Story of the man who asked for nothing at all.
Project Gutenberg EPUB3 edition
Somadeva Bhatta, active 11th century and Tawney, C. H. (Charles Henry)
A certain foolish man, as he was going along the road, was asked by a carter to do something to make his cart balance evenly. He said, “If I make it right, what will you give me?” The carter answered; “I will give you nothing at all.” Then the fool put the cart even, and said, “Give me the nothing-at-all you promised.” But the carter laughed at him. “So you see, king, fools are for ever becoming the object of the scorn and contempt and reproach of men, and fall into misfortune, while the good on the other hand are thought worthy of honour.”
When the prince surrounded by his ministers, had heard at night these amusing stories from Gomukha, he was enabled to enjoy sleep, which refreshes the whole of the three worlds.
Source notes
1 This is No. 84 in Stanislas Julien’s translation of the Avadánas.
2 This is No. 67 in Stanislas Julien’s translation of the Avadánas. This story is found in Coelho’s Contos Portuguezes, p. 112. So Ino persuaded the women of the country to roast the wheat before it was sown, Preller Griechische Mythologie, Vol. II, p. 312. To this Ovid refers, Fasti, II, 628, and III, 853–54.
3 This is No. 70 in Stanislas Julien’s translation of the Avadánas.
4 Cp. The Two Noble Kinsmen, Act IV, Scene 2, 1. 110,
His nose stands high, a character of honour.
5 This is No. 57 in Stanislas Julien’s translation of the Avadánas.
6 This is No. 71 in the Avadánas.
7 The MS. in the Sanskrit College reads rájakuládishṭakharjúránayanam. This is No. 45 in the Avadánas translated by Stanislas Julien.
8 The reading of the Sanskrit College MS. is ádritánoparenate, but probably the reading is ádṛitá no, paṇena te they were not honoured but on the contrary punished with a fine.
9 I think tad should be tam. The story is No. 58 in the Avadánas.
10 The Sanskrit College MS. reads gahvaragrámavásí, but below sa gahvaraḥ. This story is No. 38 in the Avadánas.
11 This story is No. 98 in the Avadánas.
12 Benfey shews that this introduction is probably of Buddhistic origin. He quotes from Upham’s Sacred and Historical books of Ceylon a story about some snipe, which escape in the same way, but owing to disunion are afterwards caught again. Cp. also Mahábhárata, V (II, 180) v. 2455 and ff., also Baldo Fab. X, in Edéléstand du Méril, Poésies Inédites, pp. 229, 230, La Fontaine, XII, 15. (Benfey, Vol. I, p. 304, and ff.) See the first book of the Hitopadeśa, (page 3, Johnson’s translation) and the 2nd book of the Panchatantra (page 176, Benfey’s translation). It is to be found in Rhys Davids’ translation of the Játakas, which has just reached India, pp. 296–298.
13 Cp. Wolff, I, 159, Knatchbull, 201, Symeon Seth, 47, John of Capua, g., 3, b., German translation (Ulm, 1483) M., IV, b., Spanish translation, XXXI, b., Doni, 18, Anvár-i-Suhaili, 273, Livre des Lumières, 211, Cabinet des Fées, XVII, 410, Hitopadeśa (Johnson) Fable V, p. 22. (Benfey, Vol. I, p. 316.)
14 For jata we must read játa. Cp. for the power given by a treasure the 18th chapter of this work, see also Benfey, Vol. I, p. 320.
15 The Sanskrit College MS. has ullambya, having hung it upon a peg.
16 Cp. Wolff, I, 160, Knatchbull, 202, Symeon Seth, 48, John of Capua, g., 6, German translation (Ulm) M., IV, b., Anvár-i-Suhaili, 275, Livre des Lumières, 214, Cabinet des Fées, XVII, 412. (Benfey, Vol. I, p. 318.)
17 Cp. Hitopadeśa, Fable VII, p. 30. Benfey compares Wolff, I, 162, Knatchbull, 203, Symeon Seth, 48, John of Capua, g., 6, German translation (Ulm, 1483) M., V, Spanish translation, XXXII, a, Doni, p. 20, Anvár-i-Suhaili, 275, Livre des Lumières, 216, Cabinet des Fées, XVII, 413, Camerarius, Fab. Æsop., 388, Lafontaine, VIII, 27, Lancereau, French translation of the Hitopadeśa, 222, Robert, Fables Inédites, II, 191. (Benfey, Vol. I, p. 320). Cp. also Sagas from the Far East, p. 189.
18 Perhaps we should read—sáyake.
19 Here Somadeva departs from the Panchatantra, (Benfey, Vol. I, p. 318.)
20 As he does the lion in Babrius, 107.
21 Benfey compares Grimm R. F. CCLXXXIV, Renart, br. 25, Grimm Kinder- und Hausmärchen, 58, (III, 100) Keller, Romans des sept Sages, CLII, Dyocletian, Einleitung, 48, Conde Lucanor, XLIII. (Benfey, Vol. I, p. 333). See also Lafontaine’s Fables, XII, 15. This is perhaps the story which General Cunningham found represented on a bas-relief of the Bharhut Stúpa. (See General Cunningham’s Stúpa of Bharhut, p. 67.) The origin of the story is no doubt the Birth-story of “The Cunning Deer,” Rhys Davids’ translation of the Játakas, pp. 221–223. The Kurunga Miga Játaka, No. 206 in Fausböll Vol. II, p. 152 is a still better parallel. In this the tortoise gnaws through the bonds, the crane (satapatto) smites the hunter on the mouth as he is leaving his house; he twice returns to it on account of the evil omen; and when the tortoise is put in a bag, the deer leads the hunter far into the forest, returns with the speed of the wind, upsets the bag, and tears it open.
22 Benfey compares with this the fifth story in the 4th book of his Panchatantra, Wie eine Frau liebe belohnt. But the very story is found in Taranga 65, which was not published when Benfey wrote his book. For parallel stories see Liebrecht, Zur Volkskunde, p. 39 and ff. where he is treating of a tale in the Nugæ Curialium of Gualterus Mapes. The woman behaves like Erippe in a story related by Parthenius (VIII). In the heading of the tale we are told that Aristodemus of Nysa tells the same tale with different names.
23 The Sanskrit College MS. reads pallím for patním.
24 Nága in the original—a fabulous serpent demon with a human face. Cp. Ralston’s Russian Folk-Tales, p. 65. “He flies as a fiery snake into his mistress’s bower, stamps with his foot on the ground and becomes a youthful gallant.”
25 Cp. Arrian’s Indika, chapter xvii, McCrindle’s translation.
26 This story corresponds to No. XLIII, in the Avadánas.
27 This to a certain extent resembles the 129th story in the Gesta Romanorum, “Of Real Friendship.” Douce says that the story is in Alphonsus. A story more closely resembling the story in the Gesta is current in Bengal, with this difference, that a goat does duty for the pig of the Gesta. A son tells his father he has three friends, the father says that he has only half a friend. Of course the half friend turns out worth all the three put together. The Bengali story was told me by Paṇḍit Śyámá Charan Mukhopádhyáya. See also Liebrecht’s Dunlop, p. 291, and note 371. See also Herrtage’s English Gesta, p. 127, Tale 33.
28 A perpetually recurring pun! The word can either mean “oiliness” or “affection.”
29 Cp. what Sganarelle says in Le Mariage Forcé:
“La raison. C’est que je ne me sens point propre pour le mariage, et que je veux imiter mon père et tous ceux de ma race, qui ne se sont jamais voulu marier.”
30 This story bears a certain resemblance to the European stories of grammarians who undertake to educate asses or monkeys. (See Lévêque, Les Mythes et Légendes de l’Inde et de la Perse, p. 320.) La Fontaine’s Charlatan is perhaps the best known. This story is found in Prym und Socin’s Syrische Märchen, p. 292, where a man undertakes to teach a camel to read.
31 This story is No. LI in the Avadánas.
32 See Felix Liebrecht, Orient und Occident, Vol. I, p. 135 on the Avadánas translated from the Chinese by Stanislas Julien, Paris, 1859 where this story is found (No. LXIX.) He compares a story of an Irishman who was hired by a Yarmouth Malster to assist in loading his ship. As the vessel was about to set sail, the Irishman cried out from the quay. “Captain, I lost your shovel overboard, but I cut a big notch on the rail-fence, round stern, just where it went down, so you will find it when you come back.” Vol. II, p. 544, note. Liebrecht thinks he has read something similar in the Ἀστεῖα of Hierokles. See also Bartsch, Sagen, Märchen und Gebräuche aus Meklenburg, Vol. I, p. 349.
33 See Liebrecht, Zur Volkskunde, pp. 119 and 120, also Benfey’s Panchatantra. Vol. I, p. 391, Nachträge II, 543. This is No. CIII. in the Avadánas.
34 This is No. XLIX in the Avadánas.
35 This is No. XXXVII in the Avadánas.
36 In the original the husband is called a “vessel of alms,” i. e., “receiver of alms,” but the pun cannot be retained in the translation without producing obscurity.