| Research Abstract |
This study aims to trace two currents of tales, the first passing from India to Europe through Persia, Arabia and Greece, and the second passing from India into China and reaching Japan. In each case the divide rests in India, worldwide source of tales. I have mostly referred, as starting point, to the Jataka, Pali Birth-Stories and to the famous Pancatantra, before investigating these tales' influence on the Mediterranean contes, by scrutinizing the depth of narratively artful completion, focusing on French and Italian domains.
For the European side, I assembled my monographs formerly presented on Boccaccio, La Fontaine and others, putting some parts to good account in the present study. At the same time, I did not neglect meanwhile to attain a mo expansive knowledge of Indian tales, especially of Jataka and Mahavastu, so as to enlarge the scope of comparison.
As for the Japanese area, also using some results of my previous studies, I treated mainly the Konjaku-Monogatari-shu, tales which have provided me with the point of comparative survey. Based upon Buddhist sutras, this collection of tales contains three parts: India, China and Japan, so we can easily approach through the Chinese translation of sutras to the Indian sources.
Finally, I have mentioned those cases, in which by rare coincidence some Japanese tale may be parallel with the European one, through the intermediary of an Indian tale. I hope that, with the present study, I have revealed that those instances are more numerous than they were previously thought to be.
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