The Earthen Pot | A Folk Tale from Madhya Pradesh

Long, long ago, there lived an old woman. One day, she bought four small earthen pots and placed them on a shelf in her house. She then took some flour to make lunch.

However, the old lady had a hard time cooking. With a sigh, she murmured to herself that she wouldn’t have to go out to harvest the wheat if she had a son. It was, after all, the harvesting season.

Her words echoed across the room, making their way to the earthen pots placed on the shelf. They began discussing it with each other.

Meanwhile, the old woman groaned again. Suddenly, she heard someone call her, asking her if it could go out and do the harvesting on her behalf. She looked around and asked who it was.

Just then, one of the earthen pots fell on the ground and came rolling over to the old woman. It told her it was her barya, an earthen pot. She laughed at the pot and asked how it could take care of the harvesting by itself. In response, the pot rolled out of the old lady’s house, all the way to the village chief’s house. The pot sought the chief’s permission to harvest the wheat.

The chief squinted, as though the pot was joking. It chased the pot away. However, the pot didn’t give up and told the chief to wait and see how well it harvested the wheat. It then went straight to the fields and cut all the wheat. The chief couldn’t believe his eyes. The chief felt he could use the pot to save the money on the laborers’ wages.

‘I’ll pay you for your hard work,’ he said to the pot.

The pot, however, asked the chief to pay him in kind. He asked him to let him have the amount of grains it could contain in itself.

‘Alright, you can come to collect your share on the threshing day.’

The earthen pot went to collect the wheat grains. Initially, the chief filled the earthen pot with grains. However, it wasn’t enough. So, he kept on adding more grains, but the pot just wouldn’t fill. Feeling ashamed of his inability to pay the pot in full, he called the cartman to deliver whatever wheat he had collected.

Days went by. One day, the old woman burned her hand while baking bread. Looking at that, the pot rolled down and told the woman that it will bring her a daughter-in-law.

On its way to search for a bride, the pot stumbled upon a wedding near a well. The bridegroom was drawing water from the well. The pot decided to wait at the rampart.

The pot poured in the water. The bridegroom had his throat slit when he lifted the water. The pot refused to relax its stranglehold until the groom promised to give the pot his bride.

The pot finally reached home and called the old woman to come see her daughter-in-law. Happy to see the bride near the earthen pot, the old woman stopped ranting about not having a son. After all, the barya had been as considerate as a real son.