Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v2.c20.106

v2.c20.106

In Daṇḍin's version there are elements from the Ṛiśyaśṛiṅga tale, and that of the wise man through whom the power of woman is so strikingly shown. Both tales are actually fused into one already in the remarkable Buddhistic story in Chavannes, *Cinq cents contes*, iii, 233 ff. (cp. ii, 282 ff.), which I only came to know after writing this note. The subject of the tale (of the wise man) is much like that of the merry tale of the innocent youth, and both, indeed, may possibly have grown out of one root. But, seeing the great number of tales of the seduction of ascetics, so narrow and one-sided a derivation would be highly risky. In the same way the rain-wizard Ṛiśyaśṛiṅga in India might possibly be the original hero of the tale of the untutored forest man who is at once carried away by the woman.