A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.

Overview

The parrots roost in a banyan tree. A visiting crow’s droppings produce another tree, providing a route by which hunters can spread a net without alarming them. Their chief devises a shared escape: every bird must feign death until the hunters have removed the whole flock and thrown them down. They then fly away together.

Parker attributes the main telling to a Village Vaeddā of Bintaenna; a Durayā variant from the North-western Province specifies a signal from the last bird and the flock’s later dispersal. The Kinnarās in the title are human hunters in the collection’s social context, not the celestial beings of similar name. The parrots’ apparent death is a deliberate performance, not resurrection.

Speaking flock leader who engineers a collective escape by feigned deathVersion-specific collected narrative
01

Origins & earliest records

Sri Lankan narratives collected and translated by H. Parker

02

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.

  1. 01

    Village Folk-Tales of Ceylon, Volume I

    H. Parker (collector and translator) · 1910

    No. 34, The Kinnarā and the Parrots, pp. 224–228

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

Direct primary record

Village Folk-Tales of Ceylon, Volume I

Volume I. No. 34, The Kinnarā and the Parrots, pp. 224–228

Complete section read including all printed variants, comparative notes and narrator attribution. Composite princess forms retained without invented mapping, unnamed king separated from Jataka comparison, and human Kinnara hunters not misclassified as celestial beings.

Inspect the digitized plate · Source collection manifest

References

Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.

  1. Historical collected oral narrative translationParker, Village Folk-Tales of Ceylon I — No. 34, The Kinnarā and the Parrots, pp. 224–228Research access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.

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