A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.
Overview
In Parker’s Western Province variant, crows rear an abandoned girl and name her Emal Bisawā, translated Queen of the Flowers. After she reduces the dog’s food, it extinguishes the hearth fire. A parrot leads her to a Rākshasī’s house, where the absent ogress’s daughters demand that she pound a large quantity of rice. At her thought that it should be pounded and go indoors, it does so by itself. She also returns the seven perforated water pots they demand filled.
The daughters send her away with leaking sesame seeds and ashes, allowing their mother to track her. Speaking helpers warn against the ogress’s imitation of the crows, but the Rākshasī leaves fingernails in the door-frame. A nail enters the girl’s head when she later admits her real foster parents, and this version says she dies. Unlike the distinct Durayā version, it supplies no removal of the nail or revival. The floral title does not mean she was born from a flower.
Origins & earliest records
Sri Lankan narratives collected and translated by H. Parker
Records & interpretation
Complete tale and all its printed variants/comparative notes read; relevant introduction passages on collection and translation directly read.
Selected bibliography
Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.
- 01
Village Folk-Tales of Ceylon, Volume I
No. 12, Western Province variant, pp. 125–126
Family & connections
A source-supported family tree or inspiration record has not yet been compiled for this profile. Related reading below indicates a connection in subject matter, not a proven lineage or creative influence.
Primary records and illustrations
Village Folk-Tales of Ceylon, Volume I
Volume I. No. 12, Western Province variant, pp. 125–126
Full printed section read including all regional variants and comparative notes; missing passage from truncated initial output reread. Introduction’s collection/translation paragraphs directly inspected, not claimed as a full reading of its long ethnographic survey. Regional outcomes and narrator attributions kept separate.
References
Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.
- Historical collected oral narrative translationParker, Village Folk-Tales of Ceylon I — No. 12, Western Province variant, pp. 125–126Research access: 2026-10-05
Image credits
A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.