The Story of Lalpila is an Indian folktale collected from the Baiga people by ethnologist Verrier Elwin. It is related to the cycle of the Calumniated Wife, and is classified in the international Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index as tale type ATU 707, "The Three Golden Children".
These tales refer to stories where a girl promises a king she will bear a child or children with wonderful attributes, but her jealous relatives or the king's wives plot against the babies and their mother. Many variants of the tale type are registered in India, although they comprise specific cycles in this country. In one of the cycles, the king's children's play-pretend with wooden horses leads to their father discovering the truth. Variants of the sort are recorded in Asia (India and Iran), and also in Spain and in Africa.
Sources According to Verrier Elwin, the story was sourced from the Baiga, in Taliyapani, in Mandla district.Elwin, Verrier. Folk-tales of Mahakoshal. [London]: Pub. for Man in India by H. Milford, Oxford University Press, 1944. p. 209. The tale was previously published in Elwin's book The Songs of the Forest, and sourced from a Baiga named Hothu, who told the tale "in a remote village of Bilaspur". In Hothu's tale, the prince's name is given as Lāl. However, Shyam Parmar republished the tale as Lal, stating that the story was the "Gondi version" of a Malwi story titled Kag-Udawanɪ, thus "identical" to other tales from North India.
Summary A childless king with six wives goes hunting in the woods and finds an emaciated-looking woman named "Queen of the Forest" atop a tree. The king and his retinue inquire about her nature: is she a devata, a rakshasa, a bhut, a Pret or human, like them? The woman climbs down the tree and eats a meal. The king takes her back to his palace and marries her. The other six queens become jealous. The Queen of the Forest is heavy with child and the king gives her a bell to ring to summon him. The Queen of the Forest gives birth to a boy that is replaced by a stone by the other queens and thrown to the buffaloes to be trampled. The animals, however, suckle the child and the queens throw the boy in a goat-shed. A woman that grazes the goats finds the boy (which she identifies as "the Forest Queen son") and she and her husband adopt him. Years later, the boy, named Lal, commissions a wooden horse to be made. He takes the boy to the river where the six queens were bathing and orders the wooden horse to drink water. The six queens mock the boy's action and he retorts about a human woman giving birth to a stone. The six queens notice it is their rival's son and return in a stunned state to the palace. The king learns of this and orders the boy to be summoned to his presence. The boy Lal tells his story and asks for the Queen of the Forest to be brought to them for a test: the woman is to be place behind a very thick screen; if she is Lal's biological mother, her milk will flow from her breasts and enter Lal's mouth. So it happens; the king recognizes him as his son, reinstates Lal's mother and banishes the six queens.Elwin, Verrier. Folk-tales of Mahakoshal. [London]: Pub. for Man in India by H. Milford, Oxford University Press, 1944. pp. 209–212.
Analysis Tale type The tale is classified in the international Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index as ATU 707, "The Three Golden Children".Ashliman, D. L. A Guide to Folktales in the English Language: Based on the Aarne-Thompson Classification System. Bibliographies and Indexes in World Literature, vol. 11. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1987. p. 143. .
According to Stith Thompson' and Jonas Balys's index of Indian tales, the tale type ATU 707 shows 44 variants across Indian sources.Crowley, Daniel J. "Haring's Herring: Theoretical Implications of the "Malagasy Tale Index"." In: Journal of Folklore Research 23, no. 1 (1986): 46, 48. Accessed November 19, 2021. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3814480.
Motifs Folklorist Christine Goldberg, in the entry of the tale type in Enzyklopädie des Märchens, noted that in Indian variants of tale type 707, the children may entice their father to the truth by trying to feed a wooden horse.Goldberg, Christine. "Söhne: Die drei goldenen Söhne (AaTh/ATU 707)" In: Enzyklopädie des Märchens Online: Band 12: Schinden, Schinder – Sublimierung. Edited by Rolf Wilhelm Brednich, Heidrun Alzheimer, Hermann Bausinger, Wolfgang Brückner, Daniel Drascek, Helge Gerndt, Ines Köhler-Zülch, Klaus Roth and Hans-Jörg Uther. Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, 2016. p. 833. https://www.degruyter.com/database/EMO/entry/emo.12.183/html Likewise, researcher Noriko Mayeda and Indologist W. Norman Brown divided Indian variants of type 707 in five groups: (1) quest for wonderful items; (2) reincarnation into flowers; (3) use of wooden horses; (4) children sing a song; (5) miscellaneous.Mayeda, Noriko; Brown, W. Norman. Tawi Tales; Folk Tales From Jammu. American Oriental Society New Haven, Connecticut, 1974. pp. 543-544.
Variants Asia India James Hinton Knowles collected a tale from Kashmir from a teller he identified as Pandit Ánand Ram of Renawari, Srinagar. In this variant, a childless king has three wives. Somehow, his third queen is heavy with child, and the king celebrates this happening. When the time comes, the two other queens, afraid of losing the king's favour, bribe the midwife to replace the boy for a pup and throw the boy in a carpenter's shop. The same happens to a second son. Their mother is banished from the palace and forced to beg for a living. Some time later, the boys grow up and play with a wooden horse in front of the palace, pretending to give food rice and water to the wooden animal. The king wonders about the boys' strange play, to which the boys retort that the same absurdity can be said of a woman giving birth to pups. The king takes notice of the boys' answer, summons the midwife and discovers the whole truth.Knowles, James Hinton. Folk-tales of Kashmir. London: Trübner. 1888. pp. 405–408.
Bengali folklorist Saratchandra Mitra published a tale from North Bihar, "of the 'Wicked Queen's type'". In this tale, a Raja is already married to a Rani, but hasn't had any son yet, so he marries another. The second Rani becomes pregnant and the Rajah gives her a bell to ring if she needs something. After ringing the bell some times - both the rani and her rival -, the Raja decides to not pay attention to the bell, which leaves the pregnant rani to the jealous rani's devices. The second queen gives birth to a boy, which the first rani substitutes for a stone and casts in the river in an earthenware vessel. The same thing happens to the second queen's three other sons, born in the subsequent years. The four boys are found by a potter, who raised the boys as his own sons. When they grow up, the potter carves wooden horses for them, and instructs them to play pretend with the wooden horses in the well where the women from the village go to fetch water. A woman at the well complains to the boys about the strange pastime and they break their wares. The next time, the Raja comes to investigate the commotion and sights the four boys. The Raja summons the poor potter, who tells the whole truth, and the first rani is punished.Mitra, Sarat Chandra. "A Bihàrî folktale of the "Wicked Queen's Type" and its analogue from the district of Murshidabad". In: Journal of the Anthropological Society Vol. XI, No. 8, 1917. pp. 979-982.
Sarat Chandra Mitra translated a legend, "current" in the village of Panchthupi, in the Kandi subdivision of the Murshidabad district, in Western Bengal, which he considered to have "striking similarities" to the Bihari folktale he collected. He relates this story to a goddess of children named Shashthi. In this legend, titled The Legend of the Aśoka Shashṭhî, a doe is hunted by a rajah and takes refuge in the sacred grove that belongs to a Muni. One day, the Muni urinates on a rock and secretes a bit of seminal fluid. The doe licks the rock and becomes pregnant. The doe gives birth to a human girl who is named Asoki and raised by the Muni. The rajah goes hunting the deer in the forest and reaches the sacred grove. He finds the girl Asoki and inquires the Muni, her adopted father, if he can marry her. The Muni agrees to her marriage. Asoki is taken to the rajah's palace and made his new queen, alongside the rajah's previous six queens. Asoki gives birth to seven boys in the subsequent years, who are replaced for a wooden doll each time, cast in a copper cauldron and cast adrift in the stream. The cauldrons wash on the Muni's sacred grove and he rescues them. Meanwhile, Asoki, the youngest rani, escapes the palace and goes back to her adoptive father. She meets her sons and lives with them. One day, the seven boys asks his adoptive grandfather to make wooden horses for them. They go the Rajah's seraglio, where the six queens bathe, to pretend to make the wooden horses drink water. The ranis puzzle at their play, and the boys retort that is no more absurd than a woman giving birth to wooden dolls. The six queens realize the boys are Asoki's sons and order the guards to kill them. The guards, however, disobey the orders and summon the rajah. The rajah follows the boys to the sacred grove and finds Asoki again. He is told of the whole truth and punishes the six ranis.Mitra, Sarat Chandra. "A Bihàrî folktale of the "Wicked Queen's Type" and its analogue from the district of Murshidabad". In: Journal of the Anthropological Society Vol. XI, No. 8, 1917. pp. 985-991. Researcher Tony K. Stewart published a similar tale, titled Şaşțhī Who Removes Sorrow, where the goddess Sasthi helps the unfortunate queen, and the truth is revealed by her sons when they try to give water to wooden horses.Stewart, Tony K.. "The Goddess Ṣaṣṭhī Protects Children". In: Religions of India in Practice. Edited by Donald S. Lopez, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1995. pp. 361-365. .
In a tale from Karnataka titled The Lucky Prince, a king has two wives, but no son yet. One day, he meets a woman named Kanaka, a Brahmin's daughter, in a temple during a festival. He marries Kanaka. One day, he has to go to war, and Kanaka gives birth to a boy in his absence. The jealous queens bribe a woman to replace the boy for a brick, and kill him, but the woman, out of mercy, places the baby in a temple's garden. A priest finds the boy, names him Kantirava and raises the boy as his own. The priest's wife gives birth to a boy, and he and Kantirava are raised as brothers. Years later, Kantirava learns of his story, and takes a wooden horse and a bamboo elephant to play near a pond. Some maidservants are drawing water from the pond and see the boy playing pretend that his wooden toys are drinking water. The women mock the boy for the absurd idea, and he retorts that so is a human woman giving birth to a brick. The maidservants report to the two co-queens, who realize that the boy must be Kanaka's son. The queens bribe some men to taka Kantirava and his adoptive brother to the outskirts of the city and kill them. The men decide to spare the boys and the duo leaves the city to go on some adventures. At the end of the tale, both Kantirava and his brother return, each married to two lovely brides. The king learns of the jealous queens' plot, proclaims Kantirava a his successor and banishes the wicked queens.Chandran, Praphulla Satish. Folk Tales of Karnataka. Sterling Publishers, 1973. pp. 17-19.