Manthan Sashthi: Sacrificed to Varuna

This story comes from Sacred Tales of India by D. N. Neogi (page image). Like all the stories in this curious book, it begins with a religious ceremony, and then there follows a tale which is connected to that ceremony.

Notes: Varuna is the god of water. Shashthi is the goddess of childbirth. Her vahana (vehicle) is a cat! In some traditions, she is considered to be one of the Matrikas, mother-goddesses.

(the goddess Shashthi)

The Manthan Sashthi Ceremony

The Manthan Sashthi ceremony is celebraetd in the month of September on the sixth day after the new moon. Some pigmy figures roughly resembling the human form are made of pounded rice painted with a mixture of turmeric-water and vermilion. The goddess is worshipped with the customary offerings of flowers, bel-leaves, sandalwood paste, incense, rice, and blades of grass.

The Tale: Sacrificed to Varuna

A Brahman from pious motives wanted to a dig a pond. But however deep down he dug, water was not to be found. Whereupon the Brahman fretted himself to sleep and dreamt a fearful dream in which he was told htat unless he sacrificed his only grandson, who was an infant, to the water-god, Varuna, and cut his body into five pieces, burying them at the four corners and the center of the excavation, not a drop of water would appear, however deep he might cut the earth.

(the god Varuna on his makara)

The poor Brahman woke up with a shudder, and pondering on the dreadful vision, grew sadder and sadder at heart. Quite at a loss what to do, he did not at first tell his son anything, though the latter was very anxious to learn what the matter was with his father. But when at last the son was let into the secret, it cast a gloom over his face. Yet his affection for his father and his devotion to the god Varuna were strong enough to determine him to sacrifice his only son to save the one from the sin of an unaccomplished vow and to propitiate the other. So, after nightfall, he took his son in his arms to where the pond was being made and cut him with his own hands into five pieces and deposited the parts at its four corners and in the center as directed. Forthwith water rushed up from every point of the pond and quickly filled it to the brim.

Now, when a pond is dug in furtherance of a vow, it has to be consecrated by rites prescribed in the Shastras. The ceremony was fixed for the next day. The old Brahman invited his caste comrades to come and witness the consecration rites, and they came with the rising sun in expectation of a grand feast. He was fully aware of what his son had done and grief sat heavy in his heart. His daughter-in-law, however, did not suspect anything, and when desired to do the cooking for the guests, she gaily promised compliance. She was to wear a new pair of conch-shell bangles that day, and when she went to bathe in the new pond of her father-in-law, she put vermilion paint on her forehead and at the parting of her hair above, and took a quantity of rice-powder with which to polish her bangles. At the ghat, it struck her as unusual that her child had not come to her the whole morning, but the attending maid-servant stopped her anxious inquiries by saying, "Oh, has he not an aunt and a grandma to take care of him? He is with the one or the other at home."

She then saw vessels made of the leaf-stalk of the plantain tree, with sacred hay and other offerings of pujah in them floating on the water. These reminded her that it was the Manthan Sashthi pujah day. She had always been a devout worshipper of Sashthi, but, strangely enough, had forgotten her that day. She now lost not a minute more, but hastily bathing, got a few of the leaf-stalk vessels together in which she arranged offerings of flowers and bel-leaves that were at hand. She then made an image of the goddess Sashthi with the powdered rice she had brought with her and worshipped the goddess with all the devotion of an earnest heart. And when she had done, she looked behind her and saw a very old woman with her infant in her arms standing behind her.

"You are not very careful of your child, it seems," said the woman, "or you had before this known where he has been all the morning."

She then handed over the child to the mother and vanished into thin air, for she was none other than the goddess Sashthi herself!

Awestruck and filled with the deepest feelings of love and gratitude to her guardian deity, the lady returned home, her child in her arms. And it was a sight to see how the old father-in-law and the husband stood rooted to the ground, struck with amazement and joy. The old man threw himself at the feet of his daughter-in-law and cried out, "You must be more than human; tell me who you are!"

The lady fled into her room in confusion, and when everything was narrated as to how, unknown to her, her child had been sacrificed to Varuna the night before, she told them how she had regained it by favor of the goddess Sashthi.

Then there was rejoicing all over the house, and the pious old father-in-law made an image of Sashthi in gold and placed iti in his house to be worshipped by his family to the remotest descendants.

So, ye all that have listened to this sacred katha, cry victory to mother Sasthhi: ulu! ulu! ulu!

The Petrified Mansion

The story is from Bengal Fairy Tales by F. B. Bradley-Birt (1920). Page image.

Note: You will see that this story resembles the European fairy tale of "Sleeping Beauty."

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Once upon a time there was a prince who set out on his travels into foreign countries, alone, without taking with him any valuables. His sword was his only companion. He crossed mountains, seas, and rivers, and at length came to a grand mansion.

Udaipur Palace, Rajasthan

He entered it, and great was his surprise to find petrified forms of men and animals in all the apartments through which he passed. Even the weapons in the armory were not exceptions. There was in one of the halls a stone statue dressed in royal splendor, surrounded by other statues gorgeously equipped.

The lonely house greatly frightened the prince, but just as he was on the point of quitting it, he happened to notice an open door. Passing through it, he reached the presence of a very beautiful damsel reposing on a khat (bed) of gold, and surrounded by lotuses of the same metal. She lay quite motionless and was apparently dead. There was not the softest breath perceptible in her.

The prince was enamored of her beauty and sat with his eyes fixed upon her.

But one day he happened to notice a stick of gold near the girl's pillow. He took it up and was turning it round and round for inspection, when it suddenly touched her forehead, and instantly she started up, fully conscious. The whole house resounded with the clamor of human tongues, the clanking of arms, the songs of birds, and the sounds of domestic animals. It was full of life and joy. Heralds made proclamations, ministers speechified in the courtroom, and the king engaged himself in the discharge of his royal duties.

The prince was struck speechless with wonder, and the princess was equally astonished. The servants entered the room and, finding a prince-like youth seated by their master's daughter, hastened to the king with the intelligence. He hurried to the spot and, seeing the prince, asked him who he was.

The prince told him, and the royal family, with all the other inmates of the palace, acclaimed him as their deliverer. They said that the touch of a silver stick had petrified them all, and that their revival was the result of his having touched the princess with the stick of gold. In recognition of the very great service he had rendered them, the prince was rewarded with the princess's hand, and great were the rejoicings on the joyous occasion.

Meanwhile, in his own home his parents mourned for the prince as the years passed and he did not return. The queen had taken to her bed, and the king had become blind with weeping. They were disconsolate and courted death as the only termination of their great grief. The whole kingdom was overcast with sadness, which was, however, ultimately removed when one day the long-lost prince appeared with his bride. Joyous acclamations rent the air, and the royal couple, being informed of the return of their dear son, hastened out to the gate and embraced him and the princess. At the touch of the stick of gold, the king regained his sight, and the queen her health, and they lived for years in the enjoyment of great happiness.

At length, leaving the throne to his son, the king with the queen retired to spend a secluded and godly life in the depths of the forest.

The Alligator and the Jackal

The story is from Old Deccan Days by Mary Frere, with illustrations by C. F. Frere (1868). Story page. (Full title: Old Deccan Days, or Hindoo Fairy Legends Current in Southern India, collected from oral tradition by Mary Frere.)

Note: You might be intrigued to see the same trick of the talking house in a story about Brer Rabbit: Hey, House! There is a lot of back-and-forth between Indian and African storytelling traditions, and you can see many of those motifs in the Brer Rabbit stories told by the slaves who were forcibly brought to America from West Africa.

The Alligator and the Jackal

A HUNGRY Jackal once went down to the river-side in search of little crabs, bits of fish, and whatever else he could find for his dinner. Now it chanced that in this river there lived a great big Alligator, who, being also very hungry, would have been extremely glad to eat the Jackal.

The Jackal ran up and down, here and there, but for a long time could find nothing to eat. At last, close to where the Alligator was lying, among some tall buirushes under the clear shallow water, he saw a little crab sidling along as fast as his legs could carry him. The Jackal was so hungry that when he saw this, be poked his paw into the water to try and catch the crab, when SNAP! the old Alligator caught hold of him.

'Oh dear!' thought the Jackal to himself; 'what can I do? This great big Alligator has caught my paw in his mouth, and in another minute he will drag me down by it under the water and kill me. My only chance is to make him think he has made a mistake.' So he called out in a cheerful voice, 'Clever Alligator, clever Alligator, to catch hold of a bulrush root instead of my paw! I hope you find it very tender.'

The Alligator, who was so buried among the bulrushes that he could hardly see, thought, on hearing this, 'Dear me, how tiresome! I fancied I had caught hold of the Jackal's paw, but there he is, calling out in a cheerful voice; I suppose I must have seized a bulrush root instead, as he says.' And he let the Jackal go.

The Jackal ran away as fast as he could, crying, 'O wise Alligator, wise Alligator! So you let me go again!' Then the Alligator was very vexed, but the Jackal had run away too far to be caught.

Next day the Jackal returned to the river-side to get his dinner, as before, but because he was very much afraid of the Alligator, he called out, 'Whenever I go to look for my dinner, I see the nice little crabs peeping up through the mud, then I catch them and eat them. I wish I could see one now.'

The Alligator, who was buried in the mud at the bottom of the river, heard every word. So he popped the little point of his snout above the water, thinking, 'If I do but just show the tip of my nose, the Jackal will take me for a crab and put in his paw to catch me, and as soon as ever he does I'll gobble him up.'

But no sooner did the Jackal see the little tip of the Alligator's nose than he called out, 'Aha, my friend, there you are! No dinner for me in this part of the river then, I think.' And so saying he ran further on, and fished for his dinner a long way from that place. The Alligator was very angry at missing his prey a second time and determined not to let him escape again.

So on the following day, when his little tormentor returned to the water-side, the Alligator hid himself close to the bank in order to catch him if he could. Now the Jackal was rather afraid of going near the river for he thought, 'Perhaps this Alligator will catch me to-day.' But yet, being hungry, he did not wish to go without his dinner; so, to make all as safe as he could, he cried, 'Where are all the little crabs gone? There is not one here, and I am so hungry, and generally, even when they are under water, one can see them going bubble, bubble, bubble, and all the little bubbles go pop! pop! pop!'

On hearing this the Alligator, who was buried in the mud under the river-bank, thought, 'I will pretend to be a little crab.' And he began to blow, 'Puff puff puff! Bubble, bubble, bubble!' and all the great big bubbles rushed to the surface of the river and burst there, and the waters eddied round and round like a whirlpool, and there was such a commotion when the huge monster began to blow bubbles in this way that the Jackal saw very well who must be there, and he ran away as fast as he could, saying, 'Thank you, kind Alligator, thank you, thank you. Indeed, I would not have come here had I known you were so close.'

This enraged the Alligator extremely; it made him quite cross to think of being so often deceived by a little Jackal, and he said to himself, 'I will be taken in no more. Next time I will be very cunning.'

So for a long time he waited and waited for the Jackal to return to the river-side, but the Jackal did not come for he had thought to himself, 'If matters go on in this way, I shall some day be caught, and eaten by the wicked old Alligator. I had better content myself with living on wild figs,' and he went no more near the river but stayed in the jungles and ate wild figs and roots which he dug up with his paws.

When the Alligator found this out, he determined to try and catch the Jackal on land; so, going under the largest of the wild fig-trees where the ground was covered with the fallen fruit, he collected a quantity of it together and, burying himself under the great heap, waited for the Jackal to appear.

But no sooner did the Jackal see this great heap of wild figs all collected together than he thought, 'That looks very like my friend the Alligator.' And to discover if it was so or not he called out, 'The juicy little wild figs I love to eat always tumble down from the tree and roll here and there as the wind drives them, but this great heap of figs is quite still; these cannot be good figs, I will not eat any of them.'

' Ho-ho!' thought the Alligator; 'is that all? How suspicious this Jackal is! I will make the figs roll about a little then, and when he sees that, he will doubtless come and eat them.'

So the great beast shook himself, and all the heap of little figs went roll, roll, roll; some a mile this way, some a mile that wat, further than they had ever rolled before or than the most blustering wind could have driven them!

Seeing this the Jackal scampered away, saying, 'I am so much obliged to you, Alligator, for letting me know you are there, for indeed I should hardly have guessed it. You were so buried under that heap of figs.' The Alligator hearing this was so angry that he ran after the Jackal, but the latter ran very, very fast away too quickly to be caught.

Then the Alligator said to himself, 'I will not allow that little wretch to make fun of me another time and then run away out of reach; I will show him that I can be more cunning than he fancies.' And early the next morning he crawled as fast as he could to the Jackal's den (which was a hole in the side of a hill) and crept into it and hid himself, waiting for the Jackal, who was out, to return home.

But when the Jackal got near the place, he looked about him and thought, 'Dear me, the ground looks as if some heavy creature had been walking over it, and here are great clods of earth knocked down from each side of the door of my den as if a very big animal had been trying to squeeze himself through it. I certainly will not go inside until I know that all is safe there. So he called out, 'Little house, pretty house, my sweet little house, why do you not give an answer when I call? If I come and all is safe and right, you always call out to me. Is anything wrong, that you do not speak?'

Then the Alligator, who was inside, thought, 'If that is the casem I had better call out that he may fancy all is right in his house.' And in as gentle a voice as he could, he said, 'Sweet little Jackal!'

At hearing these words the Jackal felt quite frightened and thought to himself; 'So the dreadful old Alligator is there! I must try to kill him if I can for, if I do not, he will certainly catch and kill me some day.' He therefore answered, 'Thank you, my dear little house. I like to hear your pretty voice. I am coming in in a minute, but first I must collect firewood to cook my dinner.'

And he ran as fast as he could and dragged all the dry branches and bits of stick he could find close up to the mouth of the den. Meantime the Alligator inside kept as quiet as a mouse, but he could not help laughing a little to himself as he thought, 'So I have deceived this tiresome little Jackal at last. In a few minutes he will run in here, and then won't I snap him up!'

When the Jackal had gathered together all the sticks he could find and put them round the mouth of his den, he set them alight and pushed them as far into it as possible. There was such a quantity of them that they soon blazed up into a great fire, and the smoke and flames filled the den and smothered the wicked old Alligator and burnt him to death, while the little Jackal ran up and down outside, dancing for joy and singing, 'How do you like my house, my friend? Is it nice and warm?

Ding, dong! Ding, dong! The Alligator is dying! Ding, dong! Ding, dong!

'He will trouble me no more. I have defeated my enemy! Ring a ting! Ding a ting! Ding, ding, dong!'

The Jackal and the Pea-Hen

Tales of the Punjab by Flora Annie Steel, with illustrations by J. Lockwood Kipling (1894). Story page.

Note: A peahen is a female peacock (pea-hen v. pea-cock).

The Jackal and the Pea-Hen

ONCE upon a time a Jackal and a Pea-hen swore eternal friendship. Every day they had their meals together, and spent hours in pleasant conversation.

Now, one day, the Pea-hen had juicy plums for dinner, and the Jackal, for his part, had as juicy a young kid; so they enjoyed themselves immensely. But when the feast was over, the Pea-hen rose gravely, and, after scratching up the ground, carefully sowed all the plum-stones in a row.

"It is my custom to do so when I eat plums," she said, with quite an aggravating air of complacent virtue; "my mother, good creature, brought me up in excellent habits, and with her dying breath bade me never be wasteful. Now these stones will grow into trees, the fruit of which, even if I do not live to see the day, will afford a meal to many a hungry peacock."

These words made the Jackal feel rather mean, so he answered loftily, "Exactly so! I always plant my bones for the same reason." And he carefully dug up a piece of ground, and sowed the bones of the kid at intervals.

After this, the pair used to come every day and look at their gardens; by and by the plum-stones [196] shot into tender green stems, but the bones made never a sign.

"Bones do take a long time germinating," remarked the Jackal, pretending to be quite at his ease; "I have known them remain unchanged in the ground for months."

"My dear sir," answered the Pea-hen, with ill-concealed irony, "I  have known them remain so for years!"

So time passed on, and every day, when they visited the garden, the self-complacent Pea-hen became more and more sarcastic, the Jackal more and more savage.

At last the plum-trees blossomed and bore fruit, and the Pea-hen sat down to a perfect feast of ripe juicy plums.

"He! he!" sniggered she to the Jackal, who, having been unsuccessful in hunting that day, stood by dinnerless, hungry, and in consequence very cross; "what a time those old bones of yours do take in coming up! But when they do, my! what a crop you'll have!"

The Jackal was bursting with rage, but she wouldn't take warning, and went on: "Poor dear! you do look hungry! There seems some chance of your starving before harvest. What a pity it is you can't eat plums in the meantime!"

"If I can't eat plums, I can eat the plum-eater!" quoth the Jackal; and with that he pounced on the Pea-hen, and gobbled her up.

Moral—It is never safe to be wiser than one's friends.

The Tricked Elephant

Tibetan Tales Derived from Indian Sources, translated by W. R. S. Ralston (1906). Internet Archive page image.

28. The Tricked Elephant

Long ago there lived a herd of elephants in a certain district. one of their number fell in love with a female elephant. But she was warmly attached to another young male elephant, to whom she said, "Should we not take to flight when he goes forth to the chase?"

"Is there any means by which we may escape?" asked the young elephant.

"I know of a means," she replied.

Then she said to the other elephant, "Let us go into the pool to bathe."

He went into the pool. Then she said, "Let us see which of us two can remain under water the longest."

As soon as he, who was liberally endowed with stupidity, had gone under water along with her, she emerged and fled away together with the young elephant. When the other elephant had remained a long time under water, he also emerged. But as the female elephant was not to be seen, he thought that he was in danger of being surpassed by her, so he determined to go under water again. When he had gone again under water, he propped himself up at the bottom with his tusks.

When, after some time, being out of breath, he lifted his head out of the water and saw that the female elephant was not there, he took to tramping about wildly in the tank, and thereby inflicted unjustifiable injury on fishes, frogs, tortoises, and many other creatures. Then a deity uttered this verse:

"What a huge lump of flesh devoid of intelligence! Because another has carried off the female, therefore he inflicts injury upon others."

(elephant in the Zambezi River)