[2][3] Author Natesa Sastri published a translation of Madanakamaraja Katha as The Dravidian Nights Entertainment, which contains two stories about the turtle (tortoise) prince.
Meanwhile, their half-brother, the tortoise prince, using his gift of Jñanâdrishti (a sort of cosmic awareness or omniscience), learns of the quest and knows their endeavor will fail if he does not go with them.
In turn, his third wife tells him how to find the Himayagiri maiden: he should circle around the mountain and touch a certain creeper plant, which will carry him to the princess.
However, she feels bad about what happened to the tortoise prince, and resolves to make a penance in hopes that he can come back to life.
Then, the prince procures a house a short distance from his town for his wives to wait in, while he goes home to tell his mother of his adventures.
The black prince appears behind them and offers to get the flower, having been informed of their mission by his omniscience, and instructed in how to complete the task by his third wife.
He takes seven pebbles and uses each of them to drain the seven oceans; He then reaches the sacred waters called Akhilâdudakoti Brahmânda, chants a summoning command, gives a Rakshasa a note from his third wife, jumps on a crocodile and gets the golden lotus.
On the wedding day, when kings from all parts of the world are assembled, the Himayagiri maiden tells them what she knows of the story of the tortoise prince, of his mother, his father, and his journey.
[6] In this tale, in the northern city of Amarâvati, king Alakiyasingarâja and his minister Subhamantrî are good friends, and promise to marry their children to each other.
The Sun questions the presence of the tortoise there, and the prince explains he wishes to know why he was born an animal in this life, chanting 1,008 praises to the deity.
At last, the prince summons the Apsara and dines with her, explains he will deliver the flower to the minister's daughter and marry her, but he will give the other magical objects to the divine maiden for safekeeping.
One night, while his human wife is asleep, the prince crawls to the shore, to the place where the divine maiden hid the objects (a baniyan tree), and commands the club to take off his tortoise shell.
The prince rides the lame horse to the banyan tree, takes off the tortoise shell to become human, dons the sandals and the club, and spreads divine ashes over his body.
He rides as a tortoise, retreats to a hidden place, and returns as a human with the magic club to vanquish the enemy army, to the admiration of his brothers-in-law.
[7] Author Henry Parker collected a homonymous tale from Sri Lanka titled The Turtle Prince (Sinhalese: Ibi Kumārayā).
[10] In another published tale, Concerning a Royal Princess and a Turtle, a king and a minister, due to their deep friendship and trust, promise to betroth their eldest children to each other.
The Dēwatāwās point to him a hidden lake where "Virgin Women" (Kanniyā-Striyō) or Sun-maidens (Sūriyā-kāntāwō) bathe, and he must steal their clothes and force them to give him the flower.
When the seven-day hunt ends, the turtle prince asks his wife to prepare a hot bath for him; the princess sees him coming out of the shell and burns it.
The tortoise prince goes to the bazaar, buys a unit of all grains in a bundle, and produces some ghi on a leaf and a faggot of wood.
The prince's third stop is another kingdom, where their princess has issued a proclamation that she will marry anyone who can decipher a drawing of the Devendraloka with some inscriptions underneath.
The youngest wife goes to a cistern, bathes seven times, and enters a meditation state, extending the folds of her garments to receive something.
Seeing that the task is fulfilled, the Nymph of Wire Hill agrees to set a date for her marriage with to the king and invites a grand assembly of nobles and monarchs.
In this tale, a king and his minister have no children, so they consult a holy man, who tells them that if devote themselves to Siva, their wives will become pregnant.
Continuing on his journey, the prince, now in human form, meets three sages on the way and is guided to the temple of the elephant-faced god, where celestial maidens come down to earth to bathe, so the prince should steal one of the girls' saris and force her to help him to find the parijata flowers that grow in the celestial realm.
The prince makes his way back to the sages, who each want the magic flute in exchange for a gift they have: the first a wand that can beat one's enemies, the second a sack that grants the owner whatever they wish for, and the third a pair of teleporting sandals.
Later that night, while the minister's daughter is asleep, the prince takes off his shell, undresses his wife, caresses her body, and goes back to being a turtle.
[15] Zacharias P. Thundy published a tale from Kadar that he titled Beauty and the Beast: a turtle is born to a king, and before he marries the minister's daughter, is sent on a quest for the parijata flower.
[16] Stuart Blackburn collected a Tamil tale he titled The Turtle Prince: a raja and a minister promise to marry their children.
Later, he defends his father's kingdom against a foreign army, and, when he goes home to bathe, his wife takes the turtle shell and burns it.
[18] Stuart Blackburn also related the South Indian tales about "The Turtle Prince" to the cycle of the Animal as Bridegroom,[19] but formulated a new Indic type, based on the variants he collected (at least 18 texts): AT 441B Ind, "The Despised Animal-Husband".