In the Bhagavata Purana Indradyumna was a saintly king who was engaged in deep meditation. One day he was visited by the sage Agastya. Indradyumna did not notice the arrival of Agastya, who took the king’s neglect for an insult. Agastya was enraged and cursed Indradyumna to become a…
Indra’s mythology underwent more change than that of perhaps any other god in the Hindu pantheon. Indra appeared in the oldest hymns of the Rigveda as the god par excellence of the warriors (ksatriyas). This stratum of hymns was so ancient that Indra and Varuna were referred to as…
myth of Ila is about the plasticity of gender, with Ila moving back and forth between male and female in the same lifetime. Ila’s father, Vaivasvata-Manu, was the son of Kasiyapa prajapati and Aditi, the first parents in this myth. Her sons were all celestials and divine (adityas) yet she…
In the Rigveda, ida was a word for food or refreshment, especially milk. In the hymns ida worked metaphorically as the refreshment given to the devas (gods) as praise. Thus, it connected with vac (sound) and could be personified as Ida, the goddess who instructed the first Manu concerning the…
Hiranyaksha was the elder twin of Hiranyakasiipu. Their stories are intertwined through four lifetimes: first as Jaya and Vijaya when they were Vishnu’s door-keepers, then their first rebirth as Hiranyaksha and Hiranyakasiipu, a second rebirth as Ravana and Kumbhakarna, and finally their third rebirth as Sisiupala and Dantavaktra. Hiranyaksha…
Once, Sage Agastya narrated the following tale to King Bhadrashva— One day, Narada went to Lord Vishnu and asked about the means by which a devotee could realize him. Lord Vishnu replied–Those who worship me by chanting the mantras of either ‘Purushasukta’ or ‘Vaidik Samhita’ can certainly realize me. Those…
