Prince Ursingh of Chittor and his friends rode their horses in the woods looking for a hunt. However, much to their chagrin, they couldn’t spot a single animal. When one of them did spot a wild boar, they all galloped fast in its pursuit. During their chase, they left the forest and entered a maize field. The maize stalks were ten to twelve feet high, and the boar was practically impossible to find in there.
One of the Prince’s friends climbed up a tree and looked around to trace the wild boar. He asked others in the group to go left. The group did so, and this took them to a clearing. There, a village girl stood on a wooden platform watching over the maize fields.
Looking at the damage done, she asked them what they were doing in her maize fields. The Prince requested her to forgive them because they had no idea that their pursuit of the wild boar would end up destroying the fields. The village girl was surprised to learn that the Prince and his entourage were all after a single boar.
Embarrassed, the Prince and his friends decided to leave the fields. As he was leaving, the girl asked him to hold on. She picked out a long, strong stalk of maize and held it like a spear. She looked around the fields and aimed. Suddenly, she launched the stalk into the fields.
She then walked into the dense maize fields and came back with the wild boar’s lifeless body! The maize stalk she threw had actually killed the wild boar. The stunned Prince and his group left with the wild boar.
The group then cooked and ate up the animal. While they were enjoying their meal, a stone swished past them and hit one of their horses. The horse fell to the ground, moaning in pain. It turned out that the horse had broken a knee!
The Prince and his companions were incensed, and rightly so. The Rajputs held their horses dearer than anything else. With swords in their hands, they all started looking for the person who had injured the horse. That’s when the village girl appeared, apologizing for injuring the horse.
‘I threw the stone to drive the birds away from my maize field, but it accidentally hit the horse,’ she explained.
The Prince let her go.
After resting for a while, the royal entourage decided to go back to the palace. As they passed through the forest, once again, they stumbled upon the same girl. She was herding two buffaloes, carrying a pot of milk on her head.
She seemed to be stalking them. One of the Prince’s companions charged at her, overturning the pot of milk she carried. When he was about to hit her, she pushed one of her buffaloes aside. Thrown off balance, the buffalo hit a horse. The horse rider fell to the ground as the horse shook itself free and neighed aloud. Ashamed and embarrassed, the Prince and his group returned to Chittor.
The following day, Prince Ursingh went out into the maize field to look for the girl. However, despite his best attempts, he couldn’t find her. Frustrated, he summoned the girl’s father to his palace. When the Prince declared his desire to marry his daughter, her father politely refused and walked away.
However, to their surprise, the girl’s father came back and apologized for turning down the Prince’s proposal. He told the Prince that his wife had reprimanded him for his actions and that they were ready to marry their daughter to him. The enigmatic village girl married Prince Ursingh and their valiant son, Hamir, would later defeat the Turkish rulers and win Chittor back.
Kalai is passionate about reading and reinterpreting folk tales from all over the country. Write to her at kalai.muse@gmail.com to know more about her.
Folk tale adopted and abridged from Internet Archive.