1-Brahm Puraan,  2-Padm Puraan,  3-Vishnu Puraan,  4-Shiv Puraan,  5-Bhaagvat Puraan,
6-Naarad Puraan,  7-Maarkandeya Puraan,  8-Agni Puraan,  9-Bhavishya Puraan,
10-Brahm Vaivart Puraan,  11-Ling Puraan,  12-Varaah Puraan,  13-Skand Puraan,
14-Vaaman Puraan,  15-Koorm Puraan,  16-Matsya Puraan,  17-Garud Puraan,  18-Brahmaand Puraan
 

12-Varaah Puraan

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During Sat Yug, there lived a king named Suprateek. Although he had two queens, yet none of them bore any son to him. One day, Suprateek went to meet sage Durvaasaa, who had his hermitage at the foothills of Chitrakoot Mountain and engaged himself in the service of sage Durvaasaa. The sage blessed the king and prophesized that he would become a proud father of a mighty son named Durjaya. Durvaasaa's prophesy came true and Suprateek's eldest queen - Vidyutprabhaa gave birth to a son. The child was named Durjaya as told by the sage. In course of time Durjaya grew up to become a worthy successor of Suprateek. Suprateek decided to spend rest of his life in the service of God, so he went to Chitrakoot Mountain to do penance handing over the kingdom to Durjaya.

Durjaya being an ambitious king and expanded his kingdom by subjugating all the neighboring states. He conquered numerous mighty kingdoms and vanquished almost all the prominent warrior castes like - Gandharv, Kinnars, demons and even the deities. Even Indra - the lord of the deities was also defeated by Durjaya and was forced to retreat towards east of Sumeru Mountain along with the Lokpaal - various lords protecting different regions of the Universe. The whole world went into turmoil as the fallout of Lokpaal's power being snatched by Durjaya.

While Durjaya was returning to his capital along with his victorious army, he met two Asur - Vidyut and Suvidyut, who had disguised themselves as sages. Both the impersonators requested Durjaya to make some alternative arrangements so that the world could function smoothly. In reality, both of them harbored wishes of having the powers of Lokpaal so they offered their services in this regard. Durjaya, being unaware of their real identity agreed to appoint them as Lokpaal and then proceeded towards his capital.

While he was passing by the Mandaraachal Mountain, he saw two beautiful women. Durjaya was surprised to find them at such a deserted place. As he stood there wondering about their identity, he saw two hermits approaching him. Both the hermits asked Durjay - "Who are you? What is the purpose of your arrival here?"

Durjay introduced himself and told them that he was on his way after conquering the whole world. Now it was the turn of both the sages to introduce themselves - " We are the sons of Swaayambhuv Manu - Hetu and Prachetu. We had successfully defeated the deities and driven them out from their abode - Sumeru Mountain. All the deities went to seek the help of Vishnu and were successful in getting his assurance. Vishnu then attacked us and vanquished our army but He spared our lives. Then onwards we became ardent devotees of the merciful Vishnu.

Hetu, then pointing towards one of the women said - "She is my daughter Sukeshee. The other woman you see is my brother Prachetu's daughter and her name is Mishrakeshee. Please accept both these beautiful maidens as your wives." King Durjaya readily agreed to marry both of them as they were really very beautiful. He then returned to his capital. Everything was going quite smoothly for Durjaya.

On one fateful day, he met his downfall because of his extreme greed. The incident happened as follows -
Once Durjay had gone into the forest on a hunting spree, where he met sage Gaurmukh. Gaurmukh had been blessed by Vishnu with a Divine diamond named Chintaamani which was capable of fulfilling all desires. Gaurmukh gave a royal treatment to Durjaya with the help of that wish-fulfilling diamond. He created an illusionary palace and offered variety delicacies to him as well as his whole army.

Now Durjaya wanted to have that Chintaamani diamond at any cost and therefore sent his minister Virochan to persuade Gaurmukh to part with that diamond. Gaurmukh became furious after coming to know about the evil intention of Durjaya and told Virochan to ask Durjaya to leave at once. But Gaurmukh knew quite well that the greedy Durjaya would not give up so easily and would definitely try to acquire Chintaamani by force. So, he requested Chintaamani diamond to create a huge army.

Meanwhile, Durjaya also ordered his chief-commander Neel to bring Chintaamani at any cost. Neel proceeded with a large number of soldiers. A fierce battle took place between both the armies in which Neel was killed and his army got vanquished. Finally, Durjaya himself came forward to fight but even he was defeated.

In the meantime, Hetu and Prachetu got the news that their son-in-law was in trouble. Both of them proceeded with a huge army to help their son-in-law. But, they were no match for the might of their adversary and both of them eventually died in the ensuing battle.

Meanwhile, sage Gaurmukh found Durjaya standing at the entrance of his hermitage with a small number of surviving soldiers. Sage Gaurmukh sought the help of Vishnu, who appeared within no time. Gaurmukh requested him to punish Durjaya for his evil intention. Vishnu severed Durjaya's head with his Sudarshan Chakra. The place where Durjaya was killed, later on became famous as Naimish Aranya. Sage Gaurmukh continued to live at Naimish Aranya with his Chintaamani.

Read "Rishi and Divine Cows" for more stories like this
 

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