Monday, September 17, 2012

Chintamani-Not just a name!!

Although our town is named after a Maratha king Chintamani Rao(son of Ambaji Rao), Chintamani is also a name of a stone that is believed to have mystic power. CC presents you some interesting write up on this mysterious stone called Chintamani.                  
 It is believed that the great sailer Marco Polo travelled miles in search of the Chintamani Stone.
Chintamani is a legendary mystic stone from the epics of Mahabharata. Here is an interesting story about the Chintamani stone.
A huge Chintamani Stone was found in China. Here is the link


Chintamani is also a  legendary story of a Sanskrit poet and devotee of Lord Krishna named Bilwamangal. Bilwamangal, a resident of Varanasi, was a Sanskrit scholar, who gets infatuated towards a courtesan called Chintamani. As a result he deserts his wife. However, Chintamani is an ardent devotee of Lord Krishna  and spends most of her time singing bhajans in praise of Lord Krishna. His attraction towards Chintamani eventually draws Bilwamangal closer towards Lord Krishna and transforms his life forever. Bilwangal, himself, becomes a devotee of Lord Krishna and pens a monumental Sanskrit work Sri Krishna Karnamritam. A Telugu movie starred by iconic actor  of yester years NTR was made in the year 1956 titled "Chintamani" click here based on the same story.

Here is one more story from the epics in which Lord Ganesha turns into a Chintamani Stone with mysic power.
Ganesha becomes Chintamani

There is a Karnatic Raaga with the name 'Chintamani' which is rarely sung by the musicians these days. Listen to this Shyama Shastry's Kriti in Chintamani Raaga sung by legendary singer M.S.Subbalakshmi.