Story details
Lord Shiva and Mango
Rashmi
This a story about a fruit which is very popular in the Sub-continent, which is India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka - and I will be saying a story about how this fruit called mango is linked to the Hindu religion and our beliefs.
Once upon a time, Lord Shiva, one of the three gods, of Hinduism, and his wife Parvathi, were sitting in the mountain of Khelas. The holy saint, Narad, brought a holy fruit to their court and presented that to Lord Shiva. Looking at the fruit, it was nice and beautiful and yellow in colour. And Shiva thought: "Oh, why don't I share it with my sons?" Shiva has got two sons, Karthik, the one who rides on the big peacock, and Lord Ganesh, the elephant-headed god with big trunk and who likes to eat lot of fruit. Due to that he has got a big belly.
Shiva called on both his sons and told them: "There is a fruit which the Lord Narad, the saint, gave me. Would you like to share that?" The boys looked at each other. "We don't want to share it", Karthik said, "I want it, I want the fruit for myself. I want to eat it whole!" Lord Ganesh said: "I want it as well! It looks nice and yellow and beautiful and yummy! I want to eat it all!"
What to do? Shiva and Parvathi looked at each other. "These boys are not sharing! OK, let's do a game on them and see who wins. The person who wins will get the fruit."
The boys were asked to go around the world three times and the person who comes first to the parents back would be the winner. As written in the Epics, Karthik used to ride always on a peacock, so it was easier for him to get round the world - he would go fast, the peacock could fly. But the poor Lord Ganesh, his vehicle was a little rat - so you can imagine how slow it would be.
Karthik said: "Ha ha ha, I know I'm sure I'm going to win this game! I'm going to start now." He took his peacock, mounted on it, and started his journey. Ganesh stood there thinking. Suddenly he got an idea. He started folding his arms together like a prayer and he started walking around his parents. And he walked around his parents three times, and went and touched the feet of the parents. And he said: "I have gone around my world three times. Because my world starts from you and ends with you. There is nothing else for me other than you." The parents were so happy and chuffed by their son's devotion, he was proclaimed the winner and was given the fruit.
This is one of the stories how mango has been used within the Hindu religion and culture. And you can see, whenever there is a ritual happening, then offerings would be made to gods, especially Lord Ganesh, and there'll be lot of fruits laid in front of him, and I'm sure one of it would be mango.
This story was collected by Bradford Community Environment Project at South Asian arts organisation Kala Sangam, in collaboration with Spice! and Bradford Council.
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