Three lions lived in the medieval town of Bungamati. Strangely, these lions didn’t eat the people there but instead two of them guarded the Machhendranth Bahal premises, and the third lion wandered around the alleys of Bungamati. The wandering lion had special black magic powers. Once, a disease spread in Bungamati, which inflicted almost every household. The Vaidyas (physicians of that time) couldn’t cure the disease neither could find out the cause. Days passed and many people succumbed to the mysterious disease and died. A wise man of Bungamati then went to a tantric yogi to seek help. The tantric used his powers and discovered that the wandering lion had used his black magic power to spread the disease as he was angry with the inhabitants of Bungamati for not cleaning the sewage for a very long time.

After knowing the reason, people started to clean the sewage, houses and surroundings. The disease stopped spreading and gradually they got cured as well. Fearing the lion would again put such spell on people again, they caught the lion and buried it on the ground so that the lion couldn’t roam around the village. Even to this day, offerings are made to that lion whenever someone has stomach ailment. The people in Bungamati call that lion ‘Punahaima simha’ meaning a black magic lion.