The Family Tree of Cosmic Beings

If you thought the Game of Thrones or Harry Potter family trees were cool, wait till you here our Sanatan Dharma’s cosmic family tree that shows how our entire universe was populated!

Our tree starts with Vishnu’s Vice President Brahma, the architect & interior designer, who gave birth to nearly a dozen manas putras from his own mind.

Of these, Marichi’s son, Rishi Kashyapa took on the role of the Prajapati, responsible for spreading life into the universe.

He married the various daughters of another Prajapati, King Daksha.

Through his union with Aditi, came the Devas, the shining ones full of sattvic goodness. But don’t write them off as the good boys yet because in many of our Puranas, we have Devas falling flat because of their pride, laziness, greed & jealousy.

Through Kashyapa’s marriage with Diti, came the Daityas, who were not inherently evil but sometimes acted as opponents of Devas, in fights like Hiranyakashyapu Vs. Vishnu. But we also had Pralhad & King Bali from the same lineage, showing no group is fully good or bad.

With Danu, Kashyapa birthed the Danavas, like Maya, Rahu, Ketu & Vritra. They were masters of technology & illusion & strategy.

Over time, the bad guys from various lineages were clubbed together under the name Daityas or “Asuras.” They are guided by their guru Shukracharya who has the Mrit Sanjeevani Vidya, the power to bring back the dead.

Funnily enough, the title “Asura” referred to powerful Gods before taking on the negative meaning.

Kashyapa also birthed the Naga snakes with Kadru, as well as eagles & other birds with Vinata & Tamra, Apsaras with Muni … making him the cosmic big papa.