Pssst... come here. A little closer. Yes, yes, right here. Now, what sort of story are you looking for? One with action and adventure, wily villains and valiant warriors? Or something that will make you laugh till your stomach hurts? Or perhaps you'd prefer a tale with some good old-fashioned magic?
Well, whatever it is, you'll find it all here - in this delightful trove of stories picked from one of India's oldest classics, Somadeva's Kathasaritasagara (The Ocean of the Streams of Story), dusted and polished for a new generation of readers.
Go on, step in, but be careful - the shape-shifters aren't quite what they seem (obviously), the tricksters are always looking for someone to fool, and don't be shocked if you meet a talking animal.
Oh, and one last thing - make sure you ace the vetala's quiz. Or else...
Jayashree Bhat discovered her love for mythology and folklore in her childhood, during the long, rainy days in Manipal, where she grew up. In her spare time, she reads, daydreams and travels with her husband.
What I love most about the Kathasaritasagara is that one can find all sorts of stories in it -short and sweet, long and twisty, tales with magical objects and fearsome monsters, tales of friendship and courage, tales of wisdom, and even tales that teach nothing at all. There are very few other collections in the world that match its sheer variety and imagination.
Before I tell you why I chose these specific stories from the Kathasaritasagara, let's take a quick look at the original text. Compiled at the end of the eleventh century by a Kashmiri man called Somadeva Bhatta, the Kathasaritasagara or 'The Ocean of the Streams of Story' is likely to have been part of a much larger text called the Brihadkatha. The book begins with the Kathapitha, the base on which the stories are built, and in this, the goddess Parvati asks Lord Shiva to tell her a story she has never heard before.
And so, Shiva tells her seven exciting stories about seven Vidyadhara princes. Unknown to them, the doorkeeper Malyavan hears these stories and narrates them to his wife, who then tells them to Parvati the next morning. Parvati is now really upset that Shiva has not told her stories that no one else knows. When Shiva finally finds out that Malyavan was eavesdropping, he curses Malyavan to be born on Earth as Gunadhya and says that there he would remain cursed until these stories reached all the corners of the world.
After Gunadhya is born on Earth, he writes the seven stories on bark in his own blood, and this was the Brihadkatha. When this is presented to the reigning Satavahana king, he rejects the stories because of how crudely they are written. Devastated, Gunadhya burns six of the seven stories, and the surviving seventh tale is believed to be the Kathasaritasagara. When the king somehow does hear this story, he is fascinated by it and decides to make it popular and preserve it for all eternity, writing and adding the Kathapitha as an introduction.
For this book, I picked those stories that I felt would you give a view into the kinds of narratives present in the original text, especially the ones that intrigued me or made me laugh. I have, of course, taken a number of creative liberties to make the stories more relatable to the modern young reader.
Book's Contents and Sample Pages
For privacy concerns, please view our Privacy Policy
Send as free online greeting card
Email a Friend
Manage Wishlist