In The Kathākoça (Tawney), p. 49, a Prince, who when an infant had been carried off and adopted by a Vidyādhara, afterwards saw his mother seated at a window, fell in love with her, and by the magical art of the Vidyādharas, which he had acquired, carried her off in an aerial chariot. While he was in a garden with her he heard the conversation of two monkeys, and learnt from it that he was her son. Two hermits confirmed this, and in the end the Prince and his parents became Jain hermits.
In Folk-Tales of Kashmir (Knowles), 2nd ed., pp. 177 ff., the son of a woman who had been sent away during her husband’s absence, in the belief that she was an ogress, was sold to a Queen soon after birth by the widow with whom his mother lodged, and was brought up as her son, the King believing her false statement that she had borne him. When he grew up, the supposed Prince saw his mother, who still lived with the widow, fell in love with her, and induced the King to agree to his marriage to her. She stated that she was already married, and obtained a postponement of the wedding for six months. In the meantime her husband returned, went in search of his wife, heard that she was to be married to the Prince, sent her his ring, and they were reunited. The Prince ascertained that he was their son, the widow who sold him was executed, and the Queen was banished.
In the Kathā Sarit Sāgara (Tawney), vol. i, p. 79, a Brāhmaṇa who had obtained a young Garuḍa or Rukh from Vibhīsana, the Rākshasa King of Ceylon, visited on it, on three successive nights, a courtesan with whom he had fallen in love, whom he eventually married.
In Old Deccan Days (M. Frere), p. 145, there is an account of a Princess who was weighed every day against five lotus flowers, being no heavier than they were.
In Indian Fairy Tales (M. Stokes), p. 1 ff., there is a story of a Princess who was weighed against one flower every day, after her bath. She was married by her parents to a Rāja of the same weight as herself.
In Cinq Cents Contes et Apologues (Chavannes), vol. i, p. 376, a girl who was reared by a crane in its nest on the top of a tree was weighed daily by it. In this manner it ascertained that she had improper relations with a young man who had climbed up the tree and was concealed there by her.
In Folk-Tales of Hindustan (Shaik Chilli), p. 108, a Prince got his grandfather, who was a carpenter, to make a wonderful wooden horse which could either move on the earth or fly in the air, as it was bidden.
In the Arabian Nights (Lady Burton’s ed., vol. iii, p. 137 ff.), an aged Persian sage presented a Persian King with a flying horse made of ebony, which could carry its rider where he wished, and “cover in a single day the space of a year.” In return for it the King promised him his daughter in marriage, but her brother objected to this, tried the horse, and was carried far away before he found the pin which controlled the descent. He alighted at night on a palace roof, entered a Princess’s room, was discovered, offered to fight all the troops if he had his own horse, and while they awaited his charge rose in the air and returned home. At night he sailed back and brought away the Princess.
In a foot-note, p. 139, Sir R. Burton suggested that the Arabian magic wooden horse may have originated in an Indian story of a wooden Garuḍa [bird]. The legend of a flying horse, however, is found in the earliest hymns of the Ṛig Veda. If this period was about 2,000 B.C., the notion may have arisen in the third millennium B.C. In the hymn 163 of Book I, the horse is mentioned as possessing wings—“Limbs of the deer hadst thou, and eagle pinions” (Griffith’s translation). In iv, 40, 2, the horse Dadhikrās is described as having wings. In i, 85, 6, the wings of the spotted deer (clouds) which draw the cars of the Maruts, the Storm Gods, are referred to; the car of the Aśvins was drawn by winged asses (i, 116–117, 2).
At a later date, the account of the treasures produced by the great Churning of the Ocean by the Gods and Asuras includes the winged horse Uccaihśravas.