leafy covering, under the shadow of which man and beast listlessly
repose through uneventful hours, while the shrill cricket chirps
its monotonous song and the _cokil’s_ sweet note fills the hot and
trembling air. Then the black clouds gather overhead. God Indra parts
them with his flashing bolts. Loud thunder peals in the sky, the
roaring hurricane enters into fearful conflict with the warring trees,
and the rain descends, not in tiny drizzles, but in torrents; and its
voice, as it buries itself in square miles of standing forest, is like
the roar of many waters. Cascades, starting into life, leap gladly from
the hill-side. The swollen streams, muddy and impassable, swirl and
rush along, carrying with them a burden of forest trees. A mantle of
vivid green covers, as if by magic, the whole earth, and climbs up till
it almost hides the little cottage in which the proprietor takes refuge
from the incessant drip, which descends from the leafy covering above.
To this succeeds a period when the steamy miasma rises in the green
light from the rotten ground, and man and beast sicken in the malarious
atmosphere, wherein the odour of decaying vegetation mingles with the
exquisite perfume of orchids and strange flowers of the wilderness. In
the glorious sky--in mystic cloudland--appear displays of light and
colour, of subtle tints and gorgeous hues, utterly beyond description
or the artist’s cunningest skill. Watch, with fevered vision, from
the neighbourhood of one of these dark forests the rapidly shifting
cloud-phantasms, arrayed in red and gold, upon the evening sky, then
cease from marvelling at the exuberant and unbridled imaginings of the
Indian bard! Fix your attention at night upon the monstrous shapes
which hover, skulking in the background, in the flickering firelight,
listen to the unearthly wailing and stifled cries which steal through
the hideous darkness, and doubt no more the existence and doings of
gruesome Rakshasas who change their shapes at will! Learn also, at the
same time, how indispensable a god is _Agni_, who protects you through
the horrors of darkest night in the forests.
Later in the year winter smiles mildly over the enervated land and
chills the tepid air. For hours after sunrise a dense fog wraps the
primæval forest in its embrace, but when it, ghost-like, steals
silently away, it reveals the white smoke of the cottages curling
upwards into a blue unclouded sky. The sun hardly affords sufficient
warmth to the labourer in the little patch of cultivation near the hut,
and the moon looks cold and pallid: the streams begin to dwindle away;
the cascades are silent.
Such is the succession of seasons in a tropical forest-land like the
India of the Epics. And, throughout all the seasons, the forest is
enveloped in a dreamy air of depression and despondency, which peoples
the solitudes with hideous Rakshasas, but leaves no place for sporting
nymphs or dancing fairies. Life in such woodlands is real forest-life,
not like Thoreau’s delightful playing at hermit in Walden, within a
couple of miles of Concord, and in sight of a railway.
Thus far the forests; but the sublime Alps of the Indian world, tallest
and most majestic of mountains, have not been without influence upon
the feelings of the Indian poets, elevating them to lofty heights
of contemplation. And when we read what the few travellers who have
penetrated those regions have to tell us of the ineffable grandeur and
sublimity of the lone mountains, the glittering ice-fields, and the
untrodden snows of the interior, when we consider the solemn silence of
those uninhabited solitudes, we cannot wonder that the Indian poets who
had heard of them, and perhaps visited their rocky fastnesses, made of
them a land of mystery and the sporting place of their gods and Apsaras.
Not only from the woods of _Dandhaka_ and the vales and crests of
mighty _Himavat_ did the epic poets of India gather inspiration; but
also from the noble and lovely rivers of their fair land, winding
beneficently through many hundreds of miles of fertile country, from
their birth-places above the clouds to the bosom of the all-embracing
ocean, while determining in their course the march of migration and
conquest.
Mountains, forests and rivers, all of colossal proportions, have served
to impress a grandiose if bewildering character upon the great Epics
of India, which the reader, even of this volume, can hardly fail to
observe.
Religion, being the dominant note of these voluminous poems, claims
our first consideration. In this connection I would draw attention
to the fact that India is very far from that stage of intellectual
development in which literature, science, art and politics become
secularized. In Europe secularization has taken place gradually
under the influence of the spirit of rationalism, as Mr. Lecky has
so admirably explained. In India a beginning has been made in the
secularization of knowledge. It is yet only a _mere beginning_,
which owes its origin to the influence of English education; but the
effects being confined to a _very small class indeed_, it may still
be said with truth that all departments of knowledge which form the
intellectual heritage of the Indian people--even law, poetry and the
drama--fall within the domain of theology. And, certainly, there is no
indigenous science amongst the Hindus which is not subject to priestly
influence and interpretation.
Throughout the Epics we find the supernatural beings, who influence
the destinies of mankind, arrayed in two distinctly hostile camps. On
one side are the gods with the Gandharvas and Apsaras. On the other
side the Asuras, including Daityas and Danavas, Rakshasas and Picáchas.
The contest lies, be it noted, between the lesser gods and the Asuras
with their allies. The superior gods interpose from time to time in
the interests of the celestials; but behind and above the turmoil
of existence the shadowy form of inexorable _destiny_ reveals its
overwhelming presence.
The part of man in the perpetual strife carried on between the two
orders of superhuman beings is neither an ignoble nor a passive one.
Man is not, as in most other religions, either the abject and unworthy
recipient of gracious favours from the gods, or the unhappy victim
of the malice of devils and demons. His position in the universe, as
conceived by the authors of the Indian Epics, reflecting, no doubt,
the prevailing ideas of their time, was a far higher one. Man is no
nonentity in the struggle between the good and the evil forces of
nature, but is rather a very important factor; for it is his especial
duty to piously assist and _nourish_ the celestials by perpetual
sacrifices, so that they on their part might have the strength to
perform their respective duties in the government of the universe,
and insure the repression of the forces of evil. Neither is man a
merely useful but servile auxiliary of the celestials; since he may by
austerities, sacrifices, and ceremonies, earn and acquire rights and
power for himself, and use his accumulated store of energy at his own
will and for his own purposes.
Now it is a noteworthy fact that this high ideal of man’s dignity in
the scale of beings has led in India to a degradation of the gods.
It would seem as if you could not raise man without pulling down the
deity; as if you could not exalt the human race without abasing the
celestials. Hence we see the irreverent familiarity with which the
highest gods, even Mahadeva, is personated by the Hindus in religious
processions, or even on the occasion of the wild saturnalia of the
_Holi_ festival, when a man painted white with a wig of long yellow
hair on his head, a string of huge beads about his neck, and a trident
in his hand--_the Supreme Deity personified_--is borne aloft amidst
a crowd of excited men who are indulging in the grossest license of
obscene speech and gesture.
In regard to a life beyond the grave the writers of the Epics hold
very decided opinions, a fact of great interest, if we remember that
the Jews acquired their ideas about existence after death and of good
and evil spirits for the first time in their Babylonian captivity, and
passed them on as a heritage to Christianity; the conceptions of our
great Christian poet, Milton, being strongly coloured by ideas which,
undoubtedly, had their roots in Persian _Mazdeism_.
The heavens of the Hindu gods are essentially material and sensuous,
with their palaces and gardens, music and dancing, their lively
Gandharvas and frail Apsaras. Yet the goddesses play a very subordinate
part, indeed, in India’s heroic age. We find in the Epics no powerful
Hera, no wise Pallas Athene, no lovely Venus, no silver-footed
Thetis--bright creations which lend such a charm to the myths of
Hellas. Ganga, it is true, acts a minor and appointed part in the great
drama, and Parbati is mentioned, while Durga and Kali only flit across
the stage. But it is quite evident that in the Olympus of the Aryan
Indians the goddesses had not attained the power and dignity they enjoy
to-day. The frequent boasts in the Epics against the celestials with
Indra at their head, the way in which every chief or leader, even of
the Venars, is said to be a match for Indra’s self, seem to indicate
an unmistakable, if covert, hostility to the old gods of the Aryan
invaders, which is well worthy of notice, as indicating a transition
period in the religious development of the Hindus, a period of doubt
and confusion, which is emphasized by the fulsome flattery addressed to
anyone of whom a favour is desired, be he man or god. He is the _best_
of men, the greatest of kings; equal to gods, he is a god; he is Indra;
he is Yama; he is Prajapati; he is superior to all the gods; he is the
ruler of the three worlds; he is, in fact, anything and all things to
the uncertain suppliant who craves his help. And in these perplexities
we seem to have a share too; for under the influence of the pantheistic
notions of the writers, combined with their conceptions of endless
transmigrations and utter indifference to permanent shapes of any
kind, individuality seems lost (as when we find Krishna addressed
as the younger brother of Indra[130]), and a world of confused
phantasmagorial forms seems to dance before us, till we feel dizzy
contemplating this distracting and impermanent universe.
But amidst the ever-shifting pageant of existence the Hindu seems to
have arrived at and firmly grasped the idea of a periodic law which has
given a certain grandeur to his speculations about both the past and
the hereafter.
From the orderly sequence of natural phenomena, as in the succession of
day and night; in the measured march of the seasons of the revolving
year; in the periodic movements of the heavenly bodies; the Hindu
recognized an appointed, unvarying and endless cycle of changes.
Generalizing from these facts he concluded that this law must hold
for the entire Cosmos as well, which would pass through its grand
but destined cycle of changes, over and over again, in the æons of
eternity. He held these ideas in common with the Greek of old, and,
like the Greek of old, he never rose to the conception of progress,
development, evolution.[131]
How the Hindu thinker accounted, by his doctrine of _Karma_, for
the striking inequalities and apparent injustice inseparable from
mundane existence, the reader has learned in sufficient detail
already. As to the _moral_ responsibility of man for his actions,
the poets of the Epics had thought out the problem in its various
aspects and despairingly left it unsolved. For as Sanjaya, the envoy
of the Pandavas to their cousins, sadly says, in the true spirit of
agnosticism: “In this respect three opinions are entertained; some say
that everything is ordained by God;[132] some say that our acts are the
results of free will; and others say that our acts are the results of
those of our past lives.”[133]
The attribution of righteousness to the gods does not seem to be
insisted upon; for Krishna, as we have seen, is particularly prone to
guileful arts in order to compass his objects, like the Pallas Athene
of Homer, at whose suggestion Pandaros treacherously and unjustifiably
wounded Menelaus with an arrow.
In regard to the political condition of India in those earlier times we
may, I think, gather from the Epics that the petty rulers who shared
the land amongst themselves were very numerous--thousands,[134] indeed,
if the poet’s statements could be relied upon,--and we need not doubt
that it was the perpetual endeavour of the more able and ambitious
of these kings to get as many as possible of their fellow chiefs to
acknowledge their supremacy.
No one who studies the narratives attributed to Valmiki and Vyasa
will fail to catch glimpses of the simple sagas which formed the
ground-work of the great edifices raised by the Indian poets; but,
as I have observed in the Introductory Chapter, the value and extent
of what is usually considered historical matter to be traced in the
“Ramayana” and “Mahabharata” is so small and so doubtful that it fails
to command either my interest or my confidence. It may be due to
perversity of character, or to want of historical acumen on my part;
but when I am expected to believe that the progress of the _Bhojas_
and their allies eastward may be traced in the legend of Karna, given
in the “Mahabharata,” with which the reader of the foregoing pages is
familiar, I do not feel inclined to acquiesce. And when I am gravely
assured that the romantic story of Satyavati, the fisherman’s daughter,
her marriage with Santanu and her previous amour with the father of
Vyasa, _although absurd in Vyasa’s own poem_, becomes intelligible,--if
we will only put the individual fisherman out of court altogether,
_forget_ what the poet tells us about Satyavati, and _imagine_ that the
young lady in question was a personage of some importance in the family
of the _king of the fishing people_,--I feel such efforts towards
constructive history are somewhat beyond my abilities.[135]
While writers of one class strain after the hidden historical
elements in the “Ramayana” and “Mahabharata,” those of another class
(represented by both Europeans and Indians), ingeniously discover
in these narratives merely solar myths or moral allegories. It
were needless to enlarge upon this topic here, and I have already
given instances of such interpretations in the Note appended to the
“Ramayana” (p. 91) and in the summary of the “Bhagavatgita” (p. 217). I
would merely add that if it be the true function of history to reveal
to us living pictures of bygone times, to disclose to us the social
life of earlier days, and to make us acquainted with the thoughts,
ideals and aspirations of former generations, then the Indian Epics
are a solid contribution to historical literature even if they do not
happen to chronicle actual events.
The heroes of the Epics, being mostly demigods with a long previous
history, an appointed destiny, and subject, like mortal men, to pass
through many future existences in other forms, do not, I confess,
engage my sympathies very much. Even human beings upon this epic stage
lose their distinctive character and cease to interest us if we regard
them merely as souls masquerading, as it were, for a certain time in
particular forms assumed for the occasion, different from the many they
have worn in former states, and unlike those which they will wear in
future lives. Indeed the doctrine of metempsychosis, with its fluxional
succession of beings, human and divine, undermines the conceptions of
definite and permanent individuality so thoroughly that I do not wonder
that sober human history, with its limited stage and narrow chronology,
has had but little charm for the Hindus.
More remarkable than the heroes of Kurukshetra, however, are the Rishis
and Hermits, who stand out upon the canvas of the Epic poets with
startling distinctness. These sages, with their austerities, their
superhuman powers, their irascibility and their terrible curses, are
the Hindu representatives of the magicians and sorcerers of other
countries, and form a remarkable feature in the life of even modern
India. As a rule the saints of Christendom are of another type, yet,
strange to say, there are a few of them, St. Renan for example, to whom
have been attributed characteristics not unlike those of the Indian
Rishis.[136] Elsewhere a large share, perhaps the greater share, of
magical power has been credited to the fair sex; but the Hindu has,
characteristically, made no such concession to women, who never at any
time in India were granted the free and honoured position accorded them
amongst the Germans of Tacitus or the Norsemen of the Eddas, and never
enjoyed even the restricted liberty which Greek women were privileged
to exercise. Nevertheless, there is, undoubtedly, a substratum of
chivalrous feeling towards the weaker sex manifested throughout the
Epics, often in a distinct and pronounced manner.
As to the social life of the early heroic age, of which we get so many
interesting glimpses in the Epics, it is certain that it was extremely
simple and rude; as, for instance, to cite a single example, the
life of the Pandavas in their primitive “house of lac,” where their
mother ministered to them without the assistance of any servants at
all, although, be it remembered, the young princes were supposed to
be enjoying themselves away from home on a sort of holiday excursion.
There is, however, ample evidence to show that by the time the poems
were actually compiled or, at any rate, cast into their present forms,
a complicated society had been evolved, and a life of luxurious ease
and refinement was not unknown. Throughout the period embraced in the
Epics the caste-system was well established, animal food commonly
used,[137] and spirituous drinks not prohibited. Polygamy was common,
and polyandry a recognized institution, while the practice known as
_Niyoga_--of raising up offspring to deceased relatives or childless
men--was, undoubtedly, fully established.
Now _caste_, with its baleful influences, still dominates Hindu life;
polygamy continues to be common in some parts of India; polyandry is
still practised, here and there, in backward places; and _Niyoga_,
which has never ceased to be orthodox doctrine, has, in these days, had
special prominence given to it by Swami Dayanand, and the sect recently
founded by him. The practice in question--which is known in a modified
form as _levirate_[138] amongst the Jews--has been established in
India since time immemorial, and we have had important instances of it
in the foregoing pages.
What Manu, the great Indian _lawgiver_, says on the subject of _Niyoga_
is as follows: “On failure of issue by the husband, if he be of the
servile class, the desired offspring may be procreated, either by
his brother or some other _sapinda_, on the wife, who has been duly
authorized. Sprinkled with clarified butter, silent, in the night, let
the kinsman thus appointed beget one son, but a second by no means, on
the widow or _childless wife_. By men of twice-born classes no widow or
childless wife must be authorized to conceive by any other man than her
lord.”[139]
Swami Dayanand, however, does not limit the practice of _Niyoga_ to
the inferior castes, nor to the cases referred to by Manu. The modern
_reformer_ goes much further, teaching a doctrine, _said to be founded
on the Vedas_, which allows a latitude in respect to the relations
between the sexes that, to say the least, is extremely startling in
this nineteenth century.[140] I am bound to add that I have been
very positively assured that Swami Dayanand’s precepts in respect
to _Niyoga_ are not actually practised by his followers, but their
dangerous tendency is, I presume, undeniable.
From the earliest ages known to the writers of the “Ramayana” and
“Mahabharata” cremation of the dead has been the practice in India.
Hence in Indian archæology we are deprived of those sources of
information--graves, tumuli, cromlechs and sepulchres--which elsewhere,
as in Egypt, have furnished such a wealth of facts regarding the
earlier races of mankind.
The sacred character of the Brahmans receives abundant recognition
in the Epics; and it is noteworthy that, except in the relinquishment
of animal food and vinous drinks by a great majority of the Hindus,
little change has taken place in the social habits of the people since
the heroic age depicted in the Epics. We need not doubt, however, that
the abstention from animal food and, with it, from wine and spirits of
all kinds has, in the course of many generations, profoundly modified
the national character; and has, perhaps, more than anything else,
gradually converted the turbulent, aggressive Aryan into the mild and
contemplative Hindu.[141]
A high degree of culture had doubtless been attained by the Indians
before the Epics were cast into their present forms. The industrial
arts would seem to have flourished, and we have seen how highly the
poets appreciated and enjoyed the beauty of the woodlands, and how much
they were impressed with the scenery of their grand mountains. This in
itself is a remarkable fact, as the charms of landscape beauty do not
seem to have been realized in the West until a somewhat later time.
The ideal of human (particularly female) beauty which possessed the
minds of the Hindu bards has been indicated by several allusions and
quotations in the preceding chapters. It is certainly not that embodied
in the Venus of Melos or the Apollo Belvedere; but every age and
country has its own ideals.
Throughout the foregoing brief narrative there has been ample evidence
of the height to which the speculative imagination of the Hindus had
carried them in endeavouring to read the riddle of human destiny, and
notably so in the subtle pantheism of the “Bhagavatgita,” a work which,
even if the date assigned to it by European scholars be accepted, and
with that its authors’ supposed acquaintance with Christian ideas,
must still excite our admiration by its largeness of conception and
liberality of sentiments--expressed many centuries before Luther nailed
his famous ninety-five theses upon the door of the church at Wittenberg.
The imaginative faculty never fails the bards of the Indian
Epics, who too often indulge in a very delirium of exaggeration.
Yet, notwithstanding their supreme contempt for probabilities or
consistency, and their lofty scorn of numerical limitations, it cannot
be denied that these Hindu poets, with their lawless imaginations,
take us completely captive and carry us along with them, surprised and
delighted, through the wonderful scenes of their creation; while one
cannot but feel in their company that the intellectual atmosphere which
surrounds them is a stronger one and more spiritual than that which was
breathed by the Greeks of Homer or the Teutons of the Eddas.
On the whole, it may be said that the Indian Epics as they have
reached us, reveal to the careful student an ancient free and vigorous
primitive social life and turbulent times, overlaid by a later and
less healthy, if more refined civilization, which was permeated with
ecclesiasticism; and that they exhibit a strange mixture of what Mr.
Herbert Spencer would call the “ethics of enmity” and the “ethics
of amity.” The later stage of Indian history--the age of Brahmanism
succeeding the heroic age and continuing to the present day--may, I
think, be well compared with the Middle Ages in Europe, when priestly
influence was predominant and national life at a low ebb. Europe,
under the influence of the spirit of industrialism and modern science,
has emancipated itself from the numbing influences of the Dark Ages.
When will India do the same? For how many more centuries is she
destined to wrangle over unprofitable theological questions, as did the
Byzantine Greeks while the conqueror was thundering at their gates?
My pleasant undertaking has occupied more time than I had anticipated
when I took it in hand; but I leave it now with a profound appreciation
of the capabilities of a people who have produced such works as the
“Ramayana” and “Mahabharata.”
In every age--even in an industrial age of busy scientific progress
and mechanical triumphs like our own--the human mind turns with fond
interest to any picture which shows how men in the fore-time lived
and thought, and it listens eagerly to any song which echoes through
the vanished years the fervent hopes and lofty aspirations of buried
generations. Therefore, I trust that my little work, though it be but
a sketch of a great picture and the echo of a grand old song, may
find favour with the public, and help to open up to English readers
a strange but interesting world of Eastern ideas and conceptions.
Above all, however, I hope that my pages represent--as I believe they
do--both fairly and adequately the great Epics of India.
CHISWICK PRESS:--CHARLES WHITTINGHAM AND CO.
TOOKS COURT CHANCERY LANE, LONDON.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] “No other work in India at the present day possesses the attraction
which these epics have for the majority of the people.”--_Life in an
Indian Village_, by T. Rama Krishna, B.A. (T. Fisher Unwin, 1891).
[2] Professor Max Müller’s Hibbert Lectures, 1878, p. 50.
[3] Prisoners of war of all ranks were sacrificed in numbers.
[4] Du Chaillu’s “The Viking Age,” vol i., chapter xx., _et seq._
[5] “A Brief History of the Indian People,” by Sir William Wilson
Hunter, K.C.S.I. (Trübner and Co.).
[6] The world has recently been informed by Dr. Brinton that the theory
attributed to Dr. Latham was really first advanced by Omalius D’Halloy
in the “Bulletins de l’Academie Royale de Belgique” in May, 1848
(“Nature,” July 21st, 1892).
[7] As is maintained by Dr. Hermann Braunehoffer, “Journal of Royal
Asiatic Society,” 1890, pp. 687-689.
[8] “The Origin of the Aryans,” by Isaac Taylor, M.A., LL.D. (Walter
Scott); “Prehistoric Antiquities of the Aryan Peoples,” by Dr. O.
Schrader, translated by F. B. Jevons, M.A. (Charles Griffin and Co.).
[9] The preparations for a recital of this kind in a village in the
Madras Presidency are thus described. “People came pouring in from
Kelambakam and from neighbouring villages to the house of the village
headman. On the _pial_ of his house was seated the preacher. Before him
was placed the picture of Krishna playing the flute and leaning on a
cow. The picture was profusely decorated with flowers. There were also
two small vessels. In one there were camphor and some burning incense,
in the other were flowers and fruits. The people swarmed about like
bees.”--_Life in an Indian Village_, by T. Rama Krishna, B.A., p. 144.
[10] “The Ethnography of Afghanistan,” by Dr. H. W. Bellew, C.S.I., in
the “Asiatic Quarterly Review,” October, 1891.
[11] “The Rámáyan of Válmikí,” translated into English verse by Ralph
T. H. Griffith, M.A., Principal of the Benares College (London, Trübner
and Co.).
[12] Of Yoga and Yogaism I have given a brief account in a previous
work, “Indian Life, Religious and Social,” pp. 11-47 (London, Fisher
Unwin).
[13] “The Ramayana,” translated into English prose from the original
Sanskrit of Valmiki by Manmatha Nath Dutt, M.A. (Deva Press, Calcutta).
If not otherwise stated, all prose quotations from the “Ramayana”
included in the following pages are derived from this work.
[14] “The ruins of the ancient capital of Kama and the children of the
Sun may still be traced in the present Ajudhya near Fyzabad. Ajudhya is
the Jerusalem or Mecca of the Hindus.”--Note, vol. i., p. 35, of Mr.
Griffith’s translation of the “Ramayana” (Trübner and Co., London).
[15] What a terrible thing it is for a Hindu to be childless can be
understood, and then only partially, by bearing in mind that, without a
son to perform the complex funeral rights and ceremonies for a deceased
father, the dead man’s soul must undergo ages of trouble in the next
world.
[16] According to Hindu belief the gods and the spirits of departed
ancestors are actually nourished and sustained by the aroma of the
burnt-offerings made by pious persons. Hence the vital importance of
these sacrifices, upon which the very safety and continuance of the
Universe depend.
[17] This incident introduces us to an important Hindu idea, that the
_exact_ performance of certain prescribed rites and sacrifices leads to
the attainment of definite objects, as, for example, purification from
a particular sin, the destruction of a hated enemy or the discovery
of a friend. The gods themselves performed sacrifices, and Indra is
commonly addressed as “the performer of a hundred sacrifices.”
[18] The Indian ideas respecting austerities are very peculiar, and as
they pervade their religion and literature are specially noteworthy.
“According to the Hindu theory the performance of penances was like
making deposits in the bank of heaven. By degrees an enormous credit
was accumulated, which enabled the depositor to draw to the amount of
his savings, without fear of his draughts being refused payment. The
power gained in this manner by weak mortals was so enormous, that gods
as well as men were equally at the mercy of these all but omnipotent
ascetics; and it is remarkable, that even the gods are described as
engaging in penance and austerities, in order, it may be presumed, not
to be outdone by human beings. Siva was so engaged when the god of
love shot an arrow at him.”--Note to page 4 of Professor Sir Monier
Williams’s “Indian Epic Poetry.” In the course of the following pages
of this book we shall meet with ascetics very often and become familiar
with their doings.
[19] The belief in divine incarnations, for the benefit or salvation of
the world, is a common and familiar one in the Hindu religion.
[20] The modern Gogra.
[21] Protection against _fever_ would be specially desirable in a
country covered with forest and jungle, as the India of the “Ramayana”
evidently was.
[22] The power of assuming a multiplicity of forms at will, and of
passing from a huge to a minute size, or the reverse, to suit the
exigencies of the moment is enjoyed by a great number of personages in
the Hindu epics.
[23] We shall in the course of the development of this story have
frequent opportunities of learning the awful and irrevocable character
of curses uttered by Brahmans and others, rejoicing in the possession
of stores of power acquired by the practice of austerities.
[24] _Vide_ M. N. Dutt’s “Ramayana,” p. 75.
[25] “The remains of the capital founded by Janaka and thence termed
Janakapur are still to be seen, according to Buchanan, on the northern
frontier at the Janeckpoor of the maps.”--Note to Professor H. H.
Wilson’s translation of the “Uttara Rama Charitra.”
[26] I have had the good fortune to be present at a marriage ceremony,
carried out professedly in accordance with Vedic rites, which closely
resembled the wedding of Rama and his brothers, as described by Valmiki.
[27] In this description of Rama and in other places I have borrowed
the epithets I find in Dutt’s translation of the “Ramayana,” in order
to preserve something of the peculiar character of the original.
[28] Here is a pretty picture for an artist, Hindu or other.
[29] Dasahratha himself attributed these misfortunes to his having when
a youth unwittingly killed, with a chance arrow, a young hermit in the
forest. The boy’s father, himself a hermit, cursed Dasahratha, and the
effects of the malediction were apparent in the troubles attending the
king’s declining years.
[30] This significant passage from the “Ramayana” ought to clear
away the doubts that may linger in anyone’s mind regarding the fact
that animal food was commonly eaten in ancient India, since animal
sacrifices are constantly referred to. Of course there is abundant
positive evidence on the subject as in the preceding page.
[31] Near Salem in Southern India are “some chalk hills supposed by the
natives to be formed of the bones of the mythical bird Jatayus, killed
by Ravana when carrying off Sita.”--+PROFESSOR SIR MONIER WILLIAMS’S+
“Modern India,” p. 165.
[32] Mr. Griffith’s “Ramayana,” vol. iii., p. 324.
[33] As respects the Vanars it has to be noted that while implying that
they were _monkeys_ and nothing more, the poet has, for the most part,
represented them--if we may judge by their sentiments and actions--as
beings of a very superior order.
[34] This car from the hand of Visvakarma recalls the famous embossed
shield of Achilles, the masterpiece of Vulcan’s art, made of brass,
tin, gold and silver, and divided into twelve compartments, each
representing a distinct and complicated scene (for example, a wedding
procession or a battle) wrought with marvellous skill.
[35] There can be no doubt whatever that the seclusion of women was
the common practice in ancient India. Wherever polygamy exists the
seclusion of women is a necessity, and that polygamy did exist in the
India of the “Ramayana” is abundantly evident from what we are told
concerning the courts of Dasahratha, Sugriva and Ravana. The Greeks
kept their women a good deal in the background; but Helen’s position in
the court of her husband Menelaus, or Penelope’s in that of Ulysses,
was far more free than the position of any queen mentioned in the
“Ramayana.”
[36] The lover of English poetry will recall to mind the similar
description of sleeping beauties in the sixth canto of “Don Juan,”
stanzas lxiv.-lxix.
[37] The contrast between the fair Vaidehi and her ruthless persecutors
in the enchanting ashoka grove might make a striking subject for the
canvas of an able artist. Indeed, there is in the “Ramayana” no lack of
suggestive and satisfactory _motifs_ for the chisel and the brush. It
is, indeed, a mine not yet wrought.
[38] Whoever has not forgotten his Virgil will probably be reminded of
the famous storm in the “Æneid” and of Neptune’s serene and majestic
appearance above the troubled waters of the sea.
[39] Some hundred thousand billions (see note to Griffith’s “Ramayana,”
vol. v., p. 88).
[40] _Camped_; but not like a modern army under canvas. The Vanars, I
trow, needed no commissariat department, living as they did on fruits
and roots. And the sons of Raghu were nearly as well used to woodland
fare and lodging as their simian allies.
[41] “The chariots of Ravana’s present army are said to have been
one hundred and fifty million in number, with three hundred million
elephants and twelve hundred million horses and asses. The footmen are
merely said to have been unnumbered.”--Note to Griffith’s “Ramayana,”
book vi., canto xcvi.
[42] At this point the great epic of Valmiki properly ends; but a
supplementary work, also popularly attributed to Valmiki, exists which
affords further details of the lives of the principal personages of
the poem. Upon the particulars supplied in this work the succeeding
paragraphs are based.
[43] Professor E. B. Cowell (“Academy,” No. 43). In Bhavabhuti’s drama,
entitled “Uttara Rama Charitra,” the _dénouement_ is different. Sita’s
purity is attested by the goddess Ganga (the Ganges) and by Prithivi
(the earth). The people bow in respectful homage to her. Rama welcomes
her back, and with her two sons, Kusa and Lava, they pass many happy
years together.
[44] Muir, “Sanskrit Texts,” part iv., appendix.
[45] The “Ramayana” of Tulsi Das, which differs in some respects from
the original poem of Valmiki, has been translated into English by Mr.
F. J. Growse of the Bengal Civil Service.
[46] Ravana is described as having ten heads; but the effigy I saw had
several faces, I do not think so many as ten, with the head of an ass
surmounting all.
[47] Properly the figure should have had twenty _arms_.
[48] Bishop Heber was told that, in the _good old times_, the poor
children were always “poisoned in the sweetmeats given to them the last
day of the show, that it might be said their spirits were absorbed into
the deities whom they had represented.”--+HEBER’S+ “Narrative of a
Journey through the Upper Provinces of India” (1824-25), p. 191.
[49] _Vide_ “On the Ramayana,” by Dr. Albrecht Weber (Trübner and Co.,
1863).
[50] “Indian Epic Poetry,” p. 3 (Williams and Norgate, London, 1863).
[51] “Early History of Northern India,” by J. F. Hewitt, “Journal of
the Royal Asiatic Society,” 1890, p. 744.
[52] “Nouvelle Géographie Universelle,” par Elisée Reclus, tome viii.,
p. 873, _et seq._ Keane’s “Asia,” pp. 678-680.
[53] It is, I think, impossible, after reading the tedious genealogies
of the kings in the “Mahabharata,” to avoid the conclusion that there
is a substratum of history beneath it all, notwithstanding the clouds
of mythological dust which obscure the view.
[54] The “Mahabharata” of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, translated into
English prose, by Pratap Chundur Roy (Calcutta, Bharata Press). If not
otherwise stated, all prose quotations from the “Mahabharata” included
in the following pages are derived from this work.
[55] “Every race has in its history one grand achievement on which
it hangs all its past and all its future: and the memory of which
is a rallying cry and a pledge of prosperity. The Exodus, the Jews
would say; the overthrow of the Medes, would the Persians; the Median
wars, the Greeks in their turn say. These will be recalled on all
occasions to furnish arguments, political claims, rhetorical effects,
patriotic encouragement in great crises, and in the end imperishable
regrets.”--_Essai sur l’histoire universelle_, par M. Prévost-Paradol,
tome premier, p. 166.
[56] “Adi Parva,” of the “Mahabharata,” section xcvi. A somewhat
different story is told in section xcix.
[57] The battle, as described by the poet, is of little interest; but
Bhisma’s challenge to the assembled kings is worthy of reproduction,
as throwing light upon the marriage customs of the olden time in
India. “In a voice like the roar of the clouds he exclaimed: ‘The
wise have directed that after inviting an accomplished person a
maiden may be bestowed on him, decked in ornaments and along with
many valuable presents. Others again may bestow their daughters by
accepting of a couple of kine, some again bestow their daughters by
taking a fixed sum, and some take away maidens by force. Some wed with
the consent of the maidens, some by drugging them into consent, and
some by going unto the maidens’ parents and obtaining their sanction.
Some again obtain wives as presents for assisting at sacrifices. Of
these the learned always applaud the eighth form of marriage. Kings,
however, speak highly of the swayamvara (the fifth form as above) and
themselves wed according to it. But the sages have said that that wife
is dearly to be prized who is taken away by force, after slaughter of
opponents, from amid the concourse of princes and kings invited to a
swayamvara. Therefore, ye monarchs, I bear away these maidens from
hence by force. Strive ye to the best of your might to vanquish me or
be vanquished.’”--P. C. Roy’s translation of the “Adi Parva” of the
“Mahabharata,” p. 307.
[58] The custom referred to in this paragraph and known as _niyoga_, is
considered briefly in the concluding chapter.
[59] P. C. Roy’s “Adi Parva,” p. 325. This story throws considerable
light on the ideas of the Hindus with respect to their gods.
[60] Vyasa, as we have seen, was no blood relation of the house of
Bharata. Similarly, the widows of King Vichitra-virya and the Sudra
slave-girl were not connected to the family by ties of consanguinity;
and _yet the children of Vyasa by these women_ are, from the Hindu
point of view, lineal descendants of King Shantanu.
[61] This parentage is rather bewildering after what we have learned
already about Vidura being no other than Dharma in human form.
[62] This is an instance of _suttee_ in ancient India worth noting.
[63] The modern Allahabad and, at that time, probably a frontier town
of the Aryan invaders.
[64] “The traditional site of this event is in the Allahabad district,
on the left bank of the Ganges, three miles south of Handia Taksil. The
village of Lachagarh (Laksha = lac) is said to take its name from this
event. It stands on the bank of the river, which is never cut away by
the stream. This is said to be due to the melted lac which keeps the
earth together. People come to bathe on the Somwati Amawas when the
new moon falls on a Monday. Jhusi or Pratishtapur, the capital of the
Chandraransi Rajah is twenty-four miles from there.”--_North Indian
Notes and Queries_, August, 1894, p. 89.
[65] I don’t think it is at all unlikely that cannibalism prevailed
in India at this early period, as it does in Africa to-day, and these
stories are only the Hindu bard’s exaggerated way of recording the fact.
[66] Karna had been brought up in the family of a Suta or charioteer
and was reckoned as belonging to that caste.
[67] From this story of Draupadi it seems evident that polyandry was
practised at least in parts of ancient India; as, indeed, it is to this
day, in portions of the Himalayan region. That it was not very uncommon
in the old-time we may gather from a remark, attributed to Karna,
in reference to Draupadi herself--“women always like to have many
husbands” (“Adi Parva” of the “Mahabharata,” section cciv.).
[68] “Again the site of Indraprasta is far more distinctly indicated
than the site of Hastinapur. The pilgrim who wends his way from the
modern city to Delhi to pay a visit to the strange relics of the
ancient world, which surround the mysterious Kutub, will find on
either side of his road a number of desolate heaps of the débris of
thousands of years, the remains of successive capitals which date back
to the very dawn of history, and local tradition still points to these
sepulchres of departed ages as the sole remains of the Raj of the sons
of Pandu and their once famous city of Indraprasta.”--+WHEELER’S+
“History of India,” vol. i., p. 142.
[69] Such is the Hindu poet’s conception of the court of Yama, the
god of departed spirits, a delightful place where there is no lack of
sensuous pleasures. He places amongst the attendants in this court
“all sinners amongst human beings;” but as, according to Brahmanical
theology, there is punishment for the wicked, we may presume that the
sinners referred to are only temporary sojourners in this pleasant
abode, awaiting their trial and the judgment of Yama upon their deeds.
[70] Pratibhindhya, Sutasoma, Sutakarna, Shotanika, and Srutasena.
[71] It would appear that only one of the armies--that which proceeded
northward--went outside the limits of India, to the countries
immediately beyond the Himalayas. India, with the region just referred
to, was, for the poets of the “Mahabharata,” the _whole world_. On this
point see Dr. Rajendra Lalla Mitra’s “Indo-Aryans,” vol. ii., pp. 9-12.
[72] This statement, which is so consistent with what is known in
respect to genuine historical events in India, throws a strong
side-light upon the utter inability of the Indian kings from times
immemorial to unite for purposes of defence, their ready acceptance of
defeat, and their willing allegiance to the conqueror.
[73] The whole story, though so bewilderingly strange, is yet so
characteristically Hindu in its conception and motive, that I could not
exclude it even from this brief sketch. Nor could I venture to present
it in words other than those of an orthodox Hindu translator.
[74] Throughout these epics, questions of right and wrong, policy and
impolicy are discussed with rare acumen.
[75] A little later Arjuna, addressing Krishna, says: “O slayer of
all foes, having floated on the primordial waters, thou subsequently
becamest Hari, and Brahma, and Surya, and Dharma, and Dhatri, and Yama,
and Anala, and Vayu, and Vaisravana, and Rudra, and Kala, and the
firmament, the earth, and the ten directions! Thyself incarnate, thou
art the lord of the mobile and immobile universe, the creator of all, O
thou foremost of all existences.” It would appear that each deity who
is invoked is credited by his adorer with being the origin and support
of the entire universe, the beginning and the end of all things.
[76] In a subsequent page, however, we find the following. “Tell us
now, O Brahman, what was the food of the sons of Pandu while they
lived in the woods? Was it of the wilderness or was it the produce of
cultivation?” Vaisampayana said “Those bulls among men collecting the
produce of the wilderness, and killing the deer with pure arrows, first
dedicated a portion of the food to the Brahmans and themselves ate the
rest.” (Section L.)
[77] This is an interesting and noteworthy instance of idolatry
attributed to one of the ancient Aryan heroes by the Brahman authors of
the “Mahabharata.”
[78] “_Apsaras_--The Apsaras are the celebrated nymphs of Indra’s
heaven.... It is said that when they came forth from the waters (at
the churning of the ocean) neither the gods nor the Asuras would have
them for wives, so they become common to all.... The Apsaras, then, are
fairy-like beings, beautiful and voluptuous. Their amours on earth have
been numerous, and they are the rewards in Indra’s paradise held out to
heroes who fall in battle.”--+PROF. DAWSON’S+ “Classical Dictionary of
Hindu Mythology,” etc.
[79] This is only a single instance of the perpetual and undying
hostility between the celestials on the one hand and the demons on the
other.
[80] Markandeya’s description of the dissolution and recreation of
the world has undoubtedly a certain grandiose character about it,
but betrays the extremely limited geographical knowledge of these
omniscient sages, whose acquaintance with the earth’s surface is
strictly bounded by the Himalayas and the Southern Sea.
[81] _A smiling fish_ is, at least, an original idea. In another
place we find the following in regard to a very ancient tortoise.
“And as he came there we asked him, saying: ‘Dost thou know this King
Indra-dyumna?’ And the tortoise reflected for a moment. And his eyes
filled with tears, and his heart was much moved, and he trembled all
over and was nearly deprived of his senses. And he said with joined
hands, ‘Alas, do I not know that one?’”--_Vana Parva_, p. 604.--P. C.
Roy.
[82] This Hindu legend of the destruction of the world by water affords
materials for a comparison with the Mosaic account of the same event,
and the Chaldean story of the deluge, as recorded on the tablets which
have been deciphered by the late George Smith.
[83] There are, according to the “Mahabharata,” so many easy modes
of obtaining a complete release from the penalties of sin, and of
attaining heaven, that it would seem that only the most culpable
negligence and obstinacy could lead the Hindu to lose his chance of
being purged from sin and of enjoying beatitude hereafter. It must
be remembered, however, that there are also passages, in which it is
emphatically laid down, that _purity of heart_ is an essential and
indispensable condition of salvation.--_Vana Parva_, section cc.
[84] This appeal to _tradition_ from a sage who had actually witnessed
the destruction and recreation of the entire universe is rather strange.
[85] With important differences and limitations the modern doctrine
of _heredity_ may be regarded as the scientific analogue of the Hindu
doctrine of _Karma_. One, however, is based on indisputable facts,
the other on pure fancy. But whatever their merits or shortcomings,
whatever the bases of truth or reasonableness on which they rest,
neither the one doctrine nor the other can, unfortunately, afford a
rational mind any _consolation_ for the ills and apparent injustice of
the present life; and, assuredly, neither the one nor the other can
supply any stimulus towards the performance of good actions. A small
class of persons in Europe seem to have become profoundly enamoured of
the subtle ideas which underlie the doctrine of _Karma_; but he must
be strangely constituted whose sense of justice can be satisfied, or
who can derive any _comfort_ in his present struggle against the evils
of life, from the thought that he is suffering the consequences of
deeds done by his soul in previous and _unremembered_ existences, or
can be induced to make for righteousness by the reflection that, after
his physical death, the happiness of some other being, possibly a cat,
into which his soul transmigrates, will be influenced by his deeds in
the present life. But, at the same time, it may be admitted that the
doctrine of _Karma_ may certainly, in the case of some races, conduce
towards a helpless and hopeless resignation, counterfeiting contentment.
[86] From “Ballads and Legends of Hindustan,” by Miss Toru Dutt, the
gifted Bengali girl, whose premature death in 1877, at the early age of
twenty-one years, caused a sad loss to India.
[87] Here we have a glimpse of the simple life of those primitive times.
[88] A few of the questions put and answers given on this occasion may
afford some insight into Indian modes of thought.
Q. What is it that maketh the sun rise? Who keep him company? Who
causeth him to set? In whom is he established?
A. Brahma maketh the sun rise: the gods keep him company: Dharma
causeth him to set: and he is established in truth.
Q. What is that which doth not close its eyes while asleep? What is
that which doth not move after birth? What is that without a heart? And
what is that which swells with its own impetus?
A. A fish doth not close its eyes while asleep: an egg doth not move
after birth: a stone is without a heart: a river swelleth with its own
impetus.
Q. What constitutes _the_ way? What hath been spoken of as water? What
as food? And what as poison?
A. They that are good constitute _the_ way: space has been spoken of as
water: the cow is food: a request is poison.
[To this answer the translator, Babu P. C. Roy, appends the following
notes among others. “The crutis speak of the cow as the only food, in
the following sense. The cow gives milk. The milk gives butter. The
butter is used in _Homa_. The Homa is the cause of the clouds. The
clouds give rain. The rain makes the seeds to sprout forth and produce
food. Nilakantha endeavours to explain this in a spiritual sense. There
is, however, no need of such explanation here.”]
[89] This sudden and rather unartistic introduction of the goddess
Kali, unmentioned before, looks very much like a clumsy addition to the
epic made at a comparatively modern date in the interests of the later
developments of Hinduism.
[90] The cook in the council chamber! This is a sample of the primitive
ideas which underlie the epic.
[91] “Mahabharata Udyoga Parva,” section clx.
[92] “The plain of Kurukshetra,” says Mr. Talboys Wheeler, “is
generally identified with the field of Panipat, which lies to the
northwest of the modern city of Delhi. This plain is famous in modern
history as being the site of two of the greatest and most decisive
battles that have been fought in modern times. It was here that Baber,
in +A.D.+ 1525, overthrew the Afghan rulers at Delhi and established
the dynasty of the Moguls, and it was here in 1761 that Ahmad Shah
Abdali, the Sovereign of Cabul, inflicted such a crushing blow upon
the Mahrattas as indirectly cleared the way for the establishment
of British supremacy.”--Note to Wheeler’s “History of India,” vol.
i., p. 272. The identification of Panipat with Kurukshetra in the
above passage is incorrect, and probably led to the disappointment
experienced by Sir Edwin Arnold when he visited Panipat and found
that the inhabitants of the place were ignorant of the history of
Kurukshetra and its precise position (see his “India Revisited,”
p. 193). It is near _Thanesar_ and not Panipat that the Brahmans
find _Kurukshetra_, and the various incidents of the old story are
associated with many spots in that locality. In Chapter III., entitled
“The Sacred Land,” I have given some account of the modern aspects of
Kurukshetra.
[93] These are large numbers indeed, but the poet does not limit
himself to them, and in one of his flights of imagination speaks of a
hundred millions of warriors having been slain in ten days by a single
hero (“Bhisma Parva,” section xiv.). In another moment of inspiration
he places “a hundred millions and twenty thousand” cars in a certain
strategical position on the field (“Bhisma Parva,” section l.). There
is, in the “Mahabharata” generally, an affectation of precision in
regard to numbers, as when the narrator informs us that such a one was
hit with _three_ arrows, another with _four_, and a third with _seven_;
but there is no attempt to preserve consistency, and, whenever the
bard is so disposed, he revels without scruple in the biggest figures
imaginable.
[94] Here is a reference to the images of gods and goddesses existing
at the period of the great war, which is both important and suggestive.
They are also referred to again in section cxiii. of the “Bhisma Parva.”
[95] Bhisma’s standard was a gold palmyra palm; Drona’s a golden altar;
Duryodhana’s an elephant wrought in gems; Arjuna carried on his car a
banner whereon was seated a gigantic ape. Each chief of note had his
own distinguishing standard or banner.
[96] This famous dialogue is too long to be dealt with in this place
and too important to be passed over altogether; so I have appended a
note on the subject, to which the reader’s attention is invited.
[97] This allusion to the Mlecchas and Aryas fighting side by side is
interesting and noteworthy. Later on, we shall have occasion to note
the presence of Rakshasas also in either army.
[98] Millions upon millions. _Vide_ section cxv. of the “Bhisma Parva.”
[99] “Then with a thousand arrows well shot, Pandu’s son Arjuna, famed
for his skill in battle, shrouded Bhisma on all sides. That arrowy net,
however, of Partha, Bhisma the son of Cantanu, baffled with an arrowy
net (of his own).... And the successive flights of arrows shot from
Bhisma’s bow were seen to be dispersed by the shafts of Arjuna. And so
the flights of arrows shot by Arjuna, cut off by the arrows of Ganga’s
son, all fell down on the ground.”--_Bhisma Parva_, section lii.
[100] It is worthy of note that Rakshasas are present in both the
Kaurava and Pandava armies.
[101] “Mahabharata, Bhisma Parva,” section lxix. That the numbers are
intended to be precise will be apparent from the following passage
which is quoted merely as a sample:--“Then Bhisma, the grandsire of the
Kauravas, struck Arjuna with seventy-seven arrows, and Drona (struck
him) with five-and-twenty, and Kripa with fifty, and Duryodhana with
four-and-sixty, and Cala with nine arrows, and Drona’s son, that tiger
among men, with sixty, and Vikarna with three arrows, and Saindhana
with nine, and Cakuni with five. And Artayani pierced Pandu’s son with
three broad-headed arrows. And though pierced on all sides by them with
sharp arrows, that great bowman, that mighty-armed (warrior) wavered
not, like a mountain that is pierced with arrows.”--_Ibid._, section
lii.
[102] “Mahabharata, Bhisma Parva,” section xiv.
[103] “Mahabharata, Bhisma Parva,” section lxxxvii.
[104] Drona, being a Brahman, it would never have done for him to have
actually died by the sword of Dhrista-dyumna. Yet this prince was born
expressly to destroy Drona--hence this attempt to reconcile Brahman
sensitiveness and pretensions with the details of the old legend.
[105] This description of Duryodhana’s death scene is based upon the
version in Mr. Talboys Wheeler’s “History of India,” vol. i. pp.
351-352, which is derived from a translation of the epic in the library
of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, supposed to have been prepared by
Prof. H. H. Wilson.
[106] The “Mahabharata” quoted in “History of India,” by J. Talboys
Wheeler, vol. i., pp. 386-390.
[107] _Ibid._, p. 401.
[108] “A Pilgrimage to the Field of the Mahabharata,” by Madho Ram,
B.A., “Punjab Magazine,” June, 1890.
[109] It is worth noting that it was on the western side of the lake
that the Pandavas encamped, and Kauravas on the eastern side.
[110] “Archæological Survey of India Reports,” vol. xiv. (Punjab), by
General Cunningham, p. 90.
[111] With the decay of Thanesar there has been a marked falling off in
the number of pilgrims to the sacred places. “The sanitary arrangements
introduced by the British authorities to prevent the spread of disease
are said to be most unpopular and to deter large numbers of pilgrims
from attending.... It is said that, whereas in former days great men
used to march to Thanesar with small armies of followers and attendants
they now come by rail with a few servants to the nearest station and
return in the same way.”--_Gazetteer of the Ambala District_, pp.
73-74. On the other hand, the railways must bring to the shrines many
who could not have spared the time or the money to visit them under the
old conditions of travel.
[112] “A Pilgrimage to the Field of the Mahabharata,” by Madho Ram,
B.A., “Punjab Magazine,” June, 1890.
[113] _Vide_ Dr. Lorinser’s Essay on the subject in the “Indian
Antiquary,” vol. ii. and the reply thereto prefixed to the translation
of the “Bhagavatgita,” by Kashi Nath Trimbak Telang, M.A., LL.B.
[114] Arjuna had apparently forgotten that he had already encountered
and defeated these venerable elders of his in the interests of the King
of Panchala (p. 162).
[115] As in sacrifices the gods derived sustenance from the ethereal
portion of the burnt-offering, so, no doubt, the corporeal frame
(especially when cremated) supplied an ethereal one for the disembodied
soul, which was not yet entirely freed from the trammels of _matter_
though released from the bonds of its grosser forms.
[116] There is a most important reason in favour of the special
exception in regard to the performance of work in the case of
sacrifices, for, as Krishna explains: “From food are all creatures;
from rain is the production of food; rain is produced from sacrifice;
and sacrifice is the outcome of work.”
[117] Neither the joys of heaven nor the pains of hell could, in the
view of Hindu theologians, be _eternal_. When an embodied soul has,
by good actions, austerities, etc., acquired sufficient merit, it is
permitted to taste the joys of heaven for a length of time proportional
to its deserts. When these are exhausted it returns to be born again
on this earth. Similarly the embodied soul whose evil deeds deserve
punishment serves its time in hell and then returns to be re-born on
the earth. In either case there is _after re-birth_ no recollection of
previous existences or of former joys and sorrows. But, in heaven or in
hell, a recollection would be retained of the last state on earth, of
which, indeed, the celestial or infernal condition would be only a sort
of continuation.
[118] “Absence of vanity, absence of ostentation, abstention from
injury, forgiveness, uprightness, devotion to preceptor, purity,
constancy, self-restraint, indifference to objects of sense, absence
of egoism, perception of the misery and evil of birth, death,
decrepitude and disease, freedom from attachment, absence of sympathy
for son, wife, home, and the rest, and constant equanimity of heart
on attainment of good and evil, unswerving devotion to me without
meditation on anything else, frequenting of lonely places, distaste
for concourse of men, constancy in the knowledge of the relation
of the individual self to the supreme, perception of the object
of the knowledge of truth--all this is called knowledge, all that
which is contrary to this is ignorance. That which is the object of
knowledge I will (now) declare (to thee) knowing which, one obtaineth
immortality. (It is) the supreme Brahma, having no beginning, who is
said to be neither existent nor non-existent, etc., etc.”--Krishna, in
“Bhagavatgita.”
[119] Those who have a leaning towards esoterics and mysticism may
read “Discourse on the Bhagavatgita,” by T. Subba Row, B.A., B.L.,
F.T.S. (Bombay, 1888), from which they will learn, pp. 56-58, that
the Pandavas represent in reality the five elements which constitute
man or rather Humanity; that “the Kauravas are no other than the
evil propensities of man, his vices and their allies,” and that “the
philosophy of Krishna teaches Arjuna that he must conquer these,
however closely related to him they may be, before he can secure the
kingdom or the mastery over self.”
[120] “Republic,” book x., chapters 614-621.
[121] “The name as commonly used applies to Vishnu, and is that under
which he was first worshipped.”--+DOWSON’S+ “Classical Dictionary of
Hindu Mythology.”
[122] Of Mandara the poet says: “Upwards it riseth eleven thousand
_Yojanas_ and descendeth downwards as much.”
[123] The goddess of fortune.
[124] If these poems are really ancient, I think we need not have any
hesitation in concluding that the Zenana system was in force in India
in early times, and was not introduced, as many Hindus declare, after
the conquest of India by the Muhammadans. Possibly the _purdah_ was
made more strict after the Muslims established themselves south of the
Himalayas.
[125] This Kali is the Kali-yuga personified as the spirit of evil
(Dowson’s “Classical Dictionary of Hindu Mythology”).
[126] I desire to draw special attention to this interesting passage,
which, in its native simplicity, throws considerable light upon the
ideas and sentiments which lie at the root of the practice of the
worship of the unseen powers who are believed to govern the lives of
men.
[127] This shows clearly that widow re-marriage was allowed.
[128] “The History of Indian Literature,” by Dr. Albrecht Weber, pp.
185-188.
[129] “Tarikh-i-Badauni” of Abdul Kadir Badauni, Elliot’s “Muhammadan
Historians of India,” vol. v., pp. 537-538.
[130] “Mahabharata, Bhisma Parva,” section lix., p. 224.
[131] “The favourite idea of classical antiquity was not the idea
of progress, but the idea of a cycle of changes in which departure
_from_ the original unity and return _to_ it, or, as we should say,
differentiation and integration, are not united, but follow each other.
This idea seems to be adopted even by Aristotle.”--+CAIRD’S+ “Evolution
of Religion,” vol. i., p. 21.
[132] What god can Sanjaya refer to? Surely it must be fate, inexorable
destiny, of which he is thinking.
[133] “Mahabharata, Udyoga Parva,” section clix.
[134] “Mahabharata, Bhisma Parva,” section lix., p. 217, and section
lxxxii., p. 295.
[135] However, the reader who considers such historical inferences
sufficiently interesting and important, may consult the articles
entitled “Early History of Northern India,” by F. W. Hewitt, in the
“Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society,” 1888-89-90.
[136] Renan’s “Recollections of my Youth,” pp. 72-75.
[137] “All creatures support life by living upon one
another.”--“Mahabharata, Bhisma Parva,” p. 16.
[138] Deut. xxv. 5 10, and Gen. xxxviii.
[139] Manu, ix. 59, 60 and 64.
[140] On the subject of Niyoga the reader may consult Sir Henry Maine’s
“Dissertation on Early Law and Custom,” pp. 100 and 107, and “A
Treatise on Hindu Law and Usage,” by John D. Mayne, chapter iv.
[141] The abandonment of animal food and ardent spirits was probably
due to Buddhistic influence, though Buddha himself, as is well known,
ate pork. I have been assured by well-informed Indian gentlemen that
within the last few years there has been a marked tendency amongst
many sections of the people to take to a flesh diet and alcoholic
stimulants--in fact to revert to the old Aryan habits in these respects.