Mānamānikā
Mānamānikā
Mānamānikā is the wife of a purohita and the dear friend of Queen Candramukhī. Lomaśa Maharshi tells Devakī her account, and Śrī Kṛshṇa tells it to Yudhishṭhira with the Muktābharaṇa Saptamī vrata. She kept the vrata of Bhagavān Śiva and Bhagavatī Pārvatī with bhakti, and in a later birth, as Bhūshaṇā, she gave her friend half of its puṇya.
In Ayodhyā
In Ayodhyā, Candramukhī, chief queen of King Nahusha, had great affection for Mānamānikā, the wife of the king’s purohita. One day the two went to bathe on the bank of the Sarayū and saw the women of the city do the pūjā of Śiva and Pārvatī in a maṇḍala and tie a thread of gold on the hand. The two resolved to keep the vrata too, and kept it by niyama. Candramukhī forgot it; Mānamānikā’s vrata too was broken, at the end, and at death she became a kukkuṭī (a hen), while Candramukhī became a female monkey. In that birth their friendship and the memory of their former birth remained.
As Bhūshaṇā
Mānamānikā, the wife of the purohita Agnimīla, was born again as Bhūshaṇā, wife of the purohita of King Pṛthvīnātha of Mālava, whose chief queen Īśvarī was Candramukhī reborn. Bhūshaṇā knew her former births and had eight excellent sons. When Īśvarī’s only son died in his ninth year, Bhūshaṇā came, herself grieved, to comfort her. Envy arose in Īśvarī at the sight of Bhūshaṇā’s sons, and little by little she had them all killed; but by the grace of Bhagavān Śaṅkara they rose up alive again.
Īśvarī asked her what puṇya revived her sons and made her radiant without pearls or ornaments. Bhūshaṇā told her of the Muktābharaṇa Saptamī vrata, and said: “We took up this vrata together, but through carelessness you gave it up. That is why your son was lost. I kept the vrata with bhakti, and so I am happy in every way.” Her own vrata had broken at the end, and so she had been a hen for one birth. Then she said: “Friend, I give you half of the puṇya of the vrata I have kept. By this all your sorrows will go,” and she gave half its fruit to Īśvarī. By its power many long-lived sons were born to Īśvarī.
Sources
- Bhavishya Purāṇa, Uttara Parva, Chapter 46