Singhasan Battisi
The throne that questioned a king
A king is about to sit down when a little figure speaks. The throne once belonged to Vikram, and the figure wants to know whether the new king has earned his place. In Rang Lal Chaman’s Urdu verse telling, printed by Newal Kishore in Kanpur in 1871, the road to that question begins with the king who ruled before Vikram.
Approach the throne ↓The fruit that came back
A Brahman brings Raja Bharthari a fruit that promises long life. Bharthari gives it to the queen, who gives it to the kotwal, the city’s chief officer. He gives it to a courtesan. She decides that a long-lived king could do more good for his subjects than she could do with the gift herself. She takes it to Bharthari.
The king recognizes the fruit. What he had given in love has passed through other hands and come back as an act of public concern. Bharthari eats it, leaves his kingdom and becomes a yogi. His younger brother Vikram is the king whose deeds the throne will remember.
A second king approaches
Much later, Raja Bhoj discovers Vikram’s throne. Thirty-two little figures adorn it. When Bhoj tries to mount it, one of them speaks. Before he takes Vikram’s seat, can he say he has acted as Vikram did?
Each figure, or putli, has a story. Bhoj came expecting to sit in judgment as king. Now he must listen while the figures judge his claim. The twentieth figure, Moti, asks him to consider what a king’s promise is worth in the marketplace.
Moti and the price of a promise
Vikram has promised the traders of Ujjain that he will buy whatever remains unsold. One article left at the market puts that promise to the test. It is an iron image of Poverty. Who would willingly bring Poverty home? Vikram pays for the image and has it placed in his treasury.
Wealth objects to sharing a home with Poverty. Generosity, too, is ready to leave. Vikram could rid himself of the image and keep both, but that would break the pledge on which the traders relied. He holds to his word. Wealth and Generosity stay. Now Bhoj must reckon with the cost Vikram was willing to bear before he knew how things would end.
What becomes of the throne?
At the close of Chaman’s telling, the figures rise into the air. The throne itself disappears, and Bhoj grieves. He has heard what happened when another man held power, but the seat on which that man ruled has slipped beyond his reach.
This is the ending a reader would find in the Kanpur book. Its final image is of the king who had to listen, left standing where the throne had been.
The book in Lucknow
Newal Kishore Press published Rang Lal Chaman’s Urdu verse in Lucknow in 1864. The Kanpur printing of 1871 supplies this room’s scenes. Its four columns of verse and the headings that name each speaker tell us how a reader could find her place among thirty-two voices.
The story stayed in print in Lucknow. Frances Pritchett records a 96-page Tej Kumar Press edition in 1969, its fourth printing, with a stated run of 3,000 copies. The record does not identify it as Chaman’s verse.
1864 Lucknow catalogue record ↗ · 1969 Tej Kumar bibliography entry ↗
Image credits and edition notes
The Kanpur pages are from Heidelberg University Library, South Asia Institute, shelfmark 276 kish 2014/442. The repository applies the Public Domain Mark 1.0.
Enter Vikram and Vaitaal
Bhoj has heard the throne speak. Now it is Vikram’s turn to listen.
Continue to Vikram and Vaitaal →