GOTHRA SAGES Section 3
GOTHRA SAGES
Mudgala and Ganapathi
Mudgala Purana
Maudgalyas of Recent Times.
3. Salankayana.
Section III
1. Moudgalya Gothra
NALAYANI was the young wife of very old sage, Mudgala, but she was a great Pativrata. Even when Mudgala Rshi became afflicted by leprosy and started stinking, she continued to serve him. Once, when he was consuming food, one of his fingers fell of from his hands and fell into the food. Nalayani removed it and partook the remaining food. The sage was extremely pleased.
In order to please he took five bodily forms corresponding to the five (Panchabhootas) elements and satisfied her in all respects. After thousands of years, he wanted to retire from family life and wanted to live the life of a sage. But, Nalayani tried to prevent him and keep him in the material pleasures. Mudgala Rshi cursed her that she will be borne as the daughter of Drupada and will marry five men. (source : Adi Parva of Mahabharata verses 197 to 204).
Sages belonging to the Maudgalya Gothra are well known for their patience and forbearance. One such rshi was living through Bhikshatana (alms) at Kurukshetra.
Once Rshi Durvasa came to his Ashram (hermitage) as his guest, in a digambara (naked) form and Mudgala gave him, whatever food he obtained as alms. Durvasa consumed some food from the same. The remaining food, he massaged on his own body. Yet, Mudgala did not become angry. The following days also Durvasa came to Mudgalas Ashram before the latter could quench his hunger and repeated the same behaviour. Mudgala gave all the food to Durvasa and remained hungry for several days. Finally, Durvasa said that he was extremely pleased with Mudgalas patience and forbearance and blessed Mudgala with an offer to take him the Heaven in his physical body. Immediately the Devas came with their plane. Mudgala enquired Durvasa about the pleasures available in the Heaven and then in the end he refused to be drawn to such pleasures. (source : Vana Parva of Mahabharata Ch. 261).
There was a great Vedic Scholar from Maudgalya Gothra, who participated in the sarpa yaga (serpent sacrifice) of Janame Jaya. (source : Adi Parva of Mahabharata Ch. 53).
Mudgalas were rigvedies and might have continued to be so till they were in the Northern part of India and might have shifted to Krishna Yajur Veda, much after they established themselves in the Southern part of India.
This may be the reason why Mudgalas follow the Chandramana calendar while all the other Krishna Yajur Vedis follows the Sauramana calendar. Persons belonging to Maudgalya gothara celebrate their birthdays according to their nakshatras falling in the solar months in which they were born, while they perform the shrardhams (death anniversary) in the thithies of the lunar months in which the deaths took place.
The route through which Maudgalyas would have traveled might be Baluchistan - Punjab - Kashmir - Orissa - Andhra - Tamil Nadu & Kerala.
Mudgala and Ganapathi
Ganesha Purana speaks of Rshi Mudgala, who was an ardent devotee of Lord Ganapathi, who was so pleased with him that he gave his devotee powers to give boons to other bhaktas (devotees).
Daksha became an ardent devotee of Ganapathi. On Ganapathis advice, he met Rshi Mudgala, who taught him the one lettered mantra OM. This, Daksha chanted relentlessly.
Mudgala Purana
Perhaps no other Rshi in the human world has a purana named after himself.
This Purana does not give any information about Rshi Mudgala, but is out and out exposition of the grandeur of Lord Ganapathi. This shows the humility of the author, Rshi Mudgala. This Purana has 9 khandas (cantos) and gives details about all facets of Ganesha worship.
Maudgalyas of Recent Times.
Of the persons belonging to Maudgalya Gothra, who have made a name for themselves, the most popular one is Upanyasa Chakravarthy, Sengalipuram Anantarama Deekshithar.
His upanyasams (discourses) on Ramayana and Bhagavatham and Mahabharatham moulded the characters of many of us during our childhood. His rendering of the shlokas from the epics had a majestic tone which still ringing in our ears.
2. Sandilya.
Sandilya is one of the great sages of ancient India and a Vedic scholar. Among Brahmins there is a Gothram named after him, specifying that the generations of people belonged to Sandilya as the paternal root.
In Hinduism, it is believed that Hindu goddess Parvathi, bride of Shiva, also belonged to the Sandilya's generation and is a daughter of Himavantha the lord or king of the Himalayas.
It is believed that Sandilya had six more ancestors, namely Kaashyapa, Avatsaara, Naidhruva, Rebha, Raibha, Sandila and Sandilya[1] .
3. Salankayana.
The Salankayanas were an ancient dynasty that ruled the Vengi region of India's eastern coast from 300 to 440 AD. They were Brahmins and their name is derived from their symbol and Gothra name, which stood for Nandi (the bull of Shiva).
The Salankayanas succeeded the Andhra Ikshvaku dynasty and were vassals of the Pallava kings of southern India. During their time the script for Telugu and Kannada began to clearly separating from that of the other South Indian and North Indian languages.
In the late 400s, the Salankayanas were conquered by Madhavarma II of the Vishnukundinas (a Kshatriya Raju dynasty).
4.Raivata Kakudmin
Raivata Kakudmin was the king of Kusasthali. Raivata’s father was Revata and his father was Anarta. Anarta’s sister was Sukanya (Cyavana’s wife) and their father was Saryati, whose father was Vaivaswatha Manu. Vaiwaswatha is/was the son of Vivaswan. Vivaswan is another name for Surya Deva. (In the Bhagavad Gita, Sri Krishna says that He taught Vivaswan, in a previous).
Raivata Kakudmin had a daughter called Revati. On Brahma’s advice, he gave his daughter Revati in marriage to Balarama, the elder brother of Sri Krishna. Raivata was also called Kakudmi.
5. Kaundinya
Kaundinya was a brahmin who first came to prominence as a youth due to his mastery of the vedas and was later appointed as a royal court scholar of King Suddhodana of the Sakyas in Kapilavastu. There Kaundinya was the only scholar who unequivocally predicted upon the birth of Prince Siddhartha that the prince would become an enlightened Buddha, and vowed to become his disciple.
Kaundinya and four colleagues followed Siddhartha in six years of ascetic practice, but abandoned him in disgust after Siddhartha gave up the practice of self mortification.
Upon enlightenment, Siddartha gave his first dharma talk to Kaundinya's group. Kaundinya was the first to comprehend the teaching and thus became the first bhikkhu and arahant.
Following the formation of the sangha, Kaundinya and the other monks travelled with the Buddha by foot through the Gangetic plains area of what is now Bihar and Uttar Pradesh to spread the dharma.
6. Mandavya.
Mandavya was a sage wrongly punished by the king by being impaled as the chief of robbers who had clandestinely hidden their stolen goods in a corner of his hermitage when he was in deep contemplation. Lord Dharma gave him this punishment for having tortured birds and bees in his childhood. At this Mandavya cursed Dharma who was born as Vidura, the wise, to the servant maid of Ambalika, wife of King Vichitravirya, who offered her to Sage Vyasa in place of Ambalika.
7. Maitreya.
The Brihat Parasara Hora Sastra, a treatise on astrology was expounded by Rishi Parasara (the father of Veda Vyasa) to Rishi Maitreya.
Rishi Maitreya explained parts of the Bhagavatham to Vidura, a son of Veda Vyasa.(Authorship and Copyright Notice : All Rights Reserved : Satya Sarada Kandula)
8. Kātyāyana
Kātyāyana (c. 3rd century BC) was a Sanskrit grammarian, mathematician and Vedic priest who lived in ancient India.
He is known for two works:The Varttika, an elaboration on Pāṇini grammar. Along with the Mahābhāsya of Patañjali, this text became a core part of the vyākarana (grammar) canon. This was one of the six Vedangas, and constituted compulsory education for Brahmin students in the following twelve centuries.
He also composed one of the later Sulba Sutras, a series of nine texts on the geometry of altar constructions, dealing with rectangles, right-sided triangles, rhombuses, etc.
Kātyāyana's views on the word-meaning connection tended towards naturalism. Kātyāyana believed, like Plato, that the word-meaning relationship was not a result of human convention. For Kātyāyana, word-meaning relations were siddha, given to us, eternal.
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