Narayan was the ruler of the Teylafang region in the Tripura kingdom. He had five sons, of which the wives of four were very beautiful and attractive. The youngest prince was unmarried and was the beloved younger brother of the four sisters-in-law. One day, the sisters-in-law joked, “No girl will ever come to the house of the lazy prince.” The youngest prince replied, “Just watch; my wife will be more beautiful than all of you.” Saying this, he set out to find a bride, carrying a branch of the gumchak fruit (a sweet and fragrant wild fruit that resembles an apple), a stick, and a knife.
While walking, the prince’s eyes fell upon an exquisite girl in a bamboo hut, adorned with a rinai (traditional garment). She had wildflowers woven into her hair and was wearing various ornaments while spinning thread on a charka (spinning wheel). He approached the hut and addressed her:
“O beautiful one,
I am a traveler; will you give me some water?
In return for quenching my thirst,
You shall receive a reward of virtue.”
Girl: “Wow! What kind of talk is this? Why wouldn’t I give you water? Come up the stairs and sit.” Saying this, the girl laughed lightly and went inside the bamboo hut. But the prince noticed that although the girl was incredibly beautiful, all her teeth were eaten away by pests. This filled his heart with sorrow. He set out again on an unknown path.
After some time, he arrived at a different village. There, he saw a young girl filling a pitcher with water from a small spring. The girl, adorned with silver ornaments, was extremely beautiful. The prince became a guest at her house. He shared his feelings with the girl’s father. Upon hearing his words, the family was delighted. They dressed up the girl and brought her out. However, the prince noticed that her eyes were cross-eyed. The next day, he took his leave from there.
The young prince vowed that he would not return home without a beautiful bride. Suddenly, he spotted a small hut in the middle of a banana grove. There, a very beautiful girl was walking about. The young prince froze in place. The girl, too, was startled and looked up. She seemed like a celestial nymph from heaven. When the young prince called out to her, she disappeared into a garden of flowers. The young prince could no longer see her.
Then he went to the house at the end of the garden and said, “I am a weary traveler. I wish to be your guest. I will leave tomorrow at dawn.” Saying this, he handed his belongings to the house owner and began to rest.
In the morning, the young prince woke up to find that the household members had ruined his belongings. Then he proposed to marry the beautiful girl in exchange for his things. They handed him a banana stem and said, “This is our only daughter; her name is Kolaboti. But be cautious! Do not open her petals until you have crossed three springs. If you do, there will be trouble.”
“Banana stem holds the girl,
Her name is Kolaboti.
Beware of danger,
Until you cross three springs!”
Taking the banana stem from the householder, the young prince set off towards home. As he traveled, his curiosity grew. Before he could cross the three springs, he stopped in the shade of a banyan tree and opened one of the petals of the banana stem. Indeed, hidden within was the girl Kolaboti. The radiance of her beauty lit up the surroundings. She said she was very thirsty.
The prince, leaving Kolaboti beneath the tree, went down to the spring to fetch her some water. Little did he know that a wicked witch lived in that banyan tree, and she too had seen Kolaboti.
As soon as the young prince left, the witch climbed down from the tree and devoured Kolaboti. Then, using her magic, she assumed Kolaboti’s beautiful form and hid herself within the banana stem.
The young prince returned with water in a bamboo tube and carefully fed it to the witch, who was disguised as Kolaboti. He brought her home, completely unaware of the deception that had taken place.
As soon as the young prince arrived home, he showed everyone his bride. The house shimmered with her beauty. However, it wasn’t long before trouble began. The new bride emitted a terrible odor, cursed at everyone, and refused to socialize with anyone.
Seeing this, the prince’s father decided to build a separate house for the young couple. There, the prince noticed that his bride had an insatiable appetite, only wanting to eat meat. She preferred her food almost raw, cooked without any oil or spices. The young prince began to wither away in worry, feeling increasingly troubled by her strange behavior.
One day, the young prince dreamt that the water from the spring, which Kolabati had drunk, called him with two golden fish. The next day, he went to the spring and, to his surprise, saw two golden fish swimming there. The young prince gently caressed the fish.
Meanwhile, the witch had been watching the prince. She begged him to catch the two golden fish for her. The prince drained the water from the spring and managed to catch the golden fish. The witch then roasted the fish over the fire, making delicious skewers. She enjoyed one fish while forcing the other upon the young prince. However, he couldn’t bring himself to eat it. Instead, he dug a hole in the courtyard and buried the fish there.
One day, the young prince noticed that from the hole where he had buried the fish, a bottle gourd vine had begun to grow. He cut bamboo from the forest and made a fence around it. The gourd plant flourished and eventually climbed up to the roof, producing a beautiful gourd that hung above the entrance to his home.
However, whenever the disguised witch passed beneath it, the gourd would drop and hit her on the head, causing her great pain. The young prince found this immensely amusing. He had instructed everyone not to pick the gourd, keeping it safe to continue the witch’s mischief.
The witch, disguised as the bride, became suspicious of the gourd. To uncover its true nature, she insisted on visiting her father’s house to check it in a mirror. Upon the young prince’s agreement, she left the next day.
As soon as she departed, the prince’s heart filled with joy. He took the gourd and carefully placed it in the corner of the bedroom, where it would be safe and out of sight.
The next day, the prince woke up to find everything in his room neatly arranged. When he went to the kitchen, he saw that the pots and pans were washed and cleaned, and food was being prepared. Confused about who could have done all this, he searched for answers but found none.
The following night, he decided to leave everything in disarray before going to bed. He pretended to be asleep while actually staying awake. In the middle of the night, he witnessed something astonishing: a beautiful maiden emerged from the gourd.
The prince realized that this was his wife. But if she had gone to her father’s house, then who was this girl? He remained silent, pretending to be asleep on the bed. Meanwhile, the beautiful maiden began sweeping the room. Quietly, he crept up from behind and grabbed her.
The gourd maiden exclaimed in surprise, “Oh! What are you doing?” When the prince asked for her identity, she revealed everything to him.
She said, “When you left me under the banyan tree to fetch water from the spring, the old witch who lived in the tree found me alone and devoured me. She left behind my two fingers. When she saw you coming back with water, the witch threw those two fingers into the spring and disguised herself as me. After that, I appeared to you in your dreams, leading you to the spring. I would play with you as a golden fish. But the old witch suspected you and made a roasted dish out of me. Because you buried my remains in the yard instead of eating them, I was reborn as a gourd. The old witch, still suspicious of me, went to your father’s house to look in the magic mirror. If you want to have me back, you must kill the old witch. But I warn you: do not strike her on land, for even a drop of her blood will give birth to another witch. The old witch must be killed in the water of the spring. The water is filled with countless little frogs. But they are not just frogs; they are the various animals and birds of the forest. When the witch hunted humans and drank their blood, these creatures would cry out, ‘We will testify, we will testify.’ Angered by their defiance, the witch used her magic to transform them into frogs. As soon as the frogs drink the witch’s blood, the magic will be broken, and they will return to their true forms. If even a drop of the witch’s blood splashes on the gourd, I will be reborn as Kolaboti once more. Until then, you won’t be able to have me.” With this, Kolaboti transformed back into a gourd.”
Hearing Kolaboti’s words, the young prince ran to his father’s house and brought back a knife. The next morning, when the old witch arrived and noticed the gourd was missing, she asked the prince, “Where has our gourd gone?”
The young prince replied, “I’ve kept the gourd aside for you. You can cook it with some small fish.”
With that, the prince led the witch to the spring. Pretending to fish, he searched for an opportunity to strike the witch down.
But the opportunity never came. Just as he was about to strike, the witch suddenly shouted, “Hey! Why are you raising that knife against me?”
The young prince replied, “Oh, it’s nothing. A fly was buzzing over your head, and I was just trying to shoo it away.”
This way, the young prince’s patience finally wore thin. He swiftly swung the knife and struck the witch on the neck. Instantly, the witch screamed, shaking the very air with her cries, and dashed towards the shore. The frogs in the spring shouted, “Young prince, grab her and throw her into the water!”
“Don’t let her get to the shore!” The young prince seized the witch and struck her repeatedly with the knife, throwing her into the spring. The frogs came in droves, sucking the witch’s blood and freeing themselves from the spell, transforming back into various birds like magpies, doves, and mynas. Some even turned into rabbits, jackals, badgers, and deer, fleeing back into the forest.
A drop of the witch’s blood had landed on the young prince’s knife. As soon as he sprinkled that blood onto the gourd, the true form of Kolaboti appeared, embracing the young prince. His heart filled with joy. From then on, they all lived together in happiness and peace.