Renuka

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Renuka ( Sanskrit रेणुका reṇukā f. ) Is in Hinduism the wife of the wise Brahmin Jamadagni (a Rishi ) and mother of Parashurama (sixth avatar of the god Vishnu ). Renuka's father is Renu, or King Prasenajit. Renuka has four older sons: Rumanvat, Sushena, Vasu and Vishvavasu.

myth

One day, on her daily walk to fetch water, Renuka happened to see Chitraratha, the king of the Gandharven (demigods) making love with his wife by the river. When Renuka comes home, Jamadagni notices unchaste thoughts that would have destroyed her perfection. He now demands of his sons to punish them and cut off their heads. The three eldest sons Rumanvat, Sushena and Vasu refuse, so Jamadagni curses them as idiots. But Parashurama, the youngest, carries out the punishment to the satisfaction of his father, whereupon the latter releases his wishes. Parashurama wishes that the curse on his brothers would be lifted and that he could bring his mother back to life in perfect purity. It is then also called Konkana .

Tamil transmission

In the south Indian folk religion of the Tamils , this myth was transferred to the local smallpox goddess Mariyamman (Mariamma). In her version, Renuka sees a Gandharva as a reflection in the water storage tank , while she looks at a fish while drawing water. She is moved by the beauty of the Gandharva, but immediately loses her chastity and she is no longer able to draw water. Her husband Jamadagni notices this immediately with his third eye (he is a Rishi ) and wants to punish her for this misconduct. He asks two of his sons what to do with a woman who has lost her chastity (purity). They replied that she should be beheaded. But when they find out that it is about their mother, they refuse to carry out the punishment. A little later, Parashurama, the youngest son, comes back from school and answers his father's question in the same way. When Jamadagni explains that it is his mother, he asks for a knife and three wishes. Then he goes after his mother. Renuka escapes and runs into the house of a young pariah woman . Parashurama pursues her, but cuts off the head of this woman in the dark house before he sees his mother and also cuts off her head. He brings this to his father, who is satisfied and wants to fulfill his wishes. First of all, Parashurama wishes that his brothers would regain their proper shape. Second, that his mother would be brought back to life. And the third wish is to restore her loyalty because, after all, she would only have looked for a fish. Jamadagni takes back his curse and gives Parashurama some water to sprinkle his mother with after he has put her head back on. But Parashurama makes a mistake and puts his mother's head on the body of the Paria girl and then splashes her. When his mother realizes that she has the wrong body, she complains to the gods: With the wrong body, she can no longer go to her husband. These answer her that she was born here and is now Mariyamman, Karumari, Urumari, Tantumari and Kolomari, known as Mariyattal. When asked where she should get her food from, the gods explain that from now on she would be handing out smallpox pearls ( muttu in Tamil ). And people would then give her food as a charitable gift. Then the goddess sets out as Mariyattal to take revenge on the god Shiva (here under the name Paraman ). When he got to him, she placed ten smallpox beads on him. To get rid of this, he has to hand over his dairy cow. The mother (amman) then returns with this .

literature

  • Entry: Renuka . In: John Dowson : A classical dictionary of Hindu mythology and religion, geography, history, and literature. Trübner & co., London 1879, p. 266 ( Text Archive - Internet Archive ).
  • Eveline Meyer: Aṅkāḷaparamēcuvari: A goddess of Tamilnadu, her myths and cult (= contributions to research on South Asia. Volume 107). Steiner, Wiesbaden / Stuttgart 1986, ISBN 3-515-04702-6 , pp. 15-19 (English; to the Tamil version).

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Entry into word: reṇukā . In: Monier Monier-Williams : Sanskrit-English Dictionary . Clarendon Press, Oxford 1899, p. 887, col. 2 .
  2. ↑ Entry: Jamadagni . In: John Dowson : A classical dictionary of Hindu mythology and religion, geography, history, and literature. Trübner & co., London 1879, pp. 130-131 ( Text Archive - Internet Archive ).
  3. ↑ Entry: Renuka . In: John Dowson : A classical dictionary of Hindu mythology and religion, geography, history, and literature. Trübner & co., London 1879, p. 266 ( Text Archive - Internet Archive ).
  4. ↑ Eveline Meyer: Aṅkāḷaparamēcuvari: A goddess of Tamilnadu, her myths and cult (= . Contributions to South Asia Research Volume 107). Steiner, Wiesbaden / Stuttgart 1986, ISBN 3-515-04702-6 , pp. 15-19 (English).
    Quoted from Anne van Voorthuizen: Mariyamman's sakti: the miraculous power of a smallpox goddess. In: Anne-Marie Korte (Ed.): Women and Miracles Stories: A Multidisciplinary Exploration (= Studies in the history of religions. Volume 88). Brill, Leiden / Boston 2001, pp. 252–254 (English; page previews in the Google book search).