Singhasan Battisi – Lion Among Sheep – {Ep.269}

Today’s episode is from the Singhasan Battisi. It’s a story about Raja Bhoj’s quest to claim Vikramaditya’s throne, featuring a nature vs nurture or Karma vs Janma debate. Will Bhoj prove worthy?

Namaskar and 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 back to the Singhasan Battisi.

Missed the previous episodes of Singhasan Battisi? No worries! Each of the 32 stories stands alone. The overarching theme is one King’s attempts to claim the throne of Vikramaditya. 

Check out the links in the show notes and on the site sfipodcast.com for those episodes. But really, the only context you need is the framing narrative, which I will provide right now.

The saga begins with Raja Bhoj. Bhoj ruled his Kingdom several centuries after Vikramaditya had passed away into legend. Vikramaditya had been rockstar King, completely dominating the pop culture landscape during Bhoj’s time. Walk into any Ancient Indian bookstore, pick up a celebrity magazine, comic book, murder mystery, romance or even a philosophical essay. Chances are, there would be Vikramaditya references in there! They even had Vikram-fest, with reenactments, Vikky-Cola, and all sorts of merchandise.

Mystery buffs often claimed to have found the exact location of Vikramaditya’s lost throne. And ironically, when the throne was actually found, it wasn’t by enthusiasts, archaeologists, or bounty hunters. It was an ordinary farmer who stumbled on the legendary throne. The legendary throne that had been a divine gift from Indra himself. And if you haven’t read the who’s who of Indian mythology, Indra is the King of the Devas and the ruler of Swarg, or heaven.

Up until now, Bhoj had been a fairly average King. Discovering the throne, he saw a chance to catapult himself into the Billboard top 10 Kings chart. Bhoj reasoned that the throne was magic, and that he could share in some of Vikramaditya’s special powers.

The throne couldn’t be moved for some mysterious reason. But that didn’t stop Bhoj’s determined staff! If they couldn’t move the throne into the palace, they could build an entirely new palace all around it! Taxpayer money well spent, they all thought. To add to the splendor, the palace builders had constructed 32 stairs leading up to the throne, to match the 32 Apsara idols on its sides. 

When Bhoj climbed each step, one of the idols flew out of the throne. Which makes you wonder how it might have worked with a different number of steps. The idol hovered in the air near Bhoj and presented him with a challenge. He could sit on the throne, but only if he genuinely felt that he was worthy of it.

The challenge was a story with a simple True/False question at the end, and the correct answer was also quite obvious. But there was no possibility for Bhoj to cheat. He needed to provide a sincere reply. The Apsara Idol had a kind of an AI-powered lie detection module. 

The idol flew away because Bhoj’s answer invariably didn’t match Vik’s actions. This happened with the next several idols as well.

Today we’ll hear yet one more story from another idol.

“Can we hurry up with the story, please?” Bhoj asked. “My people are getting restless.”

He wasn’t wrong. There was quite a crowd to see the inauguration of this throne. And they were getting restless indeed. They had come to see a King sit on a throne. And all they had seen over the last several hours was a King climb a few steps.

“You know,” the Apsara idol said, “I could project the next story on that large wall over there. I have a video here and a HDMI cable and a projector”

All those fancy words made no sense in Ancient India, but when they saw the result, they all marveled.

The story showed a court, similar to this one. In fact it had the same throne, of course, but a different King. Vikramaditya. There were loud claps and whistles and cheers when people realized this was Vikramaditya. It made Bhoj feel smaller.

Vik was listening to his ministers and trying to resolve a very important problem here.

Minister 1 expressed one side of the argument. “A person is defined by their birth, their janma. Their deeds, or Karma, have got nothing to do with it! If you are born to Bollywood celebrity parents, you’re automatically a Bollywood celebrity – you don’t have to know how to act or control the puppet strings”. He was referring to the Bollywood industry – the puppet theater that was immensely popular. Somehow over time the name has stuck though the medium has changed.

Minister 2 had strong objections. “It’s a meritocracy! Survival of those that are most active, not survival of the high-born. It’s not nature that matters, but nurture”

“Gentlemen, gentlemen,” Vikramaditya interjected. “Don’t worry. This is a highly academic debate. Purely hypothetical. In order to reach a conclusion we must have experimental evidence”

“Marvelous sire, your wisdom is truly infinite,” Minister 1 muttered.

“Yes, but we can’t really test that, can we? We don’t have any numerical means of measuring wisdom. But I agree with you – it’s marvelous. I’m rather proud of this thing that I created. I call it Science”

Everyone thought it was a weird name, but no one said so. You can’t make comments like that to the King.

Minister 2 said “Your majesty. It’s marvelous I agree, this science of yours. But how do we use it to resolve this discussion about nature vs nurture?”

“Patience, Minister 2. I’m getting there. You remember that hunter who brought in a lion cub earlier.”

“Yes your highness, the one we donated to the Zoo so that the media would forget last month’s incident.”

“Yes, that one. And you don’t have to refer to the Zoo incident, I expressly prohibited any mentions of that”

The Minister 2 apologized. I’d explain the previous month’s Zoo incident, but Vik would only get upset, so let’s gloss over that.

Vik’s idea was to give the Lion cub to a shepherd.

The Shepherd was grateful, but puzzled. “Your highness, I don’t know what to do with this lion cub. Sure it looks like a kitten and it’s bigger than my hand, but for how long? It’ll grow and then what about all my sheep?”

Vik assured the shepherd – not to worry. The King would pay him enough money so that his livelihood wouldn’t depend on raising his animals. And for that, he had one task – to raise his animals. Not just the sheep, but the lion cub too. The shepherd needed to take care of the lion cub too. And he needed to handle the lion cub in exactly the same way as any lamb. That was the condition.

“But, but you’re majesty. What will this lion cub eat? It’s a carnivore!”

“He can have whatever’s lying around. Or maybe make him a cub sandwich. Whatever you do, don’t feed him mutton chops. Or any meat for that matter. In fact, give him only sheep’s milk and grass, just like all the other lambs. It’s for an experiment”

The shepherd seemed to catch on. This was probably an experiment to test the effects of plant based diets. He went home with the cub, but also with a resolution – he would use the money the King had given him to buy stock in Plant based food companies.

Some months later, his stock didn’t do so well. But the King came to visit. With more money. And his advisors – Minister 1 and Minister 2. But it was the money that the shepherd was most happy about. He was ready to answer their questions. All they wanted to know was how the Lion cub was getting along.

The shepherd asked “Oh you mean Sher-rukh Khan? Splendid! He’s having a roaring good time”

Sher-rukh khan was not a bad name for this lion. He had that smoldering gaze that had all the Ewes in the flock going awwww.

He had grown, he looked like a full size lion. And he did have the lion’s share of milk and grass. Speaking of which, the shepherd said he hated to bring up a delicate subject, but with all the milk the lion was consuming, he needed to import milk now. If his majesty could see his way to slightly increasing his salary….

Vik was generous and readily had his chaps dole out a few more bags. But there was one main part of the experiment that was remaining. He signaled to his hunter, who had brought a lion that he had captured in the wild. The hunter brought his bullock cart with the cage in the trailer behind him. The sheep instantly began shaking nervously sensing the approaching predator. They scrambled quickly back towards the barn. But no one paid the sheep any attention. All eyes were on Sher Rukh Khan. 

To Minister 2’s delight, Sher Rukh Khan behaved exactly like the rest of the sheep. He quivered, he let out a bleat, and dashed for safety.

“I may be going out on a lamb… I mean limb here, but I’d say Sher Rukh Khan settles the Nature vs Nurture debate for good!” he gloated.

But Vik held up a hand. “We’re not done yet.” 

Then turning to the shepherd, he added “let Sher Rukh Khan loose in the forest.”

The shepherd, who had come to love Sher Rukh Khan, was worried. “But, your highness, he’s just an innocent lion in sheep’s clothing, how will he survive in the harsh forest?”

“That’s what we’ll find out,” Vik explained, handing the Shepherd another couple of money bags, which allayed the Shepherd’s concerns.

The shepherd bid Sher Rukh Khan a tearful farewell, urging his little lambkin to… well be a lamb. And if the other animals were mean to him to come straight to other lions for help.

A few months passed, and during this time the hunter who frequented the forest monitored the lion. Even without a radio collar.

Vik and the minister visited the hunter one day and asked.

“How’s Sher Rukh Khan?”

“He’s not Sher Rukh Khan anymore. He’s Ewe-son Bolt.”

There was no reaction from anyone so the hunter explained, Ewe as in E-W-E you know female sheep, the lion was the son of a Ewe, even if he was just a foster son. And Bolt because he was fast, incredibly fast!

Vik said “We got it the first time, you don’t have to explain. We didn’t react because it wasn’t funny”

Well, the hunter went on to explain that Ewe-son Bolt had been afraid of everything in the beginning. But then when he saw animals running away, that gave him some confidence. He grabbed a rabbit. And then he moved on to a deer. And now he’s an absolute terror!

At this point, both Minister 1 and Minister 2 looked pleased.

Minister 1 said that obviously, Ewe-son Bolt’s genes had kicked in, he became the wild animal he was meant to be from birth.

But minister 2 had a different opinion – it was clearly the environment – if the deer and the rabbit hadn’t run Ewe-son Bolt would have remained in fright of all other creatures.

Again, Vik said the test wasn’t done yet. He had the hunter bring in another freshly caught wild lion. This time – Ewe-son Bolt didn’t get scared in the least. He roared right back at the savage lion. Vik turned back to look at his ministers. “Well, gentlemen?”

Minister 1 and Minister 2 looked at each other. Minister 2 spoke up “You know that last bit didn’t really do anything to settle our argument. Each of us could still argue the same thing.”

Minister 1 nodded in agreement. He spoke up. “But your majesty, I have more evidence to offer up to make my point. And Exhibit A is… yourself.”

A pause while everyone got over their surprise. After which Minister 1 explained that Vikramaditya was King purely because of his birth. If he hadn’t been born to the previous ruler, he wouldn’t actually be a King would he?

Vik said he would need to think about it. But he wasn’t ready to call it one way or the other.

Of course, Minister 1 and Minister 2 couldn’t force the conversation. Nothing more was said for months, and one might think Vik had forgotten all about it. It was surprising to the Ministers then, when Vik brought the topic up again.
It came up again, when someone presented Vik with something. It was a traveler, who had brought a flower. And what a flower it was! It was bright red, quite sparkly and it looked different from any other flowers anyone had ever seen. But everyone agreed this had to be the most wonderful flower ever!

Vik took along Minister 1 and Minister 2 to find the source of this wonderful flower. It was quite a bit of a trek to get there. They had to cross seas, mountains, rivers, lakes. But they finally made it. There was a little pond that was tucked away deep in a dense forest. The pond was full of these flowers. Vik said they were here to find the source of these flowers. Examining the pond carefully they came to the conclusion based on nothing at all, that it was the blood flowing into the pond from a little brook that had created the flowers. Despite earlier extolling the virtues of the scientific method, Vik now readily agreed that his ministers’ hypothesis must certainly be true.

They followed the trail of blood and reached a very strange sight. There was a scholar, or rather the remains of a scholar. His blood dripped into the little stream that led to the pond.

Now completely abandoning the scientific method, Vik announced that he had been this wise scholar in a previous birth. And that is why he had ended up a King, and not merely because of his birth.

Ministers 1 and 2 looked at each other and rolled their eyes.

Minister 2 spoke. “I know you just ruled in my favor, of Karma over Janma, but I speak for both of us when I say I don’t agree…”

The Apsara idol hastily paused the tape here. 

“So Bhoja, that’s it. Now for the question”. 

“But hey – I want to hear what Minister 2 was saying,” Bhoja objected. But the Apsara said – nothing doing. End of the story. Kahani Khatam. 

“And anyway it doesn’t matter,” she added. “There’s a simple question for you now. Have you, Bhoja, ever resolved a delicate question like this?”

Bhoja had to admit that he hadn’t actually resolved a debate like that one. But that didn’t matter, if he actually encountered any in the future, he would most certainly handle them better than Vik had done. Also he felt that the Apsara was using the word “resolved” very loosely. Felt more like Vik had tapped out with the bold previous birth statement there

That answered the Apsara’s question. It was easy to talk about hypotheticals, but Bhoja hadn’t actually answered any such questions. And that meant she wouldn’t stay on the throne. She waved goodbye and flew off.

Bhoja took a long look at the remaining steps and sighed. Another Apsara gone, he had to get the next answer correct. The throne was already looking significantly less impressive than with all idols on it.

That’s all for now

Some notes on the show

Previous Singhasan Battisi stories are linked here:

https://sfipodcast.com/category/singhasan-battisi

We began with Episode 124, which had the framing narrative. Then we covered five stories in Episode 136, Episode 164, Episode 188, Episode 225, and Episode 241. 

That’s all for now. 

Next Time

In the next episode, we’ll cover the final bit of the main Ramayana storyline. After everyone’s back at Ayodhya. You might think now that Ravana was destroyed, everyone lived happily ever after. Well, not quite. There were some road bumps along the way.

Feedback

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