V.S. Narvane - Best Stories from the Indian Classics

Vishwanath S. Naravane, born in Allahabad, received his Ph.D. from Allahabad University and taught there for twenty years. In 1965, he was appointed professor and chair of the Department of Philosophy, Pune University. He has lectured in various countries and worked as a visiting professor at several colleges and universities in the US. In addition to philosophy and religion, Dr Naravane taught courses in Indian history, art and literature.

OTHER LOTUS TITLES

Selected and Retold by
V.S. NARAVANE

Lotus Collection

V.S. Naravane, 1994
Fourth impression, 2012

The Lotus Collection
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Contents

KATHASARITSAGARA OR THE
OCEAN OF STORIES | SOMADEVA

Centuries before Kalidasa and Valmiki were heard of outside India, Indian stories were told and retold in distant corners of Asia and Europe. From Boccacio to Chaucer and Shakespeare, right down to Le Sage, La Fontaine and Voltaire - all were influenced by these tales!

The pure-minded sage, the distraught poet, the self-effacing reformer, the restless wanderer: characters such as these who emerge from the stories are intensely real. There is the credulous peasant, the voluble astrologer, the rapacious priest, the servile courtier, the pedantic scholar - each one of them has a story to relate and a lesson to teach. It is heartening to know that a thousand years ago, the Indian barber was as garrulous as he is today, and that, predictably, the grocers weights were not always accurate!

PREFACE

I ndia is the original home of fiction. It was fiction, rather than poetry or drama, which first put India on the literary map of the world. Centuries before Kalidasa and Valmiki were heard of outside India, stories of Indian origin were told and retold in distant corners of Asia and Europe. They were picked up by the Persians and the Arabs, who passed them on to the Turks. From the markets of Constantinople this precious, though invisible, merchandize was forwarded to Venice and Naples. Many a tale in the Decameron owes its central idea to some episode in the Jatakas or the Kathasaritsagara. From Boccacio to Chaucer, from Chaucer to Cervantes and Shakespeare, right down to Le Sage, La Fontaine and Voltaire - what a wonderful journey in time and space.

Ancient Indian fiction offers a diversity of theme, atmosphere and situation unequalled in world literature. Some of the stories are saturated with the spirit of piety and religious devotion; others reveal a refreshingly secular and objective attitude to life. Some are products of pure fancy, and show an insatiable love of invention for its own sake; others are realistic, and their shrewd practicalism provides a healthy corrective to the mystical excesses of the Indian consciousness. Some are profound, weighty, deep; others compensate by their vigour, their uninhibited freedom. Some are soft and delicate like the pulp of ripe pears; others are sharp like pineapples - their texture is far from tender, but the flavour is full bodied.

As we read these tales from ancient India, we are struck by the amazing continuity of Indian life and culture across the centuries. They show us how little India has changed in spite of mighty political upheavals, the rise and fall of empires, the mingling of races, the clash of sects and religions. In ancient times India was as much a land of contrasts as it is today: wealth and want, grandeur and simplicity, transparent sincerity and unashamed chicanery, saintliness and cynicism, refinement and crudeness.

The men and women who emerge from these stories are intensely real to us. There is the pure-minded sage, the detached philosopher, the distraught poet, the self-effacing reformer, the restless wanderer. There is the blushing bride, the tireless housewife, the miserable widow. There is the credulous peasant, the voluble astrologer, the rapacious priest, the pompous grandee, the servile courtier, the pedantic scholar. It would appear that a thousand years ago the Indian barber was as garrulous as he is now; and it is very much to be feared that then, as now, the grocer's weights were not always accurate.