The Katha Sarit Sagara or Ocean of the Streams of Story Part 95

[442] I separate balavad from bhogadayi.

[443] This appears to be found in a slightly different form in the Harivansa. (Leveque, Mythes et Legendes de l'Inde, p. 220).

[444] The name of certain aboriginal tribes described as hunters, fishermen, robbers &c.

[445] In the original Mahakala, an epithet of Siva in his character as the destroying deity.

[446] Generally only one mountain named Mainaka is said to have fled into the sea, and retained its wings when Indra clipped those of the others. The pa.s.sage is of course an elaborate pun.

[447] i. e. lion of valour.

[448] i. e. animals, horizontal goers. The pun defies translation, the word I have translated arrow is literally "the not-sideways-goer."

[449] i. e. by burning herself upon the funeral pyre.

[450] The word taraka means also a star. So here we have one of those puns in which our author delights.

[451] Also full of affection. This is a common pun.

[452] Beasts of prey, or possibly Rakshasas.

[453] Compare the translation of the life of St. Brigit by Whitley Stokes, (Three Middle Irish Homilies, p. 65.)

"Shortly after that came a certain n.o.bleman unto Dubthach to ask for his daughter in marriage. Dubthach and his sons were willing, but Brigit refused. Said a brother of her brethren named Beccan unto her: 'Idle is the fair eye that is in thy head not to be on a pillow near a husband.' 'The son of the Virgin knoweth' said Brigit, 'it is not lively for us if it brings harm upon us.' Then Brigit put her finger under her eye and drew it out of her head till it was on her cheek; and she said: 'Lo, here is thy delightful eye, O Beccan.' Then his eye burst forthwith. When Dubthach and his brethren saw that, they promised that she should never be told to go to a husband. Then she put her palm to her eye and it was whole at once. But Beccan's eye was not whole till his death."

That the biographers of Christian saints were largely indebted to Buddhist hagiology, has been shewn by Liebrecht in his Essay on the sources of Barlaam and Josaphat, (Zur Volkskunde, p. 441.) In Mr. Stokes's book, p. 34, will also be found a reference to the practice of shewing reverence by walking round persons or things keeping the right hand towards them. This is pointed out by Mr. Stokes in his Preface as an interesting link between Ireland and India.

Mr. Whitley Stokes has sent me the following quotation in the Revue Celtique V, 130 from P. Cahier, Caracteristiques des Saints I, 105;

"A certain virgin Lucia (doubtful whether of Bologna or of Alexandria) se voyant frequemment suivie par un jeune homme qui affectait de l'accompagner partout des q'elle quittait sa maison, lui demanda enfin ce qui l'attachait si fort a ses pas. Celui-ci ayant repondu que c'

etait la beaute de ses yeux, la jeune fille se servit de son fuseau pour faire sortir ses yeux de leur orbite, et dit a son poursuivant qu'il pouvait les prendre et la laisser desormais en repos. On ajoute que cette generosite effrayante changea si fort le coeur du jeune homme qu'il embra.s.sa la profession religieuse. The story of the ascetic who conquered anger, resembles closely the Khantivadijataka No. 313 in Fausboll's edition, Vol. III, p. 39. It is also found in the Bodhisattva Avadana, under the t.i.tle Kshanti Jataka, and in the Mahavastu Avadana in a form closely resembling that of the Pali Jataka book. See Dr. Rajendra Lal Mitra's Nepalese Buddhist Literature, pp. 55, 159, and 160.

[454] They are compared to the five sacred fires.

[455] Literally the worthless straw-heap of &c.

[456] Here there is a pun on the two meanings of Sri.

[457] In the Svayamvara the maiden threw a garland over the neck of the favoured suitor.

[458] Rasa also means water.

[459] This story is compared by Benfey (Orient und Occident, Vol. I, p. 374) with the story of the faithful servant Viravara in the Hitopadesa, which is also found in the Vetalapanchavinsati, (see chapter 78 of this work.) Viravara, according to the account in the Vetalapanchavinsati, hears the weeping of a woman. He finds it is the king's fortune deserting him. He accordingly offers up his son, and finally slays himself. The king is about to do the same when the G.o.ddess Durga restores the dead to life. The story of "Der Treue Johannes" will at once occur to readers of Grimm's tales. According to Benfey, it is also found in the Pentamerone of Basile. The form of the tale in our text is very similar to that in Grimm. (See Benfey's Panchatantra, Vol. I, p. 416.) The story of the faithful Viravara occurs twice in this collection, in chapter 53, and also in chapter 78. Sir G. c.o.x (in his Aryan Mythology, Vol. I p. 148), compares the German story with one in Miss Frere's Old Deccan Days, the 5th in that collection. Other parallels will be found in the notes in Grimm's third volume. A very striking parallel will be found in Bernhard Schmidt's Griechische Marchen, Story No. 3, p. 68. In this story the three Moirai predict evil. The young prince is saved by his sister, from being burnt, and from falling over a precipice when a child, and from a snake on his wedding-day. See also De Gubernatis, Zoological Mythology, Vol. II, pp. 301-302. Cp. also Coelho's Contos Portuguezes, No. 51, Pedro e Pedrito, p. 118, and Grimm's Irische Marchen, pp. 106, 107. In the Gagga Jataka, No. 135, Fausboll, Vol. II, p. 15, the Buddha tells how the custom of saying "Jiva" or "G.o.d bless you" originated. A Yakka was allowed to eat all who did not say "Jiva" and "Patijiva." Zimmer in his Alt-Indisches Leben, p. 60, quotes from the Atharva Veda, "vor Ungluck-bedeutendem Niesen."

[460] The same idea is found in Midsummer Night's Dream, Act III, Sc. 2, beginning, "We, Hermia, like two artificial G.o.ds &c."

[461] Cp. Ralston's Russian Folk-Tales, pp. 69 and 71, for the three dangers. The custom of saying "G.o.d bless you," or equivalent words, when a man sneezes, is shewn by Tylor (Primitive Culture, Vol. I, pp. 88-94) to exist in many parts of the world. He quotes many pa.s.sages from cla.s.sical literature relating to it. "Even the emperor Tiberius, that saddest of men, exacted this observance." See also Sir Thomas Browne's Vulgar Errors, Book IV ch. 9, "Of saluting upon sneezing."

[462] There is a story ill.u.s.trating the "pertinacity" of goblins in Wirt Sikes's British Goblins, p. 191.

[463] I have been obliged to omit some portion of this story. "It was,"

Wilson remarks, "acceptable to the couteurs of Europe, and is precisely the same as that of 'Le pet.i.t diable de Papefigue' of Fontaine."

[464] Suvrittaya means virtuous, and beautifully-rounded.

[465] Cp. Chaucer's Squire's Tale, line 316, "Ye moten trille a pin, stant in his ere."

[466] This may remind the reader of the story of the pestle in Lucian's Philopseudes, that was sent to fetch water. When the aegyptian sorcerer was away, his pupil tried to perform the trick. But he did not know the charm for stopping the water-carrying process. Accordingly the house was flooded. In despair he chopped the pestle in two with an axe. That made matters worse, for both halves set to work to bring water. The story has been versified by Goethe, and the author of the Ingoldsby Legends.

[467] Here Dr. Brockhaus supposes a line to be omitted. The transition is somewhat abrupt.

[468] Cp. with the story of Kirtisena the substance of two modern Greek songs given in Liebrecht, Zur Volkskunde, p. 187.

[469] i. e. Wealth-preserved.

[470] Bohtlingk and Roth in their Dictionary explain the pa.s.sage as follows: imam, (i. e., patim) vyutthapya yata iti, she was unfaithful to her husband.

[471] Gotraja nearly equivalent to the Gentile of Roman law, and applied to kindred of the same general family connected by offerings of food and water; hence opposed to the Bandhu or cognate kindred. She represented that she was a prince whose clansmen were trying to disinherit him.

[472] Cp. Thorpe's Yuletide Stories, p. 341, cited before on p. 25, also Sagas from the Far East, p. 162. The Mongolian version supplies the connecting link between India and Europe. In the Sagas from the Far East, the Rakshasas are replaced by crows. Compare also the way in which the gardener in "Das Rosmarinstrauchlein," Kaden's Unter den Olivenbaumen, p. 12, acquires some useful information. The story of Kirtisena from this point to the cure of the king closely resembles the latter half of Die Zauberkugeln in the same collection. A striking parallel will be found in Basile's Pentamerone, Vol. I, p. 166. See also Waldau's Bohmische Marchen, p. 272; Gaal, Die Marchen der Magyaren, p. 178; Coelho, Contos Populares Portuguezes, p. 47. In Waldau's Story there is a strange similarity in the behaviour of the king, on first seeing the young physician, to that of Vasudatta. See also the Sixth Tale in Ralston's Tibetan Tales and the remarks in the Introduction, p. li.

[473] Names of Rakshasas mentioned in the Ramayana.

[474] Water is the princ.i.p.al ingredient of the offering called argha or arghya.

[475] This gem is formed from the congelation of the rays of the moon, and dissolves under the influence of its light. There is of course an elaborate pun in Chandrakanta.

[476] This is well known in India now. A crow alighted on a palm-tree when just about to fall, and so it appeared that his weight made it fall. For this and many other hints I am indebted to Pandit S. C. Mookerjea, of the Hindu School.

[477] Benfey considers that this, as well as "Haripriya," means "blockhead," Orient und Occident, Vol. I, p. 374.

[478] A MS. in the Sanskrit College reads jnanavijna, i. e., the knowing one, the astrologer.

[479] This word means tongue.

[480] Cp. Ralston's Russian Folk-Tales, p. 240. So Arthur in the Romance of Artus de la Bretagne (Liebrecht's Dunlop, p. 107) falls in love with a lady he sees in a dream. Liebrecht in his note at the end of the book tells us that this is a common occurrence in Romances, being found in Amadis of Greece, Palmerin of Oliva, the Romans de Sept Sages, the Fabliau of the Chevalier a la Trappe, the Nibelungen Lied, &c., and ridiculed by Chaucer in his Rime of Sir Topas. He also refers to Athenaeus, p. 575, and the Hermotimus of Lucian.

[481] The mountain Mandara which served as a churning-stick at the churning of the ocean of milk.

[482] Velata is evidently corrupt.

[483] This is to be understood literally of Siva and Parvati, but metaphorically of Usha and Aniruddha.

[484] I read evam for eva.

[485] The wife of Indra.

[486] i. e. Brihaspati.