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MAY, 1925]
FOLK-TALES FROM NORTHERN INDIA
25
45. Raja Bhoj and his Râni. (Told by Nathu Mal, Bania, of Saharanpur.)
Raja Bhoj was noted for his deeds of piety. Every day he used to feed one hundred and one Brahmans. One day a Brahman came in to eat, and as he left he did not bless the Raja as the other Brahmans did. This astonished Raja Bhoj, and the next day, when the Brahman came and acted in the same way, the Raja seized his hand and asked him the reason. "I cannot tell," he answered. "And if you want an answer you had better go to Bandu Patwa." Now Bandu Patwa was a noted magician.
When Raja Bhoj went to Bandu, he found that Bandu had just cut off the nose of his wife and the forelegs of his dog. The woman came out and saluted the Raja, and the Raja asked Bandu why he had done this thing. "Had I not cut off my wife's nose, such is her pride that she would not have come out to salute you; and my dog is always barking and trying to bite visitors; so I cut off his legs that he might not be able to move out of the corner." Then the Raja asked Bandu why the Brahman had not saluted him. He said :"I cannot tell you; and if you want to learn, you must go to the Sadhu who lives in the forest."
The Raja went to see the Sadhu in disguise. Now Bhanmati, the Rani of Raja Bhoj, was unfaithful to him, and just as the Raja was going along the road he saw a palanquin coming along. As they came near him, one of the bearers fell down in a fit, and the Rani called out and offered a gold mohur to any one who would take his place. He helped to carry her to the hut where the Sadhu lived, and there she got out and stayed for the night.
The Raja determined to watch her. So one day he slept, intending to keep awake at night. When the Râni saw him sleeping, she woke him, and he said :-"Why did you wake me out of such a pleasant dream?" She said :-"What was the dream?" He replied:"I dreamed that I saw you with the Sadhu in the forest." She knew that her secret was discovered. So she sent a message to the Sadhu telling him what the Raja had said. The Sadhu sent her a cord and said :-"When he is not watching you, tie this cord round the Raja's neck." She did so, and the Râja was forthwith turned into a dog.
The Rani tried to shut up the dog in a closet, but he escaped and ran off to the house of Bandu Patwa. He knew the device of the Sadhu. So he loosed the string off the neck of the dog and the Raja recovered his original form. Bandu Patwa shut the Raja up for some days in his house. Meanwhile the Sadhu had taken the form of the Raja and sat on his throne and lived with the Râni as her husband. One day the Sadhu sat in Darbar and gave an order that every one was to attend with his dog. Bandu Patwa went with the dog whose legs he had cut off. The Sadhu said :-" You rascal, where is your second dog?" Bandu answered :-"I have no other dog and you may search my house if you please." Then he went home and said to the Raja:-"You had better leave this and go a hundred kos off, lest the Sadhu finds and slays you." Raja Bhoj said: "I never walked a kos in my. life. How can I go a hundred kos?"
Then Bandu Patwa made a magic chariot, and mounting the Râja in it, sent him to a place which was one hundred and fifty kos distant.
The chariot halted in a garden, where the daughter of the Raja of the land was swinging. She soon went to her palace, and Raja Bhoj got into the swing and fell asleep. When the princess returned and found a man asleep in her swing, she was wroth and was about to slay him with a sword. But one of her maidens said:"It is wrong to slay a albeping man. When he wakes, slay him if you please." Then the princess woke the Raja and asked him who he was. When she heard the tale, she went to her father and said :-"I desire to marry the man whom I have found in my garden." Her father was angry and said:"Marry him if you choose." So they were married, but her father gave them no dowry and they
