Forgotten Facts

Bibek Debroy listed down six reasons why Indian Epics should be read and it is covered in a column written by Akrita Reyar.

The new facts that emerged out of the column is reproduced below:

1. “The word ‘Itihasa’ should not be really translated as anything other than history because the literal translation of the word itihas is iti-hi-hasa (it - so - transpired).

2. ......first avatar is Matsya avatar. Everyone knows the story - Manu went to bathe in a river, found a small fish. The fish said ‘save me from the larger fish’, so Manu put it in a small bowl of water. At home, the fish became larger and larger and larger and so on… The simple question then is what was the name of the river and where is that river? The name of the river is Kritamala and it is a tributary of the Vaiga River in Tamil Nadu’s Madurai. And this Kritamala today is a nullah and no one even remembers that it was a river. The Puranas and the Mahabharata and the Ramayana are not only about dharma but a wealth of geographical material. 

3. Sometimes when I mention to people that did you know that Baramulla is actually Varahamulah because that is where Vishnu in his Varaha avatar rescued the earth from when it had been taken down in the water stream, they mostly don’t know.”

4. There are other words for a king such as nripa and rajan; but every nripa is not a rajan. A nripa becomes rajan only when he ensures governance and makes sure that the subjects are happy and delighted. The first rajan was a king named Prithu.

5 An atithi is someone who turns up unannounced, a-tithi (without date or appointment).

Thanks Bibek Debroy.

Column by Akrita Reyar is worth reading.