The Kathá Sarit Ságara; or, Ocean of the Streams of Story
[641] Cp. the halo or aureole round the heads of Christian saints,
the circle of rays and nimbus round the head of Greek divinities,
and the beam that came out of Charles the Great's mouth and illumined
his head. (Grimm's Teutonic Mythology, translated by Stallybrass,
p. 323.) Cp. Livy I, 39; and Le Lotus de la Bonne Loi (Burnouf) p. 4.
[642] Kála means Time, Fate, Death.
[643] I divide sa sivákhyánám and take sa to be the demonstrative
pronoun.
[644] I. e. the Yoga system.
[645] This superstition appears to be prevalent in China. See
Giles's Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio, Vol. I, p. 23, and
other passages. It was no doubt carried there by the same wave of
Buddhism that carried there many similar notions connected with the
transmigration of souls, for instance the belief that children are
born able to speak, and that this is very inauspicious. (Cp. Giles's
Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio, Vol. I, p. 184 with the story of
Dharmagupta and Chandraprabhá in the 17th chapter of this work.) The
existence of this latter belief in Europe is probably to be ascribed
to the influence of Buddhism.
[646] Here I read Srutasarma-sapakshatvam.
[647] Usanas here means Sukra, the spiritual guide of the Asuras.
[648] I read pasyásya rúpam. This gives a better sense. It is partly
supported by a MS. in the Sanskrit College. The same MS. in the
next line reads tvám tu pasyati chaiko'pi--I read tvám tu pasyatu
chaisho'pi.
[649] Lit. "the shape of the moon"; put for the moon, because the
author is speaking of a woman. See Böhtlingk and Roth s. v.
[650] I. e. áryaputra, used by a wife in addressing a husband.
[651] A MS. in the Sanskrit College reads asau where Brockhaus
reads amúr.
[652] The Petersburg lexicographers remark that sampadád is "wohl
fehlerhaft." A MS. in the Sanskrit College has sádarád. But this
seems improbable with sádare in the line above. Babu Syámá Charan
Mukhopádhyáya conjectures sammadád which I have adopted.
[653] The eight Lokapálas or guardians of the world.
[654] I. e. the Vidyádharas.
[655] His charioteer.
[656] I read samárúdha-Bhútásana-vimánakáh.
[657] Reading rabhasokti for nabhasokti. Perhaps siddhimitam in sl. 78,
a, should be siddhamidam.
[658] In the MS. lent me from the Sanskrit College I find
sodháhidansasya and visodhavahnes.
[659] Reading aneko dhanyártho.
[660] Cp. Odyssey 4. 841 hôs hoi enarges oneiron epessyto nyktos
amolgô, where some suppose amolgos to mean the four hours before
daybreak.
[661] I read cha ranadíksháyám.
[662] The MS. in the Sanskrit College reads tatrásyástu sivam távat;
let him succeed in the battle.
[663] I. e. attendants of Siva.
[664] The word, which I have translated "human sacrifice," is
purushamedha. For the prevalence of human sacrifices among all nations
of antiquity see Grimm's Teutonic Mythology, translated by Stallybrass,
Vol. I, p. 44 and ff; see also Tylor's Primitive Culture, Vol. II,
p. 246, 353, 361, 365. Dr. Rajendralála Mitra. Rai Bahadúr, in an
essay in the Journal of the Asiatic Society for 1876, entitled "Human
Sacrifices in India," traces the history of the practice in India, and
incidentally among the principal nations of antiquity. The following
is his own summary of his conclusions with respect to the practice
in India. (1) That, looking to the history of human civilization,
and the rituals of the Hindus, there is nothing to justify the belief
that in ancient times the Hindus were incapable of sacrificing human
beings to their gods. (2) That the Sunahsepha hymns of the Rig Veda
Sanhitá most probably refer to a human sacrifice. (3) That the Aitareya
Bráhmana refers to an actual, and not a typical human sacrifice. (4)
That the Purushamedha originally required the actual sacrifice of
men. (5) That the Satapatha Bráhmana sanctions human sacrifice in some
cases, but makes the Purushamedha emblematic. (6) That the Taittiríya
Bráhmana enjoins the sacrifice of a man at the Horse sacrifice. (7)
That the Puránas recognise human sacrifices to Chandiká but prohibit
the Purushamedha rite. (8) That the Tantras enjoin human sacrifices
to Chandiká, and require that, when human victims are not available,
an effigy of a human being should be sacrificed to her. Of the
sacrifices to Chandiká we have enough and to spare in the Kathá
Sarit Ságara. Strange to say, it appears that human sacrifices were
offered in Greece on Mount Lykaion in Arcadia even in the time of
Pausanias. Dim traditions with respect to the custom are still found
among the inhabitants of that region, (Bernhard Schmidt, Griechische
Märchen, p. 27). Cp. the institution of the pharmakoi connected with
the worship of Apollo! Preller, Griechische Mythologie, Vol. I, p. 202;
see also pp. 240 and 257 and Vol. II, pp. 310 and 466; Herodotus VII,
197; Plato, Min. p. 315, C; Preller, Römische Mythologie, p. 104.
[665] Cp. chapter 45. In chapter 73 will be found another instance
of a "rifted rock whose entrance leads to hell." Cp. the Hercules
Furens of Seneca, v. 662 & ff.
[666] For a parallel to the absurdities that follow, see Campbell's
West Highland Tales, p. 202.
[667] The personified energies of the principal deities, closely
connected with the worship of the god Siva. Professor Jacobi compares
them with the Greek goddesses called mêteres, to whom there was a
temple in the Sicilian town of Engyion. (Indian Antiquary, January
1880.)
[668] For ávaham I read áhavam.
[669] Labdhakakshyáh is probably a misprint for baddhakakshyáh.
[670] I read abhikánkshá for abhikánksho which is found in Brockhaus's
text. This is supported by a MS. in the Sanskrit College.
[671] The MS. in the Sanskrit College reads jagme.
[672] Possibly an arrow with a head resembling two hands joined.
[673] There is probably a pun here. Kshetra, besides its astrological
sense, means a wife on whom issue is begotten by some kinsman or duly
appointed person, as in the Jewish law.
[674] Tvashtri is the Vulcan of the Hindus. Bhaga is an Áditya regarded
in the Vedas as bestowing wealth, and presiding over marriage,
his Nakshatra is the Uttara Phálguní. Aryaman is also an Áditya;
Púshan, originally the sun, is in later times an Áditya. The "canopy
of arrows" reminds us of the saying of Dieneces, Herodotus, VII. 227,
and of Milton, P. L., VI. 666.
[675] An epithet of Siva in his character of the destroying deity.
[676] There are three different styles of music called tára, udára,
and mudára. So the word márga contains a pun.
[677] Ogha means current and also quick time in music.
[678] Chhaláhatah is a mistake for chhaládritah. See Böhtlingk
and Roth, (s. v. han with á). The MS. in the Sanskrit College has
chhaládatah.
[679] Here Brockhaus makes a hiatus.
[680] I read Gunasarmanah or Gunasarmane.
[681] The old story of Hippolyte, the wife of Acastus, (the "Magnessa
Hippolyte" of Horace,) and Peleus, of Antea and Bellerophon, of Phædra
and Hippolytus, of Fausta and Crispus. See also the beginning of
the Seven Wise Masters, Simrock's Deutsche Volksbücher, Vol. XII,
pp. 128, 129. Cp. also Grössler, Sagen der Grafschaft Mansfeld,
p. 192. See the remarkable statement in Rohde, Der Griechische Roman,
p. 31, quoted from Pausanias I, 22, 1, to the effect that the story
of Phædra was known to "Barbarians."
[682] Cp. the English superstitions with regard to the raven, crow
and magpie (Henderson's Folk-lore of the Northern Counties, pp. 95
and 96, Hunt's Romances and Drolls of the West of England, p. 429,
Thiselton Dyer, English Folk-lore, pp. 80 and 81). See also Horace,
Odes, III, 27. In Europe the throbbing or tingling of the left
ear indicates calamity, (Liebrecht, Zur Volkskunde, p. 327, Hunt's
Romances and Drolls of the West of England, p. 430, Thiselton Dyer,
English Folk-lore, p. 279). See also Bartsch's Sagen, Märchen und
Gebräuche aus Meklenburg, Vol. II, p. 313, and Birlinger, Aus Schwaben,
pp. 374-378, and 404. For similar superstitions in ancient Greece see
Jebb's Characters of Theophrastus, p. 163, "The superstitious man,
if a weasel run across his path, will not pursue his walk until some
one else has traversed the road, or until he has thrown three stones
across it. When he sees a serpent in his house, if it be the red snake,
he will invoke Sabazius, if the sacred snake, he will straightway place
a shrine on the spot * * * * If an owl is startled by him in his walk,
he will exclaim "Glory be to Athene!" before he proceeds." Jebb refers
us to Ar. Eccl. 792.
[683] The Sanskrit College MS. reads nyáyam for práptam "hear my suit
against Gunasarman." This makes a far better sense.
[684] Daridryo is probably a misprint for daridro.
[685] Cp. Thiselton Dyer's English Folk-lore, p. 280. He remarks: "A
belief was formerly current throughout the country in the significance
of moles on the human body. When one of these appeared on the upper
side of the right temple above the eye, to a woman it signified good
and happy fortune by marriage. This superstition was especially
believed in in Nottinghamshire, as we learn from the following
lines, which, says Mr. Briscoe, (author of 'Nottinghamshire Facts
and Fictions') were often repeated by a poor girl at Bunny:--
'I have a mole above my right eye,
And shall be a lady before I die.
As things may happen, as things may fall
Who knows but that I may be Lady of Bunny Hall?'
The poor girl's hopes, it is stated, were ultimately realized, and
she became 'Lady of Bunny Hall.' See Brand's Popular Antiquities,
Vol. III, pp. 252-255.
[686] I read dehatyágam and vánchasi.
[687] I. e. "beautiful." There is a pun here.
[688] Pátála = Hades, i. e., the world below, vasati = dwelling.
[689] Here Brockhaus supposes a hiatus.
[690] Savará should probably be saraká.
[691] Here Brockhaus supposes a hiatus.
[692] The god of Death.
[693] i. e. Destruction (a goddess of death and corruption).
[694] i. e. the god of the wind.
[695] The god of wealth.
[696] Cp. Homer's Iliad, Book XV, 113-141.
[697] For anyonyais I read anye' anyais.
[698] Or perhaps--with arrows having ten million points.
[699] Cp. Thiselton Dyer's English Folk-lore, p. 203.
[700] Probably some kind of sparkling gem.
[701] Said to mean, planets or demons unfavourable to children.
[702] Cp. Odyssey VII, 117. The same is asserted by Palladius of
the trees in the island of Taprobane, where the Makrobioi live. The
fragment of Palladius, to which I refer, begins at the 7th Chapter
of the IIIrd book of the History of the Pseudo-Callisthenes edited
by Carolus Mueller.
[703] i. e., connected in some way with Buddha. See Böhtlingk and
Roth s. v.
[704] i. e., the Himálaya.
[705] This seems to agree with the story as told in the Bhágavata
Purána. For various forms of the Ráma legend, see the translation of
the Uttara Ráma Charita by M. Félix Nève.
[706] The story of Genovefa in Simrock's Deutsche Volksbücher, Vol. I,
p. 371, bears a striking resemblance to that of Sítá. The way in
which Schmerzensreich and his father retire to the forest at the
end of the story is quite Indian. In the Greek novel of Hysminias
and Hysmine the innocence of the heroine is tested by the fountain
of Diana (Scriptores Erotici, p. 595). For parallels to the story
of Genoveva or Genovefa see Prym und Socin, Syrische Märchen, LII,
and the Introduction, p. xxii.
[707] One of the five trees of Paradise. For the golden lotuses, see
Chapter XXV. In Ch. LII we find trees with trunks of gold and leaves
and fruit of jewels. A similar tree is found in the mediæval romance
of king Alexander. Dunlop compares the golden vine carried away by
Pompey. Liebrecht remarks that there was also a golden vine over the
gate of the temple at Jerusalem, and compares the golden lotus made by