In the lush valleys of Kashmir, where the rivers sang and the mountains whispered secrets to the winds, lived a poor Brahmin named Soda Ram. His days were filled with toil, his nights with the complaints of his ill-tempered wife. One day, weary of his misfortunes, he set off on a pilgrimage, hoping that fate would show him mercy.
As he rested by a quiet spring, a serpent slithered unseen into his bag. When Soda Ram discovered it, a wicked thought crossed his mind. “Let this venomous creature rid me of my troubles,” he muttered, planning to present the bag to his wife in the hope that the serpent would strike her down.
But fate had other plans.
When his wife opened the bag, the serpent did not attack. Instead, before their very eyes, it transformed into a beautiful human boy. Overcome with wonder and perhaps guilt, the couple decided to raise the child as their own. They named him Nagaray, and from the moment he entered their lives, their fortune changed. Their crops flourished, wealth poured in, and their home, once filled with sorrow, became a place of laughter.
Nagaray grew into a young man of wisdom and mystery. One day, he sought a pure spring to bathe in, but Soda Ram warned him that the nearest pool lay within the royal gardens of Princess Himal, the most beautiful maiden in the kingdom. It was heavily guarded, impossible to enter.
But Nagaray was no ordinary man. With a flick of his will, he transformed into a serpent, slithered past the towering gates, and entered the garden unnoticed. As soon as he touched the sacred waters, a strange energy rippled through the pool. Princess Himal, who had been watching from her balcony, rushed down.
When she saw Nagaray standing before her, his face radiant like the morning sun, her heart knew – this was no ordinary trespasser. It was destiny itself that had sent him to her.
“I will marry no man but this one,” she declared to her father, the king.
The king, though taken aback, was wise enough to see the fire in his daughter’s eyes. He agreed to the marriage but made one request – Nagaray must arrive with a wedding procession befitting a prince.
It would have been a challenge for an ordinary man, but Nagaray had magic in his blood. He instructed Soda Ram to drop a small paper into a sacred spring an hour before the wedding. True to his word, when the moment arrived, a grand procession appeared as if conjured from thin air, Golden chariots rolled, jeweled elephants paraded, celestial dancers twirled, and a thousand men sang hymns of joy. The wedding was a sight to behold, and Nagaray and Himal began their new life in a palace by the river.
Far beneath the earth, in the serpent world, Nagaray’s true wives grew restless. Their king had vanished into the human realm, and they would not stand for it.
Disguising themselves, they journeyed to the human kingdom. One posed as a glassware seller, luring Princess Himal to buy her goods. But Nagaray, sensing danger, shattered the delicate glass and forbade his wife from making a purchase.
Another came as a sweeper, whispering doubts into Himal’s ears. “Do you even know who he is?” she sneered. “Test him. If he is truly noble, he will float in water. If not, he will sink.”
Doubt crept into Himal’s heart like a slow poison. She begged Nagaray to take the test. Torn between love and frustration, he relented. He stepped into the waters of a sacred spring and, before her eyes, vanished beneath the surface, returning to his kingdom below.
Princess Himal was devastated beyond words.
For days, she wandered in sorrow, giving alms to the poor, hoping for a sign, anything that would lead her back to her beloved. Then, one evening, an old traveler told her of a strange sight, an army of men emerging from a jungle spring, eating together, and returning to the waters. Their king, he said, always ended the meal with a blessing:
“May this be in the name of foolish Himal.”
Her heart leaped. She had found him.
With newfound hope, Himal journeyed to the spring and called out to her husband. When Nagaray saw her, his heart ached. He warned her, “My wives will never let us be together.”
But love is the most stubborn force in the universe.
To protect her, Nagaray transformed Himal into a pebble and carried her into the serpent kingdom. But deception cannot last forever. The serpent queens discovered her and, in a fit of rage, condemned her to a life of servitude.
Once a princess, Himal now lived as a humble servant. Her duty was simple – boiling milk for the serpent children. But one day, exhausted and distracted, she made a fatal mistake. The boiling milk scalded the children, and they perished.
The serpents were furious. In a rage, they bit Himal, and she collapsed, lifeless.
Nagaray’s grief knew no bounds. He placed her body atop a tree, weeping for his lost love.
One day, a holy man climbed the tree and found Himal’s lifeless body, her beauty untouched by death. Moved by her beauty and sorrowful fate, he prayed to Narayana, and in a divine miracle, she was restored to life. Taking pity on her, the holy man brought her to his home, offering her shelter and care.
Meanwhile, Nagaray, sensing that Himal’s body had vanished, began a desperate search. After days of wandering, he found her at the holy man’s house. Longing to see her but bound by his serpent form, he slithered into her bedroom while she slept and coiled gently around her bedpost, watching over her.
But fate had one last cruel twist to offer.
The holy man’s son, unaware of the serpent’s true nature, saw the coiled figure in the dark and, mistaking it for a threat, drew his knife and struck, slicing the serpent into two. At that very moment, Himal awoke, startled by the commotion. As her eyes adjusted to the dim light, she saw the lifeless body of her beloved Nagaray, severed and still. A heart-wrenching wail escaped her lips as she realized what had happened.
Grief consumed her.
Nagaray’s body was taken to be burned, and as the flames rose, Himal stepped forward, unable to bear life without him. Without hesitation, she threw herself into the funeral pyre, choosing to follow him into death.
But their love was destined to endure beyond mortality.
Watching from the heavens, Lord Shiva and Maa Parvati, touched by their unwavering devotion, intervened. They gathered the lovers’ ashes and resurrected them in the waters of a magical spring, reuniting them for eternity.
And so, Nagaray and Himal’s love, tested by fate and bound by destiny, lived on forever. A tale whispered by the winds, carried by the rivers, and immortalized in the heart of Kashmir.
