"The Story of Prince Sobur" is an Indian fairy tale. It tells the story of a princess who summons into her room a prince named Sobur (), or variations thereof, by the use of a magical fan.Haring, Lee. "Diaspora, Southwest Indian Ocean". In: South Asian Folklore: An Encyclopedia. Routledge, 2020 . p. 157. . Spurred by envy, the princess's sisters hurt the prince with glass shards, causing him heavy injuries; the princess then goes after him to cure him.
The story contains similarities to the European (French) fairy tale The Blue Bird, and variants have been collected from South Asia (India and Pakistan) and in Eastern Africa.
Summary In a version of the story collected from by Lal Behari Dey from Bengal with the title The Story of Prince Sobur, the story begins with a question of the father, a merchant, to his seven daughters: "By whose fortune do they get their living?" The youngest answers that her living is by her own fortune. Her father expels her from home and she has to live in the jungle. After a while, the seventh daughter becomes rich and shares her wealth with her father. The merchant has to travel abroad, but his ship does not move. He then remembers he forgot to ask his seventh daughter what to bring her. He does and she says: "Sobur" ("wait"). He takes it to mean a thing named Sobur, and goes on his journey. In the foreign country, whose prince is called Sobur, the prince gives the merchant a box with a magical fan and a looking glass, telling him the box contains the "Sobur". The merchant returns and gives his daughter the box. She opens it a few days later and fans herself with the fan. By doing so, Prince Sobur teleports into her room. They fall in love and agree to marry. On the wedding day, her sisters prepare the nuptial bed with glass powder from broken bottles. When Sobur lies down in bed, he is gravelly injured and is rushed back to his native country. His wife decides to return with him, by donning the disguise of a Sannyasi. On her wanderings, she rests by a tree where a pair of birds, Bihangama and Bihangami, have their nest. She protects their nest by killing a snake and they, in gratitude, reveal how she can cure her prince. The birds agree to take her there faster than by going on foot. At the end of the tale, she cures Prince Sobur and he forgives his sisters-in-law.Day, Rev. Lal Behari (1883). Folk-Tales of Bengal. London: MacMillan and Co. 1883. pp. 119–132.
Variants India According to scholar A. K. Ramanujan, tale type ATU 432, "The Prince as Bird", is reported in "over 8 Indian variants", including Bengali, Hindi and Kannada. Kannada scholarship states the tale is "very popular" ("ಸಾಕಷ್ಟು ಪ್ರಚಲಿತವಾಗಿದ್ದು", in the original) in Karnataka, but follows a local development of the international tale type ATU 432, "The Prince as Bird". Scholar L.R. Heggade suggested that the story must have spread by Muslims.
The Fan Prince Author Maive Stokes collected an Indian tale with the title The Fan Prince. In this tale, a king questions his seven daughters: Who gives them food? The six elders answer that it is him; the youngest that it is God. The seventh daughter is expelled from home and has to fend for herself in the jungle. After an adventure, they reconcile. One day, he has to travel abroad and asks his daughters what presents they want: the six elders for silk dresses and jewels, and the youngest simply said "Sabr" ("wait"). Her father takes notice of the strange declaration, but promises to look for this "Sabr". He buys the material wishes for his daughters in the foreign country, but still hasn't found "Sabr". Curiously, the men at the bazar say their king's son is called Sabr. The first king visits Prince Sabr, explains the story and receives from the prince a box that is to be given to the seventh princess. The king returns home and gives the box to his daughter. After a month she opens it: inside a fan, which she uses and suddenly Prince Sabr himself appears before her. They agree to marry each other, and her father consents. On their wedding day, the princess's six other sisters, angry at their sister's luck, prepare the bed for the prince with glass powder to hurt him. It so happens and Sabr is badly hurt. He urges his wife to use the fan the wrong way to teleport him back to his kingdom, where he may improve his condition. She dreams he is still in pain and decides to do something about it: she disguises as a male yogi and goes to another jungle, where she hears the a parrot and a "mainá" conversing about the cure to the prince. The princess, as yogi, gives the cure to her husband and reveals she was the yogi.Stokes, Maive. Indian fairy tales, collected and tr. by M. Stokes; with notes by Mary Stokes. London: Ellis and White. 1880. pp. 193–200.Yen, Ping-Chiu. Proverbs, Songs, Epic Narratives, Folktales of East Asia: Selected Texts, Parallel Analysis, and Comparative Approach. Lanham, Md: University Press of America, 1997. pp. 191ff, 201. .Ping-chiu, Yen, and Jan-Öjvind Swahn. “Rejoinder to Jan-Öjvind Swahn’s Review of ‘Proverbs, Songs, Epic Narratives, Folktales of East Asia: Selected Texts, Parallel Analysis and Comparative Approach’.” In: Asian Folklore Studies 59, no. 2 (2000): 320. https://doi.org/10.2307/1178922.
Prince Sabar In a variant collected in Western India by Putlibaï Wadia, Prince Sabar, the tale begins with the father, a Sultan, asking their seven daughters what they want him to bring from his journey. The youngest answers "Sabar" ("patience"). The father asks around for the thing named Sabar, and an old woman tells him about a stone named "Sabar stone" which is in her yard since before she was born. He buys the stone from the woman and gives to his daughter. The daughter cries about it at first, but resigns herself and polishes the stone every day. She notices that the stone is wearing away and inside a fan is hidden. She waves the fan and a prince named Sabar appears to her. One day, Sabar warns the princess against a possible ploy by the sisters. She pays no heed to it, and the sisters prepare his bed with glass powder. He is hurt by the glass and begs the princess to use the fan to teleport him back to his parents.Wadia, Putlibai D. H. "Folklore in Western India". In: The Indian Antiquary. Vol 16. 1887. pp. 322-327. The tale was translated into French by Loys Bruyere,Bruyere, Loys. "Contes Arabes et Orientaux III: Les Contes de Miss Putlibai Vadia". In: Revue de Traditions Populaires. Année 4, Tome 4, Numéro 10. Paris: Société des traditions populaires, 1889. pp. 536-538. and retold by Indian scholar A. K. Ramanujan, who sourced it from Gujarat.Ramanujan, A. K. Folktales from India: a selection of oral tales from twenty-two languages. New York: Pantheon Books, 1991. pp. 159-168 (text), 336 (source and classification). .
The Power of Fate In a tale from Simla titled The Power of Fate, a Rajah asks his six adult daughters about their fates, and the sixth answers her fate is in no one's hands. The rajah expels her from home and orders some dooly-bearers to take her to the jungle and leave her there. The princess's dooly is tied to a large oak tree, and she begins to pray to Mahadeo. The deity listens to her prayers and sends an emissary to give her food and water. After a few days, Mahadeo, impressed with her piety, decides to reward her: the princess notices a hole in the ground, digs up and finds a silver and gold stones. She then meets a woodsman and pays him to build her a new house for her. With the remaining treasure, she hires servants to build a new palace. Later, father and daughter reconcile and the rajah has to travel somewhere, but first asks his daughters what presents he can give them. The sixth daughter asks for a little box that he may find in his travels. This box is kept by a bunniah and hides a fan that contains the soul of a prince. The rajah buys the box and gives his daughter, who opens it and finds a fan inside. She waves the fan and the prince appears to her. They spend hours together. One day, she foolishly reveals the secret to her sisters, who conspire to hurt the prince: they put glass powder on a couch. The next time the prince comes to the princess's room, he lays on the couch to rest, and the bits of glass hurt him. He returns to his kingdom, and the princess decides to dress as a fakir to go on a pilgrimage. One day, she rests by a tree and hears an eagle and a parrot conversing about the prince's situation and a way to cure him: mix the refuse of an eagle's nest with water and apply to the wounds. She follows the birds' instructions, cures the prince and reveals herself as his princess. The tale was also translated into Russian by Russian orientalist Sergey Oldenburg with the title "Чему быть, то и будет" ("What will be, will be").
Kupti and Imani Andrew Lang published in his Olive Fairy Book a tale furnished by Major Campbell, originally collected from Punjab. In this tale, titled Kupti and Imani, a king has two daughters, Kupti and Imani, and asks them about leaving their futures in his hands. Kupti agrees to her father' s sentiment, but Imani argues that she will make her own fortune. The king takes his daughter to be a crippled fakir's companion, and leaves her there. The fakir and the exiled princess fall into a routine: she takes care of the fakir and weaves clothes for him to sell in the market. With the money, she hires builders to build a beautiful house for them. The king finally concedes that his daughter Imani was right after all. One day, he has to go on a journey to the country of Dûr, but asks his daughters what they want. The king's messenger goes to asks Imani, but, since she is busy tending other matters, she says: "Patience". The messenger relays the information to her father, the king. In Dûr, the king asks about the "patience", but finds none. The news reach the ears of the king of Dûr, named Subbar Khan ("Subbar" meaning "patience"). Subbar Khan gives the king a casket that can only be open by Imani. The king takes the casket to his daughter and she opens it: inside, a fan. She waves the fan three times and king Subbar Khan appears before her. He explains that the fan is magical and can both summon him if waved, and send him back by folding it and tapping three times. Subbar Khan continues to visit Imani and the fakir, and Kupti, her sister, becomes interested in knowing more of him. On the occasion of a visit to Imani, Kupti sprinkles on his bed powdered and splintered glass laced with poison. Subbar Khan is badly hurt by the glass and poison and returns to his kingdom by the magic fan. Imani and the fakir notice his long absence, and she decides to go to Dûr to see him. On her way, she stops by a tree and hears two monkeys talking about the cure: berries from that very same tree. Imani takes he berries and goes to Dûr just in time to heal the prince.Lang, Andrew. The Olive Fairy Book. London; New York: Longmans, Green. 1907. pp. 119-130.
The Princess who got the gift of patience