SPHINX-PURUSHAMRIGA AND TAMASA MANU
In Hindu cosm and Mythology a
Manu
is the Mythologyical ancestor for the humanity of a particular cycle of creation,
called a Manvantara. A Mythology recounting the birth of the 4th Manu, called Tamasa Manu,
describes the role of the purushamriga in this event.
A king called Surastriyan had lost his
kingdom and was performing penance in a forest. He was surprised by a
sudden flood. Almost drowning he got hold of an animal’s tail and was thus saved. When they reached the other bank
he looked at the animal and lusted after it. But it cautioned the king “I am
already pregnant, you should not touch me.” The king asked the
animal who she was and she told him she had been the
daughter of a king named Tirutatanvan in a
previous life and also the wife of the king she had just saved from drowning.
Her name had been Udpalavati. The king asked her
how she had become born as an animal.
She told him that while young she had been playing with her friends in
a forest. She had happened upon two purushamriga
having intercourse. She had disturbed them and the male purushamriga
had spoken to her in human language. “I was about to give
conceivement, you prevented it.
I am going to curse you.”
The princes asked the purushamriga “Who are you?”
He answered he
was the son of a Maharishi. “My father’s
name is Nirvitatsan, and my own name is Sudaban.” The princess begged
forgiveness, but the purushamriga
demanded she marry him, otherwise he would not forgive her.
“I don’t want to change into an animal,” she begged,
but the purushamriga
was angry and cursed her to become an animal.
Again she prayed for forgiveness. Then he modified the curse saying she
would two times be born as an mriga (wild beast). “The second time you live you will
realize understanding, and you will again speak the human language and
you will be relieved from the curse.”
The mriga now told the king whom she had saved from the flood that
that time had come as he touched her.
She had conceived because of his touch. “Take this baby with you.” Then the mriga reached heaven. In that
forest all the Maharishis named the child Tamasa
Manu. Later he was cursed by the sage Agastya and turned into an
elephant. This was the elephant that called on Lord Vishnu to save him when
he was attacked by a crocodile.
