King Behram V, Behram-gur – The brave, daring, dashing, adventurous, ace hunter, warrior king (Part 3)

 

Last time, we shared a few stories about the exploits and adventures of King Behram–gur. This time we will see a few more stories connected to the king:

1) The king marries three sisters

2) Ārzu, the versatile queen

3) A lesson to the miser village-chief

4) Trapping the Hephthalite king

1) The king marries three sisters

Once, the king set out for a hunt with his soldiers, hunting dogs and hunting birds. While following a hunting bird named Tugrol, the king came across a huge palace surrounded by a garden, in which was seated Barzin, the nobleman who owned the palace. Along with him were his three young daughters Māh-Āfrid, Frānak and Sham-balid. When the king asked the nobleman about his lost bird, he replied that he had seen it landing on a walnut tree in the garden. On searching, the king got back his prized bird. When he saw the three beautiful daughters, he took a liking for them. After some food and drinks, Barzin asked his daughters to entertain the king. Each of them excelled in the arts of singing, music and dancing, and they displayed their skills. The king was highly impressed and asked for their hands in marriage, to which Barzin readily agreed.

After some food and drinks, Barzin asked his daughters to entertain the king. Each of them excelled in the arts of singing, music and dancing, and they displayed their skills.

The king was highly impressed and asked for their hands in marriage, to which Barzin readily agreed. The three sisters were taken to the palace in golden carriages with maids in attendance.

2) Ārzu, the versatile queen

After a few days, the king once again went for a hunt. He hunted a few ferocious lions. While the king was returning with the hunted lions, a passing shepherd saw them, and thanked the king for hunting these lions as they were killing his cattle when he took them for grazing. He further added that the cattle belonged to Mahiyar, a rich jeweler, who had an extremely beautiful daughter called Ārzu. The king decided to meet the jeweler and his daughter.

At night when the king approached the jeweler’s house, he heard the sound of a silk-stringed musical instrument called Chang, which was being played by Ārzu. He went inside disguised as a soldier, while his soldiers kept his horse whip at the door, as was their practice.

Mahiyar was very hospitable to the king, though he was disguised as the soldier. The king expressed the desire to hear the song accompanied by Chang, sung by his versatile daughter. Ārzu came and sang, after which the king asked for Ārzu’s hand from his father. On being asked, the daughter willingly agreed to marry this person who, she felt, looked regal like a king.

Mahiyar wanted to have the marriage the following morning, but the king insisted on marrying Ārzu that very night, to which Mahiyar reluctantly agreed, and the marriage was solemnised.

The following morning the king’s soldiers collected outside the house and bowed to the horse whip placed outside. Soon Mahiyar realised that his guest was none other than king Behram himself, and informed his daughter accordingly. Mahiyar was afraid that he may have taken undue liberties with the king, whom he took to be an ordinary soldier. However, when the king summoned him and shared jokes with him, Mahiyar was relieved. Thereafter Ārzu was ceremoniously taken to the queen’s palace.

However, the king’s chief minister was not happy with the king’s attitude of collecting queens, as he now had hundreds of queens in his queen’s palace.

3) A lesson to the miser village-chief

After spending a couple of days in his palace, the king once again set out hunting with his minister Ruzbeh. Whenever the king and his entourage did a lot of hunting, the hunted animals were sold to people at very reduced prices.

After a month of hunting, on their way back, Behram desired to visit a village on the way. He asked his group to leave and went alone to the village, where he came across a decrepit house which belonged to Frashidvard, an old man. The king entered the house and asked for something to sit on, something to eat and some water to drink, but the man said he did not have a single thing in his house. He asked the king to leave as he felt that the valuables in his house were not safe and he feared that the guest may steal things from his. The king went away with a smirk on his face and rejoined his group, which was passing through a thick forest.

In the forest, the king saw Delāfruz, a wood-cutter, chopping trees. He asked him about the head of the nearby village, and was surprised that Frashidvard was its chief. The wood cutter further elaborated that he had thousands of cattle and lots of land but was so stingy that he neither wore proper clothes nor ate proper meals.

The king asked him to lead his minister and an accountant to take stock of the cattle, and promised him a hundredth share of Frashidvard’s wealth. The count of the animals exceeded every expectation. There were thousands of cows, horses, camels and lots of smaller animals. It was also reported that a large quantity of gold and ornaments were hidden somewhere. The king realised that Frashidvard had a lot of unused wealth about which he had lied, so he had most of Frashidvard’s wealth confiscated and distributed among the poor.

4) Trapping the Hephthalite king

The regular hunting forays of king Behram resulted in his prolonged absence from the court, and earned him the reputation of being a careless ruler. Neighbouring countries like India, Rome, Turkistan, Hetal and China considered Iran vulnerable without the king, and took opportunity of this situation.

The Hetali king collected his army and marched towards Iran. The Hetalis referred in the Shahnameh are the Hephthalites. They were the White Huns who had Turkik, Hun and Mongolian ancestry. They dominated Central Asia, having taken over Tokharistan, Badakhshan, Balkh and Sogdia. Modern historians mention that in 420 CE an army of the Hephthalites marched into Iran.

The Iranian commanders went to their king and drew his attention to this imminent danger. Behram assured them not to worry, continued his merry ways and went to a hunting expedition to Azarbaizan. The commanders thought their king to be reckless, but they had not understood him correctly. He knew his responsibilities well. However, since he did not exhibit or express any signs of anxiety, they thought he was shrugging off his responsibility. In fact, the king had laid a trap for the Hephthalites, and had kept a hundred thousand strong army ready to counter their attack.

The king summoned several commanders like Gastaham, Meher-Firuz bin Behzad, Meher-Barzin bin Kharrad, and Behram bin Firuze-Behramian. He also called upon allies like Kharzvan of Gilan, Rohham of Rae, and Rād-Barzin of Zabulistan and explained his strategy to them.

He then went towards Azarbaizan entrusting his kingdom to his brother Narseh, after explaining him his strategy. Iranian people and junior commanders under-estimated their king’s strategy, and jumped to the conclusion that their king had fled from the oncoming army. They rued that their king had deserted them. They decided to approach the Hephthalite king with a plea of mercy. Narseh reprimanded them for losing faith in their king and having such reprehensible thoughts about him.

The ministers did not listen to Narseh. Fearing the ignominy of being defeated, they decided to tide the dam before it was too late. They sent Homā, a wise man, to the Hephthalite leader accepting his superiority and agreeing to pay taxes, if he agreed to evacuate. The Hephthalite leader was overjoyed at this meek surrender and accepted their offer. He marched into Marv and asked the ministers to quickly give him taxes so that he can soon return.

King Behram, alert to the happenings, lay in wait for the developments. When he came to know that the Hephthalite leader was in Marv, he swiftly and secretly went there with a few soldiers, advancing only at night.

Before attacking, Behram sent several spare horses with sacks full of rocks on them. The rumbling sound of the rocks, totally distracted the Hephthalite army and caused confusion among them. Taking advantage of this, Behram attacked the Hephthalite leader. Taken by surprise, he was imprisoned and defeated.

After that, Behram did not rest, but pursued them and went on to destroy the retreating Hephthalites and the Turks who had come with them. He went to Bokhara through Amui, crossed the Farab river and the desert, passed through Māe and Mārg and wreaked havoc among the Turks, who pleaded for mercy. They reasoned that the Hephthalite leader was already in his custody and they were ready to pay taxes, so why was he still continuing the war. Behram felt sympathy for them and terminated the attack. He succeeded in pushing out the Hephthalites from Central Asia.

Behram had a stone column erected at the border to mark the boundary. He summoned the Hephthalite commanders and ordered them not to cross the boundary and enter Iran without his permission. He instituted Shahreh, a wise commander from his army, as the governor of this territory.

Behram sent a letter to his brother Narseh, in which he also addressed other seniors of the court and stated how he had humiliated the army and taken their leader captive. When Narseh conveyed this good tidings, the noblemen who had doubted their king felt very bad. About one hundred and thirty noblemen went to Narseh requesting him to convey their apology to the king for their shameful behaviour.

The king returned to his capital Ctesiphon through Istakhra and met Narseh and his ministers. He did a lot of charity, pardoned prisoners and announced tax-exemption for the next seven years. He gave admonitions to his people to be good, honest and righteous. He then gifted the province of Khorasan to his brother Narseh and asked him to settle there.

(All drawings are by Mrs. Katy Bagli)

King Behram V, Behram-gur – The brave, daring, dashing, adventurous, ace hunter, warrior king (Part 2) 

The Shahnameh has several stories about the exploits and adventures of King Behram–gur. We will share these stories over a period of time, starting with today:

1) The generous Christian and the miserly Jew

2) Liquor – boon or bane

3) The power of a good leader

4) Behram-gur marries four sisters

5) King Jamshed’s treasure

6) The ill effects of anger

1) The generous Christian and the miserly Jew

King Behram liked to disguise himself and visit the houses of his subjects. Once, he was informed about two of his subjects with opposite temperaments. One was Lambak, a Christian water-carrier who was poor yet very generous and large hearted. The other was Barahām (perhaps a Persian form of Abraham), a Jew who was very rich and yet stingy and wicked. The poor Christian would use his day’s earnings for his needs and spend the rest to feed the poor and would not save for the future.

King Behram ordered his subjects not to buy water from Lambak and then, disguised as a soldier, went to test the hospitality of the poor water-carrier. When King Behram arrived as a guest at Lambak’s home, the water-carrier had no money to offer hospitality to his guest. So he sold and mortgaged his belongings to give good hospitality not only to the king but also to his horse for three days. They feasted on good food and wine, which the poor Lumbak paid by selling all that he had.

Next day, the king disguised himself as a soldier and went to the house of Barahām, the Jew, who, inspite of his wealth, was reluctant to take the king in his house. When the king insisted, he was allowed to sleep in the verandah, but cautioned that he would not be offered anything to eat. Then the Jew alone ate food and drank wine, without offering a morsel to the king in disguise.

The next morning the Jew asked Behram to clean his horse droppings before he went. Behram requested that he get it cleaned by his servant, to which the Jew said that he had no servants to do that job. Finally Behram cleaned it, filled it in a fine silk sachet which he had and threw it into the dustbin. The greedy Jew on seeing the beautiful silk sachet, picked it with the horse droppings from the dust bin, cleared the droppings and kept the cloth, which greatly amused the king.

The following day, the king summoned Lambak and Barahām to his court. He asked a minister to go to Barahām’s house and take away all his wealth. A thousand camels were required to collect the gold, silver, precious stones and rich cloth from the house. The wealth even seemed to exceed the royal treasury. The king gave one tenth of his wealth to Lambak. The rest he distributed among the poor and told the Jew that he was taking away all his wealth, as he did not know how to use it wisely. He told him to consider his good fortune that his life was not taken away from him. The greedy Jew learnt his lesson.

2) Liquor – boon or bane

Once king Behram decided to go for a hunt. He went with a hunting entourage which included hunting dogs and hawks. On the way a lion and lioness attacked him. He lost no time in killing them. On hearing the commotion a man name Meher-bidād appeared and thanked him saying he had been tormented by the lion and lioness since a long time. He organized a feast in the king’s honour.

In the feast, a nobleman by the name Kiruy had a lot of wine. When he went out, he fell unconscious and crows pecked his eyes out. When the king came to know about this, he became so upset that he banned the drinking of liquor in his kingdom. A year passed and none including the king touched liquor.

It so happened that in the kingdom a cobbler had married and was not able to consummate his marriage because he was not virile enough. The cobbler’s mother had hidden a bottle of liquor. She took him to a lonely place and made him drink it. The liquor transformed the young cobbler into an energetic man and he was able to consummate the marriage. He happily went to tell his mother about the good news. On the way he came across a lion who had run away from the palace. On seeing the lion, the cobbler who was still in a drunken state, stopped the lion grappled with it for a while and then sat on it.

The lion meekly carried him, as it was terrified and exhausted. When the lion’s keeper saw this amazing spectacle, he informed the king, who called the cobbler’s mother. He inquired with the mother whether she belonged to a royal family, as the cobbler’s valour had made the king assume that he was from a royal family. The mother denied any royal lineage and confessed to having given liquor to her son. The king was surprised on hearing this. He realized his mistake and revoked the ban on liquor, but advised his people to drink in moderation.

3) The power of a good leader

Once when Behram was returning from an unsuccessful hunt. He was quiet tired and upset. On top of it, when he passed a village, its people did not show him respect. Angry, he ordered his minister Rozbeh to destroy the village. The wise minister, instead of outright destroying the village decided to pass an order which would lead the village to self-destruction. He went to the village and announced that from that day, all were equal in that village. On account of this, all men started fighting with each other for superiority and in no time the village became deserted as most people had killed each other for superiority.

When Behram passed near that village after a year, he too was shocked at what he saw. He felt sorry and he asked his minister Rozbeh to go back to the village and give them the necessary help to return the village to its former glory.

The minister went to an old man in the village, appointed him the head-man and promised him all help. The old men started making the village prosperous again and people who had fled returned back. After three years when the king passed the way and saw the prosperous village, he was very happy.

The king summoned his minister and asked him minister the secret behind the desolate and prosperous village. The minister said, “Wherever there is more than one leader, the place becomes desolate, and where there is just one good leader the place becomes prosperous. This village is a living example of that.” The king was impressed by the minister’s wit and rewarded him.

4) Behramgur marries four sisters

Once when the king was passing a village while returning from a hunt, he heard melodious songs and saw a bon-fire, so he went there. Four girls were singing songs in praise of the king. On inquiry it was revealed that the four girls – Mushkanāb, Mashkanak, Nāztāb and Susanak – were the four daughters of a flour mill owner and were waiting for their father to return.

When the father returned, the king asked him why he did not have his daughters married. The old man replied that he did not have the gifts and gold that are necessary to be given away as marriage gifts. The king offered to marry all four daughters without gifts, to which the mill owner agreed and so Behram took all four of them as his queens. The next day the neighbor told the mill owner that the young hunter was none other than the king and he would soon be the father-in-law of the king. The mill owner and his wife were very happy.

5) King Jamshed’s treasure

Once a farmer came across a huge underground brick vault in which there was unimaginable treasure. He reported it to the king. After inquiries, it was revealed that the treasure belonged to the Peshdadian King Jamshed. Behram did not take any part of the treasure. He gave a tenth of it to the farmer who found it and the rest he distributed to the needy and deserving people. The people were surprised by the generosity and fairness of their king.

6) The ill effects of anger

One fine spring day, king Behram prepared for a hunt. After consulting his court, he decided to go to a forest near Turan. They went with several soldiers, hunting dogs and birds and hunted gur “onager”, wild sheep and deer.

On the fourth day of the hunt, the king spotted an Azdāh, a ferocious dragon like creature with the head of a snake. The king shot arrows at the gigantic creature and killed it. When the Azdāh fell, Behram pierced its chest with a dagger. He was surprised to see a young man, lying dead in its innards. The poisonous fumes and blood coming from the Azdāh’s body made Behram dizzy and he went away from there. Some distance away he saw a young lady and sought refuge in her house. Though she welcomed him, she did not recognise him.

The husband of the lady was very lazy, and did not get up to welcome the king. The poor lady cleaned the house and cooked food all by herself. The king rested for some time but was still not feeling well. He called the lady and asked her whether she was happy with the ruler of the land. The lady said that she was happy but some of the officers were very cruel. Hearing this, the king became angry, decided to investigate the matter and if necessary take the offending officers to task.

When the lady went to milk the cow, she was surprised to notice that her udders had dried up. The shrewd lady immediately gathered that her guest was the king. She requested him not to be angry, as she attributed the drying of her cow’s udders to his anger. The king realised his mistake and decided to be kind to the officers. When the lady went out again to milk the cows, her udders were filled with milk. The lady prepared dessert from the cow’s milk and served the king, who gratefully thanked the couple, gifted them a village and returned back to his palace.

The king marries three sisters

A few days later, the king set out for a hunt with his soldiers, hunting dogs and hunting birds. While following a hunting bird named Tugrol, the king came across a huge palace surrounded by a garden, in which was seated Barzin, the nobleman who owned the palace. Along with him were his three young daughters Māh-Āfrid, Frānak and Sham-balid. When the king asked the nobleman about his lost bird, he replied that he had seen it landing on a walnut tree in the garden. On searching, the king got back his prized bird. When he saw the three beautiful daughters, he took a liking for them. After some food and drinks, Barzin asked his daughters to entertain the king. Each of them excelled in the three different arts of singing, music and dancing. All the three girls together displayed their skills. The king was highly impressed by them and asked for their hands in marriage, to which Barzin readily agreed.

The three sisters were taken to the palace in golden carriages with Roman maids in attendance. The king spent a week with them.

(End of Part 2)

(All drawings are by Mrs. Katy Bagli)