SINHASAN
BATTISI – MANOJ PUBLICATIONS
Worded by : Gopal Sharma
Translated by : Arun Kumar
A chance stroll to a railway station book
trolley on Nagpur Railway station lead me to yet another discovery – having had
prior experience of a rewarding nature on such strolleys, I was open to more
experimentation after reading good, and yet cheap books on Chhatrapati Shivaji
and The Mahatma. This time, I found a book that took my memory back to my
childhood and young adult years – the fabled stories of Sinhasan Battisi… and at a very cheap Rs 40/-! Not believing my
luck, I went for it like a shot
The stories of the Sinhasan Battisi revolve around the Ujjain King Vikramaditya, who also is credited with the Sanaatani Calender
Vikram Samvat, which is one of the two major calendars still followed in Modern
India – Vikram Samvat, and Shaka era. {For Western readers – we use
local calendars, one of the above two – for almost every cultural event wherein
everything is determined by the Sanaatani dates} This book is a series of short
stories, well documented through the
ages in a series of ancient writings.
But
first, a small word on King Vikramaditya
: he was a first century BCE king, and quite a fabled king, renowned for his
good traits and qualities, as also for his overall excellent rule. While it is
true that there were at least two Kings with the same title, given that the
stories are around the King who started the Vikram
Samvat – as per me, it seems pretty
clear that we are talking of the time period of around the first century BCE in
these stories, as the Vikram Samvat era starts at 57 BCE
The book starts with King Bhoj – thought to be a parmar king of around 1000-1100 AD in
Ujjain – discovering a lovely throne of stunning beauty buried deep within the
Earth. Transfixed by the splendor of this throne, he decides to install it in
his court, and use it for his own throne. But the moment he tries to sit on it,
he is prevented from doing so by a puppet – one of the 32 that adorn the throne
– that comes alive, and tells him that he doesn’t deserve this throne, and
tells him a story of the greatness of the original owner of the throne, the
great King Vikramaditya. The
puppet then asks King Bhoj are you as
great a ruler?
There are 32 such puppets, and each time the
King attempts to use the throne, he is prevented from doing so by another of
the puppets, who each time tell a story of the original owner of the throne,
and asks at the end – do you think you are as great a ruler as the great King? If
you are not, then you do not deserve to sit on the throne – and advises King
Bhoj to try again, and forget about sitting. Eventually, in later tales, the
puppets start telling him to forget about the throne altogether…
These tales are incredible tales, stories of
charity, valour, good governance, benevolence and all the good qualities that a
well-loved ruler and human being should have; stories that build character as
well as entertain all at the same time. These are stories of humility, of
incredible sacrifice and pain on self for the sake of others, of complete
selflessness, of justified anger and valour, of a strong moral timber and of a
an incredible ruler who was clearly one of the finest ever to rule in Ancient India
Even if you grant that some of the tales are
allegorical in nature, it is significant that not one tale talks of greatness
of King Vikramaditya in terms
generally understood for greatness in our Modern Western-dominated world-view,
a world view which calls conquering kings great. Instead, the picture that
emerges – even if you make allowances for exaggeration and allegories, is of a
ruler who was a genuine people-first man, a ruler who cared deeply for each
subject, and yet who had full support from the nobility who never deposed him
even when he was away on his long absences due to his charitable works. This
itself tells the tale of a tight, fair and able administrator!
Much has been written of the historicity of King Vikramaditya – it is now known
there were at least two kings who bore this title; much has been debated; but
it cannot be denied that the Vikram Samvat Calendar still exists, and has wide
Modern usage and following; the tales specifically credit King Vikramaditya of Ujjain with this calendar. The first known written record is from around 11th-14th
centuries {from a quick internet search} and there are a series of writings
since. Furthermore, there are various references in more ancient works right
from the 1st Century BCE that seem to prove that we are talking of a
genuine historical figure.
This book is a fast read, short and can be read
in one sitting on a journey, is very cheap, and is very entertaining and great
fun to read. It also gives a superb series of short lessons on Good
Administration, Charity, the virtues of being selfless, placing people above
self {Managers read that as placing team above self}, honesty, integrity, hard
work – or, in short – all the good and desirable qualities that we would
ideally love to see in ourselves and our children…
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