: Indian Fairy Tales by Ralston William Ralston Shedden Commentator Stokes Mary Commentator Stokes Maive Editor - Tales India; Fairy tales India; Folklore India

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NOTES 237

GLOSSARY 295

LIST OF BOOKS REFERRED TO 297

INDEX 299

INDIAN FAIRY TALES.

PH?LMATI R?N?.

There were once a R?j? and a R?n? who had an only daughter called the Ph?lmati R?n?, or the Pink-rose Queen. She was so beautiful that if she went into a very dark room it was all lighted up by her beauty. On her head was the sun; on her hands, moons; and her face was covered with stars. She had hair that reached to the ground, and it was made of pure gold.

Every day after she had had her bath, her father and mother used to weigh her in a pair of scales. She only weighed one flower. She ate very, very little food. This made her father most unhappy, and he said, "I cannot let my daughter marry any one who weighs more than one flower." Now, God loved this girl dearly, so he went down under the ground to see if any of the fairy R?j?s was fit to be the Ph?lmati R?n?'s husband, and he thought none of them good enough. So he went in the form of a Fak?r to see the great Indr?san R?j? who ruled over all the other fairy R?j?s. This R?j? was exceedingly beautiful. On his head was the sun; and on his hands, moons; and on his face, stars. God made him weigh very little. Then he said to the R?j?, "Come up with me, and we will go to the palace of the Ph?lmati R?n?." God had told the R?j? that he was God and not a Fak?r, for he loved the Indr?san R?j?. "Very well," said the Indr?san R?j?. So they travelled on until they came to the Ph?lmati R?n?'s palace. When they arrived there they pitched a tent in her compound, and they used to walk about, and whenever they saw the Ph?lmati R?n? they looked at her. One day they saw her having her hair combed, so God said to the Indr?san R?j?, "Get a horse and ride where the Ph?lmati R?n? can see you, and if any one asks you who you are, say, 'Oh, it's only a poor Fak?r, and I am his son. We have come to stay here a little while just to see the country. We will go away very soon.'" Well, he got a horse and rode about, and Ph?lmati R?n?, who was having her hair combed in the verandah, said, "I am sure that must be some R?j?; only see how beautiful he is." And she sent one of her servants to ask him who he was. So the servant said to the Indr?san R?j?, "Who are you? why are you here? what do you want?" "Oh, it's only a poor Fak?r, and I am his son. We have just come here for a little while to see the country. We will go away very soon." So the servants returned to the Ph?lmati R?n? and told her what the Indr?san R?j? had said. The Ph?lmati R?n? told her father about this. The next day, when the Ph?lmati R?n? and her father were standing in the verandah, God took a pair of scales and weighed the Indr?san R?j? in them. His weight was only that of one flower! "Oh," said the R?j?, when he saw that, "here is the husband for the Ph?lmati R?n?!" The next day, after the Ph?lmati R?n? had had her bath, her father took her and weighed her, and he also weighed the Indr?san R?j?. And they were each the same weight. Each weighed one flower, although the Indr?san R?j? was fat and the Ph?lmati R?n? thin. The next day they were married, and there was a grand wedding. God said he was too poor-looking to appear, so he bought a quantity of elephants, and camels, and horses, and cows, and sheep, and goats, and made a procession, and came to the wedding. Then he went back to heaven, but before he went he said to the Indr?san R?j? "You must stay here one whole year; then go back to your father and to your kingdom. As long as you put flowers on your ears no danger will come near you." "All right," said the Indr?san R?j?. And God went back to heaven.

So the Indr?san R?j? stayed for a whole year. Then he told the R?j?, the Ph?lmati R?n?'s father, that he wished to go back to his own kingdom. "All right," said the R?j?, and he wanted to give him horses, and camels, and elephants. But the Indr?san R?j? and the Ph?lmati R?n? said they wanted nothing but a tent and a cooly. Well, they set out; but the Indr?san R?j? forgot to put flowers on his ears, and after some days the Indr?san R?j? was very, very tired, so he said, "We will sit down under these big trees and rest awhile. Our baggage will soon be here; it is only a little way behind." So they sat down, and the R?j? said he felt so tired he must sleep. "Very well," said the R?n?; "lay your head in my lap and sleep." After a while a shoemaker's wife came by to get some water from a tank which was close to the spot where the R?j? and R?n? were resting. Now, the shoemaker's wife was very black and ugly, and she had only one eye, and she was exceedingly wicked. The R?n? was very thirsty and she said to the woman, "Please give me some water, I am so thirsty." "If you want any," said the shoemaker's wife, "come to the tank and get it yourself." "But I cannot," said the R?n?, "for the R?j? is sleeping in my lap." At last the poor R?n? got so very, very thirsty, she said she must have some water; so laying the R?j?'s head very gently on the ground she went to the tank. Then the wicked shoemaker's wife, instead of giving her to drink, gave her a push and sent the beautiful R?n? into the water, where she was drowned. The shoemaker's wife then went back to the R?j?, and, taking his head on her knee, sat still until he woke. When the R?j? woke he was much frightened, and he said, "This is not my wife. My wife was not black, and she had two eyes." The poor R?j? felt very unhappy. He said, "I am sure something has happened to my wife." He went to the tank, and he saw flowers floating on the water and he caught them, and as he caught them his own true wife stood before him.

They travelled on till they came to a little house. The shoemaker's wife went with them. They went into the house and laid themselves down to sleep, and the R?j? laid beside him the flowers he had found floating in the tank. The R?n?'s life was in the flowers. As soon as the R?j? and R?n? were asleep, the shoemaker's wife took the flowers, broke them into little bits, and burnt them. The R?n? died immediately, for the second time. Then the poor R?j?, feeling very lonely and unhappy, travelled on to his kingdom, and the shoemaker's wife went after him. God brought the Ph?lmati R?n? to life a second time, and led her to the Indr?san R?j?'s gardener.

One day as the Indr?san R?j? was going out hunting, he passed by the gardener's house, and saw a beautiful girl sitting in it. He thought she looked very like his wife, the Ph?lmati R?n?. So he went home to his father and said, "Father, I should like to be married to the girl who lives in our gardener's house." "All right," said the father; "you can be married at once." So they were married the next day.

One night the shoemaker's wife took a ram, killed it, and put some of its blood on the Ph?lmati R?n?'s mouth while the R?n? slept. The next morning she went to the Indr?san R?j? and said, "Whom have you married? You have married a Rakshas. Just see. She has been eating cows, and sheep, and chickens. Just come and see." The R?j? went, and when he saw the blood on his wife's mouth he was frightened, and he thought she was really a Rakshas. The shoemaker's wife said to him, "If you do not cut this woman in pieces, some harm will happen to you." So the R?j? took a knife and cut his beautiful wife into pieces. He then went away very sorrowful. The Ph?lmati R?n?'s arms and legs grew into four houses; her chest became a tank, and her head a house in the middle of the tank; her eyes turned into two little doves; and these five houses, the tank and the doves, were transported to the jungle. No one knew this. The little doves lived in the house that stood in the middle of the tank. The other four houses stood round the tank.

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