Guest Post: Five Grains of Rice
A tale from Jain scripture, contributed and translated by Usha Bubna
The rice harvest was in, and bags filled with fragrant white grains were on sale in the wholesale shops along the dusty main street of the town. Buyers, wrapped in shawls, mufflers and monkey caps against the cold, bustled from shop to shop, checking the quality of the rice and haggling loudly. The small shop at the corner was owned by Ganga and her old parrot, Hiraman. She had only one bag of rice to sell, but the price of rice was high this season, and her earnings would be enough to keep her and Hiraman warm and fed through the winter. She had had no buyers yet, but that was alright, it was still morning. A ray of sunshine filtered through the crack in the wooden roof and lit up the dancing dust motes in the air. Ganga waved her sari pallu at the dust, then picked up a broom to sweep out her shop for the third time that morning.
“Gang-ga, Gang-ga,” called Hiraman from his cage which she had hung up in front of her shop, safely out of reach of cats and rats.
“O Hiraman, do you want your breakfast?” she replied, and putting down the broom, slipped in a few slices of ripe guava into his cage.
A flock of sparrows, hopping and fluttering down the street in search of a meal, had watched the whole exchange. They stared at the parrot in awe.
“You can speak just like them!” said one, astonished.
“And she gives you food every time you ask?” asked another enviously. “Can you get some grain for us?”
“Sure,” said the parrot. “Gang-ga, Gang-ga,” he called again.
“What is it, Hiraman?” asked Ganga, laughing. “Do you want more guava?”
“Gang-ga!” said the parrot again.
“Ah, do you want me to feed your friends?” said Ganga, catching sight of the expectantly waiting sparrows. And off she went, to return with a handful of paddy which she scattered on the pavement.
Hiraman watched the hungry sparrows gobbling up the grain as fast as they could. “Slow down, or you’ll give yourselves a tummy ache!” he admonished. “Besides,” he added, delicately picking up a slice of guava in a refined claw, “all those grains of paddy she gave you just reminded me of a story!”
The sparrows looked up, interested.
And this is the tale the parrot told.
FIVE GRAINS OF RICE
A tale from Jain scripture, contributed by Usha Bubna
In the city of Rajgriha, there lived a wise and wealthy merchant called Dhanya. He had four daughters-in-law called Ujjhika, Bhogwati, Rakshika, and Rohini.
One day, Dhanya thought to himself, “I am the eldest in my family and everyone does what I say. What if I go away somewhere, or fall ill, or go abroad, or die? What if, for some reason, I am unable to manage the business any more? In such a situation, who will take care of my family? Who will guide and advise them?”
With this thought in mind, Dhanya had a large quantity of food prepared and invited all his friends and relatives to eat with him. After the meal, once his guests were sitting at their ease, Dhanya summoned his four daughters-in-law and said, “Listen to me, my daughters. Here are five grains of paddy for each of you. Keep them carefully and return them to me when I ask for them.”
“As you command, Father,” replied the four daughters-in law, and taking the grains of paddy, went away.
The eldest daughter-in-law, Ujjhika, then thought, “My father-in-law’s granary is filled with paddy. I’ll fetch him some grains from there when he asks.” She threw away her five grains of paddy and returned to her chores.
The second daughter-in-law, Bhogwati, had the same thought, and, removing the husks, she ate her five grains of paddy.
The third daughter-in-law, Rakshika, said to herself, “Our father-in-law went to the trouble of inviting so many people to a feast and then gave us these grains of paddy in their presence and asked us to keep them carefully — he must have had a good reason...” She tied her five grains of paddy in a soft cloth and hid the bundle in her jewel box, and placing the jewel box by her pillow, she watched over it day and night.
The fourth daughter-in-law, Rohini, also felt that their father-in-law must have given them the grains of paddy for a reason. She called her servants and said, “When it rains heavily, plant these grains of paddy in the field. Make small beds for them and take care of them. Make sure you weed them several times and when they are bigger, transplant them into enclosed beds and look after them.”
The servants did as Rohini had instructed. The paddy grew into healthy young plants, and when the green grain ripened and turned yellow, they cut them with a sharp sickle. Rohini had the paddy cleaned by hand, the grains poured into clean new earthenware jars, and the jars sealed and stored in the granary. The following year, when the rains came, these grains were sown in the fields and harvested and stored as before. This was repeated in the third year and in the fourth. In this way, Rohini’s five grains of paddy multiplied each year, so that soon she had hundreds of jars full of paddy stored carefully in the granary.
And after four years had passed, Dhanya remembered the five grains of paddy he had given his daughters-in-law. “I must ask them what they did with those grains,” he said to himself. Once again he invited all his friends and relatives and, in their presence, summoned his daughters-in-law and asked each of them to return her five grains of paddy.
First came Ujjhika. She took five grains of rice from her father-in-law’s granary and placed them before him.
“Are these the same grains I gave you, or are they different?” asked Dhanya.
“Father, the grains of paddy you had given me — those I had thrown away at once,” replied Ujjhika. “These grains are from your granary.”
Hearing this, Dhanya was furious. He assigned her the duties of cleaning and dusting the house.
Then came Bhogwati. Dhanya put her in charge of pounding and grinding spices and looking after the kitchen.
Then came Rakshika. She pulled out the bundle she had stored in her jewel box and placed the five grains of paddy before her father-in-law. Dhanya was pleased with the care she had taken and made her in charge of his goods and treasury.
Finally, it was Rohini’s turn. She said, “Father, the grains of paddy that you had given me — I have stored them in earthen jars in the granary. I will need several carts to bring them here.” So saying, she had the jars of paddy brought to her father-in-law.
Dhanya was very pleased and made Rohini the mistress of his home and household, in charge of the whole family and all its affairs.
“That was clever of her, to make the paddy grow, very practical,” said an old sparrow approvingly.
“Perhaps we could do the same?” suggested a young one excitedly. He hopped around enterprisingly, gathering the remaining paddy grains into a little pile.
“Just eat up while you can,” advised the old sparrow kindly, and went back to stuffing himself.
Hiraman squawked in agreement and took another delicate bite of ripe guava.
Story translation credit and copyright © Usha Bubna 2021
Story source: From the Naya-dhammo kahao, retold by Jagdish Chandra Jain as ‘Chawal Ke Paanch Daane’, in his collection Do Hazaar Varsh Purani Kahaniyan* (Bharatiya Jnanpith, 6th edition 2003), and graciously translated for The Story Birds by Mrs. Usha Bubna, one of our most supportive and enthusiastic readers.
*The stories in this collection are in the public domain.
The Large Indian Parakeet or parrot is known locally as ‘Hiraman tota’ or ‘Rai tota’. It is a handsome grass-green bird, with the typical hooked red beak, and a maroon patch on each shoulder. The male also has a rose-pink and black collar. It is found across the Indian subcontinent as well as further afield, in Myanmar, Laos, and Thailand. It is a popular cage bird, kept as a pet across India, particularly since it is easily trained and can learn to repeat a few simple words. It is also known as the Alexandrine parrot, after Alexander the Great. It is believed that he and his soldiers took back several of these birds from Punjab to Europe, where they became very popular among the nobility.
The Hiraman parrot also features in literature and poetry, most famously in Malik Mohammed Jayasi’s epic romance, Padmawat.
Today, thanks to the illegal trade in exotic birds and habitat loss across its native range, particularly in Punjab, Laos and Thailand, this beautiful bird is facing extinction.
EDITORS’ NOTE
Folktales often serve the useful purpose of teaching worldly wisdom and how to conduct oneself in daily life. Universal in their applicability and free of religious affiliation or ideology, many such tales were enthusiastically incorporated into Hindu, Jain, and Buddhist canonical texts in ancient and medieval times. The story of the five daughters-in-law and the grains of paddy is at least two thousand years old, if not more. The version retold here is from the Jain text Naya-dhammo kahao, a collection of tales in Prakrit and probably composed sometime during the ninth or tenth centuries CE. With some modification, this story is also found in the Vinayavastu of the Mulasarvastivada school of Buddhism; this text was probably compiled in the 1st or 2nd century CE in north-west India.
Modifications of this story are also found across Tibet and the Far East. We recently came across a version of this story in the K-drama The King’s Affection (Episode 10, KBS/Netflix). The dowager queen is keen to choose a bride for her grandson, the crown prince. As a test, she asks the gathered candidates the following question:
A rich lord once gave a test to three women. The test required them to survive for one month on half a bag of rice. The first woman ate all the rice, and once the rice was finished, she gave up. The second woman rationed the rice and ate only a little at a time, but the small quantities of rice left her hungry, so she gave up as well. But the third woman survived the month without finishing the rice she was given. What did the third woman do?
The winning answer? The third woman made rice cakes with the rice and sold them, and with the money she bought more rice. And no, it was not cheating, since there was no rule forbidding the use of imagination and enterprise!
Another well-known but considerably modified version of this story is found in the Bible: Before leaving upon a long journey, a nobleman calls his servants to him and gives each of them some money, asking them to put the money to work while he was away. When he returns, he asks the servants what they had done with the money. All but one of the servants had invested the money and made it grow. The last servant, afraid of his master’s wrath, had not dared invest it, but had buried it and kept it safe. Needless to say, the master was furious with the servant who had not made the money grow! This story, with some differences in detail, is found in both Matthew (24:14-30) and Luke (19:11-27). It is known by various names in different translations of the Bible.
Here is the story, from both Matthew and Luke, in the New International Version:
Matthew (24:14-30): The Parable of the Bags of Gold
Luke (19:11-27): The Parable of the Ten Minas
Do you know of any other versions of this tale? Please write in to us or leave a comment below. We’d love to hear from you!
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