ABSTRACT
Nonthuk,1 in the the Thai version of the is a or demon who is to be reborn as Thotsakan.2 According to the he is an attendant of Śiva and his duty is to wash the feet of all sages and divine visitors to the god. Nonthuk performs his duty diligently but receives a reward unsuitable for his efforts. He is always mocked by Śiva’s visitors; some of them find pleasure in patting his head and face; others like to pull his hair on every occasion. This makes him bald and it causes him much shame and anger. He comes to ask for justice from Śiva, saying that his services for the period of ten million years should be rewarded; he asks the god to grant him a diamond finger which will kill anybody at whom it points. Śiva, who is always compassionate and beneficent, consents. The demon who now possesses this magical finger becomes very bold and aggressive, killing all the sages and gods who tease him as they did previously. This agitates Indra very much; he hurriedly goes to seek Śiva’s help; Śiva has to ask to vanquish Nonthuk in order to bring peace back to Heaven. To achieve this, then turns himself into the form of a very beautiful goddess with whom the demon falls in love at first sight. The goddess demands that Nonthuk imitate her dancing or else she will not accept his love. The demon, enchanted by the goddess’s beauty, agrees to do so. The goddess then dances the thep-pha-nom prathom,3 at the end of which she points at her own lap. Nonthuk, unconscious of what he is doing, follows suit. Crippled, he falls to the ground and is trodden on by , now in the form of the god with four hands. The demon is so infuriated to find that he has been tricked by that he mocks the god: ‘You have four hands so you can kill me easily. Why do you have to change yourself into a woman’s form? Are you afraid of my finger?’ , infuriated, decides on another course of action. He answers the demon:
Not at all. I have to disguise myself as a woman in order to kill you because you are destined to be destroyed by your own lust. However, if you are complaining of having only two hands in this birth, I will grant a boon to you so that you will have ten heads and twenty hands in your next birth. And I will be reborn as a human being with only two hands and still kill you.
