The Katha Sarit Sagara or Ocean of the Streams of Story Part 96

[487] For san I should prefer sa which is read in a MS. lent me by the Princ.i.p.al of the Sanskrit College.

[488] Takshasila has been identified by General Cunningham with the ruins of an ancient city near Shah-deri one mile to the north-east of Kala-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 Kausambi, the capital of the king of Vatsa, which Kalingasena 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 Yamuna, 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." Sravasti, which Kalingasena pa.s.sed on the way from Takshasila, has been identified by General Cunningham with Sahet-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 Himalayas on the north, the Vindhya mountains on the south, Vinasana on the west and Prayaga (Allahabad) on the east.

[491] A respectful offering to G.o.ds or venerable men of rice, durva-gra.s.s, flowers &c. with water.

[492] Cp. for the artifice used to ruin Kadaligarbha, Dusent's Norse Tales, pp. 65 and 66.

[493] Cp. the 40th story in Grimm's Kinder- und Hausmarchen, where the girl finds her way by the peas and lentiles which had sprung up. See also the 2nd story in Gonzenbach's Sicilianische Marchen, where the girl scatters bran. The author of the notes to Grimm's Marchen mentions a story from Hesse in which the heroine scatters ashes. See also the 49th of the Sicilianische Marchen. See also Bartsch's Sagen, Marchen, und Gebrauche 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 pet.i.t Poucet; Basile's Pentamerone, No. 48.

[494] This is a reproduction of the story of Devasena and Unmadini in the 3rd book.

[495] Compare the "death-darting eye of c.o.c.katrice" 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 Mahabharata, 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 Mahabharata 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 Marchen with Kohler's notes, and his article in Orient und Occident, Vol. II, p. 103.

[500] i. e. Kama 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] Praj.a.pati.

[505] Literally--placing it upon his head.Cp. also the following pa.s.sage from Brand's Popular Antiquities, Vol. II, p. 78. "Borlase quotes from Martin's Western Islands. 'The same l.u.s.tration 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 Westfalische Marchen, Vol. I, pp. 125, and 289: Vol. II, pp. 17 and 33-34.

[506] The superst.i.tious 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 superst.i.tion 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 subst.i.tute a changeling in its place. The custom exists also in the Malay Peninsula, and among the Tajiks in Bokhara. The Roman custom of lighting a candle in the room of a lying-in woman, from which the G.o.ddess 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, Marchen, und Gebrauche 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, Marchen, und Gebrauche 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 superst.i.tious 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 Romische 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 Bohmen, p. 29 and ff; Bernhard Schmidt's Griechische Marchen, p. 28. The bug-bears were no doubt much of the kind found in Schoppner'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 Bohmische Marchen, p. 360; and in Kuhn's Westfalische Marchen, Vol. I, p. 146.

[508] There is probably a pun too on varti, the wick of a lamp.

[509] Literally "made by the G.o.ds."

[510] i. e. prabhutva, the majesty or pre-eminence of the king himself; mantra, the power of good counsel; utsaha energy.

[511] Cp. Odyssey, VII. 116; Spenser's Faery Queene, III, 6, 42.

[512] The pun here lies in the word kala, 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 viraga-vishabhrid.

[516] i. e. Nagavana. For serpent-wors.h.i.+p 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 Brahmanism and Buddhism. The Brahmans seem to have desired to show their disapproval of it by placing the serpent-G.o.ds in the lower ranks of their mythology, (La.s.sen. 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 Gandhara 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 pa.s.sage 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-G.o.ds by burying her alive on the banks of the Indus (II. 467, note 4) Ktesias also mentions the serpent wors.h.i.+p (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 Mathura memoir, p. 71.

[517] Literally thorns.

[518] The upayas 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 abhyagat with a MS. in the Sanskrit College.

[521] I read vismita 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 cla.s.sical 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. Sadvahini, when applied to the sea, may mean "beautiful rivers."

[524] Jatarupa also means "having a.s.sumed 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 danambhasa.

[527] The word also means "shade."

[528] I have no idea what this word lilavajra means. It is translated by Bohtlingk and Roth--ein wie ein Donnerkeil aussehendes Werkzeug.

[529] Possibly there is a pun here: dana, giving, also means cutting.

[530] The fruit of the Bel, well-known to Anglo-Indians.

[531] Parvati or Durga, the wife of Siva.

[532] The others are the Sun, Fire, Water, Earth, Air, the Moon and the officiating Brahman. For the latter is sometimes subst.i.tuted pasupati or lord of animals.

[533] Possibly it also means "the swan of the temple of the mind."