Bruhat Katha kosha

Author(s): Harishen Acharya,
Publisher: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan

Page 37

BRHAT-KATHAKOSA
partibaddha-Cumkärikā etc.', on p. 255, is not numbered at all by Pa and Pha, but Ja puts No. 103 for it. The following story of Pinnaka-gandha is numbered 104 by all the three Mss.; and if we continue this numbering, we arrive at the requisite number 157 as dictated by the Mss. themselves. As the material stands, this is the only way to arrive at the required number of stories; but certain discrepancies are quite apparent. First, under the present arrangement adopted in this edition, the subsections are shown under chap. 102, but that section (with its subsections) really concludes with a colophon (p. 255) which is specifically numbered 103 by the Ms. Ja. Secondly, we have to begin a section with No. 102 (p. 245) but end it with No. [102*1] on p. 249. Lastly, we feel, apparently of course, that there are only nine sub-stories, though they are expected to be ten according to an explicit remark 'dasa-kathānakam idam' on p. 255.
As the present arrangement stands, it is difficult to explain the anomalies; but it is possible to rearrange some portions of the text to suit the situation, and the internal evidence is quite favourable for such a redistribution. The section No. 102 might end with verse No. 46 on p. 247, and section No. 103 should begin with verse No. 47 and end on p. 255 with the colophon Bhatta-pratibaddha.etc. which, as expected has already got No. 103. Now in this section there should be ten stories as indicated by the remark iti dasa-kathanakam idam on p. 255. In this proposed arrangement the sub-stories will have to be renumbered 103*1= [102*1], 103*2= [102*2] etc. The sub-story 103*1= [102*1] is to begin with verse No. 120 on p. 249. In this arrangement all the facts get duly explained, and the new sections proposed possess the characteristic beginnings like other sections in this work.
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2. NARRATIVE TALE IN INDIA
i) Vedic and Allied Literature
The intellectual life in India, as reflected in ancient and medieval Indian literature, is thoroughly permeated with religious thought. That India is a cradle of religions is not merely a proud or sarcastic platitude, but it is a fact which can be fully attested by a large mass of evidence from literary records. The earliest records of Aryans, especially the Rgveda, preserved on the Indian soil and handed through the hierarchy of Indian priests, are full of devotional songs addressed to personified phenomena of nature; and later, these songs have been subjected to elaborate rituals which came to be associated, explicitly or symbolically, with every walk of life. Religion inherits its sacredness or authority from the sanctity it has bestowed on the Divinity, Scripture and Hero or Teacher; and these in turn help the elaboration of religious dogmas as time passes on. Every developed religion owes its allegiance to these three in some form or the