Son in laws occupy a special position in Indian house holds. He is always welcomed as an important and special guest of the family and offered with choicest gifts, clothes, and food delicacies, whenever he visits his wife’s parental home.  He addressed as Jamai in Hindi or Javai or pahuna literally meaning guest in rural Maharashtra in Marathi and Zavuim in Konkani.  However, he is also a target of ridicule and the butt of many jokes . In Goa, a tiny state in western India there are many folktales dedicated to the Son-in law presenting him as foolish, greedy, outright ignorant, and even as a dullard and therefore a target of mockery.

Here is a story that gives an idea of the social jibes meted out to the son in law, subtly humiliating his position and unwarranted pride.

The son in law had arrived during lunch time and mother in law hurried to the kitchen to set up a menu. It happened to be a Monday, and the family followed the routine of a strictly vegetarian lunch on Monday’s . Since it was a vegetarian meal, the mother in law had cooked few additional dishes to satiate the palate of the son in law. The table was loaded with local varieties of traditional delicacies. Vegetarian dishes like Khatkhatem ( mixed vegetable stew), tambadi bhaji  vegetable made of amaranth stalks freshly cut from the backyard garden, potato, lentils soups, raw mango curry, and pilau made out of best variety of basamati rice, along with side dishes in the form of chutneys, pickles, and salads were on the table along with the customary Sol kadhi  or  coconut milk curry. The son in law feasted on each and every dish lovingly served on to his plate. There was hardly any space left in his bulging tummy but his greed did not allow him to stop. And when he was about to belch, the mother in law came with a pot full of vermicelli payasam. “Try this son. Even gods can’t resist this sweet dish” she said trying to pour the sweet milky white porridge on to his plate.

Now the son in law had never seen or tasted vermicelli payasam before. He was repelled to see vermicelli that appeared like  worms in the milk and shouted “ NO! I don’t like it Mother in law. Please excuse me.” blocking his hands over the plate . Confused and disappointed mother in law stopped midway, and quietly walked back to kitchen after serving others in the family. Son in law looked around and saw every one was happily relishing the dish served on their plates. “What is so special about this dish that even gods love it” he thought to himself.

Then he saw few drops of milk syrup had dripped on his palm. He looked around and quickly licked the syrup from his palm. “ Hmmm… this really tastes divine. He thought to himself as the taste lingered in his mouth. He thought regretfully “I should have listened to mother in law and eaten that sweet”. But it was too late.

There are some stories you never forget. I heard this story from my grandmother.

There is a belief in the Indian subcontinent that on the the sixth day of a child’s birth, Goddesses of fate or Vidhidevata writes down the fate of the child on his or her forehead. Among the Christian community in Goa the sixth day of child’s birth is celebrated with a ladainha or litany of Virgin Mary. On this day and the following night a strict vigil is organised by the family members. It is believed, if the mother falls asleep on this day, Satvai or goddess of fate snatches away the life of the new born child. The new born child and the mother is placed/hid in the darkest room of the house, under the watchful eye of a midwife. Family members and neighbours kept vigil by singing songs and telling stories about fate. Chips of fresh coconut and boiled grams are distributed among the people.* Vidhi or fate is imagined as a woman called ‘Vidhiamman’ in South India, and ‘Satvai’ in Maharashtra and Goa, and ‘Setvi tayi’ in north Kannada.

The following story is a told during the sixth day of the vigil for new born in Goa.*

Once upon a time, there was a young King and his Queen with his two new born sons ruling the land. The King was very was popular among his subjects for his bravery as well as his good governance and fair justice. His subjects were very happy and in his kingdom there was peace and prosperity. Everything was going well for the King and Queen and they enjoyed the blissful life for which they thanked god.

One day as the Queen was seated in her garden playing with her young sons, a bird darted into the garden and began fluttering around the trees and flowers. All of a sudden it flew to the Queen and perched on her shoulder and whispered in her ear “Ask your husband when should I come? Now or later?” The Queen was puzzled, but ignored the bird. The next day the bird came again, buzzed around the trees for a while and then flew close to the Queen and whispered in her ear “Oh ! Queen did you ask your husband? When should I come, now or later?” Bewildered and scared the Queen reported to her husband about this strange bird. King was intrigued by the bird’s message, but he consoled his queen “ Don’t worry my dear. If the the bird comes again and asks you the same question tell her to come now. Let us see what happens”.

So next day the Queen waited for the bird. And sure enough it flew into the garden just like the day before. As usual it flew all over the place and then sat on her shoulder and asked “ So ,My dear Queen, did you ask the king when I should come?” The Queen promptly replied ” Oh bird! I don’t understand your question but my husband the King of this great land has asked me to tell you that you can come now.”

Hearing Queen’s words the bird flapped its wings and said “ So be it”, and launched itself into the palace through the front door, flew around and through each and every room of the palace and vanished out of back door, never to be seen again. Meantime Queen and the King forgot all about the strange bird and got on with their lives. Soon, the king’s fortune took a turn for worse. That year the kingdom came under a severe draught followed by a famine. People began to die due to hunger. The King tried to help his people by opening his granary and offering it his subjects but it too did not help. The neighbouring King attacked the kingdom and King and Queen tried to flee their country.The King is caught and disgraced and separated from his wife, who is sold off as a maid servant. Suffering, defeat, exile, and poverty became their life.

Many years passed, and finally one of their sons who grew up to become wealthy managed to rescue his parents and thus they were united at last, old and weak. As the old King hugged his Queen, she asked ,” Didn’t you know when the bird asked when she should come, she implied our fate? Why did you not ask the bird to come later?

King replied, “ My dear wife, the wheel of fate is inescapable.  Not even the great and brave Pandavas could escape their fate of misfortune. It is better to face your misfortune when you are young and capable than in your older age, and hence, when the bird who was none other than the goddess of fate asked whether she should come now or later, I said come now, because I preferred to face and bear misfortune during my younger days than when I am old and weak”.
* The ritual of keeping vigil on the sixth day of birth of new born is no longer observed in Goan homes.

Story collected by Vidya Kamat
Text Source: as told by grandmother- Sitabai Panandiker ; also see Collected essays of AK. Ramanujan Ed by Vinay Dharwadker
Location: Goa, Karnataka

Very little is known about the personal life of Kalidasa, one of the greatest Sanskrit poet and dramatist of India. Many scholars have propounded that Kalidasa might have lived around 4th and 5th CE under the patronage of Chandragupta II. It is said, Kalidasa is the poet’s pseudonym and not the birth name. Interestingly there are many folklores about the playwright, explaining how he transformed from a village simpleton into the greatest poet and writer of India, authoring classic plays like Abhijyanshakuntalam, Malavikagnimitram, and poems such as Raghuvamsha, Kumarsambhav, and Meghadutam to mention the few from his oeuvre

Following oral narrative was told to me by a friend from Kerala. There was a boy in a village in Kalinga who never got the opportunity to get an education as his parents died when he was a small child. The village children took great pleasure in bulling him for being an uneducated simpleton. As he grew up the villagers considered him to be a dimwit.

One day the princess, a beautiful and arrogant woman as she was, announced that she would marry only a man who could match her intelligence. Many eligible men and scholars approached the princess seeking her hand in marriage, but she belittled all of them by her sheer brilliance and intelligence. This infuriated the men in the village and they decided to play a wicked game by sending the dimwit boy as the eligible groom for the princess. They dressed up the dimwit in elegant clothes and brought him to the palace and presented him as the wisest man of the town, who was observing a strict vow of silence and communicate only through gestures. The men had tutored the dimwit to communicate through gestures. Princesses interrogated the dimwit who replied through the gestures he had learned. The princess misinterpreted his gestures as profound responses to her questions. Pleased with his answers, princess married him.

After a whole day of wedding celebrations, at nightfall as the princess entered the royal bed chamber in anticipation eagerly wanting to share her thoughts with her husband. But she was shocked to hear the dimwit respond with incomprehensible statements backed with foolish grins to her romantic overtures. To her horror, she realised that she has married a dolt and how the jilted countrymen had played a cruel joke on her by presenting a dullard as a wise man under a vow of silence. The angry princess stomped out of the bed chamber after insulting the foolish young man by calling him a donkey.

The dimwit was deeply hurt by the princesse’s words and he left the palace sorrowfully and vowed to return one day as a great scholar and poet. But how? He had no education, no knowledge or wisdom to be a writer. The villagers advised him to approach goddess of knowledge for help.

He went to the Kali temple and decided to pray to the goddess to make him into an intelligent man. Foolish as he was, he went to the Kali temple, got directly inside the sanctum sanctorum, bolted the door from inside and started praying. But the Goddess who had stepped out to visit her devotees, when she returned to her abode, she found herself locked out. She knocked on the door but the dimwit would not open it. After hours of knocking and waiting, she asked him what he wanted in return for opening the door. The dimwit haltingly narrated his plight and pleaded with all his heart to her to bestow intelligence and knowledge on him. The Goddess was moved by his sincerity and his wish to be a man of culture and knowledge and for not coveting worldly riches or power. She asked him to stick out his tongue through a gap in the door and the goddess wrote her name on his tongue with her finger nail. Thus he was endowed with great knowledge of Sanskrit language and poetic intuition and he began composing poems in praise of the great Goddess Kali.

From then on he called himself ‘Kalidasa’ which means the servant of Goddess Kali , and went on to author the great classics of Sanskrit literature that have stood the test of time..
Story collected by Vidya Kamat
Source: as told by a friend  P Radhakrishanan
Location: Kerala
Image copyright: Vidya Kamat

In Andhra Pradesh, women sing tales from Ramayana in the privacy of their homes. However, they narrate Ramayana from the women’s perspective highlighting interpersonal relationships, rather than the war scenarios. Thus female characters are the main focus of their telling. For Instance Kausalya’s birth pangs, Sita’s bidai, and the wedding night of Sita and Rama get a lot more attention in these songs . Women’s Ramayana also openly blame Rama for Sita’s plight. They recall how Rama’s envy and suspicion of Sita’s character led to Sita’s banishment. The story is known as the revenge of Shurpanakha .The narrative begins when Rama, Sita and Lakshman have returned to Ayodhya after defeating Ravana.
Shurpanakha, the sister of Ravana, is angry and feels humiliated for Lakshman has cut her nose and ears and further more, her powerful brother Ravana, was killed in the war. Shurpanakha feels she needs to take revenge on Rama. Being a women, she is no match to Rama’s strength and skill in battlefield, and the only way she can belittle Rama is by disturbing his peace of mind and happiness. Identifying Sita, as the root cause of all her pain and tribulations, she decides to humiliate Sita to take revenge on Rama .
Taking the form of a hermitess Shurpanakha goes to Ayodhya, where Rama is now ruling as the King. She goes to Sita’s palace and asks for Sita stating she had met Sita during her days of exile in the forest. Sita is little hesitant to meet her, as she can not recollect any past meeting, but after some persuasion from her aides Sita agrees to meet the hermitess.
Hermitess asks Sita, about Ravana. “Oh great Queen can you describe the wicked Ravana to me ? Can you draw his picture for me” Asks Shurpanakha in disguise. “ No holy lady! I never looked at Ravana? replies Sita. But hermitess is adamant “ Try to remember Ravana for me Oh Queen!. I am sure you must have seen something of him ” Shurpanakha insists. But Sita replies she never set eyes on Ravana as she looked only at his feet. Hermitess encourages her to draw whatever she recollects of Ravana, so Sita draws the picture of Ravana’s big toe.
Shurpanakha then completes the picture –depicting Ravana as a handsome man with a broad shoulders and chest, with strong ankles and thighs. She then pleads Brahma the creator of life, to breath life into the picture so that she can fondly remember her dead brother in this life like image. Not knowing her ulterior design Brahma breaths life into the image which immediately comes alive. Shurpanakha now brings the picture to Sita’s palace and drops it at her feet and runs away saying, “ Do what you want with this picture”.

There are some questions in Ramayana that have remained a mystery. For instance, why the wicked and powerful Ravana, who was known for abducting and sexually assaulting wives of other kings could not force himself upon Sita after abducting her to Lanka?

Valmiki’s Ramayana describes a number of occasions when Ravana tries to threaten Sita and coerce her to surrender to his whim and fancy. But she remains unmoved and unaffected by his threats and cajoling.What could be the reason the mighty Ravana could not subdue gentle Sita’s mind and body?

In the Vanaparva of Mahabharat (280), Sage Vaishampayan narrates the following incident to King Janmejaya, and throws light on the above mystery to reveal why Ravana could not succeed in taking advantage of Sita.

After abducting and carrying off Sita to Lanka, Ravana kept her captive in Ashokavana surrounded by demonesses. The terrifying demonesses threatened Sita in all possible ways demanding Sita, surrender to Ravana as he was the most powerful King. But Sita categorically refused the demands by saying “Besides Rama I would not let any man touch my body”. To break Sita’s will, these demonesses began to torture her mentally and physically. Only demonesses Trijata, was sympathetic to the plight of Sita.

Trijata was not only kind to Sita, but she also assured Sita not to fear Ravana’s threats as he would never be able to touch her without her consent. When Sita, asked the reason why Trijata was so certain about this, Trijata replied, “Oh Sita, You would always be protected by Nalakubar’s curse that is holding back Ravana”. “And why did Nalakubar curse Ravana?” asked Sita, and Trijata replied “Once Ravana violated Rambha, the wife of Nalakubar and the daughter of Kuber, without her consent. When Nalakubar came to know of this he became livid with rage. He cursed Ravana that if he ever touches a woman without her consent, his head would splinter into a thousand pieces.” Ravana was bound by this curse and could no longer force himself upon any woman without her consent. Trijata assured Sita that she would be safe as long as she remains steadfast in her devotion to Ram, who would come and rescue her from Ravana’s captivity.

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Story Collected by: Vidya Kamat
Text Source: Mahabharatachi Shapvani by R. Bhide ( Marathi)
Location: Pan India
Image Copyright: Vidya Kamat

In the kingdom of Gauda there lived two bachelor friends. One was a weaver and the other a mechanic, who designed chariots. Both were highly skilled in their professions and made a good amount of money through their work. Every day they would work till afternoon and by evening they would spend their time going out for night merry making, eating, drinking, and watching best of the dance performances in the town. They lived a very lavish life and everyone in town envied their lifestyle.

Once during a festival in town the two friends dressed in their finest clothes, wore an expensive perfume, put on their slick polished shoes, and went down to the town square bustling with people and fair festivities. Women and children jostled through the crowd peeping at the various curios and goods that were for sale. As the two friends lazily strolled through crowded square, the weaver happened to glance at the balconies where young daughters of rich and wealthy families stood watching the fanfare below. The weaver caught sight of a most beautiful girl standing along with her friends, and was mesmerised by her beauty.

Once there lived a wealthy couple in a village in India. Married for many years, they longed for a child. They performed all kinds of holy deeds and went on pilgrimages begging gods to gift them a child. Years passed by and finally they were blessed with a baby girl. The couple were over joyed and named her Kuttalavva. The wealthy couple would dot on their daughter by buying her all the best things in the town. Soon Kuttalavva grew up into a beautiful maiden having the best saris and dresses and jewellery in her collection. As she came of age, the couple got her married to a wealthy Sahukar in the nearby town. But fate had her own designs. One day all of a sudden, Kuttalavva fell ill and died. The old couple were heart broken and so was the whole village as they mourned her untimely demise. They took her body to the village cremation ground and performed the last rites.

Days went by and the old couple gradually reconciled themselves to their fate. Then one day a strange man came into town with a bundle of firewood on his head . He walked around the town trying to sell the firewood but none was interested in buying his firewood. It was mid afternoon and the man was hungry and tired and he had not yet sold his merchandise. Dejected and frustrated, the man came to the couple’s house and placed the bundle of firewood on the ground, cursing his fate for a bad day, he asked the lady for some water. The old lady fetched a tumbler of water and enquired “Oh stranger, from where have you come?”

Tired and frustrated man replied “Oh lady don’t ask me that. I came from the burning ghats and I am going back there?’ The lady knew burning ghats is where her only child Kuttalavva was laid to rest. In jest she asked him “Burning ghats is where my daughter is living. Do you know her by any chance? How is she doing ?”

“Oh yes! your daughter Kuttalavva is our next-door neighbour.” replied the man without looking at the lady.

In a deep jungle, an ageing lion king took ill. News of his illness spread across the jungle among his animal subjects, and soon all animals started gathering before the lion’s den to pay their respects and enquire after his well being. Mr Fox was too engrossed chasing hens on a nearby farm and did not think his absence at the gathering would get noticed by the lion king. “ No one will miss my presence if I don’t pay a courtesy visit to the King, who any way may die soon”, so thought Mr Fox. But Mrs Fox was a meddlesome woman, she noticed that her husband had skipped his duties and was happily hunting hens on the nearby barnyard. She was a great gossipmonger and could not withhold secrets. So when she went to pay her respects to the lion king, she whispered in his ears how her husband had erred by not showing up to check on his health. The lion was incensed to learn about the uncivil behaviour of Mr Fox. Though ill and weak, he gathered his strength and roared “Guards! Bring that rascal fox before me! He shall pay for his uncouth behaviour towards his king”. Two tigers who were the king’s guards bolted through the jungle in search of Mr Fox.

Meanwhile, Mr Fox got wind of King’s decree and his imminent arrest. “ This is all happening because of Mrs Fox ‘s habit of gossip-mongering. I must make her pay for this” mumbled Mr Fox grinding his teeth in anger. He then set out with an empty burlap sack on his back collecting paper scraps and notes strewn on the streets. Soon he had collected enough papers chits to fill the sack. He reached home and waited to pretend to read each and every paper chit with great care as if he was searching for some important solution. As he was busy scanning through the paper notes, the two tiger guards reached his home and announced “ Mr Fox, You are under arrest. You will face a trial before the lion king’s court for showing disloyalty and disrespect towards your King. You are hereby arrested for treason.”

Once there lived a King by the name of Vijay Chandra in the Kingdom of Dolakpur. He was a rich, cunning, and wicked man and had the bad habit of harassing his attendants. He would take great pleasure in assigning them jobs beyond their capacity. Tired and overburdened by the King’s assignments, servants would ask him to release them from their job. And then he would chop off their right ear, and put it in a jar filled with preservatives before setting them free. The servants were helpless and many of them lost their ears, but could not raise their voice against the King. The people of Dolakpur lived in fear and terrified of their King’s whims and fancies.

One day a boy from another kingdom came to Dholakpur. He was puzzled and amused to see many people with their right ear missing. When he asked them the mystery behind the missing ear, they narrated how their King tortured his servants by chopping off their right ear.

The boy decided to take up the challenge and approached the King asking for work as his domestic help. The King, as usual, laid the condition for working at the palace. But before agreeing to King’s conditions the boy said, “ Your honour! According to your condition, you can chop my ear if I leave the job, which is agreeable to me. But I too have a condition for you. If you fire me from the job, I will demand your ear”. King laughed with contempt after hearing the boy’s condition and gave him the job at his palace as a personal attendant.

Muladeva was a natural-born charlatan. He led his life by tricking people with his riddles, and especially influencing women who would fall for his tricks. But soon enough he would lose interest in the women and move on to the next town searching for more gullible people he could prey upon. One day Muladeva decided to visit Pataliputra along with his friend. “ We have fooled most of the naive people in our area. Let us go to a big city like Pataliputra, and try our luck” said Muladeva to his friend. But having reached Patliputra, he was in for a rude shock. In Patliputra a very beautiful, and intelligent young woman, made a fool of Muladeva with her riddles. Muladeva was deeply embarrassed as he lost his face in front of the townspeople. Crestfallen Muladeva vowed, “ I must marry this clever woman who humiliated me in front of so many people. I have to pay her back in kind with her own game of tricks.” He asked around and soon found out that she is a Brahmin’s daughter, well known for her wit and cleverness.