[Advaita-l] Allegorical interpretation of PurANAs

[jaldhar at braincells.com]

On Sat, 14 Mar 2020, Sudhanshu Shekhar via Advaita-l wrote:

> I wish to know - do you see it as a historical event? Indra killing some
> Tripurasur (who had three mouths - by one mouth, he was drinking soma, by
> second - wine and by third, he was eating food) and getting sin and then
> distributing one fourth of sin to women AND that is why women get monthly
> periods.
>
> I mean - do you / can you really believe this as an event that has happened
> in past?
>

Personally?  I believe it existed in a constructed past not necessarily 
the actual past.  This is I think the difference between mythology and 
history. Both are set in the past but the former is actually concerned 
about the present.  And I believe what the story of Indras battle with 
Vrtra and Vishvarupa is "actually" about is the monsoon rains which end 
the summer drought and make the land fertile again.  As such it happens 
over and over again.

This is not the same as allegory though.  An allegory disguises a truth in 
a fictional disguise.  This kind of story is to establish correspondences. 
Such correspondences are meta-logical because they are the propositions on 
which logical inferences can be made.

Hope that made some sense!

-- 
Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at braincells.com>