Week 5 Story: The Tale of the Neglected Brother Continues

 UPDATE - The newest version of this story is available here on my portfolio!

A week had passed since Bharata had assumed the throne. While it was a huge change from his previous life, Bharata had slowly settled into a daily routine as raja. He woke up in what had been his appa’s bedroom, did his morning routine, and then placed on top of his head a crown that simply felt wrong on his head. He then walked down to the throne room, where he had placed the golden sandals of Rama, and began to attend to matters of the kingdom of Ayodhya. He would have several sessions with his court, discussing political matters, and then, his least favorite part of the job would come – listening to the people of Ayodhya and their various complaints.

Bharata was not particularly a patient man, and since he had not been groomed in the matters of rule prior to his ascension to the throne, having to listen to the people’s complaints and deal with them in a wise manner was the most challenging part of his job. In political matters, he could lean on his council to guide him on his decision; but for dealing with the people, it was expected that he alone would make judgment on these matters.

Why, just the other day, he had accidentally angered one of the elders by returning his bow. Apparently, a raja should bow to no one – he was just trying to be respectful! Thankfully, one of his councilors had managed to defuse the situation quickly by reminding the elder of his age and inexperience – which had served as another great reminder to Bharata why he should not be the raja.

With this routine in mind, Bharata woke up this fateful day. He just knew something bad would happen today. The cook had not been able to get any mangoes from the merchants and so he couldn’t eat any mangoes for breakfast. Then, his favorite monkey had accidentally ate his wife’s favorite bangle. All these changes to his routine did not bode well for the day.

He went through the motions of the rest of the day, and then alas, the time for listening to his people’s complaints came. The first matter was simple, settling some border disputes between two farmers, and he could almost delude himself into thinking that today would end okay. The second complaint was also straight forward, pricing the worth of a couple goats. Then the third complaint came, and it was, without a doubt, the wackiest story he heard. Two women came forth, with a mediator holding some squealing baby, and were arguing over whose child it was. Apparently, they shared a villa and were both single mothers of babies of a similar age. During the night, while sleeping, one woman had reportedly rolled over onto her child, suffocating the poor babe. She then went to where the other woman was sleeping, had switched the babies, and then when morning came, pretended as though this incident had never occurred.

Bharata did not have the foggiest idea of what to do after he heard this tale. The entire throne room was also silent, undoubtedly in shock from this story, and were waiting and watching in anticipation to see what he would say. He decided to look towards the golden sandals of Rama, wishing with all his heart that they could offer him some help. As he was boring holes into these sandals, he had an epiphany! There were two sandals, and so theoretically, one person could keep one sandal and another person could keep the other sandal. However, this probably would not be done in practice, as these sandals would be useless to wear or use without having both at the same time. Similarly, he realized that if he proposed to have one of his guards cut the child in two, and then allow each woman to keep a half, the true mother would rather her child be whole and alive than in two pieces and dead. He decided to proceed with this plan of action and then watched in satisfaction as the true mother came forth and jumped in front of the baby, pleading for Bharata to allow the other woman to keep the child instead of killing him. Bharata then handed the baby to the rightful mother and sent thoughts of gratitude towards Rama, who managed to help him even when he wasn’t present in person. Crisis averted!

King Solomon, the wisest man in the world [source]

Author's Note - This story is based on a suggestion in one of the comments from my Week 3 Story, which can be found here. A person suggested that I create a story about Bharata [Rama's brother who was forced to rule during his 14 year exile] and his first serious conundrum/conflict during his forced rule and expand upon his dialogue from the Week 3 Story. This immediately brought the thought of King Solomon and the two women claiming maternity over a baby in the Bible to my mind. Brief synopsis - King Solomon is ruling, and a conflict is brought to his attention. Two women come to his court, and both are claiming that they are the mother of a baby and are asking for his authority to figure out who is the mother. He suggests that a guard cut the baby in half, and then each woman can keep a half. He suggests this, correctly believing that the true mother would rather her child live and be raised in the care of the other mother, than having the child be killed. The true mother intervenes, and the child is given to her. I wanted to model the story after this, but I want to include a disclaimer - I mean no offense/sacrilege by taking a story from the Ramayana and a story from the Bible and then creating a new one. 

Bibliography - Numerous Authors. PDE Ramayana. Link.