The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v2.c41.s4.1

v2.c41.s4.1

G. Dumézil in his *Le Festin d'Immortalité*³ seeks to establish, despite the silence of the Veda, the existence of an Indo-European myth of the winning of the drink of immortality. From the epic legend of the churning of the ocean he derives a myth which tells how, in fear of death, the gods took counsel as to procuring a drink to preserve them from it. Viṣṇu advises them to churn the ocean for it, and, after coming to terms with the demons, and obtaining the assent of the god of the ocean, they accomplish their end, producing the Amṛta, and other good things, including Lakṣmī; a poison engendered in the churning is drunk by Çiva, whose neck thus becomes blue. The Asuras, however, steal the Amṛta, and demand Lakṣmī; Viṣṇu-Nārāyaṇa, in female guise, accompanied by Nara, in similar costume, goes to them, and wins them over to give him the Amṛta, which then he bears back to the gods. They proceed to drink the nectar; the demon, Rāhu, found among them is decapitated by Viṣṇu, and the fall of his body produces much commotion of the earth. A fight follows, in which the Asuras, defeated by the gods, are banished to the earth and the waters, and the gods remain in definitive possession of the drink.⁴