The Story of Hira and Lal is an Indian folktale published in The Modern Review, in 1907. The tale is a local form of the international cycle of the Animal as Bridegroom or The Search for the Lost Husband, in that a woman marries a man of supernatural origin (a snake or serpent), loses him and must regain him. The tale also contains tale type AaTh 977, "The Eloping Couple and the Robbers", wherein a protagonist couple flee from their families, find shelter with robbers that kill the male half of the couple, but deities' mercy restores the man to life - a type that the indexes only report in India and South Asia.
Sources The tale was first published in the journal The Modern Review, in 1907, by one Shaikh Chilli, and sourced from Hindustan. Stith Thompson and sourced it from the Ganges Valley.Thompson, S., Balys, J. (1958). The oral tales of India. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. p. 104.
Publication Author Ruskin Bond republished the tale as The Friendship of Heera and Lal. Journalist Murkot Kunhappa reprinted the tale as Hira and Lal.
Summary A poor grass-cutter ventures in the jungle to cut grass to sell. One day, he goes to fetch grass and finds the carcass of a dead snake which he intends to use to tie the bundle, but, suddenly, the carcass transforms into a shining ruby, or Lal, which he hides in his pagri or turban. The man decides to present the Raja with the ruby. The Raja gives the ruby to his wife, the Rani, for safekeeping, but the ruby turns into a baby. The royal couple decide to raise the baby and name him Lal ('ruby'). He goes to school and meets a princess named Hira ('diamond'), whom he falls in love with. After some time, Hira is set to be married to another Raja, and Lal's father wants him to cease all contact with her. Lal disobeys his orders and rides to Hira's wedding, and they elope on two horses to regions unknown.
Some time later, Hira and Lal take shelter with an old woman, who is the wife and mother of a pair of robbers. The old woman's maidservant, in tears, tells the couple about the robbers and bids them escape. The couple mount on their horses, as the robber lady tries to stop them, to no avail. As soon as they flee the house, the woman shouts that "two fat birds are escaping", alerting the approaching father-son robbers of their escaping victims. The robbers chase after the prince and the princess, but Lal shoots an arrow behind him and kills the younger robber. Lal and Hira then reach a serai where they spend the night. The next morning, an old man seeks employment with the pair. They hire him. Unbeknownst to them, the old man is the older robber. He beheads Lal and threatens to kill Hira, but she distracts him by making him look at a kite and kills him. Hira cries over the corpse of her beloved Lal, earning the pity of passersby. Fortunately for her, deities Shiva and Parvati are walking nearby when they hear the lamentations. Parvati wishes to investigate, but Shiva tells her that they are just a mortal person's weeping. Still, the goddess convinces Shiva to heed Hira's cries, and the god reconnects Lal's head to is body, then uses his divine blood (which the story says is amrita) to revive him. Lal is restored to life and Hira worships Shiva and Parvati in gratitude.
Next, the human couple depart to a large and populous city, and lodge themselves in a nearby inn. Lal goes to the city to buy some provisions, and enters the shop of a betel-seller, a sorceress, who falls in love with him. Offering some betels, the sorceress tricks Lal with some leaves and turns him into a goat. Noticing her lover's delay, Hira, still in male clothes, makes the same course as Lal did and passes by the same shops. The shopkeepers mistake her for Lal, and Hira, seizing the opportunity, replies she will take the provisions on her return. She finally reaches the same betel-seller, who tries to trick Hira, but the princess avoids anything she offers.
Hira enters another street and meets an old woman preparing sweetmeats, which she explains is for her son who was chosen as sacrifice to the local princess. Hira offers to replace the woman's son as sacrifice, and goes to meet the princess. Still in the male disguise, she marries the princess, and, on the wedding night, the princess begins to foam at the mouth, and a black snake comes out of her thigh. Hira kills the serpent, releasing the princess from her curse. In return, the city's king offers Hira a reward, and Hira asks to be given authority over the city for a single hour and orders every citizen to bring their cattle, birds and beasts to the palace at once. It happens thus, and every citizen joins the gathering, save for the betel-seller. Hira correctly deduces the betel-seller is missing, and some soldiers bring the sorceress and her goat with her. The goat rushes to Hira's side, and the sorceress spins a story the animal was to be a sacrifice to goddess Kali. Hira, still in her authority, orders the sorceress to be burnt, and restores Lal to human form by reciting some mantras.
Lal marries both Hira and the city's princess. Marital life is a blissful one, until one day, the princess suggests Hira to ask Lal about his origins. At first, Hira declines wanting to know, but changes her mind and begins to ask Lal about it. The prince warns her about asking such a question, for she will regret it. Despite the warning, Hira insists to know about his past and caste, and he goes to a stream. The more Hira questions him, the deeper Lal enters the stream. After he is completely submerged, Lal becomes a giant black snake and slithers under the waves, leaving a bereft Hira crying at the river margin. The tale ends.Shaikh Chilli. Folk-tales of Hindustan. 1908. pp. 119-131.Shaikh Chilli. Folk-tales of Hindustan. Bahadurganj, Allahabad: Panini Office, 1913. pp. 98-108.
Analysis Tale type In Stith Thompson and Warren Roberts's Types of Indic Oral Tales, the tale is classified under its own Indic type, 425D Ind, "Search for Serpent Husband": the heroine marries a man of mysterious origin; jealous women probe her into asking his name or origins; he reveals it and turns into a snake; after many hardships, she reunites with him.
The middle part of the story, where the pair meets the thieves, Lal is killed, but the deities revive him, is classified as another tale type found in India, which was incorporated in Thompson's 1961 revision of the international Aarne-Thompson Index. In this type, AaTh 977, "The Eloping Couple and the Robbers", a prince and princess elope and eventually take shelter with a band of robbers, which chase after them and kill the prince; the princess mourns for her lover, when gods heed her cries and restore him; later, the prince is turned into an animal by a witch.Aarne, Antti; Thompson, Stith. The types of the folktale: a classification and bibliography. Folklore Fellows Communications FFC no. 184. Helsinki: Academia Scientiarum Fennica, 1961. p. 344. However, German folklorist Hans-Jörg Uther, in his 2004 revision of the international index, discontinued the typing.
Motifs The protagonist's name, Lal, means "ruby".Steel, F. Annie Webster; Temple, R. Carnac. Wide-awake stories: a collection of tales told by little children, between sunset and sunrise, in the Panjab and Kashmir. Bombay: Education Society's Press, 1884. p. 347."Сказки народов Памира" [Fairy tales from the Peoples of Pamir]. Перевод с памирских языков. Сост. и коммент. А. Л. Грюнберга и И. М. Стеблин-Каменского. Предисловие А. Н. Болдырева. М., Главная редакция восточной литературы издательства «Наука», 1976. pp. 512-513 (Notes to Tale nr. 1).
According to Stith Thompson and study of motifs of Indian literature and oral folklore, the tale contains the motifs B604.1 "Marriage to snake"Thompson, S., Balys, J. (1958). The oral tales of India. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. p. 80. and D391 "Transformation: serpent (snake) to person".Thompson, S., Balys, J. (1958). The oral tales of India. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. p. 103.
The husband's transformation According to Stith Thompson and study of motifs of Indian literature and oral folklore, the tale contains the motif D432.3.1 "Transformation: ruby to person".Thompson, S., Balys, J. (1958). The oral tales of India. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. p. 104.
The husband's vanishing In his work about Cupid and Psyche and other Animal as Bridegroom tales, Swedish scholar identified that, in certain tales, the heroine causes her supernatural husband's disappearance by inquiring his name. Swahn named this motif The Name Taboo and surmised that it occurred "primarily in India".Swahn, Jan Öjvind. The Tale of Cupid and Psyche. Lund, C.W.K. Gleerup. 1955. pp. 238, 251. In Thompson and Roberts's Types of Indic Oral Tales, this motif appears in Indic type 425D Ind, "Search for Serpent Husband": the heroine insists to know her husband's caste or name, and he, in return, gives her an answer, but vanishes in the water like a snake.Thompson, Stith; Roberts, Warren Everett. Types of Indic Oral Tales: India, Pakistan, and Ceylon. Academia Scientiarum Fennica, 1960. p. 63. This episode corresponds with motifs C32.2., "Tabu: questioning supernatural husband"; C32.2.1, "Tabu: asking name of supernatural husband"; C32.2.2, "Tabu: asking where supernatural husband comes from", and C32.2.3, "Tabu: asking for caste of supernatural husband."Thompson, S., Balys, J. (1958). The oral tales of India. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. p. 85.
Variants Manikkam and Moothiam Author M. N. Venkataswami collected an Indian tale from informant Sandhā (Puli) Abboy, from "Nagpur country".Venkataswami, M. N.. Folk Stories of the Land of India. Madras Methodist Publishing House. pp. xviii-xix. In this tale, titled Manikkam and Moothiam, a poor woodcutter laments his poor station in life: no parents, no child and a wife to care for. One day, he goes to the forest to gather wood and finds a dried tree. He uproots it and finds a diamond. The story then explains that Nagendra, the king of serpents, exiled his son to Naraloka for 20 years and cast a diamond off his head, his own son - the same diamond found by the woodcutter. The woodcutter brings the diamond home with him and sees that his luck changes for the better: he sells more firewood for better prices. After some time, the woodcutter, now rich, goes to check on the diamond and finds a baby. He and his wife decide to raise the baby as their own son. Ten years later, princess Moothiam ("pearl") goes to the patashala to learn the Kalas ("arts"), and so does the woodcutter's son, named Manikkam. After some years, the king thinks to himself that the princess has learned enough and decides to take her out of school so she can spend her days inside. Moothiam convinces Manikkam to elope. They make arrangements (some dresses and jewels), meet at the temple of Mahakal and depart on their horses.
Some time later, they rest by the house of an old woman, mother of seven robbers. A Komti passes by the robbers' house and alerts the pair about the robbers. The pair then makes their escape, but are pursued by the robbers. Moothiam shoots arrows at the robbers and kills all of them save one, whom they decide to spare and take as a groom. This leads to a fatal mistake: as soon as Manikkam says he wants to rest, he gives his scimitar to the last robber, who kills the youth. The robber, in return, is killed by the princess, who mourns for her fallen friend. Deities Parwati and Parmeshwara heed her cries and descend to Earth as an old couple. Shiva senses that the youth is the son of the king of serpents and gives the princess a vibhudikaya to apply on his body to revive him. The princess does that and Manikkam comes back to life. The princess and the youth reach another city where they live together.