Second avatar or incarnation of the god
Vishnu. As with all of Vishnu’s avatars,
the Tortoise avatar came into being in a
time of crisis and served to restore the
cosmic balance that had been thrown
out of equilibrium. In this case the
source of trouble was the sage
Durvasas, who had cursed the gods to
become mortal and their heavenly luster to fade. To counter this, the gods
made a pact with the demons that they
would jointly churn the Ocean of Milk to
obtain the nectar of immortality, which
would be equally divided.
The image of churning here is based
on traditional dairy practices, in which
the person churning uses a string to
rotate a churning paddle. In this
instance, however, the churning takes
place on a cosmic scale: The churning
stick is Mount Mandara, the mountain
that is at the center of the earth; the
churning string is the divine serpent
Vasuki, who encircles the world; and
Vishnu himself, in the form of a tortoise,
dives to the bottom of the ocean to provide a stable base for the churning stick.
The gods and demons pull Vasuki back
and forth, spinning the mountain and
churning the Ocean of Milk. The churning separates the Ocean of Milk into
705
Tortoise Avatar
various components, both good and
bad. One product is the deadly halahala
poison, which is neutralized by having
Shiva hold it in his throat. Some of the
other products are the Kaustubha jewel,
the wishing cow Surabhi, the goddess
Lakshmi, and finally the physician of
the gods, Dhanvantari, who emerges
from the sea bearing the pot containing
the nectar of immortality.
The demons grab the pot of nectar
and begin to escape, but Vishnu takes
the form of the enchantress Mohini and
beguiles the demons into giving the pot
back to her. She gives the pot to the
gods, who take off with the demons in
hot pursuit. According to more recent
traditions, in their flight the gods stop at
four different holy places on earth—
Allahabad, Haridwar, Ujjain, and
Nasik—over a twelve-(divine) day span;
this latter incident is cited as the charter
myth for the celebration of the Kumbha
Mela at these sites on a twelve-year
basis (because a divine day is believed to
equal a human year).
The gods finally manage to escape
their pursuers and divide the nectar
among themselves, but they fail to
notice that the demon Sainhikeya slips
into their midst in disguise. As the
demon begins to drink, the sun and
moon alert Vishnu, who uses his discus
to cut off the demon’s head. Sainhikeya’s
two halves become immortal because
they have come into contact with the
nectar, and both halves are considered
malevolent celestial beings: the head as
Rahu, the body as Ketu. Rahu has particular enmity for the sun and moon,
since these deities are responsible for
his demise, and tries to swallow them
whenever he meets them in the heavens. He always succeeds, but because he
no longer has a body to digest them,
they escape unharmed through Rahu’s
severed neck. This, of course, is the traditional explanation for solar and lunar
eclipses; the association with the malevolent Rahu has thus led eclipses to be
seen as highly inauspicious times. See
also ocean, churning of the.