About
Mavella — Son of Uparichara Vasu and Girika
Mavella · Macchilla · Son of Uparichara Vasu
Mavella was one of the five sons born to Uparichara Vasu, the righteous Paurava king of Chedi, and his queen Girika, daughter of the mountain Kolahala and the river Suktimati. He is named in the Mahabharata and confirmed in Puranic genealogies as a prince of the Chedi imperial line who received a provincial governorship from his father and founded his own kingdom and dynasty. The primary sources contain no narrative episodes, individual exploits, marriages, or descendants for Mavella; his record in the canonical texts is limited to his inclusion in the enumeration of Uparichara Vasu's sons.
✦ The Name
The name Mavella does not yield a straightforward Sanskrit etymology from the available sources. One version of the Mahabharata sibling list, as reported in an early nineteenth-century translation summarised by Abhinav Agarwal, gives the name as Macchilla for this son, which is a notably different reading. The Puranic Encyclopaedia and the Vishnu Purana Wilson translation use Mavella or Mavella consistently, and this is the form found in the majority of printed editions and modern reference works. Whether Macchilla represents a genuine manuscript variant or a scribal corruption cannot be determined from the available secondary material.
✦ Lineage
- Father: Uparichara Vasu — a Paurava king of Chedi, descendant of Kuru, renowned for his friendship with Indra and for riding a crystal flying chariot; honoured in the epics as a righteous and generous sovereign.
- Mother: Girika — daughter of the mountain Kolahala and the river Suktimati, married to Uparichara Vasu after he liberated the river from the mountain's assault.
- Brothers: Brihadratha, also known as Maharatha — the eldest, installed at Magadha, father of Jarasandha; Pratyagraha — installed at Chedi, ancestor of Shishupala; Kushamba, also called Manivahana; and Yadu — each a founder of a separate kingdom and dynasty.
- Half-brother: Matsya — son of Uparichara Vasu by the apsara Adrika, who had been cursed to live in the form of a fish; raised in Vasu's household and later founder of the Matsya kingdom.
✦ Role in the Narrative
The Mahabharata's Adi Parva records that Uparichara Vasu installed his five sons as governors over separate provincial territories, and that each founded kingdoms and towns after his own name, establishing dynasties of long duration. Mavella is one of the five named in this passage. No further information about Mavella is provided in the Mahabharata, the Vishnu Purana, the Bhagavata Purana, the Matsya Purana, the Vayu Purana, or the Harivamsa. The profile above is a complete and honest account of what the primary sources record for this figure.
✦ Textual Variants
The principal textual variant for Mavella is the form Macchilla, attested in at least one recension-based translation of the Adi Parva. The name Mavella is otherwise stable across the principal Puranic genealogical lists. A separate variant in the list of Vasu's sons that affects the sibling count rather than Mavella's name: one source in the Puranic Encyclopaedia tradition replaces Yadu with Rajanya as the fifth son, but Mavella's place in the list is unaffected by this variant.
✦ Connection to the Wider Genealogy
Mavella belongs to the Paurava branch of the lunar dynasty, being a son of Uparichara Vasu who was a descendant of Kuru. Through his eldest brother Brihadratha, Mavella is a paternal uncle of Jarasandha, the Magadhan king who became an antagonist of Krishna and the Pandavas. Through his brother Pratyagraha's line, he is collaterally connected to Shishupala, the Chedi king of the Mahabharata era. Through his father's son Matsya by the apsara Adrika, he is a half-uncle of the founder of the Matsya kingdom, whose descendant Virata sheltered the Pandavas during their incognito exile. Through his father's daughter Satyavati, who married Shantanu of Hastinapura, Mavella is a collateral kinsman of the Kuru lineage that produced the Pandavas and Kauravas.
✦ References
Primary Sources
- Mahabharata, Adi Parva, chapters 63–64 — Names Mavella as one of the five sons of Uparichara Vasu by Girika; states that all five founded kingdoms and dynasties after their own names.
- Vishnu Purana, Book IV, chapter 19 — Lists Mavella among the sons of Uparichara Vasu in the Paurava dynastic genealogy.
- Bhagavata Purana, Canto IX, chapter 22 — Corroborates the list of Uparichara Vasu's sons in the lunar dynasty account.
- Harivamsa, genealogical sections — Corroborates the enumeration of Vasu's sons including Mavella.
Secondary and Reference Works
- Puranic Encyclopaedia (Vettam Mani) — Names Mavella in the consolidated account of Uparichara Vasu's sons.
- Vishnu Purana (H.H. Wilson translation, Book IV, chapter 19, with notes) — Lists Mavella; Wilson's notes do not single out this son for additional commentary.
- Abhinav Agarwal's translation summary, Mahabharata chapters 57–58, Adi Parva — Records the variant name Macchilla in this position in the sibling list, constituting the principal textual variant noted above.
- Sacred Texts Archive, Mahabharata Book I, chapter 64 — Reproduces the Ganguli translation of the passage naming all five sons, including Mavella.