The Kathá Sarit Ságara; or, Ocean of the Streams of Story
would perhaps give a better sense.
[398] I. e. skull-cleaver.
[399] Perhaps we ought to read smritvá for srutvá, "Remembering,
calling to mind."
[400] So in Signora von Gonzenbach's Sicilian Stories, p. 66, a lovely
woman opens with a knife the veins of the sleeping prince and drinks
his blood. See also Veckenstedt's Wendische Sagen, p. 354. Ralston in
his Russian Folk-Tales, p. 17, compares this part of the story with a
Russian story and that of Sidi Noman in the "Thousand and One Nights,"
he refers also to Lane's Translation, Vol. I, p. 32.
[401] One is tempted to read vikritám for vikritim, but
vikriti is translated by the Petersburg lexicographers as
Gespensterscheinung. Vikritám would mean transformed into a Rákshasí.
[402] Skandha when applied to the Rákshasas means shoulder.
[403] Literally great flesh. "Great" seems to give the idea of
unlawfulness, as in the Greek mega ergon.
[404] Cp. the golden rose in Gaal, Märchen der Magyaren, p. 44.
[405] Reading tasyán for tasmán.
[406] Somadeva no doubt means that the hairs on the king's body stood
on end with joy.
[407] According to the canons of Hindu rhetoric glory is always white.
[408] Night is compared to a female goblin, (Rákshasí). Those creatures
have fiery mouths.
[409] Cp. Sicilianische Märchen collected by Laura von Gonzenbach,
Vol. I, p. 160.
[410] Magical sciences, in virtue of which they were Vidyádharas
or science-holders.
[411] A son or pupil of Visvámitra.
[412] I.e. the Ocean.
[413] Compare the erineos megas phylloisi tethêlôs in the Odyssey,
Book XII., 103.
[414] The metre of this line is incorrect. There is a superfluous
syllable. Perhaps we ought to read ambuvegatah, by the current.
[415] I think we ought to read adhah, downwards.
[416] Cp. Odyssey XII., 432
autar egô poti makron erineon hypsos' aertheis
tô prosphys echomên hôs nykteris.
See also Lane's Arabian Nights, Vol. III, p. 7.
[417] all' ara hê ge kat' andrôn kraata bainei. Iliad XIX, v. 93.
[418] Pakshapáta also means flapping of wings. So there is probably
a pun here.
[419] So in the Swedish tale "The Beautiful Palace East of the Sun and
North of the Earth," the Phoenix carries the youth on his back to the
Palace. Dr. Rost compares Arabian Nights, Night 77. See Lane, Vol. III,
p. 17 and compare the Halcyon in Lucian's Vera Historia, Book II. 40,
(Tauchnitz edition,) whose nest is seven miles in circumference,
and whose egg is probably the prototype of that in the Arabian
Nights. Cp. the Glücksvogel in Prym and Socin, Syrische Märchen,
p. 269, and the eagle which carries Chaucer in the House of Fame. In
the story of Lalitánga, extracted by Professor Nilmani Mukerjea from
the Kathá Kosha, a collection of Jaina stories, a Bhárunda carries the
hero to the city of Champá. There he cures the princess by a remedy,
the knowledge of which he had acquired by overhearing a conversation
among the birds.
[420] We should read sauvarnabhitti.
[421] Or Chandraprabhá, whose name means "light of the moon." The
forbidden chamber will at once remind the reader of Perrault's La Barbe
Bleue. The lake incident is exactly similar to one in Chapter 81 of
this work and to that of Kandarpaketu in the Hitopadesa. See Ralston's
Russian Folk-tales page 99. He refers to this story and compares it
with that of the Third Royal Mendicant, Lane I, 160-173, and gives
many European equivalents. See also Veckenstedt's Wendische Sagen,
p. 214. Many parallels will be found in the notes to Grimm's Märchen,
Nos. 3 and 46; to which Ralston refers in his exhaustive note. In
Wirt Sikes's British Goblins, p. 84, a draught from a forbidden well
has the same effect.
[422] The Dánavas are a class of demons or giants. Ruru was a Dánava
slain by Durgá.
[423] In Sloka 172 b. I conjecture Saktihasto for Saktidevo, as we
read in sl. 181 b. that the boar was wounded with a sakti.
[424] Literally, having auspicious marks.
[425] A spirit that enters dead bodies.
[426] I read Vidyutprabhám for Vidyádharím. But perhaps it is
unnecessary.
[427] The Chakora is said to subsist upon moonbeams.
[428] So making him a Vidyádhara or "magic-knowledge-holder."
[429] I. e. Ganesa who is invoked to remove obstacles.
[430] This is an elaborate pun in the original. Guna=string and virtue;
vansa=race and bamboo.
[431] The Taxila of the Greek writers. The Vitastá is the Hydaspes
of the Greeks, now called Jhelum.
[432] Monier Williams says that Tárá was the wife of the Buddha
Amoghasiddha. Benfey (Orient und Occident, Vol. I, p. 373) says
she was a well known Buddhist saint. The passage might perhaps mean
"The Buddha adorned with most brilliant stars."
It has been suggested to me that Tárávara may mean Siva, and that
the passage means that the Saiva and Bauddha religions were both
professed in the city of Takshasilá.
[433] I. e. Buddhist ascetics.
[434] A MS. in the Sanskrit College reads sukála for svakála: the
meaning is much the same.
[435] A MS. in the Sanskrit College reads nigrahah=blaming one's
relations without cause.
[436] Cp. Ralston's Russian Folk-Tales, p. 122. See also Bartsch's
Sagen, Märchen, und Gebräuche aus Meklenburg, Vol. I, p. 90.
[437] Moksha is the soul's final release from further transmigrations.
[438] Cp. Gesta Romanorum CXLIII (Bohn's Edition). This idea is found
in the Telapattajátaka, Fausböll, Vol. I, p. 393.
[439] A kind of Pandora.
[440] Compare the argument in the Eunuchus of Terence (III. 5.36 &
ff) which shocked St. Augustine so much (Confessions I. 16).
[441] Et tonantem Jovem et adulterantem.
[442] I separate balavad from bhogadáyi.
[443] This appears to be found in a slightly different form in the
Harivansa. (Lévêque, Mythes et Légendes de l'Inde, p. 220).
[444] The name of certain aboriginal tribes described as hunters,
fishermen, robbers &c.
[445] In the original Mahákála, an epithet of Siva in his character
as the destroying deity.
[446] Generally only one mountain named Maináka is said to have fled
into the sea, and retained its wings when Indra clipped those of the
others. The passage is of course an elaborate pun.
[447] i. e. lion of valour.
[448] i. e. animals, horizontal goers. The pun defies translation,
the word I have translated arrow is literally "the not-sideways-goer."
[449] i. e. by burning herself upon the funeral pyre.
[450] The word táraká means also a star. So here we have one of those
puns in which our author delights.
[451] Also full of affection. This is a common pun.
[452] Beasts of prey, or possibly Rákshasas.
[453] Compare the translation of the life of St. Brigit by Whitley
Stokes, (Three Middle Irish Homilies, p. 65.)
"Shortly after that came a certain nobleman unto Dubthach to ask for
his daughter in marriage. Dubthach and his sons were willing, but
Brigit refused. Said a brother of her brethren named Beccán unto her:
'Idle is the fair eye that is in thy head not to be on a pillow near
a husband.' 'The son of the Virgin knoweth' said Brigit, 'it is not
lively for us if it brings harm upon us.' Then Brigit put her finger
under her eye and drew it out of her head till it was on her cheek;
and she said: 'Lo, here is thy delightful eye, O Beccán.' Then his
eye burst forthwith. When Dubthach and his brethren saw that, they
promised that she should never be told to go to a husband. Then she
put her palm to her eye and it was whole at once. But Beccán's eye
was not whole till his death."
That the biographers of Christian saints were largely indebted to
Buddhist hagiology, has been shewn by Liebrecht in his Essay on
the sources of Barlaam and Josaphat, (Zur Volkskunde, p. 441.) In
Mr. Stokes's book, p. 34, will also be found a reference to the
practice of shewing reverence by walking round persons or things
keeping the right hand towards them. This is pointed out by Mr. Stokes
in his Preface as an interesting link between Ireland and India.
Mr. Whitley Stokes has sent me the following quotation in the Revue
Celtique V, 130 from P. Cahier, Caracteristiques des Saints I, 105;
"A certain virgin Lucia (doubtful whether of Bologna or of Alexandria)
se voyant fréquemment suivie par un jeune homme qui affectait de
l'accompagner partout dès q'elle quittait sa maison, lui demanda enfin
ce qui l'attachait si fort à ses pas. Celui-ci ayant répondu que c'
etait la beauté de ses yeux, la jeune fille se servit de son fuseau
pour faire sortir ses yeux de leur orbite, et dit à son poursuivant
qu'il pouvait les prendre et la laisser dèsormais en repos. On ajoute
que cette generosité effrayante changea si fort le coeur du jeune
homme qu'il embrassa la profession religieuse. The story of the
ascetic who conquered anger, resembles closely the Khantivádijátaka
No. 313 in Fausböll's edition, Vol. III, p. 39. It is also found
in the Bodhisattva Avadána, under the title Kshánti Játaka, and in
the Mahávastu Avadána in a form closely resembling that of the Páli
Játaka book. See Dr. Rajendra Lál Mitra's Nepalese Buddhist Literature,
pp. 55, 159, and 160.
[454] They are compared to the five sacred fires.
[455] Literally the worthless straw-heap of &c.
[456] Here there is a pun on the two meanings of Srí.
[457] In the Svayamvara the maiden threw a garland over the neck of
the favoured suitor.
[458] Rasa also means water.
[459] This story is compared by Benfey (Orient und Occident,
Vol. I, p. 374) with the story of the faithful servant Víravara
in the Hitopadesa, which is also found in the Vetálapanchavinsati,
(see chapter 78 of this work.) Víravara, according to the account in
the Vetálapanchavinsati, hears the weeping of a woman. He finds it is
the king's fortune deserting him. He accordingly offers up his son,
and finally slays himself. The king is about to do the same when
the goddess Durgá restores the dead to life. The story of "Der Treue
Johannes" will at once occur to readers of Grimm's tales. According
to Benfey, it is also found in the Pentamerone of Basile. The form
of the tale in our text is very similar to that in Grimm. (See
Benfey's Panchatantra, Vol. I, p. 416.) The story of the faithful
Víravara occurs twice in this collection, in chapter 53, and also
in chapter 78. Sir G. Cox (in his Aryan Mythology, Vol. I p. 148),
compares the German story with one in Miss Frere's Old Deccan Days,
the 5th in that collection. Other parallels will be found in the notes
in Grimm's third volume. A very striking parallel will be found in
Bernhard Schmidt's Griechische Märchen, Story No. 3, p. 68. In this
story the three Moirai predict evil. The young prince is saved by his
sister, from being burnt, and from falling over a precipice when a
child, and from a snake on his wedding-day. See also De Gubernatis,
Zoological Mythology, Vol. II, pp. 301-302. Cp. also Coelho's Contos
Portuguezes, No. 51, Pedro e Pedrito, p. 118, and Grimm's Irische
Märchen, pp. 106, 107. In the Gagga Játaka, No. 135, Fausböll,
Vol. II, p. 15, the Buddha tells how the custom of saying "Jíva" or
"God bless you" originated. A Yakka was allowed to eat all who did
not say "Jíva" and "Patijíva." Zimmer in his Alt-Indisches Leben,
p. 60, quotes from the Atharva Veda, "vor Unglück-bedeutendem Niesen."
[460] The same idea is found in Midsummer Night's Dream, Act III,
Sc. 2, beginning, "We, Hermia, like two artificial gods &c."
[461] Cp. Ralston's Russian Folk-Tales, pp. 69 and 71, for the three
dangers. The custom of saying "God bless you," or equivalent words,
when a man sneezes, is shewn by Tylor (Primitive Culture, Vol. I,
pp. 88-94) to exist in many parts of the world. He quotes many passages
from classical literature relating to it. "Even the emperor Tiberius,
that saddest of men, exacted this observance." See also Sir Thomas