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

Overview

Lakhan follows a deer into a weed-covered pool and finds a dry road leading to a bonga household, where deer are kept as livestock and a coiled snake is offered as a stool. Two daughters ask their father to retain him as a son-in-law, but he tells them to give him a fawn and let him leave. They guide him back to the surface while placing an enchantment on him. The narrative then describes him becoming distraught, wandering and finally running into the pool. It explicitly leaves his ultimate fate unknown, including whether the sisters carried him away; a completed marriage is not established.

Underwater household’s daughters who seek a human husbandSpecific 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

    CL, Lakhan and the Bongas, p. 380

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 IV, bonga narratives. CL, Lakhan and the Bongas, p. 380

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.

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), CL, Lakhan and the Bongas, p. 380Research 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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