The Kathá Sarit Ságara; or, Ocean of the Streams of Story
translated by Stanislas Julien.
[54] The reading of the Sanskrit College MS. is ádritánoparenate, but
probably the reading is ádritá no, panena te they were not honoured
but on the contrary punished with a fine.
[55] I think tad should be tam. The story is No. 58 in the Avadánas.
[56] The Sanskrit College MS. reads gahvaragrámavásí, but below sa
gahvarah. This story is No. 38 in the Avadánas.
[57] This story is No. 98 in the Avadánas.
[58] Benfey shews that this introduction is probably of Buddhistic
origin. He quotes from Upham's Sacred and Historical books of Ceylon
a story about some snipe, which escape in the same way, but owing to
disunion are afterwards caught again. Cp. also Mahábhárata, V (II,
180) v. 2455 and ff., also Baldo Fab. X, in Edéléstand du Méril,
Poésies Inédites, pp. 229, 230, La Fontaine, XII, 15. (Benfey,
Vol. I, p. 304, and ff.) See the first book of the Hitopadesa,
(page 3, Johnson's translation) and the 2nd book of the Panchatantra
(page 176, Benfey's translation). It is to be found in Rhys Davids'
translation of the Játakas, which has just reached India, pp. 296-298.
[59] Cp. Wolff, I, 159, Knatchbull, 201, Symeon Seth, 47, John of
Capua, g., 3, b., German translation (Ulm, 1483) M., IV, b., Spanish
translation, XXXI, b., Doni, 18, Anvár-i-Suhaili, 273, Livre des
Lumières, 211, Cabinet des Fées, XVII, 410, Hitopadesa (Johnson)
Fable V, p. 22. (Benfey, Vol. I, p. 316.)
[60] For jata we must read játa. Cp. for the power given by a treasure
the 18th chapter of this work, see also Benfey, Vol. I, p. 320.
[61] The Sanskrit College MS. has ullambya, having hung it upon a peg.
[62] Cp. Wolff, I, 160, Knatchbull, 202, Symeon Seth, 48, John of
Capua, g., 6, German translation (Ulm) M., IV, b., Anvár-i-Suhaili,
275, Livre des Lumières, 214, Cabinet des Fées, XVII, 412. (Benfey,
Vol. I, p. 318.)
[63] Cp. Hitopadesa, Fable VII, p. 30. Benfey compares Wolff, I,
162, Knatchbull, 203, Symeon Seth, 48, John of Capua, g., 6, German
translation (Ulm, 1483) M., V, Spanish translation, XXXII, a, Doni,
p. 20, Anvár-i-Suhaili, 275, Livre des Lumières, 216, Cabinet des
Fées, XVII, 413, Camerarius, Fab. Æsop., 388, Lafontaine, VIII, 27,
Lancereau, French translation of the Hitopadesa, 222, Robert, Fables
Inédites, II, 191. (Benfey, Vol. I, p. 320). Cp. also Sagas from the
Far East, p. 189.
[64] Perhaps we should read--sáyake.
[65] Here Somadeva departs from the Panchatantra, (Benfey, Vol. I,
p. 318.)
[66] As he does the lion in Babrius, 107.
[67] Benfey compares Grimm R. F. CCLXXXIV, Renart, br. 25, Grimm
Kinder- und Hausmärchen, 58, (III, 100) Keller, Romans des sept Sages,
CLII, Dyocletian, Einleitung, 48, Conde Lucanor, XLIII. (Benfey,
Vol. I, p. 333). See also Lafontaine's Fables, XII, 15. This is
perhaps the story which General Cunningham found represented on a
bas-relief of the Bharhut Stúpa. (See General Cunningham's Stúpa of
Bharhut, p. 67.) The origin of the story is no doubt the Birth-story
of "The Cunning Deer," Rhys Davids' translation of the Játakas,
pp. 221-223. The Kurunga Miga Játaka, No. 206 in Fausböll Vol. II,
p. 152 is a still better parallel. In this the tortoise gnaws through
the bonds, the crane (satapatto) smites the hunter on the mouth as
he is leaving his house; he twice returns to it on account of the
evil omen; and when the tortoise is put in a bag, the deer leads
the hunter far into the forest, returns with the speed of the wind,
upsets the bag, and tears it open.
[68] Benfey compares with this the fifth story in the 4th book of
his Panchatantra, Wie eine Frau liebe belohnt. But the very story is
found in Taranga 65, which was not published when Benfey wrote his
book. For parallel stories see Liebrecht, Zur Volkskunde, p. 39 and
ff. where he is treating of a tale in the Nugæ Curialium of Gualterus
Mapes. The woman behaves like Erippe in a story related by Parthenius
(VIII). In the heading of the tale we are told that Aristodemus of
Nysa tells the same tale with different names.
[69] The Sanskrit College MS. reads pallím for patním.
[70] Nága in the original--a fabulous serpent demon with a human
face. Cp. Ralston's Russian Folk-Tales, p. 65. "He flies as a fiery
snake into his mistress's bower, stamps with his foot on the ground
and becomes a youthful gallant."
[71] Cp. Arrian's Indika, chapter xvii, McCrindle's translation.
[72] This story corresponds to No. XLIII, in the Avadánas.
[73] This to a certain extent resembles the 129th story in the Gesta
Romanorum, "Of Real Friendship." Douce says that the story is in
Alphonsus. A story more closely resembling the story in the Gesta is
current in Bengal, with this difference, that a goat does duty for
the pig of the Gesta. A son tells his father he has three friends,
the father says that he has only half a friend. Of course the half
friend turns out worth all the three put together. The Bengali story
was told me by Pandit Syámá Charan Mukhopádhyáya. See also Liebrecht's
Dunlop, p. 291, and note 371. See also Herrtage's English Gesta,
p. 127, Tale 33.
[74] A perpetually recurring pun! The word can either mean "oiliness"
or "affection."
[75] Cp. what Sganarelle says in Le Mariage Forcé:
"La raison. C'est que je ne me sens point propre pour le mariage,
et que je veux imiter mon père et tous ceux de ma race, qui ne se
sont jamais voulu marier."
[76] This story bears a certain resemblance to the European stories of
grammarians who undertake to educate asses or monkeys. (See Lévêque,
Les Mythes et Légendes de l'Inde et de la Perse, p. 320.) La Fontaine's
Charlatan is perhaps the best known. This story is found in Prym und
Socin's Syrische Märchen, p. 292, where a man undertakes to teach a
camel to read.
[77] This story is No. LI in the Avadánas.
[78] See Felix Liebrecht, Orient und Occident, Vol. I, p. 135 on
the Avadánas translated from the Chinese by Stanislas Julien, Paris,
1859 where this story is found (No. LXIX.) He compares a story of an
Irishman who was hired by a Yarmouth Malster to assist in loading his
ship. As the vessel was about to set sail, the Irishman cried out from
the quay. "Captain, I lost your shovel overboard, but I cut a big notch
on the rail-fence, round stern, just where it went down, so you will
find it when you come back." Vol. II, p. 544, note. Liebrecht thinks
he has read something similar in the Asteia of Hierokles. See also
Bartsch, Sagen, Märchen und Gebräuche aus Meklenburg, Vol. I, p. 349.
[79] See Liebrecht, Zur Volkskunde, pp. 119 and 120, also Benfey's
Panchatantra. Vol. I, p. 391, Nachträge II, 543. This is No. CIII. in
the Avadánas.
[80] This is No. XLIX in the Avadánas.
[81] This is No. XXXVII in the Avadánas.
[82] In the original the husband is called a "vessel of alms," i. e.,
"receiver of alms," but the pun cannot be retained in the translation
without producing obscurity.
[83] See Benfey's Panchatantra, IIIrd book, page 213, Vol. II. Benfey
points out that in the Mahábhárata, Drona's son, one of the few
Kauravas that had survived the battle, was lying under a sacred
fig-tree, on which crows were sleeping. Then he sees one owl come and
kill many of the crows. This suggests to him the idea of attacking
the camp of the Pándavas. In the Arabic text the hostile birds are
ravens and owls. So in the Greek and the Hebrew translation. John
of Capua has "sturni," misunderstanding the Hebrew. (Benfey, Vol. I,
335). Rhys Davids states in his Buddhist Birth Stories (p. 292 note,)
that the story of the lasting feud between the crows and the owls is
told at length in Játaka, No. 270.
[84] For Pradívin the Petersburg lexicographers would read Prajívin,
as in the Panchatantra.
[85] Benfey remarks that this fable was known to Plato; Cratylus, 411,
A, (but the passage might refer to some story of Bacchus personating
Hercules, as in the Ranæ,) and he concludes that the fable came from
Greece to India. He compares Æsop, (Furia, 141, Coraes, 113,) Lucianus,
Piscator, 32, Erasmus, "Asinus apud Cumanos," Robert, Fables Inédites,
I, 360. (Benfey, Vol. I, p. 463.) I cannot find the fable in Phædrus
or Babrius. The skin is that of a tiger in Benfey's translation, and
also in Johnson's translation of the Hitopadesa, p. 74 in the original
(Johnson's edition). See also Liebrecht, Zur Volkskunde, p. 119. It
is No. 189 in Fausböll's edition of the Játakas, and will be found
translated in Rhys Davids' Introduction to his Buddhist Birth Stories,
p. v.
[86] Benfey compares Grimm's Märchen, Vol. III, 246, where parallels
to story No. 171 are given; Thousand and one Nights (Weil, III,
923). In a fable of Æsop's the birds choose a peacock king. (Æsop,
Furia, 183, Coraes, 53). (Benfey, Vol. I, p. 347.) See also Liebrecht,
Zur Volkskunde, p. 110, Veckenstedt's Wendische Märchen, p. 424, De
Gubernatis, Zoological Mythology, Vol. II, p. 206. See also p. 246 for
an apologue in which the owl prevents the crow's being made king. See
also Rhys Davids' Buddhist Birth Stories, p. 292. See also Brand's
Popular Antiquities, Vol. III, pp. 196, 197. The story of the crow
dissuading the birds from making the owl king is Játaka, No. 270. In
the Kosiya Játaka, No. 226, an army of crows attacks an owl.
[87] Cp. Hitopadesa, 75, Wolff, I, 192; Knatchbull, 223, Symeon Seth,
58, John of Capua, h., 5, b., German translation (Ulm 1483) O., II,
Spanish translation, XXXVI, a.; Doni, 36, Anvár-i-Suhaili, 315, Livre
des Lumières, 246; Cabinet des Fées, XVII, 437. This fable is evidently
of Indian origin. For the deceiving of the elephant with the reflexion
of the moon, Benfey compares Disciplina Clericalis XXIV. (Benfey,
Vol. I, pp. 348, 349.) See also De Gubernatis, Zoological Mythology,
Vol. II, p. 76.
[88] i. e. moon-lake.
[89] Common epithets of the moon. The Hindus find a hare in the moon
where we find a "man, his dog, and his bush."
[90] This story is found in Wolff, I, 197, Knatchbull, 226, Symeon
Seth, 60, John of Capua, h., 6, b, German translation (Ulm 1483) O.,
IV, 6, Spanish translation, 36, b, Doni, 38, Anvár-i-Suhaili, 322,
Livre des Lumières, 251, Cabinet des Fées, XVII, 442, Baldo Fab. XX,
in Edéléstand du Méril, Poesies Inédites, p. 249. Benfey finds three
"moments" in the Fable; the first is, the "hypocritical cat"; this
conception he considers to be "allgemein menschlich" and compares
Furia, 14, Coraes, 152, Furia, 15, Coraes, 6, Furia, 67, Coraes,
28, Robert, Fables Inédites, I, 216; also Mahábhárata V. (II, 283)
5421 and ff., where the cat manages to get herself taken to the
river, to die, by the rats and mice, and there eats them. The second
moment is the folly of litigiousness: here he compares a passage
in Dubois's Panchatantra. The third is the object of contention,
the nest, for which he compares Phædrus, I, 21. (Benfey, Vol. I,
pp. 350-354). I should compare, for the 1st moment, Phædrus, Lib. II,
Fabula, IV, (recognovit Lucianus Mueller) Aquila, Feles et Aper,
La Fontaine, VII, 16. See also for the "hypocritical cat" Liebrecht,
Zur Volkskunde, p. 121. The cat's tactics are much the same as those
of the fox in Reineke Fuchs (Simrock, Deutsche Volksbücher, Vol. I,
p. 138.) See also De Gubernatis, Zoological Mythology, Vol. II,
p. 54. The story is No. CXXV in the Avadánas. From De Gubernatis,
Zoological Mythology, pp. 227-228 it appears that kapinjala means
a heath-cock, or a cuckoo. Here the word appears to be used as a
proper name. There is a very hypocritical cat in Prym und Socin,
Syrische Märchen, p. lx. See especially p. 242, and cp. p. 319.
[91] This is the 3rd story in Benfey's translation of the third book
of the Panchatantra. See Johnson's translation of the Hitopadesa,
p. 110. Wolff, I. 205, Knatchbull, 233. Symeon Seth, 62, John of Capua,
i., 1, b., German translation O., VI, 6, Spanish, XXXVII, a., Doni,