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36 Upamanyu




Note: This is not written by me, but my father. He wrote this wonderful story in a mail to me. So here's to you, Baba.

- Shreekant
03 August 2009

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Why I am curious about Upamanyu? Coz our 'Gotra' is Upamanyu.


Who was Upamanyu? What was his significance?

We have to reach Tamil Nadu - Chidambaram.

The story begins in the lush green thick jungle of Thillaivanam, the place where there is 'Swayambhu' Linga. Whoever has a 'darshan' of this Linga, gets everything he desires. (Rightful & more on the spiritual side).

This is the very place (and the nearby area) where Lord Nataraja arrived and gave two extra-ordinary gifts to the mankind - Music & Dance.

A great sage named Madyanthinar, related to sage Vashishta, had a brilliant son, named Madyanthinar Jr. These sages were living in a small town (probably a part of Chidambaram) and away from Thillai forest.

Sr M taught all four vedas & six sastras to the Jr. But the Jr wanted something more - the supreme knowledge - the self-realization.

With the permission of the Sr, the Jr went to Thillai forest to worship the Linga, called Tirumalanada.

His worship consisted of offering 'abhisheka', flowers & fruits & ofcourse chanting 'Om Namah: Shivay.'

He had some problem in collecting the flowers. He wanted to offer fresh flowers. Fresh means not even touched by bees.

For that he had to collect the flowers before day-break. It was too dark. He was not able to see and another difficulty was that he had to climb the trees. [Those must be the forest flower plantations. In the forest, one can't expect roses, jasmine etc.]

Stricken with grief, he prays to Lord Shiva. The Lord obliges and endows him with limbs of a tiger to climb the trees without slipping and sight to perceive in darkness too.

The spiritual meaning is very clear. He received the ultimate knowledge - no darkness and his spiritual progress would always be upwards - never falling down - say due to ego or whatever.

The Lord after showering this grace, named him Vyghrapada. (The place where he settled afterwards with his family & parents was named Vhyghrapuri.)

After some time, when Vyghrapada became 16 years old, his father came to Thillai forest to take him back and more importantly, to put him in a wed-lock.

Father was overjoyed to find his son having attained the highest spiritual level, due to the grace of Lord Shiva. He told his son about his wish. Vyghrapada agreed and the bride was none other than sister of sage Vasishta.

And there is the arrival of Upamanyu. The son born to Vyaghrapada & his wife was Upamanyu.

Thus Vasishta was 'Mama' of Upamanyu.

After the delivery, Vasishta requested Vyghrapada to take the mother & the new born to his ashram, to which Vyaghrapada agreed. In Vasishta's ashram, Upamanyu had highly nutritious milk - Kamdhenu's milk.

After a few months, Vyghrapada brought back his wife & the child to his own Vyghrapuri. But now a practical difficulty came. Upamanyu was used to Kamdhenu's milk. He could not accept milk of any other cow and thus started suffering from starvation. Vyghrapada was worried and felt helpless. He took the child to the Linga.

The child started crying due to hunger - and The Lord came down. Lord Shiva created entire sea of milk for Upamanyu.

Well. There is a spiritual meaning to all this. But about that, later.

So, we belong to that Gotra, whose Gotrapurush was so much loved by the Lord himself that he came down to create the sea of milk for him. So, those belonging to Upamanyu Gotra should remember that they can achieve anything (rightful) they wish.

The Lord is listening to them.

Later on, even Lord Krishna took 'Shivdiksha' from Upamanyu. [May be the descendant of the original Upamnyu.]

It is also mentioned that during the time of that famous dance of Lord Nataraja (Anand Tandav), Upamnyu was present to witness it, alongwith his father Vyaghrapada, Patanjali, Brahma, Vishnu, Indra, Shesha etc.

So one can imagine the significance of Upamanyu.

Btw, this story points to Chidambaram as our origin (after Gotrasanskar - i. e. when sage Upamanyu got rights to form his own Gotra.)

- Arun Vijaykar

Comments

WoW, this was an interesting read, I like it.

Btw, It makes me curious to find out the story behind the 'Kashyap Gotra'...thats what I belong to!
C-VA said…
Thanks for this story. We were reading "Dasbodh" of samarth ramdass in our study circle. In Dasak 8 of Dasbodh scriputre Upamanyu was mentioned. We had no clue of who Upamanyu was. Although I am aquinted with the connection of patanjali and chidambaram, i didnt know who upamanyu was. Thanks to your father now I know him. you are blessed with a great dad. God bless him.
C-VA said…
I also belong to Kashyapa Gotra. He is the the grand sage who is the father of three great clans. they are Devas, Manushas and Asuras. More info. is available in wikipedia and elsewere. Nice to know one more fellow kashyap. By the way also make sure you understand the meaning of Gotra...elsewhere...Good luck.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kashyapa
monaco said…
I belong to vyaghrapada gotra. Therefore , I may call to belong upmanyu gotra.However, the tradational linage of vyaghrapada gotra goes to Maharishi ATRI ,the one of saptrishi .

Can somebody clarify .
thanks
Rajeev sharma said…
Thanks a lot Sree for letting us know a bit about our origin...
See if can put some more light on the topic...
Great....
monaco said…
Thanks, rajeev for your posting.

It is also to add here that BHISHMA son of Shantnu and Ganga (of Mahabharat)also belongs to Vyaghrapada gotra.

However, please see if you corelate somehow Mahrishi vyaghrapada to Maharishi Atri.

with regards
armchairthinker said…
Great to know about Upamanyu, I belong to this gotra too! I knew about fascination of Upamanyu with milk but not so much about the whole story and it's spiritual interpretation.
anurag said…
Sage Upamanyu was of Khamboj origin and they came to india from persia(though it is debated)and even few Kshatriya to belong to this gotra in north india like the Duggals...........The Yagur Veda was written by the scholars of Khambojas.........and the decendents of those scholars became Brahmins and others remained Kshatriyas.........and It was those Khamboj who formalised the Yajna rituals in yajur veda.My surname is Awasthi and my Gotra too is Upamanyu....There are still many brahmins of Upamanyu gotra who reside at the villages of Himalayas and they still worship only Shiva and Shiva alone.


Regards
Anurag
anuragawasthi29@gmail.com
sjpandey said…
Thanks for Sharing. I'm a chettri (Jung Pandey...Paadey to be exact) belong to Upamanya Gotra from Nepal. My forefathers were from GORKHA (Where the Gurkhas originated)and they were fierce fighters. With the blessings of GORAKHKALI maata and their own courage, British were never able to successfully invade and rule Nepal. Well, British did tried to invade Nepal many times after ruling India but they got their ass kicked by my Bahadur forefathers. So, I'm proud of my gotra and I'm proud of my forefathers who never lived under any foreign occupation or colony.

" JAYA MAHAKALI, AAYO GORKHALI !!!"
sjpandey said…
Thanks for Sharing. I'm a chettri (Jung Pandey...Paadey to be exact) belong to Upamanya Gotra from Nepal. My forefathers were from GORKHA (Where the Gurkhas originated)and they were fierce fighters. With the blessings of GORAKHKALI maata and their own courage, British were never able to successfully invade and rule Nepal. Well, British did tried to invade Nepal many times after ruling India but they got their ass kicked by my Bahadur forefathers. So, I'm proud of my gotra and I'm proud of my forefathers who never lived under any foreign occupation or colony.

" JAYA MAHAKALI, AAYO GORKHALI !!!"
Unknown said…
whoa... awsm , yeah i belong to upmanya gotra n imma proud :)
Wandering Nomad said…
Thank you Aman for your comment .... Best, Shreekant
Unknown said…
my name is Upamanyu Adlakha & lots of people ask me about my name now thanks to you now i can tell everybody...thanks once again.....
Unknown said…
Great to hear about origin of Upamanyu gotra. I too belong to it as my surname is Bajpai and all who have Bajpai surname have upmanyu gotra, also awasthis have upmanyu gotra. My native being Raibarilley - Bajpaipur and my Kuldevta is "Budhe Babu". Can anyone highlight more on Budhe Babu, as in ancient days calling name of kuldevta was not allowed hence its history is hidden. Please share about Budhe Babu is anyone knows about it. Do all Upmanyu gotra people have same Kuldevta???
merikhabrein said…
thanks ritesh i am also vajpei and don;t know my kuldevi devta name. i will try my best to collect detail about budhe babu.
Unknown said…
I'm sooooo much thankful to know about my gotras origin. I'll go tamilnadu to worship lord shiva, om namah shivaye.
Unknown said…
My name is Bal Govind Bajpai,my gotra is Upmanyu. Great to hear about origin of Upamanyu gotraMy native being Raibarilley - Nisgar and my Kuldevta is "Budhe Babu". Can anyone highlight more on Budhe Babu, as in ancient days calling name of kuldevta .was not allowed hence its history is hidden. Please share about Budhe Babu is anyone knows about it. Do all Upmanyu gotra people have same Kuldevta???
neeraj awasthi said…
I am also Awasthi with same gotra and surprised if this story is true how the gotra reached to north India.

Neeraj Awasthi
Unknown said…
please suggest me about kuldevi and kuldevta of upamanyu gotra
Sagar said…
Hi,

This is Sagar Mehta from Mumbai.
We belongs to "Upmanyu gotra" and we have Kuldevta as "surdhan Dada" at Tarasara village near "Bhavnagar.
this is the location. - https://www.google.co.in/maps/place/Surdhan+Dada+Mandir/@21.335316,72.090427,15z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0x12f16b1b8d03b30c!8m2!3d21.335316!4d72.090427?sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjo_bK9-9rTAhUGQY8KHSxSCRQQ_BIIezAO


Reason behind posting this msg is - I am finding Upmanyu gotra ppl to let them know about our Kuldevta.

U can contact me - sagar.mehta86@gmail.com
Deepa said…
Hi. I also belong to this gothra. Please tell which is our Kula daivam koil or family deity temple
Wandering Nomad said…
I am very sorry Deepa, but I do not have a lot of information about gotras and kuldaivatas, or related areas. I will see if I can find some source, since a lot of people seem to be interested in knowing these things, but you will appreciate that this blog does not cover religious practices, only mythical stories. Best, S.
Unknown said…
I AM DIPALI,WE ALSO BELONG TO UPMANYU GOTRA IN GUJARAT,WE HAVE KULDEVI BAHUSMARNA DEVI(GAYATRI) AT VILLAGE KANODA,MEHSANA GUJARAT AND KULDEVTA KUBER BHANDARI @ KARNALI,ON TH BANK OF RIVER NARMADA.
Unknown said…
HEY,
My name is Himanshu Mehta from PUNJAB, MY GOTRA IS KASHYAPA OR CASTE IS MEHTA, CAN YOU HELP ME TO TELL WHO IS OUR LORD (EAST DEVTA ).
Unknown said…
Hey I am Abhijeet Tiwari and i am also come from upamanyu gotra. I m basically belong to Chhattisgarh and my forefathers was come my village ( adbhar ) a long time ago and our kuldevi is Maa chandi. I want to know that basically where that place belonging to us and who is kuldevta...
Wandering Nomad said…
Hi Abhijeet and Kashyap, thank you for your comments. However, as much as I would have liked to answer your question about your gotras and kuldevatas, this blog does not provide the service of searching for your gotras and kuldevatas. We are storytellers and take pleasure in sharing the stories. If there are other readers who can help, they are most welcome to post their comments.
ओम said…
Nice very interesting and intellectual information.
ओम said…
Nice very interesting and intellectual information.
Unknown said…
I am also from upamanyu gotra and from Nepal. According to our forefathers we were from north India and use to stay near sarayu river, but during invasion of mughal rulars to convert all hindus to Islam or have to die. To save our religion our firefather fleed to himalayas area as it was safe for hindus. We also have sagotra mainali from Gadwal Area
Unknown said…
Hi we are upmanyu Brahmin. Very pleased and proud to know the story of sage upmanyu.
Wandering Nomad said…
Thank you all for your kind words. This post was written by my father. Passing your love and regards to him.