A Folktale from Maharashtra
You’ll be born in the greatest kingdom,
Sweet little one, it’s time to rest,
Dream of kindness and wisdom,
Be like Veerasena as he’s the best!
This and many such lullabies were often sung by expectant mothers in honour of their great King Veerasena. Under his reign, the kingdom was peaceful and prosperous and its people happy.
Born to the brave King Shurasena, Veerasena was a kind and generous prince. Even as a child, he had always been caring and giving towards young and old, rich and poor, alike. His plentiful acts of kindness had not only won the hearts of the people of his own kingdom, but also gotten him the admiration of the neighbouring kingdoms.
The long-awaited day arrived when the popular prince was crowned king. His subjects cheered and welcomed the new reign with open arms and festivities. From a splendid procession to a royal feast, and from booming drums to cheerful dancing, the grand celebrations lasted a whole week. Such was the charm and glory of King Veerasena!
While kindness came naturally to King Veerasena, for wisdom and guidance he depended on his four wise ministers. They were sensible, honest, fair and, most importantly, they cared deeply for the good of the people of their kingdom. This made the ‘Wise Four’ – Ramabai, Pushpatai, Sitaram and Adinath – a great team and the king could always count on their support.
Every morning, they pored over the problems faced by the people and advised King Veerasena with suitable solutions.
“Your Majesty, the rains have been wreaking havoc for a few days now. We must prepare just in case the river overflows and there are floods,” said Ramabai, looking worried.
“That’s good thinking. Let’s stock up the granary with food and water at the earliest,” ordered King Veerasena.
“Very well, Your Majesty. It shall be arranged,” replied Adinath dutifully.
Every day, there were small and big problems which King Veerasena tackled with ease with the help of his trusted ministers.
As was the custom, King Veerasena would regularly go on tours to fulfil his royal duties and accept invitations from friendly neighbouring kingdoms.
One day, when he had just returned from one such royal tour, King Veerasena was lost deep in thought.
He gathered his four ministers and made a strange announcement, “I have decided that I want to live in the most lavish and spectacular palace in all the lands!”
“Your Majesty, with all due respect, I request you to reconsider. We should definitely build a beautiful and comfortable palace, but within our means. That would be a sensible thing to do,” suggested Pushpatai gently. She did not want to dampen the young king’s enthusiasm.
“I agree with Pushpatai, Sire. After all, our kingdom is not as wealthy as some of the other rulers around us,” added Sitaram.
“A king’s palace is symbolic of his status and the might of his kingdom. A lavish palace would clearly send out the message that not only are our people comfortable and wealthy, they also believe in spending on the good things in life,” stated King Veerasena in no uncertain terms.
“But, Your Majesty, the royal treasury at the moment does not have enough to build such an expensive palace!” exclaimed Ramabai.
But King Veerasena was adamant. “There’s a simple solution. We will collect a special tax from all the citizens to gather enough money to cover the cost of the new palace.”
Ramabai, Pushpatai, Sitaram and Adinath were speechless. In all their years of being loyal ministers of the kingdom, they had not heard of a more foolish or wasteful idea. They explained how the wealth of the people needs to be used wisely for their benefit and how it is the king’s duty to improve the life of the citizens, not the other way round. They tried very hard to talk some sense into their king, but he would have none of it. His mind was made up and his patience was wearing thin. He was furious with the Wise Four!
“If the ministers of this kingdom don’t follow their king’s commands and don’t have his best interests at heart, they have no purpose to serve here. I order all four of you to leave my kingdom immediately. You are banished!” King Veerasena fumed.
Disappointed and shocked, the four ministers did as they were told. They carried their humble belongings and left.
“What has come over our beloved king! He was never like this,” groaned Adinath.
“Let’s pray and hope that he realises his mistake and changes his mind about the palace,” said Sitaram, as they exited the palace gates.
With nowhere to go, the four banished ministers walked aimlessly till the noon sun was high. They had been walking through the fields all morning. Tired and thirsty, they decided to rest a little before they moved on.
They found a gigantic, old banyan tree and took shelter in its soothing shade. While Sitaram wiped his forehead and Pushpatai quenched her thirst, Adinath stared gloomily into the distance.
Meanwhile, Ramabai was looking intently at something and said, “Don’t look so sad, dear Adinath. I have an idea. Let’s play a fun game. Come, look at these footprints in the mud. What do you think?”
“It’s obvious that they belong to a camel,” said Sitaram.
“Yes, yes, a camel, of course. But that’s not the game. It will be fun if we can all try to guess some things about this camel, merely from his footprints,” challenged Ramabai, grinning.
Adinath, Pushpatai and Sitaram agreed that it sounded like fun and decided to play along.
Just then, a very hassled young man passed by the banyan tree, muttering to himself. “Oh no, no, no… not again… this time I think she is lost forever! How could I have been so careless!”
The Wise Four noticed his hurried walk and worried frown. They called out to him, “Who are you? What’s the matter?”
“Huh!” he noticed them suddenly and cried, “I am Raghu and my camel is missing!”
On hearing the mention of a camel, all four ministers stood up and started asking questions.
“Ah! A camel, is it? By any chance was she lame in one of her hind legs?” asked Sitaram eagerly.
“Yes, yes, she was! She was attacked by a wolf a few months ago! Which way did she go? Please tell me,” said Raghu, looking hopeful.
“First tell me, my dear. Was your camel also blind in one eye?” questioned Pushpatai.
“Yes! In fact, she once walked right into a tree and unfortunately that’s how she hurt her eye! Can you please point me in her direction?”
But instead of an answer, all Raghu got was yet another question, this time from Ramabai, “We don’t know where she went. But can you tell us about her tail? Would it be correct to say she does not have one?”
“That is correct! She lost her tail in an accident last month when a cart ran over it! Why won’t you just tell me where she is?” yelled Raghu, frustrated.
“We would love to help you. But we haven’t actually seen your camel, who, if I may say so, is also quite ill. Isn’t she?” added Adinath, as kindly as he could.
But Raghu was now furious and convinced that the four strangers were trying to trick him.
“That’s it! I know what’s going on here. You all aren’t telling me where she is because you stole her, you crooks! Where have you hidden her?”
“No, no… Raghu… listen… don’t misunderstand… we really haven’t even seen her… please believe us…” tried Ramabai.
But Raghu just pointed an angry finger at them and accused the four wise ministers, “You four stole her! I just know it! How else could you possibly know so much about my camel without ever seeing her?”
Adinath and Sitaram tried to pacify Raghu, but he would not listen.
“Give me back my camel right now,” he demanded. “Or I will take this theft to King Veerasena!”
“There is nothing we can do as we did not take your camel,” the four ministers said together.
Raghu stomped off muttering, “I will get justice and I will get my camel back! Just wait and watch, you crooks! I will be right back!”
Luckily for Raghu, he did not have to go very far. King Veerasena was on his evening rounds and Raghu ran into him.
Raghu told King Veerasena the whole story and pleaded for justice, “Your Majesty, only you can help a poor and wronged man like me. All I ever had was my camel and now that has also been taken from me. I have nothing… absolutely nothing.”
The king heard Raghu patiently and assured him that justice would be served. He asked Raghu to take him to the people who he believed had stolen his precious camel.
Soon, the king and his soldiers led by Raghu arrived at the gigantic banyan tree.
“There they are, Sire! The four crooks! And look, they are still standing around. Not even afraid of the mighty King Veerasena himself!” chided Raghu.
King Veerasena recognised his ministers. He knew that they could never steal from anyone. He decided to investigate and find out the truth of the theft. He gave the ministers a fair chance to explain their side of the story. That was what the Wise Four had always advised the king to do.
King Veerasena questioned them one by one. But they claimed to be innocent and simply told the king that they had never set eyes on Raghu’s camel.
“How could we steal something we haven’t even seen, Your Majesty?” pleaded Adinath.
“You liar! How dare you lie straight to the king’s face! Have you no shame?” yelled Raghu.
King Veerasena asked everyone to calm down and asked his banished ministers, “This man says that you identified his camel correctly to every last detail. Now, how did you know that it was lame in one hind leg?”
Sitaram promptly explained, “From her footprints, Your Majesty! Please take a look at these prints in the mud. As you can see, she wasn’t able to place her injured leg firmly on the ground. However, we can clearly see the other three footprints, which are much deeper.”
“Hmm… that makes sense,” said King Veerasena looking at Raghu.
“That may be so, Your Majesty,” said Raghu warily. “But how could they possibly know that she could only see with one eye?”
“I will explain,” offered Pushpatai. “The poor camel can only see from her right eye.”
Pushpatai pointed to the path they were standing on and continued, “If you notice, the grass on the right side of this path has been eaten by Raghu’s camel. But the grass on the left side of the path is untouched.”
Intrigued, King Veerasena got off his horse and personally inspected the grass.
“Hmm… that seems fair. What do you think?” he said looking at Raghu.
Raghu agreed and said, “Sure, that is a good point. But what about her missing tail? Not like it would leave a trail or eat grass. How did they guess that my camel has no tail?”
“Oh, that was plain and clear due to these gnats! Look at them, right here,” said Ramabai, as she kneeled to a gnat-filled spot on the path.
“These dead gnats? Am I to believe that the gnats told you about the camel’s missing tail! They are not even alive! Ha-ha!” mocked Raghu.
But Ramabai was not rattled. She smiled and spoke directly to Raghu, “My dear man, the gnats are alive. They are just too full to move.”
“WHAT?” Even King Veerasena was surprised and looked more closely.
“The gnats cannot fly as they’ve had so much blood to drink… the poor camel’s blood. And that wouldn’t have happened if she had a tail to swat them away,” explained Ramabai triumphantly.
“That is impressive!” applauded King Veerasena. The reasons and explanations shared by the four ministers were so brilliant that this time even Raghu agreed that they could not have stolen his missing camel.
“They are just very clever and wise. I take back my complaint.”
King Veerasena was happy to hear that the matter was resolved and generously offered that his soldiers would help Raghu find his missing camel. Raghu thanked the king for his kind gesture and walked away with a bunch of soldiers in search of his camel.
King Veerasena then turned to the Wise Four and realised his folly. He knew that their wisdom and honesty were invaluable to his kingdom and their people.
King Veerasena was nothing if not humble. He requested his trusted ministers to join back immediately.
“We serve at the pleasure of the king,” they all said in agreement.
But the king had one last question, “Tell me, how did you know that the camel was ill?”
“By looking at the dung, Your Majesty. It is not the same as that of a healthy camel,” said Adinath smugly.
“Ha-ha! That is very wise. Very wise indeed. But I must admit that I have figured out that actually I am the wisest of us all… because I have surrounded myself with the wisest people in the world!”
King Veerasena and the Wise Four headed back happily to the palace. The four ministers continued to serve the kingdom wisely for many many years to come.
They kept King Veerasena from making any wrong decisions in the future…
… except maybe a few because even a king is allowed a mistake or two.
