The Daughter of the Childless King is an Indian folktale collected in Bihar. In it, a queen devises a ruse to trick the king into believing she gave birth to the child he desired. She goes to great lengths to keep the deceit until the daughter's marriage, when the false princess is to be presented to her potential bridegroom. At the marriage, an animal takes the place of the false image, or is presented as the royal child, but eventually gains human form permanently.
The tale is classified in the international Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index as tale type ATU 459, "The Make-Believe Son (Daughter)", wherein a queen tricks the king by fashioning an image of a human child or placing an animal to keep up appearances that she gave birth to an heir, but eventually her creation gains human life. According to scholars, the tale type is mostly attested in North India and in Asia.
Summary
In this tale, a king lives in Bihar. Since he is childless, he performs rites in order to sire a child, to no avail. One day, a sweeper woman passes by his palace and spits at him. He sends for the woman, who tries to dismiss her actions, but is forced to explain that she saw a childless person by daybreak, which can bring misfortune for the rest of the day. The king decides to not punish the sweeper woman and decides to leave the palace in the dead of the night. However, one of the queen's maids sights him and says that he should not leave now that the queen is expecting a child.
The queen hires an astrologer to divine the future: the astrologer predicts the queen shall bear a daughter that will be very lucky, but the king cannot visit the queen until the baby is born, lest she gives birth to a dead child. Even when the princess is born, the astrologer forbids the king from meeting his daughter, only at her marriage. The king obeys the interdictions to avoid dangers, per the astrologer's predictions. To keep up appearances, the queen buys a bird and ties jingling bells to its feet, then the maids tell the king the princess is moving with ghungrus on her feet. The king keeps buying ornaments for his "daughter" and waits impatiently for the chance to see her, so, after twelve years, he arranges a marriage.
The barat, the musicians and the retinue come to prepare to take the princess, but the queen, worried, consults with the astrologer. The astrologer advises that the princess should not be seen in person, due to the risk of dying, so they place a lota in place of the bride and celebrate the marriage. At the moment of the bida (carrying the bride to the bridegroom's house), the queen goes to talk to the prince and shows him the bird which she says she reared as a daughter, so she is entrusting the animal to him. The prince promises to take care of the queen's bird, and its birdcage is secretly placed in the doli by the queen's apartment.
The prince goes home with his "bride", places the birdcage in his quarters, on the bed, and asks that his bride is not to be seen by anyone. His mother agrees to the terms of his strange request. In his chambers, the prince feeds the birdwife. Later, the prince's youngest brother is to be married, and the whole palace is afoot with preparations. The prince's mother goes to talk to him to let his "wife" out of the room. The prince asks if other servants can replace her, but the queen explains that the women of the house are needed for this task (dehusking the rice). The prince tells his mother he will ask his "wife" is she can do it, and explains the task to the bird. The bird agrees to dehusk the rice, goes into the forest and summons other birds to help in the task.
Lastly, the prince has to take a leave of absence and worries about who is going to feed and give water to the bird. The bird advises the prince to place a week worth of food and water, and it will be fine. However, after the prince leaves, the bird accidentally tumbles its water, so it decides to replenish its water: it opens its cage and carries the pot to a pond to draw water. The bird fills the pot with water, but cannot fly with it since the pot is too heavy, try as it might. Suddenly, deities Shiva and Parvati pass by, and the goddess takes pity on the bird's plight, so she asks Shiva to help the animal. Shiva tells Parvati she needs to make a cut on her little finger and anoint the bird's head. By doing this, the bird turns into a beautiful young girl. Now human, the girl kneels in gratitude in front of the Devi, who gives her blessings to the girl's marriage.
The prince returns home, but finds only the empty birdcage, worrying about his birdwife. However, he notices a beautiful girl taking the dust off his feet, and realizes she is the birdwife, now human. He introduces her to his family, who admire their daughter-in-law's beauty.
Analysis Tale type The tale is classified in the international Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index as tale type ATU 459, "The Make-Believe Son (Daughter)": a queen fashions a false image of a child (son or daughter) or a servant finds an animal to convince her husband, the childless king, that she gave birth, Accessed 06 Nov. 2025. and continues the ruse until it is time to marry the royal child; the queen worries that the king will discover the deceit and thinks of killing herself, but deities take pity on the queen and transform the image or animal into a human person.Aarne, Antti; Thompson, Stith. The types of the folktale: a classification and bibliography. Folklore Fellows Communications FFC no. 184. Helsinki: Academia Scientiarum Fennica, 1961. pp. 155-156.
Motifs According to Stith Thompson and study of motifs of Indian literature and oral folklore, the tale contains the motif D350., "Transformation: bird to person".Thompson, Stith; Balys, Jonas. The Oral Tales of India. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1958. p. 103.
Variants According to scholarship, tale type ATU 459 is "widespread throughout North India and other Asian areas, but never found in Europe".Islam, Mazharul. Folklore, the Pulse of the People: In the Context of Indic Folklore. Concept Publishing Company, 1985. pp. 165-166.
The Story of Ghose Author Alice Elizabeth Dracott collected an Indian tale in Simla with the title The Story of Ghose. In this tale, a Ranee has no children, but has a pet squirrel she feeds and takes care of. One day, she has an idea to trick her husband, the Rajah, she gave birth to an heir: she bribes the nurse to tell the king a daughter was born to him. The Brahmin goes to see the princess for himself, but the Ranee persuades him to keep up the lie that she had a daughter, where there is only the squirrel as the Ranee's pet. The Brahmin tells the Rajah father and daughter must not see each other for twelve yeare, otherwise they will both die. After twelve years, the Ranee convinces the Rajah to arrange a marriage between their "daughter" and a prince of a good family, and their daughter must not be seen until after the marriage. The Brahmin finds a royal family of seven sons in another city, and arranges a wedding between the youngest prince, called Shahzadah, with the false princess. A feast is held, and the Ranee hides the squirrel inside the dooly or bridal litter that is to carry the bride to her bridegroom. Prince Shahzadah welcomes the bride and sees who she is inside the dooly: a little squirrel, to his sadness. Despite the situation, the prince keeps up appearances of a good marriage, but asks to live with his wife away from his brothers and any woman from the palace, in another house. The prince's family agrees to his terms, but believe that this is to keep his beautiful wife hidden. One day, the prince's elder sister-in-law complains about doing all the hard work and wants her newest sister-in-law to help them. Prince Shahzadah worries about the little squirrel doing any work, but she offers to do it: first, she is to plaster fhe floor (leepo), then, to grind corn in the handmill; thirdly, to prepare goolgoolah, a dish made with goor, flour, and water and fried in ghee. The squirrel wife manages to plaster the floor with her tail and grind the corn with her teeth. When she tries to prepare the goolgoolah, she cannot do it due to her small size. Deities Mahadeo and Parbatti (sic) are walking by sunrise when Parbatti sees the squirrel and asks her husband Mahadeo to turn the squirrel into a human person. Mahadeo refuses it at first, but agrees to do it: he cuts his finger and sprinkles his blood on the squirrel, turning her into a beautiful princess. The now human princess finishes preparing the dish to serve everyone, and the royal family marvels at her beauty. Prince Shahzadah worries about the little squirrel, calling her "Ghose", when his sisters-in-law mock him, saying that his wife is with them at the palace. The prince thinks they are mocking him, and the princess appears to him in person, explaining she was the squirrel. The prince rejoices at this turn of events, and the princess writes to her human parents to come visit them. The Rajah sees his "daughter" for the first time and is pleased at her beauty.
The Cat Who Became a Queen British reverend James Hinton Knowles published a Kashmiri folktale collected from an informant named Rází, a panditani who lived in Srinagar. In this tale, titled The Cat Who Became a Queen, a monarch in Kashmir bemoans the fact that he has no heirs, goes to his zánana and threatens his co-wives with banishment if any of them fail to bear a son within a year. The women pray to Shiva for any of them to give birth, to no avail, thus they decide to formulate a ruse: a female cat gives birth to a litter of kittens, so they take one and pretend that one of the queens gave birth to a princess. The king wishes to see his daughter, but the co-wives lie that the Brahmins have advised that the princess can only be seen by her father on her wedding day. Still, the king agrees to the terms, but checks on her development from time to time, and sends his councillors to arrange a marriage between the princess and a suitable bridegroom. The co-queens take into account the bridegroom, a prince, would know of the ruse, and decide to reveal it to him, making him promise not to tell his parents about it. Their marriage is celebrated, and the cat princess is brought on a palanquin to the prince's country. The prince takes care of the cat and places her inside him room, not allowing even his parents to see her. One day, the prince is away and the cat is inside his room, when the prince's mother knocks on the door and laments that her mysterious daughter-in-law cannot leave. The cat understands the queen's words and laments that she is but an animal. Goddess Párvatí listens to the cat's woes and asks her husband Shiva to help her. Shiva advises the cat to smear some oil in her fur, which she can find in the same room. The cat spreads the oil on her fur, turning herself into a beautiful human princess, leaving only a spot of fur to indicate she was the cat. After the prince returns, he meets his wife, now a beautiful princess, and travels to his parents-in-law kingdom to show her to her "parents". The king sees his "daughter" for the first time, and the co-queens are happy and relieved that their prayers were answered.
The Bird (Kandha people)