Little Surya Bai (Indian folktale)

Little Surya Bai is an Indian folktale collected by author Mary Frere. It is about a girl abandoned by her human parents in the fields, when a pair of birds fly down to rescue her. She is raised by the birds and, later, goes to borrow some fire source from a demon neighbour that trails after the girl, intent to devour her, but, failing that, the demon neighbour plants a fingernail on the door to the girl's house. The fingernail prickles her skin and she falls into a swoon, until she is revived by a prince who removes the fingernail. Variants of the tale are known in Sri Lanka and in India.

The second part of the tale, classified as ATU 408, "The Love for Three Oranges", deals with the heroine who is replaced by a false bride and goes through a cycle of incarnations until she regains physical form again. Variants of the tale are known in Sri Lanka and in India, either with the heroine emerging from a fruit or not, but still going under a cycle of transformations.