Devalok
Legend · 3 tellings · Pan-India

Brihaspati takes the form of Shukra

Who is in it

  • Brihaspati takes his rival's form
  • Shukra the real teacher, disbelieved
  • Jayanti Indra's daughter, whose marriage keeps Shukra away
  • Indra asks Brihaspati to act
  • Prahlada leads the Asuras back to Shukra
  • Shiva sets Shukra the thousand-year vow

Texts: Padma Purana

The story, beat by beat

  1. Shukra leaves the defeated Asuras to win mantras from Shiva that Brihaspati does not have.
  2. Shiva sets a thousand-year vow of hanging head down and breathing husk smoke.
  3. Indra sends his daughter Jayanti to serve Shukra; afterwards she becomes his wife, unseen for ten years.
  4. Brihaspati goes to the Asuras in Shukra's form and is accepted as their teacher.
  5. Shukra returns and finds his double teaching against the sacrifices.
  6. Each calls the other the impostor; the Asuras keep the one they have had.
  7. Shukra curses his pupils and leaves; Brihaspati returns to Indra.
  8. The Asuras, with Prahlada, beg Shukra's pardon and are told they will lose this war.

disguise rivalry teacher deceit curse

How it is told, place by place

Base telling · Primary text (translation)

Devi Bhagavata Purana 4.11-14

Pan-India Shakta

Shukra tells the beaten Asuras to live as ascetics while he seeks stronger mantras from Shiva, who sets him a thousand-year smoke vow. Indra sends Jayanti to serve him; when the vow ends she asks to be his wife and he grants ten years together, invisible to all. Indra asks Brihaspati to act; he goes to the Asuras as Shukra and says he will teach what Shiva gave him. The listening king objects that the gods' guru has lied; the narrator answers that every embodied being is subject to greed. After ten years Shukra finds his double preaching non-killing and against sacrifice. Both claim to be the true one; the Asuras choose the false. Shukra curses them and goes; Brihaspati resumes his form and tells Indra to fight. The Asuras, led by Prahlada, win back Shukra's favour but not the war.

The Srimad Devi Bhagawatam, tr. Swami Vijnanananda (1921-22) § 4.11; The Srimad Devi Bhagawatam, tr. Swami Vijnanananda (1921-22) § 4.12; The Srimad Devi Bhagawatam, tr. Swami Vijnanananda (1921-22) § 4.13; The Srimad Devi Bhagawatam, tr. Swami Vijnanananda (1921-22) § 4.14

Primary text (translation)

Padma Purana, Srishti Khanda 13

Pan-India Vaishnava

The same outline at greater length. Shukra lives with Jayanti unseen for a hundred years, and Brihaspati serves as the Asuras' priest in his shape for a hundred years. On Shukra's return the Asuras at the door wonder at a second Ushanas. Shukra reproaches Brihaspati and recalls that the Asuras once killed his son Kacha; Brihaspati smiles, calls him a thief of another's face, and tells the Asuras to chain him and throw him in the sea. They keep 'the former priest, whoever he may be'. Shukra curses them and goes to a penance grove. Brihaspati stays, and when they ask for a saving knowledge he argues against the Vedas and sacrifice; a deluding ascetic sent by Vishnu completes the work. The Asuras, except Prahlada, settle as ascetics by the Narmada.

What is different here:

A hundred years, not ten; Kacha is mentioned; the double has Shukra threatened with chains; Brihaspati stays on and the anti-Vedic teaching is the main point, with Vishnu's Mayamoha; no reconciliation scene.

The Padma Purana, tr. N. A. Deshpande (Motilal Banarsidass), Srishti Khanda § srishti.13.212-402

Primary text (translation)

Maitri Upanishad 7.9

Pan-India All traditions

A single sentence: Brihaspati, having become Shukra, brought forth a false knowledge for the safety of Indra and the destruction of the Asuras, a teaching that makes good seem evil and evil good. The Upanishad warns its hearers not to study it.

What is different here:

No story, no Jayanti, no return of the real Shukra; the earliest mention read.

The Upanishads, tr. F. Max Muller (Sacred Books of the East 1 and 15) § maitri.7.9

Sources: The Srimad Devi Bhagawatam, tr. Swami Vijnanananda (1921-22); The Padma Purana, tr. N. A. Deshpande (Motilal Banarsidass), Srishti Khanda; The Upanishads, tr. F. Max Muller (Sacred Books of the East 1 and 15)

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