_Importance of the Lotos--Varieties of Lotos--Statements by Herodotus,
Homer, Theophrastus, Dioscorides, Pliny, Athenæus and others--The
Arborescent Lotos--The Sacred Lotos of the Nile--The Indian Lotos--
Nepaulese Adoration of the Lotos--Shing-moo, the Chinese Holy Mother--
Lakshmi--The Queens of Beauty--The Loves of Krishna and Radha._
The Lotos is a flower of such importance and prominence in the subject
before us, and especially in connection with the ancient worship of the
East--notably of that of a _phallic_ character, that we naturally look
carefully about us for the best descriptive information we can find
respecting it. A writer (M. C. Cooke, M.A.) in the "Popular Science
Review" for July, 1871, says:--"The history of sacred plants is always an
interesting and instructive study; more so when it extends into a remote
antiquity, and is associated with such great and advanced nations as those
of Egypt and India. Much has been written and speculated concerning the
Lotos of old authors; and great confusion has existed in many minds on
account of the desire to make all allusions and descriptions to harmonise
with one ideal plant--the classic Lotos. We must clearly intimate that it
is impossible to combine all the fragments of history and description
applied to some plant or plants, known by the name of Lotos--and met with
in the pages of Herodotus, Homer, Theophrastus, and others--into one
harmonising whole, and apply them to a single mythical plant. It is
manifest, from the authors themselves, that more than one Lotos is spoken
of, and it was never intended to convey the notion that, like immortal
Jove, the Lotos was one and indivisible. Starting, then, with the
conviction that the one name has been applied to more than one or two very
distinct and different plants, we shall have less difficulty than were we
to attempt the futile task of reconciling all remarks about the Lotos to a
single plant."
"In the first instance, it is perfectly clear that the Lotos of Homer,
which Ulysses discovered, and which is alluded to in the ninth book of the
'Odyssey,' is quite distinct from any of the rest. It is the fruit of
this tree to which interest attaches, and not to the flower as in some
others--this is the arborescent Lotos.
"The second Lotos may be designated as the Sacred Lotos, or Lotos of the
Nile. It is the one which figures so conspicuously on the monuments,
enters so largely into the decoration, and seems to have been interwoven
with the religious faith of the Ancient Egyptians. This Lotos is mentioned
by Herodotus, Theophrastus, Dioscorides, Pliny, and Athenæus as an
herbaceous plant of aquatic habits, and from their combined description,
it seems evident that some kind of water-lily is intended. Herodotus
says:--'When the river is full, and the plains are inundated, there grow
in the water numbers of lilies which the Egyptians call Lotos.'
Theophrastus says:--'The Lotos, so called, grows chiefly in the plains
when the country is inundated. The flower is white, the petals are narrow,
as those of the lily, and numerous, as of a very double flower. When the
sun sets they cover the seed-vessel, and as soon as the sun rises the
flowers open, and appear above the water; and this is repeated until the
seed-vessel is ripe and the petals fall off. It is said that in the
Euphrates both the seed-vessel and the petals sink down into the water
from the evening until midnight to a great depth, so that the hand cannot
reach them; at daybreak they emerge, and as day comes on they rise above
the water; at sunrise the flowers open, and when fully expanded they rise
up still higher, and present the appearance of a very double flower.'
Dioscorides says:--'The Lotos which grows in Egypt, in the water of the
inundated plains, has a stem like that of the Egyptian bean. The flower is
small and white like the lily, which is said to expand at sunrise, and to
close at sunset. It is also said that the seed-vessel is then entirely hid
in the water, and that at sunrise it emerges again.' Athenæus states that
they grow in the lakes in the neighbourhood of Alexandria, and blossom in
the heat of summer. He also mentions a rose-coloured and a blue variety.
'I know that in that fine city they have a crown called Antinoean, made
of the plant which is there named Lotos, which plant grows in the lakes in
the heat of summer, and there are two colours of it; one of them is the
colour of a rose, of which the Antinoean crown is made; the other is
called Lotinos, and has a blue flower.'"
After quoting a number of other descriptions from these authors, the
writer proceeds:--"From these descriptions it is evident that the Sacred
Lotos of the Nile, the Egyptian Lotos of the ancients, was a species of
Nymphoea, common in the waters of that river. Plants, and animals also,
submit so much to external circumstances, that the lapse of centuries may
eradicate them from spots on which they were at one time common. It by no
means follows that the same plants will be found flourishing in the Nile
now, that were common under the Pharaohs; but, when the French invaded
Egypt in 1798, Savigny brought home from the Delta a blue Nymphoea,
which was figured in the 'Annales du Museum,' corresponding very closely
in habit to the conventional Lotos so common on the Egyptian monuments.
"It seems to be very probable that the Lotos-flower in the hands of the
guests at Egyptian banquets, and those presented as offerings to the
deities, were fragrant. The manner in which they are held strengthens this
probability, as there is no other reason why they should be brought into
such close proximity with the nose.
"There is still a third Lotos mentioned by Dioscorides, Theocritus, and
Homer, which may be some species of Medicago or of the modern genus Lotos.
It is herbaceous, sometimes wild, and sometimes cultivated; but always
written about as though constituting herbage, and is on one occasion cropt
by the horses of Achilles. We shall not pause to identify this plant, but
proceed at once to the last plant it is our design to deal with.
"The Kyamos, or Indian Lotos. This can scarcely claim to be one of the
kinds of Lotos mentioned by the ancients, since it is distinctly alluded
to by them as the Egyptian bean, or Kyamos. This plant among the Hindus
has a sacred character, equal to that of the Lotus among the Egyptians. It
was doubtless Asiatic in its origin, but at one time was plentiful in
Egypt, whence it has now totally vanished. It is represented on the
Egyptian monuments, but far less common than the Sacred Lotos. Some
authors declare this to be the veritable 'Sacred Lotos of Egypt,' a title
to which it has no claim. Herodotus, after describing the Lotos,
adds--'There are likewise other lilies, like roses (and these, too, grew
in the Nile) whose fructification is produced in a separate seed-vessel,
springing like a sucker from the root, in appearance exactly resembling a
wasp's nest and containing a number of esculent seeds, about the size of
olive-berries. These are also eaten when tender and dry.
"Theophrastus describing this plant, says:--'It is produced in marshes and
in stagnant waters; the length of the stem, at the longest, four cubits,
and the thickness of a finger, like the smooth jointless reed. The inner
texture of the stem is perforated throughout like a honey-comb, and upon
the top of it is a poppy-like seed-vessel, in circumference and appearance
like a wasp's nest. In each of the cells there is a bean projecting a
little above the surface of the seed-vessel, which usually contains about
thirty of these beans or seeds. The flower is twice the size of a poppy,
of the colour of a full-blown rose, and elevated above the water; about
each flower are produced large leaves of the size of a Thessalian hat,
having the same kind of stem as the flower-stem. In each bean when broken
may be seen the embryo plant, out of which the leaf grows. So much for the
fruit. The root is thicker than the thickest reed, and cellular like the
stem; and those who live about the marshes eat it as food, either raw, or
boiled, or roasted. These plants are produced spontaneously, but they are
cultivated in beds. To make these bean-beds, the beans are sown in the
mud, being previously mixed up carefully with chaff, so that they may
remain without injury till they take root, after which the plant is safe.
The root is strong, and not unlike that of the reed; the stem is also
similar, except that it is full of prickles, and therefore the crocodiles,
which do not see very well, avoid the plant, for fear of running the
prickles into their eyes."
Major Drury observes that the mode of sowing the seeds, is by first
enclosing them in balls of clay, and then throwing them into the water.
Sir James Smith says that in process of time the receptacle separates from
the stalk, and, laden with ripe oval nuts, floats down the water. The nuts
vegetating, it becomes a cornucopoeia of young sprouting plants, which
at length break loose from their confinement, and take root in the mud.
After comparing these and other accounts, the author of the paper urges
that there is no room for doubt that this is the plant which was known to
the ancients as the Kyamos or Egyptian bean, the Tamara of modern India.
"The beans and flower stalks of this plant abound in spiral tubes, which
are extracted with great care by gently breaking the stems and drawing
apart the ends; with these filaments are prepared those wicks which are
burnt by the Hindoos in the lamps placed before the shrines of their gods.
In India, as well as in China and Ceylon, the flowers are held to be
specially sacred."
Sir William Jones says:--"The Thibetans embellish their temples and altars
with it, and a native of Nepaul made prostration before it on entering my
study, where the fine plant and beautiful flowers lay for examination."
"Thunberg affirms that the Japanese regard the plant as pleasing to the
gods, the images of their idols being often represented sitting on its
large leaves. In China, the Shing-moo or Holy Mother is generally
represented with a flower of it in her hand, and few temples are without
some representation of the plant.
"According to Chinese mythology, Shing-moo bore a son, while she was a
virgin, by eating the seeds of this plant, which lay upon her clothes on
the bank of a river where she was bathing. In the course of time she
returned to the same place, and was there delivered of a boy. The infant
was afterwards found and educated by a poor fisherman, and in process of
time became a great man and performed miracles. When Shing-moo is
represented standing, she generally holds a flower in her hand; when she
is sitting, she is usually placed upon one of its leaves."[19]
The Lotos (Lotus) is held in the highest veneration in India, inclusive of
Thibet and Nepaul. Amongst the Brahmans and enthusiastic Hindoos, no
object in nature is looked on with more superstition; and their books
abound in mystical allusions to this lovely aquatic. Being esteemed the
most beautiful of vegetables, it not unappropriately furnishes a name for
the Hindoo queen of beauty, and Kamal or Kamala is a name of Lakshmi: as
is Padma or Pedma, another Sanscrit appellation for both. Under the form
of Kamala, Lakshmi is usually represented with a Lotos in her hand, and in
most pictures and statues of her consort Vishnu, he is furnished with the
Pedma, or Lotus bud, in one of his four hands, as a distinguishing
attribute. Accordingly, as it is represented in different stages of
efflorescence, it varies, in the eyes of mystics, its emblematical
allusions. As an aquatic, the Lotos is a symbol also of Vishnu, he being a
personification of water or humidity, and he is often represented seated
on it. Brahma the creative power, is also sometimes seated on the Lotos,
and is borne on its calyx in the whimsical representation of the
renovation of the world, when this mystical plant issued out of the navel
of Vishnu from the bottom of the sea where he was reposing on the serpent
Lesha.
Lakshmi, as we have just noticed, is the sakti or consort of Vishnu, the
preservative power of the deity. The extensive sect of Vaishnava, or
worshippers of Vishnu, esteem Lakshmi as mother of the world, and then
call her Ada Maya; and such Vaishnavas as are saktas, that is, adorers of
the supremacy of the female energy, worship her extensively as the type of
the Eternal Being, and endow her with suitable attributes. She is
represented by the poets and painters as of perfect beauty. Hindoo females
are commonly named after her: and there are few in the long catalogue of
their deities whose various names and functions are so frequently alluded
to in conversation and writing, either on theogony, mythology, poetry or
philosophy. Her terrestrial manifestations have been frequent, and her
origin various. As Rhemba, the sea born goddess, she arose out of the
fourteen gems from the ocean when churned by the good and evil beings for
the amrita or beverage of immortality. She then assumes the character of
Venus Marina, or Aphrodites of the Greeks, who, as Hesiod and Homer sing,
arose from the sea, ascended to Olympus, and captivated all the gods. The
production of Rhemba, Sri, or Lakshmi is thus described in the
thirty-sixth section of the first book of Ramayana. "The gods, the asuras
and the gandharvas, again agitating the sea, after a long time appeared
the great goddess, inhabiting the lotus; clothed with superlative beauty,
in the first bloom of youth, covered with ornaments, and bearing every
auspicious sign; adorned with a crown, with bracelets on her arms, her
jetty locks flowing in ringlets, and her body--which resembled burnished
gold--adorned with ornaments of pearl. Thus was produced the goddess Padma
or Sri, adored by the whole universe, Padma by name. She took up her
abode in the bosom of Padma-nabha, even of Heri," that is, of Vishnu, of
whom these are names. Sri, as this deity is often called, distinguished
her more particularly as the goddess of fortune, the word meaning
_prosperity_; but it is not given exclusively to Lakshmi. Other of her
names are derived from the lotus, which is the emblem of female beauty,
and especially applicable to this goddess. In images and pictures of her,
which are very common in India, Lakshmi is generally represented as a mere
woman; sometimes, however, four-armed; often holding a kamal or lotus, in
an easy and elegant attitude, and always very handsome. With her lord,
Vishnu, she is frequently seen on the serpent Sesha; he reposing, she in
respectful attendance, while a lotus springing from Vishnu's navel to the
surface of the sea (for this scene is subaqueous) bears in its expanded
calyx, Brahma, the creator of the world, about to perform the work of
renovation. Sometimes she is seated with her lord on Garuda, or Superva,
clearing the air, of which Vishnu is a personification. In Vishnu's most
splendid avatara, or incarnation of Krishna, she became manifested as
Rukmein, or Radha, the most adored of the amorous deities, and mother of
the god of love; here again corresponding with our popular Venus, the
mother of Cupid. In the avatara of Rama, Lakshmi was his faithful spouse,
in the form of Sita; in that of Narsingha she was Narsinhi, or Nrisinhi;
when Varaha, Varahi; and as the Sakti of Narayana she is by her own
sectaries called Narayni; and in most of the many incarnations of Vishnu
she appears to have descended with him, frequently under his own celestial
name: as his consort generally she is called Vaishnavi.
Lakshmi and Bhavani are both considered queens of beauty, and their
characters are said to "melt into each other." Lakshmi being commonly seen
with a Kamal or Lotos, the emblem of female beauty, in her hand, she is
called Kamala: the word is by some--by Sir W. Jones, indeed, in his
earlier lucubrations on Hindu mythology, spelled Kemel. In his profound
and spirited hymn to Narayana, which every inquirer into its subject would
do well to consult with attention, that deity, a personification of the
Spirit of Brahme, as "he heavenly pensive on the Lotus lay," said to
Brahma, "Go; bid all the worlds exist!" and the Lotus is thus
apostrophised:--
"Hail, primal blossom! hail, empyreal gem!
Kemel, or Pedma, or whate'er high name
Delight thee; say, what four-formed Godhead came,
With graceful stole, and bearing diadem,
Forth from thy verdant stem?--
Full-gifted Brahma."[20]
The following extract from the "Loves of Krishna and Radha" shews the deep
poetic sentiment associated with flowers, and especially with the Lotos.
Krishna, afflicted by the jealous anger of Radha, exclaims--
"Grant me but a sight of thee, O lovely Radhica! for my passion torments
me. I am not the terrible Mahesa: a garland of water-lilies, with subtile
threads, decks my shoulders--not serpents with twisted folds: the blue
petals of the Lotos glitter on my neck--not the azure gleam of poison:
powdered sandal wood is sprinkled on my limbs--not pale ashes. O god of
love! mistake me not for Mahadeva; wound me not again; approach me not in
anger; hold not in thy hand the shaft barbed with an amra flower. My heart
is already pierced by arrows from Radha's eyes, black and keen as those of
an antelope; yet mine eyes are not gratified by her presence. Her's are
full of shafts; her eyebrows are bows, and the tips of her ears are silken
strings: thus armed by Ananga, the god of desire, she marches, herself a
goddess, to ensure his triumph over the vanquished remorse. I meditate on
her delightful embrace: on the vanishing glances darted from the fragrant
Lotos of her mouth: on her nectar-dropping speech; on her lips, ruddy as
the berries of the Bimba."
Radha, half pacified, thus tenderly reproaches him--
"Alas! alas! Go, Madhava--depart, Kesavi; speak not the language of guile:
follow her, O Lotus-eyed god--follow her, who dispels thy care. Look at
his eyes, half-opened, red with waking through the pleasurable night--yet
smiling still with affection for my rival. Thy teeth, O cerulean youth!
are as azure as thy complexion, from the kisses which thou hast imprinted
on the beautiful eyes of thy darling, graced with dark blue powder; and
thy limbs, marked with punctures in love's warfare, exhibit a letter of
conquest, written in polished sapphire with liquid gold. That broad
bosom, stained by the bright Lotos of her foot, displays a vesture of
ruddy leaves over the tree of thy heart, which trembles within it. The
pressure of her lips on thine wound me to the soul. Ah! how canst thou
assert that we are one, since our sensations differ thus widely?--Thy
soul, O dark-limbed god! shows its blackness externally; even thy childish
heart was malignant, and thou gavest death to the nurse who would have
given thee milk."
Krishna is thus farther described in the same poem--
"His azure breast glittered with pearls of unblemished lustre, like the
full bed of the cerulean Yamuna, interspersed with curls of white foam.
From his graceful waist flowed a pale yellow robe, which resembled the
golden dust of the water-lily scattered over its blue petals. His passion
was inflamed by the glances of her eyes, which played like a pair of water
birds with azure plumage, that sport near a full-blown Lotos on a pool, in
a season of dew. Bright earrings, like two suns, displayed, in full
expansion, the flowers of his cheeks and lips, which glistened with the
liquid radiance of smiles. His locks, interwoven with blossoms, were like
a cloud variegated with moonbeams, and on his forehead shone a circle of
odorous oils, extracted from the sandal of Malaya--like the moon just
appearing on the dusky horizon, while his whole body seemed in a flame
from the blaze of unnumbered gems."
With respect to the mention above of the _blue_ Lotos, Moor
notes:--"Written in the north of India; the Lotos in the southern parts,
Bengal and the Dekhan, having only white and red flowers. Hence the Hindu
poets feign that the Lotus was dyed red by the blood of Siva, that flowed
from the wound made by the arrow of Kama."
And with respect to the expression, "the bright Lotos of her foot," he
says:--"Hindustani women dye the soles of their feet, and nails, of a
bright red. Redha, in her frenzied jealousy, fancies she sees a print of
her rival's foot on Krishna's breast; observing, perhaps, the indelible
impression of the foot of Brighu, received on his breast by Vishnu."
"The Indians commonly represent the mystery of their physiological
religion by the emblem of a _Nymphoea_, or _Lotos_, floating like a boat
on the boundless ocean; where the whole plant signifies both the earth
and the two principles of its fecundation: the germ is both _Méru_ and the
_Linga_; the _petals_ and _filaments_ are the mountains which encircle
Méru, and are also a type of the Yoni; the leaves of the calyx are the
four vast regions to the cardinal points of Méru, and the leaves of the
plant are the _dwipas_ or isles round the land of _Jambu_. Another of
their emblems is called _Argha_, which means a _cup_ or _dish_, or any
other vessel, in which _fruit_ and _flowers_ are offered to the deities,
and which _ought_ always to be _shaped like a boat_, though we now see
arghas of many different forms, oval, circular or square; and hence it is
that Iswara has the title of _Arghanatha_, or the lord of the boat-shaped
vessel: a rim round the _argha_ represents the mysterious Yoni, and the
navel of Vishnu is commonly denoted by a convexity in the centre, while
the contents of the vessel are symbols of the _linga_. This _argha_, as a
type of the _adhara-sacti_, or _power of conception_, excited and vivified
by the _linga_, or _Phallus_, we cannot but suppose to be one and the same
with the ship Argo, which was built, according to Orpheus, by Juno and
Pallas, and according to Appolonius, by Pallas and Argus at the instance
of Juno: the Yoni, as it is usually pronounced, nearly resembles the name
of the principal Hetruscan goddess, and the Sanscrit phrase _Arghanatha_
Iswara seems accurately rendered by Plutarch, when he asserts Osiris was
commander of the Argo. We cannot yet affirm that the words phala, or
fruit, and phulla, or a flower, have ever the sense of Phallus; but fruit
and flowers are the chief oblations in the _argha_, and triphala is a name
sometimes given, especially in the West of India, to the trifula, or
trident of Mahadeva. It can be shown that the Jupiter Triphylius of the
Pauchoean Islands was no other than Siva holding a triphala, who is
represented also with three eyes to denote a triple energy, as Vishnu and
Prithivi are severally typified by an equilateral triangle, (which
likewise gives an idea of capacity) and conjointly, when their powers are
supposed to be combined, by two such equal triangles intersecting each
other."[21]