A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.
Overview
Panch-Phul Ranee’s jackals appear after a prince is killed trying to cross the spear hedges around her dwelling. Her father orders the dead suitor married to her and has both abandoned deep in the forest. Wild animals pass without harming her, and two small jackals settle beside the palanquins after scavenging bones left by tigers. The female asks her husband for a story. He identifies the princess and recounts the dead prince’s unhappy home, journey and failed marriage trial, displaying knowledge beyond anything their immediate surroundings could disclose.
His wife asks whether the prince could return to life. The male says that juice from the leaves of a nearby tree would restore him if applied to specified places on his body and wounds. Panch-Phul Ranee overhears the conversation. The jackals leave at dawn, and she gathers and crushes the leaves herself. The prince revives fully, with the narrative comparing his awakening to waking from sleep. The tree is not given a botanical identity, and the passage is a marvellous revival episode rather than a medical prescription. The jackals reveal the remedy but neither administer it nor knowingly promise the princess help.
Their conversation changes the human couple’s fate, but the jackals do not accompany them afterward. The rest of the complete tale follows the couple’s flight on living wooden parrots, the husband’s eighteen-year loss of memory, recovery of their stolen son and eventual family reunions. None of those later rescues is attributed to the jackals. They remain an unnamed married pair in this collected witness, distinct from the learned owl spouses in another Frere tale and from her separately narrated trickster jackals.
Origins & earliest records
Told by Anna Liberata de Souza and collected in English by Mary Frere; introduction and notes by Bartle Frere.
Records & interpretation
Complete IX164–193 and all seven attached footnotes read; no separate IX endnote occurs in the selected edition. Full introductory provenance previously checked.
Selected bibliography
Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.
- 01
Old Deccan Days; or, Hindoo Fairy Legends Current in Southern India
IX, Panch-Phul Ranee, pp.164–193; footnotes67–73; Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott & Co. Complete narrative and footnotes read.
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
Old Deccan Days; or, Hindoo Fairy Legends Current in Southern India
Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott & Co.,1870. IX, Panch-Phul Ranee, pp.164–193; footnotes67–73
Complete frere1870-9.txt49,078chars and master HTML. All beginning/manufacture, marriage trial, death/revival, child substitution, eighteen-year separation and final relocation read. Divine animation distinct from soul transfer; jackal spouses not merged with other tale pairs.
References
Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.
- Historical collected oral narrative in EnglishOld Deccan Days — IX, Panch-Phul Ranee, pp.164–193; footnotes67–73Research access: 2026-10-06
Image credits
A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.