Saat Bhai Champa

Saat Bhai Champa or Sat Bhai Chompa is a popular folk tale in the Bengal region in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent. The story was first officially published by Dakshinaranjan Mitra Majumder in the book Thakurmar Jhuli in 1907. The introduction to Thakurmar Jhuli was written by Nobel-Laureate, Rabindranath Tagore. More detailed version of the story was published by Bishnu Dey under the name "Sat Bhai Champa" in 1944.[1]

For the Indian television series, see Saat Bhai Champa (TV series).

Plot

Once upon a time, there lived a king. The king was not able to produce any heir to the throne through his seven wives. The king was depressed and spent large amount of time by himself in the forest. A priest in the forest saw the king's misery and gave him mangoes of bearing. The priest instructed the king to feed the fruits to his wives and then they would conceive children. The king gave his three wives the fruits as instructed by the priest. Two elder queens did not produce any children, as they ate it with disbelief. However, the younger queen gave birth to octuplets: seven boys and one girl, when the king was on a voyage. The elder queens became jealous and buried the babies in the garden before the younger queen gained consciousness from pregnancy. The babies magically blossom into seven champak flowers and a trumpet flower. The last baby, the girl, was born some time after first seven babies in a time when the elder queens left the room with seven babies and this enabled the maid to hide the baby from the elder queens and named the child Parul. Elder queens, then, placed seven puppies on the younger queen's bedside and claimed the queen gave birth to seven puppies. Parul grew up in the forest. After learning her origin from her maid, she helped to revive her brothers into princes.

Another variant of the story has it that seven babies turned into seven puppies.

Adaptations

Several Bengali film have been made based on the Saat Bhai Champa story, including:

Saat Bhai Champa (2017-19 TV series) is an Indian fantasy drama television series that aired on Zee Bangla.

Arts

Saat Bhai Champa painting by Gaganendranath Tagore is considered a masterpiece in contemporary Indian painting.[3] The painting is currently located at Academy of Fine Arts of Calcutta.

Song

Bol Na Re Bol Na Song – Saat Bhai Champa Serial – Zee Bangla

References
  1. Guha, Bimal (2012). "De, Bishnu". In Islam, Sirajul; Jamal, Ahmed A. (eds.). Banglapedia: National Encyclopedia of Bangladesh (Second ed.). Asiatic Society of Bangladesh.
  2. "Top 10 Bangladeshi Films". British Film Institute. 2007-07-17. Archived from the original on 2009-05-27. Retrieved 2015-10-17.
  3. "Academy of Fine Arts". indfy.com. Retrieved 2010-03-17.
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