The story of the gambler as told by Sundaravinodha doll

The story of the gambler as told by Sundaravinodha doll

Retold by
P.R.Ramachander

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

When Vikramadhithya was ruling, Chauthuryvan the king of Chathuragiri died of natural causes. His wife decided to jump in his funeral pyre and die along with her husband. As soon as Vikramadhithya knew about this , he rushed to Chaturagiri and told the queen that he would bring her husband back to life. He took the magical wand given to him by mother Kali and patted the corpse of her husband. He woke up as if he was sleeping. Overjoyed and being greatly grateful, the couple surrendered their kingdom to king Vikramadhithya. However Vikrama returned the kingdom to them and proceeded on his six month sojourn in the forest.
He reached a town called Samarapuri. There he was relaxing one day. That day, one lavishly dressed gentleman came with several of his friends and dancing girls and spent all his time in merry making. However the same man came next day in tattered cloths and in a miserable condition. This intrigued Vikramadhithya and so he approached him and asked him as to who he was and why this difference within a day. He said that he was a gambler and this type of complete transformation was very common to him. Vikramadhithya advised him strongly to leave out this bad habit. Then that man replied that this was the only profession known to him and unless he gets sufficient wealth he cannot leave out this habit.
At that time two sages came to the inn and very conversing each other in a language called Paisachi. Since the language was known to him Vikramadhithya was able to follow their conversation. From it he learnt that if a human being is sacrificed before the Bhairava statue at the inn, he would show them a great treasure. Without hesitation Vikramadhithya went near the Bhairava statue and started cutting his own neck. Lord Bhairava appeared before him and stopped him and gave him the treasure that he was having. King Vikramadhithya gave the treasure to the gambler. The gambler from that time reformed himself.


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