Joseph Jacobs 
Indian Fairy Tales 

This book is a representative collection of twenty-nine Fairy Tales of India. Take a literary tour through India’s rich folk tale tradition in this comprehensive volume by historian and folklorist Joseph Jacobs.These Indian tales resemble the stories that flourished in Europe, such as the tales by the Brothers Grimm and by Aesop, although they have an Indian flavor. The collector of these stories contends that they are very old, older than the legends and folk-tales that later flourished in Europe. He believes that India was the originator of this genre and the stories were possibly brought to Europe by the crusaders or other travelers that passed through India.

In this book feature 30 stories taken from popular South Asian oral history.

How the Raja’s Son won the Princess Labam (excerpt)
In a country there was a Raja who had an only son who every day went out to hunt. One day the Rani, his mother, said to him, ‘You can hunt wherever you like on these three sides; but you must never go to the fourth side.’ This she said because she knew if he went on the fourth side he would hear of the beautiful Princess Labam, and that then he would leave his father and mother and seek for the princess.

The young prince listened to his mother, and obeyed her for some time; but one day, when he was hunting on the three sides where he was allowed to go, he remembered what she had said to him about the fourth side, and he determined to go and see why she had forbidden him to hunt on that side. When he got there, he found himself in a jungle, and nothing in the jungle but a quantity of parrots, who lived in it. The young Raja shot at some of them, and at once they all flew away up to the sky. All, that is, but one, and this was their Raja, who was called Hiraman parrot.

When Hiraman parrot found himself left alone, he called out to the other parrots, ‘Don’t fly away and leave me alone when the Raja’s son shoots. If you desert me like this, I will tell the Princess Labam.’

Then the parrots all flew back to their Raja, chattering. The prince was greatly surprised, and said, ‘Why, these birds can talk!’ Then he said to the parrots, ‘Who is the Princess Labam? Where does she live?’ But the parrots would not tell him where she lived. ‘You can never get to the Princess Labam’s country.’ That is all they would say.

The prince grew very sad when they would not tell him anything more; and he threw his gun away, and went home. When he got home, he would not speak or eat, but lay on his bed for four or five days, and seemed very ill.

At last he told his father and mother that he wanted to go and see the Princess Labam. ‘I must go, ‘ he said; ‘I must see what she is like. Tell me where her country is.’

‘We do not know where it is, ‘ answered his father and mother.

‘Then I must go and look for it, ‘ said the prince…