The Katha Sarit Sagara or Ocean of the Streams of Story Part 94

[397] Samasvasya, the reading of a MS. in the Sanskrit College, would perhaps give a better sense.

[398] I. e. skull-cleaver.

[399] Perhaps we ought to read smritva for srutva, "Remembering, calling to mind."

[400] So in Signora von Gonzenbach's Sicilian Stories, p. 66, a lovely woman opens with a knife the veins of the sleeping prince and drinks his blood. See also Veckenstedt's Wendische Sagen, p. 354. Ralston in his Russian Folk-Tales, p. 17, compares this part of the story with a Russian story and that of Sidi Noman in the "Thousand and One Nights,"

he refers also to Lane's Translation, Vol. I, p. 32.

[401] One is tempted to read vikritam for vikritim, but vikriti is translated by the Petersburg lexicographers as Gespensterscheinung. Vikritam would mean transformed into a Rakshasi.

[402] Skandha when applied to the Rakshasas means shoulder.

[403] Literally great flesh. "Great" seems to give the idea of unlawfulness, as in the Greek mega ergon.

[404] Cp. the golden rose in Gaal, Marchen der Magyaren, p. 44.

[405] Reading tasyan for tasman.

[406] Somadeva no doubt means that the hairs on the king's body stood on end with joy.

[407] According to the canons of Hindu rhetoric glory is always white.

[408] Night is compared to a female goblin, (Rakshasi). Those creatures have fiery mouths.

[409] Cp. Sicilianische Marchen collected by Laura von Gonzenbach, Vol. I, p. 160.

[410] Magical sciences, in virtue of which they were Vidyadharas or science-holders.

[411] A son or pupil of Visvamitra.

[412] I.e. the Ocean.

[413] Compare the erineos megas phylloisi tethelos in the Odyssey, Book XII., 103.

[414] The metre of this line is incorrect. There is a superfluous syllable. Perhaps we ought to read ambuvegatah, by the current.

[415] I think we ought to read adhah, downwards.

[416] Cp. Odyssey XII., 432

autar ego poti makron erineon hypsos' aertheis to prosphys echomen hos nykteris.

See also Lane's Arabian Nights, Vol. III, p. 7.

[417] all' ara he ge kat' andron kraata bainei. Iliad XIX, v. 93.

[418] Pakshapata also means flapping of wings. So there is probably a pun here.

[419] So in the Swedish tale "The Beautiful Palace East of the Sun and North of the Earth," the Phoenix carries the youth on his back to the Palace. Dr. Rost compares Arabian Nights, Night 77. See Lane, Vol. III, p. 17 and compare the Halcyon in Lucian's Vera Historia, Book II. 40, (Tauchnitz edition,) whose nest is seven miles in circ.u.mference, and whose egg is probably the prototype of that in the Arabian Nights. Cp. the Glucksvogel in Prym and Socin, Syrische Marchen, p. 269, and the eagle which carries Chaucer in the House of Fame. In the story of Lalitanga, extracted by Professor Nilmani Mukerjea from the Katha Kosha, a collection of Jaina stories, a Bharunda carries the hero to the city of Champa. There he cures the princess by a remedy, the knowledge of which he had acquired by overhearing a conversation among the birds.

[420] We should read sauvarnabhitti.

[421] Or Chandraprabha, whose name means "light of the moon." The forbidden chamber will at once remind the reader of Perrault's La Barbe Bleue. The lake incident is exactly similar to one in Chapter 81 of this work and to that of Kandarpaketu in the Hitopadesa. See Ralston's Russian Folk-tales page 99. He refers to this story and compares it with that of the Third Royal Mendicant, Lane I, 160-173, and gives many European equivalents. See also Veckenstedt's Wendische Sagen, p. 214. Many parallels will be found in the notes to Grimm's Marchen, Nos. 3 and 46; to which Ralston refers in his exhaustive note. In Wirt Sikes's British Goblins, p. 84, a draught from a forbidden well has the same effect.

[422] The Danavas are a cla.s.s of demons or giants. Ruru was a Danava slain by Durga.

[423] In Sloka 172 b. I conjecture Saktihasto for Saktidevo, as we read in sl. 181 b. that the boar was wounded with a sakti.

[424] Literally, having auspicious marks.

[425] A spirit that enters dead bodies.

[426] I read Vidyutprabham for Vidyadharim. But perhaps it is unnecessary.

[427] The Chakora is said to subsist upon moonbeams.

[428] So making him a Vidyadhara or "magic-knowledge-holder."

[429] I. e. Ganesa who is invoked to remove obstacles.

[430] This is an elaborate pun in the original. Guna=string and virtue; vansa=race and bamboo.

[431] The Taxila of the Greek writers. The Vitasta is the Hydaspes of the Greeks, now called Jhelum.

[432] Monier Williams says that Tara was the wife of the Buddha Amoghasiddha. Benfey (Orient und Occident, Vol. I, p. 373) says she was a well known Buddhist saint. The pa.s.sage might perhaps mean "The Buddha adorned with most brilliant stars."

It has been suggested to me that Taravara may mean Siva, and that the pa.s.sage means that the Saiva and Bauddha religions were both professed in the city of Takshasila.

[433] I. e. Buddhist ascetics.

[434] A MS. in the Sanskrit College reads sukala for svakala: the meaning is much the same.

[435] A MS. in the Sanskrit College reads nigrahah=blaming one's relations without cause.

[436] Cp. Ralston's Russian Folk-Tales, p. 122. See also Bartsch's Sagen, Marchen, und Gebrauche aus Meklenburg, Vol. I, p. 90.

[437] Moksha is the soul's final release from further transmigrations.

[438] Cp. Gesta Romanorum CXLIII (Bohn's Edition). This idea is found in the Telapattajataka, Fausboll, Vol. I, p. 393.

[439] A kind of Pandora.

[440] Compare the argument in the Eunuchus of Terence (III. 5.36 & ff) which shocked St. Augustine so much (Confessions I. 16).

[441] Et tonantem Jovem et adulterantem.