Prithu — who milked the earth

The sages killed the king who said "I alone am the enjoyer" — and drew a better king out of his own body

Prithu — who milked the earth is chapter 2 of Bhagavata Devotees. Source: Bhagavata Purana. It is told in 5 scenes — Vena; Two who came out of the body; The work first, the praise later; The earth, who fled as a cow; The hundredth horse — followed by 10 quiz questions.

Vena

King Anga was a good king, but his wife Sunitha was Death's daughter, and their son Vena was cruel from boyhood. At play he would kill other children. Anga wore himself out with advice, and one night he gave up the kingdom and slipped away without a word.

A kingdom without a king lay open to every danger, so the sages set Vena on the throne themselves. His first decree was: "No more sacrifices, no gifts. The only one to be enjoyed, the only one worth worshipping, is me. Make your offerings to me."

The sages pleaded with him at length, and Vena would not listen. So, in full fury, they killed him without a weapon — with nothing but the force of their humkara, their thundering cry.

Two who came out of the body

Vena died, and plunder spread through the land again. Still, a king was needed.

The sages churned Vena's thigh, and out came a short, dark, misshapen man. "Nishida," they told him — sit down, stay put. He came to be called Nishada, and the text says he carried Vena's sin away with him.

Then they churned Vena's arms, and out of them came Prithu, radiant, the mark of the discus on his palms, with his queen Archi beside him. Prithu was a portion of Vishnu, the first formally consecrated king, the archetypal king.

The work first, the praise later

The moment he was born, the Suta and the Magadha — the first court bards and keepers of lineages — began to sing his praises. Prithu stopped them.

"I have done nothing yet. Sing instead of the qualities the Lord will show through me later, so that I know what I must live up to."

The earth, who fled as a cow

Then famine struck Prithu's kingdom; the fields would grow no grain. Prithu blamed the Earth. She took the form of a cow and ran, and Prithu, bow in hand, chased her through all three worlds.

At last the Earth turned round. "The seeds are locked up inside me and rotting," she said. "Give me a calf and someone to milk me, and I will give everything back like milk."

Prithu made Svayambhuva Manu the calf and milked every grain and herb into his own cupped hands. Then, one by one, the others came. The sages made Brihaspati the calf and milked out the Vedas. The gods made Indra the calf and milked strength and nectar. The Daityas and Danavas made Prahlada the calf and milked liquor. The Gandharvas took music and beauty; the ancestors, their offerings. Each group used its own vessel and drew what suited it.

Then Prithu levelled the ground with the tip of his bow — until then it had been all ridge and hollow — so that villages could be built and fields sown. The text says this is why the earth is called "Prithvi": she became Prithu's.

The Atharvaveda, too, speaks of "Prithi Vainya" — Vena's son Prithu — as the first person to draw farming out of the earth. That is the oldest seed of this story.

The hundredth horse

Prithu vowed to perform a hundred horse sacrifices. Ninety-nine were completed. At the hundredth, Indra, jealous, stole the horse — disguised as a sham ascetic.

Prithu's son caught the thief and brought the horse back. The sages were about to curse Indra when Brahma appeared, stopped the hundredth sacrifice, and reconciled the two.

Later the four Kumaras taught Prithu detachment. In old age Prithu and Archi went to the forest, and Archi gave up her life after her husband.

Note: Prithu's story is in the fourth canto of the Bhagavata Purana (chapters 13–23, mainly 14–18); the Vishnu Purana (1.13) carries its source-form, a little shorter, and the Atharvaveda calls "Prithi Vainya" the first to draw agriculture out of the earth — the oldest kernel. The episode of Nishada emerging from Vena's body is an etymology of a name; modern social history often reads such "such-and-such a people came to be this way" origin stories not as historical genealogy but as later social interpretation, and this site takes no position on it and does not repeat any list of peoples. In the milking list, the calves and vessels shift a little from recension to recension; the order here follows the Bhagavata (4.18). Indra stealing the hundredth horse, and Brahma stopping the sacrifice — the gods are not always right — is the Bhagavata's own note.

Source: from the Bhagavata Purana, Prithu — who milked the earth