Svosthani Brata: Month-Long Veneration

By Siddhi B. Ranjitkar

Most of the Nepalese Hindu households have a tradition of reading out the Hindu scripture called Svosthani beginning on the full moon day called Milla-punhi: the last day of the bright fortnight of the month called Poush, and ending it on the next full moon day called See-punhi: the last day of the month of Magha in the Nepalese calendar called Nepal Sambat. This year, it starts on December 31, 2009,and ends on January 30, 2010. Svosthani is a Hindu Goddess with four hands holding a trident, a spinning wheel, a spear and a lotus.

Nepalis believe that reading out and listening to the Hindu scripture called Svosthani help them in keeping away evil spirits and inauspicious things from their home. Some women take an Svosthani brata means venerating Svosthani for the whole month. They believe that such undertakings please Goddess Svosthani, and she meets their wishes. Goddess Parvati, believed to be another form of Goddess Svosthani, has undertaken such religious worship to achieve her goal of receiving Lord Shiva as her spouse.

People dedicate this auspicious month of Magha to Lord Shiva and his consort Parvati. They spend the whole month on in service of and in praise of this divine couple. A month long religious fair is held at the river called Shalinadi in Sankhu about 20 km northeast of Kathmandu. People venerate Goddess Svosthani and demigoddess Chandravoti who has suffered the consequences of the insult she has inflicted on Goddess Svosthani. Later on, Chandravoti undertakes the Svosthani brata for a month to atone for the sin and she gets relief from her suffering and becomes a demigoddess.

The Nepali version of the Holy Scripture called Svosthani begins with the description of the creation of heaven, earth, divinities, demons, humans, ghosts, animals and birds. After the creation of the heaven and earth, the story goes on telling about the lives of divinities, and how one divinity insults another. It goes on describing the life of Lord Shiva with his first spouse called Satidevi, and then with the second spouse called Parvati, and then the life of human called Gomaiju, her son Navaraj, and his spouse called Chandravoti. The story ends with the elevation of Navaraj and Chandravoti to the status of king and queen by the grace of Goddess Svosthani.

Narration of these stories takes one full month for a person reading out a chapter every evening during the winter month called Magha dedicated to this religious service. The reader performs a small puja to the scripture before opening it to read. A small wicker plate of popcorn and fried peanuts or of any other ready to eat sweet or fruit is set beside the scripture so that it also would listen to the scripture. All household members and neighbors who do not have such a scripture to read or no person to read join the household members to listen to the story of Svosthani. At the end of reading the scripture every evening, the reader makes offerings of the food set aside to Goddess Svosthani and then distributes it to the listeners as the blessing from the Goddess.

After the story of creation of earth, heaven, divinities, demons, humans, animals and birds, the story of marrying one daughter after another of Hindu demigod called Dacche prajapati begins. Dacche prajapati has tens of fabulous daughters married to various divinities. Lord Shiva alone remains unmarried among the deities. When Lord Shiva knows Dacche prajapati has given his daughters in marriages to deities leaving behind a single senior most daughter with him. Lord Shiva thinks that Dacche prajapati must have set her aside for him to marry her. So, Lord Shiva himself approaches Dacche prajapati for the hands of the senior most daughter called Satidevi. Dacche prajapati and his wife do not give her in marriage to anybody because they want her to be with them during their old age. When Lord Shiva approaches Dacche prajapati with the proposal of marrying Satidevi, he not only rejects the proposal but also insults Lord Shiva in public. Dacche prajapati is a conservative Hindu whereas Lord Shiva is a liberal one.

The preserver of the Hindu world, Lord Vishnu, and heavenly king Indra see the urgent need for easing the insult inflicted on Lord Shiva, as the Hindu world might be in jeopardy if something goes wrong to Lord Shiva. So, they trick Dacche prajapati into giving his daughter Satidevi in marriage to Lord Shiva. This was actually a reconciliation Lord Vishnu attempts to bring about between Lord Shiva and Dacche prajapati. He, however, never forgets the trick played by Lord Vishnu on him. He also never forgives Lord Shiva for the marriage. So, Dacche prajapati ignores Satidevi and her spouse after the marriage.

When Satidevi knows from Narad: the heavenly messenger that her father Dacche prajapati did not invite her to the great fire-offering called Yagya he has been performing, she rushes to her father and demands the explanation from the father for not inviting her to such a great event. Dacche prajapati instead of promising her not to repeat such a mistake, continues to insult Lord Shiva, which Satidevi could not tolerate any more, and she in her extreme anger jumps into the burning fire and ends her life.

When Lord Shiva sees the lifeless body of Satidevi lying on the great fire at the altar, he could not control his anger, too. He cuts off the head of Dacche prajapati and tosses it on the fire. With great sorrow and repentance for the misdeeds of Dacche prajapati, his spouse pleads with Lord Shiva to return the life of Dacche prajapati. His mind fills with pity for her; Lord Shiva picks up the head of a sacrificial lamb and sets it on the shoulder of Dacche prajapati with its face on backside, and gives him a new life with the head of a lamb facing opposite direction.

Lord Shiva carries the lifeless body of Satidevi on his back, and trots around the globe, again posing threat to the Hindu world. Gradually, the corpse of Satidevi decomposes, and falls one piece of her body after another on the ground creating various deities on the site.

Satidevi reincarnates in Parvati. Satidevi has born again this time as the daughter of king Himalaya. The king names her Parvati. When Parvati reaches puberty; her parents want her to marry to Lord Vishnu. However, she develops a wish for receiving Lord Shiva as her spouse. To get her wish met, she undertakes a month long Svosthani brata and gets married to Lord Shiva as a result. The divine couple has two sons called Kumar and Ganesh.

Ganesh becomes an elephant-headed because Lord Shiva not being able to recognize Ganesh beheads him in anger when Ganesh refuses Lord Shiva an entry into his own abode. Ganesh is keeping a guard while his mother Parvati is taking a bathe in her chamber when Lord Shiva arrives at Kailash. Lord Shiva could not recognize Ganesh as he has been away from his home called Kailash for several years. By the time, Ganesh has grown quite a bit making him unrecognizable. When Lord Shiva shows up in her inner chamber unannounced Parvati realized that something must have gone wrong. Realizing the mistake Lord Shiva sends his attendants to get a head of any beings they meet on the way at first hand. The first living beings they have met is an elephant and cut off its head, and bring it to Lord Shiva who in turn sets it on the shoulder of Ganesh making him an elephant-headed.

The divine couple decides to grant a boon to their sons: Kumar and Ganesh, as they have come of age. They call on them and ask them to make a round trip to the Mount Sumeru so that they could bless them with a boon on their return.

Ganesh secures the boon from the parents first despite his vehicle being a lousy rat. Kumar has a peacock as his vehicle whereas Ganesh has a rat. Kumar immediately rides on the peacock and flies to make a trip to Mount Sumeru. Poor Ganesh could not dare to ride on the rat and make an almost impossible trip to Mount Sumeru. So, Ganesh is upset. Seeing his master sad, the rat asks Ganesh the reason for being so sad. Thinking useless to tell his problem to the mundane rat, Ganesh keeps quite. However, the rat goes on insisting Ganesh on telling him the truth. Ultimately, Ganesh gives in and tells him what his parents has said to him. The rat smiles and gives a tip-off to Ganesh, “Master, please go to your parents, ask them to stand together and then go round them three times and prostrate at their feet and tell them ‘you are my parents and you are Mount Sumeru, too for me.’” Ganesh takes the counsel of the rat and goes to his parents: Lord Shiva and Parvati. Ganesh does to them what the rat has told him to do. His parents become very happy with him, and grant him the boon of the rights to receiving the first offerings. So, none of the Hindu deities accepts the offerings made to them without first making offerings to Lord Ganesh.

Kumar secures the boon but less significant than Ganesh has received. When Kumar comes back from the trip to Mount Sumeru only to find out that Ganesh has already received the boon. Kumar strongly protests against his parents’ granting the boon first to Ganesh, even though he has not met the condition set by them for it. However, the parents could not revoke the boon given to Ganesh; they make Kumar eligible to receive offerings before Ganesh but in a simple form. So, the Nevah community has a stone carved into an eight-petal form Kumar set at the entrance to their houses, and they bring offerings to him in a leaf plate and drop them on it before going to make offerings to Lord Ganesh.

After having a divine boon, Ganesh himself begins making favors to his devotees. The first beneficiary is the family of Shiva Bhakta Brahmin. As the couple is poor and childless, Ganesh makes them rich, and then grants the couple a daughter. The couple with a beautiful daughter lives happily for a number of years.

However, a great misfortunate befalls them. Shiva Bhakta Brahmin loses his wealth; he has to give her beloved daughter called Gomaiju in marriage to an old man without any possessions of wealth. Gomaiju undergoes several kinds of sufferings because she unknowingly antagonizes the Lord. She brings up her son, Navaraj with a great difficulty.

Gomaiju reveres Goddess Svosthani taking a fast every day for a month; as a result, she not only gets relief from her sufferings but also gets her son Navaraj crowned a king. At that time the tradition has it that an elephant with divine power goes around the city-state to choose a king from among the people. The elephant chooses Navaraj for a king.

However, his spouse Chandravoti because of her ego of being a queen insults Goddess Svosthani rejecting the blessed food offered by the porters carrying her to the palace. When the porters reach the bank of the river called Salinadi; Chandravoti stops the porters to have a break for some time. During the break the porters go to watch the group of people performing worship to Goddess Svosthani. They listen to the story of Goddess Svosthani, receive the Goddess-blessed food and save some of it for Chandrawoti. When the porters come to her she is furious with them at spending so much time on wandering elsewhere. They try to explain to her where they have been and why they have taken so much time to come back. However, she does not listen to their explanation. She tosses away the blessed food offered to her from their hands.

Chandravoti suffers the consequences of her insult to Goddess Svosthani. In no time, there is a heavy rain. The river Shalinadi swells up with the water from the rain. The swollen river sweeps away the porters while crossing the river. She falls down the river. She turns into a stone and remains there in-situ. Nobody recognizes her and nobody offers her any food.

Later on, she realizes her sins and makes offerings to Goddess Svosthani for a month to atone for the sins. She not only gets relief from her sins but also transforms herself into a demigoddess by the grace of Goddess Svosthani.

Thereafter, Nepalese people have set the tradition of revering Goddess Svosthani, Demigoddess Chandrawoti, her spouse Navaraj and the porters at Shalinadi during the month long religious festival in the month of Magha.

Women taking the month long Svosthani brata complete their offerings on the full moon day in the Magha month. On this day, they perform purification rites, and they fast for the whole day. In the evening they perform special offerings to Goddess Svosthani. These offerings comprise 108-special bread called ‘achheta’ prepared for making offerings to the Goddess on this occasion. After the completion of offerings to the Goddess they offer these blessed bread first to their husband. If they do not have a husband, they offer the bread to their son, if they do not have a son, to the son of their close friends. If they do not have even such sons, they dispose the bread in a holy river.

January 5, 2010