Tales froM Indian Mythology

Author(s): A S Raman
Publisher: Kutub Popular

Page 81

Yama and Markandeya
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was to live long in ever increasing glory and grandeur to the delight of mortals and to the envy of the gods. Alt a very early age began his passion for study which he gratified under the guidance of the seers. At five, he showed the mental maturity and receptivity of a boy thrice his age, and all the Vedas, Upanishads, and Sastras came to him naturally. They seemed familiar and intimate to him, as though he had already read them somewhere. Now he would emulate his parents by repeating the mantras after them, now he would collect a group of rustic urchins and try to impress on them the richness of the cultural heritage bequeathed by his great forbears, now he would make small images of the gods in clay and sing and dance around them, now he would seek in Nature living illustrations of what he had read in the scriptures, now he would thrill his preceptors by discoursing on the sutras which they had never taught him, now he would compose his own hymns in praise of God and sing them in the village temple with the melody of the Gandharvas and the fervour of the rishis. His precocity thus was phenomenal, and when he was twelve, his parents decided to perform his U panayanam ("Sacred Thread Ceremony”) so that he might assist them in their oblations.
The function was an occasion for great rejoicing at the ashram and the surrounding country-side. Simple peasants bought him presents of all sorts, which they considered precious. Some gave him cattle, others milk, honey and fruits, still others clothes, and a few, gold and silver. But none of his visitors approached him with empty hands, as if they-were at a shrine. Markandeya, however, behaved as though his guests were the