# Indian Fairy Tales — Character guide

> Key figures in Indian Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs.

- [Laili](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/indian_fairy_tales_se/characters/laili.md): Laili is the daughter of Munsuk Raja of the Phalana country, driven half mad by an angel's command that she marry Prince Majnun and no one else. When he vanishes before she can meet him, she leaves home and wanders from 
- [Prince Majnun](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/indian_fairy_tales_se/characters/prince_majnun.md): Majnun is the son of King Dantal, hunting in the Phalana country with his companion Husain Mahamat when a girl on horseback rides behind them, repeating his name. He turns, sees Laili, and she falls in love instantly, bu
- [Gangazara](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/indian_fairy_tales_se/characters/gangazara.md): Gangazara belongs to the moral world of the Jataka-derived stories, where generosity is tested and repaid. His defining trait is open-handedness, and the tale built around him asks what happens when a good man's generosi
- [Harisarman](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/indian_fairy_tales_se/characters/harisarman.md): Harisarman is a poor Brahman who claims to know things he does not, and when a stolen treasure is found through a coincidence he cannot explain, the king rewards him with villages and honors. The real thief, a maid named
- [Raja Rasalu](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/indian_fairy_tales_se/characters/raja_rasalu.md): Rasalu is a legendary prince, brave and strong, who accepts King Sarkap's challenge to play chaupur even after a headless corpse warns him that Sarkap beheads his opponents. He takes the corpse's advice and carves dice f
- [Punchkin](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/indian_fairy_tales_se/characters/punchkin.md): Punchkin is the antagonist of the collection's darkest story, a fakir whose magic makes him untouchable and whose cruelty drives the plot. He is the kind of villain these tales specialize in: outwardly invincible, secret
- [Balna](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/indian_fairy_tales_se/characters/balna.md): Balna is the youngest of seven sisters whose father, Raja Sarkap, leaves them sleeping in the jungle rather than kill them to satisfy his wife's demand for their blood. She marries the youngest of seven princely brothers
- [Katar](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/indian_fairy_tales_se/characters/katar.md): Katar is both the name of the king's horse and the prince concealed within it, a child the groom discovers and secretly cherishes, letting him play about the stable. When the groom betrays the secret to the four wicked Q
- [Lambikin](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/indian_fairy_tales_se/characters/lambikin.md): Lambikin is a small, quick-witted creature who wins safe passage past predators by promising each a share of the drumikin he claims to be visiting. The fox, hawk, and crocodile let him go, each imagining a feast, and Lam
- [Suri](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/indian_fairy_tales_se/characters/suri.md): Suri endures the kind of hardship Indian folktales reserve for their most devoted women: a husband lost, a household turned hostile, and years of quiet suffering borne without complaint. Her constancy is not passive — it
- [Gulizar](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/indian_fairy_tales_se/characters/gulizar.md): Gulizar is the prize at the center of a bride-wager, a princess whose beauty draws a prince into a contest of tasks set by her father or fate. She is not merely won — she is the reason the hero must prove himself through
- [Raja Sarkap](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/indian_fairy_tales_se/characters/raja_sarkap.md): Raja Sarkap is a father caught between a vow and his children: when his new queen demands the blood of his first wife's seven daughters to save her own life, he cannot bring himself to kill them, so he leaves them sleepi
- [The Crane Bodhisatta](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/indian_fairy_tales_se/characters/crane_bodhisatta.md): A wise crane who teaches a lesson in a fable.
- [Rohu](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/indian_fairy_tales_se/characters/rohu.md): A talking fish who is caught and released.
- [The Demon with the Matted Hair](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/indian_fairy_tales_se/characters/demon_matted_hair.md): A fearsome demon defeated by a clever prince.
- [The Cruel Ranee](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/indian_fairy_tales_se/characters/cruel_ranee.md): She enters the story as the king's second wife, a woman whose resentment of her stepchildren curdles quickly into open persecution. Her cruelty is not passive: she schemes, demands, and drives the young prince and prince
- [King Dantal](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/indian_fairy_tales_se/characters/king_dantal.md): A king who seeks advice from a wise minister.
- [The Pigeon](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/indian_fairy_tales_se/characters/pigeon.md): A pigeon who is tricked by a crow.
- [Brer Rabbit](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/indian_fairy_tales_se/characters/brer_rabbit.md): A trickster rabbit who appears in fables.
- [The Jogi](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/indian_fairy_tales_se/characters/jogi.md): A holy man who grants a boon to a prince.
- [Mr. Crow](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/indian_fairy_tales_se/characters/mr_crow.md): A crow who is outwitted by a pigeon.
- [Princess Labam](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/indian_fairy_tales_se/characters/princess_labam.md): Labam is the object of a quest before she is ever a presence — a fairy of the fairies whose face the prince sees only for a moment before she hides it. Her coded gestures, the lotus petals and the ivory box, are the only
- [Buddha](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/indian_fairy_tales_se/characters/buddha.md): The enlightened one, referenced in fables as a past birth.
- [Prince Rasalu](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/indian_fairy_tales_se/characters/prince_rasalu.md): Rasalu is the gallant young hero who travels to play chaupur against King Sarkap, warned by a headless corpse that the dice are enchanted and the stakes are fatal. He is brave to the point of recklessness, but also kind 
- [Lona](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/indian_fairy_tales_se/characters/lona.md): A queen who is the wife of Raja Rasalu.
- [The Lion](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/indian_fairy_tales_se/characters/lion_richard.md): A lion who is a character in a fable.
- [Bidpai](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/indian_fairy_tales_se/characters/bidpai.md): A legendary Indian sage and storyteller.
- [The Talkative Tortoise](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/indian_fairy_tales_se/characters/talkative_tortoise.md): A tortoise who talks too much and meets a bad end.
- [Sthuladatta](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/indian_fairy_tales_se/characters/sthuladatta.md): A character in a story about a soothsayer's son.
- [Sun](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/indian_fairy_tales_se/characters/sun.md): The sun personified in a folktale.
- [Wind](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/indian_fairy_tales_se/characters/wind.md): The wind personified in a folktale.
- [The Jackal](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/indian_fairy_tales_se/characters/jackal.md): A clever jackal who outwits a tiger.
- [Kokilan](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/indian_fairy_tales_se/characters/kokilan.md): A female character in a story.
- [Brahmadatta](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/indian_fairy_tales_se/characters/brahmadatta.md): A king in Buddhist fables.
- [Bonga](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/indian_fairy_tales_se/characters/bonga.md): A spirit or deity in a story.
- [Moon](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/indian_fairy_tales_se/characters/moon.md): The moon personified in a folktale.
- [Devadatta](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/indian_fairy_tales_se/characters/devadatta.md): A traitorous figure in Buddhist stories.
- [Aesop](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/indian_fairy_tales_se/characters/aesop.md): A Greek fabulist referenced in comparative notes.
- [Somadeva](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/indian_fairy_tales_se/characters/somadeva.md): Author of the Kathasaritsagara, referenced in notes.
- [Granny](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/indian_fairy_tales_se/characters/granny.md): An old woman character in a story.
- [The Malee](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/indian_fairy_tales_se/characters/malee.md): A gardener character in a story.
- [The Wazir](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/indian_fairy_tales_se/characters/wazir.md): A minister or advisor to a king.
- [Raja Indrasha](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/indian_fairy_tales_se/characters/raja_indrasha.md): A king in a story.
- [Prince Five Weapons](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/indian_fairy_tales_se/characters/prince_five_weapons.md): A prince who defeats a demon with cleverness.

HTML index: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/indian_fairy_tales_se/characters