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| Sunday, 19 June 2005 |
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Two serpents and the baby in the bath tub by Sunanda Mahendra "It is like the enmity between, the two serpents, the cobra nagaya and the viper polonga, who were very much in love, at the beginning, but gradually developed a hatred towards each other," said the sage to his followers. "We'd like to hear that story," said one of the followers. "It is a simple story, which can be interpreted in two ways." "Please do tell us the story, master," pleaded the other followers. The sage, then began relating the story. "There was a severe drought in that village," began the sage.It was not only humans, "but the birds, beasts, and serpents too found it difficult to find even a drop of water in this village, to quench their thirst. Due to the severe drought, the rivers and wells went dry and the fountains were all gone. The trees were weeping for the rains to descend. In this village, there lived a cobra and a viper, who were poisonous serpents, but .they were good friends and lived together in the same molehill. Both of them wanted a drink of water. "I will find some water and let you know," said the snake. "That sounds good. So I will stay here for your return," said the viper. So the cobra went off, to find water. In one of the poor huts, the cobra saw a small baby playing in a big clay bath tub. "That tub is full of water and the baby is so innocent," thought the cobra, "I shall not harm him." Thinking in this manner, the cobra came closer and closer to the bath tub, and without disturbing the baby, drank water to its heart's content. All of a sudden, the baby saw the cobra. In a playful manner, the baby struck its head with the coconut shell, he held in his hand. The cobra who warded off the stroke, thought to himself, that the baby was so innocent and that he should not harm him. So he did not want to hiss and hurt him, and glided slowly into the forest, where he lived with his friend, the viper. "Did you find water my friend?" asked the viper from his friend. "Yes I did, with the greatest difficulty and I will tell you how to find the place. But see that you don't harm the water- giver at any cost," advised the cobra and directed him to the place where the bath tub with the baby was . The viper, who was very thirsty, glided rather swiftly and found the baby still playing in the bath tub with the coconut shell. The viper glided slowly and drank some water from the tub. The baby felt rather uneasy, when he saw the viper, but he did not know that the viper had poisonous venom within him. The innocent baby hit the viper with the coconut shell. The viper who forgot the advice given to him by his friend, the cobra, made a hissing sound and bit the baby's hand. The poisonous venom seeped into the body of the baby and the baby fell unconscious. The viper approached the cobra and told him all that had happened. "Oh my god, you are a nasty viper," said the cobra with anger, "so you have harmed an innocent little baby who gave me his water. "I can't just let you off and you have not adhered to my advice," saying that, the cobra bit the viper. The viper fought with the cobra but was defeated in the battle. "I am going to take revenge from you one day," said the viper while heaving his last breath. The cobra then went quickly to rescue the baby, it saw the unconscious baby lying in the bath tub. The cobra drew out the venom polonvisa from the body of the baby and brought the baby back to life. The family of vipers came to know about this event. They began killing the cobras. The family of cobras could not tolerate the revenge, they wanted to kill the vipers whenever they saw one around. "So this enmity between the cobra and the viper went on from time immemorial," said the sage, concluding the story and added. "This gave rise to the saying 'like the enmity between the cobra and the viper nai polon vairaya vagei." "Anyway what are the two interpretations, you cited at the beginning?" asked one of the followers of the sage. "Firstly the naturalistic narrative interpretation, which is just an
event which may happen or which may not happen at all, the second is the
symbolic interpretation which could be referred to humans who are like
cobras and vipers fighting to kill each other out of enmity" said the sage. |
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