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Tuesday, July 10, 2012

The story of Saptha mathrikas and munishwaras


In some folk-lores of remote villages in India especially in south, they say that Munishavaras who were the sapta-rishis who were peace endeavourers, turned warriors to protect Parvati  who was being lusted by a local king, in the latter part of the story these warrior-sages flayed him alive and yet their enragement never went down. So they are worshipped as Munishwaras which mean “The warrior-sages”, in villages of Tamilnadu and are offered ,food served with raw meat or sometimes cooked unlike any other gods along with alcohol. These men are sometimes seen married and sometimes polygamists. 


Another story says that ,the wives of these 7 sages or Saptha-rishis were being suspected by their husbands of their pregnancy (as mentioned in Skanda purana) left them behind on the banks of river Ganga. When they bore a kid each (6 in total and the seventh woman was also suspected by her husband, as he thought that when all the women stayed together, she also would have committed the same mistake as others). When the kid was born they tried to kill it as they felt that the offspring was the cause of their disdain. The kid was later called Karthikeya who later granted them a boon to be worshipped as Sapta-matrikas who cause illness and malady to children (this was done to wane the rage in them against children) but, they also grant boons of unlimited wealth, health and wishes come true when are impressed by pure devotion. Even  till today people in the country side, children of whom, suffer ill health or any kind of severe disease, beg these gods 
not  to cause anymore trouble to their offsprings. Well they are also seen as 7out of 10 Main forces called “The Dasha maha Vidyas”.


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