Post by maddogblues on Apr 19, 2010 11:13:23 GMT -5
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What is Myth? Exploring A Sacred World and Its Inhabitants
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Ancient traditions world over, not merely those from the realm of
religion but also history, metaphysics, cosmology, medicines and
sciences, are largely myths, sometimes quite strange and
unbelievable, events with no apparent cause-and-effect
reciprocity, and beings beyond human conception. Opinions differ
as to what exactly the term ‘myth’ means. It is sometimes defined
as something false or untrue, the same as means the Hindi term
‘mithya’ – two structural co-relates having identical sound. This
is an obviously wrong notion. A myth is a broad truth in regard
to an event or a set of beings, men, animals or others, the
factual dimensions of which have either blurred or weeded out by
time as irrelevant, and what survives in people’s minds, texts,
memory or traditions, is its essence, a truth’s timeless pith, a
mystique or philosophy, and the fiction amassing around, its mere
body. A strange dilemma, a myth is a truth but the term ‘myth’,
not ‘truth’, better defines what it portrays, perhaps being a
truth of higher grade, or fiction being its body.
Many mythical traditions, Hindu, Christian, Islamic or any, like
the myth in regard to the Great Deluge submerging the earth and
enveloping the entire cosmos under impenetrable darkness, a
single human couple – progenitors of the race of man, and a Great
Fish along with a boat alone surviving – the myth that explores
evolution of the earth and human race in many early
civilizations, have many parallels and a strange unity in their
themes. They all have similar interwoven events, mystic
dimensions and a bizarre look. Not mere fiction or creation of
fancy, such world-wide unanimity of these traditions suggests
that the event which a myth portrays, or at least its core
context – central part, might have been once a reality, which
being strange and rare, gathered around it a certain amount of
divinity and mysticism, and was thus mythicised and re-defined or
rather re-cycled in terms of a prevalent theology for promoting
its dogmatic ends, or a human value.
Breadth of Indian Myths
Myths from India, with a large body of literature emerging over
millenniums giving them authenticity, versatility and vividness,
explore with greater enormity and unique breadth multifarious
cosmic activity, whether taking place in the man’s mind or beyond
it in the phenomenal world. Whatever exists materially, the
earth, the sun, the moon, a river, ocean, sky, a mountain, an
animal, a medicinal herb, nectar or poison, or whatever takes
place in finer regions of existence, a weakness of mind, inherent
spiritual strength, pain or pleasure, or a desire to own and
rule, an Indian myth has made it its theme, sometimes exploring
its origin or emergence and at other times, its role, sometimes a
river’s descent on the earth, or the earth’s rise from under the
deep seas, and at other times, sublimation of a weakness, or
aggregation of divine energies into a single being for undoing
the evil or a wrong.
In this world of Indian myths a boon of immortality, when defiled
turning atrocious and wrong, instruments death and defeat, not
timeless life, and on the contrary, the doomed is seen defeating
the death when virtue stands his guard. This world does not
accept dividers, those dividing man from woman, man from animal,
or live from dead, nor accepts the scale of time fragmented into
past, present and future. Here the present summons the past to
come live to it, and future, to become a present-day reality;
here a mountain or a stone piece, a tree or a river talks to a
human being, an animal summons the Supreme for rescuing it,
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an evil one transforms into a beast, and vice-versa a
well-meaning beast, into a divinity. Here wrath – an apparent
weakness, when enshrining a holy figure, sublimates into the
instrument of good,
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and high wisdom and great austerities, when placed into an evil
frame, generate evil, and finally, destruction and ruin. Here in
this strange world a human being swallows the sea,
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and a vast and massive hill-range, such as Vindhyachala, sheds
its height for giving passage to a mortal, and thus, in a sage
becoming taller than a mountain, the meaning of the height gets redefined.
Here are four more prevalent myths representing four great events
overlapping divine, human, animal and material spheres : one,
related to Vaivashvata Manu, progenitor of human race, Great
Deluge and the emergence of the earth from under its tempestuous
waters; two, recovery of nectar and other jewels from the depths
of ocean when it was churned, as also demons’ greed, and gods’
designs to defeat their intentions; three, sublimation of wrath –
a weakness, when it is to destroy a false ego, and destruction of
the ‘sacred’ – an yajna, when it was designed to disgrace and
insult someone, specially one’s own kin; and four, fusion or
assimilation of various divine energies into one being for
defeating evil and restoring order and cosmic balance.
Vaivashvata Manu And The Great Deluge
Occurrence of a Great Deluge, which swallowed the earth, its
inhabitants and the entire Creation except a human couple, a
Great Fish and a boat, and enshrouded the entire cosmos into
abyssal darkness, occurring crores of years ago – over thirty
crores as per calculation under Indian astronomical tradition, is
a myth prevalent in almost all ancient civilizations, especially,
Hindu, Christian and Islamic. In Hindu tradition it took place
when the holy king Vaivashvata Manu ruled the earth. Many
observations of modern scientific studies to also include the
evolution theory suggest that initially there prevailed some kind
of abyssal darkness and all around was dead mass out of which
shaped the cosmos, something as brings to mind the myth of the
emergence of a massive all-engulfing flood, waters receding over
a period of crores of years and the earth surfacing out of them.
However rare and remote, the event of the Great Flood appears to
have once taken place – a factual thing, though not part of the
known past or history; obviously a natural event of cosmic
disturbance, though subsequently re-cast by various world
traditions, mostly theological, in their own terms and according
to the objective each sought to serve, and now the Great Deluge is a myth.
In some form or the other, the legend of the Great Fish rescuing
Vaivashvata Manu from the Great Flood occurs in both, Vedic and
post-Vedic literature. Even during the period of Atharva-Veda the
legend seems to have been a common knowledge. In the Shatpatha Brahmin it has been elaborated in greater details. After the Flood subsided and Manu was again engaged in yajna and the life of austerities, from oblation made in the course of a yajna there
appeared a maiden. Born of the yajna that he performed the maiden was his daughter known in the tradition by the name of Ila. The Shatpatha Brahmin contends that it was by Ila that Manu created human race.
Though not without some contradictions erupting over the period
of time, subsequent Hindu scriptures give to the legend a more
definitive form determining its period, Manu’s lineage and other
things. They link the occurrence of the Great Deluge with the
life span of Brahma, the period from his birth to his death, and
with Vaivashvata Manu, one of Brahma’s descendants, being fifth
in his line. Texts define Brahma’s lifespan as the Mahakalpa. The
Great Flood that destroyed the universe – Prapancha, as texts
call it, is claimed to take place after Brahma perishes. Brahma’s
life-span extends over thirty crores, nine lacs, seventeen
thousands and three hundred and seventy-six hundred human years,which come to one hundred twenty Brahma years which some textscall Divine years. Each Brahma year consists of three hundredsixty Brahma days. A Brahma day, known in the tradition as KalpaKala, comprises fourteen Manavantaras, each ruled by a Manu.Thus, each Brahma day has fourteen Manavantaras and fourteenManus. A Manavantara, the life-span of one Manu, comprises seventy-one Chaturyugas each of which consists of four yugas – Krita or Satayuga, Tretayuga, Dvaparayuga and Kaliyuga. Thus, it is after some twelve crores and twenty-four lacs Chaturyugas that a Brahma’s life terminates. Termination of Brahma’s life reveals in the form of the Mahapralaya – Great Deluge.
As the Hindu tradition has it, the last Great Deluge took place
during the tenure of Vaivashvata Manu, the seventh in the line of
fourteen Manus who presided over the last Kalpa Kala. Though an
aggregation of solar energy present in the cosmos, Manu was born
of Sangya by Vivasvana, a descendant of Brahma, fourth in his
line. It is thus that Vivasvana’s son Manu gets Vaivashvata Manu
as his name in Hindu tradition. In divine genealogy Manu was the
grandson of Kashyapa, and Kashyapa, son of the Brahma’s son
Marichi, was Brahma’s grandson. Almost in all Hindu texts the
myth has been alluded to in context to Vishnu’s Matsyavatara –
his emergence as Fish, the first of his ten principal incarnations.
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In incarnation theory, as Fish Vishnu rescues Vedas, not Manu,
though symbolically the two events are hardly different. Both
Vedas and Manu not only descend direct from Brahma but are rather Brahma’s spiritual offspring, his spiritual manifestations.
Vishnu, with double of Brahma’s lifespan, summons Brahma into his
next tenure, something which the myth of Matsyavatara suggests
symbolically. Whether the Matsyavatara myth represents Vishnu as
Fish restoring to the earth the Vedas or Manu, both, manifesting
Brahma spiritually, suggest Brahma’s re-emergence or re-birth for
effecting re-Creation.
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The narrative part of the myth is rather simple. Vaivashvata
Manu, a holy god-fearing king, was once engaged in penance at
Badari on the bank of river Kritimala. In due course he descended
into the river for taking a holy dip. With the water that he
collected for oblation a tiny fish mounted his palm. Before he
could decide what to do of it, the fish prayed him not to forsake
it for it feared that the large fishes would swallow it. Hearing
this Manu brought the fish to his palace and put it into an
earthen pot. Fish grew to a size larger than the pot. It was the
same when the fish was put into a larger pot. Manu then put it
into a pond and, when it grew larger than the pond, he shifted it
to the river Ganga, though within days the river too fell short
to the size of the fish. Finally, the fish disclosed to Manu that
within seven days a great flood shall swallow the earth and
everything, and advised him to make a large boat and taking seven
sages into it he should escape. The fish assured him its help.
As advised, Manu got a large boat prepared, boarded it along with
seven sages, namely, Vashishtha, Kashyapa, Atri, Jamadagni,
Gautam, Vishvamitra and Bharadwaj, and stood ready for escaping
the flood. As foretold within seven days torrential rains began
swelling the ocean and the earth and everything, living beings,
trees and mountains, submerging under the swelling waters. There
grew horns on the head of the fish, to which Manu tied his boat
and then the fish began dragging it and reached the highest peak
of Himalaya and landed the boat’s inmates safe on it. Thus while
all beings and all things were destroyed by the flood, Manu,
seven sages and some germs contained in the boat survived to
father various species when the earth re-emerged. The mountain
peak to which the boat was tied is still known as Naobandhana, or
as one to which the boat was tied. The Matsya purana identifies
the mountain peak where the Manu’s boat harboured as Malaya
Mountain. The Kamayani, an epic by the early twentieth century
Hindi poet Jai Shankara Prasad, has elaborated the theme of the
myth into a timeless work of literature.
The Great Flood In Biblical And Other World Traditions
In Biblical tradition the incidence of the Great Flood occurs
with a few variations. As Manu in the Hindu tradition, the
Biblical tradition has Adam as the first creation of God and the
progenitor of human race. To him were born nine sons, namely,
Seth, Enos, Kainan, Mahalil, Jared. Enoch, Methuselah, Lamech and
Noah. To Noah, when he was five hundred years old, were born
three sons, Shem, Ham and Jopheth. It was during the period of
Noah that the Great Flood occurred.
As the tradition has it, one day God made his appearance and said
to Noah, “The end of all flesh is come before one; for the earth
is filled with violence through them, and behold, I will destroy
them with the earth. Make thee an ark of gopar wood; rooms shalt
thou make in the ark and shalt paint it within and without with
pitch. …… I, do bring a flood of water up on the earth, to
destroy all flesh wherein is the breadth of life from under
heaven and everything that is in the earth shall die. But …..
thou shalt come into the ark, thou and thy sons and thy wives and
thy sons’ wives with thee, and of every living thing of all flesh
two of every sort….; they shall be male and female. ….. For yet
seven days and I will cause it to rain up on the earth forty days
and forty nights, and every living substance that I have made I
shall destroy from off the earth.” Noah did as the Lord had
commanded him – made an ark and collected all beings and things
as specified by God and boarded them all in it.
When Noah was six hundred years old, the Great Flood occurred. It
began raining and waters began flooding the earth. It rained for
forty days and forty nights and the waters swelled and covered
the earth, mountains and everything, though the ark that carried
Noah and those with him was lifted above these waters, and every
time when these waters swelled the ark rose above them. Every
living substance died and all things perished. After hundred
fifty days, after the rains stopped, God sent a wave of wind and
with this tempestuous waves cooled down and then Noah got down
the ark, and then his sons, wives, sons’ wives and all species in
groups of two each, the male and female, and the world began
reviving. Then Noah made an altar unto the Lord and took every
clean heart and clean fowl to make offerings at the altar.
The legend of the Great Flood is a part of many other traditions
of the ancient world. The legend, as appears in the Islamic
tradition, is identical to that in the Holy Bible except the name
of the mountain peak where Hazrat Noah’s boat harbors. In Holy
Qur’an the name of the mountain peak is Judi. In Greek literature
the legend has been woven around Duculius and his wife Peria. In
all other details the myth is almost like that in the Indian
tradition. Babylonian literature also has the legend of the Great
Flood. After the flood has subsided, Jihsathrus, the son of
Ardentus, appeases gods by offering sacrifice and then builds the
city of Babylonia. The event of Great Flood figures in Persians’
religious literature as also in the traditions of China,
Indo-china, Malaya, Australia, Malaysia, North-south America
among many other countries.
Samudra-Manthana
'Samudra-manthana' or churning of ocean for obtaining nectar and
Shri, one of a few occasions on which gods and demons joined
hands for accomplishing something, is another quite widely known
episode of Indian mythology. Exploration of ocean, sometimes for
the treasures of a ship drowned and buried under it and at other
times for its own riches, is known to have always been man’s
ambition and it has been carried out time and again by people
possessed of a desire to obtain it – a massive act requiring many
hands and multiple means to accomplish it. In recent times, not
merely for the riches that the ocean stores under its waters but
it is being churned, or dug, also for things, crude in
particular, that it contains below its bottom.
In Indian tradition, the event of ocean churning has been alluded
to, almost unanimously, in context to Vishnu’s Kurmavatara – his
incarnation as Tortoise or Turtle, the second of his ten
principal ones, and to the emergence of Shri or Lakshmi from the
womb of the ocean, and other precious jewels, and nectar and
arson. Several ancient Indian texts have allusions to the legend,
but the Vishnu Purana, Harivansha Purana and Dasavatara Purana
are more elaborate in their details. 'Puranas' have a number of
legends related to Samudra-manthana; however, while some of them
maintain that the ocean was churned for recovering the precious
jewels lost in the Great Deluge, others contend that the aged
gods, who had grown weak and decrepit and for reviving their
youth and vigour stood in dire need of nectar which lied buried
deep into the womb of ocean, had no other option but to churn it
for obtaining it. However, weak as they were, they could not
churn it by themselves, and the helpless ones, on the advice of
Lord Vishnu, they conciliated with demons and persuaded them to
jointly churn it.
However, the myth related to Durvasa, the sage known in the
tradition for his short temper and wrathful nature, prevails over
them all. It is said sage Durvasa once visited Baikuntha, the
abode of Lord Vishnu. Out of reverence to the great sage, Vishnu,
when seeing him off, honored him with a garland of Parijata, the
celestial flowers pregnant with inexhaustible sweet honey and
unfading freshness. On way back Durvasa met Indra riding his
Airavata. Durvasa thought that a garland of Parijata – a thing of
royalty, was hardly of any use to a recluse like him and better
that he gave it to Indra who in his position as the king of gods
truly deserved it. He hence placed the garland on Indra's neck,
but Indra, conceited as he was, neglectfully hurled the saint’s
sacred gift on his elephant's head. The sweet fragrance of
Parijata flowers invited bees that swarmed around the elephant’s
head, and irritated as the animal was, it tore the garland, threw
it down and crushed it under its feet.
A blatant insult, Durvasa cursed Indra to become devoid of all
splendor and riches. Instantly Shri, the presiding deity of
riches, splendor and fertility, deserted Indra and all three
worlds that he ruled. She disappeared into Kshirasagara, the
ocean of milk. Bereft of all grandeur and prowess Indra and other
gods approached Brahma who after hearing their plight invoked
Vishnu. Vishnu appeared and said that churning of Kshirasagara
was the only way for recovering 'Shri' from it, and also that
they could not do it alone, hence they should conciliate with
'asuras' and persuade them to participate in the act. Vishnu
suggested that Mount Mandara could be used as the churning rod
and the Great Serpent Vasuki as the rope.
As advised by Lord Vishnu gods approached 'asuras'. They
persuaded them to conjointly churn the ocean and discover out of
it nectar, the elixir of timeless youth and life, and other
precious jewels, and thus defeat death, old age and decay for
ever. The greedy ‘asuras’ instantly agreed and the two ever
warring factions reconciled. They then uprooted the Mount Mandara
and laid it vertically like a churning rod into the ocean and the
great serpent Vasuki was laid coiling round it like the churning
rope. To evade the adverse effect of the poison that the great
serpent emitted from its mouth Vishnu wished that the gods held
its tail part, and 'asuras', its mouth. He knew that suspicious
'asuras' would opt for contrary to what gods proposed to them. He
hence asked them to hold the serpent’s tail-part. As expected,
the vain and conceited ‘asuras’ declined taking it as an insult
to hold the tail instead of the head of the animal. They declared
that they would hold the serpent’s head, not tail, something that
the gods wished.
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The churning was begun but before long the ocean yielded deadly
‘halahala’ – arsenic, which began suffocating all alike, gods,
demons, human beings and animals, and destroying entire
vegetation and nature, rivers and all water sources and air.
Amidst great hue and cry both gods and demons looked for help.
Finally, Shiva came forward and swallowed the arsenic and stored
it up in his throat, which turned his neck blue earning him
Neelakantha name – one with blue neck.
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However the arsenic could not be rendered completely ineffective.
With its heat Shiva’s body burnt like an oven; hence, when
churning re-commenced and from it revealed moon, for its soothing
cool effect Shiva bore it on his head and this gave him
Chandrasekhar as his yet another name.
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Obstacles yet awaited. When the ocean began giving forth its
treasure, one after the other – Surabhi, the celestial cow,
Uchchishrava, the divine horse, Airavata, the multi-trunked white
elephant, Kaustubha-mani, Parijat etc., they realized that Mount
Mandara was sinking into the ocean’s basin and neither gods or
demons nor the Great Serpent Vasuki were able to hold it. The
feat could not be suspended or left unfinished for the more
desired objects, more so the nectar and Shri, were yet to
surface. It disappointed both gods and demons alike. When yet in
the gust of disappointment they felt that the fast sinking
mountain was suddenly contained into its position. Vishnu, with
no option left, had incarnated as Kurma – tortoise, with an
earth-like large diameter, and slipped unnoticed under the mount
Mandara and held it on its back. Churning was re-commenced and
the ocean yielded further pots of wine and nectar, Dhanwantari,
the legendary physician, Shri or Lakshmi, the divine conch among others.
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Virabhadra : Sublimation Of Shiva’s Wrath
Virabhadra, Lord Shiva’s son born of his sublime wrath, and one
of his guards and generals, is a rare character from Indian
mythology in which a weakness, such as anger, sublimates into a
divine form and terminates a wrongful vain act designed to insult
and derogate others. He was created by Lord Shiva for destroying
the 'yajna', the sacrificial rites, of Daksha, Shiva's
father-in-law and the father of Sati, his consort. Daksha was the
Brahma’s son and ruled of the earth.
By a hundred year long penance, Daksha appeased Mahamaya and as
he wished she was born to him as his daughter by the name of
Sati. The most beautiful maiden on the earth Sati married Shiva
against the wishes of her father who was annoyed with him for
decapitating one of the five heads of his father Brahma in a
dispute and carried the severed head all along in the style of a
trophy. Hence, for insulting Shiva as also Sati Daksha organized
a great 'yajna' but did not invite them. With great agitation in
mind Sati wished to go to the yajna and destroy it. Indifferent
Shiva dissuaded her but she went. Daksha, her father, not only
neglected but also insulted her and abused Shiva. Desperate as
Sati was, she jumped into sacrificial fire and immolated herself.
Shiva loved Sati madly. The news of her death maddened him with
rage and grief. His matted hair waved in air and moved from the
sky to the earth and from its stroke emerged Virabhadra
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and Bhadrakali.
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He commanded them to destroy the 'yajna' of Daksha. Varying
slightly from this version of the Devi Bhagavata, the Mahabharata
acclaims their emergence from his mouth. There rose from each
hair-pore of Virabhadra a fearful monster, known as 'Raumya' in
scriptural tradition, and they attacked the sacrificial fire of
Daksha and extinguished it. Virabhadra’s fury went on inflicting
further destruction targeting Brahma’s entire creation but Shiva
appeared and pacified him and attributed to him the status of a
planet by the name of Angarakshaka, a guard to Mangala, the
benevolent, which in Indian Trinity Shiva represented. Thus,
Virabhadra is revered as both, a planet of auspices and as Lord
Shiva’s guard. As such, the tradition has woven around him a
number of myths representing him sometimes as protecting Kashyapa
and other sages from a monstrous fire, and sometimes gods, from a
serpent-monster, or from the mouth of Panchamedha, a demon.
Creation Of Devi
Among traditions related to emergence of Devi a more popular one,
perhaps as popular as the one that contends that Devi is beyond
time and beyond form : 'Sarvam khalvidamevaham nanyadasty
sanatanam', that is, 'all that is, it is me (Devi); there is
nothing lasting but me (Devi)', relates to her creation from
assimilation of divine energies, as also, powers and attributes
of all gods, for the elimination of demon Mahisha who once ruled
the earth. As the Devi Mahatmya section in the Markandeya Purana
and a number of other texts have it, after he had conquered the
entire earth Mahisha’s ambitions soared higher. He sent words to
Indra, heaven's ruler, to either accept his suzerainty or face
him in battle. Indra preferred war but he and his army of gods
could not face Mahisha and fled, and Mahisha occupied Indra’s abode too.
Gods, led by Indra, rushed to Brahma who revealed on them that by
his own boon Mahishasura was invincible against all males – men,
demons or beasts. Helpless himself, Brahma took them first to
Shiva and then to Vishnu. After he heard of Mahisha's misdeeds,
from Vishnu's countenance burst a divine luster with which
radiated the entire ambience. He turned towards Shiva, and then
Brahma, Agni, Surya, Indra and all other gods. A similar luster
began bursting from the faces of them all. This divine
brilliance, amassing into a huge mount of radiance, covered the
entire creation from the sky to the earth. Out of it revealed
gradually a female figure, first, her head, then breasts, waist,
thighs and legs. From Shiva's luster was formed her head; from
Yama's, her hair; and from that of Vishnu, Moon, Indra, Brahma,
Sun, Vasu, Kuber, Prajapati, Agni, Twilight, and Vayu, her arms,
breasts, waist, feet, toe-nails, finger-nails, nose, teeth, eyes,
brows, and ears. She had eighteen arms and a three-eyed face. The
celestial creation had unique luster not known or possessed by
any divinity ever before. Filled with gratitude, all gods
prostrated and worshipped the divine creation, Devi, the Great Goddess.
Out of his trident Shiva created another and presented it to the
celestial creation. So did Vishnu, Varuna, Agni, Yama, Vayu,
Surya, Indra, Kuber, Brahma, Kala, and Vishvakarma. They offered
to her their disc, conch, dart, iron rod, bow, quiver full of
arrows, thunderbolt, mace and drinking pot, rosary and water pot,
sword and shield, battle-axe and a number of amulets respectively.
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Besides, Ocean brought for her glittering jewels, Shesh, a
necklace inlaid with celestial gems, and Himavana, his lion for
her vehicle. Sage Narada narrated to the Devi all about gods'
miserable plight and Mahisha's atrocities and misdeeds and prayed
her to rescue gods and mankind from him. In a fierce battle she
killed the demon and freed the world from his clutches. For the
divine creation the usual term that sage Markandeya has used is
'Devi' but after she killed demon Mahisha the term
‘Mahishasura-Mardini – one who killed demon Mahisha, emerged as
her more popular epithet.
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This article by Prof P. C. Jain and Dr. Daljeet
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