Yudhishthira, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula, Sahadeva and Draupadi lost their kingdom in a game of dice. They were sent into the forest for twelve years, and for one more year they had to live in hiding. If they were discovered in that last year, they would have to spend another twelve years in the forest. When the time came to hide, they went to the kingdom of Matsya, ruled by King Virata. They took on new names and work. Yudhishthira became a dice player, Bhima a cook, Arjuna a dance teacher, Nakula a horse keeper, Sahadeva a cowherd, and Draupadi a maid to the queen.
Before walking into the city, the brothers stopped. They carried weapons that would give them away at once, like Arjuna’s bow, the Gandiva. Near a cremation ground on the edge of the city, they saw a Vanni tree. Nakula climbed it and tied their bows, swords, quivers and arrows high in its branches, where no rain would reach them. Then they hung a dead body in the tree as well, so that the smell would keep people away. When the herdsmen asked about it, they said it was their mother, hung there by the custom of their forefathers.
The year passed, and they kept their secret. Just as the time ended, Duryodhana and his army marched on Matsya to steal the king’s cattle and draw the brothers out. King Virata was away fighting on another side of the kingdom. The young prince Uttara Kumara had to defend the city. He took Arjuna, dressed as the dance teacher, to drive his chariot. When the prince saw the army waiting for them, he shook with fear and tried to run away. Arjuna stopped him and drove the chariot to the Vanni tree, and told the prince to climb it and bring down the bows. Uttara said a corpse was tied there; Arjuna told him there were only bows in that tree, not corpses. So the prince climbed up and brought the weapons down. Arjuna told the prince his true name. He did puja to the weapons and to the Vanni tree for keeping them safe, and he strung his bow.
With his weapons in hand, Arjuna drove into the battlefield and defeated the army alone. The day he took back his weapons and did puja to them is remembered, and the day of his victory is honoured.
Long before this, as the Devi Bhagavata Purana tells it, the asura king Mahishasura did hard tapas to Brahma ji, and Brahma ji granted him a boon: no god, no asura and no man could kill him. He did not think a woman could have the strength to fight him, so he believed he would never die. Full of pride, he marched on heaven, defeated Indra, and drove all the gods out of their home.
The gods went to Brahma ji, Vishnu ji and Shiv ji. Hearing what the asura had done, a bright light poured from the bodies of the three and all the gods around them. The light gathered into a mountain and took the shape of Durga Maa. To make her ready for battle, the gods gave her their own weapons. Shiv ji gave her a trident drawn from his own, Vishnu ji gave a discus, Varuna gave a conch, Agni gave a flaming dart, Vayu gave a bow and two quivers full of arrows, Indra gave a thunderbolt, Yama gave a staff from his own, and Kala gave a sword and a shining shield. Himavan brought a lion for her to ride.
Durga Maa rode out to meet Mahishasura’s army. In Kerala and the Telugu country it is told that she fought for nine days and killed him on the ninth, and that this is why the day is Maha Navami; the Devi Mahatmya itself gives no count of days. The asura changed his shape again and again: a buffalo, then a lion, then a man, then an elephant, and then a buffalo again. She pressed his neck down with her foot and struck him with her spear; he came half out of his own mouth, and she cut off his head with her great sword. The weapons that helped her win are honoured on this day.
Many years later, in a town in the south, a boy named Kumaraguruparar was born. He could not speak a single word. When he was five years old, his parents took him to the mandir of Lord Murugan at Tiruchendur. Lord Murugan gave the boy his blessing. At once, the child began to speak, and words of poetry poured from him.
He grew into a sadhu and walked to Kashi to build a mutt where he could teach. To get a place for it, he had to speak with the Mughal ruler, the Padshah of Delhi, who spoke Hindustani; Kumaraguruparar knew only Tamil.
Needing help, Kumaraguruparar sang the Sakalakalavalli Malai, a garland of Tamil verses to Saraswati Maa as the mother of all arts and words. Nine verses brought no answer. In the tenth he prayed that even the kings who rule under the white umbrella should bow when they heard his song; then Saraswati Maa made the language clear to him, and he could speak Hindustani.
Then, riding a lion, Kumaraguruparar went before the Padshah, who received him with honour and praise and gave him, as he asked, the place over which a kite was circling. There he built the Kedaranatha temple, the Kedar Ghat and the Kumaraswamy Mutt.
Before the books and tools are left to rest on the altar, a prayer is said to Saraswati Maa, asking her to grant success in all studies.
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