The Belbati Princess is an Indian folktale, from the Ho people in Eastern India, collected by Cecil Henry Bompas. The tale is a local form of the tale "The Love for Three Oranges", which is classified as type ATU 408 of the international Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index (ATU). As with The Three Oranges, the tale deals with a prince's search for a bride that lives in a fruit, who is replaced by a false bride and goes through a cycle of incarnations until she regains physical form again. Variants are known across India with other species of fruits.
Author Cecil Henry Bompas collected the tale from a Ho source in Santal Parganas.[1] According to Indian anthropologist Sarat Chandra Roy, the tale was "current among the Hos of Singhbhum".[2] In another line of scholarship, the tale is said to resemble tales of Bengal's "cultural orbit", and its appearance in the "tribal belt" is "somewhat unexpected".[3]
In this tale, six of seven brothers are married, save for the youngest, Lita. He will marry no one save for the Belbati Princess. His sisters-in-law mock him for it, but he leaves to find her. He meets three holy muni who direct him to a garden with rakshasas that guard the bel tree with the fruit that holds the princess. The third muni warns him the he must seek the biggest bel fruit.
Lita enters the garden and steals one of the smaller ones; the Rakshasas gang up on him and devour the boy. The muni sends a crow to find him, and bids the bird brings the Rakshasas' excrement to the muni. The holy man revives Lita and turns him into a parakeet; Lita flies to the garden, steals the fruit, and returns to the muni, who tells him to open the fruit only by a certain well. In a hurry, Lita rushes to the well and falls to the ground, accidentally cracking open the bel fruit. The Belbati Princess comes out of the fruit in a blaze of light that kills Lita. The princess asks a passing girl of the Kamar caste for some water to revive him. The Kamar girl, cunningly, says she cannot reach the water in the well, and the Princess says she will do it herself. The Kamar girl then complains she will not stand by the boy's corpse, and the Belbati Princess gives her clothes to the girl as a pledge. Seizing the opportunity, the Kamar girl shoves the princess into the well, revives Lita with some water, then marries him.
While hunting with his brothers, Lita stops near the same well and finds a beautiful flower inside. He takes it home, but the false Princess cuts off its petals; where the petals land, a bel tree sprouts. Later, Lita's horse rushes off to the new bel tree, and a fruit falls on its saddle. Lita brings the fruit home and opens it, releasing a girl. Lita lets the girl live with them, but the false Princess feigns illness and accuses the new girl of sorcery, wanting to have her killed. Lita fulfills her wishes and delivers the Belbati girl to four Ghasis to be killed. As a last request, the girl asks for her hands and feet to be cut off and placed on the four corners of her grave. It happens thus, and a palace appears.
At the end of the tale, Lita goes on a hunt and stops to rest at the mysterious palace, where two birds are talking to each other about the story of the Belbati Princess, who comes to the palace every six months. The first time, Lita fails to hold her; the next time, he secures her. He marries the true Belbati Princess and punishes the Kamarin girl.[4] [5] [6]
The tale is classified in the international Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index as tale type ATU 408, "The Three Oranges".[7] [8] [9] In the Indian variants, the protagonist goes in search of the fairy princess on his sisters-in-law's mocking, finds her and brings her home, but an ugly woman of low social standing kills and replaces her. The fairy princess, then, goes through a cycle of transformations until she regains physical form.[8] [10] [11]
In an article in Enzyklopädie des Märchens, scholar Christine Shojaei Kawan separated the tale type into six sections, and stated that parts 3 to 5 represented the "core" of the story:[12]
According to the tale description in the international index, the maiden may appear out of the titular citrus fruits, like oranges and lemons. However, she may also come out of pomegranates or other species of fruits, and even eggs.[13] [14] In Stith Thompson and 's Oral Tales of India, this motif is indexed as "D211. Transformation: man to fruit".[15] More specific motifs to the story include "D431.6.1.2. Woman emerges from fruit" and "T543.3. Birth from fruit".[16]
The tale type is characterized by the substitution of the fairy wife for a false bride. The usual occurrence is when the false bride (a witch or a slave) sticks a magical pin into the maiden's head or hair and she becomes a dove.