Kipling’s Princess Blossom speaking with the soldier’s son beside her bed, 1894
Princess Blossom appears at the upper right, speaking with the soldier’s son; tiny Sir Buzz keeps watch below. This scene does not show the five flowers used to weigh her.
Overview
Princess Blossom is weighed each morning in golden scales, with exactly five flowers sufficient to balance her. Temple gives Bâdshâhzâdi Phûlî, Princess Flower, or Phûlâzâdî, Born-of-a-flower, as forms behind the English name. The narrative does not describe an actual birth from a blossom.
She joins the soldier’s son after Sir Buzz brings him to her room and removes their sleeping bed to a garden. Later, trapped with her lover in a man-eating ghûl’s house, she keeps her composure and burns the helper’s beard hair to summon rescue. Her extreme lightness is the tale’s bodily wonder; wings, miniature stature and fairy parentage are not stated.
Origins & earliest records
Punjabi storytelling collected and adapted in colonial British India
Records & interpretation
Complete Sir Buzz and Temple’s named notes read; full preface read;1894 university-hosted text compared with Gutenberg.
Selected bibliography
Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.
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Tales of the Punjab, Told by the People
Sir Buzz, opening tale; corresponding titled notes; illustrationsJ.LockwoodKipling
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
Flora Annie Steel, Tales of the Punjab, Told by the People (Macmillan,1894); R.C.Temple notes
Sir Buzz. Complete opening tale and titled Sir Buzz notes; Gutenberg anchorsid00028/id01612; UPenn1-1
Complete tale and fullnotes read, plus fullpreface and ToTheLittleReader.1894 title/credits verified in UPenn transcription; token comparison of entire SirBuzz with Gutenberg showed98.8% overlap, remaining spelling/punctuation/OCR/illustration-caption differences inspected. Punjabi names and ghul/bhut distinctions from Temple’s notes, no invented original script.
References
Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.
- Historical collected folktaleSteel, Sir Buzz, complete narrativeResearch access: 2026-10-05
- Collector’s linguistic and comparative notesTemple, Notes to Sir BuzzResearch access: 2026-10-05
- University-hosted historical primary textUniversity of Pennsylvania,1894 edition transcriptionResearch access: 2026-10-05
Image credits
Historical illustrationKipling’s Princess Blossom speaking with the soldier’s son beside her bed, 1894
Princess Blossom appears at the upper right, speaking with the soldier’s son; tiny Sir Buzz keeps watch below. This scene does not show the five flowers used to weigh her.
