A king had two queens. But what no one knew was that one of his queens was a Rakshasi, a demoness.
Each queen had a son. The human queen’s son was named Kusum, and the Rakshasi queen’s son was Ajit. The two brothers, Ajit and Kusum, were inseparable.
The Rakshasi queen’s heart was black with malice, and her tongue dripped with venom. She couldn’t bear to see the two boys together. She longed for the day she could cook her stepson’s tender bones and flesh into a stew. But her own wicked son would not leave his step-brother’s side. The Rakshasi’s teeth ground in rage, her five tongues flickered, and her soul seethed. Unable to find an opportunity, she looked for excuses, her gaze draining the life from her co-wife.
Before long, the human queen took to her bed. From behind her veil, the Rakshasi’s tongue flickered, and she peeked from every corner. Within two days, the good queen died. The kingdom was plunged into grief. No one understood what had happened.
The Rakshasi would curse her stepson, Kusum, and shove her own son, Ajit, away. Ajit would take his brother aside and wipe his tears in secret.
“Brother,” he would say, “let’s not go near our mother anymore.”
And they didn’t. Ajit, with a heart of iron, endured everything, but Kusum, with a heart of gold, began to wither away day by day.
The queen saw that her own son had become her enemy! The fire in her heart blazed.
One night, the king’s elephants died in their stables, his horses in their stalls, and his cows in their sheds. The king was in despair.
The next night, a terrible cry echoed through the palace. The king, startled, jumped up with his sword. On the golden bed, Ajit and Kusum were sleeping. A huge Rakshasa, a demon, had seized Kusum. In the demon’s hands, Kusum was like a limp doll! The queen ran in, tore her hair, and threw it at the king. The king was paralyzed; he couldn’t move his hands or feet.
Before the king’s very eyes, the Rakshasa began to devour Kusum. The king’s tears flowed freely, but he could not wipe them away. His body trembled, but he could not move. The queen laughed, a chilling, high-pitched sound.
Ajit woke up.
The night was dark, his heart was poisoned. Why wasn’t his brother beside him?
Ajit sat up with a start and saw the room was eerily empty. The queen’s bangles jingled as the Rakshasa ate his brother! His hair stood on end. Without a second thought, Ajit rushed forward and struck the Rakshasa on the head. The demon shrieked, spun around, vomited a golden ball, and fled.
The queen saw that the world had turned upside down—her own son had become her enemy! In a fit of rage, she lost her senses and devoured her own son, Ajit. A ball of iron rolled from her throat.
Her feet restless, her eyes burning, the queen took the golden and iron balls and went up to the roof. The roof was a gathering place for demons.
From one side, a voice boomed, “Hoom, thoom, I’ll eat more!” From another, “Goom, goom, gaam, I’ll go back to my land!” The queen declared, “Gar, gar, goom, thom, thom, kha! I will stay here; you all go back to your land!”
The spires of the palace crumbled, and the king’s heart trembled. The horde of demons, crushing trees and stones, and churning the river waters, rushed back to their own country.
The queen found no peace. Inside, her body burned; outside, her mind was in turmoil. Her heart ached, and the night seemed endless. Unable to bear it, she took out her magic wands of life and rest and burned them. Then, rising on a cloud of illusion, she went to a bamboo grove by the river, buried the golden and iron balls, and, content, the Rakshasi-queen returned. She did not hear the crow that cawed from the top of the bamboo, nor the jackal that cried from the thicket.
The next day, the kingdom was in chaos. In every house, there were human bones; the paths were littered with them. The land was overrun with demons; there was no escape. When the people heard that the princes had also been eaten, they fled the kingdom in droves. The king remained, stunned and helpless, as his kingdom was consumed by demons.
By the river, the bamboo grove swayed in the wind. A farmer came and cut some of the bamboo. As he split the stalks, he found two large, round eggs inside two of them. Were they snake eggs, or something else? The farmer threw them away.
Instantly, the eggs broke open, and from the red and blue eggs emerged a red and a blue prince. With crowns on their heads and swords in their hands, the twin princes strode away from the kingdom. The farmer fainted from fear.
When he came to, the farmer saw that the shell of the red egg had turned to gold, and the shell of the blue egg had turned to iron. He had a sickle made from the iron and gave the gold to his son’s wife to make jewelry.
Walking on, the twin princes arrived in another king’s realm. That kingdom was plagued by a terrible monster, a Khokkos. Every day, the king appointed a minister, and the Khokkos would eat the minister and a household of subjects. The king had made a decree: any pair of princes who could kill the Khokkos would receive his two fairy-like daughters in marriage and his kingdom. Many princes had come and ended up in the Khokkos’s stomach. No one could kill the monster; no one had won the princesses or the kingdom.
The twin princes, Lalkomol (Red Lotus) and Nilkomol (Blue Lotus), went to the king and said, “We have come to kill the Khokkos!”
The king’s heart wavered between hope and despair. Finally, he said, “Very well.”
Nilkomol and Lalkomol went into a chamber, drew their swords, and sat down to wait.
A few hours into the night, no one came. A few more hours passed, still no one. The first watch of the night ended, and still, no one came.
Finally, it was midnight, and still, there was no sign of anyone. The two brothers were very sleepy.
Nilkomol said to Lal, “Brother! I will sleep now. Wake me later, and you can sleep.” Then he added, “If the Khokkos asks for our names, say my name first. Do not say your name first.”
Lalkomol leaned on his sword and kept watch.
The Khokkos arrived and, unable to see well in the light, said, “We’ll put out the light.”
Lalkomol replied, “No!”
The biggest Khokkos roared in anger, “Indeed! Who is awake in the house?” All the Khokkos chattered, “Who’s awake, who’s awake?”
Lalkomol answered, “Nilkomol is awake, Lalkomol is awake, And the sword is awake, The flickering ghee lamp is awake—whose doom has come?”
Hearing Nilkomol’s name, the Khokkos recoiled in fear. In a past life, Nilkomol had been born in the womb of the Rakshasi-queen, and so he had the blood of a demon! The Khokkos knew this. They all said, “Alright, let’s test if it’s really Nilkomol.”
The demons were masters of trickery and deceit, and the biggest Khokkos began their tricks.
“Let’s see the tips of your fingernails,” he said.
Lal pushed Nil’s crown out with the tip of his sword. The Khokkos passed it around, whispering, “Good heavens! If the tip of his nail is like this, who knows what he is like!”
Then they said again, “Let’s see how you spit.”
Lalkomol heated some ghee from the lamp with his sword and flung it at them. The smell of burning hair filled the room. The Khokkos came back and said, “We want to see your tongues.”
Lal extended Nil’s sword through a crack in the door. The biggest Khokkos grabbed the sword with both hands and said to the others, “This time, we’ll pull out the tongue and tear it. You all hold me and pull hard!”
They all pulled with all their might, and the sharp sword sliced off the biggest Khokkos’s hands. A torrent of black blood gushed out. Screaming and shoving, the biggest Khokkos pushed past the others and fled.
After a long time, the biggest Khokkos came running back from somewhere and shouted, “Who’s awake, who’s awake?”
The Khokkos hadn’t come for a while, and Lalkomol was getting sleepy. By mistake, he said, “Lalkomol is awake, and—”
Before he could finish, the door and frame shattered, and all the Khokkos fell upon Lalkomol. The ghee lamp overturned, and Lal’s crown fell off.
“Brother!” Lal cried out.
Nilkomol woke up and saw the Khokkos. Stretching, he said:
“Aramkati, Jiramkati, who is awake? See who dares to break my sleep at the door!”
At the sound of Nilkomol’s voice, all the Khokkos were half-dead with fear. Nilkomol got up, relit the ghee lamp, and killed all the Khokkos. The biggest one fell into Nilkomol’s hands like a helpless chameleon.
Having killed the Khokkos, the two brothers washed their hands and faces and slept peacefully.
The next day, the king went and saw the two princes sleeping, intertwined like a garland of red hibiscus flowers. All around them were piles of dead Khokkos. The king praised them greatly. The kingdom and the two princesses now belonged to the two brothers.
And what of the Rakshasi-queen? She was still ruling in the king’s palace. Her two messengers, the demons Ai and Kai, brought her the news of the Khokkos’s death. Hearing this, the Rakshasi-queen’s face darkened. She beat her chest three times and said, “Ai re! Kai re! I am finished! The poison from my own womb has become my enemy for seven lifetimes! Go and destroy his entire lineage!”
At once, Ai and Kai, disguised as soldiers, went to Nilkomol and Lalkomol’s court and said, “A bolt in the chest, a bolt in the back! Our king’s illness cannot be cured without oil from a Rakshasa’s head.”
Lalkomol and Nilkomol replied, “Very well, we will bring the oil.”
Sharpening a new sword, the two brothers set off for the land of the demons.
On their way, the two brothers came to a forest. Tired, they sat down under a large banyan tree. In that tree was the nest of a pair of mythical birds, a Bengoma and a Bengomi.
The Bengomi was saying to the Bengoma, “Ah, who are these kind souls who will give two drops of blood to help my children see?” Hearing this, Lal and Nil said, “Who is speaking from the tree? We can give blood.”
The Bengomi chirped with joy. The Bengoma flew down. The two brothers pricked their fingers and gave their blood. The Bengoma took the blood to its nest. A little later, two baby Bengomas flew down and said, “Who are you, princes, who have given us sight? What can we do for you?”
Nil and Lal replied, “Ah, may you live long. We need nothing right now.” The baby birds said, “Very well, but where are you going? Come, we will carry you on our backs.”
In an instant, they were flying high in the sky, leaving behind lands, rivers, mountains, clouds, the sun, and the moon.
After flying for seven days and seven nights, on the eighth day, the birds landed on a mountain. Below the mountain was a plain, and beyond the plain was the land of the demons. Nilkomol gathered some chickpeas and put them in Lalkomol’s pouch, saying, “If they ask you to chew iron chickpeas, chew these instead!”
Nil and Lal started walking again.
The two brothers had just crossed the plain when—
“Hau! Mau! Kau! I smell a human! Catch them and eat them!!!”
—screaming this, hordes of demons, in the thousands and tens of thousands, came running towards them.
Nilkomol shouted, “Grandmother! Grandmother! It is us, your Nilkomol! Come and take us in your arms!” “Indeed, indeed, wait, wait!” saying this, and stopping the other demons, an old hag with long, flailing arms and legs and matted hair came panting, “My Nil! My grandson!”
She came and took Nilkomol in her arms, cooing, “My Nilu, my Nantu!” The old hag’s smell made Nilu’s stomach turn. Seeing Lal, the old hag said, “And who is this with you?”
Nilu replied, “He is my brother, grandmother, my brother!” The old woman said, “Then why do I smell a human? If he is my grandson, let him chew these iron chickpeas.”
Saying this, the old woman snorted and produced five handfuls of iron chickpeas from her nose and gave them to her “grandson” Lal to eat.
Lal already knew what to do. He secretly put the iron chickpeas in his pouch and chewed the real chickpeas from his pouch with a loud crunching sound. The old woman saw that it was true, Lal was indeed her grandson. The old woman was overjoyed. She carried both her grandsons in her lap, cooing:
“Aiya, maiya, my grandsons, Lalu, Nilu, my precious ones, May all harm stay away from my grandsons!”
But Lalkomol’s body still smelled human! The old woman’s sunken eyes darted, her dry tongue flickered, and her mouth watered. But he was her grandson, could she eat him? The old woman resisted the urge. Finally, she took her grandsons home.
What a city it was! It spanned an entire kingdom. The city was teeming with demons. The demons had scoured the earth, killing living creatures and filling the city with them. Lal and Nil rode on the demons’ shoulders and saw piles and piles of the dead and decaying. The city was a stinking, rotting mess. The smell was so bad that even ghosts would flee, and gods and demons would be terrified.
Seeing this, Lal said, “Brother, the world is finished.”
Nil remained silent. “No, the world cannot survive like this!”
That night, when all the nocturnal demons had gone to the other side of the seven seas to lay waste to more kingdoms, and not a single demon child was left in the city, Nilkomol got up, took Lalkomol, and went to the southern well of the city.
There, Nil said, “Brother, hold my clothes.”
Giving his clothes to Lal, Nil went down into the well and brought up a sword and a golden casket. As soon as he opened the casket, two large hornets, the Jiyonkati (life-stick) and the Moronkati (death-stick), flew out.
The moment the wind touched the Jiyonkati and Moronkati hornets, the heads of the demons began to ache, their chests burned, and a premonition of doom struck them. In the foolish king’s country, the Rakshasi-queen tossed and turned in her sleep.
A throbbing in their heads, a jolt in their chests, the demons crossed rivers and mountains with their long strides, rushing back. Seeing this, Nilkomol tore off the Jiyonkati’s legs. The legs of all the demons fell off.
On their hands, the demons still came rushing. Nilkomol tore off the Jiyonkati’s other four legs. The hands of all the demons fell off.
No hands, no feet, yet the demons, shouting:
“Hau! Mau! Kau! We’ll eat our seven enemies!!”
—came rolling and tumbling forward. Gripping the sword by the blade, Nilkomol cut off the Jiyonkati’s head. And the heads of all the demons rolled off. The old hag’s head flew off and, even then, tried to catch and swallow Nil and Lal.
Now the demon city was empty. Who would remain? Nilkomol and Lalkomol wrapped the old hag’s head in a new cloth, took the golden casket with the Moronkati hornet, and called out, “Bengoma, Bengoma!”
After three months and thirteen nights, the two brothers’ feet touched their own land. The people of the country shouted with joy.
Nilkomol and Lalkomol said, “Where are the soldiers? Take the medicine!”
But where were the soldiers? Ai and Kai were demons! They had died that very day. Nilkomol and Lalkomol sent the demon’s head to the foolish king’s country with their own soldiers.
“Oh, mother!!”
The moment she saw the head, the queen reverted to her true form.
“Oh, mother!” “I’ll eat you raw, I’ll eat you cooked, I’ll crunch your bones! The fire of the funeral pyre, Only then will the burning in my chest cease!!”
Saying this, the Rakshasi-queen took on a monstrous form and rushed to the kingdom of Nilkomol and Lalkomol.
At the outer gate, she roared, “I’ll eat! I’ll eat!!”
Lal said, “Stop, stop.” Lalkomol brought the Moronkati hornet and opened the casket.
Her body swelled up like a drum, her eyes glazed over. Seeing the Moronkati, the Rakshasi fell down dead.
Everyone came and saw. What was this? Was it the grandmother of the Khokkos? Had she come to their kingdom for a feast? Everyone roared with laughter.
The executioners came and disposed of the dead Rakshasi.
The queen died, and the foolish king’s illness was cured! Having recovered, the king sent drummers throughout the kingdoms.
The subjects came and said, “Alas! Where are our golden princes, Ajit and Kusum?” The king sighed and said, “Alas! Where are Ajit and Kusum?”
Just then, the sound of drums and horns was heard from the palace. The king said, “See what it is.”
Two princes, arm in arm, came and bowed at the king’s feet.
The king said, “Are you my Ajit and Kusum?” All the subjects said, “They are our Ajit and Kusum!”
Then the two kingdoms became one. Nilkomol and Lalkomol, with their queens Ilaboti and Lilaboti, and the two kings lived happily ever after.