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Not the OP, but I was curious so I read a bit about Abhimanyu and Sañjīva. Abhimanyu was a warrior in the Mahabharata who, while still in his mother's
womb, heard Arjuna tell the secret of how to break into the powerful circular
battle formation known as the Chakravyūha. His mother, and with her, Abhimanyu
in her womb, fell asleep before hearing how to break out of the formation.
Once an adult, Abhimanyu entered the Chakravyūha of his enemies, the Kauravas,
and killed many of their soldiers. But, not knowing how to exit the formation,
became trapped inside and was eventually weakened and killed by the combined
might of his enemies' heroes. The Sañjīva-Jātaka is a story-within-a-story. The main story tells of King
Ajātasattu who followed Devadatta, the enemy of the Buddhas and how he paid
for it. The story-within, tells of a young brahmin, named Sañjīva, pupil of
the Bodhisattva, who taught him a spell to raise the dead. Wishing to impress
his peers, Sañjīva cast the spell on a dead tiger. But, not knowing the
counter-spell, he could not control the tiger, who bit him in the neck and
killed him, then fell dead by his side. The story-within is meant to teach how
an evil person cannot be a true ally and will soon turn against you: Befriend a villain, aid him in his need,
And, like that tiger which Sañjīva raised
To life, he straight devours you for your pains.
There are obvious parallels between the two stories and the Sorcerer's
Apprentice tale (modern and ancient). However, Abhimanyu's story is also
significantly different, in that the Chakravyūha is not his own creation that
he lost control over.If we take Abhimanyu's story as similar to the Sorcerer's Apprentice story,
and accept that the theme is one of knowing how to initiate a process, but not
how to stop it, then we may also heed the story of Phaethon, the son of
Helios, the sun god, who asked to drive his father's chariot (i.e. the sun)
but couldn't control it and was killed by Zeus to stop him wreaking havok to
the Earth. This is a story from Greek mythology and therefore much older than
the story of Sañjīva and at least as old as the Mahabharata. Therefore, as a stereotypical Greek, I will claim the oldest telling of the
story of The Boy Who Lost Control for the legend of Phaethon. __________ Refs: Abhimanyu's article on wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abhimanyu Chakravyūha article on wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Padmavyuha The Sañjīva-Jātaka: http://www.sacred-texts.com/bud/j1/j1153.htm Phaethon's article on wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phaethon |