Story 152 - The Story Of A King And A Prince

THIS is partly a variant of the story No. 22, in vol. i, called there “The Kule-Baka Flowers.” The first part is a repetition of the narrative given in that one, up to the point where the King’s sons were imprisoned at the gambling house. It then continues as follows :—

The Prince who also went afterwards having gone near a widow-mother of that very city [after] filling a bag with bits of plates, when he said,

“Mother, a son of yours was lost before, is it not so ?”

the widow woman said “Yes.”

Then the Prince while weeping falsely said,

“It is I myself.”

After that, she said, weeping,

“Ane ! Son, where did you go all this time ?”^[1]

Having gone inviting him into the house, and given him to eat, after he finished she asked,

“What is there in this bag, son ?”

The Prince says falsely,

“In that bag are masuran, mother,”

he said.

The woman says,

“What are masuran to me, son ! Look at that: the heap of masuran which the King has given for my having worked.”

After that, the Prince asks,

“Whose house is that, mother ?”

Then the woman says,

“Ane ! Son, at that house an extremely wicked^[2] woman gambles. Should anyone go to gamble she gives him golden chairs into which she puts [magical] life, to sit upon. She has put [magical] life into the lamp also. [When gambling], the woman is sitting upon the silver chair,”

she said.

After that, after the woman went to sleep, the Prince having emptied the pieces of plate in the house, went to gamble [after] filling the bag with the [woman’s] masuran.

Afterwards, that gambling woman just as on other days having brought a golden chair, placed it for the Prince.

Then the Prince says,

“I am not accustomed to sit on golden chairs. Give me the silver chair,”

he said.

The woman says,

“It is not a fault to sit [on the golden chair].”

The Prince says,

“Having given me that silver chair here, and put aside this lamp also, come to gamble, bringing a good lamp,”

he said.

Then the woman being unable [to effect] the punishment of the Prince, gave him the silver chair, and bringing a different lamp sat down to gamble. After that the Prince won. After he won he caused those aforesaid six Princes to be brought from the place where they were put in prison, and having burnt [their] names on their haunches,^[3] sent them away.

After that, this Prince said he must contract marriage with that woman who gambled. The woman says,

“If you are to marry me please bring the Surangana flowers.”^[4]

Then the Prince says,

“That is not a journey for which I came here. The two eyes of my father the King have become blind. On account of it I am going to seek the Kule-Baka flowers. [After] finding them, on the return journey I will bring the Surangana flowers,”

he said.

Having said this, he went to ask the path going to the Kule-Baka garden. When he was going near the Yakas who were on guard on it, a Princess whom the Yakas had seized and carried off came up, and said to the Prince,

“What came you here for ?”

“Through news that you are here I came to marry you,” [he replied].

Then the Princess says,

“Should the Yakas come they will eat you up,”

she said.

The Prince then says,

“By any possible contrivance save me,”

he said.

The Princess then opened the door of a rock house (cave), and having taken the Prince and put him in it, shut the door.

After that, the Yakas having come, ask,

“Who came here ?”

The Princess says,

“Amme ! I cannot be here [to be questioned] in this way. Seek and give me a husband.”

Then the Yakshani says,

“There is no seeking and giving^[5] for me. If you can, seek and take one,”

she said.

The Princess says,

“I will find one if you will not do any harm [to him].”

The Yakshani said,

“We will do no harm to him.”

“If you swear by the censure of your deity, I will show you my husband,”

she said. Afterwards she swore.

After she took the Prince into the light, she asks the Prince,

“What do you eat ?”

The Yakshani asks.

The Prince said,

“I eat ripe Jak, Waraka (a kind of Jak fruit), Sugar-cane, Pine-apples.”

The Yakshani went and brought and gave him them. Afterwards, after the Prince ate, she said,

“Where are you going ?”

Then the Prince says,

“Tell me the path [by which] to go to the Kule-Baka garden.”

Having informed him of the path, and given him also a robe [endowed] with the power of flying through the air, she told him to go. He went to the Kule-Baka garden, and [after] plucking the Kule-Baka flower that was in the pool, having come, calling the Princess, to the place where he gambled, he caused her to remain there.

The Prince, taking the Kule-Baka flower, was going near his father the King. At the time when he was going across a river those six Princes were [there], cooking and cooking rice. Also at that very place a rich man without his two eyes was saying and saying,

“To a man who should cure my two eyes I will give goods [amounting] to a tusk elephant’s load, and also a tusk elephant.”

He was saying and saying [this].

This Prince having heard it, said,

“I will give you them. [Please] bring the presents you mentioned.”

After he brought them he rubbed^[6] his eyes with the Kule-Baka flower; after that, he succeeded in seeing the light.

Those six Princes having seen it, spoke together:

“Let us beat him, and snatch away the flower.”

The Prince having heard that speech, said,

“Taking this flower for yourselves, give me a little cooked rice.”

Afterwards, taking the flower they gave him cooked rice. Having eaten the cooked rice the Prince came back to the place where he gambled.

After that, while through hunger for them he was going to seek the Surangana flowers, three Princes who were coming mounted on horse-back asked this Prince,

“Where are you going ?”

Then the Prince says falsely,

“I am going in hunger in the midst of this forest.”

Then a Prince having unfastened a packet of cooked rice and given the Prince to eat, they went away.

As they were going, this Prince went after them very softly. Having gone, when he looked he saw that those three Princes, having descended from horse-back, three times turned round the dewala (temple), and jumped into a vessel of boiling oil [and disappeared].

Having seen it, this Prince also having turned round the dewala three times, jumped into the oil vessel. After he jumped in, the deity, bringing that Prince out of the oil vessel, covered him with a white cloth when he had struck [him] three blows with a white wand.

After he arose, when he asked,

“What is the matter for which thou earnest here ?”

[the Prince replied],

“I came in order to seek and take Surangana flowers.”

Then the deity told him the path:—

“Look there. When you are going along that path [you will meet with a pool. When she has put her cloth on the bank and is bathing], take the cloth of the woman who comes after three others to bathe in the pool, and come back [with it],”

he said.

After that, he took the cloth, and came. Afterwards that Princess having come running, gave him a chank shell into which she had put [magical] life, and taking the cloth went away.

When he was coming taking the chank shell, an ascetic begged for the chank shell. The Prince says,

“If you will give me presents I will give you the chank shell,”

he said.

After that, he gave him a wallet (olo-payiya), assuring him that the things thought of will come into existence [in it]. After he gave it, the Prince, thinking of the things he wanted (the celestial flowers), put his hand into it, and when he looked they were inside the wallet.

After that, the Prince, having become satisfied, with pleasure went away [and rejoined his two wives].

North-western Province.

 

Note:

See the Notes appended to the previous story.

In The Indian Antiquary, vol. iii, p. 150, in a legend of the origin of Patna, by Mr. Basanta Kumar Ningi, two Rakshasas came to a boy with three articles left by their father, out of which he cheated them. One was a bag from which all kinds of jewels could be extracted when the hand was inserted. The story is stated to be from the Brihat Katha. In the Katha Sarit Sagara (Tawney), vol. i, p. 13, they were the sons of the Asura Maya, and were wrestling for the things. The boy suggested that they should race for them and while they were doing so he put on the magic shoes which were included in them, and disappeared with the staff and the vessel which supplied any required food.

In Folk-Tales of Kashmir (Knowles), 2nd ed., p. 378, a shipwrecked Prince arrived at a cave which was the residence of a Rakshasa who had carried off a Princess, and who kept her there. She received him well, and hid him in a strong box. When the Rakshasa returned he smelt the man, and insisted on being shown him; but the brave behaviour of the Prince pleased him, and he permitted him to live in the cave, and brought presents for the two when he returned from his expeditions in search of prey. As they still feared he might eat them, the Princess managed to ascertain from him that his life was in a queen-bee in a honey-comb which could be reached by anyone who sat on a magic stool that was in the cave, which transported the sitter where he wished. Next day, when the Rakshasa was absent, the Prince wrapped himself up, smashed the comb, crushed and killed the bee, the Rakshasa died, and they escaped on the stool.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Metuwak kal.

[2]:

Wasa napuru.

[3]:

Gatawala nam pussa.

[4]:

The flowers of the Celestial Nymphs, the Apsarases.

[5]:

Soyanta diyak.

[6]:

Pissa. In the story No. 22 the word is wrongly translated “burnt,” owing to my confounding the Sinhalese word with pussa and pissuwa, the colloquial expressions for “burnt.”