Tapta
Fungawari Singbul by B. Jayantakumar Sharma

Translation by Akham Gautam Singh *

An illustration of Folk tale 'Tapta' by Akham Gautam Singh

A long time ago, there was a child who was throwing tantrums one day. He was crying inconsolably. The mother tried everything but to no avail.

Thinking that the child would get scared and stop crying, the mother started saying, "There is a horse!", "There is an elephant!" and mentioned many other fierce animals but it was of no use.

The child did not stop crying at all. And on the top of that, it was raining heavily that night.

Meanwhile, a tiger had come to eat a horse in a stable nearby. It was listening to what the mother was saying to console the baby.

After trying the names of almost all the animals, the mother said, "There comes Tapta!" and hearing this, the child suddenly stopped crying.

The tiger also heard what was happening and said to himself, "The child is not afraid of horses, elephants, tigers or lions but stopped crying only when it heard that Tapta has come. This Tapta must surely be a fearsome animal."

Thinking this, the tiger got scared. "If I meet Tapta today, I will surely die." and hid in a corner of the stable.

Meanwhile, a horse thief entered the stable thinking of stealing a horse. As the thief stooped and started grabbing the legs, searching for a healthy and strong horse, he happened to grab the leg of the tiger.

"Finally, I've found what I've been looking for!" and started putting on reins and saddle on the tiger.

The tiger was scared to death thinking "This surely is Tapta. I'm going to die today." and let the thief do whatever he was doing without complaining. The thief then jumped on the tiger, whipped it and started riding it as fast as the wind.

The tiger, thinking that it was Tapta, ran as fast it could. At around dusk, they reached a jungle. As the sun came up, the thief could now see that what he was riding was not a horse but a tiger.

He started panicking, "I will surely die today." and started thinking of ways to save his life. In the meanwhile, he saw a hollow log lying on the ground.

As the tiger neared the log, the thief jumped down and crawled into the hollow of the log. The tiger, who was already scared, got startled by this sudden movement and started running twice as fast as before.

As the tiger was running, he came across a fox and narrated what had happened to him. They decided to go and see for Tapta for themselves.

But they were scared as they did not know who or what was Tapta. They tied their waists together with a rope so that no one would run away when they encounter Tapta and started walking towards the hollow log inside which Tapta was hiding.

The thief also wanted to know if the tiger was still nearby. As he peeped out to see, he happened upon the tiger and the fox. The tiger panicked and ran for his life.

The fox was small and not as fast as the tiger and on the top of that, he was bound to the tiger by the waist. So, it was dragged violently, crashing into the trees which tore him into bits.

In the end, only the part tied to the rope was all that remained of him. This is how the fox died.

It is not an easy task to inquire into what one does not know. As he was using a wrong method of inquiry, the fox died a horrible death.


** From Manipur folk tale Book called "Fungawari Singbul" by B. Jayantakumar Sharma