Vishwamitra and Vegetables
The story of a man’s ego and how it lead to the creation a parallel universe.
Vishwamitra was a king of the yore. He was like any of the other kings in the world. Valiant and arrogant. While passing through the forest with his army, he decided to pay a visit to the hermitage of Sage Vasishta, a Brahmarshi/Sage of the highest order.
Vishwamitra walks in to the hermitage, pays homage to the Sage and in return the sage offers the King and his entire army sumptuous food cooked and served to satisfy the tastes and choices of each individual in the gathering. Vishwamitra realises this is the handiwork of the celestial cow Nandini and tries to take her away by force. The divine Nandini sensing danger, creates an army much larger and more powerful than that of the Kings and defeats him and drives him away.
Humiliated, Vishwamitra goes to the Himalaya mountains and performs a severe penance and attains boons and gets himself promoted to the level of a Rajarshi which in itself is pretty high but not as good Vasishta’s title. This only adds fuel to the fire and Vishwamitra goes on to hold a grudge against Vasishta for eternity.
Many years pass by and the King Trishanku goes to his preceptor Vasishta and asks him to allow him to ascend to heaven with his body, a feat which required a lot of good karma and good karma was something Trishanku was really short of. Vasishta denies Trishanku’s request and Trishanku decides to go pay Vasishta’s old nemesis, Vishwamitra, a visit . He harbours hopes that Vishwamitra would never deny something that Vasishta had deemed impossible.
Trishanku and Vishwamitra perform a great Yajna (a fire-rite/sacrifice) to appease Indra the king of heaven and send Trishanku to heaven with his body. Indra denies accepting the Yajna as valid but an arrogant Vishwamitra musters all his energies and propels Trishanku to heaven with his body. Indra and the other Devas do not budge on their stand and flung Trishanku head first from the skies.
Perturbed, Vishwamitra creates a parallel universe (not to be read as the same parallel universe/multi universe of modern cosmology) exclusively for Trishanku and allows him to enjoy heavenly pleasure with his body in this rip-off of heaven.
They say, while creating this new universe, Vishwamitra also creates rip-offs of vegetables already popular in Brahma’s creation.
These vegetables include:
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║ ║ ║
║Parallel Universe Veggie ║ Og Veggie ║
║(Telugu/Eng Name) ║(Telugu/Eng) ║
╠═══════════════════════════════════╬══════════════════════════════╣
║ Aakakarakaya (Spine Gourd) ║ Kakarakaya (Bitter Gourd) ║
║ Neti - Dondakaya (Pink Ivy Gourd) ║ Dondakaya (Ivy Gourd) ║
║ Neti Beerakaya ║ Beerakaya ║
║ Pampara Panasa (Pomelo) ║ Panasa ║
║ Bangaladumpa (Potato) ║ None ║ ╚══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝Stories and legends aside, the vegetables on the left were possibly introduced to the kitchens in India much later in our history and hence are not a part of the traditional recipes in any part of India. Take potato for instance, a vegetable most children would not mind gorging on, is a native of the Americas and hence is not a part of dishes offered to the gods. This is especially true during the annual Śrāddha offered to deceased immediate ancestors. Also I am sure you have not had any Prasadam given to you at a South Indian temple that contained any of these vegetables.
The food we eat often evolves with time and also with every interaction we make with cultures different than ours. A lot of times a lack of a certain ingredient leads to some ‘jugaad’ and thereby the invention of a dish which will not be different from its predecessor in its entirety but the modified ingredients do bring in a their own zest to the palate.
