W for Why the Vindhya Mountains Swelled - Mahabharata Mashup

Namaste, 

Mahabharata has many short stories from different Puranas. This is one such story from Aranyaka Parva, shared with Yudhistira during the early years of the Pandava exile. 

Rishi Lomasa presented the following story about why the Vindhya Mountain started swelling and how the situation was handled. 

A long time ago, the Vindhya Mountain noticed how the sun (Surya Deva) would do a pradakshina (circumambulation) around the divine Mount Meru every day. After a few days, the Vindhya asked the sun why he did that only for Meru. 

The sun replied that it wasn’t his choice but how the creator carved his path, which he followed every day without fail. 

This annoyed the Vindhya Mountain. It expanded in size and swelled large enough to block the sun’s path. The gods went to soothe and convince the mountain to get back to its previous size. However, no amount of pleading worked. The Vindhya Mountain continued to obstruct the path of the sun, moon, and stars to satisfy its ego. This also caused trouble for the rishis and earth-dwellers in the region as the days and seasons went off cycle. 

A group of rishis went to Rishi Agastya and explained the situation, asking for help. He assured them he would take care of the matter. The rishi went to the Vindhya Mountain and asked it to create a passage for him to travel southward. The rishi said the mountain could close again once he came back. The mountain agreed. 

Rishi Agastya went to the south but stayed there. The mountain had no choice but to keep the passage open, as per their agreement. This resulted in the mountain shirking into its previous size. It could no longer obstruct the sun’s path or interfere with nature’s cycle. 

Interesting, isn’t it? 

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