Don't Know Much About Mythology - Kenneth C. Davis [166]
Parvati Another avatar of the divine mother Devi, Parvati (“mountain”) is the reincarnation of Shiva’s first wife, Sati, and becomes his second wife. Daughter of the sacred Himalayas, Parvati is also the affectionate mother of Ganesha, and a recipient of Shiva’s tremendous spiritual and sexual energy, which she releases to the world. In one myth, Shiva initially rejects Parvati because of her dark skin, but he changes his mind when she makes her body glow. This suggests that Parvati may have originated as a pre-Aryan aboriginal goddess who was absorbed into the Hindu pantheon.
Sati The daughter of an ancient god called Daksha, Sati marries Shiva over her father’s objections. This leads to an argument over inviting in-laws to dinner—talk about archetypes!—and a bloody feud when Daksha summons all of the other gods to a special sacrifice, but snubs his son-in-law. Enraged, Sati throws herself onto the sacrificial fire. Learning of this tragedy, Shiva kills many of the guests at the feast and decapitates Daksha, replacing his head with that of a goat. Daksha repents and becomes a loyal attendant to Shiva, who performs a dance of destruction after which Sati is reincarnated as Shiva’s second wife, Parvati.
Are you dizzy yet?
The legend of the dutiful, loyal Sati lives on in an unfortunate reality. In the traditional Indian practice known as suttee, Indian widows throw themselves on their dead husband’s funeral pyre in suicidal self-immolation. Known in other ancient cultures, the practice of suttee may have been introduced into India as late as the first century of the Common Era, and became a fairly widespread practice after that. Banned by British colonial authorities in the nineteenth century, the tradition continued sporadically. A recent criminal case in India involved the prosecution of eleven people who were accused—but later acquitted by a special court—of encouraging a widow to commit suttee in 1988.
Shiva, the Destroyer The all-knowing punisher of the wicked, Shiva is the four-armed god of great power known as the Destroyer because he periodically destroys the world so it can be re-created. Shiva possesses a “third eye,” from which comes the fire that destroys the Creation.
Often depicted dancing, Shiva haunts graveyards and lives with demons and other supernatural beings. But Shiva is beyond simple distinctions of good and evil, and his followers consider him a merciful god, despite his fearsome characteristics. In Hindu philosophy, Shiva avoids taking an active part in human affairs, and Hindu art often shows him in solitary meditation on a mountain.
Vishnu, the Preserver One of the main gods of Hinduism, Vishnu has a kindly nature, and is called the Preserver by worshippers who believe that he tries to ensure the welfare of humanity.
In the complexity of Hindu mythology, Vishnu creates, preserves, and destroys the world over and over in a pattern of yugas, which are ages of time. The current period is called the Kali-Yuga, a dark age characterized by dissension, war, and strife, in which materialism rules desires, virtue is nonexistent, and the only pleasure is found in sex. Vishnu sometimes descends from heaven to the earth as one of his avatars when the universe faces a catastrophe or when humanity needs comfort and guidance. In several myths, he must battle some sort of asura (demon) who is threatening either the gods or the universal order. While Vishnu has countless avatars, or physical incarnations, these ten are considered of principal importance:
Matsya is the fish avatar who plays a role in the story of Manu, the first man, by warning him of the flood that is coming.
Kurma is the tortoise avatar who supports a sacred mountain on his back during a battle with demons.
Varaha, the boar avatar, uses his tusks to lift the earth, in the form of a beautiful woman, out of the ocean after she falls in. In another version, a demon who has stolen the Vedas pushes the earth into the sea, and the boar rescues the earth and the sacred scriptures with