Folktales from Bengal

This combo product is bundled in India but the publishing origin of this title may vary.Publication date of this bundle is the creation date of this bundle; the actual publication date of child items may vary.When a weaver dies one of his wives drives the other one and her daughter out of the house. But the gentle and generous nature of the daughter brings good fortune. Six queens plot against the seventh jealous that she is bearing the King''s heir and accuse her of witchcraft. A thoughtless queen decrees that anyone who cries in her kingdom will be thrown out not foreseeing that one day she too might feel sorrow. India has a rich heritage of folktales most of which are never written down present only in a rapidly vanishing oral culture. Each region and language has its own particular set of stories - though many tales recur across different traditions. The stories here are taken from Bengal.Bankim Chandra Chatterji was only twenty-eight years old when he wrote his second novel - Kapala Kundala. It is said that when Bankim Chandra lived in Kanthi on the coast of south-west Bengal a kapalik (a Tantric worshipper of Kali or Shiva) frequently visited him. The mystery surrounding the kapalik made a deep impression on Bankim. He conceived the idea of writing a novel about a girl brought up by a kapalik in complete isolation from the civilised world. The name Kapala Kundala was taken from the Sanskrit play Malati-Madhava. In the play kapala is the associate of the evil kapalik Aghora Ghanta. She is as heinous as her mentor. Though our heroine was also brought up by an evil kapalik she is full of human affection and kindness.The seventh queen of the king of Bengal gave birth to twins a boy and a girl. The boy as predicted had a moon on his forehead and stars on the palm of his hands. But the six older queens were filled with jealousy and had the children spirited away by an evil midwife. Based on a folktale from Bengal Chandralalat is a story that has been popular for generations.