Hermit Chanok Performs a Ceremony
Hermit Chanok performs a ceremony to retrieve Naang Sida and returns to Mithila
Nonthok was reborn as Tosakan, son of Thao Lastian and Naang Ratchada. He became the ruler of Lanka with Naang Montho as chief consort. Having eaten half a lump of divine rice, Naang Montho gave birth to a princess—the avatar of Phra Laksmee and a consort of Phra Narai. Piphek, Tosakan’s younger brother, predicted that the princess would bring ruin to the demon family and ordered that she be placed in a bowl and floated away on the waters.
The bowl floated downstream until it came to rest against the boat landing of hermit Chanok’s ashram. Finding in the bowl a lovely complexioned baby girl, hermit Chanok decided that he would adopt her but until he could do so he buried the bowl with the baby girl in it under a banyan tree and invoked the divines to guard it for him. Miraculously, a lotus flower appeared to receive the bowl with the baby in it.
When it was time for hermit Chanok to end his hermitic life and return to his throne in Mithila, he asked Nai Som to plough up the earth in search of the bowl. Nai Som did so but without success. King Chanok then performed a sacrificial ceremony before ploughing up the earth himself. At last he found the lotus marking the bowl in full bloom and fragrant, and inside the bowl, the baby had grown into a I6-year-old woman, whom he named Naang Sida, meaning a ploughing mark.
Hermit Chanok performing the ploughing ceremony to search for Naang Sida. (right) The procession bringing Naang Sida and King Chanok back to Mithila.