The Ocean of Story : Being C. H. Tawney's Translation of Somadeva's Katha Sarit Sagara (or Ocean of Streams of Story); Now Edited With Introduction, Fresh Expalanatory Notes and Terminal Essay PDF

by N. M. Penzer

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It is with great diffidence that i venture to step in where the great masters of Indian scholarship found some difficulty to tread.

It is a heavy task to follow in the wake of men like Sir Richard Temple and Sir George Grierson, to whom Sanskrit literature is an open book, but turning the leaves I found they had left some blank pages, and on these I shall endeavour to put down some of the thoughts which this new edition of Tawney's translation of Somadeva's great work has suggested to me.

I am encouraged to undertake this work owing to the kind invitation with which Mr Penzer has honoured me, and by whom I have been granted the privilege of appreciating to the full the excellent work which he is performing in producing his magnum opus.

By his illuminating notes, and by the extensive treatment of some motifs found in this collection, he has carried his investigations far beyond the narrow borders of the original home of the Katha Sarit Sagara.

With immense industry and keen insight he has been able to accumulate a mass of literary parallels from all parts of the world which gives to this edition a value of its own, and places it in the forefront of modern studies in comparative literature.<br><br>It is from this point of view that I will address myself to the task thus placed before me.

Many a problem arises from the contemplation of this Indian literature in its relation to the other literatures of a similar kind.

In the first place, the students of folk-lore are returning again to the question as to whether the inland lake of Indian tales was the ocean which overflowed its banks and carried these tales on the crest of its waves to distant lands and many nations.

Ever since Benfey published his famous introduction to the German translation of the Panchatantra - and here I fully re-echo Mr Penzer's desideratum for an English translation brought up to date - this question has never ceased to agitate the mind of scholars.