Reading Notes: Bengal, Part A

The stories in Part A of Bengal were really fun to read.  My favorite story out of the few was The Ghost-Brahman.  In this story there is a poor Brahman who was having trouble getting married.  He begged for money and that he may find a wife.  He eventually succeeded in scraping together enough money to pay for the wedding and was married.

After bringing his wife home he realized that he had no money to support her, or his mother so he went to distant countries to collect money.

That night, after he left a ghost that appeared to be Brahman appeared to his wife and his wife wondered how he had returned so soon.  The ghost told the wife that he had already gotten money and continued to live with them, controlling the household.  After some years, the real Brahman returned and was confused to find another like him in the house. The ghost treated the real Brahman as a stranger and asked what his business was.  The real Brahman, angered, said the same thing to the ghost.  The real Brahman was cast away and did not know what to do.

He went to king after king and no one thought he was the real Brahman. The Brahman who weeped every day as a result was noticed by the cowboys.  The coyboy king wished to see him and the Brahman told him his sad story.  The coyboy king agreed to help him and brought both the real Brahman and ghost Brahman together.

He told them whichever could get themselves into a tiny phial would be declared the owner of the household.  The ghost quickly made himself into a small creature and put himself inside the phial.  The king put the lid on the phial to where the ghost could not get out and told the real Brahman to throw the phial to the bottom of the sea and to go back to his mother and wife.  The Brahman lived happily ever after and had many sons and daughters.

I really enjoyed this story and the trickery at the end was very clever.  I could see myself retelling this story later in the week!

The Brahman with his mother and wife. Web Source. 

Bibliography: The Brahman-Ghost from The Folktales of Bengal by Rev. Lal Behari Day.