The Girl on the Island (Indian)
The Saktyas, who offer meat cakes, were having a sacrifice. Gauriviti, a son of Sakti, killed a deer. [The eagle named] Tarksya Suparna came flying to him from above. Gauriviti aimed at Suparna, and the bird said, "Sage, do not shoot at me. Whatever you desire, I will fulfill it for you."
"What desire do I have?" asked Gauriviti.
"You desire the daughter of Asita Dhamnya. I will take you to her." Now, Asita Dhamnya was jealous. His palace was in the middle realm of air, and there they guarded his daughter. The bird concealed Gauriviti in the stalk of a leaf and carried him to the girl. Then, by means of the special chant, "Lover, awaken," he awakened him at dawn. That is why the "Lover awaken," chant has that name.
The girl became pregnant and bore a son. The demons tore him apart and threw him away, saying, "This is the child of a sister [jamigarbha, i.e., born of a man and his twin sister, too closely related] some ogre [Rakshasa] begat it." He [Gauriviti] wished, "Let me revive him." He saw this chant and revived him with it, and the child became Samkriti, the son of Gauriviti.
O'Flaherty, Wendy D. Tales of Sex and Violence. Chicago: U of Chicago Press, 1985.
Examining the above tale from the context of the Aarne-Thompson motif-based classification system, we can divulge the following similar motifs. The daughter of Asita can be aquainted with Rapunzel. She is kept in isolation in the elevated areas of "the middle realm of air" not by a witch but instead by her jealous father. This is in concordance with the motifs R41 (captivity) and T381 (imprisoned virgin to prevent knowledge of men). The mutilation of the son can represent S165 (mutilation), while the chant used to revive the child can be equated with the curing of the prince's blindness in the Grimm version, motif F952.
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