Once, there was a raja who had just one son. But that son got up to every kind of
mischief imaginable—visiting prostitutes, gambling, cards—name it and he did it! “Better get him married to a woman from a respectable family; that should help,” his family thought. So the raja sent out his men, with the boy’s photo, to search for a bride. As they wandered around the country, another group of men came from the opposite direction, with the photo of a girl whose father had sent them to look for a bridegroom. The two groups met, exchanged photos and, as everything seemed right, each party went back and made arrangements for the marriage.

The initial ceremonies were soon underway, but somehow the wedding announcements weren’t sent out! The boy took the girl’s photo to a prostitute’s house and said, “Look at this! My parents are going to marry me to her.” The dasi (prostitute) was eaten up by jealousy because the girl in the photo was so beautiful. “I can’t let this happen,” she thought. “If he marries her, he’ll never give me any more money.” Soon they finalised the arrangements without even informing the son—he knew about it but they didn’t tell him the date.

“Now, what can we do?” he said to the dasi. “My father’s sealed the deal. I can’t refuse now.” The dasi took a needle, scratched out one eye in the photo, put lime-
paste over it and said to him, “Look at this beauty you’re married to! You’re married to a half-blind wife!” He didn’t know what to do, but she said, “Don’t sleep with her. Keep coming to me.”

He followed her advice and continued to visit her at night. When his parents saw this, they thought things might improve if he and his wife lived by themselves, so they built a separate palace and set them up in it. Even then, he paid no attention to his wife and gave her no pleasure; he was at home during the day and ate his meals, but he spent nights with the dasi. He completely ignored his wife, never looked at her, and so he didn’t even know what she looked like. All this was due to the dasi’s deceit.

One day a heavy rain fell as he was about to leave for the dasi’s house; he had eaten and was standing by the door, hesitating because of the rain. It was pouring and he had no umbrella. Behind him, his wife stood, praying quietly, “If I am a chaste woman, let this little piece of my sari keep him dry.” She tore off a piece of her sari, gave it to him and he left.

When he entered the dasi’s house, she was surprised. “Why did you come in this storm? Hey, how come you’re not soaked? Not even a single drop?”, she said. He told her what his wife had said and how she had protected him. “Her chastity is powerful; I must get rid of her,” she thought and put in motion an even crueler plan. “Go back to her, eat her food and ask her to give you an oil bath. Sleep with her, and when she’s asleep, send a guard to take her into the forest and kill her.”

He went back and did as she said; when he asked for an oil bath and lay down to sleep with her, the poor girl was filled with desire. But he deceived her and ordered the guards to pick up her bed, take her into the forest, cut off her legs and kill her. They cut off her legs, but they didn’t have the heart to kill a woman, so they left her there alive.

When the guards brought back the legs, the prince kept them in the dasi’s house, up in the rafters, above the door, but he didn’t pay to them any attention. He thought she was dead.

When the wife awoke, she was confused, “I lay down in a palace and now I’m in a
dark forest.” Sitting in prayer on the bed in the middle of the darkness, she thought, “I’m all alone, no one, no help anywhere. Don’t know where to go, and all the paths are thick with, thorns!” She entered into deep prayer, which disturbed the meditation of a powerful muni, who angrily cried, “What’s your problem?!” “I am a princess, but the prince abandoned me in the forest and did this to me. I have nowhere to go. Please help me,” she pleaded. “I will send you a maid who will be your legs and look after you,” the muni said and left.

One day, when the prince, who had become a raja now, was hunting in the forest where she lived, he got thirsty. He asked her for water, but she couldn’t stand up because she had no legs, so she told the maid to get him water. He looked at the woman, very carefully, and thought she was beautiful. He came back the next day and for several days in a row; soon he was deeply in love with her. For a full year he came, but still he didn’t recognise her; even if he had looked at her carefully before, he wouldn’t know her now because the dasi had disfigured her photo. Besides, he thought his wife was dead. She, of course, knew full well who he was.

Eventually, she gave birth to a boy; when he was five he kept asking the raja, his father, to take him back when he left the house in the forest. Finally his father agreed but his mother warned him, “If you go there, to the dasi’s house, she’ll try to poison you. She’ll give you yogurt and buttermilk, and coax you to eat. But don’t eat anything from her! Here, take this puffed rice, and keep it in your shirt pocket; as you go along, drop the rice on the ground, but don’t let your father know. Later, when your father is talking with the dasi, climb quietly into the rafters, get my legs and run back here.”

The next day, his father came again and hoisted his son onto his horse. They rode
off, and the little boy dropped the puffed rice in a trail as they rode along to the dasi’s house. She offered him milk and yogurt and other things, but he refused it all. Then he said, “I’ll go play, father,” and stepped outside as if to play. But he snuck back inside, climbed into the rafters, grabbed the legs and ran back home, along the path of puffed rice. His mother asked him to put the legs on her and he did with his own hands. They fit perfectly! She said a mantra, and they stuck!

When the father came back and asked about the boy, she simply said that he had
returned early and kept quiet. But when he came on his horse the next day, she stood up and he was amazed! “All this time you failed to show me this kind of respect!” “What respect? I had no legs; that’s why I couldn’t stand. Now I’ve got my legs back.” “In that case, come back with me to the palace.” “Take me tomorrow; I’ve got work today,” she said.

Again she went into meditation and again the muni felt it. When he came, she said, “I called you the first time because I had no legs. I’ve got my legs and my husband has accepted me back as his wife. Please bless me.” He blessed her, and left with her maid.

The next day, her husband came and took her back and they all lived happily together.

A folktale sourced from Moral Fictions: Tamil Folktales from the Oral Tradition by Stuart Blackburn.

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