How Raja Rasalu Was Born

There was once a great king named Salbahan, who had two queens. The elder, Queen Achhra, had a handsome young son called Prince Puran. The younger queen, Lona, had no children at all, though she prayed and wept at shrine after shrine.

Lona was a wicked, deceitful woman, and envy and anger filled her heart. She filled the king’s ears with lies about his son until, just as Puran was becoming a man, King Salbahan grew wildly jealous of him. In a fit of rage the king had the young prince cruelly maimed, so that he lost his hands and feet, and then had him thrown down a deep well.

The king surely expected Puran to die there, but God protected the innocent prince, and by a miracle he stayed alive at the bottom of the well. Years later the great and holy teacher Guru Goraknath came by and found him still living. He lifted Puran out of his terrible prison and, by his magic, made his hands and feet whole again. Puran was so grateful that he became a faqir, a holy wanderer. He put the sacred rings in his ears and followed Goraknath as his disciple, and from then on he was known as Puran Bhagat.

As time went on, Puran longed to see his mother’s face, so Guru Goraknath allowed him to visit the city where he was born. Puran Bhagat travelled there and made his home in a large walled garden where he had often played as a child. But he found it neglected and bare. The water channels were broken and the trees had withered, and the sight made him sad. He sprinkled the dry earth with water from his drinking pot and prayed that it might be green again. Even as he prayed, the trees burst into leaf, the grass sprang up and the flowers bloomed, and the garden was as lovely as in his childhood.

News of the miracle raced through the city, and everyone hurried out to see the holy man who had worked it. Even King Salbahan and his two queens heard of it in the palace and went to the garden to see for themselves. Queen Achhra had cried for her lost son for so long that her tears had made her blind. So she came, not to look, but to beg the wonder-working faqir to give her back her sight. Not knowing who he was, she threw herself on the ground before him and pleaded to be cured, and almost before she had finished asking, she could see clearly.

When deceitful Queen Lona saw what great power the stranger had, she too fell to the ground. She had longed for a son all those years, and now she begged the holy man to give the king an heir.

Puran Bhagat answered her sternly. “King Salbahan already has a son. Where is he? What have you done with him? Speak the truth, Queen Lona, if you want God’s favour!”

Lona’s longing for a son was greater than her pride. Even with her husband standing beside her, she humbled herself before the faqir and confessed how she had tricked the father and ruined the son.

Then Puran Bhagat stood up and held out his hands towards her, smiling, and spoke gently. “So it was, Queen Lona, so it was! Look: I am Prince Puran, whom you destroyed and God saved. I have a message for you. Your wrong is forgiven, but it is not forgotten. You shall indeed have a son, brave and good, but he will make you weep tears as bitter as those my mother wept for me. Take this grain of rice and eat it. You will bear a son who will be no son to you, for just as I was taken from my mother’s sight, so he will be taken from yours. Go in peace. Your wrong is forgiven, but not forgotten!”

Queen Lona went back to the palace. When the time for her baby’s birth drew near, three wandering Jogis came begging at her gate, and she asked them what her child’s future would be. The youngest of them answered her.

“O Queen, the child will be a boy, and he will grow up to be a great man. But you must not look at his face for twelve years. If you or his father see it before the twelve years are over, you will certainly die. This is what you must do. As soon as he is born, send him to a palace under the ground, and do not let him see daylight for twelve years. When they are over, he may come out, bathe in the river, put on new clothes and visit you. His name shall be Raja Rasalu, and he will be famous far and wide.”

So when a fine young prince was born, his parents hid him away in an underground palace with nurses and servants and everything a king’s son could want. With him they sent a young colt born on the same day, and a sword, a spear and a shield, ready for the day when Raja Rasalu would ride out into the world.

There the boy lived, playing with his colt and chatting to his parrot, while his nurses taught him everything a king’s son ought to know.

Where this story comes from

Flora Annie Steel’s Tales of the Punjab opens its Raja Rasalu stories with this one; her preface says the Rasalu tales were translated from a manuscript kept by a village accountant. In R. C. Temple’s notes, Rasalu is called the chief legendary hero of the Panjab, and Puran Bhagat is described as his elder brother in story. Temple adds that the well is “still shown on the road between Siâlkot and Kallowâl.”

Steel states plainly that the king ordered Puran’s hands and feet to be cut off. This telling keeps that fact, since the miracle depends on it, but does not dwell on it.

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

Reading guidance: Older teen and adult readers; includes a father ordering his son’s limbs cut off, attempted killing, prolonged confinement and a child isolated underground by prophecy. Removed from child age categories.

A closer reading

Puran’s restored body and the restored garden make recovery visible in two forms. Both answer earlier damage, but they do not erase it: his mother has spent years grieving, and the king’s order caused the mutilation. Lona’s lies matter, yet the ruler remains responsible for what he chose to command.

The phrase ‘forgiven, but not forgotten’ holds the ending in tension. Puran offers Lona a child while predicting a separation that echoes his own mother’s suffering. Readers can ask whether this is forgiveness accompanied by consequence, or whether the announced suffering retains an element of revenge; the text does not settle that distinction for us.

The later Jogis supply the specific twelve-year prohibition, which is separate from Puran’s promise. The underground palace sets up the next episode, but its comforts do not amount to an ordinary childhood. These prophecies and cures belong to the legend, not to evidence about parenting or healing.

Try this with the story

Draw a timeline with Puran’s injury, restoration, return, Lona’s confession, his promise and the Jogis’ warning. Mark who speaks each prediction. Then compare the two mothers’ separations without assigning guilt to their children.

Think about it

• How do the restored body and garden echo one another?
• What responsibility belongs to the king as well as Lona?
• What tension remains in ‘forgiven, but not forgotten’?
• Who gives the precise warning about seeing Rasalu’s face?

You may also like

• How Raja Rasalu Went Out into the World — the next part of the Raja Rasalu story
• Raja Rasalu — an overview of the Raja Rasalu legend
• The Faithful Prince — another tale from Steel’s Tales of the Punjab