In this episode, we’re doing a folk tale from the Eastern India state of West Bengal.
This is a story about plants that are magically linked to people who plant them, animal twins who have an affinity for human twins, and a witch who can transform into a deer and who enjoys playing board games, and a special fruit that can help with a succession problem.
So let’s jump in.
Our story begins with a King and Queen, Raja and Rani. Everything was fine in their Kingdom, except for one thing. They had a succession problem. They had no children, and given the prevailing opinion of royalty in Ancient India, adoption was not given too much thought.
Raja and Rani looked for miracle workers. They advertised all over Ancient Indian social media – which included pretty much anywhere that people gathered – at village wells, at temples, during town halls, during festivals. Many people answered the advertisement, but none of their suggestions seemed to work.
Raja and Rani had almost given up on the whole idea, but that’s when a Rishi, or a holy man, showed up. He introduced himself as Dhoorth. He had brought a piece of fruit with him.
“A fruit?” asked Rani. “I thought you would bring porridge, like in Episode 7 – Kingdom by Horse. But if it’s a fruit, is there a ruby inside? That happened to Vikram in Episode 5 – Kingly duties”. Clearly, I can consider Rani one loyal fan of my show.
“Well…. kind of,” said Dhoorth. “This fruit will get you a gem. A gem of a person. That’s who the baby will grow up to be”.
Not seeing much excitement on the King and Queen’s faces, the Rishi laid on salesmanship. “And for just a limited time, accept this offer in the next 10 minutes and I’ll double it. 10 minutes only. Remember two children, not one. Lock in your offer. Remember just 10 minutes”
That is a tactic that works easily on unsuspecting shoppers today. And it worked in this case as well. Raja and Rani signed up instantly, spotting a bargain.
“There is a catch” said Dhoorth. “It’s this. I’ll take one of the two children from you”
“I…what?” said Rani. “I’m not giving you my baby!”
“Well then guess what, I’m not giving you this fruit” said the Rishi
Raja and Rani briefly conferred and decided ultimately that it was fine. They would be able to keep one of the two children, so it wasn’t so bad after all, was it? The Kingdom would have what it needed – a successor. Besides, the guy was probably just a trickster and the fruit wouldn’t make any difference. All other similar remedies had failed.
So they agreed to Dhoorth’s condition.
But to their surprise this fruit worked! Within a year, Rani gave birth to twin baby boys.
She named them Bada and Chhota. Raja and Rani were expecting Dhoorth to show up to ask for one of the two children. But he didn’t show. A day passed, then a week and a month. Then when the children celebrated their first birthday. Still no sign of Dhoorth.
This was weighing on Raja and Rani. But they treated Bada and Chhota exactly alike. Because they couldn’t help it – you see the princes were identical twins.
After the children had grown up a bit, Raja and Rani were pretty confident that Dhoorth wasn’t coming back. Maybe he forgot. Or maybe he got hit by a bus. They didn’t care.
Their happy little world was shaken on the twins 16th birthday – the day they entered adulthood according to medieval Indian custom.
Dhoorth came back. He demanded custody of one of the children. He didn’t care which one.
Any one of them would do. He just needed to cash in on the promise.
And no, there was no statute of limitations here. Dhoorth had been careful in designing their contract so he chose when it was time to collect the child.
Raja and Rani could not make up their minds about which child should go with Dhoorth. Bada and Chhota each wanted to go. Not that they wanted to escape royal life. Rather, each wanted to sacrifice his life of luxury so his brother could be happy instead.
They were at an impasse until someone suggested they flip a coin. It did take a while to figure out who won the coin toss. Maybe they shouldn’t have used a coin featuring the identical princes on each side of the coin. But then they used another coin and it turned out Bada won that toss.
Bada prepared to leave. And as part of that, he planted a special plant right in the center of the garden. He explained that the plant was permanently linked to his own health. If the leaves were all green and healthy looking, it meant he was fine as well. If the leaves faded it meant that he was in deep trouble. And if the plant died, it meant he would too.
“Wait, what if the gardener accidentally chops down the plant?” asked Chhota
“Haven’t you been listening? I would pass away too!”
“And what if a caterpillar eats the leaves?” asked Chhota
“You’d better not let that happen. In fact, go on get started right now” said Bada and shoved away his brother.
With Chhota and his pesky questions out of the way, he quickly handed a manual and pack of plant food to his parents and started off on his way with Dhoorth
As Dhoorth and Bada were making the long journey to Dhoorth’s home, they saw a dog on the way. She was a wild dog sure, but quite civilized. One sure sign of that was the polite way in which her daughter, Nishtha asked her if she could please leave home and go live her own life in the company of Bada who looked handsome and was surely a Prince.
The dog had no objections at all. Moreover Nishtha was a twin. She would still have one child when the other left.
Bada was more than happy to have Nishtha accompany him. Frankly Dhoorth hadn’t said a word and was not a very good traveling companion.
An exactly similar incident happened with a baby hawk who also accompanied Bada.
When they reached Dhoorth’s home, nothing really happened. Everything was incredibly boring. They ate, they drank, they slept, they watched TV. His only real job was to collect flowers for Dhoorth’s prayers.
Bada was bored out of his wits. Yet he never asked Dhoorth anything. It was part of the agreement. He could not register any kind of disapproval.
You’d think being a normal functioning adult by medieval Indian standards, he should be free to make his own decisions and leave if he wanted to. But he was bound by the promise his parents had made.
He did have freedom to explore. The only thing that Dhoorth had told him was that all directions were fair game except that dark forbidden forest in the north.
That was fine by Bada and he steered clear of said forbidden forest. Until one day he didn’t. And quite by accident.
He was hunting deer for dinner, accompanied by Nishtha and the hawk. And he wounded a deer with his arrow. The deer limped off into the dark forbidden forest. And Bada completely forgot the warning and followed the deer. It wasn’t until he saw the deer approach a hut, unlock a door and enter that he suspected something strange was going on.
What was stranger still, when Bada entered the hut as well he didn’t see a deer inside, wounded or otherwise. Instead he saw a lady. Just a regular grumpy lady who introduced herself as Juaree. Juaree looked remarkably like Bada’s notion of a witch. Despite these warning signs, Bada gladly agreed to a game of cards when the witch offered to play.
They had to put something up for stake. Bada put up the hawk, with the witch promising to provide an exact copy of the baby hawk should Bada win.
Bada lost. And he lost again and this time he lost Nishtha. Despite this dismal situation, he bet himself a third time and he lost again. He was in the witch’s clutches. The witch had just dined so she decided to keep Bada for tomorrow’s lunch.
While Bada was getting anxious about landing on the witch’s plate, his brother Chhota was getting anxious as well. He had figured out how the plant worked and had seen most of the leaves were brown. Instead of watering the plant and giving it some special attention and care, he grabbed a horse and sped off to try and rescue his brother. He planted one of the special plants himself and instructed his parents.
He wasn’t sure where to go though. So he didn’t get very far. That is until a dog and her baby dog approached Chhota. The baby dog, Nishtha’s sister, wanted to be with a prince too, after her sister had gone off with Prince Bada in the direction of the dark and forbidden forest.
Of course Chhota was more than happy to be joined by Nishtha’s twin sister. The exact same thing happened with the hawk.
Given Chhota and Bada were identical twins, it’s actually a surprise that mother dog and mother hawk didn’t confuse Chhota for Bada when they met. Maybe dogs and hawks do indeed retain incredible perception, even after they have acquired the ability to speak to humans.
And what’s more, when Chhota, accompanied by his dog and his hawk reached Dhoorth’s hut, the rishi did not even for a second mistake the trio for the other identical looking trio.
In fact the only characters to be confused between Chhota and Bada so far were their parents! Oh well, such are life’s mysteries.
Dhoorth explained his theory that despite all his warnings, Bada had probably gone to the North side, to the dark forbidden forest, and been captured by the resident witch, Juaree, there. She may or may not have had Bada and his pets for dinner already.
Chhota rushed away. Time was of the essence here.
He did not have any trouble finding Juaree’s hut. A lot of footprints led there, though not many led out. This was a bad sign.
He knocked and entered. There was no sign of his brother and his pets. But at least there was no smell of any recent cooking. If you thought Juaree’s first reaction should have been to wonder how come the trio that was locked in her basement was entering through the front door, you’d be wrong.
She was totally not surprised. She made her usual offer to play a game of cards with Chhota.
At stake in the first round was the hawk. If Chhota lost, Juaree got to keep him. If Juaree lost, she would have to supply Chhota with an identical looking hawk.
Same stakes as when Bada had played.
Except this time, Chhota won! And he won the dog back and finally his brother!
You must wonder why Juaree didn’t stop while she was ahead. But that’s often a problem with gamblers.
3 pairs of twins were united! They thanked Juaree and were about to leave, when she spoke up.
“I like y’all. You seem like a nice bunch”
“You were trying to eat us!” said Bada
“Yeah, and maybe you’d have tasted well too. But that’s besides the point. You brother won you your freedom fair and square so I’m not thinking about eating you any more. My point is, I do want to warn you – you don’t have long to live. Your master Dhoorth is a deceitful guy. He means to end your life”
“What? But he’s been okay to me. Not exactly chatty or friendly. And he has had numerous opportunities since I first arrived at his place. Why didn’t he do it already?”
“He’s waiting for the full moon,” explained Juaree. “He’s going to take you to a temple, ask you to bow your head to the goddess Kali there and when you do, he’ll chop off your head”
“Oh no! How can I get out of that? I don’t think anything can stop me from bowing to a deity in a temple if someone asks me to. It’s inconceivable thing in these times we live in”
Juaree suggested something, which he liked and decided to try. But Chhota would be a backup plan too in case Juaree’s idea did not work.
Well, guess what that very night was the full moon. And Dhoorth was unreasonably ecstatic that Bada managed to escape Juaree’s clutches. He insisted that they visit the Goddess Kali’s temple.
And just as Juaree had predicted, that’s what happened. When they got there Dhoorth, who was brandishing a sword and with a gleam in his eye, asked Bada to bow to the goddess.
Bada, followed Juaree’s suggestion to the letter.
“Bow? What does that even mean. You know, being a Prince I’ve never actually bowed to anyone in my life. I don’t know how to do it”
“Oh you silly boy!” said Dhoorth “Here let me show you”.
He bowed, but that was the last thing he did. Because Bada quickly knocked him out for good.
Free from Dhoorth, Bada returned home together with Chhota and their pets.
Raja and Rani were expecting them. They had been watching the plants.
That’s all for now
Some notes on the show
Unusually for a story from medieval India, there are no princesses in the story to be paired with the princes.
If you thought there was a moral in this story about no gambling, you are wrong. True, the older brother lost everything, but the younger one won it back. And at the same time managed to get the tip that saved the Bada’s life.
As is usual on the show, the names of the characters are Bada is the Hindi word for Big, as Chhota is the word for Small.
Raja and Rani are Hindi names for King and Queen.
Dhoorth means sly or deceitful.
Nishtha is loyalty or allegiance.
Juaree means gambler.
The story repeatedly distinguishes between the two brothers by age, even though the age difference is just minutes. Frankly, my opinion is that this is just a tactic to avoid naming the characters.
That’s all for now.
Next Time
In the next episode, we’ll find out how the very famous temple at Tirupati was founded!