Who is the first Human Being according to Sanatana Dharma??
first of all you have to understand how creation
takes place::
Brahma first creates the Immovable objects such
as Planets, Land, Mountains, etc. which do not have any inherent power of Motion
(Remember that Planets also move due to Gravity and do not have an intrinsic
motion of their own).
In the next phase, Brahma creates 6 different types of Vegetation covering
trees/herbs/creepers etc., 12 different varieties of Birds and 28 different
broad classifications of Animals.
The next Phase saw Creation of Demigods and other Advanced Species of life.
Most important Divinities were created in this Phase of Brahma's Creation.
- First come the 4 Eternal Kumars, the First Incarnations of Lord Vishnu. These
cherubic kids remain the same in appearance throughout their lifetime which is
as long as that of Brahma himself! But all of them chose to follow the path of
Spirituality instead of following Brahma's command for beginning procreation.
- Brahma then created 10 Manasa Putras by just visualizing them in his mind! Atri,
Angiras, Atharva, Bhrigu, Daksh, Marichi, Pulah, Pulatsya, Vasishtha and
the youngest one Narada.
(When all these sons preferred to follow footsteps of the Kumara, by refusing
to get entangled in the process of procreation, Brahma again filled up with
Negative energy.)
- This resulted in the creation of Asuras’, who in common parlance are known as
Rakshasa or Demons. When Brahma let go of this Tamsik Dark aspect of his being
- Focusing his positive energy again, Brahma took a Satvik form and created the
Deities or Devas. These are the illumined effulgent demi-gods who became
the care-takers of different aspects of the Material Creation. This Bright
aspect of Brahma's personality also led to the creation of Day-time.
- The next creation of Brahma was the Pitras.
- Brahma now manifested other divinities such as the Goddesses Saraswati
and Gayatri; the Four Vedas; the Goddess of deliveries Prasuti; elements
such as Emotions, Music and Rishi Kardama.
- Prasuti became the consort of the eldest Manasputra Daksh, and this is where
Copulative creation began! It is interesting to note that the Sanskrit word for
parturient labour is also Prasuti, probably a recognition of her being the
FIRST woman to give birth to a child by normal delivery!!
- Thus Daksha became the first Prajapati.
- Suddenly, from his body, emerged a creature who looked a lot like him!! This
was the First Man, Swayambhu Manu (Born-on-his-Own) who was born with the Kaya
of his father Brahma (Ka-Brahma, ya-form).
Swayambhu Manu, the First Man ::
Along with Manu, emerged the female Shatrupa and Brahma assigned for them the
planet Earth. Thus, Human-beings, the progeny of Manu and Shatrupa were given
the sanction for populating the globe.
- After this, other species with magical powers were created such as the Yaksha,
Gandharva, Sarpa, Apsarasa etc. Some of these species are in the mode of
goodness while others in the mode of darkness.
- In the last stage of creation, the four Eternal Kumars considered re-appeared
in this day of Brahma.
The Brahma Puraan declares :
"To continue with Creation, Brahma gave form to a Man and a Woman. The man
was Swayambhu Manu and the Woman was named Shatrupa. Humans are descended from
Manu, that is the reason they are known as Manavas."
Note that Indeed MANU is the root-word for both the Sanskrit 'Manushya'
and the English 'Man' that derives origin from the Germanic Mannus which
stems from the same root as Manu.
Now, Hindu scriptures do not stop at one Manu but mention MORE than ten
different Manus! To clear the confusion, I should mention that Manu is NOT the
name of a person but a TITLE.
To understand this, we shall first have to go through the basic calculation of
time for Lord Brahma.
Just like our own division of time, each day of Brahma (known as a Kalpa)
is divided into 14 Manvantars (~ our 12 Hours) and each Manvantar
is composed of 72 Chatur Yugas ( ~ our 60 Minutes).
there are a total of 14 Manus in EACH day of Brahma and it is in deference to
Manu that the division of time is called a Manvantar!
the CURRENT day of Brahma known as the Varah Kalpa. (Since this Kalpa
started with the appearance of Lord Vishnu Varah Avatar, it is known as the
Varah Kalpa). Varah-avatar was the FIRST Avatar of Lord Vishnu in the present
day of Brahma and this incident took place 6 Manvantars = 1.8 Billion Solar
Years ago.
At the end of the 50th Year of Brahma, there was the usual flooding and
destruction. Brahma rested for the night and at the break of the First Dawn of
his 51st Year, started the process once again.
Manu and Shatrupa had two sons Priyavrat and Uttanpad and two daughters Devahuti
and Akuti. The two sons were married to daughters of the rishis while the
two daughters of Manu were married to the Manas-Putras.
The Mahabharata says: "And Manu was imbued with great wisdom and
devoted to virtue. And he became the progenitor of a line. And in Manu's race
have been born all human beings, who have, therefore, been called Manavas.
And it is of Manu that all men including Brahmanas, Kshatriyas, and
others have been descended, and are, therefore, all called Manavas.
Subsequently, O monarch, the Brahmanas became united with the Kshatriyas. And
those sons of Manu that were Brahmanas devoted themselves to the study of the
Vedas. "The ten sons of Manu are known as Vena, Dhrishnu, Narishyan,
Nabhaga, Ikshvaku, Karusha, Saryati, the eighth, a daughter named Ila,
Prishadhru the ninth, and Nabhagarishta, the tenth. They all betook
themselves to the practices of Kshatriyas. Besides these, Manu had fifty other
sons on Earth. But we heard that they all perished, quarreling with one
another.
Sraddhadeva Manu or Vaivasvata Manu is one of the 14 Manus, and the son
of Vivasvat, hence his other name Vaivasvata Manu.He is
considered the progenitor of the current Manvantara, which is the 7th of
the 14 that make up the current Kalpa, each Kalpa making up a day of Brahma.
Sraddhadeva was born to Saranya and Vaivasvata and was the King of Dravida
during the epoch of the Matsya Purana. Sraddhadeva Manu once caught a talking
fish who begged him to rescue it. The fish claimed a Great Flood was coming and
it would wash away all living things. Manu put the fish in a pot, and then, as
it grew larger, into a tank, a lake and then the ocean. While in the ocean, the
fish told Manu to build a boat. He did so and when the flood arrived, the fish
(actually Matsya) towed the ship by a cable attached to his horn.
He married Shraddha and ten children including Ila and Ikshvaku, the
progenitors of the Chandra Dynasty and Surya Dynasty respectively.
