Behula and Laxminder

I heard the story of Behula from my

grandmother whom we affectionately
called Bibi. I was perhaps eight or
ten years old and, needless to say,
impressionable. The other day, eons
later, I stumbled into a copy of the
same story which rekindled my
interest. I picked it up and was
surprised to see that the book,
although written in Bangla, had an
introduction written in English! More
disgusting surprises awaited. The
writer of this English masterpiece
has an EGO so big that Freud and
his partner of brief Jung, would have
been flabbergasted and would
perhaps reconsider their definition of
ego! How can one even dare to write
in a language when he has
absolutely no idea about grammar,
spelling, punctuation and syntax
unless, of course, he has this thing
called ego! Few excerpts quoted in
verbatim will give the readers a
better idea of what I mean:

...The Bridal Chamber of Behula is

stand in the south 2 k.m. from
Mohaastan garh. That is said the
Bridal Chamber which was made of
iron of Behula Lakhinder...There are
so many beautiful scence has destroyed of the Archeoeogy. Nobody cannot say this
Archaeoeogy has built in which era...How much money has expenced it was built?....

This piller is built of Brick. It is round and more slight bighter in the east west side. The
highter of this piller...? I have heard of Queen's English, American English but this
defies any classification.

The story of Behula and Laximnder fascinated as well as saddened the rural Bengal
from the time it was adapted from the Puranas to the vernacular. Chand Sowdagar was
the father of Laximnder and was blessed by Siva and was given supra power. Manasha
Devi was also blessed by Mahadev and she hoped that Chand Sowdagar would offer
his puja to her. The merchant steadfastly opposed. Manasha Devi by her cunning stole
away the special power of the merchant, killed his friend Ozha Dhanantari, killed six of
his sons and burned down his house.
 But Chad Sowdagar stood firm.
He left with his ships to Sri
Lanka but on his way back, the
revengeful Padmabati raised a
storm and the merchant lost all
his ships.

But he was defiant and did not

bow down. Around this time of
misfortune, Soneka, the wife of
Chad, gave birth to a son,
Laxminder.

The astrologers predicted that

Laximnder will die of snake
bite on his nuptial bed. This
distrubed the husband but on
the insistence of his wife, he
agreed to the marriage of his
son when the time came.

Behula, the daughter of

another merchant, was to
become the wife of Laximnder.
He ordered the royal blacksmith
to build a nuptial room made of
solid iron with no openings
whatsoever. But the wily
Padmadevi bribed the smith to
leave the tinniest of a tiny hole
in the corner of that iron room.
Behula was aware of the
prediction and decided to stay up all night by her husband.

During the wee hours of the morning, Behula's eyes shut for a moment. In comes the
snake through the hole and stings Laxminder fatally. Just at that moment Behula's eyes
open and she sees the disaster and screams. Laxminder is dead. Chad Sowdagar
stoically accepted and prepared for the funeral pyre.

Behula implored him not to for she heard that some snake charmers can bring the
snake bitten and dead person to life. She made a raft and left down the river with her
dead husband. Soon she meets Netai Dhobini, a washerwoman, who was known to
have worked miracles. Behula fell on her feet and wailed her request to bring backher
husband from death.

Netai took her to Siva and Behula charmed Siva with her dance and asked for justice.
Siva admonished Padmadevi and ordered her to bring Laxminder back to life.

Behula also charmed Padmadevi and she brought Laxminder back to life. Not only
Laximnder, she brought back all his brothers, Dhanantari Ozha, Chand Sowdagar's lost
ships back. Even the merchant finally agreed to offer his puja to Mansha Devi and thus
the practice of this ritual was established on earth....all ended in a happy note except....!
Behula announced that she is not really a mortal neither is Laximnder. They came to
earth disguised as Behula and Laximnder to introduce the ritual of Mansha puja on
earth. Now that their work is done, they must depart for the abode of the gods and they
did.

I can visualise the village minstrel reenacting this story to hundreds of people gathered
around one of those open huts in a village. I can see tears rolling down those eyes as
Behula wails for her dead husband, I can see the joy and smile in their faces as the
story ends as they wished. The ascent of Behula and Laxminder to heaven did not
matter much ( Omar Husain Holiday, July 11, 2003).