Tale of Yayati - Vishnu Purana Part-28

Pururava's son Ayu had been married to Rahu's daughter. They had five sons- Nahush, Kshatravriddh, Rambh, Vraji and Aneyna. Suhotra was the son of Kshatravriddh. He had three sons- Kashya, Kash and Gritsamad. Shaunak was the son of Gritsamad whereas Kasheya was the son of Kashya. Lineage of Kasheya grew as- Kasheya, Rashtra, Dirdhakapa, and Dhanvantari. Dhanvantari's body was free from all the physical faults like ageing and diseases.

Nahush had six sons- Yati, Yayati, Sanyati, Ayati, Viyati and Kriti. Yayati had two wives, Devyani, the daughter of Shukracharya and Sharmishtha, the daughter of Vrishparva. Devyani gave birth to Yadu and Turvasu whereas Sharmishtha gave birth to Druhayu, Anu and Puru. Because of a curse of Shukracharya old age had descended on Yayati prematurely.

Yayati then requested his eldest son Yadu to exchange his youth with his old age but Yadu refused. Then Yayati requested each of his sons one by one but all of them refused plainly for the fear of getting old prematurely.

At last Yayati's youngest son Puru gladly accepted his request and gave him his youth. Regaining the youth, Yayati once again indulged in carnal pleasures with both his queens. But everyday his desire for pleasures increased like a fire flared up by ghee. After one thousand years Yayati realised his mistake and decided to expiate for his sin. Thus, Yayati returned Puru his youth and acquired his old age once again. Then crowning Puru as the king, he took an exile to the forest.

YADU VANSH AND TALE OF SAHASTRARJUNA

Yayati's eldest son Yadu had four sons- Sahastrajit, Kroshtu, Nala and Nahush. Sahastrajit had a son Shatajit who had three sons Haihaya, Hehaya and Venuhaya. Lineage of Haihaya grew as- Dharma, Dharmanetra, Kunti, Sahajit, Mahishman, Bhadrashrenya, Durdabh and Dhanak. 

Dhanak had four sons- Kritveerya, Kritagni, Kritdharma and Kritauja. Kritveerya had a prowessive son Arjuna. Arjuna had worshipped Dattatreya and by his blessings acquired one thousand arms. Since then he came to be known as Sahastrarjuna. Dattatreya had blessed him with many other boons like rule of entire earth, fostering of his subjects in religious ways and killing by some human being famous in all the three worlds. At that time, there was no other king equal to Sahastrarjuna in virtues. He ruled the entire earth for eighty-five thousand years.

Once Sahastrarjuna was enjoying his past time on the waters of Narmada when he happened to have an encounter with Ravana, the king of Lanka. Sahastrarjuna captured Ravana easily and imprisoned him at an isolated place in his kingdom. With time ego of SahastrArjuna had crossed all limits. He began to terrorise the sages and other religious people. When his atrocities increased beyond tolerance level, Lord Vishnu took a partial incarnation as Parashurama, the son of sage Jamadagni and Renuka. 

As per the prediction of sage Richeek, Parashurama grew with Kshatriya - like virtues. He had in fact taken incarnation to relieve the earth from the atrocities of egoist kings. Parashurama had received arms training from none other than Lord Shiva. He was very obedient to his father and had beheaded his own mother by the Parashu (axe) that he had received from Lord Shiva at the dictate of his father. In due course Parashurama not only got Ravana released from captivity but also killed Sahastrarjuna.

Sahastrarjuna had one hundred sons among whom Shur, Shursena, Vrishasena, Madhu and Jayadhwaj were prominent. Jayadhwaj had a son Taljunga. Taljunga had one hundred sons among whom Vitihotra and Bharata were prominent. Bharata again had one hundred sons whereas Madhu also had hundred sons among whom Vrishni was prominent. After the name of their forefather Yadu, this clan came to be known as Yaduvansha.