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

Overview

A pregnant woman desires a mango after a crow deliberately eats one before her. Her husband takes fruit from a Rākshasa’s tree under the condition that a future son remain his but a daughter belong to the Rākshasa. When a girl is born, the Rākshasa takes her away; two schoolboys give her the name Wimalī, glossed as pure or beautiful one, and she lives in his house.

While away eating human flesh, he repeatedly mistakes drumbeats for calls to Wimalī and returns to check whether she has left. A king eventually removes her and leaves a flour figure in her place. The Rākshasa attacks and eats the figure, choking on it. His request for a mouth on top of his head is fulfilled, but the new opening splits his head and kills him. The rice-flour figure is an inanimate substitute, and Wimalī’s relationship to him is imposed guardianship rather than biological parentage.

Girl-claiming man-eater whose wished-for second mouth splits his headVersion-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. 52, The Wimalī Story, pp. 302–304

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. 52, The Wimalī Story, pp. 302–304

Complete tale and attached variant/comparative notes read. Occupational narrator attributions retained without caste judgments; false deity claim distinguished from actual divine identity; flour effigy not animated.

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. 52, The Wimalī Story, pp. 302–304Research 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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