Nala Damayanthi - Part 1

Long long ago, so long ago, nobody knows how long ago. (because it was ancient history, when Mahabharatham was current affairs)

There was a king of Nishadhas, named Virasena. He had a son of the name, Nala. Nala was well versed in virtue & wealth.

Nala was strong, handsome, intelligent, and a man of horse powers (he had vast knowledge about the horses, to leverage their powers to the fullest extent).

Nala was a good king, in fact a great king. He loved his people, he was truthful & importantly, he had a mighty army. He was the protector of the weak, he was loved by all his citizens, in short he was like the Manu. And he was also fond of the game of dice.

There was another king named Bhima of the Vidarbhas (no relation to Mahabharatham's Bhima). He was also a good king, but he was childless. He came upon a brahmarishi named Damana, and asked for a boon to become a father. The rishi gratified with the king, granted him not one, but four children. One daugther & three sons. Daughter was named, Damayanthi, sons were named Dama, Danta & Damana.

Damayanthi was very beautiful, like Sachi (wife of Indiran). Her beauty became world famous. Nobody, not even the Yakshas, Rakshasas, or goddesses could rival her in beauty. Every living man desired her, to be his wife.

Nala, the peerless king in three worlds, was also aware of the beauty of Damayanthi. Though he have not met her, he fell in love with her, because of all the poets. Nala, lovesick of Damayanthi, could not eat or sleep.

While roaming in his garden, one day he saw swans with golden wings. He caught the king of these swans with his hands. The sky ranging swan told Nala, "I dont want to be killed, release me. I will do something in return, to alleviate your pain. I know of your love for Damayanthi. I will go & talk to her about you in such a way that, she wont marry anyone else but you". Nala being lonely because of his love, was happy to hear someone talk to him about Damayanthi & he released the swan.

Thus released, the swans flew and reached vidharbhas, as promised.

The swans alighted before Damayanthi. Damayanthi on seeing these beautiful swans with golden wings, was stunned by their beauty. She asked her maids to catch them.

All the swans feigning freight, distracted the maids to their way. King swan, led Damayanthi on its course, once they reached secluded spot, the swan told her about Nala & his love for her.

Upon hearing about this good, handsome king, and his love for her, Damayanthi also fell in love with Nala.

Damayanthi asked the swans to communicate her love back to Nala, and they did. On hearing the words of Damayanthi from the swans, Nala was happy and was already in heaven.

Now the lovestruck Damayanthi, was not eating properly, or sleeping soundly. She had lost her peace.

This sickness of Damayanthi, reached king Bhima through her maidens. The king of Vidharbhas, correctly deduced the reason for her sickness (but completely missed the plot) , and announced her swayamvaram.

The announcement of Damayanthi's swayamvaram reached all the kingdoms & also the Gods.

War of the worlds - Part 2

As Agasthiyar was helpless, all gods went to Brahma.

Brahma told them, all of you gods go where your pleasure leads you. It will take a long, long time for the oceans to resume it usual state. This task will be fulfilled by the king Bhagirathan.

So all the assembled gods, went to their place, biding their time for the ocean to be ocean again.

As it was told, after a long,long,long time there was a king named Sagara, born in to the family of Ikshaku. He was very powerful, he brought under subjugation a many kingdoms. He had two wives, but was without a son.

As he was without a son, he went to practice a severe thabam praying Shiva. His sincere prayers were answered by the god with three eyes.

Shiva, the wielder of Pinaka, gave Sagara a boon. You have two wives, one of your wife will give birth to a sixty thousand valorous sons, but they will die the same day the same way. The other wife, will give birth to a son, he will be the perpetuator of your name.

So it happened that one of the wives gave birth to something like a gourd. And the other one gave birth to a beautiful boy. The dejected king made up his mind to throw away the gourd. Then an asariri (a voice from sky) told the king to preserve the seeds of the gourd in individual pots filled with ghee & rice and the boon of Shiva will come true.

The king collected individual seeds from the gourd, 60000 of them, and maintained them in 60000 individual pots as told. And he had one nurse to take care of each of these pots. Then after a long time, 60000 sons were born.

But they were terrible & ruthless. They could fly & roam in the sky. And as they were numerous themselves, they despised everyone else. Gods, ghandarvas & rakshasas are valiant & addicted to fighting, but these 60000 sons would fight & chase even the gods, ghandarvas & rakshasas.

And as fate would have it, that only son (Asamanjas) of his other wife, perpetuator of the king, was a sadist. Asamanjas would drag unsuspecting children, by their throat & throw them into water and drown, till they begged for their life. People, overwhelmed with terror & grief, went to the king. They told him, you are our protector, please protect us from your son.

Sagara had enough of this and he expelled Asamanjas, from the kingdom into the forest. But Asamanjas had a son, named, Ansuman by that time. And Ansuman lived with his grandfather Sagara.

After many years had passed, the king Sagara decides to conduct the ashvamedha yagam. And the selected horse was set free to roam where it pleases, protected by the 60000 sons of the king. The horse roaming the earth reaches the ocean bed, and it vanishes. The sons are dumbfounded, they did not know what happened to the horse. They search all over the place, but could not find it.

They go to their king & father, inform him of what happened. The king gets very angry & tells them not to come back without the horse. Even though they are atrocious, they could never disobey their father.

The sons of Sagara, went to the spot where the horse vanished. There they found some cracks on the ocean bed, they decided that the horse might have slipped into one of these cracks. So they started digging, and some digging it was.
While undertaking such a huge digging, there came out rakshasas, nagas, asuras and all other animals. They were all slain by the sons of Sagara and they continued digging. They kept of digging for a very long period and as far as the lower world.

There they saw the horse, in the adobe of the sage Kapila. Due to their excitement on seeing the horse & because of their natural disdain towards other people, they set forth to recover the horse. They caused a great raucous and a heavy damage to the environment of Kapila. Kapila got anygry and burnt them all down, with his flaming eyes.

After a while, the news of his 60000 sons death reaches Sagara, he grieves his sons' death for a time. But the sacrificial horse needs to be retrieved to complete the Yagam. So calls his grandson Ansuman, and tells him that I had forsaken your father & expelled him because of my duties as a king. Now you are all I am left with, please go and retrieve the horse.

Ansuman proceeds to the adobe of Kapila, through the earth excavated by his fathers. He bows before Kapila and informs him the reason for his visit. Ansuman prays to Kapila to grant him, his wishes. Kapila pleased with Ansuman, lets him take the horse. Kapila also asks Ansuman, if he wishes for anything else. Ansuman asks Kapila to forgive his 60000 fathers, so they could all relieved from their untimely death, so they could attain moksha.

Kapila says, I have forgiven your fathers and they would reach heaven when their ashes were sprinkled with the holy water of Ganga. And this will be done because of the actions of the son of your son. Now take the horse and finish the grand sacrifice of Sagara.

Ansuman takes the horse to Sagara, Sagara finishes his horse sacrifice. Before dieing, Sagara makes Ansuman the king. Likewise, Ansuman also ruled righteously, he had a son Dilipa. Ansuman on completing his sovereign duties, made Dilipa the king and went to heaven.

Dilipa on hearing the fate of his forefathers, tried very hard through sacrifices & penance to bring Ganga, but he could not. A son was born to Dilipa, named Bhagirathan. Dilipa appointed him as king & he also went to heaven.

Bhagirathan, on learning about his forefathers, handed over his kingdom to his ministers and went to the forest. There he prayed to Ganga sincerely, and did a very severe thavam to get her attention. And he did this for a thousand years, then Ganga assumed a human form and answered Bhagirathan. "Bhagiratha, what do you want from me?".

Bhagirathan answered, "my forefathers were reduced to ashes by the sage Kapila, and they can attain moksha only when I sprinkle your waters on their ashes, please grant me this wish". Ganga said, "I have no problem, but when I descend directly on earth the force of my fall will be difficult to sustain, the earth cannot stand that upheaval. So you need someone to support me when I land".

Bhagirathan asked, who is that mighty person that can stand your landing. Ganga, told him that only lord Shiva is capable of that, you pray to him.

Bhagirathan then went to pray Shiva & did severe penance to get the attention of lord Shiva, for another thousands of year. Shiva answered his prayers, asked him what did he want. Bhagirathan told Shiva that, when Ganga lands on earth you please hold her. Shiva said, "ok I will support Ganga, when she lands on earth. please call her"

Bhagirathan called Ganga, she descends, descends & descends. On seeing that Ganga had taken a leap from the sky, all the Gods, Gandharvas, Nagas, Yakshas, Rakshasas, sages all assembled there as spectators.

When she reaches earth, Shiva stands there and receives her on his head. Ganga teeming with fish, tortoise, sharks & all aquatic animals asks Bhagirathan to direct her. Bhagirathan directs her to where the ashes of his forefathers are (ie the ocean bed). On reaching there, Ganga immerses all the ashes of Bhagirathan's forefather and gives them mukthi.

And as a side effect, the ocean is again filled with water, becomes an ocean again.