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Prakrit and Apabhramsa Studies
swallows its heart will find gold under his pillow when he has been sleeping. The bird is killed and prepared, but by chance falls into the hands of the two sons of the man who is absent on his journey. Knowing nothing of the wonderful characteristics of the bird, they eat the head and the heart. The lover does not give up his plan, for he knows that a roast which is prepared from the eaters of the bird will have the same effect as the bird itself, and he demands that the boys should be killed, and finally persuades the mother to agree. The boys suspect the plot and flee. The one who has eaten the head arrives in a kingdom where the old ruler has just died and the new one must be chosen. Through some type of marvelous manifestation the young man is chosen ruler. The other boy receives all the gold he wished. In the course of his adventures he is betrayed by a girl and an old woman. He punishes the girl by using his magic power to turn into an ass so that she will be severely beaten. But at last he restores her to her human form. In most versions the boys eventually punish their mother'.
3. Aarne's conclusions about the original source and form of this tale are naturally conditioned by the range of the data then known or available to him. But now we are in a position to significantly enlarge that range on the Indian side, for besides the one version that is known in English since 1897, there are some three more versions (with a few variants) in Early Indian literature that have come to light during recent years. The aims of this paper are to report these versions, and to discuss their relationship mutually and with Aarne's reconstructed version.
4. The four Indian versions of the Magic Bird-Heart we are to discuss here are as under :
S. No. Title of Title of the work & Author Date Language
the Story place of occurrence (or editor) I. Master , Jataka, No. 445 – c. 5th Pali , Banyan
Cent. (Nigrodha)
