The Kathá Sarit Ságara; or, Ocean of the Streams of Story
[221] Cp. the speech of Chi, the scribe of the realms below, in
Giles's Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio, p. 366.
[222] I substitute Bauddham for bodhum.
[223] I follow the Sanskrit College MS. which reads lopatah for
lobhatah.
[224] This idea is found in the story of Jímútaváhana in the 21st
Taranga of this work, where see note. Cp. also "Das Wasser des Lebens,"
Grimm. 97, and the notes in his 3rd volume. See also note on page
499 of Vol. I; and Herrtage's edition of the English Gesta, page 344.
[225] I read ullághayan, which is found in the Sanskrit College MS.
[226] I read with the MS. in the Sanskrit College bhuktottaram.
[227] It also means "the virtues of good or learned men."
[228] It also means "without wealth;" vritta also means "metre."
[229] i.e. female Yaksha.
[230] The notion which Lucretius ridicules in his famous lines,
(Book III, 776 and ff,)
Denique conubia ad Veneris partusque ferarum
Esse animas præsto deridiculum esse videtur,
Expectare immortales mortalia membra &c.
would, it is clear, present no difficulty to the mind of a Hindu. Nor
would he be much influenced by the argument in lines 670-674 of the
same book,
Præterea si immortalis natura animai
Constat, et in corpus nascentibus insinuetur,
Cur super anteactam ætatem meminisse nequimus,
Nec vestigia gestarum rerum ulla tenemus?
[231] i.e. vision of the goddess of Fortune: something like Fortunatus.
[232] I read báhú and vidhvastatá: kim tad in sl. 78 should probably
be tat kim.
[233] In the original there is a most elaborate pun: "free from
calamity" may mean also "impolitic" or "lawless."
[234] A name of Siva.
[235] My native friends tell me that the hand is waved round the head,
and the fingers are snapped four or ten times.
[236] Possibly this story is the same as that of Tannhäuser,
for which see Baring-Gould's Curious Myths of the Middle Ages,
pp. 196-208. He remarks that the story of Tannhäuser is a very ancient
myth christianized.
[237] For the consequences entailed in European Stories by eating
fruit in the under-world, see Kuhn, Westfälische Märchen, Vol. 1,
p. 127; Grimm, Irische Märchen, p. ciii.
[238] The Sanskrit College MS. has dantadríshtádharotkatán. Perhaps
drishta should be dashta. It would then mean terrible because they
were biting their lips.
[239] The Sanskrit College MS. reads vimánavijigíshayá.
[240] Descendants of Vrishni and relatives of Krishna. In Achyuta
there is a pun: the word may mean "Vishnu" and also "permanent":
rámam may also refer to Balaráma, who is represented us a drunkard.
[241] Pátála, like Milton's lower world, "wants not her hidden lustre,
gems and gold."
[242] Kumudiní means an assemblage of white water-lilies: female
attendants may also mean bees, as the Sandhi will admit of ali or áli:
rajendram should probably be rájendum, moon of kings, as the kumudiní
loves the moon.
[243] Cp. the story of Saktideva in Chapter 26.
[244] By the laws of Hindu rhetoric a smile is regarded as white.
[245] We have an instance of this a little further on.
[246] I read dúrabhrashtá. The reading of the Sanskrit College MS. is
dúram bhrashtá.
[247] See Vol. I. pp. 327 and 577, also Prym und Socin, Syrische
Märchen, p. 36, and Southey's Thalaba the Destroyer, Book I, 30,
with the notes.
[248] The moon suffers from consumption in consequence of the curse
of Daksha, who was angry at his exclusive preference for Rohiní.
[249] Here there is a pun: upachitam means also "concentrated."
[250] Cp. a story in the Nugæ Curialium of Gualterus Mapes, in which a
corpse, tenanted by a demon, is prevented from doing further mischief
by a sword-stroke, which cleaves its head to the chin. (Liebrecht's
Zur Volkskunde, p. 34 and ff.) Liebrecht traces the belief in vampires
through many countries and quotes a passage from François Lenormant's
work, La Magie chez les Chaldéens, which shews that the belief in
vampires existed in Chaldæa and Babylonia.--See Vol. I, p. 574.
[251] Cp. the Vampire stories in Ralston's Russian Folk-Tales,
especially that of the soldier and the Vampire, p. 314. It seems to me
that these stories of Vetálas disprove the assertion of Herz quoted
by Ralston, (p. 318) that among races which burn their dead, little
is known of regular corpse-spectres, and of Ralston, that vampirism
has made those lands peculiarly its own which have been tenanted or
greatly influenced by Slavonians. Vetálas seem to be as troublesome in
China as in Russia, see Giles's Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio,
Vol. II, p. 195. In Bernhard Schmidt's Griechische Märchen, p. 139,
there is an interesting story of a Vampire, who begins by swallowing
fowls, goats and sheep, and threatens to swallow men, but his career
is promptly arrested by a man born on a Saturday. A great number of
Vampire stories will be found in the notes to Southey's Thalaba the
Destroyer, Book VIII, 10. See also his poem of Roprecht the Robber,
Part III. For the lamps fed with human oil see Addendum to Fasciculus
IV, and Brand's Popular Antiquities, Vol. I, p. 312, Waldau's Böhmische
Märchen, p. 360, and Kuhn's Westfälische Märchen, p. 146.
[252] A series of elaborate puns.
[253] The significance of those names will appear further on.
[254] The word may mean "man of romantic anecdote."
[255] Cp. Vol. I, pp. 355 and 577.
[256] The Sanskrit College MS. reads na for tu.
[257] I read jánási with the Sanskrit College MS. instead of jánámi
which Dr. Brockhaus gives in his text.
[258] For European methods of attaining invisibility see Brand's
Popular Antiquities, Vol. I, p. 315; Bartsch, Sagen, Märchen, und
Gebräuche aus Meklenburg, Vol. II, pp. 29 and 31; Kuhn, Westfälische
Märchen, Vol. I, p. 276, Vol. II, p. 177. The virtues of the Tarnkappe
are well-known. In Europe great results are expected from reciting
certain sacred formulæ backwards. A somewhat similar belief appears to
exist among the Buddhists. Milton's "backward muttering of dissevering
charms" is perhaps hardly a case in point.
[259] An elaborate pun! varna = caste and also colour: kalá = digit
of the moon and accomplishment, or fine art: doshákara = mine of
crimes and also the moon. Dowson, in his Classical Dictionary of
Hindu Mythology, tells us that Láta is a country comprising Kandesh
and part of Guzerat about the Mhye river. It is now called Lár and
is the Larikê of Ptolemy.
[260] I read prápnomyaham the reading of the Sanskrit College MS.
[261] i. e. Dice-mendicant.
[262] I conjecture oghaprasántyaiva.
[263] Cp. No. LXVI in the English Gesta, page 298 of Herrtage's
edition, and the end of No. XII of Miss Stokes's Fairy Tales. See
also Prym und Socin, Syrische Märchen, pp. 83 and 84.
[264] Cp. Odyssey, Book IV, 441-442.
[265] I read dámabhih for dhámabhih.
[266] Benfey (Panchatantra, Vol. I, p. 214, note,) traces this
superstition through all countries.
[267] This passage is a concatenation of puns.
[268] The whole passage is an elaborate pun. The lady is compared to
a bow, the string of which vibrates in the notches, and the middle
of which is held in the hand.
[269] I read, with the MS. in the Sanskrit College, drutam anuddhritya
for drutam anugatya.
[270] As a life-buoy to prevent him from drowning.
[271] There must be a reference to the five flowery arrows of the
god of Love.
[272] When applied to the moon, it means "glorious in its rising."
[273] Böhtlingk and Roth give upasankhya as überzählig (?).
[274] I adopt pramattá the reading of the Sanskrit College MS.
[275] The gods and Asuras used it as a churning-stick at the churning
of the ocean for the recovery of the Amrita, and other precious things
lost during the deluge.
[276] The Mongolian form of these stories is to be found in Sagas
from the Far East. This work appears to be based upon a translation
made by Jülg from the Calmuck language. Oesterley, in his German
version of these tales, tells us that Jülg's translation appeared
in Leipzig in the year 1866 under the title of "The tales of the
Siddhikür." Oesterley mentions a Sanskrit redaction of the tales,
attributed to Sivadása, and one contained in the Kathárnava. He also
mentions a Tamul version translated into English by Babington under
the title of Vetála Cadai; two Telugu versions, a Mahratta version,
the well-known Hindi version, a Bengali version based upon the Hindi,
and a Canarese version.
[277] Here there is probably a pun. The word translated "jackal"
also means the god Siva. Bhairava is a form of Siva.
[278] See note on page 293.
[279] This story is the 27th in Miss Stokes's collection.
[280] I read satáláni, which I find in the Sanskrit College MS.,
instead of sajáláni. The mistake may have arisen from the blending
of two readings satálani and jatáláni.
[281] In this there is a pun; the word translated "lotus" may also
refer to Lakshmí the wife of Vishnu.
[282] Pandit Syámá Charan Mukhopádhyáya thinks that the word
dantaghátaka must mean "dentist:" the Petersburg lexicographers take it
to mean, "a worker in ivory." His name Sangrámavardhana has a warlike
sound. Pandit Mahesa Chandra Nyáyaratna thinks that dantagháta is a
proper name. If so, sangrámavardhana must mean prime minister.
[283] Cp. the way in which Pushpadanta's preceptor guesses the riddle
in page 44 of Vol. I of this work; so Prince Ivan is assisted by
his tutor Katoma in the story of "The Blind Man and the Cripple,"
Ralston's Russian Folk-Tales, p. 240. Compare also the story of
Azeez and Azeezeh in Lane's Arabian Nights, Vol. I, particularly page
484. The rapid manner, in which the hero and heroine fall in love in
these stories, is quite in the style of Greek romances. See Rohde,
Der Griechische Roman, p. 148.
[284] The Chakora is fabled to subsist upon moonbeams.
[285] See the numerous parallels in Ralston's Russian Folk-Tales,
p. 232; and Grimm's Teutonic Mythology, p. 185, note, where he refers
to the story of the Machandel boom (Kinder und Hausmärchen, No. 47),
the myth of Zeus and Tantalus, and other stories. In the 47th tale of
the Pentamerone of Basile, one of the five sons raises the princess
to life and then demands her in marriage. In fact Basile's tale seems
to be compounded of this and the 5th of the Vetála's stories. In
Prym and Socin's Syrische Märchen, No. XVIII, the bones of a man who
had been killed ten years ago, are collected, and the water of life
is poured over them with the same result as in our text. There is a
"Pergamentblatt" with a life-restoring charm written on it, in Waldau's
Böhmische Märchen, p. 353.
[286] Nishkântam is perhaps a misprint for nishkrântam the reading
of the Sanskrit College MS.
[287] Cp. Sagas from the Far East, p. 303.
[288] Cp. the story told by the "faucon peregryn" in Chaucer's
Squire's Tale.
[289] The following story is the Xth in Sagas from the Far East.
[290] The god of love, with Buddhists the Devil. Benfey considers
that the Vetála Panchavinsati was originally Buddhistic.
[291] A pun difficult to render in English.
[292] The Sanskrit College MS. reads vibuddhesvatha, i. e., being
awake.
[293] I conjecture prahárí for the pahárí of Brockhaus' edition. In
dhárá there is a pun as it also means the "edge of a sword."
[294] I read with the Sanskrit College MS. gupta-bhuvane kálatamasi.
[295] Cp. the way in which the Banshi laments in Grimm's Irische
Märchen, pp. 121 and 122.
[296] I read kritapratishthá which I find in the Sanskrit College MS.
[297] Sattvavara means distinguished for courage.
[298] i. e., Moonlight.
[299] Vijnána appears to have this meaning here. In the Pentamerone of
Basile (Liebrecht's translation, Vol. I, p. 266) a princess refuses