Some of the stories have traveled all over the world. In the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries, many of them found their way into the highways and byways of European literature. With Story 1, The grateful elephant, compare the story of Androclus and the lion, Aesop’s fable of the Lion and the Shepherd, and Gesta Romanorum 104. With Story 2, Grateful animals and ungrateful man, compare R. Schmidt, Panchatantra i. 9; C. H. Tawney, Kathāsaritsāgara ii. 103; E. Chavannes, Cinq Cents Contes 25; A. Schiefner, Tibetan Tales 26; Gesta Romanorum 119; and the following stories in Grimm, Kinder- und Hausmärchen: 17 Die weisse Schlange, 60 Die zwei Brüder, 62 Die Bienenkönigin, 85 Die Goldkinder, 107 Die beiden Wanderer, 126 Ferenand getrü und Ferenand ungetrü, 191 Das Meerhäschen. For additional parallels, see J. Bolte und G. Polivka, Anmerkungen zu den Kinder- und Hausmärchen der Brüder Grimm, Märchen 17, 62, 191.
With Story 3, Elephant and ungrateful forester, compare E. Chavannes, Cinq Cents Contes 28. With Story 4, Quail, crow, fly, frog, and elephants, compare R. Schmidt, Panchatantra i. 18. Variants of Stories 5 and 7 form the frame-story of Panchatantra ii. With Story 5, Quails and fowler, compare C. H. Tawney, Kathāsaritsāgara ii. 48; J. Hertel, Tantrākhyāyika iii. 11; also Aesop’s fable of the Falconer and the Birds. With Story 7, Antelope, woodpecker, tortoise, and hunter, compare Mahābhārata xii. 138; C. H. Tawney, Kathāsaritsāgara i. 296; also Aesop’s fable of the Lion and the Mouse. With Story 6, Brahmadatta and the prince, compare E. Chavannes, Cinq Cents Contes 10; also Jātaka 371. With Story 8, Brahmadatta and Mallika, compare Mahābhārata iii. 194.
With Story 9, A Buddhist Tar-baby, compare E. Chavannes, Cinq Cents Contes 89 and 410; also the well-known story in Joel Chandler Harris, Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings. Story 10, Vedabbha and the thieves, is the original of Chaucer’s Pardoner’s Tale; compare also A. Schiefner, Tibetan Tales 19. With Story 13, Blind men and elephant, compare E. Chavannes, Cinq Cents Contes 86. With Story 14, Part 1, Gem, hatchet, drum, and bowl, compare Grimm, Kinder- und Hausmärchen: 36 Tischchen deck dich, Goldesel, und Knüppel aus dem Sack; 54 Der Ranzen, das Hütlein, und das Hörnlein. For additional parallels, see Bolte-Polivka.
With Story 15, A Buddhist Henny-Penny, compare A. Schiefner, Tibetan Tales 22; also the well-known children’s story of the same name. With Story 19, Partridge, monkey, and elephant, compare A. Schiefner, Tibetan Tales 24. With Story 21, How not to kill an insect, compare Aesop’s fable of the Bald Man and the Fly. For an interesting account of the history of some of the stories, see W. A. Clouston, Popular Tales and Fictions, as follows: Story 2: i. 223-241. Story 9: i. 133-154. Story 10: ii. 379-407. Story 14: i. 110-122. Story 15: i. 289-313. Story 21: i. 55-57.
Note on the Illustrations.
Just fifty years ago Sir Alexander Cunningham discovered among the ruins of a memorial mound or stūpa near the village of Bharahat, 120 miles southwest of Allahabad, a series of sculptures of the third century B.C., illustrating the legendary life of the Buddha and stories from the Book of the Buddha’s Previous Existences or Jātaka Book. Photographs of these sculptures, together with a detailed description of each, will be found in the explorer’s monumental work Stūpa of Bharhut.
It is from these Bharahat sculptures that the artist has taken most of the materials for the illustrations to the present volume. From these sculptures have been taken, not only three entire scenes, but animals, costumes, trees, plants, fruits, flowers, and other objects. In the case of two scenes, where the sculptured objects differ materially from the objects described in the text, the artist has followed the sculptures rather than the text. In the matter of details, the illustrations are believed to be correct in every particular.
The design which appears on the cover, and again on the title-page, Elephant and children, is taken from Cunningham, Plate xxxiii. 2, Elephant and monkeys. The Bharahat sculpture represents an elephant being driven along by a troop of monkeys. The artist has substituted children for monkeys, but has preserved the spirit of the scene. It may as well be said here as anywhere else that the saffron yellow of the cover is the exact color of the robes of a Buddhist monk. The color is therefore symbolic.
The frontispiece, illustrating Story 1, The grateful elephant, represents the scene in the elephant-stable. A pure white elephant is shown in the act of raising the young prince, the Future Buddha, to his shoulders. On the right stands the queen, under a parasol held by an attendant. On the left stand ministers of state, ladies-in-waiting, and slaves. The open window, through which the blue sky is seen, forms an effective panel for the portrait of the young prince. The saffron yellow of the background is again symbolic.