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Overview
The son of a bonga woman and the youngest of seven human brothers grows up among his aunts after his mother’s abduction and his father’s disappearance. A speaking plum bush and a squirrel direct his search. When he strokes the helpful squirrel, his fingers leave the stripes that the tale assigns to squirrels thereafter. He recognizes his father and uncles in weeping stones and leaves them food.
Reunited with his mother, he follows her discovery of Jhades Jogi’s external life and captures the two Bohmae birds. After their destruction ends the Jogi’s pursuit, he bathes in the river and covers the seven stones with a cloth, restoring his relatives to human form. The text gives no personal name, and the seven men are his father and uncles rather than seven fathers.
Origins & earliest records
Santal Parganas, eastern India; source-specific Santali storytelling
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.
- 01
Folklore of the Santal Parganas
LXXIII, The Seven Brothers and the Bonga Girl, pp. 218–226
Family, evolution & connections
The bonga bride’s son and paternal uncles
Bompas’s 1909 English translation, tale LXXIII.
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- Seven human brothers (sibling group)
- Six elder brothers (boy’s paternal uncles; group)
- Youngest brother (marries the bonga bride)
Explicit marriage, birth and paternal kinship in the complete named tale. Jhades Jogi is an abductor, not father. The Bohmae birds hold his life; they are not his children. Six aunts provide care, not birth motherhood. Names of the human brothers are not supplied.
Youngest brother in The Seven Brothers and the Bonga Girl
The boy’s father pursues his abducted wife, is petrified and is restored by his son at the ending.
Six elder paternal uncles in the Bonga Girl tale
The father’s six brothers accompany him and are petrified with him. The rescuing boy restores all seven men.
Six paternal uncles’ wives in the Bonga Girl tale
After the abduction, the brothers entrust the baby to their wives. His aunts later explain his missing parents; these carers are not additional birth mothers.
Primary records and illustrations
Cecil Henry Bompas, Folklore of the Santal Parganas (1909)
Part I, Santal folktales. LXXIII, The Seven Brothers and the Bonga Girl, pp. 218–226
Entire relevant tale read in retained primary transcription, including ending. Santal religious category retained; narrator’s particular transformations and family relations distinguished from general beliefs, ritual prescriptions or inferred outcomes.
References
Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.
- Historical translation of collected narrativesBompas, Folklore of the Santal Parganas (1909), LXXIII, The Seven Brothers and the Bonga Girl, pp. 218–226Research access: 2026-10-05
Image credits
A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.