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Overview

In Jacobs’s “The Soothsayer’s Son,” a serpent trapped on a ledge inside a well identifies himself as a king of serpents and a son of Adisesha. Gangazara lifts him out. The grateful ruler promises to come whenever his rescuer thinks of him and subsequently fulfils that promise. His address to Gangazara as a father explicitly means that the rescue has given him another life; it is distinct from the stated parentage by Adisesha.

When Gangazara is falsely imprisoned, the serpent king enters through a passage opened by the rat king’s followers. He and the tiger king arrange attacks on the kingdom’s people and cattle to force the prisoner’s release. After ten years a serpent kills the king’s daughter, and the authorities bring out Gangazara hoping he can restore her. Thinking of the two animal rulers, he sprinkles water over the assembled dead and dying, and the princess and other victims revive. This is the tale’s supernatural event, not a verified treatment for snakebite.

At a public assembly the serpent and tiger rulers promise to stop their destruction for as long as justice prevails. Gangazara’s later death on a seashore and restoration by Ganesa belong to a separate concluding episode; the serpent king is not credited with that revival. The English account supplies no personal name, multiplied heads or human transformation for him.

Adisesha parentage claimResponse to remembered summonsSerpent armyConditional truce
01

Origins & earliest records

South Indian tale attributed through Kingscote and Natesa Sastri

02

Records & interpretation

Complete English narrative and source notes, including final seashore death and divine restoration, read.

Selected bibliography

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

  1. 01

    Indian Fairy Tales

    Joseph Jacobs (selector and adapter); source credited through Mrs Kingscote and Pandit Natesa Sastri · 1892

    X, “The Soothsayer’s Son,” pp. 70–84; notes pp. 243–244. London: David Nutt. Jacobs credits Tales of the Sun, p. 11 onward, through Folk-Lore of Southern India, part II, originally Indian Antiquary; he expressly says he condensed and modified the English.

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

Complete English narrative and specific notes read

Indian Fairy Tales

Joseph Jacobs, London: David Nutt, 1892. X, pp. 70–84; notes pp. 243–244

Caches jacobs-10.txt and jacobs-notes-10.txt, master jacobs-indian.html. Full ten-year imprisonment, mass-revival/truce and separate seashore death/Ganesa ending read. Jacobs explicitly condensed/modified credited Kingscote/Natesa Sastri source; no direct original-language or original scan collation. Historical anti-goldsmith generalisations excluded as factual claims.

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References

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

  1. Historical English adaptation of an attributed South Indian taleJacobs 1892, The Soothsayer’s Son and source notesResearch access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

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