Vishwakarma : God of Architecture

LORD VISHWAKARMA: GOD OF ARCHITECTURE

Vishwakarma is the god of architecture. He is described as a divine craftsman who have created different divine weapons and architecture for deities. He is considered as swayambhu and creator of the world. 

        He had crafted vajra of Devraj Indra,Trishul of Lord Shiva and weapons of other gods and all the chariots of Deities was created by him. He also created the great cities like Lanka- capital of Ravana in Tretayuga and Dwarka- capital of Lord Krishna in Dwaparyuga which are mentioned in our ancient texts. He had also created Swarglok for deities in Satyayuga. He had also created Indraprastha and Hastinapur during Mahabharata.

   Name of Vishwakarma Dev is also mentioned in Rigveda. Vishwakarma Dev is depicted as the source of all prosperity and and as a priest and master of speech.

       Vishwakarma Dev is characterised as old wise man having white beard and have four arms having scale, book and Kamandala in his hands. At some places Vishwakarma Dev is mentioned as Tvashtr.

 Also according to Puranas, there are five forms of Vishwakarma Dev :

1. Virat Vishwakarma : who is the creator of this universe

2. Dharamvanshi Vishwakarma : the great craftsman and son of 8th Vasu prabhas.

3. Angiravanshi Vishwakarma

4. Sudhanva Vishwakarma

5. Bhringuvanshi Vishwakarma : grandson of Demon Guru Shukracharya.

Vishwakarma Pooja :

     Vishwakarma dev is worshipped by craftsmen, industralist and everybody who have work related to some craftmenship and many other peoples in India in 17/18 september. As it is believed that on this day Lord Vishwakarma was born.

   Even Vishwakarma Puja is celebrated a day after Diwali along with govardhan pooja. Devotees of Vishwakarma Dev offers prayer to him as well as worships all the machinery available at home/offices and shops.

Parents :

   In some texts, it is believed that he was the dharamputra of Lord Brahma. In great epic Mahabharata, it is believed that parents of Vishwakarma Dev are Yoga Siddha ( mother ) and prabhas ( father ). Yoga Siddha was sister of Guru Brihaspati and Prabhas was the 8th vasu. In puranas, he is mentioned as son of Vastu and Angirasi.

Consort :

     At some places, gritachi was the wife of Vishwakarma Dev and in some stories the name of his wife is Akrati. It is also believed that he had three wives named as : Rati, Prapti and Nandi. Some people also says Gaytari Devi was wife of Vishwakarma Dev.

Childrens :

    There are different numbers and names of Vishwakarma Dev sons . As in some places, Vishwakarma Dev had 6 sons named Manu , Shama, Kama, Harsha, Vishwaroop and Vritrasura.

  Daughters of Vishwakarma Dev are named as: Riddhi, Siddhi ,Chitrangada and Sanghya. Riddhi and siddhi was married to Lord Ganesha while Sanghya was married to Surya Dev.

  Nal and Nil were also sons of Vishwakarma Dev. Nal and Nil were in the army of Lord Rama and they built the bridge which led Lord Rama to Lanka.

In some stories he had five sons were respectively Manu, Maya, Tvashta, Shilpi and Daivagya. All these sons were masters in craftsmanship.

Abode :

    Abode of Vishwakarma Dev is Vishwakarma Lok.

Mount:

    Mount of Vishwakarma Dev is Swan. At some places elephant is also considered as mount of him.

Weapon :

    Kamandala and loop are weapons of Vishwakarma dev.

Temples :

   There are so many temples of Vishwakarma Dev ji are here in India. But some of the temples are in :

1. Jinja, Uganda

2. Machlipatnam, Andhra pradesh

3. Zirakpur, Chandigarh

   

Stories :

       There are various stories related to him which are as follows :

Story related to Birth of Vishwakarma Dev :

     According to some stories, when the universe was in its infancy, Lord Vishnu was appeared. He was on a rest on Shesnaag in Kshir Sagar ( abode of Lord Vishnu) . A lotus emerged from the navel of Lord Vishnu. From this lotus Lord Brahma, who had four faces, appeared.

     Lord Brahma had many sons and one of them was Vastudev. His wife's name was Angirasi and Vastudev had a son, whose name was Vishwakarma. It is believed that like his father Vastudev, Vishwakarma Dev also became the master of architecture. Like his father, Lord Vishwakarma became a great divine architect. After this he became the god of architecture.

Creation Of Lanka :

   Once Goddess Parvati expressed her desire to build a palace on Kailash( abode of Lord Shiva ) to Lord Shiva. Since there was no building on Kailash, there was no place for Goddess Parvati for her family activities.

   But Lord Shiva is far from all these things because he was a asectic, so this was a completely different thing for him, yet he ordered to build a building for Goddess Parvati on Kailash.

   Lord Shiva called his great devotee Ravana and got him to construct the building.Ravana asked Kuber Dev for gold for the construction of that building. After taking gold from Kuber Dev, Ravana called Vishwakarma Dev ji.

  Vishwakarma Dev ji built Lanka of gold with his craftsmanship, which was so wonderful that the beholder could keep watching.

                           || ॐ विश्वकर्मणे नमः ||

Read more :

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2. Rama Avatar : Seventh Avatar of Lord Vishnu

3. Kalki Avatar : Tenth Avatar of Lord Vishnu

4. Eight Avatars of Lord Ganesha

5. Dashavatara : Ten Avatars of Lord Vishnu