Raja Rasalu playing a dice game against a King
By: John Dickson Batten on Wikipedia
A Raja named Salbahan had two wives, one wife with a son and
one wife without a son. The wife without the son, Lona, poisoned Salbahan’s
mind against his own son out of jealousy of not being able to give Salbahan a
son of her own. Salbahan then had the son’s hands and feet chopped off, and he
had the son thrown down a well. The son was granted a miraculous survival and
was rescued by the holy Guru Goraknath, who then converted the son to become a
disciple. The son went home and forgave the evil queen, and blessed her with a
son. The catch was that she would have to lock the son up in a cellar for 12
years. If she saw the son before the 12 years were up, she would die. The son
left the cellar a year early to see his parents. The parents, without looking
at him, sent him off to do his own great things without him. A snake who
destroyed all things within 12 miles of the son’s campsite approached the
carpenter during his night shift. The snake attacked but the carpenter one and
kept the fight a secret. Next, a horror attacked the son during the night and
the son won. The carpenter and goldsmith left for home after seeing the horror
leaving the son alone. The son entered a town and learned of a giant that would
kill sons. He offered to take the place of a poor woman’s son to take on the
giant. He killed all of the giants but one. The giantess fled to a cave where
she starved to death out of fear to leave the cave. The son was travelling
after a short stint as a king when he took shelter in a graveyard. He was
lonely so he brought a headless corpse back to life. The corpse warns him about
playing a dice game with his brother a king. So, the son fashions some dice
from some bones he found that would level the playing field. He also saved a
cricket from fire and was given one of his feelers to toss in a fire if he
should ever need help. Some maidens of the city challenged him to separate
millet seed from sand. The son summons the cricket who brings more crickets,
and the crickets do the separating in one night.
Bibliography:
Tales of the Punjab by Flora Annie Steel, with illustrations by J. Lockwood Kipling (1894). Link
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