[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [Literature, language and dating](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.literature) › [A History of Indian Literature](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.literature.winternitz-1927) › v2.c19.s3.t2.295 # A History of Indian Literature v2.c19.s3.t2.295 A History of Indian Literature v2.c19.s3.t2.295 - **Language:** English ### [v2.c19.s3.t2.295](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.literature.winternitz-1927.v2.c19.s3.t2.295) All these legends belong to that common stock of ancient Indian ascetic poetry from which, as we have seen,¹ many of the most beautiful legend poems in the Mahābhārata and the Purāṇas are culled. It has already been mentioned that the poem of Ṛṣyaśṛṅga (he is called Isisiṅga in Pāli), which belongs to the same literature, recurs in the Jātaka book, and that in the Naḷinikā-Jātaka (No. 526) the older form of the legend has still been preserved.² A duplicate of the same legend has been preserved in Jātaka No. 523, where the heavenly nymph Alambusā seduces the young saint Isisiṅga, who has never seen a woman, in the same way as Sāntā seduces Ṛṣyaśṛṅga in the older poem. In the prose introduction to this Jātaka it is related how Isisiṅga was born of an antelope. This introduction must be old, as a Bharhut relief already represents a scene in which a little boy born of an antelope is picked up by an ascetic (the father of Isisiṅga).³ The Sāma-Jātaka (No. 540), the contents of which are given below, shows points of contact with the tragic story which King Daśaratha tells on his death-bed.⁴ - [Previous: v2.c19.s3.t2.294](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.literature.winternitz-1927.v2.c19.s3.t2.294) - [Next: v2.c19.s3.t2.296](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.literature.winternitz-1927.v2.c19.s3.t2.296) - [Up: v2.c19.s3.t2](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.literature.winternitz-1927.v2.c19.s3.t2) ## Cites (3) - [Jātaka](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.theravada.sp.khuddaka.jataka.523) — Pāli - [Mahābhārata](https://indike.org/pramana/in.lit.mahabharata.vyasa) — Vyāsa, Sanskrit - [Purāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana) — Sanskrit --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.literature.winternitz-1927.v2.c19.s3.t2.295](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.literature.winternitz-1927.v2.c19.s3.t2.295) · Pramāṇa