SHORT STORY - FISHER WOMEN!

-R. PONNAMMAL

Lord Shiva once took it upon himself to explain the Vedas* to his consort Parvati. But Parvati was not attentive to what Shiva was saying and was enjoying the playful pranks of her children Ganesh and Muruga. Shiva saw this and got angry.

“Devi, since you allowed your mind to wander and did not pay attention to me, you will be born in a fisher folk family” cursed Lord Shiva. Lord Ganesh was angry at the way his mother was treated. He took the vedic scriptures and threw them into sea, Muruga, for his part, tore the scriptures into pieces.

Lord Shiva was at the peak of his anger! He cursed Muruga to be born as dumb and even the Nandi was not spared! Poor Nandi who intervened for an amicable solution, was to be born as a shark!

Meanwhile, Sudharman, the Chief of fisherfolk was a devotee of Lord Shiva. He was childless and kept praying to the Lord to be blessed with a child.  One day, while fishing, he got a right sided conch shell. The moment Sudharman touched it, out came from it a beautiful girl baby. Sudharman was very happy and named the baby Angayarkanni**.

Angayarkanni grew up to be a lovely girl. Lord Shiva took the form of a fisherman, came with an aide to see Sudharman with a request to marry his daughter.

“Who are you? Where are you from? How am I to know that you are fit enough to marry my daughter?” Sudharman shot the questions one after the other.

“I’m Chokalingam from Madurai. I am an expert in fishing. No fish can escape my net” – Chokalingam was boastful. He then showed the net hanging on his aide’s shoulders and said, “See this net? I bet no one here could even lift it!”.  Sudharman made his folk try their strength, but they couldn’t even move it!

“Fine. Let’s not waste time on this. Young man, there’s a big shark in this sea that keeps troubling our folk by tearing their nets and overturning their boats and is a great nuisance. If you can capture this shark, you can claim my daughter’s hand in marriage”, said Sudharman.

Chokalingam and his aide took a boat and went into the deep sea. With their large net, they captured the shark which was none other than the Nandi who had swallowed the Vedic scriptures thrown into the sea by Lord Ganesh. The Nandi attained his original form the moment Chokalingam (Lord Shiva) touched him. The Vedic scriptures were also retrieved. Sudharman, as promised, got his daughter married to Chokalingam. Shiva was happy to have reunited with his wife and together they made their way back to Kailash.

Meanwhile, Lord Muruga was born to a trader by name Dhanapathy in Madurai. He was named Rudrasarman and was dumb by birth. When he grew up, he visited many shrines of Shiva seeking relief and finally attained the blessings of Lord Shiva.