Now I have Questions.

[Tecumseh]

I was reading the thread "Who is you God/Goddess" And now I want to find more info on Aranya Sashti. I have tried to search the internet to no avail. Now I will ask if any of you can help me find the info so I can study further........Thanx!!

[LadyTrinity]

Aranya Sashti, a god of the woodlands, is honored in India on this day with an annual festival. He is identified with the Pagan honored deities Pan and Cernunnos.

[Tecumseh]

That is what I meant, I thought "Indian" meant Native American....Big oops! Thanx, and how do I look up any info on them?

[singer]

I was reading the thread "Who is you God/Goddess" And now I want to find more info on Aranya Sashti. I have tried to search the internet to no avail. Now I will ask if any of you can help me find the info so I can study further........Thanx!!


I think you will need to widen your study a little because the Hindu pantheon is soooo huge. India has a complex mythological system full of many gods and even more demons. And not just limited to one belief system either. The earliest beginnings of a mythological belief system in the civilisation of the Indus Valley, began as a celebration of natural elements such as Air, Water and Fire (which is pretty common development-wise), but the whole system of belief or philosophy expanded fairly rapidly to include not only a multitude of gods and goddesses of the Hindu pantheon, but also the syncretization of many other god-forms not limited to the specifics of Hindu mythos.

India is a blend of diverse cultures and religions... and this whole long explaination maybe will help you understand why you aren't finding much on a godform with the name "Aranya Sashti".

Translations of sanskrit make "aranya" to mean "in the forest", "of the forest", "relating to the forest", or "about the forest"... if it's something to do with the forest the word aranya will be used.

A similar thing is true for "sashti"... which is essentially a word meaning "a six day celebration"... so what you have there is not so much the name of a Hindu god-form as the concept of a 6 day celebration (which happens right around May 12th I think...) of whatever deity happens to dwell in whatever forest you are celebrating in or near.

Probably the closest you can get to "Aranya Sashti" translation-wise will be ... "Whatever gods rule this forest"

[Tecumseh]

Well I know I don`t want to be a part of hinduism in any way. So what now?? I will try to find out about Pan, & Cernunnos, & figure out what is there. Maybe in the end Aranya Sashti just came up to help me to go in the right direction. So,.....The plot thickens.......LOL!!....Thanx 4 your help.