The Katha Sarit Sagara or Ocean of the Streams of Story Part 116

[620] I read antyajam which I find in two of the Indian Office MSS. and the Sanskrit College MS. In No. 3003 there is, apparently, a lacuna.

[621] Cp. the Sigalujataka, Fausboll, Vol. II, p. 5. A barber's son dies of love for a Lichchhavi maiden. The Buddha then tells the story of a jackal whose love for a lioness cost him his life.

[622] Compare the story of the birth of Servius Tullius, as told by Ovid. The following are Ovid's lines:

Namque pater Tulli Vulca.n.u.s, Ocresia mater Praesignis facie Corniculana fuit.

Hanc sec.u.m Tanaquil sacris de more peractis Jussit in ornatum fundere vina foc.u.m.

Hic inter cineres obscaeni forma virilis Aut fuit aut visa est, sed fuit illa magis.

Jussa loco captiva sedet. Conceptus ab illa Servius a caelo semina gentis habet.

[623] All the India Office MSS. and the Sanskrit College MS. read kridyan "delicious fish."

[624] See Vol. I, p. 241.

[625] See Vol. I, p. 98. In sloka 143 the India Office MSS. Nos. 2166 and 1882 and the Sanskrit College MS give pramayat for prabhaya. I suppose it means "from dying in that holy place."

[626] This is another version of the story which begins on page 297 of this volume. I have not omitted it, as my object is to reproduce the original faithfully, with the exception of a few pa.s.sages repugnant to modern European taste. In the same way in Jataka No. 318, beginning on page 58 of Fausboll's third Volume, a lady falls in love with a criminal who is being led to execution.

[627] I read iva serana: I suppose serana comes from si. Dr. Kern would read ahrasva-sana: (the former word hesitatingly). But iva is required. Prerana would make a kind of sense. See Taranga 48, sl. 26, a. The sloka is omitted in all the three India Office MSS. and in the Sanskrit College MS.

[628] The Petersburg lexicographers translate durbharah by Schwer beladen. I think it means that the supposed thief had many costly vices, which he could not gratify without stealing. Of course it applies to the king in a milder sense.

[629] In the realms below the earth.

[630] I read after Dr. Kern visvastaghatakah a slayer of those who confide in him. I also read kvasi for kvapi; as the three India Office MSS. give kvasi.

[631] The three India Office MSS. give tu for tam.

[632] I take sakaranam as one word.

[633] See Vol. I, p. 174, and ff. and Vol. II, p. 307, and ff.

[634] The Petersburg lexicographers spell the word Sibi. This story is really the same as the XVIth of Ralston's Tibetan Tales which begins on page 257. Dr. Kern points out that we ought to read dugdhabdinirmala. The India Office MSS. give the words correctly. This story is also found in the Chariya Pitaka. See Oldenberg's Buddha, p. 302.

[635] The word saumya means "pleasing" and also "moon-like"; kala in the next line means "digit of the moon" and also "accomplishment."

[636] I read satrani or sattrani for patrani which would mean "fit recipients." I find sattrani in MS. No. 1882.

[637] A perpetually recurring pun! Guna in Sanskrit means "bowstring"

and also "virtue," and is an unfailing source of temptation to our author.

[638] This story was evidently composed at a time when the recollections of the old clan-system were vivid in the minds of the Hindus. See Rhys David's Buddhism, p. 28. Gautama's relations "complained in a body to the Raja Suddhodana that his son, devoted to home pleasures, neglected those manly exercises necessary for one who might hereafter have to lead his kinsmen in case of war."

[639] I read anyanupayoginya which I find in MS. No. 3003. No. 1882 has anyanupabhoginya. In the other MS. the pa.s.sage is omitted. Another syllable is clearly required. The Sanskrit College MS. reads kim chanyanupayoginyatra.

[640] Cp. Richard II, V. 1. 35.

[641] India Office MS. No. 1882 reads nitau; the other two seem to omit the lines altogether.

[642] As Anathapindika gives the Jetavana garden to Buddha in the Bharhut Sculptures; see also p. 329 of this volume.

[643] The pun is intelligible enough: dvija means "Brahman" and also "bird": asagata means "coming from every quarter" and "coming in hope to get something."

[644] tat should not be separated from the next word.

[645] The three India Office MSS. read apacharam tvam. The Sanskrit College MS. gives apavdram.

[646] The metre shows that 'sta is a misprint for 'sita. All the three India Office MSS. read 'sita. So does the Sanskrit College MS.

[647] An allusion to the Arddhanarisa form of Siva.

[648] Pitamahah must be a misprint for pitamahah, as is apparent from the India Office MSS.

[649] This story is in the original prefaced by "Iti Padmavati katha." It continues to the end of the book, but properly speaking, the story of Padmavati does not commence until chapter 115.

[650] There is a reference to the sectaries of Siva in Benares, and the Ganas of Siva on mount Kailasa.

[651] Here we have a longer form of the story of Brahmadatta found on pp. 12 and 13 of Vol. I. Dr. Rajendralal Mitra informs me that it is also found in a MS. called the Bodhisattva Avadana, one of the Hodgson MSS.

[652] i. e., moonlight.

[653] There is probably a double meaning. The clouds are compared to the Ganges, and it is obvious that geese would cl.u.s.ter round lotuses.

[654] The sarasa is a large crane; the chakravaka the Brahmany duck.

[655] i. e., Tarkshyaratna. I have no idea what the jewel is. B. and R. give ein bestimmter dunkelfarbiger Edelstein. In Jataka No. 136 there is a golden goose who had been a Brahman. He gives his feathers to his daughters to sell, but his wife pulls out all the feathers at once; they become like the feathers of a baka. Afterwards they all grow white. See Rhys David's Buddhist Birth Stories, p. ix, note. In Sloka, 4. 1, I read tadrasad for tatra sada, with MSS. Nos. 1882 and 2166; No. 3003 has tatrasad.

[656] It may possibly mean "acted a love-drama." I cannot find the sense I have a.s.signed to it in any Dictionary.

[657] Before anu we should with the India Office MSS. insert tad. Monier Williams explains Brahma-Rakshasa as a "fiend of the Brahmanical cla.s.s."

[658] It is worth while remarking that all the India Office MSS. here read kshetram which would make Siddhisvara the name of a place here.

[659] All the India Office MSS. read gatva for jnatva. I have adopted this; and I take tatkoranam adverbially. MS. No. 1882 has gatovijnata.

[660] It appears from the India Office MSS. that dhanavan should be inserted after brahmano. In sloka 82, the India Office MSS. read chitrayatam which I have adopted.

[661] The three India Office MSS. have viteratuh.

[662] Dr. Kern would read kshudduhkavaptasamklesau. I find that all the three India Office MSS. confirm his conjecture, so I have adopted it.

[663] Cp. Vergil's Aeneid VIII. 172 and ff.

[664] All the three India Office MSS. and the Sanskrit College MS. read svagra, which I have endeavoured to translate. Perhaps it may mean, "before they took any food themselves."

[665] Here the name of a place sacred to Siva. Before we have had it as the G.o.d's t.i.tle. See B. & R. s. v. It means "lord of magic powers."