The story of Amruthakiranakalai of Nirjeeva pattana as told by twelfth Santha Gunavalli doll

The story of Amruthakiranakalai of Nirjeeva pattana as told by twelfth Santha Gunavalli doll.

Retold by
P.R.Ramachander
On the twelfth day Bhoja raja after his morning duties again started climbing on to the throne of Vikramadhithya. He was stopped on the twelfth step by Santha Guna valli doll. It told him that he does not have great qualities of the king Vikramadhithya and is not fit to occupy the throne. Then king Bhoja asked that doll, “Doll please tell me about the greatness of Vikramadhithya. The doll started telling the following story:-
When Vikramadhithya was ruling the country, he used to send several of his spies all round the world to find out strange happenings. One of them came back and told him as follows:-
“A king called Dharmaraya was ruling called Thirumalpuri. His wives name is Samudhradevi. They have three sons called Bheemasuran, Lakshmi sooran and Mahasooran and a daughter called Amruthakiranakalai. The king has searched good brides for his sons and a good groom for his daughter and got them married. The king and queen got several grand children, lived happily with them and died after ten years. Once the three princes who were managing the kingdom, went for a routine checkup of their kingdom. In a deep forest they located a pretty garden and a pond. Near boy was a very pretty house with three rooms. The rooms were empty during the daytime. They relaxed in the garden and decided to spend their night in those rooms. Actually the rooms belonged to three deva dancers who used to spend their nights in those rooms. When they found three handsome youths there, they spent the entire night making love to them, turned them in to stone dolls and went back to the deva loka. This continued. One day Mahasoora heard a voice from a statue on a pillar near the pond pitying them. That voice agreed to help them. It gave him seven stones. It advised him, “Today night run away from here. Those three deva maidens will chase you. When they come near you, throw a stone. This would make the distance between you very great. Keep on doing this but never talk to them. If you talk to them they will make you permanently into stone dolls.
It happened as foretold. When the deva maidens saw that these magical stones were only with Mahasoora, they thought that it must have been given to him by his lover Roopakanyaka. So the other two killed Roopakanyaka and went back to the deva loka. Mahasoora was terribly upset and wanted to cremate Roopakanyaka and die himself in her funeral pyre. Though the other two brothers tried to dissuade him, he was firm on his resolve. When he was about to jump in the fire, Lord Shiva appeared before Mahasoora and gave back the life of Roopakanyaka. Roopakanyaka was terribly charmed by the love of Mahasoora. She told him, “From now I am taking you as my husband but since I am a deva maiden, I would be in deva loka during your day time and would be with you during night. She gave him a magical Veena to summon her whenever he wants her.
That night When Mahasoora summoned Roopakanyaka, a sage was attracted by her., He promised to give Mahasoora a diamond sword which can cut any living being in to two. Mahasoora took the sword from the sage for testing and killed the sage by using the sword itself.
Next day another sage saw her and wanted her. In return he promised him a miracle purse, which will have unending source of money. Mahasoora took that for testing and killed that sage also by the diamond sword.
Next day another sage offered him a slipper which will take him to any place he wants in a jiffy and next day another one offered him a stick which can give life to dead ones.
Mahasoora stored these carelessly in a room of his house and used to summon his love Deva daily. One day his sister Amritha kirana came there when he was not there. She started testing all those things one by one and eventually played the Veena for summoning Roopakanyaka. When Roopakanyaka saw a lady playing the Veena she was surprised and asked her,” who are you and why are you playing the Veena?” Amrithakirana told that she was Mahasoora’s sister and she was playing it without the knowledge of her brother. Infuriated by this reply, Roopakanyaka dashed the veena on the floor and told Amrithakirana to inform her brother that he has lost the divine pleasure forever.
When Mahasoora returned he became very sad and decided to somehow try to bring back Roopakanyaka from deva loka. Though his brothers tried to dissuade him, by using the magical slippers, Mahasoora reached the dancing hall of deva loka. When Indra told his army of Asuras to kill Mahasoora, he killed all of them by using his magical sword. Then realizing the power of Mahasoora, Indra asked him, “Who are you and why have you come here?” Then Mahasoora related his story. Indra then told him, “In my hall fifty lakh damsels dance daily. If you can identify your lover, bring her here.” When he correctly identified her, Indra got very angry with those three girls for tempting human beings with their love and told them, “I am giving away you three as slaves to Mahasoora. Go and obey his orders.” He also asked the pardon of Mahasoora and told him, “Because of your killing my guards, half my strength has gone.”Mahasoora asked him not to worry and made all the asuras alive by his stick.”
Indra was pleased with Mahasoora and allowed him to take back Roopakanyaka and the other two deva maidens who tempted his brothers along with him. But Indra forgot the earlier rule that he had made that any one leaving the deva loka along with a deva maiden would be surrounded by fire. So as soon as he reached the earth Mahasoora and Roopakanyaka were surrounded by a great fire.
Meanwhile parents of Mahasoora and his brothers asked a great astrologer about what happened to Mahasoora and why he is not returning. He told them about the danger in which Mahasoora was in. So they went in search of him. There they saw a Rathnamala temple. They left their army outside and went inside the temple. In the temple there was a huge pond of raging fire. There it was written that any one climbing on the temple tower and jumping in the pond of fire would be taken to Patala, where there is a great temple of the Goddess. If anyone reaches there and prays her, she would give them boons to save them or their people from all dangers.
None of them dared to do the act thinking that their life would be in danger and are standing inside the temple and Mahasoora and Roopakanyaka are in the ring of the fire which is nearing them fast.”
Since it was time for Vikramadhithya to stat his sojourn of six month in forest, he entrusted the rule of the kingdom to Bhatti and riding on Vetala reached the Rathnamala temple. He climbed on the temple tower and jumped inside the pond of fire praying Goddess to help him achieve his noble aim of saving Mahasoora. The Goddess there gave him a tablet and asked him to throw it on the raging fire surrounding Mahasoora. That tablet put out the fire and Mahasoora came out along with the three deva maidens safely.
Then Vikramadhithya brought back to life the sages who had earlier given the Sword, Slipper and money bag and asked them to depart from there. Realizing their mistakes they gave back all the magical materials to Vikramadhithya. Vikramadhithya in turn gave them all to Mahasoora. Mahasoora and his brothers lived happily with their new Deva maiden wives. After spending some more time in the forest usefully, Vikramadhithya returned back to his kingdom.
The doll then told, “Oh king Bhoja, this is the greatness of Vikramadhithya who occupied this throne. If you think that you are equal to him, then you can definitely go up. Bhoja returned back that day without further climbing