Children Stories - The Rishi And The Brahman

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The Rishi And The Brahman

from Deccan Nursery Tales

Once upon a time there was a town called Atpat. In it there lived a
Brahman. For many years he lived happily and cultivated his fields of
rice and grain. But one day his wife gave up the observances imposed
on her, and, as a result, the whole house was stained by her conduct,
and pollution hung like a black cloud over it. Her husband should
have driven her out, but he had not the heart to do so. So he, too,
incurred the blame of his wife's sin. In course of time they died,
and, as a punishment for their wickedness, the husband became in his
next life a bullock, and the wife became a dog. But the gods so far
relented as to find them a home in the house of their only son.

Now the son was a very pious man, who never failed in his religious
rites. He worshipped the gods, gave memorial honours to his dead
father, and welcomed to his house every Brahman who passed by. One
year, on the anniversary of his father's death, he told his wife
to prepare a milk-pudding in honour of the dead, and announced that
he would invite Brahmans to partake of it. The wife was as pious as
her husband and never failed to obey his commands. So she made a big
milk-pudding, and she boiled vegetables and stewed fruits. But just as
she had finished and was about to invite her husband and his Brahman
guests to begin their feast, the dog saw that a snake had entered the
grain-jar, which had not been properly shut, and that it had left its
poisonous trail all over the grain from which the milk-pudding had been
prepared. The dog at once realised that, if the Brahmans who had been
invited to the memorial feast ate the poisoned grain, they would die,
and that the sin of Brahman murder would be incurred by the host,
her son. So she suddenly rushed up and put her foot right into the
middle of the milk-pudding. The son's wife was very angry. She threw
a red-hot coal at the dog with such skill that it dropped on to the
middle of her back and burnt a big hole in it. Then the son's wife
cooked a fresh milk-pudding and fed the Brahmans. But she was so
cross with the dog that she would not give her the smallest possible
scrap. So the poor dog remained hungry all day. When night fell she
went to the bullock who had been her husband and began to howl as
loudly as she could. The bullock asked her what the matter was. She
told him how she had seen that a snake had poisoned the grain, and
how, to prevent the Brahmans dying and her son incurring the sin of
their death, she had put her paw into the middle of the milk-pudding;
how her daughter-in-law had been angry and had burnt a hole in her
back with a live coal, and how her back hurt so that she did not know
what to do. The bullock answered, "You are suffering for the pollution
with which you darkened our house in a former life, and, because I
let you remain in the house and touched you, I too am suffering, and
I have become a bullock. Only to-day my son fastened me to his plough,
tied up my mouth, and beat me, I too have, like you, had nothing to eat
all day. Thus all my son's memorial services are useless." Now the son
happened to be passing by the stable and heard this conversation. He
at once fetched the bullock some grass and the dog some food, and he
brought them both water to drink; and then he went to bed very sad at
heart. Next morning he got up early and went into a dark forest until
at last he came to the hermitage of a rishi. He prostrated himself
before the rishi, who asked him why he was so sad. The Brahman's son
said, "I am sad because my father has been born again as a bullock
and my mother as a dog. Pray tell me how I can get their release," The
rishi said, "There is only one way to help them. You must worship the
seven sages who have their home in the Great Bear." [20] And he told
the Brahman's son the ceremonies which he should observe, and how he
should worship the seven sages continually every month of Bhadrapad, or
September, for seven years. The Brahman's son obeyed the rishi, and at
the end of the seven years a fiery chariot came down from heaven. The
bullock suddenly became a handsome man, and the dog became a handsome
woman. They both seated themselves in the chariot and were carried off
to live with the sages who have their home for ever in the Great Bear.

Next: The King And The Water-goddesses
Previous: Parwati And The Priest

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