There was once a king who was noted throughout his dominions for daily
boasting of his power and riches. His ministers at length became weary
of this self-glorification, and one day when he demanded of them, as
usual, whether there existed in the whole world another king as powerful
as he, they plainly told him that there was such another potentate; upon
which he assembled his troops and rode forth at their head, challenging
the neighbouring kings to fight with him. Ere long he met with more than
his match, for another king came with a great army and utterly defeated
him, and took possession of his kingdom. Disguising himself, the humbled
king escaped with his wife and two boys, and arriving at the sea shore,
found a ship about to sail. The master agreed to take him and his family
and land them at the port for which he was bound. But when he beheld the
beauty of the queen, he became enamoured of her, and determined to make
her his own. The queen was the first to go on board the ship, and the
king and his two sons were about to follow, when they were seized by a
party of ruffians, hired by the shipmaster, and held back until the
vessel had got fairly under way. The queen was distracted on seeing her
husband and children left behind, and refused to listen to the master’s
suit, who, after having tried to win her love for several days without
success, resolved to sell her as a slave. Among the passengers was a
merchant, who, seeing that the lady would not accept the shipmaster for
her husband, thought that if he bought her, he might in time gain her
affection. Accordingly he purchased her of the master for a large sum of
money, and then told her that he had done so with a view of making her
his wife. The lady replied that, although the shipman had no right thus
to dispose of her, yet she would consent to marry him at the end of two
years, if she did not during that period meet with her husband and their
two sons; and to this condition the merchant agreed. In the meanwhile
the king, having sorrowfully watched the vessel till it was out of
sight, turned back with his two boys, who wept and lamented as they ran
beside him. After walking a great distance, he came to a shallow but
rapid river, which he wished to cross, and, as there was no boat or
bridge, he was obliged to wade through the water. Taking up one of his
sons he contrived to reach the other side in safety, and was returning
for the other when the force of the current overcame him and he was
drowned.
When the two boys noticed that their father had perished, they wept
bitterly. Their separation, too, was a further cause for grief. There
they stood, one on either side of the river, with no means of reaching
each other. They shouted, and ran about hither and thither in their
grief, till they had almost wearied themselves into sleep, when a
fisherman came past, who, seeing the great distress of the boys, took
them into his boat, and asked them who they were, and who were their
parents; and they told him all that had happened. When he had heard
their story, he said, “You have not a father or mother, and I have not a
child. Evidently God has sent you to me. Will you be my own children and
learn to fish, and live in my house?” Of course, the poor boys were only
too glad to find a friend and shelter. “Come,” said the fisherman
kindly, leading them out of the boat to a house close by, “I will look
after you.” The boys followed most happily, and went into the
fisherman’s house; and when they saw his wife they were still better
pleased, for she was very kind to them, and treated them as if they had
been her own children. The two boys went to school, and when they had
learned all that the master could teach them, they began to help their
adoptive father, and in a little while became most expert and diligent
young fishermen.
Thus time was passing with them, when it happened that a great fish
threw itself on to the bank of the river and could not get back again
into the water. Everybody in the village went to see the monstrous fish,
and cut a slice of its flesh and took it home. A few people also went
from the neighbouring villages, and amongst them was a maker of
earthenware. His wife had heard of the great fish and urged him to go
and get some of the flesh. So he went, although the hour was late. On
his arrival he found that all the people had returned to their homes.
The potter had taken an axe with him, thinking that the bones would be
so great and strong as to require its use in breaking them. When he
struck the first blow a voice came out of the fish, like that of some
one in pain, at which the potter was greatly surprised. “Perhaps,”
thought he, “the fish is possessed by a bhút.[514] I’ll try again;”
whereupon he struck another blow with his axe. Again the voice came
forth from the fish, saying, “Woe is me! woe is me!” On hearing this,
the potter thought, “Well, this is evidently not a bhút, but the voice
of an ordinary man. I’ll cut the flesh carefully. May be that I shall
find some poor distressed person.” So he began to cut away the flesh
carefully, and presently he perceived a man’s foot, then the legs
appeared, and then the entire body. “Praise be to God,” he cried, “the
soul is yet in him.” He carried the man to his house as fast as he
could, and on arriving there did everything in his power to recover him.
A large fire was soon got ready, and tea and soup given the man, and
great was the joy of the potter and his wife when they saw him
reviving.[515] For some months the stranger lived with those good
people, and learnt how to make pots and pans and other articles, and
thereby helped them considerably. Now it happened that the king of that
country died, and it was the custom of the people to take for their
sovereign whomsoever the late king’s elephant and hawk should select.
And so on the death of the king the royal elephant was driven all over
the country, and the hawk was made to fly about, in search of a
successor, and it came to pass that the person before whom the elephant
saluted and on whom the hawk alighted was considered as the
divinely-chosen one. Accordingly the elephant and the hawk went about
the country, and in the course of their wanderings came by the house of
the potter who had so kindly succoured the poor man whom he found in the
belly of the monstrous fish; and it chanced that as they passed the
place the stranger was standing by the door, and behold, no sooner did
the elephant and hawk see him than the one bowed down before him and the
other perched on his hand. “Let him be king! let him be king!” shouted
the people who were in attendance on the elephant, and they prostrated
themselves before the stranger and begged him to accompany them to the
palace.[516]
The ministers were glad when they heard the news, and most respectfully
welcomed their new king. As soon as the rites and ceremonies necessary
for the installation of a king had been observed, his majesty entered on
his duties. The first thing he did was to send for the potter and his
wife and grant them some land and money. In this and other ways, such as
just judgments, proper laws, and kindly notices of all who were clever
and good, he won for himself the good opinion and affection of his
subjects and prospered in consequence thereof. After a few months,
however, his health was impaired, and his physicians advised him to take
out-door exercise. Accordingly, he alternately rode, hunted, and fished.
He was especially fond of fishing, and whenever he indulged in this
amusement, he was attended by two sons of a fisherman, who were clever
and handsome youths.
About this time the merchant who bought the wife of the poor king that
was carried away by the rapid river visited that country for purposes of
trade. He obtained an interview with the king, and displayed before him
all his precious stones and stuffs. The king was much pleased to see
such treasures, and asked many questions about them and the countries
whence they had been brought. The merchant satisfied the king’s
curiosity, and then begged permission to trade in that country, under
his majesty’s protection, which the king readily granted, and ordered
that some soldiers should be placed on guard in the merchant’s
courtyard, and sent the fisherman’s two sons to sleep in the premises.
One night those two youths not being able to sleep, the younger asked
his brother to tell him a story to pass the time, so he replied, “I will
tell you one out of our own experience: Once upon a time there lived a
great and wealthy king, who was very proud, and his pride led him to
utter ruin and caused him the sorest afflictions. One day when going
about with his army, challenging other kings to fight with him, a great
and powerful king appeared and conquered him. He escaped with his wife
and two sons to the sea, hoping to find a vessel, by which he and his
family might reach a foreign land. After walking several miles they
reached the sea-shore and found a ship ready to sail. The master of the
vessel took the queen, but the king and his two sons were held back by
some men, who had been hired by the master for this purpose, until the
ship was under way. The poor king after this walked long and far till he
came to a rapid river. As there was no bridge or boat near, he was
obliged to wade across. He took one of his boys and got over safely, and
was returning for the other when he stumbled over a stone, lost his
footing, and was carried down the stream; and he has not been heard of
since. A fisherman came along, and, seeing the two boys crying, took
them into his boat, and afterwards to his house, and became very fond of
them, as did also his wife, and they were like father and mother to
them. All this happened a few years ago, and the two boys are generally
believed to be the fisherman’s own sons. O brother, we are these two
boys! And there you have my story.”
The tale was so interesting and its conclusion so wonderful that the
younger brother was more awake than before. It had also attracted the
attention of another. The merchant’s promised wife, who happened to be
lying awake at the time, and whose room was separated from the warehouse
by a very thin partition, overheard all that had been said, and she
thought within herself, “Surely these two boys must be my own sons.”
Presently she was sitting beside them and asking them many questions.
Two years or more had made a great difference in the persons of both the
boys, but there were certain signs which a hundred years could not
efface from a mother’s memory. These, together with the answers which
she elicited from them, assured her that she had found her own sons
again. Tears streamed down her face as she embraced them, and revealed
to them that she was the queen, their mother, about whom they had just
been speaking. She then told them all that had happened to her since she
had been parted from them and their poor father, the king; after which
she explained that although the merchant was a good man and very wealthy
yet she did not like him well enough to become his wife, and proposed a
plan for her getting rid of him. “My device,” said she, “is to pretend
to the merchant that you attempted my honour. I shall affect to be very
angry and not give him any peace until he goes to the king and complains
against you. Then will the king send for you in great wrath and inquire
into this matter. In reply you must say it is all a mistake, for you
regard me as your own mother, and in proof of this you will beg the king
to summon me into his presence, that I may corroborate what you say.
Then I will declare that you are really my own sons, and beseech the
king to free me from the merchant and allow me to live with you in any
place I may choose for the rest of my days.”
The sons agreed to this proposal, and next night, when the merchant was
also sleeping in the house, the woman raised a great cry, so that
everybody was awakened by the noise. The merchant came and asked the
cause of the outcry, and she answered, “The two youths who look after
your warehouse have attempted to violate me, so I screamed in order to
make them desist.” On hearing this the merchant was enraged. He
immediately bound the two youths, and, as soon as there was any chance
of seeing the king, took them before him and preferred his complaint.
“What have you to say in your defence?” said the king, addressing the
youths; “because, if what this merchant charges against you be true, I
will have you at once put to death. Is this the gratitude you manifest
for all my kindness and condescension towards you? Say quickly what you
have to say.” “O king, our benefactor,” replied the elder brother, “we
are not affrighted by your words and looks, for we are true servants. We
have not betrayed your trust in us, but have always tried to fulfil your
wishes to the utmost of our power. The charges brought against us by
this merchant are unfounded. We have not attempted to dishonour his
wife; we have rather always regarded her as our own mother. May it
please your majesty to send for the woman and inquire further into this
matter.”
The king consented, and the woman was brought before him. “Is it true,”
he asked her, “what the merchant, your affianced husband, witnesses
against these two youths?” “O king,” she replied, “the youths whom you
gave to help the merchant have most carefully tried to carry out your
wishes. But the night before last I heard their conversation. The elder
was telling the younger a tale, from his own experience, he said. It was
a story of a conceited king who had been defeated by another more
powerful than he, and obliged to fly with his wife and two children to
the sea. There, through the vile trickery of the master of a vessel, the
wife was stolen and taken away to far distant lands, where she became
engaged to a wealthy trader; while the exiled king and his two sons
wandered in another direction, till they came to a river, in which the
king was drowned. The two boys were found by a fisherman and brought up
as his own sons. These two boys, O king, are before you, and I am their
mother, who was taken away and sold to the trader, and who after two
days must be married to him. For I promised that if within a certain
period I should not meet with my husband and two sons I would be his
wife. But I entreat your majesty to free me from this man. I do not wish
to marry again, now that I have found my two sons. In order to obtain an
audience of your majesty, this trick was arranged with the two youths.”
By the time the woman had finished her story the king’s face was
suffused with tears, and he was trembling visibly. When he had somewhat
recovered he rose from the throne, and going up to the woman and the two
youths embraced them long and fervently. “You are my own dear wife and
children,” he cried. “God has sent you back to me. I, the king, your
husband, your father, was not drowned as you supposed; but was swallowed
by a great fish and nourished by it for some time, and then the monster
threw itself upon the river’s bank and I was extricated. A potter and
his wife had pity on me and taught me their trade, and I was just
beginning to earn my living by making earthen vessels when the late king
of this country died, and I was chosen king by the royal elephant and
hawk—I who am now standing here.” Then his majesty ordered the queen and
her two sons to be taken into the inner apartments of the palace, and
explained his conduct to the people assembled. The merchant was politely
dismissed from the country. And as soon as the two princes were old
enough to govern the kingdom, the king committed to them the charge of
all affairs, while he retired with his wife to a sequestered spot and
passed the rest of his days in peace.
* * * * *
The tale of Sarwar and Nír, “as told by a celebrated Bard from Baraut,
in the Merath district,” in vol. iii. of Captain R. C. Temple’s “Legends
of the Panjáb” (pp. 97–125), though differing in form somewhat from the
Kashmírí version, yet possesses the leading incidents in common with it,
as will be seen from the following abstract: