Dharma Katha

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Dharma Katha · Season 1: Pitru Paksha · Episode 55

A king who has lost everything rides alone into a forest. He has no army now. No palace. No one waits for him. And still, as he rides, he cannot stop thinking about the elephants in his old stables, and whether the new masters are feeding them. This is Dharma Katha, Season One, Pitru Paksha. Episode fifty-five, day ten. For nine days we have been with the ancestors. Tonight the season begins to turn. Tomorrow is Mahalaya, the new moon that closes the fortnight of the ancestors, and the day after it, the nine nights of the Goddess begin. So today and tomorrow we hear the story that is recited on those nights, from a text called the Devi Mahatmya, the Glory of the Goddess.

Missed the previous story? Listen to Episode 54 first.

Source note. Label: Purana. The frame story of King Suratha, the merchant Samadhi and the sage Medhas, the account of Madhu and Kaitabha, and the birth of the Goddess from the light of the gods with the list of her weapons, are from the Devi Mahatmya, chapters one and two, which form chapters eighty-one to ninety-three of the Markandeya Purana; I have retold them from published translations and shortened the lists. Numbering of chapters and the order of some details differ between editions. The reading that connects the story to the end of Pitru Paksha is my own. No Sanskrit is quoted in this episode.

Note: this episode is narrated with an AI voice and the script was written with AI assistance. Sanskrit verses are checked against published editions; corrections are welcome.

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Dharma Katha · Season 1: Pitru Paksha · Episode 54

Before a family sits down to eat on a day of shraddha, in many homes, five small portions of food leave the kitchen first. None of them is for the people at the table. This is Dharma Katha, Season One, Pitru Paksha. Episode fifty-four, day nine, the last of the day. It is a short one. In episode six we met these five portions for the first time, and in episode forty-one we saw them again among the gifts of Pitru Paksha. This time I would like to slow down and look at each of the five in turn, as a kind of blessing for the end of the day.

Missed the previous story? Listen to Episode 53 first.

Source note. Label: tradition. The five portions of food, for the cow, dog, crow, ants and gods, and their Sanskrit names as go-bali, kukkura-bali, kaka-bali, pipilika-bali and deva-bali, are described from my knowledge of living custom; the details vary between families and regions, and I have not cited a text. The dogs of Yama are in the Rigveda, tenth book, hymn fourteen, which we visited in episode thirty, though I do not recall that we spoke of the dogs; the link between those dogs and the custom of feeding dogs in Pitru Paksha is a common association that I have not traced to a text. The reflections are mine. This is not a guide to performing the rites.

Note: this episode is narrated with an AI voice and the script was written with AI assistance. Sanskrit verses are checked against published editions; corrections are welcome.

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Dharma Katha · Season 1: Pitru Paksha · Episode 53

If you walk through an Indian town on the last day of Pitru Paksha, you may see a woman pouring water at the foot of a peepal tree, and no one around her thinks it is strange. This is Dharma Katha, Season One, Pitru Paksha. Episode fifty-three, day nine. It is a short one. We have heard about crows and kings and sages. Now three quieter presences that the tradition keeps close to the ancestors: a tree, a plant and an animal.

Missed the previous story? Listen to Episode 50 first.

Source note. Labels: tradition, with one line of scripture. The verse quoted, aśvatthaḥ sarvavṛkṣāṇāṃ devarṣīṇāṃ ca nāradaḥ, is Bhagavad Gita 10.26 first half, checked against the Wikisource text of the Gita. The picture of the ashvattha with roots above is from Gita chapter fifteen, which I mention without quoting. The customs of pouring water at the peepal, of tulsi at death, and of the cow's tail in crossing the Vaitarani, are living tradition, and the last is described in the Garuda Purana literature; I have not re-checked the exact verse and have not quoted it. Sources such as the Padma Purana are often cited for the sanctity of these three, but I have not read the passages and cannot cite them. The final reflection is mine. A Sanskrit reader should confirm the verse.

Note: this episode is narrated with an AI voice and the script was written with AI assistance. Sanskrit verses are checked against published editions; corrections are welcome.

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Dharma Katha · Season 1: Pitru Paksha · Episode 52

A king stands at the edge of a burning ground, at night, in rags. He works for a man who guards the dead. And a woman comes to him carrying a small body in her arms, and he is bound by his duty to ask her for a fee. This is Dharma Katha, Season One, Pitru Paksha. Episode fifty-two, day nine. In the last episode a sage gave away his body to save the world. Today is the story of a king who gave away everything else. It belongs to the Puranas, and I want to label it clearly: this is Purana, a later telling, with a set of details that differ from one version to another.

Missed the previous story? Listen to Episode 51 first.

Source note. Label: Purana. The story of Harishchandra, the dream, the gift of the kingdom to Vishvamitra, the sale of himself, his wife and son, the child's death by snakebite, and the scene at the cremation ground, is told in the Markandeya Purana, in the chapters near the beginning of that Purana (I recall chapters seven to nine, but I have not checked the numbering), and versions of it appear in the Devi Bhagavata Purana and elsewhere, with differences in the details, including who his final master was and how the test ends. I have not re-read a text for this recording, and I have not quoted any Sanskrit. The Harishchandra of the Aitareya Brahmana, in the story of Shunahshepa, is a different tale and I mention it only to keep the two apart. That a ghat in Varanasi is named for Harishchandra is a matter of well-known geography, not text. My reflections are mine. A Sanskrit reader should confirm the details against a Purana edition before this episode is treated as final.

Note: this episode is narrated with an AI voice and the script was written with AI assistance. Sanskrit verses are checked against published editions; corrections are welcome.

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Dharma Katha · Season 1: Pitru Paksha · Episode 51

There is a moment in the Mahabharata when the gods are afraid, and the only thing that can save them is a gift that no one has the right to ask for. This is Dharma Katha, Season One, Pitru Paksha. Episode fifty-one, day nine. It is a long one, and a hard one. Earlier this season, in episode twenty-eight, we heard about a boy who was meant to die at sixteen and would not let go of the Shiva lingam. That was a story about holding on to life. Today is the opposite: a story about a man who gave his life away, and why the tradition remembers him at this time of year.

Missed the previous story? Listen to Episode 28 first.

Source note. Labels: scripture, and hymn. The Rigveda verse, first mandala, hymn eighty-four, verse thirteen, is checked against the Wikisource text of the Samaveda, which repeats it and gives the Rigveda reference. The story of Dadhichi's bones is in the Mahabharata, Vana Parva, chapters ninety-nine and one hundred, narrated by Lomasha, and the two Sanskrit lines quoted are from chapter ninety-nine, verse twenty-one, checked against the Wikisource edition of the Mahabharata; verses twenty-two to twenty-four tell of his death, the gods taking the bones, and Tvashta making the vajra. The identification of the Rigveda hymn with the Mahabharata story is the tradition's own and is not stated in the hymn. That Pippalada was born to Dadhichi's wife after his death is puranic and varies between tellings; I have not verified it. The links to Pitru Paksha and the reflections are mine. A Sanskrit reader should confirm the verses.

Note: this episode is narrated with an AI voice and the script was written with AI assistance. Sanskrit verses are checked against published editions; corrections are welcome.

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Dharma Katha · Season 1: Pitru Paksha · Episode 50

Sita was sitting under a tree in Ashoka grove, far from home, and she had to prove to a stranger that she was who she said she was. So she did not offer her name. She offered a story that only two people in the world knew. This is Dharma Katha, Season One, Pitru Paksha. Episode fifty, day nine. In the last episode we met the crow who taught Garuda. Today, another crow, and this one has a wound.

Missed the previous story? Listen to Episode 49 first.

Source note. Label: scripture, with a tradition note. The crow that wounded Sita, Rama's brahmastra on a blade of darbha grass, the crow's flight, his surrender, and the loss of his right eye, are told by Sita to Hanuman in the Valmiki Ramayana, Sundara Kanda, sarga thirty-eight, roughly verses fifteen to forty, which I checked in the Sanskrit on the valmikiramayan.net edition. I have not quoted the Sanskrit. I looked for the story in Ayodhya Kanda sarga ninety-six and did not find it there. That the crow is Indra's son is stated in the text as hearsay, kila; the name Jayanta is from later tradition. The explanation for why crows look sideways or see with one eye is folk belief. My reflections are mine. A Sanskrit reader should confirm the details.

Note: this episode is narrated with an AI voice and the script was written with AI assistance. Sanskrit verses are checked against published editions; corrections are welcome.

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!

Dharma Katha · Season 1: Pitru Paksha · Episode 49

On the top of a blue mountain, under an ancient tree, sits a crow. And the story goes that this crow knows the story of Rama better than anyone alive, because he has heard it, and seen it, again and again, across many ages of the world. This is Dharma Katha, Season One, Pitru Paksha. Episode forty-nine, day nine. We are in the last few days of the season now. In episode forty-one, and earlier, we heard that on these days a portion of food is set aside for the crow. Today we ask a question we have not asked: why the crow? And the tradition answers with one of its most loved stories, from the Ramcharitmanas of Tulsidas.

Missed the previous story? Listen to Episode 41 first.

Source note. Label: tradition. This episode follows the Ramcharitmanas of Tulsidas, Uttarkand, in which Garuda's doubt after the nagapasha episode, his journey to Narada, Brahma and Shiva, and his instruction by Kakbhushundi on Nilgiri are told; the crow's own earlier lives, the curse of Shiva, the guru's prayer and the curse of Lomasha are also in that book. Kakbhushundi is not in the Valmiki Ramayana. I have not re-read the Awadhi verses for this recording, and I have not quoted them; the outline is from my knowledge of the text, and the details, such as the exact location and the number of births, should be checked against an edition. The scene of baby Rama and the crow, and the links between the crow and the shraddha offering, are popular tradition, not text. The reflections are mine. A reader of Awadhi should confirm the details before this episode is treated as final.

Note: this episode is narrated with an AI voice and the script was written with AI assistance. Sanskrit verses are checked against published editions; corrections are welcome.

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!

Dharma Katha · Season 1: Pitru Paksha · Episode 48

There is a moment in the Upanishads when a teacher says goodbye to his students for the last time. They have studied with him for years. Now they are about to leave the forest school and go home, to marry, to work, to live in the world. And he gathers them and gives his final advice. It is not about philosophy. It is about how to live.

Missed the previous story? Listen to Episode 47 first.

Source note. Label: scripture. The passage is Taittiriya Upanishad, Shikshavalli, first valli, eleventh anuvaka, verse two: 'devapitṛkāryābhyāṃ na pramaditavyam, mātṛdevo bhava, pitṛdevo bhava, ācāryadevo bhava, atithidevo bhava, yānyanavadyāni karmāṇi tāni sevitavyāni no itarāṇi, yānyasmākaṃ sucaritāni tāni tvayopāsyāni no itarāṇi.' The Sanskrit is quoted from a published edition on the shlokam.org site, in Devanagari, transliterated by me. The English follows the translation given there, adapted. Some editions add lines such as 'mitra-devo bhava' or 'putra-devo bhava'; I have followed the four-line reading. The Yaksha Prashna verse is from the Mahabharata, as in episode twenty-three, and the Vaitarani passage is Garuda Purana Saroddhara, chapter four, verse fourteen. My reflections are mine. A Sanskrit reader should confirm the text before publication.

Note: this episode is narrated with an AI voice and the script was written with AI assistance. Sanskrit verses are checked against published editions; corrections are welcome.

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!

Dharma Katha · Season 1: Pitru Paksha · Episode 47

A god came to a man's door, and the man did not turn around. He had his back to the visitor. He was massaging his old father's feet. And when the visitor said, I am here, the man threw a brick behind him, without looking, and said: Wait there, till I am done. And the god stood on the brick. And waited.

Missed the previous story? Listen to Episode 46 first.

Source note. Label: tradition, with Puranic and saint traditions. The account of Pundalik, his devotion to his parents, Krishna arriving and waiting on a brick, the request that Vithoba remain, the three traditions that preserve it, the disagreement about his historicity, and the location at Pandharpur on the Chandrabhaga, are from a published encyclopedic account. The earlier neglect and the details of his change are found in some tellings and are not in that account. The line from the Taittiriya Upanishad is Shikshavalli 1.11.2. My reflections are mine. I am not quoting other Sanskrit today.

Note: this episode is narrated with an AI voice and the script was written with AI assistance. Sanskrit verses are checked against published editions; corrections are welcome.

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!

Dharma Katha · Season 1: Pitru Paksha · Episode 46

There was a fruit, and two sons, and a race around the world. One son mounted a peacock and flew off into the sky. The other, who rode a mouse, walked three times around his mother and father, and sat down. And it was the second who won.

Missed the previous story? Listen to Episode 45 first.

Source note. Label: tradition. The story of the fruit of wisdom given by Narada to Shiva, the contest between Ganesha and Murugan to go around the world three times, Ganesha circling his parents, Murugan's departure to the hills of Palani, and Shiva and Parvati following him, is as summarised in a published account of the Tamil tradition of the jnana palam, which does not name a specific Purana. A telling in which the prize is the right to marry first is reported by some sources; I could not confirm which text. The link to Yudhishthira's answer is from the Mahabharata's Yaksha Prashna, as in episode twenty-three. My reflections are mine. I am not quoting Sanskrit today.

Note: this episode is narrated with an AI voice and the script was written with AI assistance. Sanskrit verses are checked against published editions; corrections are welcome.