Shabrang (Of the color of Night)

Compiled & edited:

Sham S.Misri

Once, a king of Kashmir had gone for hunting. He reached a garden where he saw a lovely maiden. He approached the maiden without knowing who she was:

The king said, “You are extremely beautiful. You are fit to be my queen." The maiden replied, "Yes, I too should like to marry someone like you and then my son will marry your daughter." The king was baffled by this answer and did not know how to deal with her, as he was obviously outwitted. Soon he 

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Mythical Atlas Did no Work!

Sham S. Misri

Atlas was a leader of Titans. Once there was a battle between the Titans and the Olympians. The Titans were defeated in this war and were placed in Tartarus as punishment. However, Atlas wasn't granted this punishment and was instead forced to carry the entire weight of the sky on his shoulders. Atlas was relieved of his duty once by Hercule's, but was later tricked into resuming his burden.

If the mythical god Atlas was supposed to hold the stationary Earth on his shoulders, was he doing any work?

Well, Atlas the mythical hero who held up the earth on his shoulders was clever enough to do no work.

Scientists have proved that, for arguments sake, if it took a force of 6.02 x 10²⁴ N to hold up the earth, how much work did Atlas do while holding the earth on his shoulders?

Actually, Atlas is not doing any work!  While he is applying a force of 6.02 x 10²⁴ N to the earth, he is not moving it any distance.  So if the known values are put into an equation:

W = (6.02 x 10²⁴ N) (0 m) = 0 joules i.e Zero joules.

Thus, Atlas is not doing any work in the scientific sense.

Books by the Author(s)

Lal Ded Of Kashmir Saint Poetess: A Catalogue of Lal Vakhs

Kashmir Shaivism and Modern Science

Kashmir - A Concise History: Mahabharata Epoch 3067 BCE to Modi Era 2016 A.D

The Aryan Invasion Theory - A Subterfuge: A Scientific Look

Tibet: Earthly Paradise

Kali Maa: The Dawn of Woman and Beyond

Maa Ganga: Mythology, Mystery and Science

The Ten Departures of Kashmiri Pandits

Tales from Kashmir, Part-1

Tales from Kashmir, Part-2

Tales from Kashmir, Part-3

Tales from Kashmir, Part-4

Tales from Kashmir, Part-5

The Wandering Pandit

Wonderful Stories for Children, Book-1

A Peep Into America's Past

Silkworm Breeding Made Easy

Collected Poems of Pt. Krishen Joo Razdan, By J. N. Misri, Vol. 1, 2,3,4,5 and 6[Edited and Published]

Travels Through America And Canada

When I Met Her

The Ultimate Fishing Rod

Kashmir: The Book of Anecdotes

Tour to 5 Countries in Europe

Cleopatra-Harmachis-Part-1-Love-Lord

Cleopatra and Harmachis - Part-2: The Finding of Treasure

Priyagich Buoune- Chinar at Prayag

Sham S.Misri

The place of joining together of two rivers is called Priyag or confluence. In Kashmir there is a village called Shadipur. It falls 

For further reading and the collection of more stories visit Amazon.com:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00AVN2W4I

Croesus’ Wealth

Sham S. Misri

Croesus was the king of Lydia modern Turkey around 550 BC. This last king of Lydia conquered the Greeks but was in turn defeated by the Persians. Croesus was renowned for his wealth.His palaces were full of treasures. Once the famous law giver by name Solon,  was travelling there to observe their customs. Croesus received Solon with great distinction, and showed him all his treasures.He is credited with issuing the first true gold coins with a standardized purity for general circulation. However, they were quite crude, and were made of an alloy of gold and silver. In 546 BC, Croesus was defeated and captured by the Persians, who then adopted gold as the main metal for their coins.

Croesus was friendly to many. Once he gave refuge to a Greek prince. Herodotus tells that the prince had exiled himself to Lydia after accidentally killing his brother. King Croesus welcomed him but then the prince accidentally killed Croesus' son. The prince then committed suicide. Croesus did not have good relations with the Greeks. He began preparing a campaign against Cyrus the Great of Persia. Before setting out he met a wise man to inquire whether he should pursue this campaign. The wise man answered, with typical ambiguity, that if Croesus attacked the Persians, he would destroy a great empire.

Croesus, however, launched his campaign against the Persian Empire in 547 BC. A  battle was fought. As per the custom in those days, the armies would disband for winter and Croesus did accordingly. Cyrus did not. Then Cyrus attacked Croesus in Sardis, which was the capital of the ancient kingdom of Lydia (Modern Turkey). Cyrus captured Croesus.

            Herodotus a historian tells- Croesus was placed upon a great pyre by Cyrus' orders.  Cyrus wanted to see if any of the heavenly powers would appear to save him from being burned alive. The pile was set ablaze, and as Cyrus the Great watched he saw Croesus call out "Solon" three times. He asked the interpreters to find out why he said this word with such acquaintance and agony. The interpreters returned the answer that Solon had warned Croesus of the fickleness of good fortune: This touched Cyrus, who realized that he and Croesus were much the same man, and he bade the servants to quench the blazing fire as quickly as they could. They tried to do this, but the flames were not to be mastered. According to the story, Croesus called out to Apollo and prayed to him. The sky had been clear and the day without a breath of wind, but soon dark clouds gathered and a storm with rain of such violence that the flames were speedily extinguished. Cyrus convinced by this that Croesus was a good man, made Croesus an advisor who served Cyrus ‘well’.

            In Greek and Persian cultures the name of Croesus is associated with a wealthy man. Croesus' wealth remained proverbial in English, expressions: The phrase "as rich as Croesus" having been a common proverb in all the modern languages of Europe for many centuries. It was to this Croesus, king of Lydia, whose story relates, the proverb. Croesus died in 546 BC.

King Candaules

Sham S. Misri

The story is based on the work from- The Histories of Herodotus, who is called the father of history.

Candaules, King of Lydia, modern Turkey, was a dishonest and a despot king. He had, a very beautiful and modest wife, whose name was Nyssia. King Candaules was very proud of the beauty of his queen, and boasted of his wife’s charming beauty to his favourite bodyguard, who was a slave, a personal favourite and boon companion of the king.

  Once, when the king was boasting of his wife's charms to the bodyguard, he said that the beauty of the queen, her form and figure, when unrobed, was even more wonderful than that of her features. The king growing more and more excited, and being under influence of wine, declared that the bodyguard should see for himself. The king would conceal the bodyguard, in the queen's bed-chamber, while she would be undressing for the night.

 “It appears you don’t believe me when I tell you how lovely and beautiful my wife is,” said King Candaules. “A man always believes his eyes better than his ears; so, do as I tell you make a scheme to see her naked.”

The body guard refused; he did not want to dishonor the Queen by seeing her nude body. “It would be doing the innocent queen a great wrong”, said the body guard, He assured the king, too, that he believed fully all that he said about queen's beauty. The body guard  begged him not to insist upon a proposal with which it would be criminal to comply. King Candaules insisted upon showing his body guard his wife when unrobed.  However, when the body guard had no choice but to obey. Candaules made a plan by which bodyguard would hide behind a door in the royal bedroom to observe the Queen disrobing before bed. Body guard would then leave the room while the Queen’s back was turned.  That night, the plan was executed. However, the Queen saw the body guard as he left the room, and recognized immediately that she had been betrayed and shamed by her own husband. She silently swore to have her revenge, and began to arrange her own plan.

The next day, the Queen summoned bodyguard to her chamber.The body guard thought that it was a routine request. He went politely to her chamber. When the Queen saw him enter her room, she was furious. She confronted him immediately with her knowledge of his misdeed and her husband’s.

 “One of you must die,” she declared. “Either my husband, the author of this wicked plot; or you, who dared seeing me naked.”  The bodyguard pleaded with the Queen not to force him to make this choice. She was harsh and persistent. He finally chose to betray and deceive the King so that he should live.

The Queen prepared the bodyguard to kill King Candaules, her own husband by the same manner in which she was shamed. The bodyguard hid behind the door of the bedroom chamber with a knife provided by the Queen, and killed him in his sleep. The bodyguard Gyges married the Queen and became King, and father to the Memnad Dynasty.