A Tale of Two Oxen (Do Bailon Ki Katha): A Short Story by Premchand – Review and Summary

Last Updated: November 27, 2023

Welcome to the profound tale of “A Tale of Two Oxen (Do Bailon Ki Katha)” by Munshi Premchand Ji. In this post, we embark on a journey into the emotional narrative of this classic Hindi story. Join us as an emotional relationship between a farmer and his oxen unfolds. Are you curious about the summary? Let’s dive into the captivating essence of this timeless tale.

The literary giant Premchand Ji wrote many fabulous creations in his lifetime. “A Tale of Two Oxen (Do Bailon Ki Katha)”  is one of his magnificent short stories in Hindi. This story was published in “Mansarovar, part two.” Mansarovar is a compilation of more than two hundred stories of Premchand Ji in eight volumes.  In this story, Premchand Ji depicted that animals are too hungry for attachment and love. Everyone, whether it is a human being or an animal, has the right to live freely.

This story is about two oxen named Heera and Moti. Their master is a farmer named Jhuri. He loves and caresses Heera and Moti. Heera is tranquil and tolerant. He does any work with thinking and patience. Moti is the opposite of Heera and does everything rapidly without any thought. Due to this, both of them are always in trouble.

Once Jhuri’s brother-in-law Gaya takes Heera and Moti to his house for plowing. Heera and Moti feel that Jhuri has sold them to Gaya. Therefore both become wistful. At night, when they see the dry straw in the trough, they again become very woeful.

Moti says to Heera – Our master used to feed us grass full of smoothness and juice, but here we are getting only dry straw.

They miss their master Jhuri. So they decide to flee from the clutches of Gaya. When Gaya falls asleep, they break the rope and reach Jhuri’s house. Jhuri becomes joyous to see them, but his wife gets dismal and furious and scolds them. 

Gaya again carries Heera and Moti to his house. They neither eat straw nor plow on the field, due to which Gaya beats them and doesn’t give straw at night. Gaya’s younger daughter feeds chapattis to them. She can’t see the pain of Heera and Moti, and one night she opens the rope to make them free from the clutch of her father.

Heera and Moti reach a new place and enter the pea field due to hunger. Both start eating peas without any fear. Meanwhile, some people catch and lock them in Kanji’s house with other animals. They have to face miseries with other animals without any food. Heera and Moti break the wall of that house and free all other animals, but both of them can’t flee. Now, they are sold to a butcher. While walking with the butcher, they recognize the way to Jhuri’s home. Both of them run to their original abode. Jhuri hugs them, and his wife also loves them.

This story was published in Mansarovar, Part 2. Mansarovar is a compilation of more than two hundred stories of Premchand Ji in eight volumes. You should read this heart-touching story once in your life. In this story, one can see the absolute friendship of Heera and Moti. One can also imbibe their affection for Gaya’s daughter, their struggle for freedom, and their love for Jhuri.

Works Cited

1. The feature image used in this post was created on Photopea.com on November 27, 2023 by Preeti Bhandari.