STORY OF GODDESS HADIMBA

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The participation of goddess Hadimba of Dhungri (Manali) is a must for Dussehra festival in Kullu. The descendants of Pal dynasty which ruled over Kullu till 1841, regard her as their great-grandmother. She is said to have bestowed upon this dynasty the kingdom of Kullu territory. The story goes that a chieftain ruled over a part of upper Kullu from his capital at Bhanara, a sleepy village above Jagat Sukh. He was a cruel and whimsical man and had ordered that his subjects should bring fresh milk daily to his household. Anyone who disobeyed his orders would be severely punished. One day it was a turn of a poor Brahmin, who had no milch cow of his own, nor he had the money to buy milk. Knowing that he would face the wrath of the ruler, the Brahmin got milk of his wife, who had given birth to a baby. That day, the chieftain relished the sweet dish more than ever before. He asked the Brahmin to explain about the superior quality of the milk he had supplied. The Brahmin told the truth that the milk he supplied was not of a cow but from the breast of his wife. The chieftain thereafter ordered that henceforth he should have for his sweet- dish woman's milk instead of a cow. He decreed that all newly born babies in his domain should be killed and that the women's milk be brought to his kitchen. People had no choice but to obey.

 One day, goddess Hadimba in the guise of a strange-looking old woman, spotted a young man fast asleep on a rock in the outskirt of village Jagat Sukh. She woke him up saying "you are going to dethrone the cruel ruler of Bhanara and free my people from the atrocities he is inflicting upon them. I am Hadimba. Thousands of years ago, I ruled over this land. I was married to the great warrior Bhima. Ghatoch, the hero of Mahabharata, is my son. You may treat me as your grandmother." No sooner did she utter these words to the surprise of that young man, than a large crowd armed with swords, sharp iron-bars and sticks advanced towards the fort of the ruler. The Hadimba grew to an unusual height and carrying the young man on her shoulders asked the enraged crowd to follow him and kill the tyrant. He should be your protector and future ruler, she added. The young man endowed with her might and skilled the inspired people and stormed the fort. They killed the tyrant. The dynasty which sprang from that young man ruled the country for eighteen hundred years. 

                               * HADIMBA MATA TEMPLE, MANALI.



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