Types and Motifs

Type AT 930, The Prophecy. In the Aarne-Thompson index, types 930–945 are tales of fate. Other tales of fate, prophecy, etc. in this collection are “Muddanna” (No. 41), “What the Milk Bird Said” (No. 73), “The Mother Who Married Her Own Son” (No. 40), and “A Sage's Word” (No. 55). Mother Fate = vidhiyamma. Fate is female in these folktales.

[NKTT, but cf. Motif M 302.2, Man's fate written on his skull; Motif H 11.1, Recognition by telling life history. See also AKR's comments in Ramanujan 1991b.]