The Upside-Down King Read online

  When Raghu awoke the next morning, he saw the tree covered with gold coins. He understood that it was Kubera’s magic at work. He said to his soldiers, ‘Our mission is already complete, and there is no need to go to war. Let’s take down ten lakh gold coins from the tree and leave the rest as is. The life of a king must be like that of a sage—with minimal to no attachments.’

  Raghu headed back to his kingdom after gathering ten lakh gold coins and sent word to Koustheya to come and collect the money.

  Meanwhile, the gods had been watching, and seeing Raghu’s good intentions, they blessed him and his kingdom with prosperity.

  Koustheya collected the coins and handed them to his teacher, who was pleasantly surprised and blessed his student. ‘Your gurudakshina is complete. Go and prosper in this world, my child.’

  The guru then donated all the gold coins to the poor that very day. It was the tenth day of the month of Ashwayuja, and from that day on, distributing wealth on this day became a custom. Today, if a person doesn’t have gold to donate, they distribute the leaves of the shami tree instead. Later, Rama is believed to have defeated Ravana on this day, and the tenth day of this month came to be known as Vijayadashami or Dussehra.

  Since then, the shami (Prosopis cineraria) is considered an auspicious tree and is also called the tree of gold.

  Legend also has it that when the Pandavas were in exile for a year, they were afraid that people would recognize them if they carried their weapons along. So they collected the weapons together, tied them with a cloth to a shami tree and entered the city of Viratnagar unarmed. The tree, thus, became a great source of help during their exile.

  Today, people all over the country celebrate Vijayadashami after nine days of Navratri and the worship of Goddess Durga. On the tenth day, leaves from a shami tree are kept in a box and distributed to friends and relatives. People touch the feet of elders and say, ‘Please accept these shami leaves and bless us so that we prosper in our lives.’

  Ravana, the Complex Asura

  The Story of Vaisravana

  The great sage Pulastya was a very learned man who was performing a strict penance in a forest near Mount Mahameru. He ate only what was required for survival, and led an austere and disciplined life. The king of the gods, Indra, thought that Pulastya was praying to usurp his throne and sent a few celestial beauties with exquisite flowers and delicious fruits to disrupt Pulastya’s tapasya.

  Pulastya, however, remained detached from the distractions around him. The sage understood that Indra had instructed the women to disturb him. The apsaras began playing music and dancing with joy. Finally, fed up, he cursed them. ‘Any woman who sets eyes on me is sure to have a baby within a year.’

  When the apsaras heard these words, they immediately ran away, and Pulastya continued his penance in peace.

  Days passed.

  King Thrinabindu, who ruled the land, had a beautiful daughter. One day, she went to the forest nearby with her friends but lost her way. She wandered around and suddenly found herself in Pulastya’s ashram, where she saw the sage meditating. Without disturbing him and unaware of the curse, she prostrated before him and then left the ashram. Soon after, she found her friends, and they returned to the palace.

  After a few days, the princess felt her body changing. Thinking that she might be about to fall sick, she visited the royal physician, who examined her and declared, ‘You are pregnant.’

  The princess was alarmed. When her father, Thrinabindu, learnt of this, he was surprised. But he was an understanding man and a wise philosopher. He knew that his daughter was incapable of doing anything that might interfere with her royal duties or harm their reputation. So he quizzed his daughter about the sequence of events in the near past. Finally, the king realized that the change could have come along only after the princess’s visit to Pulastya’s ashram and immediately left with his daughter to meet the sage in the forest.

  When they reached the ashram, the sage was not in meditation and welcomed his visitors. The king explained the situation to the sage, who said, ‘King, I will marry the princess. She will give birth to a child who will become very famous in the world.’

  The king agreed, and the princess and the sage were married. They were a happy couple. Months later, the princess gave birth to a bouncing baby boy, whom they named Vishrava.

  Vishrava grew up to be a great sage because of his knowledge and yogic powers. He was much like his father—a learned and calm man. First, he married Ilavada and had a son named Vaisravana. Later, he also wed Kaikesi, who bore him Ravana.

  Vaisravana grew up in the ashram and performed many yagnas like his father and grandfather.

  One day, Brahma appeared before him. ‘I am pleased with your penance and knowledge. Tell me, Vaisravana, what can I give you? What do you desire?’

  Vaisravana replied, ‘I want to manage the finances and all related matters of the celestial treasury, and have the same elite status of the gods of the directions. There are only three gods of the directions, and I would like to be the fourth.’

  Lord Brahma smiled and agreed. ‘So be it. From this day on, you will be known as Kubera and will equal the likes of Indra, who is the king of the gods and the east; Varuna, who is the god of water and the west; and Yama, the god of death and the south. You, my child, will be the god of wealth and the north. I also bless you with the Pushpaka Vimana, a chariot that can fly in any direction you wish. May you handle your blessings with wisdom and grace.’

  Kubera approached his father, Vishrava, and said, ‘Father, Lord Brahma has been very kind to me. He gave me more than I asked for. But he did not identify a place for me to stay. Please advise me where I can live so that I do not cause harm to any living being—human or animal. That will make me very happy.’

  Vishrava liked his son’s humble request and replied, ‘Go to the southern ocean and keep travelling south until you come upon an island. That island is Lanka Pradesha. Look for a mountain known as Trikuta, near which lies a beautiful city called Lanka. The city has a strong moat and fort and a palace made of gold. Lanka was built by Vishwakarma, the architect of the heavens, for the asuras, but the asuras ran away to Patala Loka (the lower world) out of the fear of Lord Vishnu. So the city now lies abandoned. You can take residence there and rule.’

  Kubera smiled and thanked his father.

  Soon, he made his way to Lanka and settled there. As time passed, many asuras also came and resided in his kingdom. Kubera ruled the city wisely and respected and cared for his subjects.

  The Boons of Brahma

  Sage Kashyapa had many wives. The children born of his wife Aditi became devas, the children borne by Dwiti became asuras and those of Kadru came to be known as the nagas. In the same manner, the yakshas and kimpurushas were also borne by Sage Kashyapa’s different wives.

  The asuras who built Lanka for themselves were behaving very arrogantly and causing problems for others. Vishnu went to Lanka and punished them, so they ran away to Patala Loka.

  Over the generations in the asura lineage, Malyavan, Sumali and Mali were born. The three brothers had many children.

  Sumali’s daughter Kaikesi was extraordinarily beautiful and intelligent. One day, when Sumali saw the famed sage Vishrava (Kubera’s father), he decided to marry his daughter to this sage. Through scheming and planning, Sumali became successful in his mission, and Vishrava was married to Kaikesi. Together, they had three sons, named Ravana, Kumbhakarna and Vibhishana, and a daughter named Shurpanakha.

  Ravana’s grandfather Pulastya could predict the future. He told Kaikesi, ‘Your first two sons will bring a bad name to your lineage, but the last one will be remembered forever as a good man.’

  Kaikesi raised her children with the ideals of two cultures—the Vedic culture of her father’s dynasty and the warrior ideology of her mother’s family.

  Ravana, Kaikesi’s eldest son, was a handsome prince who possessed the qualities of sages as well as of asuras. He was also known as Dashagreeva, Dashana