Story of the Merchant's Son

Panchtantra Stories

Story of the Merchant's SonIn one of the India's big towns, there lived a merchant named Sagargupta. He had a son. Once, he purchased a book which contained only one verse in the entire book. The verse read: "Man gets what is in his destiny Even God cannot prevent it To me it makes no difference What’s mine can never become others."  "What is the price of this book," the father asked.  "Hundred rupees," said the son.  The father flew into a rage and said, "You are a fool. You have paid hundred rupees for a book that has only one verse. You can never come up in life. Leave my house at once. It has no place for you."  "Thrown out of the house, the boy went to another city and began fresh life there. One day, a neighbour asked him, "What is your native place and what is your name?"  The boy replied, "Man gets what he is destined to." He gave the same answer to whoever asked for his name. From that day onwards, people began calling him Praptavya, meaning the same line he was reciting to indicate his name.  "The summer came and the city was celebrating it with a big fair. One of the visitors to the fair was the city’s princess Chandravati and her maids. Chandravati was young and beautiful. As she was making the rounds of the fair, she saw an extremely handsome warrior and immediately fell in love with him. She told one of her maids, "It is your job to see that both of us meet."  The maid ran to the warrior and told him, "I have a message for you from our princess. She says she will die if you do not meet her today."  "But tell me where and how I can see her. How can I enter the harem?" asked the warrior.  The maid told him, "Come to the palace and you will see a rope hanging from the high wall. Climb and jump over the wall with the help of the rope."  "All right, I will try to do it tonight," said the warrior.  When the night came, the warrior lost his nerve and thought, "O this is an improper thing to do. The elders have said, "He who has liaison with the daughter of a teacher, wife of a friend or of a master or of a servant commits the sin of killing a Brahmin. Also, don’t do what brings you a bad name or what denies you a place in heaven." In the end, the warrior decided not to meet the princess and stayed back at home. "Coming out for a walk in the night, Prapta noticed the rope outside the royal palace and curious to know what it is, went up the rope that took him inside the princess" bedroom. The princess mistook him for the warrior and served him dinner and with great ecstasy told Prapta, "I have fallen in love with you at the very first sight. I am yours. You are in my heart and nobody except you can be my husband. Why don’t you say something."  "He replied, "Man gets what he is destined to." The princess immediately realised that this man was not the warrior she saw in the day and asked him to leave the palace at once. She made sure that he climbed back the way he came. Prapta left the place and slept that night in a rundown temple.  "The sheriff of the city came to the same temple where he had arranged to meet a woman of vice. He saw Prapta sleeping there and to keep his meeting a secret, he asked Prapta who he was. Prapta recited the verse about destiny. The sheriff then said, "Sir, this is a bad place to sleep. You can go to my house and sleep there tonight in my place." The merchant’s son agreed to the proposal.  "At the sheriff’s house, his young and beautiful daughter Vinayawati had asked her lover to come and meet her secretly there in the night. When Prapta came there following the sheriff’s advice, Vinayawati mistook him in the darkness for her secret lover. She arranged a feast for him and married him according to Gandharva tradition. Noticing that Prapta did not utter a word, the sheriff’s daughter asked him to say something. Prapta recited his usual verse. Vinayawati realised her mistake and asked him to leave at once.  "As Prapta once again took to the street, he saw a marriage procession entering the city led by the bridegroom named Varakirti.