Caught by the King

2:00 am. What do you picture when you think about 2:00 am? What you see in your head is exactly what the Hastinapura Palace courtyard looked like on this chilly Magha (February) night. The town and palace were pitch black and silent. King Hastin was out after a long night of well... whatever you do at 2:00 am. He came through the courtyard with his carriage and six horses. Too tired to bring the horses back to the stable, he got out of the carriage and went to bed in his castle.

The only other creatures awake at this time were the palace dogs. After a lifelong spell of obedience to their king, they were itching to break the rules for once.

One of the palace dogs whispered, "This is our chance to have a little fun. Let's go chew up the leather straps and harnesses of the king's carriage."

The dogs tip-toed into the courtyard, tore up the straps, and then slid back into the shadows.

In the morning, well, later that morning, the king woke up. He ventured into the courtyard to see the carriage carnage. He yelled, "Who did this?!"

A man, who was part of the royal guard, said, "I saw some dogs sneaking across the courtyard last night. It was probably them."

In utter rage, the king exclaimed, "I want all of the dogs in the city put down before sundown!"

There were over seven hundred dogs in the city.

The leader of the city dogs, Arjuna, heard about the king's demand and said, "I will find a way to fix this."

Arjuna knew it was unfair that 700 dogs were sentenced to death for the offense of a few. He began to investigate. As he walked around the city talking to different dogs, he realized that the palace gate was always closed. At this moment, he knew exactly who committed the crime.

Arjuna walked through the streets and up to the palace gate. The king's men who were out to kill dogs left him alone because they could see his character through his eyes. They knew he was full of love and innocence.

The palace gate keepers let him through the palace gates for the same reason.

Arjuna stood before the king in the throne room and testified for all of the city dogs. He said, "Your Highness, the palace gates are always closed. There is no way any city dogs could have entered the palace courtyard last night because the gates and walls are too high. The palace dogs must have destroyed the straps and harnesses to your carriage."

The king, realizing his mistake, apologized to the dogs of the city. He also began to show kindness to them. This kindness was unlike any kindness the king had shown before.

The palace dogs, with their tails between their legs, came into the throne room. King Hastin said to them, "You served me well for years.. How could you go against me like this?"

The palace dogs were too embarrassed to respond.

The king then banished them from Hastinapura for life.

Author's Note

This story is a retelling of The Guilty Dogs by Noor Inayat. I really enjoyed the original story and wanted to stay as true to it as I could. The original story, however, did not name any of the characters. To make the characters a little more personal, I gave them names. I used the names King Hastin and Arjuna from the Mahabharata even though their personalities in this story are much different than their personalities in the Mahabharata. King Hastin was a good king, and Arjuna was not a dog but a great archer and the central character in the Mahabharata. I guess that is why I chose the name Arjuna over the other character names from the Mahabharata. He possessed the heroic quality that I wanted the leader of the dogs to have.

The picture I found for the background image I think is very fitting for my story. The three canines pictured are not the typical dog that one keeps as a pet but are actually Himalayan wolves. The Himalayan mountain range borders India to the North, so I imagine these wolves would be present in Northern India. Thousands of years ago, the domestic dogs on Earth looked completely different than they do today. Instead, they more closely resembled wolves. The dogs in the original story most likely looked more like these Himalayan wolves than the common dog in an American home. Years of selective breeding is what has given us the dogs that we see today.

Bibliography

The Guilty Dogs from Twenty Jataka Tales by Noor Inayat