Wednesday 29 March 2023

Statue of Woman who prayed for ugliness at the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art!

The 13th Century statue of the 6th Century Tamil saint known as Karaikkal Ammaiyar is at the MET, New York.

She was named Punithavathi & was an ardent Shiva devotee from childhood. But she was a perfect wife to her materialist husband. Once her husband gave her two mangoes to be kept for his lunch & went out. A hungry Shiva devotee arrived & asked her for food. She gave him one mango. 

When the husband came home, she gave him the other. When he asked for the second, she went to the Puja room & prayed & got another & gave it to her husband. It was far more tastier than the first. The husband became suspicious & asked for another. She prayed again & got another but as her husband was about to take it from her hand, it vanished right in front of his eyes. His disbelief also vanished & he realised that his wife was no ordinary woman & he could not treat her as wife. He saluted her, went away & married again.

Punithavathi, still youthful & beautiful, prayed to Lord Shiva to take away her charms, as she had no husband to enjoy them. He turned her into an aged crone & she spent the rest of her life praying to & worshipping Shiva.

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