Shloka 26
Daitya–Dānava Vaṁśa, Kaśyapa’s Progeny, and the Birth of the Maruts
एते कश्यपदायादाः कीर्तिताः स्थाणुजङ्गमाः तेषां पुत्राश् च पौत्राश् च शतशो ऽथ सहस्रशः
ete kaśyapadāyādāḥ kīrtitāḥ sthāṇujaṅgamāḥ teṣāṃ putrāś ca pautrāś ca śataśo 'tha sahasraśaḥ
Thus have been recounted the descendants of Kaśyapa—those of the immovable and the moving. From them, in turn, arose sons and grandsons, not merely by tens, but by hundreds and indeed by thousands.
Sage Parāśara (speaking to Maitreya)
Speaker: Parasara
Topic: Summation of Kaśyapa’s descendants and the vast proliferation of species
Teaching: Cosmological
Quality: authoritative
Creation Stage: Secondary
Cosmic Hierarchy: Brahmanda
Concept: The cosmos unfolds as ordered multiplicity—immobile and mobile life proliferating from primordial lineages—signaling an intelligible, governed creation rather than randomness.
Vedantic Theme: Dharma
Application: Adopt humility and stewardship: recognize one’s place within a vast web of life and act responsibly toward all beings.
Vishishtadvaita: The many (cit and acit) expand within the one Brahman’s sovereignty; plurality is real yet dependent, aligning with Viśiṣṭādvaita’s dependent-realism.
Vishnu Form: Para-Brahman
Jagat Karana: Yes
FAQs
They express a total classification of manifested life—immovable and movable—showing creation as an ordered, comprehensive unfolding rather than a random proliferation.
He frames it genealogically: once the principal descendants are named, their lines multiply into sons and grandsons in vast numbers, indicating the expansive continuity of creation.
Even when Vishnu is not named in the verse, the Purana’s cosmology treats such orderly multiplication of beings as proceeding under the Supreme Reality’s governance—creation unfolding according to divine order.