In this particular unit, there were a lot of supernatural happenings. For instance, in A Ghostly Wife there was a ghost. The ghost in this story was a "trickster." She hid the Brahman's wife in a tree and took her place as the Brahman's wife. She did this by putting on the wife's clothes to fool the Brahman and the mother-in-law and it worked. For some time the ghost lived peacefully with the Brahman and the mother-in-law without raising any suspicions.
Eventually though, the ghost could not resist her supernatural instincts. For an example, when asked to obtain something that was in a different room or far from reach, the ghost would unconsciously stretch her hand several yards distance to get it; this is not something a human-being could do. Having witnessing this, the Brahman and mother-in-law realized that this was a ghost and that they have been tricked. They invited an exorcist and were able to force information out of the ghost about the whereabouts of the wife.
Another trickster in the Bengal Fairy Tales was a young lady in the The Boy whom Seven Mothers Suckled. This young lady used her beauty to trick or blind the king into falling in love with her so that she may be queen. The young lady appeared to be beautiful, innocent, and having good intentions but really she was a Rackshasi, which is a Hindu demon.
The king blind with love married the young lady and made her queen. The young lady had such power over the king; he would do anything for her. For instance, he attempted to kill all seven of his previous queens just for her. The demonic young lady brought mischief and chaos on the kingdom under her ruling.
I guess the moral of this unit is to be careful who you trust.
 |
| (The Ghost and Brahman's Wife) |
No comments:
Post a Comment