Village Folk-tales of Ceylon (Sri Lanka), vol. 1-3

by Henry Parker | 1910 | 406,533 words

This folk-tale entitled “the invisible silk robe” is gathered from oral sources sources, tracing its origin to ancient Ceylon (Sri Lanka). These tales are often found to contain similarities from stories from Buddhism and Hinduism. This is the story nr. 89 from the collection “stories of the cultivating caste”.

Story 89 - The Invisible Silk Robe

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^[1]

A BRAHMANA having told some men to come from a certain city, and having praised the robes which the King of the city is wearing, this Brahmana made seven stanzas, and gave them to those seven men. Those very seven men having taken the seven stanzas and gone, employed yet [another] Brahmana and got them explained.

Should you say,

“How was the meaning ?”

it was praise of the copper [coloured] silk robe which the King of that city is wearing.

After they got this meaning explained, these seven men spoke together,

“Let us make up a trick at this place.”

Speaking [thus] together, they arrived at a city at which there is a foolish King.

Arriving [there], they spoke to the King of the city:

“Maharaja, what a robe that is which Your Majesty is wearing! We have woven a copper [coloured] snk robe for the King of our city, and given it. It is like the thin silk robes obtained from the divine world. Having looked in the direction of that King, when we looked in your direction you appear like a servant who is near that King,”

these seven men said.

While hearing this word, shame was produced in the King. Having been produced, he thought to himself,

“While I also am a King, what is it to me !”

Thinking,

“Cannot I cause those silk robes to be woven ?”

he asked,

“For [weaving] the silk robes what sort of other things are necessary ?”

Then the seven men say regarding it,

“ Having obtained silk thread from good silk yam (lit., thread), be good enough to give us it. Having constructed a place in your auspicious^[2] Sal [trees] garden, you must give us it. You must bring to that place and give us food and drink,”

they said to the King.

Having said it, they said at the very time,

“The silk cloth that we weave is not visible to a base-born person. Should he be a well-born (saha-jataka) person it is visible to him,”

they said to the King.

At that time the King having procured silk thread to his mind gave it. The men having taken it to the auspicious Sal garden, and the party putting the thread away, when people come to look at the copper [coloured] silk robes these seven men run there and here in the auspicious Sal^[3] garden. The silk robe is not visible; only according to the manner in which these seven persons are running the extent [of it] is visible. Thereupon the men think in their minds,

“Because we are base-born this copper [coloured] silk robe is not visible to us.”

What of their t hinkin g so ! Except that each separate person thinks it for himself, no one speaks it.

The King sent a messenger for the purpose of looking whether, having woven the robes, they are finished. Having seen that, except that after tying the hand-lines (at-wael) they are causing [their arms] to row (paddanawa),^[4] the robe is not visible, [he thought],

“Should I say that I do not perceive the robe they will say I am the son of a courtesan.”

Because of shame at it, the messenger having gone to the royal house, said,

“The gang of them having assembled together are weaving a priceless robe. His^[5] work is not finished. Having completed the work they will dress Your Honour in the robe,”

he said.

On account of the statement of the messenger, many persons went to look at the robe, but except that they were causing [their arms] to row, the robe was not visible to anyone. The whole of the retinue who came, through fear that they will say they are illegitimate persons, without seeing the robe having said and said,

“We perceive it. It is indeed a very costly robe,”

went away.

Having woven for seven days, after the seven days’ date which they got to finish in had elapsed, the King went to look at the silk robe. Having gone, when he looked it was not visible to the King also. What of its not [being visible] ! He does not tell anyone the word of its not being visible.

After that, those men having come, said to the King,

“Having woven the copper [coloured] silk robe, it is finished. For you, Sir, with our [own] hands we must robe you in it,”

they said. “Having got out all the clothes which there are, descended from seven ancestors in succession, you must dress. Having dressed, you must give us all those clothes,” they said to the King.

The King, having heard_> the word, taking out all the royal vestments^[6] that were of the time of his ancestors, and having adorned himself in a good manner, and driven away everybody, gave the party these clothes and all the other clothes that there were.

After he gave them, all the seven men having surrounded him and said that they are putting on the King the copper [coloured] silk dress, began to stroke his body everywhere. They began to stroke the head, having said that they were putting on the crown. They stroked the arms, having said that they were putting on the jacket. In that way having stroked all parts of the body, and having said that they had dressed him, they caused them to bring the King into the middle of the great retinue, and said thus to the citizens:

“Neither His Majesty our King nor any person of the retinue dwelling in this city in the olden time before this, either put on a robe in this manner, or saw one. Because of that, the whole of you, [after our] dressing His Majesty the King in this robe, causing His Majesty the King to sit on the festival tusk elephant, and having caused him to perambulate towards the right through all places in the city, again conduct him to the royal house.”

Having said this, they brought the tusk elephant, and caused the King to sit on the tusk elephant naked; and they began to go in procession to all places of the city.

These men, taking [the contents of] this house of the royal insignia (rajabandagare), and having acted deceitfully, and said that they had woven the copper [coloured] silk robe,—because they got [the contents of] the house of the royal insignia when they were going, established for the city the name “[City] of Tambrapamni Island,”^[7] and went away.

This foolish King remained without clothes.

North-western Province.

Note:

In Indian Nights’ Entertainment (Swynnerton), p. 60, a girl who had promised to prove that the King sometimes lied, invited the King to visit a palace she had built, and to see God there, but stated he was visible only to one person at a time, and only if he was of legitimate birth. The two Ministers first entered successively, saw nothing, and declared that they had seen God inside. The King then entered, and on coming out insisted that he also had seen God there. The girl then convicted him of telling a falsehood, and as usual in folk-tales was married by the King.

In Les Avadanas (Julien), No. xxxix, vol. i, p. 150, there is a story of a fool who handed some cotton to a spinner, and begged him to make it into extremely fine thread. The man did so, but the fool thought it too coarse. The spinner became angry, and pointing to the air with his finger, said,

“There are extremely fine threads.”

When the man asked how it was he could not see them, the spinner replied it was because of their extreme thinness, which was such that even the best workmen could not see them, much less a stranger. The fool gave him a fresh order, and paid him handsomely.