The story of division of properties told by Parimala Mohini doll

The story of division of properties told by Parimala Mohini doll

Retold by
P.R.Ramachander

On the eighteenth day Bhoja raja after his morning duties again started climbing on to the throne of Vikramadhithya. He was stopped on the eighteenth step by Parimala Mohini valli 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:-


There was a town called Purandarapuri. There was a very merchant there who had four sons. In his death bed, he called all his sons and told them, “Though I want all of you to continue as a single family, I am not sure about it. So when you decided to go your own, dig below this got. You would find four pots buried one over another there. The top most would indicate the share of my wealth for the eldest and so on.” After telling this the merchants died. The four brothers lead a joint family for some time. So when their wives started quarrelling they dug below the cot and recovered four pots. The first post contained coal, the second mud, the third straw and the fourth some bones. When they could not understand the significance they approached the village elders. When they were not able to understand they approached their king. But the king himself could not understand the significance and requested them to approach King Vikramadhithya. In spite of being a great genius, King Vikramadhithya also could not understand it. So the brothers returned home disappointed. But on their way they went to a town called Prathishtanapura. There was a wise potter called Shalivahana in that town. They approached him. Shalivahana heard them with rapt attention and told, “The eldest one should take the pot of mud indicating the agricultural properties of their father, the second one should take the pot of straw indicating the accumulated grain wealth of their father, the third one should take the pot of bones which indicates cattle wealth and the last one should take the pot of coal which indicates all the metal wealth of their father. The sons were very satisfied and followed the advice and went away. When Vikramadhithya heard about this, he wanted to meet Shalivahana and sent his emissaries to call him. Shalivahana not only refused to come but told the representatives that if Vikrama wants to meet him, he should come. When this message reached Vikrama, he became very angry and started with big army to Prathishtanapura. He reached outside Prathishtanapura and again sent word to Shalivahana that if he does not come outside to meet Vikramadhithya, He would come with an army and crush him. Shalivahana laughed at this and sent word that he would prefer to fight with the army of Vikramadhithya. Then he made lot of dolls using the clay and gave them life. A huge war was fought. Vikrama using his superior weapons destroyed the entire army of Shalivahana He remembered the words of his father Adhisesha, that in any crisis, he should summon his father. As soon as he thought of his father all the snakes of the world reached there and killed all the army of Vikramadhithya. Terribly disappointed Vikrama returned to his town Ujjaini and did penance to Vasuki the king of snakes. He came before him and gave him a pot of nectar, sprinkling which he can bring back to life his entire army. So he started to Prathishtanapura along with the pot of nectar.
On the way he was met by a learned stranger who compared Vikramadhithya to9 Lord Vishnu and praised him. When king Vikramadhithya asked who he is, he replied, “I am from Prathishtanapura and I have heard that you would give anything that is requested by learned people from you. “ Then Vikramadhithya replied, “Yes. I would give whatever you want.” Then the learner stranger asked for the pot of nectar that king Vikramadhithya was carrying. King Vikramadhithya then gave the learned man the pot of nectar realizing fully well that he was Shalivahana himself. Our king Vikramadhithya was like that.


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