Philosophy and Religion / Harivamsa

Harivaṃśa

155. The celestial architect builds Dwārāka

VAISHAMPAYANA said:-Krishna, seated on Garuda's back, saw the city of Dwārakā, resembling the abode of the celestials, filled with echoes on all sides, the mount Mani, sporting-houses, gardens, forests, turrets and court-yards (1-2).

After the arrival of Devaki's son Krishna at the city (of Dwārakā, the king of gods sent for the celestial Architect and said:-“O foremost of artizans, if you wish to do what pleases me, do you, for satisfying Krishna, make his beautiful city more exquisite.

O foremost of gods, encircling it with hundreds of gardens do you build the city of Dwārakā after that of the celestials (3-5).

Adorn the city of Dwāravati with all the jems that you will see in the three worlds, for the highly powerful Krishna, rising up for all the works of the gods, always plunges into the dreadful ocean of war.

Thereupon repairing to the city of Dwāravati at the words of Indra Vishwakarmā adorned it after Amarāvati.

Beholding the city of Dwārakā adorned by Viswakarmā with all celestial materials and having accomplished all his objects the Lord Nārāyana Hari, the master of Dāshārhas and ever riding on a bird, entered there.

While he entered the city of Dwārakā embellished by Vishwakarmā he saw beautiful trees (6-10).

He saw that the city was encircled by ditches filled with lotus-stalks resembling the rivers Gangā (Ganges) and Sindhu (Indus), and in which were sporting the swans (11).

As the sky is covered with gold-hued clouds so that city looked beautiful with sunny walls made of gold set on (the roofs of) the houses (12).

Encircled with gardens resembling Nandana and Chaitraratha Dwārakā appeared beautiful like the sky stricken with clouds (13).

On its eastern side shone a beautiful gate made of gold and jems and the picturesque hill Raivataka with its charming tableland, caves and yards.

On the south were bushes adorned with creepers of five colours and on the west was one of the colour of a rain-bow.

O king, the yellow mountain Venumān, resembling Mandāra, was beautifying the north. The forests of Chitrak, Panchavarna, Pānchajanya and Sarvartuka were enhancing the beauty of the mount Raivataka (14-17).

There were also the beautiful forests of Bhārgava and Pushpaka huge like the mount Meru, which were covered with creepers extending to the roots of the trees (18).

There were also the forests of Shatavarta and Karavirakarambhi beautified by the trees of Ashoka, Veejaka and Mandāra.

The huge forests of Chaitra, Nandana, Ramana, Bhāvana and Venumat were extending their beauty on all sides. O descendant of Bharata, on the east were the great river Mandākini adorned with Vaidurja and lotus leaves and a charming tank.

Requested by Vishwakarmā numberless gods and Gandharvas, for pleasing Keshava, had adorned the table-lands there. With fifty mouths, the sacred river Mandākini entered into the city of Dwārakā and gladdened the inhabitants thereof.

Looking at the city of Dwārakā of incomparable beauty, encircled by ditches and walls, painted with yellow paints and embellished with sharpened Shataghnis and iron discuses

Krishna saw that eight thousand cars, adorned with net-works of bells and flying banners, had made the city look beautiful like that of the celestials (19–26).

He saw the firmly established city Dwārakā eight yojanas in length and twelve in breadth with double the numble of colonies.

That city, consisting of eight highways and sixteen crossings, was as if so made by Ushanā himself with one road, that even the women, what to speak of the Vrishnis, could easily fight there.

Viswakarmā had laid out seven high roads for the arrangement of soldiers (27–29).

Beholding the palaces of the illustrious Dāshārhas, in that best of cities, delightful to men, containing golden and jewelled stairs, filled with dreadful echoes and abounding in courtyards Devaki's son was highly pleased.

The turrets of those palaces were adorned with flags, leaves and trees. Those palaces were adorned with golden domes resembling the summits of the mount Meru. The tops of the houses, as if covered with golden flowers and others of five colours, imitated the beauty of mountains with charming summits and caves.

Filled with noise like unto the muttering of clouds and burning like forest-fire those houses, built by Viswakarmā, were looking like so many mountains and filled the sky with effulgence like the sun and moon.

The city was embellished with forest trees and the noble Dāshārhas. The city of Dwārakā, adorned with cloud-like houses and the gods Vāsudeva and Indra, looked like the welkin stricken with variegated clouds.

The house, built by Vishwakarmā for the Divine Vāsudeva, was four yojanas in length and the same in breadth. The house of the incomparable and the greatly rich Vāsudeva was adorned with palaces and false mountains. The great Vishwakarmā built that house under Vāsava's orders (30-40).

Vishwakarmā made a highly beautiful golden palace huge like the highest summit of the mount Sumeru for Rukshmini. It was named Kānchana. Satyabhāmā had a yellow-coloured house adorned with flags effulgent like the clear sun and having stairs set with jewels.

It was celebrated by the name of Bhagavān. That well-furnished and best of palaces, which had huge flags all around it, and which used to put on a new appearance every moment, was built for Jāmvavati.

Vishwakarmā built another palace by the name of Meru, which was effulgent like burning fire and gold, and huge like the summit of the mount Kailāsha and the ocean.

Keshava accomodated the accomplished daughter of the king of Gāndhāra in that house (41-48).

For Bhaima was built a house by the name of Padmakula. It was of the hue of a lotus, highly effulgent and had a high and picturesque turret.

O foremost of kings, Keshava, the holder of Shrānga bow, had for Lakshmanā built a house by name, Suryaprabhā in which were available all objects of desire (49-50).

O descendant of Bharata, the green palace, the effulgence of . which imitated the lustre of Vaidurya and which was known all over the world by the name of Para, that ornament of palaces where the great Rishis used to resort, was set apart for Vāsudeva's queen Mitravindā (51-52).

That best of palaces, built by Viswakarmā like a mountain, which was spoken high of even by the gods and which was celebrated by the name of Ketumān, was intended for Keshava's queen Suvārtā (53-54).

Amongst those palaces, the most beautiful and lustrous, by name Virajā, which the celestial Architect Viswakarmā built with his own hands, and which extended over a Yojana and contained jems of every description, was the court of the high souled Keshava.

In that palace of Vasudeva's were placed flags with golden standards and pennons marking the roads. Keshava, the foremost of the Yadu race, had brought there the great mountain Vaijayanta and diverse other celestial jewels (55-58).

The highly powerful Viswakarmā, with the help of the Kinnaras and the great Nāgas, had brought and placed there, before the very eyes of the creatures,

the well known summit of the mount Hansakuta near the lake Indradyumna which was sixty Tālas high and extended over half a Yojana.

Viswakarmā had uprooted and brought for Krishna the golden chariot of Sumeru lying in the path of the sun and the most excellent golden summit with hundreds of lotuses known all over the three worlds (59–62).

In compliance with Indra's request and in the interest of a great work Twastā had brought that highly beautiful summit containing all sorts of herbs (63).

Keshava himself had carried away the Pārijāta tree and kept it in Dwāraka. While bringing it Krishna, of wonderful deeds, had to fight with the gods guarding that tree.

Rafts made of gold and jems, lotuses and fragrant jwelled lotuses used to float on the water of the lakes and tanks which were dug for Krishna and adorned with trees covered with jewelled flowers and fruits and hundreds of golden lotuses.

The huge Shāla, Tāla and Kadamva trees, with hundreds of branches, beautified the pieturesque bank of those lakes.

Vishwakarmā, for Krishna, the best of the Yadu race, had brought and planted at Dwārakā all the trees that grow on the mountains Sumeru and Himalaya.

At all the boundary lines of the gardens were planted trees that yeild fruits in all the seasons and those crested with white, yellow, red, green and pink flowers.

The edges and water of the delightful streams and lakes, which were in that best of cities, was on the same level. And the sandal there was like green sugar.

In some of the rivers flowers used to float always: their banks were adorned with various trees and creepers and the sand was of the colour of golden sugar.

The trees of the city, resorted to by maddened peacocks and coels, used to look highly beautiful. The herds of elephants, cows, buffaloes, boars, deer and birds used to live happily in that city.

In this way Vishwakarmā had made in that beautiful city high golden palaces with hundreds of turrents, huge mountains, rivers, lakes, forests and gardens (64-76).

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