Every year, King Yayati’s birthday was enthusiastically celebrated in his kingdom. His country people prayed for him, and the royal court was filled with gifts. On his birthday, he would visit the temple and then offer food and other items to the needy ones. When he reached the royal palace after his temple visit, Queen Padmini took him to the treasure hall to check the gifts he had received. King Yayati was not interested in seeing them. But on Queen Padmini’s insistence, he went there. Queen Padmini started looking at gifts. The treasure hall was filled with precious items like rare clothes, ornaments, jewels, accessories, etc.
‘These gifts are of more use to you than to me,’ complaining said King Yayati.
‘I know, and I love it. It’s your birthday, but I have a feeling it's mine,’ Queen Padmini said teasingly, inspecting each item. She was happy to see gifts that were of more use to her than to King Yayati. Every year, this happened to King Yayati.
One thing that caught Queen Padmini’s attention was a huge mirror with a beautiful wood carving border. It was kept in the corner of the room. King Yayati liked it, too, and thought of keeping it in his room.
‘I want to keep it in my chamber,’ said Queen Padmini.
King Yayati said that on his birthday, he received just one gift that he liked, which Queen Padmini wanted for herself.
Both fought for a while and then decided to keep the mirror in the treasure hall.
The next morning, Queen Padmini went to the treasure hall to get her favourite bangle. She was shocked to see it empty.
She ran to King Yayati’s chamber, and together, they came to the treasure hall. King Yayati saw that the entire hall was empty; only the mirror was still there.
The mirror started shining, blinding Queen Padmini and King Yayati. Inside the mirror, they saw a wizard.
The wizard said that he had all the ornaments, money, gold, diamonds, and other precious stones. King Yayati asked him what he wanted. The wizard asked King Yayati to free him by chanting a mantra in front of the mirror. King Yayati refused and left. The wizard tried to coax King Yayati by telling him that he would stay nice and not trouble people in his kingdom. But King Yayati left the treasure hall.
The entire kingdom started suffering as they had no money.
King Yayati didn’t want to free the wizard as he would create more nuisance once he was out. Queen Padmini couldn’t see the condition of the Kingdom and went to the treasure hall. She chanted the mantra in front of the magic mirror. The wizard was happy to be free. He proposed to Queen Padmini to marry her. Queen Padmini sensed an opportunity in the proposal.
She agreed to marry him, and the wizard was very happy. She asked the wizard to return the treasure, and he did. The treasure hall was now the same as before, filled with jewels, gold coins, artefacts, etc.
Wizard asked Queen Padmini to come with him. She agreed. Before leaving with him, Queen Padmini wanted her favourite bangles and started looking for them.
Wizard also started looking for bangles to impress Queen Padmini. Queen Padmini started crying. She accused the Wizard of leaving the bangles inside the magic mirror. The wizard returned to get the bangles, and Queen Padmini put the huge cloth and covered the magic mirror. Once again, the Wizard was trapped inside the magic mirror. Thus, Queen Padmini saved her kingdom and King Yayati.
Moral: Wit and presence of mind are your biggest assets.
Happy Reading!
Check out Nisha B Thakur's highly appreciated novel, The Unexpected Trail.
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