You are here
قراءة كتاب Deccan Nursery Tales or, Fairy Tales from the South
تنويه: تعرض هنا نبذة من اول ١٠ صفحات فقط من الكتاب الالكتروني، لقراءة الكتاب كاملا اضغط على الزر “اشتر الآن"
Deccan Nursery Tales or, Fairy Tales from the South
Deccan Nursery Tales
or
Fairy Tales from the South
By
C. A. Kincaid, C.V.O.
Indian Civil Service
Author of ‘The Outlaws of Kathiawar,’ ‘The Tale of the Tulsi Plant’
Illustrations by M. V. Dhurandhar
1914.
To my little son
Dennis
Whose interest in these stories
first induced me to offer them to the public
this little volume is affectionately inscribed
Preface
These stories first appeared in the Times of India newspaper, and my acknowledgments are due to the editor for his courtesy in permitting their publication.
I have translated all of them as literally as possible from the original Marathi. But, owing to the difference between Marathi and English canons of taste, I have had in a very few places slightly to change the sense. In some places, owing to the obscurity of the original text, I have had to amplify the translation. In other places I have had to cut short the descriptions of Hindu rites and ceremonies so as to avoid wearying the English reader.
It may not be out of place to say just a word about the Indian gods mentioned in the stories. It must be remembered that the main Hindu gods are three in number. They are all sprung from a common origin, Brahma, but they are quite separate beings. They do not form a trinity, i.e. three in one or one in three. And each of them has a wife and a family. The following genealogical tree will, I hope, help the reader.
- Brahma
- Shiva = Parwati
- Ganpati
- = the daughters of Agni
- Kartakswami1
- Vishnu = Mahalaxmi
- Brahmadev = Saraswati
- Shiva = Parwati
Of the above gods, Shiva, his son Kartakswami, and his wife Parwati, Vishnu and his wife Mahalaxmi only are mentioned in the following stories. Besides these, however, the Sun and Moon and the five principal planets obtain a certain amount of worship. The Sun is worshipped every morning by every orthodox Hindu. And Shani or Saturn inspires a wholesome fear, for his glance is supposed to bring ill fortune. Then again, besides the main gods, the world according to Hindu belief, which in this respect closely resembles that of the ancient Greeks, is peopled with Asuras (demons), Devkanya (wood-nymphs), Nag-kanya (the serpent-maidens of Patâla), and Gandharwas (a kind of cherubim). The