Devalok
From the epics · 3 tellings · Pan-India

The Vasu Dyu steals Vasishtha's cow and is born as Bhishma

Dyu, one of the eight Vasus, steals the cow Nandini for his wife; Vasishtha curses the Vasus to human birth and Dyu to a full life on earth as Bhishma.

Who is in it

  • Dyaus Dyu, the Vasu who takes the cow
  • Vasishtha the sage who owns the cow and curses
  • Nandini the wish-granting cow
  • Vasus the eight brothers, cursed together
  • Ganga becomes their mother and frees seven
  • Shantanu the king, their father on earth
  • Bhishma the eighth son, Dyu born as a man

Texts: Mahabharata

The story, beat by beat

  1. The eight Vasus and their wives wander in the woods near Vasishtha's hermitage on Meru.
  2. Dyu's wife sees the cow Nandini and asks for her, for her mortal friend Jitavati.
  3. Dyu, helped by Prithu and his other brothers, leads away the cow and her calf.
  4. Vasishtha returns, searches, sees the theft by his inner sight and curses the Vasus to be born on earth.
  5. The Vasus beg pardon; he limits the curse to a year for seven of them.
  6. Dyu alone must live long on earth, virtuous, learned, obedient, without wife or child.
  7. The Vasus ask Ganga to bear them and to throw each into the water at birth.
  8. Ganga marries Shantanu on condition he never questions her, and drowns seven sons.
  9. At the eighth Shantanu protests; she explains, takes the child and leaves.
  10. She later returns the boy, Devavrata, trained in arms and taught the Vedas by Vasishtha.

theft curse birth vow

How it is told, place by place

Base telling · Primary text (translation)

Mahabharata, Adi Parva 98-100

Pan-India All traditions

Ganga, about to leave Shantanu, explains the eight drowned sons. The Vasus were walking with their wives near Vasishtha's hermitage on Meru. Dyu's wife wanted the cow Nandini for her friend Jitavati, daughter of Ushinara, so that she would never age. Dyu stole cow and calf with his brothers' help. Vasishtha saw it by ascetic vision and cursed them to human birth; when they pleaded he freed seven within a year but kept Dyu on earth for a long life, virtuous and childless. Ganga takes the eighth child away and later returns him grown, as Devavrata.

The Mahabharata, tr. K. M. Ganguli (1883-96), sections read for the Vedic layer § adi.98; The Mahabharata, tr. K. M. Ganguli (1883-96), sections read for the Vedic layer § adi.99; The Mahabharata, tr. K. M. Ganguli (1883-96), sections read for the Vedic layer § adi.100

Primary text (translation)

Mahabharata, Adi Parva 96

Pan-India All traditions

Ganga, leaving Brahma's court, meets the dejected Vasus on the road. They say Vasishtha cursed them for a small fault: he sat at his twilight prayers, they did not see him and crossed him. They ask her to be their mother, name Shantanu as father and ask to be thrown into the water at birth. She asks that one son may live; each Vasu gives an eighth part of his energy to make that son, who will be childless.

What is different here:

No cow, no wife, no single culprit: all eight offend alike by crossing the sage unseen at twilight. The surviving son is made of an eighth of each Vasu, not Dyu alone.

The Mahabharata, tr. K. M. Ganguli (1883-96), sections read for the Vedic layer § adi.96

Primary text (translation)

Devi Bhagavata Purana 2.3-4

Pan-India Shakta

The Purana repeats the cow story with the same names: the Vasu Dyau, his wife, her friend the daughter of Ushinara, Vasishtha's search and curse. It then tells Ganga's marriage; here Shantanu falls at Ganga's feet to beg for the eighth child's life.

What is different here:

Follows the Adi Parva 99 version closely; adds the king's plea at Ganga's feet and frames the whole within praise of the Goddess.

The Srimad Devi Bhagawatam, tr. Swami Vijnanananda (1921-22) § 2.3; The Srimad Devi Bhagawatam, tr. Swami Vijnanananda (1921-22) § 2.4

Sources: The Mahabharata, tr. K. M. Ganguli (1883-96), sections read for the Vedic layer; The Srimad Devi Bhagawatam, tr. Swami Vijnanananda (1921-22)

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