Markandeya

A sage in Hindu mythology. Markandeya
is best-known for two mythic exploits,
one of which is associated with the god
Shiva and the other with the god
Vishnu. According to tradition,
Markandeya is a very intelligent and
religious boy who is devoted to Shiva
and proficient in all the branches of
learning. This seemingly unlimited
potential is even more poignant because
he learns that he is fated to die at
sixteen. Shortly before his sixteenth
birthday, Markandeya begins to worship Shiva with even greater fervor.
Because of the boy’s accumulated religious merits, the servants of Yama, the
god of death, cannot get near him. So
Yama himself has to go for Markandeya.
When Yama throws his noose over
Markandeya to draw out the boy’s soul,
it also loops over the statue of Shiva to
which Markandeya is clinging. Shiva
arises from the image and kills Yama,
although he later relents and brings him
back to life.
Markandeya’s other mythic exploit is
a vision of pralaya, the universal dissolution of the cosmos. One evening as he
is meditating, the sky grows dark, the
wind rises, and rain falls until the earth
is inundated with water. Markandeya is
swept this way and that, until he comes
to an enormous banyan tree with an
infant sitting in it. Markandeya is drawn
to the child and sees that the entire universe is inside this infant boy. He wanders inside the child for some time until
he falls out of the child’s mouth; then he
sees the infant and the banyan tree
again. Markandeya realizes that the
infant is Vishnu, but before he can reach
him again, the child has disappeared.