About
Ketumat — Son of Dhanvantari, King of the Kashi Line
Ketuman
Ketumat is recorded as the son of Dhanvantari, the Kashi-line king held by the tradition to be an empowered incarnation of Vishnu and the founder of Ayurvedic medicine, and as the father of Bhimaratha. He appears only within the genealogical lists of the Kashi kings given in the Vishnu Purana, the Bhagavata Purana, and the Harivamsha, and no independent narrative episode is recorded of him in these sources beyond his place in the succession.
✦ The Name
Ketumat, also spelled Ketuman in the Bhagavata Purana, derives from ketu, "banner," "sign," or "radiance," combined with the possessive suffix -mat or -man, giving the sense "possessed of a banner" or "radiant, distinguished."
✦ Lineage
- Father: Dhanvantari, Kashi-line king and, in the tradition, a shaktyavesha incarnation of Vishnu credited with founding Ayurveda.
- Son: Bhimaratha, who continued the Kashi succession toward King Divodasa.
✦ Connection to the Wider Genealogy
Ketumat occupies the generation immediately following Dhanvantari's incarnation in the Kashi royal line, carrying the dynasty forward through his son Bhimaratha toward King Divodasa, one of the more prominent later rulers of Kashi (Varanasi) in the epic and Puranic tradition, and toward Divodasa's own son Pratardana.
✦ References
- Vishnu Purana, Book IV, Chapter XIX (Wilson translation): source for Ketumat's place in the succession following Dhanvantari.
- Bhagavata Purana (9.17.5): source for the spelling Ketuman and the Ketuman-Bhimaratha-Divodasa-Dyuman sequence.
- Harivamsha (Dutt translation, Chapter 29): source for the parallel Kashi succession list.
- Vettam Mani, Puranic Encyclopaedia: secondary reference cross-checking the Kashi royal succession.