Vidhata · Stories
The stories your parents never told you
Hand-curated rare tales from the Mahabharata, Ramayana, Puranas, Jataka, and regional folklore. Each story is a 5-10 minute read with a clear moral summary. Stories told for thinking readers and families — not the hundred-times-repeated classics, but the deep cuts that change how you see the epics.
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Jataka tales
The prince who climbed down a cliff to feed a starving tigress with his own body
Prince Mahasattva walked with his two brothers through a forest. They came upon a tigress so weak from hunger that she was about to eat her own newborn cubs. The prince told his brothers to walk on ahead — and went back alone.
Pandita Meera Shastri9 min · all-ages - 🐒
Jataka tales
The monkey-king who made his own spine the bridge for eighty thousand to escape
A king of Banaras besieged the mango-tree where eighty thousand monkeys lived. The monkey-king Mahakapi tied his feet to a bamboo and stretched his body across the gorge so his troop could run across his back to safety. Then he refused to come down.
Pandita Meera Shastri8 min · all-ages - 🕊
Jataka tales
The king who weighed his own flesh against a frightened dove
A dove fled into King Sibi's lap, pursued by a hawk that demanded its lawful meal. The king offered his own flesh in equal weight. Then the scale would not balance — and the king understood what was being asked of him.
Pandita Meera Shastri9 min · all-ages - 🦌
Jataka tales
The deer-king who walked into a butcher's knife to spare a pregnant doe
King Brahmadatta hunted in the deer park every day. The herd had agreed to send one deer per day, by lottery, to spare the others. When a pregnant doe drew the lot, the deer-king himself walked to the butcher's block in her place. The king who watched changed his life.
Pandita Meera Shastri6 min · all-ages