Week 11 Reading Diary: Indian Fables and Folklore continued

Indian Fables and Folklore by Shovona Devi

For the rest of this week, I finished reading the many fables in Shovona Devi's collection of fables, Indian Fables and Folklore. My favorite thing about these short stories is that, not only do they have powerful messages, but they relate to the many happenings of the great Indian epic, the Mahabharata. Devi incorporated many of the characters and events of the Mahabharata into these stories. For the second part of this reading, I have decided to focus on two fables. My two favorites are The Counterfeit Krishna and The Monkey Banker. In the Monkey Banker, this guy is basically told that money will give him everything. So he goes about and tries to earn money but he is tricked by this lady. She takes all of his money. He find a monkey to con her. He teaches the monkey to swallow gold and bring it back up on command. So when he goes back to the lady to settle his debt, he shows her this monkey. She offers to give him everything she took from him, plus all of her extra stuff. The moral of the story is that whatever is gained from bad ways, will be lost. I really liked the counterfeit Krishna story because it reminded my of how powerful Krishna Bhagvan is. People can try to play his imposter all they want, but in the end, he will prevail. 

(Krishna with discus in hand. Source: Wikimedia Commons)

Bibliography. Indian Fables and Folklore, Shovona Devi. (1919)