Myth about Legend of Nepal
published in 2010 by writer Jnan Kaji Manandhar writes about two legends
related to the origin of Kumari. One such story says, there used to be a Yantra, a mystical diagram endowed with
miraculous spiritual powers of goddess Taleju. The legend says the first Kumari
arrived at the valley of Kathmandu in the form of Yantra. In those days, the
king could talk to the Kumari (Yantra), seek advice and directions regarding
administration guidance. Once the lid of the mystical Yantra was let open, that made the royal girl disappear forever. The king was very sad; he
could not talk with the Yantra. With days passing by the King was in his deep
sorrow. One night in a dream, the goddess appeared and told him to install a virgin
girl from the Sakya caste and she will immerse in her body. Then the king could
talk to her as a Kumari.
The
other version says that one Malla King used to play dice with the goddess
Kumari. At one instance, the king was infatuated with the beauty of the goddess
and he had winked at her. This proved to be a big insult to the goddess who
immediately disappeared. Later on, the King regretted his gesture. A voice
came to install a virgin Sakya girl as a Kumari where she would immerse
herself.
One
such folklore says King Jaya Prakash Malla used to go to the Goddess Taleju place
in the night in order to play dice with her. His queen was worried about the king's
absence during the night. She decided to follow him and was surprised to see the
king playing dice with the goddess. The goddess was annoyed and vanished away. Goddess's
disappearance made the king very sad. One day goddess Taleju came to his dream and
told, him he had to establish a Kumari Ghar and find a virgin girl from the Sakya clan.
Taleju would incarnate in her. Hence it is believed that Jaya Prakash Malla
started the worshipping of the Kumari girl as a living goddess.
An Advertised Secret: The Goddess Taleju and the King of Kathmandu,
in Tantra in Practice also provides a historical outlook
towards the existence of Kumari. The book quotes a few lines from the Nepalese
dynastic chronicles, Gopālarāja-Vaṃṣāvalī,
in 1192 C.E., King Lakṣmīkāmadeva, “thinking
that his grandfather had acquired so much wealth and conquered the four
quarters of the world through the aid of the Kumārīs, resolved to do the
same. With this intention he went to the
. . . [palace] of Lakshmī-barman, [where] he erected an image of Kumārī and
established the Kumārī-pūjā.” as the earliest mention of the existence of
Kumari or Kumari Puja that is still followed to this date.
After
the reign of King Lakṣmīkāmadeva, we continue to find inscriptions mentioning Prithivi
Narayan and other kings worshiping Kumārīs.
Both the Kaumārī-Pūjā (1280 C.E.) and the Kumārī-Pūjā-Vidhana (1285
C.E.) describe the worship of the Kumārī by the king and equate the Kumārī with
the king’s personal deity (iṣṭa-devatā), highlighting her paradoxical role as
both the king’s political servant and his revered deity, writes Brownen Bledsoe
in his book.
An
interesting anecdote published in Prithvinarayan
Shah in the Light of the Dibya Upadesh (1989) translated by L. F.
Stiller
writes the great king Prithivi Narayan and his troops entered Kathmandu on the
day of Indra Jatra, the occasion when the Kumari bestows her divine approval
upon the king. At the time of Prithivi
Narayan Shah’s surprise attack, the then king of Kathmandu, Jaya Prakash Malla,
was preparing to receive the Kumari’s blessing.
Swiftly, and unexpectedly, Prithivi Narayan rode into the royal
courtyard and bowed before the Kumārī, who unhesitatingly blessed him. At that moment, the popular legend goes; the king
of Gorkha became king of Nepal in a swift act of power that was the result of
both political strategy and divine grace won through years of arduous devotion
to the Goddess.
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