“I’m so excited about re-telling the wonderful Kashmir version of Cinderella from the Ashliman Collection!” Lydia enthusiastically announced.

All the girls got quiet and Lydia began the story.

Long ago in a far northern region of India called Kashmir, there lived a Brahmin and his beloved wife. They had many children, one of them being Cinderella. The Brahmin and his wife were head over heels for each other and completely loyal to one another. 

The Brahmin said, “Let’s make a promise to each other. Let’s not eat another meal without each other ever again.”

The Brahmin’s wife, “That’s a splendid idea! Let’s promise to never eat a meal without each other. If I break the promise I’ll become a goat, and if you break the promise you will become a tiger.”

One day while cooking dinner for the children, the Brahmin’s wife accidentally took a bite of the meal. She immediately turned into a goat because of the vow she had broken. The Brahmin still kept his wife as a goat but placed her outside the house. A few years later the Brahmin remarried an evil woman, who had a one-eyed daughter of her own. The step-mother treated the Brahmin’s children terribly and hardly cooked them any food.

“There will be no lunch or dinner today for your children,” the evil step-mother told the children.

“We are so hungry though!” the children cried.

No matter how much the children cried in hunger, the evil step-mother wouldn’t feel any remorse. The children’s mother, the goat, noticed that they were getting thinner and thinner each day.

“My children, why haven’t you eaten anything?” the goat asked.

“Step-mother refuses to feed us. Mother, we are so hungry. Will you please help us?” the children cried.

“Listen carefully: all you have to do is hit my horn with this stick and food will fall down for you prepared,” the goat said while kicking the stick toward the children.

The children cried in excitement and felt protected from starving. The step-mother noticed that the children were getting stronger and stronger instead of thinner. She got a little bit curious and wondered how these children were remaining healthy even with the little food she fed them. She requested her one-eyed daughter to keep a look-out on how these children were obtaining their food. One day, the one-eyed girl stood behind the wall and watched how her step-siblings were getting food. She thought to herself, “Those children are in big trouble now!” She ran to her mother and told her everything.

“Oh, dear, I am feeling very ill. There is only one thing that will cure my illness and that is eating the goat,” the Brahmin’s evil wife said.

“Oh, is there anything else? I cannot afford another goat, and that would mean the butcher would have to slaughter the only goat I have,” the Brahmin sadly asked.

“I’m afraid not. I’m very ill!” the Brahmin’s evil wife angrily said.

The children cried because they were going to lose their mother and be without food. The goat calmed the children down and told them that wherever her bones are buried, there will be food prepared to eat whenever they were hungry. Later that day, the butcher slaughtered the goat and the evil step-mother ate the cooked goat for dinner. 

A few days later, Cinderella was washing her face in the sink and she lost her nose ring. The nose ring fell down the sink, went through the pipe, and into the tunnel. A fish had eaten the nose ring and was later caught by a man. The royal family in Kashmir was preparing a big dinner party, so the King bought the fish from the man. When dinner was prepared, the King noticed the nose ring in the fish and was determined to find which girl it belonged to. He broadcasted the nose ring in the newspaper and T.V. A few days later, Cinderella’s brother told the King that it belonged to his sister and the King requested to see Cinderella. Later that evening, the King went to their house and was completely fascinated by Cinderella’s natural beauty. He asked the Brahmin for Cinderella’s hand in marriage and soon after they got married!

Coverpage
Introduction
Italy: Cinderella and the Verdelio bird
Germany: Cinderella, the Two Pigeons, and the Little Tree

Author’s note: The story-line is the same as the original story. I created more dialogue to portray the evil step-mother’s character better. The unusual thing that I found about the original story was that Cinderella didn’t have her own role until the end of the story. She was included in the Brahmin’s “children,” but didn’t really have her own part in the story until before she got married. I thought the original story was interesting because it was common in India to have several children.  I found the original story to be portrayed as the Brahmin having many children, even though it never clearly said how many children. The goat played a huge role in this story because a mother’s love is truly unconditional, and she still tried to protect her children as best as she could. In the original story, she provided them food but it didn't give details on how the food was created. In my story, I also tried to keep it close to the original story as much as possible. I want to clarify that the Brahmin's second wife already had the one-eyed daughter from before and not with the Brahmin. Also, the nose ring is a symbol of beauty, culture, and fashion in India.

J. Hinton Knowles, Folk-Tales of Kashmir (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner, 1893), pp. 127-129.

Image: Princess of India.