Extra Credit Reading Notes: Folktales of Bengal, Part B

(The boy, the maiden, and the rubies; source: Warwick Goble)

Plot:

• Once upon a time, there lived a Queen and her four sons. She favored her youngest son over the others and gave him the best in everything. This angered the older brothers and they exiled the Queen and their youngest brother to a different house and took control of the kingdom.
• Due to always getting what he wanted, the youngest son was spoiled and wouldn't listen to anybody. One day as he and his mother went to the river, they noticed an empty boat. Despite his mother's protests, the boy insisted that he was going to take the boat and go on an adventure. Eventually, the mother resigned herself to accompanying him.
• The boat went out to sea and approached a whirlpool where the mother and son saw beautiful rubies. Knowing that the value of these rubies were great, the son took a many of them but upon his mother's request, returned all but one. The duo eventually landed on the shore of the capital of a great kingdom and settled down there.
• The boy often used his ruby to play marbles with the king's children. The princess saw this ruby and demanded to her father that she have it. The king fetched the boy and offered him 1,000 rupees for the ruby. The boy, not knowing its true value, consented and gave the ruby to the king.
• The princess wore the ruby in her hair and asked her parrot if she looked beautiful. The parrot disdainfully commented that having only one ruby was ugly and that she should have at least two. The princess became very depressed and threatened that she would kill herself if her father didn't acquire another ruby for her.
• The king summoned the boy and asked him for more rubies upon which the boy said he would travel to the whirlpool in the sea to fetch some in return for great riches. 
• When the boy reached the whirlpool, he went inside it and saw that there was a great palace. In the center chamber of the palace sat Lord Shiva in intense meditation. Above him was a woman whose head was severed from her body. The blood from her head flowed onto Shiva's head and transformed into rubies.
• The boy accidentally jostled the woman, causing her head to rejoin her body. The boy was amazed by her beauty and convinced her to escape with him. They took a basketful of rubies with them and returned to the kingdom where they married each other.
• The princess was ecstatic upon receiving the rubies and decided that she would marry the man who brought them to her. The boy married her as well and lived happily ever after with his two wives.

Characters:

• King - easily manipulated by his daughter, will do anything for her
• Princess - very dramatic, will probably cause problems for the boy and his first wife in the future
• Boy - stubborn, sort of idiotic for not knowing the value of a ruby
• Mother - very passive character, lives with the consequences of spoiling her child, antecedent to the king

Bibliography. Folk-Tales of Bengal by the Rev. Lal Behari Day, with illustrations by Warwick Goble (1912).