The Churning of the Ocean of Milk
Gods and demons agree to a truce so that they can churn the world ocean for the nectar of immortality, using a mountain as the staff and the serpent Vāsuki as the rope, each side hauling on one end. What rises first is not the nectar but a poison black enough to end the world, and after it a procession of treasures, the wish-granting cow, the moon, the physician of the gods, Lakṣmī herself. Recited in the Mahābhārata and the Purāṇas, the episode gave South and Southeast Asian art one of its most reproduced images, carved along the whole east gallery of Angkor Wat.
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- contained in ↑ The Mahabharata
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- 44% · 11 shared
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