this book afterwards.
As the title implies –“Ocean to the Rivers of Story”, Somadeva’s work united all
the stories that were known at that time, just like an ocean unites all the rivers. Every
story, big or small, written or told found its reflection in Somadeva’s collection. Thus, no
wonder that the characters of this collection both, humans and all different creatures that
humans believed in. Some stories reflected the life of Indian society, and their characters
are desperate lovers, powerful kings, greedy bankers, smart merchants, shrewd and clever
women, brave warriors and many others. Other stories reflect strange fantastic myths and
the characters of them are goblins, vampires, witches, devils and all other imaginary
creatures that were created by Indian folklore during the past centuries. This book is
sometimes called “the mirror of Indian imagination”.
The story “The Red Lotus of Chastity” tell us about a live of a merchant’s family.
The only son of a merchant got married to a smart and beautiful girl named Devasmita.
The young man inherited his father’s business and had to take care of his family’s
prosperity. One day he decided to go to the island of Cathay to sell his goods. His wife
was afraid that he would fall in love with another woman while being away. She went to
the temple and asked God Siva for a piece of advise. God Siva gave a red lotuse to her
and her husband, saying that it any of them would be unfaithful, the lotus of the spouse
would fade. On the trip the fellow merchants of the young man found out about this and
decided to seduce the young merchant’s wife and humiliate Guhasena. However, all their
attempts were in vain, as Devasmita understood their plan and could play a trick on all of
them. At the end Devasmita travels to the island of Cathay to tell the story to her husband
and to not be separated from him anymore. The three men who tried to seduce Devasmita
admitted their plans and were turned into her slaves.
This story’s characters are regular people: a young merchant, who loves his wife
and wants to give the best he can get to her; a young wife, who loves her husband and
remains faithful to him all the time, three men- seducers, who represent the “evil side”; a
witch- an old woman who help to make the plan of seduction. But at the end we see that
the good characters celebrate the victory as it should always be.
This story reminds me of the stories and tales of European troubadours who lived
during the Medieval Ages. In contrast to the official sacred art, their tales and songs were
about real human lives, about human good and bad traits of character. The character of
this story can be easily compared to the characters of Moliere’s plays and Shakespeare’s
comedies.
There have been many discussions about how Indian stories traveled around the
world. According to some scientists Indian story-telling made the Persians learn the art of
storytelling and pass it on to the Arabians. Then ancient Indian tales traveled from the
Middle East to Constantinople and Venice. Later they were reflected in the works of the
early representatives of the Renaissance Era. Some scientists believe that Western tales
borrowed a lot from Indian ones. The discussion is still open nowadays. The researches
could not prove anything yet. However, even on the example of this story we could see
the similarity of character types and story development. But it would be not surprising
that this type of a connection would be established as it is very likely that educated
European people knew Indian tales and were fascinated by them. Obviously, they could
have borrowed some motives and characters for their later works.
