The Story of the Rākshasa and the Princess1
H. (Henry) Parker translation
The Story of the Rākshasa and the Princess1
In a certain country there are a King and a Queen, it is said. The Queen bore a Princess. In that very country there are a Rākshasa and a Rākshasī. The Rākshasī, too, bore a son. In that Princess’s horoscope there was [found] that she will contract marriage with a Rākshasa; in that Rākshasa’s horoscope there was [found] that he will marry a Princess.
After both had become considerably big the King and Queen died; only that Princess is in the palace.
The Rākshasa can create anything [he has] thought of. The Rākshasa thought, “The palace and royal goods that are in the palace all are to disappear.” In that very manner they disappeared.
There not being a place for the Princess to stay in, when she is weeping and weeping the Rākshasa having come there asked at the hand of the Princess, “What are you weeping for?”
Then the Princess said, “I weep as there is not a place for me to be in, and not a thing to eat,—because of that.”
After that the Rākshasa said, “I will give food and clothing; can you come to our house?” Then the Princess said, “I can.”
After that, the Rākshasa and the Princess came to the Rākshasa’s house. Then at the hand of the Rākshasa asked the Rākshasa’s mother, “Who, son, is that?”
After that, the Rākshasī having said, “Yes, it is good,” while, having employed the Princess, she was making her do all the work, the Princess being like a servant of the Rākshasī’s, the Rākshasī had the thought, “[How] if I eat the Princess?”
Having thought it, one day when the Rākshasī was preparing to go to eat human bodies she said at the hand of the Princess, “[By the time] when I am coming, having brought and placed [ready] seven large pots of water, and brought and placed [ready] seven bundles of firewood, and boiled and pounded seven pāelas of paddy (each about three-eighths of a bushel), and plastered cow-dung on [the floors of] seven houses, and cooked, warm water for me to bathe and place thou it [ready]. If not, I will eat thee.” Having said this the Rākshasī went to eat human bodies.
After that, the Princess remained weeping and weeping. So the Rākshasa asked, “What art thou crying for?”
The Princess said, “Mother, telling me so many works, went away. How shall I do them?”
Then the Rākshasa said, “Don’t thou be doubtful about it. When mother, having come back, has asked, say thou that thou didst all the works.”
After that, the Princess, having remained silent in the very manner the Rākshasa said, told at the hand of the Rākshasī [on her return] that she did the works. When the Rākshasī looked to see if the works were right, all were right. Well then, to eat the Princess there was no means for the Rākshasī.
After that, she sent word to the Rākshasī’s younger sister, “There is a girl of the palace [here]; I have no means of eating that girl; whatever work I told her that work has been quite rightly done. Now then, how shall I eat [her]? I will send this girl near you; then you eat her.”
The Rākshasī said at the hand of the Princess, “Go to the house of our younger sister’s people; a box of mine is there. If thou dost not bring it I will eat thee.”
After that, the Princess having come near the stile, while she was weeping and weeping the Rākshasa came there and asked, “What art thou weeping for?”
After that, the Rākshasa [said], “Little-mother is blowing and blowing [the fire] at the hearth; the box is near the door. Thou having gone running, taking the box come away.”
Afterwards, having gone running, at the time when the Princess looked the Rākshasī is blowing and blowing at the hearth; the box was near the door. The Princess having gone into the house, taking the box came running. The Rākshasī chased after her; she was unable to eat her. For that Rākshasī [who sent her] there, also there was not a way to eat her.
When she was there in that way for a considerable time they asked for a marriage for the Rākshasa. Having asked it, the Rākshasī also having become ready to go for the marriage, said at the hand of the Princess, “When we come summoning the bride, having well prepared the house, and set the tables and chairs, and boiled and cooked for the marriage party, place [the food ready].” Saying [this] the Rākshasī went for the marriage.
The Rākshasa having been behind said at the hand of the Princess, “Thou having remained without speaking, say thou didst all the works that mother told thee.” Having said it the Rākshasa, too, went for the marriage.
Afterwards the Princess having been [there] without speaking, after the wedding-party, summoning the bride, returned, the Rākshasī asked at the hand of the Princess, “Didst thou do all the works I told thee? Didst thou do them?”
The Princess said, “Yes.” When the Rākshasī looked all the works were right; there also there was no way to eat her.
When she was there in that manner a considerable time, the Rākshasa and the Princess having got hid went away. Having thus gone, and having created the Princess’s royal palace in the very manner in which it was [before], the two remained at the palace.
Finished.
North-western Province.
In the Kathā Sarit Sāgara (Tawney), vol. i, p. 215, a Brāhmaṇa married a Rākshasī Princess, and there is an account of a similar union in the story No. 135 which follows.