Indian Antiquary Vol 58

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Charles E A W Oldham, S Krishnaswami Aiyangar, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarka
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 17

JANUARY, 1029)
NOTES ON THE KATHA SARIT SAGARA
Mr. Penzer tells us in a valuable note (p. 229) that the Cesarean Operation is quite well known in cases where the woman dies in labour, both in Bengal and Bombay; and so it may be that Somadeva has taken advantage of a known, and to him a wonderful, practice to adorn a folktale. It will be observed that in the above instances both the women concerned were said to be immortals, and that the object of the operation was to find a way to immcrtality on the part of mortal husbands.
10. Marvellous Cures. At p. 2 is found The Story of the Clever Physician. A king, Mahasena, is afflicted with "an abscess in his vitals” because he had been obliged to send tribute to another king. His physician, in order to cure him, "said falsely : 'Oking, your wife is dead, and "owing to the violence of his grief the abscess burst of itself," and all goes well thereafter.
At pp. 36-37 we find another story of the same kind in The Story of Vihitsena, where king Vihitsena of Timira has & wife Tejasvati, of whom he is very fond. He gets "a lingering fever with diminishing intensity," and so he is forbidden the queen's society. This worries him nearly to death. So his ministers conceal her, and with her consent, "said to the king : The queen is dead. While the king was tortured with excessive grief, in his agitation that disease in his heart relieved itself.”
In a footnote to p. 2, Mr. Penzer gives similar instances in real life and in story, East and Weet, drawing attention to many similar Cases-noticed in the late Great War in relation to sight and hearing. The physiological causes of such cases are very recondite, but here again Somadeva may be drawing on facts to adorn a tale.
11. Skull-wearing. In the story of Abokadatta and Vijayadatta (p. 196), their father, the Brahman Govin. dasv&min meets " skull-bearing Saive ascetic,” who tells him the future of his sons. In the Foreword to Volume I, I pointed out that the wearing of skulls was a very old non-Aryan custom going back to the very dawn of civilisation, and no doubt in the Siva-worship of the Himalayas it was a relio of pre-Aryan daya.
On p. 90. of this Volume "skull bearing worshippers of Siva" in the main story are associated with the humbugging, rascally class of ascetics (yogts), as indeed they often are; e.g., the Aghoris.
12. Nudity. In The Story of Phalabhati, queen Kuvalayavati, a witch, is going through black magic rites, and is found by her husband (p. 98) "engaged in worshipping the gods, stark naked, with her hair standing on end and so on, as in orthodox black magic ritual, in order that her husband might obtain prosperity."
On this Mr. Penzer (pp. 117 ff.) has a long and arresting note on Nudity in magic ritual all the world over. It is an indecisive note, and the origin of the custom is obviously still in doubt. But in India in Somadeva's time it was a common observation of the ways of yogis, who went about habitually naked; and among one sect of the Jains it was the sect custom, going back to very early days. Indeed, the founder of the Jains, contemporaneous with Buddha, enjoined nudity as a religious practice. The naked Jain ascetics were called digambara, sky-clad, and it is to be noticed that "stark naked " in Tawney's translation of this text is in the original "having the cardinal points as her only garment." Lalla Yogisvari, the Kashmiri teacher of Saivism, was also charged with going about naked, and no doubt did so as a purely religious practice, for she was very far from being a witch.
In the text above quoted, at any rate, old Indian custom seems to have been in Somadeva's mind, when he framed his description of the witch-queen's rites, combined perhape with the folk-custom he observed around him in the practice of black magio. The subjoot seems to be worth further investigation.
(To be continued.)