If we try and derive an analogy from the mythological slaying of Mahisasura by the goddess Durga from a standpoint of ecology, then we isolate two animals, the lion and the buffalo. The lion being Durga's faithful and the buffalo which the demon Mahisasura morphed himself into. The story of the victory of good over evil (if it is what all of us believe in!) as perceived from Durga killing the miscreant can be reduced to the lion predating on the buffalo, logically I sense. The lion is the resident of the more drier parts of the India where it hunts in prides to survive and the Indian wild buffalo stays in more wetter, tropical, water abundant regions of India.The distributions of the predator and prey do not match at present, although it may have matched in the past. The lion commonly hunts prey such as chital, sambar, nilgai but why has only the buffalo been
selected as the proper opponent of the lion as it neither was found in the regions where the lion was found and even if it did, it would probably not have been the commonest of the lion's prey . But in the mythological story, the lion has been shown to have taken on a much larger animal, the buffalo, which is larger, stronger but also heavier than the aforementioned prey. The reason could be to show us that both the combatants were equal in power and spirit. but why the buffalo? It could have been the elephant or the rhino too..couldn't it have been? Maybe because the Indian lion has also been observed to prey on domestic livestock too such as cows and buffaloes. Maybe because the wild buffalo was tamed by man, domesticated, fed selectively, bred selectively resulting in producing a tame but strong animal used primarily for human purposes such as tilling the soil, carrying burden, feed infants of man with fat and protein rich milk and for serving many other man oriented selfish goals. But the lion's pedigree followed the principle of Natural Selection (kill or be killed). So if we at all presume that the buffalo depicted in the mythological battle was a domestic one, then the entire scenario of a fair fight is gone! I mean, how could a tame buffalo be of any match with a wild snarling predator? The explanation which I managed to deduce is as follows..the fight is not between good and evil, it is between the wild and the tame, between the aggressive and the docile. The combat is between the one who still roams the wild and the one whose inherent strength has been corrupted by man's overzealous scientific endeavors. The fight is between the one who is fearful and the one who is unafraid. Because as soon as we let fear inside our hearts, we tend to bow down before authority (whatever or whoever it is) and submit ourselves in front of their ill begotten whims in desire for the few rotten crumbs of processed nourishment which they might be willing to throw at us. While the unafraid one has nothing to fear, he eats what he gets naturally and stays hungry when it is unavailable. He does not have to beg to anyone for anything because at the core of this concept, he, the fearless one, is not afraid to die. While the one who is afraid will die many spiritual deaths before his actual, physical death.
selected as the proper opponent of the lion as it neither was found in the regions where the lion was found and even if it did, it would probably not have been the commonest of the lion's prey . But in the mythological story, the lion has been shown to have taken on a much larger animal, the buffalo, which is larger, stronger but also heavier than the aforementioned prey. The reason could be to show us that both the combatants were equal in power and spirit. but why the buffalo? It could have been the elephant or the rhino too..couldn't it have been? Maybe because the Indian lion has also been observed to prey on domestic livestock too such as cows and buffaloes. Maybe because the wild buffalo was tamed by man, domesticated, fed selectively, bred selectively resulting in producing a tame but strong animal used primarily for human purposes such as tilling the soil, carrying burden, feed infants of man with fat and protein rich milk and for serving many other man oriented selfish goals. But the lion's pedigree followed the principle of Natural Selection (kill or be killed). So if we at all presume that the buffalo depicted in the mythological battle was a domestic one, then the entire scenario of a fair fight is gone! I mean, how could a tame buffalo be of any match with a wild snarling predator? The explanation which I managed to deduce is as follows..the fight is not between good and evil, it is between the wild and the tame, between the aggressive and the docile. The combat is between the one who still roams the wild and the one whose inherent strength has been corrupted by man's overzealous scientific endeavors. The fight is between the one who is fearful and the one who is unafraid. Because as soon as we let fear inside our hearts, we tend to bow down before authority (whatever or whoever it is) and submit ourselves in front of their ill begotten whims in desire for the few rotten crumbs of processed nourishment which they might be willing to throw at us. While the unafraid one has nothing to fear, he eats what he gets naturally and stays hungry when it is unavailable. He does not have to beg to anyone for anything because at the core of this concept, he, the fearless one, is not afraid to die. While the one who is afraid will die many spiritual deaths before his actual, physical death.
critique required!!
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