Puranic Myths in Maun_i short story

[aklujkar at unixg.ubc.ca]

Andreas Schuettler wrote:

> I need to identify a most probably puranic myths occuring in a Tamil
> short story of Maun_i entitled "Caavil piRanta ciruSTi (Creature Born
> in Death)". It narrates that Brahma is tired of creating wants to go
> for sleep and requests Vishnu to have a break in maintaining the world.
> Vishnu agrees but when the same request comes to Shiva he refuses.
> After quarrelling with Shiva Brahma goes to sleep leaving the world to
> its fate. When he wakes up from sleep and starts again creating he
> finds Shiva has not only destroyed all his former creations but also
> those he is going to create in future.
> Can anybody help me out with the detailed bibliographical data for this
> myth.  I checked the table of contents of PuraaNa-translations but
> could'nt find out about this myths.  Any information or hint is highly
> appreciated. <

Checking myths 7-8 in _Hindu Myths_ (Penguin Books) by Wendy Doniger (the
last name is Doniger O'Flaherty on the first edition I have), along with
the related myths mentioned in the annotation (pp. 315-16 in the 1975 edn I
have before me), should be useful.  The possibility that Maun_i's narrative
could be a deliberate take-off on earlier narratives should be borne in
mind.

Ashok Aklujkar, Professor, Department of Asian Studies, University of
British Columbia, Vancouver, B.C., Canada V6T 1Z2.