Epics of India

An updated version of this story has been added to my portfolio project here . Image Source: By E. A. Rodrigues [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons I, Agni the god of fire, spent the past twelve years secluded in the forest fasting and performing the rituals to show my virtue and devotion to the gods. During these twelve years I consumed nothing but the ghee offered to the gods by other devoted followers' yajnas or fire rituals, and I am now very weak from malnourishment. The radiance with which my flames usually shine has dulled and I can barely stand from hunger. I need to eat, but what could be so satisfying as to fulfill the hunger of a twelve year fast? There! Nothing could possibly satisfy this hunger better than the Khandava Forest! This will not be an easy task. This forest is protected by Indra, my twin brother, and he will surely do everything he can to prevent me from consuming it. We are equals in strength and power under normal situations, but in my curr...

Image: Kanaka Durga Temple located where Arjuna met Shiva In "Arjuna and Shiva" Arjuna is chosen to live in austerity in the Himalayas until he sees a vision of the Great God and gains the power to defeat any enemy. This practice is a type of penance that involves meditaition or "tapasya." The place Arjuna found to conduct his penance was the Indrakeeladri hill where the Kanaka Durga Temple  is now. The hill is located in Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh about at the midpoint of India's east coast. Arjuna began his penance by not eating anything but fruit and leaves that had already fallen to the ground. Through his meditation and devotion he was able to reduce his consumption steadily until in the fourth month he did not eat anything at all. "He was able to live on air alone." Arjuna also bathed and cleansed himself so frequently that the skin on his head was very dry and covered in lightning bolt shaped cracks. He would also hold his arms ou...

A yajna where ghee can be offered to the fire.  Image by: Srkris at English Wikipedia via Wikimedia Commons In "The Burning of the Forest" the Pandavas were celebrating Krishna's visit with a picnic by the Yamuna a large tributary of the Ganges. Draupadi, the brothers' wife, and Subhadra, Arjuna's wife and Krishna's, sister had become quite drunk, and Krishna and Arjuna told stories about their travels. The festivities are interrupted by a brahmin that looked as if he had been traveling for a long time as his clothes were ripped up and he had the traditional dreadlocks of the holy hermits. The brahmin claimed to be Agni, the fire god, and asked Krishna and Arjuna to burn the forest of Khandava for him to consume. Agni had become weakened by his twelve years of fasting, so each time he had tried to consume the forest in flames, he was not able to stop Indra, its protecting deity, from putting out the fire with a giant rain storm. Krishna and Arjuna ag...