From the epics
Stories from the Indian astrological tradition.
Hand-curated stories from the Mahabharata, Ramayana, Bhagavata Purana, Padma Purana, Skanda Purana, Buddhist Jataka tales, the Tamil Sangam corpus, and oral folk traditions of Bengal, Tamil Nadu, and Maharashtra. Each story sourced to a specific text. Five to ten minutes per story. Every translation is hand-authored.
- Catalogue38 stories in printCurated by the Vidhata Editorial Desk5 to 10 minutes each
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Pl. IJataka tales
The prince who climbed down a cliff to feed a starving tigress with his own body
Prince Mahasattva walked with his two brothers through a forest. They came upon a tigress so weak from hunger that she was about to eat her own newborn cubs. The prince told his brothers to walk on ahead, and went back alone.
Vidhata Editorial Desk/7 min/All ages
Krishna lifts Mount Govardhan, India, 17th c.
Pl. IIJataka tales
The monkey-king who made his own spine the bridge for eighty thousand to escape
A king of Banaras besieged the mango-tree where eighty thousand monkeys lived. The monkey-king Mahakapi tied his feet to a bamboo and stretched his body across the gorge so his troop could run across his back to safety. Then he refused to come down.
Vidhata Editorial Desk/8 min/All ages
Sudāmā at the glimpse of Krishna’s palace, Pahari, c.1775
Pl. IIIJataka tales
The king who weighed his own flesh against a frightened dove
A dove fled into King Sibi's lap, pursued by a hawk that demanded its lawful meal. The king offered his own flesh in equal weight. Then the scale would not balance, and the king understood what was being asked of him.
Vidhata Editorial Desk/7 min/All ages
The Battle at Lanka, Sahibdin, Mewar, 1649 to 1653
Pl. IVJataka tales
The deer-king who walked into a butcher's knife to spare a pregnant doe
King Brahmadatta hunted in the deer park every day. The herd had agreed to send one deer per day, by lottery, to spare the others. When a pregnant doe drew the lot, the deer-king himself walked to the butcher's block in her place. The king who watched changed his life.
Vidhata Editorial Desk/6 min/All ages
The marriage of Rama and Sita, Shangri Ramayana, c.1700