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Ikshvaku (Sanskrit:इक्ष्वाकु) is the first king and founder of the Sun Dynasty in Vedic civilization in ancient India. He was the son of Manu (the first man on earth), sired by the Sun God, Surya. Manu gained the knowledge of Dharma and humanity from Vivasvat (Surya). Thus, the lineage of the Sun Dynasty began. The word Ikshvaku means "bitter gourd". Some scholars have pointed out that the legends of Ikshvaku and Sumati may have their origin in the Southeast-Asian myth of the birth of humanity from a bitter gourd.•
In Hinduism Ikshvaku is the first king to implement the Manusmriti, or the religious rules of Hindu living composed through divine inspiration and from the Vedas by his father. He is remembered in Hindu mythology as a righteous and glorious king. The House of Ikshvaku reigns over Kosala, an ancient kingdom in the northeast river plains of India, in the modern state of Uttar Pradesh, along the banks of the Sarayu. The capital is Ayodhya. In Vedic History Hindu mythology calls Ikshvaku and his line the emperors of the world. The world in Vedic terms, extended fairly to all of Bharat, or all of India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Pakistan. Ikshvaku was perhaps one of the earliest and most important Indo-Aryan monarchs of India, and played a pivotal role in the transformation of the ancient Vedic religion into modern Hinduism, and its propagation throughout India. House of Ikshvaku Sri Rama, the seventh and most famous Avatara of Vishnu, of the epic Ramayana is a descendant of the house of Ikshvaku. Great kings like Bhagiratha and Dasaratha were also kings in the line before Rama. After Rama, the kingdom and the worldwide domains were divided equally between his two sons, Luv, king of the northern and western realms, and Kusa, who was made king of the southern and eastern realms. Comtemporary theories Ikshvaku is speculated by some historians as not have been an Indian king at all. He was perhaps, according to them, an Indo-Aryan king of his peoples in Central Asia, whose legend was carried by the Indo-Aryan settlers of India and synthesized into their religion and mythical history. Manu is often construed to have been akin to the biblical Noah, however, by myth he is both "Adam" as first man and he is the "first king" who ruled the earth. Unlike Adam, King Manu is "Satyavrata" or someone who vows unto the truth, unlike Adam, Manu never falls from heaven but leads his people to heaven. See also | ||||||||
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