Bhishmaka (), also called Hiranyaroman, is the king of

Vidarbha Vidarbha (Pronunciation: Help:IPA/Marathi, �id̪əɾbʱə is a geographical region in the west Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra. Forming the eastern part of the state, it comprises Amravati Division, Amrav ...

Hinduism Hinduism () is an Hypernymy and hyponymy, umbrella term for a range of Indian religions, Indian List of religions and spiritual traditions#Indian religions, religious and spiritual traditions (Sampradaya, ''sampradaya''s) that are unified ...

. He is the father of

Rukmini Rukmini (, ) is a Devi, Hindu goddess and the first queen of Krishna. She is described as the chief of Krishna's wives in Dvārakā. Rukmini is revered as the avatar of Lakshmi and is venerated primarily in Warkari, and Haridasa tradition, and ...

, the chief wife of

Krishna Krishna (; Sanskrit language, Sanskrit: कृष्ण, ) is a major deity in Hinduism. He is worshipped as the eighth avatar of Vishnu and also as the Supreme God (Hinduism), Supreme God in his own right. He is the god of protection, c ...

and an incarnation of the goddess

Lakshmi Lakshmi (; , , sometimes spelled Laxmi, ), also known as Shri (, , ), is one of the principal goddesses in Hinduism, revered as the goddess of wealth, fortune, prosperity, beauty, fertility, sovereignty, and abundance. She along with Parvat ...

Legend

Skanda Purana

The

Skanda Purana The ''Skanda Purana'' ( IAST: Skanda Purāṇa) is the largest '' Mukhyapurāṇa'', a genre of eighteen Hindu religious texts. The text contains over 81,000 verses, and is of Shaivite literature, titled after Skanda, a son of Shiva and Parv ...

describes Bhishmaka to be a wealthy and powerful monarch. At the time of the birth of Rukmini, the text describes a celestial voice instructing him to marry his daughter to a four-armed one ( Caturbhujā) who had been born on earth. After eight years, he betroths his daughter to

Shishupala Shishupala (, ; sometimes spelt Sisupala) was the king of the Chedi kingdom, and an antagonist in the Mahabharata. He was the son of King Damaghosha and Srutashrava, the sister of Kunti, as well as the cousin of Nanda (Hinduism), Nanda. He was s ...

upon the insistence of the latter's father, Damaghosha, who tells him that Caturbhujā was an epithet of his son. His daughter Rukmini was against marriage and wished to marry her childhood love Krishna and send letter to him to take her away from her marriage. Krishna and

Balarama Balarama (, ) is a Hindu god, and the elder brother of Krishna. He is particularly significant in the Jagannath tradition, as one of the triad deities. He is also known as Haladhara, Halayudha, Baladeva, Balabhadra, and Sankarshana. The fir ...

are invited to her marriage ceremony by Bhishmaka, upon which Krishna elopes with his daughter and gets marriage like she wished.

Harivamsha

In the Harivamsha, when the king Bhishmaka's eldest son Rukmi chooses to marry his sister Rukmini off to suitors through a

svayamvara ''Svayaṃvara'' ( ) is a matrimonial tradition in ancient Indian society where a bride, usually from '' Kṣatriya'' (warrior) caste, selects her husband from a group of assembled suitors either by her own choice or a public contest between her ...

ceremony, the king opposes Rukmi's decision, regarding it to be bad conduct on his part. When the king grants an audience to Krishna, he begs the god's forgiveness for this folly, upon which the latter agrees with his opinion, revealing that the bride was in fact Lakshmi, the goddess of prosperity. He assures the king that this was no sin on his part. Bhishmaka offers many exultations of Krishna before the god's departure.

References

{{reflist Characters in the Bhagavata Purana Characters in the Mahabharata Kings in Indian mythology People related to Krishna Vidarbha