5. Wooden Eagle
Abolakara | Children’s Stories from Odisha
Abolakara walked and walked. The master had asked him to get some firewood from the market. On his way he found his customary question.
In front of the palace is a wooden idol of an eagle that people worship. Why such reverence for this peculiar statue?
This place is called Punda. The goddess Udarachandi dwells here. During the goddess’ annual fair on the day of Pana Sankranti, many visitors came to the temple. Among them were two young men. One of them was a skilled carpenter and the other an expert in the science of Tantra. When the princess Chandrika came to the temple on an elephant as per royal custom, the tantric was enamoured by her. His friend remarked,
Your wish is audacious; like a dwarf reaching for the heavenly tree; like a kid playing with a viper; like an alcoholic mistaking a sword for his bed.
But the tantric was proud of his esoteric powers. By hook or by crook he would marry the princess.
He had some very specific props made by his carpenter-friend: two extra arms, a wheel and a wooden eagle. Then he got a conch shell, a mace and a lotus flower from the nearby pond. At midnight he donned his costume. Four arms, four attributes and an eagle. He looked like Vishnu himself.
That night he flew to the princess’ chamber on the wooden eagle using his powers. The princess, mistaking him for the real Vishnu, fell at his feet. Now the tantric spoke.
“Vishakha? Have you forgotten me, your beloved? I am Vishnu. Since you were cursed to be reborn as a princess on this earth, I have been yearning for you. Tonight I have finally had the fortune to behold you. Lakshmi is asleep back in Vaikuntha. Let us unite.”, he said. And so the princess garlanded him and he garlanded her. They were married. The man left the next morning on his wooden bird.
The palace was abuzz with gossip. One of the princess’s handmaidens had seen signs of lovemaking on her. The queen did not believe it until she herself saw the teeth and nail marks. The king and the queen were irate. How dare their daughter do so?
The princess did not protest.
Women have twice the appetite, four times the intelligence, six times the business sense and eight times the desire as compared to men.
Instead she resorted to her intelligence. “My secret lover is none other than the deity you worship; Vishnu himself. If you do not believe in my words, tonight, see for yourself.”
The royal couple were overjoyed to discover their divine son-in-law. The king began neglecting his duties in his hollow pride. He spent all his time in worshipping Vishnu. The law and order in his kingdom crumbled to a miserable state. Sensing an opportunity the neighbouring ruler planned a strategic attack on his kingdom. Laughing it off, the king told his daughter to inform their son-in-law. Vishnu himself would protect him. Why should he fear anyone?
Fools nod their heads the most.
The tantric fake ‘Vishnu’ assured Chandrika that nothing would happen to their kingdom. Of course he could do nothing, but his plan was to keep pretending for as long as possible. He did this with such conviction that the king took no action until he found his fort surrounded by soldiers. That night the princess told him she would commit suicide rather than stay a prisoner.
The faker was worried. Till now all was going well. What would he do next? He had no knowledge of warfare. But the books say
Nothing great is achieved without courage.
And so he mustered up courage. The next day he flew up into the sky along with the army. The tantric had decided he would show up then flee, but the opponent was terrified at Vishnu’s sight. He would not give up like a coward though.
The real Vishnu was flying above him at that time. He was amused by this impostor. Garuda, his eagle-mount told him of the entire story. Vishnu burst out laughing. Garuda however was worried about his master’s image. If the impostor failed, everyone would think Vishnu lost to a mere earthly king. Who then would worship him? Besides, the king had been worshipping him, faithful that he would handle the rest. How could he let him down?
Vishnu listened to him and pondered over the matter. He flew down to the kingdom and sent the opponent’s army away.
The impostor was no longer in the sky; the force of the wind from the real Garuda’s flight was too much for him to bear. Both he and his wooden Garuda fell into a temple courtyard. Struggling, the tantric got up and arranged his props. Then he waited till the jubilant procession returned.
The king, glad that he had been protected, went straight to the temple to thank his deity. He began worshipping the faker with the actual mantra for Vishnu. Knowing the terrible consequences this might bear, the tantric spilled out his truth. The king was both surprised and enraged, but he owed his victory to this elaborate drama. He forgave the man.
The couple succeeded the king. The wooden eagle was enshrined in a small shrine outside the palace. People have been worshipping the figure since then.
Notes
- The Pana Sankranti is also known as Maha-Bishuba Sankranti. It is the first day of the traditional Odia new year and is named after Pana, the special cool drink made on the day.
- The first saying is the essence of a few couplets by ‘Kabisurjya’ Baladeba Ratha, a famed 18th-century classical Odia poet in his magnum opus known as the Kishori Champu. The book consists of 34 poems each after one letter of the 34 consonants. All lines of a poem start with its ‘assigned’ letter. The above lines are metaphors used to describe the love of Radha, a ‘mere’ human with Krishna, a divine being and the inherent audacity in it.
- This story bears heavy resemblance to a story in the katha-sarita-sagara, an 11th-century collection of tales. This book is said to be an insignificant fraction of tales derived from the 6th-century Brihatkatha by one Gunadhya. The Brihatkatha, as the legend goes, was 70000 verses long, written in the Paishachi language and was partially destroyed by its own author out of grief. Whatever remains is found in derivative works like the kathasaritasagara.
- The Abolakara stories therefore, contain stories as old as the sixth century AD, and hence, stem from a very ancient oral tradition.
- Incorrect chanting of mantras is said to bring adverse effects. This includes both linguistic errors and flaws in chanting. Many stories, such as those of Kumbhakarna and Vritra mention these effects.
This project was created to make traditional children’s literature in Odia available to everyone.
The stories have been translated into English by Prateek Pattanaik. It is supported by Dr. Devdutt Pattanaik.
