Bengal Fairy Tales/Sheet and Basanta
III
SHEET AND BASANTA
THERE was once a king with two wives, one Suo, or the beloved; and the other Duo, or the despised. The former was very wicked, and heaped the greatest indignities on her rival. The elder queen was childless, while the younger had presented her husband with two sons, Sheet (Winter) and Basanta (Spring) by name. Though princes and heirs to the throne, the youths had to pass their days in great wretchedness on account of the secret ill-treatment they received from their stepmother.
One day the two queens went to bathe in the river flowing by the palace, and the elder queen said to the younger, "Oh, how dirty you are; come, let me wash your hair and put some oil on it." The object of this pretended friendship gladly submitted to the process; whereupon her rival adroitly put something on her head, by the magical virtue of which she was transformed into a parrot, and flew away. The elder queen came home and spread the rumour that the Duo queen had been drowned. The king believed it and was very sorry, the more so for the fact that his sons, whom he greatly loved, were left motherless.
The gilded parrot, into which the younger queen had been transformed, flew into another kingdom, and the daughter of the king of the place happened to see the bird, and asked her father to let her have it. Her request was complied with, and the parrot was brought into the palace in a cage of gold.
In the years that followed the elder queen gave birth to three sons, as thin as reeds. This increased the spite of their mother against their half-brothers, who were of a sturdy and robust constitution; and she continued to persecute them in every possible way. They were served with scanty meals of the poorest kind, while the Suo queen's sons fared sumptuously.
But their troubles did not end here. Their stepmother was determined to ruin them. She had recourse to charms to kill them, but these proved ineffectual. At length, one morning after they had come home from the Pathsala (school), she raised a great uproar, tore her hair, and in frantic rage called one of her maidservants and told her to report to the king that Sheet and Basanta had abused their stepmother in the filthiest language. The maidservant did as ordered, and the king entered his wife's room trembling with emotion, and asked her what the matter was. The queen said, "The sons of my rival have insulted and abused me. I must bathe in their blood." Uxoriousness was one of the weaknesses of the king, and without venturing to make a single protest he summoned the public executioner and ordered him to cut off the heads of Sheet and Basanta and bring their blood in a basin to the queen. The executioner bound their hands and legs and took them out, seemingly to be beheaded. Who can picture the torments which they suffered? Tears rolled down their cheeks at the thought of death, and they called upon the gods for deliverance. Their prayers were heard, and the executioner was moved with compassion. He removed their bonds, took off their garments, dressed them in the bark of trees and said, "O princes! I am in a terrible dilemma. The king, my master, has ordered me to kill you; and to save my head I should do his bidding, but my better feelings prompt me to do otherwise. When you were babes I took you upon my knees and fondled you; now I cannot injure you, and I will not, no matter what may happen to me. Go away in this disguise, and no one will be able to recognize you." Saying this, he showed the way they should take; and to impose on his master, killed some dogs and jackals and took their blood to the queen, who, exulting in the success of her diabolical plans, prepared a sumptuous feast for her husband and her own sons.
Sheet and Basanta set out on their journey, but being unaccustomed to long walks, were soon very much tired. Basanta felt a great thirst and asked his brother if any water could be had. The latter said that he saw no chance of finding any spring, tank or river from which they might slake their thirst, but that he would go and seek one out. Saying this, he left his brother and went away. After some time he discovered a tank, and having no vessel with him was taxing his brains as to how he should take a little of the water for his brother, when suddenly a white royal elephant, with a throne on its back, approached him, and guided by certain signs of royalty on his forehead, took him up with its trunk, placed him on the throne, and hastened away through the jungles.[1] Sheet was very much troubled at heart at the threatened separation from his brother, and wept; but the elephant gave no heed to it. It hurried off at a great pace, and stopped only when it reached the palace whence it had come on its grand mission. As it set down the new king, the people received him with joyous shouts. With the crown on his head and the queens and the ministers with him, Sheet soon forgot his brother.
Basanta, having waited some time for Sheet, became anxious for his safety; and in the anguish of his heart searched for him far and near, till quite exhausted he laid himself down, filled with painful forebodings. His hunger and thirst increased until at last sleep, the only friend of the helpless and the distressed, sealed his eyes and brought him oblivion. Night came, and passed away, and at dawn a hermit happened to come to the spot, and saw him. The sage could perceive by certain signs that the youth lying prostrate before him was a prince, so taking him up in his arms he carried him away to his retreat.
Basanta passed his days in the hermit's abode in as much peace and happiness as circumstances permitted. He fed on fruits, bathed in fresh water, and served his protector in the best way he could. In the evening he sat up to a late hour, drinking in the spiritual instructions that dropped from the hermit's lips.
Leaving him here, we must follow the fortunes of his father and stepmother. As soon as their conduct to the Duo queen's sons became widely known, they became very unpopular. The subjects hated their king, and invited a stranger to dispossess him of his throne. Bereft of his kingdom and estates, he sought refuge in the forests, leaving the Suo queen with her three sons to beg from door to door. But her troubles did not end here. One day, while wandering about as a mendicant, she came near the seashore, and the waves rushing towards the land carried away her sons at one swoop to a watery grave. She rent the air with her lamentations, beating her breast and tearing her hair; and at length, taking up a big stone, hit herself on the head so as to extinguish the flame of life. There was none to mourn her loss.
We left the Duo queen changed by her rival into a parrot, and placed in a golden cage for the amusement of a young and beautiful princess. This princess, at the time which we have now reached in our story, was in the first stage of womanhood, and numerous suitors for her hand were invited by her father to try their luck at the Sayambara[2] that was to be held. On the appointed day many suitors for her hand assembled in the hall of the palace and awaited the arrival of the princess in great agitation. But she did not appear. Decked in her bridal ornaments in the zenana, she was talking with her gilded parrot. "Tell me, dear parrot," she said laughingly as she finished her toilet, "is there anything else that I need to adorn my person?" The parrot replied, "Put on golden anklets." The princess did so, and the anklets made a pleasant tinkling sound. She again asked the parrot the same question, to which the bird answered that she must put on a crown made of the feathers of peacocks. The girl complied with this also, and asked the parrot once more if everything was complete. The parrot said, "No, you must wear round your neck a garland of pearls that are to be found in the heads of elephants. They are called Gajamutty (elephant-pearls) and they will rhyme well with your name, Rupamoti (the pearl of beauty)." At this the princess said that as there were no such pearls in her father's treasury, and as she could not marry without them, the Sayambara could not take place. "I will wed him," she said, "who will bring me these pearls. But if any of the kings and princes here present presume to make the attempt, and fail, he will have to remain as my slave for life." The message reached the guests, and they went away in search of Gajamutty. Reaching the seashore, reputed to be the haunt of elephants with pearls in their heads, they found herds of elephants there, but they were not the ones they sought. The beasts were wild in the extreme, and rushing upon their disturbers rent some of them with their tusks, treading others under their feet. The few that survived the onset returned foiled to Rupamoti, and according to the original contract, remained to serve her as slaves.
Dropping the curtain on this scene, we pass again to Sheet, whom we left reigning in his strangely acquired kingdom. Hearing the particulars of the above Sayambara, he was fired with rage at the presumption of a woman to enslave kings and princes for having failed in an impossible task; and to make an example of her, he invaded her father's kingdom and carried her away captive.
Basanta, meanwhile, lived in the hermitage, ignorant of these events. His life was that of a contented recluse; his companions being the hermit and a pair of parrots, which the latter had tamed. No care vexed him till one night when he overheard the male parrot talking thus to his mate:—"A princess, Rupamoti by name, is in want of a lover. But she has vowed to give her hand to none but to him who shall bring her Gajamutty, the pearls that grow in the heads of elephants." The female parrot asked where they could be found, and her mate said in reply, "There is in a certain place a mountain, with its summit perpetually covered with snow; and there is the sea of cream, in so much repute among men, washing its base. The unrivalled beams of Gajamutty fall upon the cream, and the aspirant for the girl's favour must make himself master of these pearls." Basanta, fired by curiosity and a passion for Rupamoti, whom he had never seen and of whom he had just now heard for the first time, went to the parrots, and said that he would get the pearls. The birds lauded his courage, and instructed him to undertake the expedition dressed in the princely robes to be found at the top of the Shimul[3] tree standing near, and with the hermit's sacred trident in his hand. He got the robes down from the tree, and the trident from his spiritual teacher, and set out in search of the snow-clad mountain. Great were the obstacles that he met by the way, and the impediments that he had to surmount in reaching his destination, which he finally did in twelve years and thirteen days. His robe and the trident had a magical power which enabled him to reach the top of the mountain. From the summit he looked out over the sea of cream, and among the lotuses of gold floating on its surface he found a milk-white elephant, out of the head of which there peeped a string of pearls, bright like diamonds. He jumped up on to the elephant's back, greedily seized the pearls, and put them in the pocket of his robe. But what was his wonder to find the sea dried up and the lotuses gone, except one of gold into which the elephant had been transformed, and which said to him, "Take me and the pearls to Rupamoti and she will then pass her life happily with her husband." Having finished his work, Basanta was about to retrace his steps when he heard voices saying, "O brother, take us with you." The voices came from under the sands on the seashore, and digging under these, he found three fishes of gold. He took them up and went on, a dazzling light enveloping him. At the end of his long journey homewards he found out the kingdom of Rupamoti's father, and inquiring after her, was told that she was a prisoner in the palace of the great king, Sheet. He went there, and sending the king the three gold fishes as presents, asked that Rupamoti might be set at liberty. But neither the presents nor the request reached the king, for some days previously, having suddenly recalled to his memory the picture of his brother and the forlorn condition in which he had left him, he had been so grieved that he had shut himself up for days and nights within his private apartments, denying himself every nourishment and the company of those he loved. Basanta was informed of this, and he waited in the palace, expecting to see the king when he should be restored to his usual state of mind. On the eighth day after Basanta's arrival the king recovered from the first shock of his grief, and in the course of the preparations that were being made for a sumptuous repast for him, the three fishes which, though of gold, were eatable, were about to be cut in pieces. But they cried out saying, "Do not kill us, we are the king's brothers." The maidservant who had charge of the fishes ran up to her master and reported to him what had happened. He ordered them as well as the person who had presented them to be brought before him. But he was too excited to wait for their arrival. And he forthwith hurried out in search of him. Mutual recognition followed, and the two brothers shed tears of joy. The elder apologized to the younger for having neglected him; the younger forgave him and asked him to drive the past out of his mind. They were thus employed when the three gold fishes, being suddenly transformed into as many princes, rushed in, bowed down to them and introduced themselves as the sons of the Suo queen, who had been the cause of their troubles. Sheet and Basanta embraced them, and asked after the welfare of their parents. The sad story was soon told, and the five brothers together entered the inner apartments of the palace.
In the meantime the golden parrot that had accompanied Rupamoti beckoned to her and said, "The son of an unhappy mother, after crossing seven seas, has brought Gajamutty for you." The princess was surprised to hear this, but a servant ran in and confirmed the news that King Sheet's brother had actually brought the pearls. Rupamoti was delighted, and to reward the parrot for the information it had been the first to give, had preparations made to give it a bath in milk and rosewater. With her own hands she poured the mixture on the bird's head, and, the charm being washed away, it was changed into a lady of ravishing beauty, who was Sheet and Basanta's mother. She narrated her sad history to the princess, and told her that it was her younger son who had brought the pearls.
Information of this wonderful metamorphosis was given to the five brothers, who hastened to do homage to the once unfortunate queen. Rupamoti met them there, and offered her hand to Basanta, who gladly accepted it. The nuptials were celebrated in the fittest style, and men were sent to find out Sheet and Basanta's father, and bring him to them. The search was successful, and the dethroned king came to his sons and embraced them. With Sheet's help he got back his kingdom, which he united with his son's; and the royal family, consisting of the old king, the queen, their sons and daughters-in-law, passed their days in unalloyed happiness.
- ↑ We read in Indian fables, that when a king died heirless and there was found nobody in the kingdom worthy to succeed him, the white elephant which had carried him, when alive, on its back, was sent abroad to select a substitute for him. The beast succeeding by its wonderful sagacity in finding out one fitted for the honour, at once took him on its back, and in triumph carried him into the country deprived of its ruler; and the people there, gladly availing themselves of its choice, made obeisance to their new king.
- ↑ Sayambara signifies a girl's selection of her husband. It was the custom with Indian kings to dispose of their daughters' hands in this way. He among them who had a marriageable daughter, invited numerous kings and princes, and on a certain previously appointed day made them sit in rows in an open place. The princess was then brought in to choose a husband from among the guests. And all that she had to do to show her selection was to place a garland of flowers round the neck of the chosen one, who was thereupon accepted as her betrothed.
- ↑ A big thorny tree, with very red but scentless flowers.