Indian Antiquary Vol 09

Author(s): Jas Burgess
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 70

58
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
larger growth. It is unnecessary to dwell upon the interest they will excito in all students of folklore. Their value in this respect is much increased by the notes by the collector's mother, which contain illustrations from the Folklore of every country in the world, and are evidently the result of diligent and observant study. It would be difficult to find in any book so much erudition packed into so small a compass. We might instance as an example the elaborate note on the passage in the 1st story, "Her beauty lights up a dark room" (p. 210).
As a specimen of the stories we will choose the following, (p. 39) which happens to be one of the shortest:
The Bulbul and the Cotton Tree.-There was once a bulbul, and one day as he was flying about, he saw a tree on which was a little fruit. The bulbul was much pleased and said, "I will sit here till this fruit is ripe, and then I will eat it." So he deserted his nest and his wife, and sat there for twelve years without eating anything, and everyday he said, "To-morrow I will eat this fruit." During these twelve years a great many birds tried to sit on the tree, and wished to build their nests in it, but whenever they came, the bulbul sent them away, saying, "This fruit is not good. Don't come here." One day a cuckoo came, and said, "Why do you send us away? Why should we not come and sit here too ? All the trees here are not yours." "Never mind," said the bulbul, "I am going to sit here, and when this fruit is ripe, I shall eat it." Now the cuckoo knew that this tree was the cotton-tree, but the bulbul did not. First comes the bud, which the bulbul thought a fruit, then the flower, and the flower becomes a big pod, and the pod bursts, and all the cotton flies away. The bulbul was delighted when he saw the beautiful red flower, which he still thought a fruit, and said, "When it is ripe, it will be a delicious fruit." The flower became a pod, and the pod burst. "What is all this that is flying about P" said the bulbal. "The fruit must be ripe now," so he looked into the pod, and it was empty; all the cotton had fallen out. Then the cuckoo came, and said to the angry bulbul: "You see if you had allowed us to come and sit on the tree, you would have had something good to eat; but as you were selfish, and would not let any one share with you, God is angry. and has punished you by giving you a hollow fruit."
Then the cuckoo called all the other birds, and they came and mocked the bulbul, "Ah! you see God has punished you for your selfishness," they said. The bulbul got very angry, and all the birds went away. After they had gone, the bulbul said to the tree: "You are a bad tree, you are of use to no one, you give food to no one." The tree
[FEBRUARY, 1880.
said, "You are mistaken, God made me what I am. My flower is given to sheep to eat. My cotton makes pillows and mattresses for man." Since that day no bulbul goes near a cotton tree.
We proceed to note one or two parallels which suggest themselves on a cursory perusal of the book. The way in which Phâlmati Râni is supplanted in the first story reminds us of Die Gänsemagd, No. 83 in Grimm's Kinder und Hausmärchen, also of the story of Hans&vati in the Katha Sarit Sigara, Lambaka xii. Taranga 71. For the manner in which Phulmati is recovered at the end of the story, compare the story of Hasan of El-Basrah, Lane's Arabian Nights, vol. III. p. 380.
A modern Indian story very nearly resembling the Xth story is quoted by Benfey, Panchatantra, vol. I. p. 261, from the XIth vol. of the Asiatic Journal. Here the monkey skin is worn by a lady.
In the XIth story Hiralal Bâsâ addresses the Rakshasa as "uncle." In the notes a tale is quoted from the Indian Antiquary, in which two brothers address a tiger by the same propitiatory title: compare the 7th Fable of the Vth book of the Panchatantra (Dr. Bühler's edition), where the musical donkey calls the jackal "nephew," and is in turn addressed by him as "uncle."
Sonahri's betrayal of the Rakshasa finds a parallel in the betrayal of Angâraka by his daughter Angâravati in the 11th Taranga of the Katha Sarit Sagara.
In the XIIth story the episode of the extraction of the thorn in the tiger's foot reminds us of the story of Androclus in Aulus Gellius, v. 14. Compare also Gesta Romanorum CIV. The gratitude of the animals calls to mind the story of Bodhisattva in the 65th Taranga of the Katha Sarit Sagara, which is the same as the second story in the appendix to the 1st book in Benfey's translation of the Panchatantra, "Die dankbaren Thiere und der undankbare Mensch." For parallels see Benfey's 1st vol. p. 192 and ff. A striking one is to be found in the Gesta Romanorum, Bohn's edition, page 212. For the incident of the man coming out of the alligator's stomach, conf. Katha Sarit Sagara, Taranga 74, él. 192ff. See also the story of the Saktideva in the 25th Taranga.
With the lichi in the XVth story conf. the elixir in the beginning of the 39th Taranga of the Katha Sarit Sagara, also the payasa in the 16th Sarga of the Ramdyand.
The wonderful knowledge of Khelâparî Rânt in the XVIth tale may be paralleled by that of the pativrata Brahman lady in the 56th Taranga of the Katha Sarit Ságara, él. 174ff.
The horse Katar in the XXth story may be compared with that in the Widow's Son, Thorpe's Yule-tide Stories, p. 295.