Mayasura

Mayasura

Mayasura

Srikrishna offers mayasura to build a palace to Pandavas
Information
Family Diti (mother)
Spouse(s) ApsaraHema
Children Mandodari

In Hindu mythology, Maya (Sanskrit: मय), or Mayāsura (मयासुर) was a great ancient king of the asura, daitya and rākṣasa races. He was also the chief architect of the people of the netherworld. Mayāsura was renowned for his architectural abilities. It is said he ruled over MayaRastra (present day Meerut in India). It was believed that Mayāsura and his people could even melt stones for constructing their great architectural wonders. Romakapura (Sanskrit) [from romaka hairy + pura city, fortified town] City of hairy ones; in the Surya-Siddhanta (1:6; 12:39), is given as the birthplace of Asura maya.

Tripura

He was the designer and king of the three flying cities, known as the Tripura. They were great cities of prosperity, power and dominance over the world, but due to their impious nature, Maya's cities were torched out of the sky by Lord Shiva. However, Maya escapes the destruction, as he is a devotee of Lord Shiva.

In the Ramāyana

He built his capital and called it Maya Rashtra, now Meerut.[1][2] MayaAsura is mentioned in Uttar-kãņḍa of Rāmāyaṇa and here he is said to be the son of Diti (wife of Kashyapa, a SaptaRisi),[3] He is the father of Mandodari, the beautiful wife of Ravana, the king of Lanka.[1] Mayasura is also regarded as a hero and father-figure for many rakshasa, asura, and daitya heroes in Hindu epics.

In the Mahābhārata

Maya Sabha on the inaugural day, with Pandava king Yudhishthira on the throne

When his life is spared by Krishna and Arjuna during the destruction of the Khandava forest, Maya offers his services to them. Krishna instructs Maya to construct a fabulous palace hall for Arjuna's elder brother, king Yudhishthira, at Indraprastha, which becomes the Mayasabha, renowned, beautiful and the largest of its kind. It had many specialities such as highly reflective floors that were easily mistaken as the surface of a pool of still water. There was also at least one pool of water, the surface of which mimicked a decorated floor, into which Duryodhana fell.

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Devahish Dasgupta. Tourism Marketing. Pearson Education India. p. 20. ISBN 978-81-317-3182-6. Retrieved 29 January 2012.
  2. ↑ Douglas Montagu Thornton (1987). Parsi, Jaina and Sikh, or, Some minor religious sects in India. Mittal Publications. p. 7. Retrieved 29 January 2012.
  3. ↑ Uttara Ramayana https://archive.org/stream/TheRamayanaUttaraKandam/The_Ramayana_djvu.txt
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Monday, April 18, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.