Q: Source of oriental tale

[Paolo Magnone]

Dear fellow indologists,

A colleague of mine has brought to my notice a "morgenl ndischen
M rchen" from Wackenroder's *Herzensergiessungen eines kunstliebenden
Klosterbruders* about a naked hermit living in a mountain hole. This
hermit was obsessed by the frightful whirring of the wheel of time that
relentlessly echoed in his ears, driving him on the brink of madness,
until he chanced to see and hear a couple of lovers singing in the
moonlight. No sooner did the first notes resound than the human body and

the
wheel were dissolved, and the captive heavenly ghost that had been the
hermit could finally reascend to his heavenly home.

Assuming die "morgenl ndische Heimat" hinted at is India, as it would
appear from the mention of naked saints (a stereotype since Alexander
meeting with the so-called gymnosofists), does anybody have an idea,
what the Indian source could be?


 Paolo Magnone
 Catholic University of Milan
 p.magnone at agora.stm.it