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