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Overview
A surviving daughter of the man-eating household follows the escaped princesses to the river bank and gains the same king’s protection by claiming to be human. She becomes his wife, then magically plucks out the eyes of all seven pregnant queens without waking them and hides the eyes. The king expels the blinded women, leaving her in the palace.
When the youngest queen’s surviving son later brings game to the palace, the Rākshasī sends him to her mother with a letter ordering his death and the eating of the hidden eyes. A princess whom he rescues replaces it with a request for hospitality and sight-restoring medicine. The young man returns successfully and settles with the rescued queens in another city. Unlike several comparative tales printed after it, this principal Sri Lankan narrative does not state that the ogress queen is killed or give her an external-life bird.
Origins & earliest records
Sri Lankan narratives collected and translated by H. Parker
Records & interpretation
Complete tale and all its printed variants/comparative notes read; relevant introduction passages on collection and translation directly read.
Selected bibliography
Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.
- 01
Village Folk-Tales of Ceylon, Volume I
No. 48, The Seven Princesses, pp. 270–275; comparative variants and notes pp. 275–278
Family, evolution & connections
The ogress queen’s parents in The Seven Princesses
Parker’s main tale No. 48, distinct from his comparison notes.
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- Rākshasa father and Rākshasī mother (joint parents)
- Six other daughters (group; one accidentally eaten)
Explicit household parentage and the daughter’s mother-addressed letter. Seven daughters are distinct from the seven human princesses. One daughter is accidentally eaten; no daughter names are supplied. The main tale does not give the queen an external-life bird or narrate her death.
Unnamed human king who marries the seven princesses
The Rākshasa’s daughter joins the human king as his wife after he marries the seven human princesses. Their surviving son belongs to the youngest human queen, not to the ogress.
White hind witch in The Son of Seven Mothers
Parker compares Steel’s seven blinded queens, saved seventh infant and altered murderous letter. Steel’s witch is killed; Parker’s main No. 48 does not narrate the ogress queen’s death. This is a version-specific motif comparison, not demonstrated creative borrowing.
Primary records and illustrations
Village Folk-Tales of Ceylon, Volume I
Volume I. No. 48, The Seven Princesses, pp. 270–275; comparative variants and notes pp. 275–278
Full principal narrative and all comparative notes read. Raksasa parents and daughter kept distinct; magical blinding is her own action, not a royal order. Missing death/external-soul ending not imported from cited Punjabi, Bengali or Kashmiri parallels.
References
Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.
- Historical collected oral narrative translationParker, Village Folk-Tales of Ceylon I — No. 48, The Seven Princesses, pp. 270–275; comparative variants and notes pp. 275–278Research access: 2026-10-05
Image credits
A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.