Dharma Katha · Season 2: Navratri · Episode 86

In a living room in Chennai, a staircase has appeared where there was no staircase yesterday. It is made of planks, or of steel shelves, or of cardboard boxes, covered in white cloth. Nine steps, or seven, or five. And on every step, dolls. Hundreds of them. Gods and goddesses at the top. Saints and sages below them. Then kings and queens, and musicians, and a wedding procession, and a vegetable seller with her basket, and a cricket team, and a row of animals, and a little park with a mirror for a pond.

Missed the previous story? Listen to Episode 82 first.

Source note. Label: tradition. Golu, Bommai Golu, Bommala Koluvu and Bombe Habba are living household traditions in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Karnataka, and they vary greatly by family. The odd number of steps, the usual order with the Goddess at the top and daily life at the bottom, the wooden bride and groom, called Marapachi Bommai and Pattada Gombe, given to a bride to begin her own Golu, and the links to Vijayanagara and the Wodeyars of Mysuru, follow common published accounts, including the Wikipedia article on Golu. The visiting, the songs, the thamboolam and the sundal are widely described customs. The ladder-of-life reading is a common explanation, not a rule. The reflections are my own.

Note: this episode is narrated with an AI voice and the script was written with AI assistance. Sanskrit verses are checked against published editions; corrections are welcome.

Dharma Katha · Season 2: Navratri · Episode 85

There is a picture that appears in almost every Indian home at some time or other. A mother, sitting, with a small child on her lap. Tonight's Goddess is that picture. With one difference. The child in her lap is the general of heaven. This is Dharma Katha, Season Two, Navratri. Episode eighty-five, day five. In episode seventy-nine, we met Kushmanda, the Goddess of the fourth night, who smiled the universe into being. Tonight, the fifth of the nine forms. Her name is Skandamata. And earlier today, in episode eighty-three, we heard how her son was born: Shiva's fiery energy passing through fire, the gods, six women, the river and a forest of reeds, until it became a six-faced child, nursed by the stars. Tonight, that child is home.

Missed the previous story? Listen to Episode 79 first.

Source note. Label: tradition, with one verse. Skandamata as the fifth of the nine Durgas is from the Devi Kavacham's list, quoted in episode sixty-nine. The dhyana verse, siṃhāsanagatā nityam, and her iconography of four arms, two lotuses, the gestures of blessing and fearlessness, Skanda in her lap, the lion and the lotus seat, were read on brhat.in. The connection to Parvati's life, the throat centre and the offerings are later and living tradition, and vary. The reflections are my own. A Sanskrit reader should confirm the verse.

Note: this episode is narrated with an AI voice and the script was written with AI assistance. Sanskrit verses are checked against published editions; corrections are welcome.

Dharma Katha · Season 2: Navratri · Episode 84

She was smiling when they found her. Seated on her lion, on a high golden peak of the Himalaya, the Goddess watched a whole army climbing toward her, with swords drawn and bows bent. And she smiled. Then they came closer. And her face changed. The text says it turned dark as ink. And out of the frown on her forehead stepped Kali. This is Dharma Katha, Season Two, Navratri. Episode eighty-four, day five. In episode eighty-one, Shumbha's first general, Smoke-Eye, came to drag the Goddess away by her hair, and she turned him to ash with a single sound, and her lion destroyed his sixty thousand soldiers. Shumbha, furious, sent two more generals: Chanda and Munda, the same two who first saw her at the river and told their master she was the one jewel he did not own. Tonight, the seventh chapter of the Devi Mahatmya. It is short, and fierce, and it gives the world one of the most powerful images it has ever seen of the Goddess.

Missed the previous story? Listen to Episode 81 first.

Source note. Label: Purana, with quotations. The story is the Devi Mahatmya, chapter seven, retold from the text and translation on devimahatmyam.aurobharati.in: the fourfold army; the Goddess smiling on the golden peak; her face dark as ink; Kali's emergence and appearance; the devouring of the army; the discuses like suns entering a cloud; the deaths of Chanda and Munda; Kali's words; and the naming. The verses quoted are chapter seven, verse six and verse twenty-seven there. Some printings read verse nineteen as Kali mounting a lion; I have followed the reading in which she raises her great sword. Speeches are shortened and paraphrased. Mysuru's Chamundeshwari and Ramprasad Sen are given as living tradition and history, briefly. The reflections are my own. A Sanskrit reader should confirm the verses.

Note: this episode is narrated with an AI voice and the script was written with AI assistance. Sanskrit verses are checked against published editions; corrections are welcome.

Dharma Katha · Season 2: Navratri · Episode 83

The gods had been waiting a very long time for this child. They waited while Sati burned in her father's hall. They waited while Shiva sat in meditation, his eyes closed to the world. They sent Kama, and Kama was burned. They watched Parvati climb the mountain and sit in the snow. They walked, as attendants, in the wedding procession. All of it, from the very beginning, for one child. The only one who could kill the demon Taraka.

Missed the previous story? Listen to Episode 76 first.

Source note. Label: Purana, retold. The story follows the Shiva Purana, Rudra Samhita, Kumara Khanda, chapters two and three, in the English translation on wisdomlib.org: Agni as a dove, Parvati's curse, the gods burning and releasing Shiva's energy, the six sages' wives, the peak of Himavan, the Ganga and the reed forest, the birth on the sixth day of the bright half of Margashirsha, Parvati's milk, the six Krittikas and the six faces, Vishvamitra, the spear and the mountain, and Indra's attack. The later chapters, his return to Kailasa, his command of the gods' army and Taraka's death, are summarised only. The Mahabharata and other Puranas tell the birth differently; the Mahabharata's version, in which he is the son of Agni and Svaha, is in its Vana Parva. The names of Skanda and the Pleiades identification are standard. The note on Kalidasa's authentic cantos reflects common scholarly opinion. The reflections are my own.

Note: this episode is narrated with an AI voice and the script was written with AI assistance. Sanskrit verses are checked against published editions; corrections are welcome.

Dharma Katha · Season 2: Navratri · Episode 82

It is late at night in Gujarat, and the ground is full of circles. In a village square, in a city housing society, in a school field strung with lights, in a temple courtyard: rings of people, dressed in every colour, moving slowly around a centre. Clapping. Singing. Turning. And in the very middle of each circle, almost lost among the dancers, a small clay pot, full of holes, with a lamp burning inside it.

Missed the previous story? Listen to Episode 67 first.

Source note. Label: tradition. Garba is living tradition in Gujarat and among Gujarati communities worldwide, and it varies greatly by place. The description of the dance around a perforated earthen pot lit with an oil lamp or an image of the Goddess Amba, moving counter-clockwise, singing and clapping, building to a frenzied whirling, its role in fostering social equality, and its inscription in 2023 are from UNESCO's listing, Garba of Gujarat. The derivation of the name from garbha, womb, and garbha deep, and the distinction between Garba and Dandiya Raas, follow common published accounts, including hindutone.com. The interpretations of the pot, the lamp and the circle are traditional explanations, and vary. The connections to Kushmanda and the kalash are my own reflection.

Note: this episode is narrated with an AI voice and the script was written with AI assistance. Sanskrit verses are checked against published editions; corrections are welcome.

Dharma Katha · Season 2: Navratri · Episode 81

Sixty thousand soldiers march up a mountain to arrest one woman. At their head rides a general whose name means Smoke-Eye. He has his orders: bring her back, and if she will not come, drag her by the hair. He reaches her. He shouts. He rushes at her. And she makes one sound. Not a word. Not a spell. Just a sound, from the back of her throat. That is the end of Smoke-Eye.

Missed the previous story? Listen to Episode 78 first.

Source note. Label: Purana, with one quotation. The story is the Devi Mahatmya, chapter six, retold from the text and translation on devimahatmyam.aurobharati.in: the messenger's report, Shumbha's orders to Dhumralochana, the sixty thousand demons, the Goddess's answer, the hum, the lion's destruction of the army, and Shumbha's orders to Chanda and Munda. The line quoted, huṅkāreṇaiva taṃ bhasma sā cakārāmbikā tataḥ, is from verse thirteen there. Speeches are shortened and paraphrased. The meaning of the name Dhumralochana is literal; the use of the syllable hum in ritual is general tradition. The reflections on the escalation and on Shumbha's pride are my own. A Sanskrit reader should confirm the verse.

Note: this episode is narrated with an AI voice and the script was written with AI assistance. Sanskrit verses are checked against published editions; corrections are welcome.

Dharma Katha · Season 2: Navratri · Episode 80

Most hymns are addressed to a god. This one is spoken by her. It does not say: you are great. It says: I am. I walk with the storm gods. I hold up the sky gods. I bend the bow for Rudra. When you eat, when you see, when you breathe, when you hear, it is through me. It is more than three thousand years old. And it is still recited, this week, at the end of the Durga Saptashati in many homes.

Missed the previous story? Listen to Episode 79 first.

Source note. Label: scripture, with one quotation. The Devi Sukta is Rigveda, book ten, hymn one hundred and twenty-five, eight verses. The Devanagari was read on sanskritdocuments.org. The third verse is quoted; the others are given in my own paraphrase, guided by published translations; translators differ, especially on the seventh verse. The seer's name, Vak daughter of Ambhrina, and Sayana's explanation that she praised herself as one who knew Brahman, are traditional. The custom of reciting this hymn after the Devi Mahatmya is common in printed editions but varies. The dating is approximate, and scholars differ. The reflections on Rudra's bow and on the hymn's place after the reading are my own. A Sanskrit reader should confirm the verse.

Note: this episode is narrated with an AI voice and the script was written with AI assistance. Sanskrit verses are checked against published editions; corrections are welcome.

Dharma Katha · Season 2: Navratri · Episode 79

Before the beginning, there was no beginning. No sun, because there was no sky for it to rise in. No earth. No water. No time, because there was nothing to change. Only darkness, everywhere, in every direction, if there had been directions. And then, the tradition says, someone smiled. This is Dharma Katha, Season Two, Navratri. Episode seventy-nine, day four. In episode seventy-seven we met Chandraghanta, the Goddess of the third night, golden and ten-armed, with a half-moon like a bell on her forehead. Tonight, the fourth of the nine forms of these nights. Her name is Kushmanda. And her story goes back further than any story we have told this season. It goes back to before there was anything to tell stories about.

Missed the previous story? Listen to Episode 77 first.

Source note. Label: tradition, with one verse and one passage of Purana. Kushmanda as the fourth of the nine Durgas is from the Devi Kavacham's list, quoted in episode sixty-nine. The meaning of her name, the story of the smile and the cosmic egg, her dwelling in the sun, her dhyana verse, surāsampūrṇakalaśam, and her eight-armed image, were read on brhat.in; brhat renders surā as nectar, and readings differ. The smile story is Navadurga tradition; I have not found it in this form in a single Purana. The Devi Gita passage is Devi Bhagavata Purana, book seven, chapter thirty-two, its opening verses, given here in my own words from the translation by Swami Vijnanananda, read on a mirror of sacred-texts.com; its Sanskrit is not quoted. The Taittiriya Upanishad line is from its third part, the Bhriguvalli, section six, read on shlokam.org. The heart centre, the ash gourd and the offerings are later and living tradition, and vary. A Sanskrit reader should confirm the verses.

Note: this episode is narrated with an AI voice and the script was written with AI assistance. Sanskrit verses are checked against published editions; corrections are welcome.