The Ocean of Story Being C.H. Tawney’s Translation of Somadeva’s Katha Sarit Sagara (Or Ocean of Streams of Story)

The Vedas contain little in the way of definite and concrete rules of belief and conduct and at the best the teaching of the Vedas could have been familiar only to a microscopic minority of the population of India. [...] In the story of Anangarati (IV 144) four suitors belonging respectively to the four castes seek the hand of the princess and in spite of a decided preference for the Kshatriya and the Brahman on account of their caste the Vaigya and the Sudra were not summarily ruled out. [...] In the story of King Kanakavarsha (IV 208) his ambassador sent to the Court of King Devagakti to secure the hand of Princess Madanasundari has the good fortune of witnessing " the elegance in the dance " of the princess. [...] Surely his glory furnished the Disposer with the material out of which he built up the White Island the Sea of Milk Mount Kailasa and the Himalayas.' And one day as the King Vikramaditya was in the hall of assembly the warder Bhadrayudha came in and said to him : Your Majesty dispatched Vikramagakti with an army to conquer the southern region and other territories and then sent to him a mes [...] Madanamanjari and the Kiipoilikal I am Madanamanjari the daughter of Dundubhi the King of the Yakshas and the wife of Manibhadra the brother of Kuvera.