Singhasan Battisi

Singhasan Battisi
Original title Simhasana Dvatrimsika
Country India
Language Sanskrit
Genre Fantasy

Singhasan Battisi is a collection of Indian folk tales. The title literally means "thirty-two (tales) of the throne". In the frame story, the medieval king Bhoja discovers the throne of the ancient king Vikramaditya (also known as Bikramjit). The throne has 32 statues, who are actually apsaras that had been turned into stone due to a curse. Each of the apsaras tells Bhoja a story about the life and adventures of Vikramaditya, in order to convince him that he is not deserving of Vikramaditya's throne.

The original collection, written in Sanskrit, was known as Simhasana Dvatrimsika (or Sinhasana Dvatrmsati). Other titles for the collection include Dvātriṃśat Puttalikā ("Thirty-two Statue Stories"), Vikrāmaditya Simhāsana Dvātriṃśika ("Thirty-two Tales of the Throne of Vikramaditya"), and Vikrama Charita ("Deeds or Adventures of Vikrama").[1] In modern vernaculars, the collection is known as Singhastan Battisi; other transliterations of the title include Sinhasan Battisi and Simhasan Battisi.

Plot

A few village kids get into a dispute while playing. They decide that somebody will have to act as a judge and solve the dispute. One of the kids sits on a small mound nearby, and solves the dispute so well that both the parties accept his judgement and praise him. Subsequently, other people wishing to resolve their disputes also approach the boy. Each time, he sits on the mound, and comes up with a judgement that is widely praised. Gradually, the boy's reputation as a judge grows, and reaches Bhoja, the local ruler.

King Bhoja gets interested in knowing what makes the boy a superior judge. He learns that the boy is able to pass the best judgement only when he sits on the small mound. Bhoja's soldiers dig the mound to find a throne. The throne is identified as that of the ancient king Vikramaditya, who was well-known and respected for being just. Bhoja's advisers tell him that he will also be able to pass the best judgements, once he sits on the throne.

The throne is supported by 32 statues of apsaras. When Bhoja sits on the throne, one of the statues comes to life, and explains to the king that simply sitting on the throne will not make him a great judge: there are other qualities that he lacks. The apsara tells him one story related to one quality that a good judge must possess and flies away. In the same manner, one after another, the apsaras tell a story related to a quality and fly away. Bhoja realizes that he does not possess the qualities that would make one eligible to sit on the throne. Some of these qualities are selflessness, complete honesty, lack of bias or favouritism and a true urge to give justice.[2]

Authorship and date

The author and date of the original work is unknown. Since the story mentions Bhoja (died 1055 CE), it must have been composed after the 11th century.[3]

Five primary recensions of the Sanskrit version Simhasana-dvatrimsika are dated to 13th and 14th centuries.[4]

Khulasat-ut-Tawarikh (1695 CE) by Sujan Rai claims that the work had been authored by Pandit Braj, the wazir (prime minister) of Bhoja.[5]

Translations

`Abd al-Qadir Bada'uni translated the stories into Persian for the Mughal emperor Akbar, as Nama - Khirad Afza ("Wisdom-enhancing book"). The translation was completed in 1581 CE.[6][7] Other titles for the Persian translation include Gul Afshan[5] and Senguehassen Battisi.[4]

Lallu Lal and Kazim Ali Javan translated it into Hindi.[8] During 1814-15, William Carey pubished the Marathi translation under the title Simhasana Battisi, along with Panchatantra and Hitopadesha.[9]

TV adaptions

A television adaptation of Singhasan Battisi was aired on Doordarshan in the late 1980s. In 2014, another adaptation was aired on Sony Pal.[10]

References

  1. ↑ A. N. D. Haksar (1998). Simhāsana Dvātriṃśikā: Thirty-Two Tales of the Throne of Vikramaditya. Penguin. p. xiii. ISBN 978-0-140-45517-5.
  2. ↑ ਡਾ. ਸੋਹਿੰਦਰ ਸਿੰਘ ਵਣਜਾਰਾ ਬੇਦੀ (2011). Punjabi Folklore Encyclopedia Volume III ਪੰਜਾਬੀ ਲੋਕਧਾਰਾ ਵਿਸ਼ਵ ਕੋਸ਼ ਜਿਲਦ ਤੀਜੀ. ਨੈਸ਼ਨਲ ਬੁੱਕ ਸ਼ਾਪ , ਚਾਂਦਨੀ ਚੌਂਕ, ਦਿੱਲੀ. pp. 359–360.
  3. ↑ द्वात्रींशत्पुत्तलिका: Sinhasan Battisi
  4. 1 2 David Gordon White (2010). Sinister Yogis. University of Chicago Press. p. 6. ISBN 978-0-226-89515-4.
  5. 1 2 Muzaffar Alam; Sanjay Subrahmanyam (2011). Writing the Mughal World: Studies on Culture and Politics. Columbia University Press. pp. 414–419. ISBN 978-0-231-52790-3.
  6. ↑ Hadi, Nabi (1995). Dictionary of Indo-Persian Literature. Abhinav. p. 110. ISBN 9788170173113. Retrieved 6 September 2015.
  7. ↑ Aniruddha Ray (2011). The Varied Facets of History: Essays in Honour of Aniruddha Ray. Primus Books. p. 116. ISBN 978-93-80607-16-0.
  8. ↑ Thomas Grahame Bailey (2008). A history of Urdu literature. Oxford University Press. p. 80. ISBN 978-0-19-547518-0.
  9. ↑ Thomas Welbourne Clark (1970). The Novel in India: Its Birth and Development. University of California Press. p. 78. ISBN 978-0-520-01725-2.
  10. ↑ Priyanka Bhadani (12 December 2014). "Fantasy World". Indian Express.
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