In Indian Fairy Tales (M. Stokes), p. 11, a Prince and Princess who had been killed came to life afresh inside two fruits produced on a tree which grew at the spot where their livers had been thrown. At p. 81 a Princess reappeared full-grown inside a fruit in a King’s garden. At p. 138, there is an account of a Princess who issued full-grown from a Bēl fruit (Ægle marmelos). After being drowned she became a Pink-lotus flower, and when this was destroyed she reappeared as an infant inside a Bēl fruit.
In the Kolhān tales (Bompas) appended to Folklore of the Santal Parganas, p. 461, there is a story of this type regarding a Princess who was in a Bēl fruit.
In the Kathā Sarit Sāgara (Tawney), vol. ii, p. 142, a tear of joy fell from the eye of a Vidyādhara maiden on a Jambu flower, and a fruit was produced; when it fell and broke open a heavenly maiden came out of it, and was reared by a hermit.
In Cinq Cents Contes et Apologues (Chavannes), vol. iii, p. 327, a Buddhist nun, Amrapāli, related an account of her previous births during ninety-one kalpas, from mango flowers. The details of her last birth are given; she became the mother of the celebrated physician Jīvaka, the son of King Bimbisāra, and afterwards took the religious vows. Professor Chavannes states that the work in which this story occurs was translated into Chinese between A.D. 148 and 170.
In the same volume, p. 337, there is a story of the birth of two other girls from flowers, one from a Sumanā flower and the other from a Blue lotus.
In Korean Tales (Dr. H. N. Allen), p. 164, a girl who had drowned herself to appease an evil spirit who refused to allow the passage of some boats, was sent back to life in a large flower on a plant floating on the sea. A King who preserved the flower saw her when she emerged at night, and married her.
In the Mahā Bhārata (Vaṇa Parva, cxlvi ff.) Bhimasēna, one of the Pāṇḍava Princes, went in search of golden lotus flowers, and found them in a lake at the Gandhamādana mountain, belonging to Kuvēra, the God of Wealth.
In Reynard the Fox in Southern Africa (Dr. Bleek), p. 55, a girl appeared out of a calabash in which a woman had placed her daughter’s heart after it had been recovered from the body of a lion that had eaten her. The woman put with it the first milk of the cows which calved.