R, narrated to me a remarkable tale that with her due acquiscience I present. Some details are left out due to the directive of the narrator. molArAm was a remarkable man from the realm of pradyumna shAh deva. He was a renowned artist, a poet, a diplomat and a shAkta upAsaka of a high order. It is said that he acquired the vidyAs of the dasha mahAvidyA of whom he was a great worshipper (especially of bagalAmukhI, ugra-tArA and ChinnamastA). He apparently was secretly a student of a mysterious tantric of the vAmAchAra path, who was a brahmin known as shyAmol rAm, with the initiate name muNDamAlininAtha.
He it is said lived in alone in a house in the forest along with his dUtI close to an obscure spot known as shambulA-mokSha tIrtha on slopes of the near the shrine of chinnamastA in Chintapurni. shambulA was a pious woman who was the wife of the diseased brahmin shrotrasena. She was one day being borne away by a dAnava, when she worshipped indra, even as apAla AtreyI had done. Pleased with her devotion, indra slew the dAnava with an arrow. The arrow having pierced the demon entered the ground and created a stream. Here, he instructed shambulA to bring her husband and bathe him. He was duely relieved of his disease by the grace of the thunderer. Over the ages this tIrtha has largely been forgotten, but shyAmol rAm sincerely offered his rahasya tarpaNa-s there.
R’s ancestor was a yajurvedic dIkShita, who was apparently returning to his home from the Uttaranchal region, and he was in the vicinity of the Monkey fort, when he got the news of the invasion of the gUrkhAs. gUrkhAs was marching with utmost ferocity and were ravaging the land, when R’s ancestor took shelter in the temporary hut where shyAmol rAm was residing. A few gurkhA’s it is said surrounded the shyAmol rAm and began taunting him. He cast a spell of dhUmAvatI on them and they were terrified and retreated. But wanting to deal with shyAmol rAm futher they came with reinforcements. But before they could reach him the gorkhA capital was attacked by the Chinese invasionary force and they were forced to retreat. Many felt it was due to shyAmol rAm’s siddhi. Later it is said that the British official Malcolm Gardner wanted to find a Moslem brigand and approached shyAmol rAm humbly. He using a dUradR^iShTi prayoga pointed to where the turushka was hiding and he was duely captured and killed. He also saved molA rAm during the renewed gUrkhA attack when they killed pradyumna shAh, his patron.
shyAmol rAm it is said had made many artistic clay idols of shiva and umA and placed them around his house in the forest in little shrines. They were all worshiped regularly by people who would come to see him. He was a vAmAchArin, who possessed the vidyAs of certain tantras such as the pheTkAriNi tantra, the muNDamAla tantra, the akShobaya tantra and the hayagrIva tantra. R’s ancestor acquired several shAkta prayogas from him. His most important sAdhAnas were those of chinnamastA in the mahAvidyA series and vArAhI-vajrayoginI.
mAnasa-taraMgiNI 