Chapter 9 — A Washerman Blessed to be a King

Literal. A washerman at Kuravpur is a great devotee of Shri Guru. He watches a Muslim king pass by with his harem and, briefly, wishes for such glory. Shri Guru, knowing his thought, asks him about it. The washerman demurs but admits the wish. Shri Guru tells him: he will be reborn in a Muslim royal family at Bidar, will live as a king, and will reunite with Shri Guru — who will himself be reborn as Narasimha Saraswati — fifteen years later. The washerman dies soon after. Shripad disappears into the Krishna on Ashwin Vadya 12 (Guru Dwadashi).

Symbolic. The chapter establishes the Bidar arc — a multi-chapter narrative thread that resolves only in Chapter 50, more than forty chapters later. The washerman's brief wish is honored in his next life; identity persists across rebirth and is recognized when the agents meet again.

Structural. 15 years to reunion. Bidar as the geographic anchor (Bahmani Sultanate, mid-15th c.). The Krishna river, on Ashwin Vadya 12, as the location of Shripad's mahasamadhi.