In today’s mini-episode, we’ll meet Narakasur. Narakasur actually started off as a good guy. He was born to Varaha the flying boar/rhinoceros whom we met as the character of the week back in Episode 9 – A clever minister in King Akbar’s court.
Varaha had rescued the Earth from the ocean. Varaha became more than friends with the goddess of the Earth, Bhudevi. They had a child whom they named Narak. He was actually a good boy, he earned good grades in school, helped the elderly cross busy roads, helped his family with chores, didn’t ask for too much TV, that kind of stuff.
But this was not to last. Narak fell into some bad company. Mostly it was Banasur. Banasur was the great-grandson of Prahlad, whom we have met before during Episode 20 “The Aunt from Hell” and Episode 21 “Final Destiny”. Banasura also had a thousand arms. He’s a person who certainly deserves a future episode but for now, it is sufficient to say he was responsible for corrupting Narak. So much so that Narak became Narakasur.
In one story, Narakasur wanted to marry the Goddess Kamakhya and he suggested that to her one night. She set a challenge for him, as you might have expected her to do. She pointed to a nearby hill. And asked him to single-handedly construct a staircase all the way to the top before dawn.
This was her way of rejecting his proposal without explicitly saying so. But Naraksura actually seemed to be doing it. He worked quickly and he had just a few steps to go. Out of sheer desperation, Kamakhya found a rooster and forced it to crow. That might seem like an odd way to react to the news that she would have to marry this guy, but that trick actually worked. Narakasur ignored the starry night sky, the lack of diffracted sunlight on the horizon, and simply gave up on the idea. Kamakhya breathed a huge sigh of relief.
Narak was strong, he had inherited some powerful genes. He defeated the devs in battle! he also stole a pair of earrings from the goddess Aditi. Aditi was the goddess of the sky, the sea, and the infinite. Naturally, she was upset. But the last straw was when Narakasur kidnapped 16000 women! I don’t know what he was thinking but that was a horrible horrible thing to do.
Maybe he was hoping to claim a lot of dependents on his tax returns.
Obviously things had now gotten way out of hand, so Krishna, another avatar of Vishnu, and Satyabhama his wife decided to pay Narakasur a visit. It was a quick visit indeed.
Within minutes they were flying off again, mission accomplished.
16000 women liberated? Check
Earrings returned? Check
Evil Asur guy decapitated? Check
That’s all for this mini-episode.
Next Time
In this weekend’s full episode we’ll hear the story of Ganga. Yes, the river Ganga is a goddess and she has a very interesting story. You’ll hear what happens if you pierce the fabric of the universe. And if your pet cow wanders off why it’s best not to accuse a meditating stranger of having stolen her.