In this episode, we’re dipping into the Ocean of the Stream of Stories. Because that’s literally what the KathaSaritaSagara means. It’s an anthology of loosely connected stories, most of which are lost. But because I have access to every bit of knowledge ever known, they are not lost to me. I’ll share some of these stories on this show. In the first one we’ll see why a rabbit that is a ventriloquist can be smarter than an elephant who’s a physicist. The second one teaches us that if you ever want to join a Hakuna Matata club similar to the one from Disney’s Lion King movie, you may want to first verify that the members of the club prefer eating bugs rather than larger animals.
Now the Kathasaritasagara is a chain of stories, kind of like the Panchatantra which we have also covered in this show before. The way these stories are a chain is that the stories often end with a character telling another story, proving over and over that anyone can be a storyteller. We won’t cover these stories in any particular order. And in today’s story it doesn’t matter who is telling the story. So I’ll take over the narrator’s reins. I’ll give you more background about this anthology later in the episode. For now, let’s dive into this ocean.
The first story begins in a burrow where a family of rabbits lived. In the burrow, the head of a very large rabbit family sat at the head of a council table in the largest armchair. She was very uncomfortable, because rabbit anatomy obviously isn’t suited for armchairs. But that doesn’t matter. She was discussing a matter of importance. The family had concerns about their natural resource supply. It wasn’t food. Grass was abundant.
What the matriarch and her family were concerned about was water. The burrow was right next to a pond. A pond that was not small by any means. But water was limited and the size of their family was not. I can confirm that all the rumors about exponential rabbit family growth is absolutely true. In folk tales such as these at least.
As if reflecting the worry on all their faces, a large population clock in the room rapidly ticked higher and higher, faster than the wall clock.
“The pond has very limited water. It’s a hemispherical thing with a radius of 5 meters, so all we have is a volume of 261.8 meters cubed. At our rate of water consumption, and current population forecast that gives us 30 days. If it rains during that time we’re good. Otherwise it sounds a bit funny, but none of us will remain fit bunnies”.
One of the other newer rabbits in the assemblage spoke up. “Cousin secretary, how did you calculate all that so fast? I noticed you didn’t even use a calculator”
The secretary who was indeed related to this new member explained that it should not at all be surprising. “We’re rabbits, cousin. That means we’re really good at multiplying. Also, Congratulations Aunty, You’re now a great-grandmother” he added to the matriarch.
The rabbit who was head of the family nodded her head in acknowledgement. She was a great grandmother, and she had a lot of gray hair(hares) to show for it. Quite literally. She was an off-white color and naturally many of her descendants had naturally gray fur.
And right now, as her family was facing an existential threat, she naturally worried about her receding hare line.
And to make matters significantly worse, the whole ground began to shake. Rabbits are naturally nervous creatures. A sudden shaking of the ground only heightens their anxiety. They rushed to the few periscopes they had set up for just this purpose. Quickly, the secretary looked through it and reported that a huge monster was right above their home.
Thankfully, they had used TMT steel bars otherwise their homes might already have collapsed.
But the monster was scary. It was as tall as a tree. And it was gray all over. And most curiously it had two tails. One at each end of its body. And one of the tails was very thick and seemed to be sucking all of the water out of the pond. Obviously it was an elephant, but the rabbits didn’t know that.
“Monster or no monster, we have to defend our pond” the matriarch said calmly. She dispatched the secretary to go solve this problem.
Besides being able to calculate very quickly, the secretary was a smart one. He would have given bugs bunny a run for his money, and not just against an incompetent hunter like Elmer Fudd.
The secretary observed what the Elephant was doing. Thankfully, this Elephant had a habit of thinking out loud. I guess it didn’t realize that its speech could be heard and understood even by creatures that had never seen or heard Elephants before.
“This water is amazing” began the Elephant. “I’m glad I found it. Now I can bring my whole family here for a drink”.
“There are more of these monsters?” wondered the secretary, shocked.
As the Elephant began walking away, the secretary decided he needed to act right away. He hopped quickly and dashed into the Elephant’s path. But not so close as to be in danger himself. He had seen what the Elephant could do. He had just seen the Elephant step on a grape. All the grape managed to do was to let out a little whine(wine) when it was crushed.
“Stop Mister” said the bunny.
“Why should I stop?” asked the Elephant. I guess besides not stopping his physical motion, he didn’t even bother to stop and think how a little bunny could understand and speak to the Elephant. “My family is thirsty and waiting to drink. I must bring them here right away” the beast added.
“Well, I’m afraid I can’t let you do that” said the bunny in the most authoritative voice he could manage. “You see, you’ve made a really powerful enemy by drinking from the pond”
The elephant almost burst out laughing at this claim. “And who is this enemy? You?” he challenged the bunny.
“Not at all. I’m just a messenger. You can crush me, swipe me away with that front tail of yours, but it’ll only compound your crime. No sir, the enemy you’ve made is far more significant. It’s the Moon”
“Go away” the Elephant said to the bunny. “The Moon is just a very large piece of rock floating in the sky 240 thousand miles away”
“That’s what you think, but have you seen the angry faces he makes?” asked the bunny
“Those are phases not faces. And that’s just because sunlight hits only a part of the moon at that time”
“You know so little,” said the bunny, shaking his head. Very convincingly “Have you wondered why the full moon has such a massive Rabbit logo on it? You don’t know that the Moon is really a massive cousin of us Rabbits and this pond you covet is his. He will not share, and he himself sent me to tell you this”
“Well then, show me where he is. Let me hear from the Moon himself” challenged the Elephant. Still utterly unconvinced, but with a little smidgeon of doubt beginning to creep over him. Did Elephant science really know everything? There were many unanswered questions. Might it not be possible the bunny was correct?
He allowed himself to be led back to the pond. But then when the bunny pointed out the Moon in the pond out to him, he relaxed. A little.
“Silly rabbit. That’s not the moon. That’s just a reflection. Simple optics.”
But the bunny didn’t answer. He’d hopped a few feet away. And he kept silent. Or so the Elephant thought. Because a new voice erupted on the scene. “Who dares disturb my pond?” it said.
The Elephant began to tremble a little. He looked down and sure enough the moon in the pond looked different from the one in the sky. The one in the pond seemed to be shimmering and glowering, as if in anger to go with the angry voice.
“You, Elephant. You drank from my pond, didn’t you?” it said loudly.
The Elephant was close to tears now. For all his knowledge of astronomy and optics, he really lacked knowledge of basic acoustics and he really didn’t know the Rabbit was an accomplished ventriloquist, meaning he could disguise his voice and make it appear as if it was coming from somewhere else. In this case, the “somewhere else” was the reflection in the pond.
The Elephant decided that – sure his own family was dying of thirst, but that was not worth facing this Moon God. He mumbled an apology, promised to pray to the Moon every day for a month, and promised to be nice to all rabbits from that day on.
So that’s how the first story ends. Proving again that an Elephant with Astronomy and Optics knowledge is no match for a bunny who has mastered acoustics.
This ventriloquism trick that the bunny used is not a new one. It was later used by the Wizard of Oz to trick people into believing he was a giant rhinoceros-spider, or a ball of fire or a beautiful fairy. Sorry if you were planning on reading that book and I gave it away. But if I’m being perfectly honest, that was a very guessable part of the story anyway. Don’t know why it took Dorothy or Tin Man didn’t guess that. The scarecrow didn’t have brains so he’s excused.
Anyway, let’s begin on the second story.
This one is about a Hakuna Matata club in the jungle made up of an unusual collection of animals. It did feature a Lion, just like Simba in Disney’s Lion King, but not a lovable meerkat and warthog. Instead, besides Simba, the backing vocals were provided by a crow, a jackal and a leopard. You will notice that all four of these animals are carnivores. Now that also means that these creatures did not eat bugs like in the Lion King. To them, bugs were slimy and not at all satisfying. What did satisfy them was meat.
Often the Lion would hunt an animal and would share his meal with the other three. No surprise that he did indeed keep the lion’s share for himself.
The other animals were fine with this arrangement. Normally, the jackal and crow would have fed on the leftovers of some larger kill. In this case, they were getting a seat at the dinner table with the King himself. Who could say no to that? It was a lot of free profile boost from all the publicity dinners at which they were seen sitting with the King.
The leopard could have hunted down his own food, but I suppose he was tired of potentially having to surrender it to other lions. Because other lions would sometimes just barge into the scene like they owned the place and simply take over his hard-earned kill.
I guess in this case, even though he was getting scraps from the Lion’s plate they were definitely going to feed him. Guaranteed without having to constantly look over his shoulder to see if larger animals were sneaking up on him to steal his food.
For now, let’s cut back the scene to where the Lion and his buddies were lying down on the grass, after a hearty meal.
“That cloud looks like an ice cream sundae” The crow said. The jackal didn’t agree. He thought it looked like a TV remote control, whatever that looked like 2000 years ago.
The leopard thought it looked like an antelope. Clearly, if these animals had such diverse opinions on the shape of the cloud they probably were overdue for an appointment with their optometrist. But when all three turned to consult the lion, and he responded, it immediately became clear that he did not need glasses.
The lion asserted that what he saw was a camel. Puzzled looks all around, until they realized that the Lion wasn’t looking up at the sky, but at a spot far in the distance. And now that they could see, it was indeed a camel.
The Lion was not hungry because they had just eaten. He was very curious though. He had never seen a camel up close. He asked the Crow to go talk to the Camel and see if he wanted to meet the King of the Jungle. Only if he’s comfortable with it, the Lion cautioned. I don’t want to cause anxiety. Tell him, if he chooses to come and meet me, I’ll guarantee his safety. He has my protection.
The crow flew swiftly. He was also the right choice as messenger, given the Camel would probably have fled seeing a leopard or even a jackal approaching.
The biggest threat from the crow was that he might land on the camel’s back and if that potentially was the last straw. But this camel was carrying no load so there was no chance of that happening. In fact, as the Camel explained to the crow, he had given up his life as a beast of burden. He was done carrying loads for these ungrateful humans. He had decided to retire early. He’d escaped his caravan when a negligent keeper hadn’t tied him properly.
And now, he was looking forward to a life of eating grass, sleeping, maybe eating more grass and sleeping and yeah, maybe some more grass.
“All that sounds great, brother,” the crow explained. “But it’s a Jungle out here. How will you protect yourself from all the wild animals?”
“You know I never thought of that,” admitted the Camel. Suddenly the idea of an audience with the Lion King seemed like a much better idea than it had moments ago.
“Well, why are we keeping this King waiting?” asked the Camel, “let’s hurry”
The Camel was probably not very bright to not realize that he was going to walk into the lion’s den. Literally. And that it was full of exactly the wild animals he was supposed to seek protection from.
But walking into the Lion’s den is exactly what he did. He was polite to take off his shoes first and shake paws with all the creatures there.
The Lion had guaranteed him protection for this audience, and seeing the Camel, the Lion hastily offered to extend this protection indefinitely. The Lion was judging a book by its cover. He assumed that a creature as unique as this camel must have a great personality too.
His expectations couldn’t have been further from reality. Yes, the Camel had a unique personality, but it was a little dim-witted. When the five animals were chit-chatting this became very apparent. Entire minutes after everyone else was done laughing at a joke, they would have to explain it all over to the camel. And finally when he did laugh, everyone else was a little tired and not in the mood to laugh again with him. This was a bit taxing.
Another point of contention was that the Camel was a pure vegetarian. This setup a little bit of tension. He always ordered a salad. He didn’t cast any strange looks at the others’ bloody meals, but they found they were automatically a little bit more reserved at meal times when the Camel was in their midst.
Finally an opportunity opened up for them to do something about it. That opportunity was a shortage of prey in the land. The deer seemed to have all disappeared, and they had very few options left. Under these circumstances, the crow, jackal and leopard were almost driven out of their minds at the sight of the Camel happily chomping away at his huge basket load of grass salad. He even offered them some, which made them even more annoyed for some reason.
So they hit upon a plan. The key though was to talk the Lion out of his whole protection thing. The Jackal was chosen to execute the idea. It was his idea after all.
The Jackal went to the Lion and was frank with him. “We’re all incredibly hungry and it’s so ironic that we have this huge supply of meat with us, and yet we can’t touch him”
To his surprise, the Lion admitted he had been thinking along the same lines himself. “If I hear him chomping loudly on his salad again, I might lose it!” he admitted. He sighed and added “but what can we do about it? I can see now that my promise to grant him protection was a very rash one indeed”
“Your majesty, there is something we can do. We just need the Camel to give up your protection” he explained
“And how on earth are you going to manage that?” the Lion asked.
The Jackal told him, and the Lion agreed. He could not see a flaw in the plan.
The next day just before lunch time, they put the plan in motion.
On cue, the crow stepped up and said “Your majesty, I’ve flown far and wide and there really is no prey in sight. And yet as your loyal subject I cannot bear to let your majesty go hungry. I offer myself as your dinner.”
The Camel was shocked, and to keep with the plan, the leopard, and jackal pretended to be shocked as well.
The Lion had rehearsed his lines well. He said the crow was being very generous, but the Lion could not accept this offer. The Crow was a friend, and he’d rather starve than to eat his friend.
The Jackal stepped up and offered himself next. To which, the Lion said pretty much the same thing that he had to the Crow. The same thing should have happened smoothly with the Leopard. But he’d dozed off and needed a poke in the ribs from the jackal before he suddenly remembered his lines. But the Lion again declined the Leopard’s offer as well.
There was a long uncomfortable silence after that. No one said a thing. Everyone could almost see the gears whirring slowly in the Camel’s mind.
Finally the Camel made a decision. His friends had offered themselves to the Lion, it was only right that he offer himself as well. The Lion was sure to decline as he had declined their offers.
So the Camel said “Your majesty, with this shortage of food, surely I don’t want you to starve either. Why not eat me?”. He hastily added “But hey wait….” because immediately after he’d said the words, all four animals advanced on him with forks and knives ready.
The Camel didn’t stand a chance. And the Crow, the Jackal, the Leopard and the Lion had enough food to last them for weeks.
The Lion had begun by satisfying his curiosity about a Camel’s personality and now he had satisfied his curiosity about what a Camel tasted like. And he was pleased with the results.
That’s all for now
Some notes on the show
The Kathasaritasagara as I described earlier translates to the Ocean of the stream of stories. Because that’s what these stories do, they flow. At least that’s what the readers are expected to think.
These stories were compiled by Somadev, a 11th century scholar and poet in a kingdom in Kashmir. He had compiled the Kathasaritasagara to amuse the Queen, Suryavati. Somadev condensed an earlier and much larger set of stories called the Brihatkatha. Now the Brihatkatha itself was just volume 7 in a much larger set of stories inscribed by the author in blood. So you can see we’re getting into a pretty vast territory here. To the point that the book probably needed multiple indexes just to make individual stories easier to find.
The first 6 volumes of the work were lost and so was the Brihatkatha, but derivative works including the Kathasaritasagara remain. Now all of this knowledge may be lost to most humans. But when you’re a time-traveling immortal all-knowing person like me, such knowledge cannot stay hidden. So I will share some of these stories over the course of the show.
One other note – you might have heard variations of either or both of today’s stories apparently in other collections, like the Panchatantra or the Jataka tales. But don’t be surprised. Copyright laws being quite non-existent in those days, it was perfectly okay for the same story to appear in more than one collection. Both the Panchatantra and Jataka tales that we have previously covered on the show are here:
Panchatantra
Jataka Tales
That’s all for now.
Next Time
In the next episode, we’ll go back to the Mahabharata and do some more stories about the education of the Pandav and Kaurav Princes.