Story: Hanuman and Pirakuan

This story is a continuation of Maiyarap: in that story, Ravana's ally Maiyarap kidnapped Rama, and Hanuman has now come to rescue him. Hanuman's son, Macchanu, told him to seek help from Maiyarap's sister-in-law, Pirakuan:

Hanuman raced towards the banyan tree, looking for Pirakuan. He concealed himself high in the branches as he saw her approaching. Macchanu said he could trust her, but she was Maiyarap's sister-in-law after all. "That must be her," Hanuman thought to himself, seeing her green eyes brimming over with tears.

"It is karma," she muttered, filling her water-bucket. "I condemned my mother's sons in the river's water, and now I draw water in which Maiyarap will boil my own son, together with that god-like stranger."

At these words, Hanuman jumped down, landing beside the well and bowing his head. "Macchanu sent me, Lady Pirakuan. I am here to rescue the stranger, and I will rescue your son also. Will you help me?" When she did not reply, he lifted his eyes to look directly at her. "My lady, will you help me?"

Pirakuan stared back at him, her mouth open in speechless surprise.

"My lady," Hanuman repeated for the third time, "will you help me?"

"Of course I will help you," she said, shaking her head in wonder. "Forgive my confusion; I will explain later. But now, we must hurry: Maiyarap is holding my son and your friend in a cage inside the palace garden. He put them into a deep sleep while I bring buckets of water to fill the pot. The fire is blazing hot, and the pot is almost full; you have arrived just in time."

"Excellent!" Hanuman exclaimed. "I shall kill him myself, and we can all make our escape together!"

"It is not so easy as that," said Pirakuan. "Maiyarap has concealed his life-force far from here. Before he died, my husband, Maiyarap's brother, told me about it; he feared that someday Maiyarap might try to kill our son. See that hill in the far distance? On top of that hill, there is a tree, and in that tree, there is a birdcage, and in that birdcage there is a parrot who has swallowed Maiyarap's life-force to keep it safe. As long as that parrot is alive, Maiyarap is invincible. We'll never be able to get the parrot in time."

Hanuman laughed. "Have no fear, my lady!" Then he grew to an enormous size, stretching miles high into the sky. The gigantic monkey reached his arm towards the hill, and just as quickly as he had grown in size, he shrank back down to earth, but now he held the birdcage in his hand. As Pirakuan stared in amazement, he opened the birdcage and grabbed the parrot.

"You take this," he said, "and now, let's find Maiyarap." He then turned into a frog and leaped with a splash into the water-bucket.

Pirakuan stuffed the parrot inside her inner shirt, grabbed the bucket, and hurried as fast as she could to where Maiyarap awaited her in the garden; the guards noticed nothing out of the ordinary as they let her through the palace gate.

"Wretched woman!" shouted Maiyarap. "What took you so long? It's time to boil that worthless son of yours along with this puny human. At last, we can begin!"

"Brother-in-law, I…"

But before she could speak another word, Hanuman leaped out of the water-bucket, once again in his monkey form.

"A monkey!" Maiyarap exclaimed. "Ravana told me the human had an army of monkeys, but I thought he was joking."

"Laugh all you like, Maiyarap," Hanuman replied. "But I am here to kill you. Or, more precisely: to kill your parrot!" He then turned to Pirakuan and commanded, "Show him the parrot."

Without taking her gaze from Maiyarap, Pirakuan reached into her garment and pulled out the parrot, clutching it tightly as she waved it slowly back and forth.

Maiyarap stared in horror. "Damn you, you traitorous whore!" he shouted. "Damn you and my lovestruck brother, damn…"

Interrupting him Hanuman shouted, "Throw it into the fire!"

Pirakuan hurled the parrot into the flames, and as the bird burned, Maiyarap's skin crackled and blackened, flames flickering forth from his mouth as he tried to speak.

And then, Maiyarap was dead.

"Hurry!" Pirakuan shouted. "We have to get my son and your friend out of the cage and wake them somehow. Can you do that, good monkey?"

"Why of course!" said Hanuman happily. He pulled the iron cage open and grabbed Rama and Wayawik, both fast asleep. "I will carry these two while you ride on my back."

So Pirakuan jumped on Hanuman's back and he flew up out of the garden, back to the pond at the entrance to the underworld. Macchanu ran to assist Pirakuan as she climbed down, while Hanuman laid the sleeping Rama and Wayawik on the ground, softly chanting a mantra to awaken them.

"Hanuman!" said Rama sleepily. "Is it already morning?"

Hanuman laughed. "It is, my lord! And with the help of this good lady, I have killed Maiyarap, and this is his nephew, her son, beside you. And this —" Hanuman grabbed Macchanu and pushed him towards Rama. "This is my son, Macchanu."

"And I, Lord Hanuman, am your mother, Swaha," said Pirakuan softly.

Hanuman whirled around to face her, dumbfounded.

"I told you I would explain later," she said smiling at him, "and this is my story. After leaving you with Shiva on Mount Kailash, I descended into the world again, choosing a new name for my new life. I fell in love with Aiyarap, Maiyarap's brother. When he died, I found myself with my young son trapped here in Maiyarap's world. I never dreamed you would be the one to save us."

Amazed, Hanuman embraced her. No longer alone, he now had a son, and a mother, and a new-found brother too.

Rama appointed Macchanu and Waiyawik as co-kings of Maiyarap's kingdom, and then he returned with Hanuman to the camp. They had a war to fight against Ravana after all.

"I will come back, Mother," said Hanuman to his mother in parting.

"I know you will, my son," she said. "I know."

Author's Note. I have to say right away that the idea that Pirakuran is Hanuman's mother is totally my idea! I had written about Hanuman's birth in an earlier story, and I had wondered all semester long if I could bring back Swaha somehow, and then I had this sudden flash of inspiration, realizing that she could be Pirakuan. The reference to Pirakuan condemning her brothers in the water is a reference to that earlier story. In the traditional version, Pirakuan is Maiyarap's sister, not his sister-in-law, so that was the only little change I had to make. I made up the name Aiyarap based on the Indian tradition that makes Mahiravana the twin brother of Ahiravana.

Another change I made was the parrot: in the original, Maiyarap has concealed his life-force in a bumblebee which Hanuman is able to grab much like I described in my story; I wanted to use a parrot because I thought it would be more fun to have Pirakuan hold it her hand to taunt Maiyarap. I was inspired to choose a parrot because of the Indian folktale Punchkin, where the parrot is the evil magician's life-force animal. The set-up is more elaborate in that story:

Far, far away, hundreds of thousands of miles from this, there lies a desolate country covered with thick jungle. In the midst of the jungle grows a circle of palm trees, and in the centre of the circle stand six chattees full of water, piled one above another: below the sixth chattee is a small cage which contains a little green parrot; on the life of the parrot depends my life; and if the parrot is killed I must die. It is, however, impossible that the parrot should sustain any injury, both on account of the inaccessibility of the country, and because, by my appointment, many thousand genii surround the palm-trees, and kill all who approach the place.

In the Thai version of the Ramayana, Ravana also has his life-force secretly concealed, and just as Hanuman was able to obtain the life-force to kill Maiyarap, it was also Hanuman who obtained Ravana's life-force, enabling Rama to kill him in the end.

Bibliography: My main source for this story is The Ramakien: A prose translation of the Thai Ramayana by Ray Olsson (published in Bangkok in 1968). Online at Chulalongkorn University Library.

Image Information:
banyan tree
Hanuman and Butsamalee (I could not find one of Hanuman and Pirakuan)
parrot
Maiyarap (this is actually an image of him preparing the magic powder)
Hanuman
Hanuman carries sleeping Rama
Hanuman mural

Although I did not include this part of the story, here is an image showing Pirakuan being weighed on the scales; Hanuman has concealed himself as a lotus thread woven into her garment (I had him sneak in as a frog in the bucket):

Week 11 Story: Hanuman and Macchanu

Maiyarap Goes to War

The war against Rama was going badly for Ravana, so he sent word to his cousin Maiyarap, King of the Underworld. "Kidnap Rama," said the message, "so that I can defeat his monkey army in battle."

Maiyarap

Maiyarap was eager to join in the war, but his sister Pirakuan rushed into the throne room, begging him to reconsider. "Do not go, my brother! This Rama is the god Narayan in human form, and you should not fight him."

Maiyarap was enraged. "You'll learn what it means to defy me!" Then he shouted to his guards, "Have that no-good nephew of mine Waijawik arrested."

Pirakuan burst into tears. "No, my brother, not Waijawik! Arrest me instead! My son has nothing to do with this."

Yes, thought Maiyarap, he had been right: the best way to punish his sister was to punish her son. He would kill Waijawik together with Rama, two birds with one stone. "Now get out, all of you!" he commanded. "I have work to do."

For the rest of that day and all through the night, Maiyarap engaged in magic rituals to prepare a sleeping powder he could use to subdue Rama's allies.

Rama and his Allies

Seeing this, the gods sent Rama a prophetic dream, warning him of Maiyarap's plot.

The next morning, Rama told the dream to the wise Vibhishana, who realized its meaning. "A dangerous enemy will attack tonight, and we must all keep watch. No one is to sleep, nor even to close their eyes, until tomorrow dawns."

Hanuman then enlarged himself to an enormous size, wrapping his tail around the army camp like a giant wall, while Rama and Lakshmana hid inside his mouth. Night fell, but no one slept; they all kept watch as Vibhishana had ordered.

(Hanuman)

Yet there was nothing they could do to overcome Maiyarap's magical powder: the demon flew back and forth over the camp that night, casting the powder upon them. Soon they were all asleep, even Hanuman, whose mouth gaped open as he snored loudly. Maiyarap crept inside, grabbed Rama, and fled back to his underworld kingdom. There he locked Rama in a cage, together with his nephew Waijawik, vowing to kill them both the next day.

Hanuman to the Rescue

Rama's allies despaired when they awoke the next morning and saw that Rama was gone. Vibhishana warned Lakshmana that this might signal a new assault by Ravana, so Lakshmana sent Hanuman alone to rescue Rama, while he stayed behind to lead their forces for battle. Vibhishana then told Hanuman to look for the nine-petaled lotus that Rama had seen in his dream. "That lotus will lead you to Maiyarap," he promised. And with that, Hanuman flew off on his quest.

(lotus)

He soared through the sky until he saw it: a nine-petaled lotus floating in a pond. He descended, grabbed hold of the lotus, and pulled. Yet there was nothing to pull against; the lotus had no stem. "What mystery is this?" Hanuman wondered as he plunged into the pond. He found the stem half-buried in the mud, and then he shrank himself smaller and smaller until he could slither down inside.

Maiyarap's Kingdom

This was indeed the way into Maiyarap's underworld kingdom, and Hanuman was soon crawling not down, but up, emerging from the stem into the waters of another pond, a pond in the underworld. He leaped to the shore and found himself facing an armed warrior.

A monkey warrior.

A  monkey … with the tail of a fish.

Macchanu

As Hanuman stared in amazement, the strange warrior shouted, "Halt! The guardian of Maiyarap's pond commands you to yield." And with those words, he brandished a club tipped with a lotus flower.

"Surely you jest, little monkey," shouted Hanuman as he summoned his backbone trident. "I yield to no one!"

The Two Monkey-Warriors

And then they fought. The warrior matched Hanuman move for move on the land, and then they tumbled into the water, grappling with one another in the depths of the pond.

Hanuman and Macchanu

Hanuman leaped out of the water and shouted to his opponent, "Tell me who you are, warrior! And why is a valiant monkey like yourself in the service of a demon like Maiyarap?"

The monkey with the fish's tail rose up in the pond and replied, "I am Macchanu, son of Suvannamaccha, queen of the mermaids. My father is Hanuman, and Maiyarap is my foster-father. Who are you?"

Hanuman's heart filled with pride. "But I am Hanuman," he shouted. "And you are my son!"

Macchanu snorted. "That cannot be! My mother told me that Hanuman was a cosmic creature, a monkey-god able to breathe forth moons and stars."

And then Hanuman opened his mouth in a wide smile, breathing forth moons and stars which rose up into the strange sky of the underworld, adding their brightness to its subterranean twilight.

Father and Son

Macchanu stared, dumbfounded, and then looked back at Hanuman, bowing his head. "Father, I am yours to command."

"Just tell me where I can find Maiyarap's prisoner, Lord Rama," said Hanuman.

"Look for the well beside the banyan tree," Macchanu replied, "and wait for a woman to come draw water there; her eyes are green. That is Pirakuan, Maiyarap's sister, and she will help you get inside the stronghold. It is in fact Pirakuran whom I serve; she is a noble lady with a harsh husband. Tell her that I have sent you."

"Thank you, my son," replied Hanuman. "There is more to say, but now is not the time. I will be back, I promise."

"I will await you, my father," answered Macchanu. "But now go! You will find the well that way," and he pointed. Hanuman nodded in thanks and raced away, headed towards the banyan tree in the distance.

"My son," he thought to himself as he ran. "My son…"

[to be continued]

Author's Note. I thought I would be able to finish this story here, but it has turned into a two-parter. In the next part you will learn how Hanuman defeats Maiyarap and rescues Rama. I'm not sure what else I will include next time, but a reunion with Suvannamaccha might be possible! I wrote about her in this story: Hanuman and the Mermaid. As for Hanuman's backbone trident and breathing out stars, you can find out about that there: The Birth of Hanuman.

I did a lot of research into the story of Mahiravana/Maiyarap to get ready to write this, and you can find all those details here: Research for Maiyarap. I made some changes here, especially in shifting the quarrel from Maiyarap's mother to his sister Pirakuan since she is part of the story later. I've used the familiar Sanskrit names from the Ramayana, but the Thai names for the characters of the underworld: Maiyarap, Pirakuan, and his son Waijawik. Pirakuan's green eyes were something I threw in just for fun; I might change that to some other recognition token when I write the second part. Maybe Macchanu needs to give Hanuman a ring, like Rama gave Hanuman a ring as a token for Sita. I also made up the nine-petaled lotus being a sign from the dream, but traveling through the lotus stem was part of the traditional story.

The quarrel in the original has a great moment where Maiyarap smashes his lion-drawn chariot and kills his lions because he is so angry! There are also some wild details in the original about how the gods try to disrupt his magic ceremonies in addition to sending the premonitory dream to Rama, and there is a great way that Maiyarap tricks Rama's monkeys into thinking it is already dawn, but I couldn't find a way to squeeze that in. Maiyarap also has a dream about Waijawik usurping him; I might try to find a way to work that prophecy into it since his hatred of Waijawik has become part of the story too. I'll figure that out when I add the finale next time.

Bibliography. My main source for this story is The Ramakien: A prose translation of the Thai Ramayana by Ray Olsson (published in Bangkok in 1968). Online at Chulalongkorn University Library.

Week 9 Story: Hanuman Humbles Arjuna's Pride

The story begins with Arjuna's mission...

Arjuna was on a mission: not weapons this time, but flowers — a particular type of lotus whose sapphire-colored petals were streaked with gold.

These lotuses grew only in Lanka, and Krishna had asked Arjuna to fetch the blossoms for his queen, Satyabhama. Arjuna could refuse Krishna nothing, so he traveled from Dwaraka in the north down to the southern tip of India where he would cross over to Lanka just as Rama had done all those many years ago.

When Arjuna reached the shore, he saw the ruins of the bridge that Rama's allies, the monkeys and bears, had built out of stones. Kicking one of the stones, he scoffed, "Such a lot of trouble hauling all those stones. If Rama was such a great archer as they claim, he should have just built a bridge of arrows."

"Excuse me," said a voice from behind him, "but what did I hear you say?"

Arjuna turned around to find a small monkey sitting in the sand.

Arjuna smiled and repeated, "If Rama had been such a great archer as they claim, he should have just built a bridge out of arrows. I am the great warrior Arjuna, and with my bow, Gandiva, I am going to build a bridge of arrows so that I may cross over into Lanka to gather sapphire lotuses there."

"Good sir," replied the monkey, "I am one of Rama's soldiers who helped to build this very bridge. And though I am just a monkey, and an old monkey at that, I wager that a bridge of arrows would not hold even my weight, much less the weight of Rama's army."

Arjuna accepts the monkey's challenge

Arjuna laughed loudly at the monkey's words. "Little monkey, I think you have underestimated me. I am willing to bet my life on it. If my bridge does not bear your weight, I shall walk into the fire. Will that satisfy you?"

The monkey clapped his hands in delight. "Oh yes, sir, please, begin!"

"So be it!" shouted Arjuna, and with that he drew forth arrow after arrow from his inexhaustible quiver, shooting the arrows one after another while chanting mantras of great power until a bridge lay before them, stretching all the way to Lanka. Then, without a word, he gestured for the monkey to test the bridge's strength.

The monkey gently pressed the tip of his tail onto the bridge, whereupon the entire structure shuddered and collapsed, the arrows splintering and sinking out of sight into the water.

"Oh dear," said the monkey. "Perhaps you should try again."

Arjuna, baffled, repeated the exercise, with a double layer of arrows this time and twice as many pylons. Yet when the monkey gingerly pressed a toe upon the new bridge, it collapsed once again.

Now obliged to make good his wager, Arjuna silently began to gather wood, building a great fire in which to immolate himself. "It is better to end my life," he thought, "than to bear such a disgrace as this."

A witness for the wager

But just as Arjuna prepared to light the fire, a shout rang out. "WAIT!"

The voice was that of a brahmin who was now standing there beside him on the beach. "Where did he come from?" Arjuna wondered in amazement.

"I surmise," said the brahmin, "that you have lost a wager to this monkey, and you are preparing to end your life. But who was the witness to this wager? Such a wager must have a witness."

Both Arjuna and the monkey stared dumbly at the brahmin, who then continued, "And since you did not have a witness, allow me. I shall be your witness. Build the bridge again, Arjuna!"

"But how does he. . ."

The brahmin interrupted Arjuna's unspoken thoughts. "I said: build the bridge again, Arjuna."

The third bridge

Obediently, Arjuna drew forth more arrows from his quiver and chanted his mantras until, again, a bridge stretched before them to Lanka. The monkey then hopped up on the bridge and, to his amazement, the bridge stood firm. Puzzled, he hopped up and down. The bridge still stood firm.

In desperation, the monkey then expanded in size, growing taller and taller until he loomed over Arjuna and the brahmin.

"Lord Hanuman!" Arjuna gasped.

And then the great monkey-god leaped into the air and came crashing down on the bridge with all his might, yet still the bridge stood firm.

Baffled, Hanuman raced to the side of the bridge and looked over to inspect the pylons. As he peered into the water, he saw a thin trail of blood, and the trail led down to something below one of the pylons, but what could it be?

Then he saw it: a gigantic turtle crawled slowly out from under a pylon, and as the turtle crawled free, the bridge began to shudder and collapse.

Hanuman immediately leaped back to the shore, where he now saw a trickle of blood running down from the brahmin's nose. Realizing what was happening, Hanuman fell to his knees and shouted, "My Lord Krishna!" Arjuna likewise sank down next to Hanuman in the sand, kneeling in reverence before his lord.

The brahmin was gone, and Krishna now stood in his place, glowing radiantly and smiling at them both.

"My dear Hanuman," he said, "you have done right to humble Arjuna's pride, and in the future you will ride upon his battle-standard, aiding him in the cause of dharma."

"And you, my dear Arjuna," Krishna continued, "you will now let Hanuman bear you across the water to Lanka to gather those flowers. Queen Satyabhama and I will await you both in Dwaraka."

And as suddenly as he had appeared, Krishna vanished.

Arjuna then leaped up on Hanuman's shoulder, whereupon the monkey flew high into the air and soared across the ocean, seeking out the sapphire lotuses to bring back to Krishna and his queen.

And so Arjuna is known as Kapidhwaja, He-of-the-Monkey-Banner.

Arjuna in the chariot, with Krishna as his driver,

and Hanuman as his battle standard.

~ ~ ~

Author's Notes. This story is not from the traditional Mahabharata, but it is instead a well-known folktale that parallels the encounter between Bhima and Hanuman that is found in the Mahabharata. Arjuna, much like Bhima, underestimates the monkey that he meets on his travels. In the story of Bhima and Hanuman, the emphasis is on their family connection; they are both the sons of the wind-god Vayu, which makes them half-brothers. In this story, however, there is more of a meditation on the identify of Vishnu both as Rama, whom Hanuman worships, and as Krishna, who reveals himself to Arjuna in his cosmic form later during the Battle of Kurukshetra. Here Krishna does not manifest his cosmic form, but there is a hint of his Vishnu identity in the form of the turtle who holds up the bridge; Kurma, the Turtle, was one of Vishnu's first avatars, holding up Mount Mandara during the Churning of the Ocean.

Lotus image.
Monkey in sand.
Arjuna: video screenshot.
Hanuman statue at Ezhimala.
Radiant Krishna.
Arjuna's chariot.

This video tells this story:

Bibliography. I started with the version in Tales of Arjuna: The Exploits of an Exceptional Warrior along with additional details from Philip Lutgendorf's Hanuman's Tale: The Messages of a Divine Monkey and Shubha Vilas's The Chronicles of Hanuman.

Week 7 Story: Hanuman and the Mermaid

Hanuman hated to disappoint Rama, but the news was not good: despite the assurance of the sea-god Varuna that he would not thwart the building of a bridge to Lanka, they had made little progress.

Building the Bridge

Rama had given them seven days in which to complete the bridge, and Nala, their engineer, had calculated how many miles they would need to complete each day, but something had happened in the night: all the work of the day before had simply vanished, as if the bridge had washed away in the darkness. The bridgework had been solid and strong, held together by the power of the syllables RA and MA carved into each stone, but something had happened during the night. Hanuman conferred with Nala and they decided to work through the night; this would allow them to get back on schedule and perhaps discover what had happened the night before.

By the light of the moon and their torches, the monkeys worked as quickly during the night as they had during the day, hauling the rocks out onto the bridge and fitting them into place, chanting RA-MA RA-MA as they worked. Hanuman  placed his most trusted lieutenants to stand guard, while he flew back and forth along the whole length of the bridge, scanning the sea for trouble.

After they had been hard at work for a few hours in the darkness, Hanuman detected movement in the water, pulsating ripples racing towards the bridge. Before he could shout a warning, the makaras attacked: some grabbed the monkeys and crushed them in their enormous jaws, while others lashed at the bridge itself, knocking the stones out of place and then pushing them down into the water with their snouts. Hanuman stared in horror as hundreds of the sea-crocodiles swarmed the bridge.

The Attack on the Bridge

The makaras then disappeared into the depths of the sea, and Hanuman dove down after them in pursuit. His father was Vayu, after all, the god of the wind, so the breath of the wind filled Hanuman's lungs even underwater. Swishing his enormous tail behind him and brandishing his trident, he raced through the sea in pursuit of the makaras, swimming farther and farther down into the darkness.

He then saw a glowing light ahead of them: an underwater palace! When the crocodiles reached the palace, they began swimming in circles, ignoring Hanuman completely. He raced inside through an open gateway, surprised that there was no guard to stop him.

He then swam from room to room, but found no one. And then he heard… the singing. He paused for a moment to ascertain its direction. Beautiful singing. He followed the song's sound until he found himself in an inner courtyard, and there he saw the mermaid. As soon as the mermaid noticed Hanuman, she stopped singing and stared at him with a look of shock on her face. "It's . . . you!" she stuttered.

Suvannamaccha and Hanuman

"I am Hanuman," he replied, confused by her words. He then added angrily, "Your crocodile beasts have attacked my army and destroyed my bridge."

The mermaid swam down to a seaweed-covered couch in the center of the courtyard and gestured for Hanuman to join her. "Please," she said, "come sit with me, and I will explain."

Once Hanuman had seated himself, she continued, "We were acting on King Ravana's orders." Hanuman bristled at the mention of Ravana's name.

"Aha," she continued, "well, yes, it was actually Queen Mandodari who conveyed his request. She has always been kind to me, so when she told me that there was an army coming from the north who were going to invade Lanka, threatening to take her and all of Ravana's wives into captivity, I offered my help. She asked that I destroy the bridge that you are building. I never meant any harm. Certainly not to you. Not ever. Apparently I have made a great mistake, Hanuman, and I am humbly sorry for it."

Suvannamaccha and Hanuman

Again, he was puzzled by the way she spoke to him as if she knew him; he was sure he had never met her before. "But who are you?" he asked. "And why do you speak to me this way, as if you know me?"

"But I do know you," she said. "You don't remember, of course. It was a long time ago, when you were following Surya the sun-god as your guru. I was a celestial singer then, an apsara. I saw how you reverently ran backwards across the sky, always facing Surya's chariot, never tiring, honoring your guru all day long. I vowed that you, and only you, would be my husband someday. I must have spoken my thoughts out loud because Surya heard me, and he cursed me to become the creature you see now: a mermaid who lives under the water, no longer breathing the air of the sky. They call me Suvarnamatsya, the Golden-Fish."

Hanuman had known nothing of this woman, and nothing of the curse that his guru had pronounced upon her. But he also sensed that the words she spoke were the truth. "And I too am humbly sorry to have been the cause of your trouble, Suvarnamatsya," Hanuman said. He then knelt before her and told her the story of Prince Rama and his wife Sita, how Ravana had kidnapped Sita against her will and taken her to Lanka, and how Rama had come with an army of monkeys to petition Ravana to return Sita to him. And that if Ravana refused, then there would be war.

"You did well to come here," said Suvarnamatsya, "and now I will help you to build your bridge. Come! I'll order my makaras to retrieve your stones. I only hope we will not be too late, for Sita's sake." And with that she raced back through the palace, Hanuman beside her, to where the makaras swam around the palace in circles, patiently awaiting their queen's command.

Suvannamaccha

[to be continued next time]

Author's Notes. This story is based on a famous episode from the Ramakien (the Thai version of the Ramayana) in which Ravana orders his daughter, the mermaid Suvannamaccha, to destroy the bridge that Rama is building. Instead, she falls in love with Hanuman (this is only one of Hanuman's many love affairs in the Ramakien). I really didn't want her to be Ravana's daughter, though, and I also decided that I wanted her to have a proper love affair with Hanuman, so I combined the traditional Suvannamaccha story from the Ramakien with a story about Hanuman that I read in Philip Lutgendorf's amazing book, Hanuman's Tale: The Messages of a Divine Monkey. The Suvannamaccha story is not found as such in India (although the name comes from Sanskrit, Suvarna Matsya, goldfish), but there are other stories about Hanuman's fish-family, including a story about an apsara who fell in love with him and was cursed by Surya to become a mermaid; that story actually comes from the 1997 TV show Jai Hanuman, and Lutgendorf provides a detailed summary in his book.


Bibliography

Hanuman's Tale: The Messages of a Divine Monkey, by Philip Lutgendorf, pp. 328-329.

The Ramakien: A prose translation of the Thai Ramayana by Ray Olsson (published in Bangkok in 1968). Online at Chulalongkorn University Library.

Suvannamaccha at Wikipedia.

Makara at Wikipedia.

Week 5 Story: Mandodari, The Frog-Queen

Ravana had gone to Mount Kailash to honor the god Shiva. For a thousand years, he had stood on one foot, unwavering, through winter snows and summer heat, hoping the god would grant him a boon.

"Ravana," said Shiva, "you have honored me. I will give you anything you want."

Ravana stiffly lowered his other foot to the ground and then looked at the god, smiling as he said, "Give me Parvati to be my wife."

Shiva was shocked, of course, but a promise was a promise. "Wait here," he said to Ravana. "I'll be right back."

And so Ravana waited.

~ ~ ~

"No!" Parvati shouted at her husband. "Absolutely not. I will not go with Ravana. Tell me again exactly what you said to him." 

After Shiva repeated the story, Parvati stood and thought for a moment. She then cast her eyes around the garden, the trees, the pond, and beside the pond she saw a frog basking in the sun on a stone. Parvati grabbed the frog and placed it on the ground next to Shiva. "Manduka, you are me!" she shouted ("manduka" means frog). 

And then the frog became a woman. A woman who looked just like Parvati. Except that she was naked.

"I'll have to go get her some clothes," Parvati said. "You wait here, and make sure she doesn't run off."

Shiva shouted with joy, "Oh yes, my darling: what a good idea! I will take this woman to Ravana instead. He'll never know the difference. She looks just like you! She's . . . . beautiful!"

The woman stared shyly down at the ground and said nothing.

~ ~ ~

When Parvati returned from the house with some clothes, she found the two of them rolling in the grass; Shiva's arms were wrapped around the woman in a passionate embrace. Parvati stared in shock, seeing herself, but not herself, making love with her husband. 

"STOP!" she screamed.

Shiva and the woman both sprang up from the grassy turf and stood before her. Shiva looked guiltily at Parvati, while the woman would not meet her eyes; instead, she stared down at the ground and mumbled, "My lady, he... he..."

Parvati reached out towards the woman and slapped her, hard, on the back of her head. "A frog you were, and a frog you will be once again." 

And so she was: instead of a woman, there was now a frog squatting on the grass next to Shiva.

Shiva protested. "It wasn't her fault, Parvati. It was my fault, really. She was just, well, she was just as beautiful as you. I couldn't help myself."

His words did nothing to calm Parvati's anger. She picked the frog up off the grass and hurled it with all her strength through the air.

"Little frog," shouted Shiva as the frog hurtled away into the distance, "I give you this boon: when you save one of my hermits, you will become a woman once again, the wife of a powerful warrior."

Disgusted, Parvati went back into the house, locking her bedroom door.

Ravana, meanwhile, was still waiting.

~ ~ ~

The frog traveled far through the air and then plummeted downwards, landing in a small ashram inhabited by one of Shiva's hermits. Deep in meditation, the hermit did not notice that a frog had fallen from the sky.

The hermit in question, Mandarudar, was very devoted to Shiva, but he was also a miser. When he got milk from his cow, he would not give so much as a drop to Mother Earth. The Earth had become angry about this and sent one of her snakes to squirt poison into the hermit's pot of milk.

The frog saw what the snake had done and hopped straight into the pot of milk, drinking up the poison. As the poison spread through her body, the frog flailed and flopped, overturning the pot.

This roused the hermit from his meditation, and when he saw the overturned pot and the frog flailing in the spilled milk, he shouted, "You greedy frog! The gods have punished you justly for trying to steal my milk."

Much to his surprise, the frog spoke to him, faintly. "Good hermit," said the frog, "it's not like that at all."

And then, to the hermit's even greater surprise, the frog turned into a beautiful woman. She rose up off the ground, naked, with milk still dripping from her long black hair.

The hermit shrieked, "Get out! GET OUT!"

His shouts attracted Ravana's attention.

~ ~ ~

Ravana had been waiting patiently at the foot of Mount Kailash, expecting Shiva to return with Parvati. 

But when he heard someone screaming, he was curious and went to investigate.

Then, when he saw the beautiful woman, milk dripping from her hair, he realized that Shiva had answered his prayer: this must be his Parvati, and she was just as beautiful as he had hoped.

He strode boldly into the hermit's ashram and reached out his hand to the woman. "Come with me," he said, "and be my wife."

Remembering Shiva's promise of a powerful warrior who would be her husband, the woman took his hand, and they walked out of the ashram together. 

"I am Ravana," he told her, "the King of Lanka."

"And I am Mandodari," she replied. She understood very little of the day's events, but she knew, somehow, that this was her name.

"Queen Mandodari," he said, "I will take you to Lanka, and I will make you the happiest woman on earth. I promise."

He got her some clothes, and they made their way from Kailash to Lanka; Ravana held her hand every step of the way. She had a bit of a strange hop to her step, but he did not mind. He knew he would love her, and that she would give him a son. 

Mandodari felt that she would love him too, and she also knew that she would give him a son. In fact, she sensed the seed of the god Shiva already stirring inside her. 

Ravana, however, knew nothing about that.

~ ~ ~

Author's Notes. I really had fun researching this story! Valmiki, in his Ramayana, says that the apsara Hema conceived Mandodari with Maya the asura; Hema then abandoned her family after giving birth, and Mayasura arranged Mandodari's marriage to Ravana.

But in the Ramakien, there is a story about how Mandodari was originally a frog who was then turned into a woman. That got my attention, so I decided to do some research, and it turns out there are similar legends in India about Mandodari having spent some time as a frog before she became a woman. I mixed-and-matched elements from different stories in order to come up with my story about the Frog-Queen.

As near as I can tell, there are basically three different Mandodari-as-frog stories that you can find, and in all of them Mandodari has a kind of "double" relationship to Shiva's consort Parvati. Here are the three types of stories that I found if you are curious:

Mandodari is Madhura the apsara. In one set of stories, there is an apsara named Madhura who has sex with Shiva. Parvati finds telltale ashes on Madhura's body. Furious, she curses Madhura to become a frog for twelve years, living at the bottom of a well. Shiva then grants Madhura a boon: after spending her time as a frog, she will then become a beautiful woman. So, the frog (manduka) becomes a woman (Mandodari), and starts shouting for help from down in the well. Maya the asura and his consort Hema the apsara hear her  and pull her out. She is the answer to their prayers; they had asked Shiva to give them a daughter. They marry her off to Ravana. In some versions, Shiva had impregnated Madhura but while she was a frog, the sperm was dormant; when she becomes a woman, the sperm takes shape and becomes Indrajit.
Sources:
Wikipedia, which cites for a source Vettam Mani's Puranic Encyclopaedia
Five Holy Virgins, Five Sacred Myths: A Quest for Meaning by Pradip Bhattacharya

Mandodari is created as a Parvati substitute. Ravana is going to abduct Parvati, so Vishnu makes a substitute living doll out of sandalwood paste to fool Ravana. Parvati is jealous of the doll's beauty, so she curses the doll to become a frog. Later, when Maya the asura and Hema the apsara beg Shiva for a daughter, Shiva turns the frog into a girl to give to them, and she becomes Ravana's wife.
Variation: Brahma turns a frog into a woman as a substitute for Parvati to give to Ravana.
Variation: Parvati turns a frog into a woman as a substitute for herself to give to Ravana.
Sources:
Five Holy Virgins, Five Sacred Myths: A Quest for Meaning by Pradip Bhattacharya
Dance Dialects of India by Ragini Devi
My Wife is a Frog by Devdutt Pattanaik. Here is some his wonderful drawing in that essay:

Mandodari is a good-hearted frog. Here are two versions of the story, one from the Thai Ramakien, and one from Indian sources:
Thai: There is a Nak (Naga) princess named Anong who takes human form to look for a human lover, but she changes back into her snake form to sleep with a common snake. Hermits who see this are disgusted by her sleeping with a common snake and mock her. Angry, she spits her poison into their milk, and a toad sees her do this; wanting to save the hermits, the toad drinks the venom and dies. At first, the hermits think the toad was just greedy, but they bring the toad back to life and she explains what happened. The grateful monks turn her into a beautiful woman whom they gave to Isuan (Shiva) who then gives her to his consort, Uma. Eventually she also becomes a Parvati substitute: Uma gives her to Totsakan (Ravana).
India: Two hermits, Mandar and Udar, will not share any of their cow's milk with the earth. The earth is angry and sends one of her sons, a naga, to poison the milk. A frog living in the ashram sees this and jumps into the milk, saving the sages. As it turns out, this frog was originally a woman who was cursed to become a frog. The monks think the frog was being greedy when she drank the milk, so they curse her; this curse reverses the earlier curse and she turns into a woman again.
Sources:
Ramakien (those are my notes)
Five Holy Virgins, Five Sacred Myths: A Quest for Meaning by Pradip Bhattacharya


Image credit. Public Domain Pictures: Frog.

Week 3 Story: The Birth of Hanuman

The following story is a blend of different legends from India and also from Thailand about the birth of Hanuman; see the author's note below to learn more about the different pieces of the story.

THE BIRTH OF HANUMAN

The sage Gautama left the ashram early one morning to perform his ritual ablutions, while Ahalya stayed at home, preparing the day's food, and their little daughter Swaha played outside. Ahalya heard Gautama return, earlier than she expected. He invited her to their bed, which was also not what she expected. In the midst of their lovemaking — their passionate lovemaking — she realized that this must be one of the gods come to earth. In the guise of her husband. After their lovemaking, he left.

And Gautama returned.

Ahalya said nothing to him of what had happened, and nine months later, she gave birth to a beautiful boy; his name was Vali. His eyes flashed like lightning, so Ahalya suspected he might be the son of Lord Indra, the storm god. But she did not know for sure.

Ahalya and Indra by Raja Ravi Varmi (source)

The same thing then happened all over again: a god came and visited Ahalya in disguise. She gave birth to another beautiful boy; his name was Sugriva. He glowed like the sun, so Ahalya thought he could be the son of Lord Surya, the sun god. Again, she said nothing to Gautama about this.

~ ~ ~

One day Gautama took Swaha, Vali, and Sugriva to bathe in the river. Gautama held little Vali with one hand while carrying Sugriva in the crook of his arm; Swaha had to walk by herself. When they reached the river, she said angrily, "You love those boys more than me, but they are not even your own sons!"

Gautama ordered her to explain, and Swaha told him about the strange things she had seen, men who looked like her father, but who were not her father, visiting her mother in the morning.

Gautama then shouted, "O Gods, I will cast these children into the water; let my own child come back to me, and let any child who is not mine turn into a monkey." With those words, he threw all three of the children into the river.

Swaha emerged immediately and took her father's hand. After a few moments, the two boys also emerged, but now they were monkeys, and they ran scampering away into the forest.

~ ~ ~

Gautama and Swaha then returned to the ashram. When Ahalya saw they were alone, she screamed, "Where is Vali? Where is Surgriva?"

Gautama shouted back at her, "You whore! You slut! I curse you now and forever: you will become stone. And when Lord Vishnu comes to fight the rakshasas, you will be one of the stones that he casts into the ocean as he builds a bridge to Lanka, and there you will remain until the end of time."

Before Gautama even stopped speaking, Ahalya felt the process begin: her feet were too heavy to move, and she sensed her whole body hardening.

Then she saw Swaha staring fixedly at her, and she realized what had happened. "You thoughtless girl," she moaned. "Because you have betrayed me, I curse you to stand on one foot atop Mount Kailash with your mouth open: your only food will be the wind that blows." She then heard the chatter of monkeys in the trees and looked up; she realized that those were her sons, so she added, "And may you give birth to a monkey child."

Those were the last words Ahalya ever spoke. The wind, summoned by her curse, blew through the ashram and snatched up Swaha, carrying her to the top of Mount Kailash. For years she stood there, feeding on the wind, in fulfillment of her mother's curse.

~ ~ ~

Eventually, Lord Shiva, who has his home on Mount Kailash, saw the beautiful Swaha and thought she might make a good mother for the strong and brave warrior that Lord Vishnu would need to lead his soldiers in the war on Lanka. So Lord Shiva summoned Lord Vayu, the wind-god, and told him to embrace Swaha there on the mountain top and conceive a child with her.

As the son of Vayu took shape inside Swaha, he had the body of a monkey in fulfillment of her mother's curse, while the gods bestowed their weapons upon the child as he grew: his backbone took shape from the bejeweled club of Lord Brahma, giving him strength; his head took shape from the whirling chakra of Lord Vishnu, giving him insight; and his limbs took shape from the radiant trident of Lord Shiva, making him beautiful. He could also summon this trident out of his body and wield it as a weapon when needed. And because he was the son of the wind-god, he had the power to fly and to expand or shrink in size, just like the wind, whenever he wanted.

Hanuman. Javanese shadow puppet (source)

This was Hanuman. When he was born, he was covered all over with beautiful white fur, and his teeth were sparkling diamonds. He was a cosmic being, and with each breath, he could exhale moons and stars and planets. Vayu was pleased with Hanuman, so he prepared to take the child to meet Lord Shiva and begin his warrior training.

First, however, Hanuman went to his mother. She cradled him in her arms, kissing him and hugging him. She told Hanuman that he was born to command the soldiers of Lord Vishnu in his fight against the rakshasas when Vishnu came in human form upon the earth.

"How will I recognize Lord Vishnu?" Hanuman asked her. "And how will he recognize me?"

Hanuman. Javanese wayang-puppet (source)

"He will be the only human who can see that your teeth are diamonds," Swaha explained. "And when he tells you that he can see your diamond teeth, then you will know that he is Lord Vishnu, and you will love him with all your heart."

Hanuman nodded, and gave his mother a final embrace. Swaha then began her long trek down from the top of the mountain, rejoining the world of women and men. Hanuman, meanwhile, ascended into heaven and frolicked in the gardens of the gods until it was his time to return once again to the earth.

Mount Kailash (source)

Author's Notes. You might be very surprised to see this mash-up of the story of Ahalya, Gautama, and Lord Indra, as told in Valmiki's Ramayana, with the birth of Sugriva and Vali. That is not my idea, though! It is an old Indian legend. I first encountered it when I read Anand Neelakantan's novel, Vanara: The Legend of Baali, Sugreeva and Tara (highly recommended!). The Ahalya connection is also one of the stories that Philip Lutgendorf collects in Hanuman's Tale: The Messages of a Divine Monkey.

So I was very excited when I saw this legend appear in the Thai Ramakien which I chose for my reading for class this week (since I've read both Narayan and the PDE Ramayana, I wanted to do something different). Because there is not a good summary of the Ramakien online in English, I am taking very detailed notes while I read; you can see my notes here for chapters 10-11-12, which is the main source I used for this story: 10. The childless Kodom conjures a wife, 11. Kodom's sons are changed to monkeys, and 12. The birth of Hanuman.

The Sanskrit name Gautama has become "Kodom" in the Thai version, and Kodom's wife is called Adjana (like Anjana, Hanuman's mother), playing the role of Ahalya. The name Swaha is from the Thai version.

The curse that Kodom puts on his wife is really intense! In Valmiki's Ramayana, Ahalya awaits Rama as her liberator, releasing her from Gautama's curse. Here are two illustrations of that famous scene:

Rama releases Ahalya from the stone

by Raja Ravi Varma (source)

Rama releases Ahalya from the stone

Kalighat painting (source)

In the Ramakien version, however, there is no release for Ahalya. If anything, things will get worse when Rama arrives: she will be thrown into the bottom of the ocean forever.

Since Hanuman is going to be present during the building of the bridge, I am already thinking that he might have some awareness that his grandmother is there, and I might even have him save her from the stone somehow. Anyway, I haven't gotten to that part of the Ramakien yet, but for sure the building of the bridge will be important because that is part of how Hanuman becomes involved with Suvannamaccha, "Golden-Fish," his mermaid lover in the Thai version of the story. More about that later!

Bibliography. I am reading The Ramakien: A prose translation of the Thai Ramayana by Ray Olsson (published in Bangkok in 1968). It is the most detailed translation I have found, but it is in prose, not in verse. It is also hard to find; after much searching, I finally found a used copy that was just $30. The going price seems to be around $50 or $60. I wish UNESCO or some other cultural foundation would support an English translation of the Ramakien that could be published online for free for everyone to read! It is really remarkable, and I am enjoying it even more than I expected.

Here's something fun: my used copy of Olsson's Ramakien was once in the hands of someone in Kashmir; it has a book stamp in it from what appears to be a bookseller in Srinagar. I wonder what path it took from Kashmir to rural North Carolina where I live!

Week 2 Story. King Trumpet and the End of the World

Once upon a time, there was a rabbit fast asleep under a mango tree. She was having a bad dream, as rabbits sometimes do, and this was an especially bad dream: the rabbit was dreaming about the end of the world! All the rivers were flooding their banks, earthquakes were shaking the ground, and the sky itself was falling down.

Meanwhile, some mischievous monkeys up high in the mango tree saw the sleeping rabbit down below and decided that it would be most amusing to drop a mango on her head. So they did.

THWUNK.

The rabbit woke up from her bad dream, screaming, "The sky is falling! It's the end of the world! I have to go tell King Trumpet the Elephant! He'll be able to save us." Then she started to run. Fast.

And because the rabbit was running fast without looking where she was going, she ran right into a squirrel.

"Watch out there, Rabbit!" said the squirrel. "Why are you in such a hurry?"

"It's the end of the world!" squealed the rabbit. "I have to go tell King Trumpet! He'll be able to save us."

"The end of the world? Oh my goodness! Oh my gracious!" squeaked the squirrel. "I'll go with you." So the rabbit and the squirrel took off running.

~ ~ ~

The next animal they met was a duck. "Hey there, Squirrel and Rabbit!" quacked the duck. "Why are you in such a hurry?"

"It's the end of the world!" the squirrel squeaked.

"We have to go tell King Trumpet! He'll be able to save us," the rabbit squealed.

"The end of the world? Oh my goodness! Oh my gracious!" quacked the duck. "I'll go with you." So the rabbit and the squirrel and the duck took off running.

~ ~ ~

The next animal they met was a lamb. "Hey there, Duck, Squirrel, and Rabbit!" bleated the lamb. "Why are you in such a hurry?"

"It's the end of the world!" the duck quacked.

"We have to go tell King Trumpet!" the squirrel squeaked.

"He'll be able to save us!" the rabbit squealed.

"The end of the world? Oh my goodness! Oh my gracious!" bleated the lamb. "I'll go with you." So the rabbit and the squirrel and the duck and the lamb took off running.

~ ~ ~

The next animal they met was a jackal. "Hey there, Lamb, Duck, Rabbit, and Squirrel!" barked the jackal. "Why are you in such a hurry?"

"It's the end of the world!" the lamb bleated. "We have to go tell King Trumpet! He'll be able to save us."

"And how do you know it's the end of the world, Little Lamb?" asked the jackal.

"The duck told me so," replied the lamb.

So the jackal asked the duck, "And how do you know it's the end of the world, Little Duck?"

"The squirrel told me so," replied the duck.

Then the jackal asked the squirrel, "And how do you know it's the end of the world, Little Squirrel?"

"The rabbit told me so," replied the squirrel.

And without waiting to be asked, the rabbit squealed, "I saw it in a dream! And then a piece of the sky fell on my head! It's the end of the world!" She paused to take a deep breath and then she started squealing again. "We have to go tell King Trumpet the Elephant! He'll be able to save us."

"Ahhhhh," said the jackal as he hatched a plan of his own. "Ahhhhh, yes. The end of the world. The sky falling down."

And then he smiled. "My dear little animals," he said, "our good King Trumpet has already heard the news. He himself sent me to find you and keep you safe from the end of the world!"

The little animals looked at the jackal hopefully.

"To be specific," explained the jackal, "King Trumpet orders you to come hide inside the walls of my house."

"Your house and its walls cannot protect us at the end of the world when the sky is falling down!" squealed the rabbit.

"Do not worry, Little Rabbit," said the jackal. "I live in a cave. It's very safe inside my house, even if the sky is falling down. Does that sound like a good plan?"

The rabbit and the squirrel and the duck and the lamb all looked at the jackal gratefully, nodding their little heads.

"Let's go then," said the jackal. And so the jackal took the lead, and the rabbit and the squirrel and the duck and the lamb all followed close behind, running together through the woods.

~ ~ ~

It wasn't very far to the jackal's cave, and when they got there, the jackal explained, "The entrance is very narrow, so you'll have to come in one at a time. I'll go in first!"

So the jackal went into the cave, and then he turned around to greet his guests.

The lamb was the first animal to go into the cave. And SNAP: the jackal bit off the lamb's head and threw her into the corner to eat that day for lunch.

Then the duck went into the cave. And SNAP: the jackal bit off the duck's head and threw him into the corner to eat that day for dinner.

Then the squirrel went into the cave. And SNAP: the jackal bit off the squirrel's head and threw him into the corner to eat that day for dessert.

Then last of all the rabbit went into the cave. And SNAP: the jackal bit off the rabbit's head and gobbled her up, nom nom nom.

And so it really was the end of the world for the foolish rabbit and her friends.

Moral of the story: Don't believe everything you hear! Get the facts. It could save your life!

~ ~ ~

Author's Notes. Yes, I wrote this story as a political allegory. I am not a fan of fear-mongering in general, and I am unhappy that one of the chief fear-mongers in our country at the present time is President Trump. In the original jataka tale, there is no King Trumpet the Elephant, but the story is very much about creatures who foolishly believe things without evidence and who then act foolishly as a result.

The ending of my story is also very different than in the jataka story. In the jataka version, the stampeding animals run into the lion (the Buddha in a past incarnation), and he enlightens the rabbit and the other animals so that they learn the truth: the sky is not falling, and it is not the end of the world.

For my story, I used the jataka story to get things started, but then I shifted to the English "Henny-Penny" version of this folktale where, instead of getting educated at the end, the animals get eaten. The "Henny-Penny" version also gave me the idea of the animals going to tell the king about the end of the world. Here's how that story begins:

One day Henny-penny was picking up corn in the cornyard when--whack!--something hit her upon the head. 'Goodness gracious me!' said Henny-penny; 'the sky's a-going to fall; I must go and tell the king.'

Henny-Penny and the other animals run into a fox at the end of that story, so I used a jackal, who often plays a role in Indian folktales similar to that of the fox in English folktales. Then, since the jackal is going to eat the other animals, I had to use smaller animals. In the jataka, the animal chain is rabbit-deer-fox-elephant, but I used rabbit-squirrel-duck-lamb. I thought they would all make very nice food for a jackal!

Bibliography.

The Foolish, Timid Rabbit in Jataka Tales by Ellen C. Babbitt.

Henny-Penny in English Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs.

Image Source.

Elephant Clip Art, to which I added words.
Jackal at Branson's Wild World.