Sadyavatsa Kathanakam

Author(s): Pritam Singhvi
Publisher: Parshwa International Shaikshanik aur Shodhnishth Pratishthan

Page 108

९८
हर्षवर्धन-गणि-कृतं सदयवत्स-कथानकम्
it was made on the basis of the dream of the merchant's son and not of the courtesan herself. The dispute is resolved by a similar stratagem".
The motif of accusation of theft due to a stolen costly article found in possession of the innocent hero (Sūdravatsa accused of the theft of the jewelled bodice), is found in the story of Śridatta and Mțgāňkavati in the eighth Taranga of the Kathāsaritsāgara, wherein Śrīdatta has to face execution for possessing a stolen necklace which he had found tied at the end of an upper garment he accidently got from a lake, where it was thrown by some thieves.
The episodes of undertaking to burn a dead body and a witch caught while she was deceitfully gobbling lumps of flesh torn from a hanging man occur in the interesting tale of Bhāvarţikā, in the emboxed story of Amaradatta and Mitrānanda that was narrated by Bhāvattikā in the third watch of the night!6.
Corresponding to the four incidents that occur during the four watches of the night to each of the four friends keeping a guard on the dead body in the SVP narrative, we have in the story of Amaradatta and Mitrānanda four fabricated episodes connected with the four watches of the night (attack from a hoard of jackals, from a band of Piśācas, from a group of Dākinis and from the goddess of pestilence, narrated by Mitrānanda. The last of these latter episodes presents a close parallel to the incident of the fourth watch in SVP)'?.
The earliest known version of that motif is found in the story of Nitambavati occurring in the sixth Ucchrvāsa of Dandin's Daśakumāra-carita. We get another version in the first tale of the Vetālapañcaviņśati included in the Kashmirian versions of the Brhatkathā and existing also as an independent collection in Sanskrit with renderings and adaptations in regional languages of India. Penzer has noted various western versions of the motif deriv