Traditionally in Indian homes, women use grinding stones to mill flour. This laborious chore requires strength and long hours of back-breaking work and so they sing while milling the grain to overcome the tedium. These songs are known as ovi-s ( grinding stories) in Maharashtra and Goa.
The traditional mill consists of two heavy circular stones placed one on top of each other and turned by a wooden handle. While one woman pours the grain through the central slot the other turns the stone rotating it on its axis crushing the grain. Thus they take turns milling the grain and singing traditional tales. The following song narrates an unusual tale of two arch rivals and their uncanny camaraderie.
“Oh sister listen to my tale” sings the woman as she starts grinding the rice… ‘grrr’… ‘grrr’…’grrr’.. on the stone mill. “Once upon a time there lived a Cobra King by the name Bhujang on the mountain covered in the thick foliage of a rain forest. He lived up on the hill with his wife.” grr… grr.. grrr…” His wife was pregnant with his babies. But she was in the habit of travelling long distances. She would travel to various villages.” Women sang and the grinding mill would pick up the pace. “She would trudge along mountains and rivers and deep forests. The little babies in her belly would memorize the route she would traverse and Oh Lord! let me tell you! These babies would remember the old route. And when they are born they would take the same route that goes via Marcel to Old Goa, from Keri to Panjim”*. They would remember the route so that they could go back and forth as they please. But King Bhujang would never leave his abode. It was believed that the King would come down the mountain only when he got weak and feeble and is about die. So the King stayed put in his hole up in the mountains.”
“ Oh, sister! on the same mountain lived a Garuda( eagle) with his family.” The second woman would join the song adding to the tale. Garuda’s wife too was pregnant with a young baby. The enmity between Garuda clan and Cobras clan is an old one. Till today when they crossed each others path, they would exchange angry glances as if they were waiting to avenge the betrayal Garuda’s had meted out to the Cobras.** King Bhujang’s eyes would redden with anger and he would start hissing in resentment, with his forked tongue out ready to spew deadly poison on the Garuda. The Garuda in return would show him his razor-sharp talons ready to swoop over the Cobra King and tear him to pieces with his hooked beak. They couldn’t see each other eye to eye. Thus lived these two arch rivals on the mountain, waiting for the day to kill each other and avenge the betrayal.”
“One day it started raining. And the rain did not stop for days. Rivers swelled and lakes overflowed. Rainwater inundated the roads and trees came crashing down as the soil loosened and the roots could no longer hold on to the earth beneath. Birds animals and bees were drenched as there were no trees to take shelter under. Oh, Lord! there was water everywhere. And it still rained day and night.”
As the mountain soil got washed away trees and boulders came crashing down. King Bhujang could no longer hole up in his abode. “Oh, Lord! Rains waters washed away Bhujang’s home and now he began falling and rolling down the mountain slope to his death.”
Garuda Queen saw King Bhujang rolling down the hill in the mud.
She saw him fall. She saw him slither and suffer on the slopes covered in mud. She saw him falling to his death. And She swooped down on Bhujang like the fierce eagle she was. This was the opportunity she was waiting for years. This was the moment to get her revenge!
“But Oh sisters! Listeners of this tale – As she swooped down to kill the Cobra, her heart filled with compassion and love. Her breasts filled with the milk of kindness.
She gently picked Bhujang in her claws and brought him to her nest.
She stroked him dry with her wings wiping clean the mud that covered his body. She fed him with honey and milk. The Garuda lady showed such kindness to her enemy.
Oh sister, listener of this tale, tell this story to your daughter and sisters- the story of Bhujang and Garuda.”
Women would pause, … Grrr… Grrr… Grrr as the noise of the grinding stones filled the rooms.
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*The names of towns in Goa. Often, women would recount the name of the towns their mother’s homes were located.
**The story refers to the animosity between Snakes and Garuda mentioned in RigVeda
Story Collected by Vidya Kamat
Text source: Usha Naik, and Grinding stories. Ed by Heta Pandit
Location: Goa
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