Reading Notes: Week 06 "Bengali Folktales" Part A
Good Luck vs. Bad Luck...Or simply just Luck?
Setting out on their journey. 1912. Warwick Goble. (Source: The Evil Eye of Sani)
"The Evil Eye of Sani" is split into three parts in the unTextbook. The first part introduces the heroes: Sribatsa and his wife Chintamani. Sribatsa is subjected to the Evil Eye when he admits Lakshmi, goddess or Good Luck, was better than Sani, god of bad luck. Sribatsa tries to leave his wife for three years while he's subjected to Sani's Evil Eye, but she refuses and insists their lots are shared as they're married. Part two covers their forced separation and bad luck, and part three covers their reversal of luck as the Evil Eye is turned away after the three years Sani said he would give them.
My favorite parts are part one and the end of part three.
Reading about how luck is personified, or ruled over at least, as two separate entities is interesting because I think it's very much a Western idea that Luck is a single, extremely fickle entity. My storybook idea revolves around how a single entity is actually three separate people (triplets but still different people), so having a story with one idea separated into two is more interesting to me than the Western idea.
About this week's story (not sure what it'll be about yet), I think I'll want to analyze the purpose of the separation of luck and if they're really as different as the story is saying. In the end, Sribatsa's luck turns very, very good. If he hadn't have had very bad luck, he wouldn't have been in a position to accept very good luck. My query is if bad luck isn't just good luck disguised. Or perhaps bad luck is just a necessity for good luck to exist.
The duality of luck as one person or two people and its subsequent nature is really fun to think about!
All from Bengali Folklore by Rev. Lal Behari Day
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