Wikipedia Trail: White Elephant to Chandra

A sculpture of Chandra from the 13th century. Source: Wikipedia

For this week's Wikipedia Trail I started with white elephant because my one of the Jataka readings was about a white elephant. I think they are so beautiful and I love to look at pictures of them.
This led me to Airavata, which was the name of the flying white elephant who belonged to the God Indra. This elephant was the king of all elephants and has 5 trunks and 10 tusks.
The previous search led me to the ocean of milk, where some legends say that Airavata came out of. This ocean of milk is a major marker in Hinduism and its legends. It is the 5th from the center of 7 oceans and surrounded Krauncha, a continent. This ocean is where Vishnu rests with Lakshmi, his consort.
Ocean of milk led me to the final page of my Wikipedia Trail, which was Chandra, the Moon God. This ties in with the ocean of milk because of Chandra's involvement in the Ocean's churning in order to get the nectar of immortal life. Chandra also goes by Soma, and Somvaar (Monday) is the day of the week that is named after him.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Introduction to a Future Nurse

Image
My name is Shivani Gandhi and I am a senior psychology major at the University of Oklahoma. The coolest thing about my major is that it can be utilized in pretty much any field out there. A person knowledgeable about psychology can assist anyone and some companies have a special position for people who have studied psychology. I love school and I will try my best to make any class fun and I think of classes as a stepping stone to where I need to be. I try to make them enjoyable by relating them to concepts I will have to face in the future and how these classes will help me get there. My favorite and best class from last semester was Human Sexuality with Professor Dennison because I loved the way he taught the subject. He was funny and made the topics not embarrassing to talk about on a daily basis. I also learned some pretty useful things in the class that will help me in the future. My biggest accomplishments last semester were completing and submitting my application for Nursing a...
Read more

Week 2 Story: The Servant and the "Beast"

Image
Turtle graffiti. Source: Pixabay   Long, long ago, there was a castle in the foothills of the of the Bucegi Mountains in Romania, was an elegant castle fit for the king of kings. At this castle lived King Arjun and his 2 daughters, Eshani and Karishma. One day, on a warm autumn evening, the two girls went out to play in the valley, not far from the castle. After playing with the rocks and mud by the river, Eshani and Karishma came across a strange looking creature upon a hill that resembled a dragon and became fearful. "Should we go tell father?" asked Eshani. "Yes, let's go before it destroys the valley and heads for our home!" said a concerned Karishma. The girls quickly ran inside and screamed for their father. King Arjun was in the middle of polishing his armor when the girls interrupted him. "What is going on?" said King Arjun in a firm and slightly agitated manner. "There is a dragon in the river that runs through the valley...
Read more