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The Story of the Orphans A Story from the Kunkana language of the Kunkanas of South Gujarat translated by Aruna Joshi, editor of Dhol, a journal published in eight tribal languages and sponsored by the Sahitya Akademi Project on Literature in Tribal Languages and Oral Traditions. The original is published in Dhol's Kunkana version, August 1998, p. 26. Translation is posted with permission of Aruna Joshi.
This the story of two orphans. They had a father, but didn't have a mother. They were a boy and a girl. We know, of course, what happens to children who lose their mother! The father was good. He brought water, cooked food, bathed the children, fed them; just like a mother would. But, after all, he was a man. He soon got tired of working both at home and outside. One day he thought, "Rather than carrying out these chores every day, let me get another wife for me. I will marry again." Wherever he went to look for a bride, he told the truth--that he had two children. Listening to this, every girl refused to marry him. Then he thought-"Now I must lie." To one girl he lied thus--that he was still unmarried, and that she should go with him. The man married the girl. That day he hid the children under the basket. He didn't let the new bride know that he had two children already. He told the children to lie quietly under the basket, that he would feed them and take care of them, but they mustn't make noise at all. The man told his new bride that there were idols of family-gods under that basket. Women were not supposed to go in front of them. So, she mustn't go and open the basket and look inside. Every morning she should keep a plate of food enough for one under the basket, and gods would bless her with prosperity. The next morning the man got up very early. He bathed the children, dressed them and hid them again under the basket. At noon, the wife put some bread and other food in a plate and slid the plate under the basket. The children ate all the food, and, at night, slid the plate out again. One, and then two, then four, and then fourteen such days passed. The children remained hidden under the basket, the wife kept food there, and the father bathed them in the morning. So, a year passed; and more still till the wife had her own children. One day, the wife thought, "Let me see today what the gods look like." At noon, when there was nobody else in the house, she opened the basket. Inside, instead of idols of gods, there were a boy and a girl. Both of them started crying. They told the wife that they were the children of the earlier wife, and that she was their aunt [stepmother]. The wife was quite insolent. She told the man that either she would leave the house or the children would; that he should abandon the children that very night. The man thought a lot about what to do and where to take them. At last, he took the children onto a hill. He told them to sit there on a rock till he comes back. The father betrayed the children and went away. The children waited for a long time, then started crying. The children cried lonely in the forest. The gods were on their visit to the forest. They heard the children crying. -"Little ones, why do you cry so?" -"We are orphans. The aunt [stepmother] has driven us out of our home. Our own father abandoned us here. Now where do we go? And what do we do?" The gods gave them the seed of a cucumber, -"Plant this; and eat it." The cucumber creeper grew fast. Immediately it had cucumbers on it. Eating the cucumber, the children lived on. One day, the father thought, "Let me go and see whether the children are alive or dead." He went to the forest. The children were playing. -"Children, what do you eat?" -"This do we eat." The children showed the cucumbers to the father. They gave some cucumbers to him to consume. The father pocketed two of them; went home and showed them to the wife. -"The children eat these things." -"Go, you, at once; and uproot the creeper." The man went and uprooted the creeper. The creeper dried/died, the cucumbers withered. The children starved once again. The children started crying again. The gods gave them a cow. Having milk, curds and ghee to eat, the children grew robust. The father again went to inspect and the children gave him milk and ghee. The father carried some ghee home; showed it to the wife. The wife told -"Go immediately. Kill the cow and then you come back." The man killed the cow. The cow died and the children suffered once again. The gods decided to take them to their home. The gods took them home; gave them the job of cultivation. Later they were known by the name 'Kunbi*'. ...... * The name used for a land-tiller or a farmer in the entire tribal region of South Gujarat and North Maharashtra. |
