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190
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[OCTOBER, 1928
HINDU AND NON-HINDU ELEMENTS IN THE KATHA SARIT SAGARA.
BY SIR RICHARD C. TEMPLE, Br.
I. General Remarks. WHEN Mr. N. M. Penzer undertook his fine edition of Tawney's translation of the Katha Sarit Sågara, now completed in ten remarkable volumes, I wrote the foreword to Volume I. In the course of my remarks I pointed out that the Brahman Somadeva, the author of the original, in putting together his collection of folktales used just the current stories of his day whatever their origin, and did in fact utilise tales and ideas that were presumably not of Aryan, i.e., of Hindu, origin. In going through the second volume carefully this notion took so strong a hold upon me that I propose now to make an examination of it, to see how far my idea is supported on being further looked into.
Many years ago, when dissecting a collection of modern Panjabi folktales, principally compiled by Mrs. F. A. Steel and published in Wide-awake Stories, 1884, I went on the principle of examining the incidents in the tales rather than the tales themselves. Folktales and the incidents occurring in them have separate histories, much as have the two componente of all religions--the ritual and the philosophy-and it occurred to me then that by an examination of the incidents one was quite as likely to get at the history of the ideas contained in folktales as by an examination of the tales themselves. I have accordingly proposed to myself to follow the same principle with regard to the second volume of Mr. Penzer's edition of the Katha Sarit Sagara. In order to do so I have been through the book and noted down some 75 points, which it seemed to me to be worth examining. Of these 35 may be called records of matters that are purely Indian and 40 may be looked on as matters relating to Folklore in general, including that of the Hindus. Also it has seemed to me that practically the whole of them refer to conditions that are both Hindu and not Hindu.
With these preliminary remarks I propose to examine Volume II of Mr. Penzer's book, taking advantage of his magnificent apparatus of notes, long and short, and of his appendices, one of which, that on the “poison damsel," is practically an unique contribution to the study of Folklore. My remarks will perforce be of a desultory nature, but I hope none the less worth making for that. The following list gives the many subjects I shall touch on in the order of examination.
1.-General Remarks. II.-General Points.
1. Chronology. 2. Urvasi and Purûravas, the oldest Love Story. 3. Puns. 4. The Naming of Heroes. 5. The Spread of Rumour. 6. Travelling in India at the end of the First Millenium, A.D.
7. Etymology. III.-References to old Indian life.
1. Unscrupulousness. 2. Victory Columns. 3. Strong Drink. 4. Eunuchs. 5. The Water-borne Foundling. 6. Hindu and Savage : Caste Feeling.
7. Bodhisattvas in Hinduism. IV.-Old Indian Customs.
1. Polyandry. 2. Nose-cutting for Adultery.
