The churning of the Milk Ocean (Valmiki's version)

Classical

Valmiki lists apsaras among the churned treasures.

Vishvamitra tells this story to Rama on the north bank of the Ganga, at the point where they have just crossed in a boat and caught sight of a heavenly-looking city called Vishala. Rama asks which dynasty rules it. Vishvamitra answers by going back to the beginning of the world.

In the first age, he says, the sons of Diti were powerful and the sons of Aditi were virtuous. All were sons of the sage Kashyapa and grandsons of Daksha. Diti's sons became the asuras and rakshasas, Aditi's the suras, or gods. Both wanted to become deathless, free of illness and old age. So they agreed to churn the ocean of milk, using the serpent Vasuki as the rope and Mount Mandara as the churning rod.

After a thousand years of this, Vasuki's coils scraped the mountain and venom poured out. This was the poison Halahala, and it melted the rocks of Mandara and threatened to burn up the three worlds. The gods ran to Shiva for help. Vishnu appeared, told Shiva that as the foremost of the gods he should take the first share, and vanished. Shiva drank the poison.

The work resumed, but Mandara slipped down into the lower world and the gods prayed to Vishnu. He became a tortoise, lay under the sea and held the mountain on his back. Then he took hold of the peak and helped to churn.

Then the treasures came up, one after another, in Valmiki's order. First came Dhanvantari, the physician who embodies the science of Ayurveda, with a water vessel. Then the Apsaras, sixty crore main nymphs, plus countless attendants. Because neither gods nor demons took them as wives, they were called general-purpose Apsaras. Next came Varuni, the daughter of Varuna. The sons of Diti refused her and the sons of Aditi accepted her, and this, Valmiki says, is how the names asura, without wine, and sura, with wine, arose. After her came the horse Uchchaishravas, the Kaustubha jewel and finally the amrita, the nectar of immortality.

The nectar caused a bitter war. The gods killed many of Diti's sons, and then the asuras and rakshasas united and fought a terrifying battle that threatened the three worlds. When the demons seemed to be losing, Vishnu took the enchanting form of Mohini, seized the amrita and gave it only to the gods. Demons who stood against Vishnu were crushed, and the gods slaughtered the sons of Diti. Indra regained the kingdom of heaven and ruled the worlds, including the sages and the celestial musicians.

That is where Vishvamitra stops. He does not draw a moral from it; he tells it as the early history of the world in which the city of Vishala stands.

Other tellings differ. The translator's page adds a legend that is not in Valmiki's verses, saying that the churning began after the sage Durvasa cursed Indra when an elephant trampled a garland the sage had given him, and it offers a yogic reading in which the churning represents the awakening of kundalini, with the body as the ocean and the spine as the rod. Valmiki's version has neither; it is a brisk account of a bargain, a poison, a rescue, a prize and a trick.

Who: Vishnu, Shiva, Vasuki, Dhanvantari, Mohini, Indra

Bound to

Diti, Indra and the forty-nine Maruts causes

Vamana and the Siddha Ashrama mirror

Where this comes from

valmiki · Valmiki Ramayana, Bala Kanda (valmikiramayan.net translation) sarga 45
read for this telling · valmikiramayan.net Valmiki Ramayana Bala Kanda sarga 45

See it on the tree · All stories

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