________________
The girl who died because she had four wooers
Story of the girl who died because she had four wooers
Nanda, lovely daughter of the merchant Candana in Çripura, was promised in marriage by four of her relatives to four different men. When they came severally to marry her, they got into a quarrel, whereupon Nanda, in order to remove its cause, entered the fire. One wooer entered the fire with her; the second, disgusted with life, wandered to a distance; the third took her bones, and started for a holy bathing place to dispose of them there; the fourth built a mound 31 over what was left of her. Then he went to the city to beg alms, which he deposited there, watching over the mound by day and night (705). The wooer who had gone abroad managed to acquire the magic art called Resuscitation' (samjīvini), returned with it, and joyously restored Nanda to life. Now a dispute arose, as to which of the four wooers was entitled to Nanda. A wise man decided, that he who had taken her bones to the holy bathing place was her son; that he who had restored her to life was her father; that he who died with her was her brother; but, that he who had fed her was her husband (712). The text then strains to draw the parallel: just as support by food is the essential need in marriage, so equipoise is essential for salvation (691717).
burial.
129
This is the second story of Vetalapañcavinçati; Kathas. 76; Baital Pachisi (Oesterley, pp. 39, 183); Lakṣmivallabha in his Commentary to Uttaradhyayana Sutra (translated by Charpentier, Paccekabuddhageschichten, p. 125). Hertel, Das Pañicatantra, p. 108, note 7, reports the story also from the Dharmakalpadruma. A very interesting variant, in Jülg, Mongolische Märchen, p. 235; cf. Benfey, Das Pañcatantra, p. 490; Kleinere Schriften, vol. ii, p. 233. The story has also passed into folk-lore; see Parker, Village Folk-Tales of Ceylon, vol. i, p. 378, and the note at the end.
"sthandilaka. In Kathakoça, p. 105, a sthandila is made in the place of
9
30
