1. I know not whether this placing together of lions and tigers is to
be ascribed to unacquaintance with their habits, or to idealism. Though
both natives of parts of India they have not even the same districts
assigned them by nature. So inimical are they also to each other,
and so unlikely to herd together, that it has been supposed the tiger
has exterminated the lion wherever they have met. (Ritter, Asien,
vol. iv. zweite Hälfte, 689, 703, 723.) Indian fable established the
lion as the king of beasts--Mrigarâga. Amara, the Indian Lexicographer,
places him at the head of all beasts. The ordinary Sanskrit name is
Sinha, which some translate "the killer," from sibh, to kill. The
same word (sinhanâda) stands for the roaring of the lion and for
a war cry. Sinhâsana, literally a lion-seat, stands for a throne;
for the lion was the typical ruler. The fables always make him out as
powerful, just, temperate, and willing to take the advice of others,
but often deceived by his counsellors. The lion also gave its name
to the island of Ceylon, which to the Greeks was known as Taprobane,
from Tâmbapanni or Tâmrapani, the capital built by Vigaja, its first
historical settler (said by the natives to come from tâmra, red, and
pâni, hand, because he and his companions being worn out with fatigue
on their arrival lay down upon the ground and found it made their
hands red; but tamra (neut.) means also red sandalwood, and parna
is a leaf, which makes a more probable interpretation, but there is
also another deriving from "a red swamp"). But this name passed quite
out of use both among native and Greek writers in the early part of
the first century. Ptolemy calls it Salik`h, the Indian word being
Sinhala, the Pali, Sîhala = "resting-place of the lion" (i.e. the
courageous warriors, the companions of Vigaja). Kosmas has S'ieled'iba
= Sinhaladvipa, "the island Sinhala." In the writings of the Chinese
pilgrims it is called Sengkiolo, which they render "lion's kingdom." In
the southern dialects of India l is often changed into r, and thus
in Marcellinus Ammianus we find the name has become Serendivus. Out
of this came zeilau and our Ceylon. In our word "Singhalese" we have
a plainer trace of the lion's share in the appellation.
The writers of the time of Alexander do not appear to have come across
any authentic account of the tiger, and his people seem to have known
it only from its skin bought as merchandize. Nearchos and Megasthenes
both quite overstate its size, as "twice as big as a lion," and "as big
as a horse." Augustus exhibited a tiger in Rome in the year 11 B.C.,
and that seems the first seen there. Claudius imported four. Pliny
remarks on the extreme swiftness and wariness of the tiger and the
difficulty of capturing him. His place in the fable world is generally
as representative of unmitigated cruelty. The Pantcha-Tantra contains
a tale, however, in which a Brahman, wearied of his existence by many
reverses, goes to a tiger who has a reputation for great ferocity
and begs him to rid him of his life. The tiger in this instance is
so moved by the recital of the man's afflictions that he not only
spares his life, but nurtures him in his den, enriching him also with
the jewelled spoil of the many travellers who fall victims to his
voracity. In the end, however, the inevitable fox comes in as a bad
counsellor, and persuades him the Brahman is intending to poison him,
and thus overcoming his leniency, induces him to break faith with
the Brahman and devour him.
2. Dakinis were female evil genii, who committed all sorts of horrible
pranks, chiefly among the graves and at night. In this place it is
more probably Raginis that are intended, beautiful beings who filled
the air with melody. (Schmidt, trans, of sSanang sSetsen, p. 438,
quoted by Jülg.)
3. Nûpuras, gold rings set with jewels, worn by women of rank, and
also by dancing girls.
4. The custom of wearing quantities of jewelled ornaments seems to
have passed into Rome, along with the jewels themselves, and to such
an extent that Pliny tells us (book ix.), that Roman women would
have their feet covered with pearls, and a woman of rank would not
go out without having so many pearls dangling from her feet as to
make a noise as she walked along. The long-shaped pearls of India,
too, were specially prized for ear-rings; he particularly mentions
their being made to bear the form of an alabaster vase, just as
lately revived in Rome. They particularly delighted in the noise
of two or more of these pendants together as a token of wealth, and
gave it the name of crotalia, which, however, they borrowed from the
Greeks. They also wore them pendant from their rings. The Singhalese
pearls are the most esteemed. The dangerous fishery of these forms
the occupation of a special division of the Parawa or Fisher-Caste of
the Southern Indians. The pearl-oysters were said to swim in swarms,
led by a king-oyster, distinguished by his superiority in size and
colouring. Fishers aimed at capturing the "king," as then the whole
swarm was dispersed and easily caught; as long as the king was free,
he knew how to guide the major part of his swarm of subjects out of
danger (Pliny, ix. 55, 1). They thought the pearl was more directly
under the influence of the heavens than of the sea, so that if it was
cloudy at the time of their birth, they grew dull and tinted; but if
born under a bright sky, then they were lustrous and well-tinted;
if it thundered at the time, they were startled and grew small and
stunted. Concerning the actualities of pearl-fishery, see Colebrook's
"Account" of the same in Trans. of R. As. Soc. ii. 452, et seq.
Megasthenes, Diodorus, Arrianus, and others (quoted by Lassen, 1,
649, n. 2), tell a curious legend by which Hercules as he parted
from earth gave to his young daughter Pandaia the whole of Southern
India for her portion, and that from her sprang the celebrated hero
dynasty of the Pândava; Hercules found a beautiful female ornament
called pearls on his travels, and he collected them all and endowed
his daughter's kingdom with them.
5. It is impossible not to be struck by the similarity of construction
between this tale and that of the Spanish colonial one I have given in
"Patrañas" with the title of "Matanzas," thus bringing the sagas of
the East and West Indies curiously together.
6. Lama, Buddhist priest: the tale-repeater again grafts a word of
his own language on to the Indian tale.
7. Tîrtha, from tri, to cross a river. It denoted originally a
ford; then, a bathing-place on the borders of sacred streams;
later its use became extended to all manner of pilgrimage-places,
but more frequently those situated at the water's edge. They were
the hermitages of Brahmans who gave themselves to the contemplative
life before the rise of Buddhism, while to many of them also were
attached legends of having been the dwellings of the mysterious
Rishi, similarly before the rise of Brahmanism. The fruits of the
earth and beasts brought to them as offerings at these holy places,
as also the mere visiting such spots, was taught to be among the
most meritorious of acts. "From the poor can the sacrifice, O king,
not be offered, for it needs to have great possessions, and to make
great preparations. By kings and rich men can it be offered. But not
by the mean and needy and possessing nothing. But hear, and I will
tell thee what is the pious dealing which is equal in its fruits to
the holy sacrifice, and can be carried out even by the poorest. This
is the deepest secret of the Rishi. Visits paid to the tîrtha are more
meritorious than even offerings" (made elsewhere). "He who has never
fasted for three nights, has never visited a tîrtha, and never made
offerings of gold and cows, he will live in poor estate" (at his next
re-birth). "But so great advantage is not gained by the Agnishtoma or
other most costly sacrifice as by visiting tîrthas." (Tirthagâtrâ,
iii. 82, v. 4055 et seq.) In other places it is prescribed that
visits paid to some one particular tîrtha are equal to an offering
of one hundred cows; to another, a thousand. To visiting another,
is attached the reward of being beautiful at the next rebirth; a
visit to another, cleansed from the stain of murder, even the murder
of a Brahman; that to the source of the Ganges, brings good luck to
a whole generation. Whoso passes a month at that on the Kanshiki,
where Vishvamitra attained the highest perfection, does equivalent
to the offering of a horse-offering and obtains the same advantage
(phala = fruit). Several spots on the Indus or Sindhu, reckon among
the holiest of tîrthas pointing to the course of the immigration
of the Aryan race into India. Uggana on its west bank is named as
the dwelling-place of the earliest Rishis and the scene of acts of
the gods. A visit to Gandharba at its source, or Sindhûttama the
northern-most tîrtha on its banks, was equivalent to a horse-offering.
The Puranas are full of stories and legends concerning tîrthas
noteworthy for the deeds of ancient kings and gods. They tell us
of one on the Jumna, where Brahma himself offered sacrifice. At the
Vârâha-tîrtha Vishnu had once appeared in the form of a wild boar. The
Mahâ Bhârata and other epic poems speak of these visits being made by
princes as a matter of constant occurrence, as well as of numbers of
Brahmans making the occasion of their visits answer the purpose of an
armed escort, to pay their devotions at the same time without incurring
unnecessary danger by the way. The Manu also contains prescriptions
concerning these visits. In consequence of the amount of travelling
they entailed the tîrthânusartri or tîrtha-visitor was quoted as a
geographical authority.
The Horse-sacrifice mentioned above was part of the early Vedic
religion. In the songs of Dirghatamas, Rig-Veda i. 22, 6 and 7, it
is described with great particularity. And instances are mentioned
of horse-sacrifices being performed, in the Ramajana, i. 13, 34,
and Mahâ Bhârata, xiv. 89 v. 2644. There is also a medal existing
struck by a king of the Gupta dynasty, in the 3rd century of our era,
commemorative of one at that date. There do not appear altogether to
be many instances named however. The Zendavesta (quoted by Burnouf,
Yacna, i. p. 444) mentions that it was common among the Turanian
people, on the other hand, to sacrifices horses to propitiate victory.