Purana - the story of Samjna and Surya

Surya or Vivasvan was born to the sage Kashyapa and his wife Dakshayani. His other name was Martanda. He was married to the daughter of Viswakarma, Samjna and they had two sons and a daughter. The two sons were Vivasvat Manu and Yama and the daughter was Yamuna. Yama and Yamuna were born as twins. Samjna could not withstand the tremendous power of the sun and therefore she created a look alike of hers, called Chhaya, and went to live at his father's place. She entrusted her sons and daughters to Chhaya imploring her not to reveal her identity. Chhaya agreed. However she said that if nobody insulted her by dragging her by hair, she would not reveal anything. Samjna thereafter went to the place of Viswakarma. But Viswakarma, when he heard that Samjna had left her husband, became very angry and rebuked her harshly. He asked her to go back to her husband's place and take care of her children. Samjna, who was in no mood to relent therefore left her father's place, took the form of a mare and went to roam freely in the Uttara Kuru area. Now Chhaya was managing well but in the meanwhile she had her own sons. The first one was called Savarni Manu as Chhaya was also called Savarna, the second one called Shanaischara. When she had her own sons, Chhaya began to neglect the sons and daughters of Samjna. Vivasvat Manu was a good natured child, so he did not protest. But Yama was ill tempered and he could not accept this behavior. In a ft of anger once he showed his feet to Chhaya who promptly cursed him that he foot would fall down. Yama was afraid and he went to his father, Vivasvan crying, saying that Chhaya could not eb his mother since she cursed him. Vivassvan after listening to Yama pacified him saying that only a portion of his foot would come out being affected by worms, so he had no fear. When Sun asked Chhaya the reason for her negligence of her sons, Chhaya could not give a good answer. Vivasvan through his Yogic power came to know of everything and he took Chhaya's hair and was about to curse her. Then Chhaya revealed everything about Samjna. Sun hurriedly went to Viswakarma's house seeking Samjna. But Viswakarma told him that Samjna left his house and went as a mare to Uttara Kuru. Vivasvan therefore took the form of a horse and went in search of Samjna. When he got her finally they spent a delightful time as horse and a mare in Uttara Kuru and two sons were born to them who were known as Aswini Kumaras - Nasatta and Dasra. The Aswini Kumaras became physicians of the gods.

Then when Vivasvan came back with Samjna Viwakarma devised an idea. He put Sun on one of his giant wheels to get him rid of some of his lustre and power. The Sun then became more bearable and tolerable to Samjna and they began to live happily together in their previous forms. The excess power given up by the Sun was used in making a trident for Shiva and a Chakra or Discuss for Vishnu. 

Yama later became the Lord of all the pitris and the dead. Yamuna became the famous river on earth. Shani or Shanaischara became a planet Shani. Savarni Manu would become a Manu of the later ages and Vaivasvat Many became the Manu or the king of the present Manvantara.

Purana - Story of Prithu

In the race of Svayambhu Manu there was a king called Vena who was born in the family of rishi Atri. His father was Anga and mother was Sunitha.  Although Vena's fatehr was a pious person, his mother belonged to the house of death that was responsible for many reprehensible acts. Vena never followed the path of righteousness as prescribed in the Vedas. Vena was extremely arrogant, used to torture his subjects, never followed any scriptural injunctions and was ruthless in extracting his taxes. He even went to the extent of denying all gods and the supreme God Head and declared that all sacrifices should be offered to him as the supreme being of the universe. According to him there was no other God than him, the king. After tolerating his oppressive regime for a long time, when afetr repeated entreaties he did not get back to the path of righteousness, the sages became extremely angry with him. The Rishis had tremendous power. They cursed the king to death. However with the death of the king lawlessness reigned supreme. Therefore they had to get a new king. The Rishis then performed a mini sacrifice. They rubbed the hand of Vena as if they were rubbing the wood sticks meant for igniting the sacred fire and from Vena's left hand came out a race of terrible people. They did not follow Vedas and were called as Mlecchas. From his left leg came out a race of extremely ugly looking people whom the rishi's told "Nishada", meaning, "sit down". This race of people came to known as Nishadas and they lived in the jungles. They were cruel and barbaric and their main profession was hunting. From his right hand came out a divine person who was named as Prithu. He was anointed as the new king by all the gods including Brahma and the 7 prominent sages. Prithu was a very pious and he restored the Vedic practices, brought peace and harmony and ensured that his subjects were treated fairly.  Prithu was born as part of Vishnu and had been gifted with power to bring lasting change. Under the rule of Prithu there was all round prosperity. Even seas and mountains used to make way for his travels out of respect. During his time the royal bards - the Suta and the Magadhi castes were born who began to sing the praises of the kings, their exploits and their genealogy. However people were not getting regular food supplies because of the erratic produces from the soil. They came and complained to Prithu against mother earth. Prithu got angry and he took up his bow and arrow to punish earth. The earth took the form of a cow and began to ran with its tail up. Prithu ran behind her and threatened to shoot her. The earth begged forgiveness and asked Prithu why he wanted to kill a woman. Prithu replied that since earth had sinned in denying food to her children there would be no sin incurred in killing her. The earth then said that if Prithu could get her a suitable calf she would give bountiful of corns as milk. Prithu agreed and he atfirst used his bow and arrow to make all the lands uniform so that the milk could flow everywhere. Previously there was no agricultural practices and therefore people had shortage of food. They used to live on fruits and roots and meats. But after Prithu's endeavour agriculture became an established practice among people. Prithu used Swayambhuva Manu as the calf and got the corns as the milk. Apart from Prithu, the sages, the gods, the pitris, the asuras, the Nagas, the rakshasas, the yakshas, the Gandharvas, the pishachas, the mountains, the rivers, the trees, all separately milked the earth for the fruition of their desires. The sages used Soma as calf and extracted penance as milk, the Nagas used Airavata as calf and got poison as milk, the yakshas got Kuber as calf and disappearance as milk, the rakshasas got blood as milk, the mountains got many minerals, the trees got the medicines etc. Thus Prithu was the first king of the earth and after his name the earth came to be known as Prithivi. She is also known to be a daughter of Prithu since he spared her life.

This is a beautiful allegory of how agricultural practices started. From a primarily nomadic life people took to cultivation when there was a terrible food shortage and Prithu was a brilliant thinker who first discovered the science of agriculture. He tilted the earth till there were lands where seeds could be sown and through his tenacious effort a bountiful harvest was realized by the people for the first time. Probably he introduced the art of cultivation on a mass scale and thus solved the problem of food shortage. The rest of the gifts of earth to the other species are narrated to depict how mother nature gave everybody everything that they needed. Since mother nature was closely associated with earth the two got entangled in the story. The earth is also called Gau in Samskrit - which is also the word for cow. Therefore the allegory states that the earth assumed the form of a cow to provide nourishment to its children just as cow would provide milk from its udder after being milked by a competent milkmaid. Here Prithu assumed the role of milking the cow in the form of earth through the tilting of land. Thus the agricultural societies were formed and people settled down in villages and towns adopting the practices of agriculture and animal husbandry. Since the king was their protector he was hailed as the supreme lord and taxes needed to be paid to him.

Purana - The Story of Pralaya

The Puranas describe two types of Pralaya - Khandapralaya in which there is partial destruction and Mahapralaya in which there is total destruction. Normally a Khandapralaya takes place after every Manvantara or the reign of a Manu while a Mahapralaya takes place at the end of a Kalpa or the day of Brahma. In Mahapralaya everything is destroyed, i.e. get back to the source, the unmanifest, and creation begins anew. In a Khandapralaya there is the destruction of many species of animals including human beings, but some survive to begin a new cycle. During the time of Pralaya first there would be a widespread famine that would last for many years as there will be no rain for many years. No plants, corns and herbs will be available and animals will die in hordes. Next there will be a tremendous heatwave from the sevenfold power of the seven rays of the sun that would scorch all surviving animals. The heat will dry up all water and they will accumulate in the form of vapours. Next from the subterranean region Sesha will emit tremendous fumes and flames that will come out and burn everything and Siva's third eye will open and burn the world. Then seven destructive clouds led by Samvartaka will spring up from the vapours accumulated and it will rain continuously for many years until seas are all united into one great mass. Earth will be a vast expanse of water and nothing will survive that.

Note how this vision realistically depicts the scientific conditions of the earth during its creation as well as possibility during the stages when major species like the dinosaurs disappeared from the earth. First earth was a big fireball, extremely hot and then gases formed and then volcanic eruptions were galore. Then rain came and water bodies formed and in the vast mass of water first signs of life appeared in the form of simple carbon molecules who replicated and coalesced to form bigger and more complex organisms. When major species disappeared from the earth owing to large scale destruction, new species appeared after earth being habitable again.