Brihatkatha

Brihatkatha, meaning “great story,” is an ancient Indian collection of narratives traditionally attributed to the poet Gunadhya. It is said to have been composed in the Paisachi language and circulated in the northwestern Indian subcontinent. The original Brihatkathā is lost, and what remains comes to us through later recensions and references, making it difficult to determine its exact scope or form.

Several medieval Sanskrit versions preserve and reorganize material from Brihatkathā. The best known are Kshemendra’s Brihatkathā and Somadeva’s Kathasaritsagara (the Ocean of the Streams of Story), composed in the 11th century CE. Kathasaritsagara in particular is a vast frame narrative that compiles Brihatkathā material with other sources into a nested, story-within-a-story structure. This work popularized many episodes and characters across the Indian literary tradition and influenced numerous later collections.

The Brihatkathā tradition encompasses a wide range of tales featuring kings, princes, sages, demons, and lovers, often exploring moral, ethical, and cosmological themes. Its stories employ a variety of modes, including romance, wit, adventure, and fable, and they frequently conclude with didactic or ethical insights. The surviving Sanskrit redactions helped crystallize a tradition of narrative storytelling that bridged ancient oral forms and later written literature in both Sanskrit and regional languages.

Scholars regard Brihatkathā as a foundational source for the Indian frame-tale or nested-story tradition and as a crucial link between early oral storytelling and later literary anthologies.