Folklore Weaver

A very rich merchant in the Kashmir valley had a very stupid and ignorant son. He engaged the best teachers in the land for him, yet the fellow learned nothing. He was too idle, too careless, too thick-headed to profit by any instruction. He lolled away his time instead. His father gradually lost hope and began to despise him, though his mother was always making excuses for him. When the lad had reached a marriageable age, his mother begged the merchant to seek out a suitable bride for him. The merchant, however, was too ashamed and troubled to say or do anything about his stupid son, and had made up his mind never to get him married. But the mother had set her heart on it. Not to have a son married would be a disgrace; it would also be against their custom and religion. So she urged other excuses on his behalf and spoke of how she had noticed now and again extraordinary traits of wisdom and wit in her son. This sort of talk only infuriated the merchant. He finally said to her one day,...

On the outskirts of a forest, a brother and sister lived in a small mud hut. As their parents had died long ago, it was the brother's duty to find a suitable bridegroom for his sister. It so happened that once a young man from a distant village came hunting to their forest and got lost. At nightfall he came to their house. They gave him shelter, and the sister fell in love with him, and the two were married. The sister soon left with her new husband for his village, which was far away. Months later, the brother wanted to visit them. He gathered fruits and tubers for the journey, asked for directions to the distant village from other villagers, and set out. He had to cross several forests, hills, and valleys. He was walking through a forest when it grew dark. Though he was strong and had his bow and arrows and his pickaxe, he was still afraid of tigers and wild animals. As he sat down tired under a mahul tree (a tropical fruit tree), the tree asked him to come up and rest in its br...

A rich and powerful Raja (King) was convinced in his heart that no one in the world was as powerful as he was. But he told no one about it. One day he began to wonder whether others could guess what he was thinking. So he called together all his officers and servants and asked them to tell him what thought was in his heart. Many of them made guesses, but no one could satisfy the raja with his answer. For Then the raja ordered his dewan (minister) to find him someone who could guess his thought, and he gave the dewan exactly a month's time to find this genius. The dewan searched everywhere, but all in vain, and as the month was coming to a close he grew quite desperate. But he had a right man on the appointed day. The dewan said, 'All right, let's see what you can come up with, and gave over the job to his daughter. When the appointed day arrived, his daughter brought home a simpleton, a shepherd in their employ, and asked her father to take him to the raja. The dewan was ...