01Told by Shiva to Parvati

The frame begins on Kailash. Mata Parvati asks Bhagwan Shiva for a story never heard before, and he tells her the lives of the vidyadharas. His attendant Pushpadanta slips in unseen and listens, then repeats it to his wife Jaya, who repeats it to Parvati. The curse that follows sends Pushpadanta to earth as Vararuchi and his companion Malyavan, who pleaded for him, as Gunadhya. The curse will end only when the tale has been passed on: from Vararuchi to the yaksha Kanabhuti in the Vindhya forest, and from Kanabhuti to Gunadhya.

02Gunadhya’s vow

Gunadhya was minister to King Satavahana of Pratishthana. One spring the king was splashing his queens in a pool, and one of them cried ‘modakaih’, meaning ‘mā udakaih’, not with water. The king sent for sweets, modakas. The queen laughed at a husband who could not split a sandhi, and the king sank into shame. Gunadhya said grammar took twelve years, though he could teach it in six. His rival Sharvavarman said six months. Gunadhya swore that if it were done he would give up Sanskrit, Prakrit and the local speech for ever. Sharvavarman fasted before Swami Kumara, received a short grammar, and won.

03Written in blood

Bound by his vow, Gunadhya went to the Vindhya forest, heard the great tale from Kanabhuti in the Paishachi tongue, and wrote it down in that tongue over seven years, seven lakh granthas long. Having no ink, he wrote in his own blood. His pupils carried it to Satavahana, who mocked it: seven lakh, in the goblins’ language, written in blood. Gunadhya built a fire on a hill and read the book aloud leaf by leaf, throwing each into the flames, while deer and boar stood round weeping and forgot to graze. The king came too late. One lakh, the life of Naravahanadatta, was saved.

04Somadeva and his queen

At the end of the work Somadeva, son of Rama, gives his own account. Sangramaraja of the line of the Satavahanas ruled Kashmir; his son Ananta married Suryavati, daughter of the king of Trigarta, who built mathas and temples on the banks of the Vitasta. Devoted to the worship of Shiva and to hearing the shastras, she was the one for whose moment of rest he made this summary of the Brihatkatha. Kalhana’s Rajatarangini calls her Suryamati and records that Ananta’s life ended in 1081 and that she became sati. The work was finished between about 1063 and 1081.

05As the original was

Somadeva makes a plain promise at the start: this is just as the original is, without the slightest departure; only the length is cut and the language changed. He adds that he keeps the order of events and fits in the poetry so that the flavour of the stories is not broken, and that he writes not for fame but so that a net of many tales may be easy to remember. Two other retellings of Gunadhya survive, Kshemendra’s Brihatkathamanjari of Kashmir and Budhasvamin’s Brihatkathashlokasamgraha from Nepal. Comparing them, scholars judge that Somadeva rearranged more than he admits.

06Udayana and Vasavadatta

Before the hero is born, his father’s story is told. Udayana, king of Vatsa at Kaushambi and a master of the vina, is lured by a hollow wooden elephant full of soldiers and taken prisoner by Chandamahasena of Ujjayini. Set to teach music to the princess Vasavadatta, he falls in love with her, and they escape together on the she-elephant Bhadravati. Later his minister Yaugandharayana, wanting an alliance with Magadha, has it given out that Vasavadatta died in a fire at Lavanaka. Udayana marries Padmavati of Magadha, and only then is Vasavadatta restored to him.

07Emperor of the vidyadharas

The main thread follows their son Naravahanadatta from his birth at Kaushambi to his crowning as chakravarti of the vidyadharas, the sky-going people of the Himalaya. He marries Madanamanchuka, loses her to the vidyadhara Manasavega, wins her back, gathers the magical sciences and is consecrated in the Mahabhisheka lambaka. Each of his marriages names a book. Around this thread Somadeva hangs some 350 kathas: of merchants shipwrecked at sea, clever wives, foolish Brahmins, kings and courtesans, siddhas and ghosts. Nala and Damayanti are told in the ninth book, and the tenth holds a run of Panchatantra kathas.

08The twenty-five tales of the Vetala

Tarangas 8 to 32 of the twelfth lambaka hold the Vetalapanchavimshati. King Trivikramasena of Pratishthana on the Godavari receives a fruit every day from an ascetic, Kshantishila, and finds a jewel in each. In return the ascetic asks him to fetch a corpse from a tree in the cremation ground on a dark night. A vetala lives in the corpse. Each time the king carries it, the vetala tells a katha ending in a riddle, and if the king knows the answer and keeps silent his head will burst. He answers, the corpse flies back to the tree, and it begins again.

09Into the world’s languages

Hermann Brockhaus printed the Sanskrit text at Leipzig, the first books in 1839 and the whole between 1862 and 1866. The Nirnaya Sagar edition of Durgaprasad and Parab, Bombay 1889, is the text most Indian readers use. C. H. Tawney translated all of it into English at Calcutta in 1880–84, and N. M. Penzer reissued that version with long notes as The Ocean of Story in ten volumes, 1924–28. The Vetala kathas went their own way: in Hindi as Baital Pachisi, where the king is Vikram, and on Indian television as Vikram aur Betaal.

What it contains

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1. Kathapitha
The frame in 8 tarangas: Shiva’s tale on Kailash, Pushpadanta’s curse, the life of Vararuchi at Pataliputra under the Nandas, and Gunadhya’s vow, exile and burning of his book. It ends with Satavahana receiving the one surviving lakh.
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2. Kathamukha
Udayana’s descent from the Pandavas, his birth and his capture through the wooden elephant. He wins Vasavadatta, daughter of Chandamahasena of Ujjayini, and escapes with her on the she-elephant Bhadravati.
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3. Lavanaka
Yaugandharayana’s plan at Lavanaka: Vasavadatta is given out as burned so that Udayana can marry Padmavati of Magadha. Vasavadatta is restored, and Udayana sets out on a conquest of the four quarters.
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4. Naravahanadattajanana
The birth of Naravahanadatta to Vasavadatta, foretold as the future emperor of the vidyadharas. The sons of the ministers, Gomukha among them, are born to be his companions.
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5. Chaturdarika
The tale of the Brahmin Shaktideva, who must find the golden city of Kanakapuri to win a princess. His long search over sea and land brings him four wives.
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6. Madanamanchuka
Kalingasena of Takshashila and her daughter Madanamanchuka, born as the incarnation of Rati. Naravahanadatta marries her and is made crown prince.
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7. Ratnaprabha
Naravahanadatta’s marriage to the vidyadhari Ratnaprabha. Its nine tarangas are thick with tales of merchants, princes and enchantresses.
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8. Suryaprabha
The long tale of Suryaprabha, a human prince who becomes emperor of the vidyadharas, told as a precedent for Naravahanadatta. It is a war epic in miniature, with asuras, vidyadharas and a great battle.
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9. Alankaravati
Marriage to the vidyadhari Alankaravati. Its last taranga tells the katha of Nala and Damayanti.
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10. Shaktiyashas
Marriage to Shaktiyashas, in 10 tarangas. It holds a long run of Panchatantra kathas, from the lion and the bull onward, and many tales of fools.
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11. Vela
A single taranga. Naravahanadatta wins Jayendrasena, sister of Prince Ruciradeva, after racing a swift she-elephant against two horses, and hears the tale of Vela, a merchant’s daughter cast ashore by the sea.
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12. Shashankavati
The largest book, 36 tarangas, built round Prince Mrigankadatta’s search for Shashankavati. Tarangas 8–32 hold the twenty-five tales of the Vetala told to King Trivikramasena.
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13. Madiravati
A single taranga. Wandering in grief for the lost Madanamanchuka, Naravahanadatta meets two young Brahmins by a lake near the road to the Ganga, who take him for Kamadeva; their tale is of the maiden Madiravati.
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14. Pancha
The book of five. Naravahanadatta learns that the vidyadhara Manasavega holds Madanamanchuka, gains five vidyadhari wives and the sciences of the vidyadharas, and recovers her.
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15. Mahabhisheka
Victory over the hostile vidyadharas and the great consecration of Naravahanadatta as their emperor.
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16. Suratamanjari
News that Udayana has given up his kingdom and gone on the great road. Naravahanadatta visits his uncle Gopalaka, now an ascetic at Kashyapa’s ashrama, and hears the tale of Suratamanjari.
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17. Padmavati
The tale of the vidyadhara Muktaphalaketu and the gandharva princess Padmavati, parted by a curse and united after a human birth.
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18. Vishamashila
The tale of King Vikramaditya of Ujjayini, son of Mahendraditya, born to protect the earth from the mlecchas. With it the ocean of stories closes, followed by Somadeva’s own verses on his patrons.

Famous verses

प्रणम्य वाचं निःशेषपदार्थोद्योतदीपिकाम्। बृहत्कथायाः सारस्य संग्रहं रचयाम्यहम्॥
Bowing to Vak, the lamp that lights up every word and its meaning, I compose this gathering of the essence of the Brihatkatha.Kathasaritsagara 1.1.3

यथा मूलं तथैवैतन्न मनागप्यतिक्रमः। ग्रन्थविस्तरसंक्षेपमात्रं भाषा च भिद्यते॥
This is just as the original was; there is not the slightest departure. Only the length of the work is shortened, and the language is different.Kathasaritsagara 1.1.10

तथैव च गुणाढ्येन पैशाच्या भाषया तया। निबद्धा सप्तभिर्वर्षैर्ग्रन्थलक्षाणि सप्त सा॥
And so Gunadhya set it down in that Paishachi tongue over seven years, seven hundred thousand granthas long.Kathasaritsagara 1.8.2

मैतां विद्याधरा हार्षुरिति तामात्मशोणितैः। अटव्यां मष्यभावाच्च लिलेख स महाकविः॥
Lest the vidyadharas steal it, and because there was no ink in the forest, the great poet wrote it in his own blood.Kathasaritsagara 1.8.3

Influence

Its Vetala kathas became Baital Pachisi in Hindi and a staple of Indian television and comics. C. H. Tawney’s English translation, expanded by N. M. Penzer as The Ocean of Story (10 volumes, 1924–28), brought it to world literature, and it remains the fullest window onto the lost Brihatkatha.