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Overview
Seven princesses fleeing their father’s death sentence obtain shelter from a Rākshasī while her husband is absent. The youngest notices human bones behind the house. At night she exchanges their dark clothes with the white clothes of the household’s seven daughters. Returning after dark, the Rākshasa takes one dark-clothed girl, boils and eats her, unknowingly killing his own daughter.
The seven visitors escape while he sleeps. A surviving daughter later infiltrates a king’s household and attacks the princesses, but the story gives no further independent actions or final punishment for this father. His mistaken identification depends on the exchanged clothing; it is not evidence that every Rākshasa cannot recognize its children.
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.
Rākshasī queen in The Seven Princesses
The ogress queen is a daughter of the Rākshasa whose household shelters the seven human princesses. He mistakenly cooks and eats another of his seven daughters.
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
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