Latest / Sandman Stories Presents / EP 293: India- The Bunniah's Wife, The Ruby, The Story of Vikramadit (Dracott)

Transcript

EP 293: India- The Bunniah's Wife, The Ruby, The Story of Vikramadit (Dracott) · Sandman Stories Presents

• 0:25
  Welcome back listeners to Sandman's Stories Presents, a
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  folklore podcast where I read you to sleep or until the next
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  story. I'm your host, Dustin.
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  If you want more Sandman, I have extra stories that are too spicy
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  for the main feed available on my Patreon.
• 0:38
  You can join at the free tier and get everything.
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  And thank you to Alana for being the newest member.
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  And happy late birthday to myself the 15th.
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  Today we are back in the book of Indian folklore written down by
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  Alistair Cott. In the first story a smart woman
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  outwits a thief, in the second we find 3 wise boys who have to
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  solve the mystery of the stolen Ruby.
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  And in the final story we have a dad that gets mad that his
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  daughter doesn't rely on him for everything.
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  He tries to punish her but it blows up in his face.
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  OK, let's begin. The Bunia's wife and the thief.
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  A Bunia or merchant lying awake one night saw a thief enter the
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  room, so he whispered to his wife.
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  Wife, wife, a thief is in the room, what are we to do now his
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  wife was a very clever woman and she replied, why are you waking
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  me? I was having such a fine dream.
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  What did you dream? Asked her husband.
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  I dreamt that I had three fine sons and their names were
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  Mugwani, Haji and Chor. The last name means thief.
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  What silly name? Said the Bunia.
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  How could you call out to them by their names?
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  Of course, she replied. But how would you call Chor if
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  it happened to be at night? What would people think why I
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  would call him like this? Loudly Chor chor and she jumped
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  up and ran out of the room, followed by her husband, the two
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  of them calling chore chore as loudly as they could.
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  The thief, thinking they were only pretending, remained silent
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  under the bed, waiting for their return.
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  They soon came back with a number of friends who caught the
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  thief and took him away to prison.
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  The end. OK, story #2A dying king called
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  his three sons to him and gave each of them a Ruby.
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  Keep this, he said, in remembrance of your father.
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  The three rubies were put into a box and locked up.
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  Sometime afterwards on opening the box only two rubies were
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  found in it, and the third one was missing.
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  Now the three sons knew that had a thief been there, he would
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  have helped himself to all the stones.
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  So they said to themselves, One of our friends has done this,
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  let us go and tell the priest. So they started off together,
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  and on the way they met a man who said, Friends, have you seen
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  my camel? Was it blind, as the eldest
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  brother? Yes, said the man, Had it no
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  tail? Asked the second.
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  You are right, said the man. Was it carrying vinegar,
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  Inquired the third. Yes, replied the man.
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  Did you see it? No, said the brothers, We did
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  not see it. Very strange, replied the man.
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  You know all about it, and yet you did not see it.
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  I will also go to the priest and tell him about you.
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  So they went, and the man told the priest his story.
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  How is it that you 3 know all about the camel, yet you did not
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  see it? Said the priest.
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  Well, said the eldest. I noticed that all the plants
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  and shrubs on the way were only eaten on one side, so I
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  concluded that the animal who had eaten them must have been
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  blind not to see the other side. How did you know that it had no
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  tail? I saw a patch of mud where it
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  sat down, replied the second brother, and there was an
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  imprint of a body, but no tail. The priest then asked the third
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  boy how he knew that the camel was carrying vinegar because all
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  along the road were wet patches which smelt of vinegar.
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  These answers pleased the priest very much and he gave a feast
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  for the brothers. During the feast he sat down and
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  unknown to them watched and listened to find out what they
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  were talking about. The eldest said This grain he
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  has given to us was grown in a cemetery.
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  The second said, and this meat has not killed meat, it is some
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  other flesh. The youngest said the priest
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  himself is a villain. The priest ran out and caught
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  the man who had sold him the grain.
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  Tell me at once, where have you gathered this grain?
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  He demanded. From a cemetery, confessed the
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  man. After this the priest sought the
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  butcher and said, Where did you get that meat that you sold me?
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  Did you kill the sheep? The butcher admitted that it was
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  the flesh of a goat which had dropped dead and had not been
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  killed. Going back, the priest resolved
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  to catch the boys in their own net, and he told them the story
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  of two men and a thief. Now, he said, when he had
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  finished, which one of the three do you prefer?
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  The eldest boy said he liked the one man, and the second said the
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  other, but the third preferred the thief.
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  Well, said the priest, if you prefer the thief, you yourself
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  must be a thief. Where is the third Ruby On this?
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  The boy confessed that he had stolen it, and taking it out of
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  his pocket, restored it to his brother.
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  The three went home together and lived happily ever after.
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  The end. OK and the third story, the
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  story of Vikramadit. A king once asked his daughters
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  to tell him the reason why they were so comfortable and always
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  clothed in fine riment, with jewels to wear and a palace to
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  live in. They all said it is because we
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  are your daughters, O king. But the youngest said, I am what
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  I am through my favourable destiny, and not because I
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  happened to be your daughter. If good fortune be destined for
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  us, we shall have it under any circumstances.
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  At this the king was very angry and said, Leave my palace at
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  once and see what your own luck will do for you.
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  Methinks your lucky stars will cease to shine once you have
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  left my palace. But in order to humiliate her
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  further, he determined to get her married to the poorest man
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  in the Kingdom and one who is weak and sickly and about to
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  die. He therefore sent his servants
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  to bring the first sickly looking pauper they could find.
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  Now it happened about this time that one Vikramadit, a holy
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  medicant, was laying outside the palace gates, stricken with a
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  great suffering and almost at the point of death.
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  And they brought him as the most suitable man for the young
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  Princess, to Mary, the poor beggar.
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  Vikramadit was in reality a great king who once reigned over
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  the ancient and holy city of Ujjain.
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  But he had abdicated his throne in order to become a sannyasi,
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  or a begging fakir, and was then on a pilgrimage to Kasai, the
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  holy city of Barnaris, where he hoped to pass the rest of his
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  days in prayer and the deeds of charity for which he was well
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  known. The sickness with which he was
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  stricken down at the gates of the King's palace was caused
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  through his great love of God's creatures, and it happened in
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  this way. One day he was walking along,
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  footsore and tired, and a snake came up to him and said, Can you
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  give me some water to drink, for I am dying of thirst, Wickerman
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  replied. I have no water in my gourd,
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  having just drank it. But if you promise not to harm
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  me, you may creep down my throat and into my body, and there
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  drink your fill and return satisfied.
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  This the snake promised, but instead of returning, it
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  remained within him and refused to come back.
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  All that the beggar ate passed into the mouth of the snake, and
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  in this way he soon found himself unable to travel and
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  obliged to rest, suffering at the same time great agonies from
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  starvation and thirst. When the King's servants found
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  and brought him to the palace, the young Princess was there and
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  was forced to marry Vikram Madit and expelled from the town with
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  her beggar husband. Both king and queen expressed a
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  hope at the parting that she would soon learn her lesson,
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  that it was all due to them alone that she fared so well.
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  Hitherto. As Vikramadit could not travel
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  very far owing to weakness, she took shelter in the first small
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  Hut she could find and stayed there trying to alleviate his
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  suffering. Now near this Hut was a mound of
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  earth in which a snake dwelt in the evenings, as is usual in
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  India, the snake came out of his hole and stood on the mound of
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  the earth where he hissed violently.
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  The snake that lived inside Vikramadit heard the sound and
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  hissed in reply and they began a conversation.
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  The snake on the mound said, You traitor, you were given
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  permission to drink the water, and this is how you treat the
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  Holy Fakir and break your promise to return without doing
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  him any harm. You shall now be given a certain
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  seed to eat, which will entirely destroy your body and you will
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  die in agony. The other snake replied, You
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  miser, you dog and the Manger, who live over a mound beneath
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  which lies vast treasures and priceless jewels.
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  You know that you cannot use them yourself, and yet you allow
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  nobody else to touch them. Your end will be that a woman
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  will kill you by pouring boiling milk and butter over you.
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  The young wife heard these two snakes denouncing each other,
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  and determined to act upon what she had overheard.
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  When leaving her father's house, she managed to hide on a person
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  a small Pearl ring, and this she now pawned for a small sum of
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  money and purchased milk and butter.
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  Warming these to a boiling point, she went over at midday
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  and poured them into the snake's hole.
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  In the mound. She also sought the seed which
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  would kill the snake her husband had swallowed, and gave it to
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  him to eat. Thus both snakes were killed,
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  and all danger from them ceased to exist.
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  Vikramadit, after destruction of the snake, improved rapidly, and
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  soon regained his health and strength.
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  The young wife now turned her attention to the mound of earth
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  beneath which lay buried treasures.
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  She employed a few men to dig, and as soon as they unearthed
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  several guruas, or earthen vessels full of priceless gems,
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  With these she went away, and very soon founded a great city,
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  over which she made her Lord king.
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  Thus Vikramadit once more reigned as a king, and no queen
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  was more famous than the young Princess who had been so cruelly
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  cast adrift by her father. The old father heard of this new
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  king, and of all the riches in splendour of his court and
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  queen, and he sent men to inquire if it were really true
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  that his daughter was really as great as people had reported.
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  The men returned and said, O king, her riches, the
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  magnificence of her palace and court, surpass all we have
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  heard. She is indeed a great queen and
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  has founded a mighty city. Then the king owned his mistake,
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  and said my daughter was right when she said her greatness was
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  due more to her individual luck than to the mere fact that she
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  happened to be born my daughter. For has she not, in spite of all
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  my ill treatment of her, risen to be queen not of a small
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  Kingdom such as mine, but of a world renowned Kingdom?
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  The moral of the story is, thy kismet is thy fate.
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  When that is good, the most unfavourable circumstances, or
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  the deepest gloom cannot prevent it asserting itself.
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  The end. I liked all of these stories.
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  The first one was cute and funny.
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  The second one made me think the three brothers being very smart
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  is one of my favorite stories. And the last story reminded me
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  of another story from this book entitled Fate, where the
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  daughter says she lives on her own fate instead of that of her
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  father. Dads in these books can't seem
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  to stand a daughter not being reliant on them.
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  And I've got many more stories in here so we'll keep
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  continuing. And the podcast Shout out is to
• 14:08
  the Scottish Murders. It is a Twice award shortlisted
• 14:12
  fortnightly podcast that brings light to the stories of murder
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  victims from or living in Scotland and the relentless
• 14:18
  pursuit of justice in solved and unsolved cases, and is
• 14:22
  sensitively and respectfully hosted by Dawn.
• 14:25
  She does a really good job of staying respectful and if you
• 14:29
  like her show as much as I do, go and give her a like a rating
• 14:32
  and a review. And the listener shout out is to
• 14:36
  Cottageville, SC, traditional land of Nanaches Cuso tribe,
• 14:42
  first written of in 1670. They have lived by the Edisto
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  River for so long that they were referred to as the Edisto
• 14:48
  Indians. The current population of the
• 14:51
  town is 711 people as of 2023. In 2011, the former mayor had a
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  confrontation with the sheriff that ended with the former mayor
• 15:00
  dying. The police officer had been
• 15:04
  fired from four previous positions.
• 15:07
  The jury awarded the former mayor's family $94,000,000.
• 15:13
  And it would be fun to stop off in this town.
• 15:17
  It seems like a very small town, but it could be fun to visit
• 15:20
  there. And so to my 1 listener in
• 15:23
  Cottageville, I say thank you and good night.