Hindu Deities - Spotlight on Asia Month

We're finishing up our spotlight on Asia month this week! In this special episode, Quizmaster Andi attempts to fool the Indian about India! She presents four Hindu deities but one is completely a false god. Do you think you can find the fake along with hosts Sups and Tanner or will you need to pray for help? 

Transcript

Tanner 0:01

Why is he an elephant?

Andi 0:02

That's

Sups 0:02

That's a really long story, guys. you can have a half

Tanner 0:08

of humans. Yeah. We already

Sups 0:09

what's the problem to have half monkey off human?

Tanner 0:13

distinctions.

Sups 0:16

yeah, sure.

Andi 0:16

I was thinking, like, the primordial Greek gods and the Olympians, but okay, yeah, I like that.

Sups 0:23

Think it's the other way

Tanner 0:24

Oh, no way

Andi 0:25

way!

Tanner 0:26

Great

Andi 0:28

Hello and welcome to this episode of I Should Have Known, the trivia game show that can't be trusted. Each week, one of our quiz masters will present you with four facts about a topic, but one of those facts is a lie. We're finishing up our celebration of the Wonderful continent of Asia Today, I will be your quiz master. I'm Andi, and I will be doing a Find the Fake episode on Hindu deities. So I will present you with four deities from Hinduism and Hindu mythology except one of them is not. One of them is a fake. It's from elsewhere. And not only am I doing the find the fake then I have to fool the Indian, who can also call it that. So join our other hosts, Tanner and Supes, in figuring out which one of my gods is a fake.

Sups 1:15

Wow. Can I just say how excited and proud I am of this? I think this is going to be so much fun

Tanner 1:22

fun.

Sups 1:23

really, really looking forward to it.

Andi 1:25

I really have zero context on like, how well known any of these gods are. I'm, very curious. It should be interesting. I hope we don't look like idiots. I am

Sups 1:35

I'm an idiot. Yeah. I'm so

Tanner 1:38

out of my depth, we will see

Andi 1:40

two of the three real ones are on the English language Wikipedia list of Hindu deities.

Sups 1:46

So they're at least

Andi 1:47

popular enough to be on that list.

Tanner 1:49

Right.

Sups 1:49

Okay. Cool.

Tanner 1:50

Okay, not like super, super uncommon. Like, they're that well known at least.

Andi 1:55

My fake God it's not in the Hindu mythology, as far as I could find, though, that's hard to definitively say because there are millions of, gods, so,

Sups 2:05

Correct.

Andi 2:05

So I used a different source.

Tanner 2:08

So we'll keep that in mind when you're telling us the

Andi 2:11

I don't know who's under more pressure in this episode, if it's me or you.

Tanner 2:14

I'm sitting pretty because there is no pressure for me. Nothing is expected. And I will deliver on nothing.

Andi 2:21

expectations are so low for you. They are literally like... I'm sitting here and look

Tanner 2:24

here and look pretty? I can do that.

Andi 2:26

him actually get it right.

Tanner 2:27

Oh yeah,

Andi 2:28

Okay. We ready with the PQQ,

Sups 2:30

Oh, wow. Okay.

Tanner 2:32

Yeah.

Andi 2:33

talk about a, I think well known. deity I had already known about.

Sups 2:37

Oh wow,

Andi 2:37

so, what is the name of the elephant headed God of wisdom?

Tanner 2:42

the only elephant God I know of is

Sups 2:45

Well done. Yeah,

Andi 2:46

Yeah. So Ganesh is one of the, like most, well-known deities Yeah, he's got a big elephant, her head, son of Shiva and Parvati.

Tanner 2:55

Why is he an elephant?

Andi 2:57

That's

Sups 2:57

That's a really long story, guys.

Tanner 2:59

Really? It's not just like, well, his mom was a mammoth or

Sups 3:02

mammoth or something?

Andi 3:03

No, his mom is like one of the mother goddesses.

Sups 3:07

Yeah, it's a very long

Tanner 3:08

Here's a story. how he got his elephant head. Okay.

Andi 3:11

And I would like to say that as a caveat, some of the things I say are specific to some places and maybe will differ from a tradition you're more familiar with because you know, Hinduism is not a monolith. Also, it's tricky because it's a living religion. So there are actually people who practice it and worship some of these deities today, but it's also a mythology in the sense that people might be familiar with the myths and the stories and, but they don't actually worship these gods anymore.

Sups 3:41

Think you already know way more about Hinduism than I would say a lot of Indians already or other people interested in this topic.

Andi 3:49

I really don't know if this is hard or not. So I would like to hear from, people. So yeah, are you ready?

Tanner 3:55

Ready?

Sups 3:56

ready?

Andi 3:56

Also, I'm very sorry for any pronunciations All right, so deity number one Kushaksa. Cushoxa is not a god, but he is a deity, or kind of a semi divine being. He is one of the Vanaras, like a race of humanoid monkey people. And they were created by Brahma to help Rama in the Ramayana. So this is a major epic story. I Okay.

Tanner 4:27

you

Andi 4:29

Do you want to maybe tell us real quick the plot?

Sups 4:31

The basic plot is Ram was sent to the jungle for 14 years with his wife and his brother. And they went to Sri Lanka. anD Ravan, who is still worshipped in Sri Lanka. He kidnapped Sita and then there was this big war then Ram defeated Ravan and that's the good over evil And then he came back to the kingdom after 14 years and that's when you celebrate Diwali, when you come back. So I gave you like, yeah, just for context, Brahma is the creator of the universe.

Andi 5:04

Right. so it's a race of... people, we could say. I thought they were kind of like the Amazons. they fight in wars and they're kind of mythological, but, like, are they gods? Or And there are many different ones. Probably the most famous is Hanuman. if you Google Hindu monkey god, that's who you find. Yeah. So Kushaksa, he is actually one of the only kind of Bad ones evil ones. because they were like on the side of good right there helping Rama get his wife back And he's like basically depicted as like a jacked baboon kind of guy

Sups 5:43

of

Andi 5:45

So depending on the tradition he has like Smell like sweat or pheromones that like attracts women. So in the war his army is all women so like yeah, so

Tanner 5:57

recruited them, with his smell.

Andi 5:59

because because many of the Vanars they lead they're most of the known ones are like generals

Tanner 6:04

like archangels. Made by God to fight wars. Yeah. Yeah. But

Andi 6:10

but then when they are looking for Sita who is Trapped in a palace.

Tanner 6:15

Right. Because she got

Andi 6:16

he gets a little too excited and tries to steal her for himself for a little bit. So he's kind of bad. He and Hanuman get in a little tiff over this

Tanner 6:26

hmm.

Andi 6:27

he's like the only one who does anything really questionable among them, but yeah.

Tanner 6:32

it sounds kind of problematic because he kind of sounds like a villain. But he also sounds really interesting, which is always kind of dicey for religions. Like you don't want to make your villain. Cooler than your heroes.

Andi 6:44

mean,

Tanner 6:45

I

Sups 6:45

Wow. I think Indian listeners are going to really judge me, but I don't remember this So I, believe you everything checks out the race. Sure. Hanuman for context was all devoted to. Ram and Sita. So, there is that one point where he tears open his heart and there is like an image of Ram and Sita.

Tanner 7:08

Oh, nice, nice.

Sups 7:09

Very devoted. Yes, yes.

Tanner 7:11

So you're familiar with that guy and his whole race and this whole story. The question is, is this semi evil jacked baboon

Andi 7:19

man,

Sups 7:20

real or not? Yeah, real or not. wow. Is it ringing any bells No, no, I mean I would imagine if in an entire Vanir race, like there has to be some like greyish character, right?

Tanner 7:34

that's what I was thinking like if I was to a hole in this I would be like well Oh, you can't have any evil ones, but then like, you know in every good story There's like someone who gets carried away or a little greedy or a little proud and they have to be put back in their place You know, that's a great way to teach a lesson if you're thinking religion or like a good story if you're thinking mythology So sounds pretty

Andi 7:58

if you have magic sweat that,

Sups 8:00

Yeah,

Tanner 8:00

Yeah.

Sups 8:01

what

Andi 8:02

controls women.

Tanner 8:03

I

Sups 8:03

love it.

Tanner 8:04

for me, if there is, in Hinduism, this race of, like, monkey gods.

Sups 8:10

right.

Tanner 8:10

If that is already, you know, checked, then I totally believe it. But that first part is really, really hard for

Sups 8:18

No, no, no. The first part is a hundred percent true. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Monkey. God. If you can have a half

Tanner 8:25

of humans. Yeah. We already

Sups 8:26

what's the problem to have half monkey off human? I think that's more believable.

Andi 8:30

Yeah,

Sups 8:31

I mean, I have nothing to cross question you or everything checks out. So, I have...

Tanner 8:37

one more time?

Andi 8:38

Kusa. Which

Tanner 8:40

Sounds good. Let's hear three more.

Andi 8:42

Deity number two Pusan. Poojaan is the god of meetings. So,

Tanner 8:48

I forgot of

Sups 8:49

He's

Andi 8:51

to Zoom.

Tanner 8:51

Zoom. Are you kidding me?

Andi 8:53

So specifically, he is the god of marriages, road, travelers, and feeding cattle. I guess that's a kind of meeting. So like where roads meet, marriages are obviously a meeting a Vedic god specifically, so he comes from the Vedas. It's a collection of texts and Most of the gods are kind of separated into being Vedic or pre

Sups 9:16

Right.

Andi 9:17

So there's kind of like an old pantheon of gods and then like a newer one and then there are a lot of other variations in between but there's kind of that two major

Tanner 9:28

distinctions. Yeah, okay. I got it.

Sups 9:33

okay, okay, Yep, yeah, sure.

Andi 9:36

I was thinking, like, the primordial Greek gods and the Olympians, but okay, yeah, I like that. I like that. So He rides a chariot pulled by goats.

Tanner 9:45

Ooh.

Andi 9:46

He wields a golden axe.

Tanner 9:49

Nice.

Andi 9:50

so he sounds badass, except he's kind of depicted like an old man. At least to me, it seems he dresses very, Poorly, he's not depicted in fine robes. He's depicted in like very plain clothes and at one point he loses his teeth, so he doesn't have teeth so

Sups 10:09

in

Andi 10:10

Yep, it varies how he lost his teeth, but he doesn't have teeth So to me, he seems like old man vibes he's associated with craft work and he's married to the daughter of the son and considered one of the most beautiful women to have ever lived, which I think is hilarious'cause he's like a toothless old

Tanner 10:26

really old game.

Sups 10:27

gives gives people hope,

Tanner 10:29

Yeah, even

Sups 10:30

beauty lies in the eyes of the

Andi 10:32

be, she was bestowed upon him

Tanner 10:34

how many goats

Andi 10:35

he had.

Tanner 10:35

Okay. think it sounds a lot like Hermes or Mercury and then kind of has some elements of Thor his wife is like the most beautiful blonde haired goddess and he rides through the sky and But the old man loses teeth thing and the goat chariot. That sounds so made up.

Sups 10:55

I mean, the name sounds very believable name. Push on. Yeah, I know some people who are named Pushaan. Now, just, it's coming back. So maybe, because in India, like, every name has like a meaning, right? And it's connected to

Tanner 11:10

Right. And are people named for gods? yes. Okay. Normally. You can just walk around. Oh,

Sups 11:14

that's... Yeah. So Krishna, for example. Many people are named Krishna. Surya is Sun. So many people are named Surya. So yeah, sure. You just take, even Shiva is a

Andi 11:23

name.

Tanner 11:24

like being named for like prophets or saints,

Sups 11:26

correct? Correct. couldn't. See if this Poshan and this Poshan is like the same one. I

Tanner 11:33

goshan are the same

Sups 11:37

But also you have to keep in mind, Auntie did say at the top of the show that the god that she created has been inspired from other sources. Which we may or may not know. So, this perfectly fits in that category.

Tanner 11:51

That's why I'm skeptical. Because, I wouldn't have guessed that they had a god for meetings. And then like, it really sounded like a different religion to me. But the other details

Sups 12:01

sound okay. Yeah, I mean, I'm okay with God for meetings. The goat part is the sketchy

Andi 12:05

The goat part is the problem. I

Tanner 12:07

Okay. Hmm.

Sups 12:09

this God, I would put it in the basket of maybe, I'm not

Tanner 12:13

You're not totally devoted to it yet? Okay. Yeah, I think I'm in the same boat as you, but we're only halfway through.

Andi 12:22

Alright. number three Amon, who is the goddess of weather.

Tanner 12:28

Nice. Okay.

Andi 12:29

So, specifically, she's from Tamil in Hinduism, where she's actually the mother goddess, particularly she's associated with rain and healing. She has a much cooler ride. She rides a lion and carries a trident and is depicted as a young woman with a red face and dress. she is still actively worshipped, especially in Southern India. She's associated with cooling. So this idea of rain bringing coolness and healing hot diseases, particularly smallpox. So some people actually say she's the goddess of smallpox, but that makes her sound scary. She's the goddess of healing smallpox, also measles and other poxes. She's also associated with fertility and is popular even beyond the Indian subcontinent.

Tanner 13:18

even we know of fertility. You can't be Hindu and not Indian, right? So when we talk about Hinduism, we a lot of times think Indians. not everyone in India is Hindu, and not every Hindu is Indian. Interesting.

Sups 13:37

I have very little knowledge about the south of India,

Tanner 13:39

like

Sups 13:40

more so about like specific gods. But again, if I were to go purely by the description, this sounds more believable than deity number two,

Tanner 13:49

So she's the goddess of rain and healing and smallpox and

Andi 13:53

yeah, coolness,

Tanner 13:54

other one? Fertility?

Andi 13:56

Yeah, and also fertility

Sups 13:57

Right. What do you think?

Tanner 13:59

Sounds... Very logical. There's nothing that jumps out like, Oh, weird, like the lion chariot thing? Okay, or like she rides a lion or whatever? Sure. She's in charge of rain? Then a trident makes sense? Like, whatever, like a spear of some kind? Whatever. Sure, rain, the ocean, water. I mean, I don't see a direct link between the lion, the trident, and the rain. And the, face. and red

Sups 14:25

So again, just for context there are many female gods in Hinduism who do have lions so every God has an animal as a vehicle So for example, Ganesh,

Tanner 14:38

an

Sups 14:38

animal is a rat?

Tanner 14:40

Oh, what? An elephant rides a rat? Yeah.

Sups 14:43

I mean, he doesn't ride a rat, but rat you'd associate with so every god is, has an animal.

Tanner 14:50

It's like they're familiar

Sups 14:52

Right. Mm hmm. cool. So the line part and the trident part, if it's a mother goddess, then needs to have like, something to attack. Sure. Right. So,

Tanner 15:01

Okay.

Sups 15:01

So I would imagine. And also the fact that this is about like cooling, that checks out because of the temperate, the southern of south part of India gets really hot. I mean.

Tanner 15:12

that kind of makes sense to me that, like, rain and healing and fertility kind of go hand in hand,

Sups 15:17

I know, but I've never. I mean, we've, we've had three gods now. Yeah. I've never heard like one single name.

Andi 15:25

I'm I'm getting really nervous that I made this way too hard. Oh,

Tanner 15:28

I

Andi 15:29

tough. Yeah.

Sups 15:30

also not the benchmark guys.

Andi 15:31

I

Sups 15:32

The way Hinduism is practiced in every region is so different. And that's why something that Andy mentioned at the start of that, this is a living religion, right? So the ways of practice, the gods who you practice, it's impossible to know every, unless you are like a scholar or whatever. Yeah. Yeah. Right. So.

Andi 15:49

We have one more. Yeah. So, Deity number four, Aranyari. She is the goddess of large forests and the wild animals that live within it. There's apparently a famous hymn in the Rig Veda about her. She is almost never seen.

Tanner 16:07

almost never Yes, she is in

Andi 16:11

she is hiding

Tanner 16:12

forest

Andi 16:13

Yeah. So she is in the deep forest and she's rarely seen, but she's sometimes heard because she's known to wear bells on her ankles as she dances through the forest, the bells tinkles, so you can hear them in the forest. Also, she's known to cry or scream when you cut down trees. So

Tanner 16:29

like the

Andi 16:30

Yeah. for the lucky few who do get to see her. She's said to have long golden hair wreathed in flowers, especially roses. Her face is as radiant as the sun,

Tanner 16:42

But she's not often seen.

Andi 16:44

She's very Rarely seen. Yes. it's really a great honor to be,

Tanner 16:48

to be

Andi 16:49

see her.

Tanner 16:50

Okay. Okay. Hmm.

Sups 16:52

So, what I can say about this, again, I have never heard of this name, but if Andy has created this God, I think she has done an excellent job because the word Aranya does mean forest

Tanner 17:05

Okay. Okay.

Sups 17:05

in Sanskrit. So that part checks out

Tanner 17:08

Are forests a big part of the landscape in

Sups 17:10

It is. yeah, I think in every state, most of the, yeah,

Tanner 17:15

I think a lot of people think of India as super populated, like giant mega cities, but that's just the cities,

Sups 17:21

That's just. It's a But you still have to understand, majority of the population lives in villages.

Tanner 17:26

So then the deep forest would be not commercialized and like it would still be untouched sort of. Okay.

Sups 17:31

Yeah.

Tanner 17:32

Interesting.

Sups 17:33

So, yeah. Aranyari.

Tanner 17:35

Part that jumps out to me is kind of weird is that she has bells on, but she's hard to find. And that just kind of sounds weird. Very unique. You know, she dances in the woods, but she cries when you chop down trees and

Sups 17:51

And then there trees too. A lot I mean, like people even pray to trees. There are certain trees. So that way, this nature part really is very important. So that, part is not weird to me. The bell and the dancing are in the arty. Hmm. Yeah. Wow.

Tanner 18:09

Hmm. pretty hard.

Sups 18:11

It's super hard. even for me. I mean, I think Andy has done an excellent

Tanner 18:16

still It sounds like it's

Sups 18:20

Super cool.

Andi 18:21

It was difficult,

Sups 18:22

I would bet our Indian listeners if you could crack this like, yeah. Yeah.

Tanner 18:27

will say, Well, I think we're ready to hear the four again before we take our pick as to which is the false

Andi 18:34

Alright. deity number one Kushaksa. Deity number two Pushan. Deity. Number three Maria, man and deity. Number four Ari. One of those is not a Hindu deity or anything. Not Hindu. Not associated with Hinduism in the least. Okay.

Tanner 19:02

question..

Sups 19:02

wow.

Tanner 19:03

I am very out of my depth here. I'm, Very impressed with, yeah. I've just learned about four new people and I knew nothing about them. But two of them seem less likely to me than the other two. kushaksa and Mariamman kind of sound like, check out with all the details she gave. I really want to hear more stories about the jacked baboon guy. But I think the second one and the fourth one kind of sound iffy to me.

Sups 19:30

Oh wow.

Tanner 19:31

I could see them being from a different culture a different religion What are you thinking?

Sups 19:36

Think it's the other way

Tanner 19:37

Oh, no way

Andi 19:37

way!

Tanner 19:38

Great

Sups 19:39

Yeah, this Kushaksa character seems a bit iffy to me. it's possible. But Mariamman, the name. It's not a very female goddessy name. I think if I have to pick, I think it'll be Maria,

Tanner 19:56

or

Sups 19:57

Yeah.

Tanner 19:57

I think it's Pushan. I think it's the second one. Yeah. I think he's from some other culture totally unrelated to

Sups 20:05

Yeah. But the name exists like Han. yeah. Yeah. mariaman.

Tanner 20:09

Yep. All right. The water goddess from the south. And I get the old man with no teeth.

Andi 20:15

Come

Tanner 20:16

Come on, don't be the jack baboon. Come on.

Andi 20:19

Alright, so, Tanner, when Supes tells you that something exists in India, you should just trust him because Pushan is, yes, absolutely. He's probably one of the most famous of them. He actually, some people believe that the root of his name is the same as the root for pan Greek mythology. And they have

Tanner 20:37

The being kind of trickster

Andi 20:41

kind of trickstery related to travelers. So yeah, he's a real one. Mariaman is real. I mean, it's Tamil, so it's like a different language, so Sups, you gotta stick with your gut.

Sups 20:50

Yeah.

Tanner 20:50

Ushaksa

Andi 20:52

is not a real thing.

Sups 20:56

And,

Tanner 20:56

like,

Sups 20:56

was like, I've read the Ramayana, there

Tanner 20:59

the first time to read

Sups 21:00

like this,

Andi 21:01

One big giveaway is baboons don't live in Yes, so it comes from the Marvel universe. There is a Marvel villain from 1973 called Mandrill, who is a giant jacked mandrill whose pheromones hypnotize and manipulate women. And then he creates a femme force of women and fight S. H. I. E. L. D. and Black Panther and various other people. So he's a Marvel villain. But the name Kushaksa is one of the many Sanskrit words for monkey.

Tanner 21:34

So you took the

Andi 21:35

it refers to, it can mean monkey or keen eyed seer, or it also can refer to monkey like jokes. So I thought it was a good

Tanner 21:44

Oh, like a trickster. Wow.

Sups 21:48

That's why I asked you did he ever have a fight?

Andi 21:50

I made that up.

Sups 21:51

up until this podcast, I thought my ram knowledge was really good. I know the Ramiah, which is why this KSA character like stood out, but then I was like, maybe I'm forgetting something. Like, you know,

Tanner 22:03

right.

Sups 22:04

yeah. So none our

Andi 22:05

do anything that, like, they're good.

Sups 22:07

No, they're all good people. Yeah. And they're all devoted to Rahm

Andi 22:11

Yeah.

Tanner 22:11

there's no

Sups 22:12

like fallen Angels

Tanner 22:13

version

Andi 22:13

That's, yeah, that's kinda what I was thinking. I was like, well, the baboon thing's the big giveaway. And then I was like, well, there's an evil one. Like, no, there's no evil

Sups 22:21

Really well done, Ami. Nice.

Tanner 22:24

so good, yeah. should have

Sups 22:26

should have known.

Andi 22:27

Thanks for listening to this episode of I Should Have Known. We'll continue that discussion in our bonus episodes And if you don't know about that for patrons on patreon, which is a subscription service Where you can pay money per month to support the show you also get things so we have Bonus episodes. I should have known more where we dive in more to the process of making the I should have known show So if you become a patron you will get access to that. So this is our last episode celebrating Asia. Next week we're going to start our theme for December celebrating December. The theme is December. And all the things that come with December. And to kick it off we will have... Soups doing an episode talking about festivals other than Christmas. So be on the lookout for that. And as always, Thanks for

Sups 23:18

Boop, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop,