by joy. I have here inserted the words "from joy" in order to make
the meaning clear.
[143] Literally drunk in.
[144] Alluding to his grey hairs. In all eastern stories the appearance
of the first grey hair is a momentous epoch. The point of the whole
passage consists in the fact that jará, old age, is feminine in
form. Cp. the perturbation of King Samson in Hagen's Helden-Sagen,
Vol. I, p. 26, and Spence Hardy's Manual of Buddhism (1860) pp. 129
and 130.
[145] There is a pun between the name of the king Udayana and
prosperity (udaya).
[146] Not Vásuki, but his eldest brother.
[147] Chháyá means "colour;" he drank their colour, i. e., made them
pale. It also means "reflection in the wine."
[148] i. e., given by Buddha.
[149] The four Upáyas or means of success are sáman, negotiation,
which his pride would render futile, dána, giving, which appeals to
avarice, bheda, sowing dissension, which would be useless where a
king is beloved by his subjects, and danda, open force, of no use in
the case of a powerful king like Udayana.
[150] The chief vices of kings denounced by Hindu writers on statecraft
are: Hunting, gambling, sleeping in the day, calumny, addiction to
women, drinking spirits, dancing, singing, and instrumental music,
idle roaming, these proceed from the love of pleasure, others proceed
from anger, viz., tale-bearing, violence, insidious injury, envy,
detraction, unjust seizure of property, abuse, assault. See Monier
Williams s. v. vyasana.
[151] Sudhádhauta may mean "white as plaster," but more probably here
"whitened with plaster" like the houses in the European quarter of the
"City of palaces."
[152] A linga of Siva in Ujjayiní. Siva is here compared to an earthly
monarch subject to the vyasana of roaming. I take it, the poet means,
Ujjayiní is a better place than Kailása.
[153] Cp. the way in which Kandar goes in search of a sword in Prym
and Socin's Syrische Märchen, p. 205.
[154] Dr. Brockhaus translates it--Stürzte den Wagen des Königs
um. Can Syandana mean horses, like magni currus Achilli? If so,
áhatya would mean, having killed.
[155] Rasa means nectar, and indeed any liquid, and also emotion,
passion. The pun is of course most intentional in the original.
[156] Cp. the story of Ohimé in the "Sicilianische Märchen" collected
by Laura von Gonzenbach where Maruzza asks Ohimé how it would be
possible to kill him. So in Indian Fairy Tales, collected by Miss
Stokes, Hiralál Básá persuades Sonahrí Rání to ask his father where
he kept his soul. Some interesting remarks on this subject will be
found in the notes to this tale (Indian Fairy Tales, p. 260.) See
also No. I, in Campbell's Tales of the Western Highlands, and
Dr. Reinhold Köhler's remarks in Orient and Occident, Vol. II,
p. 100. Cp. also Ralston's Russian Folk-Tales, pp. 80, 81 and
136. Cp. also Veckenstedt's Wendische Sagen, p. 72. In the Gehörnte
Siegfried (Simrock's Deutsche Volksbücher, Vol. III, pp. 368 and 416),
the hero is made invulnerable everywhere but between the shoulders,
by being smeared with the melted fat of a dragon. Cp. also the story
of Achilles. For the transformation of Chandamahásena into a boar
see Bartsch's Sagen, Märchen und Gebräuche aus Meklenburg, Vol. II,
pp. 144, 145, and Gubernatis, Zoological Mythology, Vol. II, p. 14. See
also Schöppner's Geschichte der Bayerischen Lande, Vol. I, p. 258.
[157] They would not go near for fear of disturbing it. Wild elephants
are timid, so there is more probability in this story, than in that
of the Trojan horse. Even now scouts who mark down a wild beast in
India, almost lose their heads with excitement.
[158] I. e., they sat in Dharna outside the door of the palace.
[159] Perhaps we should read samantatah one word.
[160] Sattva, when applied to the forest, means animal, when applied
to wisdom, it means excellence.
[161] Vetála is especially used of a goblin that tenants dead
bodies. See Colonel R. Burton's Tales of Vikramáditya and the
Vampire. They will be found in the 12th book of this work. In the
Vth Chapter of Ralston's Russian Folk-Tales will be found much
interesting information with regard to the Slavonic superstitions
about Vampires. They resemble very closely those of the Hindus. See
especially p. 311. "At cross-roads, or in the neighbourhood of
cemeteries, an animated corpse of this description often lurks,
watching for some unwary traveller whom it may be able to slay
and eat."
[162] Cp. the way in which the Ritter Malegis transmutes Reinold in the
story of Die Heimonskinder (Simrock's Deutsche Volksbücher, Vol. II,
p. 86). "He changed him into an old man, a hundred years of age, with
a decrepit and misshapen body, and long hair." See also p. 114. So
Merlin assumes the form of an old man and disguises Uther and Ulfin,
Dunlop's History of Fiction, translated by Liebrecht, p. 66.
[163] Such people dance in temples I believe.
[164] Mr. Growse writes to me with reference to the name
Lohajangha--"This name still exists on the spot, though probably
not to be found elsewhere. The original bearer of the title is said
to have been one of the demons whom Krishna slew, and a village is
called Lohaban after him, where an ancient red sandstone image is
supposed to represent him, and has offerings of iron made to it at
the annual festival.
[165] Ráginí means affectionate and also red.
[166] Ataví is generally translated "forest." I believe the English
word "forest" does not necessarily imply trees, but it is perhaps
better to avoid it here.
[167] For the vritam of the text I read kritam. Cp. this incident with
Joseph's adventure in the 6th story of the Sicilianische Märchen. He
is sewn up in a horse's skin, and carried by ravens to the top of a
high mountain. There he stamps and finds a wooden trap-door under his
feet. In the notes Dr. Köhler refers to this passage, Campbell No. 44,
the Story of Sindbad and other parallels. Cp. also Veckenstedt's
Wendische Sagen, p. 124. See also the story of Heinrich der Löwe,
Simrock's Deutsche Volksbücher, Vol. I, p. 8. Dr. Köhler refers to
the story of Herzog Ernst. The incident will be found in Simrock's
version of the story, at page 308 of the IIIrd Volume of his Deutsche
Volksbücher.
[168] Names of Vishnu, who became incarnate in the hero Krishna.
[169] See Chapter 22 sl. 181 and ff. Kasyapa's two wives disputed
about the colour of the sun's horses. They agreed that whichever was
in the wrong should become a slave to the other. Kadrú, the mother
of the snakes, won by getting her children to darken the horses. So
Garuda's mother Vinatá became a slave.
[170] Divine personages of the size of a thumb; sixty thousand were
produced from Brahmá's body and surrounded the chariot of the sun. The
legend of Garuda and the Bálakhilyas is found in the Mahábhárata,
see De Gubernatis, Zoological Mythology, p. 95.
[171] A yojana is probably 9 miles, some say 2-1/2, some 4 or 5. See
Monier Williams s. v.
[172] Compare the 5th story in the first book of the Panchatantra,
in Benfey's translation.
Benfey shows that this story found its way into Mahometan collections,
such as the Thousand and one Nights, and the Thousand and one Days, as
also into the Decamerone of Boccaccio, and other European story-books,
Vol. I, p. 159, and ff.
The story, as given in the Panchatantra, reminds us of the Squire's
Tale in Chaucer, but Josephus in Ant. Jud. XVIII, 3, tells it of a
Roman knight named Mundus, who fell in love with Paulina the wife of
Saturninus, and by corrupting the priestess of Isis was enabled to pass
himself off as Anubis. On the matter coming to the ears of Tiberius, he
had the temple of Isis destroyed, and the priests crucified. (Dunlop's
History of Fiction, Vol. II, p. 27. Liebrecht's German translation,
p. 232). A similar story is told by the Pseudo-Callisthenes of
Nectanebos and Olympias. Cp. Coelho's Contos Populares Portuguezes,
No. LXXI, p. 155.
[173] Thus she represented the Arddhanárísvara, or Siva half male,
and half female, which compound figure is to be painted in this manner.
[174] She held on to it by her hands.
[175] Wilson remarks that this presents some analogy to the story
in the Decamerone (Nov. 7 Gior. 8) of the scholar and the widow
"la quale egli poi, con un suo consiglio, di mezzo Luglio, ignuda,
tutto un dì fa stare in su una torre." It also bears some resemblance
to the story of the Master Thief in Thorpe's Yule-tide Stories, page
272. The Master thief persuades the priest that he will take him to
heaven. He thus induces him to get into a sack, and then he throws
him into the goose-house, and when the geese peck him, tells him that
he is in purgatory. The story is Norwegian. See also Sir G. W. Cox's
Mythology of the Aryan Nations, Vol. 1. p. 127.
[176] Cp. the way in which Rüdiger carries off the daughter of king
Osantrix, Hagen's Helden-Sagen, Vol. I, p. 227.
[177] têrêsantes nykta cheimerion hydati kai anemô kai ham' aselênon
exêsan. Thucyd. III. 22.
[178] The word dasyu here means savage, barbarian. These wild mountain
tribes called indiscriminately Savaras, Pulindas, Bhillas &c., seem
to have been addicted to cattle-lifting and brigandage. So the word
dasyu comes to mean robber. Even the virtuous Savara prince described
in the story of Jímútaváhana plunders a caravan.
[179] Cathay?
[180] Compare the rose garland in the story of the Wright's Chaste
Wife; edited for the early English Text Society by Frederick
J. Furnivall, especially lines 58 and ff.
"Wete thou wele withowtyn fable
"Alle the whyle thy wife is stable
"The chaplett wolle holde hewe;
"And yf thy wyfe use putry
"Or telle eny man to lye her by
Then welle yt change hewe,
And by the garland thou may see,
Fekylle or fals yf that sche be,
Or elles yf she be true.
See also note in Wilson's Essays on Sanskrit Literature, Vol. I,
p. 218. He tells us that in Perce Forest the lily of the Kathá Sarit
Ságara is represented by a rose. In Amadis de Gaul it is a garland
which blooms on the head of her that is faithful, and fades on the
brow of the inconstant. In Les Contes à rire, it is also a flower. In
Ariosto, the test applied to both male and female is a cup, the wine
of which is spilled by the unfaithful lover. This fiction also occurs
in the romances of Tristan, Perceval and La Morte d'Arthur, and is
well known by La Fontaine's version, La Coupe Enchantée. In La Lai
du Corn, it is a drinking-horn. Spenser has derived his girdle of
Florimel from these sources or more immediately from the Fabliau, Le
Manteau mal taillé or Le Court Mantel, an English version of which is
published in Percy's Reliques, the Boy and the Mantel (Vol. III.) In
the Gesta Romanorum (c. 69) the test is the whimsical one of a shirt,
which will neither require washing nor mending as long as the wearer is
constant. (Not the wearer only but the wearer and his wife). Davenant
has substituted an emerald for a flower.
The bridal stone,
And much renowned, because it chasteness loves,
And will, when worn by the neglected wife,
Shew when her absent lord disloyal proves
By faintness and a pale decay of life.
I may remark that there is a certain resemblance in this story to
that of Shakespeare's Cymbeline, which is founded on the 9th Story of
the 2nd day in the Decamerone, and to the 7th Story in Gonzenbach's
Sicilianische Märchen.
See also "The king of Spain and his queen" in Thorpe's Yule-tide
Stories, pp. 452-455. Thorpe remarks that the tale agrees in substance
with the ballad of the "Graf Von Rom" in Uhland, II, 784; and with
the Flemish story of "Ritter Alexander aus Metz und Seine Frau
Florentina." In the 21st of Bandello's novels the test is a mirror
(Liebrecht's Dunlop, p. 287). See also pp. 85 and 86 of Liebrecht's
Dunlop, with the notes at the end of the volume.
[181] A man of low caste now called Dom. They officiate as
executioners.
[182] Compare the way in which the widow's son, the shifty lad,
treats Black Rogue in Campbell's Tales of the Western Highlands
(Tale XVII d. Orient und Occident, Vol. II, p. 303.)
[183] Datura is still employed, I believe, to stupefy people whom it
is thought desirable to rob.
[184] I read iva for the eva of Dr. Brockhaus's text.
[185] A precisely similar story occurs in the Bahár Dánish. The turn
of the chief incident, although not the same, is similar to that of
Nov VII, Part 4 of Bandello's Novelle, or the Accorto Avvedimento
di una Fantesca à liberare la padrona e l' innamorato di quella de
la morte. (Wilson's Essays, Vol. I, p. 224.) Cp. also the Mongolian
version of the story in Sagas from the Far East, p. 320. The story
of Saktimatí is the 19th in the Suka Saptati. I have been presented
by Professor Nílmani Mukhopádhyáya with a copy of a MS. of this work
made by Babu Umesa Chandra Gupta.
[186] Cp. the story of the Chest in Campbell's Stories from the Western
Highlands. It is the first story in the 2nd volume and contains one
or two incidents which remind us of this story.
[187] I read mahâkulodgatáh.
[188] Alluding to Indra's having cut the wings of the mountains.
[189] The peafowl are delighted at the approach of the rainy season,
when "their sorrow" comes to an end.
[190] It is often the duty of these minstrels to wake the king with
their songs.
[191] Weapons well known in Hindu mythology. See the 6th act of the
Uttara Ráma Charita.
[192] Sútrapátam akarot she tested, so to speak. Cp. Taranga 21,
sl. 93. The fact is, the smoke made her eyes as red as if she had
been drinking.
[193] Or "like Kuvera." There is a pun here.
[194] Young Deformed.
[195] Cp. the distribution of presents on the occasion of King Etzel's
marriage in the Nibelungen Lied.
[196] It must be remembered that a king among the Hindus was
inaugurated with water, not oil.
[197] The word "adders" must here do duty for all venomous kinds
of serpents.
[198] A similar story is found in the IVth book of the Panchatantra,
Fable 5, where Benfey compares the story of Yayáti and his son
Puru. Benfey Panchatantra I. 436. Bernhard Schmidt in his Griechische
Märchen, page 37, mentions a very similar story, which he connects
with that of Admetos and Alkestis. In a popular ballad of Trebisond,
a young man named Jannis, the only son of his parents, is about to be
married, when Charon comes to fetch him. He supplicates St. George,
who obtains for him the concession, that his life may be spared, in
case his father will give him half the period of life still remaining
to him. His father refuses, and in the same way his mother. At last
his betrothed gives him half her allotted period of life, and the
marriage takes place. The story of Ruru is found in the Ádiparva of
the Mahábhárata, see Lévêque, Mythes et Légendes de l'Inde, pp. 278,
and 374.
[199] I read dhátá for dhátrá.
[200] i. e. Hastinápura.
[201] Here Wilson observes: The circumstances here related are not
without analogies in fact. It is not marvellous therefore that we
may trace them in fiction. The point of the story is the same as
that of the "Deux Anglais à Paris," a Fabliau, and of "Une femme
à l'extremité qui se mit en si grosse colère voyant son mari qui
baisait sa servante qu'elle recouvra la santé" of Margaret of Navarre,
(Heptameron. Nouvelle 71). Cp. Henderson's Folk-lore of the Northern
Counties, p. 131.
Webster, Duchess of Malfi, Act IV, Sc. 2, tells a similar story,
"A great physician, when the Pope was sick
Of a deep melancholy, presented him
With several sorts of madmen, which wild object,
Being full of change and sport, freed him to laugh,
And so the imposthume broke."
[202] Cp. Sagas from the far East, Tale XI, pp. 123, 124. Here
the crime contemplated is murder, and the ape is represented by a
tiger. This story bears a certain resemblance to the termination of
Alles aus einer Erbse, Kaden's Unter den Olivenbäumen, p. 22. See
also page 220 of the same collection. In the Pentamerone of Basile,
Tale 22, a princess is set afloat in a box, and found by a king,
whose wife she eventually becomes. There is a similar incident in
Kaden's Unter den Olivenbäumen, p. 220.
[203] Literally a handful of water, such as is offered to the Manes, is
offered to Fortune. It is all over with his chance of attaining glory.
[204] Cp. Sicilianische Märchen, Vol. I, p. 220. Liebrecht, in note
485 to page 413 of his translation of Dunlop's History of Fiction,
compares this story with one in The Thousand and One Days of a princess
of Kashmír, who was so beautiful that every one who saw her went mad,
or pined away. He also mentions an Arabian tradition with respect to
the Thracian sorceress Rhodope. "The Arabs believe that one of the
pyramids is haunted by a guardian spirit in the shape of a beautiful
woman, the mere sight of whom drives men mad." He refers also to
Thomas Moore, the Epicurean, Note 6 to Chapter VI, and the Adventures
of Hatim Tai, translated by Duncan Forbes, p. 18.
[205] In the original it is intended to compare the locks to the
spots in the moon.
[206] Reading yad hi.
[207] The moon was the progenitor of the Pándava race.
[208] One of the five trees of Paradise.
[209] Káma the Hindu Cupid.
[210] There is a certain resemblance in the story of Sunda and Upasunda
to that of Otus and Ephialtes; see Preller's Griechische Mythologie,
Vol. I p. 81. Cp. also Grohmann's Sagen aus Böhmen, p. 35.
[211] The architect or artist of the gods.
[212] This is literally true. The king was addicted to the vyasana
or vice of hunting.
[213] I read hastagraháyogyám for the áhastagraháyogyám of
Dr. Brockhaus.
[214] The flower closes when the sun sets.
[215] To keep up his character as a Bráhman boy.
[216] I read dáhaishiná.
[217] This applies also to the god of love who bewilders the mind.
[218] Kara means hand, and also tribute.
[219] I read iva for eva.
[220] Reading taddvárasthitamahattaram as one word.
[221] For parallels to the story of Urvasí, see Kuhn's Herabkunft
des Feuer's, p. 88.
[222] This, with the water weapon, and that of whirlwind, is mentioned
in the Rámáyana and the Uttara Ráma Charita.
[223] Or Devarshi, belonging to the highest class of Rishis or
patriarchal saints.
[224] This dance is mentioned in the 1st Act of the Málavikágnimitra.
[225] Literally broke. The vyádhi or disease must have been of the
nature of an abscess.
[226] Amare et sapere vix deo conceditur. (Publius Syrus.)
[227] Liebrecht in an essay on some modern Greek songs (Zur
Volkskunde, p. 211) gives numerous stories of children who spoke
shortly after birth. It appears to have been generally considered an
evil omen. Cp. the Romance of Merlin. (Dunlop's History of Fiction,
p. 146.) See Baring Gould's Curious Myths of the Middle Ages (New
Edition, 1869) p. 170. In a startling announcement of the birth of
Antichrist which appeared in 1623, purporting to come from the brothers
of the Order of St. John, the following passage occurs,--"The child
is dusky, has pleasant mouth and eyes, teeth pointed like those of a
cat, ears large, stature by no means exceeding that of other children;
the said child, incontinent on his birth, walked and talked perfectly
well."
[228] More literally; blockaded his house with policemen, and his
throat with tears.
[229] So in the XXIst of Miss Stokes's Indian Fairy Tales the fakir
changes the king's son into a fly. Cp. also Veckenstedt's Wendische
Sagen, p. 127.
[230] Ficus Indica. Such a tree is said to have sheltered an army. Its
branches take root and form a natural cloister. Cp. Milton's Paradise
Lost, Book IX, lines 1000 and ff.
[231] Grimm in his Teutonic Mythology (translation by Stallybrass,
p. 121, note,) connects the description of wonderful maidens sitting
inside hollow trees or perched on the boughs, with tree-worship. See
also Grohmann's Sagen aus Böhmen, p. 41.
[232] For the illuminating power of female beauty, see Note 3 to the
1st Tale in Miss Stokes's Collection, where parallels are cited from
the folk-lore of Europe and Asia.
[233] Kámadhenu means a cow granting all desires; such a cow is said
to have belonged to the sage Vasishta.
[234] Conciliation, bribery, sowing dissension, and war.
[235] The Prákrit word majjáo means "a cat" and also "my lover."
[236] Cp. Schiller's "Der Graf von Habsburg," lines 9-12.
[237] The word pati here means king and husband.
[238] A smile is always white according to the Hindu poetic canons.
[239] The countenance of the fair ones were like moons.
[240] There should be a mark of elision before nimishekshanáh.
[241] The eyes of Hindu ladies are said to reach to their ears. I
read tadákhyátum for tadákhyátim with a MS. in the Sanskrit college,
kindly lent me by the Librarian with the consent of the Principal.
[242] Love and affection, the wives of Kámadeva the Hindu Cupid.
[243] So the mouse in the Panchatantra possesses power by means of a
treasure (Benfey's Panchatantra, Vol. I, p. 320. Vol. II, p. 178.) The
story is found also in the 61st Chapter of this work. Cp. also Sagas
from the Far East, pp. 257 and 263. The same idea is found in the 39th
Játaka, p. 322 of Rhys Davids' translation, and in the 257th Játaka,
Vol. II, p. 297 of Fausböll's edition.
[244] Cp. Sagas from the Far East, p. 263.
[245] I read darsayat.
[246] Sati is a misprint for mati, Böhtlingk and Roth sv.
[247] i. e. the Ganges.
[248] In Sanskrit pratápa the word translated "valour," also means
heat, and chakra may refer to the wheels of the chariot and the orb
of the sun, so that there is a pun all through.
[249] More literally, a torrent of pride and kicking.
[250] Grimm in his Teutonic Mythology (translation by Stallybrass,
p. 392) remarks--"One principal mark to know heroes by is their
possessing intelligent horses, and conversing with them. The touching
conversation of Achilles with his Xanthos and Balios finds a complete
parallel in the beautiful Karling legend of Bayard. (This is most
pathetically told in Simrock's Deutsche Volksbücher, Vol. II, Die
Heimonskinder, see especially page 54). Grimm proceeds to cite many
other instances from European literature. See also Note 3 to the
XXth story in Miss Stokes's collection. See also De Gubernatis,
Zoological Mythology, Vol. I, p. 336 and ff. See the remarks in
Bernhard Schmidt's Griechische Märchen, p. 237.
[251] The keeper of a burning or burial-ground would be impure.
[252] Probably the people sprinkled one another with red powder as
at the Holi festival.
[253] So in Grimm's Märchen von einem der auszog das Fürchten zu
lernen the youth is recommended to sit under the gallows where
seven men have been executed. Cp. also the story of "The Shroud"
in Ralston's Russian Folk-Tales, p. 307.
The belief that the dead rose from the tomb in the form of Vampires
appears to have existed in Chaldæa and Babylon. Lenormant observes
in his Chaldæan Magic and Sorcery, (English Translation, p. 37) "In
a fragment of the Mythological epopée which is traced upon a tablet
in the British Museum, and relates the descent of Ishtar into Hades,
we are told that the goddess, when she arrived at the doors of the
infernal regions, called to the porter whose duty it was to open
them, saying,
"Porter, open thy door;
Open thy door that I may enter.
If thou dost not open the door, and if I cannot enter,
I will attack the door, I will break down its bars,
I will attack the enclosure, I will leap over its fences by force;
I will cause the dead to rise and devour the living;
I will give to the dead power over the living."
The same belief appears also to have existed in Egypt. The same author
observes (p. 92). "These formulæ also kept the body from becoming,
during its separation from the soul, the prey of some wicked spirit
which would enter, re-animate, and cause it to rise again in the form
of a vampire. For, according to the Egyptian belief, the possessing
spirits, and the spectres which frightened or tormented the living
were but the souls of the condemned returning to the earth, before
undergoing the annihilation of the 'second death.'"
[254] Cp. Ralston's account of the Vampire as represented in
the Skazkas. "It is as a vitalized corpse that the visitor from
the other world comes to trouble mankind, often subject to human
appetites, constantly endowed with more than human strength and
malignity."--Ralston's Russian Folk-Tales, p. 306.
[255] Cp. the way in which the witch treats the corpse of her son
in the VIth book of the Æthiopica of Heliodorus, ch. 14, and Lucan's
Pharsalia, Book VI, 754-757.
[256] I. e., the corpse tenanted by the Vetála or demon.
[257] Cp. Simrock's Deutsche Volksbücher, Vol. III, p. 399.
[258] Lakshmí or Srí the goddess of Prosperity appeared after the
churning of the ocean with a lotus in her hand. According to another
story she is said to have appeared at the creation floating on the
expanded leaves of a lotus-flower. The hand of a lady is often compared
to a lotus.
[259] I. e., rising; the eastern mountain behind which the sun is
supposed to rise.
[260] I. e., semi-divine beings supposed to be of great purity and
holiness.
[261] General Cunningham identifies Paundravardhana with the modern
Pubna.
[262] There is a curious parallel to this story in Táránátha's History
of Buddhism, translated into German by Schiefner, p. 203. Here a
Rákshasí assumes the form of a former king's wife, and kills all
the subjects, one after another, as fast as they are elected to the
royal dignity.
[263] Compare the Apocryphal book of Tobit. See also the 30th page
of Lenormant's Chaldæan Magic and Sorcery, English translation.
[264] Ralston in his Russian Folk-Tales, p. 270, compares this incident
with one in a Polish story, and in the Russian story of the Witch
Girl. In both the arm of the destroyer is cut off.
[265] I read iva; the arm was the long bar, and the whole passage is
an instance of the rhetorical figure called utprekshá.
[266] Cp. the freeing of Argo by Hercules cutting off Pallair's arm
in the Togail Troi, ed. Stokes, p. 67.
[267] There is probably a pun here. Rámártham may mean "for the sake
of a fair one."
[268] I read na tad for tatra with a MS. in the Sanskrit College.
[269] Here there is a pun on Ananga, a name of the Hindu Cupid.
[270] Here there is a pun. The word guna also means rope.
[271] For stories of transportation through the air, see Wirt Sikes,
British Goblins, p. 157 and ff.
[272] Cp. the way in which Torello informs his wife of his presence
in Boccacio's Decameron Xth day Nov. IX. The novels of the Xth day
must be derived from Indian, and probably Buddhistic sources. There
is a Buddhistic vein in all of them. A striking parallel to the 5th
Novel of the Xth day will be found further on in this work.
Cp. also, for the incident of the ring, Thorpe's Yuletide Stories,
p. 167. See also the story of Heinrich der Löwe, Simrock's Deutsche
Volksbücher, Vol. I, pp. 21 and 22. Cp. also Waldau's Böhmische
Märchen, pp. 365 and 432, Coelho's Contos Populares Portuguezes,
p. 76; and Prym und Socin's Syrische Märchen, p. 72. See also Ralston's
Tibetan Tales, Introduction pp. xlix and 1.
[273] An oblation to gods, or venerable men of, rice, dúrva grass,
flowers, &c., with water, or of water only in a small boat-shaped
vessel.
[274] Sneha means oil, and also affection.
[275] Sattva when applied to the ocean probably means "monsters." So
the whole compound would mean "in which was conspicuous the fury of
gambling monsters." The pun defies translation.
[276] I read aushadeh. The Rákshasa is compared to the mountain,
Vidúshaka to the moon, his wives to the gleaming herbs.
[277] Thorpe in his Yule-tide Stories remarks that the story of
Vidúshaka somewhat resembles in its ground-plot the tale of the
Beautiful Palace East of the Sun and North of the Earth. With the
latter he also compares the story of Saktivega in the 5th book of the
Kathá Sarit Ságara. (See the table of contents of Thorpe's Yule-tide
Stories, p. xi.) Cp. also Sicilianische Märchen, Vol. II, p. 1,
and for the cutting off of the giant's arm, p. 50.
[278] Perhaps we should read svádvaushadha = sweet medicine.
[279] I. q., Bheels.
[280] I read árúdhah.
[281] A MS. in the Sanskrit College reads sambhavah for the sampadah
of Dr. Brockhaus's text.
[282] Lustratio exercitus; waving lights formed part of the ceremony.
[283] It also means "drawing cords."
[284] He is sometimes represented as bearing the entire world on one
of his heads.
[285] One of these poison-damsels is represented as having been
employed against Chandragupta in the Mudrá Rákshasa. Compare the
XIth tale in the Gesta Romanorum, where an Indian queen sends one to
Alexander the Great. Aristotle frustrates the stratagem.
[286] Jayastambha. Wilson remarks that the erection of these columns is
often alluded to by Hindu writers, and explains the character of the
solitary columns which are sometimes met with, as the Lát at Delhi,
the pillars at Allahábád, Buddal, &c.
[287] Kalinga is usually described as extending from Orissa to Drávida
or below Madras, the coast of the Northern Circars. It appears,
however, to be sometimes the Delta of the Ganges. It was known to
the ancients as Regio Calingarum, and is familiar to the natives of
the Eastern Archipelago by the name of Kling. Wilson.
[288] The clouds are nihsára void of substance, as being no longer
heavy with rain. The thunder ceases in the autumn.
[289] Chola was the sovereignty of the western part of the Peninsula
on the Carnatic, extending southwards to Tanjore where it was bounded
by the Pándyan kingdom. It appears to have been the Regio Soretanum
of Ptolemy and the Chola mandala or district furnishes the modern
appellation of the Coromandel Coast.--Wilson, Essays, p. 241 note.
[290] Murala is another name for Kerala, now Malabar (Hall.) Wilson
identifies it with the Curula of Ptolemy.
[291] Or perhaps more literally "creeper-like sword." Probably the
expression means "flexible, well-tempered sword," as Professor Nílmani
Mukhopádhyáya has suggested to me.
[292] It had been employed for this purpose by the gods and
Asuras. Láta = the Larice of Ptolemy. (Wilson.)
[293] Turks, the Indo-scythæ of the ancients. (Wilson.)
[294] Persians.
[295] A Daitya or demon. His head swallows the sun and moon.
[296] Perhaps the Huns.
[297] The western portion of Assam. (Wilson.)
[298] For the worship of trees and tree-spirits, see Grimm's Teutonic
Mythology, p. 75 and ff., and Tylor's Primitive Culture, Vol. II,
p. 196 and ff.
[299] I here read durdasáh for the durdarsáh of Dr. Brockhaus' text. It
must be a misprint. A MS. in the Sanskrit College reads durdasáh.
[300] The Guhyakas are demi-gods, attendants upon Kuvera and guardians
of his wealth.
[301] Literally--having the cardinal points as her only garment.
[302] For the circle cp. Henry VI. Part II, Act I, Sc. IV, line
25 and Henry V. Act V, Sc. 2, line 420. "If you would conjure,
you must make a circle." See also Ralston's Russian Folk-Tales,
p. 272. Veckenstedt's Wendische Sagen, pp. 292, 302, 303. See also
Wirt Sikes, British Goblins, pp. 200, and 201; Henderson's Northern
Folk-lore, p. 19, Bartsch's Sagen, Märchen, und Gebräuche aus
Meklenburg, Vol. I, pp. 128, 213. Professor Jebb, in his notes on
Theophrastus' Superstitious man, observes "The object of all those
ceremonies, in which the offerings were carried round the person or
place to be purified, was to trace a charmed circle within which the
powers of evil should not come." Cp. also Grössler's Sagen aus der
Grafschaft Mansfeld, p. 217, Brand's Popular Antiquities, Vol. III,
p. 56; Grohmann's Sagen aus Böhmen, p. 226.
[303] i. e. by the fire of Siva's eye.
[304] Perhaps we ought to read sadehasya. I find this rending in a
MS. lent to me by the librarian of the Sanskrit College with the kind
permission of the Principal.
[305] i. e. Siva.
[306] In this wild legend, resembling one in the first book of the
Rámáyana, I have omitted some details for reasons which will be
obvious to those who read it in the original.
[307] i. e. the six Pleiades.
[308] Mr. Tylor (in his Primitive Culture, Vol. II, p. 176) speaking
of Slavonian superstitions, says, "A man whose eyebrows meet as if
his soul were taking flight to enter some other body, may be marked
by this sign either as a were-wolf or a vampire." In Icelandic Sagas
a man with meeting eyebrows is said to be a werewolf. The same idea
holds in Denmark, also in Germany, whilst in Greece it is a sign that
a man is a Brukolak or Vampire. (Note by Baring-Gould in Henderson's
Folk-lore of the Northern Counties). The same idea is found in Bohemia,
see Grohmann's Sagen aus Böhmen, p. 210. Cp. Grimm's Irische Märchen,
p. cviii.
[309] I read ásta for ásu.
[310] rajas in Sanskrit means dust and also passion.
[311] i. e. immunity from future births.
[312] i. e. desire, wrath, covetousness, bewilderment, pride and envy.
[313] Cp. the Æthiopica of Heliodorus, Book VII, ch. 15, where the
witch is armed with a sword during her incantations; and Homer's
Odyssey, XI, 48. See also for the magic virtues of steel Liebrecht,
Zur Volkskunde, pp. 312, 313.
[314] See Veckenstedt's Wendische Sagen, p. 289, where a young man
overhears a spell with similar results. See also Bartsch's Sagen,
Märchen und Gebräuche aus Meklenburg, Vol. I, p. 115.
[315] I read tan tad.
[316] Called more usually by English people Allahabad.
[317] This incident reminds one of Schiller's ballad--Der Gang nach
dem Eisenhammer. (Benfey Panchatantra, Vol. I, p. 320.)
The story of Fridolin in Schiller's ballad is identical with the
story of Fulgentius which is found in the English Gesta Romanorum,
see Bohn's Gesta Romanorum, Introduction, page 1. Douce says that the
story is found in Scott's Tales from the Arabic and Persian, p. 53 and
in the Contes devots or Miracles of the Virgin. (Le Grand, Fabliaux,
v. 74.) Mr. Collier states upon the authority of M. Boettiger that
Schiller founded his ballad upon an Alsatian tradition which he heard
at Mannheim. Cp. also the 80th of the Sicilianische Märchen which
ends with these words, "Wer gutes thut, wird gutes erhalten." There
is a certain resemblance in this story to that of Equitan in Murie's
lays. See Ellis's Early English Metrical Romances, pp. 46 and 47. It
also resembles the story of Lalitánga extracted from the Kathá Kosha
by Professor Nilmani Mukerjea in his Sáhitya Parichaya, Part II, and
the conclusion of the story of Damannaka from the same source found
in his Part I. The story of Fridolin is also found in Schöppner's
Sagenbuch der Bayerischen Lande, Vol. I, p. 204.
[318] Literally creeper-like.
[319] There is a double meaning here; kshetra means fit recipients
as well as field. The king no doubt distributed corn.
[320] i. e. the god Ganesa, who has an elephant's head.
[321] Seven principal mountains are supposed to exist in each Varsha
or division of a continent.
[322] There is a reference here to the mada or ichor which exudes
from an elephant's temples when in rut.
[323] rága also means passion.
[324] The quarters are often conceived of as women.
[325] In the XVIIIth tale of the Gesta Romanorum Julian is led into
trouble by pursuing a deer. The animal turns round and says to him,
"Thou who pursuest me so fiercely shalt be the destruction of thy
parents." See also Bernhard Schmidt's Griechische Märchen, p. 38. "A
popular ballad referring to the story of Digenis gives him a life
of 300 years, and represents his death as due to his killing a hind
that had on its shoulder the image of the Virgin Mary, a legend the
foundation of which is possibly a recollection of the old mythological
story of the hind of Artemis killed by Agamemnon." [Sophoclis Electra,
568.] In the Romance of Doolin of Mayence Guyon kills a hermit by
mistake for a deer. (Liebrecht's translation of Dunlop's History
of Fiction, p. 138) See also De Gubernatis, Zoological Mythology,
pp. 84-86.
[326] I. g. Umá and Párvatí. Káma = the god of love.
[327] Cp. Lane's Arabian Nights, Vol. I, p. 96; also an incident in
Gül and Sanaubar, (Liebrecht, Zur Volkskunde, p. 144).
[328] Here there is a pun, suvritta meaning also well-rounded.
[329] i. e. burnt herself with his body.
[330] Purogaih means "done in a previous life," and also "going
before."
[331] Cp. Gaal, Märchen der Magyaren, p. 364; Gonzenbach's
Sicilianische Märchen, Vol. I, pp. 285 and 294.
[332] I read with a MS. in the Sanskrit College patisnehád for
pratisnehád. The two wives of the god of Love came out of lovo to
their husband, who was conceived in Vásavadattá.
[333] Vidyádhara--means literally "magical-knowledge-holder."
[334] The ceremony of coronation.
[335] Ambiká, i. q., Párvatí the wife of Siva.
[336] Liebrecht, speaking of the novel of Guerino Meschino, compares
this tree with the sun and moon-trees mentioned in the work of the
Pseudo-Callisthenes, Book III. c. 17. They inform Alexander that
the years of his life are accomplished, and that he will die in
Babylon. See also Ralston's Songs of the Russian people, p. 111.
[337] A period of 432 million years of mortals.
[338] More literally the cardinal and intermediate points.
[339] Reading manomrigi, the deer of the mind.
[340] Member of a savage tribe.
[341] I. e. of the pearls in the heads of the elephants.
[342] I. e. the sun.
[343] Throbbing of the right eye in men portends union with the
beloved.
[344] No doubt by offering the flowers which she had gathered.
[345] Like the two physicians in Gesta Romanorum, LXXVI.
[346] A peculiarly sacred kind of Darbha grass.
[347] M. Lévêque considers that the above story, as told in the
Mahábhárata, forms the basis of the Birds of Aristophanes. He
identifies Garuda with the hoopoe. (Les Mythes et Légendes de l'Inde
et de la Perse, p. 14).
[348] Rájila is a striped snake, said to be the same as the dundubha
a non-venomous species.
[349] The remarks which Ralston makes (Russian Folk-tales, page 65)
with regard to the snake as represented in Russian stories, are
applicable to the Nága of Hindu superstition; "Sometimes he retains
throughout the story an exclusively reptilian character, sometimes
he is of a mixed nature, partly serpent and partly man." The snakes
described in Veckenstedt's Wendische Sagen, (pp. 402-409,) resemble
in some points the snakes which we hear so much of in the present
work. See also Bartsch's Sagen, Märchen, und Gebräuche aus Meklenburg,
Vol. I, p. 277 and ff.
[350] The word nága, which means snake, may also mean, as Dr. Brockhaus
explains it, a mountaineer from naga a mountain.
[351] I conjecture kramád for krandat. If we retain krandat we must
suppose that the king of the Vidyádharas wept because his scheme of
self-sacrifice was frustrated.
[352] I read adhah for adah.
[353] In the Sicilian stories of the Signora von Gonzenbach an ointment
does duty for the amrita, cp. for one instance out of many, page 145
of that work. Ralston remarks that in European stories the raven is
connected with the Water of Life. See his exhaustive account of this
cycle of stories on pages 231 and 232 of his Russian Folk-tales. See
also Veckenstedt's Wendische Sagen, p. 245, and the story which begins
on page 227. In the 33rd of the Syrian stories collected by Prym and
Socin we have a king of snakes and water of life.
[354] The home of the serpent race below the earth.
[355] Here equivalent to Pátála.
[356] Here there is a pun: ákula may also mean "by descent."
[357] Kulíná may mean falling on the earth, referring to the shade of
the tree. Márgasthá means "in the right path" when applied to the wife.
[358] I. e. Madam Contentious. Her husband's name means "of lion-like
might."
[359] I read (after Böhtlingk and Roth) Ityakápara. See Chapter
34. sl. 115.
[360] Tejas = also means might, courage. For the idea see note on
page 305.
[361] Sneha which means love, also means oil. This is a fruitful
source of puns in Sanskrit.
[362] The Hindu Cupid.
[363] Infinitely longer than a mortal kalpa. A mortal kalpa lasts
432 million years.
[364] He is often called Ananga, the bodiless, as his body was consumed
by the fire of Siva's eye.
[365] Or virtuous and generous.
[366] It is still the custom to give presents of vessels filled with
rice and coins. Empty vessels are inauspicious, and even now if a
Bengali on going out of his house meets a person carrying an empty
pitcher, he turns back, and waits a minute or two.
[367] A: Peace, war, march, halt, stratagem and recourse to the
protection of a mightier king.
[368] The elephant-headed god has his trunk painted with red lead
like a tame elephant, and is also liable to become mast.
[369] Followers and attendants upon Siva.
[370] The modern Burdwan.
[371] I. e. Gold-gleam.
[372] For an account of the wanderjahre of young Bráhman students,
see Dr. Bühler's introduction to the Vikramánkadevacharita.
[373] More literally--Those whose eyes do not wink. The epithet also
means "worthy of being regarded with unwinking eyes." No doubt this
ambiguity is intended.
[374] I. e. the city of jewels.
[375] Áskandin is translated "granting" by Monier Williams and the
Petersburg lexicographers.
[376] These are worn on the fingers when offerings are made.
[377] A particular posture in religious meditation, sitting with the
thighs crossed, with one hand resting on the left thigh, the other
held up with the thumb upon the heart, and the eyes directed to the
tip of the nose.
[378] Kárpatika may mean a pilgrim, but it seems to be used in the
K. S. S. to mean a kind of dependant on a king or great man, usually
a foreigner. See chapters 38, 53, and 81 of this work.
[379] First he should be a Brahmachárin or unmarried religious student,
next a Grihastha or householder, than a Vánaprastha or anchoret,
lastly a Bhikshu or beggar.
[380] i. e. virtue, wealth, pleasure; dharma, artha, káma.
[381] Graha, also means planet, i. e. inauspicious planet. Siva tells
the truth here.
[382] i. e. the auspicious or friendly one.
[383] There is probably a double meaning in the word
"incomprehensible."
[384] Perhaps we ought to read dattvá for tatra.
[385] A report similar to that spread against Harasvámin was in
circulation during the French Revolution. Taine in his history of
the Revolution, Vol. I, p. 418 tells the following anecdote: "M. de
Montlosier found himself the object of many unpleasant attentions
when he went to the National Assembly. In particular a woman of about
thirty used to sharpen a large knife when he passed and look at him in
a threatening manner. On enquiry he discovered the cause--Deux enfants
du quartier ont disparu enlevés par de bohémiens, et c'est maintenant
un bruit répandu que M. de Montlosier, le marquis de Mirabeau, et
d'autres députés du côté droit se rassemblent pour faire des orgies
dans lesquelles ils mangent de petits enfants."
[386] The city of flowers, i. g. Pátaliputra.
[387] Perhaps we ought to read yayau for dadau. This I find is the
reading of an excellent MS. in the Sanskrit college, for the loan of
which I am deeply indebted to the Principal and the Librarian.
[388] Probably a poor pun.
[389] Cf. Uttara Ráma Charita (Vidyáságara's edition) Act III,
p. 82, the speech of the river-goddess Tamasá. Lenormant in his
Chaldæan Magic and Sorcery, p. 41, (English Translation), observes:
"We must add to the number of those mysterious rites the use of certain
enchanted drinks, which doubtless really contained medicinal drugs,
as a cure for diseases, and also of magic knots, the efficacy of
which was firmly believed in, even up to the middle ages." See also
Ralston's Songs of the Russian people, p. 288.
[390] In the story of the Beautiful Palace East of the Sun and North
of the Earth, (Thorpe, Yule-tide Stories, p. 158) an old woman sends
the youth, who is in quest of the palace, to her old sister, who again
refers him to an older sister dwelling in a small ruinous cottage on
a mountain. In Signora von Gonzenbach's Sicilianische Märchen, p. 86,
the prince is sent by one "Einsiedler" to his brother, and this brother
sends him to an older brother and he again to an older still, who is
described as "Steinalt" see also p. 162. Compare also the story of
Hasan of El Basra in Lane's Arabian Nights. Cp. also Kaden's Unter den
Olivenbäumen, p. 56. We have a similar incident in Melusine, p. 447,
The story is entitled La Montagne Noire on Les Filles du Diable. See
also the Pentamerone of Basile, Tale 49, Ralston's Russian Folk-Tales,
p. 76; Waldau's Böhmische Märchen, pp. 37 and 255 and ff; and Dasent's
Norse Tales, pp. 31-32, 212-213, and 330-331.
[391] Wild aboriginal tribes not belonging to the Aryan race.
[392] Destiny often elevates the worthless, and hurls down men
of worth.
[393] The usual story is that Indra cut off the wings of all except
Maináka the son of Himavat by Mená. He took refuge in the sea. Here
it is represented that more escaped. So in Bhartrihari Níti Sataka
st. 76 (Bombay edition).
[394] For Saktideva's imprisonment in the belly of the fish cp. Chapter
74 of this work, Indian Fairy Tales by Miss Stokes, No. XIV, and
Lucian's Vera Historia, Book I. In this tale the fish swallows a
ship. The crew discover countries in the monster's inside, establish
a "scientific frontier," and pursue a policy of Annexation. See also
Lane's Arabian Nights, Vol. III, p. 104.
[395] Cf. Grimm's Märchen, No. 60, Sicilianische Märchen, Nos. 39
and 40, with Dr. Köhler's notes.
[396] If such a word can be applied to a place where bodies are burnt.
[397] Samásvasya, 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 smritvá for srutvá, "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 vikritám for vikritim, but
vikriti is translated by the Petersburg lexicographers as
Gespensterscheinung. Vikritám would mean transformed into a Rákshasí.
[402] Skandha when applied to the Rákshasas 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, Märchen der Magyaren, p. 44.
[405] Reading tasyán for tasmán.
[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, (Rákshasí). Those creatures
have fiery mouths.
[409] Cp. Sicilianische Märchen collected by Laura von Gonzenbach,
Vol. I, p. 160.
[410] Magical sciences, in virtue of which they were Vidyádharas
or science-holders.
[411] A son or pupil of Visvámitra.
[412] I.e. the Ocean.
[413] Compare the erineos megas phylloisi tethêlôs 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 egô poti makron erineon hypsos' aertheis
tô prosphys echomên hôs nykteris.
See also Lane's Arabian Nights, Vol. III, p. 7.
[417] all' ara hê ge kat' andrôn kraata bainei. Iliad XIX, v. 93.
[418] Pakshapáta 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 circumference,
and whose egg is probably the prototype of that in the Arabian
Nights. Cp. the Glücksvogel in Prym and Socin, Syrische Märchen,
p. 269, and the eagle which carries Chaucer in the House of Fame. In
the story of Lalitánga, extracted by Professor Nilmani Mukerjea from
the Kathá Kosha, a collection of Jaina stories, a Bhárunda carries the
hero to the city of Champá. 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 Chandraprabhá, 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 Märchen,
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 Dánavas are a class of demons or giants. Ruru was a Dánava
slain by Durgá.
[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 Vidyutprabhám for Vidyádharím. But perhaps it is
unnecessary.
[427] The Chakora is said to subsist upon moonbeams.
[428] So making him a Vidyádhara 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 Vitastá is the Hydaspes
of the Greeks, now called Jhelum.
[432] Monier Williams says that Tárá was the wife of the Buddha
Amoghasiddha. Benfey (Orient und Occident, Vol. I, p. 373) says
she was a well known Buddhist saint. The passage might perhaps mean
"The Buddha adorned with most brilliant stars."
It has been suggested to me that Tárávara may mean Siva, and that
the passage means that the Saiva and Bauddha religions were both
professed in the city of Takshasilá.
[433] I. e. Buddhist ascetics.
[434] A MS. in the Sanskrit College reads sukála for svakála: 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, Märchen, und Gebräuche 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 Telapattajátaka, Fausböll, 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.
[442] I separate balavad from bhogadáyi.
[443] This appears to be found in a slightly different form in the
Harivansa. (Lévêque, Mythes et Légendes de l'Inde, p. 220).
[444] The name of certain aboriginal tribes described as hunters,
fishermen, robbers &c.
[445] In the original Mahákála, an epithet of Siva in his character
as the destroying deity.
[446] Generally only one mountain named Maináka is said to have fled
into the sea, and retained its wings when Indra clipped those of the
others. The passage 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 táraká 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 Rákshasas.
[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 nobleman 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 Beccán 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 Beccán.' 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 Beccán'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 fréquemment suivie par un jeune homme qui affectait de
l'accompagner partout dès q'elle quittait sa maison, lui demanda enfin
ce qui l'attachait si fort à ses pas. Celui-ci ayant répondu que c'
etait la beauté de ses yeux, la jeune fille se servit de son fuseau
pour faire sortir ses yeux de leur orbite, et dit à son poursuivant
qu'il pouvait les prendre et la laisser dèsormais en repos. On ajoute
que cette generosité effrayante changea si fort le coeur du jeune
homme qu'il embrassa la profession religieuse. The story of the
ascetic who conquered anger, resembles closely the Khantivádijátaka
No. 313 in Fausböll's edition, Vol. III, p. 39. It is also found
in the Bodhisattva Avadána, under the title Kshánti Játaka, and in
the Mahávastu Avadána in a form closely resembling that of the Páli
Játaka book. See Dr. Rajendra Lál 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 Srí.
[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 Víravara
in the Hitopadesa, which is also found in the Vetálapanchavinsati,
(see chapter 78 of this work.) Víravara, according to the account in
the Vetálapanchavinsati, 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 goddess Durgá 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
Víravara occurs twice in this collection, in chapter 53, and also
in chapter 78. Sir G. Cox (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 Märchen, 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
Märchen, pp. 106, 107. In the Gagga Játaka, No. 135, Fausböll,
Vol. II, p. 15, the Buddha tells how the custom of saying "Jíva" or
"God bless you" originated. A Yakka was allowed to eat all who did
not say "Jíva" and "Patijíva." Zimmer in his Alt-Indisches Leben,
p. 60, quotes from the Atharva Veda, "vor Unglück-bedeutendem Niesen."
[460] The same idea is found in Midsummer Night's Dream, Act III,
Sc. 2, beginning, "We, Hermia, like two artificial gods &c."
[461] Cp. Ralston's Russian Folk-Tales, pp. 69 and 71, for the three
dangers. The custom of saying "God 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 passages
from classical 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 illustrating 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 petit diable de Papefigue' of Fontaine."
[464] Suvrittayá 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 Ægyptian 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 Kírtisená the substance of two modern
Greek songs given in Liebrecht, Zur Volkskunde, p. 187.
[469] i. e. Wealth-preserved.
[470] Böhtlingk and Roth in their Dictionary explain the passage as
follows: imam, (i. e., patim) vyutthápya yátá 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 Rákshasas are replaced by crows. Compare also the way
in which the gardener in "Das Rosmarinsträuchlein," Kaden's Unter den
Olivenbäumen, p. 12, acquires some useful information. The story of
Kírtisená 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 Böhmische Märchen, p. 272; Gaal, Die Märchen 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 Rákshasas mentioned in the Rámáyana.
[474] Water is the principal 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 Chandrakánta.
[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 jnánavijna, 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 à la Trappe, the Nibelungen Lied,
&c., and ridiculed by Chaucer in his Rime of Sir Topas. He also refers
to Athenæus, 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] Velátá is evidently corrupt.
[483] This is to be understood literally of Siva and Párvatí, but
metaphorically of Ushá and Aniruddha.
[484] I read evam for eva.
[485] The wife of Indra.
[486] i. e. Brihaspati.
[487] For san I should prefer sa which is read in a MS. lent me by
the Principal of the Sanskrit College.
[488] Takshasilá has been identified by General Cunningham with the
ruins of an ancient city near Shah-deri one mile to the north-east
of Kála-ka-serai. Mr. Growse has pointed out to me that I made
a mistake in stating (after Wilson) in a note on p. 5 of this
translation, that the precise site of Kausámbí, the capital of the
king of Vatsa, which Kalingasená reached in one day in the magic
chariot, has not been ascertained. He says: "It has been discovered
by General Cunningham. The place is still called Kosam, and is on
the Yamuná, about 30 miles above Allahabad. The ruins consist of
an immense fortress, with earthen ramparts from 30 to 35 feet high,
and bastions considerably higher, forming a circuit of 23,100 feet,
or exactly four miles and 3 furlongs. The parapets were of brick
and stone, some of the bricks measuring 19 in. × 12 1/2 × 2 1/2,
which is a proof of their great antiquity. In the midst of these
ruins is a large stone monolith, similar to those at Allahabad and
Delhi, but without any inscription. The portion of the shaft above
ground is 14 feet in length, and an excavation made at the base for
a depth of 20 feet did not come to the end of it. Its total length
probably exceeds 40 feet. There was, I believe, some talk of removing
it to Allahabad and setting it up there, but it was found to be too
expensive an undertaking." Srávastí, which Kalingasená passed on the
way from Takshasilá, has been identified by General Cunningham with
Sáhet-Mahet on the south bank of the Rapti in Oudh.
[489] Here there is a slight omission in my translation. Cp. the
story of St. Macarius.
[490] The country lying between the Himálayas on the north, the Vindhya
mountains on the south, Vinasana on the west and Prayága (Allahabad)
on the east.
[491] A respectful offering to gods or venerable men of rice,
dúrva-grass, flowers &c. with water.
[492] Cp. for the artifice used to ruin Kadalígarbhá, Dusent's Norse
Tales, pp. 65 and 66.
[493] Cp. the 40th story in Grimm's Kinder- und Hausmärchen, where the
girl finds her way by the peas and lentiles which had sprung up. See
also the 2nd story in Gonzenbach's Sicilianische Märchen, where the
girl scatters bran. The author of the notes to Grimm's Märchen mentions
a story from Hesse in which the heroine scatters ashes. See also the
49th of the Sicilianische Märchen. See also Bartsch's Sagen, Märchen,
und Gebräuche aus Meklenburg, Vol. I, pp. 265, 313, 441-444, and 447,
where peas are used for the same purpose. See also De Gubernatis,
Zoological Mythology, p. 165. See also Perrault's Le petit Poucet;
Basile's Pentamerone, No. 48.
[494] This is a reproduction of the story of Devasena and Unmádiní
in the 3rd book.
[495] Compare the "death-darting eye of cockatrice" in Romeo and
Juliet. See also Schmidt's Shakespeare Dictionary under the word
"basilisk."
[496] Benfey found this story in the Arabic Version of the Panchatantra
and in all the translations and reproductions of it. He finds it also
in the Mahábhárata, XII (III, 589) sl. 4930 and ff. He expresses his
opinion that it formed a portion of the original Panchatantra. See
Benfey's Panchatantra, pp. 544-560, Orient und Occident,
Vol. I. p. 383. The account in the Mahábhárata is very prolix.
[497] For nihatya I conjecture nikhanya.
[498] The plant Uraria Lagopodioides (Monier Williams).
[499] For similar instances of forgetting in European stories, see
Nos. 13, 14, 54, 55 in the Sicilianische Märchen with Köhler's notes,
and his article in Orient und Occident, Vol. II, p. 103.
[500] i. e. Káma the Hindu Cupid.
[501] This probably means in plain English that she wore glittering
anklets.
[502] Cp. the conduct of the Meerweib in Hagen's Helden-Sagen, Vol. I,
p. 55.
[503] i. e. Siva.
[504] Prajápati.
[505] Literally--placing it upon his head.Cp. also the following
passage from Brand's Popular Antiquities, Vol. II, p. 78. "Borlase
quotes from Martin's Western Islands. 'The same lustration by
carrying of fire is performed round about women after child-bearing,
and round about children before they are christened, as an effectual
means to preserve both the mother and the infant from the power
of evil spirits.'" Brand compares the Amphidromia at Athens. See
Kuhn's Westfälische Märchen, Vol. I, pp. 125, and 289: Vol. II,
pp. 17 and 33-34.
[506] The superstitious custom of lighting fires, lamps &c., to protect
children against evil spirits is found in many countries. Liebrecht
(Zur Volkskunde, p. 31,) refers us to Brand's Popular Antiquities,
edited by Hazlitt, Vol. II, p. 144, for the prevalence of the
practice in England. "Gregory mentions 'an ordinary superstition of
the old wives who dare not trust a child in a cradle by itself alone
without a candle.' This he attributes to their fear of the night-hag;"
(cp. Milton, P. L. II, 662-665). He cites authorities to prove that
it exists in Germany, Scotland, and Sweden. In the latter country,
it is considered dangerous to let the fire go out until the child is
baptized, for fear that the Trolls may substitute a changeling in its
place. The custom exists also in the Malay Peninsula, and among the
Tájiks in Bokhara. The Roman custom of lighting a candle in the room
of a lying-in woman, from which the goddess Candelifera derived her
name (Tertullian Adv. nation, 2, 11) is to be accounted for in the
same way. See also Veckenstedt, Wendische Sagen, p. 446. The same
notion will be found in Bartsch's Sagen, Märchen, und Gebräuche aus
Meklenburg, Vol. I, pp. 17, 64, 89, 91; Vol. II, p. 43.
[507] For treasures and their guardians see Veckenstedt's Wendische
Sagen, pp. 356-374 and p. 394. For the candle of human fat see Benfey
in Orient und Occident, Vol. I, p. 383. For treasures and their
guardians see Bartsch's Sagen, Märchen, und Gebräuche aus Meklenburg,
Vol. I, p. 243 and ff., and for the candle of human fat, Vol. II,
pp. 333 and 335 of the same work. Cp. also Birlinger, Aus Schwaben,
pp. 251 and 262-270.
It appears from Henderson's Folk-lore of the Northern Counties, that in
Europe a candle of human fat is used with the Hand of Glory by robbers
for the purpose of preventing the inmates of a house from awaking. He
gives several instances of its use. The following will serve as a
specimen: "On the night of the 3rd of January 1831, some Irish thieves
attempted to commit a robbery on the estate of Mr. Napier of Loughcrew,
county Meath. They entered the house armed with a dead man's hand
with a lighted candle in it, believing in the superstitious notion
that a candle placed in a dead man's hand will not be seen by any but
those by whom it is used, and also that if a candle in a dead hand
be introduced into a house, it will prevent those who may be asleep
from awaking. The inmates however, were alarmed, and the robbers fled,
leaving the hand behind them." The composition of the candle is evident
from the following extract from the Dictionnaire Infernal of Colin de
Planey. "The Hand of Glory is the hand of a man who has been hanged,
and is prepared in the following manner. Wrap the hand in a piece of
winding-sheet, drawing it tight to squeeze out the little blood which
may remain; then place it in an earthen-ware vessel with saltpetre,
salt and long pepper all carefully and thoroughly powdered. Let
it remain a fortnight in this pickle till it is well dried, then
expose it to the sun in the dog-days till it is completely parched,
or if the sun be not powerful enough, dry it in an oven heated with
vervain and fern. Next make a candle with the fat of a hanged man,
virgin wax, and Lapland sesame. The Hand of Glory is used to hold this
candle when it is lighted. Wherever one goes with this contrivance,
those it approaches are rendered as incapable of motion as though they
were dead." Southey in Book V of his Thalaba the Destroyer represents
a hand and taper of this kind as used to lull to sleep Zohak, the
giant keeper of the caves of Babylon. (See the extracts from Grose
and Torquemada in the notes to Southey's poem.) Dousterswivel in
Sir Walter Scott's Antiquary tells us that the monks used the Hand
of Glory to conceal their treasures. (Henderson's Folk-lore of the
Northern Counties of England and the Borders, p. 200 and ff.)
Preller, in his Römische Mythologie, p. 488, has a note on incubones
or treasure-guarding spirits. Treasures can often be acquired
by stealing the caps worn by these incubones as a symbol of their
secret and mysterious character. See also the Pentamerone of Basile,
p. 96; Grohmann, Sagen aus Böhmen, p. 29 and ff; Bernhard Schmidt's
Griechische Märchen, p. 28. The bug-bears were no doubt much of the
kind found in Schöppner's Sagenbuch der Bayerischen Lande, Vol. I,
p. 87. For the "hand of glory" see Baring Gould's Curious Myths of the
Middle Ages, pp. 405-409. Brand in his Popular Antiquities Vol. I,
p. 312, quotes from Bergerac's Satirical Characters and Handsome
descriptions in his Letters translated out of the French by a Person
of Honour, 1658, p. 45, "I cause the thieves to burn candles of dead
men's grease to lay the hosts asleep while they rob their houses." A
light has this property in Waldau's Böhmische Märchen, p. 360; and
in Kuhn's Westfälische Märchen, Vol. I, p. 146.
[508] There is probably a pun too on varti, the wick of a lamp.
[509] Literally "made by the gods."
[510] i. e. prabhutva, the majesty or pre-eminence of the king himself;
mantra, the power of good counsel; utsáha energy.
[511] Cp. Odyssey, VII. 116; Spenser's Faery Queene, III, 6, 42.
[512] The pun here lies in the word kalá, which means "accomplishment,"
and also a sixteenth of the moon's diameter.
[513] This lotus is a friend of the moon's and bewails its absence.
[514] Or perhaps books.
[515] I read virága-vishabhrid.
[516] i. e. Nágavana. For serpent-worship see Tylor's Primitive
Culture, Vol. II, pp. 217-220. The author of Sagas from the Far
East remarks; "Serpent-Cultus was of very ancient observance, and is
practised by both followers of Bráhmanism and Buddhism. The Bráhmans
seem to have desired to show their disapproval of it by placing
the serpent-gods in the lower ranks of their mythology, (Lassen. I,
707 and 544, n. 2). This cultus, however, seems to have received a
fresh development about the time of Asoka circa 250 B. C. (Vol. II,
p. 467). When Madhyantika went into Cashmere and Gandhára to teach
Buddhism after the holding of the third synod, it is mentioned
that he found sacrifices to serpents practised there (II. 234,
235). There is a passage in Plutarch from which it appears to have
been the custom to sacrifice an old woman (previously condemned to
death for some crime) to the serpent-gods by burying her alive on the
banks of the Indus (II. 467, note 4) Ktesias also mentions the serpent
worship (II. 642). In Buddhist legends serpents are often mentioned
as protecting patrons of certain towns. (Sagas from the Far East,
p. 355). See also Mr. F. S. Growse's Mathurá memoir, p. 71.
[517] Literally thorns.
[518] The upáyas which are usually enumerated are four, viz. sowing
dissension, negotiation, bribery and open attack.
[519] The six gunas--peace, war, march, halt, stratagem and recourse
to the protection of a mightier king.
[520] I read abhyagát with a MS. in the Sanskrit College.
[521] I read vismitá with a MS. in the Sanskrit College.
[522] i. e. mount Sumeru. The moon being masculine in Sanskrit, the
words "form of the moon" are used in the original, to satisfy the
requirements of classical Hindu Rhetoric, according to which feminine
things cannot be compared to masculine.
[523] The sea is always spoken of as full of "inestimable stones,
unvalued jewels." There is a double meaning throughout. Sadváhiní,
when applied to the sea, may mean "beautiful rivers."
[524] Játarúpá also means "having assumed a form," so that there is
another pun here. I read abhavan for abhavad, in accordance with a
MS. lent me from the Sanskrit College.
[525] The cedille under the c of candra should be erased in
Dr. Brockhaus's text.
[526] Ganesa, who bestows success or the reverse, and is invoked in
all undertakings. I read karan dánámbhasá.
[527] The word also means "shade."
[528] I have no idea what this word lílávajra means. It is translated
by Böhtlingk and Roth--ein wie ein Donnerkeil aussehendes Werkzeug.
[529] Possibly there is a pun here: dána, giving, also means cutting.
[530] The fruit of the Bel, well-known to Anglo-Indians.
[531] Párvatí or Durgá, the wife of Siva.
[532] The others are the Sun, Fire, Water, Earth, Air, the Moon and
the officiating Bráhman. For the latter is sometimes substituted
pasupati or lord of animals.
[533] Possibly it also means "the swan of the temple of the mind."
[534] An allusion to the Arddhanárísa form of Siva.
[535] Kalá = digit of the moon and also accomplishment.
[536] The vidyá of the Vidyáharas. I read pratíkshyate.
[537] Here Professor Brockhaus supposes a hiatus.
[538] Cp. this with the "jewel-lamps" on pp. 189 and 305, and the
luminous carbuncle in Gesta Romanorum, CVII. Sir Thomas Browne, in
his Vulgar Errors, Book II, chapter 5, says, "Whether a carbuncle
doth flame in the dark, or shine like a coal in the night, though
generally agreed on by common believers, is very much questioned
by many." See also Simrock's Deutsche Volksbücher, Vol. I, p. 301;
Vol. III, p. 12; Vol. VI, p. 289. Lucian in his De Deâ Syriâ ch. 32,
speaks of a precious stone of the name of lychnis which was bright
enough to light up a whole temple at night. We read in the history
of the Pseudo-Callisthenes, Book II, ch. 42, that Alexander found
in the belly of a fish a precious stone which he had set in gold and
used at night as a lamp. See also Baring Gould's Curious Myths of the
Middle Ages, p. 42. See Gaal, Märchen der Magyaren, p. 155; Ariosto,
Orlando Furioso, III, 14.
[539] i. e. supreme lord of jewels.
[540] i. e. as Indra mounts Airávata.
[541] The modern Tamluk. The district probably comprised the small but
fertile tract of country lying to the westward of the Húghli river,
from Bardwán and Kalna on the north, to the banks of the Kosai river
on the south. (Cunningham's Ancient Geography of India, p. 504.)
[542] In the 115th tale of the Gesta Romanorum we read that two chaste
virgins were able to lull to sleep and kill an elephant, that no one
else could approach.
[543] Both were produced at the churning of the ocean.
[544] A famous linga of Siva in Ujjayiní.
[545] Perhaps the Pushkalávatí described by General Cunningham in
his Ancient Geography of India, p. 49.
[546] There is a studied ambiguity in all these words, the usual
play on affection and oil being kept up. A marginal correction in a
Sanskrit College MS. lent to me, gives hridayam. The text has ránjitam
stháthaván. The latter is a vox nihili. Brockhaus's text may be
explained--My hand full of my heart was steeped in affection for you.
[547] For "funeral human sacrifice for the service of the dead,"
see Tylor's Primitive Culture, pp. 413-422. Cp. Hagen's Helden-Sagen,
Vol. III, pp. 165 and 166.
[548] i. e. Producer of horns.
[549] Cp. the 31st tale in Signora von Gonzenbach's Sicilianische
Märchen, (p. 209) where the black figs produce horns. There is also
in the same story a pipe that compels all that hear its sound to
dance. See Dr. Reinhold Köhler's notes on the tale: also Grimm's
No. 110 and his notes in his third volume. Cp. also Veckenstedt's
Wendische Sagen, p. 65. See also Ralston's Russian Folk-Tales, p. 283:
Bernhard Schmidt's Griechische Märchen, No. 20, and Liebrecht, Zur
Volkskunde, p. 484. The incident in Sicilianische Märchen closely
resembles one in the story of Fortunatus as told in Simrock's Deutsche
Volksbücher, Vol. III, p. 175. There is a pipe that compels all the
hearers to dance in Hug of Bordeaux, Vol. X, p. 263, and a very similar
fairy harp in Wirt Sikes's British Goblins, p. 97; and a magic fiddle
in Das Goldene Schachspiel, a story in Kaden's Unter den Olivenbäumen,
p. 160. A fiddler in Bartsch's Sagen aus Meklenburg, (Vol. I, p. 130)
makes a girl spin round like a top. From that day she was lame. See
also De Gubernatis, Zoological Mythology, Vol. I, pp. 182 and 288,
and Baring Gould, IInd Series, p. 152. Kuhn, in his Westfälische
Märchen, Vol. I, p. 183, mentions a belief that horns grew on the
head of one who looked at the Wild Huntsman. It is just possible that
this notion may be derived from the story of Actæon. A statue found
in the ruins of the villa of Antoninus Pius near Lavinium represents
him with his human form and with the horns just sprouting. (Engravings
from Ancient Marbles in the British Museum, Plate XLV.) Cp. also the
story of Cipus in Ovid's Metamorphoses XV, 552-621. For the magic
pipe see Grimm's Irische Märchen, Einleitung, p. lxxxiii; Rohde,
Der Griechische Roman, p. 264. Remarks on the pipe and horns will be
found in Ralston's Tibetan Tales, Introduction pp. liv-lvi.
[550] Cp. Grimm's Märchen, No. 193. The parallel between Grimm's
story and that of Vidúshaka in Chapter 18 is still more striking.
[551] This idea, which is met with so frequently in this work, is found
in China also. See Giles's Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio,
Vol. I, p. 177, where Miss Li, who is a devil, hears the cock crow
and vanishes.
[552] Cp. Veckenstedt's Wendische Sagen, pp. 256 and 394. See also
No. CXXIX in Giles's Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio, Vol. II,
p. 265, the title of which is "Making of Animals." Cp. with the string
the gold rings in the Volsunga Saga, Hagen's Helden-Sagen, Vol. III,
p. 30. In Ovid's Metamorphoses VIII, 850, and ff. there is an account
of Mestra's transformations. Neptune gave her the power of transforming
herself whenever she was sold by her father. See also the story of
Achelous and Hercules in book IX of the Metamorphoses; Prym and Socin's
Syrische Märchen, p. 229, where we have the incident of the selling;
Waldau, Böhmische Märchen, p. 125; Coelho Contos Portuguezes, p. 32.
[553] Pandit Syámá Charan Mukhopádhyáya conjectures ásoshyamáne. This
I adopt unhesitatingly.
[554] Cp. Sagas from the Far East, p. 35. This story very closely
resembles that of Sidi Noman in the Arabian Nights, and the Golden
Ass of Apuleius.
[555] Compare Lane's Arabian Nights, Vol. I, pp. 156, 157, also
Campbell's Tales from the Western Highlands, Vol. II, p. 422,
and Sagas from the Far East, p. 4. This part of the story comes
under Mr. Baring-Gould's Magical Conflict root. (See his Story
Radicals in the appendix to Henderson's Folklore of the Northern
Counties.) Cp. also Miss Keary's Heroes of Asgard, p. 223, where Loki
and Idúna in the forms of a falcon and a sparrow are pursued by the
giant Thiassi in the shape of an eagle.
[556] The word samvara, which I have translated "congregation,"
probably means "sorcery;" see Böhtlingk and Roth s. v.
[557] I adopt kritam the reading of a MS. lent me from the Sanskrit
College. I should put a comma after álápam, as that word is used in
the masculine.
[558] I. e. lord of horses.
[559] I. e. lord of elephants.
[560] I. e. Man-lion.
[561] Kárpatika; for the use of this word see chapters 24, 63 and 81
of this work.
[562] I follow sákútam the reading of the MS in the Sanskrit
College. So the wounds of Sir Urro of Hungary were healed, as soon
as they were handled by the valiant Sir Launcelot (La Mort d'Arthure,
Vol. III, p. 270).
[563] Here the word Sramana is used, which generally means--"Buddhist
ascetic."
[564] I. e. deceitful-minded.
[565] Cp. the story of Phalabhúti in the 20th Taranga. I may here
mention that Liebrecht points out a striking parallel to the story
of Fulgentius, (with which I have compared that of Phalabhúti,)
in the Nugæ Curialium of Gualterus Mapes: (Zur Volkskunde, p. 38).
[566] Cp. Sicilianische Märchen, Vol. II, p. 46, where the giant
treacherously lets fall his gauntlet, and asks his adversary to pick
it up. His adversary, the hero of the story, tells him to pick it up
himself, and when the giant bends down for the purpose, cuts off his
head with one blow of his sword.
[567] Here there is an elaborate pun--kara means hand and also
proboscis--dána giving and the ichor that exudes from the temples
of a mast elephant. "Surrounded with clustering bees" may also mean,
"surrounded with handmaids whose consolations worried her."
[568] The word vibudha also means gods--and the gods feed on the moon.
[569] Compare the lichi in the XVth of Miss Stokes's Indian Fairy
Tales, and the páyasa in the XVIth Sarga of the Rámáyana. See also
Sicilianische Märchen, page 269, and Bernhard Schmidt's Griechische
Märchen, pp. 104, 117 and 120. The beginning of this tale belongs to
Mr. Baring-Gould's Gold-child root. Another parallel is to be found
in Kaden's Unter den Olivenbäumen, p. 168. See also Sagas from the
Far East, p. 268; Birlinger, Aus Schwaben, p. 105. See Volsunga Saga
in Hagen's Helden-Sagen, Vol. III, pp. 8 and 9.
[570] Kshetra here means "a holy field" or sacred spot.
[571] This part of the story reminds one of the Clerk's Tale in
Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.
[572] See Ralston's Russian Folk-Tales, p. 80 where numerous parallels
are adduced. Cp. also Gonzenbach's Sicilianische Märchen, Vol. I,
p. 199.
[573] Compare the story of "The Golden Lion" in Laura von Gonzenbach's
Sicilianische Märchen, Vol. II, p. 76, where the lady places a white
cloth round her waist. See Dr. Köhler's note on the passage. Compare
also the hint which Messeria gives to her lover in the Mermaid,
Thorpe's Yule Tide Stories, p. 198, and the behaviour of Singorra on
page 214. See also "The Hasty Word," Ralston's Russian Folk-Tales,
p. 368, and The "Water King and Vasilissa the Wise", p. 128;
Veckenstedt's Wendische Märchen, pp. 256 and 258, and Liebrecht,
Zur Volkskunde, p. 408 and Wirt Sikes's British Goblins, p. 39. The
washing of the hero by a chetí is quite Homeric, (Odyssey XIX, 386.) In
a Welsh story (Professor Rhys, Welsh Tales, p. 8) a young man discovers
his lady-love by the way in which her sandals are tied. There are
only two to choose from, and he seems to have depended solely upon
his own observation.
[574] A khárí = about 3 bushels.
[575] Compare the way in which Psyche separated the seeds in the Golden
Ass of Apuleius, Lib. VI. cap X, and the tasks in Grimm's Märchen,
Nos. 62, 186, and 193. A similar incident is found in a Danish Tale,
Swend's Exploits, p. 353 of Thorpe's Yule-Tide Stories. Before the king
will allow Swend to marry the princess, he gives him a task exactly
resembling the one in our text. He is told to separate seven barrels
of wheat and seven barrels of rye, which are lying in one heap. The
ants do it for him, because he had on a former occasion crumbled
his bread for them. See also the story of the beautiful Cardia,
Gonzenbach's Sicilianische Märchen, p. 188. The hero has first to eat
a cellar full of beans; this he accomplishes by means of the king
of the ravens, his brother-in-law. He next disposes of a multitude
of corpses by means of another brother-in-law, the king of the wild
beasts; he then stuffs a large number of mattresses with feathers by
the help of a third brother-in-law, the king of the birds. See also
Miss Stokes's Indian Fairy Tales, Tale XXII, and the note at the end
of this chapter. So in No. 83 of the Sicilianische Märchen the ants
help Carnfedda because he once crumbled his bread for them.
[576] i. e. Siva.
[577] A forest in Kurukshetra sacred to Indra and burnt by Agni the
god of fire with the help of Arjuna and Krishna.
[578] Hektor, atar sy moi essi patêr kai potnia mêtêr
êde kasignêtos, sy de moi thaleros parakoitês.
[579] I. e., like an arrow in speed.
[580] For this part of the story see Sicilianische Märchen, No 14,
with Dr. Köhler's note.
[581] In Ovid's Metamorphoses VIII, 855, the dominus asks Mestra,
who has been transformed into a fisherman, if she has seen herself
pass that way.
[582] Compare the story of "die kluge Else," the 34th in Grimm's
Kinder- und Hausmärchen, where the heroine has a doubt about her
own identity and goes home to ask her husband, and No. 59 in the same
collection. Cp. also Campbell's Tales from the West Highlands, Vol. II,
p. 375, where one man is persuaded that he is dead, another that he
is not himself, another that he is dressed when he is naked. See also
the numerous parallels given in Ralston's Russian Folk-Tales, p. 54.,
Liebrecht (Zur Volkskunde, p. 128) mentions a story in which a woman
persuades her husband, that he is dead. See also Bartsch's Sagen,
Märchen, und Gebräuche aus Meklenburg, Vol. I, p. 508. In Prym and
Socin's Syrische Märchen, No. LXII, page 250, the flea believes
himself to be dead, and tells every one so.
[583] Cp. Hagen's Helden-Sagen, Vol. II, p. 167, where Ake makes his
wife Wolfriana intoxicated with the object of discovering her secret.
[584] Reading avadishyáma. I find that this is the reading of a MS. in
the Sanskrit College.
[585] I. e. a great or distinguished minister. "Bull" is more literal
than "ox," but does not suit the English idiom so well. Gomukha
means Ox-face.
[586] Guna means virtue and also a thread.
[587] This incident is found in the story of Yavakríta in the 135th
chapter of the Mahábhárata.
[588] I read rúpam for rúpyam.
[589] I. e. Indra.
[590] Literally "having no auspicious marks."
[591] I. e. Fond of enjoyment.
[592] I. e. "New moon."
[593] In the Mahávastu Avadána (in Dr. R. L. Mitra's Sanskrit Buddhist
Literature of Nepal, p. 123) a girl named Amitá is cured of leprosy
by being shut up in an underground chamber.
[594] I suppose this must mean "prepared of the flesh of wild goats." A
MS. in the Sanskrit College reads ramyáni "pleasant."
[595] Plushta is a mistake for pushta, see Böhtlingk and Roth s. v.
[596] I. e. free from old age.
[597] This reminds one of Story XII in the Gesta Romanorum.
[598] I. e. long-lived.
[599] See the IVth chapter of Ralston's Russian Folk-Tales,
Veckenstedt's Wendische Märchen, page 221, Bernhard Schmidt's
Griechische Märchen, p. 125.
[600] Water, rice, dúrva grass, &c. offered to guests.
[601] Fabulous animals with eight feet.
[602] Cp. Sicilianische Märchen, Vol. I, p. 74.
[603] I. e. Camphor-produced. In the Arabian Nights the Camphor
islands are mentioned. See Lane's Translation, Vol. I, page 544.
[604] I find that a MS. in the Sanskrit College reads
avatitírshum. This is obviously the right reading.
[605] The city of Kuvera the god of wealth.
[606] The mother, i. e., Durgá.
[607] See Ralston's remarks on this story in his Russian Folk-Tales,
p. 71. In Hagen's Helden-Sagen, Vol. I, p. 44, Hilda reunites, as
fast as she is cut in two, but at last Dietrich, by the advice of
Hildebrand, steps between the two pieces, and interferes with the vis
medicatrix. Baring Gould seems to identify this story of Indívarasena
with that of St. George. In his essay on that hero-saint, (p. 305,
New Edition,) he observes, "In the Kathá Sarit Ságara a hero fights a
demon monster, and releases a beautiful woman from his thraldom. The
story, as told by Soma Deva, has already progressed, and assumed a
form similar to that of Perseus and Andromeda.
[608] The word literally means chariot of the mind. There is a
pun here.
[609] This resembles the German story of the two brothers as given
in Cox's Aryan Mythology, Vol. I, p. 162. See also Gonzenbach's
Sicilianische Märchen, Nos. 39 and 40, with Dr. Köhler's note. He
there refers us to his own remarks on the 4th of Campbell's West
Highland Tales in Orient und Occident, Vol. II, p. 118, and to Grimm,
Nos. 60 and 85, Hahn No. 22, Widter-Wolf, No. 8, Vernaleken, No. 35,
&c. In Grimm's No. 60, we have a magic sword, and the temporary
death of one of the brothers is indicated by the dimming of one side
of a knife. This story resembles Grimm's more closely, than that of
Asokadatta and Vijayadatta in ch. 25. See also Bartsch's Sagen, Märchen
und Gebräuche aus Meklenburg, Vol. I, p. 474. See also De Gubernatis,
Zoological Mythology, Vol. I, p. 328, Vol. II, p. 317. The story of
Amys and Amylion, in Ellis's Metrical Romances, resembles closely
the tale, as given by Grimm and Gonzenbach. So too do the 7th and
9th stories of the 1st day in the Pentamerone of Basile, and the
52nd in Coelho's Contos Populares Portuguezes, p. 120. Perhaps the
oldest mythological pair of brothers are the Asvins, who have their
counterpart in the Dioscuri and in Heracles and Iphiclus.
[610] I. e., brightness of the sun. Chandravatí means moonlike.
[611] I. e. Siva the beloved of Párvatí.
[612] I read sarastírát for sarittírát.
[613] Here there is a pun, as the words may also be construed "woven
of excellent threads."
[614] Maya was the architect of the Daityas. According to some Maya
= Ptolemaios.
[615] I. e. holding life.
[616] Cp. the Metamorphoses (Golden Ass) of Apuleius, Lib. V,
cap. III. Visoquestatim semirotundo suggestu propter instrumentum
coenatorum, rata refectui suo commodum, libens accumbit. Et illico
vini nectarei eduliumque variorum fercula copiosa, nullo serviento,
sed tantum spiritu quodam impulsa, subministrantur. See also the
romance of Parthenopex of Blois in Dunlop's History of Fiction,
(Liebrecht's translation, p. 175). See Liebrecht's translation of
the Pentamerone of Basile, Vol. I, p. 55.
[617] I. e., holding or possessing a kingdom.
[618] I. e., greed of wealth.
[619] Cp. Die Sieben Weisen Meister c. 18, (Simrock's Deutsche
Volksbücher, Vol. XII, p. 185).
[620] See note on page 305.
[621] Cp. Herodotus III. 119; Antigone, vv. 909-912. See also the
Pentamerone of Basile, Vol. II, p. 131, and the Ucchanga Játaka,
No. 67 in Dr. Fausböll's edition.
[622] A mere pun.
[623] I read with a MS. in the Sanskrit College--bhayade há múrta
iva sáhase.
[624] "Wish" is literally "chariot of the mind," so here there is
a pun.
[625] Both Srí and the Amrita came out of the sea when it was
churned. Sudasárha kúlena seems to be corrupt.
[626] i. e., Ganesa.
[627] i. e., Diamond-peak.
[628] For ubhayavedyeka the Petersburg lexicographers read
ubhayavedyardha. I have followed this reading.
[629] Identified by General Cunningham with the Sangala of
Alexander. (Ancient Geography of India, p. 179 & ff.)
[630] i. e., Siva.
[631] I read bodhitah.
[632] Kánchí means girdle, guna excellence and thread. The last clause
might be translated--made of threads.
[633] I read Súryaprabha for Súryachandra.
[634] Vidyunmálá means "garland of lightning."