Maharaja Raivata

Raivata Kakudmi was a king of Kushasthali, the city later rebuilt as Dwaraka. He is known from the Puranas for one story: he takes his daughter Revati to Brahma's realm to ask whom she should marry, and returns to find that many ages have passed on earth.

His line is given in the Vishnu Purana (IV.1). Manu Vaivasvata had a son Sharyati. Sharyati's son was Anarta, who gave his name to the country of Anarta. Anarta's son was Revata, who ruled from Kushasthali. Revata's son was Raivata, also called Kakudmin, the eldest of a hundred brothers. The Bhagavata Purana (9.3.27-28) has the same chain and says Revata had a hundred sons, the eldest Kakudmi. So Raivata is the family name and Kakudmi the personal one.

He belongs to the Solar line, but not to the Ayodhya branch: Sharyati is a brother of Ikshvaku in the Vishnu Purana's list of Manu's sons.

Some Audichya and Nagar Brahmin families give Raivata as their gotra.

1. King of Kushasthali: he rules the city that later becomes Dwaraka, in the country of Anarta on the western coast.
2. The journey to Brahma's realm: finding no husband worthy of Revati, he takes her to Brahma. Brahma is listening to Gandharva music, and Raivata waits until it ends. A short wait there is many ages on earth. The Bhagavata (9.3.31-32) says twenty-seven chaturyugas have passed. The Vishnu Purana says the age of the present Manu is nearly over and the Kali age is at hand.
3. Revati marries Balarama: Brahma tells him that the men he had in mind are long dead and that Kushasthali is now called Dwaraka, where Balarama, a portion of Vishnu, lives. On Brahma's advice he gives Revati to Balarama (Bhagavata 9.3.33-36; Vishnu Purana IV.1).
4. The changed world: he comes back to find people smaller, weaker and duller than he remembered. The Bhagavata (9.3.36) says his relatives had fled the city in fear of the Yakshas. The Vishnu Purana adds that Revati was so tall that Balarama pressed her down with the end of his plough before the marriage.
5. Retirement: he gives up the kingdom to practise austerities. The Vishnu Purana sends him to the Himalayas; the Bhagavata names Badarikashrama.

• Kushasthali (Dwaraka) on the sea: the capital of Anarta, later Dwaraka.
• Brahma's realm: where time runs differently from earth.
• Badarikashrama or the Himalayas: where he ends his days, by different accounts.
• Raivataka: the hill near Dwaraka named in the Mahabharata, identified with Girnar in Gujarat. One account derives its name from this king.