The tales of Chandaini, or Lorik Chanda tells the story of the romance of an Ahir hero and heroine Lorik and Chanda. Versions of the story told across north and central India, particularly in U.P, Bihar, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh.

They emphasize different elements of the narrative—the bravery of Lorik as a Ahir hero who defends the honour of his caste, the intrepidity of Chanda who steers the course of the love story between Lorik and herself, or the many challenges faced by Lorik and Chanda when they elope—a strain that was moulded into a masnavi, or a Sufi tale with mystical overtones in the Chandayana, composed by Mulla Daud in the 14th century.

Directorate of Culture and Archaeology, Government of Chhattisgarh

Lorik Chanda Story Telling on YouTube

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While there are numerous other love stories prevalent among the various tribal communities of India (like the Love Story of Jhitku & Mitki video below), the stories of Lorik & Chanda have stood the test of time, probably because of the relevance of these stories to various modern day relationships & their challenges.

One can draw a lot of parallel & relevance to modern day societies. For example, love affairs have remained a major theme to this day in literature & novels. And love triangles, often seen as a taboo in cosmetic cultures, have been thriving in societies ever since rules & social laws have been put to practice.

However, one cannot avoid the simplicity of the stories of Lorik Chanda, set in medieval India & the straighftorwardness with which they are presented. Such presentation implies the often ignored innocence in the players. It is also argued by anthropologists who have studied these tribal cultures that the so called love-romance that existed between Lorik & Chanda is more on the side of devotion than physical attraction.

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This folklore from Bastar may not have been heard so widely but within the children of the tribal communities of Chhattisgarh, the story of the two song birds this is still a popular story with a big moral for children of the family & a great reminder to the youth.

This is a close translation while you can listen to the original version beautifully narrated on our YouTube Channel here https://youtu.be/PKpJwCUcrYM

The folklore goes like this. A mother bird had 2 chicks, a Koel and a Pargi, both are beautiful young song birds. The sisters were growing up happy & cheerful. The Koel’s voice was becoming sweeter by the day and she was learning to sing in her beautiful voice to the other birds and animals around her. Whoever listened to her songs were filled with joy.

It is almost like the Koel could bring happiness to anyone around her just by her beautiful songs. The Koel, being simple as she was, however was not aware of her talents & remained humble.

The Pargi on the other hand was growing up into a beautiful bird as well. Her feathers were colorful and lit up the air around her. Her charm and beauty was growing by the day and everyone around her would look at her beauty in wonder. The Pargi was fully aware of her beauty and started to enjoy her privileges. It seemed like she started to feel proud of her beauty & her looks.

As time went by the Koel turned up to a a kind bird who was always there to help anyone who needed assistance. And with the sweetness of her voice she charmed anyone around her with her songs.

The Pargi grew up to be proud and adamant. She felt entitled to a life to adoration, love & luxury. She stayed away from any hard work and was quite selfish, being so aware of her own beauty, her silky features & her bright colorful attractive feathers.

With time the mother bird became old and soon fell sick. Her health deteriorated fast and very soon she could not sing at all. The Koel stood by and started to serve her mother. The Koel brought her mother food, water and whatever she needed to survive. Her daily life changed drastically. She could not longer afford the time to fly around and sing in the sun.

The Koel put in all she had to help her mother to feel a little better. Things got so bad that she called for her sister, Pargi and asked her to come and help her take care of their mother. The Pargi was too busy leading her cosmetic life. She ignored her sister Koel’s repeated plea for help when she most needed.

Much later, the Pargi came over to see her mother. The Koel greeted her at the door. Pargi went over to her sick mother’s nest and was immediately repelled by the stench. The mother bird was all skin and bones and she did not smell good either. Pargi suffocated and immediately left her mother alone with Koel.

Much later, when the mother bird was on her last breath, she called both Koel & Pargi one last time to bless them. She blessed Koel with grace and said Koel would always be there to help anyone in need. People would wait to hear her sing and she would bring good health and life to people around her.

The mother bird also blessed Pargi and said people would always appreciate her beautiful feathers and her attractive looks. However, when people would hear her sing they will be gulfed in fear of bad health, sickness and death. She would be the harbinger of a hard life ahead to those who would listen to her songs.

With that, the mother bird passed away, but her blessings continued to live with Koel & Pargi to this day. While everyone loves to hear the Koel sing, they love the colors of a Pargi but would drive her away in fear of ill-luck.

This beautiful folklore carries a moral that is even more relevant in these days, teaching children the values of love, compassion and the need to care for each other in the community.

The post Bastar Folklore – The Song Birds Koel & Pargi first appeared on Explore India TV.

One of the most popular & revered love stories among the tribal communities of Bastar in Chattisgarh, is the eternal romance of Jhitku & Mitki, almost akin to the stories of Orpheus & Eurydice, Odysseus & Penelope, Cleopatra & Antony, Fair Rosamund & Henry, Diego Rivera & Frida Kahlo or Layla & Majnu & many more, whose love for each other was romantic almost to the point of divine.

The story narrated in Hindi is on YouTube on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipAwhyeaBeA

The story of Jhitku & Mitki continue to inspire a lot of people in the tribal regions of Chattisgarh, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh & Maharashtra. This romantic story who gave their lives for the love of each other is so popular that a small cottage industry in Chattisgarh runs completely by making & selling Jhitku & Mitki memorabilia today.

Beautifully narrated by Astha in Hindi, this is part of a series of hidden gems of Eastern Indian Cultural & Literary heritage brought by Explore India TV team.

The eternal love story of Jhitku & Mitki

The story goes like this. Jhitku & Mitki met as young adults at a village fair and soon fell madly in love with each other. Their families consented to their marriage with the condition that Jhitku, the groom, relocates & stays with the bride Mitki in her paternal home. Jhitku, although not happy with this proposal, agreed to move to his bride’s village but would however, stay in a house that he would build for themselves.

With time, the young couple’s love for each other grew. The couple lived a simple life, herding cattle and occasionally making some extra income with other village chores. Their days were happy and their nights were peaceful.

Fate however had something else in mind for this happy couple. Soon a drought struck the village and all the crops dried up, leading to a dire situation for the villagers. The villagers consulted a healer who advised the villagers to sacrifice a human to please the gods to bring rain. The villagers, along with the brothers of the bride, decided to offer the groom as the sacrificial offering to the rain gods.

Soon the brothers of Mitki laid an evil plot to capture the groom Jhitku while he was out herding cattle. A scuffle ensued and eventually Jhitku was killed in the hands of the brothers & the villagers. His blood was offered to at the sacrificial alter.

That night it rained. The village was rocked by thunders & torrential downpour. Waiting for her lover & husband to come back home, Mitki had a terrible premonition that Jhitki was in danger & needed her help. In that torrential rain she ran and followed her vision to the pond, which was now full to its brim. Mitki was in a trance. She could think of nothing but her dear Jhitku beckoning her from the depths of pond. She walked right into the pond and drowned.

The next morning when her brothers and the villagers came to the pond to see the miracle of their sacrifice, they found the dead body of Mitki in the pond. She looked peaceful, she looked like she was in a divine union with the love of her life once again for eternity now.

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I have this story read out in a YouTube video. While you are there, please Subscribe to my Channel & let me know how you liked it in comments.

A long time ago there was a fox and a chicken. Both of them used to flock together. They considered themselves bosom friends. All the time they were seen to roam around together.

One day the fox suggested “Look, my dear friend, we do so many things together, but we haven’t yet hosted a treat for each other! I was looking for an opportunity to invite you for dinner. Why don’t you grace an evening to have dinner together at my place?”

The chicken acknowledged. “Yes, for sure! But why me alone, you too please come to my place to have dinner together.”

The fox agreed immediately! As if he was just waiting for the moment!

The chicken also seemed to be very delighted to have thought of hosting her friend, imagined a gala feast happening very soon!

The fox had a point to make. “Dear friend” he said, “whatever be the menu, we have to brew the beer to the best of our abilities, whatever be the menu, we don’t care! What do you say? Let’s plan it well, let’s start preparing for the beer, Let’s start from today!”

The chicken agreed, “Well, it’ll take a couple of days to brew the beer to the best of its aroma! So we’ll fix the date as soon as the beer is ready.”

The fox also loved the idea to begin immediately and both of them parts for their respective homes to start the preparations for the occasion!

To brew the beer the chicken gathered crops like paddy, corn, millet, barley & oats. Actually these are all that the chicken gathers for her regular diet, and she tried to brew the beer with those. On the other hand the fox started to gather all the stuff he liked to eat, like frogs, lizards, fishes, crabs and grasshoppers to prepare his beer.

In a few days, the chicken found her beer fermented well enough. The fragrance of freshly brewed beer spread around and the chicken got delighted & rushed to the fox. “Come home my dear friend, come home, my beer is ready to host you there and its aroma is irresistible now!”

The fox was also ready with his fermented broth. “Mine is also ready to serve, let’s begin the party!” Both friends agreed celebrate.

The fox said, “I propose to begin with mine.”

The post Santhal Folklore – The Chicken & the Sly Fox first appeared on Explore India TV.

This story, The Billy Goat (or “Ram Chhagol” in Bengali vernacular), is taken from a book called ‘Saontali Lok Katha’ written in Bangla by Nandalal Bhattacharya, who authored a number of books on the collection of folk tales from multiple language-regions in India. The free form English translation is done by Amit Mukhopadhyay.

I have this story read out on a YouTube video. While you are there, please Subscribe to my Channel & let me know your thoughts.

That was the Billy goat, famous for its long beard and long horns. Very distinctively noticeable within the herd of the grazing cattle. With that billy goat and a lot many other cows and goats, the boy takes them for grazing into a very old forest away from the village.

There was a hillock at the entrance of the jungle. That would be about 15-20 feet high, in the cave of that hillock there was a tiger’s den. When the shepherd boy took the herd for grazing there in the jungle, the tiger has gone out somewhere else in search of food.

The billy goat is by nature compelled to ride on the top of anything that is on the height. The moment it saw the hillock, the desire to get to the top got in its head. Step by step the goat gets on the top of it. And reaching on the top it started dancing out of sheer delight. Out of delight it doesn’t even recognize that the day has moved into the evening.

When he could realize that the time has passed by, the Sun has already set in the west. He hastily wanted to get down from there, but getting down is not that easy. In fact it can’t get down from the hill top. And the shepherd boy, forgetting him at the hill top, comes back home with the rest of the herd by the evening, leaving him behind alone.

While entering the village, returning home, the shepherd boy noticed that the billy goat was missing in the herd homeward bound. Out of fear he drives the rest of the herd home and declares that the billy goat went missing.

Listening to this, his father asked him, “Where did you take them to feed?” May be the leopard or any other animal has taken him off.”

“No dad, had that have happened, I would’ve been the first person to know, I kept them under a trict watch. I took them to the old forest towards the hillock,” the boy replied.

His father said, “Well in that old forest, where the hillock is there? There is a tiger that dwells in that cave, then it must have been eaten by that tiger.” Then asked the fellow villagers to look for the goat, just in case it’s been lost on the way back home. “Could you all please help me locate the billy goat just in case it got lost on the way back home?”

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