Story 112 - The Story About A Giant

IN a certain country two men spoke together:

“Let us two persons go to seek the kingdom gored [by] the Sky Buffalo,”^[1]

they said, it is said.

After that the two went, it is said. Procuring provisions, they began to go. At the time when they are going thus for not much time, one man was struck by inability [to proceed]. The man said, it is said,

“Don’t you go here alone,”

he said.

“Without going alone what shall I do ?”

he said. After that, that man died.

This man having gone, contracted (lit., tied) a marriage. Putting [out of consideration] the displeasure of the woman’s two parents, he contracted the marriage. The mother-in-law and father-in-law, both of them, having said,

“Don’t you two remain in my house,”

told them to go. After that, the son-in-law having caused thieves to be brought, took the goods in the house that he had not brought; the best (honda honda) goods the man took, a few things those men got.

The man, taking the woman, went to another city. At the time when they were at the city no long time, a child was born to the woman. The child, at the time when he was seven years of age, catching the remaining Hares and Mouse-deer dashes them to the ground. A long time after twelve years were fulfilled, having run after Sambhar deer and caught them he dashes them to the ground;^[2] having caught Boars also he dashes them to the ground.

That he is doing thus was known to everybody. Having perceived it they told the matter to the King of that city. The King, causing the young man to be brought, and having given him many offices, made him remain near the King; he is stopping there.

Then a hostile army having come to the city and laid [siege] to the city,^[3] after the Ministers told the King, causing the giant to be brought he asked,

“A hostile army having come is surrounding my city. On account of it, art thou able to drive off and send away the army ?”

The giant said,

“I am not unable to do it.”

After that, the King said,

“What are the things thou wantest for it ?”

he asked.

When he asked, he said,

“Should I receive a tusk elephant and the sword, it will do.”

Afterwards he gave the tusk elephant and sword.

Having waited until the time when he gives them, he went for the battle. Having gone, and having cut down that army, he came to the royal palace. Having come, he made obeisance^[4] to the King [and related an account of his victory]. After that, the King having given half the kingdom to the giant, he remained [there].

Well then, beginning from that day, he remained exercising the sovereignty [over the half of the kingdom] until the time when he dies.

North-western Province.

 

Note:

I was informed that in the allusion to the Sky Buffalo which gored the earth, reference is made to the country in which the sky pierces (that is, touches) the earth (see vol. i, p. 284). The Sky Bunalo is not mentioned elsewhere in these stories.

In the Katha Sarit Sagara (Tawney), vol. i, p. 6, the God Shiva is represented as saying,

“Moreover, this world resembling a skull, rests in my hand; for the two skull-shaped halves of the [Mundane] egg before mentioned are called heaven and earth.”

It is evident that here also the two halves of the egg, that is, the sky and the earth, are supposed to be in contact, the sky resting on the earth. In the Rigveda they are termed two bowls; the sun travelled in the hollow space between them (i, clx, 2), and the upper one was supported by pillars.

The feats of the youthful giant in chasing and seizing wild animals are borrowed from the Mahavansa, chapter xxiii (p. 161 of Professor Geiger’s translation), where it is stated of Khanjadeva, one of the ten leading chiefs under King Duttha-Gamani in the second century B.C., that “when he went a-hunting with the village folk he chased at these times great buffaloes, as many as rose up, and grasped them by the leg with his hand, and when he had whirled them round his head the young man dashed them to the ground, breaking their bones.”

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Asamima aenicci rajjaye.

[2]:

Bima-gahanawa.

[3]:

Nuwarata laewa.

[4]:

Baehae daekka.