Thursday 14 December 2017

RaaRaa-8 - Gajasi

Some thousands year back...

In the land of Masaka...

One day, the king of Masaka "Gajasi" plans for a visit to the villages and see how his people are leading their life. To his surprise, he finds that some people are in very poor condition. A very old and thin man came to the king with his daughter and told him to arrange proper irrigation for farming. The king agreed to it and then he gifted a diamond necklace to the poor man. The man thrown that necklace at King's face. The bodyguards of the King were going to hit him but the king stopped them. Then the daughter of that person came near the king and told him that they urgently need the proper irrigation facility, not the diamond necklace. The king orders his minister to work on war footing and minister delegates the work to the concerned person.

During the meantime, invaders attack Masaka kingdom...

King Gajasi is riding and racing to the war front at a faster pace...
Behind the mountains, when the warrior's head is visible, soldiers shout louder for their leader. (Imagine like a movie scene. :) )
Was he riding a horse? No. It was an elephant. The elephant-rider warrior takes the lead and the war starts against the invaders. During the war, the leader gets severely injured and the soldiers take him to a safer place. The king wants to go the village area as he feels that he may not survive and want to see whether the ministers worked for the betterment of the village or not. The old man comes to the rescue and gives a medicine which will help the heal the wounds. Next day, though he is eager to come to the war but his body does not support. Many of his soldiers get killed that day...

Flashback:
A young man named "Si" used to live in a village. From childhood, he was very active in many of the extra curricular activities like horse riding, martial arts etc. He was very much fond of elephant. He keeps his pet elephant's name as Gaja. With time, Gaja and Si become very close friends and so people start calling Si as Gajasi. In the nearby village, a girl names Shri used to live. One day while riding the elephant Gajasi meets Shri and both fall in love. Now Gajasi has one more partner Shri along with Gaja. Their love story continues for some years.
One day while roaming in the forest, Shri wants to pluck mangoes. Shri tells Gajasi, while he is sitting on the Gaja(elephant) she will sit on his shoulders with legs on both sides so that she can easily pluck the mangoes. But when she sits on Gajasi's shoulders, she gets afraid due to something and falls down and breaks her leg. Gajasi is really horrified and rushes her to the village and gets medical treatment. When people ask what happened, he just tells that she fell down from the mango tree.

As the king of Masaka of that time didnt have any descendant, he makes test among all the youngsters of the Kingdom to be the King. As Gajasi is very good in martial arts and  good in elephant riding, he is chosen as the next king. He works well for the people and defends his kingdom against all invaders. Then he marries Shri and Shri becomes the queen of Masaka kingdom.


-------------------------------------------------INTERVAL-------------------------------------------------------


Coming to the current situation when the king Gajasi is injured and not able to go to the war zone...
The old man in the village comes near him and requests to tell something. King agrees.
Then the old man tells "You and Shri need to fight the war together against the invaders." King Gajasi gets surprised. The man tells "I was there when Shri fell down from your shoulder.  When you were sitting on the elephant and Shri on your shoulder, your face suddenly changed to lion face and you whole body looked like a lion, your roaring was terrible..."

After hearing this, King Gajasi takes a deep breath. He thinks for few hours and then calls Shri near him and explains the situation of the war. Only Gajasi, Shri and Gaja together can win the war. Shri agrees to it. Now the King Gajasi sits over the elephant, and then Shri sits over Gajasi's shoulders. Within few seconds the transformation starts. Gajasi's face and whole body looks like that of a lion and it looks like a lady riding a lion and the lion riding an elephant. The enter the war zone and fight against the invader and stand as winners.

In this way, all the next wars were fought with the same format. Due to constant attack of invaders, the King Gajasi and Queen Shri dont prefer to have a kid of their own. Throughout life they served the people and fought the wars in the same format. But time does not remain the same. King and Queen get old and in one of the wars, when Shri sits on the shoulder of Gajasi, the transformation doesnot happen. But both are brave and think of fighting like normal human as they used to do. They fight and loose their lives but somehow save the kingdom from invaders.

After their death, the people of the kingdom make a temple in their remembrance and the idol installed was like "a lady warrior siting on the shoulder of lion look-alike man and the man sitting over an elephant".

Thanks
Ashish Kumar Nayak
Ashish Sarangi

Wednesday 13 December 2017

RaaRaa-7 - The Legends of NisiaDei

[The last blog in the RaaRaa series was https://ashishkumarnayakodisha.blogspot.in/2017/07/raaraa-6-transition.html]

After the massive cyclone and subsequently tsunami like natural calamity, the coastal cities of Maput, Manuk, Mopulga were badly destroyed. The capital city of Gajapuri, was converted into a graveyard. The city of Maput was changed in two cities as cracks developed in between their main road and water flow in that which turned it into a small river. The temple of God Raaga and Garden temple built by Jatamanu, was almost damaged, except the Statue of God Raga. The Masaka, as a state, was destroyed. The persons on the other side of the state, also started to migrate to other state. The coastal cities were heavily destroyed along with the ports. The temple of God Raaga was full of water, from the sea. There were only 10 people survived in Maput and 20 people in Manuk. Those 20 people in Manuk came to know about the survivors in the temple of God Raga and they managed to come to Maput within 15 hours, after the cyclone calm down. They gathered inside the temple. They discussed about lots of things. First thing was shelter. At least, they had temple for the shelter. Then it was food. They collected small sea fishes from the sea water inside the temple and cooked them for their dinner. This process of livelihood continued for the next 5 days.

After 5 days, Sambhodini, a snake charmer, saw small boat, which was coming from the sea. She shouted and gathered all the persons. Boat was slowly and slowly, approaching towards them. When finally boat approached, a small girl of near about 5 years, emerged from that. She was dark in complexion. She hold a small doll, which was also black in color. All the persons looked each other and the girl surprisingly. Sambhodini, asked the girl lots of question. She replied politely but in different language. Sambodhini was not able to understand but as she was the eldest among all of survivors, she decided to include her in the community. She also gave her a new name, “NisiaDei……”.

Time went ahead. NisiaDei learn their language and adopted herself in their society. She is now 15 years old. In the last 10 years, their group grow from 31 to 51. NisiaDei was very hard working. Along with Sambhodini, she made her small home, where she live with her. Kutakanu, a former priest of temple, taught her some basic concepts of architecture, astronomy and tantra. Kutakanu was an ardent follower of Jatamanu. He learnt a lot of things from Jatamanu writings, which he listen from his father and mother. He gave NisiaDei some sea shells and told her to keep that with her always.

NisiaDei, made a small bag and put sea shells in that along with her doll. She made a small boat, and used to go to that Garden temple, by crossing that river. She spent almost 3-4 hours there everyday. She practiced tantrism there. One day, she came to Sambhodini and told her that she wanted to show some magic. What magic. Sambhodini, surprisingly, went with her. She stood on one leg, keeps her hands folded and stated to do some mysterious actions. Suddenly, the water started receding. When, water recede back to almost one kilometer, Sambhodini, came and hug her. “Oh my sweet small girl, from where you came, you are our savior”. These were the exact words what she muttered. All were happy. The news of water receding spread within few days to distant miles and people started to come to city of Maput. NisiaDei became a star. With the help of Kutakanu, she motivated other persons to help them in building the Garden Temple once again. With help of around 100 persons, astronomy and tantra, it took 5 more years to restore garden temple. But the temple was without deity. All the persons tried to convince Sambhodini and Kutakanu to shift God Raaga in the newly built temple. Both hesitated. After watching their hesitation, NisiaDei took them in another room and asked her about the real thing. Sambhodini replied that since from the beginning that temple was without a deity, they don’t want to shift God Raaga into that temple. When NisiaDei heard that she came outside and declared that since from the beginning the temple was without a presiding deity, it will remain empty and she objected to shift. All were agreed.

She was 20 years old now. Sambhodini once told her to built a temple for God Raaga, as the temple was destroyed. On the very next day, Nisia, as she was popularly known, started making drawings for that. In the evening, Sambhiodini, fell in the well, in front of her house and died. Nisia was heavily shocked. Now she was all alone. Only her doll was with her. The fist night, without Sambhodini, was very hard for her. She literally cried on that night, while keeping her doll with her. On the very next day, she left home, along with her doll and sea shells and went to Kutakanu. She told him about the last wish of Sambhodini. Kutakanu was surprised as this was not so easy. But as he saw the enthusiasm of Nisia, he accepted her to help her.

This news spread like a fire, that Nisia was going to make a temple for Raaga. The persons who migrated to other states from Masaka, started coming once again. Within few days, there were thousands of persons standing in front of her home. She was surprised. She suddenly called Kutakanu and asked him what to do. Kutakanu laughed and told her that you were our savior. Kutakanu, now a 90 years old, gathered all of them. Almost 80 tribal sects were back. Rest 20 were totally destroyed. He told all tribals to form their original groups. After group formation, he told them to choose a leader within themselves. After few hours, all 80 leaders came to him and asked him what to do next. He told them to ask their Queen. All were surprised as they were not at all aware of this fact that are having a Queen. When asked about the Queen, Kutakanu told them that NisiaDei was their Queen. All 80 leaders came outside and declared NisiaDei as their queen. NisiaDei, was mentaly not prepared for this. She hesitated. But, when Kutakanu convinced her, she agreed. Kutakanu told her first to restore the ports of Maput, Manuk and Mopulga. She agreed. It took near about 3 years to restore all the ports, as she decided to start the work of restoration, parallel.

Simultaneously, ships were also built, with tribal technology. It was a perfect time to restore the temple of God Raaga. One day, in the Garden temple, she decided to start restoration work of temple. All the 80 tribal leaders were called and given instructions to prepare the work. Carpenters, artisans, craftsmen of different groups assembled in the hall of Garden temple and took oath in the name of God Raaga, to complete the work within the stipulated time.

Work started under the supervision of NisiaDei. In the meantime, Kutakanu, died of some disease. Nisia got worried. She called some tribal leaders and asked them to prepare some medicines, so that nobody in the state would die with such kind of diseases. They started their work. One day, a book of near about 1000 leaves was in her front. In that book, all types of medicinal information was there. She told them to distribute them among the masses. They did as per the instructions. Now medicinal informations was available to all the citizens in the state of Masaka.

After two years, the temple of God Raaga was almost complete. The temple was built according to tantric rules. But in last few days, NisiaDei was not able to concentrate on the last chakra of tantrism. So she left the last chakra of tantra. But she never told this to anyone. The temple restoration work was complete but where to perform the tantra rituals was a question for her. She again went to garden temple on her small boat and prepared that last chakra once again. Suddenly she remembered the last chakra and performed that last ritual in the garden temple. Now the Garden temple was fully prepared as per the tantric rituals. She again came back.

On the opening day of newly built temple of God Raaga, she herself performed all the tantric rituals but skipped the last one. When tribal leaders asked her about the last one, she declared that those will be done in the Garden temple. Now the question arises, how to shift God Raaga in that temple, as the statues itself was too big. She ordered to make two grand chariots along with one massive boat. It was planned to take God Raaga on chariot from his temple up to the river, which she named as Mahika, then on the boat to the other side of river and then again on the chariot to the Garden Temple. All the things prepared within one month of time. Then on one auspicious day, as decided by the new chief priest, Manasmanu, son of Kutakanu, they bring the statue of God Raaga and kept him in the chariot. With the heavy sounds of bells and drums, the elephants started to pull the chariots. On the banks of river Mahika, the statue of God Raaga, kept in that boat and taken to the other side. Then once again, the massive statue kept on the chariot and procession finally reached the Garden Temple.

In the temple, God Raaga was seated on an asana, which was prepared by one big black granite stone. The asana was of lotus petal shaped. On the very next day, the last tantra ritual started by NisiaDei herself. It took near about 8 days to complete that ritual and on the 9th day, they all took rest. On the 10th day, the return journey started once again. After reaching the main temple, the priests asked her, whether, they had to perform this ritual every year in that temple, Nisia nodded. So from that time onwards, every year they did the same ritual in the Garden Temple. And this now converted into a celebration. She also taught all the tantric rituals to Manasmanu and ordered him to teach these things to others also.

Time passes. NisiaDei is now 110 years old. One day, she called her ministers and chief of all 80 tribes. She declared, Pubati, her chief minister, as the new king. All were surprised. Pubati was shocked. He never thought of such a great honor. On the very next day, NisiaDei died. Pubati decided to build a massive temple in her memory. But in that night, NisiaDei came in his dreams and told her not to do that. But he requested her if not massive , please allowed him to make a small temple for her. She nodded. So, he ordered to build a small temple in her memory. The temple of NisiaDei, was exactly in the middle of temple of Raaga and Garden Temple.

Everyday, Pubati alongwith Manasmanu, went to that temple and kept the doors closed for half an hour, and came back to the main temple. He build a small palace for him and for his tribal leaders. The procession of God Raaga continued to go to the Garden Temple and he, along with Manasmanu, performed the last tantric rituals every year. But one day all tribal leaders came to him and shared a news with him. That news shocked him badly. It was the same Bayavi kingdom once again…


The above story is purely a work of fiction. Any resemblance is a matter of coincidence..

Ashish Kumar Nayak
Ashish Sarangi