The story as told in the Katha-Sarit-Sagara of Somadeva [5] differs
in some respects from this. There a Nishada princess brought to King
Sumanas a learned parrot, which told its life in the forest, ended by
a hunt in which its father was killed, and the story of its past life
narrated by the hermit Agastya. In this story a prince, Somaprabha,
after an early life resembling that of Candrapida, was led in his
pursuit of kinnaras to an ascetic maiden, Manorathaprabha, whose
story is that of Mahaçveta, and she took him, at his own request,
to see the maiden Makarandika, who had vowed not to marry while
her friend was unwed. He was borne through the air by a Vidyadhara,
and beheld Makarandika. They loved each other, and a marriage was
arranged between them. The prince, however, was suddenly recalled
by his father, and Makarandika's wild grief brought on her from
her parents a curse that she should be born as a Nishada. Too late
they repented, and died of grief; and her father became a parrot,
keeping from a former birth as a sage his memory of the Çastras,
while her mother became a sow. Pulastya added that the curse would
be over when the story was told in a king's court.
The parrot's tale reminded King Sumanas of his former birth, and on
the arrival of the ascetic maiden, sent by Çiva, 'who is merciful
to all his worshippers,' he again became the young hermit she had
loved. Somaprabha, too, at Çiva's bidding, went to the king's court,
and at the sight of him the Nishada regained the shape of Makarandika,
and became his wife; while the parrot 'left the body of a bird, and
went to the home earned by his asceticism.' 'Thus,' the story ends,
'the appointed union of human beings certainly takes place in this
world, though vast spaces intervene.'
The main difference between the stories is in the persons affected
by the curse; and here the artistic superiority of Bana is shown
in his not attaching the degrading forms of birth to Kadambari or
her parents. The horse is given as a present to the hero by Indra,
who sends him a message, saying: 'You are a Vidyadhara, and I give
you the horse in memory of our former friendship. When you mount it
you will be invincible.' The hero's marriage is arranged before his
sudden departure, so that the grief of the heroine is due only to their
separation, and not to the doubts on which Bana dwells so long. It
appears possible that both this story and 'Kadambari' are taken from a
common original now lost, which may be the Brihatkatha of Gunadhya. [6]
In that case the greater refinement of Bana's tale would be the result
of genius giving grace to a story already familiar in a humbler guise.