The Tale of Prahlada & Co.

1.It is seen from story of Prahlada in various puranas such as Bhagavata Purana and other puranas that Prahlada was born when Hiranyakasipu, father of the boy Prahlada was away performing tapasya. A conclusion can be drawn from this that pairing of Hiranyakasipu and Kayadu (or Leelavathi or Kalyani) should have taken place before Hiranyakasipu went for penance. It is seen that various puranas give various figures for the length of Hiranyakasipu's penance. Some puranas given 36,000 figure, while some puranas give 1 Lakh years. Whatever it may be, after
Hiranyakasipu returned from penance, he still finds Prahlada to be a boy of no more than seven years old. Is it not odd. When X leaves his wife at home pregnant and goes to some other village and stays there for twenty years, when he returns home, he must find his boy to be at least 19 years old. In this case, Hiranyakasipu after staying away from home for 36,000 years, he still finds Prahlada to be a boy of no more than 7 years old. Is it not a riddle worth exploring.

2.Like all other boys, our Prahlada also goes to school. At school, he seems to be teaching fellow daitya boys that human being's maximum age is 100 years. Was it that short at its maximum even in those days. I thought in Krita Yuga, the maximum age of man is 1 Lakh years as mentioned in our scriptures. Still the question remains, when Prahlada is a daitya boy and he is speaking to fellow daitya boys, why was he speaking about human beings. Is it fashion in those days that daitya boys should speak about human beings, otherwise they are nor stylish. Or does it mean that daityas and human beings are the same.

3.In the Bhagavata Purana, the name of Prahlada's mother has been given as Kayadhu. She was the daughter of Jambha and a descendant of Danu. In Padma Purana, Uttara Khand, in the Nrsimha Deva story, her name is given as Kalyani, daughter of Uttanapad. Who is the correct for mother of child Prahlad. Is it Kalyani or Kayadhu. In some other places, it is given as Leelavathi. I want to know is it Kayadhu or Kalyani or Leelavathi. Or is it immaterial who is the mother.

4.To be frank, the Bhagavata Purana mentions Shiva Purana consisting of 24,000 slokas as one of the Maha Puranas. In that Shiva Purana, it is written that after Hiranyakasipu was killed, still the anger of Nrsimha Deva could not be pacified. The anger of Nrsimha Deva frightened the the worlds. Then, the Gods and Demigods requested Prahlada to calm him. When Prahlada went to pacify Nrsimha Deva, Nrsimha Deva took him into his embrace, but his anger however remained unpacified.

Then, all the deities went to Lord Shiva and requested him to cool down Nrsimha Deva's anger. Lord Shiva then assigns the matter to Veerabhadra and Bhairva. First, Bhairava and Veerabhadra politely request Nrsimha Deva to calm down. Hearing this, Nrsimha Deva pounces on Veerabhadra. At this point, Lord Shiva takes the form of Sarabha, a giant cannibal bird with devastating form. Lord Sarabheshwara injures Lord Nrsimha Deva with his mighty wings and carries Nrsimha Deva and flies in the sky. By this, Nrsimha Deva becomes unconscious. When he gains consciousness, he prays Lord Shiva. Then one of the three of them (i.e. Shiva, Veerabhadra and Bhairava) severe the head of Nrsimha Deva and Lord Shiva wears it in his garland. This is the story in Shiva Purana.

Is it not contradicting what is mentioned in the Bhagavata Purana, where Prahlada was successful in fully calming down Nrsimha Deva.

5.In some puranas, it is given that Hiranyakasipu performed his penance in the valley of Mandarachal. Some puranas, such as Padma Purana, give the name as Merugiri. Which one is the correct one. Or is it irrelevant.

6.In the Kurma Purana, it is given that after Hiranyakasipu died, Hiranyaksha became the king. How is it possible. One Mahapurana contradicting another.


7.In the same Kurma Purana, it is mentioned that Prahlada forgot Vedas and fought with Lord Vishnu on account of the curse of Brahma. Is it correct.

8.In the same Kurma Purana, it is mentioned that tormented by Hiranyaksipu, gods go in appeal before Lord Vishnu, who creates a mighty being out of himself. He boards on a mighty bird and goes to fight Hiranyakashipu. Hiranyakashipu directs his four sons to fight with that mighty being, created out of Lord Vishnu. These four sons of Hiranyakashipu after using
varius divyastras, unable to repel that mighty being report back to Hiranyakashipu. Then Hiranyakashipu himself enters the battle field. There ensues a battle between the mighty being created out of Lord Vishnu and Hiranyakshipu. In the meanwhile, Hiranyakashipu kicks the mighty being created out of Lord Vishnu with great force. The mighty being created out of Lord Vishnu flees in pain to Lord Vishnu. Now, the Lord Vishnu himself assumes the form of Nrsimha and enters the battlefield. Thereafter, Hiranyakashipu directs his four sons to fight with this strange creature of half man and half lion. Prahlada fights with the Nrsimha Deva, but was
defeated very easily. Then, Prahlada realises that this being is none other Lord Vishnu. He prays to Nrsimha Deva. He tries to persuade his father and uncles and other relatives not to fight Nrsimha Deva. They did not respect his words and decide to fight with Lord Nrsimha Deva and thereafter Hiranyakashipu and some of his sons except Prahlada were killed by Nrsimha Deva. Does it not contract the story in Bhagavata Purana. For that matter, the story mentioned in Shiva Purana.

9. In the Bhagavata Purana, the eighteen puranas mentioned are Brahma Purana consists of ten thousand verses, the Padma Purana of fifty-five thousand, Sri Visnu Purana of twenty-three thousand, the Siva Purana of twenty-four thousand and Srimad-Bhagavatam of eighteen thousand. The Narada Purana has twenty-five thousand verses, the Markandeya Purana nine thousand, the Agni Purana fifteen thousand four hundred, the Bhavisya Purana fourteen thousand five hundred, the
Brahma-vaivarta Purana eighteen thousand and the Linga Purana eleven thousand. The Varaha Purana contains twenty-four thousand verses, the Skanda Purana eighty-one thousand one hundred, the Vamana Purana ten thousand, the Kurma Purana seventeen thousand, the Matsya Purana fourteen thousand, the Garuda Purana nineteen thousand and the Brahmanda Purana twelve thousand. Thus the total number of verses in all the Puranas is four hundred thousand. Eighteen thousand of
these, once again, belong to the beautiful Bhagavatam.

The above list mentions Shiva Purana as one of the puranas. But Shiva Purana, itself mentions Deva Bhagavata itself as one of the astadasha puranas and not SRIMAD BHAGAVATA recounting the leelas of Lord Krishna. Actually, which is the correct Bhagavata, Vaishnava Bhagavata or Devi Bhagavata.

In fact, Vaishnava Bhagavatam is not treated as astadasha mahapuranas, but is treated as one of the upa puranas. In the Devi Bhagavata Purana (which many Vaishnavs consider as upa purana), Vaishnava Bhagavata is given as Upa Purana. Now, both puranas quote each other. However, each mentions the other purana as upa purana. I do not know which one to believe.

10.In the Shiva Purana, in the Nrismhavatara, it is mentioned that Hiranyakasipu performed penance for 10000 years. In the above paras, we have seen that it is mentioned as 36,000 years. Which one is the correct one. In other puranas also various figures are given for the period of Hiranyakasipu. Somewhere, it is even mentioned as 1 Lakh years. Shiva Purana itself speaks in various languages at various places.

11.In the same Prahlada story, it is mentioned that Nrsimha is joined by Lakshmi. Now, we see that Lakshmi is born out of the milk ocean after it is churned. Did the samudra manthan episode took place before this episode of Prahlada. Readers may note that the explanation in this respect furnished in the Vishnu Purana does not convince the blogger.

12.Now, there is a sloka in the probably in the puranas. I tried, but could not locate where it is from. It mentions the various puranas. The sloka goes like this:-

madwayam bhadwayam chaiva brathrayam vachathustayam
anapa kuska lingani puranani prithak prithak

The above list nowhere mentions the letter S with which the word “Shiva Purana” begins.
However, the list in the Bhagavata mentions this puranas as one of the puranas. In fact some people consider take Vayu Purana as one of the mahapuranas in place of Shiva Purana.

Now, it is difficult to consider Vayu Purana as Shiva Purana, as the contents of the two puranas as different as chalk and cheese. After reading the two puranas, one can easily realise this.

13. Now, in the Bhagavata Purana, there is mention of Sati Deha Tyaga at Daksha Vatika. When she was going to Daksha Vatika, it was mentioned that she was accompanied by Nandi. This question revolves around Nandi. Now in Shiva Purana, we see that Nandi was inducted into the service of Lord Shiva and Parvati when Lord Shiva and Parvati were couples and not when Lord Shiva and Sati were couples. Now, if Nandi was inducted into service during Parvati, how was his mention is to be found in earlier episodes of Sati. The point is he should not at all have been born
during the lifetime of Sati itself. This you may please clarify please.

13. I will now address some of the issues in Shiva Purana itself. In the Shiva Purana, the story, as mentioned above, of Sati is there. In that purana, it is given that Sati had to immolate herself as she did not realise the divinity of Lord Sree Rama. The story goes like this. Lord Shiva and Goddess Sati are going through the forest. Both of them see, Rama weeping in the Dandaka forest. It appears that Lord Shiva pays obeisance to Lord Sree Rama. Sati enquires Lord Shiva why he was doing that – After all he is Mahadeva. Lord Shiva says that Lord Sree Rama is Vishnu Avatara, so he is saluting him and paying him his respects. Sati doubts Lord Shiva and wants to test Lord Sri Rama and goes in the guise of Sita. However, she was unable to cheat Lord Sree Rama. She comes back in shame. Thereafter, she immolates herself in Daksha Vatika.

Now, the question is “Is the above story true?”. We hear in the puranas that the great Ila was transformed into becoming a woman when he went through that region on earth where Parvati and Lord Shiva were sporting. The above story proves that even at the time of Ila (the brother/sister of Ikshvaku), Parvati was there. This Ila is the forefather/foremother of Lord Sree Rama. Now, this Parvati is the reincarnation of Sati. This reincarnation business is like this: Parvati was in her previous life was Sati and in her next life was Parvati. Then, if a certain person was existing during the lifetime of Parvati, how can he exist at the time of Sati. This is a puzzle.

14.There is the story of Ila and Parvati and Ila being transformed into a woman. Now, is it very odd for Parvati to be born at an early period as Ila (I know that Ila is the son/daughter of Vaivswat).

15. Now, let us consider that the puranas that are available in the market (or that I possess) are not the original ones written by Veda Vyasa. May I request you to let me know which ones do you consider to be original ones. Who publishes them. Are they available for general public. Did you happen to read them. On what basis, they are considered as truth.


16. The riddle of Mali, Sumali and Malyavan:-

The following is the translation of slokas where it is shown that Mali, Sumali and Malyavan were killed by Lord Vishnu. However, from a reading of Uttara Ramayana and/or Ramayana Yuddha Khanda itself, it can be easily realised that Malyavan was there during the war preparations of Ravana. Whereas it has been shown in Sundara Kanda that Hanuman visited the house of Sumali while searching for Sita. Moreover in Uttara Ramayana, it is shown that Sumali was killed by Vasu. Whereas in Bhagavata Purana, it is written that Sumali was killed by the disc of Lord Vishnu. There is apparent contradiction between these two sources.

"After that, two powerful demons named Mali and Sumali were killed by the Lord Vishnu, who cut off their heads with His disc. Then Malyavan, their brother, attacked Lord Vishnu. Using the club, the demon, attacked Garuda, the lord of the birds. But Lord Vishnu used His disc to cut off his head also."

Now, the point to be observed is Lord Vishnu is riding on Garutman. This Garutman, according to Mahabharata, has entered into service of Lord Vishnu after carrying nectar in order to free his mother. However, in the same Bhagavata Purana, there are references to Garutman in episodes such Dhruva Tapasya, Kardama Tapasya at Bindusaras and Hiranyakasipa Vadha. Now, this Garutman entered into service of Lord Vishnu, according to Mahabharata, after carrying of nectar. Now, this episode of carrying of nectar happened after the Amrutha Manthana episode. This Amrutha Manthana episode happened during the tenure of Bali Chakravarti. Now, this Bali Chakravartin was not born during the lifetime of Hiranyakasipu as Prahlada was a mere boy when Hiranyakasipu died. Then, how did at the time of his death, Lord Nrismha Swamy rode on the Garutman.