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alāhassajātaka and Telapattajātaka*
Siegfried Lienhard
The legend of the merchant Simhala as it appears in the later Sanskrit versions contained in the Mahāvastu, the Divyāvadāna, the Karandavyuha, the Gunakārandavyūha as well as in the Newārī recensions looks back on a long development. While its beginnings cannot be exactly localized in time, there is no doubt whatsoever that many persons worked on the narrative over a period of centuries and, attuned to new aims with the passages of time, often changed, supplemented and elaborated on it. Standing at the beginning of the development, it seems, is the Valāhassajātaka, 'The Reincarnation Story of the flying steed) Valāha', which was composed not in Sanskrit but in Pāli, the language of Theravāda Buddhism. What is remarkable is that in this early version', contained in the Jākata collection of the Pāli recension of the Buddhist canon, we do not yet meet the merchant Simhala, the later hero of the Simhalávadāna.
The high point of the relatively short Pāli version is the episode of the white and — according to this text - crow-headed steed Valāha, who, as in the later versions, saves five hundred shipwrecked merchants. In this account, too, the witches' city?, here called Sirīsavatthu, is located on Sri Lanka. Whenever merchants suffer shipwreck on the island, the witches regale them, pitiable and stranded that they are, with drinks and savory dishes. They allege that their husbands are merchants, whom, however, they are forced to assume to be dead, as they have undertaken a voyage by ship but have not yet returned, although three years have passed. In the Pāli version, too, the witches deceive their newly arrived guests, whom they lead to their city Sirisavatthu. The men soon succumb to the alluring women's charms. However, this deception is not long-lived : Whenever persons turn up shipwrecked off the island's shores, those who had before them are put in
