Prithu | |
---|---|
Devanagari | पृथु |
Affiliation | Vaishnavism, Chakravarti sovereign |
Weapon | Bow and arrow |
Genealogy | |
Parents | Vena (father) |
Consort | Archi |
Children | Vijitsatva |
Prithu (Sanskrit: पृथु, Pṛthu, lit. "large, great, important, abundant")[1] is a sovereign (chakravarti), featured in the Puranas. According to Hinduism, he is an avatar (incarnation) of the preserver god—Vishnu. He is also called Prithu, Prithi and Prithvi Vainya, literally, "Prithu — the son of Vena".
Prithu is "celebrated as the first consecrated king, from whom the earth received her (Sanskrit) name, Prithvi."[2] He is mainly associated with the legend of his chasing the earth goddess, Prithvi, who fled in the form of a cow and eventually agreed to yield her milk as the world's grain and vegetation.[3] The epic Mahabharata, Vishnu Purana, and the Bhagavata Purana describe him as a part-avatar (incarnation) of Vishnu.[4]