Singhasan Battisi – Vikramaditya’s Palace – {Ep.221} – Stories From India Podcast

Today’s story is from the Singhasan Battisi. It’s about a vague prediction about future prosperity which leads Vikramaditya to construct a massive palace, and then give it all away. But while it all works out for him, Raja Bhoja doesn’t have as much luck as he continues his ascent towards Vikramaditya’s throne

Welcome to “Stories From India”. This is a podcast that will take you on a journey through the rich mythology, folklore and history of the Indian subcontinent. I am Narada Muni, the celestial storyteller and the original “time lord”. With my ability to travel through space and time, I can bring you fascinating stories from the past, the present, and the future. From the epic tales of the Mahabharata and Ramayana to the folktales of the Panchatantra to stories of Akbar-Birbal and Tenali Raman, I have a story for every occasion.

The purpose of the stories is neither to pass judgment nor to indoctrinate. My goal is only to share these stories with people who may not have heard them before and to make them more entertaining for those who have.

Today’s Story

Today we’re back to the Singhasan Battisi by popular demand. The Singhasan Battisi is a series of 32 stories, all of them centered around Raja Bhoja’s attempt to sit on the throne of King Vikramaditya. So far, we’ve done four of these episodes. The first was Episode 124, which had the framing narrative and then we covered some stories in Episode 136 and Episode 164 and Episode 188. Let’s do a brief recap of the framing story, after which we’ll cover another one of the 32 stories. 

The framing story begins with Raja Bhoj. Bhoj appeared on the scene several centuries after Vikramaditya had passed on. Vikramaditya was an immensely popular King. It wasn’t just because of the Vikram and Betaal stories, some of which we have covered on the show. 

Vikramaditya was very popular. During Bhoj’s time, you could pick up any celebrity magazine, comic book, murder mystery, romance or even just a philosophical essay. Chances are, there would be a reference to Vikramaditya in there!

Vikramaditya was a legend, and that spurred public interest in the location of his throne, which had gone missing. There were bounty hunters and archeologists of the likes of Indiana Jones and Lara Croft, who wanted nothing more than to find this throne and they searched with a passion not unlike that of the real historical searches for the holy grail or the ark of the covenant.

Vikramaditya had received this throne as a gift from Indra, who was the King of the Devs and the ruler of Swarg, or heaven. 

The person who found it was just an ordinary farmer in Bhoj’s Kingdom. Raja Bhoj observed the farmer’s sudden change of behavior when in the vicinity of a particular hill. So Bhoj had this strange mind-altering hill dug up. And that’s where the Throne was found.

Looking at the throne set off a bunch of new ideas in Bhoj’s head. He had been a good King, but a pretty average one so far. Now, by sitting on Vikramaditya’s throne, he might inherit some of the powers and become a famous king himself! Bhoja’s people cleaned the throne and prepared it for him. And they built up an entire palace around it. Even average Kings were rich, so spending all that taxpayer money on a new and unnecessary palace was not really a problem. The builders had constructed 32 stairs leading up to the throne, to match the 32 Apsara idols on its sides. 

When Bhoj climbed a step, one of the idols flew out of the throne. It hovered in the air near Bhoj and presented him with a challenge. He could sit on the throne, but only if he honestly felt he was worthy of it.

The idol told him a story. And asked him a True/False question. Bhoj needed to provide a sincere reply. That was absolutely necessary. The Apsara Idol had an AI-powered lie detection module, so she could be sure whether or not he was telling the truth. Bhoj answered and the idol flew away because Bhoj’s answer didn’t match Vik’s action. The throne looked just as pretty with 31 idols instead of 32, so the King didn’t worry at that stage. But then the same thing with the next idol and so on and so forth.

Today we’ll hear another such story.

Apsara number 4 hovered in the air near Bhoja. 

“Hey buddy” she said. “So you already know the drill so let’s get straight to the story shall we?”

Bhoja said that he knew the drill, yes. But he was curious where all the previous Apsaras were headed to, after telling Bhoja their stories.

“We don’t have time for that now,” the Apsara replied, “ask the next Apsara or wait for the end”

She began her story.

Vikramaditya, or Vik as I shall call him, was holding court. There was the usual long line of people there to meet him. You know people who wanted handouts, people who wanted him to kiss their babies, or cut an inaugurative ribbon. Back then they’d bring a representative ribbon to the King to have him cut it, instead of having him visit the road or bridge or sports arena that he was inaugurating.

One person in that queue had a different purpose. He claimed to be a scholar. And he looked the type. And not just a scholar. He said he could predict the future! 

The Security folks at the screening gate decided to test him. They asked him if it would rain tomorrow.

He said “It might. Or it might not”

Which was good enough for the security folks so they let him in.

The Scholar told Vik that he had done a careful study of all the stars in the Sky, and he had a very important message for the King. It concerned the wellbeing of all the population. All of the Kingdom’s citizens could become richer, suddenly. Imagine a windfall in every home in the Kingdom. That was possible! And predicted by the faint movement of stars in the sky. All that was needed was a tiny initial investment.

“Let me guess,” Vikram said. “There’s a prince in Nigeria who has a lot of money tucked away and is ready to share it with us if we each pay him a tiny transfer fee?”

“No your majesty, that one is a scam! Don’t send him any money. They just keep asking for fee after fee promising it’s the last one. This is different. The only investment that is needed here is a new palace.”

The minister for construction told Vikram that he wasn’t sure about this. They had just constructed two new palaces. And there wasn’t really a need for a new one. They’d have to find land, displace some farms. Was it really going to be worth it?

The finance minister chimed in that he was skeptical about everyone getting the same amount of money. He’d much rather prefer to have the money be distributed to the sections of the population that needed it most. It’s also not clear that 

Vikram’s Propaganda minister however felt that this was a great move! Imagine the many different ways they could spin this!

Vikram gave the green light to the project, because to him, a movement in the stars had to be a sign from the gods. A sign he must follow. And a palace wasn’t really that big of a deal.

Well it was a big deal, even if Vik didn’t think it was. Maybe he thought that the farmers toiling in the fields would be thrilled at the prospect of their hard earned money being taxed to create a palace filled with every bit of extravagance. It wasn’t like he could sleep in everyone of the 50 bedrooms all at once, or that he could dine in any of the 20 dining rooms simultaneously. And maybe having a separate room to store his shoes and another one to wear them in was a bit of an excess. And the decorations were incredibly expensive. It’s as if they took every precious gem in the treasury, coated it with gold leaf and sprinkled it with diamond dust for good measure.

The Finance minister wondered if it wouldn’t have been simpler to just give all this money to the people directly? But he didn’t say anything.

Vikram went to the palace for its inauguration instead of just cutting the ribbon from the comfort of his current palace. But this departure from protocol was perfectly reasonable considering this was the palace he was going to move into and run court from.

He had just cut the ribbon and was looking admiringly at the marvelous building. That’s when a scholar walked up to him. This was a different scholar, but given the timing and nature of his request to the King, some suspicious minds suspected him of being in cahoots with the first scholar. Because he asked for the King’s help in finding him a new home. The current one is no larger than a shoebox, he claimed. And the roof leaks. There’s no indoor plumbing.

The King’s personal secretary tried to explain that these are things that the scholar ought to have taken into account when buying his property, or when he was constructing it. And everyone else in the Kingdom was maintaining their own stuff, so why couldn’t he? Look at hte King for example. He had guaranteed that his home was going to be larger than a shoebox, and you could bet the roof wasn’t going to leak, and there was two dozen bathrooms.

Vikram heard all this and was appalled. That wasn’t the way his secretary ought to treat the poor and the needy. So Vik decided to demonstrate the appropriate response. By offering his new palace as a gift.

New scholar was shocked. He had expected a handout or something. But this was amazing! He’d be richer than everyone in his handout club. Except for the guy who used to live in the next street. That guy had received some neighboring Kingdom and was ruling it now.

The scholar and his wife moved in that very night.

Vik’s reaction shocked his cabinet. The minister for propaganda wanted to resign – he just could not see a way to put a positive spin on this. And he was disappointed, he had been looking forward to trying the lazy river that was cleverly built inside the palace.

If you think the scholar and his wife slept soundly in their new palace you’d be wrong. It wasn’t that the palace lacked any type of comfort. It also wasn’t the excitement of owning such an amazing property that kept them up. They couldn’t sleep because of the scare they had in the middle of the night. You see they were scared, but they need not have been. Because the light and sounds they heard were from the Goddess Lakshmi. She’s the Goddess of Wealth. She appeared in the palace to ask the occupants for a wish. Any wish.

The Scholar, for all his dedication to his life of teaching people about Gods and Goddesses, didn’t recognize a genuine signal of divine intervention when it stared him in the face. He thought the palace was haunted. They hid under the bed covers for the rest of the night, trembling with fright.

When morning came, the scholar and his wife packed up their bags. They went back to Vikramaditya and expressed that they’d like to return the palace to him.

The secretary, who was still bitter, asked “Why? Are the silk bed clothes and gold furniture not up to your standards? Or is it that it doesn’t have a cricket stadium within its walls?”

The scholar replied that that was not it. He genuinely and a little desperately wanted to return the palace because he had realized that this was too much extravagance for him. As a scholar he was supposed to live a more modest life.

That was the official line the Scholar and his wife had agreed to take. If they said it was haunted, they would lose the palace for sure, but they would be laughed at.

Vikram didn’t think it was appropriate for him to accept the palace as a gift. Long ago, he had learnt a hard lesson from receiving all these pieces of fruit from a different scholar who secretly wanted to kill him. That was in a different series – the Vikram and Betaal stories. Anyway, he couldn’t accept the palace as a gift, but hey – he could buy it from the scholar. That seemed like an acceptable solution to all. So that’s what they did.

The finance minister rolled his eyes wondering why they hadn’t just given the scholar a little money at the beginning.

So Vikram moved in that very night. Again in the middle of the night, Lakshmi appeared. Vikram did recognize the signs however. He went right up to where Lakshmi stood, and prayed to her.

Lakshmi was pleased by this reaction. She had not expected the couple the previous night to be scared out of their wits. Anyway, the reason she was here was the movement of the stars. Turns out the first scholar had been exactly right. Because this palace was constructed in a very specific way and at a very specific time to coincide with the movement of the stars, Lakshmi had appeared and was ready to grant the occupants a wish. Any wish. Vikram could ask for their treasury to be full of precious stones, or just cool cash and coins. Not digital yet though, that form of money would have to wait a couple of millenia.

Vikram didn’t know what “digital” even meant, but he said he didn’t want any of the money for himself. All he wanted was for each person in his Kingdom to receive money. Not an equal amount. Maybe slightly more for the ones at the bottom of the poverty scale. See, his finance minister had compiled a spreadsheet and he could just give that to Lakshmi if that made her work easier. 

Indeed it would, Lakshmi agreed. So Vikram fetched the large sheet of cloth which his finance minister had drawn tables showing how much each household needed to receive to make it fair to everyone. That sheet had been spread out in the grand ballroom hence the name spreadsheet. It’s not that the finance minister had been expecting Lakshmi to visit. It had just been a thought experiment.

It worked. Lakshmi snapped her fingers and the money became available to everyone instantly.

She also appreciated Vikram for thinking of his people rather than of himself.

The Apsara concluded her story, and asked the King her question. Did Bhoja think he could have done what Vikram did in that situation? He must answer genuinely because she had the AI-based lie detector just like her predecessors.

Bhoja confessed that no. He couldn’t see himself constructing a massive palace on a small whim, even though as he said this he stood in a palace that had been constructed just to house Vikramaditya’s throne. He also said that he definitely wouldn’t have gifted such a massive investment to any person who asked for a handout. Not to criticize Vikramaditya or anything,  but that felt a little rash to Bhoja.

Well there you have it then, the Apsara said waved bye and flew off.

Bhoja shouted after the departing idol. She hadn’t answered his question about where they were all going. But it was too late. She was out of earshot.

He turned around and looked at the throne, it was another apsara short. He sighed and lifted his foot to take the next step.

That’s all for now

Some notes on the show

Previous Singhasan Battisi stories start with Raja Bhoja’s backstory in Episode 124. Other stories include Episode 136 and Episode 164 and Episode 188.

The throne was made by King Indra, gifted to Vikramaditya. It augmented many of the King’s powers.

But Vik was smart in applying logic in solving a series of problems he had faced earlier in his career. Those problems were really case studies posed to him by a Betaal whom he was trying to capture. The reference to the scholar who gifted Vikram all the fruits is from those stories as well. Check the links in the show notes and on the site sfipodcast.com for links to the Vikram Betaal and Singhasan Battisi stories.

That’s all for now. 

Next Time

In the next episode, we’ll cover a story from history – it’s about the 11th century Philosopher and Guru Ramanuja.

Feedback

Thank you all for the comments on Social Media and on Spotify’s Q&A! I can’t directly reply to the questions there, but I’ll address them here on this show.

Hariprasad, I’ll get to the Ramanuja episode in the next few weeks.

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The music is from Purple Planet.

Thanks for listening and I’ll see you next time!