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 ...
Preface to volume 5
THE importance of this volume will be realised after the most cursory glance. In the first place, it contains one of the world’s most famous and loved books, the Pañcatantra, or Fables of Pilpay.
Secondly, the co-operation of Professor Franklin Edgerton, of the University of Pennsylvania, has enabled me to include the most elaborate and comprehensive genealogical table of Pañcatantra tradition ever attempted.
Thirdly, Sir Denison Ross has contributed a Foreword containing the results of his original research into the Persian and Arabic recensions of the Fables.
His attempt to discredit the Burzoë legend, and consequently to doubt the existence of a Pahlavī version, will cause something of an émeute among Orientalists, who for generations have been perfectly content to march in complaisant acquiescence under the standard of Benfey, Nöldeke, etc.
Before this volume appears Sir Denison Ross will have stated his case publicly at the Royal Society of Arts; and I await, with no little interest, the dicta of the Learned.
Apart from the Pañcatantra, the present volume contains the “Tale of Ghaṭa and Karpara,” which I take to be a version of Herodotus’ “Tale of Rhampsinitus.” In Appendix II an attempt has been made to show that this tale can boast of an uninterrupted history of over 2300 years!
Once again I find myself heavily in the debt of Dr L. D. Barnett and Mr Fenton for their continued help, both in proof-reading and in general advice on innumerable points.
N. M. P.
St John’s Wood, N.W.8,
2nd February 1926.