In the Mahabharata Likhita and Sanlcha were brothers, with their asramas (hermitages) next to each other on the banks of the Bahuda River. One day Likhita was hungry and went over to his brother’s asrama and began eating his vegetables. Jsankha discovered the theft and took Likhita before the king….
In the Ramayana the story is told that Brahma gave Lanka to Kubera, god of wealth. Celestial architects Visvakarman and Maya together designed this celestial city and built it of gold. Its first location was on the top of Mount Trikuta, a peak of Mahameru (great Meru). However, in…
Lakshmi’s multiple importance in Hindu mythology cannot be captured in a few paragraphs. Three perspectives will demonstrate the breadth of her roles and the changes in the ways in which she was perceived. Linguistically and historically, Lakshmi in the Rigveda was a word of feminine gender that quantified good fortune…
Lakshmana was the younger half-brother of Rama by the third and youngest wife of King Dasiaratha of Ayodhya. But his affection for Rama was understood to have been the result of his previous lifetime—as an incarnation of Lord Vishnu’s serpent, the one who floated as his bed on the…
Kurukshetra simply means “the field of the Kurus.” The Kurus or Kauravas decended from Kuru, a king of the Lunar Dynasty. About eighty-five miles north-northeast of Delhi, Kurukshetra has been an important pilgrimage site (tirtha) for at least twenty centuries. References in the Mahabharata to a firealtar (vedi) of Brahma…
This is one of the richest myths in the Vishnu myth cycle. Its popularity makes it pan-Indian and not just sectarian, even though many versions attempt to prove the ultimacy of Vishnu and his supremacy over Siva. When it is seen as an origin myth, answering the question of…
