Four Tales from India

A tale is told in India, of two Rajputs who planned a marriage alliance. They both swore solemnly to carry through their plan: however, both of them then sired girl-children, and the father of the younger girl (for very shame, and to uphold his oath) dressed his daughter as a son, and reared her as a boy. Throughout her childhood, her sex was kept a strict secret.

Complications naturally ensued. However the befuddled father saw, one day, a bitch dog of his jump into one of the local Devi's pools and its sex was changed. He went at once, fetched his daughter, and threw her in. She changed into a young man, lived the rest of her life as a man, and from that day forward the Devi became the goddess of the clan.

Once, an Indian of low caste went into the jungle to cut grass, but when he returned home he found his sickle had become yellow. So he consulted the village blacksmith, who insisted on being led to the place he had gone. The blacksmith found a stone (which was a Praspatthar or Philosopher's Stone, and had turned the sickle to gold) and carried it away in triumph. He gave it to a Raja noted for his good works. By means of the riches thus acquired, the Raja built his fort ... and at the request of the blacksmith, many of the building-stones were shaped like anvils.

Eventually the good Raja abandoned all earthly affairs. One day soon after, he held a festival on the banks of the Narbada, and gave away the stone to a passing Brahman. But the Brahman was an ignorant man with a mean soul; he despised the gift, thinking it no more than a bit of rock. So he threw it into the river--to his eternal regret, when he found what he had lost. And that part of the river has never been fathomed, not from that day to this one.

Later, a Raja from the Central Provinces found the same stone. It made him so rich that he never asked any rent from his tenants except their iron ploughshares, which he then turned to gold.

One day a Brahman with the Evil Eye found a pot in his garden, and realized it was gold transmuted by his Evil Eye. It looked just like dross. However he hung it over his door, and waited for the person pure-eyed enough to see it for what it was. He knew that only a very pure-eyed person could overcome the Evil Eye of a Brahman.

When the pure-eyed one appeared, it was a tanner passing on foot, accompanied by his daughter. The daughter called to her father, "Look! A pot made from gold!" and the Brahman overheard. So he married the girl, and was excommunicated.

In order to restore his caste, he built a house with a hundred and twenty-five rooms, and then he asked a hundred and twenty-five fellow Brahmans to dine with him. He put each and every one in a different room. Not one knew that the rest were there. But when they went to wash their hands after dining, they met all their companions doing the same. So the whole party was excommunicated, and they now form a separate community.

Once, a rich Raja of Bhinmal was tormented by a live snake, which made its abode in his belly. He went on pilgrimage to pray for freedom from the agony of this, but fell asleep near the city gate. Then the city snake of Bhinmal issued from a hole near the gate, and ordered the other snake to forfeit its new home, go forth and plague the Raja no more. The evil serpent replied, "There is a great treasure in your hole. How would you like to leave it? Why then ask me to leave my cosy den?"

The gate snake showed its fangs and answered, "Hsss ... if any servant of the Raja is nearby, may he hearken to me. If some leaves of the caper tree are plucked, mixed with creeper flowers, boiled and given to the Raja, the serpent in his belly will die."

"If any servant of the Raja overhears," retorted the other, flickering its tongue, "let him ponder this instead. If boiling oil is poured down the hole of the gate snake, that snake will die and great treasure will be found."

A clever clerk of the Raja's staff--he was a Kayasth--overheard it all. He found the plants, prepared the potion, and dosed the Raja forthwith; whereupon the Raja was seized with such pangs and pains, that he forthwith executed the clerk. However, barely was the sentence carried out, when the Raja vomited up the snake. Remorseful, he read through the clerk's notes, ordered boiling oil poured down the city-snake's hole, and recovered a vast treasure. So much was there, that even after great sums were spent feeding Brahmans (to appease the ghosts of one clerk and two sagacious snakes) enough was left over to build the famous Sun temple of Bhinmal.

Source: Crooke, William; Religion and Folklore of Northern India (1926)

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Last Updated on March 1, 2002 by Sylvia