Bhagavatha Purana In Anita Nair's Magical Indian Myths

Purana is that which renews the old and is almost always mentioned along with Itihasa- the history. The Puranas were written to illustrate and explain the truth of the Vedas which are essentially archetypal poetry of high literary value. They are mythical in nature and their language is symbolic. Being mythical, they have multiple meanings. The fundamental, philosophical and religious truths are expounded through popular legends or mythological stories. Thus, Itihasa combined with narration makes a story seem credible. Myths are traditional stories and they often exhibit characteristics of other sorts of traditional tales, most notably folktales. They often present themselves as explanations of how nature works or how a certain benefit or ill

India has the greatest living oral narrative tradition in the world. Whenever people look at Lingam, some common questions rise in their minds such as what is it? How is it born? Why people worship this? Even though Bhagavatha Purana answers these questions, children do not go through such a complex work. Even if they go through it, they will not understand the story due to its complexity. But as Nair knows its complexity as well as the mind set, she presents the whole story of Linga in twenty lines which is further illustrated by Atanu Roy. Nair has avoided the stereotype and interpreted each story as only a story without any glorification or religious connotations. ‘How Ganesha Got His Elephant Head’ is the twenty first story in the book which answers three questions such as how Ganesha was born?, how he got the elephant head? and how he lost one of his tusks. As all of us know cock crows at dawn every morning, but do not know the reason behind that. Nair has her own explanation to this in the 45th story ‘Why the Cock Crows in the Morning’, which brings Yama(the god of death), Surya(Yama’s father) and Chhaya(hand maid) into the picture and it was Surya who appointed the cock in the absence of Surya, the father, to pick out the worms from the legs of Yama and relieve the pain which was a result of a curse. Even if we sit for a whole day and search for the reason for the morning act of cock we will be left with an empty hand. As a whole, Magical Indian Myths answers most of the questions raised in the curious minds such as why Rahu and Ketu are held responsible for eclipses or why the Ganga is also called Bhagirathi. Except three stories in the book all other titles of the stories’ begin with W/H questions, such as Why the Cock crows in the Morning, How the Sun Became Less Fierce? etc which are