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                            TALES OF THE SUN

                                   Or

                      Folklore of Southern India.



                              Collected by

                         MRS. HOWARD KINGSCOTE

                                  and

                         PANDIT NATESA SASTRI.



                                London:
                  W. H. Allen & Co. 13 Waterloo Place,
                            and at Calcutta.

                                 1890.







PREFACE.


In offering these few Indian tales to the public, I cannot refrain from
adding a few words at the beginning to express to Pandit Natesa Sastri
my gratitude for the great assistance he has given me in collecting
them, assistance without which they would never have seen the light in
the shape of a complete volume. When I began writing down these tales,
my only means of collecting them was through my native servants, who
used to get them from the old women in the bazaars; but the fables
they brought me were as full of corruptions and foreign adaptions as
the miscellaneous ingredients that find their way into a dish of their
own curry and rice, and had it not been for Mr. Sastri's timely aid, my
small work would have gone forth to the world laden with inaccuracies.

Mr. Sastri not only corrected the errors of my own tales, but allowed
me to add to them many that he had himself collected, and that had
already been published, either in small volumes or in numbers of
The Indian Antiquary. For this reason I have left several notes which
Mr. Cowper Temple, Mr. Clowston, and others had added to the tales that
had already been printed, as they were too valuable to dispense with,
and may be of service to students of folklore. In conclusion, I would
crave the indulgence of my readers with regard to the style in which
the tales are written, which has been left as nearly as possible in the
form of a literal translation, in order to lend the Stories a "couleur
locale," which is characteristic of the country they spring from.


G. K.







CONTENTS.


    Chapter                                                    Page

    I.      The Three Deaf Men                                    1
    II.     Why Brahmans cannot eat in the Dark                   5
    III.    The Soothsayer's Son                                 11
    IV.     Ranavirasing                                         36
    V.      Charity alone Conquers                               65
    VI.     Mr. Won't Give and Mr. Won't Leave                   86
    VII.    Mr. Mighty-of-his-Mouth                              93
    VIII.   The Mother-in-Law became an Ass                     102
    IX.     The Story of Appayya                                107
    X.      The Brahmin Girl that Married a Tiger               119
    XI.     The Good Husband and the Bad Wife                   131
    XII.    The Good Wife and the Bad Husband                   135
    XIII.   The Lost Camel                                      140
            The Three Calamities                                143
            The Honest but Rash Hunter                          155
            The Brahman's Wife and the Mungoose                 162
            The Faithless Wife and the Ungrateful Blind Man     165
            The Wonderful Mango Fruit                           171
            The Poisoned Food                                   179
            Eating up the Protector                             184
    XIV.    The Monkey with the Tom-Tom                         187
    XV.     Pride goeth before a Fall                           190
    XVI.    Good will grow out of Good                          194
    XVII.   Light makes Prosperity                              202
    XVIII.  Chandralekha and the Eight Robbers                  210
    XIX.    The Conquest of Fate                                230
    XX.     The Brahman Priest who became an Amildar            248
    XXI.    The Gardener's Cunning Wife                         257
    XXII.   Keep it for the Beggar                              262
    XXIII.  Good Luck to the Lucky One                          267
    XXIV.   Retaliation                                         274
    XXV.    The Beggar and the Five Muffins                     280
    XXVI.   The Brahmarakshas and the Hair                      285
            Notes                                               290







INTRODUCTION.


It has often struck all lovers of Folklore and National Legends with
wonder, that so many countries should have reproduced in different
imagery and language the same tales. Persia, Arabia, and India give
us the same fables as Italy, France, Norway, and Iceland, except
for slight variations principally arising from difference of custom,
distance of time, idiom and nationality.

Able writers have explained this to us by a theory worthy of
consideration, and admirable in its origin, but nevertheless wholly
their own. They would have us believe that a certain group of
tales belonged to a certain nation, and that through emigration and
immigration, through wars and dispersions, these same tales have been
carried backwards and forwards and dragged from country to country
borrowing the language and peculiarities of the lands they passed
through, just as the seed of some rare plant is borne on the breeze
and bears fruit coarse or more refined according to the soil in which
it at last takes root.

In Germany we have Goedeck, Koehler, Sichecht, and a host of others who
tell us that these tales are Oriental, and that all fable originates
in the East, others again that they are transmitted to us by the
same channel as the Aryan languages from Aryan tradition. I cannot
see why one nation or one country alone should have the intelligence
of producing fables which as a rule are next to religion in their
teaching and intentions. If proverbs are the wisdom of nations, what
are fables and legends but developed proverbs. What is the meaning of
fable? It means an intent to convey moral instruction in a narrative
in which the characters are represented by birds, beasts, or fishes;
and often plants.

Practically a parable is the same thing, and folklore and fairy-tales
are the attempts of intelligent people to inculcate in their children
or other ignorant people the great truths of religion or wisdom, by
means of word-pictures that would bring these truths within the easy
grasp of undeveloped minds, it is the old repeated tale? The Struggle
between Right and Wrong. "Faust and Marguerite." The Wicked Punished,
The Virtuous Rewarded.

Disguise them as you will, there are certain tendons which run
through the world from age to age; cords which no human hand has yet
severed--which no decree of God's has changed--these are love and
death, hate and vengeance, virtue and vice, right and wrong, suffering
and joy; and as long as there is a world, as long as children are
born, parents will invent fables with which to bring these facts
before their offsprings' eyes in an intelligible manner.

In the fables of the East, and especially of India, there is one
peculiarity, namely, that craft and cunning are more generally
rewarded than virtue, and stupidity condemned. This is the national
characteristic. The tales of Southern India are as varied as any
others, either Eastern or European. Magic and supernatural phenomena
play a great part, but are usually assisted by the powers of the
gods. This is again a national Hindoo characteristic. The Hindoo
would shrink from any undertaking that is not under the patronage of
the gods; yet here is a very noticeable feature, namely, that the
divinities are treated as entirely secondary in power, interwoven
only into a man's daily affairs as a sort of backbone or support in
time of need, but to be despised and trampled upon at other times with
impunity. This is a natural feature in a nation which has a deity to
represent every vice and sin, and lends a certain character to the
tales of Southern India different to the folklore of other countries.

Probably further research will lay bare many still hidden treasures
of Hindoo folklore; but this small collection of tales will doubtless
suffice to throw light on Indian tradition, and to bring forward the
natural peculiarities of the Hindoos as well as the assimilation of
the folklore of different nations, an assimilation which I maintain
results from the teaching propensities of each country and not from
appropriation.


    Georgiana Kingscote.







FOLKLORE IN SOUTHERN INDIA.


I.

THE STORY OF THE THREE DEAF MEN.


When any awkward blunder occurs from a person acting under a mistaken
notion, there is a common proverb in Tamil to the effect that the
matter ended like the story of the three deaf men--(Muchchevidan
kadaiyay mudindadu). The following is the story told to explain
the allusion:--

In a remote village there lived a husband and wife. Both of them
were quite deaf. They had made this household arrangement, namely,
to cook cabbage with tamarind and soup without tamarind one day, and
cabbage without tamarind and soup with tamarind on the other. Thus
on every alternate day the same dishes were repeated. One day, when
taking his meal, the husband found the tamarind cabbage so very tasty
that he wanted to have it also next day, and gave instructions to
that effect. The deaf wife did not understand the order. According to
the established rule she cooked cabbage without tamarind next day. The
husband, when he sat down to his meal, found his order disregarded and,
being enraged thereat, threw the cabbage against the wall, and went
out in a rage. The wife ate her fill, and prepared tamarind cabbage
for her husband.

The husband went out, and sat down in a place where three roads
crossed, to calm down his anger. At that time a shepherd happened to
pass that way. He had lately lost a good cow and calf of his, and had
been seeking them for some days. When he saw the deaf man sitting by
the way, he took him for a soothsayer, and asked him to find out by
his knowledge of Josyam [1] where the cow was likely to be found. The
herdsman, too, was very deaf; and the man, without hearing what he
was saying, abused him, and wished to be left undisturbed. In abusing
him the husband stretched out his hand, pointing to the shepherd's
face. This pointing the shepherd understood to indicate the direction
where the lost cow and calf would be found. Thus thinking the poor
shepherd went on in that direction, promising to present the soothsayer
with the calf if he found it there with the cow. To his joy, and
by mere chance, he found them. His delight knew no bounds. "That is
a capital soothsayer. Surely I must present him with the calf." So
thought he to himself, and returned with them to the deaf man, and,
pointing to the calf, requested him to accept it.

Now it unfortunately happened that the calf's tail was broken and
crooked. The man thought the herdsman was blaming him unreasonably for
having broken the calf's tail, while he knew nothing about it, and so,
by a waive of his hand, denied the charge. This the shepherd mistook
for a refusal of the calf, and a demand for the cow. The shepherd said,
"How very greedy you are! I promised you only the calf, and not the
cow." The husband said, "Never; I know nothing of either your cow
or calf. I never broke the calf's tail. Some other must have done
it." Thus they quarrelled, without understanding each other, for a
long time, when a third party happened to pass by. Understanding the
cause of the dispute, and, desiring to profit by their stupidity, he
interfered, and said in a loud voice, and yet so as not to be heard
by the deaf husband, "Well, shepherd, you had better go away with
the cow. These soothsayers are always greedy. Leave the calf with
me, and I shall make him accept it." The shepherd, much pleased to
have secured the cow, walked home, leaving the calf with the third
person. When the shepherd had gone, the passenger said to the deaf
man, "You see how very unlawful it is for the shepherd to charge you
with an offence which you never committed. It is always the case with
shepherds. They are the biggest fools in the world! But never mind, so
long as you have a friend in me. I shall somehow explain to him your
innocence, and restore the calf to him." The husband, much pleased,
ran home to escape from the consequences of supposed guilt. At the
expense of the stupidity and deafness of both, the third traveller
walked home with the calf.

The husband, on his return, sat down to his dinner, and his wife served
him the tamarind cabbage. He happened to put his finger to the place
where the cabbage without tamarind had previously been served on the
leaf. On applying it to his mouth, he found it so very sweet that he
demanded that dish again. The wife replied to him that she had already
emptied the pan. "Then at least bring me the cabbage that is sticking
to the saucepan," said the husband; and the wife did accordingly.

Here ends the story. The latter portion is also said to be the
explanation of a proverb that is prevalent in Tamil,--"Sevuru kiraiyai
valichchu podudi sunaiketta muli," meaning, "O thou feelingless
deaf woman, give me at least the cabbage that is sticking to the
saucepan." This proverb is applied to stubborn wives, who will
have their own way, and do not obey their husbands submissively in
unrefined society.







II.

WHY BRAHMANS CANNOT EAT IN THE DARK.


Among Hindus, especially among Brahmans of the Madras Presidency--and I
now see from personal observation that it is the same in the Bombay
Presidency also--there is a custom, while taking their meals,
of leaving their food uneaten when it so happens that from any
cause the light is blown out. Of course this could occur only in the
night-time. Such mishaps now-a-days take place only in poor families,
sitting down to supper with a single light. Hence the following story,
told as the origin of this custom, is beginning to be forgotten. It
runs as follows:--

In a certain village there lived a Brahman who had an only
daughter. She was deeply read in Sanskrit, and was of the most
charming beauty. He procured a husband for her as deeply read as
herself. The betrothal had already taken place; the muhurta or
auspicious time for her marriage was fixed at the tenth ghatika [2]
of that night. On that very evening the son-in-law went to a tank
to perform his Sandhya vandana or evening prayers. It swarmed with
crocodiles. People never went near it. The son-in-law, being quite
new to the village, entered the tank without knowing anything of
the danger. Unfortunately, there was none near to warn him. He had
set his foot in the water when a crocodile caught him by the leg,
and began to drag him into the water. That very night was fixed for
his nuptials, and a crocodile was taking him to feast on his flesh. He
was extremely horrified at his position, and said humbly to his enemy,
"My friend crocodile! Listen to my words first, and then decide for
yourself. A wife, the only daughter of an old Brahman, is waiting for
me to-night. If you eat me now, you take me away without my seeing
her, my father-in-law, and other relatives. Their hearts may break
at the news of my death on the very day of the wedding. They may all
curse you. If, on the contrary, you leave me now, I shall go home,
speak to my wife and others about the sad calamity that has come over
me, and after embracing and taking leave of her will come to you
for your supper at the fifteenth ghatika. Till then leave me." The
cruel crocodile, though very fond of human flesh, and himself dying
of hunger, spared him for a few ghatikas at his humble request. After
extracting several oaths from him that he would return in accordance
to his promise, the crocodile went into the water.

The son-in-law also went home. All his joy vanished; how could he be
happy after his promise to the crocodile. Still, to give no uneasiness
to the aged parents of his wife, he underwent all the ceremonies of
the marriage. Only five more ghatikas remained for him to live in the
world, as he thought. He, in a few words, explained everything to his
wife, and asked her permission to leave her. She showed no sign of
sorrow, preached to him about the iron hand of fate, and that he must
undergo what was written on his forehead. She most willingly gave him
permission to go, and he returned to the tank even a ghatika earlier,
and called the crocodile, who came and seized him.

At this moment a certain light glittered before the eyes of the
crocodile and vanished. It was a woman that did it. The wife, after
consoling her husband, and preaching to him about the supremacy of
fate, had accompanied him unobserved with a lighted lamp concealed
in a vessel. Just when the crocodile applied its teeth to the leg of
her husband, she took the lamp out, flashed it before the crocodile's
eyes, and quenched it. Nor was it without its intended effect. The
crocodile left the husband to himself, and said, "You had better go
now; I will never touch you after seeing a lamp extinguished when
I began my meal to-day." The husband was astonished at the device
of his wife, and still more at the faithful observance of a rule in
an unreasonable beast. From that day it was fixed that men, who are
still more reasonable, should never eat when the lamp is blown out.

Another story is told. In a remote village there lived a poor woman,
who laboured from morning till night in different houses, and returned
to her hut with two measures of rice. That quantity would serve
for ten ordinary persons. Being extremely poor, she