Sunday, December 31, 2023

The Story of Pataliputra - Part One


In the pilgrimage place of Kanakhala, a husband and wife performed severe austerities. 

After that, three sons were born to them. 

Soon after that the couple died.

After the death of the husband and the wife, the three sons went to a place named Rajagriha to acquire more knowledge.

The three sons studied the various sciences at Rajagriha.

After finishing their studies, the three sons went to the temple of Lord Kartikeya. 

After the visit to the temple, the three sons reached the city of Chinchini. The city of Chinchini was on the shore of the sea.



In that city there was a rich man who had three daughters.

The rich man gave his three daughters in marriage to the three sons and divided his wealth equally among his children.

After that the rich man went to the river Ganga to perform austerities.

The six of them lived in the house of the rich man. After that, they lived happily for a few years and then a terrible famine almost  destroyed the city. The three men abandoned their wives and fled the place. 

At that time the second sister was pregnant. The three ladies stayed in the house of Yagnadutta who was a friend of their father. There the middle sister gave birth to a son.

All the three women loved the boy very much. 

It was at this time that Lord Shiva, who was the father of Lord Kartikeya adopted the little boy born to the middle sister as his protégé.



In his previous life, the little boy and his wife had performed severe austerities towards Shiva. So Lord Shiva decided to bless the boy in this birth. Lord Shiva realized that he had to bring the wealth of the family back and for this Lord Shiva also blessed that every time the little boy who was to be called as Putraka, would sleep and wake up, a thousand gold pieces would be found under his pillow and that Putraka would eventually become a king.

Adapted From the Katha Sarith Sagara


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