Dear Ajit,

This is an article about various persons belonging to our Maudgalya Gothra collected from various legendary sources. Our gothara consists of both kings and Rshis. (certain people spell it as rishis). First let us deal with the kings.

As we have already mentioned in your website, the lineage King Mudgala is as follows:-

BRAHMA - ATHRI - CHANDRA - BUDHA - PUROORAVAS - AAYUS - NAHUSHA - YAYAATI - PURU - JANAMEJAYA - PRACHISWAN - PRAVEERA - NAMASYU - VEETHABHAYA - SHUNDA - BAHUVIDHA - SAMYAATHI - RAHOVADHI - RAUDHASWA - MATHINARA - SANDHURODHA - DUSHYANATHA - BHARATHA - BRIHASTH-KSHATHRA - HASTHI - AJAMEEDA - NEELA -SHAANTHI - SUSHANTEE - PURUJA - ARKA - BHARMYASWA - PANCHALA - MUDGALA.

Out of the above, King Dushyantha is famous because of the Shakuntalam epic. Our country is named after his son, Bharatha. King Bharmyaswa was a great warrior from Punjab. Our gothravali is Aangirasa Bharmyaswa Maudgalya. Thrayarusheya pravaranvita Maudgalya gothrah etc. etc.

Now we come to the descendants of Mudgala. It is to the credit of this gothra that two of Panchakanyas, AHALYA & DRAUPADI belong to this group. The importance of Panchakanyas and their contribution to the establishment of Aryan rule in India has to be dealt with separately.

King Mudgala had a son and a daughter. His daughter was the great Ahalya, who married Rshi Gautama. Their son was Shathananda who had his son called Sathyadhruthi and a grandson called Sharadhwan. The great Kripacharya of Mahabharata and his sister Kripi (wife of Dronacharya) were the children of Sharadhwan.

Divodhasa the son of Mudgala had the following descendants: Mithrayu - Prushara - Sudhasa - Sahadeva - Somaka - Dhrupadha.

Dhrupadhas son was Dhrushthadyumna and his daughter was the great Dhraupathi - (source : Shrimad Bhagavatham).

NOW let us deal with some sages belonging to Maudgalya Gothra. It seems initially, the Mudgalas were Rig Vedis. Sage Vyasa ordered Rshi Pyla to study Rig Veda. Pyla divided Rig Veda into two Samhithas and gave them to Indra Pramathi and Bhashkala. Then the latter divided his Sahmhitas into four parts and gave them to Bhodhi, Adimadaka, Yaajna Valkya and Parasara. Indra Pramati did not divide his Samhita and gave it as it is to his son, the great Mandookya. Through him it descended to his disciples and their disciples. However, among them, Vedamitra of Sakhalya Gothra divided this Samhita into five parts and gave them to MUDGALA, GOMUKHA, VAATSYA SHALEEYA & SHAREERA.

It is my humble opinion (open to contradiction) that Mudgalas might have continued to be Rig Vedis till they were in the Northern part of India and might have shifted to Krishna Yajur Veda, much after they established themselves in the Southern part of India. This may be the reason why Mudgalas follow the Chandramana calendar while all the other Krishna Yajur Vedis follows the Sauramana calendar. The route through which Maudgalyas would have traveled might be Baluchistan - Punjab - Kashmir - Orissa - Andhra - Tamil Nadu & Kerala.

NALAYANI was the young wife of a very old sage, Mudgala, but she was a great Pativrata. Even when Mudgala Rshi became afflicted by leprosy and started stinking, she continued to serve him. Once, when he was consuming food, one of his fingers fell of from his hands and fell into the food. Nalayani removed it and partook the remaining food. The sage was extremely pleased. In order to please he took five bodily forms corresponding to the five (Panchabhootas) elements and satisfied her in all respects. After thousands of years, he wanted to retire from family life and wanted to live the life of a sage. But, Nalayani tried to prevent him and keep him in the material pleasures. Mudgala Rshi cursed her that she will be borne as the daughter of Drupada and will marry five men. (source : Adi Parva of Mahabharata verses 197 to 204)

Sages belonging to the Maudgalya Gothra are well known for their patience and forbearance. One such rshi was living through Bhikshatana (alms) at Kurukshetra.

Once Rshi Durvasa came to his Ashram (hermitage) as his guest, in a digambara (naked) form and Mudgala gave him, whatever food he obtained as alms. Durvasa consumed some food from the same. The remaining food, he massaged on his own body. Yet, Mudgala did not become angry. The following days also Durvasa came to Mudgalas Ashram before the latter could quench his hunger and repeated the same behaviour. Mudgala gave all the food to Durvasa and remained hungry for several days. Finally, Durvasa said that he was extremely pleased with Mudgalas patience and forbearance and blessed Mudgala with an offer to take him the Heaven in his physical body. Immediately the Devas came with their plane. Mudgala enquired Durvasa about the pleasures available in the Heaven and then in the end he refused to be drawn to such pleasures. (source : Vana Parva of Mahabharata Ch. 261)

There was a great Vedic Scholar from Maudgalya gothra, who participated in the sarpa yaga (serpent sacrifice) of Janame Jaya.

(source : Adi Parva of Mahabharata Ch. 53)

Once a Chola King went to temple to have Bhagawat Darshan. There he worshipped Lord Vishnu with ruby and pears and golden flowers. There he saw a citizen from his kingdom, named Vishnudasa, who was worshipping with Tulsi and water. The articles with which the monarch worshipped Vishnu were covered by Tulsi used by Vishnudasa. Then ensued an argument between the two and ended with a bet as to who will get into the Vishnu chaitanya first ( getting salvation).

The monarch started a Vaishnava Yaga with Mudgala as his priest. This yaga was equal in splendour to the one conducted by Lord Brahma at Gaya. Vishnudasa on the other hand, followed the vratas and utsavas (fasting and festivals) to please Lord Vishnu.

Some time elapsed. One day, Vishnudasa saw that his food was stolen. In order to perform his Puja in time, unobstructed, he remained hungry on that day. The theft continued for seven days and he remained hungry throughout the week. On the eighth day, he found out that a Chandala was stealing the food. Vishnudasa told that lean and bony Chandala this food is very dry, you also take this ghee to make it more palatable. The chandala started running away, but fainted. Vishnudasa fanned him with his angavastra (towel) to bring some breeze. Lord Vishnu appeared with his Conch, Chakra (wheel) and Gada (maze) and embraced his devotee. The Lord gave him Saroopya mukthi.

Hearing about Vishnudasas mukthi, the Chola king told his priest, Mudgala, I started this sacrifice in competition with Vishnudas, who has attained moksha today. Whatever I have done so far is a waste. He gave his kingdom to his nephew and went to the yagashala after praying to Vishnu he entered into the sacrificial fire. Lord Vishnu appeared from the fire and took the Chola king to Vaikuntha in his own plane.

The priest became very angry with himself and cut off his tuft and remained tuft-less for the rest of his life. His descendents also followed suit. (source: Padmapurana- Ch. 110 & 11).

Ganesha Purana speaks of Rshi Mudgala, who was an ardent devotee of Lord Ganapathi, who was so pleased with him that he gave his devotee powers to give boons to other bhaktas (devotees).

Kalyan, a Vaishya, destroyed the idol worshipped by his son, Ballal. He was cursed by Ballal to become blind, deaf, dumb and hunchback, not only in that life, but in the next life also.

However, in the second life, Kalyan was born as Daksha the son of King Bhima and his wife Kamala. After trying for 12 years to cure his son, King Bhima drove away his wife and son. Kamala lost all he jewels to thieves and was staying in a temple. Keeping her sick child in the corner of the temple, she went out for begging. At that time, a sadhu came to the temple for the darshan of Lord Ganapathi. The air blowing within the precincts of the temple first touched the sadhus body and then the body of the child. Lo ! all the afflictions of the child were cured at one stroke. The child became a young beautiful child of 13/14 years. The Sadhu went away. Kamala came back and was pleasantly surprised to see the cured child. That sadhu was none other than Rshi Mudgala. Daksha became an ardent devotee of Ganapathi. On Ganapathis advice, he met Rshi Mudgala, who taught him the one lettered mantra OM. This, Daksha chanted relentlessly.

The King of Kundinapura died without a progeny. Rshi Mudgala asked the ministrers to put a garland on the trunk of royal elephant and make it rounds of the town among people. The elephant on its rounds entered the temple and garlanded Daksha, and thus he was made king.

Perhaps no other Rshi in the human world has a purana named after himself. In order to acquaint myself about our forefathers, I went through this Purana. However, this Purana does not give any information about Rshi Mudgala, but is out and out exposition of the grandeur of Lord Ganapathi. This shows the humility of the author, Rshi Mudgala. This Purana has 9 khandas (cantos) and gives details about all facets of Ganesha worship.

No wonder, therefore, that my grandfather was called Gaanaapathya Sangameshwara Vadhyar, because of his specialisation in Ganesha worship. He was an expert in coining mantras in praising Lord Ganapathi, separately for vidyapraapthi (attainment of education), Dhanapraapthi etc. and performed poojas on behalf of people who came to him for help.

The ninth verse in the first prsna of this Upanishad is regarding Swaadhyaya prasamsa. At the end of the verse the following lines occur:

Ratheetharah says that truth is supreme. Paurushishthi says Tapah is superior. Wereas Naka (a rshi belonging to Maudgalya gothra) says that self learning and teaching are the only two duties ordained to a sage. His views are accepted as final.

Of the persons belonging to Maudgalya gothra, who have made a name for themselves, the most popular one is Upanyasa Chakravarthy, Sengalipuram Anantarama Deekshithar. His upanyasams (discourses) on Ramayana and Bhagavatham and Mahabharatham moulded the characters of many of us during our childhood. His rendering of the shlokas from the epics had a majestic tone which still ringing in our ears. He also composed stotrams like Ashthalakshmi stotram, Guruvathapureesha Pancharatnam and two dashakams on Jadabharata Upakhyanam. He was the prime and foremost cause for propagating NARAYANEEYAM, in Tamil Nadu and other parts of India. In his later years he took Sanyas and attained samadhi.

Another person of note was the late Maudgalya Vishwanatha Vadyar of Goregaon in Mumbai. Though his profession was a household priest, he was uncompromising in his profession, hence had very few household as his clients. He also taught Narayaneeyam, Devi Mahatmyam etc. with special attention to the pronunciation aspect. His brother, Rasa Vadyar of Govindarajapuram is still being sought for major yaga (sacrificial performances) in Mumbai.

Before ending this article, I would like to inform you that persons belonging to Maudgalya gothara celebrate their birthdays according to their nakshatras falling in the solar months in which they were born, while they perform the shrardhams (death anniversary) in the thithies of the lunar months in which the deaths took place. This created and still creates much confusion not only among the Yajamanas, but also the priests. For example, your grandfather, Shri K. K. Mani died on pausha shukla chaturthi. Pausha is lunar month that occurs between Margasirisha amavasya and Pausha amavasya. His shrardham was performed on 13th Jan. 2005 (this year) in the solar Dhanur masa (Margazhi in Tamil), whereas my father died in Pausha shukla saptami and his Shrardham was performed on 16th Jan. 2005 which occurs in solar Makara masa (Thai in Tamil). Thus, though both of them died in the same lunar month, their shrardhams may occur some times (as in this case) in different solar months. Being an astrologer yourself, I am sure, it will not be difficult for you to understand the intricacies of this matter.

Yours truly,

Anantanarayanan.