The first story was called "The Fatal Oath" and to be honest I did not completely understand it. Up until the part where Bijaya comes home and cries upon hearing the death of her mother, everything makes sense. However, after that, Bijaya swears by something (perhaps the goddess?) and therefore her family dies. She searches out to find the goddess Sashthi, whom her mother worshiped on a regular basis. It was now her turn to continue worshiping Sashthi, and so she found the goddess and performed a sacred ritual to bring her family back from the dead.
The next story was very strange. It was about a grandfather who wanted to have a pond, but no matter how far deep he dug, there was none. He had a dream in which the only way to get water was to cut up his infant grandson into pieces and bury them where he wanted the pond. He told his son about the dream, and so his son sacrificed the grandson without telling the mother of the child. The next day, plenty of water came to the plot and so the mother of the child cooked for a feast celebrating the water. She didn't think anything about her child being missing, as he probably was with his grandma or aunt. After doing her daily worship of Sashthi, the goddess appeared holding her son, who had been sacrificed the night before.
Another one of the stories was about a grandmother who was looking for her grandson, who was stolen by a cat after being born. So she went to find goddess Sashthi, in case she would help find her grandson. Along the way to Sashthi's house, she found a cow, a carpenter, tree, and stream that were wondering why nobody milked them, picked their fruit, and drank their water. They asked if the grandmother could ask Sashthi when she found her. It turns out that they all had refused service to a Brahman when they needed it.
The last two story, "The Banished Girls," an evil stepmom send her step-daughters away after convincing her husband that the two girls would bring about trouble. So after they are banished, the goddess Lakshmi took pity on them and sent them husbands.
Bibliography: D.N. Neogi. Sacred Tales of India. Link to reading guide.
I haven't heard of this book before, but it sounds intriguing. It kind of reminds me of the old testament with all of the themes of testing faith and protecting those who are innocent. It also sounds a bit cryptic, but it could be worth the extra effort. I might have to look into reading some of this next week.
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