Where can the earliest mention of Samudra manthan be found??
Perhaps the most famous and exciting scene in the early chapters of Mahabharata is the great churning of the ocean, i.e. the "Samundra Manthan." There are a lot of mythologies built around it: Kadru and Vinata's bet and curse; Garuda's birth and amazing quest that's far more fabulous than any Bill and Ted's adventure ever; Astika's life and mission, and a lot more. It basically includes all the major gods and goddesses that were in the hindu pantheon at the time the purana was recorded. So it is depicted as a very extravagant and extensive scene, and I'm sure that it must have been extremely popular among the populace of India who would have requested many reruns of the scene from their local temple's artists.
Its effect on modern readers is no less dramatic and it does still stimulate any keen reader's senses and makes them electrified with Adbhuta Rasa.
I thought that it will be a good idea to start a new thread on this beautiful topic in which we can talk about the relevance of this manthan in our lives, or anything else related to it.
Let's consider the name Samudra itself. It consists of Sa + Mudra. Sa means "with" and Mudra means "coin." There may be other meanings of this term, one of the popular one is simply "ocean" as it is used even in our modern tongue.
In Greek mythology there is an eternal river which is impossible to cross alive unless you can pay a coin (or a mudra) to the boatman who will take you across that river. Here's the wiki article about the boatman https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charon
Anyway, I don't think there is an equivalent of Charon in the Hindu puranas, but there is surely a description of Hanuman Ji crossing the ocean with Rama's Mudrika in his mouth. You will find it in Tulsidas' famous chalisa with the words, "Rama Mudrika Meli Mukh Mahi."
By the way, I'm amazed at the level of puns that Tulsidas plays with in his poetry. But sadly these puns are all lost in the various translations that we have of the work today. For example, in "Meli Mukh Mahi," an inferior poet would have perhaps used the words, "Leli Mukh Mahi". That is "Leli" (took it) instead of "Meli."
But anyway, my point is that the Samudra Manthan is basically the Ramayana itself: the eternal play-acts of Lord Rama, and nothing else. I guess you could call it the eternal Krishna Leela as well. This eternal churning of the world ocean is happening even now and we are witnessing it from various standpoints. Some from the side of the danavas, who are near
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Where can the earliest mention of Samudra manthan be found??
