[INDOLOGY] Characteristics of Fools

[Ashok Aklujkar]

For a few general observations, please see the latter half of this email.

Dominik Wujastyk: "There's a copy in the British Library, listed in the printed catalogue of Marathi books."

Someone proficient in Telugu should also check if the text in the following is essentially the same or significantly different: 

Mūrkha śatakam [title not printed as a compound word]

Author:	Śrī Na Ca Rāmānujācāryulu
Publisher:	Haidarābādu : Pratulaku, Cakravarti Pracuraṇalu, 1988.
Edition/Format:	 Book : TeluguView all editions and formats
Database:	WorldCat

The same source lists the book as available at:

1. University of California, NRLF 
Northern Regional Library Facility
Richmond, CA 94804 United States

2. UC Berkeley Libraries 
Berkeley, CA 94720 United States

3. University of Wisconsin - Madison, General Library System 
Madison, WI 53706 United States

4. University of Chicago Library 
Chicago, IL 60637 United States

5. University of Texas Libraries 
University of Texas Libraries
Austin, TX 78713 United States

6. HathiTrust Digital Library 
Ann Arbor, MI 48109 United States

A similar request to those who are proficient in Kannada:
Saṭīka mūrkha śataka.

Author:	Timmappa Liṅgappa Hegaḍe
Publisher:	Uḍupi : Śrī Madhvasiddhānta Granthālaya, 1925.
Edition/Format:	 Book : Kannada

Such texts, collecting the ways in which men can act foolishly, are  probably to be distinguished from the texts containing the stories of foolishness themselves. The Daasa-bodha of Sant Ram(a)da(a)s in Marathi, for example, has a Muurkha-lak.sa.na chapter, but it does not narrate any story that would serve as a background for a particular lak.s.a.na. 

The stories are sometimes summarized in short expressions, and the expressions alone are mentioned; e.g., pa.dhata-muurkha (in Marathi) would stand for an account of a learned (or superficially learned) fool, who takes the words of a text or speech literally (or too literally). 

Such summations become possible because the stories about fools are a part of Indian folklore (as they are of the folklores of several other countries). Most adults of the community know them. 

Occasionally, the stories are nasty and spread prejudice. 

(The shortest fool story I have heard in Canada is: "When the brightest man from New Foundland moved to Toronto, the average i.q. of both the places dropped drastically." I hope there are no newfies on this forum; if there are, they must be an exception by the very logic of the context; they will understand that, as a person very much given to historical accuracy, I cannot change what I heard. Also, since I am not a Torontonian (I hail from Khelm), I have nothing personal to gain in sharing the story. Nor am I known for telling or fabricating Sardarji jokes.)

The foolishness theme sometimes intersects with the themes of other stories populating Indian folklore; e.g., it is not uncommon to find in the stories a brahmin fool or a son-in-law fool. (Compare the depiction of a rich person or his son as a fool In western stories and t.v. comedies.) If the festival of Holi is only a day in some parts of India for dragging down the respectables of the society from their pedestal, the fool stories can be a 365-day festival toward a similar purpose. 

The genre of fools' stories is scattered over texts otherwise showing different pre-occupations; e.g., while the story of the three or four brahmins who resurrect a lion/tiger only to be killed by that lion/tiger is  found in the Pa;nca-tantra and Hitopade;sa recensions, it and similar stories are also found in various recasts of the  B.rhat-kathaa. The principal aim of these latter may not be to teach wisdom. They may not even contain the word muurkha or its synonyms. 


a.a.



> On Feb 3, 2015, at 11:04 PM, Eli Franco <franco at uni-leipzig.de <mailto:franco at uni-leipzig.de>> wrote:
> 
> Would anyone be able to send me a scan of the following?
> 
> Murkhasataka. The Hundred Characteristics of Fools. Sanskrit
> verses, with a translation by Janardana Hari Athalye. Ratnagiri, 1877.



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