How Raja Rasalu Killed the Giants

Some time later, Raja Rasalu came to the city of Nila. As he rode in, he saw an old woman making flat bread, and as she worked she sometimes cried and sometimes laughed. Rasalu asked her why, but she only answered sadly, still kneading her dough, “Why do you want to know? What good will it do you?”

“Mother,” said Rasalu, “if you tell me the truth, one of us is bound to gain by it.”

The old woman looked into his face, saw that it was kind and poured out her troubles. “Stranger,” she said, weeping, “I had seven fine sons, and now I have only one. Six were taken by a dreadful giant who comes to this city every day to collect his payment: one handsome young man, one buffalo and one basket of bread, every single day! Six of my sons are gone, and today it is my turn again to pay, so my youngest, my darling, must go the way of his brothers. That is why I weep.”

Rasalu felt sorry for her and said, “Dear, foolish mother, dry your tears and keep your son. I am not afraid of death. I seek my fortune wherever there is a fight. I will give my head for his, so set your mind at rest.”

But the old woman shook her head. “Fine words, fine words,” she said. “But who will really risk his life for somebody else?”

Rasalu smiled at her. He got down from his brave horse, Bhaunr Iraqi, and sat down to rest as easily as if he were one of the family. “Don’t be afraid, mother,” he said. “I give you my word of honour that I will risk my life to save your son.”

Just then the city officials, whose job it was to collect the giant’s payment, came into sight, and the old woman burst into tears again. “O prince with the grey horse and the high turban,” she cried, “keep your promise, for here come the men who will take my boy!”

Raja Rasalu stood up in his shining armour and proudly ordered the guards to stand aside.

“Fine words!” said the chief officer. “But if this woman does not send the payment at once, the giants will come and trouble the whole city. Her son must go!”

“I will go instead of him!” said Rasalu, even more proudly. “Stand back and let me pass!”

In spite of their protests, he mounted his horse, took the basket of bread and the buffalo, and set off to find the giant, telling the buffalo to show him the quickest way.

As he drew near the giants’ house, he met one of them carrying an enormous leather bag full of water. When this water-carrying giant saw Raja Rasalu riding Bhaunr Iraqi and leading the buffalo, he said to himself, “Aha! An extra horse today! I think I’ll eat it myself before my brothers see it!” He reached out his hand, but Rasalu drew his sharp sword and struck the giant’s hand off with a single blow, and the giant ran away terrified.

As he fled, he met his sister, the giantess. “Brother, where are you running so fast?” she called.

“Raja Rasalu has come at last!” he gasped. “Look, he has cut off my hand with one stroke of his sword!”

The giantess was so frightened that she ran away with him, and as they ran they called out, “Run, brothers, run! Take the nearest road! A fire is blazing that will burn us all! Our good days are over, and we must scatter east and west. Quick, think of some way to save us!”

All the giants ran to their brother the astrologer and told him to look in his books to see whether Raja Rasalu had really been born. When they learned that he had, they got ready to flee in every direction. But even as they turned to go, Raja Rasalu rode up on Bhaunr Iraqi and challenged them. “Come out and fight! I am Rasalu, son of King Salbahan, the born enemy of the giants!”

One of the giants tried to bluff. “I have eaten plenty of Rasalus like you!” he said. “When the real one comes, his horse’s tethering ropes will tie us up by themselves, and his sword will cut us down all on its own!”

So Raja Rasalu untied his horse’s heel-ropes and dropped his sword on the ground, and, sure enough, the ropes tied up the giants and the sword struck them down by itself.

Even so, seven giants who were left tried to bluff it out. “Ha! We have eaten plenty of Rasalus like you! When the real one comes, his arrow will go through seven iron plates set one behind another.”

So they took seven of the iron griddles used for baking bread and set them up in a row like a shield, and the seven giants, who were all brothers, stood behind them. Raja Rasalu drew his mighty bow, and his arrow shot straight through all seven griddles and struck all seven giants, one after another.

But their sister, the giantess, escaped and fled to a cave in the Gandgari mountains. So Raja Rasalu had a statue made in his own likeness, dressed it in shining armour with a sword, a spear and a shield, and set it on guard at the mouth of the cave. The giantess was too frightened to come out, and she never left the cave alive.

And that is how Raja Rasalu killed the giants.

Where this tale comes from

In Flora Annie Steel’s Tales of the Punjab, this adventure follows a short chapter in which Rasalu’s companions leave him. R. C. Temple’s notes say the giants are Râkshasa, that Nila city is most probably Bâgh Nîlâb on the Indus south of Atak, and that the Gandgari mountains are the Gandgarh Hills to the north of Atak.

Steel describes the giants’ deaths and the giantess starving in her cave in a line or two each; this telling is just as brief and leaves out the more gruesome details. The verses are given here in prose.

Read the original: Flora Annie Steel, Tales of the Punjab (Project Gutenberg #6145, How Raja Rasâlu Killed the Giants)

Reading guidance: Ages 9–12 with adult preview; includes human tribute, a severed hand, multiple killings and a giantess who dies confined in a cave.

A closer reading

The official and the mother understand the same tribute differently. For the official, delivering one victim prevents danger to the whole city; for the mother, the repeated bargain has already taken six sons and is about to take the last. Rasalu interrupts a routine by attending to the person who bears its cost.

The giants try to make impossible tests disprove his identity, but each test instead supplies a demonstration of his legendary power. The final statue changes the method: the giantess is confined by her belief that Rasalu is still present. Reputation does the work after physical force has ended.

The episode presents rescue through overwhelming violence, including the giantess’s death in confinement. Readers can value the protection of the threatened son while questioning whether every act of the victorious hero is equally admirable. The tale also does not establish that only an outsider could ever resist an unjust arrangement.

Try this with the story

Retell the tribute scene first as the official’s account and then as the mother’s. Keep the facts the same but notice what each emphasizes. List the giants’ tests and identify the different kind of power represented by the final statue.

Think about it

• How do the official and mother describe the cost of the tribute differently?
• Why do the giants’ challenges strengthen rather than weaken Rasalu’s claim?
• How does the statue work without moving?
• Which actions protect someone, and which raise further ethical questions?

More stories like this

• How Raja Rasalu Went Out into the World — the earlier part of the Raja Rasalu story
• How Raja Rasalu Became a Jogi — the next adventure of Raja Rasalu
• The Demon With The Matted Hair — another Indian tale of a hero who defeats a monster