The story of Chiranjeevi as told by Aparanjivalli doll

The story of Chiranjeevi as told by Aparanjivalli doll

Retold by
P.R.Ramachander

On the twenty third day Bhoja raja after his morning duties again started climbing on to the throne of Vikramadhithya. He was stopped on the twenty third step by Aparanjivalli doll. It told him that he does not have great qualities of the king Vikramadhithya and is not fit to occupy the throne. Then king Bhoja asked that doll, “Doll please tell me about the greatness of Vikramadhithya. The doll started telling the following story.

As it was his habit Vikrama once, started for his six month sojourn to the forest. This time he dressed himself like a sage and wandered as he liked. Wherever he went he used to collect strange happenings. One day at sun set he reached a deep forest. He decided to spend his time below a very huge banyan tree in the forest. At night lots of birds lead by their king Sanjeevi came and sat on the tree. Sanjeevi asked all the birds about the strange happenings that they saw during their travel for food. Many of them told several happenings. One of the small bird told, “I do not have any strange events to relate but I want to tell you about a sad happening to my friend,
My friend lives in a country called Saivalaghosha. Near this country on huge mountain lives a great Rakshasa. This Rakshasa likes human flesh to eat. So daily he used to come down and eat any one whom he can catch. Then the elders of the town went and met him and requested him not to eat people at random. They agreed to send one representative per family every day. Tomorrow is the turn of my friend. He has only one son. If he sends his son, his family will come to an and if he goes himself then his wife would become a widow and suffer. This makes me sad.” All the other birds appreciated this small bird for his closeness to a human friend. Vikramadhithya who was hearing immediately rushed to Saivalaghosha . In the morning he took bath , went to the temple and was waiting near the place where the Rakshasa eats people. When the Rakshasa came he saw a man with complete happiness. It was strange for him to see a happy man waiting to be eaten by him. When he asked him, why he was happy, Vikramadhithya told him that he never put any value on his life and he was happy because he was getting an opportunity to save someone else. The Rakshasa s moved by this and asked Vikramadhithya to ask for any boon. Vikramadhithya requested the Rakshasa to stop eating human beings. Rakshasa gladly agreed. Like this my king Vikramadhithya never bothered for his life but tried to save others even though they were not known to him.



The doll then told, “Oh king Bhoja, this is the greatness of Vikramadhithya who occupied this throne. If you think that you are equal to him, then you can definitely go up. Bhoja returned back that day without further climbing