Most of us have heard the popular love stories from mythology and history, like Shiva-Parvati, Radha-Krishna and Ram-Sita, but there is still an abundance of love stories from Hindu cultural antiquity, which remain unknown to most of us. Let us acquaint ourselves with one such story - the story of Anirudh and Usha.
Banasur was the demon king, with a thousand arms. He was the son of Bali, and ruled Sonitpur (present day Assam). He was a devotee of Lord Shiva, who, because of his arrogance, thought he was invincible and asked the lord to give him a chance to fight someone as strong as him. This resulted in Lord Shiva cursing him to be defeated at the hands of Krishna, an avatar of Vishnu.
Usha, Banasur's daughter, was a beautiful princess who had received many marriage proposals over the years, but her father rejected them all and kept her inside Agnigarh.
Agnigarh was an impenetrable fortress, no one had ever managed to get in or out without Banasur's permission. Chitralekha, Usha's best friend, was one of the few people who visited Usha on a daily basis.
One night, Usha dreamt about a man and instantly fell in love with him. The next day she didn't feel like doing anything, she didn't want to eat, she didn't want to sleep, she didn't want to talk to anyone, she just kept thinking about that man she saw in her dream.
Chitralekha noticed her lack of enthusiasm and asked what was troubling her? Usha told her about the man from her dream, from the description given to her, Chitralekha drew him and asked if it looked anything like the man Usha saw in her dream. Usha said he looked exactly like she drew him. Usha them begged Chitralekha to bring that man to her. Chitralekha acceded to her friend's request.
Chitralekha realised that the man Usha saw in her dream was Aniruddh, the son of Pradyumna and Rukmavati, and the grandson of Krishna. Using her supernatural powers she abducted Aniruddh from Krishna's palace and brought him to Usha. When Lord Krishna found out about Aniruddh's abduction, he was furious, and he led his army to Sonitpur and attacked Banasur.
On learning about the advance of Krishna's army, Banasur called on Lord Shiva to help him. Lord Shiva reluctantly helped him by infecting Krishna's army. In turn, Krishna cured his soldiers and struck Lord Shiva with a weapon that put him in deep slumber. After a fierce battle that resulted in many deaths, Banasur fought against Krishna. Krishna kept on chopping off Banasur's arms one by one with his weapon Sudarshana Chakra until only four out of the thousand were left. After awakening from his slumber, Lord Shiva requested Krishna to spare Banasur. Lord Krishna then said'' Prahlad and his descendent, King Bali were devoted to me. I promised Bali that I shall not kill anyone in his family. Therefore I can not kill Bana, but I have arrived to humble him. The four arms that are left will enable him to rule over his kingdom. I have destroyed his army so that the weight of the earth is lessened. I assure Bana that he'll not be killed''. In gratitude, Banasur bowed at the feet of Lord Krishna in humble submission. Usha and Aniruddh were married with the consent of both families and lived the rest of their lives happily.
There are many more versions of the story, and evidence to support that this is not a myth. The fort of Agnigarh still exists and is a famous tourist spot in Tezpur, Assam. If you want more information about this myth, from a different perspective, you can visit this YouTube video. https://mail.google.com/mail/?tab=im
My mother told me this story recently and told me that she heard it from her mother.
Many people are unaware of this story and it is most commonly known in the North-East part of India. For my sister and I, this story was special because it was like a tradition for the mother to tell her daughters this story. I hope I showed you something new and interesting and I will continue to do so.
Lovely story!!