The source of the Tuti Namah is supposed to be the Sanskrit Suka Saptati: The Suka Saptati goes thus: Once upon a time, there was a merchant who went on a long journey, leaving his beloved wife. He asked his trusted birds, a mynah and a parrot, to keep her entertained while he was away. The wife however, being smitten by another man, arranged a secret tryst through a go-between. The mynah pleaded with the wife to change her mind, offering advice on righteousness. The angry wife tried to wring the myna's neck, but the bird escaped. It was then the parrot's turn. The parrot agreed to let her go, provided she listened to just one story. The parrot then began narrating - and the story was so fascinating, that the wife was too late for her tryst with her lover. Every night, for seventy nights, the parrot told a story - and every night, the wife missed meeting her lover. On the seventy first day, the husband returned, the parrot told him all that had transpired, and the husband was grateful to the clever bird for saving the family honour, so to speak.

i have once seen the tuti-nameh that has been analyzed in german and was said to be of turkish origin though its obvious that it is indo-iranian. then there are some who relate it as origin of 1001 nights.

Deepa Krishnan: Suka Saptati has been scheduled for posting later in the day. What would I do without the Postcron app...I often wonder.

The contents of Suka Saptati are briefly described in a wiki entry and are astounding. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C5%9Aukasaptati#Stories

Shekhar Sathe see this interesting thing I wrote on this subject: http://mumbai-magic.blogspot.in/2007/01/i-went-to-bombay-store-recently-and.html

These are tales of amour and must have had some kind of a parental warning in their times. I had never realised that Tota and Myna go back so many centuries. Interestingly, the Persian Myna's name is Sharuk and the interlocuter in the opening story is called a "procuress". The parrot has no name? I wonder what Sharuk means and what is the persian word for procuress. What is the sanskrit word for myna?

Sanskrit word for procuress is "Kuttani". Damodara Gupta's Kuttani-mata is an account of prostitution and amour in the 8th and 9th century. A Kashmiri Pandit writing about courtesans :)

Thanks Deepa Krishnan for bringing this interesting work of Damodara Gupta to our notice. We have just posted the link on RBSI.

Thanks Deepa Krishnan Kuttani explains the etimology of twi Marathi words "Kulata" and "kuntankhana".

खून क़ा और जीभ क़ा रंग लाल होता है यह बोलने की शक्ति को व्यक्त करता है तोते की चोंच के साथ अनेकों कहानियां जुडी हुई हैं क्यों की चोंच क़ा रंग लाल होता है सब पक्षी एक स्वर व्यक्त कर सकते हैं अर्थात एक अक्षर परन्तु तोता अनेकों अक्षरों को व्यक्त कर सकता है