The World and My Thoughts
Creating the world that my version of the Indian gods and goddesses inhabit has a bit of a pain, mainly because it just grew organically. The sheer amount of information needing to be synthesized and distilled to make a functional story caused me to have to research and create the world, bit by bit, character by character. Every time I learned something new, I had to decide to incorporate it or not. Most new details didn’t rewrite things too much as I’ve tried to keep much of it open enough to accept additions. But some new information has been useful in giving me new avenues to pursue.
My main goal was to remove the more symbolic things and to rework everything into a logical flow. The second was that I wanted to treat the gods as a normal race of people, even if many of them have hugely powerful magical traits and positions. The idea was to weave a consistent world that tries to account for most things, and build a workable framework for my narrative to proceed in. To that end, I had to distill down various stories, with each new one causing me to rethink. I also weaved in something I’d learned of the ancient past of the Indian people themselves.
To begin, the gods, known as Sura were a people with a kingdom in the central Asian plain. Their kingdom was in decay. The environment was changing on them, drying out. Their enemies, the mostly disorganized and clannish Asura, were becoming a larger nuisance. There existed a constant, low-grade war with the larger clans of the Asura. And, in the midst of all this, the ruler of the Sura Varuna was growing increasingly stressed. His paranoia was running rampant. He saw enemies in every shadow. He found any dissent as grave as treason. Punishments for even the most minor of infractions rapidly spiraled out of proportion. His obsession with punishing sin had become a larger menace than the raiding Asura bandits.
Before Varuna can descend fully into madness, Indra, the head general, raised the army in revolution. With the people on his side, his coup d’état was swift and definite. With Varuna dead and the people high on hope, Indra was faced with a grim decision. The land was increasingly barren and the Asura raids were becoming more frequent and devastating. Eventually, riding the height of the people’s praise of him, he proposed an exodus south to better lands. Although there was some resistance, most eventually follow him.
However, their enemy the Asura was persistent. While the Sura do abandon their lands to them, the land was now nearly worthless. Various clans attacked them while they travel south. Their battles were many and tiring, but they eventually settle down in the northern Indus River plain. The new land was bountiful and the people overjoyed. Their migration had displaced some native Asura, but things were mostly settled amicably; things went far better with the native inhabitants, who welcomed the Sura for the most part. Indra was enshrined as their new king, and all seemed well.
This is, honestly, a very simplified mish-mash of what little I’ve read of the Verdic period myths. It’s left generally vague enough so that I can rely upon it for my current story, but plastic enough to be modified later when I actually read more and evaluate the benefits of various tales.
The origin in central Asia is actually pulled from the archeological evidence that the people of that originated the Hindu mythology actually came from there, pushed south by changing climate. Various bits of the mythos actually show origins in various Middle Eastern cultures. Even the Sanskrit language seems to have come from an amalgamation of various other cultures from the area. From there, it was just a matter of taking a few high points, rolling it into a loose enough tale that can set Indra onto the kingly throne of an Indian country. I’ve left out what is a probably massive mound of ripe material, mostly out of ignorance. But the next part of the tale is something that needed to be thought of so that Taraka’s hatred of the Sura is explained.
However, the toll of the trip seemed to weigh on Indra. There was a legendary drink that Varuna had possessed, called Soma, which had granted him great longevity. But the secret of it had been lost with his life. Or so it had seemed. An Asura, who had been loyal to Varuna before his decent into paranoia, knew the formula. Upon learning of this, a young Vishnu was tasked with producing it. Vishnu sought out and struck a deal with the once-loyal Asura. The task of creating the drink would be immense, though. Organizing a huge labor force of Sura and Asura alike, they manufactured the drink. But neither side seemed to trust the other. Rahu, an Asura, masterminded the theft of the drink and the plans, destroying everything in his wake. Vishnu pursued him, disguised himself as a woman, and by cunning took the drink and plans back. Rahu, though, had tasted the drink, and even after being beheaded, his body would not perish. Vishnu returned the drink, and Indra returned to health.
The actual tale of the origin of Soma is rife with symbolism, as any origin tale usually goes. It is also one created far after the Verdic period in which it would have actually happened. The tale is mentioned as happening in India, and is followed by a great war between the Sura and Asura. Thus I chose to modify it accordingly and place it around when the Sura make their settlement in their new, vibrant country. This is also the first time that Vishnu gains note in my tale, and where he gains his first smattering of popularity. From this seed, he continues to be a force to be reckoned with in the following war.
The war is mostly undefined. All I’ve decided is that Vishnu rises even higher in popularity. This is also where Shiva first comes onto the scene, although he’s going by Rudra at the time. Working under Agni, Indra’s brother, he rises in popularity as well. During the war, Vishnu and Shiva team up and become rather good friends. Eventually, the war comes to a close. The Asura are repelled, peace comes, and an uneasy balance descends. Vishnu continues to stay in the spotlight, but Shiva up and vanishes.
There isn’t really a war I know of that has much of what I’ve lined out here. Instead, this is more of a mash-up of concepts that bridge the Verdic and Parunic tales and characters. The war will probably grant many tales, but for now it’s just a giant monolith of conflict.
The idea of Shiva being a continuation of Rudra is pretty well supported. But Shiva himself is far more complex than Rudra, so I decided to have him be Rudra only in the war. Then he vanishes to change his life into another phase. As far as Shiva and Vishnu’s relationship, there’s plenty of support for it, although I haven’t found any specific stories that mention a friendship. As part of the humanification, I brought them down from the level of astute gods to normalish beings, having a long friendship.
The time of peace is mostly left open, as the only things I planned to add into it was the parts of Shiva’s story that I needed. The first is the big incident he caused at the mountain retreat of the sages. He has come back into the public eye as a master dancer. One day, he appeared at the retreat wearing nothing but ashes and a brightly painted penis. His dancing was so entrancing and erotic that the wives and female attendants fawned all over him. This caused a complete stir, and a detachment of the royal guard led by Vishnu was sent to escort the crazed man off the mountain and most likely into jail. Vishnu recognized his old war buddy, reprimanded him for making a fool of himself, but otherwise things ended well. This only managed to cement Shiva’s renown for dancing in the public’s mind.
This story is only halfway true to the mythology. The last half is actually a tale about how the sages do not recognize the great god Shiva, curse him, and demand that he either cover himself or cast off his phallus. Shiva is recognized as a god of fertility, and actually has an entire circle of worship around his divine lingam. Shiva then obliges them, removing his lingam and letting it fade into the air. This has a devastating effect upon the world, causing the sages to go asking Brahma for help. He tells them that they have harassed the great god Shiva into mutilating himself, screwing up the order of the world. Mortified, the sages return and beg forgiveness from Shiva. Shiva forgives them, recreates his divine phallus, and the world is righted.
The myth is mostly concerned with Shiva not being recognized and properly worshipped. My story is more concerned with exploring Shiva’s character and causing him to be reunited with an old friend. Whenever I actually script the whole scene, some of the cursing and such might come into play, but that is a topic for later thought.
In time, Shiva tames his wild image and met Sati, daughter of Daksha, who was the son of Brahma. The two fell in love. However, Daksha was not approving of their union. In his eyes, Shiva was nothing but a vagrant, unwashed moron. Quick to rid himself of the problem, he held a ceremony to choose a wife for Sati, making sure that Shiva would not be present. Sati, distressed, focused her thoughts on him, threw her garland into the air, and Shiva, having crashed the party, caught it. Daksha was furious, refusing to acknowledge Shiva. So the pair eloped. This further infuriated Daksha, and no amount of consoling from people like Vishnu or his father Brahma could sooth his rage. Over the course of many passive-aggressive confrontations, Sati’s patience was strained to the breaking point. During a large and lavish party to which Shiva was not invited, Daksha had Sati brought secretly. The two argued over her life with Shiva, neither giving ground. Finally, in front of the entire party, she challenged her father; she would rather cast herself into the bonfire and be consumed than follow his wishes and leave Shiva. Daksha, ignoring her serious tone, accepted this challenge. He was horrified when Sati, after confirming that she would not be allowed to leave until she gave into his demands, threw herself into the fire. The guests were horrified.
Shiva, having felt that something was amiss, followed his wife’s abductors to the party, although staying far enough behind to not be noticed. But his caution proved costly, because Sati’s death was transmitted to him instantly. In a raging fury, he forced his way into the party, devastating any guard that had tried to stop him. Entering the main room, he saw the fire and understood. The guests also noted Shiva’s arrival as an ill omen. Armed with a sword taken from a felled guard, Shiva advanced upon Daksha. The crowd parted for him. Daksha babbled, but Shiva beheaded him in a single stroke without word. Pulling his wife’s dead body from the fire, he found that the smoke had suffocated her before the fire could consume her entire body. He left the place uncontested with her corpse.
The main point here is that Shiva’s first marriage is rocky and ends in tragedy, which leads directly to his meditating ascetic phase. My story is pretty close to the mythology, only changing some details. I did find one slightly differing account, but the general ideas are the same. There is also a version that has Daksha brought back to life to see the error of his ways, but I honestly prefer to leave him dead and left to reincarnate elsewhere.
Shiva was inconsolable. He danced a morose dance, one that anyone who witnessed it became as sad as Shiva. Vishnu, doing everything he could to gain a proper rest for Sati, did all that he could to console his friend. He eventually persuaded Shiva to stop dancing, but this only served to send him into a deep depression. At the nadir of his emotional journey, Shiva decided to cast off all worldly things, to cleanse himself of everything that could remind him of Sati. After informing Vishnu of this, he vanished into the night. His journey finally led him to Mount Kailasa, where he took up residence meditating. Eventually, word spread of Shiva as a great yogi. Many attendants came to help him in his spiritual journey, but he found them all to be at best a minor nuisance.
Mostly, as a bridge to the current story, it glosses over many of the details. It serves the purpose, though there is some notes that he had actually taken up residence on the mountain before all this happens. This runs a bit counter my goal of Shiva taking up meditation and self-denial to escape the memory of Sati. If that is his plan, he would never come back to the place they had once shared time in. Instead, a bare mountain in the far north seems more likely a place to find escape.
This is where my story proper begins. And for understanding that, it is best to read the script itself. I do omit a great deal of side info in the current draft of the script, some of which is illuminated in the character dossiers. Future versions will encompass this material, and might include more interlude scenes to show outside events. Currently, the script is also riddled with my own “fix this later” notes in bold. In many cases, these are mostly concerned with wording when they appear inside written sections. Otherwise, about half the script is still in brief outline form.