Satyavadi Raja Harishchandra Story – The Truthful King

This is the story of Satyavadi Raja Harishchandra, a legendary Indian king, who is renowned for his truthfulness, Sacrifice, and Commitment. At the cost of these qualities, let us look at what he had undergone through in his life.

Raja Harischandra Story

One day the celestial court of Devendra assembled for a meeting. In the midst of several activities, some earthly matters came up for discussion. Devendra pondered if there were any truthful men present on earth. To this, the sage Vasishta said: “Yes, there is a truthful man named Harischandra, the son of Satyavrata” and praised the king’s honesty and noble character.

Vasishta’s words infuriated the sage Vishwamitra. He denied the fact and promises to prove that Harishchandra is not of noble character, hence decided to test him with the help of other gods.

On the other hand, Harishchandra was an honest and noble king of Treta Yuga and ruled Ayodhya wisely. His people lived with prosperity and serenity. The king was well-known for his truthfulness who never lied and always kept his promise. He who had a loving wife Shaivya, an adorable son Rohitaswa and many subjects behind him, was ignorant of the oaths and counter-oaths taken by the sages in Indra’s court.

Meanwhile, Vishwamitra, back to earth, carefully observed Harischandra’s policies, his manners, and ways. He seriously thought of all the ideas through which he could tempt the king into the path of falsehood.

Plan of Vishwamitra to Test Raja Harischandra

One day, Vishwamitra was performing meditation in a forest. On the same day, Satyavadi Raja Harishchandra went on for hunting, had overheard the cries of a random woman pleading for help. As the king was all armed, he progressed in the direction the sound appeared. The sound was nothing but a hallucination created by the sage so that the king would disturb his tapasya. As predicted, the king disrupted the Vishwamitra’s tapasya, and faced his aggrievance.

When Raja Harishchandra came back to his senses, he became aware that the sage was very angry with him, and asked for forgiveness. He accepted to satisfy the sage’s desires in order to get rid of his fault. Vishwamitra demanded dakshina and asked to give him everything he had. Being righteous, Raja Harishchandra instantly accepted it by letting go of all his possessions and presented his entire kingdom to the sage and left away along with his family. Read more...