Week 11 Storytelling: Rain

It had been 20 generations since it rained.

Around The Mountain, next to a mountain stream, the last of humanity clung to life. They grew their food and kept their records and moved along one day at a time. Many of them were barren, and so children were surrounded by great celebration.

There was one couple who were blessed with a great many children: eight, to be exact. However, most of their children died. Only two of their boys survived to reach adolescence.

Their eighth son, Krishnu, was very respected in their community. When he was young, all the women fawned over him. As he grew and proved himself an excellent farmer and explorer, the men lauded him.

He led expeditions further and further into the forgotten world, exploring caves and palaces, looking for remnants of the past, trying to find something their careful historical records may have missed. On one journey, they came across a temple full of scrolls. The men handled them tenderly, looking through to see if there were any that they could read. Those that were in their language were carried back to their community. As the explorers pored over the words, one of the men happened upon the tales of Indra.

"A rain god," he exclaimed. "Maybe this is why the rain stopped. Maybe if we appease this god, the rain will return."

Up in the heavens, Indra turned his face toward earth in anticipation, ready to shower the few people left on Earth with his blessings to win them back to his bosom. He had forgotten, though, the lesson that Krishna taught him long ago.

Down on Earth, Krishna shook his head. "Don't be absurd. The mountain waters us. It always gives us just enough. Rain would just flood our crops that we water so carefully. Leave Indra be. Let us focus on our mountain."

This angered Indra. The sky cracked with lightning and thunder, and for the first time, the people smelled petrichor, the smell before rain. When the first drop fell, the people were bewildered, though they weren't afraid. However, the fact that the rain was a product of Indra's rage soon became apparent. As the others ran about to bring things inside and dry to dig drainage for the crops, Krishna gazed at the sky. Indra almost cowered, but he stood strong, so Krishna began to climb. As he grew nearer to the peak, Indra began to worry. When Krishna reach him, and gazed into Indra's eyes, the rain stopped. They never exchanged a word.

Krishna went back to his little community, and it was a week before they realized that Indra had learned his lesson. A light rain began to fall, and it soon ceased. Krishna's generation became the generation of the rain.

Author's Note: This is a sort of follow up to the story in "Cradle Tales of Hinduism" in which Krishna leads the people away from the worship of weather deities. In this story, Krishna does so again in an almost apocalyptic world, though in this story he climbs a mountain rather than holding up a mountain.


Source: Sister Nivedita, Cradle Tales of Hinduism
Photo Source: Mountains by ITS @ Seattle Pacific