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

active 11th century Somadeva Bhatta

it remain a fortnight in this pickle till it is well dried, then expose it to the sun in the dog-days till it is completely parched, or if the sun be not powerful enough, dry it in an oven heated with vervain and fern. Next make a candle with the fat of a hanged man, virgin wax, and Lapland sesame. The Hand of Glory is used to hold this candle when it is lighted. Wherever one goes with this contrivance, those it approaches are rendered as incapable of motion as though they were dead." Southey in Book V of his Thalaba the Destroyer represents a hand and taper of this kind as used to lull to sleep Zohak, the giant keeper of the caves of Babylon. (See the extracts from Grose and Torquemada in the notes to Southey's poem.) Dousterswivel in Sir Walter Scott's Antiquary tells us that the monks used the Hand of Glory to conceal their treasures. (Henderson's Folk-lore of the Northern Counties of England and the Borders, p. 200 and ff.) Preller, in his Römische Mythologie, p. 488, has a note on incubones or treasure-guarding spirits. Treasures can often be acquired by stealing the caps worn by these incubones as a symbol of their secret and mysterious character. See also the Pentamerone of Basile, p. 96; Grohmann, Sagen aus Böhmen, p. 29 and ff; Bernhard Schmidt's Griechische Märchen, p. 28. The bug-bears were no doubt much of the kind found in Schöppner's Sagenbuch der Bayerischen Lande, Vol. I, p. 87. For the "hand of glory" see Baring Gould's Curious Myths of the Middle Ages, pp. 405-409. Brand in his Popular Antiquities Vol. I, p. 312, quotes from Bergerac's Satirical Characters and Handsome descriptions in his Letters translated out of the French by a Person of Honour, 1658, p. 45, "I cause the thieves to burn candles of dead men's grease to lay the hosts asleep while they rob their houses." A light has this property in Waldau's Böhmische Märchen, p. 360; and in Kuhn's Westfälische Märchen, Vol. I, p. 146. [508] There is probably a pun too on varti, the wick of a lamp. [509] Literally "made by the gods." [510] i. e. prabhutva, the majesty or pre-eminence of the king himself; mantra, the power of good counsel; utsáha energy. [511] Cp. Odyssey, VII. 116; Spenser's Faery Queene, III, 6, 42. [512] The pun here lies in the word kalá, which means "accomplishment," and also a sixteenth of the moon's diameter. [513] This lotus is a friend of the moon's and bewails its absence. [514] Or perhaps books. [515] I read virága-vishabhrid. [516] i. e. Nágavana. For serpent-worship see Tylor's Primitive Culture, Vol. II, pp. 217-220. The author of Sagas from the Far East remarks; "Serpent-Cultus was of very ancient observance, and is practised by both followers of Bráhmanism and Buddhism. The Bráhmans seem to have desired to show their disapproval of it by placing the serpent-gods in the lower ranks of their mythology, (Lassen. I, 707 and 544, n. 2). This cultus, however, seems to have received a fresh development about the time of Asoka circa 250 B. C. (Vol. II, p. 467). When Madhyantika went into Cashmere and Gandhára to teach Buddhism after the holding of the third synod, it is mentioned that he found sacrifices to serpents practised there (II. 234, 235). There is a passage in Plutarch from which it appears to have been the custom to sacrifice an old woman (previously condemned to death for some crime) to the serpent-gods by burying her alive on the banks of the Indus (II. 467, note 4) Ktesias also mentions the serpent worship (II. 642). In Buddhist legends serpents are often mentioned as protecting patrons of certain towns. (Sagas from the Far East, p. 355). See also Mr. F. S. Growse's Mathurá memoir, p. 71. [517] Literally thorns. [518] The upáyas which are usually enumerated are four, viz. sowing dissension, negotiation, bribery and open attack. [519] The six gunas--peace, war, march, halt, stratagem and recourse to the protection of a mightier king. [520] I read abhyagát with a MS. in the Sanskrit College. [521] I read vismitá with a MS. in the Sanskrit College. [522] i. e. mount Sumeru. The moon being masculine in Sanskrit, the words "form of the moon" are used in the original, to satisfy the requirements of classical Hindu Rhetoric, according to which feminine things cannot be compared to masculine. [523] The sea is always spoken of as full of "inestimable stones, unvalued jewels." There is a double meaning throughout. Sadváhiní, when applied to the sea, may mean "beautiful rivers." [524] Játarúpá also means "having assumed a form," so that there is another pun here. I read abhavan for abhavad, in accordance with a MS. lent me from the Sanskrit College. [525] The cedille under the c of candra should be erased in Dr. Brockhaus's text. [526] Ganesa, who bestows success or the reverse, and is invoked in all undertakings. I read karan dánámbhasá. [527] The word also means "shade." [528] I have no idea what this word lílávajra means. It is translated by Böhtlingk and Roth--ein wie ein Donnerkeil aussehendes Werkzeug. [529] Possibly there is a pun here: dána, giving, also means cutting. [530] The fruit of the Bel, well-known to Anglo-Indians. [531] Párvatí or Durgá, the wife of Siva. [532] The others are the Sun, Fire, Water, Earth, Air, the Moon and the officiating Bráhman. For the latter is sometimes substituted pasupati or lord of animals. [533] Possibly it also means "the swan of the temple of the mind." [534] An allusion to the Arddhanárísa form of Siva. [535] Kalá = digit of the moon and also accomplishment. [536] The vidyá of the Vidyáharas. I read pratíkshyate. [537] Here Professor Brockhaus supposes a hiatus. [538] Cp. this with the "jewel-lamps" on pp. 189 and 305, and the luminous carbuncle in Gesta Romanorum, CVII. Sir Thomas Browne, in his Vulgar Errors, Book II, chapter 5, says, "Whether a carbuncle doth flame in the dark, or shine like a coal in the night, though generally agreed on by common believers, is very much questioned by many." See also Simrock's Deutsche Volksbücher, Vol. I, p. 301; Vol. III, p. 12; Vol. VI, p. 289. Lucian in his De Deâ Syriâ ch. 32, speaks of a precious stone of the name of lychnis which was bright enough to light up a whole temple at night. We read in the history of the Pseudo-Callisthenes, Book II, ch. 42, that Alexander found in the belly of a fish a precious stone which he had set in gold and used at night as a lamp. See also Baring Gould's Curious Myths of the Middle Ages, p. 42. See Gaal, Märchen der Magyaren, p. 155; Ariosto, Orlando Furioso, III, 14. [539] i. e. supreme lord of jewels. [540] i. e. as Indra mounts Airávata. [541] The modern Tamluk. The district probably comprised the small but fertile tract of country lying to the westward of the Húghli river, from Bardwán and Kalna on the north, to the banks of the Kosai river on the south. (Cunningham's Ancient Geography of India, p. 504.) [542] In the 115th tale of the Gesta Romanorum we read that two chaste virgins were able to lull to sleep and kill an elephant, that no one else could approach. [543] Both were produced at the churning of the ocean. [544] A famous linga of Siva in Ujjayiní. [545] Perhaps the Pushkalávatí described by General Cunningham in his Ancient Geography of India, p. 49. [546] There is a studied ambiguity in all these words, the usual play on affection and oil being kept up. A marginal correction in a Sanskrit College MS. lent to me, gives hridayam. The text has ránjitam stháthaván. The latter is a vox nihili. Brockhaus's text may be explained--My hand full of my heart was steeped in affection for you. [547] For "funeral human sacrifice for the service of the dead," see Tylor's Primitive Culture, pp. 413-422. Cp. Hagen's Helden-Sagen, Vol. III, pp. 165 and 166. [548] i. e. Producer of horns. [549] Cp. the 31st tale in Signora von Gonzenbach's Sicilianische Märchen, (p. 209) where the black figs produce horns. There is also in the same story a pipe that compels all that hear its sound to dance. See Dr. Reinhold Köhler's notes on the tale: also Grimm's No. 110 and his notes in his third volume. Cp. also Veckenstedt's Wendische Sagen, p. 65. See also Ralston's Russian Folk-Tales, p. 283: Bernhard Schmidt's Griechische Märchen, No. 20, and Liebrecht, Zur Volkskunde, p. 484. The incident in Sicilianische Märchen closely resembles one in the story of Fortunatus as told in Simrock's Deutsche Volksbücher, Vol. III, p. 175. There is a pipe that compels all the hearers to dance in Hug of Bordeaux, Vol. X, p. 263, and a very similar fairy harp in Wirt Sikes's British Goblins, p. 97; and a magic fiddle in Das Goldene Schachspiel, a story in Kaden's Unter den Olivenbäumen, p. 160. A fiddler in Bartsch's Sagen aus Meklenburg, (Vol. I, p. 130) makes a girl spin round like a top. From that day she was lame. See also De Gubernatis, Zoological Mythology, Vol. I, pp. 182 and 288, and Baring Gould, IInd Series, p. 152. Kuhn, in his Westfälische Märchen, Vol. I, p. 183, mentions a belief that horns grew on the head of one who looked at the Wild Huntsman. It is just possible that this notion may be derived from the story of Actæon. A statue found in the ruins of the villa of Antoninus Pius near Lavinium represents him with his human form and with the horns just sprouting. (Engravings from Ancient Marbles in the British Museum, Plate XLV.) Cp. also the story of Cipus in Ovid's Metamorphoses XV, 552-621. For the magic pipe see Grimm's Irische Märchen, Einleitung, p. lxxxiii; Rohde, Der Griechische Roman, p. 264. Remarks on the pipe and horns will be found in Ralston's Tibetan Tales, Introduction pp. liv-lvi. [550] Cp. Grimm's Märchen, No. 193. The parallel between Grimm's story and that of Vidúshaka in Chapter 18 is still more striking. [551] This idea, which is met with so frequently in this work, is found in China also. See Giles's Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio, Vol. I, p. 177, where Miss Li, who is a devil, hears the cock crow and vanishes. [552] Cp. Veckenstedt's Wendische Sagen, pp. 256 and 394. See also No. CXXIX in Giles's Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio, Vol. II, p. 265, the title of which is "Making of Animals." Cp. with the string the gold rings in the Volsunga Saga, Hagen's Helden-Sagen, Vol. III, p. 30. In Ovid's Metamorphoses VIII, 850, and ff. there is an account of Mestra's transformations. Neptune gave her the power of transforming herself whenever she was sold by her father. See also the story of Achelous and Hercules in book IX of the Metamorphoses; Prym and Socin's Syrische Märchen, p. 229, where we have the incident of the selling; Waldau, Böhmische Märchen, p. 125; Coelho Contos Portuguezes, p. 32. [553] Pandit Syámá Charan Mukhopádhyáya conjectures ásoshyamáne. This I adopt unhesitatingly. [554] Cp. Sagas from the Far East, p. 35. This story very closely resembles that of Sidi Noman in the Arabian Nights, and the Golden Ass of Apuleius. [555] Compare Lane's Arabian Nights, Vol. I, pp. 156, 157, also Campbell's Tales from the Western Highlands, Vol. II, p. 422, and Sagas from the Far East, p. 4. This part of the story comes under Mr. Baring-Gould's Magical Conflict root. (See his Story Radicals in the appendix to Henderson's Folklore of the Northern Counties.) Cp. also Miss Keary's Heroes of Asgard, p. 223, where Loki and Idúna in the forms of a falcon and a sparrow are pursued by the giant Thiassi in the shape of an eagle. [556] The word samvara, which I have translated "congregation," probably means "sorcery;" see Böhtlingk and Roth s. v. [557] I adopt kritam the reading of a MS. lent me from the Sanskrit College. I should put a comma after álápam, as that word is used in the masculine. [558] I. e. lord of horses. [559] I. e. lord of elephants.