Mythical creatures: integral part of Indian folklores

Thinking or talking about mythical beings never stops fascinating us. Our Indian mythology is a very rich and intelligent compilation of great stories, culture, teachings and inventions that we can pray for ages to come too. In most of the stories that mention many mythical creatures like half human half horse, fishes, turtles, birds and many more.“Upanishads”, that are considered to be the end part of the Vedas, have descriptions about horses and cattle. Also great religious books are written on mythical creatures like Nagamahdimya, Nandi-Purdoa, Pashu-Puriltia and Mayiratrahimya. The books contain many modern concepts about origin of life, life evolution and environment. Let us know about some of these great unusual creatures in our mythology. Aditi Aditi is a cow considered to be the source of the entire mythology. She is the one who gave birth to all deities and from her cosmic matrix all the heavenly bodies were born.The word Aditi means limitless.She promises to provide milk to all humans provided they behave as her calves. She is mentioned about 80 times in Rigveda and is symbolic to the eternal cycle of rebirth and wisdom. Cows are therefore considered as the holy animals by the Hindus. Hindus worship cows and have temples built for her worship. The rainbow fish This fish is a legendary fish in Hindu mythology as large as a whale. A story says that this fish swallowed Buddha, Lord Vishnu’s incarnation. Buddha was later freed by a fisherman who caught the fish. It is said that after being caught by the fisherman, this fish served as food for the entire nation for almost a year. The fish is beautiful and its scales are said to be made of natural substances. The red scales are made of fire, blue scales of ice, green scales of grass and yellow scales of lightning. Makara Makara is an aquatic mythical creature who is the vahana or carrier of Goddess Ganga and sea god Varuna. This complex creature is said to have trunk of an elephant, body of a fish, eyes of a monkey, ears of a pig, feet of a lion and tail of peacock. It is also the insignia of Love god, Kamadeva. Makara is depicted on the flag of Kamadeva. Makara is also the symbolic representation of the zodiac sign Capricorn also called as Makara in Devanagari.Makara is often depicted at the entrances of the Hindu and Buddhist temples that signifies protection. Uchchaihshravas Uchchaihshravas is a mythical flying horse with seven heads. There are lots of mention of the flying horse in our mythology. It is considered to be the vahana or carrier of Lord Indra, the King of Gods and also the horse of Bali, the King of Demons.Legends of this creature is present in Ramayana, Vayu Purana etc. There are many stories of its origin. It is considered as a treasure that came out during Samudra Manthan. It is also said that while Lord Brahma was performing sacrifices, a white winged horse rose out, which was Uchchaihshravas. As per Bhagwad Gita, during the formation of earth when kingship authorities were being distributed, Uchchaihshravas was made the King of horses.      

Indian philosophy now a part of commerce at Rajasthan University

To educate students by giving them a sense of Indian philosophy and religion, now Rajasthan University’s Commerce Department has replaced their dissertation topics with Indian values. Now topics like Vedas and management, management of stress through yoga, Mahabharata, Lord Krishna, Mahatma Gandhi, Lord Mahavir are few topics among other that will be included in University’s dissertation topic.  It will be a modern day collaboration with the ancient topics that will make sure that students realise and understand the contribution done by philosophers and thinkers in India.  Students will also give presentations on these topics and other presentation topics include under the category of Management Guru.  This unique move has been taken by Rajasthan University to Indianise the higher studies and students to get a sense of Indian values while they study modern day management.  Most of the theories accepted globally are taken from Indian philosopher who dates back to 5000 years old. Therefore Indian students should also know about this contribution. Apart from this, University had previously also replaced Foreign authors with Indian Authors so that students can study by taking the reference of Indian author’s book.