Dharma Katha · Season 2: Navratri · Episode 73

On one mountain, spring came in the wrong season. The ashoka trees flowered all at once. Fresh shoots broke out on the mango branches. The forest filled with red and yellow blossom, and the bees came. And at the gate of a hermitage, a bull-faced guardian named Nandi raised one finger to his lips, and the whole forest went still. Trees, bees, birds, deer. The poet says it looked like a painting.

Missed the previous story? Listen to Episode 71 first.

Source note. Label: poetry and Purana, with one quotation. The untimely spring, Nandi's gesture, Shiva's posture and the rain-cloud image, Parvati like a moving creeper, Shiva's slight disturbance, the third-eye fire, Rati's fainting, Shiva's departure with his attendants, and Himavan carrying Parvati home like an elephant with a lotus on its tusks, are from Kalidasa's Kumarasambhava, canto three, followed in the summary on kamakoti.org. The verse quoted, krodhaṃ prabho saṃhara saṃhareti, and the verse before it on the fire from the third eye, were read there. Kalidasa is classical poetry, not scripture. Taraka's boon, Shiva's promise to Rati, Kama's name Ananga and his rebirth as Pradyumna follow the Shiva Purana, Rudra Samhita, Parvati Khanda, and other Puranas; the fire placed in the ocean as a mare is from the Shiva Purana's telling and is recorded differently elsewhere. Kama's sugarcane bow is traditional iconography. A Sanskrit reader should confirm the verse.

Note: this episode is narrated with an AI voice and the script was written with AI assistance. Sanskrit verses are checked against published editions; corrections are welcome.