Kathasaritsagara (the Ocean of Story)
by Somadeva | 1924 | 1,023,469 words | ISBN-13: 9789350501351
This is the English translation of the Kathasaritsagara written by Somadeva around 1070. The principle story line revolves around prince Naravāhanadatta and his quest to become the emperor of the Vidhyādharas (‘celestial beings’). The work is one of the adoptations of the now lost Bṛhatkathā, a great Indian epic tale said to have been composed by ...
Click the link to jump directly to the english translation of the fourth Vetāla. This page only contains the notes.
This is practically identical with No. 70, “Story of the Brāhman Vīravara” (see Vol. IV, p. 173 et seq.). Cf. also No. 36, “Story of the Prince and the Merchant’s Son who saved his Life” (Vol. III, p. 28 et seq.), where the “Overhearing” motif is introduced. Several useful references will be found in the note beginning on p. 28n1. In Śivadāsa’s recension Vīravara demands a thousand dīnārs every day, which can be compared with the wonderful archer in the Asadisa Jātaka, No. 181, who demands for wages “a hundred thousand a year.”
In the Hindi it forms No. 3 and in the Tamil No. 7. The versions differ only in unimportant details.
It also appears in both the Persian{GL_NOTE::} and Turkish{GL_NOTE::} Ṭūṭī-nāmah. For further details see Oesterley, Baitāl Pachīsī pp. 185-187.
The story belongs to the “Faithful Servant” motif, and merges into another large cycle of tales which might be called the “Perfect Friends” or “Friendship and Sacrifice” motif.
The motif reached Europe about the very time that Somadeva wrote, where it appeared as the second story, “The Two Perfect Friends,” in the Disciplina Clericalis of Peter Alphonse.{GL_NOTE::} It then became incorporated with The Seven Sages of Rome, where it occurs under the name of amici in connection with Vaticinium. The tale is confined to that immense group of MSS. of which the Latin Historia Septem Sapientum is the type.{GL_NOTE::} Under the title of Amicus et Amelius, it appeared in the Speculum historiale{GL_NOTE::} of Vincent de Beauvais.
It found its way into French literature, and eventually became attached to the Carolingian cycle in the twelfth-century chanson de geste of Amis et Amiles. In the early forms the story was simple: Amis and Amiles were two friends. Amis committed perjury to save his friend and was smitten with the curse of leprosy. He was informed in a vision that the only possible cure necessitated his bathing in the blood of Amiles’ children.{GL_NOTE::} Hearing this, Amiles at once slew them; but after his friend had been cured they were miraculously restored to life. In time the story became elaborated and gradually spread all over Europe.{GL_NOTE::}
The best-known story in which the motif occurs (among others) is undoubtedly Grimm’s “Der getreue Johannes,” No. 6.{GL_NOTE::} Faithful John is a servant who, after the death of the king, brings up the young prince and guards him against numerous dangers at the peril of his own life. There is no need to give this well-known tale in detail. It represents one of the two great varieties of stories dealing with friendship and sacrifice. In the first of these the friendship and love are mutual, and usually exist between two youths, often brothers. In the second variety the love is that of a trusted and faithful servant, and the feeling is not necessarily reciprocated at all. Both, however, point to the same moral—the inestimable value of trust, friendship, sacrifice and love.