A History of Sanskrit Literature c17.30

c17.30

A somewhat earlier recast of this work was made about A.D. 1037 by a contemporary of Somadeva's named KSHEMENDRA VYĀSADĀSA. It is entitled *Bṛihat-kathā-manjarī*, and is only about one-third as long as the *Kathā-* *sarit-sāgara*. Kshemendra and Somadeva worked independently of each other, and both state that the original from which they translated was written in the *paiçāchī bhāshā* or "Goblin language," a term applied to a number of Low Prākrit dialects spoken by the most ignorant and degraded classes. The *Kathā-sarit-sāgara* also contains (*Tarangas* 60–64) a recast of the first three books of the *Panchatantra*, which books, it is interesting to find, had the same form in Somadeva's time as when they were translated into Pehlevi (about 570 A.D.).