The King Who Did Not Inquire

King Chitar Singh has an old man’s authority and a young queen. She desires his son Hanuvant Singh. The prince refuses her. She accuses him of assault, and the king, believing her, sentences his son to death.

A minister who knows better steps in. He does not argue the facts. He begins to tell stories, tale after tale of how people are deceived, so that the king will see what a man risks when he decides quickly. The tales that follow in the collection are that minister’s counsel.

What this entry does not claim

We have not confirmed how the frame ends, so we do not say. The frame story is also a familiar shape: a prince falsely accused by a stepmother or a concubine, and counsel offered to delay a sentence. It recurs in the Book of Sindbad, in Punjabi tellings of Puran Bhagat, and in the Buddhist story of Kunala. That resemblance is this site’s observation, not an established scholarly claim that the Charitropakhyan descends from any of them. See the essay on the mirror for princes.

Counsel

The accuser supplied the spark. The king’s rage and his attachment to a new wife supplied the fuel. The minister’s method is the oldest form of due process: hear more, test the claim, delay the sentence.

One caution the book invites. A minister who answers one prejudice by piling up stories of the opposite kind has traded a bias, not made an inquiry. The counsel is to inquire.

Verification

Confirmed to the level of the standard chapter list and a secondary summary: Raja Chitar Singh (also spelled Chitra Singh), his young queen Chitramati (also Chitarvati), his son Hanuvant Singh, the false accusation, the death sentence, and a minister (mantri) who tells the tales that follow. We could not confirm how the frame resolves, the minister's name, or verse numbers. Read in the Jaggi edition before marking verified.