The Katha Sarit Sagara or Ocean of the Streams of Story Part 88

[118] In the word sasnehe there is probably a pun; sneha meaning love, and also oil.

[119] The charioteer of Indra.

[120] For ill.u.s.trations of this bath of blood see Dunlop's Liebrecht, page 135, and the note at the end of the book. The story of Der arme Heinrich, to which Liebrecht refers, is to be found in the VIth Volume of Simrock's Deutsche Volksbucher. Cp. the story of Amys and Amylion, Ellis's Early English Romances, pp. 597 and 598, the Pentamerone of Basile, Vol. I, p. 367; Prym and Socin's Syrische Marchen, p. 73; Grohmann's Sagen aus Bohmen, p. 268; Gonzenbach's Sicilianische Marchen, p. 354, with Dr. Kohler's notes.

[121] This is the Roc or Rokh of Arabian romance, agreeing in the multiplicity of individuals as well as their propensity for raw flesh.

(See Sindbad's Voyages ed. Langles, p. 149.) The latter characteristic, to the subversion of all poetical fancies, has acquired, it may be supposed, for the Adjutant (Ardea Argila) the name of Garuda. A wundervogel is the property of all people, and the Garuda of the Hindoos is represented by the Eorosh of the Zend, Simoorgh of the Persians, the Anka of the Arabs, the Kerkes of the Turks, the Kirni of the j.a.panese, the sacred dragon of the Chinese, the Griffin of Chivalry, the Phoenix of cla.s.sical fable, the wise and ancient bird that sits upon the ash Yggdrasil of the Edda, and according to Faber with all the rest is a misrepresentation of the holy cherubim that guarded the gate of Paradise. Some writers have even traced the twelve knights of the round table to the twelve Rocs of Persian story. (Wilson's Essays, Vol. I, pp. 192, 193, note.)

Gigantic birds that feed on raw flesh are mentioned by the Pseudo-Callisthenes, Book II, ch. 41. Alexander gets on the back of one of them, and is carried into the air, guiding his bird by holding a piece of liver in front of it. He is warned by a winged creature in human shape to proceed no further, and descends again to earth. See also Liebrecht's Dunlop, p. 143 and note. See also Birlinger, Aus Schwaben, pp. 5, 6, 7. He compares Pacolet's horse in the story of Valentine and Orson.

[122] A wild mountaineer. Dr. Buhler observes that the names of these tribes are used very vaguely in Sanskrit story-books.

[123] Sovereign of the snakes.

[124] I. e., given by Fortune.

[125] Cp. the story of Sattvasila, which is the seventh tale in the Vetala Panchavinsati, and will be found in Chapter 81 of this work. Cp. also the story of Saktideva in Book V. ch. 26, and Ralston's remarks on it in his Russian Folk-Tales, p. 99.

[126] Vishnu a.s.sumed the form of a dwarf and appeared before Bali, and asked for as much land as he could step over. On Bali's granting it, Vishnu dilating himself, in two steps deprived him of heaven and earth, but left the lower regions still in his dominion.

[127] This incident may be compared with one described in Veckenstedt's Wendische Sagen, p. 82.

[128] Ananta, endless, or infinite, is a name of the thousand-headed serpent Sesha.

[129] Reading khadgam for the khadge of Dr. Brockhaus's text.

[130] Female demon. The Rakshasas are often called "night-wanderers."

[131] Or more literally of the month Chaitra, i. e., March-April.

[132] At nine o'clock in the morning.

[133] Anas Casarca, commonly called the Brahmany duck. The male has to pa.s.s the night separated from its female: if we are to trust the unanimous testimony of Hindu poets.

[134] A name of Durga. Cp. Prescott's account of the human sacrifices in Mexico, Vol. I pp. 62, 63.

[135] This incident reminds us of the fifth rule in Wright's Gesta Romanorum.

[136] Or it may mean "from a distance," as Dr. Brockhaus takes it.

[137] Pulinda, name of a savage tribe.

[138] Mr. Growse remarks: "In Hindi the word Nagasthala would a.s.sume the form Nagal; and there is a village of that name to this day in the Mahaban Pargana of the Mathura District."

[139] A common way of carrying money in India at the present day.

[140] Compare the last Scene of the Toy Cart in the 1st volume of Wilson's Hindu Theatre.

[141] The esculent white lotus (Sanskrit k.u.muda) expands its petals at night, and closes them in the daytime.

[142] In Sanskrit poetry horripilation is often said to be produced by joy. I have here inserted the words "from joy" in order to make the meaning clear.

[143] Literally drunk in.

[144] Alluding to his grey hairs. In all eastern stories the appearance of the first grey hair is a momentous epoch. The point of the whole pa.s.sage consists in the fact that jara, old age, is feminine in form. Cp. the perturbation of King Samson in Hagen's Helden-Sagen, Vol. I, p. 26, and Spence Hardy's Manual of Buddhism (1860) pp. 129 and 130.

[145] There is a pun between the name of the king Udayana and prosperity (udaya).

[146] Not Vasuki, but his eldest brother.

[147] Chhaya means "colour;" he drank their colour, i. e., made them pale. It also means "reflection in the wine."

[148] i. e., given by Buddha.

[149] The four Upayas or means of success are saman, negotiation, which his pride would render futile, dana, giving, which appeals to avarice, bheda, sowing dissension, which would be useless where a king is beloved by his subjects, and danda, open force, of no use in the case of a powerful king like Udayana.

[150] The chief vices of kings denounced by Hindu writers on statecraft are: Hunting, gambling, sleeping in the day, calumny, addiction to women, drinking spirits, dancing, singing, and instrumental music, idle roaming, these proceed from the love of pleasure, others proceed from anger, viz., tale-bearing, violence, insidious injury, envy, detraction, unjust seizure of property, abuse, a.s.sault. See Monier Williams s. v. vyasana.

[151] Sudhadhauta may mean "white as plaster," but more probably here "whitened with plaster" like the houses in the European quarter of the "City of palaces."

[152] A linga of Siva in Ujjayini. Siva is here compared to an earthly monarch subject to the vyasana of roaming. I take it, the poet means, Ujjayini is a better place than Kailasa.

[153] Cp. the way in which Kandar goes in search of a sword in Prym and Socin's Syrische Marchen, p. 205.

[154] Dr. Brockhaus translates it--Sturzte den Wagen des Konigs um. Can Syandana mean horses, like magni currus Achilli? If so, ahatya would mean, having killed.

[155] Rasa means nectar, and indeed any liquid, and also emotion, pa.s.sion. The pun is of course most intentional in the original.

[156] Cp. the story of Ohime in the "Sicilianische Marchen" collected by Laura von Gonzenbach where Maruzza asks Ohime how it would be possible to kill him. So in Indian Fairy Tales, collected by Miss Stokes, Hiralal Basa persuades Sonahri Rani to ask his father where he kept his soul. Some interesting remarks on this subject will be found in the notes to this tale (Indian Fairy Tales, p. 260.) See also No. I, in Campbell's Tales of the Western Highlands, and Dr. Reinhold Kohler's remarks in Orient and Occident, Vol. II, p. 100. Cp. also Ralston's Russian Folk-Tales, pp. 80, 81 and 136. Cp. also Veckenstedt's Wendische Sagen, p. 72. In the Gehornte Siegfried (Simrock's Deutsche Volksbucher, Vol. III, pp. 368 and 416), the hero is made invulnerable everywhere but between the shoulders, by being smeared with the melted fat of a dragon. Cp. also the story of Achilles. For the transformation of Chandamahasena into a boar see Bartsch's Sagen, Marchen und Gebrauche aus Meklenburg, Vol. II, pp. 144, 145, and Gubernatis, Zoological Mythology, Vol. II, p. 14. See also Schoppner's Geschichte der Bayerischen Lande, Vol. I, p. 258.

[157] They would not go near for fear of disturbing it. Wild elephants are timid, so there is more probability in this story, than in that of the Trojan horse. Even now scouts who mark down a wild beast in India, almost lose their heads with excitement.

[158] I. e., they sat in Dharna outside the door of the palace.

[159] Perhaps we should read samantatah one word.

[160] Sattva, when applied to the forest, means animal, when applied to wisdom, it means excellence.

[161] Vetala is especially used of a goblin that tenants dead bodies. See Colonel R. Burton's Tales of Vikramaditya and the Vampire. They will be found in the 12th book of this work. In the Vth Chapter of Ralston's Russian Folk-Tales will be found much interesting information with regard to the Slavonic superst.i.tions about Vampires. They resemble very closely those of the Hindus. See especially p. 311. "At cross-roads, or in the neighbourhood of cemeteries, an animated corpse of this description often lurks, watching for some unwary traveller whom it may be able to slay and eat."

[162] Cp. the way in which the Ritter Malegis trans.m.u.tes Reinold in the story of Die Heimonskinder (Simrock's Deutsche Volksbucher, Vol. II, p. 86). "He changed him into an old man, a hundred years of age, with a decrepit and misshapen body, and long hair." See also p. 114. So Merlin a.s.sumes the form of an old man and disguises Uther and Ulfin, Dunlop's History of Fiction, translated by Liebrecht, p. 66.

[163] Such people dance in temples I believe.

[164] Mr. Growse writes to me with reference to the name Lohajangha--"This name still exists on the spot, though probably not to be found elsewhere. The original bearer of the t.i.tle is said to have been one of the demons whom Krishna slew, and a village is called Lohaban after him, where an ancient red sandstone image is supposed to represent him, and has offerings of iron made to it at the annual festival.

[165] Ragini means affectionate and also red.