It is a common sight in India to find a Ganesha icon affixed above the main doorway of any Hindu household. It is believed that placing the icon of Ganesha at the doorway will stop evil forces from entering homes.

There are many stories highlighting the role of Ganesha as a guard or a gatekeeper. The most commonly known story is about how Parvati made a figurine out of the layer of dirt on her skin, breathed life into him and posted him in front of her house to guard her home as she went to have her bath. This is the tale which is commonly associated with the birth of Ganesha. But there is another version of the same tale in Skanda Purana, suggesting how Ganesha was created to guard the doorways of heaven.

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

Traditionally in Indian homes, women use grinding stones to mill flour. This laborious chore requires strength and long hours of back-breaking work and so they sing while milling the grain to overcome the tedium. These songs are known as ovi-s ( grinding stories) in Maharashtra and Goa.

The traditional mill consists of two heavy circular stones placed one on top of each other and turned by a wooden handle. While one woman pours the grain through the central slot the other turns the stone rotating it on its axis crushing the grain. Thus they take turns milling the grain and singing traditional tales. The following song narrates an unusual tale of two arch rivals and their uncanny camaraderie.

“Oh sister listen to my tale” sings the woman as she starts grinding the rice… ‘grrr’… ‘grrr’…’grrr’.. on the stone mill. “Once upon a time there lived a Cobra King by the name Bhujang on the mountain covered in the thick foliage of a rain forest. He lived up on the hill with his wife.” grr… grr.. grrr…” His wife was pregnant with his babies. But she was in the habit of travelling long distances. She would travel to various villages.” Women sang and the grinding mill would pick up the pace. “She would trudge along mountains and rivers and deep forests. The little babies in her belly would memorize the route she would traverse and Oh Lord! let me tell you! These babies would remember the old route. And when they are born they would take the same route that goes via Marcel to Old Goa, from Keri to Panjim”*. They would remember the route so that they could go back and forth as they please. But King Bhujang would never leave his abode. It was believed that the King would come down the mountain only when he got weak and feeble and is about die. So the King stayed put in his hole up in the mountains.”

“ Oh, sister! on the same mountain lived a Garuda( eagle) with his family.” The second woman would join the song adding to the tale. Garuda’s wife too was pregnant with a young baby. The enmity between Garuda clan and Cobras clan is an old one. Till today when they crossed each others path, they would exchange angry glances as if they were waiting to avenge the betrayal Garuda’s had meted out to the Cobras.** King Bhujang’s eyes would redden with anger and he would start hissing in resentment, with his forked tongue out ready to spew deadly poison on the Garuda. The Garuda in return would show him his razor-sharp talons ready to swoop over the Cobra King and tear him to pieces with his hooked beak. They couldn’t see each other eye to eye. Thus lived these two arch rivals on the mountain, waiting for the day to kill each other and avenge the betrayal.”

The myth of Hayagriva- man with a horse neck (griva), is mentioned in Maitreyi Samhita ( 4.9.1). It explains why Lord Vishnu’s head had to be substituted with a horse head.

In the Vedas, Vishnu is the god of sacrifices and is identified as ‘yajna’. Once  Agni, Indra, Vayu, and Yajna ( Vishnu) decided to perform a sacrifice. Gods decided that whoever receives a sacrificial gift first will divide it equally among the rest of them. Yajna (Vishnu) received the gift first. But he got greedy and refused to share it with others and ran away from the sacrificial grounds. The other gods immediately chased him. But Yajna who was quick-footed outran the gods and disappeared in the wilderness. After a while when he noticed that gods were nowhere in sight, Yajna was tired and decided to take a quick nap. But he did not want to take any chances as gods would catch him anytime, so he planted one end of his arched bow on the ground rested his head on the other end, in readiness to shoot an arrow,  and dozed off.

Meanwhile, the gods after searching high and low finally found Yajna ( Vishnu) fast asleep with his head rested on his bow. They decided to cut his head off. But who would do the task?  They commanded the ants in the wilderness to come together and gnaw at the bowstring of Yagna’s bow. But the ants refused to oblige and the Gods made a deal that ants would from then on get a part of sacrificial oblation in the form of clarified butter (ghee). Tempted by the offer ants agreed and quickly gnawed off the string. Released from the tension of the bowstring the arched bow snapped and flung the head of Yajna/ Vishnu high into the air decapitating him. The head rose into the sky and turned into a bright golden ball of fire and became the Sun. The Gods then replaced the head of Vishnu with a horse head, and thus Hayagriva was born.

Atul and Petul were two sisters who lived on the outskirts of a village . Their parents died when they were very young, so they had to fend for their lives by themselves. During the day they would go to the nearby village and beg for food and return to their hut by night to sleep. One day an old lady gave them an idali * to eat. Both the sisters loved it so much that they decided to prepare it by themselves. They gathered all the ingredients. Soaked the lentils in the afternoon, and ground it sitting on the stone grinder. In the night they mixed the ground lentils with rice powder and kept it for fermentation. Everything was done as per the old lady’s instructions.

Next morning they got up early, with the thought of eating hot idalis. But Oh! No! There was no wood to light the stove! The sisters grabbed a machete and a rope and rushed to the nearby jungle to gather dry wood. “Chop! Chop! Chop!” Atul started chopping the wood from a tree. A dugout close to the tree was the home of a tiger. He heard the loud noise of wood chopping and crawled out. “ Whose that? Who is chopping off the trees?” roared the tiger. Atul and Petul froze in fear. A huge angry tiger was looming over them bearing his big fangs.

Who is the supreme devotee of Vishnu? Garuda or Hanuman?

According to Puranic accounts Garuda was once filled with pride since he helped the gods acquire the pot of nectar from asuras, also he had aided Krishna steal Parijat tree from Indra’s abode. Other than that, Vajra- or thunderbolt the ultimate weapon of Indra was ineffective on him and he was instrumental in killing and wounding innumerable asuras with his strength and speed. Lord Vishnu had given him the coveted position of his Vahana or carrier. Thus Garuda was filled with arrogance to be superior to all other devotees of Vishnu.

Noticing Garuda’s arrogance, Krishna decided to test Garuda. He summoned Hanuman to Dwarka aksed him to help shatter Garuda’s pride and arrogance. After crossing the gates of Dwarka, Hanuman began destroying the palace orchard. He ate all the fruits, uprooted a number of trees, and in no time demolished the whole orchard. The palace guards rushed to Krishna to inform of the unruly monkey wreaking havoc on the orchard.

Krishna called Garuda who was beside him, and asked him to attend to the problem.” You better go with your army and capture the monkey” Krishna advised Garuda.

“O Lord, I don’t need an army to catch an insignificant monkey. I myself can tackle the problem and bring the monkey before you ” Garuda replied brimming with over confidence.

There lived a pious Brahman who owned a number of cows. The cow named Bahula, was his favourite one among all. She was most sincere and kind and had given birth to a young calf recently. As usual on that day Brahmana sent out all his cows for grazing. Bahula too headed for the grassland. She wanted to have a few quick mouthfuls and return to her young calf to feed her. Unfortunately, she strayed into the deep forest while grazing. Suddenly she noticed a tiger before her getting ready to pounce upon her. Realising she will be devoured by the tiger, her eyes widened and began shedding copious tears. She thought of her hungry calf waiting for her back home and pleaded with the tiger, “ Let me go home and feed my calf for one last time, and then you can eat me” Bahula begged. The tiger took pity on Bahula and asked her return as quickly as possible after feeding the calf , as he was very hungry.

Bahula hastened home. She fed her calf her milk for the last time and told Brahmana, what had happened. After listening the tale, Brahmana said “O Bahula! If you die what will happen to your young calf ? Instead, let me offer myself to the tiger.” But Bahula was adamant. She explained to the Brahmana that she had promised the tiger to return and she cannot go against her word. Saying thus she returned to the tiger. Brahman and little calf too followed behind her. When they reached the jungle, Bahula gladly offered herself to the tiger. Instantly, the tiger changed shape and the brilliant form of Lord Shri Krishna appeared in place of the tiger. Krishna said “ I am so pleased with your truthfulness and integrity and from now on, this forest will be known as Bahulavan”

One day Parvati, the consort of Shiva requested Shiva to tell her a story. “ Oh lord ! tell me a story that no one has heard before”, she pleaded. Shiva agreed and compiled a fresh tale for her. Shiva closed the door to the bed chamber so that no one else should hear it. While he was closing the door one of Shiva’s minions concealed himself as a tiny fly and entered the bedchamber and listened to the tale sitting unnoticed on the wall.

Once he heard the story he could not contain himself and shared the story with his wife . She then went ahead told the story to her companions with the rider “ please don’t tell it to anyone”. Finally the story got shared among everyone as it completed its circle and reached Parvati’s maid, who told it back to Parvati. Parvati was aghast. How could Shiva cheat her by telling a story that everyone knew? She immediately reported it Shiva and accused him for cheating her.