Page:Tales of the Punjab.pdf/256

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HOW RAJA RASALU WAS BORN

NCE there lived a great Raja, whose name was Salbahan, and he had two Queens. Now the elder, by name Queen Achhra, had a fair young son called Prince Puran; but the younger, by name Lona, though she wept and prayed at many a shrine, had never a child to gladden her eyes. So, being a bad, deceitful woman, envy and rage took possession of her heart, and she so poisoned Raja Salbahan’s mind against his son, young Puran, that just as the Prince was growing to manhood, his father became madly jealous of him, and in a fit of anger ordered his hands and feet to be cut off. Not content even with this cruelty, Raja Salbahan had the poor young man thrown into a deep well. Nevertheless, Puran did not die, as no doubt the enraged father hoped and expected; for God preserved the innocent Prince, so that he lived on, miraculously, at the bottom of the well, until, years after, the great and holy Guru Goraknath came to the place, and finding Prince Puran still alive, not only

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