There lived a brahman in a village, and he had a wife. They lived a long time and even began to grow old, but they still had no children - neither a son nor a daughter. They were very sad about it. Finally, the brahmana says to her husband:
- Go to the Ganga, plunge into its holy waters. Maybe then God will help our grief.
The brahman listened to his wife's words, thought and began to get ready for the journey. I took some money with me, tied the food in a bundle and went.
And this brahmana had a lover, a young brahman from the same village. And so, when her husband left for the Ganges River, the Brahmana got into the habit of running every evening to her lover on a date, and they kissed and made love in a secluded corner until the morning.
The old Brahman walked for many days, walked all over the country, saw foreign cities and villages, and returned home tired and hungry. His wife met him, fed him, gave him something to drink, and lubricated his legs, which had been broken on the long journey, and his hands, which had been rubbed with a traveling staff, with oil. The Brahman became warm, sated and fell asleep sweetly.
Meanwhile, the brahmana's lover, as was their custom, was already waiting for her at the appointed place. He waited for a long time and the longer he waited, the angrier he became: “What is she doing there, so-and-so? So the night will pass!..
Well, I’ll teach her a lesson, the scoundrel, so much so that she’ll remember her all her life!..”
He took out a sharp knife and hid behind a tree. And when the brahman's wife, having put her husband to bed, finally came for a date, he, without saying a word, jumped out from behind a tree, cut off her nose in one fell swoop, and that was it.
The brahmana clutched her severed nose in her hand and ran home crying. At home, she sat on the threshold and began to think: “What should I do now? What will I tell my husband when he wakes up?” I thought and thought and came up with an idea. She took a lump of dry clay, kneaded it with water, molded a figurine of the goddess Kalika and placed Kalika in the corner on the bench. Then she brought an armful of fresh flowers from the garden, brought coconuts, molasses, baked rice, put it all at the feet of the statue, and put her nose on top of everything - so that the blood flowed from it straight to the feet of the goddess. She herself prostrated herself and began to pray.
Meanwhile, the old brahman woke up and began to call his wife, but she did not respond. He got up, lit the lamp, and saw Kalika’s wife praying. He approached her and asked: “What are you doing, wife?”, and she, covering her face with her hands, answered:
- My dear husband! When you left for the holy Ganges, I was very afraid that something might happen to you on the way... Then I swore: if, by the grace of the gods, you return healthy and unharmed, I will give the bloody goddess Kalika my only nose! You have returned, and now I have fulfilled this vow, look!
The brahmana looked at his wife and said:
“There is no other woman like you in the whole world.” I have passed through many villages, but I have never seen such loyalty anywhere. Thank you, beloved wife! Well, I will repay you in kind: I will take your nose and go to the Ganges River again. Perhaps the gods will take pity on us and turn your nose back.
That's what he did: he wrapped his nose in a rag, took money for the journey and went. In the evening he reached one village, and he met two women there - the wife of a gardener and the wife of a shepherd; they were walking together to the well for water. The Brahman asks the women:
- Tell me, sisters, where does this road lead?
-Where do you want to go, sir? - the women answer.
Then the brahman told them about his faithful wife, and about her vow, and about how he was going to the Ganges again. Both women, when they heard his story, began to laugh. Brahman asks:
- Why are you laughing? And aren't you ashamed?
And they told him:
- What kind of faithful wife is she to you? Perhaps her dear friend cut off her nose? She didn't please him, so he taught her a lesson. We know these things!
- How so? - the brahman does not believe. “After all, that night we slept at home together, she didn’t go out anywhere.”
“You are stupid, husbands, people,” the women say. - Deceiving you is the most empty thing. If we really want, we can do everything in front of your eyes, and you won’t even know. Come, venerable one, with us, live in our village, we will show you something.
That's what they decided on. The gardener brought the brahman to her house, put him to bed and told him in the morning, when she and her husband went to the mahua tree to pick flowers, to come there and hide somewhere. The next morning, as soon as the roosters crowed, the gardener and his wife came to the tree to buy flowers. The gardener climbed the tree, but her husband remained below. Only suddenly the gardener shouts to her husband:
- Hey, what are you doing? Have you completely lost your shame? Before my eyes you are having fun with someone else's wife!
- What are you talking about! - says the gardener. “I’m standing, picking flowers, there’s no one else here.”
- So, is this tree magical, or what? Come on, get in here and sit until I tell you to get down.
The gardener climbed a tree, and his wife called a brahman who was sitting nearby in the bushes, and the two of them immediately, in the clearing, began to have mercy in front of her husband’s eyes. And the gardener shouts from the tree:
- You, wife, told the truth! Apparently, this tree really is magical. I also imagine that you are now having fun with someone.
“You see,” the wife answers, “but you didn’t believe it!”
The next night, the shepherd's wife sheltered the brahman and told him to hide in the morning in the barnyard where the cows were being milked. At dawn she came there with her husband and said to him:
- You know, but my grandfather, my mother’s father, could milk a cow with his eyes closed.
- Also unprecedented! - the shepherd answers. “Yes, I’ll milk you any cow blindfolded.”
- Really? Well, try it!
The shepherd's wife blindfolded her husband and, as soon as he settled down under the cow with the milk pan, she called the brahman and began to play with him.
And the shepherd doesn’t notice anything, milks his cow and says:
“You shouldn’t be pushing me in the back, wife!” Do you think I'll spill it? I didn't attack that one!
That was the end of the matter. Afterwards both women say to the brahman:
“You see now what we are capable of.” And you believed that your wife lost her nose of her own free will! There is no need for you to go to Ganga, you better return home.
The poor brahman sighed heavily and trudged away. He came to his village, took his wife by the hand, led her out onto the road and said:
- Get out of my house in all four directions!
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru