Born in Dhaka, in 1877, Sri Dakshinaranjan Mitra Mazumdar was a writer of children’s stories in Bengali literature. He collected many folk tales and fairy tales during his life time .His first collection of Bengali folk tales, Thakumar Jhuli was very popular during his lifetime, and has become a classic today. “Shaat Bhai Champa”, one of my personal favourites from the book was told to me by my Didima (mother’s mother) and remains in my head told exactly as she told it to this day. I find, on reading it recently, she was faithful to the book. While as an adult woman, I could object to this story on several grounds, as a child I simply loved it, and fully approved of the children being smarter and wiser than the adults…
Once upon a time, there was a king who had seven queens. Six of the queens were haughty and cruel, but the seventh and youngest was gentle and kind, and so the King favoured her the most. This made the other queens extremely jealous. For many years, none of the queens bore any children, and the king was worried. If he had no heir, how would his kingdom run? Who would inherit? Then one day, the courtiers brought him good news. The youngest queen was pregnant, and the king was overjoyed. He distributed sweets and opened his treasure trove to the entire kingdom to spread the glad tidings. The other six queens were eaten up with jealousy. This was the last straw!
The king, oblivious of their fury, tied a long gold chain to himself and to his queen, and said, “I will have to sit in the Durbar. If you pull at this chain, I will come as soon as you have had the baby, and gaze at my child and tell the world of its birth.” The young queen was kept in a special room where she could have her baby in peace. But then who would go in with her to help? The six wicked queens said, “Never fear, we shall be with her.” The king went off to his court leaving the six jealous queens in charge.
The wicked queens shook the chain and raised several false alarms, till the furious king told them all, “If you shake that chain one more time before anything happens, I will kill every one of you!” And with that he went crossly off to administer his kingdom once more. At last the young queen gave birth to seven beautiful little boys and one lovely little girl, perfectly healthy, and kicking their little arms and legs as all babies should. The young queen was so weak that she could barely speak or see her babies. When she asked to see them, the wicked queens pulled dreadful faces and said, “As if she could bear our king sons or daughters! Look, this is what she’s given the Kingdom!” They produced a handful of rats, some frogs and some crabs and showed them to her. The poor queen passed out with shock and the six wicked queens did not shake the golden chain this time around. Very, very quietly, they brought out eight earthenware jars, stuffed the little babies into them and secretly buried them in a pile of ashes near the palace. Only then did they shake that gold chain good and hard.
The king, all excited, announced the birth of his children to the kingdom with drum rolls and brought all his favourite courtiers with him to see his child. He was sure that a beautiful healthy boy had been born, the perfect heir to his kingdom. Imagine his shock and humiliation when to his horror, the six wicked queens brought a whole lot of frogs and rats and crabs and said, “Look, these are your heirs!”
The king, in a flaming rage banished the poor young queen, and the six wicked queens celebrated her disgrace. Peace left the kingdom that day along with the young queen. The six wicked queens quarreled among themselves, the palace was full of intrigue and the kingdom fell into decay. The sorrow of the young queen even broke the hearts of the trees and the stones, the rivers and the canals dried up, and the green fields grew dry and bare. The young queen, reduced to collecting cow dung, supplied dried cow dung cakes to the palace for a living and wandered around outside the palace. The palace fell into disrepair, and no trees flowered in the palace gardens. There were no flowers now for the king’s puja. What a disaster, at a time when the greatest and most fervent prayers were required!
At last, one day, the palace gardener came and reported to the king, “There are no flowers anywhere except on the palace ash heap, where seven Champa and one Parul tree grow, and each of these has a flower.” The king said, “Then bring them to me so I may perform my Puja”.
The gardener did as asked, but as he tried to pluck them, the little red Parul flower called out, “Shaat bhai Champa, jagore.” …. “Awake, my seven brothers Champa!”
Immediately, the seven Champa flowers replied, “Keno , Bon Parul, Dako re?” …. “Why do you call us little sister, Parul?”
And the bright red flower, Parul, called out, “The King’s gardener has come.
Will you give him flowers, everything you’ve got?
Will you give him flowers or would you rather not?”
The brothers called out:
“We won’t! We won’t!
We would rather fly,
Away, away, up on high!
Tell him to go.
Tell him to say, If the King should come, why then we may”…..
The gardener was astonished. He ran back to the king and reported this miracle. The king, amazed, arrived at the ash heap to find the eight beautiful trees and as soon as he arrived, Parul called out,
“The King himself has come.
Will you give him flowers, everything you’ve got?
Will you give him flowers or would you rather not?”
But, the brothers called out,
“We won’t! We won’t! We would rather fly
Away, away, up on high!
Tell him to go. Tell him to say,
If the eldest Queen should come, why then we may”…..
And all the flowers flew even higher up and away from the reach of the king and his courtiers. The eldest Queen arrived, her payals jingling, and up, up she reached to pick the flowers, but they rose even higher and said,
Away, away, up on high!
Tell her to go. Tell her to say,
If the middle Queen should come, why then we may”…..
In this way, one by one, all the six wicked queens were called, but no one could get their hands on the seven Champas and their little red sister, Parul. Finally, the flowers rose so high, they shone like stars in the sky. The King was frantic! What would he do? At last, they called for the King’s slave, she who picked up cow dung for the palace fires.
A frenzied search was set up for the slave! Finally she was found, out in the fields collecting cow pats. Without much ado, she was bundled into a hand held four handled chair and carried unceremoniously off to the Palace garden where she was dumped before the trees. Dressed in rags, covered in cow dung as she was, she was ordered to pick the flowers for the king’s puja at once. As soon as she reached up, the seven little Champa flowers, and the one little red Parul flower transformed into seven sturdy little boys and one jolly little girl, and they all flung their arms around her and hugged her tight shouting, “Ma, Ma, Ma!”
The entire court was amazed. The king wept with joy and sorrow all at the same time, and the six wicked queens shook with terror. The king ordered a terrible fate for them. They were thrown into a pit and buried in thorns. The king returned to his palace, and restored his young queen, his seven sons, one daughter and began to rule happily once more. The Palace was filled with sounds of celebration and victory.
Note:
*In many Indian systems of thought, in accordance with “Pagan” folklore elsewhere in the world, there is a belief that mortal beings can be reborn as trees.
*This story has found its way in several popular Bengali songs (“Dhitang Dhitang Bole” has a line, “Parul Bon dake, Champa chhutey ai” which means: “The little sister Parul calls, ‘Champa, come to me quickly.” And a film version with a song, “Shaat bhai Champa Jagore” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u17nGu-D64E)
*Champa in Bengali describes several different kinds of flowers from several different botanical families. This folk tale lists seven and a bright red flower called Parul.
STORY COLLECTED BY: SHAIONTONI BOSE
STORY TOLD BY: GRANDMOTHER
TEXT SOURCE: ‘THAKUMAR JHULI’ BY Sri Dakshinaranjan Mitra Mazumdar
