Seven Mountains of Life ~ Part 2
the Idumban story
I know y’all are sceptical about my first part “seven mountains of life” where she looked underage ! exactly ! I was in my 7th grade too ! she’s in her 8th grade ! one year older than me , slightly taller than me , after I ate the tamarind rice that she gave , we decided to move on climbing the next mountain , now the night sky is very much clear , making every little minute stars twinkle and shine very very bright ! for me first time experiencing a sky without light pollution was everything , we could see n number of stars compared to the nominal areas
in the end of the 3rd hill there is a stream called “kai thatti sunai” which is believed to be a fountain which pours out with every clap , as it’s too bushy over that place we decided to move on , now back to trekking.
a note to the readers girls weren’t allowed to climb the hills as part of a religious tradition they say , only girls who haven’t attained puberty and those old women who’s menstrual were out completely are allowed to climb the hills !
Fourth hill ~ The Idumban story
My father and his father got well along , which meant me and her got along well too , she said she’s from Dharmapuri a northern district in Tamil Nadu ,my bad , I can’t recall her name ! it’s pretty 11 years right so I forgive myself for it !
As we walked with our bamboo sticks proceeding to climb the 4th hill to our surprise a open space without big trees surrounding us unfolded leaving us a path with lemon grass on both sides and a dark thick forest in our right and deep deadly valley to our left , and the path in the middle is the only way to go ,night skies were also clear and bright that we could see the path even without torch !I've never imagined there would be a day where I can see in the night without moon(it’s relatively a day after no moon day ) but the stars were so bright so is the sky ! then I asked her why did you come here ? she replied “ because I couldn’t be able to come next year if I attained puberty” with her face turning red , I also glanced at her as we shared a mutual laugh and a eye contact
she suddenly stops me and says “do you know about Idumban ? ”, I was confused and replied “no”, then she proceeded to point at the forest on the right and asked me can you see that dense forest right ? yeah pretty much it looks dense I replied , she said in the way that if you ever encounter a wild animal or dog in the hills ! please stay away from it , and run she said !
I was confused again ! and replied “why would I stand there if there is a wild animal approaching , I would only try to pet a dog and feed it , if it’s there in our path” , then she stretches her eyes and said softly in a slow voice , “it might be Idumban” with fear ! I was like what will he do ? for that she said it will kill you in no time , no man can stop the monster that Ravanan created ! I was so curious to know about this mysterious story so I asked her can you elaborate
she asked me “do you know Ramayana ?” , I replied “no” but “I know some outlines of it” , she said never mind I’ll say what happened ! after 10 headed Ravanan(antagonist in ramanya ) kidnapped Sita and he’s on his way to take Sita to his empire situated in Lanka , while travelling in his “Aagaya vimana” translates as a air ship which fly's in air ! he wanted to rest Somewhere ! while flying above the Vellingiri hills ,his devotion towards lord Shiva wanted him to take a visit to the 7th hill and worship the lord Shiva’s self formed Linga! To note Ravanan is big worshipper and heavily devoted to Lord Shiva ! so he lands his Air ship in the forest with the kidnapped Sita in his air ship
Ravanan was clueless , he can’t take Sita to the 7th hill to worship Lord shiva , at the same time if he leaves Sita in the jungle alone she will try to escape from the place and ask help with tribes , anyways Ravanan decided to move out of the forest and take the path to the 7th hill and leave Sita in the forest
As he came out of the forest , he looked back at the forest where he left Sita , and started chanting and praying some mantras(magical spell) ! while Sita noticed that Ravanan has left , she knew she should try to escape the place so she started running from the jungle and find a way out ! in other hand Ravanan is still has his eyes closed and his mantras intesified ! the jungle creatures started to panic and sound from the birds ,insects, bugs and all the species intensified ! Sita heard this strange behaviour’s in the jungle atmosphere and knew she had to find a way out faster !
Ravanan lifted his right hand facing the jungle and there happens a little earth quake and part of land near his place cracked open , and it is believed that he raised a monster from the “Ratchasa world”(devil world), it had a human like appearance and he named it “Idumban” ,heavily powerful , he ordered that he protects the forest from external people and feeds on humans , he designed the monster to be a cannibal , he ordered Idumban to keep Sita from escaping the jungle until he comes back from worshipping Lord Shiva in the 7th hill , Sita saw this monster enter the jungle , the forest started to grow dense and huge that even the sun light wouldn’t penetrate in a normal sunny day ! huge poisonous bugs of hand size started emerging from the land where all the creatures which are calm started turning wild and kept her captured until his creator Ravanan stepped in to get her back
Idumban formed a clan in the forest feasting over the humans who enter the jungle and proctected the forest , since the forest was used to held Sita as a captive for sometime it was called as “Sita vanam” translates as Sita’s forest
Since then the Jungle was cursed by Ravanan and still now it is believed to be a dangerous place where whom ever enters into the jungle will not step out alive with their soul in their body
she also said that “as Idumban feasts on humans” he takes a animal form with some sort of disability , for example a dog with no tail , a deer with no ears , so she looked straight into my eyes and said if you ever come across any animals with some kind of disability ! you better run !
I was too stunned to speak after hearing this story , I was genuinely scared after hearing this story from her , I had chills and I was looking at the jungle at my right side with a horror in my Eyes and we kept moving
I asked her is this forest still has that curse that Ravanan threw ? has it ever got free from the curse ? she smiled and said “wait till we reach the fifth hill! I will reveal what happened to the forest after Ravanan left with Sita” !
So Now I will also reveal what happened to the Forest curse and what happened to us in the Fifth hill in my next part of the article , thanks for reading it patiently , wait until I publish the next part to the “seven mountains of life series”, support me and fellow writers with a clap and follow, comment down your thoughts ! I’ll see you in the next one ! cheers !
