Storytelling Week 5: Ghostly Promise

Once upon a time, there lived a poor Brahman who had a wife and three children.  As a poor man, he was a begger and would walk around the town asking for any food they could have.  He went door to door for weeks and knew he couldn’t keep it up much longer for it was not enough for his family anymore. 

A new man in the village had just come into town so Brahman thought he would ask a favor of him, to move onto his land to provide a safe haven for his family.  Little did Braham know, but the new laird was looking for someone to do a task for him and in return, be granted a great reward.  When Braham asked the laird what task he needed accomplished, laird replied with, “I am in need of someone to go fetch me a branch from a banyan-tree far away in the village.  Though I know this tree is haunted by a number of ghosts and that no man has ever had the courage to go to that tree at night, I need someone to get me a branch and in return, they will be granted a hundred bighas of rent-free land.”

Braham knew that the men, who dared go before him, had never made it out alive but he also knew this was his only chance at saving his family from the poor, begging life he was living.  None of the other servants accepted the challenge to make their way out to the tree and get a branch, except for Braham.  And so, that night, Braham walked out into the depths of the village to find that tree and cut off a branch for the laird.  Once he finally saw the tree, a spirit overcame him which was that of Brahmadaitya.  Braham told the spirit of his mission to go to the tree and get a branch to which the spirit replied, “I will help you, Brahman.”  They both set off to the tree and once Braham made his first cut on the branch, they were quickly surrounded by the many ghosts.  The spirit commanded the ghosts to let them be as they only needed a small branch to present to the laird.  The ghosts agreed to let the Braham take the branch and Braham thanked the spirit ever so generously for his help in conquering the tree.

When Braham returned to the laird the next day with the branch, he presented it to him in hopes of earning the promise that the laird made, nearly three acres of rent-free land.  And so, when Braham handed the laird the branch, he was surely mistaken about what he received.  Instead of being given the land, the laird promptly said, “Thank you, Braham, but that is all.  I was too much of a coward to go and get the branch myself so I made a false promise to you that if you fetched it for me, you could have some land.  Truthfully, I only wanted the branch because I thought it would make an excellent centerpiece on my kitchen table.  Now, go on and continue to be a poor, begging man and get out of my sight.” 

And so after all his hard work and bravery, Braham went back to his old habits of knocking on doors to get a small piece of bread and maybe a little bit of rice.  

Folk Tales of Bengal by Warwick Goble

Author’s note: This story was based off of the original story, The Story of a Brahmadaitya.  I decided to have the Braham not get the land he was promised even though he did was he was asked because sometimes in life, promises are made and they are not always kept and that's something you have to learn.  This is a story of life not always being fair.  Although most of my stories have a happier ending, I felt obliged to make this one not as happy.  I think that often, people are promised things that they will never end up getting just so someone can get something out of them for free.  It has happened to me before so I decided to write about it in this story.  Though it wasn’t my personal experience of course, it was very relatable to me.  I also really liked the images I found when I searched for this story and it made the original story more intriguing to me so I added my favorite picture.  If I were to rewrite the story again, I would consider changing Braham to his wife and seeing how the story would playout from there.  Folk-Tales of Bengal by Rev. Lal Behari Day with illustrations by Warwick Goble (1912).