Folk-lore of the Telugus - G. R. Subramiah Pantulu

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throwing a world of light on the manners, customs and religious and social condition of the people whose folklore it is. We all know that every good is not without alloy, and that this visible Nature and this common world is so created that the two things—evil and good—co-exist. We cannot get any knowledge in a concentrated form. If this ​be something like a universal law of our present condition, if knowledge, for example, cannot be obtained except by hard and often painful application, if health can be secured only by those who are content to pay the price of steady exercise and strict temperance for it, we need not be surprised if the folklorean study is by no means a purely easy affair, one that can be learnt at first sight. Indian folklore presents very often a thick net-work of the natural and the supernatural which exerts a peculiar talismanic influence on the listener. This blending of the natural and the supernatural has taken possession of the Telugu mind to a very great extent, so much so that the ordinary Telugu person fully believes that there can be no gloomier form of infidelity than that which questions the moral attributes of that Great Being in Whose hands lie the final destinies of us all. His ideas of God's dealings with man are so peculiar to himself that none but those intimately acquiainted with him can rightly understand them.

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      An Un-seasonable Advice

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      FOLK-LORE OF THE TELUGUS.

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      I.

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      AN UNSEASONABLE ADVICE.

      "Sir, I had this tank dug at an enormous expense, but not a drop of water remains in it, and this is why I am feeling grieved." ​ The sage replied:—"Why weep for this? If you mix boiled rice with the blood of a courageous and liberal king, or with the blood from the throat of a revered yogi endowed with all virtuous qualities, and offer it to Durga, whose temple is very near the tank, I dare to say that the water will never dry, and that the tank will be as full as the ocean."

      The king heard these words and thought of the difficulty of getting a king answering the description. Then he thought that the sage himself answered the purpose excellently well, being endowed with all the necessary qualities. So he drew his sword, cut the sage's throat, mingled his blood with boiled rice and made the necessary offering to Durga. From that day forward, the rain stopped in the tank and it was full to the brim.

      Those, therefore, who tender advice to kings must do so in season, for otherwise they will assuredly come to grief.

      1 ↑ * This name in folk-tales, I think, represents always some part of Rajputana—(Ed. Ind. Ant.)

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      The King and the Wrestler

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      II.

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      THE KING AND THE WRESTLER.

      While King Nandana was wielding sway over Malabar a wrestler approached him and said that he had toiled hard and learnt the art of fencing and other similar arts, could fight with wild animals, and could even walk with a huge mountain on his head. But he had found no one, except the king, who could give him the wages due to his powers. He had come, therefore, to the king's presence to represent his grievances and earn a proper livelihood. The king heard him and thought that such a warrior would be serviceable to him, and engaged his services at a hundred pagodas a month.

      There was a huge mountain near the city infested with wild beasts which were causing great havoc among the people. The king, therefore, sent for the wrestler and said:—"You declared, you know, that you could carry a mountain on your shoulders. A mountain ​there is in the neighbourhood, which is the cause of much suffering to the people. Take it away to a distant spot and return hither."

      The wrestler promised obedience and on the next day at dawn, the king took him with his ministers, priest, and a retinue of soldiers to the vicinity of the mountain. The wrestler girded up his waistband, tied his turban and stood ready. The king saw him and asked him why he hesitated, and called upon him to take the mountain on his head and go.

      The wrestler replied:—"Sir, I humbly gave you to understand that I could carry the mountain on my head, but I did not say that I could lift it up. Kindly command your soldiers, therefore, to tear the mountain up and place it on my head, and I will then carry it to whatever place you may command me."

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      The Old Woman, the cock and the chafing dish

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      III.

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      THE OLD WOMAN, THE COCK AND THE CHAFING DISH.

      In tlie village of Pennagarai, on the road from Conjeeveram to Wandiwash, there lived an old woman wlo had a chafing dish and a cock. Day after day at early morn, when the first streaks of light were visible, the cock would crow. All the villagers would then rise, procure fire at her house and go their ways. This state of affairs had run on for a long time, till the old dame took into her head that the day dawned because her cock crew. She observed that all the villagers cooked and ate after getting fire from her house, and she wanted to see how the day could dawn if she quitted the village, and how the villagers would manage to eat. So she went, unknown to anybody in the village, to a wood afar off with her cock and her chafing dish and sat down there. The next morrow, all the villagers arose, came as usual to the old woman's house, ​but not finding her there, thought she must have gone somewhere on some errand, fetched fire from some other quarter and performed each his respective duty. In the meantime the old woman fasted in the wood until dusk, when a villager passed by to some other place on a particular errand. She called to him and said:—"I was not in the village this morning, has it dawned there? Have the people procured fire? Have they all eaten?"

      He laughed and said:—"Do you think that the whole world depends entirely on your cock and your dish ? Why do you sit fasting here? Get up and go home."

      She heard him and was abashed, and renouncing the foolish vanity which had made her think that all the world existed through her, she lived happily.

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