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Sunday parable by Sunanda Mahendra

"Did you see that charming young woman?" asked the King from his Chief Minister who had accompanied him round the village, that day.

"Yes I saw you gazing at a woman with more attention than you usually do," said the minister.

"I am sorry, I am enraptured by her beauty and I want to possess her."

"I must make some enquiries about it and let you know instantly, Great Majesty," said the minister, who attends to the needs of the King, and went forth to make enquiries about her. He found that she was a poor woman who was newly married and who loves her husband, a wood cutter. Her name was Madevi.

Sleepless nights

The King had sleepless nights thinking of Madevi. He began to dislike the other queens in the harem and wanted to posses Madevi. Once again the King summoned the Chief Minister and asked him as to how he could possess her.

"If I don't get her into my chamber I will die a sick person," said the King in a desolate voice.

"It is not so easy as we think Great Majesty, she is the loving wife of a poor woodcutter who drives a cart to the town, once a week

"Can't we trap him as a criminal and sentence him to death, and get her to the royal chamber," asked the king. The minister was petrified at the royal statement. What a King, he thought. If this is the mental state of the King what can we expect of the statesmen and the normal citizens. Though the words sprang in his mind he could not let them escape for fear of punishment.

"What are you thinking of?" asked the King. "Can't you think of a plan to execute him?" The minister still remained dumbfounded and had no plans at all of killing an innocent man. But the King had a cruel plan for killing the woodcutter.

"Did you not say that he is a woodcutter who drives a cart?" asked the King.

"Yes Great Majesty."

"So I have got a plan of action."

"May I know what this is?

"I will hand over my Chief Queen consort's gold bangle. It is a matter of hiding it in his cart. Then we can send the royal courtiers to announce the fact that the queen's gold bangle is lost and the robber is considered as a criminal and will be executed. That will solve my problem of possessing her."

The minister was bewildered and had nothing to say but to agree and comply with the royal order. The King added, "once that is done you had better ask her to see me in the palace because I have to console her and make her one of my queens consorts."

A perplexed minister left the palace with a sinking heart and decided not to visit the palace thereafter. Some said that the Chief Minister had left for a distant place to lead a better life. Some others said that he had committed suicide after an argument with the King.

Anyway the order was carried out by another royal minister with the help of some confidential assistants. A royal proclamation was announced all over the Kingdom.

Finding the robber

"The gold bangle of the chief queen is lost and any one who had robbed it will be considered a criminal who will be executed. The finder of the gold bangle will be rewarded."

The poor woodcutter was on his way to the town when a gang of royal men came to him and manhandled him saying, "you are a criminal, we have found the gold bangle of the chief queen in your cart. Come, let's go and see the King." The poor carter was transfixed at this moment as he did not know what he should do. He just murmured "I know next to nothing about any gold bangle and I don't carry anything of the sort in my cart. I am a poor woodcutter, please leave me alone."

Madevi, his wife came to know about the tragedy. she was quite certain that her husband will never succumb to such a thing and she wanted to meet the King and say what she felt deep down in her heart.

The sentence

While the man was sentenced to be executed the wife pleaded again and again and said that the King is a cruel man without a heart and that she is cursing him.

The fires of passion that arose within his heart resisted him from listening to what Madevi said and made him order the executioners to carry out their duty, whereby he was killed. But Madevi who was stern and pure went on cursing the King and his men for the ill-treatment and injustice done to her innocent husband by the King. As a pious inheritance from her family lineage she knew certain methods of Satyakriya [an act of truth].

So she knelt beside her husband's dead body and went on performing the act of truth with a sad tone murmuring "Oh gods of the earth and sky and the mountain ranges and rivers, jungles and all holy places, do listen to my word of honour let my husband recover from this grave injustice and bring him back to life for we were living in the best of peace and harmony with our love unsurpassed."

After the execution

The King came to know of this act of truth and found that it is difficult to fulfil his desire. For weeks from the day of the execution there appeared no rainy clouds. The farmers had to face a drought. The milk giving cows found no fodder grounds to graze, as a result of which there was a severe shortage of milk. There was thunder and lightening in the sky during broad daylight. The children and women fell ill. This was an unusual period of agony which had never happened before. The King was fear-struck and consulted all his wise men.

"There is some grave injustice done to some pious person in the Kingdom and the gods around are angry over that matter," declared the wisest of the body, who knew next to nothing about the secret plan of the King. "If my husband does not come back to life I will kill myself and curse the whole Kingdom and the King" said Madevi.

At this utterance the sky became gloomy "There is going to be an impending disaster," said the wise man.

Vengeance or curse

The King became miserable and wanted to confess what he had done to all the King's men, but his utterances were disjointed and full of cluttering and shivering. "Oh gods come and kill me and bring this man back to life, it is my fault, it is my fault, this man is not a criminal, he is innocent," said the King running about in a mad frenzy.

Gradually the men and the women the young ones and the elders, throughout the Kingdom came to know of the cruel act on the part of the King.

The King was mentally deranged and died a sorrowful death while the god of gods, Sakra descended to the earth disguised as an old man with a chalice of holy water.

The god Sakra sprinkled the holy water on the body of the poor woodcutter and brought him back to life. Madevi stood up and thanked the gods and ended her act of truth which is believed to be the most powerful ritual ever performed by a person to prove the power of chastity.

The woman named Madevi, was also known by the name Pattini or Pattini amma.

In the Indian counterpart she is known by the name Kannagi. Thus the power of the act of truth of Madevi or Pattini is remembered when a disaster befalls a village.

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