A Snake Princess under the Water

Once upon a time, there was a jewellery merchant named Kumba lived in a town. He had an elder son named Ratna and a younger daughter named Neela. Neela’s mother died during the birth of Neela so Ratna hated his sister, thinking that, she is the reason behind his mother’s death, but he never revealed it out. Regardless of everything, Neela’s father loved her equal to his son, thinking that Neela is his wife’s parting gift. Neela was a beautiful girl, who was born with a birth mark on her left cheek. As she grown, the mark on her cheek also grown along with her, soon it spread all over and occupied most of her left cheek up to her neck. Soon people started talking about how hideous Neela looks and everyone was afraid to reach her. She faced many humiliations wherever she went. She bared all those humiliations for her family’s sake. Her only motive was to take care of her father and brother. Ratna didn’t care much for Neela as he already hates her, but her father was worried about Neela. Neela started covering her face with “dhuppatta” (A long cloth Indian woman wears on her head, which helps in covering their faces) to hide her left cheek, on which she had a birth mark.  

One day, Kumba’s friend came to his house along with his daughter and asked Kumba that if Ratna could marry his daughter. Kumba was very delighted to listen to his friend’s proposal and called Ratna, who was resting in the next room. Ratna came out to attend his father and found a beautiful young lady standing next an old man who was sitting in the chair. Kumba explained the things to Ratna, soon after hearing his father’s words, Ratna looked at that girl as if he wanted to know her opinion. The girl rolled her eyes down, slightly nodding her head with a smile on her face. Then Ratna also agreed for the marriage proposal. Neela, who was cooking in the kitchen, was listening to their conversation and she felt very happy after hearing positive answer from his brother. She came out of the kitchen with sweets as she wanted to share the happiness with everyone. Kumba’s friend’s daughter got scared of Neela’s appearance, as Neela approached close to her, she screamed and covered her eyes, along with her face with her both hands. Neela understood the situation and ran in to the kitchen as fast as she could. Kumba told his friend that, it’s his younger daughter Neela. The look on Kumba’s friend’s face has changed and he told to Kumba that, we will rethink of this marriage proposal, will let you know soon and they left. Obviously everyone was aware of what will be the answer.

Neela was crying silently in kitchen, Kumba was stunned and sat as he was, in the chair without moving, then Ratna, who was holding back for a longer time, started shouting that, i knew it, i knew it from the beginning, she is nothing but a bad luck, first she killed my mother, then brought humiliation to this family with her hideous looks and now, she ruined my life completely. As long as she lives, i can never find peace. Kumba got angry after hearing such words from Ratna and yelled at him that, how could you talk about your own sister like that? Neither she has anything to do with your mother’s death, nor she has anything to do with her looks. It’s all because of fate. Then Ratna said more aggressively that, decide today father, either me or her and only of us is going to live under this roof. Then Kumba shouted, shut up Ratna, just get out of the house for now and soon Ratna left the house with anger. Hearing all the argument between her Brother and Father, Neela ran out of the house from the backdoor, crying.

She ran to the Garden nearby her house, where her Mother was buried. She collapsed in front of her Mother’s Grave helplessly and started crying while looking at her mother’s name carved on the Grave. She started thinking about all the humiliations of people and what hurt her the most were her brother’s words. She couldn’t digest the hatred of her brother towards her. She came to a conclusion that she should end her life, so that her father and brother would live a normal happy life. Soon she stood up with the determination to end her life and started walking towards the woods nearby their Garden. As she walked close to the woods, she heard screams of a woman, calling for help. She ran as fast as she could towards the woods, found a woman and tiger facing each other in the woods. As the tiger was about to jump on the woman, Neela threw the sand in the tiger’s eyes, grabbed the woman’s hand and started running out of the woods. Neela dragged the woman to their Garden as fast as she could and stopped at her Mother’s Grave. After settling down, the woman started explaining how she ended up in the woods. The Woman said, I am Princess Mytra, the only daughter of the King of this Kingdom. I came to visit the Lord Sri Krishna’s temple in the Woods along with our maids and guards. We were attacked by a group of buglers at the temple, all the guard’s were killed and Me, along with my maids started running in to the woods to escape the buglers. Then i got separated from my maids and before i notice i found myself lost in the woods. While i was searching my way back to home, i came across the tiger, we just escaped from.

After finishing her explanation, Mytra held Neel’s hands and said, Thank you so much for saving my life. I own my life to you, please ask for any reward you want, i will make sure that you will get that reward. Then Neela said, oh dear Princess! It is our soul duty to protect our King and his family, so i don’t want any reward from you. I am just happy that nothing happened to you. But Princess Mytra insisted that Neela should ask for something. Then Neela gave a good thought and asked Mytra, Dear Princess! I have an elder brother named Ratna, who is very handsome and brave, if it is possible, i want you to marry my brother, but only if you like, then only. The Princess Mytra was stunned after hearing Neela but Mytra agreed to marry her brother. Then Neela said, Dear princess! I want you to keep this matter between you and me, i don’t want anyone else to know about this matter, especially my brother. Princess Mytra said, my father, the King should know about this incident, so except for King, i will not reveal this matter to anyone, then Neela agreed. Neela escorted Princess Mytra to her palace, which is in the middle of the Kingdom and said Good bye in front of the Palace main entrance. Princess Mytra insisted Neela to come inside the palace and meet her Father, but Neela said, it is getting dark and situation at my home is complicated so i better hurry back to my home. Before their discussion was over, royal guards and maids surrounded the Princess and rushed her inside the palace. The King came running to his daughter in the hallway and held Mytra gently in his arms with happy tears. The King took Mytra to her room and asked about the details, princess Mytra explained everything to her father and the King agreed to the Promise Mytra made to Neela. Neela reached home and her father was happy to see her back. She asked about her brother Ratna, then Kumba said, he is not back yet. She went to the kitchen silently and cooked meals, both Kumba and Neela finished dinner and slept. Ratna came home late night and slept in his room. The situation was still awkward among them.

The next day, King sent a royal messenger to the Kumba’s house, asking his son Ratna to summon at royal palace immediately. Kumba got tensed after hearing that and asked Ranta that, Did you do something wrong yesterday in anger? Then Ratna replied, No father! I went to my friend’s place yesterday and stayed there all day till night and came back home late night and slept. Ranta followed the royal messenger with many doubts running in his mind, soon they reached the royal palace. The messenger escorted Ratna to the King’s hallway and left. The Ratna entered the room to find, King and his daughter seating in the middle of the room. He reached King, bowed and asked, Oh dear King! May i know the reason, why am i summoned here? The King told him, Dear boy! I wanted you to marry my daughter, if you have no objections. Ratna got really shocked and he thought he miss heard the King’s words. After few seconds of silence, Ratna said, Oh Your Majesty! I have no problem in marrying princess but there are many capable men in our kingdom and also many princes are willing to marry our princess, so on which basis do you think i am suitable for princess? The King smiled and said, it is my daughter’s wish to marry you. Now Ratna got more shocked but he couldn’t dare to ask princess for the reason, as he thought there will be plenty of time to ask if they were really to get married. Ratna said, if that is princess’s wish, then i will respect it without any further questioning. Ratna bowed again to the King and left the palace.

Ratna reached home and explained everything to the Kumba. Even Kumba got surprised but there was nothing they could do to find out the details. Neela who was hearing to their conversation, really felt happy that the Princess kept her promise. After few days Ratna married Princess Mytra and moved to the Palace. After their marriage, Ratna asked princess that why she wanted to marry him. Then the princess replied that, oh dear husband! Please do not ask me for the reason now, i will answer your question when the time comes. Regardless of whatever the reason, i am your wife now, i love you and respect you for whatever you are. Ratna was happy to hear her last words and said, Ok dear! I will not bring up this topic, until you want to tell me, on your own. I am just delighted to hear those last words from you, which are enough for me.   

Even so, Kumba was happy that his son got married to the Princess, still he was worried about Neela’s marriage. He started searching for the grooms but no one was ready to marry hideous looking Neela and moreover humiliated her and her father. As all his marriage trails for Neela failed, kumba got more worry and ruined his health. Neela was extremely worried about her father’s health so she called for her brother Ratna. Soon after receiving her message, Ratna came to see his father along with his wife Princess Mytra. Ratna felt really sad after seeing his father in a pathetic state in bed. Ratna told to Kumba, oh father! Come with me to the palace, there are so many medical experts in the palace. I will take good care of you. Then Kumba said, No son! I can’t come with you until i find a groom for Neela. If i leave with you, who is going to take care of her. Then Neela said, Don’t worry about me father, i will be just fine, right now your health is important so please go to the palace with brother. Then Kumba said, No dear! That will be very wrong, until i see you happy, i can’t find the true happiness. After hearing those words from Kumba, Ratna felt angry and said, Who would want to marry an ugly monster like her, even it is for hundred years, i would doubt that if anyone will be willing to marry her. She is the root of all our troubles, we have been through all these humiliations because of her. Why don’t you just leave her to her Fate? Princess Mytra and Kumba got extremely angry after hearing Ratna’s words. The Princess is about to start talking, Kumba interfered and said, how could you say such words about your own sister? It is so disgraceful to hear such words coming out of your mouth, leave the house immediately and never come back. Ratna left in anger and princess followed him silently while giving sympathetic looks to the Neela who was standing in front of the kitchen door while crying.

Neela felt extremely sad after hearing such words from her brother, who suppose to understand her pain and support her. She finally convinced herself that, she is the reason behind all the problems. If she doesn’t exist, her father would go live with her brother and will get fine soon. While thinking all these things crying, she walked slowly to their backyard and stopped in front of an old well. When she thought things would be fine without her presence, without wasting a second, she jumped into the well. After few seconds of jumping in to the well, she realised that, she was not suffering anymore and she could breath under water. She kept on sinking deeper and deeper like there was no end to it.  After few minutes, she felt like she fell on something huge and soft. Soon after that she heard a loud scream like Oh God! Who are you? How dare you disgrace me like this? She got scared hearing those loud screams and noticed a huge Shadow was approaching her. She couldn’t see the picture of whoever approaching her properly because of her teary swollen eyes. Soon the huge shadow approached her screaming with loud voice and stopped at ones in front of her. Then the voice said, Oh God! It’s gone. It doesn’t hurt anymore. I am so happy after all these years, i got rid of it. She didn’t understand a thing but still she sat there as she was while wiping her tears. Then she found a hand was reaching out to her while saying, are you hurt my dear? Here, take my hand and stand up. Neela held that hand and stood up while covering her left cheek with dupatta and noticed so many people around her gathered in a huge room. She looked at the man who gave the hand to her surprisingly. The man looked at her and said, i am Naga, the Snake King, ruler of underworld kingdom of snakes. Soon after hearing that, Neela pulled her hand back and bowed to the King by saying, forgive me King Naga, i didn’t mean to intrude but i don’t know how i ended up here and forgive me for falling on you like that. 

The King sent away all the guards who came rushing to the room after hearing King’s scream and said to Neela, No dear! You really helped me. 12 years back i received a curse from a “Muni“ (Sage) for biting his son, who accidently stepped on me while playing in the woods, i was a very short tempered back then. He cursed me to have a big oral sore due to which i was unable to eat, speak and enjoy my life. I was at the verge of death due to lack of nutrition and extreme pain. The curse was haunting me for all these years until you fell on my head, due to which the sore in my throat got ruptured and it doesn’t pain any more, Thanks to you my dear. Please tell me, who are you? And how did you come to our kingdom? Neela replied, Your Majesty! I am Neela from earth, i have nowhere to go so i wanted to end my life and jumped into the well. Surprisingly i ended up here. Be Kind enough to let me live in your kingdom, if it is not too much trouble for you. The King said, oh dear! I am in your dept. You can happily live in our palace as long as you want and called out for a maid, asked maid to escort Neela to her room in the palace. Ever since then Neela started living in the palace and she took care of King’s health as he was ill and weak. The King recovered soon in her care. 

The King has a son named Prince Mani, who was away from the palace, went to attend royal duties in his father’s place. The Prince returned from his royal duties in the night. While he is walking in the hallway, he saw a girl standing in the balcony stretching her face out with closed eyes and feeling the Moonlight on her face along with the cool breeze. The Prince couldn’t see her properly so he was walking towards her but his path was blocked by his father, who came rushing after hearing about Prince’s arrival. The King embraced the Prince with Joy, the Prince was surprised to see his father healthy again and asked details, the King explained everything to the Prince and said, i will introduce Neela to you tomorrow, for now have some rest as you might be tried from your journey. Regardless of whatever the story was, the Prince was happy to see his father happy and healthy. When his father left, the Prince looked at the balcony where Neela was standing but found her left already so the Prince went to his room.

In the morning, The Prince went to see the King and found a girl taking care of his father. He thought, it might be the same girl that his father was talking about last night. The King noticed Prince’s arrival and asked Prince to come near bed, as the Prince started walking towards the bed, Neela moved away from the bed and stood in a corner of the room, bending her face down and covering her face with dupatta. The King introduced Neela to the Prince Mani, Neela looked at the Prince through her dupatta and bowed to him. The Prince said, Thank you so much for taking care of my father. Then Neela said, I should be the one to thank you for providing me shelter and talking care of me. After that Neela took permission from the King to leave and the King granted permission. Neela left the room leaving Prince and King to have some time for their self. After talking to his father, the Prince went to roam in the Kingdom as he hasn’t been around for a long time. The Prince came back by night and again found that girl standing in the balcony feeling the Moonlight on her face with her eyes closed. This time the Prince approached her silently on her right and started staring at the face of the girl, the Prince was mesmerized by her beauty which was revealing by the moonlight falling on her face. Neela was a born beauty but due to the mark on her left cheek, everyone found her to be an ugly girl and the Prince looked at the right side of her face so he didn't know about the birth mark on the other side of her face. 

As Neela closed her eyes, she couldn’t notice the Prince’s arrival. When she opened her eyes, she noticed that someone was standing beside her and quickly covered her face with the dupatta. The Prince then asked Neela, Who are you? What is your name? Your beauty is out of this World, i was mesmerized by your beauty. The Prince couldn’t figure it out that it was Neela because her face was covered with dupatta when King introduced Neela to the Prince. Neela was so stunned after hearing those words from the Prince, she didn’t know how to respond to his words, so she simply said, i am Neela and rushed herself into the nearby room. Since she left, there was nothing the Prince could do, so he stood in the balcony putting his both hands on the rail, while looking at Moon, he murmured that, you are not only kind hearted but also beautiful and smiled a little with joy.

The next morning, the Prince met the King and told him about Neela, that he is in love with her and wants to marry her. The King was happy to hear that and said, he would talk to Neela about it. But the Prince said, i want to win her heart first, after her acceptance only i will marry her. The King agreed to the Prince’s request. The Prince left his father’s room, as he couldn’t find Neela in his father’s room, his eyes started searching for Neela. Soon he found Neela, who was cleaning the window in the hallway. As he saw her side face, he could figure out that, it was Neela. The Prince walked close to her and called her name. Soon after hearing Prince’s voice, Neela got tensed and in a jiffy, she covered her face and turned around. The Prince walked a little close to her and said, you have done so much for us. We can’t thank you enough. As my Mother passed away, all i have got was my father and i was worried about his sickness, i thought i was going to lose him too but he got cured because of you. You are not only kind hearted but also beautiful, you have brought the peace and joy back in our lives, so if you don’t have any objections, i want to marry you.

Neela got shocked after hearing those words from Prince, after few seconds, she recovered from her shock and said, oh Prince! I am so honoured to hear such words from you, even i can’t thank you guys enough for taking care of me but i can’t accept the marriage proposal. The Prince asked surprisingly, May i know the reason for rejecting my proposal? Then Neela replied that, your highness! I am not worthy of a Prince like you and also i am not what you think i am, when you said, beautiful, you might have mistook me with someone else. Then the Prince said, it was not a misunderstanding my dear! I have seen you under the beautiful Moonlight. Then she replied that, forgive me Prince, i think you saw a different girl. Then the Prince insisted on showing her face to him so that he could confirm. As he stepped towards her and tried to remove dupatta covering her face, Neela got scared, in tension she slapped Prince’s hand away and said, you have no rights to force me then she ran away from that place as fast as possible.

After hearing those words from Neela, the Prince felt extremely sad and didn’t feel like staying in the palace anymore. So the Prince went to meet his father in the next day and found Neela in his father’s room. As Neela noticed Prince’s arrival, she left the room silently. Then the Prince said to King that he wants to leave the palace for few days. The King got surprised hearing Prince's words and asked, what is the problem son? You were so happy till yesterday. What went wrong? Is it about Neela? The Prince looked down with sad face, without replying to the King. The King understood the situation and got angry. The King screamed Neela’s name in anger. The Neela , who was in the next room, rushed to the King’s room. The Prince tried to calm his father down but the King was extremely angry and started yelling at Neela, i took care of you like a family member and this is how you repay me, by breaking my son’s heart? What is wrong with my son? Why did you reject him? Neela didn’t say anything, just stood there crying silently. Then the King got angrier and said, never show your face to me again and left the room. The Prince approached Neela, apologised for his father’s actions and said that, i will be leaving the palace for a while.

When he was about to walk away, Neela held Prince’s hand crying, while still looking down, she said that, when the King introduced you to me, I have fallen in love with you, the moment i saw you. I was holding back because i am not as beautiful as you think i am. You saw only half of my face, rest of the face is hideous. The Prince was stunned after hearing her confession, soon he recovered and said, oh dear! To say the truth, i have loved your kind heart more than your appearance so let me see your full face. Neela left the Prince’s hand and stood silently in front of the Prince, as if he has given permission to take off her dupatta. The Prince pulled her dupatta up slowly while looking at her face. He found that, her left cheek was covered with a mark up to the neck. He put his hand under her chin and lifted her face up saying, Is it what you kept on saying hideous? I don’t find anything hideous about you my dear, you are beautiful in and out. Neela embraced the Prince with Pain and Joy.

Meanwhile the King returned to his room, found Neela and Prince embracing each other. He felt very happy, he entered the room saying, what happened in my absence? Did i miss something? They both unhanded each other as they heard King’s voice. The Prince held his father with joy and explained the things happened in his absence. The King was happy, finally they accepted each other. Then the King asked Neela to show her full face to him, Neela did as King Said. The King took a closer look at her face and amazed to notice a snake like mark on her face. The King started shouting with joy, she is back. She has come back for us. The Prince didn’t understand his father’s words. The Prince asked for the explanation, then the King said, in our forefathers, an Empress was born with the snake mark, who was blessed with extreme power and brought peace to our clan. Neela seems to be the reincarnation of that Empress and that explains how she ended up in our world, otherwise normal people cannot enter our world just like that. The King rushed to the library, both Neela and Prince followed him. The King took out a book, which was about the Empress and started reading about her loud. After when he finished her story, he found an enchantment in the last page of the book. He asked Neela to read those enchantments.

As Neela finished up reading those enchantments, a strange green light came out of those words in the book and entered her body. Soon after that Neela felt new power inside her, she just closed her eyes subconsciously and murmured some enchantments, soon the mark on her face disappeared. The King and Prince were surprised to notice it. When she opened her eyes, Prince told that, the mark on your face has disappeared, how did you do that? Neela replied that, a voice in her head told her to murmur those enchantments to hide the mark. As her mark was gone, Neela’s true beauty was revealed. Soon after the incident, the Prince and Neela got married. Neela was worried about her father so, she asked King to give permission to visit her father. The King accepted and asked Prince to escort her to the earth and to her father.

Meanwhile, ever since Neela disappeared, Ratna kept on asking his father to come live with them in the palace but Kumba rejected his offer every time. As it was Ratna’s son’s birthday, Ranta went to meet his father along with his wife Mytra and Son. Ratna asked his father to come to the palace to live with them again but Kumba rejected his offer again saying that, he needs to be at home, if in case Neela returns. Ratna got sick of listening those words and started shouting that, she is dead. She is no more and it is a good thing that she is gone, our problems are solved, without her presence around us. The Kumba got angry and when he was about to scold his son, he was interrupted by Princess Mytra, how could you talk about your own sister like that? She is the reason we are married and you are leading such luxury life. Both Kumba and Ratna got surprised listening princess words. The Princess continued explaining whatever happened in the past and then she said, since Neela took promise from me, i kept it hidden but now she is gone and i don’t want my husband to hate her and bad mouth her.

After hearing Princess’s words, Ratna felt extremely ashamed of his actions and collapsed on the floor thinking how harshly he hurt his sister but still she cared a lot for him. He was crying on floor apologising to his sister for whatever he has done. 

After few minutes, Neela and Prince Mani arrived Neela’s home and found everyone in sad state. Neela rushed to her brother’s side who was crying on the floor and asked, oh brother! What happened? Why are you crying? Ratna looked at her surprisingly and asked, are you Neela? Neela replied, yes brother! Its me. Ratna held Neela’s both hands and started apologising to her while still crying. Neela said, no brother! Don’t say that. Whatever might happen, we will still be brother and sister. I never hated you for once, please do not cry anymore. Ratna stood up while wiping his tears and asked about the man who came along with Neela. Neela explained everything to her father and brother. Everyone felt happy for Neela, who found her happiness and a place where she belongs. As all the misunderstandings got cleared, Ratna took his father to the palace to stay with him, Neela went back to the Snake’s Kingdom with Prince Mani and lived happily ever after.

Moral: Always do Good no matter what, it will definitely come back to you eventually.