The Kathá Sarit Ságara; or, Ocean of the Streams of Story

by active 11th century Somadeva Bhatta

[6] i. e. moon-lake.

[7] Common epithets of the moon. The Hindus find a hare in the moon where we find a “man, his dog, and his bush.”

[8] This story is found in Wolff, I, 197, Knatchbull, 226, Symeon Seth, 60, John of Capua, h., 6, b, German translation (Ulm 1483) O., IV, 6, Spanish translation, 36, b, Doni, 38, Anvár-i-Suhaili, 322, Livre des Lumières, 251, Cabinet des Fées, XVII, 442, Baldo Fab. XX, in Edéléstand du Méril, Poesies Inédites, p. 249. Benfey finds three “moments” in the Fable; the first is, the “hypocritical cat”; this conception he considers to be “allgemein menschlich” and compares Furia, 14, Coraes, 152, Furia, 15, Coraes, 6, Furia, 67, Coraes, 28, Robert, Fables Inédites, I, 216; also Mahábhárata V. (II, 283) 5421 and ff., where the cat manages to get herself taken to the river, to die, by the rats and mice, and there eats them. The second moment is the folly of litigiousness: here he compares a passage in Dubois’s Panchatantra. The third is the object of contention, the nest, for which he compares Phædrus, I, 21. (Benfey, Vol. I, pp. 350–354). I should compare, for the 1st moment, Phædrus, Lib. II, Fabula, IV, (recognovit Lucianus Mueller) Aquila, Feles et Aper, La Fontaine, VII, 16. See also for the “hypocritical cat” Liebrecht, Zur Volkskunde, p. 121. The cat’s tactics are much the same as those of the fox in Reineke Fuchs (Simrock, Deutsche Volksbücher, Vol. I, p. 138.) See also De Gubernatis, Zoological Mythology, Vol. II, p. 54. The story is No. CXXV in the Avadánas. From De Gubernatis, Zoological Mythology, pp. 227–228 it appears that kapinjala means a heath-cock, or a cuckoo. Here the word appears to be used as a proper name. There is a very hypocritical cat in Prym und Socin, Syrische Märchen, p. lx. See especially p. 242, and cp. p. 319.

[9] This is the 3rd story in Benfey’s translation of the third book of the Panchatantra. See Johnson’s translation of the Hitopadeśa, p. 110. Wolff, I. 205, Knatchbull, 233. Symeon Seth, 62, John of Capua, i., 1, b., German translation O., VI, 6, Spanish, XXXVII, a., Doni, 42, Anvár-i-Suhaili, 331, Livre des Lumières, 254, Cabinet des Fées, XVII, 444. Benfey translates a reference to it in Páṇini. He shews that there is an imitation of this story in the Gesta Romanorum, 132. In Forlini, Novel VIII, a peasant is persuaded that his kids are capons. Cp. also Straparola, I, 3; Loiseleur Deslongchamps, Essai, 47, 2. Liebrecht’s translation of Dunlop, note 356, Lancereau on the Hitopadeśa, 252. (Benfey, Vol. I, pp. 355–357.) See also Till Eulenspiegel, c. 66, in Simrock’s Deutsche Volksbücher, Vol. X, p. 452. In the XXth tale of the English Gesta Romanorum (Ed. Herrtage) three “lechis” persuade Averoys that he is a “lepre;” and he becomes one from “drede,” but is cured by a bath of goat’s blood. The 69th tale in Coelho’s Contos Populares, Os Dois Mentíroses, bears a strong resemblance to this. One brother confirms the other’s lies.

[10] Benfey compares this with the story of Zopyrus. He thinks that the Indians learned the story from the Greeks. See also Avadánas. No. V, Vol. I, p. 31.

[11] Benfey compares Wolff, I, 210, Knatchbull, 237, Symeon Seth, p. 64, John of Capua i., 2, German translation (Ulm., 1483) No. VIII, 6, Spanish translation, XXXVIII, a., Doni, 44, Anvár-i-Suhaili, 336, Livre des Lumières, 259, Cabinet des Fées, XVII, 449. (Benfey’s Panchatantra, Vol. I, p. 366.) See also La Fontaine, IX, p. 15.

[12] Dr. Kern suggests vyatíta-pushpa-kálatvád. The Sanskrit College MS. has the reading of Dr. Brockhaus’s text.

[13] Cp. Wolff, I, 212, Knatchbull, 238, Symeon Seth, p. 64, John of Capua i., 2, b., German translation (Ulm, 1483) P., I, b., Spanish translation, XXXVIII, a., Doni, 45, Anvár-i-Suhaili, 338, Livre des Lumières, 261, Cabinet des Fées, XVII, 451. (Benfey, Vol. I, p. 368.)

[14] See Chapter VII of this work.

[15] Benfey compares the Arabic version, Wolff, I, 214, Knatchbull, 240, Symeon Seth, 65, John of Capua i., 3, b., German translation (Ulm, 1483), P., II. b., Spanish translation, XXXVIII, b., Doni, 47, Anvár-i-Suhaili, 340, Livre des Lumières, 264; Cabinet des Fées, XVII, 453, cp. also Hitopadeśa, (Johnson’s translation, p. 78). (Benfey, Vol. I, p. 371.)