The tale of Gold Wand and Silver Wand

Bengali fairy tale

Prince fighting demons with gold wand

There are hundreds of diverse folktales in Bengal which are passed down through generations. Most of these folktales revolve around adolescent children, fighting against evil powers and succeeding in the end. These folklores are often called ‘old women tales’, mainly because the grandmother narrates these stories to the young kids. Author Dakshinaranjan Mitra collected these folk tales to preserve an old tradition of Bengal, reviving the creative literature of our ancestors. The treasured book is called Thakurmar Jhuli (Grandmother’s Bag of Tales). The fairytale of the Gold wand and the Silver wand is the most popular of all.

It is the most magical of all the fairytales of Bengal.

In a kingdom, there lived two troublesome young boys. Among them, there was a prince and a minister’s son. They lived life like irresponsible teenagers and eventually, their fathers had enough of their behavior. To teach them a lesson, their mothers were ordered by their husbands to serve the sons ash instead of rice.

The sons did not take kindly to this and decided to leave their homes. They began on a journey that led them to a road with four paths. Each took one road and they promise to meet with each other on the other side. These roads were traversed by demons and were not safe. Soon the prince was attacked by a demon and when he was left fighting for survival, the trees and rocks spoke to him. He sought refuge by hiding inside a mango tree. The mango tree continued aiding him as the vicious demon pursued its goal to kill him. Though he was saved that night, much more adventure was yet left. It was soon revealed that the demon had married a king and posed as a feeble queen. She would order the King to take her wherever her magic informed her the Prince was or would be heading next. Even then, the Prince remained one step ahead. He managed to remain alive.

One day the prince met a princess, who had been sleeping for years. He woke her up with the help of gold and silver wands that lay abover her head. The princess then told him  the answers to how the demon could be destroyed. She informed him that the demon could only be killed if he could find the parrot which held her soul. Killing the parrot would mean the end of the demon. Once he had the parrot, the Prince made his way to the kingdom where the demon Queen ruled. He asked for an audience with the King and assured him that he had a cure for the feeble Queen.

Once she showed herself, he held out the parrot and demanded she showed her real face. When she refused, he took the life of the parrot and with it he ended hers.

In this tale, giving inanimate objects such as plants a voice is extremely interesting. Without them, the prince would not have made the journey, thus the tale adds value to inanimate objects For a child who reads the story learns to take care of lifeless objects in the same way that they would care for a human being.