Several thousand years ago, the city of Ayodhya was ruled by King Harishchandra. He was a very good king who took great care of everyone in his kingdom. He was famous for being truthful and fair. He was married to Queen Chandramatī. Together, they had a son named Rohitāshva (‘Rohita’ for short).

One day, Rishi Vishvamitra decided to test Harishchandra. By his powers of Yoga, Vishvamitra changed his form to become a wild pig. This pig played havoc in Ayodhya. Everyone was fed up of the pig. Harishchandra decided to get rid of the pig himself. He started chasing the pig out of the city and entered a jungle. As he was chasing the pig in the forest, Harishchandra lost his way. The pig disappeared.

In fact, the pig had changed itself into a Brāhmana. When the king saw the Brāhmana, he bowed out of respect. He did not recognize the fact that it was the Rishi who had changed himself to a pig and then to a Brāhmana. The king asked the Brāhmana if he knew the way back to Ayodhya. The king promised to give any gift to the Brāhmana if he could help him reach his palace in Ayodhya. The Brāhmana agreed and asked the king to follow him, till they reached Ayodhya.

There, in Ayodhya, the Brāhmana reminded the king of his promise. He now changed himself to his true form of Vishvamitra. Then he said, “I want you to gift your entire kingdom to me.” The king was shocked, but he had to keep his promise. But the Brāhmana then put in one more condition, “What you gave to me was only because you had given me a promise. I am a very respected Rishi. Therefore, I want you to give me some additional donations too.”

Now, Harishchandra was in a fix. He had already given away everything to Vishvamitra. So he requested, “Rishi, please give me one month. I and my wife will arrange some money and give the promised donation.” Vishvamitra agreed.

The king, his wife and their son now walked from Ayodhya to another city named Varanasi. Harishchandra searched work for several days. But no one offered him a job. One month was almost over and Harishchandra now really got worried. Chandramatī felt sad to see her husband so upset. So she said, “Why don’t you sell me as a maid to someone. With that money, you can give the donation to Vishvamitra.”

Harishchandra was very surprised to hear this. But he had no choice. This time, Vishvamitra took on another disguise and appeared in front of them. He offered to buy Chandramatī and Rohitāshva for some money. Harishchandra took all the money to Sage Vishvamitra’s home and offered it as donation. But Vishvamitra was not happy, “What! This is so little. I need more. By the sunset today, you must get me some more money for donation.” So, Harishchandra started looking for another job.

Luckily, the owner of a cremation ground (a place where dead bodies are burned) offered him the job of a doorkeeper. Harishchandra’s duty was to collect money from the families who brought in the dead for cremation. Meanwhile, while Rohitāshva was playing on the banks of the Ganga River, a snake bit him and he died. Now Chandramatī almost became mad with grief. She begged her master to let her go so that she could at least take her dead son for a cremation. But the master (who was actually Vishvamitra in disguise) said, “I have already lost money because your son has died. I had paid money to get him, did I not? Now I want you to work during the day. In the night, you can carry your son’s dead body and take him for cremation.”

At night, Chandramatī carried her son’s body to the cremation ground. Due to darkness and because she was so sad, her voice and appearance had changed. The doorkeeper, who was none other than her husband Harishchandra, did not recognize her. He demanded a fee for the ticket before she could enter the cremation ground. Chandramatī cried and said, “I do not have any money. The only thing I have is this Mangalasutra. Take it, and let me go in so that I can at least cremate my son.” A mangalasūtra is a necklace of black beads and gold that is worn by all married Hindu women. When Harishchandra saw the mangalasūtra, he immediately realized that it was none other than his wife. And it was none other than their son who had died! Both of them wept a lot at their bad luck and at their condition.

But Harishchandra was so honest that he would not permit his own wife to cremate their son till she had paid the fee for entering the cremation ground. So the two made a deal – they said, “There is nothing more left in our life. Our only son has died. We have no money. And there is no way we can be happy. Let us cremate ourselves with our son’s body.”

So Harishchandra set up a pile of woods. On it, he placed Rohitāshva’s body. Then, he and his wife started to enter the fire. But as soon as they took a step towards the fire, a miracle happened. Rohita came back to life, the fire blew out. Devatās appeared in the sky, and they saw Rishi Vishvamitra standing right next to them.

The Rishi said, “Dear King Harishchandra, I was only testing your honesty. You had to suffer so much and yet, you tried everything that you could have done to give me my donation. You have kept your word. You are a very great man. I have brought your son back to life.” Then, Rishi Vishvamitra returned the kingdom to Harishchandra.

Now the king and queen returned to their palace in Ayodhya, where they ruled with fairness for several years. And after their death, they were both taken to heaven, because they had been so truthful in their entire life.

The story of King Harishchandra teaches us that once we give a promise, we should keep it. We may have to suffer a lot to keep our promise. But we should not break our word given to someone else.

"DID YOU KNOW? The story of King Harishchandra has been very famous in India. Mahatma Gandhi was inspired a lot by the honesty of this king. To honor him, the very first movie made in India (in the year 1913) was ‘Raja Harishchandra’. The movie was 40 minutes long. It was in black and white (not in color) and was a ‘silent movie’ because in those days, we did not have the technology to record the voice of actors and play it along with the scenes in the movie. The film was made by Dada Saheb Phalke and was a super hit. This was the only movie that Mahatma Gandhi ever watched. Today, India makes the largest number of movies among all the countries of the world, but ‘Raja Harishchandra’ was the very first Indian movie.