Devi Manasa, the daughter of Lord Shiva, is
worshipped as the goddess of the snakes throughout Eastern India and is
known as 'Bisahari' (one who can cure all the poisons in the world).
She lost one of her eyes during a quarrel and hand-to-hand fight with her stepmother, Devi Parvati (Consort of Lord Shiva). Manasa was married to a sage, Rishi Jagatkaru, and was the mother of eight great nagas. Due to her quarrelsome nature, Devi Parvati expelled her from the house and she had to stay in the dense forest of Jayanti Nagar along with Devi Neta (another daughter of Shiva who was born from the tears of the great Lord). As per Manasa's instruction, Viswakarma (architect of gods) built a beautiful palace inside the dense forest of Jayanti Nagar for her stay.
In spite of being a deity, Devi Manasa was quite unhappy as she didn't get much respect or status among other gods. Hence, she decided to make all aware of her glory and to be worshipped on earth just like Shiva and Parvati. Even she managed to establish her position to some extent among the lower castes (Hindu caste system was very much prevalent in the society at the time of this story) with the help of Shiva and Devi Neta (who was also known as rajak-kumari or dhopa-jhi as she had the duty to clean the cloths of all the gods). But to satisfy her ego, she wanted to be worshipped by people from the uppermost strata of the society. And this led to a conflict with Chand Saudagar.
Chand Saudagar was a very wealthy merchant of Champak Nagar. He was an ardent follower of Lord Shiva and was a man of strength and strong will. He was absolutely disrespectful and abusive towards Devi Manasa and used to call her Chang-muri Kani (A blind woman with a fish head).
He had a beautiful, devoted wife, Sanaka, and six
sons. He had a magical staff, because of which no snake ever dared to come near
him. But his wife, Sanaka, was a fearful lady. Sanaka started worshipping Devi
Manasa in their house in his absence. When Chand came to know about this, he
became extremely angry at his wife and not only stopped her from worshipping,
but also badly abused Devi Manasa.
Manasa did not take this insult lightly. She
stormed a beautiful garden of Chand with her serpents and ravaged the entire
place. Learning this, Chand attacked the snakes with his magical staff (hental)
and forced the snakes and Manasa to flee from there. Chand had a friend,
Shankur Garari, who was an Ojha (kind of witch-doctor with healing power). With
his help, Chand rejuvenated his garden once again.
Manasa became more and more angry towards Chand and decided to first kill his friend Shankur. But Manasa failed to kill him repeatedly as Shankur was resistant to poison because of his skills and the blessings of the gods. Being disheartened, Devi Manasa decided to develop friendship with Shankur's wife Kamala. Slowly she won the trust of Kamala and by deception, came to know about the weakness of her husband. Finally Manasa managed to kill him and then stormed the garden of Chand once again with her snakes. This time there was none to stop her.
Devi Manasa then decided to teach Chand a lesson as he was still refusing to worship her. She started to poison his sons one by one. She killed all of the six sons without much gain.
Devi Manasa then convinced Aniruddha and Usha (a god and a goddess) to take birth as a man and a woman on earth. As Sanaka was about to conceive again, Aniruddha was sent to be born as the seventh son of Chand, and Usha would take birth in another merchant family at Ujani Nagar to get married to her husband again in due course. In human form, they would convince Chand to amend his mistakes by worshipping Manasa.
By this time, Chand decided to go for another voyage with his fourteen ships. He decided to go towards the south for trade. He worshipped Shiva and Parvati before his journey and obtained their blessings and protection. Chand managed to make a good fortune this time. But as usual, Manasa decided to create trouble for him. While returning, Manasa managed to sink his thirteen ships except one (Madhukar), which was under the protection of Devi Parvati.
Finding no other option, Manasa went to see Shiva and convinced him to go to heaven with his wife and leave Chand on his own. Manasa managed to sink the last ship with the help of Mahavir Hanuman.
She wanted to keep Chand alive and sent a lotus for his rescue. But Chand refused to take help and even continued to abuse Manasa. At last, Chand managed to reach the shore somehow. But he had no food to eat and no clothes to wear. Chand had to beg for food and clothes. After overcoming lots of obstacles, he was finally able to return to Champak Nagar.
Sanaka had already given birth to a son, Lakhinder. Chand was extremely happy to see his son. Although he had lost much of his wealth and faced a lot of hardship, Chand was still disrespectful to Manasa. Rather, he became much more abusive than before and vowed to break the head of Manasa with his staff Hental.
As Lakhinder grew into a strong and handsome young man, Chand decided to find a girl for him. He came to know of a girl, Behula, who was quite suitable for his son. This Behula was none other than Usha and was born in a merchant family (Saha) in Ujani Nagar.
As the marriage was being fixed, the astrologer
informed Chand that Lakhinder would die from snakebite on the night of his
marriage. This was devastating news for all. But Chand was not like any other
man. He decided to continue with the marriage and started to make a house on
the top of a hill to prevent Devi Manasa and her snakes from doing harm.
He instructed the blacksmiths to make a special room with iron walls, an iron
floor, and an iron ceiling without any vents. Following the instruction, the
blacksmiths prepared the iron room with an iron door and without any other vent
or window. Chand planned to keep Lakhinder and Behula in that room on the night
of their marriage. It was impossible for anything to penetrate the room.
Hearing the news, Manasa went to see the head blacksmith herself and bullied
him. Out of fear, blacksmith Tarapati agreed to make a small hole in the
wall of the iron room.
On the night of the marriage, Chand locked
Lakhinder and Behula in the iron room. He and an army of ojhas (snake charmers
and healers) remained outside to guard the entrance. But at midnight, Devi Neta made everyone asleep. Then Devi Manasa sent Kal-nag
(an extremely venomous snake) to kill Lakhinder. The snake entered the iron
room through the hole and bit Lakhinder in his sleep. Behula woke up in the
morning only to find her husband lying dead on the bed, blue from poison. Chand
and all the others opened the door of the iron room and rushed inside, hearing the
screaming of Behula. Everyone was shocked and surprised at the same time.
Chand fell down on the floor and started to weep, seeing his dead son.
As per the custom, the dead body of Lakhinder was to be placed on a raft, made up of banana trees, and cast away into the river. Behula told Chand that she wished to go with Lakhinder on the same raft. She would go to heaven and talk to the gods to bring back her husband from the land of dead. Everyone tried to stop her, including Chand and Sanaka, but she was determined.
Before commencing her journey, she sent a white crow to her parents as a messenger to inform them about everything and ask for their blessings.
Behula started her journey with the corpse of
Lakhinder in the river Gangur. The raft continued to sail for days and weeks
and months. The body of Lakhinder slowly began to decompose. After travelling
for a few days, the raft stopped at a place on the river bank, known as Godar
ghat. It was owned by a person, named Goda. When Goda saw Behula, he told her
to dispose the corpse and marry him. As Behula rejected his proposal with
hatred, Goda tried to force her. But as soon as he came closer, Behula cursed
him and by the grace of gods, Goda could not move his body anymore. Leaving
paralysed Goda there, Behula continued her journey down the stream.
After some days, she saw two brothers on the river
bank, Dhona and Mona. They were bad in nature, and when they saw a beautiful woman
was sailing on a raft with a rotten corpse, they jumped on the
rive to abduct her. But on hearing Behula's prayer, the gods drowned them
in the middle of the river.
After a few days, Behula noticed a person on the river
bank who was about to commit suicide. Behula stopped him. He told her that his
name was Teton and he had a bad habit of gambling. He had lost all of his
properties and even his wife. He decided to end his life in repentance.
Hearing his words, Behula gave him some of his ornaments and then commenced her
journey once again with his blessings.
In this way, she encountered many people and got
their blessings. On this long journey, nothing was left of Lakhinder but a few
bones. At last, she reached Dhopa jhi er ghat (the place where Devi Neta used
to wash the clothes of the gods). She requested the goddess to help her, and
she helped the goddess in washing the clothes. Devi Neta was very
pleased to see her commitment towards her husband and agreed to help her.
Devi Neta asked Behula to follow her, and they
reached the adobe of Lord Shiva. Neta told Behula that Manasa would never help
her. It was better to ask for help from Shiva. Behula was a good dancer. So, Neta
asked Behula to dance for Lord Shiva to please him. As per the instruction,
Behula danced in front of Shiva-Parvati and managed to get their love and
sympathy. Lord Shiva sent his son Kartik to bring Manasa to him.
When Manasa came with Kartik, Shiva asked her to pardon
Chand Saudagar and bless Behula. But Manasa said that she would give back
everything to Behula on one condition. She would convince Chand to worship Devi
Manasa on return. Behula promised that upon her return, she would compel her
father-in-law to worship the snake goddess. Being please with her words, Manasa not
only gave back life to Lakhinder but also to all the other six sons of Chand.
She also gave back the fourteen ships and wealth of Chand, and the life of Shankur
Ojha. Behula and Lakhinder returned back to Jayanti Nagar as ardent devotees of
Devi Manasa.
Behula, Lakhinder, Sanaka, and other six sons and
six daughter-in-laws of Chand made him understand his mistakes for going
against the wish of the snake goddess. At last, Chand agreed to worship Manasa, but again with a condition. He said that as he was a worshipper of Shiva and
used to give flowers to his Lord with his right hand, he would worship Manasa
with his left hand. Devi Manasa even agreed to this condition happily and
accepted his offer. Soon, everyone started to worship Devi Manasa. It made the
snake goddess content, and she blessed her followers with wealth and protection
from snakes.
Origin: Medieval literature (Bangla/Bengali)
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