Reading Notes: Folktales of Bengal, Part B

I had a harder time reading some of these stories but I still enjoyed them. I didn't really find inspiration for a specific story but I found a few writing styles that could contribute to shaping my stories.

(Vuncula Tree; online source,wikipedia,)

I saw a theme in this set that those who act selflessly seem to be rewarded. "The Story of a Brahmadaitya" is a great example. The poor farmer's wife didn't want him to go to the haunted tree but he did it anyways, knowing that his life could be cut short in the process. His wife begged him not to but he chose to self sacrifice for a chance to improve his families situation. The same was the case in "The Bald Wife". The younger wife was greedy and tried to doubly improve her looks but instead she was punished and shunned by the muni. The other wife however, took the directions seriously and did exactly as she was told and showed kindness to nature on her way to the muni and as such, she was bestowed with incredible beauty and a higher level of affection from her wife.

Something else I did really like in this section was the use of cunning characters. The man in "The Ghost Who Was Afraid of Being Bagged” is very clever, tricking the ghost into doing things for him.

This set wasn't quite as helpful as I'd hope for inspiring my own written work. I really enjoyed reading it but I found it hard to keep up with some of the jargon. It might be beneficial to do some research before using some of these stories for inspiration. For instance, I had to look up Brahman because I didn't know what that meant. I understood the story much better with that background information. So, I think I'll try to work on that this week; doing a little more research into whatever I'm writing about. I still think I'm going to try to write something involving fairies for this section. It seems like a fun idea.

Source.
Folktales of Bengal, recounted and translated to English by Lal Behari Day, online source.