This is a Vikram Betal story. Once upon a time in a faraway kingdom,lived a king and queen. They didn’t have any children. After a long time, the queen gave birth to a a beautiful young princess. They named her Vijaya. When she was about 5 years old, the king and queen got the best trainers in the world to teach her sword fighting. Vijaya also started studying mathematics, Science, Political science and art and literature. Vijaya was a great student and she learnt very quickly
As reached a marriageable age, her parents wanted to get her married. In mediaeval times, women got married very early. Vijaya wanted to continue her education and didn’t want to get married just then. She explained this to her parents, but they were not convinced. Their considerations were for the welfare of the state as well and they wanted to secure a marriage with a strong state so that they would have a strong ally. In those days, marriages were usually a deal to secure the interest of the kingdom.
Vijaya thought for a while and came up with an ingenious plan. She was very good at sword fighting and she knew that there would be few princes who could match her in the skill. She told her father that she would like to take the Swayam vara route and the condition would be that the prince had to defeat her in sword combat.
The king put out a circular saying that his daughter will choose a prince who can defeat her in sword combat. Many Princes took up the challenge, but Vijaya was a master swords person and defeated everyone.
Everyday one new prince would come for combat and lose. This continued for many days. Finally, a prince by the name of Ajith challenged princess Vijaya for combat. They fought well, prince Ajith had the same techniques as princess Vijaya, but he had more strength and finally managed to defeat her.
Princess Vijaya asked the prince who had trained him. Prince Ajith responded that over the past few months he observed Vijaya during her sword fights and had learnt the technique from her.
Princess Vijaya was overjoyed. She walked up to her father and made an argument against marrying prince Ajith. The logic of this was flawless and the king had to concede.
Do you know what argument Vijaya had put forth to her father?
Vijaya claimed that since Ajith learnt sword fighting seeing her movements. She was his teacher. As per the Indian tradition, a teacher is to be venerated. A teacher could not marry a student.
Moral of the Story:
This is a great story to teach kids that one can get out of any situation by putting their thinking caps on
Short stories are great ways to build conversations with kids. They also help in kids building empathy and help them build sharper social skills. Have you seen our conversation starter posters, maps and flashcards for kids?
