Reading Notes: Indian Fairy Tales, Part A
Some of the stories in this unit are Jataka tales which are stories about the former lives of the Buddha when he was still a Bodhisattva (on the path toward Buddhahood). Other stories are from the Panchatantra which is a classical Hindu text with various animal fables.
Story Source: Indian Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs with illustrations by John D. Batten (1912)
The Lion and the Crane
- Jataka tale where the Bodhisatta was born as a crane
- A lion is choking on a bone and asks the crane for help
- The crane hesitantly removes the bone, keeping the lion's jaw open with sticks to make sure he doesn't eat him
- Later, the crane asks the lion what he will give in return. The lion says he's lucky to still be alive.
- The crane says the lion is ungrateful and flies off
- When the Buddha tells this story, he adds that the lion was Devadatta the Traitor
- Style: The crane speaks to the lion in verse when asking about compensation and the lion responds in verse
The Broken Pot
- A beggar who collected enough rice to fill a pot hangs it on the wall and lays under it, dreaming about all the things he will do once he sells it. (buy animals, sell animals, buy more animals)
- He eventually dreams of having a wife and son and imagines that if she can't hear his orders, he will kick her
- He acts out the kicking and breaks the pot, spilling rice all over him
- Style: The man is saying his dreams out loud, so most of the story is written as a monologue
The Magic Fiddle
- The sister of several brothers regularly cooked for them and their families
- The wives of the brothers did not like her and asked a spirit (Bonga) to make it difficult for her to get water
- The water kept disappearing from her pot whenever she dipped it into the river and she soon drowned
- The spirit turned her into a spirit and she became bamboo near the water
- A yogi came by and cut her down to make a bamboo fiddle
- The fiddle made beautiful music and the village chief stole it from the yogi
- His son began to play it
- When she was alone, the girl emerged from the fiddle to make food
- The chief's son catches her and they marry
- The girl's original family shows up one day and she confronts them saying they wives treated her badly and the brothers never did anything
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