Hello, and welcome to stories from India, a podcast where we talk about myths, legends, and folktales from India. I’m your host Narada Muni, and I’m a mythological character myself.
I have the gift of eternal life, and knowledge of the past, the present and the future. By profession, I’m a traveling musician and storyteller, so the way I’m doing my job is by podcast!
This week, we’re going to see how falling for a student of your father’s can lead to sorrow. We’ll explore an old story that the most recent Star Wars movie seems to borrow from.
The character this week is an emperor from 3rd century BC, whose symbols live on to this day, both on the flag, as well as on pretty much all Indian currency.
A bit of a disclaimer: today’s show contains some mild violence and some spoilers for Star Wars
Shukracharya was the Professor of the Asuras.
The Asuras have often been depicted as evil demons always at war with the Devas, or the Gods led by Indra in heaven. But this is an exaggeration. For the purpose of today’s story, let’s just think of the Asuras as a set of people who had some differences of opinion from the Devas who were another set of people. Each thought the other didn’t deserve to live and worked hard to correct that situation.
Amongst other things, Shukracharya, or Friday as I will call him, was also the nephew of Prahlad. We encountered Prahlad as the boy who lived in Episode 20 – “The Aunt from Hell” and Episode 21 – “Final Destiny”.
Anyway, Prahlad was the odd Asura out. Quite unlike his dad, Hiranyakashapu or Heera as I’ve called him in previous episodes. Prahlad wanted peace, not war.
He managed that largely. But as an insurance policy, he asked his nephew, his sister’s son – Friday to go and learn magic.
Now, this isn’t the kind of magic that’s taught at Hogwarts. This is the Indian mythology brand of magic. And that means – yes. You guessed it – go into the Himalayas and pray. Usual prayers amongst visitors to the Himalayas would be to my dad – Brahma, the creator of the Universe.
And seeing as Prahlad had demonstrated utter faith in Vishnu in Episodes 20 and 21, Brahma and Vishnu were the bookmaker’s favorites.
Most of the punters were therefore surprised when Friday prayed to Shiva the destroyer instead.
After the usual thousand years of praying and fasting and living on nothing but air and a single drop of water etc, Shiva finally appeared before Friday.
Impressed by his devotion, Shiva gave Friday the ultimate power – the Sanjeevani Mantra, which means the power to bring people back from the dead. Now I know we encountered just this concept in the previous episode, where the characters of the Week the Ashvin twins demonstrated it in bringing back Rebha to live. But the Sanjeevani Mantra was much more than reviving a recently deceased person. It has the power to bring you back the way you were, regardless of what situation you were in. If someone were to be blasted by Arnold Schwarzenegger into a pool of liquid Terminator metal or snapped out of existence by Thanos, the Sanjeevani Mantra would let you reassemble exactly the way you were.
It was a useful skill to have. This would make the Asuras completely invincible. Did the Devas kill someone? No problem, they could be revived!
The only problem was transporting Friday everywhere. Could he teach others the Sanjeevani Mantra? He could. But he wouldn’t. Friday firmly believed that with great power comes great responsibility.
Now, the Devas, led by their king Indra did not sit idly by for a thousand years as Friday prayed to Shiva. Indra sent his own daughter, Jayanti to just keep an eye on Friday.
Jayanti did keep an eye, but she also slowly worked herself into his favor. A thousand years alone together in the middle of the Himalayas is a long time. When they came down the mountain, they were a married couple. Soon they had a daughter, Devayani. Devayani grew up to be one smart lady.
Meanwhile, in heaven, Friday’s counterpart – Brihaspati, the professor of the Devas was trying to think up a scheme to learn the Sanjeevani Mantra. For ages, he’d tried to learn it himself. And now that his rival had learned it. Brihaspati or Jupiter as I will call him was understandably jealous.
He sent his boy, Kacha to learn the Sanjeevani Mantra from Friday. He really should have learned from Indra’s experience. I mean Indra sent his daughter to spy on Friday, and she ended up completely switching loyalty.
Kacha seemed to be going down a similar path. He worked himself into Friday’s family as his student. He made friends with Devayani, and they really liked each other.
When other Asuras observed how well Kacha was being treated by their professor, they decided to do something to him before he learned the secret. They kidnapped Kacha and killed him. Not a very effective way to deal with the situation. Because Devayani persuaded her father to use the Sanjeevani Mantra to bring Kacha back. This whole kidnap, killing, and revival routine happened one more time until finally, the Asuras caught on that this was not going to work.
The third time they tried something new – they kidnapped and killed Kacha but this time they burnt him, and mixed the ashes in a drink which they offered to Friday.
Well, Friday didn’t realize what had happened until after he’d finished the whole drink. But then it was too late. There was no way to revive Kacha without killing himself.
Devyani again pleaded with her dad to bring Kacha back. Friday had to give in to his dearest daughter’s wish. Luckily, he could somehow communicate with the elements of Kacha that were now in his stomach. Yeah, his magic education kicking in.
He taught Kacha the whole Sanjeevani Mantra and then used it to bring the boy back. Kacha came back, erupting out of Friday’s stomach, killing him.
Kacha at this point had enormous power – he was the only one in the world who knew the Sanjeevani Mantra. He could have just walked away. But he didn’t.
He used it to revive Friday.
Woohoo! Happiness and joy all around. Everyone patted backs and hugged each other for a well-concluded story.
“Honey” – said Devayani to Kacha, “we just need to decide if we want the Blue and White cake or the Yellow and Chocolate one”
“Cake? What cake?”
“The wedding cake, of course! I have a whole guest list prepared”
“Ah, about that” hesitated Kacha “Actually I meant to talk to you about that. The wedding’s off”
“What!” screamed Devayani
“We have to,” said Kacha calmly, “you can see for yourself why. When I was born, you know a few minutes ago, I came out of your father’s tummy. That means we’re now siblings”
“I never heard such nonsense!” said Devayani “you’re just trying to weasel out of this aren’t you?”
And in a way, Kacha was. He had what he came for – the Sanjeevani Mantra.
Unfortunately, he had made a big mistake – he’d angered Devayani. She cursed him – he would forget the Sanjeevani Mantra when he needed it most.
And that’s what happened. Kacha returned to Heaven, but couldn’t really use his knowledge effectively.
That’s all for now
Notes
I’d originally planned on continuing Devayani’s story, but I realized it was too complex a tale to try to complete in one episode. So I’ll reserve that for next week.
Now there was an easy solution to Friday’s dilemma when he discovered that he’d drunk Kacha. He could have taught his daughter Devayani the secret mantra. But he didn’t trust her to act responsibly. The reason for this will be clear next week.
The whole setup of the story is very reminiscent of the most recent Star Wars movie: The Rise of Skywalker.
Especially all the killing and reviving that happens.
You could argue that Kylo Ren is like Kacha. He was a bit of a spy in Jedi camp, sent by his spiritual or Sith father figures- Palpatine and Darth Vader and Snoke.
Luke Skywalker knew Snoke was manipulating Kylo, but trained him anyway. Just like Friday taught Kacha despite knowing that Kacha was his rival, Jupiter’s son.
And all the reviving each other is vaguely similar to the climax.
If you want to extend the analogy, Prahlad could be seen as Obi Wan Kenobi and Shiva as Yoda, who makes a super-brief appearance just to train Friday.
In fact, Palpatine or Darth Sidious was known to have power over death.
I’ve been calling Shukracharya Friday for a reason. The planet Venus is thought to represent Shukracharya. And in India, Shukravar, or Venus day is Friday.
Brihaspati, the rival professor of the Devas similarly represents Jupiter and Thursday.
The Character of the Week
The character this week is an emperor from 3rd century BC, whose symbols live on to this day, both on the flag, as well as on pretty much all Indian currency.
Emperor Ashoka was one of the greatest emperors of India. If not the greatest. He was the grandson of Chandragupta Maurya and expanded the Empire he inherited. Despite an initially violent rule, including a massive war with Kalinga which resulted in a hundred thousand deaths, and a very cruelly crafted prison, he has ultimately become known for switching to peaceful ways. He helped spread Buddhism throughout the country, as well as in Sri Lanka.
He championed the creation of thousands of Pillars all over the country and helped spread the Buddha’s teachings.
The pillars are themselves a fine work of art. At the top of the most famous pillar is a sculpture of 4 lions. This is omnipresent. You’ll find it on all Indian currency.
Right under the lions’ feet is the Ashoka Chakra, a navy blue wheel with 24 spokes that represent 12 stages of suffering in forward and reverse. This one’s on the Indian national flag.
More on these:
Postage stamps!
A replica of the Ashoka pillar in Thailand
The original version
The Ashoka Chakra on the flag
Some more info: http://teachindiaproject.org/The_national_emblem_and_Ashoka_Chakra.htm
That’s all for this week.
Next Week
Next week we’ll continue the story of Devayani and Friday. We’ll see why you should be careful when going swimming. If you accidentally put on someone else’s clothes after your swim – you might just end up becoming their servant.
The character next week is the sister of someone we previously encountered in the Character of the Week segment of Episode 4 Hare-y Tales. She’s a demon. She’s a Buffalo. She’s both!
I’ll see you next week!