The King's Riddles

Aṣṭāvakra stood before the king and said: King, best of the Janakas, you deserve honour, and you lack nothing. You perform the sacrifices as only King Yayāti did in the days of old. We have heard that the learned Bandin defeats in debate those who know the Veda, and then, fearing nothing, has your trusted men drown them in the water. When I heard this from the brahmins, I came to take part in the contest of sacred riddles. Where is this Bandin? Let me meet him, and I will put him out as the sun puts out the stars.

You hope to defeat Bandin, said the king, without knowing the power of his words. Only men of proven strength could talk like that. Brahmins practised in debate have faced him before.

He has never been in debate with one like me, said Aṣṭāvakra. That is why he roars like a lion and speaks without fear. When he meets me today he will be struck down, and lie still, like a broken cart on the road.

Then the king tested him with riddles. Whoever knows what it is that has six naves and twelve axles, twenty-four joints and three hundred and sixty spokes, said the king, is the greatest of poets.

May that ever-moving wheel protect you, said Aṣṭāvakra, with its twenty-four joints, six naves, twelve rims and three hundred and sixty spokes.

The wheel was the year, always turning, with its six seasons, its twelve months, its twenty-four half-months and its three hundred and sixty days.

Like two mares yoked together, swooping like hawks among the gods, said the king: who sets them with child, and what child do they bear?

May they never come to your house, king, nor even to your enemies' houses, said Aṣṭāvakra. The one whose charioteer is the wind sets them with child, and they bear him.

The two mares were the lightning, and the one whose charioteer is the wind was the cloud: the cloud sets the lightning with child, and the lightning gives birth to the cloud.

What does not close its eyes when it sleeps? said the king. What does not move when it is born? What has no heart? And what grows by its own speed?

A fish does not close its eyes when it sleeps, said Aṣṭāvakra. An egg does not move when it is born. A stone has no heart. A river grows by its own speed.

I do not think you are a man, said the king. You are like a god. I do not count you a boy; I count you old. There is no one equal to you in speech. So I open the door to you. There is Bandin.