Once during my stay at Northern India I visited, Faridabad. Faridabad is in Haryana, (a place in Northern India) where there is a temple, which is known as “Maharaja Agrasen ka Mandir”, the temple of Maharaja Agrasen.
It does't look like a very typical temple, which we are used to see and there wasn’t too many people, as the temple was closed at that time. I had some word with few people and inquired about Maharaja Agrasen and also asked some people from the nearby area. From the bits and pieces and a few fragments here and there, this is what I got to know about this ‘God’ who has a temple to himself.
Maharaja Agrasen was a Suryavanshi King (mean of the solar lineage), who ruled during the Dwapar Yuga, which is approximately more than 5000 years. He was the first born of King Ballabha of Pratapnagar. He married Princess Madhavi, who was a Nagvanshi (means the Naaga clan), which brought together two different very powerful clans of the times. During the swayamvar Madhavi selected Maharaja Agrasen. There is story or you may consider it to be a myth associated with this aspect of Maharaja Agarsen. It is said that in the swayamvar, Lord Indra was also present in the swayamvar. He was infatuated by the beauty of Madhavi .However Madhavi selected Maharaja Agrasen. On which Lord Indra was furious and he was so jealous about it that he decided not to send a single drop of rain to Pratapnagar which soon had a famine. Maharaj Agrasen then waged a war against Lord Indra, since he was on the right side of Dharma, Lord Indra and his mighty forces were soon vanquished. Lord Indra then sought the help of Naradmuni to mediate and settle the matter amicably. This proclaimed Maharaja Agrasen as a righteous and a religious ruler who would wage a war against even Gods for the welfare of his subjec
After this incident, Maharaja Agrasen decided to propitiate Lord Shiva; soon he won to please Lord Shiva by his penance and prayers. Lord Shiva then advised him to propitiate Mahalakshmi, who too then pleased with the penance. She appeared and blessed Maharaja Agrasen and suggested that he must give up the role of being a King and change his caste from King (Kshatriya) to businessman/ trader (Vaishya), it was then a start of a the business community and new kingdom and she would bless all his people. Since then King Agrasen, gave up his Kshatriya-hood and became a Vaishya.
Maharaja Agrasen was a very compassionate and loving person and the happiness of his subjects was the matter of his prime concern. He conducted several yagna’s for the well-being of his people and once during the well-known 18 maha-yagna’s the Ashwamedha Yagna, he saw a horse being pulled to the sacrificial altar and the horse resisting it. He was moved seeing that and felt very sad seeing the pathetic cry and plight of the innocent animal and decreed that there would be no more animal sacrifices. He became a champion and patronage of Ahimsa (non-violence) and was of the opinion and advocated the fact that prosperity could not be brought at the cost of sacrificing and killing animals.
He later divided his kingdom amongst his 18 children, and named the 18 Gotra’s after the gurus of each of his sons. They are as follows:
01) Garg or Gargeya
2) Goyel or Goel or Goenka
03) Bhedal or Bhandal
04) Mangal
05) Jindal
06) Bindal or Vindal
07) Kandal
08) Jinjal
09) Binchhal
10) Mittal
11) Singal or Singhal
12)Airan or Aeron
13)Nangal
14)Bansal
15)Kuchhal or Kuchal,
16)Dharan or Deran
17)Kansal
18)Goin or Goyan or Gangal
Finally the most important or the vital aspect of this legendary king; is that in the present day the Agarwal community roots their origins from Agrasen. And in the present day at Delhi in India, one can see Agrasen ki Baoli; which is supposed to have been built during the period of Mahabharat and later rebuilt by the Agrawal community in memory of their ancestor, Maharaja Agrasen.
I believe undoubtedly this is particularly a classic case of deification of a human being. Here is a person who has a great historical reference and people of the modern day can trace and connect their lineage to him. To lend credence to his importance in the process of deification, there is the classic reference to Lord Indra, which gives him an edge in being worshipped as a “God”. It is also quite logical to involve Lord Indra, who is a much maligned Puranic deity, but to be on the right side of the dharmic-diplomacy, is also a worshipper of Lord Shiva and Goddess Lakshmi. Also change of the caste is shown very prominently; otherwise changing of caste is a relatively unknown phenomenon in any of the texts, however in the initial period of Vedic age it was never a restriction.In totality the life of Maharaja Agrasen is an interesting character of mythology which just goes on to prove, that the theory that every mythical hero probably was a part of history, once the finery of fantasy is removed from the bare facts of the reality of times.
My key take away from the life of Maharaja Agrasen is that if you are right with all virtue and follow the path of righteousness then nature will support your cause and good intention. My second take away was, although society is divided into four Varna – Brahman, Kshatraya , Vyasa, Sudra (Classes according to their work) and most of the time the class of the people is determined on the basic of his /her birth. However the story of Maharaja Agrasen has revealed that man can resemble any Varna according to their work. The third take away is that you can only grow to a large extend if you are compassionate and loving towards your people. When you concentrate about the life, development, progress and happiness of all who are associated with you, then you grow and you also progress in life. And my fourth takeaway was Maharaja Agrasen was not only compassionate about his subjects but also innocent animal. A true human being is always concerned about each and everything of Mother Nature.
Maharaja Agrasen was a Suryavanshi King (mean of the solar lineage), who ruled during the Dwapar Yuga, which is approximately more than 5000 years. He was the first born of King Ballabha of Pratapnagar. He married Princess Madhavi, who was a Nagvanshi (means the Naaga clan), which brought together two different very powerful clans of the times. During the swayamvar Madhavi selected Maharaja Agrasen. There is story or you may consider it to be a myth associated with this aspect of Maharaja Agarsen. It is said that in the swayamvar, Lord Indra was also present in the swayamvar. He was infatuated by the beauty of Madhavi .However Madhavi selected Maharaja Agrasen. On which Lord Indra was furious and he was so jealous about it that he decided not to send a single drop of rain to Pratapnagar which soon had a famine. Maharaj Agrasen then waged a war against Lord Indra, since he was on the right side of Dharma, Lord Indra and his mighty forces were soon vanquished. Lord Indra then sought the help of Naradmuni to mediate and settle the matter amicably. This proclaimed Maharaja Agrasen as a righteous and a religious ruler who would wage a war against even Gods for the welfare of his subjecAfter this incident, Maharaja Agrasen decided to propitiate Lord Shiva; soon he won to please Lord Shiva by his penance and prayers. Lord Shiva then advised him to propitiate Mahalakshmi, who too then pleased with the penance. She appeared and blessed Maharaja Agrasen and suggested that he must give up the role of being a King and change his caste from King (Kshatriya) to businessman/ trader (Vaishya), it was then a start of a the business community and new kingdom and she would bless all his people. Since then King Agrasen, gave up his Kshatriya-hood and became a Vaishya.
Maharaja Agrasen was a very compassionate and loving person and the happiness of his subjects was the matter of his prime concern. He conducted several yagna’s for the well-being of his people and once during the well-known 18 maha-yagna’s the Ashwamedha Yagna, he saw a horse being pulled to the sacrificial altar and the horse resisting it. He was moved seeing that and felt very sad seeing the pathetic cry and plight of the innocent animal and decreed that there would be no more animal sacrifices. He became a champion and patronage of Ahimsa (non-violence) and was of the opinion and advocated the fact that prosperity could not be brought at the cost of sacrificing and killing animals.
He later divided his kingdom amongst his 18 children, and named the 18 Gotra’s after the gurus of each of his sons. They are as follows:
01) Garg or Gargeya
2) Goyel or Goel or Goenka
03) Bhedal or Bhandal
04) Mangal
05) Jindal
06) Bindal or Vindal
07) Kandal
08) Jinjal
09) Binchhal
10) Mittal
11) Singal or Singhal
12)Airan or Aeron
13)Nangal
14)Bansal
15)Kuchhal or Kuchal,
16)Dharan or Deran
17)Kansal
18)Goin or Goyan or Gangal
Finally the most important or the vital aspect of this legendary king; is that in the present day the Agarwal community roots their origins from Agrasen. And in the present day at Delhi in India, one can see Agrasen ki Baoli; which is supposed to have been built during the period of Mahabharat and later rebuilt by the Agrawal community in memory of their ancestor, Maharaja Agrasen.
I believe undoubtedly this is particularly a classic case of deification of a human being. Here is a person who has a great historical reference and people of the modern day can trace and connect their lineage to him. To lend credence to his importance in the process of deification, there is the classic reference to Lord Indra, which gives him an edge in being worshipped as a “God”. It is also quite logical to involve Lord Indra, who is a much maligned Puranic deity, but to be on the right side of the dharmic-diplomacy, is also a worshipper of Lord Shiva and Goddess Lakshmi. Also change of the caste is shown very prominently; otherwise changing of caste is a relatively unknown phenomenon in any of the texts, however in the initial period of Vedic age it was never a restriction.In totality the life of Maharaja Agrasen is an interesting character of mythology which just goes on to prove, that the theory that every mythical hero probably was a part of history, once the finery of fantasy is removed from the bare facts of the reality of times.
My key take away from the life of Maharaja Agrasen is that if you are right with all virtue and follow the path of righteousness then nature will support your cause and good intention. My second take away was, although society is divided into four Varna – Brahman, Kshatraya , Vyasa, Sudra (Classes according to their work) and most of the time the class of the people is determined on the basic of his /her birth. However the story of Maharaja Agrasen has revealed that man can resemble any Varna according to their work. The third take away is that you can only grow to a large extend if you are compassionate and loving towards your people. When you concentrate about the life, development, progress and happiness of all who are associated with you, then you grow and you also progress in life. And my fourth takeaway was Maharaja Agrasen was not only compassionate about his subjects but also innocent animal. A true human being is always concerned about each and everything of Mother Nature.
Image Courtesy: Internet.
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