Notes: Varuna is the god of water. Shashthi is the goddess of childbirth. Her vahana (vehicle) is a cat! In some traditions, she is considered to be one of the Matrikas, mother-goddesses.
The Manthan Sashthi Ceremony
The Manthan Sashthi ceremony is celebraetd in the month of September on the sixth day after the new moon. Some pigmy figures roughly resembling the human form are made of pounded rice painted with a mixture of turmeric-water and vermilion. The goddess is worshipped with the customary offerings of flowers, bel-leaves, sandalwood paste, incense, rice, and blades of grass.
The Tale: Sacrificed to Varuna
A Brahman from pious motives wanted to a dig a pond. But however deep down he dug, water was not to be found. Whereupon the Brahman fretted himself to sleep and dreamt a fearful dream in which he was told htat unless he sacrificed his only grandson, who was an infant, to the water-god, Varuna, and cut his body into five pieces, burying them at the four corners and the center of the excavation, not a drop of water would appear, however deep he might cut the earth.
The poor Brahman woke up with a shudder, and pondering on the dreadful vision, grew sadder and sadder at heart. Quite at a loss what to do, he did not at first tell his son anything, though the latter was very anxious to learn what the matter was with his father. But when at last the son was let into the secret, it cast a gloom over his face. Yet his affection for his father and his devotion to the god Varuna were strong enough to determine him to sacrifice his only son to save the one from the sin of an unaccomplished vow and to propitiate the other. So, after nightfall, he took his son in his arms to where the pond was being made and cut him with his own hands into five pieces and deposited the parts at its four corners and in the center as directed. Forthwith water rushed up from every point of the pond and quickly filled it to the brim.
Now, when a pond is dug in furtherance of a vow, it has to be consecrated by rites prescribed in the Shastras. The ceremony was fixed for the next day. The old Brahman invited his caste comrades to come and witness the consecration rites, and they came with the rising sun in expectation of a grand feast. He was fully aware of what his son had done and grief sat heavy in his heart. His daughter-in-law, however, did not suspect anything, and when desired to do the cooking for the guests, she gaily promised compliance. She was to wear a new pair of conch-shell bangles that day, and when she went to bathe in the new pond of her father-in-law, she put vermilion paint on her forehead and at the parting of her hair above, and took a quantity of rice-powder with which to polish her bangles. At the ghat, it struck her as unusual that her child had not come to her the whole morning, but the attending maid-servant stopped her anxious inquiries by saying, "Oh, has he not an aunt and a grandma to take care of him? He is with the one or the other at home."
She then saw vessels made of the leaf-stalk of the plantain tree, with sacred hay and other offerings of pujah in them floating on the water. These reminded her that it was the Manthan Sashthi pujah day. She had always been a devout worshipper of Sashthi, but, strangely enough, had forgotten her that day. She now lost not a minute more, but hastily bathing, got a few of the leaf-stalk vessels together in which she arranged offerings of flowers and bel-leaves that were at hand. She then made an image of the goddess Sashthi with the powdered rice she had brought with her and worshipped the goddess with all the devotion of an earnest heart. And when she had done, she looked behind her and saw a very old woman with her infant in her arms standing behind her.
"You are not very careful of your child, it seems," said the woman, "or you had before this known where he has been all the morning."
She then handed over the child to the mother and vanished into thin air, for she was none other than the goddess Sashthi herself!
Awestruck and filled with the deepest feelings of love and gratitude to her guardian deity, the lady returned home, her child in her arms. And it was a sight to see how the old father-in-law and the husband stood rooted to the ground, struck with amazement and joy. The old man threw himself at the feet of his daughter-in-law and cried out, "You must be more than human; tell me who you are!"
The lady fled into her room in confusion, and when everything was narrated as to how, unknown to her, her child had been sacrificed to Varuna the night before, she told them how she had regained it by favor of the goddess Sashthi.
Then there was rejoicing all over the house, and the pious old father-in-law made an image of Sashthi in gold and placed iti in his house to be worshipped by his family to the remotest descendants.
So, ye all that have listened to this sacred katha, cry victory to mother Sasthhi: ulu! ulu! ulu!
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