ANCIENT WORLD’S PRIME MERIDIAN

MAHASHIVRATRI is on February 15, and I am tempted this week to revisit Shiva lore at Ujjain, where he is worshipped as Mahakaal.

- RENUKA NARAYANAN

The famous Nasadiya Sukta, in its creation theory, Rig Veda 10:129:3 says, tama asit tamasa gulham agre ‘praketa m salilam sarvam a idam/ tucchyenabhv apihitam yad asit tapasas tan, mahinajayataikam, meaning, ‘At first there was only darkness wrapped in darkness. All this was only unillumined water. That One which came to be, enclosed in nothing, arose at last, born of the power of heat.’ Interpreted, this means that creation came about through life’s longing for itself. But with life was born a longing for liberation. Tradition describes Ujjain as the first conscious witness to life’s endless cycles of time.

Ujjain was first known as Avantika for its vana or forests of healing herbs gifted to Earth. But then there came the ambitious titan, Tripur. He performed terrible austerities to obtain a boon from Lord Brahma, that nobody could destroy him except by one arrow when the three planets that he ruled were in alignment. Secure in his supernatural power, Tripur unleashed great cruelty on Avantika.

Lord Shiva assured his helpless devotees that Tripur’s end was close at hand. Then, as scripture describes it, the cosmos took on an unearthly glow. Earth took the form of a chariot. The sun and moon became its wheels. The mighty Himalayas became the bow. And on this bow, Lord Vishnu himself became the arrow. And thus, Lord Shiva took aim and destroyed the three planets. With that, he destroyed Tripur. This feat was celebrated in theology forevermore as ‘Tripurardhan’.