Singhasan Battisi – The Deer Prince – {Ep.188} – Stories From India – Podcast

A Singhasan Battisi story featuring a talking Deer, a Pandu-like curse, a Rishi who’s desperately waiting to meet Vikramaditya, and Betaal to the rescue

Introduction

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 exciting and 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 by popular demand. Thanks for the suggestion Vamsidhar. The Singhasan Battisi is a series of 32 stories, all featuring the throne of King Vikramaditya. Singhasan means Throne and Battisi means 32 of something. In this case, the 32 things they are referring to are stories. Or storytellers, because each of the 32 stories in this series is told by a different storyteller. 

So far, we’ve done three Singhasan Battisi episodes. The first was Episode 124, which had the framing narrative and we did a couple of the stories in Episode 136 and Episode 164. Let’s do a brief recap of the framing story, after which we’ll cover another one of the 32 stories. 

Raja Vikramaditya

The framing story began not with Vikramaditya, but with a different King. Raja Bhoj. Bhoj appeared on the scene several centuries after Vikramaditya had passed on. Vikramaditya was an immensely popular King. It wasn’t just the Vikram and Betaal stories, some of which we have covered on the show. Vikramaditya was a regular crowd-pleaser. During Bhoj’s time, pick up any celebrity magazine, comic book, murder mystery, romance or even just a philosophical essay. Chances are, there would be a Vikramaditya reference in there! That King dominated the Dewey Decimal system to an extent that librarians dreaded eager patrons asking them for any Vikramaditya references.

The Singhasan is found!

Vikramaditya’s throne was certainly something that dominated the 001.09 classification in Bhoja’s royal library. That section is meant for controversial knowledge – you know – lost continents like the Kumari Kandam, how aliens seemingly visited Earth and built every monument in sight, and lost artifacts like Vikramaditya’s legendary throne. The throne was a gift from Indra, who was the King of the Devs and the ruler of Swarg, or heaven. Over the centuries people searched for this throne with a passion not unlike that in the search for the Holy Grail or the Lost Ark of the Covenent.

But the discovery of Vikramaditya’s throne can be attributed to neither Indiana Jones, nor Lara Croft. The discoverer was an ordinary farmer in Bhoj’s time. 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 an average one. So far. Now, by sitting on Vikramaditya’s throne, he might inherit some of the powers and become a famous king himself! Perhaps even more famous than Vikramaditya!

The Singhasan is setup

Bhoja’s people cleaned the throne and prepared it for him. And because for some reason they couldn’t manage to move the Throne, they ended up building an entire palace around it. Even average Kings were rich, so spending all that taxpayer money on a new palace was not a problem.

Bhoj’s architects and builders had done a terrific job. As you might expect from people who were promised a blank cheque. And I don’t mean the entire cheque was blank, that would be useless. It was a signed blank cheque of course. An unsigned blank cheque might not have motivated the builders to do their best.

Anyway, these builders had constructed 32 stairs leading up to the throne, to match the 32 Apsara idols on the sides of the Throne. It was a good thing that they did that, because it makes it easy for us to track the stories.

A strange challenge

When Bhoj took a step towards the throne, to everyone’s surprise, one of the idols flew out of its spot. It hovered in the air near Bhoj and presented him with a challenge. He could sit on the throne, but only if he 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.

The idol narrated a story, and asked him a question. 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. But then the same thing with the next idol and so on and so forth.

Today we’ll hear one such story.

Third Step Apsara

The Apsara hovered near Bhoja who had just put his foot on the third step. 

“Hey buddy” she said. “So you’re the King that’s trying to sit on Vikramaditya’s Singhasan. Boy am I glad I’m not the first idol out of the throne. I would have had to explain all the rules to you.”

Bhoja said that it was a pleasure to meet her as well and all that sort of rot. But he had a new question about the rules. What if he had skipped a couple of steps in his ascent? What would have happened then? Would he have had to listen to fewer stories? What if he was airlifted right onto the throne? So that he reached it without stepping on a single step here.

“You humans, you don’t stop to think, do you?” the Apsara replied, shaking her head. “It’s not the steps. It’s the degree of intent in your mind. If you had actually decided to skip the steps and be lowered down by a helicopter or something, one of us would appear the moment you made that decision. Get it now?”

The show must go on

Don’t know if Bhoja got it, or maybe he just wanted to get on with the story. People had paid premium prices to view his ascent to the throne. This was going to start getting boring for them if he didn’t get a move on soon.

With the audience’s engagement in mind – at least for this step, he had had the presence of mind to hire the theater crew. They could do a near real-time enactment of the story as the Apsara told it. Get some value out of it. 

The Apsara began her story. “Once upon a time, Vikramaditya went hunting,” she said.

“Hold on. Timeout. Just a second.” Bhoja interrupted. One of the theater crew had dashed away to get some hunting props. The impatient Apsara said something about how the show must go on, but she needn’t have bothered. The cast member rushed back just then with deer antlers and a fake horse prop. All was in order. So Bhoja gave the signal and the Apsara continued her story.

Vik on a hunt

So once upon a time, King Vikramaditya, went hunting. By the way, I’m just going to call Vik because it’s easier. Vik went all by himself. Typically when a King goes hunting, they have with them the best possible gear. There is usually the kind that kills a deer right away. Like a bow and arrow or a spear. But there’s also a second type that captures a deer without injuring it. At least not physically. On this occasion, Vik used the second variety. 

He used a net to capture a deer. The deer was lucky that Vik hadn’t used an arrow. Because it was no ordinary deer. This one could talk. And it could read Sanskrit perfectly well.

Which meant it could read the “property of” label that was on the net. And from that label it knew that its captor was King Vikramaditya. The deer’s panic turned to hope once it knew it was dealing with Vik. It had often heard of Vik’s wisdom, generosity and the mercy he had shown others. So it was confident it could appeal to Vik and be released. 

The Deer makes an appeal

The Deer cleared its throat, put on its best Bambi eyes and said “Please your highness, let me go, I’m very badly hurt!”

Vik wasn’t falling for it “Knock it off dearie”. He got down from his horse and headed for the deer.

“But I’m hurt! I’m injured. Very badly!” the deer fake-sobbed

“Nonsense, I was more wounded the last time I cut my toenails”. 

“Ugh fine, but hey look – I’m a talking deer! Bet you never talked to a deer before. At least hear my story! Please!”

Vik realized that the last bit was true. Vik had heard other animals talk. But not a deer. “Alright, I’ll bite. Tell me more”.

The Deer’s story

“I am not really a deer,” the deer began.

“No, you definitely are. Want me to get you a mirror?” Vik interrupted helpfully 

“No, no no. What I mean is I am just trapped in the wrong body. I was assigned a human at birth and that’s how I identify. I’m even a Prince, who just like you went out hunting. I didn’t take a net though, just a bow and arrow. And then I was transformed into a deer. Not my fault really. A Pandu curse got me. So Vik – I know that you know all about Pandu and his curse, but some of our listeners of this story within a story within a story might not have heard it. So let me explain.

“Seriously?” asked Vik, “We’re already within a story within a story within a story, and you want to go one more level deeper? No, I’m not standing for it. I’ll do a summary instead. So you see, Pandu was a King in the Mahabharata, which is one of the great epics in Indian Mythology. You’ll find links to it on Narada’s show notes. Anyway, once when Pandu was out hunting, he accidentally shot a Rishi, or wise man, mistaking him for a deer. The Rishi cursed him. Pandu had a very short life after that. It’s possible to claim that all of the rest of the Mahabharata would not have happened if not for this Pandu curse. All because of one aim. Is that what you’re referring to, Deer?”

Yes, that is exactly what the deer had been referring to. Also, the deer had a name. He was called Banvarsen. It was awkward to keep calling him by the name of his species. How would Vik like it if Banvarsen kept calling him human instead of by his name?

Banvarsen’s punishment

Banvarsen went on to explain that his mistake was similar to Pandu’s but not as severe. He had done only half of what Pandu had. He hadn’t actually killed the Rishi. But he had merely disturbed his prayers. The Rishi had transformed him into a Deer as a punishment. And unlike Pandu’s curse, Banvarsen’s punishment could be broken. All that Banvarsen needed to do was to present the noblest soul in the world before the Rishi. And to hurry up and get a move on if possible – because the lifespan of a deer is only 4-5 years.

Banvarsen did get a move on. He consulted with annoyed libraries who confirmed that the noble soul he was seeking was in fact Vikramaditya. And Banvarsen was wandering about with a map looking for Vikramaditya’s kingdom when as fate would have it – he was promptly caught in this net by Vik. If Vik didn’t believe him, he could check his library card and the map. But after that, could Vik please go with him to the Rishi, so that Banvarsen could turn back into the human prince that he was.

Vik meets the Rishi

Vik said why not, and so the two of them sought out the Rishi who had put the curse on Banvarsen. They found the Rishi quickly enough. He was hanging upside down from a nearby tree, praying.

Choosing to go with Banvarsen might seem a little rash on Vik’s part. The Rishi was capricious enough to put a curse on a royal just because their hunting had disturbed him. Imagine what he might do if Vik’s presence disturbed him.

Vik’s fan

But Vik’s risk-taking had paid off. The Rishi did not curse him. In fact he hopped down cheerfully from the tree and shook Vik’s hand. “Your highness, it’s such a pleasure to see you. Huge, huge fan here! I’ve been cursing everyone I can, hoping one of them will bring you here to meet me”

“That’s fine, jolly old chap. But you can see it’s not a great idea to do that, right? All these innocent lives you’re ruining”

“But this was totally worth it, I got to meet you! You’re a legend, Vik. All those stories with you and the Betaal. Say, can I meet the Betaal too?”

In case some of you don’t know what Betaal means, a Betaal is a reanimated corpse. It has been loosely translated as Vampire by some Europeans who had an incomplete understanding of the full spectrum of creatures in Indian Mythology. You might say the term Zombie is closer, except that Betaals could also talk lucidly and they could fly. All they did mostly though, was to hang down from trees like a bat.

Anyway, back to Vik and his ardent fan. Maybe all this fanboying was a little annoying for someone who was as famous a celebrity as Vik was. So Vik politely deflected the question “the Betaal keeps his own schedule. He’s not like a genie, you know. I can’t just rub a magic lamp and expect him to show up”

Vik and the Rishi make a deal

Vik and the Rishi chatted for a bit, and finally made a deal. Vik gave the Rishi a chain from around his neck. It was a necklace custom made from exotic seashells. It had the Vikramaditya stamp on it, so the Rishi could proudly show it off to anyone and everyone he met. And in return, the Rishi lifted the curse on Banvarsen the Deer, who now became Banvarsen the Prince.

The prince was grateful. “Woah! My arms and legs are all cramped from being stuck in a Deer’s body! By golly, it’s great to be back in human form”

Banvarsen and Vik thanked the Rishi and departed. Vik had some parting advice for the Rishi. The next time he needed an autograph or something, he should just go visit the person and ask them. Don’t go about cursing people. The Rishi readily agreed. As he waved them goodbye, the Rishi also resolved to never wash the hand that he had just shaken with Vik’s.

Banvarsen gets a lift

Banvarsen thanked Vik again. The Prince explained that he was happy that he could finally go back to his kingdom! It was a long walk from here, by human standards. As a Deer he could have covered it half the time. So Vik took pity on the Prince and offered to drop him off at his home.

Vik and Banvarsen soon took one of Vik’s speedier chariots and reached Banvarsen’s kingdom in no time. Banvarsen was ecstatic to be back at the gates of his home. And the guards at that gate were also ecstatic to see him. But for all the wrong reasons.

Not the warmest of welcomes

A guard got out a pair of handcuffs and rushed towards Banvarsen, while a couple of others crowded around him. “Hey, I saw him first! I get to claim the reward”

Banvarsen knew that Mansen, his father and the King of the land, must have been desperate to find him, but this level of enthusiasm was puzzling. And the handcuffs were puzzling too. But it soon became clear when Banvarsen saw the posters on the walls. They weren’t “LOST” posters, they were “WANTED” posters. And not just of him, but also of his father, Mansen as well. 

“I arrest you in the name of the King, Kapalsen” said one soldier and placed the cuffs on Banvarsen’s hands.

“Long live the King”, shouted another soldier. “Down with Mansen”, “Down to Banvarsen” cheered a few other soldiers.

Vik intervenes

Vik couldn’t just stand idly by. Especially not when one of the soldiers tried to arrest him for being Banvarsen’s accomplice and co-conspirator.

That was the final straw. He pulled out a dirty looking lamp. And rubbed it. Instantly the Betaal appeared. Banvarsen seemed shocked that Vik hadn’t been totally transparent with the Rishi about summoning the Betaal. And the Betaal’s first reaction on seeing the lamp was to roll his eyes. “I thought we agreed that we were going to change the way you call me. The lamp thing was fun once. Just once as a party trick. You can’t do that again and again”

The Betaal would have gone on, but he saw now that Vik was in clear and present danger. So he jumped in to help. The Betaal was a corpse, already dead. Their swords had no effect on him. That is why he could resist them all. He fought all the guards by himself. Not just those at the gate, but those inside the palace too. And finally defeated Kapalsen himself.

Long live the King

Kapalsen was lying helpless on the floor. As Banvarsen and Vik approached, Kapalsen’s soldiers finally caught on to which way the wind was blowing. 

A soldier stepped up bravely and said “Kapalsen, I arrest you in the name of Mansen”.

“Down with Kapalsen,” cheered another soldier. “Long live Mansen”, ”Long live Banvarsen” a couple of other soldiers shouted.

The Apsara concludes her story

The Apsara paused at this point and asked Bhoja her question. “That’s it. Mansen came back  from hiding. Father and son were reunited and they ruled over that Kingdom, and Vik became an important trading partner after that. So tell me, would you have done what Vik did?”

Bhoja knew the answer was a hard no. There’s no way Bhoja would have agreed to let the deer go. A talking deer? He’d have wanted to set up a circus tent right there to show off the dear for a hundred rupees per person. Maybe children 12 under could be free, but that was besides the point. Bhoja certainly wouldn’t have gone with Banvarsen, looking for a Rishi who seemed to be waiting for opportunities to curse any King or Prince out hunting in his woods. And even if Bhoja had done that for some reason, he wouldn’t then have gone on to help Banvarsen with his coup. Bhoja would have decided not to interfere in the internal affairs of another Kingdom. If Bhoja had had the Betaal at his command, he certainly wouldn’t have summoned it for a trifling misunderstanding.

Bhoja sighed as he saw that the Apsara had already flown away. She had evidently detected his answer before he even said it.

Maybe he just didn’t have an appetite for risk, he thought. Like, could he really have set a venomous scorpion on his brother in order to become King? No way

He looked at his theater crew who were exhausted from their live reenactment. “Nice work people. Take 5” he told them. At least the inauguration audience was engaged. Something was going right. 

Another opportunity lost, he was 3 stories down, but he still had 29 chances left to prove himself worthy of Vik’s legacy. He’d get there, he thought. His stories wouldn’t be called the Singhasan Battisi if didn’t actually hear all 32 stories.

That’s all for now

Some notes on the show

Previous Singhasan Battisi stories start with Raja Bhoja’s backstory in Episode 124. A couple of previous stories include Episode 136 and Episode 164.

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.

Vikram and Betaal episodes:

Episode 5 – Kingly duties

Episode 8 – Vik and the Vampire Redux

Episode 32 – The Call of Duty

Episode 34 – A Damsel in Distress

Episode 56 – The Three Sherlocks

Episode 95 – Vikram-Betaal – The Blame Game is Afoot

Episode 110 – Vikram-Betaal – The Bachelorette

Episode 145 – Vikram-Betaal – Indumati’s Swayamvar

The Betaal was also featured in Mini-Episode 46.5 – Betaal

Mahabharata episodes are here and Pandu’s deer incident in particular is in Episode 108

That’s all for now. 

Next Time

In the next episode, we’ll do a folk tale from Bengal. It’s a story about an amazing parrot that knows everything. It knows exactly how to care for horses, where to find beautiful princesses, and how to woo them, how to restore sight to the blind, and it even knows the names of 330 million Gods. All of this knowledge of course comes in handy for the King who holds him captive.

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.

First of all, I’m extremely grateful to Vaijayanti for all of the thoughtful comments on so many of the episodes. 

Thanks Vamsidhar for suggesting an episode on Mayasura and to Hariprasad for suggesting the episode on Dakshinamurthy. I’ll be working on those and hopefully have those out soon!

And Hotwheels Yedhant Man, I’m going to attempt to put some music in the background. Given the show is ad free, I’m looking for appropriate royalty free music. If you have suggestions, let me know. Or who knows, maybe I’ll just have to bring out the veena and compose something new!

Thank you also to Adnya and Rez and Adi for the feedback! It’s feedback like this that keeps me motivated.

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 tweet @sfipodcast, or reply to the questions on Spotify Q&A. You can also find me on Instagram and Facebook.

Be sure to subscribe to the show to get notified automatically of new episodes.

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!