The Story of Harishchandra - Part 6

One brahmin bought the queen and Rohidas (their son, whose name is Rohitshwa) and took them home. Harishchandra was sold to a swapach (a low-caste) house. Harishchandra lived in the swapach’s house attending to his tasks, while Rohidas and Tara (the queen, whose name is Taramati and also called Shaivya) lived in the brahmin’s house attending to his chores. Tara performed tasks like grinding grains, filling water, applying cow dung to the floor, etc. Rohidas did the same, collecting flowers and firewood, etc.

The swapach assigned the task of collecting tax on the corpses to Harishchandra. Only if they (the family of the deceased) pay the tax would he give them the cloth to cover the body and set it on fire (for the final rite). Harishchandra would go to the cremation site before anyone else to fulfill his task. He only let them set the body on fire if they paid their tax. It was a big city with many people dying. He ran here to there, often yelling, to collect the tax. He went from body to body day and night. He had no time to rest, no time to drink water or eat. This is the type of work the king undertook. Many days passed in this manner.