Mythology and Folklore

One day a Brahman happened to be walking through the sultry jungles of India. While on his walk through the thick forage, he came upon a tiger stuck in deep hole. The tiger was in much distress and was crying out to the Brahman to help him out. Yet, the tiger's sharp teeth and fierce appearance caused the Brahman to hesitate. The Brahman stood in his tracks and pondered in his thoughts: "Why should I help this tiger? He's only going to attack me when I let him go." However, the tiger started crying, "Oh please please please let me go!". "I'll do anything anything!". The tiger kept on going for a quite a while, and the Brahman began to get annoyed. "Okay tiger, I'll get you out", the Brahman said grudgingly. Using a nearby stick, the Brahman pulled the tiger from its place deep in the Earth. The tiger landed on the ground with a loud thud and immediately grabbed the Brahman onto the ground. "How dumb you are! There is nothing ...

Part B of the Khasi Folktales continues from Part A with a collection of short stories. One story of interest was The Leap of Ka Likai. It follows the story of a widow who becomes distraught due to the unfortunate loss of her daughter. The waterfall she jumps into due to her distress is named after her. When researching Kai Likai, it appears the actual waterfall is in north-eastern India, specifically in the East Khasi Hills of the Meghalaya. The wikipedia page also mentions the story when explaining how the waterfall got its name. Regarding the story, it is weird how the husband seems to suffer no punishment for his actions. He killed the daughter of his step-wife and prepared her remains in a curry dish. Perhaps if I choose to rewrite the story, I would create a punishment for the husband and his deeds. The only explanation I could see for the lack of punishments is the lack of women empowerment in the region. Nonetheless, this is an aspect of the story I could explore in a uni...

The Khasi folktales is similar to the Indian fairy tales in that is a collection of stories. Notably seen in both collections of stories is the prominence of animal characters. Specifically, this aspect is seen in the Khasi folktale The Tiger and the Monkeys . In this short story, the tiger's fear of monkeys is a "real-life" explanation. The tiger seems to have a prominent role in Indian stories, especially when consideri ng the Khasi peo ple are from a state in India. I have also found that the Bengal tiger is the national animal of India, adding to the animal's significance in that area of the world. Again, the premise of the story is to explain why the tiger is afraid of the monkey. Outside research does not really seem to confirm this idea that tigers are fearful of monkeys, so this story may have more regional meaning rather than universal significance. The characterization of the monkey is on par with typical portray of monkeys that I have seen before. The monk...