Today is the last day of Skanda Sashti, a festival mostly observed in southern India, as well as in Sri Lanka, Singapore and Malaysia. Skanda is a Hindu war god, and is son of Siva and either Goddess Ganga or a bed of reeds. Seems like a good idea to put the son of the God of Peace--Siva Shanti's seed Skanda--in charge of war . . . i.e., likely means as little of it as possible.

Perhaps also of note is that just across the Indian Ocean in the Zulu tradition, the son of Umvelinqangi (last syllable sounds alot like "Ganges," eh?) Unkulunkulu is born in a bed of reeds (as was Moses of Torah fame), and was celebrated in a festival sometime in the month just passed. During the Reed Dance Festival, thousands of young maidens shimmy their way to the King of the Zulu's palace carrying reeds which extend far above their heads to commemorate the birth of their main deity (see previous post, "Sanskrit and Somali").



Indeed, the seas breadth seems not just recently breached, as the world's peoples always been movin', migrating, meandering, and mingling 'round the globe, whether in search of "home" or homeland, or for adventure's sake alone . . .