The shrine of Harati Ajima is just next to the Swayambhu Mahachaitya and she resides there as guard of the Chaitya and protector of childrens facing . The temple dedicated to Harati Ajima is often called as " Ratna pith" where there is a beautiful image of Harati Ajima holding her 6 children on her back, shoulder, and lap.
According to one of the popular folklore, Harati Ajima is said to be 'Yakshini' who used to kidnap childrens. She had 500 childrens and she was a worker of Kuber. She used to kidnap human children, kill them and feed her children. On the other side, people started worrying because lots of children were lost. Therefore, they went to the Gautam Buddha and asked if he could help in anyway. Buddha meditated and saw that a Yakshini was kidnapping and killing the children. The Buddha said not to worry to the people. The very next day, Buddha went to the house of Harati, and picked up her favorite child ( somewhere its mentioned Priyankar and somewhere its mentioned Anandaa) and he came back with her child. Buddha then kept her child in his rice bowl and covered it and started meditating. When Harati came back, she couldn't find her favorite one and she started to search everywhere she could. Finally having no option left, she went to Buddha for help. She bowed down and cried very hard in front of Buddha to help her. Buddha gave a lot of examples and made her realize about her mistakes. She regretted for what she did and she promised that she would always be under the rules of Buddha and she also became one of the disciple of Buddha.
Another folk story further explains that once she realized, she promised to be under the rule of Buddha but then she said to the Buddha that she wouldn't be able to change her children as they are already habituated to " human flesh". Buddha then let her choose her favorite 6 children and rest of them were covered by a mandala which is in front of her temple today. This is how she turned into a goddess from human eater.
Today she holds 6 childrens along with her who are named as Dhana Bhaaju, Dhana Meju, Waasim Bhaaju, Waasim Meju, Jilam Bhaaju and Jilam Meju.
Harati Ajima is also called as " Maaju" with high honor which literally means " Mother-in-law" but symbolically it means someone who has gone through a lot of obstacles and who has practicle knowledge of doing a lot of thing. She is often called as " Maha Yakshini" because of her self dedication to change herself completely from what she was.
The statue of Harati Ajima was completely destroyed once during the regime of king Ranabahadur Shah. It is said that an epidemic disease " Chicken pox" spread throughout the valley and it killed a lot of children. Then king Ranabahadur Shah had 4 queens and the youngest of all was his beloved one . He had one son from the young queen named " Givaarna Yuddha Bikram Shah ". The king ordered a lot of people to leave the place with the fear that chicken pox might transfer to his queen and son.
When his queen also suffered from the chicken pox and queen died, he went to Swayambhu and ordered to lift the statue of Harati Ajima and he destroyed the statue and ordered to throw away. Legend says that when he was destroying the statue, it cried out loud and it is also said that the statue was thrown near to Vishnumati river in Karna Deep ( a cremeation center). He furthermore destroyed a lot of statues and when he went to destroy the doors of " Shantipur" shrine he lost his vision of one eye and fainted there. Later, he apologized and established new statue of Harati Ajima in the temple and he started a new tradition of offering gold coin once a year in Shantipur and perform " Chyamaa Puja " every year as an apology for what he did. The tradition of Chyamaa puja is still continued but gold coins are not offered these days but instead brought for the ritual and is taken back again by the guthi sansthan .
It is believed that Harati Ajima protects one's child since it is in a womb as fetus. She is also called as the 2nd living goddess and it is believed that she posses human's body and heals the people in the form of " Dya Maa/ Dya Baa". Lots of rituals are performed in front of Harati Ajima and she was been worshipped as a highly respected deity by the natives of Kathmandu Valley.
Notes :
1. Yakshini or Yaksha are said to be human alike beings but with different feature and powers. They are often also referred as " Mortal Gods" or " Spiritual Gods".
2.Dyaa Maa/ Dya Baa is the native term for those humans whose body is posessed by Harati Ajima or any supernatural power.
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