Hawa Mahal

Stories of grandparents are also included in Tamil Nadu folktales. One of them is the above mentioned story Hawa Mahal. These kinds of folktales have moralistic things. The main objective of such stories is to inculcate good values in children and to make them aware of ideal things.

It is a matter of very old times, in the times of our grandfathers and great grandfathers, a beautiful girl lived in a small village. Her name was Archana. It was a hilly area, she loved every living creature living there. She was a kind girl who helped everyone. She was always happy. One day she was hanging her clothes on a rope to dry when a gust of wind came and blew them away. Archana ran after her dupatta to catch it. The poor girl gets tired after running for a long distance. She shouts and says

I have only one dupatta. Stop! Come back. Otherwise I will have to suffer in the cold all night.

Archana kept running after her to catch her dupatta. She reached the top of the mountain. There she saw a beautiful palace. She saw the Wind Goddess at the entrance of the palace. She went inside to ask for her dupatta. The Goddess welcomed Archana on seeing her.

I am Vayu Devi.

Then Archana pleaded—

O Goddess! My dupatta came here in the flow of wind. Please return it to me.

The Goddess laughed and took her inside lovingly. In a divine room Archana saw various types of dishes. The Goddess said to her,

Daughter, you are tired. First eat something. You can take anything without hesitation. Eat daughter, eat.

Archana refused. Vayu Devi took her to another room, where a lot of boxes were kept. Vayu Devi said to Archana, Daughter, in these boxes, there is gold, silver, diamonds and various types of jewellery, you can take whatever you want. Your shawl is also in these boxes, but you can take the one which you think must be my shawl in this box, but the condition is that you will not open that box here, you will have to open it after going home.

Archana picked up each box and checked its weight and took the box which was the lightest and left from there thanking Devi Maa.

When Archana opened the box after coming home, it contained her shawl and under it there was a lot of jewellery and gold. Archana became happy. And silently thanked Vayu Devi for returning the shawl.

An ambitious friend lived in the house opposite Archanas. Her name was Pavana. When she came to know about the whole incident, she became greedy and started thinking, if this had happened to her, then today she would have lots of gold, silver, diamonds, everything. Thinking so, the next day she went to hang her shawl on the rope to dry. That day too, Pavanas shawl flew away in the flow of wind. She ran after it and reached the Hawa Mahal on the top of the mountain. There Vayu Devi welcomed her too and lovingly asked her to come inside.

Pavan ordered in an angry tone, My shawl has come here due to the gust of wind. It should be returned immediately. Otherwise, I will burn this huge palace.

Vayu Devi consoled her and called her inside very lovingly and said, Dont be angry daughter, first eat something, you are very tired of running.

Pavana was greedy to eat after seeing a lot of dishes in that divine palace. And she kept tasting a little bit of everything and kept it in the same box and whatever she liked, she ate it to her hearts content. After that Devi took her to another room, where a lot of boxes were kept. She said to Pavana, Daughter, you can take whatever you want from these boxes, but you will have to open them only after reaching your home. Your shawl is also in this.

Pavana lifted all the boxes and checked their weight and picked up the box that seemed the heaviest and started walking towards home thanking the master. It was a very heavy box, it was also difficult to lift it. As soon as Archana opened her box after reaching home, her shawl was there, and under it, there was a pile of bricks. She shouted in anger Did I bring a pile of bricks with so much difficulty This is injustice!

Pavana got the result of her greed. One should never be jealous of others progress.