In a certain country there were a Gamarala and a Gama-Mahage (his
wife). There was a female child of the Gamarala's.
After the child became suitable [for marriage] he went near the Lord or
monk of the pansala [234] to look at her naekata. [235] The Gamarala
said to the monk, "Ane! Lord, there is a female child of mine; the
child became suitable [for marriage]. You must look at the naekata,"
he said to the Lord.
Thereafter, when the monk looked at the naekata, besides that it
is very good for both the parents, it was said in the naekata that
the man who calls her [in marriage] on that very day is to obtain a
kingdom. Because of it, the monk after having placed the Gamarala in
subjection (i.e., made him promise obedience), said, "The naekata
is very angry. For the two parents, and for the man who calls her
[in marriage], there is anger to the degree [that they are] to die,"
he said to the Gamarala. This lie the monk said to the Gamarala in
order for the monk to call the female [in marriage] for himself.
At that time the Gamarala, having become much troubled, asked the Lord,
"What shall I do for this?"
The monk said, "Don't kill the child outright, [236] and don't [merely]
turn her out of the house. You go home and make a box. After having
made it, and made ready for the box [various] sorts of food and drink,
put this child in the box, and having put into it the kinds of food
and drink, after having closed it go to the river, and put it in."
Thereupon, the Gamarala having done in the manner the monk said,
and having informed the monk that on such and such a day he will put
the box in the river, went to the river and put the box in it. [237]
The monk told the pupils who were at the pansala to wait [for it]. He
said, "You go and wait near the river. At the time when you are
there a box will come floating down. Taking it ashore, bring it to
the pansala;" the pupils went on the journey. The monk that day, for
the purpose of eating the [wedding] feast amply preparing [various]
sorts of food and drink, remained ready.
Two boys of that country, or two young men, had set a trap at the bank
[of the river]. At the time when these two persons went to look at
it, a leopard was caught in the trap. These two having become afraid,
having said, "What shall we do about this?" at the time when they were
talking and talking on the river bank, they saw that a box is coming
floating [down the river], and the two persons spoke together [about
it]. Both having agreed that the things inside the box [should be]
for one person, and the box for one person, they got the box ashore.
Having opened the mouth of the box, when they looked [in it] there were
a woman, and [various] kinds of food and drink. Taking them aside,
they seized the leopard, and having put it in the box and shut it,
they took it to the river and put it in.
Out of the two persons, one took the woman, the effects one took. The
person who took the woman that very day obtained the kingdom, it has
been said.
Thereafter, that box floated down to the place where the monk's pupils
stayed. Getting the box ashore, and tying [it as] a load (tadak) for a
carrying pole, they took it to the pansala. The monk, taking the box,
quickly placed it inside the house. The monk told the pupils to stay:
"To-day I must say Bana [238] from a different treatise (sutra);
to-day you must respond, 'Sadhu,' loudly."
After it became night the monk told the pupils, "You also lie down,"
and having lit the lamp in the house, [after] shutting the door he
opened the mouth of the box. Just as he was opening it, the leopard
having sprung out, began to bite (lit., eat) the monk. Thereupon the
monk cried out, "Apoyi! The leopard is biting me!"
The pupils began to respond, "Sadhu!" louder than on other days. At
the time when the monk is shouting and shouting, the pupils loudly,
loudly, began to respond, "Sadhu!" When he had been crying and crying
out no long time, the monk died.
In the morning, having cooked rice gruel for the obligatory donation
(hil daneta), when they were waiting, looking out for the time when
the monk arose, he did not get up. Until the time when it became well
into the day (bohoma dawal), they remained looking out. Still he did
not [come out].
An upasaka (lay devotee) of that village comes every day to the wihara
to offer flowers. He, too, remained looking out near the wihara until
the time when the monk comes. Thereafter the upasakarala having gone
to the pansala, asked at the hand of the pupils, "What is the reason
the Lord has not yet arisen?"
Then the pupils said, "During last night it was not the Bana which he
says on other days that he said; from another sutra he said Bana. He
told us, also, to respond 'Sadhu' more loudly than on other days."
At that time the upasakarala tapped at the door to awake the monk;
he did not speak. Having struck the door loudly [the upasakarala]
spoke to him. At that also there was not any sound.
Thereafter, the upasakarala having mounted on the roof and put
aside the tiles, when he looked [down] the leopard sprang at him,
growling. The upasakarala having become afraid, fell from the roof
and died.
Thereafter, many men having joined together and broken down the
door, and killed the leopard, when they looked for the monk he was
killed. So having put the leopard and the monk into one grave, they
covered [them with] earth.
North-western Province.
In The Orientalist, vol. ii, p. 145, Mr. N. Visuvanathapillai,
Mudaliyar, relates this as a Tamil story. The girl was Princess
Devalli; to save the country she was condemned to death, but her
mother bribed the executioners to set her afloat in the river, in a
box. A hunter who had trapped a tiger on the river bank secured the
box, released the Princess, and put in the tiger. The Guru (teacher)
had heard of the Queen's stratagem, and sent a dozen of his pupils in
a boat in search of the box. They brought it into a room in a deserted
building, and remained in an adjoining one, being instructed to clap
their hands and shout, "Hail! Long life to our Master!" when they heard
the box opened. Amid this applause of the boys the tiger killed the
Guru. (In The Orientalist, vol. iii, p. 269, Mr. J. P. Lewis noted
that this story is from the Katha sintamani).
In Old Deccan Days (M. Frere), p. 280, a Brahmana foretold that unless
a baby Princess should be sent out of the country she would destroy
it utterly. The Raja her father caused her to be placed in a box,
which was launched on a river, and floated down. A merchant saw it,
and got a fisherman to bring it ashore, the box to go to him and the
contents to belong to the merchant. He got the Princess, reared her,
and married her to his son. The rest of the tale is the legend of
the Goddess Pattini, who caused Madura to be burnt in revenge for
the execution of her husband on a false charge of stealing the
Queen's bangle.
In the Katha Sarit Sagara (Tawney), vol. i, p. 102, an ascetic told a
merchant that when his daughter got married all the family would die,
and he advised him to set her adrift in a basket on the Ganges. Her
father having promised to do this, the ascetic ordered his pupils
to intercept the basket and bring it secretly to his monastery. A
Prince who had gone to bathe found and opened the basket, married the
girl by the Gandharva rite (in which a garland of flowers is thrown
round the neck), put a fierce monkey in her place, and set the basket
afloat again. The boys brought it, and the ascetic placed it in a
room to perform incantations alone, he said. When he opened it the
monkey flew at him and tore off his nose and ears, and he became the
laughing-stock of the place.
In the Kathakoça (Tawney), p. 132, an ascetic informed a merchant that
the bad luck of his two daughters would bring about his destruction,
and advised him to set them afloat in the Ganges in a wooden box,
and cause a ceremony to be performed for averting calamity. The
ascetic performed the ceremony for him, and sent his pupils to bring
the box. The King of that city got the box ashore, took the girls,
and put two apes in their place. When the ascetic opened the box at
his monastery he was killed by the apes and became a Rakshasa.
In Folk-Tales of Kashmir (Knowles), 2nd ed., pp. 398, 399, 410,
the incident occurs of newly-born infants being placed in boxes,
set afloat in a river, and rescued by a person lower down. [239]
At p. 445, a girl who had been married to a King was set afloat in
a box, and rescued by a washerman.
In Sagas from the Far East, p. 120, there is a Kalmuk variant in
which a man who desired to take the wealth of an old couple, got
inside a statue of Buddha, and instructed them to give their daughter
to the man who knocked at their gate in the morning. The man himself
came and knocked, and married her, and he and his new wife left with
all their gold and precious stones. A Khan's son who was out hunting,
taking a tiger with him, fired an arrow into a mound of sand; it struck
something hard which proved to be a box which the man had placed there,
containing the girl and jewels. The tiger was put in her place, and
when the man carried off and opened the box in an inner room of his
house it killed and ate him, and walked away next morning when the
door was opened. The Prince married the girl.
In the Sinhalese history, the Mahavansa, p. 147 (Dr. Geiger's
translation), it is stated that in order to appease the sea-gods who
had caused the sea to overflow the land on the western coast of Ceylon
in the first half of the second century B.C., the King of Kaelaniya
"with all speed caused his pious and beautiful daughter named Devi to
be placed in a golden vessel whereon was written 'a king's daughter,'
and to be launched upon that same sea." She was brought ashore at
the extreme south-east of Ceylon, and married by the King of Ruhuna
or Southern Ceylon.
The original Indian story of the child who was consigned to the
water in a basket or box appears to be that which is given in the
Maha Bharata (Vana Parva). According to it, an unmarried Princess,
Kunti, who bore a supernatural son to the deity Suriya, the Sun,
placed the infant in a water-tight wicker basket, and set it afloat
in the adjoining river, from which it passed down to the Ganges, and
then drifted down that river until it arrived near Campa, the capital
of the Anga kingdom. The basket was brought ashore and opened by a
car-driver who had gone to the river bank with his wife. These two,
being childless, adopted the infant, who afterwards became famous
as Karna, the leading Kuru warrior in the great battle against the
Pandava Princes and their allies.
The story extends backward to the legend or history of Sargon I,
of Akkad (about 2,650 B.C. according to the revised chronology),
who stated in an inscription that his mother, a Princess, launched
him on the Euphrates in a basket of rushes made water-tight with
bitumen. He was rescued and reared by a cultivator, who placed him
in charge of his garden. Through the affection of the Goddess Istar
he acquired the sovereignty.