Untold Stories of King Bhoja

Author, journalist and scholar, Shri Ayer is given to by apti- tude and training, a wide range of studies extending from Astrology to Vedic researches. Starting life as the Editor of a Music Journal in the early thirties, he was a school teacher for two years. The lure of the pen drew him again to the editorial department of daily newspapers of Ceylon, Madras and Bombay successively. He joined the Bhavan in 1-952 and served as Associate Editor of the Bhavan's Journal since its inception for 15 years till 1968, when he went over to Bangalore in 1968 as the Director of Bhavan's Bangalore Kendra. Presently he is engaged in producing Cultural Readers and other literature for children at the Bhavan. His published works include a book on astrology and a couple of books on palmistry, besides Stories of King Madana Kama, Stories Of King Bhoja and Hindu Sastras and Samskaras pub- lished by the Bhavan. The stories of Vikramaditya are among the oldest collection of folk-tales centering round the personality of King Vikrama- ditya of Ujjain. First written in Sanskrit, a number of slightly differing versions are extant in all the major languages of. India. The stories are most interesting. The original authorship of these stories is unknown, even as their date; but they are generally believed to have originated dur- ing the period 11 th to 13th centuries. The present, author has retold them in English for the modem man. The main purpose of these stories is to illustrate the gene- rous deeds of a model king and emphasise moral lessons. In this light they are didactic, but in their ingenious plots, dramatic situa- tions, portrayal of real life and correct appraisal of human cha- racter, they are superb. As the reader can easily notice, human nature has not changed a whit even after a thousand years.