A History of Sanskrit Literature c21.s8.1.2

c21.s8.1.2

It may originally have been the plan of the *Bṛhatkathā* as Guṇāḍhya conceived it, though that characteristic is lost in the versions which have come down to us, and in any case it is very dubious if the same plan were ever systematically carried out in that work. But it is interesting to note how, in the *Kādambarī* and probably in the *Bṛhatkathā* tale whence the story is largely derived, we find the highest perfection of a manner beloved in India, the inclusion of one tale within another. In the logically simplest form we have it in the Jātaka style where a tale of old is led up to by a tale of to-day, and the story ends with the application to to-day of the legend of the past. In such works as the *Vetālapañcaviṃçatikā* there is a closer approach to the *Kādambarī* inasmuch as the tales of the Vampire are all connected with the main purpose of the king, and thus, though distinct in themselves, serve to help on one main purpose. In the *Pañcatantra* we reach a further improvement, for the stories, in themselves unconnected and many told to illustrate principles, are put in the mouths of the characters of the frame story, or in the case of narratives included in subordinate stories in the mouths of the persons of the latter.