Hindu mythology is extraordinarily rich , and contains fascinating and unforgettable myths. Adventures of gods, beautiful love stories, epic battles between clans; The myths of India have everything to make us spend unforgettable moments.
As in all other mythologies, Hindu mythology contains an endless wealth of symbolism. In this article we cannot deal with all these meanings, but we hope that, with this summary that we offer you of the best Hindu myths, you will want to delve deeper into this ancient culture, which is still valid in India today.
The Indus Valley civilization dates back to the 5th millennium BC, a time in which the first evidence of historical settlements have been found. A little later, around 3000 BC, the area already had important and prosperous cities, such as Harappa, which denote an already very sophisticated culture.
The first document that contains a description of Hindu mythology is the Rigveda, written in Sanskrit in the 2nd millennium BC. From then on, this language of culture, coming from the ancient Indo-European language, will be the vehicle through which the myths will be transmitted in writing. of Indian culture, as they have survived to this day.
Next, we propose 5 myths from Hindu mythology that will not leave you indifferent. Enjoy reading.
1. The wife of the sun god cannot stand his heat
The sun-god in Hindu mythology is Surya, lord of the sun, dawn and dusk. The first mention of this god is found in the Rigveda, the oldest text in India (2nd millennium BC). In it, Surya is described as a being resplendent with gold; A parallelism, common in all cultures, is thus established between the solar force and this precious metal
The myth goes that one day, while visiting his craftsman, Surya noticed his daughter, Sanjna. She also noticed that young and handsome god and, every time Surya came to the workshop, she would look at him sideways and smile. The girl’s father realized this love that was growing secretly, and one day he sternly warned his daughter: “Sanjna, don’t marry him. Remember that he is the god of the sun, and being close to him can be unbearable, and even dangerous.” But Sanjna was very much in love with her and it was impossible to make her see reason. Thus, finally, the distraught father gave his consent for the wedding.
The couple was very happy at first, and even had three beautiful children. However, It was becoming increasingly difficult for Sanjna to bear the heat radiating from her husband’s body One day he broke away from her embrace, for Surya’s body was covered in dangerous flames, and he became so angry that he cursed her, her and her children.
With pain in her heart, Sanjna escaped from her house and left in her place a shadow, a copy of herself that could withstand the heat of the sun. But Surya soon realized the deception and set out in search of his lost wife. Once he had found her, she begged him for forgiveness and asked him to return to him. Sanjna could not return; She did not feel able to withstand the horrible heat of her husband. The couple seemed doomed to remain separated forever.
Surya, determined to keep the woman he loved, went to his father-in-law the craftsman and asked him to cut off one-eighth of her solar rays. Sanjna’s father did so, and from then on, The only part of the god that still shines like gold are his feet In this way, Surya and Sanjna can be together and love each other, without fear of the sun’s rays scorching the young woman.
2. The goddess of love is born
Whoever stops to analyze Hindu myths will find a surprise. And this is none other than its great resemblance, in many aspects, to Greek myths. This is not simple coincidence, of course; Both cultures, both Indian and Greek, come from Indo-European peoples and, as such, share cultural traits.
The birth of the goddess of love is surprisingly similar in both mythologies. If you remember, Aphrodite is born from the foam of the sea, and travels to Cyprus on a scallop. Well then; Lakshmi, the Hindu goddess of love and abundance, emerges from a huge lotus flower , which appears in the middle of the ocean after being stirred up by the gods. Like her Greek namesake, Lakshmi possesses incomparable beauty. But, unlike Aphrodite, she always remains faithful to her husband, the god Vishnu. The couple’s fidelity even transcends life and death, since, in each reincarnation of Vishnu, the god is always accompanied by Lakshmi. Thus, the couple stars in several of the most beautiful love stories in Hindu mythology.
One of these love stories is that of the god Krishna, one of the reincarnations of Vishnu, and Radha, who is none other than Lakshmi reincarnated as a shepherdess. Her story is collected in the Mahabharata, one of the main books of Hinduism. According to this version, Radha is a cowherd girl (a gopi), who is already married when she meets the god. However, as the reincarnation of Lakhsmi, her destiny is none other than to be with Vishnu. So every night, the young woman sneaks out of her house to be with him.
One night, Radha’s husband discovers the deception and chains his wife to the wall so that she cannot escape again. Radha’s sadness at not being able to be with her lover is so intense that her soul escapes from her body to join him. In this way, Krishna possesses Radha’s soul and is never separated from her again.
The love story of Radha and Krishna symbolizes the encounter of the soul with divinity The myth is tremendously popular in Indian culture, and has been sung in numerous poems. In the book Gita Govindaby the 12th century poet Yaiá Deva, describes the erotic and passionate nights of lovers that, ultimately, symbolize the mystical union between the soul and God, similar to what happens in the Song of songs from the Bible.
4. The terrible goddesses
In Hindu mythology, goddesses represent the shaktis of the masculine gods, that is, their feminine energy. In other words, the goddesses complement the deva masculine, and complete divinity can only be understood when both are together On the other hand, each goddess or shakti emanates directly from the primordial Mother Goddess (called, precisely, Sakti), and thus represents the different aspects of it.
One of these goddesses is Parvati, one of the many reincarnations of the goddess Sakti. In her form as Parvati she is the wife of the god Siva, the creator and destroyer of the universe. Parvati is a sweet and generous mother goddess, but, at the same time, she can be terrible and devastating in her other forms: Durga, the goddess of war, and the most terrifying of all, the goddess Kali.
Kali is the dark mistress of the earth, the goddess who unleashes her wrath in the form of catastrophes and cataclysms. The representation of her is truly frightening: the goddess shows a long tongue red like her blood and wears a necklace of severed heads. She has four hands; In two of them she holds, first, a sword and, in the other, the head of a giant. This fearsome goddess is the shakti or destructive energy of Siva, his consort.
The myth says that some giants wanted to overthrow the gods, and recruited a huge army , so powerful and fearsome that even the gods themselves were afraid. Then, Sakti, the Mother Goddess, turned into Durga, rode her colossal lion towards the Himalayas, where the lair of the giants was located. The fight was fierce, since from each drop of giant that fell, a hundred more giants were born. When they saw that her lady could not handle them, the other goddesses came down to help Durga; but even then, it was evident that they would lose the battle and that their kingdom would be extinguished forever.
At that moment, Durga divided into two halves. One was Kali, the goddess of destruction and death, who with her very long tongue sucked the drops of blood that fell one by one, thus preventing more giants from being born. The other half remained Durga, who engaged in a decisive combat with the two leading giants and defeated them. The gods had been saved.
5. The Hindu epic: the Mahabharata and the Ramayana
Written in Sanskrit, the Mahabharata It is the longest epic poem ever written (much more than the Iliad or the Odyssey). It is made up of a series of related tales, which were compiled around the 6th century BC. These tales tell the story of two rival families, the Kaurav and the Pandav, both descendants of a common ancestor, Bharat. In fact, the title comes to mean “The Great War of Bharat.”
The story is really exciting and not only has war scenes, such as the final battle that gives victory to the Pandav, but we also find beautiful love stories. For his part, the Ramayana is another extensive literary work that tells the adventures of Rama, one of the reincarnations of the god Vishnu Among others, the story is told of the kidnapping of Sita, his wife, by demons, and how Rama comes with a large army to rescue her love.
