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 ...
The significance of moles on the human body
Note: this text is extracted from Book VIII, chapter 49.
“When Guṇaśarman heard this, he answered him: ‘It is as you say; how could ill fortune befall a shape with such auspicious marks?’ When he had said this, Agnidatta took occasion to ask him concerning the meaning of moles and other marks; and he told him what moles and other marks portended on every single limb, both in men and women”.
Cf. Thiselton Dyer’s English Folk-Lore, p. 280. He remarks:
“A belief was formerly current throughout the country in the significance of moles on the human body. When one of these appeared on the upper side of the right temple above the eye, to a woman it signified good and happy fortune by marriage.”
This superstition was especially believed in in Nottingham, as we learn from the following lines, which, says Mr Briscoe (author of Nottinghamshire Facts and Fictions), were often repeated by a poor girl at Bunny:—
“I have a mole above my right eye,
And I shall be a lady before I die.
As things may happen, as things may fall,
Who knows but that I may be Lady of Bunny Hall?”
The poor girl’s hopes, it is stated, were ultimately realised, and she became “Lady of Bunny Hall.” See Brand’s Popular Antiquities, vol. iii, pp. 252-255.——See Vol. I, p. 49n1 for a short note on moles.—n.m.p.