The Scottish Valour

I don't remember the title of the book I read some years back that contained folktales from countries across the globe. But I still remember a couple of them like the Russian folklore of a greedy Priest, who in order to rob a poor farmer of his gold jar, appeared at the window of the farmer's ramshackle house in the middle of the night, disguised as the Devil.
The end where the Priest couldn't take his goat skin off, is one the most impactful conclusions of any stories I have read to date.

I really don't remember if I came across "The Nine Maidens of Dundee" in the same book or not, but this popular story from Scotland, also taught me a thing or two about the Value of Valour in general and the Scottish Valour in particular. For the benefit of the reader who might not have read it, let me try to recount the story.

A farmer had nine daughters. I'd like to believe that all of them were quite pretty, hardworking and loving. One busy day at sundown, the farmer asked his eldest daughter to go get some water from a nearby well to quench their thirst as they were all very tired and thirsty.

Time rolled on and yet there was no sight of the eldest one! Intrigued, the farmer sent out his second daughter in search of the first. Then, one after another, he sent all his daughters to bring news of the others. When no one returned, the farmer went there all by himself. What he saw, unnerved him no end!

The slain bodies of all his nine daughters were strewn across the well, and lording over the bodies was a monstrous serpent-like dragon. The farmer's would have been the tenth slain body but for the timely arrival of one Martin who saved him from the fire and fury of the dragon.

In other words, the story was all about the valiant Martin.

While going through the Scottish story, I was wonderstruck by the similarities between The Nine Daughters of Dundee and an Indian story from The Mahabharata. The story is entitled "Dhamabakaposana" or "The Tale of Dharma (Yudhishthir, the eldest of the five Pandava brothers) and The Baka" ( the Crane).

This story, just like Martin's valour in the Scottish tale, is all about Yudhishthira's intelligence and virtue.

One day, being the eldest of the Pandavas, he sent Nakula for some water. When he took a long time and did not return, Yudhishthira sent another brother. When the fourth brother went and did not return, Yudhishthira went to the pond himself to find out what had been keeping his brothers for so long. He was devastated, therefore when on reaching near the pond, he saw the lifeless bodies of his brothers lying near the pond.
Just as he was about to step into the pond to quench his thirst, He heard the voice of a Crane who, in a human voice, asked him not to drink water from the pond before answering his questions. At the end of a series of questions posed to him, the Crane who was actually none other than Yama, The Lord of Death Himself, was so impressed with Yudhishthira's intelligence and devotion to Dharma that He granted him the lives of all his dead brothers.

The similarities between The Nine Daughters of Dundee and Dhamabakaposana are so striking that having finished reading the former, I sat there in my room like a statue. I realized that Valour like Virtue and Intelligence is a great value, and one should try to inculcate this value in oneself from early on to be successful in life.

I also realized that there is something called Universality which does not stay confined within the boundaries of any nation in particular, and is understood and appreciated by one and all.

The third and final thing I realized that day was that Scotland, just like India, must be a great country with its rich History and Heritage, Culture and Cosmopolitanism.

I fell in love with the country and dreamt of visiting it sometime in the near future, God willing.