Puranas – Harishchandra – {Ep.254}

Today’s story is about Raja Harishchandra and Vishwamitra, about how the King stuck with his moral principles, regardless of what it cost his family, his subjects, and himself

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

In this episode, we’re talking about Raja Harishchandra. Now before I begin I have to tell you there are multiple versions of the story of this famous King. I’ll pick the most famous version, the one from the Puranas. But there is enough of a difference that in future I might cover some of the other stories too.

Let’s jump in.

“Help, help!” came a woman’s scream across the dark forest. Raja Harishchandra of Ayodhya paused his hunting and began to wonder what was going on here. Was this a trap? Very likely. He remembered stories of previous Kings who had disappeared in mysterious circumstances on hunting trips. What might the newspaper headlines be the next day? “Raja Harishchandra – Wilderness Wandering turns into Regal Ridicule.” But on the other hand, the newspaper headlines might just as well be “Kleptocrat King ignores damsel in distress, hunts innocent deer instead”

So he turned his horse around and dashed in the direction of the voice, hoping that it wasn’t a trap.

It was a trap. But it wasn’t a trap set for him. It was Vighnaraja, the Lord of Obstacles. True to his title, Vighnaraja could create or remove obstacles. And right now he was trying to create an obstacle for Vishwamitra, who was meditating nearby. If you’ve never heard about Vishwamitra before, let me explain. Vishwamitra is one of the Brahmarishis – the upper crust of all the wise men out there. Back in Episode 15, we covered the story of how he changed from being a King to being a Rishi. He may have become one of the wisest people around but that didn’t mean he had a good handle on his temper.

Vighnaraja’s mission was to disturb Vishwamitra in his meditation so that he’d have to start all over again. That’s what prompted the fake cries of help. Now when Vighnaraja saw Raja Harishchandra arrive chasing after the fake disembodied voice, he had an idea. Now that there was another person on the scene, Vighnaraja could disturb Vishwamitra and get away with it. None of Vishwamitra’s subsequent ire need fall on himself. Vighnaraja entered Harishchandra’s mind and navigated him straight towards where Vishwamitra sat deep in thought, meditating. Controlling Harishchandra’s mind meant that he could also make Harishchandra do all kinds of things. Like shouting at Vishwamitra, pulling his beard, scratching his tickling his toes – you know standard stuff from Rishi Disturbance 101.

Vishwamitra was uncharacteristically patient. For all of 2 seconds. Then he flew into a rage. 

“Who disturbs my meditation?” he thundered. That was the cue for Vighnaraja to quickly exit Harishchandra’s mind, do a little victory dance, without being seen of course, and move on to the next meditating Rishi that needed to be disturbed.

But that meant Harishchandra was left puzzled. “What, what, what?” he exclaimed. And to drive the point home he added ”what?”

And then seeing Vishwamitra purple in the face, what recently transpired came rushing back to him. And it shocked him. “Gurudev, I’m deeply sorry. I didn’t mean to disturb you. I don’t know what came over me. I had an out of body experience. It was like someone else was controlling me and I was on the side and I couldn’t do anything to stop me”

“Out of body? You must be out of your mind! Haven’t you been taught to respect your superiors? This is what comes of nepotism, sheesh! Apology not accepted”

If there’s one Rishi that you don’t want to anger, that is a bit of a toss up really. 5 out of 10 Kings I polled on this topic said Durvasa. 4 others said Vishwamitra, and 1 of them said “I’m not answering this poll on the grounds that the terms and conditions do not guarantee confidentiality.”

What the poll does not easily demonstrate is that Durvasa can be arbitrary and mean and petty even when he’s not angry. So even though I said it was a toss up between the two, you definitely want to avoid getting on the wrong side of Durvasa. If you see him coming your way, you could take a chance and cross to the other side of the street. But he’ll likely curse you for that too. Or for apologizing too much.

Vishwamitra can get really angry but he’s not usually petty like Durvasa. Unfortunately for Harishchandra, today was the exception. Vishwamitra pulled a Durvasa on Harishchandra. In response to the King’s question on how he could get Vishwamitra to forgive him, the Rishi demanded everything Harishchandra owned.

Well, now that Harishchandra made this promise he had to stick to his word. He tried asking Vishwamitra who would be running the Kingdom. After all, his people wouldn’t get to tax themselves. And besides, who would swim in the royal treasury like Scrooge McDuck?

But Vishwamitra asked the now ex-King to run along and return Vishmitra’s horse to his stable, put all the expensive hunting equipment back and to vacate the palace ASAP.

Harishchandra didn’t know what ASAP was but from the tone he decided to obey the Rishi as soon as possible.

When Harishchandra went back and told his wife and son that he was abdicating, their reaction was not what he expected. They were thrilled! Taramati clasped her hands with glee, and Rohitashva thanked his father graciously and said what an honor it was to ascend to the throne at such a young age, and that he’d do his best to live up to the standards Harishchandra had set. 

“Wait a minute, timeout. That’s not what I meant.” Taramati was already throwing confetti around. And unless Harishchandra put a stop to this, Vishwamitra would be displeased with the state of his new palace.

He explained the whole story to them and this time their reaction was a lot more subdued. Rohitashva wondered if that meant they would have to pay taxes. 

“Not to Vishwamitra,” we’re moving to Kashi. “Pretty sure I won’t be able to get a job here, and worst case Kashi is full of pious people, there will be some generous souls there.”

“Well then, hadn’t you better get going, right now?” Vishwamitra’s voice came from the open doorway. “You’re dirtying my palace with just your presence”

Harishchandra, Taramati and Rohitashva didn’t say a word. They quietly got up and started walking away. And that brought out the Durvasa streak in Vishwamitra even more.

“Wait a minute,” he said. “You have to pay me extra rent for overstaying in this palace.”

Harishchandra did not lose his cool. He calmly asked the Rishi what he would like.

“3 thousand rupees, right now. The longer you take to pay me, the more it will cost you. 32.99% compounded weekly. Sign here,” and he brought out stamp paper, a quill and a pot of ink for Harishchandra. 

Those were loan shark rates and Harishchandra should ideally have explored getting a personal loan from a bank to pay off Vishwamitra’s ridiculous rates. Given Harishchandra’s excellent connections, that would not have been difficult. But Harishchandra was sure that, given that Vishwamitra owned the banks now, they would not do business with him. He shrugged and signed. Interestingly there was no “or else” part of the agreement. Harishchandra would have to pay Vishwamitra by hook or by crook.

It didn’t matter. The family’s luck might turn in Kashi. 

As it turned out, the family’s luck certainly didn’t turn on the way to Kashi. Because they encountered robbers, wild animals, a flood, a drought, a stampede, an earthquake, and illness. But they did make it through all of that to Kashi. And when they got there, their clothing was reduced to rags and their shoes were long gone. Rohitashva looked a little grumpy. Not because of all the dangers they had encountered on their journey, but because he couldn’t even earn a reward on his bingo card. He had all the boxes filled out except the one for hurricane and another for being in a war.

Taramati consoled him. “It’s okay. Look, we’ve reached Kashi. Like Daddy said, this town is full of generous, pious people. I bet the first person we meet will welcome us into their home, give us food and water, maybe even some new clothes and shoes.” 

But the first person they met did not welcome them, they were not offered food, water, or clothes. Because the first person the family met there was Vishwamitra.

“You took a long time getting here,” he said. “I got here last week on the finest chariots in my new kingdom.”

Harishchandra didn’t say anything. Though he wondered who was minding the shop, if Vishwamitra was here.

Vishwamitra asked. “So how about the money that you owe me the day after tomorrow, eh?”

“I have more than two days, it’s not yet the end of the month,” Harishchandra said.

“Oh is that so? Well I’ll have you know – Kashi is in a different time zone and different date zone from Ayodhya.”

“No it’s not,” Taramati protested. “And there’s no such thing as a date zone. You’re just making it up”

But she was wrong and she was right. There was such a thing as a date zone, and Vishwamitra had made it up. Vishwamitra had changed the official time zone and calendar in Ayodhya just so as to speed up the timeline.

Harishchandra quietly agreed.

A royal family who until recently had slept on comfortable mattresses and sheets with 600+ thread count, was sleeping on the street that night. Things were no better the next morning. There were several job interviews but Harishchandra did not find a job anywhere. Most recruiters screened him out for not having a resume or a linkedin profile. Others thought his claim of past experience as a King was an outright lie. And even if some others believed him, they didn’t think he had the technical skills to succeed in the cookhouse, or in the quarry or the construction business. There were enough managers around already. Only one workplace seemed like an ideal fit. It was a desk job, with lots of paper pushing involved so he could absolutely do it. Except. When he walked in, he saw the hiring manager chatting with Vishwamitra. 

Silently, Harishchandra walked out. The entire day was a washout. The next day promised to be no better. And the only way out was the one Taramati insisted on. He must sell her as a slave. A rich merchant may offer enough money to pay off Vishwamitra and then he could find a job and buy her freedom again!

It shows the level of desperation that this family had reached that Harishchandra agreed after only an hour of arguing against it.

The next day, they entered the market for slaves, all of them scanning people’s faces, dreading Vishwamitra might show up.

But he didn’t. And the sale went through quietly. But the proceeds, minus sales tax, govt recording tax, slaves welfare fund, Kashi park bench association resulted in only about 2/3rds of what they owed Vishwamitra.

Harishchandra struggled to find a way to make this money grow overnight. And then the solution came to him in an unpleasant, gut wrenching way. As Taramati was being led away by her new merchant master to slave away in his kitchen, Rohitashva began crying. He ran towards his mother and hugged and begged her not to go.

The merchant was getting impatient now, and Harishchandra tried to separate mother and child. But it all worked out when the merchant offered to buy the boy as well. He needed his chimney swept regularly. And the boy was about the right size. Besides he’d grow and then he could carry the merchant’s goods from his shop to his ship. Or from the ship to the shop – whatever was the need of the hour.

Given the market rate for children was about half of that of adults, this should have been okay for Harishchandra, but he was forced to offer a discount. On the other hand though, the Slave welfare fund contribution did not apply to children’s trades. The net result was that Harishchandra came up to almost the amount that Vishwamitra wanted. He was only 5 paise short. That night, Harishchandra didn’t rest. He volunteered at a local shop to help and earned a few coins for his effort. Still he was just one paisa short.

And the next morning Vishwamitra went on and on about it. “You wretch, you’re trying to shortchange me!”

“I wasn’t. I announced before even saying good morning that I’m one paisa short”

He was right, he hadn’t been 

“Don’t you lie to me! I demand my paisa right now!”

There was nothing else to do but for Harishchandra to sell himself. So he went back to the same market and put a “for sale” sign around his neck and began loudly advertising himself. The only buyer who seemed interested was an undertaker. In a society that was all about the upper classes oppressing the lower classes, the Undertaker was right there at the very bottom.

Harishchandra refused the offer. But Vishwamitra wasn’t having it. He was experiencing euphoric levels of schadenfreude in seeing Harishchandra. So, the Brahmarishi bought Harishchandra himself and turned him over to the Undertaker.

Harishchandra had no choice. He went to the cemetery where the Undertaker worked and learned more about his employer and his workplace.

His boss may have been 6 feet 10 inches and weighing in at 140 kgs just like his namesake from the World of Wrestling Entertainment, but the similarity ended there. Harishchandra’s undertaker was a gentle soul. He offered Harishchandra food and water. And laid out the ground rules. Just one rule actually. Which was very simple and fair. To process any corpse they needed to charge a processing fee. Without the fee, he could not touch the corpse or do anything with it.

50% of the fees would go to the King as taxes, 25% to the Undertaker, and the remaining 25% was Harishchandra’s to keep. 

This might sound morbid, but Harishchandra did some mental calculations of how many people would have to pass away for him to free Taramati and Rohitashva. The results were staggering. Three major flu seasons would get him there. Technically two might be enough, but he’d probably have to pay more for Rohitashva because the boy would have aged into a man by then.

Things went well after that. For a few days, Harishchandra was actually optimistic about meeting his wife and child again. And then one day, he did meet his wife and child but not in the way he had hoped.

He saw Taramati enter the cemetery carrying Rohitashva. But the boy wasn’t sleeping. He had passed away. A snakebite had done it. Taramati, in tears, approached Harishchandra and asked him to cremate their poor child. And then Harishchandra, bound by his principles and his work contract, asked his wife for the processing fee.

“What? Are you kidding me?” Taramati was stunned. But he was being absolutely serious. He flat out refused to touch his boy without the processing fee.

“You can pay for it yourself, can’t you?” That was true. He had earned money. But the contract strictly forbade him from using his funds. And so the body lay there as Harishchandra and Taramati stared at each other. 

Well if you’re wondering how this thing got resolved. It’s a bit of a Deus Ex Machina solution. Suddenly, all the Gods, together with Vishwamitra appeared on the scene just at that very moment. Vishwamitra spoke for all of them and said that Harishchandra had demonstrated a strong moral compass. He had stuck to his principles and that’s why he was going to be rewarded, with a one-way ticket to Heaven. But he had to act now, this was a limited time offer.

Was Harishchandra supposed to forget the misery his family had been put through? I guess he already did. Because when he refused the offer, he did it on the grounds that his subjects back in his kingdom had been with him in spirit through this ordeal – they deserved to partake in his reward.

I was on the scene too but I don’t recall if Taramati glared daggers at him at these words. 

So he requested that Indra allow all of his subjects to visit heaven with him. Well, that might clash with the whole exclusivity of Swarg but hey, sure. They’d have a picnic day. And hey they did. I heard they had a huge party. I missed most of it, but I was there for the climax – which was me playing the Veena on stage and amazing everyone. 

On that uplifting note, I’ll end this story here.

Some notes on the show

There are similar stories in other cultures and religions. For example there’s the story of Job as he goes through several trials and tribulations.

There are other stories too with some thematic similarities – Abraham or Ibrahim except it was Ibrahim’s wife who wanted Abraham to kill his boy.

Tantalus from Greek mythology also sacrificed his son. But that was a whole different ball game right there. Tantalus did it willingly, to evoke a response from the Gods.

That’s all for now. 

Next Time

In the next episode, we’re going back to the Singhasan Battisi. We’ll hear yet another story about Vikramaditya and see if this is indeed what Raja Bhoja would have done as well

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.

Thank you Kaira, Jenn, Purushottam, Prasanna for the support.

Thank you for the generous praise Darsh!

Hiranmayee, you’re welcome. And thank you for suggesting the story in the first place.

Priyanga, I have covered Kannagi’s story back in Episode 47. Please give it a listen and let me know what you think!

Aarush, you’re welcome! One day, it may indeed be possible to visit, but I have to warn you the chances are slim. After Vishnu is super super busy. He’s got a whole universe to preserve after all. And regarding your other question – there aren’t ghosts exactly. But there are spirits, like Yakshas for example – who are nature spirits.

Shalu – thank you. Your comments about the last episode were spot on!

True lines forever you’re getting your wish next week with a Vikramaditya story.

PK Sahu, yup, Shiva stopping Ravana was really cool. It was even more awesome to witness that in person. Maybe I should have taken my camera to capture the moment.

Venkata Sahu – thank you for the praise. I have covered Brahma’s creation story back during the character of the week segment in Episode 23.

If you have any other comments or suggestions or if there are particular stories you’d like to hear, please do let me know by leaving a comment or a review on the site sfipodcast.com, or reply to the questions on Spotify Q&A. You can also find me on Instagram and Facebook. You can listen to the show on all podcast apps, and that now includes Youtube. If you want to send me an email it’s stories.from.india.podcast@gmail.com.

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A big thank you to each of you for your continued support and your feedback.

The music is from Purple Planet.

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