Biographies-Men

Home | Biographies

A-J | K-M | N-S | T-Z | Others

Birth of Chandrahaas
There was a king named Medhaavee. He had no children, so he did penance for Vishnu and pleased Him . When He appeared before him, he asked Him to give him a son. He said - "So be it." and disappeared. After some time at an appropriate time his queen gave birth to a son.

Jaimini's Mahaabhaarat's Ashwamedh Parv says that this Medhaavee was the King of Kuntal Puree in Kerala.

After the King's son was one month old, his enemies attacked his kingdom. Protecting his kingdom, Medhaavee was killed in the battle. The queen took her son, handed over him to one of her trusted maid and asked her to flee with her son. The queen, according to in those times custom became Satee with her husband's dead body. One person showed the maid a special tunnel to flee away safely from the palace and the maid went through it. The maid arrived in a far country named Kuntal and lived upon the alms. Unfortunately the maid also died when the Prince was five years old. Their neighboring woman started taking care of the Prince.

One day he was out of the house that he saw some boys playing, he also wanted to play with them. He asked those boys if he could play with them. They agreed if he had a marble. The prince did not have any marble so he went to Vishnu and asked Him to give him a marble to play. Next day he found a stone lying in front of his house. He did not know that it was not a marble but Shaal Graam. He thought it was a marble so he got very happy to see it and picked it up. Now he started playing with that Shaal Graam considering it a marble. From this day his luck got changed. He became the leader of his playmates.

One day playing with his playmates, the Prince arrived in front of the house of the Chief Minister of the King of Kuntal Desh - Dushtbuddhi. At the same time Dushtbuddhi was seeing off his guest, a Braahman. The Braahman saw the Prince and asked Dushtbuddhhi - "Do you know who is this boy?" Dushtbuddhi said - "I don't know, but why do you ask?" The Braahman said - "Write it somewhere, one day this boy will become the King of Kuntal. It is better that you should take care of him and arrange for proper education." The Chief Minister thought for a while and said in his heart - "My son would be the King of Kuntal, not this boy?" because the King had no son. So he started thinking in this line very fast. He ordered his people to take the Prince to the forest and kill him. His people ran towards the boy, caught him and took him to the forest. There they wanted to kill him but as soon as they lifted their hand to cut his neck, the boy shouted "Hari, Hari" and the killer could not do anything. They themselves were surprised to see that they were unable to kill such a young boy. In the meantime one of them noticed that he had six fingers in one of his two feet. They got the idea, they cut his one finger and showed it to the Chief Minister as the proof of his killing. They left the boy in the forest to be the food of wild animals. Now the Prince was living in the forest and the wild animals were taking care of him.

One day, Kalindak of Chandanvatee, a servant of the King of Kuntal, came in that forest for hunting. As he saw the Prince child, he got pity on him and asked him - "Who are you and what are you doing here in this forest alone?" The Prince said - "I have no father and mother." Kalindak said - "And I have no son. So from today I will be your father and you will be my son." So he took the boy to his palace. He handed over him to his wife. One day his queen said to him - "When this boy smiles it seems that the whole palace is flooded with moonlight." Kalindak said - "You have just given him his name, we shall call him Chandrahaas (Chandra=Moon and Haas=smile, so Chandrahaas means the "smile of Moon)." Kalindak handed over him to his Raaj Guru for his education. Chnadrahaas was very intelligent boy, he learnt everything very soon. When Chandrahaas became 18 years old, Kalindak appointed him as his successor.

Chandrahaas Becomes the Crown Prince
One day Kalindak called Chandrahaas and said - "Chandrahaas, Kuntal Desh's Chief Minister Dushtbuddhi is coming to visit us, I want that you should receive him." So he welcomed Dushtbuddhi. Later Dushtbuddhi asked Kalindak - "Who is this boy who received me?" "He is my son, Chandrahaas." "But you don't have a son." Then Kalindak told him the story - "Some 13 years ago I found this boy alone in the forest so I adopted him." Dushtbuddhi thought - "If he got him 13 years ago, the he should be the same boy whom I wanted to kill. My people have deceived me." He again thought fast. he wrote a letter, called Chandrahaas and said to him - "Chandrahaas, You are very dependable, take this letter and got to Kuntal and give this letter to my son Madan. Take care of this letter, it is important and secret." Chandrahaas could not have even guessed what was in Dushtbuddhi's mind, so he took the letter and set off on his journey on a horse to Kuntal Desh. he reached there soon. But he was a little tired. He saw a beautiful garden just outside the city, so he got down from his horse, tied it with tree trunk and lay down under the shade of a tree. Soon he fell fast asleep.

In the meantime, the daughter of Dushtbuddhi, Vishayaa, came to that garden to pluck some flowers with her friends. She became separated plucking the flowers and came to the spot where Chandrahaas was sleeping. She got attracted to him. She saw a letter also in his hnads, so she just took away the letter and read it. It read - "Dear Madan, The bearer of this letter is destined to become the King of Kuntal, so without waiting for my return, give him Vish (poison)." Vishayaa thought, "There must be some mistake made by my father in writing this letter. He might have forgotten to write "yaa" after the word Vish, otherwise why should he order my brother to kill such a handsome Prince? Maybe he has mis-spelt my name" So broke a twig and using her Kaajal (a powder used for eyes) she added "yaa" in frint of Vish and it became Vishayaa. She kept the letter as it was kept and went away. She thought how fortunate that she read that letter. Chandrahaas arrived in the palace in the evening and handed over the letter to Madan. Since Dushtbuddhi never hid anything from his son so Madan was not at all surprised so he immediately married his sister Vishayaa to Chandrahaas.

When Dushtbuddhi came back to his city he was surprised to see his daughter with Chandrahaas. He scolded hhis son - "Why did you disobey me?" Madan said - "How could I, Father? I didn't." and he showed the letter to him. Dushtbuddhi also got surprised to see the letter, he said - "How could I make such a mistake? It is impossible." And then he made a very hard decision - "Chandrahaas has to die, even if my daughter would be widow." So he called Chandrahaas and said to him - "I wish that you should go to Kaalee temple and worship the Mother." "Sure, Father."

In the meantime, the King of Kuntal called the Kul Guru and said - "I saw my headless body in the mirror, what does this mean?" the Kul Guru said - "It says that your end is near, so think of Hari in the last days of your life." The King said - "But my daughter is not yet married." Kul Guru said - "You may marry your daughter to that noble boy Chandrahaas, the son-in-law of Dushtbuddhi." The King got ready and he sent Kul Guru to bring Chandrahaas. Kul Gguru went to Dushtbuddhi's palace and asked Madan where was Chandrahaas as the King wanted to see him immediately. Madan ran away and caught him in the way and told the King's message. Chandrahaas told him that he was going to Kaalee's temple to worshi on the order of Dushtbuddhi. Madan said - "I will go there, you go to King of Kuntal." So Madan went to Kaalee's temple and Chandrahaas went to Kuntal.

As Chandrahaas reached there he was married to the Princess of Kuntal and then he was crowned as the King of Kuntal. After the marriage Chandrahaas visited Dushtbuddhi. Dushtbuddhi again got surprised to see him coming like this, he asked - "You did not go to temple?" He replied - "The King had sent for me, so I went to the King and Madan has gone to temple." Hearing thhis Dushtbuddhi got mad, he ran towards the temple to save his son, but he was too late, because the killers who were instructed to kill Chandrahaas had already killed Madan, thinking that he was Chandrahaas. Dushtbuddhi was so shocked to see this that he stabbed himself.

Chandrahaas also came there after a few minutes seeing both of them killed like this, he prayed Kaalee - "Dushtbuddhi has paid for his sins by giving his life, now please bring them back to life. Please have mercy on them." When Kaalee did not hear his prayers, he got ready to give his own life in exchange of their lives. The then Kaalee appeared there and brought them back to life. Dushtbuddhi asked for Chandrahaas' forgiveness for his misbehavior, but Chandrahaas said - "You have already been cleansed by giving your life, now you are a new man. Let us go home." Chandrahaas lived long with his two wives.

Home | Biographies

A-J | K-M | N-S | T-Z | Others