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GENERAL INTRODUCTION
There is some reason for believing that this Persian conception
of the power of the Sun to inflict and remove leprosy was brought
by some Magi into the northwest of India, and that the Iranian
saga dealing with the history of Sam and the hoary Zal was the
parent of the Indian legend of Samba.¹ The latter tale, which
is, I imagine, the prototype of our Mayūra story, is told in the
closing chapters of the Bhavisya Purāṇa. Since no text of the
Bhavisya is available for my use, I shall give the synopsis of the
Samba legend as taken from that Purāṇa by Wilson² and re-
corded by the editor of Wilson's Visnu Purāṇa. It runs as
follows: 'The last twelve or fourteen chapters of the Bhavishya
Purāṇa are, in fact, dedicated to the tradition, of which a sum-
mary and not altogether accurate account has been given by
Colonel Wilford, in the Eleventh Volume of the Asiatic Re-
searches, and which records the introduction of the worship of
the Sun into the north-west of Hindusthān, by Samba, the son of
Krishna. This prince, having become a leper, through the im-
precation of the irascible sage Durvāsas,³ whom he had offended,
and despairing of a cure from human skill, resolved to retire into
the forest, and apply himself to the adoration of Surya, of whose
graciousness and power he had learned many marvellous in-
stances from the sage Nārada. Having obtained the assent of
Krishna, Samba departed from Dwārakā; and, proceeding from
the northern bank of the Sindhu (Indus), he crossed the great
river the Chandrabhāgā (the Chinab), to the celebrated grove of
1 For a full discussion of this interesting topic, see T. Bloch, Eine in-
dische Version der iranischen Sage von Sâm, in ZDMG, vol. 64 (1910),
p. 733-738; cf. R. G. Bhandarkar, Vaisnavism, Saivism (in Bühler's
Grundriss), p. 151-155, Strassburg, 1913.
H. H. Wilson, Vişnu Purana (translated into English), vol. 5, Cor-
rigenda, p. 381, London, 1870. The editor states that the synopsis, which
I here append, was a communication from Wilson to Père Reinaud, and
was included by the latter writer in his Mémoire géographique, historique
et scientifique sur l'Inde, etc., p. 391-397.
8 T. Bloch, in ZDMG, vol. 64, p. 733, footnote 3, says: 'Nach dem Sāmba-
Purāṇa war es in Wirklichkeit nur eine Verleumdung von seiten Nārada's
gewesen, der Sämba des verbotenen Umgangs mit den 1600 Frauen Kṛṣṇa's
beschuldigt hatte; siehe Rajendralala Mitra, The Antiquities of Orissa,
Vol. 2, Seite 145.'
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
There is some reason for believing that this Persian conception
of the power of the Sun to inflict and remove leprosy was brought
by some Magi into the northwest of India, and that the Iranian
saga dealing with the history of Sam and the hoary Zal was the
parent of the Indian legend of Samba.¹ The latter tale, which
is, I imagine, the prototype of our Mayūra story, is told in the
closing chapters of the Bhavisya Purāṇa. Since no text of the
Bhavisya is available for my use, I shall give the synopsis of the
Samba legend as taken from that Purāṇa by Wilson² and re-
corded by the editor of Wilson's Visnu Purāṇa. It runs as
follows: 'The last twelve or fourteen chapters of the Bhavishya
Purāṇa are, in fact, dedicated to the tradition, of which a sum-
mary and not altogether accurate account has been given by
Colonel Wilford, in the Eleventh Volume of the Asiatic Re-
searches, and which records the introduction of the worship of
the Sun into the north-west of Hindusthān, by Samba, the son of
Krishna. This prince, having become a leper, through the im-
precation of the irascible sage Durvāsas,³ whom he had offended,
and despairing of a cure from human skill, resolved to retire into
the forest, and apply himself to the adoration of Surya, of whose
graciousness and power he had learned many marvellous in-
stances from the sage Nārada. Having obtained the assent of
Krishna, Samba departed from Dwārakā; and, proceeding from
the northern bank of the Sindhu (Indus), he crossed the great
river the Chandrabhāgā (the Chinab), to the celebrated grove of
1 For a full discussion of this interesting topic, see T. Bloch, Eine in-
dische Version der iranischen Sage von Sâm, in ZDMG, vol. 64 (1910),
p. 733-738; cf. R. G. Bhandarkar, Vaisnavism, Saivism (in Bühler's
Grundriss), p. 151-155, Strassburg, 1913.
H. H. Wilson, Vişnu Purana (translated into English), vol. 5, Cor-
rigenda, p. 381, London, 1870. The editor states that the synopsis, which
I here append, was a communication from Wilson to Père Reinaud, and
was included by the latter writer in his Mémoire géographique, historique
et scientifique sur l'Inde, etc., p. 391-397.
8 T. Bloch, in ZDMG, vol. 64, p. 733, footnote 3, says: 'Nach dem Sāmba-
Purāṇa war es in Wirklichkeit nur eine Verleumdung von seiten Nārada's
gewesen, der Sämba des verbotenen Umgangs mit den 1600 Frauen Kṛṣṇa's
beschuldigt hatte; siehe Rajendralala Mitra, The Antiquities of Orissa,
Vol. 2, Seite 145.'