Colonial Discourse and the Suffering of Indian American Children is now freely available.
Colonial Discourse and the Suffering of Indian American Children Book Cover.webp
We examine the impact of the current colonial-racist discourse around Hindu Dharma on Indians across the world and prove that this discourse causes psychological effects similar to those caused by racism: shame, inferiority, embarrassment, identity confusion, assimilation, and a detachment from our cultural heritage.

Mahātala

From Hindupedia, the Hindu Encyclopedia

By Swami Harshananda

The purāṇas describe the universe as comprising 14 worlds. They are:

  1. 7 being above this bhuloka or earth
  2. 6 being below this earth

These six are generally given the name Pātālalokas. However, Mahātala is the fourth nether world starting with Atala just below this earth. It is supposed to be inhabited by multi-headed serpents all descendants of the sage Kaśyapa and his wife Kadru. Some of the chief ones among them are:

  1. Kahaka
  2. Takṣaka
  3. Suṣeṇa
  4. Kāliya

Though they are terrible in appearance and cruel by nature they live in eternal fear of Garuḍa the great eagle-mount of Lord Viṣṇu, an inveterate enemy of theirs.


References[edit]

  • The Concise Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Swami Harshananda, Ram Krishna Math, Bangalore

Contributors to this article

Himanshu Bhatt, Krishna Maheshwari, Deval Sancheti

Explore Other Articles

Retrieved from "https://hindupedia.com/index.php?title=Mahātala&oldid=121572"