The Kathasaritsagara (Ocean of the Streams of Stories) is a vast anthology of hundreds of folk stories and fairy tales compiled in Sanskrit by the Kashmiri poet Somadeva in 1063–1081. Derived from earlier literary sources, the embellished tales were told by Somadeva for the diversion of Suryamati (or Suryavati), the queen of King Ananta of Kashmir (r. 1028–1063). The text was translated into Persian by Mustafa Khaliqdad ‘Abbasi for the Mughal Emperor Akbar (r. 1556–1605), but only about a dozen illustrated leaves are extant. See also M.78.9.12, M.78.9.13, two folios in the San Diego Museum of Art (1990.280 and 1990.281), and one folio in the Cleveland Museum of Art (I-2013-7592/31).
Although this folio is cropped and mounted on board, rendering its Persian text eliminated or inaccessible, it has been identified by comparison with an 18th-century copy of the Kathasaritsagara, now in the India Office Library, British Library, London (Richard Johnson Collection, Ms. I.O. 2410, folio 4b). (See Heike Franke, Muqarnas 27 (2010): 323.) It is from Chapter 17, “The founding of the city of Pataliputra.” The upper text on the IOL recto reads, “When one hour of the night was gone, he [King Putraka] put on his shoes and flew in the passion of love like a bird. He landed at the palace of the wali’s [governor’s] daughter and saw her as she was sleeping gracefully on her bed. He thought about a way to wake her up when suddenly one of the watchmen sang a verse fitting his situation.”
