Encyclopedia for Epics of Ancient India

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Puranjaya

PURANJAYA. [Source: Dowson's Classical Dictionary of Hindu Mythology] 'City-conqueror.' A prince of the Solar race, son of Vikukshi. His story, as told in the Vishnu Purana, is that in the Treta age there was war between the gods the Asuras, in which the former were worsted. They had recourse to Vishnu for assistance, and he directed them to obtain the aid of Puranjaya, into whose person he promised to infuse a portion of himself. The prince complied with their wishes, and asked that their chief, Indra, would assume the form of a bull and carry him, the prince, upon his hump. This was done, and thus seated Puranjaya destroyed all the enemies of the gods. As he rode on the hump he obtained the cognomen of Kakutstha. In explanation of his title Puranjaya, the Bhagavata Purana says that he took the city of the Daityas situated in the west.


Modern Languages MLLL-4993. Indian Epics. Laura Gibbs, Ph.D. The textual material made available at this website is licensed under a Creative Commons License. You must give the original author credit. You may not use this work for commercial purposes. If you alter, transform, or build upon this work, you may distribute the resulting work only under a license identical to this one. No claims are made regarding the status of images used at this website; if you own the copyright privileges to any of these images and believe your copyright privileges have been violated, please contact the webmaster. Page last updated: October 16, 2007 12:22 PM