A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.
Overview
An exiled prince meets three extraordinary workers: one uproots Palmyra and coconut trees to make a fence, another cuts a rice-field ridge with a hoe blade as large as an entire field compartment, and the third ploughs such a compartment with a single furrow. Parker’s North-western Province narrative explicitly calls them giants, but supplies neither names nor measured heights.
A Rākshasī imprisons them one by one when they ask for cooking pots and fire. The prince forces her to release them, later leaving them a blue lotus and warning that it will fade and their lime trees die if he dies. When these signs appear, they find a surviving fragment of his burnt sword, place it on a bed and tend it until the sword grows whole. The prince is then created afresh. Their affectionate term elder brother does not establish biological kinship.
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. 20, The Prince who did not go to School, pp. 160–165; comparative notes pp. 165–168
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. 20, The Prince who did not go to School, pp. 160–165; comparative notes pp. 165–168
Complete No.20 and all comparative notes read. Life indicators distinguished from sword containing life, giants’ affectionate elder-brother address from genealogy, and Parker’s borrowing theories from direct tale evidence.
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. 20, The Prince who did not go to School, pp. 160–165; comparative notes pp. 165–168Research access: 2026-10-05
Image credits
A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.