Talk:Ashokasundari

This article was nominated for deletion on 13 December 2012. The result of the discussion was delete.

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Patnaik as a source

Patnaik, who is described in the mid day article as the "Chief Belief Officer of the Future Group", cannot be considered a reliable source for anything. I'm going to remove the two sources that link back to him and tag the claims they support while we figure out whether those claims should be retained in the article or removed entirely. --regentspark (comment) 14:49, 18 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]

@RegentsPark: Devdutt Pattanaik is the most renown Indian mythologist. Profile: on EY, on TED. Books: [1]. Many RS newspapers like Times of India, Business today, Indian Express, Business standard, Economic Times, Decccan Herald and Mid Day, and magazines in India publish his articles. I am still clueless why should he not be considered reliable.--Redtigerxyz ^Talk 09:59, 21 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Redtigerzyz, Pattnaik is a doctor who has worked in the pharma industry for many years. Mythology is his "passion" and he writes a lot about it and, I'm sure, knows a lot about it as well. But nothing he writes is peer reviewed and therefore we should be wary of any general statements or interpretations made by him and should prefer to use other sources. (Note: I'm basing my opinion on bios like this one. Barring evidence of scholarship (citation counts, recognition from scholars, etc., I think the opinion a reasonable one.)--regentspark (comment) 12:48, 21 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]

@RegentsPark:, but his books are used references by general encyclopaedias and other books: [2], [3], [4], [5],

[http://books.google.co.in/books?id=Dvo9ScSbz0IC&pg=PA288&dq=%22pattanaik,+devdutt%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=WVS2UsTJA8mprAe5noDwAw&ved=0CCwQ6AEwADge#v=onepage&q=%22pattanaik%2C%20devdutt%22&f=false

], [6], ,[7], [8], [9] etc.Redtigerxyz ^Talk 03:02, 22 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Sources

I have reverted the recent removal of three citations from the article, since the sources seem reliable, do talk about Ashoksundari, and while I haven't checked in detail, their contents seem to broadly match what the wikipedia article says. For example: The Puranic encyclopaedia (pages 515-516) says:

There is a story about the birth and marriage of Nahusa and ASokasundari in Padma Purana as given below : ... Siva took [Parvati] to Nandanavana, where she saw the Kalpa tree, which was beautiful all over, and she asked Siva about its special features. Siva replied that anything asked of it would be granted by the Kalpa tree. Parvati made a request to the Kalpa tree for a girl just for a test. Instantly a very beautiful girl was born from the tree. Parvati named her ASokasundari and brought her up as her daughter. Once Parvati gave her a boon that she would become the wife of King Nahusa of the Lunar family, who would be equal to Indra.

and then goes on to talk about her kidnapping and pursuit by Hunda,and finally her marriage to Nahusa. The Handbook of Hindu Mythology also covers similar ground on pages 217-18. (Haven't been able to look at the third source, by Garg, yet). I can imagine there being residual questions of notability about this relatively minor mythological character, but those would be best addressed at AFD and I am generally liberal about keeping such non-promotional and verifiable content (others may fairly hold differently).

Also pinging @Redtigerxyz: who had added these sources originally, and may have more to say. Cheers. Abecedare (talk) 20:03, 19 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I guess I didn't notice it before because I used different spellings "Ashkoasundari". Note that the Puranic Encyclopedia is citing both Viraja and Asokasundari as Nahusa's wives and says that they are both mentioned in Padma Purana. I guess it is one of the variants about the story of Nahusa but it's just a guess only. MythoEditor (talk) 08:59, 20 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Since none of the sources say that Asokasundari is mentioned in "vrat-kathas" of Gujrat nor that Parvati cursed her at the time of Ganesha's beheading. Therefore I am removing this text since it is sourceless. I am now in favor of keeping the article unless of course it can be proved that the sources might be unreliable. However the sources seem reliable enough to me. MythoEditor (talk) 09:17, 20 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]

"Encylopedia of Hindu World" by Ganga Ram Garg also contains about Asokasundari. Problem solved ha! MythoEditor (talk) 09:19, 20 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]