The Katha Sarit Sagara or Ocean of the Streams of Story Part 93

[347] M. Leveque considers that the above story, as told in the Mahabharata, forms the basis of the Birds of Aristophanes. He identifies Garuda with the hoopoe. (Les Mythes et Legendes de l'Inde et de la Perse, p. 14).

[348] Rajila is a striped snake, said to be the same as the dundubha a non-venomous species.

[349] The remarks which Ralston makes (Russian Folk-tales, page 65) with regard to the snake as represented in Russian stories, are applicable to the Naga of Hindu superst.i.tion; "Sometimes he retains throughout the story an exclusively reptilian character, sometimes he is of a mixed nature, partly serpent and partly man." The snakes described in Veckenstedt's Wendische Sagen, (pp. 402-409,) resemble in some points the snakes which we hear so much of in the present work. See also Bartsch's Sagen, Marchen, und Gebrauche aus Meklenburg, Vol. I, p. 277 and ff.

[350] The word naga, which means snake, may also mean, as Dr. Brockhaus explains it, a mountaineer from naga a mountain.

[351] I conjecture kramad for krandat. If we retain krandat we must suppose that the king of the Vidyadharas wept because his scheme of self-sacrifice was frustrated.

[352] I read adhah for adah.

[353] In the Sicilian stories of the Signora von Gonzenbach an ointment does duty for the amrita, cp. for one instance out of many, page 145 of that work. Ralston remarks that in European stories the raven is connected with the Water of Life. See his exhaustive account of this cycle of stories on pages 231 and 232 of his Russian Folk-tales. See also Veckenstedt's Wendische Sagen, p. 245, and the story which begins on page 227. In the 33rd of the Syrian stories collected by Prym and Socin we have a king of snakes and water of life.

[354] The home of the serpent race below the earth.

[355] Here equivalent to Patala.

[356] Here there is a pun: akula may also mean "by descent."

[357] Kulina may mean falling on the earth, referring to the shade of the tree. Margastha means "in the right path" when applied to the wife.

[358] I. e. Madam Contentious. Her husband's name means "of lion-like might."

[359] I read (after Bohtlingk and Roth) Ityakapara. See Chapter 34. sl. 115.

[360] Tejas = also means might, courage. For the idea see note on page 305.

[361] Sneha which means love, also means oil. This is a fruitful source of puns in Sanskrit.

[362] The Hindu Cupid.

[363] Infinitely longer than a mortal kalpa. A mortal kalpa lasts 432 million years.

[364] He is often called Ananga, the bodiless, as his body was consumed by the fire of Siva's eye.

[365] Or virtuous and generous.

[366] It is still the custom to give presents of vessels filled with rice and coins. Empty vessels are inauspicious, and even now if a Bengali on going out of his house meets a person carrying an empty pitcher, he turns back, and waits a minute or two.

[367] A: Peace, war, march, halt, stratagem and recourse to the protection of a mightier king.

[368] The elephant-headed G.o.d has his trunk painted with red lead like a tame elephant, and is also liable to become mast.

[369] Followers and attendants upon Siva.

[370] The modern Burdwan.

[371] I. e. Gold-gleam.

[372] For an account of the wanderjahre of young Brahman students, see Dr. Buhler's introduction to the Vikramankadevacharita.

[373] More literally--Those whose eyes do not wink. The epithet also means "worthy of being regarded with unwinking eyes." No doubt this ambiguity is intended.

[374] I. e. the city of jewels.

[375] askandin is translated "granting" by Monier Williams and the Petersburg lexicographers.

[376] These are worn on the fingers when offerings are made.

[377] A particular posture in religious meditation, sitting with the thighs crossed, with one hand resting on the left thigh, the other held up with the thumb upon the heart, and the eyes directed to the tip of the nose.

[378] Karpatika may mean a pilgrim, but it seems to be used in the K. S. S. to mean a kind of dependant on a king or great man, usually a foreigner. See chapters 38, 53, and 81 of this work.

[379] First he should be a Brahmacharin or unmarried religious student, next a Grihastha or householder, than a Vanaprastha or anch.o.r.et, lastly a Bhikshu or beggar.

[380] i. e. virtue, wealth, pleasure; dharma, artha, kama.

[381] Graha, also means planet, i. e. inauspicious planet. Siva tells the truth here.

[382] i. e. the auspicious or friendly one.

[383] There is probably a double meaning in the word "incomprehensible."

[384] Perhaps we ought to read dattva for tatra.

[385] A report similar to that spread against Harasvamin was in circulation during the French Revolution. Taine in his history of the Revolution, Vol. I, p. 418 tells the following anecdote: "M. de Montlosier found himself the object of many unpleasant attentions when he went to the National a.s.sembly. In particular a woman of about thirty used to sharpen a large knife when he pa.s.sed and look at him in a threatening manner. On enquiry he discovered the cause--Deux enfants du quartier ont disparu enleves par de bohemiens, et c'est maintenant un bruit repandu que M. de Montlosier, le marquis de Mirabeau, et d'autres deputes du cote droit se ra.s.semblent pour faire des orgies dans lesquelles ils mangent de pet.i.ts enfants."

[386] The city of flowers, i. g. Pataliputra.

[387] Perhaps we ought to read yayau for dadau. This I find is the reading of an excellent MS. in the Sanskrit college, for the loan of which I am deeply indebted to the Princ.i.p.al and the Librarian.

[388] Probably a poor pun.

[389] Cf. Uttara Rama Charita (Vidyasagara's edition) Act III, p. 82, the speech of the river-G.o.ddess Tamasa. Lenormant in his Chaldaean Magic and Sorcery, p. 41, (English Translation), observes: "We must add to the number of those mysterious rites the use of certain enchanted drinks, which doubtless really contained medicinal drugs, as a cure for diseases, and also of magic knots, the efficacy of which was firmly believed in, even up to the middle ages." See also Ralston's Songs of the Russian people, p. 288.

[390] In the story of the Beautiful Palace East of the Sun and North of the Earth, (Thorpe, Yule-tide Stories, p. 158) an old woman sends the youth, who is in quest of the palace, to her old sister, who again refers him to an older sister dwelling in a small ruinous cottage on a mountain. In Signora von Gonzenbach's Sicilianische Marchen, p. 86, the prince is sent by one "Einsiedler" to his brother, and this brother sends him to an older brother and he again to an older still, who is described as "Steinalt" see also p. 162. Compare also the story of Hasan of El Basra in Lane's Arabian Nights. Cp. also Kaden's Unter den Olivenbaumen, p. 56. We have a similar incident in Melusine, p. 447, The story is ent.i.tled La Montagne Noire on Les Filles du Diable. See also the Pentamerone of Basile, Tale 49, Ralston's Russian Folk-Tales, p. 76; Waldau's Bohmische Marchen, pp. 37 and 255 and ff; and Dasent's Norse Tales, pp. 31-32, 212-213, and 330-331.

[391] Wild aboriginal tribes not belonging to the Aryan race.

[392] Destiny often elevates the worthless, and hurls down men of worth.

[393] The usual story is that Indra cut off the wings of all except Mainaka the son of Himavat by Mena. He took refuge in the sea. Here it is represented that more escaped. So in Bhartrihari Niti Sataka st. 76 (Bombay edition).

[394] For Saktideva's imprisonment in the belly of the fish cp. Chapter 74 of this work, Indian Fairy Tales by Miss Stokes, No. XIV, and Lucian's Vera Historia, Book I. In this tale the fish swallows a s.h.i.+p. The crew discover countries in the monster's inside, establish a "scientific frontier," and pursue a policy of Annexation. See also Lane's Arabian Nights, Vol. III, p. 104.

[395] Cf. Grimm's Marchen, No. 60, Sicilianische Marchen, Nos. 39 and 40, with Dr. Kohler's notes.

[396] If such a word can be applied to a place where bodies are burnt.