Raja Harichand's Punishment

There was once a great Raja, Raja Harichand, who every morning before
he bathed and breakfasted used to give away one hundred pounds weight
of gold to the fakirs, his poor ryots, and other poor people. This he
did in the name of God, "For," he said, "God loves me and gives me
everything that I have; so daily I will give him this gold."

Now God heard what a good man Raja Harichand was, and how much the
Raja loved him, and he thought he would go and see for himself if all
that was said of the Raja were true. He therefore went as a fakir to
Raja Harichand's palace and stood at his gate. The Raja had already
given away his hundred pounds' weight of gold, and gone into his
palace and bathed and breakfasted; so when his servants came to tell
him that another fakir stood at his gate, the Raja said, "Bid him come
to-morrow, for I have bathed, and have eaten my breakfast, and
therefore cannot attend to him now." The servants returned to the
fakir, and told him, "The Raja says you must come to-morrow, for he
cannot see you now, as he has bathed and breakfasted." God went away,
and the next day he again came, after all the fakirs and poor people
had received their gold and the Raja had gone into his palace. So the
Raja told his servants, "Bid the fakir come to-morrow. He has again
come too late for me to see him now."

On the third day God was once more too late, for the Raja had gone
into his palace. The Raja was vexed with him for being a third time
too late, and said to his servants, "What sort of a fakir is this that
he always comes too late? Go and ask him what he wants." So the
servants went to the fakir and said, "Raja Harichand says, 'What do
you want from him?'" "I want no rupees," answered God, "nor anything
else; but I want him to give me his wife." The servants told this to
the Raja, and it made him very angry. He went to his wife, the Rani
Bahan, and said to her, "There is a fakir at the gate who asks me to
give you to him! As if I should ever do such a thing! Fancy my giving
him my wife!"

The Rani was very wise and clever, for she had a book, which she read
continually, called the kop shastra; and this book told her
everything. So she knew that the fakir at the gate was no fakir, but
God himself. (In old days about two people in a thousand, though not
more, could read this book; now-a-days hardly any one can read it, for
it is far too difficult.) So the Rani said to the Raja, "Go to this
fakir, and say to him, 'You shall have my wife.' You need not really
give me to him; only give me to him in your thoughts." "I will do no
such thing," said the Raja in a rage; and in spite of all her
entreaties, he would not say to the fakir, "I will give you my wife."
He ordered his servants to beat the fakir, and send him away; and so
they did.

God returned to his place, and called to him two angels. "Take the
form of men," he said to them, "and go to Raja Harichand. Say to him,
'God has sent us to you. He says, Which will you have--a twelve years'
famine throughout your land during which no rain will fall? or a great
rain for twelve hours?'"

The angels came to the Raja and said as God had bidden them. The Raja
thought for a long while which he should choose. "If a great rain
pours down for twelve hours," he said to himself, "my whole country
will be washed away. But I have a great quantity of gold. I have
enough to send to other countries and buy food for myself and my ryots
during the twelve years' famine." So he said to the angels, "I will
choose the famine." Then the angels came into his palace; and the
moment they entered it, all the Raja's servants that were in the
palace, and all his cows, horses, elephants, and other animals became
stone. So did every single thing in the palace, excepting his gold and
silver, and these turned to charcoal. The Raja and Rani did not become
stone.

The angels said to them, "For three weeks you will not be able to eat
anything; you will not be able to eat any food you may find or may
have given you. But you will not die, you will live." Then the angels
went away.

The Raja was very sad when he looked round his palace and saw
everything in it, and all the people in it, stone, and saw all his
gold and silver turned to charcoal. He said to his wife, "I cannot
stay here. I must go to some other country. I was a great Raja; how
can I ask my ryots to give me food? We will dress ourselves like
fakirs, and go to another country."

They put on fakirs' clothes and went out of their palace. They
wandered in the jungle till they saw a plum-tree covered with fruit.
"Do gather some of those plums for me," said the Rani, who was very
hungry. The Raja went to the tree and put out his hand to gather the
plums; but when he did this, they at once all left the tree and went a
little way up into the air. When he drew back his hand, the plums
returned to the tree. The Raja tried three times to gather the plums,
but never could do so.

He and the Rani then went on till they came to a plain in another
country, where was a large tank in which men were fishing. The Rani
said to her husband, "Go and ask those men to give us a little of
their fish, for I am very hungry." The Raja went to the men and said,
"I am a fakir, and have no pice. Will you give me some of your fish,
for I have not eaten for four days and am hungry?" The men gave him
some fish, and he and his wife carried it to a tank on another plain.
The Rani cleaned and prepared the fish for cooking, and said to her
husband, "I have nothing in which to cook this fish. Go up to the town
(there was a town close by) and ask some one to give you an earthen
pot with a lid, and some salt."

The Raja went up to the town, and some one in the bazar gave him the
earthen pot, and a grain merchant put a little salt into it. Then he
returned to the Rani, and they made a fire under a tree, put the fish
into the pot, and set the pot on the fire. "I have not bathed for some
days," said the Raja. "I will go and bathe while you cook the fish,
and when I come back we will eat it." So he went to bathe, and the
Rani sat watching the fish. Presently she thought, "If I leave the lid
on the pot, the fish will dry up and burn." Then she took off the lid,
and the fish instantly jumped out of the pot into the tank and swam
away. This made the Rani sad; but she sat there quiet and silent. When
the Raja had bathed, he returned to his wife, and said, "Now we will
eat our fish." The Rani answered, "I had not eaten for four days, and
was very hungry, so I ate all the fish." "Never mind," said the Raja,
"it does not matter."

They wandered on, and the next day came to another jungle where they
saw two pigeons. The Raja took some grass and sticks, and made a bow
and arrow. He shot the pigeons with these, and the Rani plucked and
cleaned them. Her husband and she made a little fire, put the pigeons
in their pot, and set them on it. There was a tank near. "Now I will
go and bathe," said the Rani; "I have not bathed for some days. When I
come back, we will eat the pigeons." So she went to bathe, and the
Raja sat down to watch the pigeons. Presently he thought, "If I leave
the pot shut, the birds will dry up and burn." So he took off the lid,
and instantly away flew the pigeons out of the pot. He guessed at once
what the fish had done yesterday, and sat still and silent till the
Rani came back. "I have eaten the pigeons in the same way that you ate
the fish yesterday," he said to her. The Rani understood what had
happened, and saw the Raja knew how the fish had escaped.

So they wandered on; and as they went the Rani remembered an oil
merchant, called Ganga Teli, a friend of theirs, and a great man, just
like a Raja. "Let us go to Ganga Teli, if we can walk as far as his
house," she said. "He will be good to us." He lived a long way off.
When they got to him, Ganga Teli knew them at once. "What has
happened?" he said. "You were a great Raja; why are you and the Rani
so poor and dressed like fakirs?" "It is God's will," they answered.
Ganga Teli did not think it worth while to notice them much now they
were poor; so, though he did not send them away, he gave them a
wretched room to live in, a wretched bed to lie on, and such bad food
to eat that, hungry as they were, they could not touch it. "When we
were rich," they said to each other, "and came to stay with Ganga
Teli, he received us like friends; he gave us beautiful rooms to live
in, beautiful beds to lie on, and delicious food to eat. We cannot
stay here."

So they went away very sorrowful, and wandered for a whole week, and
all the time they had no food, till they came to another country whose
Raja, Raja Bhoj, was one of their friends. Raja Bhoj received them
very kindly. "What has brought you to this state? How is it you are so
poor?" he said. "What has happened to you?" "It is God's will," they
answered. Raja Bhoj gave them a beautiful room to live in, and told
his servants to cook for them the very nicest dinner they could. This
the servants did, and they brought the dinner into Raja Harichand's
room, and set it before him and left him. Then he and the Rani put
some of the food on their plates; but before they could eat anything,
the food both in the dishes and on their plates became full of
maggots. So they could not eat it. They felt greatly humbled. However,
they said nothing, but worshipped God; and they buried all the food in
a hole they dug in the floor of their room.

Now the daughter of Raja Bhoj had left her gold necklace hanging on
the wall of the room in which were Raja Harichand and the Rani Bahan.
At night when Raja Harichand was asleep, the Rani saw a crack come in
the wall and the necklace go of itself into the crack; then the wall
joined together as before. She at once woke her husband, and told him
what she had seen. "We had better go away quickly," she said. "The
necklace will not be found to-morrow, and Raja Bhoj will think we are
thieves. It will be useless breaking the wall open to find it." The
Raja got up at once, and they set out again. Raja Bhoj, when the
necklace was not found, thought Raja Harichand and the Rani Bahan had
stolen it.

They wandered on till they came to a country belonging to another
friend, called Raja Nal, but they were ashamed to go to his palace.
The three weeks were now nearly over, only two more days were left. So
the Rani said, "In two days we shall be able to eat. Go into the
jungle and cut grass, and sell it in the bazar. We shall thus get a
few pice and be able to buy a little food." The Raja went out to the
jungle, but he had to break and pull up the grass with his hands. He
worked half the day, and then sold the grass in the bazar for a few
pice. They were able to buy food, and worshipped God and cooked it;
and as the three weeks were now over they were allowed to eat it.

They stayed in Raja Nal's country, and lived in a little house they
hired in the bazar. Raja Harichand went out every day to the jungle
for grass, which he pulled up or broke off with his hands, and then
sold in the bazar for a few pice. The Rani saved a pice or two
whenever she could, and at the end of two years they were rich enough
to buy a hook such as grass-cutters use. The Raja could now cut more
grass, and soon the Rani was able to buy some pretty-coloured silks in
the bazar.

Her husband went daily to cut grass, and she sat at home making
head-collars with the silks for horses. Four years after they had
bought the hook, she had four of these head-collars ready, and she
took them up to Raja Nal's palace to sell. It was the first time she
had gone there, for she and her husband were ashamed to see Raja Nal.
Their fakirs' dresses had become rags, and they had only been able to
get wretched common clothes in their place, for they were miserably
poor.

"What beautiful head-collars these are!" said Raja Nal's coachmen and
grooms; and they took them to show to their Raja. As soon as he saw
them he said, "Where did you get these head-collars? Who is it that
wishes to sell them?" for he knew that only one woman could make such
head-collars, and that woman was the Rani Bahan. "A very poor woman
brought them here just now," they answered. "Bring her to me," said
Raja Nal. So the servants brought him Rani Bahan, and when she saw the
Raja she burst into tears. "What has brought you to this state? Why
are you so poor?" said Raja Nal. "It is God's will," she answered.
"Where is your husband?" he asked. "He is cutting grass in the
jungle," she said. Raja Nal called his servants and said, "Go into the
jungle, and there you will see a man cutting grass. Bring him to me."
When Raja Harichand saw Raja Nal's servants coming to him, he was very
much frightened; but the servants took him and brought him to the
palace. As soon as Raja Nal saw his old friend, he seized his hands,
and burst out crying. "Raja," he said, "what has brought you to this
state?" "It is God's will," said Raja Harichand.

Raja Nal was very good to them. He gave them a palace to live in, and
servants to wait on them; beautiful clothes to wear, and good food to
eat. He went with them to the palace to see that everything was as it
should be for them. "To-day," he said to the Rani, "I shall dine with
your husband, and you must give me a dinner cooked just as you used to
cook one for me when I went to see you in your own country." "Good, I
will give it you," said the Rani; but she was quite frightened, for
she thought, "The Raja is so kind, and everything is so comfortable
for us, that I am sure something dreadful will happen." However, she
prepared the dinner, and told the servants how to cook it and serve
it; but first she worshipped God, and entreated him to have mercy on
her and her husband. The dinner was very good, and nothing evil
happened to any one. They lived in the palace Raja Nal gave them for
four and a half years.

Meanwhile the farmers in Raja Harichand's country had all these years
gone on ploughing and turning up the land, although not a drop of rain
had fallen all that time, and the earth was hard and dry. Now just
when the Raja and Rani had lived in Raja Nal's palace for four and a
half years Mahadeo was walking through Raja Harichand's country. He
saw the farmers digging up the ground, and said, "What is the good of
your digging and turning up the ground? Not a drop of rain is going to
fall." "No," said the farmers, "but if we did not go on ploughing and
digging, we should forget how to do our work." They did not know they
were talking to Mahadeo, for he looked like a man. "That is true,"
said Mahadeo, and he thought, "The farmers speak the truth; and if I
go on neglecting to blow on my horn, I shall forget how to blow on it
at all." So he took his deer's horn, which was just like those some
yogis use, and blew on it. Now when Raja Harichand had chosen the
twelve years' famine, God had said, "Rain shall not fall on Raja
Harichand's country till Mahadeo blows his horn in it." Mahadeo had
quite forgotten this decree; so he blew on his horn, although only ten
and a half years' famine had gone by. The moment he blew, down came
the rain, and the whole country at once became as it had been before
the famine began; and moreover, the moment it rained, everything in
Raja Harichand's palace became what it was before the angels entered
it. All the men and women came to life again; so did all the animals;
and the gold and silver were no longer charcoal, but once more gold
and silver. God was not angry with Mahadeo for forgetting that he said
the famine should last for twelve years, and that the rain should fall
when Mahadeo blew on his horn in Raja Harichand's country. "If it
pleased Mahadeo to blow on his horn," said God, "it does not matter
that eighteen months of famine were still to last." As soon as they
heard the rain had fallen, all the ryots who had gone to other
countries on account of the famine returned to Raja Harichand's
country.

Among the Raja's servants was the kotwal, and very anxious he was,
when he came to life again, to find the Raja and Rani; only he did not
know how to do so, and wondered where he had best seek for them.

Meanwhile the Rani Bahan had a dream that God sent her, in which an
angel said to her, "It is good that you and your husband should return
to your country." She told this dream to her husband; and Raja Nal
gave them horses, elephants, and camels, that they might travel like
Rajas to their home, and he went with them. They found everything in
order in their own palace and all through their country, and after
this lived very happily in it. But the Rani said to Raja Harichand,
"If you had only done what I told you, and said you would give me to
the fakir, all this misery would not have come on us."

Later they went to stay again with Raja Bhoj, and slept in the same
room as they had had when they came to him poor and wretched. In the
night they saw the wall open, and the necklace came out of the crack
and hung itself up as before, and the wall closed again. The next day
they showed the necklace to Raja Bhoj, saying, "It was on account of
this necklace that we ran away from you the last time we were here,"
and they told him all that had happened to it.

As for Ganga Teli, they never went near him again.