A King Who Banned Worship of Anyone Else
Vena, a king descended from Dhruva's own line and thus carrying considerable ancestral weight of righteousness he did not himself uphold, grew increasingly tyrannical and self-absorbed as his reign progressed, eventually declaring that he alone should be worshipped as the supreme object of devotion within his kingdom and forbidding the traditional yajnas and worship of the devas that had sustained the social and cosmic order under previous rulers.
The sages of his court, along with religious leaders across the kingdom, repeatedly warned Vena of the consequences of this policy, both for the kingdom's welfare and his own spiritual standing, but Vena, entrenched in his pride, dismissed every warning and continued to insist on his own singular worship, a demand the sages ultimately judged too dangerous to the cosmic and social order to be allowed to continue.
A King Killed by Chanting, and a Son Born From His Arm
The sages, using their accumulated spiritual power rather than any conventional weapon, killed Vena through the force of their combined mantras and curses, ending his tyrannical reign. With the throne left empty and no legitimate heir immediately available, and concerned about the kingdom descending into lawlessness without a ruler, the sages took an unusual further step: they churned Vena's own corpse, first producing a dark, deformed being from his thigh who was cast aside and became the ancestor of certain forest-dwelling tribal communities in some tellings, and then, churning his arm, produced Prithu, a son of radiant, entirely different character from his father, born fully grown and equipped with inherited weapons and royal insignia.
Prithu was crowned king immediately, inheriting none of his father's tyrannical tendencies and instead demonstrating an entirely different relationship to both dharma and his subjects' welfare from the very start of his reign.
Chasing the Earth Until She Agreed to Give
Early in his reign, Prithu discovered that the earth, personified as the goddess Prithvi, had been withholding her natural produce, hiding vegetation and grain in a fit of grief and self-protection following the disorder of Vena's rule, and famine threatened the kingdom as a result. Prithu, determined to restore prosperity, pursued Prithvi, who fled from him in the form of a cow, across the earth until she finally agreed to negotiate rather than continue running.
Prithvi explained her reasons for withholding her bounty and agreed to release it again on the condition that Prithu establish a fair and level ground, both literally and administratively, on which crops could be properly grown and distributed. Prithu levelled the earth's surface, established the first systematic practices of agriculture, milking the earth in the sense of drawing out her sustaining produce through calf-like intermediary figures representing different classes of beings, and the earth itself came to be named Prithvi in his honour, meaning she who belongs to or was tamed by Prithu, a name still in everyday use across Indian languages as a synonym for the planet itself.
Reader Questions Answered
Why did the sages choose to kill Vena rather than simply remove him from power?+
The tradition presents his tyranny and demand for exclusive worship as a threat serious enough to the cosmic and social order that the sages judged direct spiritual intervention necessary, though the story goes on to have them immediately work to restore proper kingship rather than leaving the throne unresolved.
Does the name Prithvi really come from King Prithu?+
Traditional etymology connects the name Prithvi directly to Prithu, marking her as the one who was made to yield her produce through his intervention, and this remains the common name for the earth across Hindi and other Indian languages today.
What does "milking the earth" mean in this story?+
It is a symbolic description of establishing systematic agriculture and resource distribution, likening the process of drawing sustenance from a now-cooperative earth to milking a cow, with different classes of beings depicted receiving the earth's produce through their own specific calf-like intermediary in the mythological account.
About the author
Anjali Mehta · Editor, M.A. Religious Studies
Anjali is the managing editor for Vandnaa and oversees the festival and vrat coverage. She holds an M.A. in Religious Studies and reviews every published article for accuracy, accessibility, and tradition-fidelity.
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