Readings Notes: The Churning of the Ocean, Part A

When the world was young there was a mountain named Mount Meru that was north of India. The lesser gods gathered on the peak because they thought that it would make them immortal and powerful like Vishnu, Brahmadeva and Shiva. In order to obtain this they knew that they had to get the ambrosia jar at the bottom of the ocean. Vishnu suggested that they call the demons to help, they'll get the jar and jewels. They left Mount Meru and went to Mount Mandara which was another great mountain. This mountain had deep forests with a lot of animals like lions, tigers, leopards, and elephants. They picked it up and tried to uproot it but were unsuccessful. Vishnu called the snake god, Vasuki to help them. He was able to uproot the mountain so they all rolled the mountain to the shore of the ocean. They churned the ocean waters with the mountain to gain the ambrosia, with the condition that they give some to the ocean god. Gods and demons were working together at this point.They asked the tortoise god to lie at the bottom of the ocean to keep the mountain from sinking. The tortoise god put the mountain on his back and went to the deepest part of the ocean. The snake god then went to the mountain and had gods on the mountain swing him and demons on land swing him, thus they churned the ocean. They were unsuccessful so they went to Brahmadeva and asked for his help, he begged Vishnu to give them more strength. They were finally successful and the moon rose up, a giant elephant also rose up, a pretty maid rose, Vishnu's wife (named Lakshmi) rose up. Indra named the elephant Airavat and he became his servant, he named the girl Rambha and she became chief among the dancing girls. Sura, the wine goddess arose, a horse named Uchaisrava arose, jewels named Kaustubha arose. As they continued to churn the snake god became ill so Shiva drank the poisonous liquid that protected the ambrosia, this turned his throat blue and he is known as Nilkantha or Blue-throat. Then an old man named Dhanwantari arose with the ambrosia. The demons grabbed it but Vishnu got it back and he punished the demons by only pouring it on the gods who became immortal while the demons stayed immortal. One demon named Rahu drank some but the sun-god told Vishnu who was able to cut off his head. Rahu's body rotted but his head was immortal and sometimes eats the sun-god out of spite. Fortunately the sun-god reappears.

             The Churning of the Ocean

Source: Tales from the Indian Epics by C.A. Kincaid (1918).