The Project Gutenberg EBook of Hindu Tales from the Sanskrit
by S. M. Mitra and Nancy Bell

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Title: Hindu Tales from the Sanskrit

Author: S. M. Mitra and Nancy Bell

Release Date: February 26, 2004 [EBook #11310]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HINDU TALES FROM THE SANSKRIT ***

Hindu Tales from the Sanskrit

Translated by

S. M. Mitra

Adapted by

Mrs. Arthur Bell

1919

INTRODUCTORY NOTE.

Thanks to Mr. S. M. Mitra, the well-known Hindu psychologist and
politician, who has done so much to draw more closely together
the land of his birth and that of his adoption, I am able to bring
within reach of English children a number of typical Hindu Tales,
translated by him from the Sanskrit, some of them culled from the
ancient classics of India, others from widely separated sources. The
latter have hitherto been quite inaccessible to western students,
as they are not yet embodied in literature, but have been transmitted
orally from generation to generation for many centuries.

These tales are not only of a kind to enchain the attention of
children. They also illustrate well the close affinity between the two
chief branches of the great Aryan race, and are of considerable ethical
value, reflecting, as they do, the philosophy of self-realisation
which lies at the root of Hindu culture. They have been used from
time immemorial by the best teachers of India as a means of building
up the personalities of the young and maintaining the efficiency of
the adult. They serve in fact as text-books of the unique system of
Mind-Training which has been in use in India from remote Vedic times,
the root principle of which is as simple as it is effective.

Hindu children become familiar at their mothers' knees with these
stories, and are trained to answer questions on them, subtly chosen to
suit their ages and call into action their mental faculties. Appealing
to them as an amusing game, in which they vie with each other in
trying to solve the problems presented for their consideration,
the boys and girls, who are educated together till they are ten or
twelve years old, early learn to concent