Monday, August 24, 2009

Suwanamajcha - Majchanu

Nang Suwanamajcha has a creamy white skin, Concubine of the Monkey general Hanuman, Her torso is Human, and her lowr body part is that of a fish. Suwannamajcha is perhaps one of the earliest depictions of a mermaid, if not the earliest.
Nang Suwanamajcha



As Pra Ram was making his way to Langka with his Vanora army (monkey army), he ordered Hanuman and the monkey soldier Nilapatra to take his soldiers and throw stones into the sea to make a land bridge across the straits to langka. Totsagan ordered his servant Nang Suwanamajcha to take her fish entourage and move the stones that hanuman's army were piling up in the ocean out of the way, in order to make Pra Ram's plan fail. But Hanuman was suspicious as to why the stones didn't seem to be getting any higher no matter how many they threw in, so he dove under the water, where he discovered the schools of fish carrying the stones away, with nang Suwanamajcha in commmand.


Hanuman became angry and pulled out his trident weapon and killed Suwanamajcha. But as soon as Hanuman calmed down he felt sorry for nang Suwanamajcha and revived her, taking her as his wife. Nang Suwanamajcha then ceased to serve totsagan and stopped obstructing the construction of the land bridge to Langka.


Shortly afterwards, she gave birth to a son, whose body was that of a monky, with a fishes tail. The name of this son born of the consummation of nuptials between hanuman and Suwanamajcha was; majchanu. Majcha means fish in pali, and the "anu"
part of his name comes, of course, from his father "Hanuman".

Majchanu