The Oriya poet Sarla Das from 15th C. reveals through his poetic works the not so apparent connection between Jagannath of Puri and Shri Krishna of Dwarka .

Das, a poet born in a farmer’s household wrote the Oriya version of Mahabharata, which is one of the first retellings of Mahabharata in a regional language. Written in dandi meter of bardic poetry, the characters in Oriya Mahabharata speak in the voice of tribal people. Although Sarla Das followed the themes and plots of the original epic, he also added folk stories, colloquialisms and depictions of local Oriya life in his telling of the Mahabharata.

The story of Jagannath is one such tale found in Sarla Das’s work in Maushala Parva of Mahabharata. The narrative begins at the point when the entire Yadava clan has perished in the war and Shri Krishna too has lost his life to the poisonous arrow shot by hunter Jara who mistook the reclining (sleeping) Krishna’s feet for the ears of a grasing deer. Das departs from the original story at this point and inserts the following story indicating Krishna’s association with Sabara tribe , hinting that Krishna as Jagannath could have been originally a tribal deity.

The story proceeds in this manner…

Arjuna while searching for Krishna in the aftermath of the war stumbled upon the dead body of Krishna. Grief stricken and heartbroken at the lose of his dearest friend, Arjuna tried to cremate the body according to the shashtras, but could not. Just then a voice from the heaven told Arjuna to float Krishna’s pinda* in the ocean. Ajruna with heavy heart obeyed the heavenly command and set Krishna’s pinda in the waters. Meanwhile Narayana ( Krishna) hid himself among Sabars** in the forest by incarnating himself as Madhava, and sabaras began worshiping him ( Krishna) in the image of Sabrinarayan. When the Vaishnavite King of Puri came to know that Vishnu/Krishna is living among the sabars, he sent an emissary to locate and retrieve him. The Brahmin Vasu, emissary of the King spend years searching for Madhava and finally succeeded in locating him. But before Vasu could formally request Madhava to accompany him to the King’s palace, Madhava vanished from view after advising Vasu to tell the King to install a stone deity at Puri.

Every household near the Idukki dam in northern Kerala knows this tale that links Rama the mythic hero with the construction of the arched bridge in Idukki. How does these two entities that belong to different eras get linked through the history of Idukki?

Oorali tribals narrate the following story about Rama. After Sita was abducted by Ravana and taken to Lanka, Rama was in despair for he could not trace her wherabouts. He searched each and every forest he could find, day and night, looking for his beloved wife. On the way Rama reached the forest land of Idduki occupied by Oorali tribals. In the forest lived a newly married young tribal couple with the name Kuravan and his wife Kurathi. The newly weds were madly in love with each other and oblivious of everything else. Rama was who was passing through the forest, stopped by their home expecting hospitality and rest for a short while before continuing his search for Sita. But Kuruvan and Kuruthi were so engrossed in their lovemaking that they neither noticed Rama enter their home nor did they welcome him with an offering of water to quench his thirst, as Rama had expected.

We all know that garlic is an important ingredient in Indian cooking. According to Ayurveda, the medicinal and healing qualities of garlic makes it a remedy for many ailments. There is an interesting tale mentioned in the Puranas explaining how garlic came into existence.

In the beginning the Gods and asuras decided to find nectar or Amrita, the potion of immortality that would make them immortal. They knew this nectar was at the deepest level of the cosmic ocean and the only way to bring it out of ocean was by churing the whole ocean, and it was not going to be an easy task. So the Gods and asuras decided to collaborate on the task with the understanding that once they get the nectar they would share it equally among themselves.

To churn the cosmic ocean they needed a giant staff and a giant rope. Gods requested Vasuki the great Naga K ing to be the churning rope and mount Mandara was to be the churning staff. Vishnu assumed the form of a tortoise and dived deep into the bottom of the ocean and placed mount Mandara on his back to prevent it from sinking. Once these preperations were in place, Gods and asuras stood on either side of the Mandara and started churning the ocean using Vasuki as the churning rope.

As they kept churning the cosmic ocean, fourteen ratnas or treasures floated out of the cosmic ocean, these included Lakshmi, Apasara, Kamadhenu, Airavata, Uchhaishravas, Kaustubh, Parijat, Sharang, Chandra, Dhanavantari, Halahal, Shankh Jyestha and Kalpavriksha. The last ingredient to come out was the coveted Amrit, the pot containing the nectar of immortality. The moment the pot of nectar emerged out of the sea, Rahu an asura jumped down and grabbed it and took off running. The Gods chased Rahu and as they were about to grab him, he began to gulp down the nectar because he knew the gods could snatch it away from him. Indra, the leader of the gods, realising that Rahu had gulped a mouthful of nectar swiftly chopped off Rahu’s head before the nectar could reach his body. Thus the gulp of nectar Rahu had taken in his mouth fell to the earth. Out of this mouthful of nectar that fell many medicinal herbs sprung up and Garlic was one of the plants that germinated from the nectar of immortality.

According to the belief, Garlic is never offered as naivaidya or religious offering of food to the gods because garlic germinated from the nectar that fell out of Rahu the asura’s mouth.

The story collected by: Vidya Kamat
Story sent by Ranjana Ashok
Location : Pan India

Image Source; Wikipedia