Indian Fables

Vetalam dan Vikramaditya (2020)
Author: Uthaya Sankar SB 

I remember a time when a newly married couple rented a room in our house. My sister and I, 4 and 6 years old, respectively, were dying to hear the wife's stories that she did tell without fail every evening, with our persuasion, of course. She had a peculiar way of making us glued to her stories. We affectionately addressed her as ‘Atteh’ (Auntie, father’s sister or maternal uncle’s wife). 

Every evening, after she had her shower as she returned from work, it was storytime. Her stories usually carried a message, and many of them were Indian folk tales, including ‘Vetalam and Vikramaditya’. 

‘Vetalam and Vikramaditya’ stories always carry a moral dilemma that needs critical thinking. We were often disappointed as she never told us the answers to the questions she put forward. She would ask us to think carefully.

That is the thing about these stories. Legend has it (it is probably a historical statement now) that King Vikramaditya was a King based in Ujjain. A fun fact is that Ujiian in Madhya Pradesh is sometimes referred to as the navel of Earth or Greenwich of India. Before 1884, as per a 4th-century treatise, Ujjian was considered the prime meridian. Even today, the panchangayam (Hindu almanack) is based on Ujjian time (29 minutes behind IST).

Vikramaditya in Ujjian

Many kings took the honorary title of Vikramaditya. Hence, there was confusion about who the real Vikramaditya was. It is agreed that he probably ruled around the first century BC under the Vikrama Samrat era.

In the 'Vetalam and Vikramaditya' stories, King Vikramaditya is summoned by priests to capture a playful and sly demon from a cemetery by daybreak. The King manages to trap the demon, Vetalam. The trouble was that the talkative imp had a penchant to escape from the clutches of the King. The King was relentless, however. The demon made a deal with Vikramaditya. It would narrate stories that would need answers, to which the King had to answer. The King's head would explode if he gave the wrong, but Vethalam would escape if the answer is right.

The night goes on with Vedalam telling stories, expecting answers, the King giving the correct answer, Vethalam escaping, King capturing him again, and Vethalam starting a new story. Thus it went on the whole night. By the way, the King was not allowed to speak. It was done telepathically. Towards early morning, they had built a rapport and joined forces to crack the priests' ulterior motives.

One of the stories is similar to the story of P Ramlee's 'Keluarga 69' and K Balachander's ' Apoorva Ragam', where no answer is expected. One cannot put a name to a relationship when a King marries the daughter of a mother who marries the Prince. The offspring of the King, if it is a son, is also a stepbrother of the Prince and grandchild to the King's daughter-in-law; very confusing! 

P.S. A Tamil proverb describes a person who is unsuccessfully trying to reform as 'Vethalam recoiling into a marunga tree'.

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Could be a page from Mahabharata..

Duvidha (Dilemma, Hindi; 1973)
Director: Mani Kaul

Watching this movie is akin to a voyeur spying upon his neighbour. The camera work is peculiar in that it sometimes takes shots of the face over a long period, sometimes only at body parts or inanimate structures. The scripts delivered are like rote reading without emotion, as one would hear a conversation at a distance. Nevertheless, these add to this presentation's exclusivity and an arty feel.

In a way, it reminds me of the story of Ahalya, found in Ramayana. Ahalya, the prettiest woman, carved out by Brahma, was married to an old sage, Gautama. Gautama is more interested in fulfilling his spiritual duties rather than spending time embraced in intimacy with his young wife. So, when the lustful Indra, the God of the skies, appeared in a split image of Gautama, the sex-deprived Ahalya performed by wifely duties willingly. Gautama had a premonition of all these, cut short his prayers and returned home to catch them in the act. Ahalya and Indra were cursed by Gautama. Ahalya turned into stone, only to have the curse reversed when Rama's foot brushed Ahalya, the rock, during his walk in the jungle. Indra was cursed to carry a thousand of his favourite pastime, vaginas. It was later changed to a thousand eyes.

Painting of Ahalya

This movie, based on Rajasthani folklore, threads along with a similar narrative initially only to resolve on a slightly different path. A pair of young newlyweds return home on a bullock cart. The wife wants to taste the succulent fruit of a giant tree. Despite being prevented from doing so by the husband, the one-track-minded girl plucks and savours the fruit. The spirit of the tree falls hopelessly in love with the enchanting bride.

The Cursed Lord Indra with a thousand eyes

The young groom makes it clear that his priority is to make money and will leave for work the following day. He would be home for the next five years. Seeing the husband go, the tree ghost assumes the form of the husband and lives with the wife. The spirit is truthful in confessing his intent and spills out his heart's content for her. The wife, incensed that her real husband is more interested in acquiring wealth, leaving her for years rather than spending passionate time with her, plays along. The ghost and the wife lived together in absolute for years. The husband returns at the end of five years only to find his wife in labour.

How he, his family and the community resolve this problem is the rest of the story, and it does not involve cursing and petrification.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Hungry like a wolf! (for stories)

Nari! Nari!
(Untuk Bacaan Rakyat Malaysia)
Uthaya Sankar SB

The moment the author started narrating part of his story at a book reading event recently, I was transported back to the late 1960s. My sister and I, both toddlers, enjoying the spring of lives, without a care or worry in our lists, were living in bliss in Brown Gardens. This is one of my earliest memory of my childhood that I can remember. Puthu Atteh (new aunt), the newly married lady (then) with an infectious toothy smile, was renting a room in my parent's abode. Every living day was a day filled with adventure, exploring new nature's gift to game play. With our neighbour's battalion of kids of two families, we played 'masak-masak' - 'cooking' up a dishes with leaves, drain water and twigs! and 'robbers and thieves' - hiding behind trees and in culverts!

Night-time was out of bounce for games and we were homebound. To let our imagination go wild, there were Puthu Atteh's children stories.

Till this day, I remember many of her stories. I was pleasantly surprised when one of her stories was narrated in this book. It is the story of two bosom buddies, a monkey and a crocodile. This unlikely friendship helped each other discover the other's world of living. They were so close that the crocodile's wife was jealous of their friendship that she faked a disease which could only be cured by ingestion of monkey liver! And guess who had the unenviable task of garnering the monkey liver, Mr. Crocodile! The climax of the story is how Mr. Monkey outwits Mr. Crocodile. I remember how the ending created a lot of debate with Puthu Atteh, on the authenticity and credibly of the story.  We were told just to accept the tale. It was, after all, just a story!

Anyway, this small well-illustrated book is a perfect book for young readers to stimulate their imagination and creativity. 'Nari Nari' means 'Wolf Wolf' in Tamil. It is a compilation of many short folklores. No, there is no 'Cry Wolf' story! 

Folklores used to be an old age tool to keep children entertained and to keep them pre-occupied, out of the way, whilst the adults kept the tribe going. It is interesting that even though civilisations sprung independent of each other, devoid of contact with the another, they still have many common elements. The wolf is always portrayed as the devious, conniving, cunning and sometimes brutal animal who uses his wit rather than his might to get things his way or to escape precarious situations! In Oriental, Indo-European, Persian, Finnish, North American, African and Old European cultures, the image is the same. Maybe, these traits must have been unveiled by Man during their cavemen days when the interaction with the elements of Nature was much closer. The pack of wolves were fighting for the same place under the Sun with a family of hominids!

** Wolves and their not-so-distant cousins, the Foxes share many traits. The Wolves, however, carry a much darker images of greed, evil and destruction. Even the Abrahamic scriptures have not spared these creations of God.