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| About Samaj
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Once upon a time, king, Raja Khandelsen was the ruler
of Kahandelgram, a part of Rajasthan, India. He was blessed
with two beautiful queens, Rani Suryakuvar and Rani Indrakuvar. However, the
king did not have any children, thus no one to carry his name or
kingdom. He performed many pujas, yagnas and much charity to help the poor, but
no avail. Finally, one day he shared his sorrow with his spiritual advisor,
Maharishi Yagyavalk. Maharishi Yagyavalk told him that he was
cursed from his previous life and this was the reason he was still childless.
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Then the Maharishi explained to the king "In your previous
life, you earned your living through killing and selling of animals flesh. Once,
you aimed your bow and arrow at a pregnant deer and killed her. As
she died in pain, she placed a curse upon you saying, "You shall be
childless!" However, you felt guilty from this act, and went to
Pushkar where you took bath in the pious pond, to wash off your sins. This
religious act helped you become a king in this life. To recover from this past
curse, there is one solution that I shall explain to you. Not too far from here
in Bhashkar state, there is a Pipal tree, under which a Shivling is buried. You
should get this Shivling out and make a beautiful temple for Lord Shiva,
in which this Shivling must be embellished with respect and devotion." The king
did exactly as he was told, in addition he recited the "Om, Namah Sivaya"
shloka for two years. With this pious and religious act, Lord Shiva became
happy and the king was blessed with a son, whom he named Sujansen.
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| Once the prince Sujansen was born, the spiritual advisor
made his Kundali, to chart out his graha and nakhshatra. He shared the
graha position findings with King Khandelsen and said "Your son
will be handsome, masculine, and powerful; however due to an unforeseen
incident he will suffer from sorrow for a short while, but that will eventually
result in a happy ending."
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| The Prince Sujansen was married to princess Chadravati,
a daughter of King Yudhaveer. After this marriage, the King
Khandelsen handed over the kingdom to his son Sujansen, and moved
to the forest for his retirement. One day King Sujansen went into
the forest to hunt with his seventy-two soldiers as part of his routine. As the
King and his soldiers were hunting, they got lost and became hungry. Soon, they
sensed an aroma, as if someone was cooking good food, and they followed this
aroma and reached a place where six rishis were performing yagna for Lord
Shiva.Due to extreme hunger, the king and soldiers started eating prasad,
drinking water from the nearby pond that was reserved for the yagna puja, and
also started washing their stained bows and arrows in it. This broke the
rishis' concentration, and they cursed king and his
seventy-two soldiers to turn into stones. |
| Back in the kingdom, the queen and other 72 wives of
soldiers were waiting for their husbands to return for months, and finally Queen
Chandravati went to see Maharishi Jabali. The Rishi Jabali explained the
situation in its entirety and suggested that she and all other 72
wives of soldiers should go to the temple near the pond and worship Lord
Shiva for their husbands' life.
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| At this time, in Kailashparvath, in the Himaliyas
Lord Shiva and his beautiful wife Parvati were residing. Lord
Shiva told Parvati that he needs to visit Earth, some of his
worshipers were performing ygana and he needs go and show his satisfaction
towards the successful completion of yagna. Parvati, loves her
husband dearly, and did not like to part from her husband. This time Parvati
insisted that she also goes with Shiva to Earth. Lord Shiva said to Parvati,
"Dear, you are very kind hearted, you will not be able to bear the pains of the
people living on Earth. As always, you will ask me to take away all of their
sorrows, so it is better you stay here till my return to Kailashparvath". Mata
Parvati insisted and said, "No, I must go with you". After a while, Lord Shiva
said, "As you wish!" and they both started their journey to Earth where the
rishis were performing the yagna.
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| As Lord Shiva and Mata Parvati, reached the site, Parvati
Mata saw the queen and all other wives were crying for their husbands' stone
figures. Lord Shiva explained the situation to Mata Parvati. Mata
immediately said to Lord Shiva "You must give these husbands another life,
because when I can not live without you even for a fraction of a second, how
can you expect me to leave this place while these wives are so sorrowful in
life without their husbands." Lord Shiva said "This is what I was afraid of
when you decided to join me for this journey; in any case I must do so".
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| At this point, Lord Shiva brought king and other seventy-two
soldiers back to life, and told king Sujansen "Because you have performed
sinful activities, taking away lives of God's creatures, and have misused your
power, you have suffered from this incident. From now on, since I am giving all
of you a second life, you will be known after my name as "Mahesh-waris".
You will also stop your role of Kshatriya and play a new role of Vaishya, Vaishya
Dharam , which is a role of non-violence. Sujansen to
compensate for your violent tendency, from now on you will make living through
donations from your other seventy-two Vaishaya brothers and you will perform
the task of documenting their family trees". |
| At once, all came to life as if they were awakening from a
long sleep. However, they were hesitant to accept their wives, since they still
belonged to the Kshatriya caste. At this point, Parvati Mata
said, "All of you take four parikramas around me, whoever are
wife and husband; their gathbandhan will be joined auto-magically". At this,
everyone did so, and they re-joined as husbands and wives. Due to this, four
feras (parikramas) are done outside, during the Maheshwari weddings, as a
reminder of our origin. Lord Shiva gave this blessing to the new seventy-two
Vaishyas on the 9 th day of Jyesth, Shukla Paksh in the year 9 of
Yudhisthira Sanvat. On this day, newlywed brides and grooms are
appointed to do Lord Shiva and Mata Parvati's puja so that they can also be
blessed with children and live a happy and joyous life eternally.
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| While the seventy-two soldiers were bathing in the pond,
their bows and arrows were melted, and after this the pond was named "Loh-Garl".
Due to the incident in this story, new seventy-two Maheshwari khanp (Last)
names were created. After this, additional five Kshatriya last names were also
added to the original seventy-two last names.
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| Khandela town is about 10 miles away from
Phulera junction of Jaipur district. Loh-Garl area still has a water bath,
which is 20-25 miles away from the Ringus junction, near the mountains. Birla,
one of India's most prestigious families has established a sanatorium near the
Didwana of Nagour distict.
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