Once
upon a monsoon, in a land called Bimala Nagari, King Chandraprabha set out for a
hunt in a nearby forest.
While he was roaming the
woods, he chanced upon a group of apsaras engaged in an intense ritual of prayer
and fasting for the goddess Parvati. They tied a sacred thread around the king's
wrist, after which he returned home. On seeing the thread, the king's favourite
wife Vishalakshi seethed with anger and jealousy. She snatched off a bit of the
thread and threw it on a dead tree. Instantly, the tree bloomed to life.
The king's second wife, Sri
Mahadevi, took some of the thread from her husband's wrist and placed it on
herself and thenceforth she became the centre of the king's attentions.
Vishalakshi, banished to the forest, prayed to Swarna Gauri or Parvati and in so
doing she won back the goodwill of the king and she returned to the palace, her
life and love
restored.
According to the
Skandapurana and the Bhavishyapurana, this incident is the origin of Teej, the
festival that falls on the third day of the new moon in the month of Shravan.
Women pray to Parvati to seek blessings of marital bliss. In the
Bhavishyapurana, Krishna tells his sister Subhadra not to consider herself
exempt from the Swarna Gauri Vrata just because her brother is a god and her
husband, the mighty Arjun.
With her perfect marriage,
Parvati is seen as a symbol of feminine power. Parvati takes charge of finding a
husband for herself. She embarks on a severe tapasya to counter the one Shiva
has undertaken. Her perseverance is rewarded when the normally unyielding and
stoic Shiva expresses his willingness to marry her.
Kalidasa's epic poem, the
Kumarasambhava, recounts the union of Shiva and Parvati in which it is Parvati
who is the hero. Interrupting Shiva's tapasya and convincing him to marry her
becomes the goal of the plot. Shiva remains aloof and unfathomable throughout,
placing the burden of the plot entirely in Parvati's hands.
Tulsidas describes the union
of Shiva and Parvati in several works, including the Ramcharitmanas and the
Vinaypatrika, but also exclusively in a shorter composition called the Parvati
Mangal. True to his form, Tulsidas follows the dictates of maryada or propriety
in his depiction of the Shiva-Parvati union. Instead of attributing sexual
ambition to the goddess, he assigns her a cosmic purpose. Together, Shiva and
Shakti are two aspects of the same godhead. It is thus essential for Parvati to
seek out her lord and unite with
him.
The original tale
conceived of Parvati as a woman who charts her own destiny, who does everything
in her power to claim her sexual and cosmic partner. It is this reputation of
single-mindedness, resolve and ultimate success that makes Parvati the object of
worship for women seeking happy matrimony. Women who pray to Parvati on Teej
hope that similar good fortune will befall
them.
On Teej, 'bua, behen and
beti' ^ aunt, sister and daughter ^ pamper themselves with delicious food, new
clothes, fine jewellery, mehendi and bangles. Traditionally, jhoolas or swings
are hung from trees. Women dressed in green swing amidst the lush foliage, for
Teej also heralds the advent of the monsoons. Saawan the rainy season is
associated with shringara rasa, with beauty, love, pleasure and fertility.
Women celebrate these aspects
of their lives and of nature by dancing, swinging, eating, singing songs,
adorning themselves and indulging in every possible pleasure. The spirit of
Parvati imbues Teej with a feminine power and flavour that makes the festival a
time of joy and hope for all women.