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The Indian Analyst
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North Indian Inscriptions |
PART B
Koraṇṭako nāma kapālayogī The story is according to Hertel : In the town Kaṇyāpura Pāṭaṇa, king Kanakasēkhara rules. he gets a tank dug out near the town in which, however, no water can be retained, although he makes it laid out with stone, with glass and with tin one after the other. A visiting ascetic who bears the 32 lucky marks on his body, confirms the view of the minister that a hostile demon (vyaṁtara) is responsible for the disaster, and informs the king. when asked, that it is necessary to kill a man, bearing the 32 lucky marks on his body. He adds that this man should be buried in a hole underneath the tank, and that a chapel should be erected at the place. The king orders his minister to find outs such a man. As no one besides the ascetic is to be found the minister order to kill the himself in consequence of his advice. This version is in conformity with the 114th tale in Hemavijaya’s Kathāratnākara (4)[1]. Only the names are different. The inhabitants of the village Pūraṇa have constructed a tank in which the water does not remain. When all other means do not help, the people turn to a great yogin, named Sūranātha, who advises them to bury in the tank a man possessing the 32 lucky marks on his body. As Sūranātha himself bears the marks he becomes the victim of his own advice.
The opening stanza of the Pañchākhyānavārttika with the variants tu for cha in b, heraṇḍako nāma kapālabhikshur in c, and hitopadeśāch cha in d, recurs in the recension .. of the Southern textus simplicior of the Pañchatantra (5)[2]. But the story here deviates. The king in order to have a field irrigated gets a dam put across a river. The river, however, runs out through a gap in the earth. A muni named Heraṇḍaka informs the king that the gap can be filled if a king or a muni throws himself into it. The king is ready to sacrifice himself but the muni declares that the king should not die; therefore he would throw himself into the gap. In the form the story appears still often in South Indian. Hertel, Pañchatantra, p. 68, mentions that it forms the first tale in the collection ‘Folklore of the Telugu’ by G. R. Subramiah Pantulu (6)[3]. The monk here bears the name Erunda. Benfey, Pantschatantra I, p. 108, hinted at the fact that it reappears in the legendary history of the Choḷa kingdom (7). The river there is the Kāverī. The tale is mentioned shortly by Wilson, Mackenzie Collection I, p. 183[4]. According to it the king was named Kanaka, the muni sacrificing himself Eranda.
There still remains a great number of stories showing a relationship more or less
apparent with the stories mentioned above. Already Benfey, Pantschatantra II, p. 529, has
utilized a legend told by Hüan-tsang in great details (8)[5]. It is connected with a monastery
lying on a big river more than a hundred li to the south-east of the capital of Khotan.
This river, used by the inhabitants to irrigate their fields, suddenly ceases to flow. The king
on the advice of an ascetic, brings an offering to the Nāga in the river, whereupon a woman
emerges from the water and tells the king that the river has dried up because the Nāga,
her husband, died. He should give her one of his great ministers as husband. A high
her official, after donating a monastery, declares that he is ready to sacrifice himself for the benefit
of all. On a white horse he rides into the river and is drowned. After a short while the
horse emerges with a drum of sandalwood on its back. The drum contains a letter [1]In the translation of Hertel, Vol. II, p. 25 f. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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