a goat princess

Tale of a goat princess

        King shatshring had one daughter whose face resembled a  goat. In the past life she was a goat who once got astrayed and reached a holy abode where her head got stuck in a bush and the rest of the body fell down and washed away into the sea. That place was the mahisagar sanctified by the spiritual energy. Her body therefore became human’s but head remained of a goat in the next birth.as she grew up she could recall the past life and obtained permission of her parents to reach the same spot. She reached there and found her head still lying stuck in the bush. She mentally renounced everything to please the lord supreme and performed penance there. She creamted her head and threw the bones and ashes into the mahisagar sea. Consequently she turned extremely pretty that enamoured everyone including the celestial beings.

 All grooms saught her hand but she did not find anyone appealing and began to perform harder penance to please lord shiv at mahisagar. Pleased by her lord shiv appeared and said,-“ daughter! I am here to bestow a grrom upon you. Seek any.” The mellowed princess replied,-“ lord shiv I seek none. If you are pleased then pl stay here permanently.” “Be it so” blessed lord shiv and vanished. She created a holly abode called varkresh at the spot where she had cremated her head of a goat. Hearing her such feat the king of serpents named svastik tore apart the earth and appeared to see the holy abode. The sport wher the serpent emerged created a crater where river ganga filled it with her holy waters. The pond was named swastika after the serpent. Seeing the shivling being worshipped there lord shiv professed,-“ this abode shall be sanctifying to all. Whoever shall be cremated here and whose ashes shall be thrown tinto the mahisagar after cremation at this spot shall definitely attain swarg and shall be born to a prosperous family on earth in the next birth.”

 

 The princess returned to her parents and divulged her great spiritual attainment that pleased all. All travelled to the holy abode and thanked lord shiv and praiased the princess. The king who had eight sons divided his kingdom into nine parts and gave one part to the princess. The area came t obe called as kumarikhand wher she performed hard penace to benefit all. Her eight brothers begot nine sons each and in due course her seventy two nephews reach kumarikhand to obtain blessings of their holy aunt. They honoured her as their family goddess and asked her to divide their kingdoms amongs their sons so that they did not fight amongst themselves. The holy princess divided the kingdom and gave away her piece of land also to them. She still worshiped lord shiv as kumaresh shiv and built a great temple of lord shiv . pleased lrosh shiv again appeared before her and said,-“ holy lady I am highly pleased with you. The time to leave this earth has come. Being unwed you can not attain swarg and moksh. So stay here and accept Mahakal as your husband. This place shall be knows after you as kumarishvar and after me as kumareshvar and blessing given at varkresh shall fructify at his place also.”  Thus she attained blessings of lord shiv and accepted Mahakal as her husband.after shedding her mortal coil she and Mahakal attained rudralok. She met goddess Parvati who smiled to her and said,-“ dear you have left earth as if stultified(chitralikhit). You shall be called now chitralekha nd live with me here as my friend.” Chitralekha became a friend of usha the daughter of king baan who braught aniruddh from Dwarka and married them off. Chitralekha attained the status of yogini in rudralok as she set up varkreshvar and kumarshvar shivling.