Sitari Jogi

Overview

Sitari Jogi promises children to a childless king in exchange for the first-born, prescribing a mango rite. When the youngest queen bears twins, he claims both as born together, promises to teach them and return one, and takes them to his own country, where he is also a ruler. There he teaches spells and tests their resourcefulness by sending them to collect dew. He later returns the elder twin but keeps the more accomplished younger one.

Teacher and pupil use transformations to cheat buyers: the boy becomes a bullock, while Sitari sells him but retains a tethering rope used to restore his shape. He initially withholds the spell for independent transformation, which the boy learns from other practitioners. When the pupil attempts to leave, Sitari pursues him as a leopard, hawk, paddy bird and pigeon, changing according to the boy’s successive evasions.

The boy finally becomes a cat and catches him as a pigeon, then resumes human form and removes the bird’s head. A head described as the Jogi’s rolls after him until the boy throws the pigeon’s head into a blacksmith’s fire; the following head enters the fire and is consumed. The English telling preserves both head descriptions without explaining their visual relation. Sitari’s conduct belongs to this specific magical adversary, not to all people called jogis.

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.

1. 01

   Folklore of the Santal Parganas

   Cecil Henry Bompas, translator; O. Bodding, collector; Sagram Murmu, principal Santali writer credited in preface · 1909

   XXXVI, The Boy Who Learnt Magic, pp. 134–138

Family & connections

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Primary records and illustrations

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), XXXVI, The Boy Who Learnt Magic, pp. 134–138Research access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

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