How Raja Rasalu Went Out into the World

For eleven long years young Rasalu lived far from the light of day. He grew tall and strong, and he was happy enough playing with his colt and talking to his parrot. But when his twelfth year began, he grew restless and longed for something new. He loved to listen to the sounds of life that drifted down to his hidden palace from the world outside.

“I must go and see where those voices come from!” he said. His nurses told him he had to wait one more year, but he only laughed. “No! I won’t stay here a moment longer for anybody!”

He saddled his horse, Bhaunr Iraqi, put on his shining armour and rode out into the world. But he remembered what his nurses had so often told him, and when he came to the river he got down, waded into the water and washed himself and his clothes.

Clean, handsome and brave, he rode on until he reached his father’s city, and there he sat down to rest beside a well where the women were drawing water in clay pots. As they walked past him with the full pots balanced on their heads, the young prince threw stones at them and broke every one. Soaked with water, the women went crying to the palace and complained to the king that a mighty young prince in shining armour, with a parrot on his wrist and a fine horse beside him, was sitting by the well breaking their pots.

As soon as King Salbahan heard this, he guessed that it must be Prince Rasalu, out before his time. He remembered the Jogis’ warning that he would die if he saw his son’s face before the twelve years were up, so he did not dare send his guards to arrest the young man and bring him to be judged. Instead he told the women not to worry, and to use pots of iron and brass from now on. To those who had none of their own, he gave new ones from his treasury.

But when Prince Rasalu saw the women coming back to the well with iron and brass pots, he laughed to himself. He bent his great bow, and his sharp arrows went straight through the metal as if it were clay.

Still the king did not send for him. So Rasalu mounted his horse and rode proudly to the palace. He marched into the great hall where his father sat trembling and bowed to him with all respect. But King Salbahan, afraid for his life, quickly turned his back and said nothing at all.

Then Prince Rasalu called across the hall scornfully:

“I came to greet you, King, and not to harm you!
Why turn your back on me without a word?
Your crown and kingdom cannot tempt or charm me;
I go to win a greater prize, my lord!”

He strode out of the hall, angry and bitter. But as he passed beneath the palace windows, he heard his mother crying. The sound softened his heart, and his anger faded, and he felt terribly lonely, rejected by both his father and his mother. So he called out sadly:

“O heart full of sorrow, have you nothing
But tears for your son?
If you are my mother, then give me
Some word as I run!”

And Queen Lona answered through her tears:

“Your mother I am, though I weep;
So hold this word true:
Go, rule over all, but keep
Your heart good and true!”

That comforted Raja Rasalu, and he began to get ready to seek his fortune. He took his horse, Bhaunr Iraqi, and his parrot, who had both been with him since the day he was born. Besides these trusted friends he had two more companions, a young carpenter and a young goldsmith, who were determined to follow the prince until death.

They made a fine company. Queen Lona watched them from her window as they rode away, until there was nothing to see but a cloud of dust on the horizon. Then she bowed her head in her hands and wept:

“O son who never gladdened my eyes,
Let the dust of your going rise,
Dim the sun and darken the day;
For a mother whose son is away
Is as dust!”

About this tale

This is the second of the Raja Rasalu stories in Flora Annie Steel’s Tales of the Punjab. In his notes R. C. Temple prints the Punjabi verses with plain English translations and explains that “Irâqi” in the horse’s name means Arabian.

The rhymes here are fresh English versions of the verses, and the mother’s last lament follows Steel’s shape closely. This episode includes dangerous attacks on water pots carried by women, a parent’s fear of death and a painful farewell.

Read the original: Flora Annie Steel, Tales of the Punjab (Project Gutenberg #6145, How Raja Rasâlu Went Out into the World)

Reading guidance: Ages 9–12 with adult discussion; includes arrows fired through pots carried on heads, a prophecy of parental death and distress over perceived rejection. The attacks are dangerous behaviour, not harmless play.

A closer reading

Rasalu hears his father’s silence as rejection, while the reader knows the father fears the prophecy. The same encounter therefore carries two explanations. His mother’s voice provides the reassurance that a face-to-face welcome cannot, making speech across distance the emotional turning point.

The attacks at the well should not disappear under the word ‘pranks.’ Breaking pots wastes water and property; shooting arrows through pots balanced on people’s heads puts them in danger. The king replaces the vessels but avoids confronting his son because of his own fear. Rasalu’s strength is already clear, while his judgment has yet to catch up with it.

Lona’s instruction to keep a good heart gives a standard by which to read the later adventures. It does not certify everything he goes on to do. The departure is both liberation for the young prince and another separation for his mother.

Try this with the story

Retell the palace greeting in two brief voices, Rasalu’s and his father’s, using what each knows about the prophecy. Then propose a response to the broken pots that protects the women and acknowledges the king’s fear.

Talk about it

• Why do Rasalu and his father interpret the greeting differently?
• How does replacing the pots fail to solve the danger?
• What does Lona’s voice give Rasalu that silence cannot?
• How could her advice guide your reading of his later actions?

Related stories

• How Raja Rasalu Was Born — the first part of the Raja Rasalu story
• How Raja Rasalu Killed the Giants — a later adventure of Raja Rasalu
• Raja Rasalu — an overview of the whole Raja Rasalu legend