In this episode of our cultural adventure series, Amita meets the Loyal Mongoose from the ancient Indian tale of the same name.

This story is inspired by the Indian morality folktale about the Loyal Mongoose. An ancient tale from the Panchatantra collection, an enormously influential group of stories from ancient India. In this particular story, a farmer couple has a pet mongoose. One day, the couple leaves the mongoose with their baby, assured that he would guard their baby well. While they’re gone, a snake enters the house and tries to attack the baby. The loyal mongoose attacks the snake to protect it. But, when the mother arrives home, she sees the mongoose with bloodstains. She thinks the mongoose tried to harm the baby. In her anger, she kills the loyal mongoose. When she enters her house, she sees her baby is fine with a dead snake beside him. She realizes what happened and regrets her actions.

This podcast was produced by Studio Ochenta for TRAX on PRX and hosted by Yara Shahidi. Amita was voiced by Sakshi Sharma. Mongoose was voiced by Jacob Lukose. Vinit was voiced by Aaryan Arora. With Salim Mohammed as Mr. Singh.

Transcripts and additional resources to learn more about Indian folklore are available at ochentastudio.com/cultureverse.