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 ...

Vetāla 6: The Lady who caused her Brother and Husband to change Heads

(pp. 204-207)

Click the link to jump directly to the english translation of the sixth Vetāla. This page only contains the notes.

In the Hindi version{GL_NOTE::} the husband is so long in the temple that his “friend” goes in to see what has happened.

On finding him decapitated he thinks to himself:

“This world is a very difficult place to live in; no one will suppose that he has died by his own hand, but they will say that this is my treachery, and that, to obtain possession of his wife, who is very beautiful, I have killed him. It is better that I should die, than thus live disgraced.”

When the wife enters she too fears disgrace, and is about to kill herself, when the goddess intervenes.

In the Tamil version,{GL_NOTE::} which is No. 5, it is “a certain individual” who falls in love with the girl. He promises the goddess to give her his head as an offering if she will help him to obtain the girl as a bride.

The rest follows as in Somadeva, except for the king’s reply to the question of the Vetāla, which is:

“... whichever of the two, immediately on perceiving the girl, should pay her attention as his wife, he it is that ought to be her husband.”

The tale also occurs in both the Persian{GL_NOTE::} and Turkish{GL_NOTE::} recensions of the Tūṭī-nāmah with but slight differences. The hero is a prince instead of a washerman, and the second suicide is a priest instead of a brother-in-law or a friend. In the Turkish version the priest does not make his appearance till after the prince’s suicide.

Benfey has already shown{GL_NOTE::} that Goethe took that part of his Legende (Werke, 1840, vol. i, p. 200) which is based on this tale from Iken’s translation. Briefly the story is as follows:—

A Brāhman’s wife goes to fetch water from the Ganges. There she sees a vision of a beautiful youth who follows her. Nevertheless she tries to fill her pitcher, but is unable to do so as the water continually flows away. Frightened, she returns home with her pitcher still empty. Her husband grows suspicious and, dragging her to the place of public execution, kills her with his sword. The son sees the sword dripping with blood, and on hearing the truth expresses his desire to follow her. The father prevents him, saying that if he puts the body and head together she will return to life. The son hastens to the spot where his mother has been killed and, in his hurry to achieve his object, puts her head by mistake on the trunk of a female criminal, that was lying on the same place. The mother rises to life, but reproaches the son for his hasty action, at the same time pointing out it is by the workings of Brahmā.

Although putting decapitated heads upon wrong bodies is of rare occurrence in folk-lore,{GL_NOTE::} there are numerous examples of a head being cut off and fastened on again. See, for example, Grimm, Teutonic Mythology, vol. i, p. 185; B. Schmidt, Griechische Mārchen, p. 111; Wirt Sykes, British Goblins, pp. 8-10; Waldau, Böhmische Märchen, p. 108; A. Coelho, Contos Populares Portuguezes, No. 26, “O Colhereiro,” in which the third daughter fastens on with blood the heads of her decapitated sisters; and De Gubernatis, Zoological Mythology, vol. i, pp. 303 and 304. The most curious tale connected with the fastening on of heads occurs in Giles, Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio (vol. i, pp. 97-101 of the 1880 edition, pp. 60-62 of the second edition, 1909):

Mr Chu has made friends with Lu, the Infernal Judge, who has given him a new and much better heart. Chu then asks for a further favour. Could Lu possibly give his wife a new head, for although her figure is not bad, she is very ugly. Lu laughs and promises to do what he can. One night he calls and shows the amazed Chu the head of a handsome young girl, freshly severed. After having cut off the wife’s head the judge fixes on that of the young girl in its place. Imagine the surprise of Mrs Chu in the morning! It further transpires that the pretty daughter of an official named Wu had been murdered by a burglar, and it was her head that the judge had procured. Both Mr and Mrs Wu are informed in a dream [as so often occurs in Hindu fiction] of the true state of things, and Chu is accordingly exonerated from any charge of murder.

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