Rutuparna (

IAST The International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration (IAST) is a transliteration scheme that allows the lossless romanisation of Indic scripts as employed by Sanskrit and related Indic languages. It is based on a scheme that emerged during ...

): Rutuparṇa ( hi, ऋतुपर्ण) was a king of

Ayodhya Ayodhya (; ) is a city situated on the banks of holy river Saryu in the States and union territories of India, Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. Ayodhya, also known as Sāketa, Saketa, is an ancient city of India, the birthplace of Rama and ...

, and son of Sarvakama, into whose service king

Nala Nala (Sanskrit: नल) is a character in the ''Vana Parva'' book of the ''Mahabharata''. He was the king of Nishadha Kingdom and the son of Veerasena. Nala was known for his skill with horses and for his culinary expertise. He married prince ...

entered after he had lost his kingdom. Rutuparna was a master mathematician and profoundly skilled in dice

Kali (Demon) In Hinduism, Kali ( Devanāgari: , IAST: ', with both vowels short; from a root ', 'suffer, hurt, startle, confuse') is the being who reigns during the age of the Kali Yuga and acts as the nemesis of Kalki, the tenth and final avatar of the Hin ...

. Nala, as

Bahuk ''Bahuk'' ( gu, બાહુક) is a Gujarati long narrative poem by Chinu Modi. The poem is composed both in metrical and non-metrical verse and centres on Nala, a character from the ''Mahabharata'' who metamorphosed into Bahuka. It is an ...

(one with a hump) became a minister and later the charioteer in King Rituparna's court on the advice of the King of Snakes (Nagas) to learn from him the skills of dice. According to the story of Nala-

Damayanti ''Damayanti'' (Sanskrit: दमयंती) is a character in a love story found in the Vana Parva book of the Mahabharata. She was the daughter of Bhima (not the Pandava one) and a princess of the Vidarbha Kingdom, who married King Nala of th ...

Mahabharata The ''Mahābhārata'' ( ; sa, महाभारतम्, ', ) is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India in Hinduism, the other being the ''Rāmāyaṇa''. It narrates the struggle between two groups of cousins in the Kuruk ...

, after the disappearance of King Nala, his queen, Damayanti and her father's (the father-in-law of King Nala, the king of

Vidarbha Kingdom The Vidarbha Kingdom in the Sanskrit epic Mahabharata is among the many kingdoms ruled by Yadu kings (Bhoja Yadavas). It was situated in the region still known as Vidarbha in what is now Maharashtra in the Deccan. Damayanti, the wife of Nala ...

) courtiers sent out a search party to find him. One of the courtiers reported a person "resembling in behaviour, but not in features" with Nala in King Rutuparna's court in Ayodhya. To test this fact it was proclaimed that Queen Damayanti (known for her beauty) had assented to remarry, and consequently an invitation to a

swayamvara Svayamvara ( sa, स्वयंवर, svayaṃvara, translit-std=IAST), in ancient India, was a method of marriage in which a woman chose a man as her husband from a group of suitors. In this context, in Sanskrit means 'self' and means 'g ...

for the same was sent to Rutuparna's court too. However the

(a ritual wherein a princess bride chooses her own suitor for marriage from among a group of suitors), was scheduled for the very next day, and the distance to her father's kingdom from

could not be covered in a night. For this Nala as Bahuk offered to transport King Rutuparna to Damayanti's kingdom. As Nala was the best charioteer Nala he was sure to reach Damayanti's father's palace in time for the swayamvara. On the way King Rutuparna asked Nala or Bahuk, as he was known to him, for the secrets and techniques of fast chariot driving. Nala agreed but in return for which he asked the knowledge and techniques of dice playing, in which Rutuparna was the master. Thus on a mutual acceptance, within a night's journey Rutuparna taught Dice-playing to Nala and Nala taught him chariot driving skills. On reaching Damayanti's father's palace, however, king Rutuparna was informed that the

was a sham and actually a ploy to find Nala, who indeed came back to his own form from that of Bahuk using a boon from the snake king (king of the Nagas). And using the art of Dice learnt from Rutuparna in the previous night's journey, Nala defeated his brother

Pushkara In Hindu theology Pushkara was the brother of Nala to whom Nala lost his kingdom and all that he possessed in gambling. Shani got very angry when Damayanti chose Nala in the swayamvar. Shani possessed Nala Nala (Sanskrit: नल) is a cha ...

in dice and became the king of

Nishadha Kingdom The Nishadha kingdom (IAST: Niṣadha) was a tribe of ancient India that lived in a country of the same name History Veerasena was a king of the Nishadha kingdom, and the father of Nala. Nala, the son of Veerasena, became the king after his fathe ...

again. The story does not cite anything else about King Rutuparna after this episode (

being re-crowned ruler of

) .

References

*Dowson's Classical Dictionary of Hindu Mythology *

Amar Chitra Katha Amar Chitra Katha (ACK Comics) is an Indian publisher of Indian comics and graphic novels. Most of its comics are based on religious legends and epics, historical figures and biographies, folktales and cultural stories. The company was founded ...

's Nala-Damayanti

{{HinduMythology Characters in Hindu mythology Characters in the Mahabharata