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Prakrit and Apabhramsa Studies
6. Candana-Malayāgriri
Some ten versions of this tale are known from the Medieval Gujarati literature.12 It relates the adverse turns of fortune of a king beginning with the loss of kingdom. In the exile the king Candana, his queen Malayāgiri and their two sons Sāyara and Nira are separated from one another. They undergo many sufferings and are ultimately reunited happily. In the Hindi speaking region this story is also known from the oral tradition, the names of the four chief characters being Ambā, Āmili, Sarvar and Nir. The earliest version of the tale is known so far from a Prakrit work dated 1083 A.D. In the fourth chapter of the Mahāyiracariya of Guņacandra13 what is given as the story of King Naravikrama is the same as the later tale of Candana-Malayāgiri. There is sufficient evidence to believe that Guņacandra derived this story from a popular source.
7. The Patridge in the Cart (Motif J 1511.17)
Thompson and Balys have recorded from Thornburn's Bannu, or our Afghan Frontier a tale outlined as follows :14 Ox bought; buyer also claims load of wood attached. Later deceived man disguises and sells sharper another ox for ‘hand of coppers'. He is allowed by court to claim the hand as well.
In Sanghadāsa's Vasudevahimdi15 (c. fifth century A.D.), we find an anecdote of the Patridge in the Cart which seems to be the earliest source for the above noted tale.
A farmer goes to city with a cart-load of grains for sale. There is also a caged patridge on the cart. Some clever merchants ask the farmer : 'Is this patridge in the cart for sale ?' Being told that it can be bought for a Kārşāpaņa, the merchants pay the price and carry away the patridge along with the cart. The court accepts the merchant's interpretation of the phrase 'patridge-inthe-cart' and decides the case in their favour. Then tutored by a clever person, the farmer approaches one of the same group of merchants with the offer of his ox for just two measures of barley
