'913.] ADVENTURES OF MULADEVA 619 



124, or at the end of the tenth book of the Brhatkathamanjari. 

 Again, in the fifteenth 'Tale of the Vampire' (Vetalapancavirigati), 

 he acts a Mephistophelic part in involving a princess in two mar- 

 riages, arranged so trickily that it is hard to say which husband she 

 really belongs to. Muladeva figures occasionally in other stories ; in 

 addition, a lively tradition of a very variegated sort shows that he 

 has fixed himself as a "character" in the imagination of the Hindu 

 people through many centuries. Yet even Devendra's biography is 

 rather in the nature of an impressionist sketch than a well-knit 

 novel. Nor is his characterization in tradition as a whole by any 

 means consistent: he has traits of Simplicissimus, Tyl Eulenspie- 

 gel, Cagliostro, Mephisto, and others. On the whole he is a rogue 

 whose pranks have endeared him to the popular heart as a shifty, 

 yet delectable figure, who may however, as in Devendra's story, 

 occasionally be taken more seriously and padded out into a sort of 

 hero. 



The life history of Muladeva fitly begins with his own name,^ 

 which seems to mean " Wizard," literally, " He who makes roots his 

 divinity." Within the sphere of narrative in which Miiladeva fig- 

 ures, magic practices by means of roots are still as familiar as they 

 were in the time of the Atharva-Veda.** Miiladeva is identified, 

 next, with Karnlsuta,' an author on the " Science of Thieving " 

 (steyagastra-pravartaka). Karnlsuta is said to be a Karataka, some 

 sort of gentile designation. In Dagakumaracarita, Apaharavar- 

 man, one of the princes who narrates his own adventures, him- 

 self a great scoundrel, tells how he decided to follow the way of 

 Karnlsuta, in order to teach the misers of a certain city the insta- 

 bility of wealth, by the simple device of stealing that wealth. At the 

 end of the same story King Rajavahana, after hearing Apahara- 



^ Cited by the Kagika at Panini 8. 2. 18. 



6 See Bloomfield, "The Atharva-Veda," General Index, p. 135''; Schmidt, 

 Beitriige zur Indischen Erotik, pp. 739, 740; Prabandhacintamani (Tawney's 

 Translation), p. igi. 



■^ In the Lexicon called Haravall, as cited by the commentary to Subandhu's 

 Vasavadatta; see Weber, " Indische Streifen," i. 383, note 2; Pavolini, 

 GSAI. ix. 176; Meyer's translation of Dagakumaracarita, pp. 215, 244. 

 Balakrsna to Sana's Kadambari, in a roundabout fashion, also makes the same 

 identification; see p. 621. 



