Indian Traditional Jewellery-4

Edu Varala Nagalu-IV

This is the last and concluding part of the posts relating to Edu Varala Nagalu. 

The story now I am going to narrate is known as "Tulabharam" or the weighing of some one in the weighing scales. It is a tradition or rather practise in India that when some one wants some thing good to happen or desire fulfilled, like getting a job, getting married or recover from illness, they go to temple and pray, promising God/Goddess that if what ever they are asking for happens then they will give something (money, grains, coconuts, jaggery or fruits) equivalent to their weight. So when their desire is fulfilled they go to temple and they are weighed in huge weighing scales against whatever they want to offer. This offering is then made to the God/Goddess.

I have seen children being weighed in the famous Guruvayur temple in Kerala. It is believed that by giving this offering to God, the children remain healthy and happy.

Now this type of offering was first made by Satyabhama, wife of Lord Krishna. As i have already told in my previous posts, Satyabhama was very haughty and egoistic, because of her, beauty, her royal lineage and riches she got from her father. She thought her love for Lord Krishna was pure and ultimate. She was jealous of all other wives, especially Rukmini-the first wife.  She wanted to have all the love of Lord for herself.

Rukmini was incarnation of Goddess  Lakshmi (Goddess of wealth and wife of Lord Vishnu). When Lord Vishnu incarnated himself as Krishna, she came to the earth as Rukmini. Rukmini was born as daughter of Bhishmaka-king of Vidharbha.  She was very sweet and gentle, very beautiful, obedient in short a true lady of royal lineage. She came to know of Krishna and fell in love with him. She worshipped him with all devotion and love. Her love was pure and Krishna knew her pure devotion.

Her parents came to know of this and agreed to her marriage with Krishna. But her elder brother Rukmi strongly opposed this marriage as he wanted her to marry her friend Shishupala, crown prince of Chedi for political gains. He made arrangements for this marriage.  Rukmini was frightened and sent a message to Krishna with a brahman. Shishupala arrived on the D-day.

On that day Krishna came, swept her off on his chariot- as she did not want any fight between her husband and her brothers and took her away. When he was accosted by   Rukmi and his friend, he defeated them and left them at the behest of Rukmini with out killing them. He married Rukmini and she became his chief queen and served him with even more devotion and love. Rukmini treated all the other wives as sisters. Lord Krishna loved her, appreciated her devotion towards him as well as her gentle behaviour.

Satyabhama was very jealous of Rukmini as every one were in praise of Rukmini. meanwhile once sage Narada visited her in Dwaraka and during the course of conversation mentions the Lord loves Rukmini more than any one else. This makes Satyabhama very furious and refutes the sage's claim. The sage challenges her to prove it by performing the Tulabharam" Vratham. Its a ritual where Satyabhama has to give away Lord Krishna as Dana (charity) to the sage and can get back Him by paying the sage wealth and riches equivalent to the weight of the Lord. 


She immediately agrees to perform the ritual. Narada cautions her that the Lord and other wives may not agree. But she is so egoistic that she claims that the Lord never crosses the line she draws. She arranges for performing the ritual. The Lord comes to know of it but keeps silent as He is waiting to teach her a lesson.


On D-day Satyabhama, gives away the Lord to the sage as per the ritual. To reclaim Him back, the Lord is made to sit on one side of the weighing scales. On the other side Satyabhama places all the gold and silver coins she has. The scale does not even budge an inch. She brings all her jewellery- Edu Varala Nagalu-diamonds, gold silver, precious gem stones. But the scale does not budge. She then gets all the gold, silver, brass vessels and artefacts of her palace. Nothing happens. Now she is at loss what to do as all the treasures she had were put on to the scales.

The sage taunts her that if she does not come out quickly with the required riches, he would take the Lord to be his slave and publicly auction him on the streets. Now this word spreads to the royal staff and family as well as the queens. All the other queens get very angry. Meanwhile the sage advices Satyabhama to ask for the help of other queens. She approaches other queens except for Rukmini. Even at this stage she thinks she is above Rukmini. The other queens bring all their riches and add to the scales. But it is not sufficient.


Now the sage takes away the Lord and openly auctions Him on the streets. The people of Dwarka are perplexed now. They criticise Satyabhama asking that who she is to donate Him off and when all the riches in the palace could not equal Him, how can their riches save Him. However the thought of loosing Him to some rich man from a far of place infuriates them as they cannot live with out their Lord whom they love so much. So they try to attack the sage. But the Lord pacifies them by saying it is a ritual and He is bound by it.


Meanwhile other queens urge Satyabhama to seek help of queen Rukmini as she is the only one who can save Him now.


Even though Satyabhama doesn't like it, she agrees as other wise the Lord may be auctioned off to some hwere else. So she approaches Rukmini and pleads her to save the Lord.


Rukmini being a gentle lady, agrees. She goes to the Tulasi (basil) plant in her yard, prays to her and plucks the crown(three leaves) off a twig. She then comes to the place where the Lord is being auctioned. She asks all the riches to be removed from the other scale. Then she prays to the Lord and says that if it is always believed that the Lord is bound by devotion and love of His devotees, He may accept her little token of Devotion-the basil leaves-which the Lord loves the most. 


By saying so she places the three leaves in the scale and amazingly the scales weigh more then the Lord. This way Satyabhama realises her foolishness, ego and apologises to Lord, Rukmini and all other queens. 


So God loves His devotees because of their devotion and belief in Him and not because of the rich offerings made to Him.

So that is how Satyabhama used her Edu Varala Nagalu and failed....


Just have a look at the video...

Courtesy YouTube


I am translating this for the benefit of my friends who cannot understand the language:

The Lord is shown serving the sage. Satyabhama and other queens, come to fetch Him and feel very sad at His plight. They plead with the sage to release the Lord. But the sage tells them to weigh the lord with riches and give him that riches if he has to return the Lord. 


The queens take them to the palace and weigh the Lord. First it is Satyabhama to put all her jewellery and riches. Then the other queens follow(except for Rukmini) but it is of no use. Lord's elder brother Balarama (one with the plough) comes to know of this and threatens the sage. But the queens pacify himsaying that satyabhama had performed the ritual and they are helpless.


Balarama orders all the riches from the royal coffers to be brought and put on to the scales. But it is of no use. Rukmini then comes to the place where all this is happening tells them all how futile their attempts are since the Lord who provides the entire universe with so many things cannot be weighed against such worldly riches. She then places the Tulasi leaves and frees the Lord. Sage Narada picks up the sacred Tulasi leaves saying they are more richer than the gold. He then advices everyone that Lord resides in those hearts who selflessly love Him and are His devotees, so one should become such a devotee.


This version is slightly different.

This concludes the topic on Edu Varala Nagalu. I have tried to be as brief as possible. Hope you liked this post..Please do leave your comments and suggestions...I hope Sujatha garu now knows the whole story....

Indian Traditional Jewellery-3

Edu Varala Nagalu-III

I promised Sujatha garu to write about this topic. But half way through I got side tracked  as I was away travelling. But now I want to conclude this topic.

My previous posts on this topic are here:

http://summersofindia.blogspot.com/search/label/Edu%20vaarala%20Nagalu

In my last post I said I would write about Satyabhama's Marraige to Lord Krishna. So here it is in brief:

                                 Lord Krishna

Lord Krishna was the Avatar or incarnation of Lord Vishnu one of the Trinities as per Hindu scriptures. Krishna in Sanskrit means, black or blue as the sky and also most attractive. He was blue (as sky) in colour and the most handsome and attractive. He wore yellow silk Dhoti  and peacock feathers in his hair. He authored Bhagavad Gita. He was known by many names as Vasudeva, Gopala Krishna and so on.


He was born into Yadava clan-the professional cowherds-ruling the region of Mathura. Later on He established His kingdom at Dwaraka in Gujarat. His deeds in his child hood, youth and there after are very beautiful to read. He declared himself as Svayam Bhagavan -I am the Supreme or Ultimate God. 


He is known as the model or divine lover and the divine love between Radha and Krishna is the ultimate love, something which every devotee wants.


Lord Krishna had 16000 and 8 wives. Eight were his princely wives. One of them was Satyabhama.

Satyabhama was very beautiful and daughter of rich and powerful Yadava King Satrajeet. As I have already written in my previous post Satrajeet did a penance and obtained the famous Jewel "Samantaka Mani" or "Syamantaka Mani" a huge dark red dazzling Ruby from Sun God who wore it in his neck. The possessor of this jewel would have peace, happiness and prosperity in his kingdom. But this jewel became famous because it gave the possessor 8 Baruvula or Bharas -or 1.5 tons of gold every day. 

Since the Jewel gave so much gold every day, Lord Krishna in one of the congregations of the Yadava Kings, requested Satrajeet to give the Mani to his maternal Grandfather Ugrasena since he was the head of the entire Yadava clan and the wealth given by the jewel would be utilised for the good of the people. But Satrajeet refused saying that he was not a fool to part with such a precious jewel which gave him wealth and prosperity.

Some time went by. One day Satrajeet's brother Prasenajeet went out for hunting. He wore the jewel in his neck. A lion mistook the jewel to be a meat chunk, attacked him and killed him and fled with the jewel. But  Jambavantha-a bear and great devotee of Lord Rama killed it and took away the jewel to his cave where he was living. He gifted it to his beautiful daughter Jambavathi.

As Prasenajeet didn't return back, it was rumoured that Lord Krishna might have killed him for the jewel and Satrajeet also accused Krishna. This made Krishna very sad. In front of chiefs of Yadava clan Krishna declared that he was innocent and didn't kill Prasenajeet. He claimed that he will prove his innocence and left with his companions on trail of Prasena.

He reached the spot in jungle where Prasena and his horse were killed by lion . From there he followed the pug marks of the lion and reached the spot where the lion was also lying dead. He found the footprints of the bear and by following them he reached the cave where Jambavantha lived. In the entrance He found Jambavathi daughter of Jambavanta. Leaving his companions at the entrance of the cave he went inside.

He then asked Jambavatha to return the jewel. A great fight took place between these two and lasted for 21 days. Jambavantha was hurt in the fight and became very weak and frightened. He then prayed to Lord Krishna. Lord Krishna revealed to him that He was Lord Rama in his previous incarnation and appeared before him in form of Lord Rama. Jambavantha was very happy and not only returned the jewel but requested Krishna to marry his daughter Jambavathi.

Mean while the companions waiting out side of the cave thought that Lord Krishna was in some great danger and went back to Dwaraka. The people of Dwarka and family and friends of Krishna started praying for his safe return. The Lord returned back, summoned Satrajeet and gave back the jewel and told him the entire happenings. Satrajeet felt ashamed and remorseful. He gifted the jewel and gave away his daughter Satyabhama in marriage to the Lord. But the Lord refused the jewel and gave it back.

He married Jambavathi and Satyabhama. Satyabhama came with many riches, jewels which included the Edu varala nagalu. She decorated herself with jewellery made of one particular gem depending upon the day of the week. She was so beautiful and these jewels added to her beauty. She was well trained in martial arts and fought the famous Demon Narkasura along side of Lord Krishna and killed him. To celebrate this occasion Diwali-the festival of lights is celebrated every year. She became even more famous with this and became even more egoistic. 

Because of her beauty, her riches, her status and as Lord's cherished wife she became very egoistic and was known for her tantrums and haughty behaviour. Lord wanted to teach her a lesson.


How He taught her a lesson of being modest, simple and what real devotion and love meant and what connection had this with her Edu Varala Nagalu...read in my next post which will be concluding one in this series....

Indian Traditional Jewellery-2

Edu Varala Nagalu-II

How the Days of the Week were Named:

Indian Calendar known as Panchang is based on scientific reasoning. 

• Each week consists of 7 days
• Each day is counted from sunrise of that day to the sunrise of next day 
• A day means day time and night time put together
• Each day is  divided into 24 Horas or hours. 
• Each Hora is governed or affected by the  planet from the nearest lower orbit. 
• That planet is known as Lord of that Hora. 
• The day is named after the planet that rules the first Hora of that Day-like Sunday-Sun, Monday-Moon etc.

But why does Monday come after Sunday and Tuesday after  it ? There is a reason for it too. Read on....

Saturn is the farthest or highest. The order from lowest to highest is

1. Moon
2. Mercury
3. Venus
4. Sun
5. Mars
6. Jupiter
7. Saturn

Sun is the King of all planets-as he is the Star burning bright and center of our Solar system and he was created or was visible first in the universe. He is known as Graha Raju-King of planets. So in his honour, he was considered as the Lord of the first hour of the first day, .

The Lords of the 2nd hora is Venus or Shukra whose orbit is below to the Sun. So the Lords 
of Horas are as follows:

Hora	Lord (English)	Lord (Sanskrit)
1st	Sun	Ravi
2nd	Venus	Shukra
3rd	Mercury	Budha
4th	Moon	Chandra
5th	Saturn	Shani
6th	Jupiter	Guru
7th	Mars	Kuja

After Mars Hora, it again starts with Sun hora and repeats on. So the 24th Hora from Sun Hora is  Moon Hora. Hence it is called as Monday. And so on....


Since the planets influence us a lot, it is believed that by wearing the gem stones, eating food, wearing the clothes of colours relating to these Planets will help us. 


Who wore such jewels:


The rich and royal wore these type of ornaments. Even in those days, only rich could afford one type of ornaments each day.


One of the famous or well known woman who had these Edu Varaala Nagalu was Sathyabhama.  She was the most loved daughter of rich king Satrajeet.


She is believed to be an Avatar (manifestation of Gods/Goddess on Earth as humans) of Bhudevi (Mother Earth).  


She was the daughter of King Satrajeet. He was one of the powerful kings and a very great devotee of Sun God. He did a great penance  and Sun God was pleased and gifted the king with Samantaka Mani or the jewel known as Samantaka. This jewel gave lot of prosperity especially lot of gold every day. So the King was considered as very rich and powerful.


Sathyabhama was his daughter. She was very beautiful and an apple of eye of the king. This made her to be very stubborn, egoistic and haughty. She was known for all these and for throwing tantrums. She was well trained in the martial arts and was no less than a man.


Sathybhama  was the 3rd wife of Lord Krishna. Lord Krishna is the Avatar of Lord Vishnu or one of the Trinity. 


She came to know of Lord Krishna as the most handsome and powerful King of Dwarka.  She heard of His many deeds and fell in love with Him. 


How she became Lord Krishna's wife and why her 7vaarala Nagalu became so famous...read in my next posts...till then keep an eye on my blog.......

Indian Traditional Jewelery

Edu Varala Nagalu-I

Sujathagaru asked me what Eedu Vaarala Nagalu mean, who wore it and any stories related to it. I have also received many requests similar to this from some of my friends. Thank you Sujatha garu and my other friends for reading my posts and asking me such interesting questions. I am also educated by such questions as I have to recollect, read and research around for the answer.


I am glad to receive such queries , so keep asking me.


Well I am going to write all about it in my posts starting from today.Here it is 

India as you know is a country with an ancient and rich cultural and traditional heritage. Our  society was much civilised before any other ones. Men and women were very refined in their intellect, knowledge and taste. It is no wonder that our fashions related to clothes, jewellery etc were and still are rich, refined and are backed by scientific reasoning-beauty with practicality.

Anyway our India women were one of the most fashion conscious. Whether rich or poor they were dressed appropriately for the occasion or the season.

Meaning:

Edu Vaarala Nagalu means the jewellery worn by men or women for each day of the week. Edu means seven. Vaaralu means days -like Sunday Monday etc. and Nagalu means Jewellery. This was a very old tradition and is still followed by some. This jewellery was so highly talked about in the ancient times and had lot of importance.

Details:


Each day men or women should (though not a compulsion) wear the jewellery made of the following gems.

Sl No	Day		God or Planet Considered as Lord of the Day		Gem associated with the Planet
	(English)	(Telugu)	(English)	(Sanskrit/ Telugu)	(English)	(Sanskrit/ Telugu/ Hindi)
1	Sunday	Aadi Varamu / Bhanu Vaaramu/ Ravi Vaaramu	Sun	Aditya or Bhanu or Ravi	Ruby	Manickya Kempu/ Manikyam Manick
2	Monday	Soma Vaaramu/ Indu Vaaramu	Moon	Soma or Indu	Pearls	Mouktika Muthyaalu Moti
3	Tuesday	Mangala Vaaramu/ Bhouma vaaramu	Mars	Mangala	Corals	Pravaala Pagadaalu Munga
4	Wednesday	Budha Vaaramu/ Soumya Vaaramu	Budha	Budha	Emeralds	Marakata Pachhalu/ Marakatam Panna
5	Thursday	Brihaspathi Vaaramu / Guru Vaaramu	Jupiter	Brihaspathi or Guru	Yellow Sapphire Or Topaz	Pushparaaga Pushyaragamu Pukhraj
6	Friday	Shukra Vaaramu/ Brugu Vaaramu	Venus	Shukra	Diamond	Vajra Vajraalu Heera
7	Saturday	Shani Vaaramu/ Manda Vaaramu	Saturn	Shani	Blue Sapphire	NeelaMani Neelam Neelmani

                                            Edu Vaarala Nagalu

The jewellery to be worn could be necklaces, long chains, bangles, bracelets, ear rings, nose pins, waist chains or belts, anklets, arm lets, jewellery worn on the head (papidi pindelu, chandra- surya wanka, chamanthi billa etc), finger rings by women and chains, armlets, anklets, waist belts, ear rings, finger rings etc by men, made of these gems either in gold or in silver. Gold was considered as the best metal.

By wearing these, people would benefit from the positive aspects of the planetary influences and bad influences would be reduced. Health, wealth and prosperity, peace of mind, happiness could be got by this.

Reason:

I have to briefly tell you why and what was the importance of this tradition. This is related to Indian Astrology. Though this might be lengthy, one has to read this to understand the significance. I will try to be as brief as possible.

Indian astrology is very highly placed and followed by even common man in every day life. I will restrict myself to the influence of Indian Astrology to this particular topic here, though there is a lot on the subject...:) :) :)

As per Indian Calender, there are nine planets. A planet is known as "Graha" meaning one that constantly moves:

1. Sun--Surya or Aaditya 
2. Moon--Chandra or Soma
3. Mars- Kuja
4. Mercury--Budha
5. Jupiter- Guru
6. Venus--Sukra
7. Saturn-Shani

Apart from the above Rahu and Ketu were Chhaya Graha or shadow planets. As pointed above, planets means those having moment or which constantly are in motion. That is the reason even Sun though known to the ancient Indians as brightest Star, was still classified as a planet. Moon though was a satellite of Earth was considered as planet. Similarly why Rahu and Ketu were known as shadow planets in those ancient times, much well before  the so called modern science was born. These two planets are resposible for the Eclipses-Solar and Lunar.


To be contd........Read the next in my next posts

Update: I have added the Sanskrit equivalent of the gems as per my visitors requests.