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The Kathá Sarit Ságara; or, Ocean of the Streams of Story

active 11th century Somadeva Bhatta

v. 74.) Mr. Collier states upon the authority of M. Boettiger that Schiller founded his ballad upon an Alsatian tradition which he heard at Mannheim. Cp. also the 80th of the Sicilianische Märchen which ends with these words, "Wer gutes thut, wird gutes erhalten." There is a certain resemblance in this story to that of Equitan in Murie's lays. See Ellis's Early English Metrical Romances, pp. 46 and 47. It also resembles the story of Lalitánga extracted from the Kathá Kosha by Professor Nilmani Mukerjea in his Sáhitya Parichaya, Part II, and the conclusion of the story of Damannaka from the same source found in his Part I. The story of Fridolin is also found in Schöppner's Sagenbuch der Bayerischen Lande, Vol. I, p. 204. [318] Literally creeper-like. [319] There is a double meaning here; kshetra means fit recipients as well as field. The king no doubt distributed corn. [320] i. e. the god Ganesa, who has an elephant's head. [321] Seven principal mountains are supposed to exist in each Varsha or division of a continent. [322] There is a reference here to the mada or ichor which exudes from an elephant's temples when in rut. [323] rága also means passion. [324] The quarters are often conceived of as women. [325] In the XVIIIth tale of the Gesta Romanorum Julian is led into trouble by pursuing a deer. The animal turns round and says to him, "Thou who pursuest me so fiercely shalt be the destruction of thy parents." See also Bernhard Schmidt's Griechische Märchen, p. 38. "A popular ballad referring to the story of Digenis gives him a life of 300 years, and represents his death as due to his killing a hind that had on its shoulder the image of the Virgin Mary, a legend the foundation of which is possibly a recollection of the old mythological story of the hind of Artemis killed by Agamemnon." [Sophoclis Electra, 568.] In the Romance of Doolin of Mayence Guyon kills a hermit by mistake for a deer. (Liebrecht's translation of Dunlop's History of Fiction, p. 138) See also De Gubernatis, Zoological Mythology, pp. 84-86. [326] I. g. Umá and Párvatí. Káma = the god of love. [327] Cp. Lane's Arabian Nights, Vol. I, p. 96; also an incident in Gül and Sanaubar, (Liebrecht, Zur Volkskunde, p. 144). [328] Here there is a pun, suvritta meaning also well-rounded. [329] i. e. burnt herself with his body. [330] Purogaih means "done in a previous life," and also "going before." [331] Cp. Gaal, Märchen der Magyaren, p. 364; Gonzenbach's Sicilianische Märchen, Vol. I, pp. 285 and 294. [332] I read with a MS. in the Sanskrit College patisnehád for pratisnehád. The two wives of the god of Love came out of lovo to their husband, who was conceived in Vásavadattá. [333] Vidyádhara--means literally "magical-knowledge-holder." [334] The ceremony of coronation. [335] Ambiká, i. q., Párvatí the wife of Siva. [336] Liebrecht, speaking of the novel of Guerino Meschino, compares this tree with the sun and moon-trees mentioned in the work of the Pseudo-Callisthenes, Book III. c. 17. They inform Alexander that the years of his life are accomplished, and that he will die in Babylon. See also Ralston's Songs of the Russian people, p. 111. [337] A period of 432 million years of mortals. [338] More literally the cardinal and intermediate points. [339] Reading manomrigi, the deer of the mind. [340] Member of a savage tribe. [341] I. e. of the pearls in the heads of the elephants. [342] I. e. the sun. [343] Throbbing of the right eye in men portends union with the beloved. [344] No doubt by offering the flowers which she had gathered. [345] Like the two physicians in Gesta Romanorum, LXXVI. [346] A peculiarly sacred kind of Darbha grass. [347] M. Lévêque considers that the above story, as told in the Mahábhárata, forms the basis of the Birds of Aristophanes. He identifies Garuda with the hoopoe. (Les Mythes et Légendes de l'Inde et de la Perse, p. 14). [348] Rájila is a striped snake, said to be the same as the dundubha a non-venomous species. [349] The remarks which Ralston makes (Russian Folk-tales, page 65) with regard to the snake as represented in Russian stories, are applicable to the Nága of Hindu superstition; "Sometimes he retains throughout the story an exclusively reptilian character, sometimes he is of a mixed nature, partly serpent and partly man." The snakes described in Veckenstedt's Wendische Sagen, (pp. 402-409,) resemble in some points the snakes which we hear so much of in the present work. See also Bartsch's Sagen, Märchen, und Gebräuche aus Meklenburg, Vol. I, p. 277 and ff. [350] The word nága, which means snake, may also mean, as Dr. Brockhaus explains it, a mountaineer from naga a mountain. [351] I conjecture kramád for krandat. If we retain krandat we must suppose that the king of the Vidyádharas wept because his scheme of self-sacrifice was frustrated. [352] I read adhah for adah. [353] In the Sicilian stories of the Signora von Gonzenbach an ointment does duty for the amrita, cp. for one instance out of many, page 145 of that work. Ralston remarks that in European stories the raven is connected with the Water of Life. See his exhaustive account of this cycle of stories on pages 231 and 232 of his Russian Folk-tales. See also Veckenstedt's Wendische Sagen, p. 245, and the story which begins on page 227. In the 33rd of the Syrian stories collected by Prym and Socin we have a king of snakes and water of life. [354] The home of the serpent race below the earth. [355] Here equivalent to Pátála. [356] Here there is a pun: ákula may also mean "by descent." [357] Kulíná may mean falling on the earth, referring to the shade of the tree. Márgasthá means "in the right path" when applied to the wife. [358] I. e. Madam Contentious. Her husband's name means "of lion-like might." [359] I read (after Böhtlingk and Roth) Ityakápara. See Chapter 34. sl. 115. [360] Tejas = also means might, courage. For the idea see note on page 305. [361] Sneha which means love, also means oil. This is a fruitful source of puns in Sanskrit. [362] The Hindu Cupid. [363] Infinitely longer than a mortal kalpa. A mortal kalpa lasts 432 million years. [364] He is often called Ananga, the bodiless, as his body was consumed by the fire of Siva's eye. [365] Or virtuous and generous. [366] It is still the custom to give presents of vessels filled with rice and coins. Empty vessels are inauspicious, and even now if a Bengali on going out of his house meets a person carrying an empty pitcher, he turns back, and waits a minute or two. [367] A: Peace, war, march, halt, stratagem and recourse to the protection of a mightier king. [368] The elephant-headed god has his trunk painted with red lead like a tame elephant, and is also liable to become mast. [369] Followers and attendants upon Siva. [370] The modern Burdwan. [371] I. e. Gold-gleam. [372] For an account of the wanderjahre of young Bráhman students, see Dr. Bühler's introduction to the Vikramánkadevacharita. [373] More literally--Those whose eyes do not wink. The epithet also means "worthy of being regarded with unwinking eyes." No doubt this ambiguity is intended. [374] I. e. the city of jewels. [375] Áskandin is translated "granting" by Monier Williams and the Petersburg lexicographers. [376] These are worn on the fingers when offerings are made. [377] A particular posture in religious meditation, sitting with the thighs crossed, with one hand resting on the left thigh, the other held up with the thumb upon the heart, and the eyes directed to the tip of the nose. [378] Kárpatika may mean a pilgrim, but it seems to be used in the K. S. S. to mean a kind of dependant on a king or great man, usually a foreigner. See chapters 38, 53, and 81 of this work. [379] First he should be a Brahmachárin or unmarried religious student, next a Grihastha or householder, than a Vánaprastha or anchoret, lastly a Bhikshu or beggar. [380] i. e. virtue, wealth, pleasure; dharma, artha, káma. [381] Graha, also means planet, i. e. inauspicious planet. Siva tells the truth here. [382] i. e. the auspicious or friendly one. [383] There is probably a double meaning in the word "incomprehensible." [384] Perhaps we ought to read dattvá for tatra. [385] A report similar to that spread against Harasvámin was in circulation during the French Revolution. Taine in his history of the Revolution, Vol. I, p. 418 tells the following anecdote: "M. de Montlosier found himself the object of many unpleasant attentions when he went to the National Assembly. In particular a woman of about thirty used to sharpen a large knife when he passed and look at him in a threatening manner. On enquiry he discovered the cause--Deux enfants du quartier ont disparu enlevés par de bohémiens, et c'est maintenant un bruit répandu que M. de Montlosier, le marquis de Mirabeau, et d'autres députés du côté droit se rassemblent pour faire des orgies dans lesquelles ils mangent de petits enfants." [386] The city of flowers, i. g. Pátaliputra. [387] Perhaps we ought to read yayau for dadau. This I find is the reading of an excellent MS. in the Sanskrit college, for the loan of which I am deeply indebted to the Principal and the Librarian. [388] Probably a poor pun. [389] Cf. Uttara Ráma Charita (Vidyáságara's edition) Act III, p. 82, the speech of the river-goddess Tamasá. Lenormant in his Chaldæan Magic and Sorcery, p. 41, (English Translation), observes: "We must add to the number of those mysterious rites the use of certain enchanted drinks, which doubtless really contained medicinal drugs, as a cure for diseases, and also of magic knots, the efficacy of which was firmly believed in, even up to the middle ages." See also Ralston's Songs of the Russian people, p. 288. [390] In the story of the Beautiful Palace East of the Sun and North of the Earth, (Thorpe, Yule-tide Stories, p. 158) an old woman sends the youth, who is in quest of the palace, to her old sister, who again refers him to an older sister dwelling in a small ruinous cottage on a mountain. In Signora von Gonzenbach's Sicilianische Märchen, p. 86, the prince is sent by one "Einsiedler" to his brother, and this brother sends him to an older brother and he again to an older still, who is described as "Steinalt" see also p. 162. Compare also the story of Hasan of El Basra in Lane's Arabian Nights. Cp. also Kaden's Unter den Olivenbäumen, p. 56. We have a similar incident in Melusine, p. 447, The story is entitled La Montagne Noire on Les Filles du Diable. See also the Pentamerone of Basile, Tale 49, Ralston's Russian Folk-Tales, p. 76; Waldau's Böhmische Märchen, pp. 37 and 255 and ff; and Dasent's Norse Tales, pp. 31-32, 212-213, and 330-331. [391] Wild aboriginal tribes not belonging to the Aryan race. [392] Destiny often elevates the worthless, and hurls down men of worth. [393] The usual story is that Indra cut off the wings of all except Maináka the son of Himavat by Mená. He took refuge in the sea. Here it is represented that more escaped. So in Bhartrihari Níti Sataka st. 76 (Bombay edition). [394] For Saktideva's imprisonment in the belly of the fish cp. Chapter 74 of this work, Indian Fairy Tales by Miss Stokes, No. XIV, and Lucian's Vera Historia, Book I. In this tale the fish swallows a ship. The crew discover countries in the monster's inside, establish a "scientific frontier," and pursue a policy of Annexation. See also Lane's Arabian Nights, Vol. III, p. 104. [395] Cf. Grimm's Märchen, No. 60, Sicilianische Märchen, Nos. 39 and 40, with Dr. Köhler's notes. [396] If such a word can be applied to a place where bodies are burnt. [397] Samásvasya, the reading of a MS. in the Sanskrit College,