Shailendra’s Family Tree

A thought came to me when I was shown the list of my family tree: I will send my lawyer to the village where the records-keepers live and I demand to give me the whole list for five thousand years. Their record is valid, even in the Supreme Court of India. I think it will be a fantastic record, because no one has given such a long list. After Shiva Ratri we will find that man who keeps my record. He has not visited me for ten years, but we will inquire about him.

When the record keeper began to recite, it was like a biblical sort of record. In the beginning there was nothing and then the formless God appeared in three forms: Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva, and then from Brahma this Rishi and this came. I don’t know any family who can give a record of five thousand years or even before that. So it came into my mind to send my lawyer to him. They actually give the record from the Creator and then they come down one by one. And only in this record I found out that Ashwathama married seventeen times and the seventeen lines of his family began

We had a story in our family that we are descendants of Ashwathama, but as we had left this area and moved to different places, the link was broken. The record keepers use to visit most of the families — and he came here. I was very interested in my family line. I knew some four-five generations’ name already. The record keeper came, then I told him the name of my great-great-grandfather and he found the name in his book. And then he told me everything from the beginning… I was just looking at him, listening to what the man was saying. He had more than hundred kilos of the record books. They write in a sort of code — only they can read that. And he told me that my family began from Tibet and they lived with Rama. Then when Rama died, some of them went with Lav – the son of Rama, some went with Kush – another son of Rama. Kush went and established Kashmir, and Lav went and established Lahore.

We will invite that man — it will take many hours just to hear that. I was not expecting that he might have such a big record. It is their family tradition, they are record keepers only. There are thousands of names. And the best thing which I love was his tale about the god who is our family god. He said: “Shiva is your family god”. That was good news to me.

First Ashwathama just for one month did penance especially to Shiva to remove the curse given to him by Krishna. He removed that curse, Shiva appeared. And after he received blessing from Shiva he became a Brahmarishi and was accepted in Rishis. Then he married. He must have been old at that time, but he was immortal, so no problem. Maybe his wives were not immortal. So, he married them one by one, after some time – it is more possible.