Multiple mappings-Osiris story

 The issue of multiple mapping:

V. Krishnakumar, N. M. Krishnakumar

We mentioned that the Osiris story is the origin for the following stories in Hindu mythology:

1. Mahabharata
2. The story of Mahabali
3. The story of Lord Krishna killing Narakasura.

Thus we have multiple mappings:

1. Osiris maps to Pandavas in the first and Mahabali in the second story
2. Horus maps to Arjuna and Abhimanyu in the first and Lord Krishna in the third story
3. Isis maps to Draupadi in the first and Satyabhama in the third
4. Seth maps to Duryodhana and Kichaka in the first, UAP in the second and Narakasura in the third story.

This is not surprising; when a story gets carried across to a distant place such as India, may be at different points of time to different regions in India; merges with local culture; and has evolved over several centuries. What is important is that the stories still retain sufficient amount of the essence of their origin so that one can suspect their common origin, that is in this case the Osiris story.

The following table will assist the reader to recapitulate all the mappings at a glance.

Egyptian gods	Indian gods to whom they map
Osiris	Yudhishtira (4), (5) Arjuna (4), (5), (26), (27) Bhima (4), (5) Mahabali (8)
Seth	Duryodhana (4), (5) Kichaka (5) UAP (8), (26) Narakasura (9)
Horus	Arjuna (4), (5), (26) Bhima (4), (5) Abhimanyu (4), (5) Krishna (9), (23), (26)
Isis	Draupadi (4), (5) Shakti (16)