The seventh book contains two of Rückert's best known parables, the famous "Es ging ein Mann im Syrerland," p. 303,[175] and "Der Sultan lässt den Mewlana rufen," p. 305 (Red. p. 338).
It will be noticed that the Oriental poems which we have thus far discussed were mainly derived from Arabic and Persian sources. We may now turn our attention to a collection in which Rückert's studies on matters connected with India are also represented.
This collection Brahmanische Erzählungen, published in the year 1839 (vol. iii.), does not, however, as its title might lead us to suppose, consist exclusively of Indic material. Some of the poems are not even Oriental; "Annikas Freier," p. 217, for example, is from the Finnic. Of others, again, the subject-matter, whether originally Oriental or not, has long ago become the common property of the world's fable-literature, as, for instance, "Weisheit aus Vogelmund," p. 239, the story of which may be found in the Gesta Romanorum, and in French, English and German, as well as in Persian, fable-books.[176] Some are from Arabic sources, as from the Thousand and One Nights, e.g. "Der schwanke Ankergrund," p. 357,[177] "Elephant, Nashorn und Greif," p. 367,[178] "Die Kokosnüsse," p. 359.[179] The poem "Rechtsanschauung in Afrika," p. 221, is a Hebrew parable from the Talmud and had been already used by Herder.[180]
A considerable number of the poems contain nothing but Persian material. Thus "Wettkampf," p. 197, is from the Gulistān (i. 28; K.S. tr. p. 27); and from the same source we have "Rache für den Steinwurf," p. 219 (Gul. i. 22; K.S. 21), "Fluch und Segen," p. 234 (Gul. i. 1), and "Busurgimihr," p. 225 (Gul. i. 32; K.S. 31). "Die Bibliothek des Königs," p. 405, is from the Bahāristān (K.S., p. 31; Red. p. 338). Three episodes from the Iskandar Nāmah are narrated on pp. 214-217: the story of the invention of the mirror (Isk. tr. Clark, xxiii. p. 247), the battle between the two cocks (ibid., xxii. p. 234 seq.), and the message of Dara to Alexander with the latter's reply (ibid. xxiv. p. 263).[181]
On p. 329 Rückert offers a free, but faithful, even if abridged version of selected passages from the introductory chapters of Niḍāmī's work (Isk. tr. Clarke, canto ii, p. 18 seq. and canto vii, p. 53 seq.). In "Kiess der Reue," p. 421, he paraphrases the episode of Alexander's search for the fountain of life from the Shāh Nāmah (tr. Mohl, v. pp. 177, 178). The story of Bahrāmgūr in the same work (tr. Mohl, v, pp. 488-492) appears in "Allwo nicht Zugethan," p. 397. It is not taken from Firdausī, for it relates the story somewhat differently, and introduces a love-episode of which the epic knows nothing.[182] Again, "Der in die Stadt verschlagene Kurde," p. 229, is an anecdote which Rückert had already translated in the Haft Qulzum (see his Poet. u. Rhet. der Perser, pp. 72-74), while "Glücksgüter," p. 233, may have been suggested by a story of Aṭṭār which he published afterwards (1860, ZDMG. vol. 14, p. 286). Some anecdotes of Persian princes or poets are also utilized, e.g. "Das Küchenfeldgeräthe des Fürsten Amer," p. 226 (d'Herb. iv. 459; Malcolm i. p. 155), "Der Spiegel des Königs," p. 223 (Deguignes, ii. 171), and the story of Jāmī and the mullā, p. 224 (M. Kuka, The Wit and Humour of the Persians, Bombay, 1894, pp. 165, 166). In one poem, "Ormuzd und Ahriman," p. 344, an Avestan subject is treated, the later Parsi doctrine of zrvan akarana.[183]
The great majority of the poems in this collection are concerned with India, its literature, mythology, religious customs, geography and history, and it will be convenient for our purpose to discuss them under these heads.
In the first group, that which takes its material from Sanskrit literature, we meet with the story of the flood, p. 298, from the Mahābhārata (Vana Parva, 187) and the story of Rāma's exploits and Sītā's love, p. 268, from the Rāmāyaṇa. Also a number of fables from the Hitōpadēśa or Pañcatantra occur, e.g. that of the greedy jackal, p. 249, familiar from Lafontaine (Hit. i. 6; Pañc. ii. 3), and that of the lion, the mouse and the cat, p. 250 (Hit. ii. 3). The story of the ungrateful man and the grateful animals, p. 252, is found in the Kathāsaritsāgara (tr. Tawney, ii. pp. 103-108; cf. Pālī version in Rasavāhinī, Wollheim, Die National-Lit. sämtlicher Völker des Orients, Berl. 1873, vol. i. p. 370). "Katerstolz und Fuchses Rath," p. 243, has for its prototype the fable of the mouse changed into a girl in Pañcatantra (iv. 9; cf. the story of the ambitious Caṇḍāla maid in Kathās. tr. Tawney, ii. p. 56). King Raghu's generosity to Varatantu's pupil Kāutsa, as narrated in the Raghuvaṃśa (ch. v.), is the subject of a poem on p. 402. Two famous pieces from the Upaniṣad-literature are also offered: the story of how Jājñavalkya overcame nine contestants in debate at King Janaka's court and won the prize consisting of one thousand cows with gold-tipped horns, p. 247, from the Bṛhadāraṇyaka Up. iii. (see Deussen, Sechzig Upan. übers. Leipz. 1897, p. 428 seq.), and the story of Nacikētas' choice, p. 403, from the Kāṭhaka Upaniṣad. To this group belong also versions of Bhartṛhari, p. 337 (Nītiś. 15) and p. 338 (Nītiś. 67).