In the Jātaka tale No. 196, the Bōdhisatta is described as transforming himself into a flying horse which carried a party of wrecked merchants and sailors from Ceylon to India.
Two or three steps further bring us to the position in the folk-tales:—(1) the creation of a wooden flying horse by a supernatural being, (2) the construction of a similar animal by a human being, by magical art, (3) the construction of one by mechanical art. Thus, if this development occurred in India or Ceylon, the notion of a wooden or wax flying horse, such as the folk-tales describe, is possibly of earlier date than the time of Christ. Arabian traders or travellers may have carried the idea to their own country either by way of Persia or more directly by sea. They may have had a local tradition of flying quadrupeds, however, based on the winged lions and bulls of Assyria, belonging to the eighth and ninth centuries B.C. Winged quadrupeds of a composite character were known to the Babylonians in the time of Gudea, Patesi of Lagash (2450 B.C.), and probably some centuries earlier;[7] the idea may have spread from them to the early Āryans in the first place.
[1] The text is given at the end of this volume. [↑]
[2] This incident is also related on pp. 62 and 63 of vol. i. [↑]
[3] In No. 245 the Princess was weighed once a week. [↑]
[5] Kanya paṅtiyak; apparently they were courtesans or dancing girls. [↑]