One day, Goddess Parvathi, the wife of Lord Shiva, was getting ready for her bath and needed someone to guard her chamber. Therefore she made a beautiful, young boy from the sandalwood from her body. She gave him life by sprinkling the Holy Ganges water on him and entrusted him with guarding the door. While she was away, Lord Shiva returned and was surprised to find a little boy standing at the entrance to his wife's chamber. When he tried to enter, the boy blocked his path. "Who are you and why are you blocking my path?" demanded Lord Shiva. "No one enters my mother's chamber", declared the boy boldly. Taken aback, Lord Shiva replied, "Step away; I have the right to enter my wife's chamber." But the young and courageous boy did not move but stood his ground. Not knowing that this was his own son, Lord Shiva who was quick to anger grew enraged. Not used to be disobeyed he cut off the boy's head. Lord

Parvathi on returning from her bath saw her son lying dead and was overcome with grief. She was filled with both anger and sorrow. Seeing this Lord Shiva sent his soldiers to fetch the head of the first beast that they saw. The men rushed and finally came upon an elephant. They immediately took the head to Lord Shiva, who quickly attached it onto the body of the slain boy and gave him life once again. To further appease his grief-stricken wife he promised that her son would be worshipped first, before all other Gods. Even today at the entrance of all temples one would find the idol of the elephant-headed God, Lord Ganesha.

           King Trishanku was a saintly man whose one great desire was to ascend bodily into heaven. He had once done a good turn to sage Vishwamitra and the sage decided to help him fulfil his desire. Accordingly, he performed a yagna and Trishanku began to rise heavenwards. When Indra, King of the gods, saw Trishanku at the gates of Heaven, he was furious and catching hold of him, threw him down. Vishwamitra saw Trishanku hurtling downwards and shouted: "Let Trishanku stay where he is now!" Trishanku's fall was arrested. As Indra would not let him ascend into heaven and Vishwamitra would not allow him to come down, Trishanku became suspended between heaven and earth. Folklore has expanded this mythological story to explain the origin of the coconut tree: Vishwamitra knew that Trishanku would eventually fall to earth unless held up by physical means, so he propped him up with a long pole. The pole eventually turned into a coconut tree and Trishanku's head became its fruit. The fibre around the coconut is Trishanku's beard. When you take it off, you see his eyes peering at you.

           Narada, the celestial sage, was a confirmed bachelor, but one day he saw Princess Shrimati and fell in love with her. To his dismay another sage, Tumburu, was also smitten by her and wanted to marry her. Both were devotees of Lord Vishnu and both sought his help. Narada asked that Tumburu's face should change into a bear's at the Swayamvar at which the princess would select her husband. Tumburu, not knowing that his rival had already approached Vishnu, made a similar request. He asked that Narada should appear to have a monkey's face. At the Swayamvar, the princess trooped down the long line of suitors with her garland. Narada and Tumburu out among the others, but when she went closer, Narada's face suddenly seemed to change and takeon a simian look. She

hastily turned to Tumburu, stood but to her horror he now looked like a bear. As she stood there in confusion, she suddenly saw another man standing between Narada and Tumburu. It was Lord Vishnu himself. He had come to find out how his devotees were faring. The princess, however, did not care who he was and why he had come. She was so relieved to see a normal human face that she immediately put the garland round his neck. Narada and Tumburu did not mind losing to Lord Vishnu, but each was secretly glad that the other had not got the princess.

           Vinata, mother of Garuda, had been enslaved by the nagas after she had quarrelled with their mother, Kadru. The nagas offered to release Vinata from servitude if Garuda brought them amrita (nectar of immortality) from the moon. Garuda brought the nectar after overcoming numerous obstacles, battling even the gods in the process. The nagas were delighted when he placed the pot containing the nectar before them. They let Vinata go and then they went to

wash themselves before partaking of the ambrosia. On their return they found the pot missing. Indra had taken it away. The nagas feverishly tried to lick up the drops of nectar that had fallen on the darbha grass on which the pot had been kept. They didn't get much nectar, but the sharp blades of the grass slit their tongues. Snakes ever since have had forked tongues.

Fact File:

Snakes smell with the help of their tongues and an organ of smell called Jacobson's organ in the roof of the mouth. A forked tongue helps them smell better. Besides snakes, a few species of lizards too have forked tongues.

           One morning when the sage Jamadagni stepped out of his ashram he found that the sun was unusually hot. Soon the sweat began to pour down his body and his throat became parched. He found it hard to concentrate on his work. "Go away," he shouted at the sun, staring up angrily at the shining orb. "You'll burn the earth!" But the sun stayed where he was and indeed seemed to become even bigger. Enraged, the sage rushed into his ashram and coming out with his weapons began to shoot arrows into the sky. The arrows fell far short of their mark. The sage shouted to his wife Renuka to bring some more arrows. When she had brought them, he began shooting again. With each shot the arrows rose higher and higher till finally even the sun began to feel vulnerable. He made himself still hotter, hoping the heat would drive Jamadagni back into his house. Jamadagni stood his ground but his wife began to wilt. Finally, she

fell down unconscious. Jamadagni carried his wife indoors, revived her with water and then rushing out again resumed his battle with the sun, with a renewed fury. Now the sun decided to go down to reason with him. He took the form of a brahmin and sauntered up to the sage. "Shooting at the sky?" he asked. "I'm shooting at the sun!" growled Jamadagni. "Too far away for your arrows, don't you think?" "Right now, may be. But at midday, he'll be directly overhead and then he'll be within range. I'll get him then!" The sun shuddered. "Please put down your bow," he said, "I am the sun. Heat the earth I must, but I'll give you something that will protect you from my heat." Jamadagni cooled down - and remained cool the rest of the summer because what the sun gave him was a pair of sandals and a very large umbrella, which, they say, was the world's first portable sunshade.

           In a clearing, deep in the forest, the trees were having a pre-dawn discussion. "Animals come and rest in our shade but they leave a mess behind," said the Jamun. "The smell on some days is unbearable!" "They show no concern for us because we're silent," said the Sal. "But I've had enough! I've made up my mind to drive away any animal that comes here!" "That may not be a wise thing to do," said the Peepul, the oldest and biggest tree there. "The animals are a nuisance, I agree, but they serve a useful purpose. We are all inter-dependent-trees, animals, men . . ." "I'm sorry," interrupted the Sal. "I've great respect for your views but in this matter I will not listen to anyone. I won't allow animals here any more!" True to his word when a leopard came to rest in the shade later that day, the Sal began to shake violently from side to side. The leopard, frightened out of his wits, jumped up and ran. The Sal drove away all the animals that came to the clearing that day and in the days that followed. In course of time animals stopped coming to that part of the forest. The Sal

became a great hero to the younger trees in the neighbourhood and even some of the older ones began bowing to him when the Peepul was not looking. Then one day two woodcutters came to the clearing. "Men!" gasped the Sal. "Why have they come here? They've never come here before." "If they've never come here before it was because they were afraid of the animals," said the Peepul. "Now the absence of the leopard and the tiger has made them bold." The Sal began to tremble with fear and with good reason. It was the first tree the woodcutters chopped down.