Shiva reaches kingdom of Himavat - Basha Charhal - nachari

Shiva at Himavat's kingdom

Coiled around Shiva’s neck is a hooded Cobra. Cobra is unique as it spreads its hood when alert. Thus, an upraised hood of cobra around Shiva’s neck symbolizes alertness of the mind. When a Cobra is in alert state, it remains still, representing spiritual stillness contrasting to restlessness of nature.

If human body is symmetrically divided into two halves, left and right, the heart is in left half of the body. Heart beats is rhythmic intervals, represents rhythmic nature of the world, as the world changes in rhythmic cycles, rhythmic in form of seasons, tides, phases of moon, etc. Right half of human body is still and silent, representing stillness of spiritual reality and wisdom. Shiva holds damru (drum) in his left hand to seek attention of the monkey mind towards wisdom and spirituality, he holds trident in his right hand, through wisdom, he promises destruction of fear. Fear induced because of ever changing material world. Trident and damru may switch hands or fuse into one, but idea remains the same.

Everyone has been awaiting Shiva’s arrival at Himavat’s kingdom. Finally, he arrives back riding Nandi bull followed by a swarm of Ganas. Devotees of Shiva are delighted at this view and are in eternal bliss. In a short nachari named “Basaha Charhal” (back riding a bull), Vidyapati has captured feelings of devotees rejoicing presence of Shiva. Vidyapati writes, riding a bull arrives the groom of all grooms, Shiva himself. Everything about him is auspicious, auspicious is the ash he has smeared all over his body, auspicious is the garland made of human skulls, and auspicious is the black serpent coiled around his neck with its hood upraised. Auspicious is the damru in his left hand, auspicious is the trishul (trident) in his right hand, and auspicious is the stream of river Ganges flowing down his dreadlocks.

Sighting of Shiva can be blissful to few but intimidating to everyone else. News of Shiva’s arrival reaches Himavat's palace. Parvati’s parents have been waiting to receive a well-groomed prince, but description of Shiva is rather daunting and miles away from being civilized. Paravati’s mother Mena, feels cheated and goes into denial. She cannot imagine marrying her delicate daughter to Shiva.

In another short nachari named “Hum nahi aju rahab ahi aangan” (today I will not live in this patio), Vidyapati has tried to capture denial of Parvati’s mother. In this nachari, Mena threatens to leave the kingdom at once, if anyone dares to marry Parvati to this barbaric hermit. She believes, today she made three enemies, one are the gods who wrote this terrible destiny for such a kind princess, second being Himavat (father of Parvati) to accept marriage proposal of Shiva, and third is the sage Narada, to bring an old man’s marriage proposal for her flower like daughter.

In raging anger, she announces, if Shiva dares to arrive at the doorsteps, she will destroy his damru, break his garland (rundmaal), shoo away his bull and for guests of Shiva, she will make them run for their lives. She will decamp with Parvati to an undisclosed location, and not let her marry a man like Shiva.

Narada muni is a sage who carries enlightening wisdom. He is at constant move, traveling from one location to another, spreading his wisdom around. Being a sage and always on move, he practices a very simplistic lifestyle and has very few belongings. In the name of clothing, he is topless and simply wraps a clean linen around his waist called dhoti, wears wooden sandal called paduka (kharam), carries books (pothi), almanac called panchang, and a pitcher called lota.

Mena is particularly angry with Narada. He has known Paravti and Shiva both, yet he dared to bring such a proposal for her daughter. Narada must not be forgiven for what he has done. Narada tries to explain but she warns him, if he utters a word, she will drag him by his beard, take away his lota, strip him of dhoti, throw away his pothi and panchang. Today he listens. Mena is a worried mother, she cannot be blamed for her behavior either.

In Mithila weddings (maybe true for other wedding rituals), a clay elephant is established in the mandap, on the head of this clay elephant is a clay bowl containing a betel nut. The betel nut represents goddess Gauri riding the elephant, and this entire setup is called Purhar. Since marriage of Shiva and Parvati, girls in Mithila worship Gauri (betel nut) and wish for a husband like Shiva. On the day of marriage, for the last time, a bride worships the betel nut and brings her groom in front of Purhar to get approval and blessings from goddess Gauri.

Mena is so terrified and angry, she wipe cleans aripain (form of rangoli) around mandap, shatters Purhar into bits, and throws away all the glittering deeps (oil lamps). She leads Parvati into a temple and tries to convince her into calling off this wedding.

Mena will ingest poison but not allow the marriage to proceed. Poet Vidyapati feels worried and tries to convince everyone, this relationship is a written destiny of Shiva and Parvati, any resistance is futile, better is to embrace this fact and celebrate this marriage as any other.