Reading Notes: Part A Indian Fairy Tales

The Indian Fairy Tales are similar to the Jewish Fairy Tales I read last week in that they are a short collection of short stories. Like many short stories and fairy tales, the purpose is to impart a lesson or some wisdom to the reader which the Indian fairy tales cleverly do. Notably is the story of the The Tiger, The Brahman, and the Jackal. This was actually a story that I had read earlier in the semester, and I had already wrote my own retelling of the story. Nevertheless, reading the story again reminded me of the trickery of the jackal in order to outwit the tiger. When analyzing a single story, The Broken Pot was a fun and quick read. The lesson from the story is not to be greedy and not to take advantage of people as the miser's fantasy of becoming rich and exploiting people would be his downfall. Being Indian, I did notice some details in the story that were unique to Indian culture. One example is the use of rupees in the story which is the currency of India. I also noticed how the Brahman was included in the miser's fantasy. The Brahman is considered to be the highest level in the now outdated caste system in India, so it makes sense why the miser is hoping to attract one of his daughters in marriage. Overall, the story is quite short so there is not much opportunity for character development, but the ending does bring the story full circle. It is unfortunate to the miser how his own plan would ruin everything, but the message is profound. All of his dreams came crashing to a halt simply because of his own greed and desire. There is also commentary on treating women right as the miser's desire to punish his wife for not watching the baby leads to his own punishment.

Bibliography: Indian Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs with illustrations by John D. Batten (1912).

Pixabay: The broken pot, once full of dreams but now full of despair

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