the sins committed during the period of one hundred crore Kalpas. The virtues attained by listening to Markandeya Puraan are equivalent to the virtues attained by making donations at Pushkar or by studying all the Vedas.'

Jaimini replied- 'O birds! You have enlightened my mind by narrating the tales of Markandeya Puraan and have made it free from all sorts of confusion. May the almighty God bless you, may you enjoy a long life free from all the diseases.'

Saying like this, Jaimini went back to his hermitage.

Killing of Vayushmaan

Markandeya says- 'After taking a vow to kill Vayushmaan, Dama consulted his priests and ministers on his future course of action. All of them unanimously decided that Vayushmaan must be punished for his crime. At last, Dama marched along with a huge army towards Vayushmaan's kingdom.

When Vayushmaan came to know of Dama's arrival, he became very angry. The battle commenced. The chief commander of Vayushmaan's army attacked Dama but was killed by Dama. Seeing his chief commander dead, Vayushmaan tried to flee from the battlefield with his army. Seeing him flee, Dama challenged Vayushmaan. Vayushmaan accepted Dama's challenge and turned back to fight again. A ferocious battle was fought. In a very short time, Dama killed all the seven sons of Vayushmaan, his brothers, relatives and his friends. Vayushmaan was extremely angry at the death of his near and dear ones and he attacked Dama with his sword. But Dama pulling Vayushmaan by his hair, felled him on the ground and put his feet on his neck saying- 'I am now going to pierce the heart of this wicked and mean man. All the deities, human beings, sages etc. should witness this scene.' Saying this, Dama killed Vayushmaan. Blood started to ooze out from the wound inflicted on Vayushmaan's heart. Dama tried to drink that blood but was desisted from doing so by the deities. Then Dama performed the last rites of his father with that blood. In this way, he took his revenge.

Dama Vows to Kill Vayushmaan

Markandeya says- 'When Dama came to know about his father's death, he became extremely furious. Although he was very patient by nature but still the news of his father's death made him restless. He thought- 'Shame on me. Inspite of myself being alive, the wicked Vayushmaan had killed my father. I have failed in my duty. Being a king, it is my duty to punish the wicked people and protect the virtuous ones. But my enemy is still alive after committing a heinous crime. Now, I will perform my father's Tarpan only with the blood of Vayushmaan. If I fail in doing this, then I would give up my life by jumping into the fire. I will not only kill Vayushmaan but also his whole family. Whoever tries to help him will be put to death. Even if the deities, Yama or Kuber try to help him, they will get destroyed.'

Killing of Narishyant

Markandeya says- 'When the newly married couple- Dama and Sumana returned to the capital, King Narishyant was extremely pleased. King Narishyant after knowing about the brave deeds of his son was very proud of him. As he had become old, he appointed Dama as his successor and he went in the forest to do penance accompanied by his wife- Indrasena.

Once, Vayushmaan came in the same forest where King Narishyant was doing his penance. After seeing Narishyant and his wife, he enquired as to, who they were. But King Narishyant did not give any reply as he was observing a Mauna Vrata. Somehow, Vayushmaan came to know about his identity that he was none other than the father of his bitter enemy- Dama. He felt that this was the most opportune moment for him to take his revenge and killed Narishyant. Indrasena on seeing her dead husband, started to wail. All the sages and hermits who were doing penance in that forest arrived there and started cursing Vayushmaan for the grave sin he had committed. Indrasena requested one of the sages to go and inform Dama about his father's death. She said- 'Go and tell him that his father Narishyant has been killed by Vayushmaan while he was doing penance. Now, it was his duty to avenge his father's death.' After saying this, Indrasena committed Sati by jumping into the burning pyre of her husband.

Sumana Chooses Dama as her Husband

Markandeya says- Dama was the son of Narishyant. His mother was Indrasena- the daughter of Babhru. He became the master in archery under the tutelage of Vrishparva. He also learnt the nuances of handling other kinds of weapons under the guidance of Dundubhi. He learnt the scriptures from sage Shakti and the art of yoga from Aashartishen.

Sumana, the daughter of King Charusharma had chosen Dama as her husband in a Swayamvara. But Mahanand, Vayushmaan and Mahadhanu did not like her decision, as they too wanted to marry her. All three of them decided to abduct her by force and marry who ever among them she decided to marry with. Their evil intentions were corroborated by the friends of Dama. Thus, all three of them abducted Sumana. Dama became angry. He asked all the kings who were present in the Swayamvara- 'Tell me whether Swayamvara is religious or irreligious?'

One of the kings said that certainly a Swayamvara is religious and only Dama has the right to marry Sumana as she had herself chosen him. But some other kings supported Dama's opponents. They said- 'Raakshas Vivaaha is the norm prevalent among people possessing arms. Only such a person has a right to marry Sumana who has defeated his rivals.'

Dama became furious with them. He knew that they were saying such things out of jealousy. But still he decided to accept their proposal. He threw an open challenge by saying- 'Anybody who wants to die may abduct my wife in front of my eyes.'

A tremendous battle was fought between Dama and his opponents.

At first, Mahanand came forward to fight him with a sword in his hand. Dama showered a volley of arrows at him. All the arrows were neutralised by Mahanand. After that, Mahanand jumped and climbed on the chariot of Dama. Dama severed his head. After the killing of Mahanand, Vayushmaan came forward to fight Dama but his sword was broken into two pieces by the assault of Dama. Dama then killed his charioteer. After that, Vayushmaan picked up his spiked mace but Dama destroyed even this mace. In the battle, Vayushmaan got injured and fell on the ground. Vayushmaan quit the idea of fighting. Seeing him reluctant to fight, Dama spared his life.

At last, Charusharma married his daughter Sumana with Dama. After staying for some days at his father-in-law's place, Dama returned home accompanied by his wife- Sumana.

King Narishyant

Markandeya says- 'Among the eighteen sons of Marut, Narishyant was the eldest. Marut ruled over his kingdom for 70,015 years after which Narishyant succeeded him as the king. Marut went to the forest to do penance. After becoming the king, Narishyant decided to perform a grand Yagya, the like of which had never been accomplished by his ancestors. Narishyant made such huge donations to the Brahmins that it was more than enough for their future generations to come.

Once, Narishyant decided to organise another Yagya grander than the earlier one. But no priest was found to supervise it. At his repeated requests, some Brahmins agreed to supervise the Yagya. But this particular Yagya was unique of its kind because the Brahmins played the part of host as well as that of priests. The Brahmins made donations to the Brahmins who were acting as priests. In this grand Yagya, crores of Yagyas were performed in all the directions of the earth at one time. This grand Yagya was possible only because of the wealth donated to the Brahmins by King Narishyant. Narishyant was such a religious and virtuous king.

Narishyant felt joyous that due to his donations, the Brahmins had become wealthy and at the same time, he was also sad that his desire of performing a grand Yagya was not going to be accomplished as the Brahmins no longer needed donations.

The Hermit`s Sons Become Alive

Markandeya says- 'When Aveekshit reached the oblation site, he found that the whole atmosphere was ablaze by the tremendous heat generated by Marut's weapon, Samvartak. He requested Marut to drop his weapon but Marut refused by saying- 'O father! These serpents are the culprits. They have killed the hermit's sons. They have also polluted the reservoir and caused obstacles in the accomplishment of oblation-rituals. I am never going to forgive them.

Aveekshit told Marut that the serpents had taken his refuge and hence he should forgive them to protect the honour of his father's promise. When Marut did not listen, Aveekshit picked up his weapon 'Kaal' to kill him. Marut enquired from him as to why he was trying to kill his own son, who was just performing his duty of protecting the oblation site from the serpents. Aveekshit replied that he too was duty bound to protect the serpents that had taken his refuge.

When the sages saw both father and son were bent on killing each other, they intervened and advised them against killing each other. Right then, a sage came with the news that the serpents had agreed to make all the dead sons of the hermit, alive.

Thus, all the dead sons of the hermits became alive and once again, the father and son were prevented from killing each other.

From then onwards, Marut took proper care while ruling his kingdom. Later on, he married Sukesha- the daughter of Kekaya, Saindhavi- the daughter of Sindhuraaj, Vayushmati- the daughter of Chediraaj etc. He had eighteen sons from his wives among whom, Narishyant was the eldest.