Retold by Amal HEWAVISSENTI

Indian literature is profusely scattered with classic tales illustrative of how ancient kings grappled with harsh realities when they dealt with the courtsmen and common people. The masterminds who have woven these tales seem to mock the intellectual level and logic of the rulers against the common sense and reasoning set-forth by the common folk. Most often these kings are baffled by some sensible reasoning given by a wise courtsman or practical man who outwits or outmanoeuvres the king when it comes to a critical situation. Frequently kings tend to reshape their thinking and logic once they feel humiliated by a practical, down to earth solution given by an average person to a problem which the kings themselves are unable to analyse. On the contrary, most kings in history have proved to have exceptionally natural abilities to interpret a phenomenon logically and to judge people and their intentions. Whether it is pure exaggeration or not, one tale tells us how a king misidentified a reflection of a gem held by a bird up on a tree to be a gem lying at the bottom of the royal pond and ordered guards to remove the water of the pond to have the glistening gem!

The king of Kananpur was said to be a righteous king who had a lifetime dream to have a temple complex built at the Eastern corner of his palace. This impulsive king had an extraordinary liking for religious activities and company of priests for royal counselling. Therefore, the front rank engineers were given orders to build a temple with a beautiful dome overlooking a scenic lake and blue heights beyond it. After a month, the engineers came to the king and informed him that the "ideal temple" was ready. The king, together with is ministers, went with the engineers to inspect the new temple. The king seemed to be much more taken up with the highly artistic white dome and instantly decided to climb on top of it using a rope ladder. Once on the dome, the king was greatly enchanted by the scenic beauty of the surroundings and spent hours checking up on the grand work of his mason. Suddenly he looked down the dome and was taken aback by the life threatening depth which was around a hundred feet from the point he was standing on. He felt his legs beginning to shake, his entire body sweating and his face going terribly pale. "I can never get down!" he mumbled to himself in despair. The mason who had built the dome, was closely reading the king's movements and was sharp witted enough to suspect the king's inner nervousness which might possibly paralyse him.

"The king is nearly mad with fear. I can see his legs trembling with shock. His face had become pale. I'm sure his heart will stop beating and definitely he'll drop down from the dome. I must save his life however!" the mason thought. He then approached the king and began to yell, "Hey! you're not fit to be called a king at all. You're perhaps the best fool I ever saw in this kingdom. How can a king like you behave in such a shameless manner? You're an utter coward. The rope ladder is there at your feet. Can't you come down the ladder? Why the hell did you come up then? Shame on you!"

The king rubbed his eyes to see if he were dreaming and was infuriated to hear himself being so unashamedly degraded by such an ordinary man as the mason. The king's face became red with extreme anger and his legs stopped shaking. He fanatically picked up a hammer to pound the mason to death but the mason made a clever escape down the ladder before the king could reach him. The onlookers were some what exhilarated when they saw the king chasing the mason down the ladder but the little mason nimbly clambered down to the ground and fled away from the temple. The king with his anger redoubled, reached the ground and the engineers and his ministers ran towards him. The oldest minister among them explained matters to the king.

"The mason is by no means a wicked man Sir. He has done nothing to insult you. He abused you just to save your life not to disdain you. He simply drove you angry by his abuse and then you ran down the rope ladder after him without any sense of fear for the depth. He's a cleverman though."Finally the king had to admit that the mason had used abusive wording simply to prevent his deadly fall and agreed to grant a bag of gold coins to the mason for saving his life.

Later, another funny drama followed in the palace when the king was too old to carry out the kingly duties any more. The king, having nominated his only son as the king to be decided to get to know the outright personal view that his courtiers had formed about him and his regime. One day, he called for a congregation of ten countries and asked a question.

"Be outspoken! What exactly do you think about me? Am I the wisest ruler in the world or not? I'm ready to give a priceless diamond to each of you for your honest opinion".

All the noblemen calculatingly kept their ears open to the king and everyone of them unanimously replies, "Your Majesty, you're the wisest and most honest man in this world and there is no king wiser than you". But the king noticed that only one nobleman who was sitting quietly in a corner, made no attempt to reply. The king, presumably happy with what he had just heard, dished out a diamond to each of the noblemen and turning to the silent nobleman in the corner, said, "Why are you speechless my friend? What have you got to say to my question. I'm so eager to hear it".

The nobleman in the corner bowed to the king and said, "The other noblemen have given you very pleasing answers. But my answer will be somewhat bitter for you to hear. Therefore I'm quiet. But as you earnestly need an answer from me, I have to give you mine. Sir, as everybody knows, you're a wise and honest ruler, but there have been wiser and more honest rulers than you".

These words triggered the king's sense of admiration for the dispassionate nature displayed by the nobleman and he gave him a big diamond. He further said "You've proved yourself an honest man. I'm greatly satisfied with you. You'd better be my son's advisor. Always give him sound advice."The next day the other noblemen came rushing to the king and complained, "Your majesty, we took the diamonds to your jeweller. He says they are false diamonds. But that person's diamond is a genuine one although he said there had been wiser and more honest rulers than you. What really is the meaning of all this?"A sarcastic smile spread over king's face as he said, "What the jeweller said is quite right. The diamonds are mere balls of glass with no value at all. Mark this! You gave me false praise and I gave you false diamonds!"