A History of Sanskrit Literature c24.s4.8

c24.s4.8

It is natural to extend the doctrine and to find the original of the Arabian *Thousand and One Nights* in India,¹ and something substantial has been done in this direction by proving that the prologue and setting of the tales are a contamination of *motifs* which are quite well known in India. Thus we have the Jain legend of Kanakamañjarī, who retains for six months the undivided love of the king by the device of beginning a tale each night but not finishing it. Again, we have in a Chinese rendering of a Buddhist tale (A.D. 251), in the *Kathāsaritsāgara*, and in Hemacandra, variations of the theme of the man who is utterly depressed by finding out that his wife is unfaithful, but recovers happiness because he discovers that the king himself is equally being made a mock of. The further adventure of Shahriar and Shahzeman has a parallel in the *Kathāsaritsāgara*. There are other traces of Indian influence in the tales, and it is clear that it is impossible to ascribe them to borrowing from Persia; translations from Persian into Sanskrit are normally late, as in Çrīvara’s *Kathākautuka*² written on the theme of Yusuf and Zuleikha under Zainu-l-‘Abidīn in the fifteenth century. The only matter that can be in doubt is the extent of the influence; certainly there is nothing in this case to prove the taking over of a whole cycle of stories from an Indian work, now lost.