[INDOLOGY] Drops of amrita

[Artur Karp]

Dear Colleagues,

Which text(s) describe Garuda losing four drops of amrita - while flying
over the four places where the faithful celebrate Kumbha-Melas (Haridwar,
Prayaga, Nashik, Ujjain)?

Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kumbh_Mela#Mythological_origin)
states:

"While several ancient texts, including the various Puranas
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puranas>, mention the *samdura manthan*
legend, none of them mentions spilling of the amrita at four places.[8]
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kumbh_Mela#cite_note-KM_2003-8> Neither do
these texts mention the Kumbh Mela. Therefore, multiple scholars, including
R. B. Bhattacharya, D. P. Dubey and Kama Maclean believe that the *samudra
manthan* legend has been applied to the Kumbh Mela relatively recently, in
order to show scriptural authority for it."

Is Wikipedia right?

Best,

Artur Karp (ret.)
University of Warsaw
Poland


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