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

Overview

Six married brothers repeatedly leave home to hunt, and their wives climb a peepul tree and ride through the air while they are away. The youngest brother hides in the trunk and witnesses a journey to a river. When discovered, he refuses to promise silence. The eldest wife drives two iron nails into his soles and turns him into a dog; the women then keep him and feed him regular meals while telling their husbands that the youth has vanished.

A princess later removes the nails, restoring his human form. When his brothers learn what occurred, they kill their wives by pushing them into a newly dug well and filling it with earth. The flying journey and transformation are explicit fictional events in this narrative; the ending is not evidence for actual witchcraft or an endorsement of violence against accused people. The tree is a vehicle without speech, and no individual names or general explanation of its flight are supplied.

Sisters-in-law who travel on an uprooting tree and use nails to transform a witnessSpecific 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

    XCIII, The Boy Who Was Changed into a Dog, pp. 281–284

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. XCIII, The Boy Who Was Changed into a Dog, pp. 281–284

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), XCIII, The Boy Who Was Changed into a Dog, pp. 281–284Research access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

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

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