Mahfil. v 7, V. 7 ( 1971) p. 235.

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Margaret Bo Ricuardi


A Bpaj version of the Sanskirt tale

The story translated herein is the second story in a Braj manuscript of the Sirrihasana Battls^l.^ It is dated 1876 Bikram Sambat, or AeDo 1819o Sri Bhavani Samkara Pathaka is both the author and copyist and is cited at the end of each storyo The manuscript is written in verse and consists of eighty-eight folios of 6o9 inches by 8o9 inches rhere are twenty-one lines per folio and the manuscript is complete The second story extends from line 7 of folio 16b to line 18 of folio 18a.

The story corresponds to "The Brahman's Unsuccessful Sacrifice" as translated by Franklin Edgerton from five Sanskrit recensions of the Thirty-two TaLes cf the Thpcne.^ While it contains elements common to all^ the Braj story follows the Jain recension most closely. This is not to suggest that the author of the Braj work either copied or was influenced specifically by this or another Jain versiono Of the five recensions studied by Edgerton, the Jain is one of the two recensions characteristic of North India and is, of the two, the more common.0

It is noteworthy that, while the Jain recension of the story avoids the mention of Brahmanical gods and prefers to describe the Brahman devotee simply as sadhaka^ the Braj story is dedicated to Krishna, concerns itself with a temple specifically dedicated to Siva, mentions rffeiings rendered to his consort, and clearly identifies the worshiper as a Brahman.^

There are, in the Sanskrit, sIx-Slokas which are very similar in meaning and word choice to the Braj There are, in addition, a large number ot key words which occur in both textso The Stokas are, however, in the nature of maxims and occur as well in the other four recensions studied by Edgertono The words shared by the two texts appear more otten than not in slightly different contexts as though the Braj author associated them with general sequences, though not with specific statementso One particulazly striking example is the use of the word ka^^uka The Sanskrit reads, ^tad akamya vikyamanypah

