The Katha Sarit Sagara or Ocean of the Streams of Story Part 99

[633] I read Suryaprabha for Suryachandra.

[634] Vidyunmala means "garland of lightning."

[635] Alluding to Indra's slaying the demon Vritra, who was regarded as a Brahman, and to his conduct with Ahalya.

[636] I. q. Siva.

[637] i. e., Siva.

[638] One of the seven under-worlds.

[639] I. q. Acesines and Hydraotes.

[640] I. e., a day of Brahma consisting of 1000 yugas.

[641] Cp. the halo or aureole round the heads of Christian saints, the circle of rays and nimbus round the head of Greek divinities, and the beam that came out of Charles the Great's mouth and illumined his head. (Grimm's Teutonic Mythology, translated by Stallybra.s.s, p. 323.) Cp. Livy I, 39; and Le Lotus de la Bonne Loi (Burnouf) p. 4.

[642] Kala means Time, Fate, Death.

[643] I divide sa sivakhyanam and take sa to be the demonstrative p.r.o.noun.

[644] I. e. the Yoga system.

[645] This superst.i.tion appears to be prevalent in China. See Giles's Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio, Vol. I, p. 23, and other pa.s.sages. It was no doubt carried there by the same wave of Buddhism that carried there many similar notions connected with the transmigration of souls, for instance the belief that children are born able to speak, and that this is very inauspicious. (Cp. Giles's Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio, Vol. I, p. 184 with the story of Dharmagupta and Chandraprabha in the 17th chapter of this work.) The existence of this latter belief in Europe is probably to be ascribed to the influence of Buddhism.

[646] Here I read Srutasarma-sapakshatvam.

[647] Usanas here means Sukra, the spiritual guide of the Asuras.

[648] I read pasyasya rupam. This gives a better sense. It is partly supported by a MS. in the Sanskrit College. The same MS. in the next line reads tvam tu pasyati chaiko'pi--I read tvam tu pasyatu chaisho'pi.

[649] Lit. "the shape of the moon"; put for the moon, because the author is speaking of a woman. See Bohtlingk and Roth s. v.

[650] I. e. aryaputra, used by a wife in addressing a husband.

[651] A MS. in the Sanskrit College reads asau where Brockhaus reads amur.

[652] The Petersburg lexicographers remark that sampadad is "wohl fehlerhaft." A MS. in the Sanskrit College has sadarad. But this seems improbable with sadare in the line above. Babu Syama Charan Mukhopadhyaya conjectures sammadad which I have adopted.

[653] The eight Lokapalas or guardians of the world.

[654] I. e. the Vidyadharas.

[655] His charioteer.

[656] I read samarudha-Bhutasana-vimanakah.

[657] Reading rabhasokti for nabhasokti. Perhaps siddhimitam in sl. 78, a, should be siddhamidam.

[658] In the MS. lent me from the Sanskrit College I find sodhahidansasya and visodhavahnes.

[659] Reading aneko dhanyartho.

[660] Cp. Odyssey 4. 841 hos hoi enarges oneiron epessyto nyktos amolgo, where some suppose amolgos to mean the four hours before daybreak.

[661] I read cha ranadikshayam.

[662] The MS. in the Sanskrit College reads tatrasyastu sivam tavat; let him succeed in the battle.

[663] I. e. attendants of Siva.

[664] The word, which I have translated "human sacrifice," is purushamedha. For the prevalence of human sacrifices among all nations of antiquity see Grimm's Teutonic Mythology, translated by Stallybra.s.s, Vol. I, p. 44 and ff; see also Tylor's Primitive Culture, Vol. II, p. 246, 353, 361, 365. Dr. Rajendralala Mitra. Rai Bahadur, in an essay in the Journal of the Asiatic Society for 1876, ent.i.tled "Human Sacrifices in India," traces the history of the practice in India, and incidentally among the princ.i.p.al nations of antiquity. The following is his own summary of his conclusions with respect to the practice in India. (1) That, looking to the history of human civilization, and the rituals of the Hindus, there is nothing to justify the belief that in ancient times the Hindus were incapable of sacrificing human beings to their G.o.ds. (2) That the Sunahsepha hymns of the Rig Veda Sanhita most probably refer to a human sacrifice. (3) That the Aitareya Brahmana refers to an actual, and not a typical human sacrifice. (4) That the Purushamedha originally required the actual sacrifice of men. (5) That the Satapatha Brahmana sanctions human sacrifice in some cases, but makes the Purushamedha emblematic. (6) That the Taittiriya Brahmana enjoins the sacrifice of a man at the Horse sacrifice. (7) That the Puranas recognise human sacrifices to Chandika but prohibit the Purushamedha rite. (8) That the Tantras enjoin human sacrifices to Chandika, and require that, when human victims are not available, an effigy of a human being should be sacrificed to her. Of the sacrifices to Chandika we have enough and to spare in the Katha Sarit Sagara. Strange to say, it appears that human sacrifices were offered in Greece on Mount Lykaion in Arcadia even in the time of Pausanias. Dim traditions with respect to the custom are still found among the inhabitants of that region, (Bernhard Schmidt, Griechische Marchen, p. 27). Cp. the inst.i.tution of the pharmakoi connected with the wors.h.i.+p of Apollo! Preller, Griechische Mythologie, Vol. I, p. 202; see also pp. 240 and 257 and Vol. II, pp. 310 and 466; Herodotus VII, 197; Plato, Min. p. 315, C; Preller, Romische Mythologie, p. 104.

[665] Cp. chapter 45. In chapter 73 will be found another instance of a "rifted rock whose entrance leads to h.e.l.l." Cp. the Hercules Furens of Seneca, v. 662 & ff.

[666] For a parallel to the absurdities that follow, see Campbell's West Highland Tales, p. 202.

[667] The personified energies of the princ.i.p.al deities, closely connected with the wors.h.i.+p of the G.o.d Siva. Professor Jacobi compares them with the Greek G.o.ddesses called meteres, to whom there was a temple in the Sicilian town of Engyion. (Indian Antiquary, January 1880.)

[668] For avaham I read ahavam.

[669] Labdhakakshyah is probably a misprint for baddhakakshyah.

[670] I read abhikanksha for abhikanksho which is found in Brockhaus's text. This is supported by a MS. in the Sanskrit College.

[671] The MS. in the Sanskrit College reads jagme.

[672] Possibly an arrow with a head resembling two hands joined.

[673] There is probably a pun here. Kshetra, besides its astrological sense, means a wife on whom issue is begotten by some kinsman or duly appointed person, as in the Jewish law.

[674] Tvashtri is the Vulcan of the Hindus. Bhaga is an aditya regarded in the Vedas as bestowing wealth, and presiding over marriage, his Nakshatra is the Uttara Phalguni. Aryaman is also an aditya; Pushan, originally the sun, is in later times an aditya. The "canopy of arrows" reminds us of the saying of Dieneces, Herodotus, VII. 227, and of Milton, P. L., VI. 666.

[675] An epithet of Siva in his character of the destroying deity.

[676] There are three different styles of music called tara, udara, and mudara. So the word marga contains a pun.

[677] Ogha means current and also quick time in music.

[678] Chhalahatah is a mistake for chhaladritah. See Bohtlingk and Roth, (s. v. han with a). The MS. in the Sanskrit College has chhaladatah.

[679] Here Brockhaus makes a hiatus.

[680] I read Gunasarmanah or Gunasarmane.

[681] The old story of Hippolyte, the wife of Acastus, (the "Magnessa Hippolyte" of Horace,) and Peleus, of Antea and Bellerophon, of Phaedra and Hippolytus, of Fausta and Crispus. See also the beginning of the Seven Wise Masters, Simrock's Deutsche Volksbucher, Vol. XII, pp. 128, 129. Cp. also Grossler, Sagen der Grafschaft Mansfeld, p. 192. See the remarkable statement in Rohde, Der Griechische Roman, p. 31, quoted from Pausanias I, 22, 1, to the effect that the story of Phaedra was known to "Barbarians."

[682] Cp. the English superst.i.tions with regard to the raven, crow and magpie (Henderson's Folk-lore of the Northern Counties, pp. 95 and 96, Hunt's Romances and Drolls of the West of England, p. 429, Thiselton Dyer, English Folk-lore, pp. 80 and 81). See also Horace, Odes, III, 27. In Europe the throbbing or tingling of the left ear indicates calamity, (Liebrecht, Zur Volkskunde, p. 327, Hunt's Romances and Drolls of the West of England, p. 430, Thiselton Dyer, English Folk-lore, p. 279). See also Bartsch's Sagen, Marchen und Gebrauche aus Meklenburg, Vol. II, p. 313, and Birlinger, Aus Schwaben, pp. 374-378, and 404. For similar superst.i.tions in ancient Greece see Jebb's Characters of Theophrastus, p. 163, "The superst.i.tious man, if a weasel run across his path, will not pursue his walk until some one else has traversed the road, or until he has thrown three stones across it. When he sees a serpent in his house, if it be the red snake, he will invoke Sabazius, if the sacred snake, he will straightway place a shrine on the spot * * * * If an owl is startled by him in his walk, he will exclaim "Glory be to Athene!" before he proceeds." Jebb refers us to Ar. Eccl. 792.