Indian Antiquary Vol 22

SR No.: 032514
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Richard Carnac Temple
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 442
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 19 MB

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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[OCTOBER, 1893.
believe them and had their house searched, and finding the girl delivered her over to the executioner, 11
They were about to kill her in the forest, when an old Dom said to the others :
“What is the good of killing such a pretty girl for the sake of a few rupees. Let us spare her life and reach paradise (swarga); even if we kill her, the Raja won't give us his ráj for our trouble. Let us kill a goat and take its heart to the queen and she will be cared."12 The others obeyed his words and spared the life of the girl. When they took the goat's heart to the queen, she recovered at once.
The Princess Fireflower then went on to Brindaban Khakharapar, and there with her hand she struck four blows upon the earth, when a splendid palace appeared and there she lived. She kept several parrots and used to amuse herself by teaching them to say Râm ! Ram”! 13
A long time after the old Râjâ and his son, the Prince, came into the forest to hunt, and being thirsty came to the palace for water and the Princess entertained them hospitably. At night they slept in the portico, and early in the morning, while they were half-asleep, the parrots began to talk to each other, and they told how the Prince had brought Princess Fireflower, and how the handmaid had cheated him, and became queen, and how the life of the Princess had been saved, and how she had come to the palace.14
At this the Raja and the Prince were much astonished, and going at once to the Princess Fireflower, asked her if all this was true. She began to shed tears and told them the whole story from beginning to end. They brought her home in triumph.
Then the Rajá had a deep pit dog and buried the false queen alive. The Prince and Princess Fireflower lived happily ever after, and the Rajâ became a Sannyasi faqir and made over his kingdom to them.
As Paramobar overruled the fate of Princess Fireflower, so may he do to all of us.15
FROG-WORSHIP AMONGST THE NEWARS, WITH A NOTE ON THE
ETYMOLOGY OF THE WORD NEPAL.',
BY A. L. WADDELL, M.B., M. E. A. S. In his work on Népal, Dr. (Buchanan.) Hamilton incidentally noted that the Newars worship frogs. I have ascertained some interesting details of this worship.
The Ndwars are the aborigines of Népal Proper, that is, of the valley in which the present capital Khâțmandu stands; and their present tribal name appears to be of territorial origin. The etymology of the word Népal seems to me to be thus accounted for :--The whole of the hill territory of the Gôrkhâs is called by the Non-Hinduized hillmen of the Himalayas
11 The word in the original is Dom, the most degraded caste, who act as executioners, 12 This, it need hardly be said, is a stock folktale incident. 15 The onmmon form of invoortion and salutation, constantly taught to parrote.
14 These guardian, friendly parrots appear in many of the tales as dei ex machind : Bee The Wonderful Ring in Templo's Wideawake Stories, 205.
10 This is the common refrain of the rustic story teller. [This tale is interesting as to the following points. It exhibits the spread of the belief in the wonder-working "saint:" see Legends of the Panjab, index, 8. vu. miracle and metamorphosis, for a large number of instances. This wonder-working saint is a counterpart of the wonderworking devil (bhita) of Southern India, as will be seen by comparing the tales about to be published in this Journal, under the title of the Devil-worship of the Tuluvas," with those in the Legends of the Panjab. It also exhibits the widespread ides of the." substituted person": see indices to Wide-awake Stories and Legends of the Panjab, . v. And it exhibits strongly the anthropomorphic nature of the folk-tale parrot: see Legends of the Panjab, index, 8. v. parrot, and especially Vol. I. p. 354, where the parrot is a holy personage versed in the Four Vedas! For number of variants of the tale as a whole seo remarks on the Egg-hero in Wide-awake Stories, p. 899 f.-ED.)
1 An Account of the Kingdom of Nepal, do.. by Francis Hamilton, M.D., F.R.S., &c., Edinburgh, 1819.