A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.
Overview
A bonga maiden secretly brings seven meals to seven hunting brothers. Only the youngest, whom she loves, can see her when watching the house. She refuses his suggestion that she marry the eldest for household convenience, and instead marries him with the others’ consent. The household settles into prosperous farming and the remaining brothers find wives.
After she bears a child, Jhades Jogi demands her arm tassel. Once it is in his bag she follows him away, leaving the infant behind. Her husband and his brothers pursue but are turned to stone. Years later her son identifies himself with her ring hidden in a garland. She obtains the Jogi’s external-life secret after two false answers, helping her son kill him and restore the family. Her invisibility and spirit identity do not prevent her from being vulnerable to this abductor’s magic.
Origins & earliest records
Santal Parganas, eastern India; source-specific Santali storytelling
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.
- 01
Folklore of the Santal Parganas
LXXIII, The Seven Brothers and the Bonga Girl, pp. 218–226
Family, evolution & connections
The bonga bride’s son and paternal uncles
Bompas’s 1909 English translation, tale LXXIII.
Scroll sideways to see all branches. With a keyboard, focus the tree and use the arrow keys.
- Seven human brothers (sibling group)
- Six elder brothers (boy’s paternal uncles; group)
- Youngest brother (marries the bonga bride)
Explicit marriage, birth and paternal kinship in the complete named tale. Jhades Jogi is an abductor, not father. The Bohmae birds hold his life; they are not his children. Six aunts provide care, not birth motherhood. Names of the human brothers are not supplied.
Rescuing son of the seven-brothers bonga bride
The bonga bride bears the boy and later recognizes him by her ring. Jhades Jogi abducts her; he is not the child’s father.
Youngest brother in The Seven Brothers and the Bonga Girl
She refuses the proposed marriage to the eldest brother and marries the youngest with the brothers’ agreement.
Primary records and illustrations
Cecil Henry Bompas, Folklore of the Santal Parganas (1909)
Part I, Santal folktales. LXXIII, The Seven Brothers and the Bonga Girl, pp. 218–226
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.
References
Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.
- Historical translation of collected narrativesBompas, Folklore of the Santal Parganas (1909), LXXIII, The Seven Brothers and the Bonga Girl, pp. 218–226Research access: 2026-10-05
Image credits
A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.