Report of a Tour through the Bengal Provinces/Báwan Gangá
BÁWAN GANGÁ.
The following is the legend of the Báwan Gangá rivulet:
There was a Dosâd living in Râjgir whose daughter used to take the household pigs out in the field to feed. It happened that as she was so engaged on the day of the full moon of a certain great festival, she saw a Brahman walking on very rapidly. On questioning him, he replied he was going to bathe in the Ganges on the full moon. The girl replied, "You can’t possibly reach the Ganges in time; but if you believe me and your mind be full of faith, this is the exact moment of the full moon and here is a pool (in which her pigs were wallowing); dip into it and you will realise the full fruits of bathing in the Ganges at this auspicious moment." The Brahman did as desired, and when he was in the pool she said, "Now is the exact moment; dive in and see what you get." The Brahman did as desired, and found the bottom full of valuable gems, of which he clutched a handful and came up. "Dive again," said the girl. He dived again, and found only mud at the bottom. "You see," said the girl, that I told you only the truth, when I said you will be too late if you go to the Ganges, for at the moment of your first diving the moon was at its exact full and you got your reward." The Brahman was astonished, and, seeing her as lovely as she was wise, proposed marriage. She referred him to her father, who refused, saying he could not presume to ally his daughter of low caste to a high caste Brahman. The Brahman thereupon threatened to kill himself, and the Dosâd, fearful of incurring the guilt of Brahmahatya, consented after consulting his friends; the marriage was duly solemnised, and the girl then taught her husband to ask no dowry of her father except a particular cow, a particular pig, and a particular parrot. The Dosâd, on bidding his daughter good-bye and God speed when they were departing, desired his son-in-law to ask for any gift he chose. The Brahman refused, but being pressed, he bound the Dosâd by a promise to grant his request, and then asked for the pig, the cow, and the parrot, as he had been taught. The Dosâd was taken aback, but, bound by his promise, was obliged to give them up. With these the bridegroom and his bride departed. The parrot was an extraordinary one, as he would go daily to India’s court and bring the news of what took place there to his mistress; the pig was the leader of all the pigs in the country; and the cow was no other than the famous "Surabhi." One day the parrot told his mistress that Indra had given orders that, during the approaching rainy season, it should rain nowhere in the district except on the sterile hills and stony valleys of Râjgir. The girl, hearing this, immediately called her pig and directed him to dig up the whole of the stony valleys and hill slopes of Râjgir; the pig, with the aid of his subject pigs, did as desired. She then directed her husband to go and scatter paddy in all these dug-up places, explaining the object to her husband. He did as desired. When it rained, the paddy seed sprouted and the whole of stony Râjgir was full of paddy, while outside not a blade of paddy was to be found, owing to want of rain. It being reported to Indra that within Râjgir enough paddy had been grown to stave off famine, he ordered an army of mice and rats to be sent to destroy the crops; but the girl informed of this order by her parrot, got her husband to procure an army of cats as guard; when it was reported to Indra that this plan of destroying the crop had failed, he directed that when cut, each load of the paddy sheaves should produce only 1¼ seer of clean paddy; the girl informed by her parrot of this order, directed her husband to make bundles of only two stalks of paddy each tied end to end; the order of Indra having already gone forth and therefore irrevocable, each bundle consisting of two stalks of paddy produced 1¼ seers of paddy; Indra informed of this and seeing himself outwitted, ordered a furious storm to blow and scatter all the paddy which had been threshed out ready for storing; the girl informed of this, and aware that no wattle and daub would resist the storm, should she for safety build such to store her paddy in, directed her husband to dig the deep moat now seen in Râjgir round the wall near the foot of the hills; when the storm came, it naturally blew all the paddy down the slopes into these trenches, where they lay snug until the storm had blown over, and thus was the country saved from famine through the talents of this girl, in memory of whom, the pool where her pigs used to wallow in the southern defile at the south gate of the hill-girt city, was named Báwan Gangá.
Jethian, Kurkihâr and Punâwa have been noticed by General Cunningham in his reports, by Captain Kittoe and by Mr. Broadley. As I can add nothing to their information, I refer to their writings.