Tulisa, the Wood-Cutter's Daughter is an Indian legend published as an annex to Somadeva Bhaṭṭa's work, related to Cupid and Psyche.
[1] The tale belongs to the international cycle of the Animal as Bridegroom or Search for the Lost Husband: Tulisa, a woodcutter's daughter, agrees to marry the owner of a mysterious voice, and her father consents to their marriage and eventually becomes rich.
Tulisa discovers the identity of her husband – a prince of serpents named Basnak Dau - and loses him, but eventually finds him.
[4] Tulisa, the beautiful daughter of a poor woodcutter (Nur Singh, or Nursingh), approaches a fountain, when she hears a voice, with a most strange proposition: "Will you marry me?".
Her would-be suitor is the Prince (or King) of Snakes, Basnak Dau, and promises riches to Tulisa's father, in exchange for his daughter's hand in marriage.
Tulisa marries the mysterious owner of the voice, under the condition that she may never see her husband when he comes to the bridal bed, at night, and that she must not receive any visitor.
The fateful day arrives: when Tulisa asks him the question, he answers his name is "Basnak Dau", and suddenly the palace and the prince vanish, and leave her there, alone.
[1] The tale was published in the West in German as Tulisa and Basnak Dau in Hermann Brockhaus' selections from the Somadeva Bhaṭṭa (Leipzig, 1843)[5] and widely distributed through Ausland magazine (also 1843),[6] The tale was also translated into German by Franz Hoffmann with the title Die Tochter des Holzfällers (Ein Märchen aus Hindostan).
[12] The tale was also translated to Czech and published in some editions of literary supplement Česká Včela (cs) in 1844 (in segmented format), with the title Drwoštěpowa dcera.
[15][1] German philologist Ludwig Friedländer and Adolf Zinzow, for instance, treated The Tale of Tulisa as part of the "Cupid and Psyche" cycle of stories: heroine marrying supernatural or animal husband and losing him soon after, then having to search for him.
[16][17] Folklorists Johannes Bolte and Jiri Polívka, in their Anmerkungen zu den Kinder- u. hausmärchen der brüder Grimm, Second Volume, listed the tale of Tulisa as a variant of German folktale The Singing, Springing Lark, collected by the Brothers Grimm, which is another variant of the Cupid and Psyche and Animal as Bridegroom tales.
[19] Danish folklore researcher Inger Margrethe Boberg also cited the tale of Tulisa in her study on the story of Cupid and Psyche.
[20] Swedish scholar Jan-Öjvind Swahn [sv] considered the story of Tulisa close to his type A, which consists of tales wherein the heroine is forced to perform tasks for a witch or for her mother-in-law.
[24] Transylvanian linguist Heinrich von Wlislocki collected and published a "Zigeunermärchen" from the Romani titled O thágár sápengré[25] or Der Schlangenkönig[25] (English: "The Snake King").
He noted the great resemblance to the Indian story of Tulisa: a girl named Lolerme goes to the forest to fetch firewood and finds some pieces of gold on the ground.
One day, a pregnant Lolerme helps an ugly old woman in front of the cave; she advises the girl who asks herself who the father of the child is, and about the youth that comes at night.
On the nuptial night, he reveals he is a handsome prince named "Swift" (Shpejt/Shpeit) underneath the snakeskin and warns that she must not tell anything to her family.
The Wind tells her her husband Swift is being held prisoner by a monster named Kulshedra, on an island across the sea, and she begs him to take her there.
Time passes; the little snake refers to the couple as its parents and, when he is old enough, decides to choose a bride: the daughter of the Imparatul Verde ("Green Emperor").
After they enter the wedding chambers, the snake takes off its skin to become a handsome man, with golden hair, face fair as milkfoam, and dark eyes.
The deer helper advises the princess to seek the help of Sfânta Duminecă (Holy Sunday), who lives in a hut.
Armed with this knowledge, the princess keeps walking for another nine years, through nine lands and nine seas, until, one day, by sunrise, she sees her husband taking a bath in the river and goes to him.
Sukkia becomes the Snake's Bride, and notices that her husband can transform into human form at night, but never reveals his true name.
The Rajah's mother discovers her daughter-in-law is trying to contact her son and, enraged, tries to kill Sukkia, first by filling a room with scorpions and snakes and inviting her to sleep there.
[33] Author Henry Parker collected a Sinhalese language tale from Sri Lanka with the title Rāksayāgeyi Kumārikāwageyi Katantaraya,[34] translated as The Story of the Rākshasa and the Princess.
[36] Jan-Öjvind Swahn classified the tale as his type A, which corresponds to the Graeco-Roman myth of Cupid and Psyche: supernatural bridegroom and tasks for mother-in-law.
A. T. Schwarz collected from the Tomtenboan a tale titled Sisil an doro’ i Anak tuama i Tjolano a langit wo si Wawu’ am bawo in tana, translated into Dutch as Verhaal van den Koningszoon in den hemel en de Koningsdochter op de aarde (English: "Tale about the Prince in Heaven and the Princess on Earth").
Folklorist Paul Hambruch translated into German as Die Erzählung vom himmlischen Prinzen und der irdischen Prinzessin ("Tale of the Heavenly Prince and Earthly Princess"), and sourced it from Minahasa.
The goat then explains he is going back to his celestial realm and is taking the princess with him, but, once they arrive there, he will pass her off as a maidservant, since his parents do not approve of his marriage to a mortal.
[41] Jan-Öjvind Swahn classiified the tale as his type A, which corresponds to the Graeco-Roman myth of Cupid and Psyche: supernatural bridegroom and tasks for mother-in-law.