The Katha Sarit Sagara or Ocean of the Streams of Story Part 98

[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 avadishyama. 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 Yavakrita in the 135th chapter of the Mahabharata.

[588] I read rupam for rupyam.

[589] I. e. Indra.

[590] Literally "having no auspicious marks."

[591] I. e. Fond of enjoyment.

[592] I. e. "New moon."

[593] In the Mahavastu Avadana (in Dr. R. L. Mitra's Sanskrit Buddhist Literature of Nepal, p. 123) a girl named Amita 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 ramyani "pleasant."

[595] Plushta is a mistake for pushta, see Bohtlingk 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 Marchen, page 221, Bernhard Schmidt's Griechische Marchen, p. 125.

[600] Water, rice, durva gra.s.s, &c. offered to guests.

[601] Fabulous animals with eight feet.

[602] Cp. Sicilianische Marchen, 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 avat.i.tirshum. This is obviously the right reading.

[605] The city of Kuvera the G.o.d of wealth.

[606] The mother, i. e., Durga.

[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 Indivarasena with that of St. George. In his essay on that hero-saint, (p. 305, New Edition,) he observes, "In the Katha Sarit Sagara 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 a.s.sumed 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 c.o.x's Aryan Mythology, Vol. I, p. 162. See also Gonzenbach's Sicilianische Marchen, Nos. 39 and 40, with Dr. Kohler'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, Marchen und Gebrauche 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. Chandravati means moonlike.

[611] I. e. Siva the beloved of Parvati.

[612] I read sarastirat for sarittirat.

[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 a.s.s) of Apuleius, Lib. V, cap. III. Visoquestatim semirotundo suggestu propter instrumentum coenatorum, rata refectui suo commodum, libens acc.u.mbit. 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 Volksbucher, 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 Jataka, No. 67 in Dr. Fausboll's edition.

[622] A mere pun.

[623] I read with a MS. in the Sanskrit College--bhayade ha murta iva sahase.

[624] "Wish" is literally "chariot of the mind," so here there is a pun.

[625] Both Sri and the Amrita came out of the sea when it was churned. Sudasarha kulena 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] Kanchi means girdle, guna excellence and thread. The last clause might be translated--made of threads.