Chatting up Shiva’s descendant!

If one can’t have a heart-to-heart with Shiva himself on Mahashivaratri, the best substitute is a conversation with one of his descendants on the auspicious day.

Yes, descendant. For Pragmulji does not like anyone questioning that. Pragmulji who? Pramulji, the erstwhile Maharaja of Kutch who still dreams of statehood for Kutch out of his two palaces - Ranjit Vilas at Bhuj and Vijay Vilas at Mandvi.

Pragmulji, 69, firmly believes he comes from Lord Shiva’s lineage - 182 generations separate him and the Destroyer. One is, however, not sure whether the lineage comes from Ganesha or Kartikeya, the two sons of Shiva and Parvati. Incidentally, he points out, Lord Krishna took an incarnation at a point in the lineage which is 54 generations behind him.

Forget the past, its back to the present. "Yes, it is true Lord Shiva and Lord Krishna are part of my ancestry, but then I bloody well know I do not have proof of that, if someone asks for it," roars Pragmulji. "Even if there was proof which was lying hidden in these palaces, it’s gone after the earthquake."

Meaning Lord Shiva’s descendant has problems in this Kalyug? "I am too small a man before Lord Shiva and Krishna. We are far too much separated in time," he adds on a more humble note.

As he does every Mahashivaratri, Pragmulji went to a Shiva temple during the day. "I go to a place where I feel one with Shiva," he said.

But soon he comes back to more temporal issues - a Kutch that is independent of Gujarat. "I am growing old but I am not giving up that issue as long as I live." 
 

BHARAT DESAI
TIMES NEWS NETWORK