The Katha Sarit Sagara or Ocean of the Streams of Story Part 115

[572] The seven jewels of the Chakravartin are often mentioned in Buddhist works. In the Mahavastu, p. 108 (Ed. Senart) they are, chariot, elephant, horse, wife, householder, general. In a legend quoted by Burnouf (Introduction a l'Histoire du Buddhisme Indien, p. 343) the same six are enumerated as "les sept joyaux." In both cases the sword is omitted. They are also described in the Maha-Suda.s.sana-Sutta translated by Rhys Davids in the eleventh volume of the Sacred Books of the East Series.

[573] For atmasamarddhina the India Office MS. No. 1882 has atmasamriddhina; No. 2166 has samashtina, and No. 3003 agrees with Brockhaus's text. So does the Sanskrit College MS.

[574] We have often had occasion to remark that the Hindu poets conceive of glory as white.

[575] See Sir Thomas Browne's Vulgar Errors, Book III, Chap. 7, Heliodorus, aethiopica, III, 8.

[576] One of the Saktis.

[577] Two of the India Office MSS. and the Sanskrit College MS. read cha charanam for sadaranam. This would mean, I suppose, that the cave might be pa.s.sed by all the scouts and amba.s.sadors of the Vidyadharas.

[578] Or possibly "Ganas (Siva's attendants) and witches."

[579] Dhumasikha, literally the smoke-crested, means fire.

[580] I read saptva which I find in MSS. Nos. 1882 and 2196, the other has sasva. I also find cakravartibalad in No. 1882, (with a short i,) and this reading I have adopted. The Sanskrit College MS. seems to have saptva. In sl. 119 I think we ought to delete the h in Sangramah. In 121 the apostrophe before gra-bhasvarah is useless and misleading. In 122 yad should be separated from vismayam.

[581] Cp. Vol. I, p. 313.

[582] All the India Office MSS. and the Sanskrit College MS. read chakravarti with a short i.

[583] The India Office MSS. Nos. 1882 and 2166 and the Sanskrit College MS. read taraturyam. It makes the construction clearer, but no material difference in the sense.

[584] Or adorned with Vishnu's Lakshmi. Here we have a pun, as she sprang from the sea.

[585] Herein he shewed himself wiser than king Mandhatar the hero of the first tale in Ralston's Tibetan tales. He connects it with No. 19 in Grimm's collection, and many other European stories. It is probable that the story of Naravahanadatta's conquests is only another form of the tale of Mandhatar.

[586] Of course in the original the word expresses the idea of sprinkling with water.

[587] It may possibly mean, "land of the Siddhas". In Chapter 107 the Siddhas are mentioned as directing Naravahanadatta's devotions on their holy mountain.

[588] See Vol. I, p 305.

[589] I read vairamalam. The reading in Brockhaus's text is a misprint.

[590] Cp. Holinshed's account of Richard II's coronation. "The Archbishop, having stripped him, first anointed his hands, after his head, breast, shoulders, and the joints of his arms, with the sacred oil, saying certain prayers, and in the meanwhile did the choir sing the anthem, beginning 'Unxerunt regem Salomonem.' The above quotation comes from the Clarendon Press Edition of King Richard II, p. 137, sub calcem.

[591] I read vritam which appears to be the reading of the three India Office MSS. and of the Sanskrit College MS. It is clear enough in No. 2166. In sloka 85 I think that the reading of MS. No. 3003 naarityatkevalam yavad vatoddhutalata api must be something near the truth, as yaval in Brockhaus's text gives no meaning. (The Sanskrit College MS. gives Anrityannaiva vatena dhuta yaval lata api.) Of course the plural must be subst.i.tuted for the singular. I have translated accordingly. Two MSS. have valgad for vallad in sl. 87.

[592] Two of the India Office MSS. and the Sanskrit College MS. read asadya; the line appears to be omitted in the third.

[593] An allusion to the sprinkling at his coronation. The king "put him on his lap."

[594] I read drishtva prabhuprasadaptadiryatvan which I find in two of the India Office MSS. No 3003 has prata for prabhu.

[595] All the India Office MSS. read sangamahotsave. The Sanskrit College MS. reads bandhunam sangamotsave.

[596] Here Brockhaus supposes a lacuna.

[597] Literally "ground." No doubt they squatted on the ground at the feast as well as at the banquet; which preceded it, instead of following it, as in the days of Shakespeare.

[598] The king of Vatsa feels like Ulysses in the island of Calypso.

[599] A bhara is 20 tulas.

[600] There is a play on words here. Sanskrit poets suppose that joy produces in human beings, trembling, horripilation, and perspiration.

[601] For anyonyasya the three India Office MSS. and the Sanskrit College MS. read anyasyastam, which means, "Not to speak of other beings, even animals &c."

[602] This is only another form of the story on page 105 of Vol. I.

[603] Cp. Hamlet Act V, Sc. II, 1. 223; Julius Caesar Act V, Sc. I, 1 71 and ff.

[604] See Vol. I, p. 441. Dante seems to have considered that dreams immediately before morning were true. See Inferno, XXVI, 7; and Purgatorio, IX, 13-18. Fraticelli quotes from Horace--

Quirinus Post mediam noctem visus c.u.m somnia vera.

[605] I read parsvasthitam for parsvastham. The former is found in the three India Office MSS. and in the Sanskrit College MS.

[606] The word, which means "wrinkles," also means "strong."

[607] The three India Office MSS. read kritvaiva for kritveva.

[608] Asitagiri.

[609] This pa.s.sage is full of lurking puns. It may mean "full of world-upholding kings of the snakes, and of many Kapilas."

[610] For supad No 1182 reads puman and No. 2166 suman.

[611] Two of the India Office MSS. have sunamavantivarahanah in sl. 13. In the third there is a lacuna.

[612] In Sanskrit the moon is masculine and the night feminine.

[613] This story is found in Vol. I, pp. 69-71; where see notes. Some additional notes will be found on p. 572 of the same volume. Cp. also Schoppner, Sagen der Bayerischen Lande, Vol. I, p. 258.

[614] So, in this story of Ohime, No. 23, in Gonzenbach's Sicilianische Marchen, Maruzza says to Ohime, "Tell me, dear master, if by ill luck any one wished to kill you, how ought he to set about it?" The Indian story is much less clumsy than the Sicilian, which is, no doubt, derived from it.

[615] The moon hates the kamala and loves the k.u.muda.

[616] I read stimitasthiteh which I find in MS. No. 2166, and in the Sanskrit College MS.

[617] Cp. Vol. I, p. 328 and ff. The story in the Gesta Romanorum to which reference is there made, bears a close resemblance to the present story; but in the present case it appears as if beauty had more to do with fascinating the elephant than modesty.

[618] The Petersburg lexicographers explain this as a Chandala, a man of the lowest rank, a kind of Kirata.

[619] The word "good" is used in a sense approximating to that in which it is used by Theognis, and the patricians in Coriola.n.u.s.