“Why have all of you come to see me?” asked Vishnu “I can guess that Nishumbha must have defeated you. Do as I say. Pray to the ancestors (pitri). They have a daughter named Mena. Mean must be married to Himalaya. Sati will be reborn as Uma the daughter of Mena. Shiva and Uma’s son will be the general who lead you to victory. For the moment, go to the place named Kuruakshetra. There is a tirtha named Prithudaka there. That is where you must pray to the ancestors for Meana .”

“Where is Kurukshetra?” asked the gods. “Tell us about Kurukshetra and Prithudaka tirtha.”

Vishnu recounted the story for the benefit of the gods.

Samvarana and Tapati

Towards the beginning of satya yuga, there was a king named Riksha who belonged to the lunar dynasty.
(Satya yuga is the first of the four eras. In this context, this simply means that the incident in question happened many yeas ago.)

Riksha had a son named Samvarana whom he appointed king at a very early age. Right from his childhood, Samvarana was righteous and devoted to Vishnu. His priest was the sage Vashishtha. The sage also taught Samvarana all the shastras (sacred texts).

Once Samvarana went on a hunt to the forest, after having left Vashishtha in charge of the kingdom. One particular part of the forest was called Vaibhraja. This was truly wonderous. It was full of diverse flowers. Samvarana wandered around the place and came upon a group of apsaras. One particular apsara was named Tapati and Samvarana fell in love with her. He was so smitten with love for her that he fell down from his horse, unconscious. He was discovered there by the gandharvas. They revived him and Samvarana returned to his capital.

But he could not forget Tapati. Tapati was actually the daughter of the sun-god Surya and, she too, had fallen in love with Samvarana. Vashishtha got to know about the matter and saw no reason why the two should not get married. He therefore requested Surya to accept Samvarana as son-in-law. The sun promptly agreed and Samvarana and Tapati were married.

They had a son named Kuru and Vashishtha took charge of Kuru’s education. The result was that the prince became will-versed in the shastras and knew all the duties of a king by the time he was ten years of age.

When his son was sixteen years old, Samvarana decided it was time to get him married. King Sudama had a beautiful daughter named Soudamni and it was to her that Kuru was married. They lived happily, and in due course, Kuru became king after his father. But after some time had passed, Kuru decided that he ought to do something so that posterity might remember him forever.

The king roamed everywhere on earth in search of a task that might bring him permanent fame. He eventually came to a forest named dvaitavana, through which flowed the river Sarasvati. Also in the forest was a pond and by the side of the pond was one of Brahma’s seats. Brahma has five seats (vedi) on earth. This particular one was named Samantapanchaka and was situated towards the north. The seat towards the east was in Gaya, that towards the south in Viraja, that towards the west in Pushkara and the central seat was in Prayaga.

Kuru decided that he would plough the land near Samantapanchaka. For this purpose he constructed a golden plough and yoked a buffalo and a bull to it. While he was ploughing, Indra arrived and asked, “King, what are you trying to do?”

“I am ploughing the land to cultivate the fruits of meditation, truthfulness, pity, forgiveness, cleanliness, charity and the like,” replied Kuru.

“But where is the seed?” asked Indra.

Kuru did not reply. He went on ploughing. After Indra had left, Vishnu arrived and asked Kuru the same question.

This time Kuru replied. “The seed is inside my body,” he said.