A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.

Overview

A monkey described in the English text as a Hanuman monkey steals a bathing girl’s cloth and withholds it unless she marries him. Her family cannot hit him with their arrows and interprets this as fate. He eventually lets down the cloth, pulls her into his tree and carries her to a mountain cave. Although the encounter begins with coercion, the narration then expressly says she is willing to go; those two stages are not collapsed into an uncomplicated courtship.

They live on fruit until she asks for rice. He steals utensils and ingredients from a market, enjoys the cooked meal and requests it daily. When she also wants clothing and tires of sleeping outdoors, he gathers fruit for her to sell. She instead remains in the village, takes employment and later marries a villager, while he searches unsuccessfully and returns sorrowfully to his hill. He never changes into a human prince. Hanuman is the collection’s animal label here, without an explicit identification as the Rāmāyaṇa deity.

Speaking monkey whose human wife leaves their mountain homeSpecific Santal narrative witness
01

Origins & earliest records

Santal Parganas, eastern India; source-specific Santali storytelling

02

Records & interpretation

Complete relevant tale directly read with existing collection preface and narrator-chain record.

Selected bibliography

Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.

  1. 01

    Folklore of the Santal Parganas

    Cecil Henry Bompas, translator; O. Bodding, collector; Sagram Murmu, principal Santali writer credited in preface · 1909

    LXX, The Monkey Husband, pp. 212–214

Family & connections

A source-supported family tree or inspiration record has not yet been compiled for this profile. Related reading below indicates a connection in subject matter, not a proven lineage or creative influence.

Primary records and illustrations

Direct primary record

Cecil Henry Bompas, Folklore of the Santal Parganas (1909)

Part I, Santal folktales. LXX, The Monkey Husband, pp. 212–214

Entire tale read. Printed Hanuman-monkey label not equated with deity; nail mechanism distinguished from removable animal skin. Accusations and punishment belong to narrative, not empirical witchcraft or ethical approval.

Inspect the digitized plate · Source collection manifest

References

Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.

  1. Historical translation of collected narrativesBompas, Folklore of the Santal Parganas (1909), LXX, The Monkey Husband, pp. 212–214Research access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.

FT·1682 · RESEARCH EDITION 01Back to top ↑