Once, there lived a great pundit, learned in all the tongues of the land. Malayalam, English, Hindi, he spoke them as easily as breathing. Not only that, he could read every language. It was said he could even read the writing on a man’s very cranium the secrets etched upon the skull. Such was the power of his knowledge.

This pundit travelled far and wide, seeking the truths of the world. One day, on one such journey, he came upon a human skull lying by the roadside. Curious, he bent down and examined it closely. There, written across the bone, was a strange message. It read:

“Life is tough, even when we’re dead.”

The pundit was taken aback. “How can one suffer after death?” he wondered. The words puzzled him deeply, and so he resolved to study them further. He wrapped the skull in a cloth and took it home.

But when the villagers saw him carrying a human skull, they grew fearful. “What’s he doing with that thing?” they whispered. The children cried out in fright. “He’s keeping a skull! A skull!”

Still, the pundit remained calm. “You do not understand,” he said gently. “This is a matter of great knowledge. Let me keep it. Let me learn from it.”

But the outcry only grew louder. “A skull! A skull!” they cried, until at last the local magistrate was called. Without a word, he seized the skull, smashed it to pieces in a mortar, and threw the powder into the river.

When the pundit returned and saw what had been done, he stood in silence. Then, slowly, he nodded.

“Now I understand,” he said. “That strange message was true. You suffer even after death — for what suffering could be greater than having your skull ground to dust?”

A folk story from Tamil Nadu, sourced from ‘Moral Fictions: Tamil Folktale from the Oral Tradition‘ collected by Stuart Blackburn.

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