I found the Indian Fairy Tales to be the most intriguing to me. It details the story of the Tiger and the Brahman who seeks the help of the jackal. At first, the Brahman stumbles upon the Tiger who is trapped in a cage. The Tiger pleads for the help of the Brahman and promises to do no harm to him if he will only release the Tiger from the cage. Initially the Brahman struggles with whether to let him out of the cage, but he eventually relents and lets the Tiger out. The Tiger then threatens to kill the Brahman and mocks his foolishness for letting the hungry Tiger out of the cage. The two agree to allow the Brahman to go ask three beings whether or not the Tiger was justified in his actions. If they concluded one way or another, the two would accept the decision.
The Brahman makes his way to ask the opinions of a pipal tree, a buffalo, and the road. Each of the beings determines that he is foolish, and for his foolishness he ought to be killed. On his way back to the Tiger to accept his death, the Brahman was very sad. He caught the attention of the Jackal. The Jackal asked why he was sad, and the Brahman explained his case.
It was at this point that I had an idea of how the story would end. I saw through the Jackal's "stupidity" from the get go. They visited the Tiger, and through the Jackal's cunning he provokes the Tiger to show him exactly how he got stuck in the cage in the first place. At this point the Jackal shuts the cage and the Tiger is stuck again.
 |
| The Tiger, The Brahman, and The Jackal - by John Batten |
Indian Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs with Illustrations by John D. Batten (1912)
No comments:
Post a Comment