Diwan Todarmal - Gold Coins for Cremation

Dadi: "Guddu, let me tell you more about those gold coins - because there's a detail in Todar Mal's sacrifice that I want you to understand deeply."

Guddu: "The 78,000 coins, Dadi?"

Dadi: "Yes. You see, when Todar Mal first approached Nawab Wazir Khan, the cruel ruler set what he thought was an impossible price. He said, "You can have only as much land as you can cover with gold coins.""

Guddu: "That's already really expensive!"

Dadi: "But beta, if you lay coins flat on the ground, you can cover more area. Todar Mal could have managed that. So he went and gathered coins - sold his jewelry, his goods, everything - and came back ready to pay."

Guddu: "So he had enough?"

Dadi: "*shakes head* That's when the Nawab showed his true cruelty. He looked at Todar Mal and said, "No, no. The coins must stand vertically - on their edges.""

Guddu: "*thinks for a moment* Oh! If they stand up instead of lying flat... you'd need so many more to fill the same space!"

Dadi: "Exactly. A coin lying flat might cover a circle of, say, two inches. But standing on its edge? Maybe half an inch. The Nawab had multiplied the price by four or five times with a single cruel change."

Guddu: "That's so unfair! He was cheating!"

Dadi: "Of course he was. He wanted to make it impossible. He wanted to break Todar Mal, to show everyone what happens when you defy power."

Guddu: "So what did Todar Mal do?"

Dadi: "*voice fills with emotion* He didn't argue. He didn't complain. He simply said, "I'll pay it." And he went back out into the city. He borrowed from everyone he knew. He promised his future earnings. He sold his beautiful haveli. Every asset, every relationship, every bit of goodwill he had built over decades - he cashed it all in."

Guddu: "How long did it take?"

Dadi: "Just hours, Guddu. He knew those martyred bodies couldn't wait. And one by one, seventy-eight thousand gold mohurs were brought to that small plot of land. One by one, they were stood on their edges, packed tight against each other, until four yards of earth gleamed with gold."

Guddu: "I'm trying to picture it... a sea of gold coins, all standing up..."

Dadi: "It must have been a strange and beautiful sight. All that wealth - enough to build palaces, to feed thousands, to live in luxury for generations - reduced to four yards of standing coins. Just enough space to light three funeral pyres."

Guddu: "At today's prices... how much would that be?"

Dadi: "They estimate over 250 crore rupees. Perhaps 30 million US dollars. For a patch of ground you could cover with a large bedsheet."

Guddu: "It has to be the most expensive land ever!"

Dadi: "Per square meter? Almost certainly. And that's the point, beta. Wazir Khan thought he was humiliating Todar Mal by making him pay so much for so little. But instead, he immortalized him. Centuries later, we don't remember the Nawab except as a villain. But Todar Mal? His name means "one whose wealth is true.""

Guddu: "True wealth... because the gold was true? Or something else?"

Dadi: "*smiles* Something else. Think about it - what happened to those 78,000 coins?"

Guddu: "The Nawab took them."

Dadi: "Yes. And what happened to the Nawab's empire?"

Guddu: "It's... gone?"

Dadi: "Dust. Forgotten. But what Todar Mal bought with those coins - the right to honor the innocent, the memory of courage, the example of sacrifice - that still lives. Today, Gurdwara Jyoti Sarup stands on that very spot. Millions come to remember not the gold, but what the gold was spent for."

Guddu: "So his true wealth was... the act itself?"

Dadi: "*nods* The coins were just coins. What made them valuable was why they were spent. Every one of those 78,000 gold pieces was a prayer standing on its edge. A protest against injustice. A vote for dignity."

Guddu: "Dadi, do you think Todar Mal was scared?"

Dadi: "*pauses* I'm sure he was terrified. He knew the Nawab would punish him. He knew he was choosing poverty. He probably thought of his family, his children's futures. But he did it anyway. That's what courage is, beta - not the absence of fear, but the decision that something else matters more."

Guddu: "What happened to his family?"

Dadi: "History doesn't tell us much. They lost everything and had to flee. But here's what I believe - his children and grandchildren probably grew up hearing this story. They knew their ancestor gave everything for what was right. That's a different kind of inheritance. That's true wealth passed down."

Guddu: "I'd rather be Todar Mal's descendant than the Nawab's."

Dadi: "*hugs Guddu* And that, my dear, is the whole lesson. What kind of ancestor do you want to be? Not in some grand historical way, but in the small choices of every day. When you see unfairness, do you stay silent to protect yourself? Or do you spend your coins - your time, your comfort, your popularity - standing up for what's right?"

Guddu: "I hope I'd be brave like him."

Dadi: "You don't have to hope, beta. You practice. Every small act of courage makes the next one easier. Every time you speak up for someone being bullied, every time you admit a mistake instead of hiding it, every time you choose hard-right over easy-wrong - you're placing your coins upright."

Guddu: "*smiles* Counting out my 78,000, one at a time."

Dadi: "Exactly. And when your moment comes - whatever it looks like - you'll be ready. Because courage isn't something you find in the moment. It's something you build, one choice at a time, until it becomes who you are."