Kashyapa, the rishi

The daughters of Daksha and their children

According to the Vishnu Purana (1.15), of his sixty daughters Daksha gave ten to Dharma, thirteen to Kashyapa and twenty-seven to Soma. Kashyapa’s thirteen wives were Aditi, Diti, Danu, Arishta, Surasa, Surabhi, Vinata, Tamra, Krodhavasha, Ira, Khasa, Kadru and Muni. The Tushita gods of the Chakshusha manvantara were born of Aditi as Kashyapa’s sons and were called the twelve Adityas: Vishnu, Shakra (Indra), Aryaman, Dhatri, Tvashtri, Pushan, Vivasvat, Savitri, Mitra, Varuna, Amsha and Bhaga.

The Vishnu Purana (1.21) goes on: from Danu came the danavas; from Vinata Garuda and Aruna, Garuda being the king of birds; from Kadru a thousand nagas, chief among them Shesha, Vasuki and Takshaka; from Surabhi cows and buffaloes, from Ira trees, plants and grasses, and from Muni the apsaras. Diti’s sons were Hiranyakashipu and Hiranyaksha (1.21; in Bhagavata 3.17.18 Kashyapa himself names the twins). So the gods and the daityas are all sons of Kashyapa, that is, brothers; in the Bhagavata (8.9.7), over the sharing of the nectar, the asuras tell Mohini that as sons of Kashyapa they are all brothers.

Father of Vamana

In the Valmiki Ramayana (Bala Kanda, sarga 29), showing Rama the Siddhashrama, Vishvamitra tells him that here Kashyapa, son of Marichi, with Aditi, after a thousand years of tapas praised Vishnu and asked that he become their son and Indra’s younger brother; Vishnu was then born of Aditi as Vamana and went to Bali. In the Bhagavata (8.16-17) Aditi grieves for the gods defeated by the daityas, Kashyapa teaches her the payovrata vow (8.16.24-25), and the Lord says he will dwell in Kashyapa’s tapas and become Aditi’s son (8.17.18-19). The Vishnu Purana (3.1) too says that in this manvantara Vishnu was born as Vamana, son of Kashyapa and Aditi, won the worlds in three paces and gave them to Indra.

Parashurama’s gift, and the earth as ‘Urvi’

According to the Bhagavata (9.16.19-22), after destroying the kshatriyas twenty-one times Parashurama performed a yajna and as its fee gave the quarters to the priests and the middle of the earth to Kashyapa. In the Valmiki Ramayana (Bala Kanda, sargas 75-76) Parashurama himself tells Rama that he gave the earth to Kashyapa at the close of a yajna, and that at Kashyapa’s word he does not stay on the earth by night but returns to Mount Mahendra. In the Mahabharata (Drona Parva 70) too Kashyapa accepts the earth at the close of a horse sacrifice and tells Parashurama to leave it.

In the Mahabharata’s Shanti Parva (Rajadharmanushasana Parva), telling the same story to Yudhishthira, Krishna adds that with no king the earth began to sink, and Kashyapa held her up on his thigh (uru), so the earth is called ‘Urvi’; then at the earth’s request kings were found from the surviving kshatriya lines. In the genealogy of the Valmiki Ramayana (Bala Kanda 70, Ayodhya Kanda 110), Kashyapa’s son is Vivasvat (the Sun), his son Manu, and Manu’s son Ikshvaku, which makes Kashyapa an ancestor of Rama’s line.

Where the sources differ

• The names and number of his wives: the Vishnu Purana (1.15) names thirteen. The Bhagavata’s list of thirteen (6.6.25-26) differs (it has Kashtha, Sarama and Timi, not Vinata and Kadru), and it calls Vinata, Kadru, Patangi and Yamini the wives of ‘Tarkshya’, another name of Kashyapa (6.6.21-22). In the Valmiki Ramayana (Aranya Kanda, sarga 14) Jatayu says Kashyapa married eight of Daksha’s sixty daughters.
• The name of Kashmir: by tradition the Kashmir valley was once a lake called Satisar, drained through Kashyapa’s efforts. According to Wikipedia the story is in the Nilamata Purana (where Ananta breaks the mountains at Vishnu’s word to let the water out, and Kashyapa settles the valley), and some scholars link the name ‘Kashmir’ to ‘Kashyapa-mira’ (Kashyapa’s lake), while others explain it as ‘drying up water’. We have not checked this in the text of the Nilamata Purana.
• One name, several persons: according to Wikipedia, the texts know several persons named ‘Kashyapa’, whose stories do not agree; the Ramayana makes Vibhandaka, father of Rishyashringa, one of Kashyapa’s line. Wilson’s note on Vishnu Purana 3.6, citing the Vayu Purana, counts Kashyapa among the five founding rishis of the brahmin gotras.

Frequently asked questions