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| CHANDANBALA,
Princess of Champanagari |
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Vasumati was the princess
of Champanagari. She was clever, learned and possessed many
an art and abilities along with being devout and virtuous.
Her father, a great king, was powerful but a peace loving-person.
Even he was not spared [clears throat] by the onslaught
of war in which he was killed, and Vasumati, a child barely
12 years old, and her mother were taken captive by the enemy.
Her mother sacrificed her life to save her own honor. Little
Vasumati had faith in God and prayed for protection. Seeing
the dead mother and a very young girl at hand, the hostile's
evil intentions got watered down. He thought of selling
this small girl as a slave in the market. Being young and
beautiful, he was sure to get a good price. He put her up
for sale in the town market and found many bidders. How
fate brought down a princess to the level of being sold
as slave!
But, as luck would have it, Dhanavarshi Seth, a wealthy
businessman, happened to pass by. He saw the girl and at
once realized that such a beautiful girl could only be of
some noble birth. He decided that if he allowed this girl
to be sold in this market, fate can be very cruel to her.
So he paid the price for her and took her home.
He told his wife that they would look after her as their
own daughter, since, in any case, they were childless. His
wife was all too glad to take care of this child. And she
was brought up by this Seth and Sethani. As she grew up,
her beauty and sweet voice so impressed this Seth, he felt
as soothing to hear her voice as much as the coolness of
Sandal. That’s how she got the name CHANDANBALA.
Her beauty grew with her
age and the Sethani felt that this beauty might capture
her husband’s heart and she would be left in the lurch.
This fear and jealousy built up in her mind as days went
by. So much so, when the Seth went out of town, she imprisoned
Chandanbala in a room, without food and water, tying her
up with shackles, shaved off her head, in an attempt to
deprive her of beauty. Chandanbala, though she did not know
for what sh-, she had done and for being punished, kept
her cool. She prayed to God for protection. She was thus
imprisoned for three days. Being without food and water,
she took to fasting.
As fate would have it, Bhagwan Mahaveer was on a fast for
a very long time. He had taken a secret vow to break the
fast only on certain conditions being fulfilled. He went
from one town to another in search of food suitable to his
secret vow, but could not find any. This way he spent five
months and 25 days in fasting.
On his return, the Seth
asked for Chandanbala, who was not to be seen. While his
wife was out, the neighbor confided in the Seth and told
about the plight that Chandanbala was in. The Seth went
to the dark room and was aghast to see the condition Chandanbala
was in. He, at once, gave her some boiled grams, the only
food, then, at hand, and asked Chandanbala to break her
fast. And he went off to call a blacksmith to break the
shackles.
Chandabala decided to break the fast only after making a
holy offering of the food to any sadhu or monk. So she sat
at the doorway to see if any sadhu passed by. On this fateful
day, Bhagwan Mahaveer was passing by. He saw Chandanbala,
who, with reverence, offering this frugal food to him. Food
offered out of one's own share to a saint is the Holy offering.
So she was all too glad to offer some of it to Mahaveer.
Bhagwan Mahaveer too saw almost all the self-imposed conditions
being fulfilled. And so he went close enough to receive
the offering. But the joy on Chandanbala's face was one
condition against his desire and so he turned away. Chandabala,
utterly dismayed, prayed to the Lord, asking Him what was
wrong with her offering. She had tears in her eyes and devotion
in her voice. So Bhagwan Mahaveer turned back and saw tears
in her eyes. This fulfilled all the conditions set himself
to take any offering. The moment he accepted the offering,
miracles took place-- the shackles broke off and wealth
showered from the sky and all round there was an air of
Divinity.
Chandanbala went on to become Bhagwan Mahaveer's first female
disciple or Shishya, who, after taking to sainthood, spread
the preachings of Mahaveer far and wide.
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| Bihula
and Chandu Saudagar |
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Manasa Debi was a mind-born
daughter31 of Siva. She was born of Siva’s semen
left on a chikanipata32. She is known as Bisahari33 and
said to have extraordinary supernatural power to bless
her devotees. She can also ruin and kill those who do
not believe in her existence and offer their prayer to
her. There was a very rich ship merchant, named Chanrakar.
He was also known to the people as Chandu Saudagar34.
He was a great devotee of Siva. He had six sons and a
happy family. He did not consider Manasa as a Goddess.
Manasa Debi did not like this attitude of Chandu Saudagar
and killed all his six sons by sending black snakes. However
Chandu Saudagar did not relent. One day pleased with the
devotion of Chandu Siva appeared in his dream and expressed
his willingness to bless him with some great things as
per the desire of Chandu. Chandu Saudagar asked him for
a son. Siva agreed to bless him with a son but put a condition
before him. “ If you want to have a son who will
have long life, he would be a fool, lethargic and an idiot.
Instead if you want to have an ideal, intelligent and
handsome son he will die at the early age of 20”,
said Siva, “now you tell me what exactly you want.”
After a serious thought Chandu Saudagar opted for an intelligent
son who would have a short life. Later, Chandu’s
wife gave birth to a male child whose name was Bala Lakshendra
or Lakhinder. Lakhinder was bright, intelligent and a
very cultured child. Everybody was happy with his behaviour.
When he reached the marriageable age his father wanted
to solemnise his marriage ceremony with an equally qualified
and highly cultured girl. After a great search, Chandu
Saudagar saw Bihula. She was very beautiful, meritorious,
highly cultured and a homely girl. Chandu also came to
know that according to her family tradition every woman
dies as a sumangali and none of them would become a widow
at any point of time. In this family tradition of Bihula,
Chandu Saudagar saw a ray of hope for his dear and affectionate
son Lakhinder and as a result he immediately decided to
choose her as his daughter-in-law.
The marriage was solemnised
in a happy atmosphere. Lakhinder was bitten by a dangerous
cobra at the behest of Manasa Debi on his first night
of the bridal-bed in the bridal chamber itself. Lakhinder
cried in helplessness and breathed his last. The innocent
but firm Bihula decided to remain with his dead body on
a raft in the river Ganges. Chandu and neighbouring people
made futile attempts to dissuade her. But she was determined.
Finding no other alternative, Chandu gave permission to
Bihula. She started her voyage on a raft along with her
husband’s dead body. The current slowly carried the
raft. She had to face various difficulties in her journey,
but she overcame them all. Ultimately she found a washerwoman
washing the clothes by the side of the river Ganges. Her
small child was disturbing her. Getting irritated with
the behaviour of her girl child, the washerwoman killed
her baby and started washing her clothes. Once she had
washed all her clothes, she sprinkled some drops of water
on the face of her baby and the dead baby became alive.
Bihula took no time to understand the supernatural power
of this lady and took shelter at her feet and narrated
her the sad story.
In accordance with the
advice of washerwoman, Bihula reached the Mahadeoloka35
with her. On the instruction of the washerwoman, Bihula
performed a wonderful dance to please the Lord. The Lord
was very impressed by her graceful performance and was
moved by the story of her tragic life on earth and heaven.
He called Manasa and asked her to give the reasons of
her tragedy. Manasa vehemently denied that she was responsible
for the tragedy of Bihula. However, Bihula succeeded in
producing definite evidence. But Manasa insisted that
she was not responsible for the sad plight of Bihula,
and it was Chandu Saudagar, her father-in-law, who was
solely responsible, because he always abused and disrespected
Manasa Debi and did not consider her to be a goddess worthy
of worship. Manasa then told Bihula that if Chandu Saudagar
were to worship her, she would bring Lakhinder back to
life. Bihula felt the hope of restoration of life for
the corpse of her husband in the statement of Manasa and
agreed to her proposal. Manasa then brought Lakhinder
and other six sons of Chandu Saudagar back to life by
chanting spells. At the humble request of Bihula, Manasa
recovered all the boats of Chandu Saudagar along with
the cargo and crew that had been submerged by the wrath
of Mansa Debi. She thus fulfilled the desire of Bihula.
With all the seven sons and lost property of Chandu Saudagar,
Bihula came down to the city in the earth where the old
eyes of Chandu Saudagar and his wife were counting the
days to breathe their last. All of a sudden they received
all their lost sons along with the cargo and crew.
Now Chandu Saudagar realized
the power of Bihula and gave his consent to worship the
deity – Manasa Debi. The goddess blessed him. He
realized that there was none except Manasa Debi in these
three worlds. Finally, he worshipped Manasa with offerings
of various fruits and animals.
Thus, Chandu Saudagar,
a devout follower of Siva, changed his religious ideas
and became one of the staunch followers of the Manasa-cult,
which was originally a tantric-cum-folk cult.
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