The Katha Sarit Sagara or Ocean of the Streams of Story Part 85

When I said this, the boy laughed and said, "The chariots of the snakes are clouds; the beloved of the boar is the earth, for she is said to have been most dear to Vishnu in his Boar incarnation; and what is there to be astonished at in the fact that rain from the clouds made grain to spring on the earth?"

When the cunning boy had said this, he went on to say to me, who was astonished at his cleverness, "Now I will tell you a strange tale. If you understand it, and admit that it is really true, I will give you back this bedstead, otherwise you shall be my slave."

I answered "Agreed;" and then the cunning boy said this, "Prince of knowing ones, there was born long ago on this earth a wonderful boy, who, as soon as he was born, made the earth tremble with the weight of his feet, and when he grew bigger, stepped into another world."

When the boy said this, I, not knowing what he meant, answered him, "It is false; there is not a word of truth in it." Then the boy said to me, "Did not Vishnu, as soon as he was born, stride across the earth, in the form of a dwarf, and make it tremble? And did he not, on that same occasion, grow bigger, and step into heaven? So you have been conquered by me, and reduced to slavery. And these people present in the market are witnesses to our agreement. So, wherever I go, you must come along with me." When the resolute boy had said this, he laid hold of my arm with his hand; and all the people there testified to the justice of his claim.

Then, having made me his prisoner, bound by my own agreement, he, accompanied by his attendants, took me to his mother in the city of Pataliputra. And then his mother looked at him, and said to me, "My husband, my promise has to-day been made good, I have had you brought here by a son of mine begotten by you." When she had said this, she related the whole story in the presence of all.

Then all her relations respectfully congratulated her on having accomplished her object by her wisdom, and on having had her disgrace wiped out by her son. And I, having been thus fortunate, lived there for a long time with that wife, and that son, and then returned to this city of Ujjayini.

"So you see, king, honourable matrons are devoted to their husbands, and it is not the case that all women are always bad." When king Vikramaditya had heard this speech from the mouth of Muladeva, he rejoiced with his ministers. Thus hearing, and seeing, and doing wonders, that king Vikramaditya [827] conquered and enjoyed all the divisions of the earth.

"When the hermit Kanva had told during the night this story of Vishamasila, dealing with separations and reunions, he went on to say to me who was cut off from the society of Madanamanchuka; 'Thus do unexpected separations and reunions of beings take place, and so you, Naravahanadatta, shall soon be reunited to your beloved. Have recourse to patience, and you shall enjoy for a long time, son of the king of Vatsa, surrounded by your wives and ministers, the position of a beloved emperor of the Vidyadharas.' This admonition of the hermit Kanva enabled me to recover patience; and so I got through my time of separation, and I gradually obtained wives, magic, science, and the sovereignty over the Vidyadharas. And I told you before, great hermits, how I obtained all these by the favour of Siva, the giver of boons."

By telling this his tale, in the hermitage of Kasyapa, Naravahanadatta delighted his mother's brother Gopalaka and all the hermits. And after he had pa.s.sed there the days of the rainy season, he took leave of his uncle and the hermits in the grove of asceticism, and mounting his chariot, departed thence with his wives and his ministers, filling the air with the hosts of his Vidyadharas. And in course of time he reached the mountain of Rishabha his dwelling-place; and he remained there delighting in the enjoyments of empire, in the midst of the kings of the Vidyadharas, with queen Madanamanchuka, and Ratnaprabha and his other wives; and his life lasted for a kalpa.

This is the story called Vrihatkatha, told long ago, on the summit of mount Kailasa, by the undaunted [828] Siva, at the request of the daughter of the Himalaya, and then widely diffused in the world by Pushpadanta and his fellows, who were born on the earth wearing the forms of Katyayana and others, in consequence of a curse. And on that occasion that G.o.d her husband attached the following blessing to this tale, "Whoever reads this tale that issued from my mouth, and whoever listens to it with attention, and whoever possesses it, shall soon be released from his sins, and triumphantly attain the condition of a splendid Vidyadhara, and enter my everlasting world."

END OF THE COLLECTION OF TALES CALLED THE KATHa SARIT SaGARA.

NOTES TO VOLUME I

[1] Dr. Brockhaus explains this of Ganesa, he is probably a.s.sociated with Siva in the dance. So the poet invokes two G.o.ds, Siva and Ganesa, and one G.o.ddess Sarasvati, the G.o.ddess of speech and learning.

[2] Sitkara a sound made by drawing in the breath, expressive of pleasure.

[3] There is a double meaning: padartha also means words and their meanings.

[4] Possibly the meaning is that the mountain covers many thousand yojanas.

[5] This mountain served the G.o.ds and Asuras as a churning stick at the churning of the ocean for the recovery of the Amrita and fourteen other precious things lost during the deluge.

[6] Siva himself wears a moon's crescent.

[7] The Sanskrit word Asti meaning "thus it is" is a common introduction to a tale.

[8] The linga or phallus is a favourite emblem of Siva. Flame is one of his eight ta.n.u.s or forms.

[9] He was burnt up by the fire of Siva's eye.

[10] Compare k.u.mara Sambhava Sarga V, line 86.

[11] Reading tatsanchayaya as one word. Dr. Brockhaus omits the line. Professor E. B. Cowell would read priyam for priye.

[12] One of Siva's favourite attendants.

[13] Attendants of Siva, presided over by Ganesa.

[14] For the ativinita of Dr. Brockhaus's text I read avinita.

[15] Pramatha, an attendant on Siva.

[16] Kausambi succeeded Hastinapur as the capital of the emperors of India. Its precise site has not been ascertained, but it was probably somewhere in the Doaba, or at any rate not far from the west bank of the Yamuna, as it bordered upon Magadha and was not far from the Vindhya hills. It is said that there are ruins at Karali or Karari about 14 miles from Allahabad on the western road, which may indicate the site of Kausambi. It is possible also that the mounds of rubbish about Karrah may conceal some vestiges of the ancient capital--a circ.u.mstance rendered more probable by the inscription found there, which specifies Kata as comprised within Kausamba mandala or the district of Kausambi. [Note in Wilson's Essays, p. 163.] See note on page 281.

[17] A tree of Indra's Paradise that grants all desires.

[18] More literally, the G.o.ddess that dwells in the Vindhya hills. Her shrine is near Mirzapur.

[19] Dr. Brockhaus makes parusha a proper name.

[20] Ficus Indica.

[21] Puman = Purusha, the spirit.

[22] Prakriti, the original source or rather pa.s.sive power of creating the material world.

[23] Praj.a.pati.

[24] The spirit was of course Brahma whose head Siva cut off.

[25] It appears from an article in Melusine by A Bart, ent.i.tled An Ancient Manual of Sorcery, and consisting mainly of pa.s.sages translated from Burnell's Samavidhana Brahmana, that this power can be acquired in the following way, "After a fast of three nights, take a plant of soma (Asclepias acida;) recite a certain formula and eat of the plant a thousand times, you will be able to repeat anything after hearing it once. Or bruise the flowers in water, and drink the mixture for a year. Or drink soma, that is to say the fermented juice of the plant for a month. Or do it always." (Melusine, 1878, p. 107; II, 7, 4-7.)

In the Milinda Panho, (Pali Miscellany by V. Trenckner, Part. I, p. 14,) the child Nagasena learns the whole of the three Vedas by hearing them repeated once.

[26] A grammatical treatise on the rules regulating the euphonic combination of letters and their p.r.o.nunciation peculiar to one of the different Sakhas or branches of the Vedas.--M. W. s. v.

[27] i. e., died.

[28] Here we have a pun which it is impossible to render in English. Anatha means without natural protectors and also poor.

[29] Taking chhaya in the sense of sobha. It might mean "affording no shelter to the inmates."

[30] Dr. Brockhaus translates the line--Von diesem wurde ich meinem Manne vermahlt, um seinem Hauswesen vorzustehen.

[31] Like the Roman fascinum. guhya = phallus.

[32] I read tat for tah according to a conjecture of Professor E. B. Cowell's. He informs me on the authority of Dr. Rost that the only variants are sa for tah and yos.h.i.+ta for yos.h.i.+tah. Dr. Rost would take evamkrite as the dative of evamkrit. If tah be retained it may be taken as a repet.i.tion "having thus prepared it, I say, the women give it." Professor Cowell would translate (if tah be retained) "the women then do not need to receive anything to relieve their fatigue during the cold and hot weather."