A History of Indian Literature v2.c19.s5.96

v2.c19.s5.96

In some of these narratives we find fairy tale motifs which belong to the common stock of universal literature, whether they travelled forth from India or were received from foreign lands by the Indians themselves. Thus Uppalavaṇṇā, in a former existence (for Buddhist narratives never rest content with tracing the lives of their saints merely in their latest existence) was the maiden Padumavatī, born of a lotus blossom, under whose footsteps lotus blossoms spring forth. As the favoured wife of the king of Benares she excites the jealousy of the secondary wives; while the king is away on an expedition of war, the other wives steal her newly-born children, in whose place they put a block of wood, besmeared with blood, by her side. The king, on his return home, is told that Padumavatī is a witch and has given birth to a block of wood. She is rejected, but soon the children, who had been put out in wooden boxes, are fished up and the truth comes to light. Similar stories are found in the fairy tale literature of East and West.[^1) In another part of the Manoratha-Pūraṇī we meet with the story of the merchant Ghosaka, being a version of the story already familiar to us from the Jaimini-Bhārata, about the youth who was born under a lucky star, and the fatal letter which was exchanged by the maiden [^2) Most of the stories are, however, merely edifying legends. One of them, for instance, tells of a merchant tempted by Māra, in the form of the Buddha, with a false doctrine; but the merchant recognises him. as Māra, for Buddha could not have taught such a thing.[^3)