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The Sanskrit story collection called Bṛhatkathāślokasaṃgraha (Brihat-katha-shloka-sangraha, बृहत्कथाश्लोकसंग्रह) is a reworking of the now lost Great Story (Bṛhatkathā). In it, Budhasvāmin tells the tale of the youthful exploits of prince Naravāhanadatta (Nara-vahana-datta).

The frame story narrates Naravāhanadatta’s progress culminating in his enthronement as the emperor of the vidhyādharas, celestial beings with magical abilities, winning twenty-six wives along the way. The surviving manuscripts of the text break off while he is in pursuit of his sixth wife. The narrative is fast-paced and eschews lengthy description.

The Bṛhatkathāślokasaṃgraha is also unusually homogeneous and hasn’t suffered the intrusion of interpolation: Budhasvāmin’s laconic style remains consistent throughout. Occasional allusions show that Budhasvāmin had a thorough grounding in the various sciences that made up the traditional brahmin education and is acquainted with all manner of people and places in the ancient Indian world. The action happens in cities like Ujjayinī (modern Ujjain), Vārānasi (modern Varanasi or Benares), Champa and Madurai, in royal palaces and their harems and parks, in courtesans’ parlours and boudoirs, in merchants’ mansions, caravans and ships, in paupers’ hovels and slums, in outcastes’ villages, in ascetics’ hermitages, in cremation grounds, on festive pilgrimages, in gambling dens and in jungles, mountains and deserts. The incidental descriptions of these places suggest their authors’ personal acquaintance with them.

[edit] References

Budhasvamin’s Bṛhatkathāślokasaṃgraha: A Literary Study of an Ancient Indian Narrative by E.P. Maten, Leiden, Netherlands: E. J. Brill, 1973.

[edit] English Translations

The Clay Sanskrit Library has published a translation of Bṛhatkathāślokasaṃgraha by Sir James Mallinson under the title of The Emperor of the Sorcerers (two volumes).

[edit] External links

• About Budhasvāmin on eNotes
• Clay Sanskrit Library (official page)