The Kathá Sarit Ságara; or, Ocean of the Streams of Story
[560] I. e. Man-lion.
[561] Kárpatika; for the use of this word see chapters 24, 63 and 81
of this work.
[562] I follow sákútam the reading of the MS in the Sanskrit
College. So the wounds of Sir Urro of Hungary were healed, as soon
as they were handled by the valiant Sir Launcelot (La Mort d'Arthure,
Vol. III, p. 270).
[563] Here the word Sramana is used, which generally means--"Buddhist
ascetic."
[564] I. e. deceitful-minded.
[565] Cp. the story of Phalabhúti in the 20th Taranga. I may here
mention that Liebrecht points out a striking parallel to the story
of Fulgentius, (with which I have compared that of Phalabhúti,)
in the Nugæ Curialium of Gualterus Mapes: (Zur Volkskunde, p. 38).
[566] Cp. Sicilianische Märchen, Vol. II, p. 46, where the giant
treacherously lets fall his gauntlet, and asks his adversary to pick
it up. His adversary, the hero of the story, tells him to pick it up
himself, and when the giant bends down for the purpose, cuts off his
head with one blow of his sword.
[567] Here there is an elaborate pun--kara means hand and also
proboscis--dána giving and the ichor that exudes from the temples
of a mast elephant. "Surrounded with clustering bees" may also mean,
"surrounded with handmaids whose consolations worried her."
[568] The word vibudha also means gods--and the gods feed on the moon.
[569] Compare the lichi in the XVth of Miss Stokes's Indian Fairy
Tales, and the páyasa in the XVIth Sarga of the Rámáyana. See also
Sicilianische Märchen, page 269, and Bernhard Schmidt's Griechische
Märchen, pp. 104, 117 and 120. The beginning of this tale belongs to
Mr. Baring-Gould's Gold-child root. Another parallel is to be found
in Kaden's Unter den Olivenbäumen, p. 168. See also Sagas from the
Far East, p. 268; Birlinger, Aus Schwaben, p. 105. See Volsunga Saga
in Hagen's Helden-Sagen, Vol. III, pp. 8 and 9.
[570] Kshetra here means "a holy field" or sacred spot.
[571] This part of the story reminds one of the Clerk's Tale in
Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.
[572] See Ralston's Russian Folk-Tales, p. 80 where numerous parallels
are adduced. Cp. also Gonzenbach's Sicilianische Märchen, Vol. I,
p. 199.
[573] Compare the story of "The Golden Lion" in Laura von Gonzenbach's
Sicilianische Märchen, Vol. II, p. 76, where the lady places a white
cloth round her waist. See Dr. Köhler's note on the passage. Compare
also the hint which Messeria gives to her lover in the Mermaid,
Thorpe's Yule Tide Stories, p. 198, and the behaviour of Singorra on
page 214. See also "The Hasty Word," Ralston's Russian Folk-Tales,
p. 368, and The "Water King and Vasilissa the Wise", p. 128;
Veckenstedt's Wendische Märchen, pp. 256 and 258, and Liebrecht,
Zur Volkskunde, p. 408 and Wirt Sikes's British Goblins, p. 39. The
washing of the hero by a chetí is quite Homeric, (Odyssey XIX, 386.) In
a Welsh story (Professor Rhys, Welsh Tales, p. 8) a young man discovers
his lady-love by the way in which her sandals are tied. There are
only two to choose from, and he seems to have depended solely upon
his own observation.
[574] A khárí = about 3 bushels.
[575] Compare the way in which Psyche separated the seeds in the Golden
Ass of Apuleius, Lib. VI. cap X, and the tasks in Grimm's Märchen,
Nos. 62, 186, and 193. A similar incident is found in a Danish Tale,
Swend's Exploits, p. 353 of Thorpe's Yule-Tide Stories. Before the king
will allow Swend to marry the princess, he gives him a task exactly
resembling the one in our text. He is told to separate seven barrels
of wheat and seven barrels of rye, which are lying in one heap. The
ants do it for him, because he had on a former occasion crumbled
his bread for them. See also the story of the beautiful Cardia,
Gonzenbach's Sicilianische Märchen, p. 188. The hero has first to eat
a cellar full of beans; this he accomplishes by means of the king
of the ravens, his brother-in-law. He next disposes of a multitude
of corpses by means of another brother-in-law, the king of the wild
beasts; he then stuffs a large number of mattresses with feathers by
the help of a third brother-in-law, the king of the birds. See also
Miss Stokes's Indian Fairy Tales, Tale XXII, and the note at the end
of this chapter. So in No. 83 of the Sicilianische Märchen the ants
help Carnfedda because he once crumbled his bread for them.
[576] i. e. Siva.
[577] A forest in Kurukshetra sacred to Indra and burnt by Agni the
god of fire with the help of Arjuna and Krishna.
[578] Hektor, atar sy moi essi patêr kai potnia mêtêr
êde kasignêtos, sy de moi thaleros parakoitês.
[579] I. e., like an arrow in speed.
[580] For this part of the story see Sicilianische Märchen, No 14,
with Dr. Köhler's note.
[581] In Ovid's Metamorphoses VIII, 855, the dominus asks Mestra,
who has been transformed into a fisherman, if she has seen herself
pass that way.
[582] Compare the story of "die kluge Else," the 34th in Grimm's
Kinder- und Hausmärchen, where the heroine has a doubt about her
own identity and goes home to ask her husband, and No. 59 in the same
collection. Cp. also Campbell's Tales from the West Highlands, Vol. II,
p. 375, where one man is persuaded that he is dead, another that he
is not himself, another that he is dressed when he is naked. See also
the numerous parallels given in Ralston's Russian Folk-Tales, p. 54.,
Liebrecht (Zur Volkskunde, p. 128) mentions a story in which a woman
persuades her husband, that he is dead. See also Bartsch's Sagen,
Märchen, und Gebräuche aus Meklenburg, Vol. I, p. 508. In Prym and
Socin's Syrische Märchen, No. LXII, page 250, the flea believes
himself to be dead, and tells every one so.
[583] Cp. Hagen's Helden-Sagen, Vol. II, p. 167, where Ake makes his
wife Wolfriana intoxicated with the object of discovering her secret.
[584] Reading avadishyáma. I find that this is the reading of a MS. in
the Sanskrit College.
[585] I. e. a great or distinguished minister. "Bull" is more literal
than "ox," but does not suit the English idiom so well. Gomukha
means Ox-face.
[586] Guna means virtue and also a thread.
[587] This incident is found in the story of Yavakríta in the 135th
chapter of the Mahábhárata.
[588] I read rúpam for rúpyam.
[589] I. e. Indra.
[590] Literally "having no auspicious marks."
[591] I. e. Fond of enjoyment.
[592] I. e. "New moon."
[593] In the Mahávastu Avadána (in Dr. R. L. Mitra's Sanskrit Buddhist
Literature of Nepal, p. 123) a girl named Amitá is cured of leprosy
by being shut up in an underground chamber.
[594] I suppose this must mean "prepared of the flesh of wild goats." A
MS. in the Sanskrit College reads ramyáni "pleasant."
[595] Plushta is a mistake for pushta, see Böhtlingk and Roth s. v.
[596] I. e. free from old age.
[597] This reminds one of Story XII in the Gesta Romanorum.
[598] I. e. long-lived.
[599] See the IVth chapter of Ralston's Russian Folk-Tales,
Veckenstedt's Wendische Märchen, page 221, Bernhard Schmidt's
Griechische Märchen, p. 125.
[600] Water, rice, dúrva grass, &c. offered to guests.
[601] Fabulous animals with eight feet.
[602] Cp. Sicilianische Märchen, Vol. I, p. 74.
[603] I. e. Camphor-produced. In the Arabian Nights the Camphor
islands are mentioned. See Lane's Translation, Vol. I, page 544.
[604] I find that a MS. in the Sanskrit College reads
avatitírshum. This is obviously the right reading.
[605] The city of Kuvera the god of wealth.
[606] The mother, i. e., Durgá.
[607] See Ralston's remarks on this story in his Russian Folk-Tales,
p. 71. In Hagen's Helden-Sagen, Vol. I, p. 44, Hilda reunites, as
fast as she is cut in two, but at last Dietrich, by the advice of
Hildebrand, steps between the two pieces, and interferes with the vis
medicatrix. Baring Gould seems to identify this story of Indívarasena
with that of St. George. In his essay on that hero-saint, (p. 305,
New Edition,) he observes, "In the Kathá Sarit Ságara a hero fights a
demon monster, and releases a beautiful woman from his thraldom. The
story, as told by Soma Deva, has already progressed, and assumed a
form similar to that of Perseus and Andromeda.
[608] The word literally means chariot of the mind. There is a
pun here.
[609] This resembles the German story of the two brothers as given
in Cox's Aryan Mythology, Vol. I, p. 162. See also Gonzenbach's
Sicilianische Märchen, Nos. 39 and 40, with Dr. Köhler's note. He
there refers us to his own remarks on the 4th of Campbell's West
Highland Tales in Orient und Occident, Vol. II, p. 118, and to Grimm,
Nos. 60 and 85, Hahn No. 22, Widter-Wolf, No. 8, Vernaleken, No. 35,
&c. In Grimm's No. 60, we have a magic sword, and the temporary
death of one of the brothers is indicated by the dimming of one side
of a knife. This story resembles Grimm's more closely, than that of
Asokadatta and Vijayadatta in ch. 25. See also Bartsch's Sagen, Märchen
und Gebräuche aus Meklenburg, Vol. I, p. 474. See also De Gubernatis,
Zoological Mythology, Vol. I, p. 328, Vol. II, p. 317. The story of
Amys and Amylion, in Ellis's Metrical Romances, resembles closely
the tale, as given by Grimm and Gonzenbach. So too do the 7th and
9th stories of the 1st day in the Pentamerone of Basile, and the
52nd in Coelho's Contos Populares Portuguezes, p. 120. Perhaps the
oldest mythological pair of brothers are the Asvins, who have their
counterpart in the Dioscuri and in Heracles and Iphiclus.
[610] I. e., brightness of the sun. Chandravatí means moonlike.
[611] I. e. Siva the beloved of Párvatí.
[612] I read sarastírát for sarittírát.
[613] Here there is a pun, as the words may also be construed "woven
of excellent threads."
[614] Maya was the architect of the Daityas. According to some Maya
= Ptolemaios.
[615] I. e. holding life.
[616] Cp. the Metamorphoses (Golden Ass) of Apuleius, Lib. V,
cap. III. Visoquestatim semirotundo suggestu propter instrumentum
coenatorum, rata refectui suo commodum, libens accumbit. Et illico
vini nectarei eduliumque variorum fercula copiosa, nullo serviento,
sed tantum spiritu quodam impulsa, subministrantur. See also the
romance of Parthenopex of Blois in Dunlop's History of Fiction,
(Liebrecht's translation, p. 175). See Liebrecht's translation of
the Pentamerone of Basile, Vol. I, p. 55.
[617] I. e., holding or possessing a kingdom.
[618] I. e., greed of wealth.
[619] Cp. Die Sieben Weisen Meister c. 18, (Simrock's Deutsche
Volksbücher, Vol. XII, p. 185).
[620] See note on page 305.
[621] Cp. Herodotus III. 119; Antigone, vv. 909-912. See also the
Pentamerone of Basile, Vol. II, p. 131, and the Ucchanga Játaka,
No. 67 in Dr. Fausböll's edition.
[622] A mere pun.
[623] I read with a MS. in the Sanskrit College--bhayade há múrta
iva sáhase.
[624] "Wish" is literally "chariot of the mind," so here there is
a pun.
[625] Both Srí and the Amrita came out of the sea when it was
churned. Sudasárha kúlena seems to be corrupt.
[626] i. e., Ganesa.
[627] i. e., Diamond-peak.
[628] For ubhayavedyeka the Petersburg lexicographers read
ubhayavedyardha. I have followed this reading.
[629] Identified by General Cunningham with the Sangala of
Alexander. (Ancient Geography of India, p. 179 & ff.)
[630] i. e., Siva.
[631] I read bodhitah.
[632] Kánchí means girdle, guna excellence and thread. The last clause
might be translated--made of threads.
[633] I read Súryaprabha for Súryachandra.
[634] Vidyunmálá means "garland of lightning."
[635] Alluding to Indra's slaying the demon Vritra, who was regarded
as a Bráhman, and to his conduct with Ahalyá.
[636] I. q. Siva.
[637] i. e., Siva.
[638] One of the seven under-worlds.
[639] I. q. Acesines and Hydraotes.
[640] I. e., a day of Brahmá consisting of 1000 yugas.