DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.31218#0354
The caste system OF NORThERN iNDiA
stony Rajgir 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 Rajgir enough of 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 crops had failed, he directed that when
cut, each Ioad of the paddy sheaves should produce only one-and-a-
quarter seers 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 gone forth
and become irrevocable, each of these bundles produced one-and-a-
quarter seers of paddy. Indra informed of this and seeing himself out-
witted, 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 hut would resist the storm should he store
it in such, directed her husband to dig the deep moat now seen round
Rajgir. When the storm blew it naturally carried all the paddy into
these trenches where it lay safe till the storm had blown over, and
thus was the country saved from famine through the cleverness of this
giri, in memory of whom the pool where her pigs used to wallow was
named Bawan Ganga or the fifty-two Ganges.
(Crooke, Tribes and Castes of the N.-W.P. and Oudh, Vol. II,
PP- 347-8-)
340
stony Rajgir 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 Rajgir enough of 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 crops had failed, he directed that when
cut, each Ioad of the paddy sheaves should produce only one-and-a-
quarter seers 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 gone forth
and become irrevocable, each of these bundles produced one-and-a-
quarter seers of paddy. Indra informed of this and seeing himself out-
witted, 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 hut would resist the storm should he store
it in such, directed her husband to dig the deep moat now seen round
Rajgir. When the storm blew it naturally carried all the paddy into
these trenches where it lay safe till the storm had blown over, and
thus was the country saved from famine through the cleverness of this
giri, in memory of whom the pool where her pigs used to wallow was
named Bawan Ganga or the fifty-two Ganges.
(Crooke, Tribes and Castes of the N.-W.P. and Oudh, Vol. II,
PP- 347-8-)
340