In this episode, we’re going to do a Jain folk tale. This one is about a necklace gifted to a King and Queen by a god. The gift turns out to be a white elephant, and causes pain, suffering, and loss. But these problems are eventually solved by a monkey, who was really human and a victim of the necklace himself.
Let’s dive right in.
King Shrenik ruled Rajgir, which was a City near the famous ancient University of Nalanda. We can talk a bit about Rajgir or the “City of Kings” but for the purpose of this story it was just a generic Kingdom about three or four thousand years ago
King Shrenik was absolutely devoted to the Devas or Gods, and had dedicated pray time everyday. He had dedicated playtime too, which he would sometimes miss. But prayer time? Never.
His prayers weren’t aimed at any specific god, but he tried to pray to as many of them in as little time as he could manage. He seemed well on the path to setting a record considering the millions of Devas available in the prayer catalog.
But some Gods are easier to please than others. As I’m sure you know from my descriptions of Brahma in earlier episodes on this show.
It was the same with one Generic Deva who one day suddenly appeared before Shrenik. The Generic Deva explained that he was here to reward Shrenik for his devotion. And by rewarding him, he actually meant rewarding his wife, Queen Chellana. If Shrenik was disappointed he did not show it. Chellana had never accompanied him in the prayer room. And yet, she was the one getting a reward.
When the Dev handed him a gorgeous necklace, he quickly changed his mind. The necklace consisted of beautiful precious gems all strung together on a fine gold chain as thin as silk. This necklace was going to be the talk of the town at the next Kings’ congregation. People would come to him asking for the address of the jeweler who made it. Shrenik need not be completely transparent then, he could use that opportunity to drive up business in his Kingdom. He could smell the profits, the favorable trade negotiations from miles away.
He rubbed his hands with glee, with the necklace still in it. And seeing that the Dev quickly cautioned him. Shrenik and Chellana had to be very very careful with the necklace. If anything should happen to it, it would be disastrous. The person who could mend the necklace would be destined to pass away the moment they fixed it. He didn’t know why that clause was there, but it just was. Hey, he was just a low-level Dev. If Shrenik wanted an unconditionally amazing necklace he should’ve just prayed to the Devs higher up in the rankings.
Shrenik and Chellana made the most of the necklace and used it to dazzle their guests at the parties. And everything seemed to be going really well. Until one day it wasn’t. As Chellana was putting it on one day, her hand slipped and the necklace clattered to the ground, the jewels coming off the string and spreading all over her floor.
Her very honest maids helped her collect every last precious stone without even being tempted to pocket some of them. But the damage was done. The necklace had broken. They tried repairing it themselves but they couldn’t. There didn’t seem to be a hole in the jewels. How had the gold chain strung them together?
Chellana had to call it quits and pulled in Shrenik’s resources to help. The King was distressed not by the fact that the person who repaired it would die, but at all the missed opportunities while the necklace was waiting to be repaired. There was the King’s convention next week and he was hoping to snatch a good number of trade agreements there. Chellana without her necklace would make him seem less impressive at the negotiating table.
After consulting with his ministers he decided that the way forward was to announce a reward for whoever could repair the necklace. But to be very transparent about the outcome. That whosoever repaired the necklace would die.
Naturally, no one came forward. The first day. On the second day, a very old jeweler volunteered. He would repair the necklace in exchange for the measly sum of, say 40 lakh rupees. He chose that number because he had four sons. It would be easy to divide if the reward was 4 times a round number, rather than just a round number.
The King accepted and the jeweler, whose name was Kapi, took the necklace home. He explained to his sons that they must take the necklace back to King after he had repaired it and claim their 40 lakh rupees. The sons objected a little but ultimately they saw that this was a reasonable path forward to get out of their very poor situation.
Kapi began his work. Only with very specialized equipment could he see that there was indeed a tiny hole in each stone. But how to string it all together? He thought for a while and then hit upon a plan! He would get ants to do the work for him. He thought his idea was brilliANT. Laughing at his own dad joke, he made a tiny lasso using the thinnest piece of string he could find. He lassoed an ant and enticed it towards some sugar. Only, the path from the Ant to the Sugar cubes went right through the holes in the jewels. To the ant, it was like travelling through a series of tunnels. Well, in no time, the ant had reached the other end. At which point, feeling triumphANT, (another dad joke) Kapi let loose the noose. He had just finished typing the chain together and admired his work when the inevitable happened.
The Dev had promised that the one who repaired it would pass away, and that’s exactly what happened to Kapi.
Kapi’s sons, still grieving, took the necklace to the King and sorrowfully asked for their 40 lakh rupees.
The King was sure to take the necklace and put it out of their sight before asking them suspiciously. “And how did you come by this necklace? I gave it to Kapi”.
They explained they were Kapi’s sons. They had the family tree and birth and ancestry records to prove it. But Shrenik waved his hand dismissively – all of those could be forged. He really ought to throw them in jail for taking an old man’s hard work and trying to use that to steal his reward.
But the old man is dead – Kapi’s sons protested.
“Well, I don’t know that for sure, do I?” asked Shrenik. “I’ll prefer to wait until I’m sure”
There was only a limit to which Kapi’s sons could argue with Shrenik. Dejectedly they went back home. This was the worst day of their lives. They had lost their dear father, and for nothing. As they sat sobbing, someone came in to visit them. He came in through the window from a nearby tree. Because the visitor was a monkey.
“Hello my boys” he said in an oddly familiar voice. It was Kapi. He claimed to have been reborn as a monkey, true to his name.
They refused to believe that until he revealed to them embarrassing details about their childhood that only their father knew.
Kapi admitted he had been a bit careless. He should have had his lawyers draw up an ironclad contract and will and everything. But never mind, too late to cry over spilt milk.
One of Kapi’s sons looked around to see where the milk had spilled. I guess they didn’t teach idioms in Ancient Indian schools.
Anyway, Kapi had a plan. He asked his sons to sit tight while he did something to teach Shrenik a lesson. He rushed to the Queen’s garden, where the Queen and her maids were taking a bath in the pond. Conveniently the Queen had left the necklace by the side of the pond, along with her clothes. It was easy enough for Kapi to collect the necklace and disappear into the trees.
Chellana and her maids were distressed at the turn of events. They frantically searched everywhere but didn’t find anything. They cursed the fact that security cameras hadn’t been invented yet but there wasn’t really anything further they could do. They went back to give the bad news to the King.
Shrenik was upset. What was this? He had just refused to pay a measly sum to Kapi’s sons and then the necklace was lost again? Was this poetic justice? Or at least Pied-Piper like justice?
Shrenik announced a big reward and huge punishment for whoever took the necklace and whoever returned it. Phrased like that, his announcement posters needed to be revised that the reward was only for whoever returned it and the punishment was for the thief. The announcement didn’t specify what would happen if the thief returned the necklace. Maybe they would be rewarded with a big punishment or maybe punished with an unpleasant reward.
But everywhere they looked, they didn’t find the necklace. And no one came forward.
As it happens, Kapi didn’t just hang on to the necklace all this while. He had a plan. The plan was to go to the temple. He found a well respected rishi who was deep in meditation at the time. Kapi put the necklace around his neck and disappeared.
He went back to his sons to tell them everything would be fine, and that their troubles were over.
The sons wondered how exactly? They didn’t have the necklace, the King was mad and would probably come searching here and put them in prison just on suspicion anyway.
And their father wasn’t going to be with them ever again. Sure he was here as a Monkey, but it was not the same experience. He couldn’t sit at the dinner table, his tail got in the way. He couldn’t eat most of the food they had and preferred to eat fruits only. He wasn’t going to sleep in his bed, he preferred to live in the tree branches. And he had new friends now in the Monkey world and his own life to lead.
There was one point that they did not say, but Kapi understood. What would the neighbors think, looking at the 4 boys fraternizing with a monkey. Some may empathize, some may think it was an upgrade, and some might protest to the SPCA. But most would find it weird, Their lives had diverged beyond the point of no return, Kapi realized. He couldn’t keep trying to rescue his sons out of every hole. Sure, they were in a tough spot, but they had learned things. If they ever got into an agreement with Kings to repair necklaces, they would be sure to get that agreement on paper. It was best to exit the scene.
He silently waved goodbye and disappeared from their lives. Forever.
Meanwhile, the King’s chief minister had all but given up hope of finding the necklace. His last resort was to pray to the Gods. So he went to the temple. When the Chief Minister entered the temple, he observed the other priests at the temple were trembling, as if with fear! He could not understand it. Typically the only thing that made these priests and rishis scared was the fear of becoming enamored by material possessions. That led to a new line of thought for the Chief Minister. Could it be that the priests sensed the presence of the necklace nearby? He quickly scanned the grounds and found it. This was coincidentally the same temple that the Rishi was meditating at. And around his neck was Chellana’s necklace. It seemed that the Rishi hadn’t even noticed it. He was so deeply engrossed in his meditation.
The chief minister took the necklace and went back to Shrenik. No one could understand how the necklace had gotten around the Rishi’s neck. And they were afraid to ask. The Rishis and the priests at the temple might get offended.
The only conclusion the King came to, after consultation with his ministers, was that there had been a travesty, a miscarriage of justice. And the divine necklace had sensed a problem and had teleported itself to a location that was pure of any improper thoughts, or any greed or miserliness. This was star trek level teleportation technology. Nothing else could explain it.
At that point it became clear what was to be done. The King sheepishly admitted that yeah, he had kinda not paid for the necklace’s repairs. Whereas the jeweler had paid for the repair. With his life.
Shrenik knew now what he must do. He summoned Kapi’s sons and offered them the money he had promised Kapi. Along with a bit of a bonus thrown in. Just as long as they promised not to sue him for mental anguish and all that.
That’s where the story ends.
Some notes on the show
Kapi means Monkey, in keeping with the tradition of naming the characters after the roles they play.
Previous Jain Folk Tales are here.
That’s all for now.
Next Time
In the next episode, we’ll go back into the Mahabharat, where we’ll hear the story of Ekalavya. He is the archer who dared to be better than Dronacharya’s students. He had to pay the ultimate price for it.