In the Kingdom of Fools

1.0About the Author

Attipate Krishnaswami Ramanujan who was born on 16th March 1929 was an Indian poet and a great scholar of Indian literature who wrote in both English and Kannada languages.

Ramanujan was a poet, scholar, professor, philologist, folklorist, translator, and playwright.

His academic research ranged across five languages: English, Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, and Sanskrit.

Ramanujan's poems are remembered as enigmatic works of startling originality, sophistication and moving artistry. He was awarded the Sahitya Akademi Award posthumously in 1999 for The Collected Poems. A. K. Ramanujan died in Chicago on $13^{\text{th }}$ July 1993 as result of an adverse reaction to anaesthesia during preparation for surgery.

2.0Central Idea

This story is a Kannada folktale henceforth it has been passed on from one generation to another. It is taken from the book 'Folk Tales from India' written by A.K. Ramaujan. In this story, the king, his ministers and all his advisers are fools. Through this story the author has tried to portray what happens to the kingdom when the leader is fool.

3.0Dangers of Living Among Fools

Once, there was a kingdom wherein both the king and his minister were unintelligent. As they wanted to do something different they started treating night as day and day as night. They passed an order which said that everyone in the kingdom would work at night and as soon as the sun rises, everyone would sleep. If someone disobeyed the order, he would be punished with death penalty. The people got scared so, they started obeying the order.

One day a saint arrived in that kingdom along with his disciple. They realized that although it was a beautiful city and the day was also bright and sunny, yet no one was visible to them, not even a mouse was seen. The moment, darkness spreaded and night came, everyone woke up and started doing their work. As the guru and his disciple were very hungry they went to buy something to eat when the people came out. They were surprised to notice that each and every item they purchased costed one duddu. Later, the guru realized that the kingdom was a kingdom of fools and decided not to stay there any longer because it was unsafe for them. The wise guru also told his disciple about the same and asked him to leave at once. The disciple was a foodie, he did not want to leave this place because the food was cheap there. Guru tried to convince him but he could not understand what his guru was trying to convey. He wanted to live there so the guru left alone leaving the disciple behind.

4.0Only Wise Can Survive

One day, a thief entered a merchant's house by making a hole in the wall. When he was about to leave the house, after the loot, the wall collapsed on the thief he died on the spot. The thief's younger brother went to the king and narrated the complete incident. He said that the merchant whose wall has fallen down on his brother was the culprit and should be punished for killing his brother. The king being foolish called the merchant. When the merchant appeared, the king asked his name and questioned whether he was at home when the thief was burgling his house. The merchant replied in positive. The king told the merchant that he was guilty of murdering a man thus he should be punished.

The merchant passed on the blame to the bricklayer saying that it was the fault of the person who made the wall as he did not construct it properly. Hence, he should be punished. The king sends his soldier to call the bricklayer. The king told him that he constructed a weak wall because of which it fell on the poor thief's head and killed him. Hence the bricklayer should be punished. The bricklayer, told the king that because of a girl who was roaming around in the street with her jingling distracted him and he constructed a weak wall. She should be punished instead of him. The king ordered his messengers to get the dancer girl. The dancing girl who was now an old woman entered the court. The king asked her about the incident of wall construction. She confirmed him. The king proves her to be guilty of the thief's death and told that she should be punished. The dancing girl transferred the blame onto the goldsmith saying that she had given some gold to him to make jewellery out of it. He was making excuses for not making her ornaments on time. He kept on telling her to come after some time. Due to which, she had to go to his house many times. The king ordered his bailiffs to bring the goldsmith. When he was brought in front of the king, he said that he had an order from a rich merchant and they were in a hurry to get their order that is why he delayed the work of the dancing girl.

The king asked the goldsmith to tell the name of the rich merchant. The goldsmith said that the merchant was the father of the same merchant whose house wall had fallen down. Again, the merchant was called. He revealed that his father who had died, had ordered the jewellery. The king consulted his minister and decided that the merchant's father was the murderer and he was not alive so the merchant who had inherited everything from his father, would have to be punished. When the new stake was ready, the minister realized that the merchant was very thin and could not fit into the stake well. He told the same to the king and the king ordered that a fat man instead of the merchant should be executed.

5.0Wisdom Helps in the Darkest Times

The king's bailiffs went out in search of a fat man and found the disciple who had grown quite fat due to overeating. The disciple pleaded that he is a saint and hasn't done anything. Hearing this the bailiffs told him the complete story and took him along. The disciple memorises the words of wisdom of his guru and prayed the guru to save him. The Guru who had magical powers when heard his disciple's prayers arrived there to save him. The guru first scolded him then whispered something in his ears. He further said that as guru is greater so he should be hung first instead of the disciple. The disciple also started arguing about himself to be executed first. Looking at the argument the king got confused. He asked the guru about the reason behind this argument. The guru took him aside and told him that the stake which they would use to kill the disciple was the stake of justice. So, anyone who would die first on this stake would be reborn as the king of the kingdom in the next birth and the one who would die next would be reborn as the minister of the kingdom. The king did not want to lose his kingdom in the next birth so he postponed the execution and after discussing with his minister told the executioners that he would send the criminals at night. They should execute the person who came first then the second one. At night, the king and his minister disguised themselves as the guru and his disciple and they were executed by the executioners.

When their dead bodies were taken away to be thrown, the people got scared to see their king and his minister. The guru and his disciple were planning to leave the kingdom but the people stopped them and requested the guru and his disciple to be their new king and minister. The disciple agreed but it took some time for the guru to agree upon this. He agreed on the condition that from that day onwards, everyone would work in the day and sleep at night. Also, the price of things would vary and not be one duddu anymore. Finally, the guru converted the kingdom of fools into a normal kingdom.

6.0Recall

• Once there was a kingdom in which both the king and the minister were fools. They ordered the people to sleep during day and work only after dark and told that anyone who disobeyed this order would be put to death.
• One day, a guru and his disciple visited the kingdom and were surprised to see that people sleep in the broad daylight and work during night. They even found that in the market everything costed the same, a single duddu.
• The guru was a wise person. He told his disciple that it would not be safe for them to stay in such a kingdom. But the disciple was not ready to leave the place. So, the guru left the kingdom alone.
• One day, a thief broke into a rich merchant's house by making a big hole in the wall. When he was coming out after the burglary, the wall of the old house collapsed on his head and he died on the spot. The brother of the thief went to the king and pleaded him to punish the merchant for killing his innocent brother.
• The king called the merchant and announced his execution but the merchant passed on the blame on the bricklayer who had built the wall. The bricklayer passed the blame on the dancing girl who distracted his attention by going up and down that day with her anklets jingling. The dancing girl, who was then an old woman passed the blame on the goldsmith.
• The goldsmith when produced before the king passed the blame to the father of the rich merchant whose wall had fallen. The merchant told that his father was no more in this world, so it was decided to punish the merchant in his place and a new stake was ordered for the execution.
• As the merchant was too thin to fit the stake. So, a fat man was searched for. Soon the disciple who had become a fat man was brought in front of the king. When he was about to be executed, he remembered his guru who was blessed with magic powers.
• The guru arrived at once to save his disciple. He whispered something in his disciple's ears. Then both of them started arguing for themselves to be executed first.
• The king was surprised to see the argument so he asked the reason, to which the guru hesitatingly replied that whoever died on the stake first, would be reborn as the king of that country.
• The one who died next would be the minister of that country. The king did not want to lose his kingdom. So, he discussed the matter with his minister and they went secretly to the prison and freed the guru and his disciple.
• Then they disguised themselves as the two and got themselves executed. The people later on, made the guru and his disciple as their king and minister and began to lead a normal life.