Celebrating our Myths is a contest from Tulika publications to collect the various myths that exist in the Hindu mythology. The idea is to be able to give more than one version of the same story.
Hindu Mythology is one of the oldest stories that exist and with the print medium being very limited in the beginning myths have been well woven into these stories.
The one myth that I recently came across is about the Kali Devi.
Each and every statue or picture of Kali Devi is with her tongue sticking out. One of the stories for this is that Kali was very happy that she had killed the demons (Chanda, Munda) and so began dancing. This dance was very powerful and so the Gods got scared and asked Shiva to stop her dance. Shiva lay down in her path in order to stop her, and as she was very involved in her dance, she did not see him in time and stepped on him. After realizing that she had stepped on her husband Shiva, she got embarassed and bit her tongue.
The other story that I have heard is that Kali is sent to kill Raktabeej who has been granted the boon to clone himself with evey drop of blood that hits the earth. In the fight that ensues between Raktabeej and Kali, Kali puts her tongue out and sucks in each and every brop of blood that is spilled from the demon, thus stopping him from multiplying and eventually killing him.
Hindu Mythology is one of the oldest stories that exist and with the print medium being very limited in the beginning myths have been well woven into these stories.
The one myth that I recently came across is about the Kali Devi.
Each and every statue or picture of Kali Devi is with her tongue sticking out. One of the stories for this is that Kali was very happy that she had killed the demons (Chanda, Munda) and so began dancing. This dance was very powerful and so the Gods got scared and asked Shiva to stop her dance. Shiva lay down in her path in order to stop her, and as she was very involved in her dance, she did not see him in time and stepped on him. After realizing that she had stepped on her husband Shiva, she got embarassed and bit her tongue.
The other story that I have heard is that Kali is sent to kill Raktabeej who has been granted the boon to clone himself with evey drop of blood that hits the earth. In the fight that ensues between Raktabeej and Kali, Kali puts her tongue out and sucks in each and every brop of blood that is spilled from the demon, thus stopping him from multiplying and eventually killing him.
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