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Manu (Hinduism)
 
 
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For other uses of Manu, see Manu
Manu

Manu may refer to:...


In Hindu traditions, Manu is a title accorded to the progenitor of mankind
First man or woman

Various creation myths have a first human, a legendary first human being.It refers to either a male, or a female, or a pair of one male and one female....
, and also the very first king to rule this earth, who saved mankind from the universal flood. He was absolutely honest which was why he was initially known as "Satyavrata", or One with the oath of truth.

Mahabharata
Mahabharata

The is one of the two major Sanskrit Indian epic poetrys of History of India, the other being the '. The epic is part of the Hindu itihasa , and forms an important part of Hindu mythology....
 says: "And Manu was embued with great wisdom and devoted to virtue.






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For other uses of Manu, see Manu
Manu

Manu may refer to:...


In Hindu traditions, Manu is a title accorded to the progenitor of mankind
First man or woman

Various creation myths have a first human, a legendary first human being.It refers to either a male, or a female, or a pair of one male and one female....
, and also the very first king to rule this earth, who saved mankind from the universal flood. He was absolutely honest which was why he was initially known as "Satyavrata", or One with the oath of truth.

Mahabharata
Mahabharata

The is one of the two major Sanskrit Indian epic poetrys of History of India, the other being the '. The epic is part of the Hindu itihasa , and forms an important part of Hindu mythology....
 says: "And Manu was embued 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, quarrelling with one another."

14 Manus of


Each Manu rules during an eon called a Manvantara
Manvantara

Manvantara or Manuvantara , or age of a Manu , the Hindu progenitor of mankind, is an astronomical period of time measurement. Manvantara is a Sanskrit Sandhi, a combination of words manu and antara, manu-antara or manvantara, literally meaning the duration of a Manu, or his life span ....
. Puranas ascribe to each Manvantara one Indra
Indra

Indra is the god of War and Weather, also the King of the gods or Deva and Lord of Heaven or Swarga in Hinduism. Mentioned first as the chief deity in the sacred Hindu text of Rig Veda, Indra is bestowed with a heroic and almost brash and amorous character....
, one Vishnu
Vishnu

Vishnu , , is the Supreme God in Vaishnavite tradition of Hinduism. Smarta followers of Adi Shankara, among others, venerate Vishnu as one of panchadeva, and his supreme status is declared in the Hindu sacred texts like Yajurveda, the Rigveda and the Bhagavad Gita....
 avatara, etc. 14 Manvantaras make up a Kalpa
KalPa

The KalPa is an ice hockey team in the SM-liiga. They play in Kuopio, Finland at the Niiralan monttu....
, a period corresponding to a day in the life of Brahma. 14 Manus of the present are

  1. Svayambhuva Manu
  2. Svarocisa Manu
  3. Uttama Manu or Auttami
  4. Tamasa Manu
  5. Raivata Manu
    Revanta

    Revanta or Raivata is a minor Hinduism deity. According to the Rig-Veda, Revanta is the youngest son of the sun-god Surya, and his wife Sanjna ....
  6. Caksusa Manu
  7. Sraddhadeva Manu
    Sraddhadeva Manu

    In Hindu mythology, Sraddhadeva Manu or Vaivasvata Manu is one of the 14 Manu s, and the son of Vaivasvata, hence his other name Vaivasvata Manu ....
     (son of Vaivasvata)
  8. Savarni Manu
    Savarni Manu

    Sarvabhauma comes as Savarni Manu, a son born to the sun-god and wife named Chaya. Savarni's sons are headed by Nirmoka, and among the demigods are the Sutapas....
  9. Daksa Savarni Manu
  10. Brahma Savarni Manu
  11. Dharma Savarni Manu
  12. Rudra Savarni Manu
  13. Deva Savarni Manu or Raucya
  14. Indra Savarni Manu or Bhauta


Currently we are in the 7th Manvantara headed by Sraddhadeva (Vaivasvata) Manu.

The Matsya
Matsya

Matsya was the first Avatar of Vishnu in Hindu mythology.According to the Matsya Purana, the king of pre-ancient Dravida and a devotee of Lord Vishnu, Satyavrata who later becomes known as Manu was washing his hands in a river when a little fish swam into his hands and pleaded with him to save its life....
 Avatara of Lord Vishnu
Vishnu

Vishnu , , is the Supreme God in Vaishnavite tradition of Hinduism. Smarta followers of Adi Shankara, among others, venerate Vishnu as one of panchadeva, and his supreme status is declared in the Hindu sacred texts like Yajurveda, the Rigveda and the Bhagavad Gita....
 is said to have appeared to King Manu (whose original name was Satyavrata, the then King of Dravida, while he washed his hands in a river. This river was supposed to have been flowing down the Malaya Mountains
Malaya Mountains

Malaya Mountains were a range of mountain ranges that were mentioned in the Matsya Purana, the Kurma Purana, and the epics of the Ramayana and the Mahabharata....
 in his land of Dravida. According to the Matsya Purana
Matsya Purana

The Matsya Purana is the first and the oldest of all the Puranas and Hindu scriptures and texts. It is primarily the story of the first Avatar of Lord Vishnu, in the form of a fish or Matsya....
, his ship is supposed to have been perched after the deluge on the top of this Malaya Mountains
Malaya Mountains

Malaya Mountains were a range of mountain ranges that were mentioned in the Matsya Purana, the Kurma Purana, and the epics of the Ramayana and the Mahabharata....
. (This land or kingdom of Dravida that was ruled over by Satyavrata or Manu
Manu

Manu may refer to:...
 might have been an original, greater Dravida, that might have stretched from Madagascar
Madagascar

Madagascar, or Republic of Madagascar , is an island nation in the Indian Ocean off the southeastern coast of Africa. The main island, also called Madagascar, is the List of islands by area, and is home to 5% of the world's plant and animal species, of which more than 80% are Endemism to Madagascar....
 and East Africa
East Africa

East Africa or Eastern Africa is the easterly region of the African continent, variably defined by geography or geopolitics. In the UN subregion, 19 territories constitute Eastern Africa:...
 in the west to Southernmost India and further to Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia

Southeast Asia or Southeastern Asia is a subregion of Asia, consisting of the countries that are geographically south of China, east of India and north of Australia....
 and Australia
Australia

Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the southern hemisphere comprising the Australia of the world's smallest continent, the major island of Tasmania, and numerous list of islands of Australia in the Indian Ocean and Pacific Oceans....
 in the east.) The little fish asked the king to save It, upon his doing so, kept growing bigger and bigger. It also informed the King of a huge flood which would occur soon. The King builds a huge boat, which houses his family, 9 types of seeds, and animals to repopulate the earth after the deluge occurs and the oceans and seas recede.

This story is to an extent similar to other deluge stories, like those of Gilgamesh
Gilgamesh

Gilgamesh also known as Bilgames in the earliest text , was the son of Lugalbanda and the fifth king of Uruk , ruling circa 2700 BC, according to the Sumerian king list....
 from ancient Sumerian
Sumer

Sumer was a civilization and a historical region located in Southern Iraq , known as the Cradle of civilization. It lasted from the first settlement of Eridu in the Ubaid period through the Uruk period and the Dynastic periods until the rise of Babylon in the early 2nd millennium BC....
 Mythology, and the story of Noah
Noah

Noah was, according to the Bible, the tenth and last of the antediluvian Patriarchs ; and a prophet according to the Qur'an. The biblical story of Noah is contained in the book of Book of Genesis, chapters 5-9, while the Qur'an has a whole sura named after and devoted to his story with other references elsewhere....
's ark from Judeo-Christianity.

Works ascribed to Manu


According to tradition, Manava Grihyasutra, Manava Sulbasutra and Manava Dharmashastra (Manusmriti) texts are ascribed to Manu (Sayambhuva). Manusmriti is considered by some Hindus to be the law laid down for Hindus and is seen as the most important and earliest metrical work of the Dharmasastra
Dharmasastra

Dharmasastra is a genre of Sanskrit texts and refers to the sastra, or Indic branch of learning, pertaining to Hindu dharma, religious and legal duty....
 textual tradition of Hinduism
Hinduism

'Hinduism' is the predominant religion of the Indian subcontinent. Hinduism is often referred to as , a Sanskrit phrase meaning "the eternal dharma", by its practitioners....
.. At the same time it is a smriti
Smriti

Sm?ti , literally "that which is remembered," refers to a specific body of Hinduism religion scripture. Sm?ti also denotes non-sruti texts and is generally seen as secondary in authority to Shruti....
, so whenever there is a conflict between what is mentioned in it and that mentioned in sruti
Sruti

If you are looking for the singer, see Shruti Haasan. For other meanings, see Sruti . is a term that describes the sacred texts comprising the central canon of Hinduism and is one of the three main sources of dharma and therefore is also influential within Hindu Law....
 (Vedas
Vedas

The Vedas are a large body of texts originating in History of India. They form the oldest layer of Sanskrit literature and the oldest Hindu scripture of Hinduism....
 and Upanishads) the latter is considered to be correct as it holds higher spiritual authority.

In theosophy


In Theosophy
Theosophy

Theosophy is a doctrine of religious philosophy and metaphysics originating with Madame Blavatsky . In this context, theosophy holds that all religions are attempts by the "Mahatma" to help humanity in evolving to greater perfection, and that each religion therefore has a portion of the truth....
, the Manu is regarded as the progenitor of the Aryan root race
Aryan race

The Aryan race is a concept in European culture that was influential in the period of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It derives from the idea that the original speakers of the Indo-European languages and their descendants up to the present day constitute a distinctive Race ....
.

In modern literature


In the Victor Hugo
Victor Hugo

Victor-Marie Hugo was a France poet, playwright, novelist, essayist, visual artist, statesman, human rights activist and exponent of the Romanticism movement in France....
 novel, The Hunchback of Notre Dame
The Hunchback of Notre Dame

The Hunchback of Notre Dame is an 1831 French novel written by Victor Hugo. It is set in 1482 in Paris, in and around the cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris....
, Claude Frollo is seen to be studying Manu's works in his study of alchemy
Alchemy

Alchemy , a part of the Occult Tradition, is both a philosophy and a practice with an aim of achieving ultimate wisdom as well as immortality, involving the improvement of the alchemist as well as the making of several substances described as possessing unusual properties....
.

See also


  • Metrics of time in Hinduism
  • Manu Smriti
    Manu Smriti

    , also known as 'Manava-Dharmasastra' , is the most important and earliest metrical work of the Dharmasastra textual tradition of Hinduism....
  • Mannus
    Mannus

    Mannus is a Germanic peoples mythological figure attested by the 1st century AD Roman Empire historian Tacitus in his work Germania. According to Tacitus, Mannus is the son of the earth-born Tuisto and the ancestor and founder of the Numbers in Germanic paganism Germanic tribes Ingvaeones, Herminones and Istaevones....
    , the first human in Germanic mythology
    Germanic mythology

    Germanic mythology refers to:*any myths associated with historical Germanic paganism*Norse mythology*Continental Germanic mythology*Anglo-Saxon mythology...
  • Noah
    Noah

    Noah was, according to the Bible, the tenth and last of the antediluvian Patriarchs ; and a prophet according to the Qur'an. The biblical story of Noah is contained in the book of Book of Genesis, chapters 5-9, while the Qur'an has a whole sura named after and devoted to his story with other references elsewhere....