Kotharian Lightning

From the folklore of Kashmir

There were two great and wealthy kings. The one had a very handsome son, and the other had a most beautiful daughter. Bot these, the prince and princess were of a marriageable age; and so the two kinds were sending and inquiring everywhere for suitable partners. As luck would have it, one day the messengers of these two kinds met, and in course of conversation each told the other the purport of his errand. There were very much surprised and rejoiced when they found that their errand was the same, that the two kings were of a fairly equal position in the world, and that the prince and princess were in every way a good match.

When the kings heard of the success of their messengers they immediately communicated with one another. A match was arranged the day was fixed; and the bride-groom went to the house of the father of the bride. After the usual preliminaries the wedding took place, and everything passed off splendidly.

But now a cloud came over the scene. How short-lived is joy! No sooner does a man snatch at it than it disappears and the hand closes on a shadow. Alas! Alas! While the prince was returning with his bride he halted in a certain garden that happened to be the favourite resort of a company of fairies. These creatures came to the place at night, and when they saw the prince they were so fascinated with him that they determined to make him their own, and therefore charmed him into a death-like sleep. In vain the princess and others tried to rouse him on the following morning. They thought he was dead, and wept and mourned for him exceedingly, as for one whose spirit had departed, and with whom they should not converse any more. It was a terrible time. Meanwhile Sudabror and Budabror came and perched on a tree close to the little company of mourners, and commenced talking together. Sudabror said, “This prince should not be buried.”

“Why?” said Budabror.

“Because he is not dead,” replied Sudabror. “In a few days perhaps he will revive.”

These words fell like nectar in the ears of the princess, who at once gave orders to leave the corpse as and where it was, and promised to tell them afterwards why she had thus ordered. Accordingly the prince was left in the garden, and the people went away to their homes – the sad bride and her retinue one way, and the people belonging to the prince another way. Great was the grief of the king and queen when they heard the cruel fate of their son-in-law. The poor princess wept day and night, and would not be comforted. Every minute she was looking for the return of her husband; but he did not come. At length she could not bear her fried any longer, and therefore craved permission from her father to leave the palace for a while and to wander about the country whithersoever she wished. The king did not like to grant her request, but eventually he was moved to do so at the advice of his ministers, who thought that unless the princess had her wish she would become insane. The princess wandered here and there on the highway bemoaning her sad lot. “Have you seen the prince?” Have you seen the prince?” she inquired from every passer-by. Thus many days were spent, and nobody could tell her anything of the object of her anxious search. At last an old man approached. “Have you seen the prince?” she asked.

“I have passed through a garden,” replied the old man, “and in this garden I saw a handsome youth sleeping on the ground. Wondering why he had selected such a spot for a rest, I stopped, and behold! Within a few minutes I saw some fairy-like women come and place a wand under his head, and he sat up and talked with them, and then they took the wand and placed it under his feet, and the youth fell back into sleep again. This I saw, and I wondered what this strange sight might be.”

“Very curious!” exclaimed the princess. “Can you direct me to the garden where the youth lies sleeping?”

“Yes,” replied the old man, who at once led her towards the ill-fated spot.

On their arrival they found the body of the prince lying on the ground, apparently lifeless. Quickly seizing the wand that was placed under his feet, the princess removed it and put it under his head, when, as the old man had said, the prince awoke and sat up.

“Who are you?” he said to the princess.

“I am your wife,” she answered. “Do you not know me?”

“How did you get here?” he saaid.

“By the help of yonder old man,” she replied, pointing to her guide, who had tarried at a little distance from fear. “Get up and come – escape with me from this terrible place.”

“Alas! I cannot,” he said, “for the fairies will soon discover my absence, and come after me and kill me. Oh! If you love me, place the wand under my feet, and go.”

“Never,” she said.

“Then hide yourself quickly in the hollow of that tree, for you are not safe here now. The fairies may return at any moment.”

The princess did so, and as soon as she had got within her hiding-place the fairies came.

“Ah! What do I smell?” said one.

“Some human being has been here,” said another.

On this two or three of them went to try and discover the stranger who had dared to invade their retreat, but they were unsuccessful. They then woke the prince and asked him if he knew of any human being that had ventured near. Of course he told them, “No.”

“But we are certain there is somebody here near,” they said, “for the smell of a human being fills the air. Anyhow, we will leave here tomorrow for another place.”

So the next morning the fairies explored the garden, which was on immense size, and found another retreat for themselves, where they thought they would be free from the intrusion of any human being; and while they were away the prince called the princess, and said, “What will you do now, my wife? They will take me away to another place, where you will not be able to come, and I shall never see you again. Ah me! Ah me!”

“Not so,” replied the brave princess. “See, I will gather some flowers. Strew these,” she continued, giving him a little bouquet of a certain king of flower. “I shall then be able to track you.”

The prince took the flowers and hid them in his clothes, and the princess ran away to the hollow in the tree.

In a little while the fairies appeared in sight, and beckoned to the prince to come after them. As the prince went he now and again dropped a flower. The following day the princess carefully followed the track until she reached a very large and grand building, which looked like a palace. This was the abode of a dev who instructed the fairies in all manner of magic. Nothing daunted, the princess entered the building, and not finding anybody inside, she sat down on one of the low seats and rested herself.

Within an hour the dev arrived. Seeing the princess, he thought she was his daughter, whom some other dev had recently taken away by force. “My darling daughter,” he exclaimed, rushing up to her, “how did you get back? How did you escape from that wretch.”

The princess quickly perceived the circumstances of the case, and replied, “Yes, I contrived to get out of him clutches while he was asleep.”

“My darling! My darling!” he exclaimed.

For some time the princess lived in the dev’s house, and was recognized by him and all the fairies as his daughter. She had full power to do what she liked and to go where she liked; and at her earnest request the deb taught her many of his tricks: how to make a man dead and then alive again, how to find anything that had been hidden, and several others. One day, by virtue of her extraordinary powers, the princess noticed her husband concealed in an ornament that was hanging from the ear of one of the fairies. This earring she pretended to like very much, and asked the fairy to give it to her. The fairy refused; but at last, fearing to offend her teacher’s daughter, she gave the earring to her, on the condition that it should be returned on the morrow. The princess promised. As soon as the fairy was out of sight the princess extricated her husband.

“O beloved, do you know me?” she asked, when the prince looked round on her and on everything with great surprise. “Do you not know me? I am your wife. For your sake I have left my father’s house; for your sake I have dared to visit this garden and to follow you even to this dev’s abode; for your sake I have endured his kisses and caresses. Oh! Do you not know me?”

Then the prince, having recovered his senses, recognized her, and wept for joy.

“Come, come now,” she said, “I will tell you what we must do. The dev and all the people thoroughly believe that I am his daughter, who was carried away forcibly by another. I shall take you to him, and profess that while I was escaping from the dev I met you, and overcome by your beauty, I married you. I shall also inform him of your royal station, and entreat him to sanction the marriage. He will be very glad when he hears this. Do not be afraid. Come and see.”

The princess was not disappointed. The dev was exceedingly happy to hear of his daughter’s good fortune, and made a great feast in her honour, to which he invited all the members of the fairy community.

For some weeks the prince and princess stayed with the dev, and then the prince quite naturally expressed a great wish to visit his home, and the princess wanted to go with him. Much as the dev wished to keep them both with him, he did not think it reasonable to refuse his permission, and so loaded them with presents and bade them return to him as soon as possible. Amongst other things he gave the a pith, which, on any person sitting in it and wishing, would go to the place wished for. This was the very thing for the prince and princess, who at once packed their treasures in it, and then, saying farewell to their bhut, and to all the fairies who had assembled to witness their departure, they sat in the pith and began to float away in the air in the direction of the palace of the father of the princess. This was soon reached.

There was much joy in the palace and in the city that day and for long afterwards because the king’s daughter had returned, and the prince, her handsome husband, was not dead, but was alive and well, and was with her.

Source:

Folk-Tales of Kashmir, J Hinton Knowles, 1893