Story 153 - The Story Of The Gourd

THE Queen of the King of Maeda Maha-Nuwara being without children, seven years went by. To obtain children she gave alms-halls (dan-sael). Having given them she obtained a child.

It was [necessary] for the King to go for a war. In sorrow for it, having called together women who assist [at childbirth], and many people, he gave them [to the Queen], On his return journey she had not borne a child. On the very day on which he came, pains having seized her she gave birth [to a Gourd].

The women who were there, having taken the Gourd which this Queen bore, in order to throw it away at another city took the Gourd to a flower garden at the city, and put it there.

When the garland-making mother (mal-kara amma) went to pluck flowers,

“May I also pluck flowers?”

the Gourd asked.

“How will you, Gourd, pluck flowers ?”

she said.

“That does not matter to you; I will pluck flowers. I must go to the garland-making mother’s house,”

it said.

Having gone [there],

“I will plait flower chaplets (mal-wadan),”

it said. To plait the chaplets it asked for the thread and needle. Better than the plaiting of the flower chaplets on other days it plaited the flower chaplets, and gave them.

Having seen [the beauty of] the flower chaplets [when the flower mother took them to the palace], the Princess asked,

“Who plaited the flower chaplets to-day ?”

she asked; [she was informed that the Gourd did it].

The Gourd was minded to contract marriage with the young Queen (Princess).

It asked the King of the city [to give his consent],

“If the Queen (Princess)^[1] is willing I am willing,”

he said.

[When it asked the Princess, she said],

“Having carried upstairs gold from the house of the garland-making mother, should you tie up [as a decoration] cloths [worked] with gold, in the morning I will celebrate the wedding festival.”

In the morning the Gourd went upstairs. It having gone [with the gold and hung up the cloths], the wedding festival was celebrated.

The Gourd laughs at its contracting (lit., tying) the marriage with the young Queen. Through shame at it, grief was produced in her.

When she asked for a medicine for [the illness caused by] the grief, they said,

“Should you eat the flesh of the Fish (mastaya) in the midst of the sea, and the fat, you will be cured.”

[The King] having constructed six ships for the six Princes [the brothers of the Princess], told them to go to bring the Fish.

The Gourd also at that time said [to the Princess],

“Ask [for permission] for me also to go.”

[She asked her father accordingly].

Regarding that the King said,

“The Gourd itself will apply medical treatment!”

Having said it he gave it a broken-legged horse and a piece of broken sword.

Taking them, it went near a Bo tree, and having tied the horse at the tree, [and assumed a human shape], put on clothes [taken] from a hollow in the Bo tree, and went away from the palace.

The Gourd, [now a Prince], says,

“The God Shakra (Indra) is I myself.”

The six persons for whom the ships were constructed and given, went away [on the sea, in search of the Fish], When [the Gourd Prince] told those six persons [to catch the Fish], the whole six on one side tried to take it, [but failed].

They having said,

“We cannot take it,”

he asked,

“For me to take and give you it, what mark am I to make on you ?”

[They came to terms, and he caught the Fish]. Having stretched out the tongues of the six persons he cut them, and they gave him their jewelled finger-rings. When they brought from the Gourd [Prince] and gave [the Princess] the flesh and fat [of the Fish] the illness was cured.

[As the six Princes claimed to have caught the Fish themselves, the Prince, who had left his clothes at the Bo tree and had again taken the form of the Gourd], caused many persons to be brought, and told them to stretch out and look at the tongues of these six persons. [It also produced their finger-rings as proof that it was the Gourd who had caught the Fish]. Having shown that the tongues of the six persons were cut, the Gourd, having employed the servants, [made them] cut open the Gourd.

[The God Shakra then rose out of it in his Prince’s form, and said,]

“I am not [of] the things conceived in a womb. Because for the god Shakra that is impure, having created the Gourd I was born [in it]. As there was deficiency of merit for our father the King, I [thus] caused it to be cast away.”

(Probably he then returned to Indraloka, his divine world, but the narrator omitted to state this. There were many other omissions at which it will be seen that I have endeavoured to supply the necessary words).

North-western Province.

 

Note:

In the Maha Bharata (Vana Parva, cvi), a wife of King Sagara bore a gourd. The King was about to throw it away, but a celestial voice ordered him to preserve the seeds carefully, and each became a son; these were sixty thousand in number.

In Korean Tales (Dr. H. N. Allen), p. 98 fi., a number of people made their appearance out of gourds which grew on plants obtained from seeds brought by swallows.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Devin-wahanse.