This was a graffiti that I passed for almost a year. And since I drove with so many new people each time, I always felt the urge to tell the story behind where this word came from. But I always thought that its such a cool story that I should tell it well. I guess putting it as the first post on this long awaited blog is not the best but here is a start.
There is an old story, perhaps dating back to 13th century and originally from Amir Khusrau's Persian tales of Hasht Bihist (which literally means 8 paradises)
The story is about a king who sends his three sons to get the best of education and knowledge. However when they return, none of the sons accept the throne saying that they are not as worthy as their father. King feigns anger and abandons them.
Once they are on their own, they chance upon a merchant who says that he has lost a camel. The three brothers ask the merchant if the camel is blind in one eye, missing a tooth and is also lame. When the merchant agrees to this description, the princes say that such a camel has passed along the same road that they were on.
The merchant comes back angry after a long search as he couldn't find the camel and accuses the three princes of stealing the camel. The princes further mention to the merchant that the camel was carrying butter on one side and honey on the other side and was also carrying a pregnant women. The pleas of princes do not convince the merchant and he turns them over to the Persian King, Emperor Beramo. However later, the camel is found and the princes are released.
The emperor now believes that the princes had not seent the camel and asks them that how did they come up with such an accurate description without seeing the camel.
The princes then explained that they used small cues to decipher the nature of the animal. Since the grass was eaten on the less greener side of the road, they thought that the camel must be blind on the side where grass was greener. They also had noticed lumps of chewed grass o on the road and the lumps were the size of a camel's tooth and they deciphered that the lumps would have fallen through the jaw where a tooth was missing. The camel's footprints showed only three feet and the fourth showed a drag and thereby suggesting it was lame. There were ants on one side that were attracted by molten butter while flies on the other side were attracted by the honey.
The deduction regarding the pregnant rider as quoted in online sources by the princes goes, "I guessed that the camel must have carried a woman," said the second brother, "because I had noticed that near the tracks where the animal had knelt down the imprint of a foot was visible. Because some urine was near by, I wet my fingers (in it) and as a reaction to its odour I felt a sort of carnal concupiscence (sexual desire), which convinced me that the imprint was of a woman's foot." "I guessed that the same woman must have been pregnant," said another prince, "because I had noticed nearby handprints which were indicative that the woman, being pregnant, had helped herself up with her hands while urinating."
This is not how the story ended and the princes lived on happily ever after. But here is the thing-- there is a link of this story with Sri Lanka and the word Serendipity. When I found the link, the moment itself was quite serendipitous as I had happily chanced upon it.
The word was coined only in 1754 by English Antiquarian Horace Walpole, when he wrote of a certain accidental discovery (by chance) he made, in a letter to his friend.
In this letter, he referred to the Tale of Three Princes of Serendip, an old Persian fairy tale of three princes who with "accidents and sagacity" identify precise details of a lost camel. The Serendip in this tale refers to Sri Lanka, which was known by this name then. Dip comes from the Sanskrit word Dweepa which means an island. So that was the story of the princes of Serendip and its because of this story, there is the word.
words #shahargard
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