Reading Notes: Indian Fables and Folklore, Part B

"Ekalavya and Drona"

  • Summary - Drona taught both the Kauvaras and Pandavas archery. One day a young boy names Ekalavya asked Drona to teach him how to master archery, but Drona refused because Ekalavya was the son on robbers. Ekalavya returned home and made a mold of Drona, that of which was his teacher when he practiced archery. A while later, Drona and his students went hunting in the mountains where the robbers resided. One of their hunting dogs approached the tree where Ekalavya was practicing, so when it started barking at him, Ekalavya shot seven arrows into the dog's mouth to close its mouth without hurting it. The dog went back to Drona, and upon seeing what happened to his dog, Drona went searching for whoever did this. When he found Ekalavya, he asked the boy who taught him his amazing skill. Ekalavya replied that Drona taught him, or the mold of Drona did. As a way to pay his respects to Drona, Ekalavya cut off his right thumb and gave it to Drona as a gift. 

"The Monkey Banker"

  • Summary - A merchant believed that the first step towards moksha was wealth and taught his son such. He gave the son money and sent him away to trade. On his journey, a woman conned the son out of all of his money. To get back the money taken from him, the son got a monkey and some borrowed coins and trained the monkey to swallow the coins and bring up however much money the son asked for. He returned to the woman who stole his money and used that trick if front of her; she believed the monkey had an infinite amount of gold in it. She offered to trade every coin she stole from him in exchange for the monkey. He agreed, so he got all of his money back and conned her in the process.

"The Felon Demon"

  • Summary - While hunting a king shot a boar, but the boar managed to escape into a cave. The king was about to follow the boar into the cave when a hermit warned him of the demon inside. It was possible that the wounded boar was the demon in a different form. One day the king's daughter was picking flowers when the demon kidnapped her. The king ordered his two sons to rescue her, but they could not defeat the demon and were made prisoners as well. As a last resort, the king offered his daughter's hand in marriage to whoever could save her. A prince from a neighboring kingdom volunteered. He fought with the demon for days, but neither had the upper hand in battle. That is, until the princess touched the demon's death-dealing shovel. By touching it, she removed its powers, so the demon was at a disadvantage in battle without it. The prince defeated the demon, rescued the princess, and married her.
Bow and arrow: Wikimedia Commons

Bibliography: Indian Fables and Folklore by Shovona Devi. Part B.
                       Links to each tales above.

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