The seed of Harischandra’s story lies in the earliest thoughts of our people, indeed of mankind, for is not the Rig Veda the common heritage of humanity as the first known book ever: in the Tenth Mandala, a short Creation Hymn (190) says: “From Fervour kindled to its height, Eternal Law and Truth were born”. Only then did the Creator make Night, the Ocean, Sun, Moon, Earth and air. The story of Harischandra was transmitted from the Vedas to the Puranas and helped Yudhishtira stay focused through adversity. Millennia later, it was Harischandra’s story that inspired Bapu most, of all Hindu myths. When Bapu visited Mauritius in 1901 he found the Tamils there were very fond of enacting Harischandra’s life. Indian immigrants could not travel anywhere then in Mauritius without a pass. The person who challenged this was a Tamil admirer of Harischandra, Sinnatambou, who built a temple at Terre Rouge. The great Dalit leader, Ayyankali of Travancore, whom Bapu called on in 1937, would, as a boy, regularly enact Harischandra’s story with his friends for inspiration. Meanwhile, Harischandra is enshrined in another significant life: the first Indian film ever made was the silent Satyavadi Harischandra by Dadasaheb Phalke, premiered at the Olympia theatre, Mumbai, in April 1913. And at Kashi, Harischandra Ghat, for millennia, has been ‘his’ ghat, the one we believe he actually tended. His story? There was once a great emperor of Bharatvarsh called Harischandra. Saibya was his queen and Rohitasva, his pre-teen son. Harischandra was renowned as a keeper of his word, a ‘satyavadi’ who upheld dharma unswervingly. To test him, Rishi Visvamitra put him through terrible ordeals. He tricked Harischandra into giving up his kingdom and all his wealth and still owe him some. The king offered to sell himself, his wife and son, the only assets he had left. But the rishi objected. “Your kingdom and treasury are both mine now. So how can you sell yourself in my domain? Go to Kashi, which is owned only by Shiva and sell your family there”. At Kashi, he managed to sell his wife and son to a priest and himself, to a crematorium keeper. Viswamitra made a snake bite Rohitasva who went into a deep swoon and was presumed dead. Saibya rushed with her baby through the stormy night to the shamshan. Harischandra recognised them when the lightning flashed. Mad with grief inside, he sternly demanded the required cremation tax. Saibya could only offer to tear her uttariya (upper cloth) in half as fee. At this, the deities themselves could bear it no longer and set all right. Satyameva Jayate, as it says under the lions of the national emblem.
