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JUNE, 1897.)
FOLKLORE IN THE CENTRAL PROVINCES OF INDIA ; No. 10. 165
FOLKLORE IN THE CENTRAL PROVINCES OF INDIA.
BY M. N. VENKETSWAMI OF NAGPUR.
No. 10. - Kuthuvelusu and Tongarelniku. : : Once on a time in a certain country there lived a Briliman, who had two very beautiful daughters. The eldest bore the name of Tungaveluku and her sister Kuthuveluku. The father had these girls married at an early age. In due time, Tungaveluku, who had been married in her seventh year, advanced towards womanhood, and tlie garbarasi, or garbalhar, ceremony bad been performed. Shortly afterwards Kuthuvelaku, too, attained to womanhood, but the sobanam ceremony could not be performed, for her husband, Dêshûdi Raja, was travelling in the East and West and North and South of Aryavarti..
Not having seen her sister, Tungavelaku, for a long time, Kutluyeluku, adorning herselt in ail her ornaments, went to visit her. Tungavelaku, on seeing her appear even more beautiful than when she had last seen her, wept bitterly, for she had heard of the death of Déshadi Raji. The younger sister asked the cause of her weeping, but she would not tell lier for a long time. As Kuthuveluku persisted, she yielded, and with tears in her eyes, said: - "My loving and ouly sister, Kuthuveluku, I wept because I thought of what you will do with your youth and loveliness, young and lovely as you are, for I have heard of the death of your husband in the course of his travels in Bharata varsha."
Hearing this, Kuthuvelaku took leave of her sister and returned to her parents. Informing them of her misfortune with tears, she entreated her father to prepare a funeral pyre, so that she might burn herself in it and rejoin her husband in the next world.
In due course the pyre was prepared. After distributing puskp, Turkuma, barnailu, santiisa and vastra' to the punya strís, and after making pranding to the asseinbled crowd, Kutiuvelaku, without swerving for one moment from the self-imposed ordeal, and calling upon heaven and earth to witness, notwithstanding the high flames leaping to thic skics, jumped upon the pyre. But an unusual heavy rain came down from the blue sky and not only extinguished the funeral pile, bat burst the banks of the rivers aboanding in the country and mai'o them overflow, and caused a general flood. One of these rivers, by the impetuosity of its flow, swept the immaculate victim of the burning fires along with it. On the morning of the next day the chaste young widow of Déshadi Raja, whom the fires refused to touch, carried by the benign carrent, found herself landed on the bank of a river in a strange country.
A málaláre in service of the king of the country saw her and was impressed with her extreme beauty. Pitying her forlorn condition, wetted and shivering as she was, he took the young lady home and told his wife to tend her as their child, as they had no children. Now it was the duty of the malakara every morning to make ready garlands and immortelles, guras and turas8 for the royal family. In this work he was relieved on one occasion by his adopted daughter. The queen observed the change, and so struck and pleased was sho with the artistic talent displayed in the arrangement of various flowers constituting the wreaths, eto., that she sent for the mátakara and asked him who had made ready the malas that day.
1 Consumination of marriage.
Pushpu, turmeric; kurkuna, a powdered substance, vermilion in colour, applied in the form of a circle to the forehead by Hindu women, barnailu, small caskets to hola kuikuma often made of wood santia, ornaments : rastra, cloths.
sirnya stris, lit., meritorious ladies, or those ladies whose husbands ara slive as distinguished from widows, They ara allowed to wear the kuilenin marks on the forehead and to apply turmeric to their face, handa sud feet.
• Salutations. • Lit.. maker of necklaces or nuls of flowers, nsanlly a mali.
6 Greras, small garlands of lovers for the hands; turas, small garlands of power: for the head, rather for the head-dress.
