nine out of the eighteen, namely: Sanskrit, Prakrit, Naga, Paisacha,
Gandharba, Rakshasa, Ardhamagadi, Apa, and Guhyaka--most of them being
the languages of different orders of fabulous beings. He tells us,
however, that an account of these dialects may be found in the work
called Pingala.]
[Footnote 11: Translated by Sir Wm. Jones, 1789; and by Professor Williams, 1856.]
[Footnote 12: Translated by Professor H. H. Wilson.]
[Footnote 13: The time was propitious to savans. Whilst Vikramaditya lived,
Magha, another king, caused to be written a poem called after his name
For each verse he is said to have paid to learned men a gold piece,
which amounted to a total of 5,280l.--a large sum in those days, which
preceded those of Paradise Lost. About the same period Karnata, a third
king, was famed for patronizing the learned men who rose to honour at
Vikram’s court. Dhavaka, a poet of nearly the same period, received from
King Shriharsha the magnificent present of 10,000l. for a poem called
the Ratna-Mala.]
[Footnote 14: Lieut. Wilford supports the theory that there were eight
Vikramadityas, the last of whom established the era. For further
particulars, the curious reader will consult Lassen’s Anthologia, and
Professor H. H. Wilson’s Essay on Vikram (New), As. Red.. ix. 117.]
[Footnote 15: History tells us another tale. The god Indra and the King of Dhara
gave the kingdom to Bhartari-hari, another son of Gandhar-ba-Sena, by
a handmaiden. For some time, the brothers lived together; but presently
they quarrelled. Vikram being dismissed from court, wandered from place
to place in abject poverty, and at one time hired himself as a servant
to a merchant living in Guzerat. At length, Bhartari-hari, disgusted
with the world on account of the infidelity of his wife, to whom he was
ardently attached, became a religious devotee, and left the kingdom to
its fate. In the course of his travels, Vikram came to Ujjayani, and
finding it without a head, assumed the sovereignty. He reigned with
great splendour, conquering by his arms Utkala, Vanga, Kuch-bahar,
Guzerat, Somnat, Delhi, and other places; until, in his turn, he was
conquered, and slain by Shalivahan.]
[Footnote 16: The words are found, says Mr. Ward, in the Hindu History compiled
by Mrityungaya.]
[Footnote 17: These duties of kings are thus laid down in the Rajtarangini. It is
evident, as Professor H. H. Wilson says, that the royal status was by
no means a sinecure. But the rules are evidently the closet work of some
pedantic, dogmatic Brahman, teaching kingcraft to kings. He directs his
instructions, not to subordinate judges, but to the Raja as the chief
magistrate, and through him to all appointed for the administration of
his justice.]
[Footnote 18: Lunus, not Luna.]
[Footnote 19: That is to say, “upon an empty stomach.”]
[Footnote 20: There are three sandhyas amongst the Hindus--morning, mid-day, and
sunset; and all three are times for prayer.]
[Footnote 21: The Hindu Cupid.]
[Footnote 22: Patali, the regions beneath the earth.]
[Footnote 23: The Hindu Triad.]
[Footnote 24: Or Avanti, also called Padmavati. It is the first meridian of the
Hindus, who found their longitude by observation of lunar eclipses,
calculated for it and Lanka, or Ceylon. The clepsydra was used for
taking time.]
[Footnote 25: In the original only the husband “practiced austere devotion.” For
the benefit of those amongst whom the “pious wife” is an institution, I
have extended the privilege.]
[Footnote 26: A Moslem would say, “This is our fate.” A Hindu refers at once to
metempsychosis, as naturally as a modern Swedenborgian to spiritism.]
[Footnote 27: In Europe, money buys this world, and delivers you from the pains
of purgatory; amongst the Hindus, it furthermore opens the gate of
heaven.]
[Footnote 28: This part of the introduction will remind the reader of the two
royal brothers and their false wives in the introduction to the Arabian
Nights. The fate of Bhartari Raja, however, is historical.]
[Footnote 29: In the original, “Div”--a supernatural being god, or demon. This
part of the plot is variously told. According to some, Raja Vikram was
surprised, when entering the city to see a grand procession at the house
of a potter and a boy being carried off on an elephant to the violent
grief of his parents The King inquired the reason of their sorrow, and
was told that the wicked Div that guarded the city was in the habit of
eating a citizen per diem. Whereupon the valorous Raja caused the boy
to dismount; took his place; entered the palace; and, when presented as
food for the demon, displayed his pugilistic powers in a way to excite
the monsters admiration.]
[Footnote 30: In India, there is still a monastic order the pleasant duty of
whose members is to enjoy themselves as much as possible. It has been
much the same in Europe. “Representez-vous le convent de l’Escurial
ou du Mont Cassin, ou les cenobites ont toutes sortes de commodities,
necessaires, utiles, delectables, superflues, surabondantes, puisqu’ils
ont les cent cinquante mille, les quatre cent mille, les cinq cent mille
ecus de rente; et jugez si monsieur l’abbe a de quoi laisser dormir
la meridienne a ceux qui voudront.”--Saint Augustin, de l’Ouvrage des
Moines, by Le Camus, Bishop of Belley, quoted by Voltaire, Dict. Phil.,
sub v. “Apocalypse.”]
[Footnote 31: This form of matrimony was recognized by the ancient Hindus, and
is frequent in books. It is a kind of Scotch
wedding--ultra-Caledonian--taking place by mutual consent, without
any form or ceremony. The Gandharbas are heavenly minstrels of Indra’s
court, who are supposed to be witnesses.]
[Footnote 32: The Hindu Saturnalia.]
[Footnote 33: The powders are of wheaten flour, mixed with wild ginger-root,
sappan-wood, and other ingredients. Sometimes the stuff is thrown in
syringes.]
[Footnote 34: The Persian proverb is--“Bala e tavilah bar sat i maimun”: “The
woes of the stable be on the monkey’s head!” In some Moslem countries
a hog acts prophylactic. Hence probably Mungo Park’s troublesome pig at
Ludamar.]
[Footnote 35: So the moribund father of the “babes in the wood” lectures his
wicked brother, their guardian: “To God and you I recommend
My children deare this day:
But little while, be sure, we have
Within this world to stay.”
But, to appeal to the moral sense of a goldsmith!]
[Footnote 36: Maha (great) raja (king): common address even to those who are not
royal.]
[Footnote 37: The name means. “Quietistic Disposition.”]
[Footnote 38: August. In the solar-lunar year of the Hindu the months are divided
into fortnights--light and dark.]
[Footnote 39: A flower, whose name frequently occurs in Sanskrit poetry.]
[Footnote 40: The stars being men’s souls raised to the sky for a time pro
portioned to their virtuous deeds on earth.]
[Footnote 41: A measure of length, each two miles.]
[Footnote 42: The warm region below.]
[Footnote 43: Hindus admire only glossy black hair; the “bonny brown hair”
loved by our ballads is assigned by them to low-caste men, witches, and
fiends.]
[Footnote 44: A large kind of bat; a popular and silly Anglo-Indian name. It
almost justified the irate Scotchman in calling “prodigious leears”
those who told him in India that foxes flew and tress were tapped for
toddy.]
[Footnote 45: The Hindus, like the European classics and other ancient peoples,
reckon four ages:--The Satya Yug, or Golden Age, numbered 1,728,000
years: the second, or Treta Yug, comprised 1,296,000; the Dwapar Yug had
864,000 and the present, the Kali Yug, has shrunk to 832,000 years.]
[Footnote 46: Especially alluding to prayer. On this point, Southey justly
remarks (Preface to Curse of Kehama): “In the religion of the Hindoos
there is one remarkable peculiarity. Prayers, penances, and sacrifices
are supposed to possess an inherent and actual value, in one degree
depending upon the disposition or motive of the person who performs
them. They are drafts upon heaven for which the gods cannot refuse
payment. The worst men, bent upon the worst designs, have in this manner
obtained power which has made them formidable to the supreme deities
themselves.” Moreover, the Hindu gods hear the prayers of those who
desire the evil of others. Hence when a rich man becomes poor, his
friends say, “See how sharp are men’s teeth!” and, “He is ruined because
others could not bear to see his happiness!”]
[Footnote 47: A pond, natural or artificial; in the latter case often covering an
extent of ten to twelve acres.]
[Footnote 48: The Hindustani “gilahri,” or little grey squirrel, whose twittering
cry is often mistaken for a bird’s.]
[Footnote 49: The autumn or rather the rainy season personified--a hackneyed
Hindu prosopopoeia.]
[Footnote 50: Light conversation upon the subject of women is a persona offence
to serious-minded Hindus.]
[Footnote 51: Cupid in his two forms, Eros and Anteros.]
[Footnote 52: This is true to life in the East, women make the first advances,
and men do the begueules.]
[Footnote 53: Raja-hans, a large grey goose, the Hindu equivalent for our swan.]
[Footnote 54: Properly Karnatak; karna in Sanskrit means an ear.]
[Footnote 55: Danta in Sanskrit is a tooth.]
[Footnote 56: Padma means a foot.]
[Footnote 57: A common Hindu phrase equivalent to our “I manage to get on.”]
[Footnote 58: Meaning marriage maternity, and so forth.]
[Footnote 59: Yama is Pluto; ‘mother of Yama’ is generally applied to an old
scold.]
[Footnote 60: Snake-land: the infernal region.]
[Footnote 61: A form of abuse given to Durga, who was the mother of Ganesha
(Janus); the latter had an elephant’s head.]
[Footnote 62: Unexpected pleasure, according to the Hindus, gives a bristly
elevation to the down of the body.]
[Footnote 63: The Hindus banish “flasks,” et hoc genus omne, from these scenes,
and perhaps they are right.]
[Footnote 64: The Pankha, or large common fan, is a leaf of the Corypha
umbraculifera, with the petiole cut to the length of about five feet,
pared round the edges and painted to look pretty. It is waved by the
servant standing behind a chair.]
[Footnote 65: The fabulous mass of precious stones forming the sacred mountain of
Hindu mythology.]
[Footnote 66: “I love my love with an ‘S,’ because he is stupid and not
pyschological.”]
[Footnote 67: Hindu mythology has also its Cerberus, Trisisa, the “three headed”
hound that attends dreadful Yama (Pluto)]
[Footnote 68: Parceque c’est la saison des amours.]
[Footnote 69: The police magistrate, the Catual of Camoens.]
[Footnote 70: The seat of a Hindu ascetic.]
[Footnote 71: The Hindu scriptures.]
[Footnote 72: The Goddess of Prosperity.]
[Footnote 73: In the original the lover is not blamed; this would be the Hindu
view of the matter; we might be tempted to think of the old injunction
not to seethe a kid in the mother’s milk.]
[Footnote 74: In the original a “maina “-the Gracula religiosa.]
[Footnote 75: As we should say, buried them.]
[Footnote 76: A large kind of black bee, common in India.]
[Footnote 77: The beautiful wife of the demigod Rama Chandra.]
[Footnote 78: The Hindu Ars Amoris.]
[Footnote 79: The old philosophers, believing in a “Sat” (xx xx), postulated an
Asat (xx xx xx) and made the latter the root of the former.]
[Footnote 80: In Western India, a place celebrated for suicides.]
[Footnote 81: Kama Deva. “Out on thee, foul fiend, talk’st thou of nothing but
ladies?”]
[Footnote 82: The pipal or Ficus religiosa, a favourite roosting-place for
fiends.]
[Footnote 83: India.]
[Footnote 84: The ancient name of a priest by profession, meaning “praepositus”
or praeses. He was the friend and counsellor of a chief, the minister
of a king, and his companion in peace and war. (M. Muller’s Ancient
Sanskrit Literature, p. 485).]
[Footnote 85: Lakshmi, the Goddess of Prosperity. Raj-Lakshmi would mean the
King’s Fortune, which we should call tutelary genius. Lakshichara is our
“luckless,” forming, as Mr. Ward says, an extraordinary coincidence of
sound and meaning in languages so different. But the derivations are
very distinct.]
[Footnote 86: The Monkey God.]
[Footnote 87: Generally written “Banyan.”]
[Footnote 88: The daughter of Raja Janaka, married to Ramachandra. The latter
placed his wife under the charge of his brother Lakshmana, and went
into the forest to worship, when the demon Ravana disguised himself as a
beggar, and carried off the prize.]
[Footnote 89: This great king was tricked by the god Vishnu out of the sway of
heaven and earth, but from his exceeding piety he was appointed to reign
in Patala, or Hades.]
[Footnote 90: The procession is fair game, and is often attacked in the dark with
sticks and stones, causing serious disputes. At the supper the guests
confer the obligation by their presence, and are exceedingly exacting.]
[Footnote 91: Rati is the wife of Kama, the God of Desire; and we explain the
word by “Spring personified.”]
[Footnote 92: The Indian Cuckoo (Cucuius Indicus). It is supposed to lay its eggs
in the nest of the crow.]
[Footnote 93: This is the well-known Ghi or Ghee, the one sauce of India which is
as badly off in that matter as England.]
[Footnote 94: The European reader will observe that it is her purity which
carries the heroine through all these perils. Moreover, that her virtue
is its own reward, as it loses to her the world.]
[Footnote 95: Literally, “one of all tastes”--a wild or gay man, we should say.]
[Footnote 96: These shoes are generally made of rags and bits of leather; they
have often toes behind the foot, with other similar contrivances, yet
they scarcely ever deceive an experienced man.]
[Footnote 97: The high-toper is a swell-thief, the other is a low dog.]
[Footnote 98: Engaged in shoplifting.]
[Footnote 99: The moon.]
[Footnote 100: The judge.]
[Footnote 101: To be lagged is to be taken; scragging is hanging.]
[Footnote 102: The tongue.]
[Footnote 103: This is the god Kartikeya, a mixture of Mars and Mercury,
who revealed to a certain Yugacharya the scriptures known as
“Chauriya-Vidya”--Anglice, “Thieves’ Manual.” The classical robbers
of the Hindu drama always perform according to its precepts. There is
another work respected by thieves and called the “Chora-Panchashila,”
because consisting of fifty lines.]
[Footnote 104: Supposed to be a good omen.]
[Footnote 105: Share the booty.]
[Footnote 106: Bhawani is one of the many forms of the destroying goddess, the
wife of Shiva.]
[Footnote 107: Wretches who kill with the narcotic seed of the stramonium.]
[Footnote 108: Better know as “Thugs,” which in India means simply “rascals.”]
[Footnote 109: Crucifixion, until late years, was common amongst the Buddhists
of the Burmese empire. According to an eye-witness, Mr. F. Carey, the
punishment was inflicted in two ways. Sometimes criminals were crucified
by their hands and feet being nailed to a scaffold; others were merely
tied up, and fed. In these cases the legs and feet of the patient began
to swell and mortify at the expiration of three or four days; men are
said to have lived in this state for a fortnight, and at last they
expired from fatigue and mortification. The sufferings from cramp also
must be very severe. In India generally impalement was more common than
crucifixion.]
[Footnote 110: Our Suttee. There is an admirable Hindu proverb, which says, “No
one knows the ways of woman; she kill her husband and becomes a Sati.”]
[Footnote 111: Fate and Destiny are rather Moslem than Hindu fancies.]
[Footnote 112: Properly speaking, the husbandman should plough with not fewer
than four bullocks; but few can afford this. If he plough with a cow
or a bullock, and not with a bull, the rice produced by his ground is
unclean, and may not be used in any religious ceremony.]
[Footnote 113: A shout of triumph, like our “Huzza” or “Hurrah!” of late degraded
into “Hooray.” “Hari bol” is of course religious, meaning “Call upon
Hari!” i.e. Krishna, i.e. Vishnu.]
[Footnote 114: This form of suicide is one of those recognized in India. So
in Europe we read of fanatics who, with a suicidal ingenuity, have
succeeded in crucifying themselves.]
[Footnote 115: The river of Jaganath in Orissa; it shares the honours of sanctity
with some twenty-nine others, and in the lower regions it represents the
classical Styx.]
[Footnote 116: Cupid. His wife Rati is the spring personified. The Hindu poets
always unite love and spring, and perhaps physiologically they are
correct.]
[Footnote 117: An incarnation of the third person of the Hindu Triad, or
Triumvirate, Shiva the God of Destruction, the Indian Bacchus. The image
has five faces, and each face has three eyes. In Bengal it is found in
many villages, and the women warn their children not to touch it on pain
of being killed.]
[Footnote 118: A village Brahman on stated occasions receives fees from all the
villagers.]
[Footnote 119: The land of Greece.]
[Footnote 120: Savans, professors. So in the old saying, “Hanta, Pandit Sansara
“--Alas! the world is learned! This a little antedates the well-known
schoolmaster.]
[Footnote 121: Children are commonly sent to school at the age of five. Girls are
not taught to read, under the common idea that they will become widows
if they do.]
[Footnote 122: Meaning the place of reading the four Shastras.]
[Footnote 123: A certain goddess who plays tricks with mankind. If a son when
grown up act differently from what his parents did, people say that he
has been changed in the womb.]
[Footnote 124: Shani is the planet Saturn, which has an exceedingly baleful
influence in India as elsewhere.]
[Footnote 125: The Eleatic or Materialistic school of Hindu philosophy, which
agrees to explode an intelligent separate First Cause.]
[Footnote 126: The writings of this school give an excellent view of the
“progressive system,” which has popularly been asserted to be a modern
idea. But Hindu philosophy seems to have exhausted every fancy that can
spring from the brain of man.]
[Footnote 127: Tama is the natural state of matter, Raja is passion acting upon
nature, and Satwa is excellence These are the three gunas or qualities
of matter.]
[Footnote 128: Spiritual preceptors and learned men.]
[Footnote 129: Under certain limitations, gambling is allowed by Hindu law and
the winner has power over the person and property of the loser. No
“debts of honour” in Hindustan!]
[Footnote 130: Quotations from standard works on Hindu criminal law, which in
some points at least is almost as absurd as our civilized codes.]
[Footnote 131: Hindus carry their money tied up in a kind of sheet which is wound
round the waist and thrown over the shoulder.]
[Footnote 132: A thieves’ manual in the Sanskrit tongue; it aspires to the
dignity of a “Scripture.”]
[Footnote 133: All sounds, say the Hindus, are of similar origin, and they do not
die; if they did, they could not be remembered.]
[Footnote 134: Gold pieces.]
[Footnote 135: These are the qualifications specified by Hindu classical
authorities as necessary to make a distinguished thief.]
[Footnote 136: Every Hindu is in a manner born to a certain line of life,
virtuous or vicious, honest or dishonest and his Dharma, or religious
duty, consists in conforming to the practice and the worship of his
profession. The “Thug,” for instance, worships Bhawani, who enables him
to murder successfully; and his remorse would arise from neglecting to
murder.]
[Footnote 137: Hindu law sensibly punishes, in theory at least, for the same
offence the priest more severely than the layman--a hint for him to
practice what he preaches.]
[Footnote 138: The Hindu Mercury, god of rascals.]
[Footnote 139: A penal offence in India. How is it that we English have omitted
to codify it? The laws of Manu also punish severely all disdainful
expressions, such as “tush” or “pish,” addressed during argument to a
priest.]
[Footnote 140: Stanzas, generally speaking, on serious subjects.]
[Footnote 141: Whitlows on the nails show that the sufferer, in the last life,
stole gold from a Brahman.]
[Footnote 142: A low caste Hindu, who catches and exhibits snakes and performs
other such mean offices.]
[Footnote 143: Meaning, in spite of themselves.]
[Footnote 144: When the moon is in a certain lunar mansion, at the conclusion of
the wet season.]
[Footnote 145: In Hindustan, it is the prevailing wind of the hot weather.]
[Footnote 146: Vishnu, as a dwarf, sank down into and secured in the lower
regions the Raja Bali, who by his piety and prayerfulness was subverting
the reign of the lesser gods; as Ramachandra he built a bridge between
Lanka (Ceylon) and the main land; and as Krishna he defended, by
holding up a hill as an umbrella for them, his friends the shepherds
and shepherdesses from the thunders of Indra, whose worship they had
neglected.]
[Footnote 147: The priestly caste sprang, as has been said, from the noblest part
of the Demiurgus; the three others from lower members.]
[Footnote 148: A chew of betel leaf and spices is offered by the master of the
house when dismissing a visitor.]
[Footnote 149: Respectable Hindus say that receiving a fee for a daughter is like
selling flesh.]
[Footnote 150: A modern custom amongst the low caste is for the bride and
bridegroom, in the presence of friends, to place a flower garland on
each other’s necks, and thus declare themselves man and wife. The old
classical Gandharva-lagan has been before explained.]
[Footnote 151: Meaning that the sight of each other will cause a smile, and that
what one purposes the other will consent to.]
[Footnote 152: This would be the verdict of a Hindu jury.]
[Footnote 153: Because stained with the powder of Mhendi, or the Lawsonia inermis
shrub.]
[Footnote 154: Kansa’s son: so called because the god Shiva, when struck by his
shafts, destroyed him with a fiery glance.]
[Footnote 155: “Great Brahman”; used contemptuously to priests who officiate
for servile men. Brahmans lose their honour by the following things:
By becoming servants to the king; by pursuing any secular business; by
acting priests to Shudras (serviles); by officiating as priests for a
whole village; and by neglecting any part of the three daily services.
Many violate these rules; yet to kill a Brahman is still one of the five
great Hindu sins. In the present age of the world, the Brahman may not
accept a gift of cows or of gold; of course he despises the law. As
regards monkey worship, a certain Rajah of Nadiya is said to have
expended 10,000L in marrying two monkeys with all the parade and
splendour of the Hindu rite.]
[Footnote 156: The celebrated Gayatri, the Moslem Kalmah.]
[Footnote 157: Kama again.]
[Footnote 158: From “Man,” to think; primarily meaning, what makes man think.]
[Footnote 159: The Cirrhadae of classical writers.]
[Footnote 160: The Hindu Pluto; also called the Just King.]
[Footnote 161: Yama judges the dead, whose souls go to him in four hours and
forty minutes; therefore a corpse cannot be burned till after that time.
His residence is Yamalaya, and it is on the south side of the earth;
down South, as we say. (I, Sam. xxv. 1, and xxx. 15). The Hebrews, like
the Hindus, held the northern parts of the world to be higher than the
southern. Hindus often joke a man who is seen walking in that direction,
and ask him where he is going.]
[Footnote 162: The “Ganges,” in heaven called Mandakini. I have no idea why we
still adhere to our venerable corruption of the word.]
[Footnote 163: The fabulous mountain supposed by Hindu geographers to occupy the
centre of the universe.]
[Footnote 164: The all-bestowing tree in Indra’s Paradise which grants everything
asked of it. It is the Tuba of Al-Islam and is not unknown to the
Apocryphal New Testament.]
[Footnote 165: “Vikramaditya, Lord of the Saka.” This is prevoyance on the part
of the Vampire; the king had not acquired the title.]
[Footnote 166: On the sixth day after the child’s birth, the god Vidhata writes
all its fate upon its forehead. The Moslems have a similar idea, and
probably it passed to the Hindus.]
[Footnote 167: Goddess of eloquence. “The waters of the Saraswati” is the
classical Hindu phrase for the mirage.]