Jailer

Author(s): Abhayshekharsuri, Sujata P Kapadia
Publisher: Harshadray Private Limited

Page 47

widened. With much happiness and astonishment, he uttered, “What are you saying? Can it really be true? It is not possible!” The King was very curious to know what it was all about. He asked the royal priest to relate what he had heard.
The priest replied, “My maid servant has given birth to a son. When this child was in his mother's womb, the mother had dreamt that the child would be a great person in the future. Today, this child is born. I have been informed by this servant that he has a disk, a bow and other auspicious marks on his body.”
The King asked the significance of these marks. The priest said, “This child will become the ruler of this country and that too during your lifetime.” Each of these words pierced the King's ears like a thorn, “So it will be the son of a maid servant and not my son, Prince Vikram Sinh, who will be the King? Impossible! Absolutely impossible!” He knew that a person born with marks like a discus or a bow was born for greatness. This thought made him fearful. In the end, he decided to kill the child. On the King's order, two servants abducted the newly born child from the priest's home, in order to kill him. They left the city but on seeing the child who was as beautiful as God's own child, they started thinking, "Such a small child! What has he done to the King for the King to want to kill him?" They did not have the heart to kill such a fair, beautiful and innocent child. They thought, “Let us leave him alone somewhere. Let him be at the mercy of the animals, birds.” They left the child on the edge of an unused well, situated in a very old garden.
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