Listen to this story from Northern India, about a King who abandons his beloved Queen over a wager. The Queen gives birth to a young prince who sets off on his life of adventures. This tale is based on the story Jackal or Tiger? from Andrew Lang’s Fairy Books.
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About This Story
The tale begins on a hot night in Hindustan, where a king and queen lie awake arguing over a howl outside the palace: was it a tiger, as the king insists, or merely a jackal, as the queen maintains? The quarrel turns into a wager with heavy stakes — and when the guards, fearful of the king’s displeasure, declare it was indeed a tiger, the queen is placed in a palanquin and abandoned deep in a forest. There she is found and sheltered by a poor farmer, and in his humble home she gives birth to a son, Ameer Ali. Years pass without a word from the king, and the boy grows into a strong young man who eventually sets out to seek his fortune, carrying nothing but a sword, a brass pot, a few pieces of silver and a galail.
Ameer Ali’s travels lead him to the cottage of an old woman whose water pitcher he accidentally shatters; in making amends, he catches a glimpse of the loveliest maiden he has ever seen, and is told that if he is ever in danger, he need only cry out to the Fairy of the Forest. Soon after, he enters the service of a rajah, and on a stormy night he alone dares to cross a flooded river to investigate a woman weeping beneath a gallows — only to discover a witch intent on making him her supper. He escapes with his life and with a jewelled anklet, which the rajah gives to his spoiled daughter. When the princess demands a matching set of jewels, and then more, Ameer Ali is repeatedly commanded to produce the impossible on pain of death — and each time he is saved by the Fairy of the Forest, whose severed limbs, mysteriously restored, drop priceless gems into a cauldron for the prince’s sake.
The story reaches its climax when the princess, prompted by a sharp-tongued parrot, decides she wishes to marry Ameer Ali — and the prince, who loves the fairy maiden, refuses the crown and is thrown into prison. At the very court where rival suitors gather to claim the princess and the throne, a farmer steps forward with a riddle for the king: tigers hunt only in the forest, while jackals gather wherever there is something to be picked up — and among the assembled jackals there is one royal tiger bred in the forest. The farmer’s revelation restores the banished queen, exposes the king’s old injustice, and places Ameer Ali upon the throne. He marries his fairy bride, and the old king — now living quietly beside his restored queen — has never dared contradict her again.
This story has been revised and expanded by Amar Vyas and narrated by Sheerali Biju for gaatha story. Theme music Frost Waltz by Kevin McLeod.