Indian Antiquary Vol 04

Author(s): Jas Burgess
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 64

54
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
Motherless! ah! I am deserted: O my mother, who is no more! Fatherless! oh! I am left alone: O my father, who is no more! To be motherless is a great sorrow; To be fatherless, is it not deep darkness? O my mother, who is no more!
O my father, who is no more!
To be now a servant, that is most painful; To be a hireling is also very sad.
O my mother, who is no more!
O my father, who is no more!
This song is also very harmonious in Mundari.
The Finding of the Dream.
There was once a king who had two queens, named Durâni and Surânî; he was very much distressed because neither of them had borne him a son, so he worshipped God and both conceived, but Surânî bore a son first, and when the ceremony of süsti was performed the name of Chandra was given him. After that Durânî bore her son, and at his sásti ceremony he was called Siva Dâs. Now before Siva Dâs was born, a soothsayer had come, and, after making magical calculations, had declared that the king would become blind if he saw the child who was in the womb of Durânî; so directly the child was born the king put Durâni and her son forth from the women's apartments, and made them live in a house which he had provided in another place, neither could he bear to hear her or her son's name mentioned.
[FEBRUARY, 1875.
14. Warning about going home quickly. Run, girl, on the broad way; Trip, girl, trip on the long footpath. Run, girl, run, your mother's house is on fire; Trip, girl, trip, in your father's house a hole
is burnt.
BENGALI FOLKLORE-LEGENDS FROM DINAJPUR.*
BY G. H. DAMANT, B.C.S., RANGPUR.
If my mother's house is burning, then will I go;
If a hole is burnt in the father's house, then will I run.
When Siva Dâs reached the age of ten or twelve years, both he and his mother suffered great hardships from want of food, for they lived by begging, and only obtained just enough to eat. Siva Das was very much devoted to the worship of Siva, and never ate or drank without first worshipping him. Šiva was very much pleased with him, and one day disguised himself as a sanyasi and went to his house as a guest. As soon as Śiva Dâs saw him, he saluted him and wrapped his cloth round his throat and said with folded hands, "My lord Brahman, this is a lucky day for me, since I have seen your honoured foot." He then went to his mother to make some arrangement for his guest's food,
and asked her what they had in the house: she said, "Child, we have nothing at all; what you get by begging in one day is only enough for us two, mother and son, for one meal; it is not sufficient for two meals. Who suffers hardships like us?" Hearing this, Šiva Dâs began to cry, and to think what he could give his guest to eat. Durânî, seeing her son crying, went into the house and began to search amongst the pots and pans, till in one corner of the house, in a pot, she found a little broken rice, and thought that if she had seen it before, it would not have been left there, it must have been overlooked. So she took about half a ser to the sanyasi and said, "This is all I have, be kind enough to accept it:" so he took the rice and cooked and ate it, and Siva Dâs and his mother ate what was left.
The sanyasi was pleased with Śiva Dâs and said to him, "I will give you a sword which you must always keep with you; it has many good qualities: if you say to it, 'Sword given by Siva, take me to such a place,' it will instantly fly with you there, and you will be victorious in battle, and as long as it remains with you you will never die." With these words he gave him the sword and went away, and Śiva Dâs always kept the sword by him.
In the meantime Surânî's son, Chandra, was about sixteen or seventeen years old, and could read and write very well. One night the king saw a very wonderful dream, and remained awake till next morning thinking about it. At one watch next day he was still in bed mediContinued from Vol. III. p. 343.