Once upon a time there lived a king. His name was Dhanraj. The king had a parrot named Ganga Ram. That parrot was very smart. All legal cases that were conducted at the royal court were administered by Ganga Ram. He was so wise and fair that he could select all the water from milk diluted with water, not to mention distinguish good from evil or truth from lies. When the king found himself in a difficult situation, the parrot helped him out. He gave the king such practical advice that even the wisest adviser in the world could not give. So Ganga Ram faithfully served the king and even happened to save his life several times.
[Dhanraj is the lord of wealth. ]
At the court of King Dhanraj there lived a beautiful singer. That’s what her name was – Rupasi, which means beauty. But the beauty was very jealous. She was inflamed with jealousy of the parrot, who more than once brought her tricks to light, making her blush in front of the king.
And then one day the king, more than ever moved by Rupasi’s singing, said:
“Dear Rupasi, today you can ask me for anything you want as a reward for your singing.”
Rupasi took advantage of the opportunity and replied:
- O lord! If my singing has truly touched the strings of your sublime soul, give me your parrot.
No matter how hard it was for the king to part with his kindest and most faithful friend and adviser Ganga Ram, he was forced to fulfill his promise.
And so poor Ganga Ram, accustomed to the splendor and honors of the royal palace, was put in a cage and taken to Rupasi’s house. Sad, he sat in the cage and recalled the past days, to which, alas, there was now no return.
And he remembered the day when, exhausted by the midday heat, he sat down in the jungle on the branch of a tall tree to rest a little. Directly below him, at the foot of the tree, lay the king, dying of thirst. He held the bowl with a trembling hand and waited for it to fill with drops of moisture flowing from the tree. When the king raised the cup to his mouth to drink the moisture that had accumulated in it, a loud voice was heard right above him:
- Stop, king, don’t drink! There is deadly poison in your cup!
The king shuddered, dropped the cup, looked up and saw a beautiful parrot.
Then the king learned from Ganga Ram that the moisture he wanted to drink was dripping from the body of a dead snake. A kite sat on the top branch of a tree and, tormenting the snake, devoured its meat.
Then Ganga Ram led the king to a forest lake, and he bent down and drank fresh cool water from it for a long time until he quenched his thirst. That king was Dhanraj, who became his master and friend. The king was hunting in the forest with his comrades, but lost his way and got lost.
Then King Dhanraj began to beg Ganga Ram to live in his palace, and after much persuasion Ganga Ram agreed. Since then, the king has not parted with his favorite. He spent most of his time in the company of a parrot, and conversations with the wise bird brought him great joy. This aroused the jealousy of the king's four wives, who hated the parrot.
And then one evening the royal wives surrounded the cage and began to ask the parrot one after another:
- Well, tell me, dear Ganga Ram, which of us is the most beautiful?
But the smart parrot did not want to deceive the royal wives.
So he cheated and said to them:
– First, let me out of the cage so that I can properly look at you from all sides and appreciate the merits of each.
And when they opened the cage, the parrot broke free and, flying high into the sky, shouted to them goodbye:
- You are all in the same way, the most ordinary, and there is nothing beautiful about you! And across the seven seas there lives a beauty, you are not even fit to be her servant!
The queens became enraged and began tearing out their hair and biting their nails. Oh, if only they could catch the impudent parrot! They would tear him into small pieces! But Ganga Ram was already far away, and they had to come to terms. Having come to their senses, the queens realized that bad things would happen to them when the king found out that the parrot had been released from the cage. They were so frightened that they decided to commit suicide: one after another they rushed into a deep well and all died there. The death of his wives and the loss of his parrot plunged the king into despair. They searched for the parrot for a long time and finally found it. When he was caught and brought to the palace, the king perked up again. Ganga Ram told him everything as it happened and promised to find the overseas beauty... He got hold of a winged horse somewhere and brought it to the king. For six months the horse was fed to his heart's content and prepared for the long journey. The path ahead was long and difficult: beyond the seven seas and oceans lived that wondrous beauty.
And so the king got ready to set off. They put harness on the horse. Dhanraj was about to jump on him and fly, but Ganga Ram warned the king:
“Keep in mind, if you whip this horse even once, his wings will become numb and he will not be able to fly for six months.”
Then the parrot advised the king to take with him a bag of silver bells and bells. The king took the bag, grabbed his faithful friend Ganga Ram, jumped on his horse and rushed up. The horse flew over the seven seas and landed in the garden of the overseas princess. Ganga Ram advised the king to hide with his horse behind a huge spreading tree, and he scattered bells and bells from the tree all the way to the princess’s palace. The princess and her friends went out into the garden and saw a silver bell lying right next to the door. She bent down to pick it up when she noticed another bell. So, picking up the bells and bells that glittered in the grass one after another, she approached the tree behind which Dhanraj was hiding. When she came very close, the king jumped out from behind a tree, grabbed her, jumped onto his horse and pulled the bridle with force. The winged horse soared high into the sky, spread its mighty wings in the air and rushed back like a whirlwind. The princess was frightened, but the parrot consoled her: he said that she had been kidnapped by none other than the glorious king Dhanraj himself. Hearing about this, the princess became cheerful.
They had already flown halfway, but then, either in haste or out of joy, the king forgot about the parrot’s words and forcefully whipped his horse. And what the parrot predicted happened: as soon as the whip touched the horse’s body, suddenly its fast wings froze, froze, and the horse with motionless open wings sank into the jungle.
The king bitterly regretted what he had done, was annoyed, angry, and cursed his forgetfulness, but it was too late. Now there was nothing left to do but sit and wait for six months to pass. Until the horse's wings came to life, there was nothing to think about returning.
At that time, Khimmat Singh, the famous chieftain of the bandit gang, was walking in the surrounding forests. Having met the king, he grabbed him and tied him tightly to a tree. Then he saw the princess, grabbed her and took her to his robber camp. He immediately wanted to marry her, but the princess asked him to postpone the wedding for six months, and he agreed.
Every day, morning and evening, the princess fed the forest birds and thought: “Perhaps Ganga Ram will fly here one day in search of food, and then the king will know where I am.” And so it happened. One day the birds, having talked with Ganga Ram, told him about a kind girl - the patroness of forest birds, living in a bandit camp. The parrot decided to feed from her and flew with the birds to that place. He saw the girl and immediately recognized her as a beautiful princess. He rushed to Dhanraj to tell him the good news. While he was flying, the last day of the sixth month passed from the day the horse fell into the forest. The horse's wings came back to life. The king jumped on a flying horse and instantly found himself in the camp of robbers. In front of the dumbfounded Himmat Sinha, he rushed through the air with his princess. And the ataman of the raiders had no choice but to look after them, wring his hands in rage and grind his teeth in impotent rage.
There was joy in the capital city. This celebrated the safe return of the king and his bride. Soon he married the princess.
The parrot remembered all this and for a while forgot about the misfortune that befell him. But then he woke up and began to mourn his bitter fate. If only he knew what difficulties were still ahead and what terrible misfortune awaited him!
At that moment the singer Rupasi entered the room and said with gloating:
- Oh, nasty, nasty Ganga Ram! Do you think I forgot how you disgraced me at court and called me a liar? You dared to insult the court singer, to humiliate her in the eyes of the Tsar himself! Ooh, only then will I calm my heart, when I will grind you into powder, destroy you, so that your spirit will not exist, so that the king will not remember your name!
With these words, she called her cook and ordered him to prepare sauce from the parrot. The cook picked up Ganga Ram and carried him to the kitchen. When the cook began to pluck his wings, the parrot, mad with pain, lost consciousness. He was slowly dying from torture, but still he managed to withstand this torture. And so Ganga Ram lay motionless as if dead, awaiting his death. Leaving the half-plucked parrot, the cook went into the next room to get a knife. Taking advantage of the moment, the parrot, fluttering, crawled to the drainpipe and climbed out through the ditch into the garden. The cook sharpened the kitchen knife and returned, but did not find the bird. He couldn't even imagine where the parrot had gone. In fear of the hostess, the cook prepared a sauce from the pigeon, provided it with various spicy seasonings and served it to Rupasi. The singer Rupasi greedily attacked the dish and instantly emptied the plate.
“I’ve never eaten anything like this in my life!” This dish gave me special pleasure, you prepared it perfectly,” she praised the cook.
And poor Ganga Ram, huddled in a corner of the garden, sat and, overcoming unbearable torment, waited for new feathers to grow on him. And so, when his wings became strong enough that he could fly again, the hour of retribution came.
In order to be known as a righteous woman and rise in the eyes of the king and courtiers, Rupasi often went to temples and prayed earnestly there. She pretended so skillfully, so skillfully learned to bow to the gods with folded hands piously, that people really believed in her piety and integrity - how could such a pious woman deceive?
And then one day Ganga Ram flew in and hid in the temple that Rupasi usually visited. The singer entered the temple and approached the statue of the deity; and then a loud voice sounded throughout the entire temple, like an echo:
- Rupasi, I am very pleased with you. I forgive you all your sins and grant you eternal bliss. To do this, tomorrow you must give away to the poor all the wealth that you have accumulated, shave your head and dress in white clothes. Tomorrow night get up and wait at the doors of the temple. At dawn the day after tomorrow, my chariot will descend from the sky for you, you will sit in it and rush off to the gods.
“My God, what happiness!” Rupasi burst out. She thought that the Almighty had noticed her, believed in her devotion and, touched by her beauty and singing, was so moved that he decided to honor her with his mercy. She hastily fulfilled everything that was ordered from above: she gave away her treasures and announced throughout the country about her deliverance from earthly bonds and the great journey that lay ahead of her.
The king, queen and all the people stood in front of the temple and, with bated breath, waited for a miracle. The former singer Rupasi, all in white, appeared at the door of the temple and, proudly raising her head, stared at the sky. It was getting light. Silence reigned. Suddenly the sound of wings was heard.
“It’s flying, it’s flying!” echoed through the crowd.
But at the appointed hour, it was not the chariot that appeared in the sky, but the parrot Ganga Ram. He flew up to the king, sat down on his shoulder and told about all the atrocities of Rupasi.
The king could not recover from his anger for a long time. He lamented and regretted that he had given poor Ganga Ram to be torn to pieces by this deceitful villainess; he begged Ganga Ram to stay with him forever, promised that he would never part with him for anything in the world. But Ganga Ram said:
O king, know that an honest enemy is better than a foolish friend. I don't want to risk my life a second time. Live happily in the palace, for me now there is nothing dearer than my dear native jungle, only there I will be free, I will be happy without luxury and proud without vanity, only there, in freedom, will I find peace. Farewell, King Dhanraj!
So said the parrot Ganga Ram and soared high, high into the sky, flapped his wings goodbye and flew away forever. The king looked after him for a long time.
Then sadness gave way to anger. He ordered to seize the culprit of everything that had happened and expose her to the ridicule of people. They grabbed the singer Rupasi, pulled off her white clothes, put her on a donkey and escorted her out of the kingdom. Sadness and anger fought in the king's heart. And what else could he do? Just mourn the loss of your best faithful friend - the parrot Ganga Ram and pour out your anger on the cruel, hypocritical Runasi!
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru