Brave woman

BRAVE WOMAN

This story is from the early 18th century, when tigers proved to be a menace and were termed as

‘Man eater’. The Indians dreaded these man eaters and their brutal attacks on their livestock or their

dear and near ones. The man eaters issue was banal to the Indian subcontinent from the time of native

Indian rulers. South Indian history boasts about Pulithevan who fought with a tiger single handed

and killed it with his bare hands. South Indian history has a rich literature of many valorous kings

who have fought with these meddling terror striking tigers. This story is about how a woman and her

ordeal with the Maneater. There was a woman who lived in a village near satanur from Thiruvanmalai. The woman was widowed and was living with her only son. She used to live in a hut in the outskirts of the village. In those days, tigers used to hunt the people and their livestock in the village. This village was also terrorised from one such man eater. The villagers were not allowed to come out of their houses after sunset. The villagers used to burn pyres near the hut and villagers used to go on night vigil to safeguard their people from the man eater.

The people were vigilant during the night as it was usual for the man eater to attack at dark.

One day the tiger decided to strike the village in broad daylight. As the villagers were not used to

this kind of attack in the morning they had lost few cows and buffaloes that day. The widowed woman used to pick woods and from that money used to take care of her son. The villagers spread the news beating drums about how the man eater viciously attacked the livestock and was successful in his target. The widow did not make enough money to buy food because of the man eater erratic attacks on the village. She hadn’t gone to the forest to collect firewood. She had stringently used the food rations for feeding herself and her child. After a few days the woman had nothing to

feed her son so she lifted her son and sat him on her hips and also fastened a sickle to her side of the sari set out to collect dry twigs in the forest. She collected the firewood without any encounter with the maneater and reached home safely. The man eater did not attack for a few days, so the villagers were less vigil thinking the man eater has moved away. But the man eater was planning for a surprise attack so he could have an easy hunting spree.

The villagers had not even had a single attack from the man eater for a week. So the villagers

dropped their vigil and went about their own ways. The widowed woman was happy that the man eater is no more haunting the village. One day she took her son who was an infant and placed him on the ground outside the hut as she was involved in her household chores. She heard the roar of a tiger at the wake of the roar terror struck her heart and she rushed out with a winnower as she was

winnowing rice. The woman was scared to death, seeing the man eater near her child. Seeing that

the tiger was about to attack the infant somehow her fear changed into rage.

Even though she was a poor woman without any proper meals she ran and stood in front of her

child facing the man eater. As the man eater tried to attack, the woman started hitting the man eater

on its head and legs with the winnower. She hit the tiger so hard that the tiger fled from the scene to

forest. The woman’s love for her child made her forget her fear and she rushed to save the child and

herself with just nothing but a winnower.