Story of ‘Mother Peacock’ – The Indian Princess Who Fell In Love With Rumi
From my journals - Road to Konya
Another beautiful story of Rumi I heard for the first time was of his Indian lover, also known as peacock mother or Tavis Ana. Once upon a time there was a very beautiful princess in the ancient land of India. One day as she was going somewhere in her Palki (carrier), the wind bought to her a piece of paper, on which was written a very beautiful poem, which immediately captivated her heart. Upon enquiry it was found that the paper came with the camel caravan, coming from Konya, and the poet was Mevlana Rumi. Such intense was the love in poem that she had an instant desire to go and meet Rumi, however her father was strictly against it. In her longing for Rumi, she fell sick and almost in her deathbed. Feeling helpless, her father had no other option but to let her go. She travels for many months and finally reaches the place where Rumi stayed. Without meeting him, she gets a small place near his house and would play songs of love and longing in her rebab. One day as Rumi passed her with his dervishes, he was instantly captivated. He asked his dervishes to go ahead and he went to the house of the princess and spent the night with her. Next day after Rumi had left, no body could find the princess, instead in her place there were lot of peacock feathers. Realizing that the princess has left her body and united with the divine, they took the feathers and made a burial ground for her there, which is still there today.
With many stories and beautiful moments we leave Konya to go further on our journey towards the tomb of another very prominent Saint Hazibektash, and it’s here my calling was once again affirmed.
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