Note 161 — Appendix. VARIANTS AND ANALOGUES OF THE TALES IN THE SUPPLEMENTAL NIGHTS, VOL. III. (continued 2)
Richard Francis Burton translation
The apocryphal gospels and the Christian hagiology are largely indebted to Buddhism; e.g., the Descent into Hell, of which there is such a graphic account in the Gospel of Nicodemus, seems to have been adapted from ancient Buddhist legends, now embodied in the opening chapters of a work entitled, “Káranda-vyúha,” which contain a description of the Boddhisattva Avalokiteswara’s descent into the hell Avíchi, to deliver the souls there held captive by Yama, the lord of the lower world. (See a paper by Professor E. B. Cowell, LL.D., in the “Journal of Philology,” 1876, vol. vi. pp. 222–231.) This legend also exists in Telugu, under the title of “Sánanda Charitra,” of which the outline is given in Taylor’s “Catalogue Raisonné of Oriental MSS. in the Government Library, Madras,” vol. ii. p. 643: Sánanda, the son of Purna Vitta and Bhadra Datta, heard from munis accounts of the pains of the wicked, and wishing to see for himself, went to Yama-puri. His coming had been announced by Nárada. Yama showed the stranger the different lots of mankind in a future state, in details. Sánanda was touched with compassion for the miseries that he witnessed, and by the use of the five and six lettered spells he delivered those imprisoned souls and took them with him to Kailasa. Yama went to Siva and complained, but Siva civilly dismissed the appeal.—Under the title of “The Harrowing of Hell,” the apocryphal Christian legend was the theme of a Miracle Play in England during the Middle Ages, and indeed it seems to have been, in different forms, a popular favourite throughout Europe. Thus in a German tale Strong Hans goes to the Devil in hell and wants to serve him, and sees the pains in which souls are imprisoned standing beside the fire. Full of pity, he lifts up the lids and sets the souls free, on which the Devil at once drives him away. A somewhat similar notion occurs in an Icelandic tale of the Sin Sacks, in Powell and Magnússon’s collection (second series, p. 48). And in T. Crofton Croker’s “Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South of Ireland,” ed. 1828, Part ii. p. 30 ff., we read of Soul Cages at the bottom of the sea, containing the spirits of drowned sailors, which the bold hero Jack Docherty set free.