Folktales from India, Indic Legend Stories, Odisha, Oral Stories from Rural India
Published on 19/06/2025
Comments 36

The Tiger’s Adopted Son

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Folktales are Oral stories that are passed down by the elders to the younger generation. For centuries, folktales have been a crucial medium for preserving cultural traditions and teaching the youth to understand the world around them.

A Folktale from Orissa

An old couple had no children and no land. They were very poor. They went out to the jungle everyday, dug roots and tubers, and ate them. They lived that way.

When they were already old, the woman got pregnant. After several months, she gave birth to a child in the tuber patch. She called out to the old man, Old man, the child is born. What should we do?

He said, we have nothing to eat. We have no clothes or anything else. How will we take care of a child?

She said, ‘well, old man, let’s leave him here in the tuber patch and go home. Then may be someone else will take care of him.’

They agreed and left him in the tuber patch and went home. The child began to cry. A tiger heard the child cry and went to the tuber patch. He picked up the child and took him home. There he fed him and brought him up as his own.

When he grew up, the tiger thought he would go and get a girl for him to marry. He asked the boy, ‘Do you want me to go and get you a girl?’

The boy said, as you wish, Father. If you want me to marry, go ahead and find a girl for me.’

The tiger went out, waited for a girl to come by near a river, and caught her. On the way back, he couldn’t help taking a bite out of her ear. He came home with her and said, ‘Son, I have brought a girl for you. Go out and take a look at her.’

The boy went out and looked. ‘She is missing a part of an ear, ‘he said. He went back to the tiger and said, ‘Father, I don’t want on with half a ear.’

The tiger went on bringing back girls in the same way- after biting off a hand, or a nose, or a finger. Finally the boy said, ‘Father, bring me a good one, a whole one, an undamaged one,’

So the tiger went out once more, this time to bring back a whole girl. He grabbed a girl in the middle of her wedding, scaring off the whole wedding party. He brought her back with great care and married her to the boy.

For some time, the boy and the girl lived happily as man and wife. Then one day, the wife was cutting vegetables and cut her hand with the knife. She wiped the blood off with some leaves and threw them away. The tiger smelled those leaves, picked them up, and licking the blood off them, thought, ‘If their blood is so delicious, how much tastier their meat must be! I am going to eat them.’

May be her was thinking all this aloud, or may be the look in his eyes gave it away, but somehow the boy and the girl realised that he intended to eat them. They ran away that same night. In the morning, the tiger looked, and saw that the children were not there. He searched for them, found their footprints, and went after them.

The boy and the girl, up in a tree, watched silently. As the tigher came after them, the boy slashed at him with a sword and killed him. Then they went to the girl’s village where her parents and brother lived. When his father-in-law and mother-in-law saw them, it made them very happy. They had thought the tiger had taken their daughter and eaten her. The boy and girl stayed and lived there from that day on.

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This entry was posted in: Folktales from India, Indic Legend Stories, Odisha, Oral Stories from Rural India
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Unknown's avatar

Hi, I am Narayan Kaudinya. And i welcome you on this journey, the Road to Nara ! I am an Ethnographer and a practicing Indologist. I did my masters in History and further learnt Sanskrit, Yoga and Nerve-therapy. At 24, pushing most academic sounding, office sitting works away, i felt compelled to know and understand the world and my country, Bharat/India. I travelled, and as it happened i took up teaching in Kashmir and further up in the remote villages of Baltistan in the foothills of Karakoram Ranges. For around three years and many states later there came a time when i felt that it was only while teaching i learnt how to laugh, to see, feel, breathe, love and cry -with children, and mostly resource-less parents in the harshest-freezing border conditions. I write, and work as a documentary photographer and Filmmaker, with numerous published, exhibited and some awarded stories. In my travels and life i have let nature lead me, the divine mother, and as a Yogin, my resolve here is to share my experiences and thoughts as honestly, and through them to blossom in everyone the power and possibility in pursuing your breath, that you seek your true nature with courage and curiosity. Here, on this road i will share my spirit, my love for nature, the elements of life that are us. And in doing so, i'll be happy to see you along.

36 Comments

  2. Yetismith's avatar
    Yetismith says

    Presumably the story originated in an area where tigers were a problem. Life can be tough for people and for tigers when they try living together.

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply
    • Narayan Kaudinya's avatar
      Narayan Kaudinya says

      True, the story is said to have originated around the Bengal Assam border, and at the time must have travelled from an area we today call as Sundarbans, the home of the Royal Bengal Tigers.

      And thank you, i was busy with exams these past two months. Now seems a good time to restart 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply
  8. destiny's avatar
    destiny says

    reminded me of the tales my granny used to tell us when I was little…

    an interesting tale, Narayan…

    …and thank you…🤍🙏

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply
    • Narayan Kaudinya's avatar
      Narayan Kaudinya says

      Hi Lakshmi ji. Yes, tomorrow feels that uncertain because stories slowly are giving way to ultra realism. Everyone is living or trying to live in the moment. Time for books and above all old tales have gone in hiding.

      Hence, as a documentarian, archiving these tales feels important. Children and adults of today, can come, read and live in the times of the lore.

      Liked by 2 people

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