Chandralalat: The Boy with the Moon on his Forehead

by Kamala Chandrakant (Story), Ram Waeerkar (Illustrator), Anant Pai (Editor)

The seventh queen of the king of Bengal gave birth to twins – a boy and a girl. The boy, as predicted, had a moon on his forehead and stars on the palm of his hands. But the six older queens, were filled with jealousy and had the children spirited away by an evil midwife. Based on a folktale from Bengal, Chandralalat is a story that has been popular for generations.

Genres: Comics

34 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1979

Reviews

[Pranav · Rating 5 out of 5]

The story in this book is a folktale from West Bengal. It starts off with a king marrying a humble widow's daughter and the other six queens plotting against her. I was really angry when the queens made her ring the bell twice and the king walked away angrily. I was angrier when they took the kids away and kept the puppies of a dog next to her and the king thought she had deceived him and banished her. I was happy to see that the potter had noticed the children and bought them up or else they would have definitely perished if he did not notice them. I was quite happy to see that Chandralalat had vanquished all the 700 demons and made the girl Pushpavati his wife. Had the king not seen him, he would have never known the truth and he banished the queens on knowing the truth so that they never come back again. The reunited family then lived happily ever after. Overall, this book was excellent.

[Ravi Kumar Dandapani]

Nice memories of childhood reading