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What is Myth? Exploring A Sacred

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 What is Myth? Exploring A Sacred World and
Its Inhabitants

Article of the Month – April 2010

Ancient traditions world over, not merely those from the realm of religion but also
history, metaphysics, cosmology, medicines and sciences, are largely myths,
sometimes quite strange and unbelievable, events with no apparent cause-and-
effect reciprocity, and beings beyond human conception. Opinions differ as to what
exactly the term ‘myth’ means. It is sometimes defined as something false or
untrue, the same as means the Hindi term ‘mithya’ – two structural co-relates
having identical sound. This is an obviously wrong notion. A myth is a broad truth in
regard to an event or a set of beings, men, animals or others, the factual
dimensions of which have either blurred or weeded out by time as irrelevant, and
what survives in people’s minds, texts, memory or traditions, is its essence, a truth’s
timeless pith, a mystique or philosophy, and the fiction amassing around, its mere
body. A strange dilemma, a myth is a truth but the term ‘myth’, not ‘truth’, better
defines what it portrays, perhaps being a truth of higher grade, or fiction being its
body.

Many mythical traditions, Hindu, Christian, Islamic or any, like the myth in regard to
the Great Deluge submerging the earth and enveloping the entire cosmos under
impenetrable darkness, a single human couple – progenitors of the race of man, and
a Great Fish along with a boat alone surviving – the myth that explores evolution of
the earth and human race in many early civilizations, have many parallels and a
strange unity in their themes. They all have similar interwoven events, mystic
dimensions and a bizarre look. Not mere fiction or creation of fancy, such world-wide
unanimity of these traditions suggests that the event which a myth portrays, or at
least its core context – central part, might have been once a reality, which being
strange and rare, gathered around it a certain amount of divinity and mysticism, and
was thus mythicised and re-defined or rather re-cycled in terms of a prevalent
theology for promoting its dogmatic ends, or a human value.

BREADTH OF INDIAN MYTHS

Myths from India, with a large body of literature emerging over millenniums giving
them authenticity, versatility and vividness, explore with greater enormity and
unique breadth multifarious cosmic activity, whether taking place in the man’s mind
or beyond it in the phenomenal world. Whatever exists materially, the earth, the
sun, the moon, a river, ocean, sky, a mountain, an animal, a medicinal herb, nectar
or poison, or whatever takes place in finer regions of existence, a weakness of mind,
inherent spiritual strength, pain or pleasure, or a desire to own and rule, an Indian
myth has made it its theme, sometimes exploring its origin or emergence and at
other times, its role, sometimes a river’s descent on the earth, or the earth’s rise
from under the deep seas, and at other times, sublimation of a weakness, or
aggregation of divine energies into a single being for undoing the evil or a wrong.

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 In this world of Indian myths a boon of
immortality, when defiled turning
atrocious and wrong, instruments death
and defeat, not timeless life, and on the
contrary, the doomed is seen defeating
the death when virtue stands his guard.
This world does not accept dividers, those
dividing man from woman, man from
animal, or live from dead, nor accepts the
scale of time fragmented into past,
present and future. Here the present
summons the past to come live to it, and
future, to become a present-day reality;
here a mountain or a stone piece, a tree
or a river talks to a human being, an
animal summons the Supreme for
rescuing it,

Gajendra Moksha
Oil Painting on Canvas with 24 Karat Gold

an evil one transforms into a beast, and

vice-versa a well-meaning beast, into a
divinity. Here wrath – an apparent
weakness, when enshrining a holy figure,
sublimates into the instrument of good, and
high wisdom and great austerities, when
placed into an evil frame, generate evil, and
finally, destruction and ruin.

Goddess Mahakali
Tibetan Thangka Painting

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 Here in this strange world a human
being swallows the sea, and a vast
and massive hill-range, such as
Vindhyachala, sheds its height for
giving passage to a mortal, and thus,
in a sage becoming taller than a
mountain, the meaning of the height
gets redefined.

Sage Agastya swallows the Sea

Here are four more prevalent myths representing four great events overlapping
divine, human, animal and material spheres : one, related to Vaivashvata Manu,
progenitor of human race, Great Deluge and the emergence of the earth from under
its tempestuous waters; two, recovery of nectar and other jewels from the depths of
ocean when it was churned, as also demons’ greed, and gods’ designs to defeat their
intentions; three, sublimation of wrath – a weakness, when it is to destroy a false
ego, and destruction of the ‘sacred’ – an yajna, when it was designed to disgrace
and insult someone, specially one’s own kin; and four, fusion or assimilation of
various divine energies into one being for defeating evil and restoring order and
cosmic balance.

VAIVASHVATA MANU AND THE GREAT DELUGE

Occurrence of a Great Deluge, which swallowed the earth, its inhabitants and the
entire Creation except a human couple, a Great Fish and a boat, and enshrouded the
entire cosmos into abyssal darkness, occurring crores of years ago – over thirty
crores as per calculation under Indian astronomical tradition, is a myth prevalent in
almost all ancient civilizations, especially, Hindu, Christian and Islamic. In Hindu
tradition it took place when the holy king Vaivashvata Manu ruled the earth. Many
observations of modern scientific studies to also include the evolution theory suggest
that initially there prevailed some kind of abyssal darkness and all around was dead
mass out of which shaped the cosmos, something as brings to mind the myth of the
emergence of a massive all-engulfing flood, waters receding over a period of crores
of years and the earth surfacing out of them. However rare and remote, the event of
the Great Flood appears to have once taken place – a factual thing, though not part
of the known past or history; obviously a natural event of cosmic disturbance,
though subsequently re-cast by various world traditions, mostly theological, in their

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own terms and according to the objective each sought to serve, and now the Great
Deluge is a myth.

In some form or the other, the legend of the Great Fish rescuing Vaivashvata Manu
from the Great Flood occurs in both, Vedic and post-Vedic literature. Even during the
period of Atharva-Veda the legend seems to have been a common knowledge. In the
Shatpatha Brahmin it has been elaborated in greater details. After the Flood
subsided and Manu was again engaged in yajna and the life of austerities, from
oblation made in the course of a yajna there appeared a maiden. Born of the yajna
that he performed the maiden was his daughter known in the tradition by the name
of Ila. The Shatpatha Brahmin contends that it was by Ila that Manu created human
race.

Though not without some contradictions erupting over the period of time,
subsequent Hindu scriptures give to the legend a more definitive form determining
its period, Manu’s lineage and other things. They link the occurrence of the Great
Deluge with the life span of Brahma, the period from his birth to his death, and with
Vaivashvata Manu, one of Brahma’s descendants, being fifth in his line. Texts define
Brahma’s lifespan as the Mahakalpa. The Great Flood that destroyed the universe –
Prapancha, as texts call it, is claimed to take place after Brahma perishes. Brahma’s
life-span extends over thirty crores, nine lacs, seventeen thousands and three
hundred and seventy-six hundred human years, which come to one hundred twenty
Brahma years which some texts call Divine years. Each Brahma year consists of
three hundred sixty Brahma days. A Brahma day, known in the tradition as Kalpa
Kala, comprises fourteen Manavantaras, each ruled by a Manu. Thus, each Brahma
day has fourteen Manavantaras and fourteen Manus. A Manavantara, the life-span of
one Manu, comprises seventy-one Chaturyugas each of which consists of four yugas
– Krita or Satayuga, Tretayuga, Dvaparayuga and Kaliyuga. Thus, it is after some
twelve crores and twenty-four lacs Chaturyugas that a Brahma’s life terminates.
Termination of Brahma’s life reveals in the form of the Mahapralaya – Great Deluge.

As the Hindu tradition has it, the last Great Deluge

took place during the tenure of Vaivashvata Manu,
the seventh in the line of fourteen Manus who
presided over the last Kalpa Kala. Though an
aggregation of solar energy present in the cosmos,
Manu was born of Sangya by Vivasvana, a
descendant of Brahma, fourth in his line. It is thus
that Vivasvana’s son Manu gets Vaivashvata Manu
as his name in Hindu tradition. In divine genealogy
Manu was the grandson of Kashyapa, and
Kashyapa, son of the Brahma’s son Marichi, was
Brahma’s grandson. Almost in all Hindu texts the
myth has been alluded to in context to Vishnu’s
Matsyavatara – his emergence as Fish, the first of
his ten principal incarnations.
Matsya, the Fish Avatara (The
Ten Incarnations of Lord
Vishnu)
Water Color Painting on Patti Paper
Artist: Rabi Behera

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 In incarnation theory, as Fish Vishnu
rescues Vedas, not Manu, though
symbolically the two events are hardly
different. Both Vedas and Manu not only
descend direct from Brahma but are
rather Brahma’s spiritual offspring, his
spiritual manifestations. Vishnu, with
double of Brahma’s lifespan, summons
Brahma into his next tenure, something
which the myth of Matsyavatara suggests
symbolically. Whether the Matsyavatara
myth represents Vishnu as Fish restoring
to the earth the Vedas or Manu, both,
manifesting Brahma spiritually, suggest
Brahma’s re-emergence or re-birth for
effecting re-Creation.

The Birth of Brahma

Water Color Painting on Paper
Artist: Navneet Parikh

The narrative part of the myth is rather simple. Vaivashvata Manu, a holy god-
fearing king, was once engaged in penance at Badari on the bank of river Kritimala.
In due course he descended into the river for taking a holy dip. With the water that
he collected for oblation a tiny fish mounted his palm. Before he could decide what
to do of it, the fish prayed him not to forsake it for it feared that the large fishes
would swallow it. Hearing this Manu brought the fish to his palace and put it into an
earthen pot. Fish grew to a size larger than the pot. It was the same when the fish
was put into a larger pot. Manu then put it into a pond and, when it grew larger than
the pond, he shifted it to the river Ganga, though within days the river too fell short
to the size of the fish. Finally, the fish disclosed to Manu that within seven days a
great flood shall swallow the earth and everything, and advised him to make a large
boat and taking seven sages into it he should escape. The fish assured him its help.

As advised, Manu got a large boat prepared, boarded it along with seven sages,
namely, Vashishtha, Kashyapa, Atri, Jamadagni, Gautam, Vishvamitra and
Bharadwaj, and stood ready for escaping the flood. As foretold within seven days
torrential rains began swelling the ocean and the earth and everything, living beings,
trees and mountains, submerging under the swelling waters. There grew horns on
the head of the fish, to which Manu tied his boat and then the fish began dragging it
and reached the highest peak of Himalaya and landed the boat’s inmates safe on it.
Thus while all beings and all things were destroyed by the flood, Manu, seven sages
and some germs contained in the boat survived to father various species when the
earth re-emerged. The mountain peak to which the boat was tied is still known as
Naobandhana, or as one to which the boat was tied. The Matsya puranas identifies
the mountain peak where the Manu’s boat harboured as Malaya Mountain. The
Kamayani, an epic by the early twentieth century Hindi poet Jai Shankara Prasad,
has elaborated the theme of the myth into a timeless work of literature.

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THE GREAT FLOOD IN BIBLICAL AND OTHER WORLD
TRADITIONS

In Biblical tradition the incidence of the Great Flood occurs with a few variations. As
Manu in the Hindu tradition, the Biblical tradition has Adam as the first creation of
God and the progenitor of human race. To him were born nine sons, namely, Seth,
Enos, Kainan, Mahalil, Jared. Enoch, Methuselah, Lamech and Noah. To Noah, when
he was five hundred years old, were born three sons, Shem, Ham and Jopheth. It
was during the period of Noah that the Great Flood occurred.

As the tradition has it, one day God made his appearance and said to Noah, "The
end of all flesh is come before one; for the earth is filled with violence through them,
and behold, I will destroy them with the earth. Make thee an ark of gopar wood;
rooms shalt thou make in the ark and shalt paint it within and without with pitch.
…… I, do bring a flood of water up on the earth, to destroy all flesh wherein is the
breadth of life from under heaven and everything that is in the earth shall die. But
….. thou shalt come into the ark, thou and thy sons and thy wives and thy sons’
wives with thee, and of every living thing of all flesh two of every sort….; they shall
be male and female. ….. For yet seven days and I will cause it to rain up on the
earth forty days and forty nights, and every living substance that I have made I
shall destroy from off the earth." Noah did as the Lord had commanded him – made
an ark and collected all beings and things as specified by God and boarded them all
in it.

When Noah was six hundred years old, the Great Flood occurred. It began raining
and waters began flooding the earth. It rained for forty days and forty nights and
the waters swelled and covered the earth, mountains and everything, though the ark
that carried Noah and those with him was lifted above these waters, and every time
when these waters swelled the ark rose above them. Every living substance died and
all things perished. After hundred fifty days, after the rains stopped, God sent a
wave of wind and with this tempestuous waves cooled down and then Noah got
down the ark, and then his sons, wives, sons’ wives and all species in groups of two
each, the male and female, and the world began reviving. Then Noah made an altar
unto the Lord and took every clean heart and clean fowl to make offerings at the
altar.

The legend of the Great Flood is a part of many other traditions of the ancient world.
The legend, as appears in the Islamic tradition, is identical to that in the Holy Bible
except the name of the mountain peak where Hazrat Noah’s boat harbours. In Holy
Qur’an the name of the mountain peak is Judi. In Greek literature the legend has
been woven around Duculius and his wife Peria. In all other details the myth is
almost like that in the Indian tradition. Babylonian literature also has the legend of
the Great Flood. After the flood has subsided, Jihsathrus, the son of Ardentus,
appeases gods by offering sacrifice and then builds the city of Babylonia. The event
of Great Flood figures in Persians’ religious literature as also in the traditions of
China, Indo-china, Malaya, Australia, Malaysia, North-south America among many
other countries.

SAMUDRA-MANTHANA

'Samudra-manthana' or churning of ocean for obtaining nectar and Shri, one of a

few occasions on which gods and demons joined hands for accomplishing something,
is another quite widely known episode of Indian mythology. Exploration of ocean,
sometimes for the treasures of a ship drowned and buried under it and at other
times for its own riches, is known to have always been man’s ambition and it has
been carried out time and again by people possessed of a desire to obtain it – a

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massive act requiring many hands and multiple means to accomplish it. In recent
times, not merely for the riches that the ocean stores under its waters but it is being
churned, or dug, also for things, crude in particular, that it contains below its
bottom.

In Indian tradition, the event of ocean churning has been alluded to, almost
unanimously, in context to Vishnu’s Kurmavtaras – his incarnation as Tortoise or
Turtle, the second of his ten principal ones, and to the emergence of Shri or Lakshmi
from the womb of the ocean, and other precious jewels, and nectar and arson.
Several ancient Indian texts have allusions to the legend, but the Vishnu Purana,
Harivansha Purana and Dasavatara Purana are more elaborate in their details.
'Puranas' have a number of legends related to Samudra-manthana; however, while
some of them maintain that the ocean was churned for recovering the precious
jewels lost in the Great Deluge, others contend that the aged gods, who had grown
weak and decrepit and for reviving their youth and vigour stood in dire need of
nectar which lied buried deep into the womb of ocean, had no other option but to
churn it for obtaining it. However, weak as they were, they could not churn it by
themselves, and the helpless ones, on the advice of Lord Vishnu, they conciliated
with demons and persuaded them to jointly churn it.

However, the myth related to Durvasa, the sage known in the tradition for his short
temper and wrathful nature, prevails over them all. It is said sage Durvasa once
visited Baikuntha, the abode of Lord Vishnu. Out of reverence to the great sage,
Vishnu, when seeing him off, honoured him with a garland of Parijata, the celestial
flowers pregnant with inexhaustible sweet honey and unfading freshness. On way
back Durvasa met Indra riding his Airavata. Durvasa thought that a garland of
Parijata – a thing of royalty, was hardly of any use to a recluse like him and better
that he gave it to Indra who in his position as the king of gods truly deserved it. He
hence placed the garland on Indra's neck, but Indra, conceited as he was,
neglectfully hurled the saint’s sacred gift on his elephant's head. The sweet
fragrance of Parijata flowers invited bees that swarmed around the elephant’s head,
and irritated as the animal was, it tore the garland, threw it down and crushed it
under its feet.

A blatant insult, Durvasa cursed Indra to become devoid of all splendour and riches.
Instantly Shri, the presiding deity of riches, splendour and fertility, deserted Indra
and all three worlds that he ruled. She disappeared into Kshirasagara, the ocean of
milk. Bereft of all grandeur and prowess Indra and other gods approached Brahma
who after hearing their plight invoked Vishnu. Vishnu appeared and said that
churning of Kshirasagara was the only way for recovering 'Shri' from it, and also that
they could not do it alone, hence they should conciliate with 'asuras' and persuade
them to participate in the act. Vishnu suggested that Mount Mandara could be used
as the churning rod and the Great Serpent Vasuki as the rope.

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As advised by Lord Vishnu gods
approached 'asuras'. They
persuaded them to conjointly
churn the ocean and discover
out of it nectar, the elixir of
timeless youth and life, and
other precious jewels, and thus
defeat death, old age and
decay for ever. The greedy
‘asuras’ instantly agreed and
the two ever warring factions
reconciled. They then uprooted
the Mount Mandara and laid it
vertically like a churning rod
The Demons Churn from the Head End
into the ocean and the great
serpent Vasuki was laid coiling
round it like the churning rope. To evade the adverse effect of the poison that the
great serpent emitted from its mouth Vishnu wished that the gods held its tail part,
and 'asuras', its mouth. He knew that suspicious 'asuras' would opt for contrary to
what gods proposed to them. He hence asked them to hold the serpent’s tail-part.
As expected, the vain and conceited ‘asuras’ declined taking it as an insult to hold
the tail instead of the head of the animal. They declared that they would hold the
serpent’s head, not tail, something that the gods wished.

The churning was begun but before long

the ocean yielded deadly ‘halahala’ –
arsenic, which began suffocating all
alike, gods, demons, human beings and
animals, and destroying entire
vegetation and nature, rivers and all
water sources and air. Amidst great hue
and cry both gods and demons looked
for help. Finally, Shiva came forward
and swallowed the arsenic and stored it
up in his throat, which turned his neck
blue earning him Neelakantha name –
one with blue neck.

Neelkanth Shiva
Brass Sculpture

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However the arsenic could not be rendered
completely ineffective. With its heat Shiva’s body
burnt like an oven; hence, when churning re-
commenced and from it revealed moon, for its
soothing cool effect Shiva bore it on his head and
this gave him Chandrasekhar as his yet another
name.

Lord Shiva with His Lingam

Batik Painting On Cotton Fabric

Obstacles yet awaited. When the ocean began giving forth

its treasure, one after the other – Surabhi, the celestial cow,
Uchchishrava, the divine horse, Airavata, the multi-trunked
white elephant, Kaustubha-mani, Parijat etc., they realised
that Mount Mandara was sinking into the ocean’s basin and
neither gods or demons nor the Great Serpent Vasuki were
able to hold it. The feat could not be suspended or left
unfinished for the more desired objects, more so the nectar
and Shri, were yet to surface. It disappointed both gods and
demons alike. When yet in the gust of disappointment they
felt that the fast sinking mountain was suddenly contained
into its position. Vishnu, with no option left, had incarnated
as Kurma – tortoise, with an earth-like large diameter, and
slipped unnoticed under the mount Mandara and held it on
its back. Churning was re-commenced and the ocean yielded
further pots of wine and nectar, Dhanwantari, the legendary
physician, Shri or Lakshmi, the divine conch among others.
Dhanvantari - The
Physician of the Gods
(Holding the Vase of
Immortality)
Brass Sculpture

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VIRABHADRA : SUBLIMATION OF SHIVA’S WRATH

Virabhadra, Lord Shiva’s son born of his sublime wrath, and one of his guards and
generals, is a rare character from Indian mythology in which a weakness, such as
anger, sublimates into a divine form and terminates a wrongful vain act designed to
insult and derogate others. He was created by Lord Shiva for destroying the 'yajna',
the sacrificial rites, of Daksha, Shiva's father-in-law and the father of Sati, his
consort. Daksha was the Brahma’s son and ruled of the earth.

By a hundred year long penance, Daksha appeased Mahamaya and as he wished she
was born to him as his daughter by the name of Sati. The most beautiful maiden on
the earth Sati married Shiva against the wishes of her father who was annoyed with
him for decapitating one of the five heads of his father Brahma in a dispute and
carried the severed head all along in the style of a trophy. Hence, for insulting Shiva
as also Sati Daksha organised a great 'yajna' but did not invite them. With great
agitation in mind Sati wished to go to the yajna and destroy it. Indifferent Shiva
dissuaded her but she went. Daksha, her father, not only neglected but also insulted
her and abused Shiva. Desperate as Sati was, she jumped into sacrificial fire and
immolated herself.

Shiva loved Sati madly. The news of her death

maddened him with rage and grief. His matted hair
waved in air and moved from the sky to the earth
and from its stroke emerged Virabhadra

Virabhadra, Shiva's Most

Trusted Guard
Water Color Painitng on Paper
Mysore Art

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 and Bhadrakali.

Goddess Bhadrakali
Water Color Painting on Patti Paper
Artist: Rabi Behera

He commanded them to destroy the 'yajna' of Daksha. Varying slightly from this
version of the Devi Bhagavata, the Mahabharata acclaims their emergence from his
mouth. There rose from each hair-pore of Virabhadra a fearful monster, known as
'Raumya' in scriptural tradition, and they attacked the sacrificial fire of Daksha and
extinguished it. Virabhadra’s fury went on inflicting further destruction targeting
Brahma’s entire creation but Shiva appeared and pacified him and attributed to him
the status of a planet by the name of Angarakshaka, a guard to Mangala, the
benevolent, which in Indian Trinity Shiva represented. Thus, Virabhadra is revered
as both, a planet of auspices and as Lord Shiva’s guard. As such, the tradition has
woven around him a number of myths representing him sometimes as protecting
Kashyapa and other sages from a monstrous fire, and sometimes gods, from a
serpent-monster, or from the mouth of Panchamedha, a demon.

CREATION OF DEVI

Among traditions related to emergence of Devi a more popular one, perhaps as

popular as the one that contends that Devi is beyond time and beyond form :
'Sarvam khalvidamevaham nanyadasty sanatanam', that is, 'all that is, it is me
(Devi); there is nothing lasting but me (Devi)', relates to her creation from
assimilation of divine energies, as also, powers and attributes of all gods, for the
elimination of demon Mahisha who once ruled the earth. As the Devi Mahatmya
section in the Markandeya Purana and a number of other texts have it, after he had
conquered the entire earth Mahisha’s ambitions soared higher. He sent words to
Indra, heaven's ruler, to either accept his suzerainty or face him in battle. Indra
preferred war but he and his army of gods could not face Mahisha and fled, and
Mahisha occupied Indra’s abode too.

Gods, led by Indra, rushed to Brahma who revealed on them that by his own boon
Mahishasura was invincible against all males – men, demons or beasts. Helpless
himself, Brahma took them first to Shiva and then to Vishnu. After he heard of
Mahisha's misdeeds, from Vishnu's countenance burst a divine lustre with which
radiated the entire ambience. He turned towards Shiva, and then Brahma, Agni,
Surya, Indra and all other gods. A similar lustre began bursting from the faces of

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them all. This divine brilliance, amassing into a huge mount of radiance, covered the
entire creation from the sky to the earth. Out of it revealed gradually a female
figure, first, her head, then breasts, waist, thighs and legs. From Shiva's lustre was
formed her head; from Yama's, her hair; and from that of Vishnu, Moon, Indra,
Brahma, Sun, Vasu, Kuber, Prajapati, Agni, Twilight, and Vayu, her arms, breasts,
waist, feet, toe-nails, finger-nails, nose, teeth, eyes, brows, and ears. She had
eighteen arms and a three-eyed face. The celestial creation had unique lustre not
known or possessed by any divinity ever before. Filled with gratitude, all gods
prostrated and worshipped the divine creation, Devi, the Great Goddess.

Out of his trident Shiva created

The Creation Of Devi
Water Color Painting On Paper
Artist: Kailash Raj
another and presented it to the
celestial creation. So did Vishnu,
Varuna, Agni, Yama, Vayu,
Surya, Indra, Kuber, Brahma,
Kala, and Vishvakarma. They
offered to her their disc, conch,
dart, iron rod, bow, quiver full of
arrows, thunderbolt, mace and
drinking pot, rosary and water
pot, sword and shield, battle-axe
and a number of amulets
respectively.

Besides, Ocean brought for her glittering jewels,

Shesh, a necklace inlaid with celestial gems, and
Himavana, his lion for her vehicle. Sage Narada
narrated to the Devi all about gods' miserable plight
and Mahisha's atrocities and misdeeds and prayed
her to rescue gods and mankind from him. In a
fierce battle she killed the demon and freed the
world from his clutches. For the divine creation the
usual term that sage Markandeya has used is 'Devi'
but after she killed demon Mahisha the term
‘Mahishasura-Mardini – one who killed demon
Mahisha, emerged as her more popular epithet.

Mahishasura Mardini Durga

Batik Painting On Cotton Fabric

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References and Further Reading:

• Shatpatha Brahmin
• Mahabharata
• Agni Purana
• Bhagavata Purana
• Vishnu Purana
• Holy Bible
• Holy Qur’an
• Vishnu Purana,
• Harivansha Purana
• Dasavatara Purana
• Matsya Purana
• Devi-Mahatmya section of Markandeya Purana
• Devi-Bhagavata
• Puranic Encyclopaedia ed. Vettam Mani
• Prachina Charitrakosha ed. Siddheshvara Shashtri Chitrav

This article by Prof. P.C. Jain and Dr. Daljeet.

We hope you have enjoyed reading the article. Any comments you may have will be
greatly appreciated. Please send your feedback to feedback@exoticindia.com.

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