In this episode, we’re doing a folk tale from southern India. Now strictly speaking this is a Tamil folk tale, but there are other variations available in Karnataka. In fact the characters travel to Mysore, as the state was previously called.
So anyway let’s jump into this Tamil/Kannada folk tale.
As do many of the episodes in the show, this one starts in the middle of the forest. It was a dark night, and Vaidhya crept along cautiously, watching for all the dangers that might pop out of a regular dark forest that he’d heard about on this show – you know, lions, tigers, bears, wolves, snakes, witches, and a gazillion other dangers.
On second thoughts, Vaidhya thought to herself, how could she be sure it was the night time? It could have been the middle of the day. The canopy was so thick it was impossible to tell. She walked on until she decided she had to stop. She had meant to cross the whole forest, but now she was too tired. A little rest and everything would be fine.
She found a small clearing at the base of a large tree. She was just about to lie down when a voice said “Please, don’t!”
She whirled around in surprise. But there was no one there. She’d probably been imagining things. She really needed that rest now. But again, just as she was about to lie down, again a voice said “Please Stop! Don’t!”
A cold sweat broke out on her forehead. She was starting to get nervous. Until she realized the paradoxical nature of the request. She mustered up the courage to ask “Make your mind up. Do you or don’t you want me to stop?”
“I wasn’t talking to you madam” replied the voice. “But maybe you can help me”
“Show yourself,” said Vaidhya. A bit more confident now that the voice was addressing her politely.
“Up here” said the voice and she looked up to identify its source. She was taken aback at the creature’s ghostly appearance.
“Are you a Betaal?” asked Vaidhya
“I can see this is exposition time” replied the creature. “No, I am not a Betaal. You’ve probably heard of Betaals on the Vikram and Betaal episodes on Narada’s podcast. Betaals are revenants or reanimated corpses who like to ask you lateral thinking puzzles. Me? I’m just an ordinary demon. I won’t test your intellect or reasoning skills. Another difference is that whereas Betaals like to hang down from a tree I don’t have a choice. I’ve been cursed!”
“Whom were you talking to then?”
“To the musician in the temple over there. Can’t you hear the awful music?”
When Vaidhya shook her head, the demon muttered “probably us demons are physiologically superior. We demons must be able to hear things that you humans can’t. But you ain’t missing anything, lucky you. This chap here reminds me of Cacofonix the Bard”
“From the Asterix comics?” asked Vaidhya quickly. And at that moment, demon and human looked at each other and smiled – in the special way that only two comic enthusiasts can.
That element of trust established, the demon began explaining his back story and how he came to be in this predicament.
“I was a really normal human being like you with your inferior hearing. Then then I was cursed. I became a demon and was stuck to this tree, where I am forced to hear that terrible music. Its torture I tell you!”
“How did that happen? How did you get cursed?” Asked Vaidhya.
“One day, I went to a concert. I am a huge fan of all kinds of Carnatic music. I consider myself quite an expert in these things. And that’s why it bothered me so much when at the very climax of the song, the singer hit the wrong note. She hit a G instead of an F -sharp. I booed loudly. I think I was the only one to do that. Well, what I didn’t know was that the witch had a different opinion on the whole thing. She thought it should have been an F-sharp after all. And what’s more, she took offense at the booing. Now comes the worst part. She was a witch! For having accused her of lacking musical sense, she cursed me to this hear this terrible shehnai music all day all night”
“I happen to like the sound of a Shehnai very much!” replied Vaidhya.
“This one you won’t” retorted the demon. “This is being played by a boy at a temple nearby. He’s terribly off-key. I will say one good thing for him – he perseveres!”
“Have you tried noise-canceling headphones?” Vaidhya asked
“Nah, they haven’t been invented yet” replied the demon. “They probably will not work. I tried ear muffs, cotton plugs, louder music to compensate. Nothing works!”
“So how can I help you then?” Vaidhya asked. “Do you want me to go talk to the boy in the temple?”.
“I tried that. It didn’t work” said the demon. “The only solution is for you to free me from this tree.”
“I don’t know about that,” said Vaidhya reluctantly. “Letting a demon loose on the world. What’s in it for me?”
“I will make you rich. Incredibly rich. You could have a mansion, a horse cart and servants who would cross the forest for you. You could have your own private concert. Or buy yourself a Carnatic music band.”
“You’re not a genie. You are a demon. What can you do?”
“I can give rich people a scare until they pay up”
“Deal,” said Vaidhya immediately, who had no love for the rich. Just the joy of seeing the 1% of society lose a tiny fraction of their wealth was a consoling thought. She was tired of her current life and wanted something more. And seeing as she was a fully grown adult, that meant that she was probably near ancient Indian life expectancy and she was running out of time to turn her miserable life around.
So she helped the demon off of his tree. The key to this was that the demon had to be carried off of the tree, he explained. He could not hop down, or even set foot on the ground. Once Vaidhya had carried him off a bit of a distance from the tree, he would get the demon powers due to him, including the ability to fly!
And that’s what happened. The demon did a joyful loop the loop a few times and then explained his get rich quick scheme.
I will go occupy a princess. The princess of Mysore, let’s say. She will take ill because of that. The king will try everything but of course, nothing will work. Ultimately he will announce a huge reward for whoever can cure his daughter. Then you must show up in court and claim to have a cure. The moment you approach the princess and touch her forehead, I will leave her. She’ll be back to normal and then you shall have your reward.
But there’s one condition. Said the demon. And paused.
Vaidhya could see the demon had turned deadly serious. And with menace in his voice and deeper menace in his eyes he said “I will RIP you apart and tear you to pieces”
“If you ever come near me in the future”
He looked at Vaidhya’s expression and he softened a little. “Look, it’s not that I am not grateful for rescuing me. It’s just the demon code of conduct. I have to be back to my baseline of evil once I am done repaying your debt.”
Vaidhya assured the demon she would never ever cross his path. She just wanted her reward and that’s it.
So they put their plan in motion. The demon zoomed off into the air into the general direction of Mysore, while Vaidhya slowly began the long walk towards the same destination.
Well, it took a month, but when Vaidhya reached Mysore everything was well setup for her. Princess in a mysterious illness? check. Various doctors tried? Check. Various doctors failed? Check. Big reward announced by the king? Check.
In fact, so many people had tried so many things that when Vaidhya showed up asking to cure the princess, the first question she was asked was to show her index finger. The clerks had taken to dabbing people’s fingers with indelible ink to make sure people weren’t repeating their attempts. The reward had incentivized too many people to try.
Vaidhya asked to see the princess alone. And was finally let into where the princess lay. Vaidhya stepped forward and placed her hand on the Princess’s forehead. And the moment she did, all was well! The demon swooped out, repeated his warning to Vaidhya, and flew out of the window.
The princess suddenly sat up, looking completely normal. All she remembered that she had had a very long nap. And that she was hungry.
The king was true to his word. He gave Vaidhya the reward money with a big bonus. It was enough for the girl to buy a mansion with a swimming pool and a 3 chariot garage.
All would have continued to be okay had the girl not decided to stay on in Mysore.
But she did. She figured she had earned enough respect here to last her a lifetime. People from the palace would bring her gifts, invite her to parties and such. It made no sense to go somewhere else and start over from scratch. She would likely be looked at with suspicion if she showed up as a stranger in a new town with her bags of gold.
But then one day, the King of Mysore’s friend the King of Coimbatore called – looking sick and depressed. The King of Mysore could not get his friend to reveal his troubles. So he did the thing he knew how to do well – he threw him a party at taxpayer expense. Naturally, Vaidhya was invited too. And when the King of Mysore introduced her to his guest and revealed how she had cured his daughter, the King of Coimbatore let out a whoop and practically jumped for joy.
He hurriedly explained that his joy was at the realization that Vaidhya was the solution to all his problems. Or specifically to his one big problem. The Princess of Coimbatore had taken ill with exactly the same symptoms as the Princess of Mysore.
“Well then, Vaidhya is the girl for the job!” replied the King of Mysore. “She even told me she was the only one who knew the secret of the cure.”
Vaidhya had become very nervous. If the symptoms were the same this must be the demon again. And if it was the demon, she could not go anywhere near him!
“But your majesty, the circumstances may not be the same” she tried to weasel out.
“Nonsense. If King Coimbatore here says they are the same, they are the same!”
In a desperate moment and to avoid being torn to bits, Vaidhya even considering admitting that the crowning achievement of her medical career was a lie. But promptly decided against it when the two Kings launched into a debate about whether hanging was a more effective means of dealing with fake doctors than slow torture.
Vaidhya decided she had no choice but to give it a try. The demon in here might be a different one. Not the same as the one who had threatened her. Or even if it was the same one, maybe he would give her a second chance.
She made her way to Coimbatore. Slowly. She took a little deviation but finally got there and was readily admitted inside to the Princess’s chamber. Vaidhya had one shot at this. Her initial reaction to being given this task was to prepare her will. But since then, she’d had an idea. To execute it well, she had to be sure not to betray any nervousness.
With an air of confidence that she did not in fact possess, she went straight up to the bed and placed her hand on the Princess’s forehead.
Instantly the demon appeared on the scene and would have pounced on Vaidhya. Had it not been for the very boring look Vaidhya had on her face. The demon stopped to consider this. “Why was Vaidhya looking so confident?” He asked himself.
“Nothing personal, Vaidhya. I’m just following the rules. I warned you and yet you came. Now say your goodbyes” he said and began lifting an arm with a very large hand that had extremely sharp claws
“It’s a good thing I suppose. I’m sure you don’t get to hear music much” replied Vaidhya.
“Music?!” asked the demon puzzled. “What do you mean by that music remark”
“Oh, nothing. It’s just a tiny bit of logistics later after you’ve killed me. Go on now. I’m waiting”
“Fine. Spill it all. And then I’ll kill you”
“I just came to tell you that if anything happens to me, there’s a boy waiting outside who’ll be overcome by emotion”
“Pooh, I don’t care about your family”
“He’s not family. And yet, I think I know him so well now. He’s’ such a dedicated boy, and so faithful. And all i’ve asked for is a Shehnai to keep company from time to time.”
This shocked the demon. “You mean, this is that boy? The one from the temple whom you rescued me from?”
“The very same,” replied Vaidhya. “If I don’t return successfully, he will play the most sorrowful tunes he can find. And if you escape he’s going to look for everywhere. When he finds a princess unwell, he’ll play his shehnai loudly. He’d gotten along really well”
But that was already too much for the demon, who slunk away from the palace. This was a battle he could not win.
That’s all for now
Some notes on the show
Not clear to me why the demon did not occupy the Shehnai player instead. And trample his soul and leave him incapable of playing the Shehnai if he really hated it so much.
Other than that the elements of this story are similar to the fisherman and the genie’s tale from the thousand and one Arabian nights. A poor passerby rescues a supernatural creature only to be told they will be ripped to pieces for it. Just like the fisherman rescued the Genie.
Ultimately the passerby wins, but only after they’ve had help.
In today’s case, it was a problem that was all up to Vaidhya to solve. She managed it with the help of the Shehnai player as well
Mysore has a long association with indelibe ink as today’s story illustrates. In fact, a more recent King of Mysore started the company that is the only authoroized maker of indelible ink in India.
That’s all for now.
Next Time
In the next episode, we’ll a Jataka tale again. This one’s about magical snake people and a King who can speak every animal language!