200 Analytical Account of the Pancha Tantra. 



Colonel Franklin. The last story of the section is absurd enough ; but it 

 has a curious bearing, although perhaps unintentionally. The malforma- 

 tion of the heroine might be thought a satire on a very popular legend of 

 the south of India ; traces of which may be seen in their sculptures, par- 

 ticularly at Madura. According to that story, the daughter of one of the 

 early Fandyan Kings was born with three breasts. She was an incarnation of 

 Devi' ; and the third breast disappeared, when she espoused S'iva himself, 

 in the form of Sundares'wara, the divinity that was ever afterwards the 

 tutelary god of the Pandyan kingdom, and its capital, Madura. A modi- 

 fication of tliis legend is also met with in Ceylon ; the fair demon Kurani', 

 having been born with three breasts, one of which disappeared on her 

 espousal of Vijaya, the prince who first led a colony to that Island. — Davy's 

 Ceylon, 294. 



NOTE. 



The Hitopadem is not the only Sanscrit epitome of the Panchopdc'hydna, 

 or Pancha Tantra. Another abridgment of it, following the original much 

 more closely, both in the matter, and in tlie arrangement of it, is the 

 Cat' hdmrita-nidhi (treasure of the nectar of tales), by Ananta-bhat't'a, 

 who describes himself in the introductory and concluding lines of the work, 

 as son of NAgadeva-bhat't'a, a Brahman of the Cdmca branch. He pro- 

 fesses to preserve in his epitome of the text, the whole of the narrative, or 

 story, but to abbreviate the poetical illustrations. The performance 

 appears, so far as I have compared it with the original, to conform with 

 the author's professed design in that respect. — H.T.C. 



