After the first monsoon showers, there was great activity in Pipar. Fields had to be ploughed, seeds had to be sown and a hundred odd jobs had to be attended to. The ploughs and the bullocks were brought out and the fields were ploughed with great speed. Seeds were also sown with equal speed.

After a few days, to the great joy of the farmers, tender sprouts covered the fields. The sprouts grew day by day as benign showers fell from time to time.

Then suddenly, without any apparent reason, the days started to get warmer. The sun became so hot that it became impossible to stay out in the fields after midday. The farmers began to feel uncomfortable. Would the rains return or would the sprouts shrivel out and die in the intense heat?

The farmers suffered sleepless nights.

Then there came a day when they spotted a cloud. At first it wasn’t any bigger than the palm of a man’s hand but it was a cloud and the farmers looked at it expectantly and with bated breath. The cloud grew bigger and blacker. Gradually more and more clouds appeared. Suddenly there came a loud crack of thunder and rain began to fall. It seemed as though the clouds had sucked up the whole ocean and were pouring the water over this village.

The farmers hurriedly returned to their huts. Five farmers, whose fields were at some distance from the village, took shelter under a big pipal tree, but it proved of no avail. The rain fell so heavily that the tree could prevent the water from falling on the five men. They were already wet and now the rainwater ran down their bodies in little rivulets.

Added to this, there was the lightning which lit up the whole sky and earth. To the five men it seemed that it always cracked over the pipal tree as though it had singled out that tree for destruction. This thought made the men very uncomfortable. Going back to the village in the blinding rain was impossible but to stand under the tree, which somehow seemed to anger the lightning, might prove fatal.

Finally, one of the men spoke up and declared that one of the five must be the target of death and that it was no use for all to suffer because of one. The other men agreed with him but none knew what to do.

The first man continued and said that since there was no way to know amongst themselves who was the cursed man, each would take their turn and run to the babool tree in the field nearby. That way, when the cursed man was outside the refuge of the tree, the lightning would strike him and thus, save the other four.

The plan met with the approval of all the men and the first man to venture forth was named. His face became pale, but he took courage in both hands and set out. Lightning cracked and growled; the landscape lit up as though lit by a thousand bright lamps. The man nearly collapsed with fright but he managed to touch the trunk of the babool tree and return to the shelter of the pipal tree. In the same manner the next three men went and returned.

It was now the turn of the fifth man. Now that the four men had returned safely, he was certain and so were the others, that he was the victim chosen by death. He looked at the field that he had to cross, at the trunk of the babool tree that he would have to touch and he promptly swooned. His leg felt like jelly and he flopped down on the wet mud.

Despite the prodding of the other men, the fifth man refused to go. He pleaded with them not to force him to leave the shelter of the tree and their company. He believed that it was their presence that kept the lightning from striking him.

However, the other four men had no pity and asked him why he was endangering their lives. They then pushed the frightened man into the field. He had hardly gone a few steps when he heard a deafening noise and was blinded by lightning.

Lightning had struck the pipal tree under which the four men waited. The ground caved in, the tree was charred in a flash and the four men, before they could utter a sound or collect their wits, were struck down dead. The fifth man stood in the middle of the field, unmindful of the rain that fell on him, shocked at the destruction before him.

A Folktale sourced from Folk Tales of Rajasthan by Bani Roy Chaudhury.

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