The Grateful Cobra
by Unknown · from The Fairy Ring
Adapted Version
Long ago, there was a kind dog. She found two baby girls. She loved them very much. The dog took the girls to the jungle. They lived in a nice cave. The dog cared for them every day.
The Dog-Mother found food for them. She found pretty clothes too. The girls grew up in the jungle. One day, two princes came to hunt. They saw the girls by the cave.
The princes liked the girls. They asked the girls to marry. The girls went to the kingdom. The King married The Kind Sister. His brother married The Mean Sister.
The Dog-Mother missed her girls. She looked for them many years. She walked very, very far. One day, she saw The Kind Sister. The Kind Sister was very happy. She hugged her Dog-Mother. She made a soft bed.
The Dog-Mother went to The Mean Sister. The Mean Sister saw her mother. She did not like her mother. She told her helpers to go. "Go away, bad dog!" she said. The Dog-Mother felt sad and hurt. She went back to The Kind Sister.
The Kind Sister was very sad. Her Dog-Mother was very hurt. The Dog-Mother went to sleep forever. The Kind Sister put her away. The dog turned into a statue. It was made of gold and jewels. It was very, very beautiful.
The King saw the jewel dog. "What is this?" he asked. The Kind Sister felt afraid. She told the King a lie. "My parents gave it to me." Her parents lived in the jungle.
The King wanted to meet them. "Let us go see them!" he said. The Kind Sister was very worried. She did not have jungle parents. She thought, "What can I do?"
She went to the jungle. She saw a big white snake. It was The Magic Cobra. A thorn was in its mouth. The Kind Sister helped the snake. She took the thorn out. The snake felt much better.
The Magic Cobra thanked her. "You are very, very kind," it said. The Kind Sister told her story. The cobra said, "I will help you." It made a big palace. It made kind parents for her.
The King met the new parents. They lived in the palace. They stayed there many months. The King got many gifts. Then they went home. The palace went away. It was a magic trick.
The King's brother saw the gifts. He felt very jealous. He asked her, "Where are your parents? I want gifts too!"
The Mean Sister asked her sister. The Kind Sister told her story. The Mean Sister wanted gifts. She wanted a magic palace. She went to find the cobra.
She saw The Magic Cobra. The cobra was not happy. It made her go away. Being kind is always good. Being mean is never good. Kindness brings good things. Meanness brings bad things. And so, The Kind Sister lived happily. The Mean Sister learned a hard lesson. It is always best to be kind.
Original Story
The Grateful Cobra
ONCE upon a time there was a rajah and ranee who were much grieved because they had no children, and the little dog in the palace had also no puppies. At last the Rajah and Ranee had some children, and it also happened that the pet dog in the palace had some puppies; but, unfortunately, the Ranee's two children were two puppies and the dog's two puppies were two pretty little girls! This vexed her majesty very much; and sometimes when the dog had gone away to its dinner, the Ranee used to put the two puppies (her children) into the kennel, and carry away the dog's two little girls to the palace. Then the poor dog grew very unhappy, and said: "They never will leave my two little children alone. I must take them away into the jungle, or their lives will be worried out." So one night she took the little girls in her mouth and ran with them to the jungle, and there made them a home in a pretty cave in the rock, beside a clear stream; and every day she would go into the towns and carry away some nice currie and rice to give her little daughters; and if she found any pretty clothes or jewels that she could bring away in her mouth, she used to take them also for the children.
Now it happened some time after this, one day, when the dog had gone to fetch her daughters' dinner, two young princes (a rajah and his brother) came to hunt in the jungle, and they hunted all day and found nothing. It had been very hot, and they were thirsty; so they went to a tree which grew on a little piece of high ground, and sent their attendants to search all around for water; but no one could find any. At last one of the hunting dogs came to the foot of the tree, quite muddy, and the Rajah said: "Look, the dog is muddy: he must have found water; follow him, and see where he goes." The attendants followed the dog, and saw him go to the stream at the mouth of the cave where the two children were; and the two children also saw them, and were very much frightened and ran inside the cave. Then the attendants returned to the two princes and said: "We have found clear, sparkling water flowing past a cave, and, what is more, within the cave are two of the most lovely young ladies that eye ever beheld, clothed in fine dresses and covered with jewels; but when they saw us they were frightened and ran away." On hearing this the princes bade their servants lead them to the place; and when they saw the two young girls, they were quite charmed with them, and asked them to go to their kingdom and become their wives. The maidens were frightened; but at last the Rajah and his brother persuaded them, and they went, and the Rajah married the elder sister, and his brother married the younger.
When the dog returned, she was grieved to find her children gone, and for twelve long years the poor thing ran many, many miles to find them, but in vain. At last one day she came to the place where the two princesses lived. Now it chanced that the elder, the wife of the Rajah, was looking out of the window, and seeing the dog run down the street, she said: "That must be my dear, long-lost mother." So she ran into the street as fast as possible, and took the tired dog in her arms, and brought her into her own room, and made her a nice comfortable bed on the floor, and bathed her feet, and was very kind to her. Then the dog said to her: "My daughter, you are good and kind, and it is a great joy to me to see you again, but I must not stay; I will first go and see your younger sister, and then return." The Ranee answered: "Do not do so, dear mother; rest here to-day; to-morrow I will send and let my sister know, and she, too, will come and see you." But the poor, silly dog would not stay, but ran to the house of her second daughter. Now the second daughter was looking out of the window when the unfortunate creature came to the door, and seeing the dog she said to herself: "That must be my mother. What will my husband think if he learns that this wretched, ugly, miserable-looking dog is my mother?" So she ordered her servants to go and throw stones at it, and drive it away, and they did so; and one large stone hit the dog's head, and she ran back, very much hurt, to her elder daughter's house. The Ranee saw her coming, and ran out into the street and brought her in in her arms, and did all she could to make her well, saying: "Ah, mother, mother! why did you ever leave my house?" But all her care was in vain: the poor dog died. Then the Ranee thought her husband might be vexed if he found a dead dog (an unclean animal) in the palace; so she put the body in a small room into which the Rajah hardly ever went, intending to have it reverently buried; and over it she placed a basket turned topsy-turvy.
It so happened, however, that when the Rajah came to visit his wife, as chance would have it, he went through this very room; and tripping over the upturned basket, called for a light to see what it was. Then, lo and behold! there lay the statue of a dog, life-size, composed entirely of diamonds, emeralds, and other precious stones, set in gold! So he called out to his wife, and said: "Where did you get this beautiful dog?" And when the Ranee saw the golden dog, she was very much frightened, and, I'm sorry to say, instead of telling her husband the truth, she told a story, and said, "Oh, it is only a present my parents sent me."
Now see what trouble she got into for not telling the truth.
"Only!" said the Rajah; "why this is valuable enough to buy the whole of my kingdom. Your parents must be very rich people to be able to send you such presents as this. How is it you never told me of them? Where do they live?" Now she had to tell another story to cover the first. She said: "In the jungle." He replied: "I will go and see them; you must take me and show me where they live." Then the Ranee thought: "What will the Rajah say when he finds I have been telling him such stories? He will order my head to be cut off." So she said, "You must first give me a palanquin, and I will go into the jungle and tell them you are coming"; but really she had determined to kill herself, and so get out of her difficulties. Away she went; and when she had gone some distance in her palanquin, she saw a large white ants' nest, over which hung a cobra, with his mouth wide open; then the Ranee thought: "I will go to that cobra and put my finger in his mouth, that he may bite me, and so I shall die." So she ordered the palkee bearers to wait, and said she would be back in a while, and got out, and ran to the ants' nest, and put her finger in the cobra's mouth. Now a large thorn had run, a short time before, into the cobra's throat, and hurt him very much; and the Ranee, by putting her finger into his mouth, pushed out this thorn; then the cobra, feeling much better, turned to her, and said: "My dear daughter, you have done me a great kindness; what return can I make you?" The Ranee told him all her story, and begged him to bite her, that she might die. But the cobra said: "You certainly did very wrong to tell the Rajah that story; nevertheless, you have been very kind to me. I will help you in your difficulty. Send your husband here. I will provide you with a father and mother of whom you need not be ashamed." So the Ranee returned joyfully to the palace, and invited her husband to come and see her parents.
When they reached the spot near where the cobra was, what a wonderful sight awaited them! There, in the place which had before been thick jungle, stood a splendid palace, twenty-four miles long and twenty-four miles broad, with gardens and trees and fountains all around; and the light shining from it was to be seen a hundred miles off. The walls were made of gold and precious stones, and the carpets, cloth of gold. Hundreds of servants, in rich dresses, stood waiting in the long, lofty rooms; and in the last room of all, upon golden thrones, sat a magnificent old Rajah and Ranee, who introduced themselves to the young Rajah as his papa- and mamma-in-law. The Rajah and Ranee stayed at the palace six months, and were entertained the whole of that time with feasting and music; and they left for their own home loaded with presents. Before they started, however, the Ranee went to her friend, the cobra, and said: "You have conjured up all these beautiful things to get me out of my difficulties, but my husband, the Rajah has enjoyed his visit so much that he will certainly want to come here again. Then, if he returns and finds nothing at all, he will be very angry with me." The friendly cobra answered: "Do not fear. When you have gone twenty-four miles on your journey, look back, and see what you will see." So they started; and on looking back at the end of twenty-four miles, saw the whole of the splendid palace in flames, the fire reaching up to heaven. The Rajah returned to see if he could help anybody to escape, or invite them in their distress to his court; but he found that all was burned down—not a stone nor a living creature remained!
Then he grieved much over the sad fate of his parents-in-law.
When the party returned home, the Rajah's brother said to him: "Where did you get these magnificent presents?" He replied: "They are gifts from my father- and mother-in-law." At this news the Rajah's brother went home to his wife very discontented, and asked her why she had never told him of her parents, and taken him to see them, whereby he might have received rich gifts as well as his brother. His wife then went to her sister, and asked how she had managed to get all the things. But the Ranee said: "Go away, you wicked woman, I will not speak to you. You killed the poor dog, our mother."
But afterwards she told her all about it.
The sister then said: "I shall go and see the cobra, and get presents too." The Ranee then answered: "You can go if you like."
So the sister ordered her palanquin, and told her husband she was going to see her parents, and prepare them for a visit from him. When she reached the ants' nest she saw the cobra there, and she went and put her finger in his mouth, and the cobra bit her, and she died.
Story DNA
Moral
Kindness is rewarded, while cruelty and deceit lead to ruin.
Plot Summary
A Rajah and Ranee have puppy children, while their dog has human daughters. The Ranee's cruelty forces the dog to raise her human children in the jungle. The girls grow up, marry princes, and become Ranees. When their dog-mother finds them, the elder sister shows kindness, but the younger sister drives her away, leading to the dog's death. The kind Ranee hides the dog's body, which transforms into a jewel statue, prompting a lie to her husband about her rich parents. Fearing discovery, she attempts suicide but instead helps a cobra, who, out of gratitude, conjures an illusionary palace and royal parents, saving her. The cruel sister, seeking similar fortune, is bitten and killed by the cobra.
Themes
Emotional Arc
suffering to triumph for the kind sister, pride to destruction for the cruel sister
Writing Style
Narrative Elements
Cultural Context
Reflects ancient Indian social structures and beliefs, where animal transformations and divine interventions are common motifs in folklore.
Plot Beats (14)
- A Rajah and Ranee have puppy children, while their dog has human girl children; the Ranee's vexation causes the dog to flee with the human girls into the jungle.
- The dog raises the girls in a cave, providing for them until they are discovered by two hunting princes.
- The princes are charmed by the girls and marry them, taking them to their kingdom.
- After twelve years of searching, the dog finds her daughters; the elder sister welcomes her with love and care.
- The younger sister, ashamed of her dog-mother, orders her servants to stone her away, fatally injuring the dog.
- The elder Ranee tries to save her mother, but the dog dies; she hides the body, which transforms into a statue of jewels.
- The Rajah discovers the jewel statue and questions his wife, who lies, claiming it's a gift from her rich parents in the jungle.
- The Rajah insists on meeting his in-laws, causing the Ranee to fear for her life and plan suicide.
- The Ranee attempts to die by a cobra's bite but instead removes a thorn from its throat, earning its gratitude.
- The grateful cobra, hearing her story, promises to help and conjures an illusionary, magnificent palace and royal parents for the Ranee.
- The Rajah and Ranee visit the 'parents' for six months, receiving lavish gifts, and the palace burns down after their departure to maintain the illusion.
- The Rajah's brother, envious of the gifts, questions his wife (the younger sister) about her parents.
- The younger sister, learning of the cobra's role from her elder sister, attempts to replicate the success by approaching the cobra.
- The cobra bites and kills the younger sister, punishing her cruelty and greed.
Characters
The Elder Sister (Ranee)
Of exquisite beauty, with a graceful build and features that captivated the young Rajah. Her skin tone would be consistent with a South Asian background, likely warm-toned.
Attire: Initially found in 'fine dresses and covered with jewels' in the jungle cave. Later, as a Ranee, she would wear elaborate silk saris or lehengas in rich colors like crimson, emerald, or gold, adorned with intricate embroidery (e.g., zari work) and precious jewels, including necklaces, bangles, and earrings. Her clothing would be made of luxurious fabrics like silk and brocade.
Wants: To live a happy life, to honor her mother, to protect herself and her marriage, and to overcome the consequences of her initial deception.
Flaw: Fear of her husband's anger and judgment, which leads her to lie.
Transforms from a frightened maiden into a Ranee. She faces a moral dilemma after her mother's death, learns the consequences of dishonesty, and ultimately finds a magical solution to her problems, reaffirming her good nature.
Kind, compassionate, loyal, resourceful, initially truthful but later tells a white lie out of fear, ultimately grateful.
The Dog-Mother
A domestic dog, likely of a breed common in South Asia, possibly a pariah dog or a local breed known for loyalty. She is described as 'wretched, ugly, miserable-looking' by the younger sister, suggesting she is not a pampered pet but a resilient, perhaps scruffy, animal, especially after years of searching. She is 'tired' and 'hurt' towards the end of her life.
Attire: None, as she is an animal.
Wants: To protect and care for her adopted daughters, to find them after they are taken.
Flaw: Her physical vulnerability to human cruelty, her inability to communicate complex thoughts to her daughters.
Begins as a protective mother, endures a long and arduous search for her children, finds joy in reuniting with her elder daughter, but tragically dies from the cruelty of her younger daughter.
Fiercely protective, loving, persistent, self-sacrificing, resilient, ultimately heartbroken.
The Younger Sister
Also described as one of the 'most lovely young ladies', implying beauty similar to her sister, but her actions reveal a coldness that might subtly reflect in her demeanor. Her skin tone would be consistent with a South Asian background.
Attire: Similar to her sister, initially found in 'fine dresses and covered with jewels'. As the wife of the Rajah's brother, she would wear luxurious saris or lehengas, perhaps in bolder or more ostentatious colors than her sister, reflecting her materialistic nature.
Wants: To maintain her social status, to acquire wealth and presents, to avoid shame.
Flaw: Her vanity and fear of social disgrace, which leads to her cruelty and ultimately her death.
Remains static in her negative traits, showing no remorse or change. Her greed and cruelty lead directly to her demise.
Vain, cruel, ungrateful, selfish, materialistic, deceitful.
The Rajah (Elder Prince)
A young prince, likely of a strong and regal build, befitting a hunter and ruler. His features would be noble and consistent with a South Asian royal background.
Attire: Initially in hunting attire, then as a Rajah, he would wear rich silk or brocade sherwanis or angarkhas in deep jewel tones, embroidered with gold thread. He would wear a jeweled turban (pagri) and possibly a ceremonial sword (talwar) at his hip.
Wants: To find a wife, to understand his wife's background, to honor his in-laws.
Flaw: His initial gullibility regarding his wife's lies, his potential for anger when deceived.
Begins as a suitor, becomes a husband, is briefly deceived, but ultimately accepts his wife's magical solution and grieves for his 'in-laws'.
Charming, persuasive, initially trusting, later curious and somewhat demanding, but ultimately grieving and honorable.
The Grateful Cobra
A large white cobra, with a wide, menacing mouth. Its scales would be pristine white, possibly with a subtle shimmer, indicating its magical nature. It would have the characteristic hood of a cobra.
Attire: None, as it is a snake.
Wants: To repay a kindness, to uphold justice, to help those who are good.
Flaw: Initially, the thorn in its throat, which makes it vulnerable.
Begins in distress, is relieved by the Elder Sister, and then uses its magical powers to help her, demonstrating its gratitude and wisdom.
Wise, benevolent, powerful, grateful, just (punishes the wicked, rewards the kind).
Locations
Jungle Cave by a Clear Stream
A pretty cave in a rock, situated beside a clear stream, offering a hidden and natural shelter within the dense jungle.
Mood: Secluded, safe, natural, later discovered and a place of initial fear for the maidens.
The dog makes a home for the two little girls here; they are discovered by the princes hunting.
Rajah's Palace (Elder Sister's Residence)
A royal residence with windows overlooking the street, featuring private rooms for the Ranee and a small, seldom-used room where the dog's body is placed.
Mood: Comfortable, regal, but also a place of hidden grief and later, magical transformation.
The elder sister welcomes her dog-mother; the dog dies here; the dog's body transforms into a statue of precious stones.
Jungle with White Ants' Nest and Cobra
A specific spot in the jungle featuring a large white ants' nest, over which a cobra hangs with its mouth open. This is a desolate and dangerous place.
Mood: Dangerous, desperate, later becomes a place of magical intervention.
The Ranee attempts to end her life here; she helps the cobra, who then offers to help her.
Magical Golden Palace in the Jungle
A splendid palace, twenty-four miles long and broad, with walls of gold and precious stones, cloth-of-gold carpets, and hundreds of servants. It appears magically in the jungle and later burns down.
Mood: Magnificent, awe-inspiring, luxurious, later tragically destroyed.
The cobra conjures this palace as a home for the Ranee's 'parents'; the Rajah and Ranee visit; it later burns down.