The King Who Banned God
In the line of the first kings there arose a ruler named Vena, and the earth had never seen his like. His mother Sunīthā was the daughter of Death, and the crookedness of her father flowed in Vena's veins. As a boy he was cruel; as a king he was worse. When Vena mounted the throne, the thieves and rogues of the world rejoiced, for they knew his character. But soon even they groaned, for a cruel king devours both the good and the bad. Vena grew drunk on power. He called the brāhmaṇas and the sages before him and announced: 'From this day, there shall be no sacrifices, no gifts, no worship of the gods. All offerings shall be made to me, for I am God on earth.' The sages were horrified. 'O king,' they pleaded, 'do not destroy yourself and your people! A king who turns against the Lord turns against his own soul. The kingdom is a boat; the Lord is the river. Without the river the boat only rots on the mud.' Vena laughed at them. 'Which god is greater than the king who feeds you? Show me this Viṣṇu of yours. I see no one here above me.' The sages' patience broke. A ruler who blasphemes and cannot be corrected, they said, is a fire that must be put out before it burns the world. They uttered the sound 'huṁ' — the weapon of the holy — and King Vena fell dead upon his throne, slain by the power of the words of the wise. But then the kingdom faced a worse danger: no king at all. Without a ruler, thieves rose everywhere like rats in a dark granary, and the people suffered. The sages gathered around the body of Vena, and by their power they churned it as one churns curds for butter. From the thigh of the dead king came a dark, dwarfish figure — the embodiment of all Vena's sin — and the sages drove it out of the land. Then they churned the arms, and from them came forth a shining pair: a king radiant as the sun, and his queen, Arcis, radiant as his own splendour. The brāhmaṇas, seeing him, cried: 'This one is a partial incarnation of the Lord Himself!' And because he was born to protect — pṛthu, the broad, the great — the worlds named him Pṛthu.
✦ Visual cue — Sages in a grand hall churning the body of a fallen king with sacred power; from the arms a radiant royal pair emerging in light; shocked courtiers.