1913.] ADVENTURES OF MULADEVA 633 



character of this singular personage more completely and consist- 

 ently than all the rest of the data which occur scatteringly in the re- 

 maining literature. It is a legendary biography without any real 

 historical value. There certainly existed at some time or another 

 an author Muladeva, the son of the woman Karni (or Goni), skilled 

 in the ars amatoria and kindred topics. But this connected quasi- 

 biography, well-knit and consistent, a rattling good story, so to speak, 

 reveals itself on closer inspection as both legendary and unoriginal. 

 The individual items of the story are for the most part recurrent 

 motifs from earlier sources. Devendra's skill lies in his power 

 to connect and to imbue with life the separate members of his 

 story. The shifting, flitting, shadowy figure of Muladeva shapes 

 itself into a real person in his hands. Devadatta, in whom is 

 embalmed the notion of the noble hetaera, becomes, whether we 

 will or not, a personage altogether lovable. The Alama makes us 

 forget her own baseness by the sheer force of her character and 

 the wit of her utterances. Her sayings and doings are, perhaps, 

 the best and most original feature of the story. Miiladeva's 

 rival, Ayala, is well delineated. Miiladeva's mishaps, the manner in 

 which he prepares for greatness, his dream of kingship, and his 

 choice as king of Bennayada are well told. The entire setting of the 

 story, from the moment that Miiladeva arrives in UjjenI and be- 

 comes acquainted with Devadatta, betrays the practised skill of a 

 good dramatist, and reveals Devendra as more than a rival of the 

 best Jataka-narrators. In the following translation the parallels to 

 the individual items are stated in the notes, without, however, going 

 into the details of comparison. For the materials involved in these 

 comparisons, as indeed for the data involved in this essay as a whole, 

 I am indebted in part to the essays or translations of the scholars 

 mentioned in the foot-note on p. 632. Jacobi's excellent edition of 

 Devendra's stories with vocabulary has long been an Indological 

 classic. 



Giornale della Societa Asiatica Italiana, IX. 175 ft. ; by Charpentier, " Pacceka- 

 buddhageschichten " (Upsala, 1908), pp. 57 ff. ; and by John Jacob Meyer, 

 ■"Hindu Tales" (London, 1909), pp. 193 ff. 



