Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Indian Traditional Jewellery-3

Edu Varala Nagalu-III

I promised Sujatha garu to write about this topic. But half way through I got side tracked  as I was away travelling. But now I want to conclude this topic.

My previous posts on this topic are here:

In my last post I said I would write about Satyabhama's Marraige to Lord Krishna. So here it is in brief:
                                 Lord Krishna

Lord Krishna was the Avatar or incarnation of Lord Vishnu one of the Trinities as per Hindu scriptures. Krishna in Sanskrit means, black or blue as the sky and also most attractive. He was blue (as sky) in colour and the most handsome and attractive. He wore yellow silk Dhoti  and peacock feathers in his hair. He authored Bhagavad Gita. He was known by many names as Vasudeva, Gopala Krishna and so on.


He was born into Yadava clan-the professional cowherds-ruling the region of Mathura. Later on He established His kingdom at Dwaraka in Gujarat. His deeds in his child hood, youth and there after are very beautiful to read. He declared himself as Svayam Bhagavan -I am the Supreme or Ultimate God. 


He is known as the model or divine lover and the divine love between Radha and Krishna is the ultimate love, something which every devotee wants.


Lord Krishna had 16000 and 8 wives. Eight were his princely wives. One of them was Satyabhama.

Satyabhama was very beautiful and daughter of rich and powerful Yadava King Satrajeet. As I have already written in my previous post Satrajeet did a penance and obtained the famous Jewel "Samantaka Mani" or "Syamantaka Mani" a huge dark red dazzling Ruby from Sun God who wore it in his neck. The possessor of this jewel would have peace, happiness and prosperity in his kingdom. But this jewel became famous because it gave the possessor 8 Baruvula or Bharas -or 1.5 tons of gold every day. 

Since the Jewel gave so much gold every day, Lord Krishna in one of the congregations of the Yadava Kings, requested Satrajeet to give the Mani to his maternal Grandfather Ugrasena since he was the head of the entire Yadava clan and the wealth given by the jewel would be utilised for the good of the people. But Satrajeet refused saying that he was not a fool to part with such a precious jewel which gave him wealth and prosperity.

Some time went by. One day Satrajeet's brother Prasenajeet went out for hunting. He wore the jewel in his neck. A lion mistook the jewel to be a meat chunk, attacked him and killed him and fled with the jewel. But  Jambavantha-a bear and great devotee of Lord Rama killed it and took away the jewel to his cave where he was living. He gifted it to his beautiful daughter Jambavathi.

As Prasenajeet didn't return back, it was rumoured that Lord Krishna might have killed him for the jewel and Satrajeet also accused Krishna. This made Krishna very sad. In front of chiefs of Yadava clan Krishna declared that he was innocent and didn't kill Prasenajeet. He claimed that he will prove his innocence and left with his companions on trail of Prasena.

He reached the spot in jungle where Prasena and his horse were killed by lion . From there he followed the pug marks of the lion and reached the spot where the lion was also lying dead. He found the footprints of the bear and by following them he reached the cave where Jambavantha lived. In the entrance He found Jambavathi daughter of Jambavanta. Leaving his companions at the entrance of the cave he went inside.

He then asked Jambavatha to return the jewel. A great fight took place between these two and lasted for 21 days. Jambavantha was hurt in the fight and became very weak and frightened. He then prayed to Lord Krishna. Lord Krishna revealed to him that He was Lord Rama in his previous incarnation and appeared before him in form of Lord Rama. Jambavantha was very happy and not only returned the jewel but requested Krishna to marry his daughter Jambavathi.

Mean while the companions waiting out side of the cave thought that Lord Krishna was in some great danger and went back to Dwaraka. The people of Dwarka and family and friends of Krishna started praying for his safe return. The Lord returned back, summoned Satrajeet and gave back the jewel and told him the entire happenings. Satrajeet felt ashamed and remorseful. He gifted the jewel and gave away his daughter Satyabhama in marriage to the Lord. But the Lord refused the jewel and gave it back.

He married Jambavathi and Satyabhama. Satyabhama came with many riches, jewels which included the Edu varala nagalu. She decorated herself with jewellery made of one particular gem depending upon the day of the week. She was so beautiful and these jewels added to her beauty. She was well trained in martial arts and fought the famous Demon Narkasura along side of Lord Krishna and killed him. To celebrate this occasion Diwali-the festival of lights is celebrated every year. She became even more famous with this and became even more egoistic. 

Because of her beauty, her riches, her status and as Lord's cherished wife she became very egoistic and was known for her tantrums and haughty behaviour. Lord wanted to teach her a lesson.


How He taught her a lesson of being modest, simple and what real devotion and love meant and what connection had this with her Edu Varala Nagalu...read in my next post which will be concluding one in this series....


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