The Story of King Bamba

In a certain country there is a King. There are seven Princesses (daughters) of the King. He does not allow the seven Princesses to go anywhere outside [the palace precincts], and having caused a pool to be dug in the very palace for bathing, also, the Princesses bathe [in it].

When they have bathed, there is a drain for letting out the water. A Turtle came along the drain, and having entered the pool, when it was there, one day the water having filled the pool the Princesses went. While they were having water-games, one Princess struck against the Turtle, and while she was crying out [in alarm], the other six having become afraid sprang ashore. Having sprung there and gone running, they told their father the King.

Afterwards the King and Ministers having come and opened the drain, when they looked after the water lowered there was a Turtle. The Ministers took away the Turtle. Thereupon the King said, “For the fault that it frightened my Princesses, what is the suitable punishment to inflict on this one?”

Then a Minister said, “Having fixed a noose to its neck and hung it up for thirty paeyas (twelve hours), let it go.”

Thereupon another Minister said, “The punishment is not good enough. Not in that way. Having prepared a bon-fire you ought to put this Turtle into the bon-fire.” Thereupon the Turtle laughed.

Then the Turtle, after having shrugged its shoulders, said, “O Lord, Your Majesty, though you should inflict all other punishments don’t inflict that punishment on me.”

Just as it was saying it, the King said, “Aḍē! Take that to that very one and put it in.” After that, the Ministers having taken the Turtle put it into the Atirawatī river.

The great Nāga King, Mahakela by name, having seen this Turtle, asked, “Whence camest thou? Who art thou?”

Then the Turtle gave answer, “O Lord, Your Majesty, they call me, indeed, the Minister, Pūrnaka by name, of King Bamba of Bamba City. Because there was no other man to come [to make] appearance (daekuma) before Your Honour (num̆ba-wahansē), His Majesty our King sent me.”

Then the Nāga King asked, “What is the business for which he sent thee?”

Then the Turtle says, “There are seven Princesses of His Majesty our King. Out of them, His Majesty our King is willing to give any Princess you want, for the Nāga residence. Because of it he sent me.”

Thereupon the Nāga King says, “It is good. If he is thus willing I will cause two persons to make the journey with thee.”

Then the Turtle says, “O Lord, Your Majesty, permission has been given to me for [only] seven days’ [absence]; because of it, I must go this very day.”

Afterwards the great Nāga King, Mahakela by name, having despatched two Nāgayās, said, “Ye having gone to the world of men (nara-lowa), looking into matters there, until ye come back do no injury to anyone.”

Well then, when these two Nāgayās and the Turtle are coming along the Turtle says, “I am unable to go like Your Honours go; having lifted me up carry me a little.” After that, the two Nāgayās, lifting up the Turtle, came [with him] to this world.

Having come near the city, the Turtle said, “Now then, place me on the ground; I cannot go thus. When I have gone to the palace, the Princesses having come and said, ‘Our Minister has come,’ will ask at my hand certain articles. Because of it, I will go to that pool; until the time when I come [after] plucking a handful of flowers, you stay here.”

Having said [this], the Turtle went to the pool; after it descended [into it] those two Nāgayās are looking [out for it]. The Turtle having gone to the pool, got hid.

The two Nāgayās having gone to Bamba City, after they went near the King, the King asked, “From what country came ye?”

Then the Nāgayās said, “What is [the meaning of] that speech that Your Honour is saying? Your Honour must understand. By Your Honour a Minister [was] sent to our Nāga dwelling-place—was he not?—thereafter to tell us to come. That there are Your Honour’s seven Princesses, Your Honour’s Minister, Pūrnaka by name, went and told our King. Afterwards our King sent us two, with Your Honour’s Minister, Pūrnaka by name.”

Then King Bamba says, “Is it true that a King like me gives [in] marriage to frog-eating beasts like you?” Having said it, he scolded them with many low words.

Afterwards the two Nāgayās having gone again to the Nāga residence told the Nāga King, “King Bamba scolded us much;” having said it the two wept.

Afterwards collecting as many Nāgayās as were [there], the Nāga King having come to Bamba City, the Nāga King called Mahakela and yet [another] Nāga King twined [themselves] from the King’s head down to the two feet, and raising their heads above [him] asked at the hand of King Bamba, “Wilt thou give thy Princess or not?”

King Bamba said, “To thy taking any Princess thou wantest to thy country, there is not any impediment by me.”

During the time when she was [there] a child [was] conceived in her womb. After it was conceived, ten months having become complete she bore a Nāgayā. That Nāgayā in not much time having become big, asked at the hand of his mother, “Mother, what is [the reason] why you alone are unable to take the appearance you want?”

Then the Princess said, “Son, how can I take the appearance I want? I am a human being (manussayek).”

The Nāgayā asks, “How, mother, was the manner in which you came to this country?”

Then his mother says, “In this manner: As many Nāgayās as were in this Nāga residence having gone and fought with our father the King, taking me came away.”

Afterwards the Nāga Prince says, “Mother, I cannot stay in this country; I must go to the world of men. For it, give me permission.” Afterwards his mother gave the Nāga Prince permission.

Well then (etin), the Nāgayā having come to the world of men began to practise asceticism in a rock cave. When no long time had gone in that manner, a Vaeddā having seen that the Nāgayā is in that rock cave, said to a snake charmer (ahi-kantayek), “I have seen a Nāgayā thus. Canst thou catch him?”

After that, the Nāgayā’s mother bore a Nāgayā again. After that Nāgayā also became big, just like the first Nāgayā asked, he asked at the hand of his mother [regarding her appearance]. Then his mother, too, told him just like she told that first Nāgayā.

Afterwards, the Nāgayā also asking permission at the hand of his mother to come to the world of men, on the very day when he came to the world of men, at the time when the snake charmer was making that first Cobra dance at the palace of King Bamba, creating a thousand hoods, the Nāgayā who was born afterwards saw him. The dancing Nāgayā also saw that that Nāgayā is coming. At his very coming he sent a poisonous smoke to the snake charmer. The poisonous smoke having struck him, the snake charmer died at that very place.

Afterwards, when the two Nāgayās were conversing, the elder Nāgayā said, “Our grandfather’s palace, indeed, is this. Because of it, indeed, to-day I danced, creating a thousand hoods. From to-day I shall not dance again.”

Well then, the two, creating divine bodies, having gone to the midst of the forest, practised asceticism.

North-western Province.

In The Jātaka, No. 543 (vol. vi, p. 83) there is an account of a tortoise (turtle) that frightened the semi-Nāga sons of Brahmadatta, King of Benares, by raising its head out of the water of the royal pool when they were playing there. When it was netted the attendants suggested pounding it to powder in a mortar, or cooking and eating it, or baking it; and at last a Minister recommended that it should be thrown into the whirlpool of the Yamunā river. The turtle begged to be spared this last fate,—the one it desired,—but the King ordered it to be thrown into the river, in which a current led it to the dwelling of the Nāgas. When the sons of the Nāga King Dhataraṭṭha found it, the turtle invented the story of its being a messenger called Cittacūḷa, sent by the King of Benares to offer his daughter to the Nāga King. Four Nāga youths returned with the turtle to fix the wedding day, the turtle concealing itself in a pool on the way, on the plea of collecting lotus flowers. When the Nāgas were treated with scorn, the Nāga King and his forces compelled the King to surrender his daughter Samuddajā, who was married to the Nāga King.

Her second semi-Nāga son out of four with only his Nāga wife’s knowledge went to fast on the earth, with a view to being re-born among the Gods. Lying as a cobra on an ant-hill he was pointed out by an outcast Brāhmaṇa, captured by means of a magical spell, taken to dance in villages, and at last brought to the King of Benares. The Nāga’s eldest brother disguised as an ascetic, with his Nāga sister, disguised as a young frog that was hidden in his hair, rescued him. The heat from three drops of poison emitted by the frog turned the snake charmer into a leper; their virulence, had it not been magically quenched, would have caused a seven years’ drought.

Snake doctors in Ceylon classify the frog as a very poisonous form of serpent. In Sagas from the Far East, p. 213, a gold frog was the daughter of the Serpent King, who may have been a Nāga.

In Cinq Cents Contes et Apologues (Chavannes), vol. i, p. 188, the story resembles that given in the Jātaka tale. The King’s name was Aṅgada; he had a son and a daughter Añjanā. When the turtle was caught the Ministers advised beheading it, burning it alive, or chopping it up and making it into soup; another said these deaths were not cruel enough, and recommended casting it into the sea; it was thrown into a river. The Nāga’s parents, sister, and brother sought for it in the form of birds, and the snake charmer was sent away by Aṅgada, with presents.

In the same work, vol. iii, p. 346, a Queen bore a human son after being visited by a great serpent while half asleep. Professor Chavannes referred to other early instances of such supposed births.

In the Kolhān folk-tales (Bompas) appended to Folklore of the Santal Parganas, p. 452, there is an account of a woman who was married to a water-snake and lived with him under the water, where she bore four snake sons.

In Kaffir Folk-Lore (Theal), p. 155, a girl became the wife of Long Snake; after she ran away her sister married him. When he visited their father the house was set on fire and he was killed. On p. 55 a girl married a five-headed snake who became a man. (See p. 401 below, also).