by Bibek Debroy
In popular myths and folklore, the negative chandala connotations associated with a dog are often missing. Many such folk tales have been collated and collected by A.K. Ramanujan. Here are three.
When a black dog dies3
A zamindar had a very short temper. His heart was also weak. So everyone was under instruction that they should be careful about what they told the zamindar. And how they told it. The zamindar was away at the city and a servant from the village came to visit him. ‘How is everything at home?’ asked the zamindar. ‘Everything is fine,’ replied the servant, ‘but the black dog died.’ ‘How did the black dog die?’ asked the zamindar. ‘Seemed to be fine when I left.’ ‘It was fine,’ replied the servant. ‘But then having eaten such a lot of horse meat, what else was to be expected? It suffered from indigestion.’ ‘Where did the dog get horse meat?’ asked the zamindar. ‘From the stable,’ replied the servant. ‘How was there horse meat in the stable?’ asked the zamindar. ‘What happened to the horses?’ ‘There were no grooms to feed the horses,’ replied the servant. ‘What happened to the grooms?’ asked the zamindar. ‘There was no one to pay them,’ replied the servant. ‘How do you expect the grooms to be there?’ ‘Why was there no one to pay them?’ asked the zamindar. ‘What happened to my wife? What happened to my steward?’ ‘They are all dead,’ replied the servant. ‘They had no food to eat because the cook was dead.’ ‘What happened to the cook?’ asked the zamindar. ‘He died when the kitchen caught fire,’ replied the servant. ‘The kitchen caught fire and the house caught fire and everyone is dead.’
The dog is incidental to this story. But in the next story, the dog is a major protagonist.
A dog’s daughters4
A king had many wives. But he did not have any children. He went for help to a sage and the sage gave the king a magic mango. The king was to feed the magic mango to his queens so that they might have children. The queens cut up the mango, divided it up among themselves and ate it. But there was the seed and the peel. These they threw away, over the balcony. Under the balcony, there lived a dog and the dog ate the seed and the peel.
The queens became pregnant and so did the dog. The queens were looked after by everyone in the palace. But when it came to the actual birth, puppies were born. All the queens gave birth to puppies. That left the dog and no one took care of the pregnant bitch. But the bitch gave birth to two beautiful girls. Immediately, the queens and their servants tried to steal these two girls. But the dog picked them up and went and hid them in a cave in the forest. The dog stole food and clothing for her babies and the two girls grew up to become beautiful young women. The older sister was named Big Honni and the younger one was named Little Honni.
One day, two young men went to the forest on a hunt and decided to rest near the cave. They heard a noise inside the cave and went to investigate, thus discovering the two Honnis. The dog was not around then. The two young men fell in love with the women and wanted to marry them. They carried them away on their horses. Big Honni did not like the forest too much and was quite happy to be taken away. However, Little Honni loved the forest and her mother, the dog. As she was being taken away, she tore up her sari and left a trail.
When she returned, the dog was shocked to find her daughters gone. But there was the trail of the sari and she followed it until she reached the house where Little Honni was. Little Honni was delighted to see her mother. She gave the dog a bath and fed her. She looked after the dog. But she did not tell anyone who the dog really was. After a few days with Little Honni, the dog wanted to see Big Honni and went to visit her house. However, Big Honni was not at all pleased to see her mother. What would people say if they knew her mother was a dog? So she beat the dog with a stick until it died. Having done this, Big Honni asked her servants to throw the dead body away—in a garbage dump.
Soon, Little Honni came to find out what had happened to their mother. When she discovered what Big Honni had done, she retrieved the dead body from the garbage dump and took it home. She washed the body and kept it in a box in her bedroom, without telling anyone about it. But she took good care of the box and soon, her husband noticed the box. ‘What is in the box?’ he asked.
‘A gift from my mother,’ replied Little Honni.
The husband wanted to see what the gift was. Scared of the secret coming out, Little Honni refused. But the inevitable could not be postponed. The box was eventually opened and inside, husband and wife found not a dead body, but a golden bar. The husband said, ‘I have never met your family. They must be rich if they have sent you a golden bar as a gift. Take me to meet them.’
Little Honni did not know what to do. She took her husband and his family to the forest. She wandered around here and there and the party followed. She had no idea where to take them. Finally, in desperation, she went for a walk, determined to find a way to kill herself. As she thought this, she found a snake-hole and put her hand inside the hole, hoping that the snake inside would bite her to death. But the snake did nothing of the kind. The snake had a boil on its head and when Little Honni stuck her hand in, she broke the boil and relieved the snake from its pain. So the snake was grateful and wanted to express its gratitude, rather than do Little Honni any harm. Little Honni told the snake about her woes.
‘That’s not a problem,’ said the snake. ‘Go north for a mile and you will see a big house. That will be your mother’s house, with wealth, riches and servants. Enjoy your visit there for a week. When you leave for your return journey, make sure that you turn back and look.’
Little Honni went back to her husband and the party, and they headed north until they found a palace with gardens and servants. The snake was there, dressed as a rich man and pretending to be Little Honni’s maternal uncle. Her mother was also there, having assumed a human form. They spent a week there, in great comfort. When it was time to leave, the uncle and the mother showered them with gifts. On the return journey, Little Honni and her party turned back to look and were shocked at what they saw. The entire palace was going up in flames and soon burnt to ashes. So did everyone in the house. Little Honni was happy. She would never have to take her husband to her mother’s house again.
When they returned, Big Honni wanted to know where they had been and where her sister had got all the riches. When she learnt the story, Big Honni hurried back home. She found a street dog and killed it. She put the dead body in a box and kept it in her bedroom. Soon, the dead body began to stink. ‘What is in that box?’ asked her husband.
‘It’s a gift from my mother’s house,’ replied Big Honni.
‘I have never visited your mother’s house,’ said her husband. ‘I have never met your mother. Why don’t we go and visit her? Your sister has just visited her and returned with a wealth of gifts.’
Big Honni and her husband set out. They went to the forest and Big Honni found a snake-hole. But as soon as she stuck her hand in, the snake that was in the hole bit her and she died.
The theme of puppies being born to queens recurs, even when dogs are not the main protagonists. For instance, in a folk tale named ‘Kiranmala’, a king married three sisters. The two elder sisters were jealous of the younger one. So when children were born to the youngest queen, the other queens got rid of these children and instead said that non-human children were born to the youngest queen. The first time round, a puppy was supposedly born. The second time, a kitten was supposedly born. And the last time, the queen supposedly gave birth to a wooden doll. Eventually, of course, all turns out well.
A dog’s story5
There was a king who had two sons. Alakanna was the older brother and the younger prince was named Malakanna. When Alakanna grew up, he was married. However, Alakanna had to go to fight a war. And he told his younger brother to look after things while he was gone.
Days passed and Alakanna’s wife felt restless. Meanwhile, Malakanna had grown up to be a strapping young man. He was a wrestler to boot. But he was not married, because his parents wanted to wait until his elder
brother returned. However, his sister-in-law had her eyes on him. She sent her maids with proposals, but these proposals were rebuffed.
One day, Malakanna and his friends were playing with a ball. Malakanna kicked the ball and it landed in his sister-in-law’s courtyard. He sent a friend to retrieve the ball, but the sister-in-law refused. She wanted Malakanna to come for the ball and when he did, she kissed him and tried to seduce him. When he refused, she said that she would tell everyone that Malakanna had tried to seduce her. At this, Malakanna left the ball and ran away.
The sister-in-law thereupon sent for a magician and promised him a lot of money if he would deliver Malakanna to her. The magician agreed. He put a spell on some jasmine flowers and a thorn. The sister-in-law was to wear the jasmine flowers in her hair. The magician assured her that Malakanna would be hers before the flowers faded. She should summon Malakanna again. If he succumbed, all was well. And if he did not, she was to stick the thorn into his forehead. Thereupon, Malakanna would turn into a dog and fawn on her.
The sister-in-law bathed, beautified herself and waited, wearing the jasmine in her hair. The fragrance of the jasmine attracted Malakanna, although his friends could not smell it, and he wanted to see what woman was wearing such a wonderful fragrance. He followed the scent to his sister-in-law’s house and she immediately tried to seduce him once again. Seeing that it was his sister-in-law, Malakanna tried to run away. But the door was bolted and there was no escape. When he failed to yield to her advances, she stuck the thorn into his forehead and Malakanna turned into a dog. The dog wagged his tail and licked her feet. But the woman would not turn him back into a man. Instead, the maid tied up the dog with a collar round its neck.
After the war was over, Alakanna returned. With victory behind him, he greeted his parents and asked, ‘Where is Malakanna?
‘We don’t know,’ replied his parents. ‘We haven’t seen him for eight or nine days. But then, he has a habit of disappearing without telling anyone where he has gone.’
Alakanna was worried, especially because Malakanna’s friends did not know where he was either. Nor did his wife seem to know where Malakanna was. But the dog was agitated at seeing Alakanna. ‘Where did you get that dog?’ asked Alakanna.
‘It came from my mother’s house,’ replied Alakanna’s wife.
The woman served dinner to Alakanna and he sat down to eat. Alakanna’s wife told him that Malakanna had tried to seduce her. When she rebuffed him, he ran away and that was the reason he was absent. So ran the story. Alakanna did not quite believe this, but did not know what to do.
After Alakanna’s dinner was over, it was his wife’s turn to eat. Meanwhile, the dog was getting very agitated. He pulled at his chain. Alakanna unchained the dog and began to stroke and pet him. The dog licked Alakanna and fawned on him. He wagged his tail. As Alakanna was playing with the dog, he came upon the thorn on the dog’s forehead and took it out. Immediately, the dog turned into Malakanna and the truth came out.
Alakanna’s wife and the maid were duly punished. Alakanna married again. So did Malakanna. Everyone lived happily ever after.
The following is a folk tale from the Santhal Parganas.6
The dog bride
There was a young man who used to look after a herd of buffaloes. When he grazed his buffaloes, he noticed a curious incident. Every day, exactly at noon, a bitch would make its way into a ravine. And in that ravine, there were some pools of water.
‘What does the bitch do in that ravine?’ wondered the young man.
Therefore, one day, he decided to watch secretly. And he witnessed a strange sight. When it got to the water, the bitch shed her dog skin and became a beautiful maiden who bathed in the water. Having finished her bath, the maiden donned her dog skin again and went off to the village. The young man followed her and noted the house she lived in.
That year, the young man’s parents decided to get him married. They looked around for a bride. ‘I won’t marry a human,’ said the young man. ‘I will only marry a dog.’ Everyone laughed at him, but the young man persisted. The village finally decided that he probably had a dog’s soul and there was no point in objecting.
‘Which dog do you want to marry?’ he was asked.
The young man directed them to the house he had already identified. The owner of the house thought the young man was mad. However, if someone wanted to marry his bitch, why should he object? He collected the bride-price and the wedding took place. At night, when her husband was asleep, the bitch would shed her dog skin and go out of the house. Soon, the husband discovered this. One night, he pretended to be asleep. When his wife had gone out, he threw the dog skin into a fire and burnt it. His wife had no option but to remain a woman and she was the most beautiful wife that anyone had. Everyone congratulated the young man for having been so wise.
But this young man had a friend named Jitu. Jitu thought that he could not do any better than marry a dog himself. No one wanted to object this time and a bride was selected. The bride did not like it one bit when vermilion was put on her forehead and she was rubbed with oil and turmeric. She howled and growled. But the marriage took place. After the wedding, the bride’s party was going to return home and the dog broke loose and followed them.
‘Go and fetch your bride,’ his friends told Jitu. But when he tried to do this, she bit him and he had to give up. Everyone laughed at Jitu and, struck with shame, Jitu hanged himself.
There is another folk tale from the Santhal Parganas. But in that tale, dogs only enter peripherally. There was a brahmana who had two wives and he would go out to ask for alms. People were generous and there was no shortage of alms to be had. However, the brahmana discovered that he would get alms only when he dressed as a brahmana. When he was not dressed as a brahmana and was instead dressed in rags, he received nothing. He deduced that in this world, people paid respect to clothing, not to wisdom. On one occasion, there was an epidemic and people were dying in hundreds. The dead bodies would be eaten by vultures. Much to his surprise, the brahmana discovered that the vultures would first eat the dead bodies of the lower castes. The dead bodies of brahmanas and other upper castes would be eaten last. When the brahmana voiced his surprise, a vulture befriended him and gave him the reason. The vulture told him that the god Chando inserted animal souls in human bodies. The apparently lower caste dead bodies had human souls. But the apparently upper caste dead bodies had animal souls. Consequently, vultures ate these inferior bodies right at the end. When the brahmana refused to believe this, the vulture tore off a feather from its body and gave it to the brahmana. When the brahmana held up this feather like a pair of glasses, through the feather he could make out who was truly what. Henceforth, when the brahmana went out to beg, he took the feather with him and discovered that the people who were giving him alms were actually cats or dogs or cows or jackals. He also discovered that his two wives were actually a dog and a cat. In search of true humans, the brahmana began to roam the world and became almost mad. Only rarely could true humans be found. Having found a true woman, the brahmana married her and discarded his other wives.
From the Santhal Parganas to a folk tale from Nagaland.
Man and dog
Once upon a time, there were two puppies. Their mother was killed by a deer. The puppies cried. But soon, they got tired of crying. They decided that they should take revenge for their mother’s death. But they were helpless on their own. They were too small to catch a deer.
So they went to the elephant and asked for help. The elephant promised to help, but actually did nothing. Meanwhile, the puppies barked in the night and the elephant became angry. The elephant was worried that the barks would attract the tiger to his home. So he shooed the puppies out.
The puppies went to the tiger for help. If the elephant was scared of the tiger, the tiger was probably a better bet. Like the elephant, the tiger promised to help, but did nothing. And the barks in the night bothered the tiger as well. He was worried that the barks would attract man
to his secret home.
The puppies therefore went to the man for help. The man gave them food and a place to sleep at night. When they barked in the night, the man was happy rather than displeased. The puppies were guarding his house and man and dog became friends. As for the revenge, the puppies soon became strong dogs. They told the man about their desire for revenge and the man took them on a hunt. The dogs saw a deer and chased it until it was tired. And the man killed the deer with a spear.
The dogs were happy. They jumped at the man, licked him and wagged their tails. Walking up to the deer’s dead body, they bit into its right leg. That is why all Angami Nagas know that the right leg of a hunted animal always belongs to the hunting and tracking dog.
There is another friendship story from the Northeast.
Man, dog and pig
A man kept two animals. One was a dog and the other was a pig. The man kept them in the hope that they would help him with his work. But they did nothing of the kind and he was disappointed. They ate and did nothing else. So the man decided to be strict with his animals. He told them that they would have to go and work in the fields. Otherwise, they would not get anything to eat.
The pig took note. He worked very hard in the field. He dug up the soil with his snout. But the dog did nothing at all. He chose a nice place and slept throughout the day. When the day was over, the pig was tired and returned home, weary. But the dog tarried. He raced around the field and wiped off the pig’s footprints. Instead, having left his prints all over the place, the dog returned home.