Once, there was a swallow by the name ‘Kirkiro’. He would cry the whole day- kirrr… kirrr… kirrr, thus everyone called him Kirkiro.
The story goes that in his earlier birth, Kirkiro was born as a man. He worked hard to put two square meals on the table so that his wife and old widowed mother could survive. Kirkiro loved both women very much. And was willing to do anything to make them happy. But there was not enough work for him in the village. So he decided to go to another village to look for work and took his wife and his mother along. As the three walked towards the next village, they came up to a river. Neither woman knew how to swim. So the man carried his wife on his shoulders and held his old mother’s hand and started wading through the river waters.
Parashuram was the son of Jamadagni and Renuka. His story is a part of the epic literature and Parashuram is often cited for his unfailing loyalty to his father. Jamadagni was a Brahmin while Renuka belonged to the Kshatriya, or the warrior clan. Parashuram was a great worshipper of Shiva. He was a master at weaponry and is believed to have been teacher to the epic greats, Guru Dronacharya, Karna and Arjuna.
Remember those grandma tales? Tales, that amused and tickled our imagination as they explained why things were the way they were. Every kid wants to know why the sky is blue and grass is green; why could mountains not have wings and fly and how the rain falls from skies. Grandma had answers to all those tricky questions. Here is one such tale from A.K. Ramanujan’s basket of folktales. This curious story explains why the sky and sun are so high up in the sky.
Once upon a time sky and earth were in close embrace. As a result there was hardly any space for creatures on earth to move around or even breathe. Even the sun was so close to earth that its heat was unbearable. People died of either suffocation or excessive heat.
On my recent visit to conduct a workshop at Aurangabad, I visited a Jain temple on the way to Shahpur near Nasik, Maharashtra. The temple is popularly known as Manas Mandir and stands atop a hill. It is considered to be a replica of famous temple complex of Palitana, which is a great pilgrimage site for Jainas. While entering the huge temple complex, I could see many different temple spires and found out that it had been built a few years ago by a very famous Jaina monk, Shri Bhuvan Bhanu Vijayji with help from his disciples.
Surrounded by many small temples, each devoted to Jaina Sutra, I walked towards the main temple which appeared very big. The main idol here is that of the first Tirthankar Rishabhdev (also known as Adinath). Apart from his idol there are those of many other Tirthankaras in the sanctum sanctorum.
The Snake Mandyavishya was growing old. With no strength and speed to catch his prey, he would go hungry for days. One day, while searching for some form of sustenance, he saw a pond full of frogs. Mandyavishya’s mouth watered at the thought of frogs for dinner and he hatched a plan.
He made his way stealthily to the edge of the pond and quietly lay there without making any move to hunt the frogs. As the frogs saw the snake, they swam away. But when they realised that the snake was not interested in them, they let their guard down. One curious little frog decided to find out what the problem was. Inching little close to the banks where the serpent lay, he asked “O snake, it is your nature to kill frogs and eat. But you seem to be least interested. What is the matter? Why are you lying so quietly on the banks of this pond?”
In plays, even during the early years of this century, it was quite common to see men cross dressing as women, enacting the female roles, sometimes with comic hilarity. However, in Indian mythological tales, gods and goddesses engaged in transvestitism (dressing as someone of the other gender) or expressing trans-sexuality (transformation into a person of the opposite gender) is hardly a laughing matter. According to Wendy Doniger, in Hindu mythology the transformation of the gods and goddesses into other genders is ‘often lethal than fecund’.
Here is one such tale. Set in Tirupati it is about an act of Goddess Gangamma who exacts revenge in her transvestite form. Her devotees continue to enact the ritual at the temple even today. In ancient times, near Tirupati there lived a wicked local warrior and landowner by the name Palegadu. He considered it his right to rape every virgin girl the night before her wedding. He spread absolute terror and took pride in his power over hapless villagers.
One day he happened to set his eyes on Gangamma. She was drying her hair after her bath and he felt a wave of lust rise within him. Gangamma was furious at his amorous advances and decided to teach him the lesson of his life.
We were a small group of archaeologists, historians, folklorists, anthropologists and some students like me who had been invited by the villagers of Chandor to watch this special performance of musal dance. Musal is a pounding stick and the dance is performed during harvest time by the people of Chandor, the ancient capital of Goa.
Nestled between the Western Ghats and the Arabian Sea, the tiny state of Goa has a unique history. Ruled for 1500 years directly or through local feudatories by different dynasties like the Bhojas, Mauryas, Chalukyas, Rashtrakutas, Shilaharas, Kadambas, Yadavas, Bahamanis, the Vijayanagara and Adilshahi dynasties before Portuguese colonized it in 1510 AD, the state and its people have developed a culture that has influences from all over the world. All rulers have left behind their social and cultural footprint. The musal dance is one such confluence of memories where the people of Chandor, dance in honour of their dear king, recounting the myth and history of Chandrapur.
As the night grew darker, an elderly village head or Gaonkar as he is known locally, stepped out of an old Portuguese hacienda and addressed the gathering. He told us this: It is believed, the tradition of musal dance started somewhere in the 11th century. The village, Chandrapur was the capital of Goa in the 7th or 8th century- and Chandreshwar Bhutnath was its patron deity. Only the original inhabitants of the village can participate in the dance. As the time passed the number of eligible dancers have dwindled and this year there were just ten men. “Very soon we may not have any performances left”- he declared with a heavy voice.
During the Muslim invasion, the Chandranath temple was destroyed. Except for some stray ruinous remnants the invaders left nothing behind. The temple was completely destroyed by the Portuguese who established a chapel at the spot the temple once stood, thereby erasing all visible signs of Hindu culture from that region. The Portuguese rechristened Chandrapur to Chandor and converted most of the local inhabitants to Christianity. Few of the local Hindus fled the village. The Portuguese banned all the Hindu traditions including musal dance. Anyone found performing this dance or following any Hindu ritual was tortured to death. Still the tradition has survived.
When the Portuguese invaded Chandrapur it had a Kadamba King as its ruler. The people of Chandrapur did not defend him in the battle with the Portuguese and the king was killed. The queen was furious at her apathetic subjects. She committed suicide but not before cursing the villagers. “Henceforth every woman of this village will become a widow!” she pronounced as she beat her feet on the stone outside the temple. That stone with her foot print is still maintained. The queen’s curse made neighboring villages stop giving their daughters to the men of Chandrapur and its people fell on hard times.
As the village elder finished narrating the lore- a small group of ten men dressed in traditional dress- a dhoti, kurta and a patka
(head dress) formed a circle holding a musal in their hands and singing the song in local language ( Konkani):
“Hari haracho khel khelayta,
Khel durgabhayr shivo dita”
The opening lines recounted the glorious times of King Harihar of Vijaynagar and his magnificent fort and went on to narrate how the fort was eventually captured. Finally it spoke about the total destruction of the town of Chandrapur and its people. For centuries the people of Chandor have refused to forget this tragic history. Every year during the harvest season, they recount this tragic past and dance for the king they had failed to defend.
Story collected by : Janaki Sincro
Location : Goa
Image courtesy and copyright: Sharvani
In the Puranas, it is said that in the later ages (Kaliyuga perhaps), even an ordinary man/king can acquire the position of Indra, the king of gods. The Vishnu Purana has the following story which tells us how a mortal king became an Indra. Once there was a bitter war between the gods and the demons. The war went on for a while and there seemed to be no resolution in sight. Finally, both sides approached Brahma the creator and asked him who would eventually win this apparently unending war. Brahma thought for a while and said, “The side that the King Raji, who rules the earth, supports by taking up arms on its behalf will win this war”.
The demons were quick to approach Raji and asked him to aid them in the war. King Raji agreed but on one condition. After the war, he said, he wanted to be crowned Indra. Now the demons were in a fix. How could they possibly guarantee the kingdom of gods, even more so because Indra Prahlad’s term was not yet over? Dejected, they withdrew in disappointment.
The gods came in next with same proposition. King Raji put forth the same condition. The gods agreed at once and soon Raji joined their army and as predicted, helped them win the war. Indra had to step down and accept Raji as the supreme king of the gods. He bowed before him and placing his foot on his head said, “You have saved me from great danger, I acknowledge you as my superior and my king. From now you will be known as Indra”. But Raji was content to remain on earth and so he asked Indra to continue as his representative on the throne of heavens. Indra agreed. So even though Indra performed all the kingly duties, the oblations and sacrifices reached Raji. Although Indra was unhappy, he could do little but accept the situation since that had been the condition the gods had accepted for their victory.
However matters got out of hand when Raji’s son wanted to perpetuate the arrangement after his father’s death. Indra opposed this idea but was compelled to yield at the end. Sad and frustrated, he went to his teacher Brihaspati and asked him for a morsel of the sacrificial butter. Brihaspati was sad to see Indra’s plight and said, “Had you been courageous enough to win the war for gods earlier, you would not have ended up thus. But I can help you to regain your sovereignty.”
Brihaspati set up a yagna for Indra which would help him regain his lost powers. The yagna made Raji’s sons arrogant, they began mocking the Vedas and neglected their religious duties and ended up as enemies of gods. And at a point when they had become too weak to put up a valiant fight, Brihaspati advised Indra to kill them and reclaim his position as the king of gods.
Story collected by: Vidya Kamat
Text source: Vishnu Purana – Book IV. Chapter IX
Location: Pan India
Image details: Indra (MATHURA), Collection of Metropolitan Museum of Art
Image Source: Wikipedia
There are five tribes in Wayanad. Long ago, each had its own culture, traditions and language. Then outsiders entered and slowly corrupted the tribal folk. The tribals began to brew liquor and work as wage labour. They became impoverished. Their self-respect and discipline vanished. Their children were selling liquor and drugs. They became ashamed of their background, their culture, of themselves. There is a legend which tells their story.
There once was a prosperous era named Maveli, when everyone was equal. There were no lords and no slaves. King Mavelimantru ruled then. Three outsiders entered and killed Mavelimantru. They grabbed the land and broke up the tribes. They split the people into castes.
The lower castes became the slaves of the outsiders who now considered themselves as lords. The lords were known by different names such as Gounders, Chettiars, Nairs and Nambiars. The tribal slaves were forced to clear the thick and dense rainforests, cut the hill slopes to make paddy fields and grow crops for the masters.
The l ords appointed a goddess named Mali * to watch over the activities of the tribal slaves. Mali’s watchful eyes followed the tribals everywhere. They lost their freedom altogether. Somehow, Melocharan (the first father) and Keeyaruthi (the first mother) managed to escape from the clutches of the lord. The legend describes them as ‘brother and sister above the hip, man and woman below the hip.’ They reached Pakkathapan where the goddess Mali caught up with them and cursed them with slavery both in life and after life as well. Melocharan was sent to work in the forest and Keeyaruthi in the kitchen.
One day Melocharan persuaded Keeyaruthi to come with him into the forest. But Keeyaruthi could not adjust with life in the forest. She became affected by the spell of modernity. She no longer wanted to drink from the natural springs but wanted water from the silver pond of Pakkathapan. They went to the silver pond.
The water eluded her and she had to climb down the steps to reach it. Lower and lower she went till she reached the bottom, when the water rose suddenly and she was drowned. Melocharan could only grab her hair. In despair, he flung it on the ground. It became a grass called Maanippullu.
Vilwamangalam Sawmiyar, believed to be one of the enlightened men of ancient Kerala and credited with instituting many shrines and temples across Kerala, had the special ability to see “divine beings” with his eyes. Once as he was passing through a jungle, he chanced upon seven maidens bathing in a pond, without a care in the world. Curious, he went closer to see who they were and (given his gift) immediately recognized them as goddesses. As he boldly walked towards them, they ran helter-skelter and finally jumped into seven different ponds to escape him. He went ahead and pulled out six of the maidens one by one, enshrining them near the ponds as divinities for worship. The seventh one had jumped into a mud pond that was actually a quagmire. He tried to pull her out of the slippery mud but she refused to come out. By now she was covered from head to toe with the black slippery ooze and kept slipping off from his grip.
After hours of futile attempts Swamiyar was so exhausted and angry that he caught her by her hair and pulled her out, while hurling abuses at her. But he could only pull her head (Thala) out of the mud or ‘Cher’ as it is called in Malayalam. In the process, some of the hair from her head was pulled out too, leaving holes on her scalp. And the place where the goddess is enshrined came to be known as Cherthala (mud-head), and the goddess is identified as Kaarthyayani- an aspect of mother goddess Parvati.
An interesting aspect of this deity is that the Swamiyar, in his sheer exasperation and anger kept abusing the goddess even as he built a shrine for her. And to this day during the pooram festival celebrated in the month of Edavam (May- June), her devotees playfully abuse the goddess. The goddess accepts the abuses as a prayer and in return she bestows her devotees with prosperity and happiness. In the sanctum sanctorum, only the head of the goddess Karthyayani is visible as the rest of the body could never be pulled out and is hence considered to be below the earth. The head of the deity also shows the marks where Swamiyar pulled out the hair. The shrine of Karthyayani of Cherthala is one of the important Shakti-peethas in the south.
Once, there was a swallow by the name ‘Kirkiro’. He would cry the whole day- kirrr… kirrr… kirrr, thus everyone called him Kirkiro.
Parashuram was the son of Jamadagni and Renuka. His story is a part of the epic literature and Parashuram is often cited for his unfailing loyalty to his father. Jamadagni was a Brahmin while Renuka belonged to the Kshatriya, or the warrior clan. Parashuram was a great worshipper of Shiva. He was a master at weaponry and is believed to have been teacher to the epic greats, Guru Dronacharya, Karna and Arjuna.
