Now my first story is an important one. It is one of the most talked about events in history in India and something that I think about even today. There are two groups involved: the Devas and the Asuras. The Devas and Asuras are two groups of Gods and are related closely. The Devas and Asuras were both born from a father named Kashyapa, but to different wives. I honestly do not know why, but the Devas and Asuras have been at war with one another for as long as I can remember, and that's a long time! Throughout their various battles there have been some misconceptions. The Devas have always been thought of as the good ones while the Asuras have been more malevolent. Because both groups are a part of me, I care about them equally and I can honestly say that I have no idea where that comes from. History is written by the winners I guess, but more on that later.
Back to the battle, or event, as I said earlier. There is something different about this battle. The Devas and Asuras were particularly active in the years, or maybe it was decades, before finally meeting to battle over something called Amrita, or Nectar of Immortality. The idea of finding the Amrita came up after the Devas were dealt a devastating blow in the form of a curse from a Sage. It all started when Indra, one of the Deva kings, had been given a garland by a sage when he was riding an elephant. In that time, it was respectful to put a gift on the trunk of an elephant to show that Indra was not egotistic. To be honest, I don't really understand why this was considered respectful, but I suppose every culture has their thing. Unfortunately for Indra, the elephant saw that he had no control over his ego, so the elephant threw the garland on the ground. The sage took this personally and condemned the Devas to live without strength, energy, nor fortune. In the succeeding battles, the Asuras won each battle with ease, and so the Devas had to do something.
This is when the idea of obtaining the the Nectar of Immortality came up. The Devas decided to form an alliance with the unlikely Asuras. The goal of the alliance was to obtain the Nectar of Immortality, and then defeat the Asuras, so the Devas could drink the Nectar of Immorality by themselves. To do this,, they needed help from some other gods. After some convincing, Vishnu decided to help. Vishnu has always preferred the Devas which makes sense because Vishnu is a Deva after all. With everything in place, all the Devas and Asuras needed was a plan. After some lengthy, as well as heated, deliberation, the plan was set. Mount Mandara, my favorite by chance, was chosen to act as a dasher to churn the ocean. To power the dasher, the snake that lives on the shoulders of Shiva was used. The Asuras were going to be put at the head of the snake and the Devas at the tail. The was plan was to churn the ocean back and forth tirelessly until the nectar of immortality came up. This is now called The Churning of the ocean, or Samdura Manthan. With the plan in place, all there was left to do was to churn up the ocean.
Author's note:
I decided to write about this story because it is very integral to the rest of Indian Epics. Churning is one of the most common themes in some Indian Epics, so I decided to include this story to provide more of a background to where that theme have come from. Due to the length and depth of the story, I decided to split it up into two parts. This part of the story is more explanation. It's a bit more bland than the rest of the stories because of the explanation required to make the rest of the story make sense. Purusha's perspective takes more of a backseat in this part of the story because there is not much to comment on. Samdura Manthan is also different than the rest of the creation stories because it is one of the most popular. While there are many different origin stories, The Churning of the Ocean is largely regarded as one of the most important stories. The Devas and Asuras are main characters in this story. Both groups are composed of Gods that are present in a lot of other Indian Epics such as Indra. The Devas are known as the more kind gods, but in reality, there is no distinctive difference between the two groups in Indian Epics. It's more of a misconception. For the next part of the story, I will make it more entertaining to read and I will tell the actual story involving the Churning of the Ocean.
Bibliography:
Title: Samudra Manthan
Authors: Wikipedia
Source Wikipedia
Title: Good-deva-bad-asura divide misleading
Authors: The Times of India
Source: Devdutt
Photo: