In this episode, we’re doing a folk tale from the Deccan Plateau. The Deccan Plateau is vast, so you could associate this story with the states of Maharashtra, Karnataka, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu.
The story begins with a milkmaid in Ancient India. Let’s call the milkmaid Gawalan. She lived on the outskirts of her village. Every day she would milk her cows, walk into the village with the milk cans and sell her milk. If you think this was an easy job, you’d be wrong. Most of the people who could afford to buy milk also owned cows of their own. Gawalan’s clientele exclusively consisted of families that wanted different kinds of milk but did not own different types of cows. The pickings were therefore slim. And the competition was fierce. And that’s why Gawalan had the idea of taking her infant daughter along with her on this particular day. Cute babies attract attention and conversation. And those could lead to milk sales! To enhance the cuteness factor, Gawalan had dressed her baby, whose name was Amba, in a cute little bunny outfit.
It wasn’t a very long distance to the market in the village, but the milk cans were heavy. And she was carrying her baby at the same time. She sat down to rest for a bit and let the milk cans and her baby daughter down on the ground. That was a mistake, and if Gawalan had known what was to follow, maybe she would have dressed her daughter differently.
What did follow was that a Giant Eagle swooped down out of nowhere, grabbed the little baby, and zoomed off. It happened so quickly that Gawalan had no time to react.
She stared open-mouthed into the distance looking at the Giant Eagle flying away.
But this story isn’t about Gawalan, it’s about the baby girl. You may ask why did I even bother naming the milkmaid if she only appeared in the story for only 2 or 3 minutes? Well, listen on and find out.
The Giant Eagle descended into his Home tree. It’s amazing the Eagle didn’t drop Amba or even hurt her while clutching her in his sharp talons. He must have been very talon-ted. That bad Dad joke aside, Mr. Eagle unlocked his nest doors. Yup, the nest he shared with Mrs. Eagle had multiple doors, made of iron and wood. It was practically a fortress. Punching in his secret code into each of the seven keypads for the seven doors, he finally reached into the inner chamber.
“Honey, look what I got. We can have rabbit for dinner!” he said as he entered his home.
Mrs. Eagle was already waiting for him, and she did not look pleased. “I saw it happen. I know what you did. That’s not a baby you fool, it’s a baby girl!”
“Oh my goodness!” exclaimed Mr. Eagle. He suddenly realized that what his wife said was true. “But how did you know? This happened miles and miles away”
“Hello?! I am an eagle and I am actually Eagle-eyed. Unlike the other sick participant in this conversation” and she glared pointedly at her husband. When he still didn’t react, she added “Did you even see me glaring at you? You really need to go to the oculist for stronger glasses. Or better yet, how about you sit at home, and I’ll do the hunting?”
But Mr. Eagle was not willing to listen. He insisted on being the one to return the baby to her milkmaid mom.
A few days later, he admitted not finding anyone. And that they had no choice except to bring up the baby on their own.
Mrs. Eagle said she felt sickened by this.
“You can’t get sick” replied Mr. Eagle “that would be ill-eagle”
“I don’t like it”, objected Mrs. Eagle, ignoring the dad joke. “Human beings are responsible for deforestation, climate change, they tear down our homes, pollute the atmosphere, and dump chemicals in our rivers and lakes. I don’t want to bring up the cause of our own destruction.”
“But look at her, she’s so little! And so cute in her adorable little bunny costume” appealed Mr. Eagle
The practical Mrs. Eagle pointed out that while the baby was little now she would grow. Dangerous.
“But then she’ll be on our side!” pointed out her husband “Pleaaaaase!” he added
Finally, Mrs. Eagle gave in. And not long after, she was glad she did. The baby was adorable! Mom and Pop Eagle were great parents! The nest already provided adequate security when they were out, but they took care to set a fire going to keep her warm. If you thought that was dangerous, not to worry, they left not one but two babysitters in charge. A dog and a cat.
Often they would return from their trips with rich dresses and jewelry. They were getting these off of similarly aged princesses in and around the area. Because Mr. and Mrs. Eagle wanted nothing but the best for Amba. Several years passed, and one day Mr. and Mrs. Eagle came to an important decision. Amba had everything, but she was missing one essential item that every princess had. And that was a diamond ring.
Mr. Eagle proposed flying over to Africa and getting a diamond fit for the princess that their daughter was actually not.
Mrs. Eagle was having none of that. She didn’t want to get a conflict diamond. Or even take a chance. So they went to Australia instead. They did stock up on provisions to last the whole year that it would take them to make the round trip.
Amba, who by now was a fully grown adult woman did not need babysitters. And yet the cat and dog were still around. Maybe it had cabin fever, but one day the cat grew irritable and ate too much from the pantry, greatly diminishing their provisions. When Amba discovered that she punished the cat, with the dog snickering in the background. It was probably the snickering that annoyed the cat to the extent that it did. Seeking revenge on both Amba and the Dog, the Cat put out the fire.
Instantly she regretted it. But it was too late. They were low on provisions, and they had no means to cook any food without fire. The only way out was for Amba to do what her parents had strictly warned her against. And that was to step out of the nest.
Amba unlocked each of the seven doors and stepped out for the first time. She saw smoke rising in the distance and headed towards it. When she got there, she politely asked the old lady who lived there to give her some fire, please.
“Sure, sure!” said the old lady, even though she had no intention of giving the girl any fire. She was a Rakshasi or a demoness, who just wanted to stall for time until her son returned. He could knock this girl out easily, something she could no longer do at her age.
To stall for time, the Rakshasi had Amba grind corn, bake bread, fetch water and sweep the floors. When Amba finally threatened to leave and give the Rakshasi a one-star review, the old demoness had no choice but to give her the fire. She did advise Amba to scatter some corn all over the path on her way back to her home.
The gullible Amba did just that, and when the Rakshasi’s son returned he had no trouble finding Amba’s home in the trees. I guess the birds in this forest were different from those in Hansel and Gretel’s story. Those birds had quickly eaten up the bread on a similar trail.
The security system at the Eagles’ nest was very dependable. The Rakshasi’s son could not force his way in.
Having seven doors had paid off! It had delayed the Eagle family every time they ventured out or returned home, but all that effort had been worth it.
Not that it changed the outcome at all. Because the next day Amba was accidentally poked by a piece of the Rakshas’s fingernail that was stuck in the outermost door. And that fingernail was so toxic that Amba passed away on the spot.
Honestly, I think this is a logical flaw in the story. Amba had been in the demon’s home just the day before and as part of cleaning and cooking, she must have been exposed to way more of the Rakshas than she was this morning. But anyway, let’s ignore this and move on.
Amba’s Eagle parents about the same time that she collapsed. Seeing her lying like that they were convinced she had passed on. They went off to mourn somewhere without even feeding the dog and cat. Luckily for them though, another party happened on the scene.
It was a King. He was curious why there were dog and cat noises coming from the top of a tree. Investigating, he found Amba lifeless on the nest floor. Observing something poking her hand, he pulled out the fragment and Amba woke up instantly.
“You must be a Princess,” said the King, “I know because my sister wears exactly the kind of outfit you are wearing. In fact, she owned a dress exactly like the one you are wearing. Except she lost it. She claimed an eagle stole it. Crazy right?”
The eagles had explained to Amba just exactly where and how they had got her clothes and jewels, so Amba chose to not answer.
Anyway, the two got to talking. And eventually became friends, which later morphed into something more.
Within a month, they were married! Everyone in the Kingdom was very happy with the marriage. Well, except the King’s first wife. That’s right. The King was a married man. That did not stop him from wooing Amba. He got to make the laws of the land.
The King’s first wife, let’s call her Rani, was unhappy but did not express it to Amba. In fact, she pretended to be enthusiastic. Amba, who had a bit of an impostor syndrome about being royal, was eager to have Rani show her the ropes as it were.
Of Amba’s many maids, there was one, called Saheli, who could clearly see through Rani. Saheli frequently warned Amba, but Amba chose to ignore the old maid.
One day, Rani casually remarked to Amba that her jewels looked so lovely, and could she please try them on? Amba was happy to lend them of course.
When Rani put them on, she suggested that they go to the well and look in the reflection in the water so Rani could see how she looked.
Amba thought this was odd but was too polite to refuse or even just to point out that the mirror in her wardrobe was a more sensible thing to check.
When they made it to the well, they were by themselves. Saheli again tried to warn Amba but Amba brushed her off yet again.
Well, as you and Saheli and everyone had predicted, Rani pushed Amba into the deep well when the two leaned over. Amba who had grown up in a nest high up in the tree had not learned swimming. She drowned and was no more.
That’s not the end of the story, however. How can it be, without reconciliation and retribution?
The King suspected that Rani and Saheli had a hand in Amba’s disappearance. But he dared not act against Rani without evidence, given she was related to his Kingdom’s rich and powerful royal neighbors. Saheli was someone he could act against. So he threw her in jail.
But he didn’t do the obvious thing. Which would have been to ask Saheli for an explanation. Saheli was after all the only eye-witness to the whole thing.
The King went searching for Amba often. He wasn’t having much luck, but one day as he was passing by the well, he saw something amazing.
A single sunflower, growing from deep within the well. Its appearance somehow reminded him of Amba. He couldn’t tell why.
So the King spent hours every day with the flower talking to it. Obviously, it was a one-way conversation. The plants in this story do not talk.
Rani discovered where the King was spending all his time. So she had her servants pluck the flower, burn its ashes and bury them in the forest.
Her servants did that. But right in the spot that the remains of the sunflower were buried in, there arose a wonderful and huge mango tree.
Over time, there was a single blossom and later a single mango that grew on the tree. It was huge but somehow stayed on the tree. No one dared to pluck the mango either. They automatically assumed this would be reserved for the King.
Most of the botanists were curious about the odd behavior of this mango tree. They had missed out on studying the sunflower that grew so unusually out of a well, but now they had the opportunity to study this tree. They drew no conclusions out of it but published several papers. I mean scientific papers. I don’t mean that they chopped down the tree to make paper.
Now one thing totally coincidental was that this mango tree was located exactly on the path that Gawalan took in traveling back and forth between the village and her hut.
Gawalan stopped to rest one day under the mango tree. After a long day of selling milk, she was tired.
As she rested, she heard a Plop. She looked around and to her shock, the single mango from the tree had broken off of its branch and had gently landed in her milk can.
Since Gawalan was aware of how everyone was reserving the mango for the King, she decided to quickly exit the scene. If she told them the mango had landed in her milk can of its own accord no one would have believed her.
She rushed home and bolted the door. Dreaming of all the mango lassi she could make for her family, Gawalan told her husband and her children to go look at the surprise she had for them in her can.
The children did and had different reactions.
One of them asked her Mommy if the girl in the milk can was a robot. Another asked if the girl was Thumbelina.
Surprised by these questions, Gawalan looked herself. The milk can did not have a mango in it. On the contrary, there was a little girl there instead. She wasn’t a baby. She was a full-grown adult, just miniaturized. She could already talk and everything.
Gawalan thought it best to keep the girl there. Well, first of all, even if she wanted she did not know whom to contact. The girl didn’t seem very talkative. Other than divulging that her name was Amba. Gawalan couldn’t contemplate asking people if they had lost a 6-inch girl.
Amba seemed unhappy in general but did not seem any unhappier with the idea of staying in Gawalan’s home. And Gawalan was okay to use her as a proxy for her own lost baby. She was also called Amba by the way.
Under Gawalan’s care, Amba grew. But in size only. She was already a mature adult. Who refused to speak.
One day, after she was the normal human size, she went outside and was coincidentally seen by the King. The King was shocked to see his wife alive and well. He followed her to Gawalan’s home. He politely knocked on the door and explained to Gawalan that he was here for his wife, Amba.
Seeing this strange man, richly dressed but still strange, make his claim, Gawalan flatly refused. She wasn’t about to let any random stranger just take her daughter away from her now, was she? She had learned her lesson after the incident with the Eagle.
The King asserted that he would take her by force if he had to.
“Oh, you and what army?” Gawalan asked. The King, realizing that by himself he could probably not manage it went back to the palace.
He then did something that he should have done in the first place. He talked to Saheli. He gave her a chance to explain things from her point of view. Saheli was convinced that no one could have survived the fall into the well but was nonetheless intrigued by the King mentioned that he’d seen Amba or her doppelganger in the village.
She readily agreed to go find out who and what that girl was. She didn’t hold a grudge against the King, even though he had imprisoned her in a dark and dirty cell for such a long time, without even bothering to hear her version of the story.
Saheli walked into the village thinking up a strategy for dealing with this. She decided she needed to be tactful and subtle. So she started by setting up a home in the village. The King was bankrolling this, it was totally fine to spend all that money. The very next day when Gawalan came by to sell milk. Saheli offered to buy the whole can. For a good price too.
Gawalan was thrilled. In that state and especially as Saheli was new to the village, Gawalan was more than happy to show her around. The two met for tea and shared meals, and generally became good pals. All this while the King was getting impatient. But he let Saheli continue with her plan.
One day, during tea at Gawalan’s place, the milkmaid told Saheli her secret. And that’s when Amba appeared on the scene. Saheli was shocked when she saw Amba for the first time, that well, it was not the first time. This had to be the very same Amba, she was even wearing the same clothes.
Saheli asked her outright “Aren’t you the girl who was married to the King?”
Amba did not deny it. “But I’m not going back to him. The same thing might happen again. I was betrayed by Rani. I had no idea she was up to no good”
Saheli rolled her eyes at that, recalling the dozens of times she had warned Amba about Rani.
Saheli made a convenient excuse and hurried straight back to the palace.
Meanwhile, Gawalan was telling Amba how shocked she was that the adopted daughter of her poor milkmaid self was really a Queen.
Amba corrected her, that she was in for a bigger shock then. That this Queen before her was really the birth daughter of her poor milkmaid self was really. She was the child who had been snatched from her by an Eagle long ago.
“How do you know?” asked Gawalan. Surely you’re too young to remember all that.
But it was the Eagles who had told her.
“But there are many milkmaids in this area, how did you know it was me?”
“Because it would be very much unlike a folk tale if my birth mother were someone else. Besides, search your heart you know it’s true”
About that time the King arrived on the scene. He begged to take back Amba, but it was only after learning that he had already put Rani in jail that Amba consented to go back to him.
That’s how the story ended, more or less. Amba and the King were happy. Saheli was happy to be free again. She continued to be Amba’s companion.
Gawalan, now the mother-in-law of the King, lived a life of luxury.
Rani was in prison but she deserved to be there.
In fact, the only losers from all this were Mr. and Mrs. Eagle. They lived the rest of their lives under the mistaken assumption that they had been responsible for Amba’s death. They lived a life of misery, grief, and shame – regretting every day that they left their darling daughter home alone.
That’s all for now
Some notes on the show
This folk tale is from South India. It’s attributed to the Deccan Plateau. But the Deccan Plateau is a rather large one. Unless you have a reservoir of inexhaustible knowledge like I do, you probably would not know the exact area this folktale originated from.
Now there are elements of this story that we have seen in some others, including the whole person reincarnated as a tree after their passing.
But there are also things that occur in other stories outside of India. For example, Amba’s trip to the Rakshasi’s home to fetch fire is somewhat similar to the Russian story about Vassilissa fetching fire from Baba Yaga’s hut.
As is by now expected on the show, the names of the characters represent the roles they play.
Amba’s name in the original folk tale was Surya Bai. But I changed it to Amba because that is the Marathi word for Mango. I had a tough time here, I could have called her Garud which is the Marathi word for Eagle, or maybe Haddu which is the Kannada word. But I settled on Amba because that is a bona fide name. Remember the princess in the Mahabharata? We had done a whole episode on her. Episode 91 – Mahabharat – Amba.
Gawalan was an easier choice. Gawalan literally means milkmaid in Marathi.
Saheli is the Hindi word for friend or companion. And Rani means Queen
That’s all for now.
Next Time
In the next episode, we’ll meet Nala and Damayanti. We’ll see a Swan play matchmaker, and we’ll encounter some good snakes and some bad snakes. We’ll also learn that if at first you don’t succeed at gambling, and you really want to try and try again, maybe it’s a good idea to learn the rules of the game first.