Pattini’s curse

"Oh, I am sleepless. I am enticed by her charming appearance. I yearn to own her. If I do not possess her, I will die in no time," went on thinking King Pandi after seeing the woman named Pattini. He made the palanquin bearers halt on the wayside to make enquiries about her.

"What is her name?" he asked a villager.

"She is called Pattini."

"Is she married?"

"Yes, Your Majesty."

"What is her husband doing?"

"He is a carter who carries hay from the fields to cattle sheds.'

Then the king made all sorts of plans to get Pattini to his side. But the king found that Pattini's response as minimal or reduced to the bottom. Pattini felt hat the king was not given to good mannerisms.

"Would you like to join my harem?" the king toyed with that question in his mind.

"No, I love my husband so much that I cannot afford to leave him even for a single day," was Pattini's response.

The king was angry within himself. He was lecherous to the point that he wanted to get her as a queen consort in the harem, abusing all the powers vested on the kingship. He was pacing up and down thinking of plans to get Pattini somehow or other into his harem. Then entered a vicious thought within him, when the lecherous thoughts reached a climax.

"Can't I kill her husband?"

He got some of his close lackeys to plan up a special scheme to get rid of the husband. The plan was strictly confidential.

The carter was driving the cart with hay from the threshing field. Then all of a sudden some royal courtiers stopped the cart and posed a few questions.

"What are you carrying in this cart?" they asked.

"Can't you see it's only hay?"

"What else do you carry?"

"I have nothing else to carry."

"We need to check your cart."

"By all means."

They pulled out a royal ornament from the hay. It happened to be an anklet known as 'mini salaba' which is worn by the chief queen.

"How come this is in your cart?"

"I don't know."

"You ought to know. You have stolen this from the palace."

"I am not a thief."

"You pose to be innocent, but you have shown that you are a rogue."

"Please do not insult me."

"But you have insulted our palace with theft."

"But I am sure I have not stolen anything."

"Then you can settle the matter before the king."

"Come on, we are going to take you before the king."

Then the royal courtiers having handcuffed the carter ushered him to the royal palace."

"Are you guilty of this offence or not?" Asked king Pandi.

"Not guilty."

"But the royal courtiers have proved that you have lifted the royal anklet."

"It may be that somebody else had done it."

The king looked silent for a moment. Then exclaimed.

"This is a punishable offence. The punishment is..."

The carter was bewildered. But he made the king realize that he is innocent.

"I repeatedly say that I am innocent, Your Majesty."

The punishment imposed was a rigorous one, where he has to be killed. Pattini came to know about the event. She in the first instance, cursed the king, saying:

"Oh you are a disgraceful king who wants to kill my innocent husband. You wanted to get at me by killing my husband. Oh the protective gods of heaven and earth, look forth. You are kind hearted and save my husband from the death..."

Having uttered all these Pattini walked from her house to the palace. The innocent carter felt appearance of her dear wife from a distance. He was on his way to the executioner's block, where he will be flogged. As he was kept ion the executioner's block, the carter fainted off and his breath was no longer heaved.

The king came to know that the carter is dead.

But he wanted to testify it for certain before long. He asked the royal courtiers about it.

"He is already dead."

Then the king saw the wailing and weeping appearance of Pattini. She not only cursed the king, but pleaded all the gods that the life of her husband be brought back. The king appeared before Pattini. She did not answer a single question asked by the king.

"Forget about your husband and enter my harem."

Pattini did not respond to any other question. She made a vow, an act of truth, in front of the onlookers.

"I am a faithful woman. I love my husband much more than anything else in the world. May my vow, the act of truth, bring back my husband to life. May all gods listen to me. May all living beings hear what I say."

The villagers found that quite a number of sicknesses appearing in the households. Mothers were weeping and wailing too on behalf of Pattini, claiming she is a pious and faithful woman.

The soothsayers found that the king has failed to fulfil his royal duties righteously. As a result, an innocent man had been a victim of circumstances. The soothsayers approached the king and uttered what they felt. The king repeated over his error of wicked judgement imposed on the innocent carter.

The lands became arid, the farmers suffered. Sicknesses spread. Pattini went on with her act of truth. The god of gods, Sakra, came to know of the sad event. The humans made various offerings to gods, requesting to help them. Sakra descended to the earth in the guise of an old man. He posed several questions from the onlookers who all said that this was a classic case of misjudgement.

Then the Sakra sprinkled some water on to the body of Pattini's husband. He slowly opened his eyes to look at the face of the wife who was still engrossed in the act of truth.