The Katha Sarit Sagara or Ocean of the Streams of Story Part 91

in Ralston's Russian Folk-Tales, p. 307.

The belief that the dead rose from the tomb in the form of Vampires appears to have existed in Chaldaea and Babylon. Lenormant observes in his Chaldaean Magic and Sorcery, (English Translation, p. 37) "In a fragment of the Mythological epopee which is traced upon a tablet in the British Museum, and relates the descent of Ishtar into Hades, we are told that the G.o.ddess, when she arrived at the doors of the infernal regions, called to the porter whose duty it was to open them, saying,

"Porter, open thy door; Open thy door that I may enter.

If thou dost not open the door, and if I cannot enter, I will attack the door, I will break down its bars, I will attack the enclosure, I will leap over its fences by force; I will cause the dead to rise and devour the living; I will give to the dead power over the living."

The same belief appears also to have existed in Egypt. The same author observes (p. 92). "These formulae also kept the body from becoming, during its separation from the soul, the prey of some wicked spirit which would enter, re-animate, and cause it to rise again in the form of a vampire. For, according to the Egyptian belief, the possessing spirits, and the spectres which frightened or tormented the living were but the souls of the condemned returning to the earth, before undergoing the annihilation of the 'second death.'"

[254] Cp. Ralston's account of the Vampire as represented in the Skazkas. "It is as a vitalized corpse that the visitor from the other world comes to trouble mankind, often subject to human appet.i.tes, constantly endowed with more than human strength and malignity."--Ralston's Russian Folk-Tales, p. 306.

[255] Cp. the way in which the witch treats the corpse of her son in the VIth book of the aethiopica of Heliodorus, ch. 14, and Lucan's Pharsalia, Book VI, 754-757.

[256] I. e., the corpse tenanted by the Vetala or demon.

[257] Cp. Simrock's Deutsche Volksbucher, Vol. III, p. 399.

[258] Lakshmi or Sri the G.o.ddess of Prosperity appeared after the churning of the ocean with a lotus in her hand. According to another story she is said to have appeared at the creation floating on the expanded leaves of a lotus-flower. The hand of a lady is often compared to a lotus.

[259] I. e., rising; the eastern mountain behind which the sun is supposed to rise.

[260] I. e., semi-divine beings supposed to be of great purity and holiness.

[261] General Cunningham identifies Paundravardhana with the modern Pubna.

[262] There is a curious parallel to this story in Taranatha's History of Buddhism, translated into German by Schiefner, p. 203. Here a Rakshasi a.s.sumes the form of a former king's wife, and kills all the subjects, one after another, as fast as they are elected to the royal dignity.

[263] Compare the Apocryphal book of Tobit. See also the 30th page of Lenormant's Chaldaean Magic and Sorcery, English translation.

[264] Ralston in his Russian Folk-Tales, p. 270, compares this incident with one in a Polish story, and in the Russian story of the Witch Girl. In both the arm of the destroyer is cut off.

[265] I read iva; the arm was the long bar, and the whole pa.s.sage is an instance of the rhetorical figure called utpreksha.

[266] Cp. the freeing of Argo by Hercules cutting off Pallair's arm in the Togail Troi, ed. Stokes, p. 67.

[267] There is probably a pun here. Ramartham may mean "for the sake of a fair one."

[268] I read na tad for tatra with a MS. in the Sanskrit College.

[269] Here there is a pun on Ananga, a name of the Hindu Cupid.

[270] Here there is a pun. The word guna also means rope.

[271] For stories of transportation through the air, see Wirt Sikes, British Goblins, p. 157 and ff.

[272] Cp. the way in which Torello informs his wife of his presence in Boccacio's Decameron Xth day Nov. IX. The novels of the Xth day must be derived from Indian, and probably Buddhistic sources. There is a Buddhistic vein in all of them. A striking parallel to the 5th Novel of the Xth day will be found further on in this work.

Cp. also, for the incident of the ring, Thorpe's Yuletide Stories, p. 167. See also the story of Heinrich der Lowe, Simrock's Deutsche Volksbucher, Vol. I, pp. 21 and 22. Cp. also Waldau's Bohmische Marchen, pp. 365 and 432, Coelho's Contos Populares Portuguezes, p. 76; and Prym und Socin's Syrische Marchen, p. 72. See also Ralston's Tibetan Tales, Introduction pp. xlix and 1.

[273] An oblation to G.o.ds, or venerable men of, rice, durva gra.s.s, flowers, &c., with water, or of water only in a small boat-shaped vessel.

[274] Sneha means oil, and also affection.

[275] Sattva when applied to the ocean probably means "monsters." So the whole compound would mean "in which was conspicuous the fury of gambling monsters." The pun defies translation.

[276] I read aushadeh. The Rakshasa is compared to the mountain, Vidushaka to the moon, his wives to the gleaming herbs.

[277] Thorpe in his Yule-tide Stories remarks that the story of Vidushaka somewhat resembles in its ground-plot the tale of the Beautiful Palace East of the Sun and North of the Earth. With the latter he also compares the story of Saktivega in the 5th book of the Katha Sarit Sagara. (See the table of contents of Thorpe's Yule-tide Stories, p. xi.) Cp. also Sicilianische Marchen, Vol. II, p. 1, and for the cutting off of the giant's arm, p. 50.

[278] Perhaps we should read svadvaushadha = sweet medicine.

[279] I. q., Bheels.

[280] I read arudhah.

[281] A MS. in the Sanskrit College reads sambhavah for the sampadah of Dr. Brockhaus's text.

[282] l.u.s.tratio exercitus; waving lights formed part of the ceremony.

[283] It also means "drawing cords."

[284] He is sometimes represented as bearing the entire world on one of his heads.

[285] One of these poison-damsels is represented as having been employed against Chandragupta in the Mudra Rakshasa. Compare the XIth tale in the Gesta Romanorum, where an Indian queen sends one to Alexander the Great. Aristotle frustrates the stratagem.

[286] Jayastambha. Wilson remarks that the erection of these columns is often alluded to by Hindu writers, and explains the character of the solitary columns which are sometimes met with, as the Lat at Delhi, the pillars at Allahabad, Buddal, &c.

[287] Kalinga is usually described as extending from Orissa to Dravida or below Madras, the coast of the Northern Circars. It appears, however, to be sometimes the Delta of the Ganges. It was known to the ancients as Regio Calingarum, and is familiar to the natives of the Eastern Archipelago by the name of Kling. Wilson.

[288] The clouds are nihsara void of substance, as being no longer heavy with rain. The thunder ceases in the autumn.

[289] Chola was the sovereignty of the western part of the Peninsula on the Carnatic, extending southwards to Tanjore where it was bounded by the Pandyan kingdom. It appears to have been the Regio Soretanum of Ptolemy and the Chola mandala or district furnishes the modern appellation of the Coromandel Coast.--Wilson, Essays, p. 241 note.

[290] Murala is another name for Kerala, now Malabar (Hall.) Wilson identifies it with the Curula of Ptolemy.

[291] Or perhaps more literally "creeper-like sword." Probably the expression means "flexible, well-tempered sword," as Professor Nilmani Mukhopadhyaya has suggested to me.

[292] It had been employed for this purpose by the G.o.ds and Asuras. Lata = the Larice of Ptolemy. (Wilson.)

[293] Turks, the Indo-scythae of the ancients. (Wilson.)

[294] Persians.

[295] A Daitya or demon. His head swallows the sun and moon.

[296] Perhaps the Huns.

[297] The western portion of a.s.sam. (Wilson.)