Wikipedia Trails: From Rakshasas to Patala




  1. To start my mini Wikipedia adventure, I decided to look into Rakshasas. Like I've talked about in other posts, these are cannibalistic creatures in Hindu mythology, similar to demons.
  2. Hindu Mythology is based from a very large collection of stories in a number of famous texts. The texts keep stories from previous ones with little evolutions and twists as each story gets retold and others get added. These have a wide range of content from cosmic origins to godly battles and different ways of life.
    Hindu Mythology

  3. Hindu Cosmology is the belief that the universe exists in a repeating cycle of creation and destruction. It is born, exists for a period of time before collapsing and immediately being born anew. It also talks about different realms in the universe, which exist around our own.
  4. Patala are the subterranean. These would be the equivalent to the underworld from Western cultures. Interestingly enough, this region is apparently considered to be more opulent and lavish than heaven. It sounds really cool, especially since humans in the modern era haven't even been able to drill as deep as the highest levels of Patala. (Only about .1 miles deeper and we would have gotten there.) Underneath these paradise levels, there is the Hindu version of Hell, Naraka.




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