Onam.

Onam, a harvest festival of Kerala has its own mythology.

The main myth is that of King Mahabali. But before we get into the myth, let us know the king a little better. King Mahabali was the son of Veerochana and the grandson of Prahlad (Bhakt Prahlad is better known as the son of Hiranyakashyap who was killed by the Narasimha avatar of Lord Vishnu). Mahabali, though an asura was an ardent worshipper of Lord Vishnu.

His popularity amongst the masses made the gods feel insecure, and so Lord Vishnu took the Vamana (dwarf) avatar and landed at the venue where Mahabali was conducting the Ashwamedha Yagya, to proclaim himself as the most powerful king of the three worlds. As part of protocol when Mahabali asked Vishnu if he required anything, Vishnu asked for three paces of land as measured by his own foot. Mahabali accepted and soon the dwarf grew in a size, big enough to take the earth in one step and the heavens in the second step. To live up to his word, Mahabali gave his head as there was no other place for Vishnu’s third step, which sent him to patala, the nether world.

Mahabali’s love for his subjects was so strong that he requested that he be allowed to visit his subjects once every year and that day is celebrated as Onam.

According to another legend, once a boat laden with food got stuck in the bend of a river. It took a wise man to feed a poor and famished family living in the bank of the river to get the boat back on its course. Since then, many feed the poor on the day of Onam.

Food is a very important aspect of the celebrations. There is a saying in Malayalam that "Kandam Vittu Onam Unnanam" which means, "One should have the Onam lunch even if one has to sell all his property to arrange for it.” That is the significance of the food as part of the celebrations!

Many see the myth as a classic conflict between the Arayans and Dravidians. Many versions have tried to bestow negative qualities on Mahabali, but the people were just not interested in the myths, and thus they died a natural death. Today, irrespective of religious allegiance, all of Kerala celebrates Onam. With all due respect to a just ruler and the infamous insecurity of the gods, Vishnu’s vamana avatar is known more for the great King Mahabali and for the first time, an asura is the hero of a myth!

Navroze Mubarak!

Parsi mythology originated in Persia. The Persian myths bear a very strong resemblance to the Vedic myths.

The earliest deities represented the universal cosmic forces of nature, both beneficial as well as fearful. It was a nature worshipping cult and often was part of its myths. In due course it evolved into a cosmic conflict between the good and evil.

The earliest information about Persian mythology comes from Zoroastrianism's sacred book, the Zend-Avesta or Avesta. Much of the original Zend-Avesta was lost after Alexander the Great conquered Persia in 334 B.C. What survives is a set of writings gathered and arranged between A.D. 200 and 600.

The driving forces of Persian mythology were two powerful gods, sometimes presented as twin brothers. Ahura Mazda was the creator, a god of light, truth, and goodness. His enemy Ahriman, the spirit of darkness, lies, and evil, created only destructive things such as vermin, disease, and demons. The world was their battlefield. Ahura Mazda, the Wise Lord, was the supreme deity of Persian mythology. The Zoroastrians identified him with purifying fire and tended fires on towers as part of their worship.

The ancient Persian pantheon also included gods and goddesses associated with war, the sun, law and order, water and fertility, etc. There were also gods who appeared in the form of animals. However, Zoroaster reduced the role of these and other traditional deities and emphasized Ahura Mazda as supreme god, leading toward monotheism.

Persian mythology was amongst the first to include eschatological myths. Death in Persian mythology involved a journey into the afterlife. The soul of the dead person had to cross a bridge called Chinvat. Good souls found the bridge to be a wide and comfortable beam leading to heaven. For the wicked, it was a razor-sharp blade from which they fell headlong into hell.

Their myths spoke about the end of the world. The detail imagery is quite exquisite, but then that we will leave it for another day. Today on the occasion of the Parsi New Year, we talk of good things and leave the end of the world for an unknown future!!

30 days on Blogosphere.

Today my blog completes 30 days of non-controversial existence.

On turning one month old, I am feeling like a parent, whose child has been in this world for one month, and hasn’t cried as yet and nor has it laughed out loud! It has not made any major impact on its surroundings, though some people have taken note of its existence. Not bad altogether, eh?

I guess, I have miles to go before my child yells out – “Yo Dad, you belong!”

Happy Independence Day!

Here’s wishing a very happy Independence Day to all my fellow Indians!

On this day of Independence, we bow our head in reverence to all who laid down their lives for us to enjoy this independence. But true to my blog, can we overlook the role that mythology has played in the Freedom movement? Before some of my readers think that I am taking this mythology-thing a bit too far, let me explain.

Indian myths have played a very important role in inspiring people during the freedom movement. It started way back in 1881, by Swami Dayanand Saraswati with his Cow Movement after he wrote his book Gokarunanidhi. This was done to impress upon the British to ban cow slaughter. During this movement, for the first time, printed images of a sacred cow, encompassing all gods and goddesses on its body, being about to be butchered by a demon, was released.

The movement soon gathered support and spread across the nation and in 1893; the country saw its first communal riots!

The success of this and with the printing industry making good usage of the religious iconography gave birth to the concept of Bharat Mata. Images of Ashtabhuja-devi (Mother goddess with eight hands) started to be used as Mother Nation. This gave rise to a number of mythical images getting interpolated with that of prominent freedom fighters of the day. Images of the goddess in chains and in tatters were used to invoke the patriotic sentiments with a religious zeal across the country.

The culmination of this came with Bankim Chandra Chatterjee’s novel, Anand Math. In this, the protagonist, Mohendra sees the goddess Kali as Bharat Mata. In her dishevelled nakedness, he sees the state of India under the foreign rule. To quote from Sri Aurobindo’s translation of Anand Math in 1909, “….today the whole country is a burial ground, therefore is the Mother garlanded with skulls. Her own god, she tramples under her feet. Alas my Mother!”

Finally, the famous “Vande Mataram” (Hail Motherland), which became the anthem during the freedom movement. As Sri Aurobindo said, that through Bankim Chandra the nation got the religion of patriotism, which united the country across caste and community and despite ideological differences.

See the all pervasive nature of Mythology?

Today is Naag Panchami.

Naag Panchami is celebrated on the 5th day of Shravan (as per the Hindu calendar; Shravan this year began on Tuesday, Aug 10th).

Long before the Aryans arrived in India, there lived a snake-worshipping Naga community, which in due course got assimilated in the Aryan community. The Indo-Aryan community in due course of time incorporated a number of their snake deities in what became the mainstream Hinduism.

There are a number of myths associated with this day. Prominent among them is that of a farmer who accidentally killed a few young serpents while tilling his land. The serpent avenged the death by biting all the members of the farmer’s family, except the daughter who was a devotee of the snakes. Thanks to her devotion, all the members were brought back to life and since then, on the day of Naag Panchami, farmers don’t till their land.

Another myth in south celebrates the day as a bond between a brother and sister. As per the myth, a sister had asked her brother to get her Ketaki (Screwpine) flowers for the worship of the Naga. Unfortunately, the brother gets bitten by a snake when he goes to get the flower. The sister then propitiates the king of snakes and revives her brother. Since then, on this day, a brother visits the sister on this day and she in return rubs milk or ghee on the back, spine and the naval of her brother.

Finally, one more myth! During the samudra manthan (the churning of the ocean), Lord Shiva drank the poison (halahala) to save the earth. However, a few drops fell on the earth which was taken in by the snakes, and they still carry it with them! People propitiate the snakes as a thanksgiving for taking the poison and not allowing it to spread on earth. As per the texts, samudra manthan is supposed to have taken place in the month of Shravan.

There are many such myths, which are regional and all seem to have the same underlying principle and that is, snakes were worshipped by people more out of fear, especially so when the community was primarily agrarian.