Bhishmaka (), also called Hiranyaroman,
Legend
Skanda Purana
The
Skanda Purana 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 (
Chaturbhuja) who had been born on earth. After eight years, he betroths his daughter to
Shishupala 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 are invited to her marriage ceremony by Bhishmaka, upon which Krishna elopes with his daughter and gets marriage like she wished.
Harivamsha
In the
Harivamsa, when the king Bhishmaka's eldest son
Rukmi chooses to marry his sister Rukmini off to suitors through a
svayamvara 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.
Malinithan
A legend was implanted around
Malinithan by Srimanta Sankardev in the 16th century, connecting the place to the mythological king of Bhishmaka (Lord of
Vidarbha) of the epics.
["Among many works of Śaṅkaradeva, the Rukmiṇiharaṇa, the poem of Rukmimi and Krishna, gained considerable popularity in the Sadiya area and influenced its regional identity construction. Rukmiṇī, in this poem, was a daughter of king Bhīṣmaka"] The association of the legend with the place led to a widespread renaming of the Eastern Assam and Eastern Arunachala Pradesh regions.
["Considering the wide popularity of the Rukmiṇīharaṇa among the people, especially as the staged performance, it is not surprising that many toponyms of the area were derived from this Vaiṣṇava legend and the legendary places associated with Bhīṣmaka were reproduced in the local landscape. For instance, Vidarbha, the name of the country, once ruled by Bhīṣmaka according to the Epics and Purāṇas and perhaps identical with Berar Province in Maharashtra, was applied to the area around Sadiya."]
Sources
