Sharabha

For this week, we're not going anywhere specific, but to a faith instead. We're heading over to Hindu mythology and religion to look at the epic Avatar of Shiva, Sharabha! Why was this being created? When would you possibly invoke its wrath? Find out this week!

Transcript

INTRO:
Hello and welcome to Myth Monsters, my name is Erin and I’ll be your host for these little snack bite size podcasts on folklore and mythical monsters from around the world. 

These podcasts focus on the actual cryptids, folklore and mythic monsters from global mythology, rather than focusing on full stories of heroes and their big adventures.

I’ll also be dropping in some references that they have to recent culture and where you can see these represented in modern day content so you can learn more, and get as obsessed as I am about these absolute legends of the mythological world.

I’m excited for the spooky season to truly settle in, I’ve got candles going every night now and everything feels a bit cosier. I’ve been binge watching TV in my spare time at the moment, so I’m definitely feeling like those autumn months are starting to sweep me away into the huwah-huwah season.

DESCRIPTION:

This week, we’re heading over to Hindu mythology for the first time in a long time to talk about a legendary beast from not only Hindu mythology, but also Hindu religion - yes, the weird and wonderful avatar of Shiva, Sharabha is our deity this time. 

Before we start, I must add that I know this show is called Myth Monsters - but we very often cover things that aren’t monstrous, and when it comes to religious figures, unless they’re very literally evil - I hesitate to use the word monster at all. However, I’m conscious that the show title doesn’t change, so please don’t take this as me demonising a creature from a religion - it’s just not a normal being. Thank you for listening to my PSA, please carry on with your episode now.

So what is Sharabha? They are a singular beast from Hindu mythology and are typically described physically as huge, and I mean taller than elephants. They are also a hybrid creature, with the body of a lion, giant bird-like wings and claws and elephant tusks. However, they are also known to have eight lion-ey legs. In some stories, they are also known to have a bird’s face or a lion’s head, however, it really does depend on the story you’re reading. 

Most importantly though here is that they are, as I mentioned in passing in the intro, an avatar of Shiva - the Hindu god of cosmic destruction and transformation, making them one hell of a big deal within Hindu mythology and religion and explains the godlike powers, hybrid-ness and enormous size. 

As well as this, they are always surrounded by divine fire or divine radiance, which blinds the being, not literally, but blinds them like the low sun on a winter morning that requires you to put your car sun-shield down type of blind. 

This mythical beast is also known as the ultimate bouncer, who finishes arguments between gods when they go too far or take too long. They are immensely fierce and terrifying to look at, even for gods, and shut down any chaos in the heavenly realms pretty sharpish. 

In regards to powers, Sharabha was said to be immensely strong, about eight times stronger than a lion and more powerful than an elephant as well as able to jump across a whole mountain valley in one jump. However, Sharabha’s strength physically is nothing to the mental strength it has. Their main power is control, and that’s mostly over divine chaos as their mission in life is to calm down another mythical beast, Narasimha, a half-man, half-lion divine avatar of the Hindu god Vishnu, god of creation and balance.

And why would the avatar of the god of destruction want to stop a mythical beast of creation? We’ll get into that story later, but as a hint, sometimes even chaos gods know when to stop, and sometimes creation gods get a little bit carried away.

Speaking of which, how did this creation of a destruction god deal with us? Pretty unbothered honestly, Sharabha had no interest in humans, it’s realistically a cosmic being looking after world balance, a kind of regulator of the gods. Don’t get me wrong though, I think seeing a giant lion with elephant tusks, bird wings and eight legs would at least have me believing I was on something, or I’d died - I’d at least wet myself a little.

You also definitely couldn’t hurt it in any way. This is a creation of the gods, and whilst we see in other mythologies that this isn’t an issue - Heracles and the Hydra being a great example, nothing other than another god or avatar of a god could hurt or kill it. However, it wouldn’t die like a normal creature, it would just dissolve back into Shiva themselves.

In terms of reproduction, there is only one and it was conjured into life by Shiva so there’s not an opportunity for any more, and as well as this - we’re not even sure of the gender of this creature. It’s commonly referred to as just its name rather than any gender specific pronouns, although some would assume it is male as they are an avatar of Shiva, who was a male god.

We’re not sure if it eats, but there are theories that Sharabha would eat arrogance, ego and overflowing divine fury - so it technically eats imbalance. However, there are also some stories that say it would eat raw flesh and chill out on mountain tops, so we’re not entirely sure on that one.

ORIGIN:

Moving onto etymology, Sharabha is a Sanskrit word and whilst it doesn’t have a translation to break down, it is generally taken to mean a kind of powerful beast, and sometimes even translated into ‘super-lion’ or something to that effect. Sorry, a bit of a boring and obvious one this week!

In their history though, the earliest physical references to Sharabha appear in the Ancient Indian epic, the Mahabharata which was believed to have been written between 400 BC - 400 AD. It was also later mentioned in Puranic texts like the Linga Purana and Shiva Purana, which are important Hindu texts written between the 4th and 10th century AD. Interestingly too, Sharabha was mentioned in the Jataka tales, which are Buddhist texts written in the 5th century where they were an earlier incarnation of the Buddha himself!

In the original telling in the Mahabharata, Sharabha was initially described as a beast that scared other animals across the forest, ate raw flesh but was often associated as an edible creature itself to guests at dinner parties. It was only later when the Puranic texts were written that it was associated fully with Shiva.

However, super interestingly with this one’s history is that it changes depending on the type of Purana you’re reading and the age of it and this is because of the Vishnu or Shiva loyalty of the writer. Now to understand this, you have to zoom out a little and look at the religious context with this creature.

By the time Sharabha stories are circulating, Hinduism is in a strange phase, and this is around the 5th century AD here. The two major deities, Vishnu and Shiva, are developing large and devoted followings. Vishnu is the preserver and creator of the universe and Shiva is the destroyer and transformer - so these two followings are on absolute opposites of the support scales.

Because of this, the rivalry with these gods and their following reflects around anything in that mythology. So you’ll often see stories where Vishnu takes on a terrifying form like Narasimha, the man-lion from earlier, and then Shiva has to step in with his terrifying form like Sharabha to gain back control and balance. These stories are less about monsters scaring mortals and more about the gods themselves one-upping each other, however, the winner keeping the world balance in check.

So because of this, some of the Purana’s are more in one god’s favour depending on which side of the rivalry wrote it. For instance, the Linga Purana and Shiva Purana have strong Shaiva versions of the story and the Bhagavata Purana, more Vaishnava in flavor, emphasizes Narasimha’s victory. The Mahabharata however, is not written by either and so doesn’t have any favour towards either god. 

I said I was going to explain the most famous story of Sharabha, so here’s a quick refresher: Narasimha, the half-lion, half-man avatar of Vishnu comes along. Why? Because it was due to protect an intense Vishnu devotee called Prahlada from being killed by a demon-king called Hiranyakashipu, who couldn’t be killed by man or beast, inside or outside, day or night. Vishnu, wanting to protect Prahlada, finds a loophole by becoming a man-lion hybrid and killing the demon on a palace threshold at twilight. 

However, Narasimha doesn’t calm down after he’s completed his task and he lashes out at the universe itself. At this point, Shiva intervenes and manifests as Sharabha. Sharabha swoops in, wrestles Narasimha, and finally subdues him, restoring balance to the universe. 

But in the Vishnu traditions, the story doesn’t end there because they cannot accept the defeat of their god. In some Vaishnava texts, it’s actually Narasimha who defeats Sharabha, by transforming into an even bigger mythical creature called Gandabherunda - a two-headed cosmic bird who defeats Sharabha. 

So depending on whose mythology you’re reading, Sharabha is either unstoppable or eventually overcome - either way, creation and destruction come to a balance, it just depends on who’s still standing at the end of it. It’s a really great example of how myths shift depending on who is telling the story, and not something we see too often throughout the history of this show running, so it’s definitely unique.

Now for mythical comparison, Hindu mythology is jam-packed with hybrid creatures, a couple of which I’ve mentioned throughout this episode, such as Gandabherunda and Narasimha. But there’s also Garuda, the eagle mount of Vishnu who is a hybrid man and eagle or Makara, a sea creature who is a hybrid of a bunch of terrestrial and aquatic animals, however, they are often also linked to just crocodiles. 

If we’re sticking with legendary hybrids, we also have the griffin from Greek mythology, who are half lion and half eagle or the Mesopotamian Anzu which is also a lion-bird hybrid. I’ve covered Anzu in another episode, but the others I will be sure to cover down the line.

Before we jump into modern media, Sharabha is still used today of course within the Hindu religion, but also in logos and emblems, with the Government of Karnataka, a state in India using Sharabha in their coat of arms, as well as the University of Mysore and Karnataka Soap and Detergents, who use this in their logo and have been around since 1916 so that’s pretty neat too.

CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE: 

Now onto modern media, there’s very little on Sharabha bar one movie from 2018 so I’ve filled this out on Hindu mythology pieces for this one - and it is mainly Asian media, so for Westerners listening, you may not recognise any of these titles.

For art, good luck finding artists and art piece names but I would recommend looking at the portrait art for this one, you can find most of them with a quick Google honestly. Otherwise, have a look at independent art for this as always for some super modern, creative adaptations of Sharabha.

In movies, we have; Sharabha, Mahavatar Narsimha, Ramayana, Baahubali, Mahavatar, Kantara 2 & Jai Hanuman.

For TV, we have; Ramayan, Mahabharat, Vishnu Puran, Om Namah Shivay, Jai Hanuman, Shree Ganesh, RadhaKrishn, Shrimad Bhagwat Mahapuran, Shrimad Ramayan, Karmaphal Daata Shani, Namah Lakshmi Narayan, Shiv Shakti: Tap Tyaag Taandav & Suryaputra Karn.

In video games, we have ones such as; Raji: An Ancient Epic, Asura’s Wrath, Smite, Uncharted: The Lost Legacy, Rama’s Quest, Pret: An Indian Folklore, Kurukshetra: Ascension, Garuda Saga & Kapih.

I have a lot of book recommendations this week so get ready! Hindu Myths by Wendy Doniger, Indian Mythology and Philosophy by Neel Burton & Indian Myths & Legends: Tales of Heroes, Gods & Monsters by J.K Jackson for some good summaries of this whole mythological space and Demons and Demonesses of Hindu Mythology by Priya Narayanan for a darker look at Hindu demons.

Then for younger listeners and their parents, there’s The Illustrated Mahabharata: The Definitive Guide to India’s Greatest Epic by DK Books and Tales from Indian Mythology by Wonder House Books for great kid friendly versions of all these stories.

DO I THINK THEY EXISTED? 

Now it’s time for, do I think they existed?

It’s an interesting one this week because I do not belong to the Hindu faith, and I would never want to make anyone feel attacked for believing in this path of faith and everything included in it. 

What I will say is that Sharabha is one of the wildest creatures in Hindu mythology, and I think the idea of keeping balance between creation and destruction is an incredibly cool idea, and having a cosmic battle between two massive hybrid-creature-gods is something that can be written about gods I guess.

I will say, maybe the idea of being a lion with tusks, wings and eight legs is a bit of over-kill on the hybrid front, but this is very typical for godly creations across most mythologies - have you seen the Chimaera or the Sphinx lately? WILD concepts, but we love hybrids, especially to reflect the natures of all the animals involved throughout mythology, so why not these ones? I say, come on in and join the fun Sharabha and Narasimha, they are welcome in our hybrid-fun club that we have going on at Myth Monsters.

I do also like the idea that someone has to check you for your energy and anger, sometimes there is even too much of a good thing, ya know? Maybe this is a good reflection on us as human beings to maintain our balance with the good and bad, I just wish I was a massive eight-legged lion beast destined to fight my half-lion, half-man nemesis to put them in their place.

But what do you think? Did Sharabha defend the world from a little too much excitement? Let me know on social media!

OUTRO: 

What a truly epic addition to our collection of godly creations and you know I love me a hybrid. I also really enjoy covering religion-based creatures because it gives me a chance to learn more about culture and belief systems that I don’t know much about, so I hope you’re feeling as open minded as I am, especially in a time where there is so much division over what we believe in and where we come from.

Next week, we’re heading over to the wonderful world of the Ancient Greeks and Romans to look at a legendary hybrid monster you should know and love. Come prepared to fight not one, not two but three different beasts in one with the Chimaera next time!

For now, thank you so much for listening, it’s been an absolute pleasure. If you enjoyed this podcast, please give it a rating on the service you’re listening on - I’ve got loads of social media for any questions, or suggestions on what monsters to cover next and I’d love to hear from you. The social media handles for Tiktok, YouTube and Instagram are mythmonsterspodcast, twitter is mythmonsterspod and BlueSky is mythmonsters. But all of our content can be found at mythmonsters.co.uk, and you can also find us on Goodpods, Buymeacoffee and Patreon if you want to help me fund the podcast too.

Come join the fun though and share this with your pals, they might love me as much as you do.

But for now, stay spooky and I’ll see you later babes.