The notion that the persons who ate two birds, or the halves of one bird or of a fruit, would become Kings, or a King and his minister, is found throughout India in folk-tales.
In the Jātaka stories No. 284 (vol. ii, p. 280), and No. 445 (vol. iv, p. 24), two cocks were overheard to say that whoever ate one would get a thousand pieces of money, and the person who ate the other would become King, Chief Queen or Commander-in-Chief, and Treasurer or King’s favourite cleric. The second one was selected and eaten, with the corresponding result.
In The Orientalist, vol. ii, p. 150, there is a story by Miss S. J. Goonetilleke, in which a blind man, sitting under a tree, heard a Rākshasa who was in the tree saying to others that if the fruit of the tree were rubbed on the eyes of a blind man he would recover his sight, and that a person who ate the fruit on the top of the tree would become a King within seven days. The man regained his sight in this way, and having also eaten the fruit was selected as King by the royal elephant, which knelt before him. The man who had blinded him married his Prime Minister’s daughter; and ascertaining how the King recovered his sight and obtained his position, he got his wife to treat him in the same way and leave him under a tree, where he died.
In The Indian Antiquary, vol. xvii, p. 75, there is a tale of two Princes who were ordered to be blinded because of a false charge made by the Queen, their step-mother. They escaped, and killed a Chakwā (Sheldrake) which they heard informing its mate that he who ate its head would become a King, and he who ate the liver would be very happy after twelve years’ wanderings. The elder brother went for food to a city, where the royal elephant threw a garland over his neck, and he became King. The younger brother being unable to find him worked for a potter, then travelled on and took the place of a woman’s son who was going to be offered to an Ogre, who had forced a King to give him daily a cart-load of sweet cakes, a couple of goats, and a young man. The Prince killed the Ogre while he was eating the cakes. The King gave him his daughter in marriage, and half the kingdom. The elder brother came to the wedding, and they recognised each other. When they visited their father he sent the Queen into exile.
In the Tamil work, The Story of Madana Kāma Rāja (Naṭēśa Sāstrī), p. 125 ff., a Mango tree growing in a thick forest bore a magical fruit once in one hundred years. A sage waited for it, and went to bathe in order to purify himself before eating it. As two Princes whose parents had been reduced to poverty, were passing, the younger one picked up the fruit and placed it in their packet of rice. The sage followed them, but they denied all knowledge of the fruit. He informed them that the person who ate the outer part would become a king, and that from the mouth of the person who ate the seed, gems would drop whenever he laughed. The brothers divided the fruit in this way, and a royal elephant coming in search of a new King placed a garland on the neck of the elder one, and depositing him on its back went off with him. The younger one, thinking he was carried off by a wild elephant, left the wood, and was received at the house of a dancing girl. One day when he laughed gems fell from his mouth, and after getting many more, they gave him a purgative pill and secured the magic stone. After other adventures he was united to his brother, recovered the mango stone, and became a King himself.
In Wide-Awake Stories (Steel and Temple), p. 138 ff., Tales of the Punjab (F. A. Steel), p. 129, two Princes ran away on account of their step-mother’s cruelty, and while resting under a tree heard a Maina (Starling) and a Parrot telling each other that the two persons who ate them would become a King and a Prime Minister. They shot the birds with crossbows, and ate them. The younger one went back for the other’s whip, which was left at a spring, and was bitten and killed by a snake. The elder was selected as King, by a royal elephant. A magician found the dead Prince, drained the spring into his wife’s small brass pot, and the snakes being waterless gave back the Prince’s life. After stirring adventures, the younger Prince married a Prime Minister’s daughter, who went on a ship with him. There he was thrown overboard, but caught a rope and got back to his wife’s cabin unobserved. He met his brother the King at last, and was made to relate his life story. This he did in sections, on seven days, and at the end the King claimed him as his brother, and he became Prime Minister.
In Indian Nights’ Entertainment (Swynnerton), p. 276 ff., a step-mother got two Princes exiled. At night while they were under a tree two birds were heard predicting that those who ate them would become a King and a Minister, so they shot and ate them. The whip and snake incident are as above, the guilty snake being brought up by a cowry shell, of which the magician had despatched four to the four quarters. The snake breathed into the Prince’s mouth and revived him. He had wonderful adventures, and married a Princess, went on a ship with her, was thrown overboard, and assisted a gardener. The Princess had been sold at the palace, where the King, who was the elder brother, wished to marry her. The younger brother went disguised as a woman, and related his story by sections in three days, when the Princess claimed him as her husband. His brother made him Chief Counsellor, and at last he succeeded to his father’s kingdom.
In Folk-Tales of Kashmir (Knowles), 2nd ed., p. 78, the persons who ate the head and breast of a bird became Kings.
At p. 159, the King’s elephant selected a person as King, the elephant bowing down to him, and the royal hawk perching on his hand.