Introduction
Vena is a king remembered in the Puranas as an example of unrighteous rule: he forbade sacrifice and worship of the gods, declaring himself supreme, and his reign brought ruin on the kingdom, until the sages acted against him.
Family
- Son: Prithu Vainya
Misrule and death
Vena's arrogance and his prohibition of Vedic ritual angered the sages, who first tried to counsel him and, failing, cursed him to death, using the power of their mantras (in some versions, striking him with blades of sacred kusha grass charged with mantra).
The birth of Prithu
With the kingdom left without a ruler and beginning to suffer disorder and famine as a result, the sages churned Vena's dead body. From it first emerged a dark, misshapen being, representing his evil, who became the ancestor of forest tribes (the Nishadas), and then, from his right arm, a radiant figure: Prithu, who was made king in his father's place and became one of the great righteous rulers of tradition.
Meaning
The story of Vena is read as a warning about kings who reject dharma and ritual duty, and as the origin story that sets up Prithu's contrasting reign of justice, most famously his taming of the Earth as a cow, told in the article on Prithu Vainya.