Names, Places, Events, Things: Ruminations and Essays on Hindu Mythology

While the world is under siege, and peering into an abyss of uncertainty; and while I am, like most of us, working on finishing a whole lot of backlog activities pending for ages (now that we have some time at hand); I also decided to come back to some of the activities that are quite dear to me but for which I usually find precious little time. Right on top of these is the act of storytelling, and so here we are, with one more story post on this blog after a really, really long hiatus. The day of Mahashivratri for this year has just passed a couple of weeks ago, an occasion which is celebrated in Nepal and India and some neighboring countries with a lot of fanfare. I managed to see the crowds gathering at Pashupatinath temple in Kathmandu for the festival this year, and the scale of festivities is like on other in that little hill nation. This post is about the reasons of celebrating Mahashivratri , and the myths surrounding them. We will leave the metaphysical aspects of th