protective circle around Sita, instructing
her that no harm can befall her as long
as she stays in the circle. Ravana, in the
form of an old ascetic, approaches Sita,
beggingfor alms. Out of respect for an
ascetic, Sita steps out of the circle to
offer the alms. Ravana reveals his true
form and carries her away.
Marichi
In Hindu mythology, one of the six
sonsof Brahma, all of whom become
great sages. All are “mind-born,” mean-
ing that Brahma’s thoughts are enough
to bring them into being. The others
are Kratu,Angiras,Pulastya, Pulaha,
and Atri.
Mariyammai
Originally a local goddessin southern
India, whose cult has become a regional
phenomenon. Mariyammai embodies
many of the contradictions and tensions
associated with Hindu conceptions of
the Goddess in general. According to her
charter myth, Mariyammai is originally
a brahmin woman, who is beheaded
because of her husband’s jealousy. She is
brought back to life, but not before her
body has become switched with that of
another woman, this one an untouch-
able. Mariyammai’s brahmin head and
untouchable body symbolize the imper-
fect joining of brahminical Hindu and
southern Indian culture, as well as the
nebulous status of brahmins as the
“head” of southern Indian society.
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 wor-
shipShiva with even greater fervor.
Because of the boy’s accumulated reli-
gious 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 disso-
lution 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 uni-
verse is inside this infant boy. He wan-
ders 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.Markandeya Purana
One of the eighteen traditional puranas,
the sectarian compendia of mythic
stories and sacred lore that are among
the most important sources for modern
Hinduism. Markandeyais said to have
been an ancient sage, but he was not
intimately connected with any particu-
lar deity. In this respect, the
Markandeya Puranais different from
most of the others, which have a clear
sectarian bias. This purana is noted
for one of its subsections, the
Devimahatmya. Describing the ulti-
mate power behind all things as female,
the Devimahatmya is the earliest
and most important textual source
for the mythology of the Goddess.
Scholars contend that although
this text is the first place that this
theological conviction appears, it mustMarichi