That came to pass once upon a time in this country. There lived a king whose queen was saddened all the time. That was simply because they did not have children. The kingdom had no heir. In the meanwhile, the countrymen were getting ready to celebrate the fifth wedding anniversary of the royal couple. Preparations were ready to celebrate the event on a grand scale. One dancing troupe was journeying across a forest, with its drunken chief. This drunken chief stirred the wrath of the wild elephants, who in turn assaulted the whole troupe. While everyone ran amok, one mother fainted with her child trapped in a basket. While the wild elephants were retreating, the child gave a cry. One female elephant grew fond of the child. So she carried the basket with the child on her shoulder and made way into the forest. That forest was home to an ascetic and a Veddah family too. The female elephant had a calf too. The human child grew up with the elephant calf. The ascetic taught him the letters and martial arts, while the Veddah family observed all this from afar.