The Katha Sarit Sagara or Ocean of the Streams of Story Part 101

[726] The word artha means wealth, and also meaning.

[727] The story of Anangaprabha may be the origin of the seventh Novel of the IInd day in the Decameron of Boccacio.

[728] Prayaga--Allahabad, the place of sacrifice kat' exochen. Here the Ganga and Yamuna unite with the supposed subterranean Sarasvati.

[729] The word in the original is karpatika. Bohtlingk and Roth explain it in this pa.s.sage as "ein im Dienste eines Fursten stehender Bettler." It appears from Taranga 81, that a poor man became a karpatika by tearing a karpata, a ragged garment, in a king's presence. The business of a karpatika seems to have been to do service without getting anything for it.

[730] Cp. the 1st Novel in the 10th Day of the Decameron and Ralston's Russian Folk Tales, p. 197.

[731] There is a pun here. The word palasa also means "cruel, unmerciful."

[732] The word used shews that he was probably a Buddhist mendicant.

[733] Cp. Miss Frere's Old Deccan days, p. 171, and Giles's Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio, p. 430, where the young lady says to Ma; "You have often asked me for money, but on account of your weak luck I have hitherto refrained from giving you any."

[734] This story is found in the Hitopadesa, p. 89 of Johnson's translation.

[735] These two lines are an elaborate pun--ku = evil, and also earth, guna = virtue, and also string, avichara = injustice, also the movement of sheep.

[736] I follow the MS. in the Sanskrit College which reads rodorandhre.

[737] Here with the Sanskrit College MS. I read ruditam for the unmetrical kranditam.

[738] I read dhrishyan, i. e., rejoicing, from hrish.

[739] The word sattvavara here means "possessing pre-eminent virtue."

[740] In sl. 163 (a) I read mama for maya with the Sanskrit College MS.

[741] The story, as told in Chapter 78, is somewhat different from this.

[742] There is a pun in this word mahasattva. It means n.o.ble, good, virtuous, and also full of great monsters.

[743] This reminds one of the description which Palladius gives of the happy island of Taprobane. St. Ambrose in his version speaks of it as governed by four kings or satraps. The fragment begins at the 7th chapter of the 3rd book of the History of the Pseudo-Callisthenes edited by Carolus Muller. See Rohde, Der Griechische Roman, p. 239.

[744] i. e. Lakshmi or Sri.

[745] Hansa--means swan and also supreme soul, i. e., Vishnu.

[746] War, peace, marching, encamping, dividing one's forces, seeking the alliance of a more powerful king.

[747] Or sects. The word used for "bee" means literally the six-footed. The whole pa.s.sage is full of double meanings, charana meaning foot, line, i. e., the fourth part of a stanza, and also sect.

[748] Darsana utsukah should probably be read here for the sake of the metre.

[749] Here there is a pun.

[750] This pa.s.sage is an elaborate pun throughout.

[751] I read phalam which I find in the Sanskrit College MS. instead of param.

[752] i. e., possessor of much gold.

[753] i. e., Durga. For mritajatir I read mritajanir which is the reading of the MS. in the Sanskrit College. In the next line jivita should be jivata.

[754] Cp. the story of Dhanagupta and Upabhuktadhana, Benfey's Panchatantra, Vol. II, p. 197. It is part of the fifth story, that of Somilaka. See Benfey, Vol. I, p. 321, where he traces it to a Buddhist source.

[755] I read tapahstha-purva-drishtayas one word.

[756] Siva is invoked by a different name for each limb which he is asked to protect. See the quotations in Brand's Popular Antiquities (Bohn's Edition, Vol. I, pp. 365 and 366) from Moresini Papatus and Melton's Astrologaster. Brand remarks, "The Romanists, in imitation of the heathens, have a.s.signed tutelary G.o.ds to each member of the body."

[757] Vira means hero.

[758] The puns here defy translation.

[759] Here the Sanskrit text has "and so resembled himself." Each of the Sanskrit compounds may be taken in another sense. The "heat"

is valour; the "swans" subject kings; the sight of the king delighted his subjects, and he possessed furious elephants.

[760] The Sanskrit College MS. reads Asikalahayarudhah.

[761] Cp. The Lament of Moschos for Bion, 1. 99-104.

[762] I. e. Female snake, somewhat of the nature of the Echidna of our boyhood;

hemisy men nymphen helikopida kallipareon hemisy d' aute peloron ophin, deinon te megan te.

Hesiod. Theog. 298.

[763] Cp. the following pa.s.sage which Wirt Sikes (British Goblins, p. 385) quotes from the Mabinogion. "Take the bowl and throw a bowlful of water on the slab," says the black giant of the wood to Sir Kai, "and thou wilt hear a mighty peal of thunder, so that thou wilt think that heaven and earth are trembling with its fury. With the thunder will come a shower so severe that it will be hardly possible for thee to endure and live. And the shower will be of hailstones; and after the shower the weather will become fair, but every leaf that was upon the tree will have been carried away by the shower." Cp. Prym und Socin, Syrische Marchen, p. 116, and Gaal, Marchen der Magyaren, pp. 101 and 102.

[764] I read with the Sanskrit College MS. ajayyah.

[765] Bohtlingk conjectures surpa for surya; surpa is a winnowing-basket.

[766] This is the sense, but--epsur cannot be right; the Sanskrit College MS. reads--echchhum. Perhaps--echchhuh will do.

[767] I read tada for pada, a conjecture of Babu S. C. Mookerjea's. The Sanskrit College MS. reads atyanandabhrite yuktam navartetam yadatmani.

[768] I. e. showerer of riches.

[769] The MS. in the Sanskrit College reads svasainyam which saves the metre.

[770] Svasuravesmavartmasritas is the reading of the MS. in the library of the Sanskrit College.

[771] I read manitaprakritih, following the MS. in the Sanskrit College.

[772] I. e. earth-protector, king.