{"collection":"myth-cosmogony","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_73417/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_73417","id":"gutenberg_73417","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/73417","summary":null,"tags":["Category: History - Ancient","Category: Mythology, Legends & Folklore","Epic literature, Sanskrit -- Adaptations","Heroes -- India -- Fiction","Hindu mythology -- Fiction","India -- Social life and customs -- Fiction"],"text":"Transcriber\u2019s Notes\n\n  1. New original cover art included with this eBook is granted to the\n     public domain.\n\n  2. Certain hyphenation and spelling variations are retained as in\n     original which is sourced by bibliographic references.\n\n  3. Footnotes were moved to the end of the book.\n\n  4. Illustrations were moved from middle to end of the paragraph.\n\n  5. The text version is coded for italics and the like mark-ups i.e.,\n\n      (a) italics are indicated thus _italic_;\n\n      (b) small-caps are indicated thus +CAPS+;\n\n      (c) Gothic or black letter script letters are indicaed by =Gothic=\n\n      (d) Images are indicated as [Illustration: (with narration...)]\n\n\n\n\n  SIR JOHN LUBBOCK\u2019S\n  HUNDRED BOOKS\n\n\n                                  THE\n                               RAMAYANA\n                                AND THE\n                              MAHABHARATA\n\n\n _Reprinted by permission of George Bell and Sons from \u201cBohn\u2019s Standard\n Library\u201d for \u201cSir John Lubbock\u2019s Hundred Books.\u201d_\n\n\n\n\n               =Sir John Lubbock\u2019s Hundred Books=\n\n                     THE GREAT INDIAN EPICS\n\n                       THE STORIES OF THE\n\n                            RAMAYANA\n\n                             AND THE\n\n                           MAHABHARATA\n\n                               BY\n\n                       JOHN CAMPBELL OMAN\n\n  PROFESSOR OF NATURAL SCIENCE IN THE GOVERNMENT COLLEGE LAHORE\n        AUTHOR OF \u201cINDIAN LIFE RELIGIOUS AND SOCIAL\u201d ETC.\n\n             WITH NOTES APPENDICES AND ILLUSTRATIONS\n\n                      _NEW EDITION REVISED_\n\n\n                      =London and New York=\n                    GEORGE ROUTLEDGE AND SONS\n                             LIMITED\n\n\n             CHISWICK PRESS:--CHARLES WHITTINGHAM AND CO.\n                  TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE, LONDON.\n\n\n\n\n                                PREFACE\n\n\nThe Indian Epics are precious relics of the spring-time of Eastern\nthought, revealing a new and singularly fascinating world, which\ndiffers very remarkably from that depicted in the epic poetry of\nWestern lands. But although these epics are extremely interesting, and\nalthough they are accessible in English translations, more or less\ncomplete, they are such voluminous works that their mere bulk is enough\nto repel the ordinary English reader, and even the student, in these\ndays of feverish occupation.\n\nI may, no doubt, be justly reminded that every Indian History, written\nwithin recent years, contains abstracts of the two epics; but these\nabstracts, I would observe, are skeletons rather than miniatures of\nthe poems; they are the dry bones, on which the historians try to\nsupport a fabric of historical inferences or conjectures, and they\nare necessarily deficient in the mythological, romantic and social\nelements so important to a proper comprehension of the \u201cRamayana\u201d\nand \u201cMahabharata.\u201d Besides, when the structures are so colossal, so\ncomposite and in many respects so beautiful, there can be no harm in\nhaving yet another view of them, taken probably from a new standpoint.\n\nIn Europe the Homeric poems are very extensively studied in the\noriginal Greek; they are productions of very moderate size in\ncomparison with the Indian Epics; many and excellent translations of\nthem, in both prose and verse, are always issuing from the press;\nand yet condensed epitomes of the \u201cIliad\u201d and \u201cOdyssey\u201d are welcomed\nby the reading public, by whom also prose versions of the poetical\nnarratives of even English poets--as Chaucer, Spenser, Shakespeare and\nBrowning--are favourably received.\n\nSuch being the case, I make no apology for the appearance of this\nlittle volume, in which I have not only tried to reproduce faithfully,\n_in a strictly limited space_, the main incidents and more striking\nfeatures of those gigantic and wonderful creations of the ancient\nbards of India--the \u201cRamayana\u201d and \u201cMahabharata\u201d--but also to direct\nattention to the abiding influence of those works upon the habits and\nconceptions of the modern Hindu.\n\nAs they are often very incorrectly cited in support of views for\nwhich there is no authority whatever in their multitudinous verses,\nit has been my especial aim to give as accurate a presentment as\npossible of the Indian Epics, taken as a whole; so that a fair and\njust idea--_neither too high nor too low_--of their varied contents\nand their intellectual level might be formed by the readers of this\nvolume, be they Europeans or Indians. And from what I have recently\nlearned, I have good ground for believing that both classes of readers\nwill, after perusal of this little book, be in a position to see the\nerroneous character of many ideas in regard to life in ancient India\nwhich are current in their respective circles.\n\nWhere, for any reason, I have especially desired that an event\nrecorded, or an opinion expressed, in the epics should be reproduced\nwithout the possibility of misrepresentation on my part, I have thought\nit best to quote _verbatim_ the translations of them made by Hindu\nscholars; although, unfortunately, their versions are by no means\nelegant, and, indeed, often quite the reverse. But as they, no doubt,\nreflect the structure and texture of the poems in a way that no more\nfree or polished English rendering could possibly do, I fancy the\ncitations I have made will not be unwelcome to most readers.\n\nMy book is divided into two distinct parts dealing separately with the\n\u201cRamayana\u201d and the \u201cMahabharata,\u201d and at the end of each part I have\ngiven, in the form of an Appendix, one or two of the more striking\nlegendary episodes lavishly scattered through these famous epics, and\nwhich, though not essential for the comprehension of the main story,\nare too beautiful or important to be omitted. Of these episodes I\nshould say that they are the best-known portions of the \u201cRamayana\u201d and\n\u201cMahabharata,\u201d having been told and retold in all the leading Indian\nvernaculars, and having, most of them, been brought before the European\nworld in both prose and verse.\n\nA General Introduction to the two poems, and a concluding chapter,\ncontaining remarks and inferences based on the materials supplied to\nthe reader in Parts I. and II., complete the scheme of this little\nvolume, which, I trust, will be found to be something more than a mere\nepitome of the great Sanskrit epics; for, in its preparation, I have\nhad the advantage of considerable local knowledge and an intimate\nacquaintance with the people of _Aryavarta_.\n\n                                                               J. C. O.\n\n\n\n\n                               CONTENTS\n\n\n                                                                    PAGE\n\n  +GENERAL INTRODUCTION+                                               1\n\n\n                         PART I.--THE RAMAYANA\n\n\n                               CHAPTER I\n\n  +INTRODUCTORY REMARKS+                                              15\n\n\n                              CHAPTER II\n\n  +THE STORY OF RAMA\u2019S ADVENTURES+                                    19\n\n\n                              CHAPTER III\n\n  +THE RAM LILA OR PLAY OF RAMA+                                      75\n\n\n                               APPENDIX\n\n  +THE STORY OF THE DESCENT OF GANGA+                                 87\n\n  +NOTES+                                                             91\n\n\n                       PART II.--THE MAHABHARATA\n\n\n                               CHAPTER I\n\n  +INTRODUCTORY REMARKS+                                              95\n\n\n                              CHAPTER II\n\n  +THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR+                                       101\n\n\n                              CHAPTER III\n\n  +THE SACRED LAND+                                                  197\n\n\n                               APPENDIX\n\n  (1) +THE BHAGAVATGITA OR DIVINE SONG+                              207\n\n  (2) +THE CHURNING OF THE OCEAN+                                    219\n\n  (3) +NALA AND DAMAYANTI+                                           225\n\n  +NOTES+                                                            237\n\n  +CONCLUDING REMARKS+                                               241\n\n\n\n\n                         LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS\n\n\n                                                                    PAGE\n\n  +THE ABDUCTION OF SITA.+ (From an illustrated Urdu Version)         50\n\n  +HANUMAN AND THE VANARS REJOICING AT THE RESTORATION OF SITA.+\n  (Reduced from Moor\u2019s \u201cHindu Pantheon\u201d)                      _face_  70\n\n  +MEN WITH KNIVES AND SKEWERS PASSED THROUGH THEIR FLESH.+\n  (From a Photograph)                                         _face_  76\n\n  \u201c+THE TERRIBLE DEMON KING OF LANKA AND HIS NO LESS\n  FORMIDABLE BROTHER.+\u201d (From a Photograph)                   _face_  80\n\n  +THE TEMPLE AND BATHING GH\u00c2TS ON THE SACRED LAKE\n  AT KURUKSHETRA.+ (From a Photograph)                        _face_ 200\n\n  +THE CHURNING OF THE OCEAN.+ (Reduced from Moor\u2019s\n  \u201cHindu Pantheon\u201d)                                                  220\n\n\n\n\n                          GREAT INDIAN EPICS\n\n\n\n\n                         GENERAL INTRODUCTION\n\n\nForemost amongst the many valuable relics of the old-world literature\nof India stand the two famous epics, the \u201cRamayana\u201d and the\n\u201cMahabharata,\u201d which are loved with an untiring love by the Hindus,\nfor they have kept alive, through many a dreary century, the memory\nof the ancient heroes of the land, whose names are still borne by the\npatient husbandman and the proud chief.[1] These great poems have a\nspecial claim to the attention even of foreigners, if considered simply\nas representative illustrations of the genius of a most interesting\npeople, their importance being enhanced by the fact that they are, to\nthis day, accepted as entirely and literally true by some two hundred\nmillions of the inhabitants of India. And they have the further\nrecommendation of being rich in varied attractions, even when regarded\nmerely as the ideal and unsubstantial creations of Oriental imagination.\n\nBoth the \u201cRamayana\u201d and \u201cMahabharata\u201d are very lengthy works which,\ntaken together, would make up not less than about five and twenty\nprinted volumes of ordinary size. They embrace detailed histories\nof wars and adventures and many a story that the Western World would\nnow call a mere fairy tale, to be listened to by children with\nwide-eyed attention. But interwoven with the narrative of events and\nlegendary romances is a great bulk of philosophical, theological,\nand ethical materials, covering probably the whole field of later\nIndian speculation. Indeed, the epics are a storehouse of Brahmanical\ninstruction in the arts of politics and government; in cosmogony and\nreligion; in mythology and mysticism; in ritualism and the conduct\nof daily life. They abound in dialogues wherein the subtle wisdom of\nthe East is well displayed, and brim-over with stories and anecdotes\nintended to point some moral, to afford consolation in trouble, or\nto inculcate a useful lesson. To epitomize all this satisfactorily\nwould be quite impossible; but what I have given in this little volume\nwill, I hope, be sufficient to show the nature and structure of the\nepics, the characteristics that distinguish them as essentially Indian\nproductions, and the light they throw upon the condition of India\nand the state of Hindu society at the time the several portions were\nwritten, or, at any rate, collected together. The narrative, brief\nthough it be, will reflect the more abiding features of Indian national\nlife, revealing some unfamiliar ideas and strange customs. Even within\nthe narrow limits of the reduced picture here presented, the reader\nwill get something more than a glimpse of those famous Eastern sages,\nwhose half-comprehended story has furnished the Theosophists of our\nown day with the queer notion of their extraordinary _Mahatmas_; he\nwill learn somewhat of the wisdom and pretensions of those sages, and\nwill not fail to note that the belief in divine incarnations was firmly\nrooted in India in very early times. He will incidentally acquire a\nknowledge of all the fundamental religious ideas of the Hindus and\nof the highest developments of their philosophy; he will also become\nfamiliar with some primitive customs which have left unmistakable\ntraces in the institutions of modern social life in the East as well\nas in the West; and will, perhaps, be able to track to their origin\nsome strange conceptions which are floating about the intellectual\natmosphere of our time.\n\nWoven out of the old-time _sagas_ of a remarkable people, \u201cthe ancient\nAryans of India, in many respects the most wonderful race that ever\nlived on Earth,\u201d[2] the Sanskrit epics must have a permanent interest\nfor educated people in every land; while all Indian studies must\nhave an attraction for those who desire to watch, with intelligent\nappreciation, the wonderfully interesting transformations in religion\nand manners, which contact with Western civilization is producing in\nthe ancient and populous land of the Hindus. Not less interesting will\nsuch studies be to those who are able to note the curious, though as\nyet slight, reaction of Hindu thought upon modern European ideas in\ncertain directions; as, for example, in the rise of Theosophy, in the\nsentimental tendency manifested in some quarters towards asceticism,\nBuddhism and Pantheism; in the approval by a small class in Europe\nof the cremation of the dead, and in the growing fascination of such\ndoctrines as those of metempsychosis and _Karma_.\n\nAlthough it is difficult for the Englishman of the nineteenth century\nto understand the intellectual attitude of modern India in respect to\nthe wild legends of its youth, it may help towards a comprehension of\nthis point if one reflects that had not Christianity superseded the\noriginal religions of Northern Europe, had the Eddas and Sagas, with\ntheir weird tales of wonder and mystery, continued to be authoritative\nscripture in Britain, the religious faith of England might now have\nbeen somewhat on a par with that of India to-day--an extraordinary\nmedley of the wildest legends and deepest philosophy. It is a subject\nfor wonder how the gods of the ancestors of the English people have\nentirely faded from popular recollection in Britain, how Sagas and\nEddas have been completely forgotten, leaving only a substratum of old\nsuperstitions about witchcraft, omens, etc. (once religious beliefs),\namongst the more backward of the populace. How many Englishmen ever\nthink, how many of them even know, anything about Thor or Odin and the\nbloody sacrifices (often human sacrifices)[3] with which those deities\nwere honoured? How many realize that the worship of these gods and the\nrites referred to had a footing in some parts of Europe as recently as\neight hundred years ago?[4]\n\nThe almost complete extinction of the ancestral beliefs of the\nEuropean nations is a striking fact to which the religious history\nof India presents no parallel. In Europe the great wall of Judaic\nChristianity--too often cemented with blood--has been reared, in\ncolossal dimensions, between the past and the present, cutting off all\ncommunication between the indigenous faiths and modern speculative\nphilosophy of the Western nations; while diverting the affectionate\ninterest of the devout from local to foreign shrines.\n\nNo barrier of nearly similar proportions has ever been raised in\nIndia. Islam, it is true, has planted its towers in many parts of the\ncountry and has, to some restricted extent, blocked the old highways\nof thought, causing a certain estrangement between the old and new\nworld of ideas; but the severance between the past and the present\nhas nowhere been as complete as in Europe, for many an Indian Muslim,\nthough professing monotheism, still lingers upon the threshold of the\nold Hindu temples, and still, in times of trouble, will stealthily\ninvoke the aid of the national deities, who are not yet dead and\nburied like those of the Vikings. Hence it may be asserted of the vast\nmajority of the Indian people that their vision extends reverentially\nbackward, through an uninterrupted vista, to the gods and heroes of\ntheir remote ancestors.\n\nAnd who were those remote ancestors, those Aryan invaders of India\nin the gray dawn of human history? We have had two answers to\nthat question. A few years ago the philologists assured us, very\npositively, that the Aryans were a vigorous primitive race whose home\nwas in central Asia and who had sent successive waves of emigration\nand conquest westwards, right across the continent of Europe, to be\narrested in their onward march only by the wide waters of the Atlantic.\nWe were also assured, by these learned investigators into the mysteries\nof words and languages, that one horde of Asiatic Aryans, instead\nof following the usual westward course adopted by their brethren,\nhad turned their thoughts towards the sunnier climes of the South,\nand, scaling the northwestern barrier of India, had conquered the\naborigines and settled in the great Indo-Gangetic plain at the foot of\nthe Himalayas. These conclusions find a place in all our text-books of\nIndian or European history. The schoolboy, who has read his Hunter\u2019s\nbrief history[5] of India, knows well that \u201cthe forefathers of the\nGreek and the Roman, of the English and the Hindu, dwelt together\nin Central Asia, spoke the same tongue, worshipped the same gods,\u201d\nand that \u201cthe history of ancient Europe is the story of the Aryan\nsettlements around the shores of the Mediterranean.\u201d However, these\nconclusions have recently undergone revision and radical modification.\nWithin the last decade a theory, which originated in England with Dr.\nLatham and which met with contemptuous disregard when first propounded,\nhas been revived by certain German _savants_ and scientists.[6]\nSupported by the latest results of craniological and anthropological\ninvestigation, Latham\u2019s theory, in a modified form, has, under the\nerudite advocacy of Dr. Schrader and Karl Penka, gained all but\nuniversal acceptance. The theory now in favour, which is founded more\non inferences from racial than linguistic peculiarities, differs from\nthe one referred to above in a very important respect. The home of the\nAryans, instead of being found in Central Asia, is traced to Europe, so\nthat the Aryan invaders of India, many centuries before Christ, were\nmen of _European_ descent who pushed their way _eastward_ and gradually\nextended their dominion first over Iran and subsequently over Northern\nIndia, having scaled the snowclad Himalayas, literally in search of\n\u201cfresh fields and pastures new.\u201d When they reached India, after a long\nsojourn in Eastern countries, they were a mixed European and Asiatic\nrace, with probably a large share of Turanian blood,[7] speaking a\nlanguage of Aryan origin.[8] A strong, warlike, aggressive race, these\nAryans won for themselves a dominant position in ancient India, and\nhave left to this day the unmistakable traces of their language in many\nof the vernaculars of the land.\n\nThe decision of the question of the origin of the Aryans and the\nlocality of their primitive home is not one of purely antiquarian\ninterest, it is one of national importance, as anyone will be prepared\nto admit who knows, and can recall to mind, the effect upon the\neducated Hindus of the announcement that their own ancestors had been\nthe irresistible subjugators of Europe. Whether the Norman conquerors\nof England were of Celtic or, as the late Professor Freeman insisted,\nof Teutonic stock, is not unimportant to the Englishman for the true\ncomprehension of his national history and not without some influence\neven in practical politics; but of far greater moment will it be for\nthe Hindu whether he learn to regard the Aryans of old as an Asiatic or\na European race, cradled on the \u201cRoof of the World\u201d or in the flats of\nthe Don.\n\nAlthough all Hindus look upon the Aryan heroes of the Indian epics as\nthe _ancestors_ of their race, and fondly pride themselves in their\nmighty deeds, the claim, in the case of the vast majority, is, of\ncourse, untenable; since the great bulk of the Indian population has\nno real title to Aryan descent. Yet Rama and Arjuna are truly Indian\ncreations, enshrined in the sacred literature of the land. And the\npride and faith of the Hindus in these demigods has, perhaps, sustained\ntheir spirits and elevated their characters, through the vicissitudes\nof many a century since the heroic age of India.\n\nWhat genuine facts, or real events, may underlie the poetical\nnarratives of the authors of the \u201cRamayana\u201d and \u201cMahabharata\u201d will\nnever be known. The details na\u00efvely introduced are often such as\nto leave an irresistible impression that there is a substratum of\nsubstantial truth serving as a foundation for the fantastic and airy\nstructure reared by the poets, and we now and then recognize, for\ninstance in their despairing fatefulness, a distant echo of ideas which\nhave travelled with the Aryan race to the Northern Seas. But the too\nfertile imagination of the Indian poets, their supreme contempt for\ndetails and utter disregard of topographical accuracy, leave little\nhope of our ever getting any satisfactory history out of the Sanskrit\nepics, or even of our establishing an identity in regard to localities\nand details of construction such as has been traced, in our own day, by\nSchliemann, between the buried citadel of Hissarlik on the Hellespont\nand vanished Ilion. For those who do not share these opinions there\nis a wide and deep field for industrious research; but I confess that\nI am somewhat indifferent regarding the extremely doubtful history or\nthe very fanciful allegory that may be laboriously extracted from the\nIndian epics by ingenious historians and mythologists. Indeed I would\nprotest against these grand epics being treated as history, for then\nthey must be judged by the canons of historical composition and would\nbe shorn of their highest merits. They are _poems_ not _history_, they\nare the romantic legends and living aspirations of a people, not the\nsober annals of their social and political life.\n\nLike the other great poems created by the genius of the past, the\nIndian epics have a value quite independent of either the history or\nthe allegory which they enshrine. They appeal to our predilection\nfor the marvellous and our love of the beautiful, while affording us\nstriking pictures of the manners of a bygone age, which, for many\nreasons, we would not willingly lose.\n\nBeing religious books, the \u201cRamayana\u201d and \u201cMahabharata\u201d are, more or\nless, known to the Hindus; but it is a noteworthy fact that even\neducated Indians are but little acquainted with the _details_ of these\npoems, although both epics have been translated into the leading\nvernaculars of the country and also into English. I have known educated\nyoung men, with more faith in their ancient books than knowledge of\ntheir contents, warmly deny the possibility of certain narratives\nhaving a place in these books, because, to their somewhat Europeanized\nideas, they seemed too far-fetched to be probable. The more striking\nincidents are, however, familiar to every Hindu, for Brahmans wander\nall over the country, reciting the sacred poems to the people. They\ngather an audience of both sexes and all ages and read to them from\nthe venerable Sanskrit, rendering the verses of the dead language of\nthe Aryan invaders of India into the living speech of their hearers.\nSometimes the Brahmans read and expound vernacular translations of\nthese poems of Valmiki and Vyasa. Often-times these recitations\nare accompanied with much ceremony and dignified with a display of\nreligious formalities.[9] Day after day the people congregate to\nlisten, with rapt attention, to the old national stories, and the moral\nlessons drawn from them, for their instruction, by the Pandits. To this\nday a considerable proportion of the people of India order much of\ntheir lives upon the models supplied by their venerable epics, which\nhave, moreover, mainly inspired such plastic and pictorial work as\nthe Indian people have produced; being for the Hindu artist what the\nbeautiful creations of Greek fancy, or the weird myths of the Middle\nAges, have been for his European brother.\n\nImpressed with the importance of some knowledge of the Indian epics\non the part of everyone directly or indirectly interested in the\nlife and opinions of the strange and highly intellectual Hindu race,\nwhich has preserved its marked individuality of character through so\nmany centuries of foreign domination, I have written, for the benefit\nof those, whether Europeans or Indians, who may be acquainted with\nthe English language, the brief epitomes of them contained in the\nfollowing pages; deriving my materials not from the original Sanskrit\npoems, which are sealed books to me, but from the translations, more\nor less complete and literal, of these voluminous works, which have\nbeen given to the world by both European and Indian scholars. On\nall occasions where religious opinions or theological doctrines are\nconcerned I have given the preference to the translations of native\nscholars, as I know that Indian Sanskritists have a happy contempt\nfor Western interpretations of their sacred books, and it seemed very\ndesirable, in such a case, to let the Hindus speak for themselves.\nBesides, I am of opinion that the English versions of the \u201cRamayana\u201d\nand \u201cMahabharata,\u201d now being given to the world by Indian scholars,\nhave a unique value, which later translations will, in all probability,\nnot possess. The present translators are orthodox Hindus possessing\na competent knowledge of English, and their aim has been to produce\nEnglish versions of their sacred poems, as understood and accepted by\nthemselves and by the orthodox Indian world to-day, their renderings,\nno doubt, reflecting the traditional interpretation handed down from\npast times. Hereafter we shall have more _learned_ translations, in\nwhich European ideas will do duty for Indian ones, and the old poems\nwill be interpreted _up to_ our own standard of science and philosophy.\nIn wild legends we shall discover subtle allegories veiling sober\nhistory, in license and poetry we shall find deep religious mysteries,\nand in archaic notions shall recognize, with admiration, the structure\nof modern philosophy. Something of this has already come about, and\nthat the rest is not far-off is evident; for we have only recently\nbeen told, that \u201cin the _shlokas_ of the \u2018Ramayana\u2019 and \u2018Mahabharata\u2019\nwe have many important historical truths relating to the ancient\ncolonization of the Indian continent by conquering invaders ... all\ndesignedly concealed in the priestly phraseology of the Brahman, but\nwith such exactitude of method, nicety of expression and particularity\nof detail, as to render the whole capable of being transformed into a\nsober, intelligible and probable history of the political revolutions\nthat took place over the extent of India during ages antecedent to the\nrecords of authentic history, by anyone who will take the trouble to\nread the Sanskrit aright through the veil of allegory covering it.\u201d[10]\n\nWhile regretting my shortcomings in respect to the language of the\nbards who composed the Sanskrit epics, since I am thereby cut off from\nappreciating the beauty of their versification and the felicities\nof expression which no translation can possibly preserve, I derive\nconsolation from the reflection, that with sufficiently accurate\ntranslations at hand--similar to our English versions of the Hebrew and\nGreek Scriptures--a knowledge of Sanskrit is certainly not essential\nfor the production of a work with the moderate pretensions of this\nlittle volume.\n\n\n\n\n                                PART I\n\n                             THE RAMAYANA\n\n\n\n\n                             THE RAMAYANA\n\n                         OR ADVENTURES OF RAMA\n\n\n\n\n                               CHAPTER I\n\n                         INTRODUCTORY REMARKS\n\n\nOnce every year, at the great festival known as the _Dasahra_, the\nstory of the famous Hindu epic, the \u201cRamayana,\u201d is, throughout Northern\nIndia, recalled to popular memory, by a great out-door dramatic\nrepresentation of the principal and crowning events in the life of the\nhero, Rama. The \u201cRamayana\u201d is not merely a popular story, it is an\ninspired poem, every detail of which is, in the belief of the great\nmajority of the Indian people, strictly true. Although composed at\nleast nineteen centuries ago, it still lives enshrined in the hearts\nof the children of Aryavarta and is as familiar to them to-day as it\nhas been to their ancestors for fifty generations. Pious pilgrims even\nnow retrace, step by step, the wanderings, as well as the triumphal\nprogress, of Rama, from his birth-place in Oudh to the distant island\nof Ceylon. Millions believe in the efficacy of his name alone to insure\nthem safety and salvation. For these reasons the poem is of especial\nvalue and interest to anyone desirous of understanding the people of\nIndia; affording, as it does, an insight into the thoughts and feelings\nof the bard or bards who composed it and of a race of men who, through\ntwo thousand eventful years, have not grown weary of it.\n\nIn the following chapters I shall first give a brief summary of the\nleading events narrated in the \u201cRamayana\u201d and then proceed to link, as\nit were, the past with the present, by describing the annual play as I\nhave often witnessed it in Northern India.\n\nThe \u201cRamayana,\u201d written in the Sanskrit language, embraces an account\nof the birth and adventures of Rama. The whole poem, which is divided\ninto seven books or sections, contains about fifty thousand lines\nand occupies five goodly volumes in Mr. Ralph Griffith\u2019s metrical\ntranslation,[11] which is, to a certain extent, an abridged version.\nTo Valmiki is attributed the authorship of this famous epic, and a\npretty story is told of the manner in which he came to write it. A\nrenowned ascetic, a sort of celestial being, named Narada, had related\nto Valmiki the main incidents of the adventurous life of Rama, and\nhad deeply interested that sage in the history of the hero and his\ncompanions. Pondering the events described by Narada, Valmiki went\nto the river to bathe. Close at hand two beautiful herons, in happy\nunconsciousness of danger, were disporting themselves on the wooded\nbank of the stream, when suddenly one of the innocent pair was laid\nprostrate by the arrow of an unseen fowler. The other bird, afflicted\nwith grief, fluttered timidly about her dead mate, uttering sore cries\nof distress. Touched to the heart by her plaintive sorrow, Valmiki gave\nexpression to his feelings of irritation and sympathy in words which,\nto his own surprise, had assumed a rhythmic measure and were capable\nof being chanted with an instrumental accompaniment. Presently, Brahma\nhimself, the Creator of all, visited the sage in his hermitage, but\nValmiki\u2019s mind was so much occupied with the little tragedy at the\nriver-side, that he unconsciously gave utterance to the verses he had\nextemporized on the occasion. Brahma, smiling, informed the hermit that\nthe verses had come to his lips in order that he might compose the\ndelightful and instructive story of Rama in that particular measure\nor _shloka_. Assuring Valmiki that all the details of the stirring\ntale would be revealed to him, the Supreme Being directed the sage to\ncompose the great epic, which should endure as long as the mountains\nand seas exist upon this earth. How Valmiki acquired a knowledge of\nall the details of the story is worth remembering, as being peculiarly\nIndian in its conception.\n\n\u201cSitting himself facing the east on a cushion of _Kusa_ grass, and\nsipping water according to the ordinance, he addressed himself to the\ncontemplation of the subject through _Yoga_.[12] And, by virtue of his\n_Yoga_ powers, he clearly observed before him Rama and Lakshmana, and\nSita, and Dasahratha, together with his wives, in his kingdom, laughing\nand talking and acting and bearing themselves as in real life.\u201d[13]\n\n\n\n\n                              CHAPTER II\n\n                               THE STORY\n\n\nThe story of the \u201cRamayana,\u201d in brief outline, is as follows:\n\nIn the ancient land of Kosala, watered by the River Surayu, stood the\nfamous Ayodhya,[14] a fortified and impregnable city of matchless\nbeauty, and resplendent with burnished gold, where everyone was\nvirtuous, beautiful, rich and happy. Wide streets traversed this city\nin every direction, lined with elegant shops and stately palaces\nglittering all over with gems. There was no lack of food in Ayodhya,\nfor \u201cit abounded in paddy and rice, and its water was as sweet as\nthe juice of the sugar-cane.\u201d Gardens, mango-groves and \u201ctheatres\nfor females\u201d were to be found everywhere. Dulcet music from _Venas_\nand _Panavas_ resounding on all sides, bore evidence to the taste of\nthe people. Learned and virtuous Brahmans, skilled in sacrificial\nrites, formed a considerable proportion of the population; which also\nincluded a crowd of eulogists and \u201ctroops of courtesans.\u201d The pride\nof ancient families supported a large number of genealogists. Hosts\nof skilled artisans of every kind contributed to the conveniences and\nelegancies of life, while an army of doughty warriors protected this\nmagnificent and opulent city from its envious foes. Over this wonderful\nand prosperous capital of a flourishing kingdom, ruled King Dasahratha,\na man some sixty thousand years of age, gifted with every virtue and\nblessed beyond most mortals. But, as if to prove that human happiness\ncan never exist unalloyed with sorrow, even he had one serious cause\nfor grief; he was childless, although he had three wives and seven\nhundred and fifty concubines.[15] Acting upon the advice of the\npriests, the Maharajah determined to offer, with all the complicated\nbut necessary rites, the sacrifice of a horse, as a means of prevailing\nupon the gods to bless his house with offspring. The accomplishment\nof such a sacrifice was no easy matter, or to be lightly undertaken,\neven by a mighty monarch like Dasahratha, since it was an essential\ncondition of success that the sacrifice should be conducted without\nerror or omission in the minutest details of the ritual of an intricate\nceremony, extending over three days. Not only would any flaw in the\nproceedings render the sacrifice nugatory, but it was to be feared that\nlearned demons (Brahma-Rakshasas), ever maliciously on the look-out\nfor shortcomings in the sacrifices attempted by men, might cause the\ndestruction of the unfortunate performer of an imperfect sacrifice\nof such momentous importance. However, the sacrifice was actually\nperformed on a magnificent scale and most satisfactorily, with the\nassistance of an army of artisans, astrologers, dancers, conductors of\ntheatres, and persons learned in the ceremonial law. Birds, beasts,\nreptiles, and aquatic animals were sacrificed by the priests on this\nauspicious occasion, but the sacred horse itself was despatched,\nwith three strokes, by the hand of Kau\u00e7alya, Dasahratha\u2019s queen. When\nthe ceremonies had been conducted to a successful close, Dasahratha\nshowed his piety and generosity by making a free gift of the whole\nearth to the officiating priests; but they were content to restore\nthe magnificent present, modestly accepting in its stead fabulous\nquantities of gold and silver and innumerable cows.\n\nThe gods, Gandharvas and Siddhas, propitiated by the offerings\nprofusely made to them, assembled, each one for his share,[16] and\nDasahratha was promised four sons.[17] While these events were\ntranspiring, a ten-headed Rakshasa named Ravana was making himself the\nterror of gods and men, under the protection of a boon bestowed upon\nhim by the Creator (Brahma), that neither god nor demon should be able\nto deprive him of his life. This boon had been obtained by the Rakshasa\nas the reward of long and painful austerities.[18]\n\nThe hierarchy of minor gods, in their own interest and for the sake of\nthe saints who were constantly being disturbed in their devotions by\nthis Ravana and his fellows, appealed to the Supreme Deity to find some\nremedy for the evil. Brahma, after reflecting on the matter, replied--\n\n  \u201cOne only way I find\n  To stay this fiend of evil mind.\n  He prayed me once his life to guard\n  From demon, God and heavenly bard,\n  And spirits of the earth and air,\n  And I consenting heard his prayer.\n  But the proud giant in his scorn,\n  Recked not of man of woman born,\n  None else may take his life away\n  But only man the fiend may slay.\u201d\n                         --+GRIFFITH.+\n\nOn receiving this reply the gods petitioned Vishnu to divide himself\ninto four parts and to appear on earth, incarnate as the promised sons\nof Dasahratha, and thus, in human form, to rid the world of Ravana.\nVishnu consented. He proceeded to the earth and appeared amidst the\nsacrificial flames of Dasahratha\u2019s offering, in an assumed form \u201cof\nmatchless splendour, strength and size\u201d--black, with a red face, and\nshaggy hair--apparelled in crimson robes, and adorned with celestial\nornaments, holding in his hands a vase of gold, containing heavenly\nnectar, which he handed to the king, with instructions to make his\nthree queens partake of the sacred draught, in order that they might\nbe blessed with sons.\n\nDasahratha distributed the nectar amongst his wives, though not in\nequal proportions. In due time the promised sons were born, viz., Rama,\nLakshmana, Bharata and Satrughna. Rama possessed the larger share of\nthe divine nature and decidedly excelled his brothers in prowess.\nTo him, especially, was allotted the task of destroying Ravana. And\ncountless hosts of monkeys and bears were begotten by the gods, at\nBrahma\u2019s[19] suggestion, to aid him in his work.\n\nWhilst yet a mere stripling, Rama was appealed to by the sage\nVishwamitra to destroy certain demons who interrupted the religious\nrites of the hermits.\n\nThe boy was only sixteen years of age, and Dasahratha, naturally\nsolicitous for his safety, declined to let him go to fight the dreadful\nbrood of demons, who had an evil reputation for cruelty and ferocity;\nbut the mighty ascetic waxed so wrath at this refusal of his request,\nthat \u201cthe entire earth began to tremble and the gods even were inspired\nwith awe.\u201d Vasishta, the king\u2019s spiritual adviser, who had unbounded\nconfidence in Vishwamitra\u2019s power to protect the prince from all harm,\nstrongly advised compliance with the ascetic\u2019s request, and Dasahratha\nwas prevailed upon to allow Rama and Lakshmana to leave Ayodhya with\nVishwamitra.\n\nThe incidents of the journey reveal a very primitive state of society.\nThe princes and their guide were all of them on foot, apparently\nquite unattended by servants and unprovided with even the most\nordinary necessaries of life. When they reached the River Surayu,[20]\nVishwamitra communicated certain _mantras_ or spells to Rama, by the\nknowledge of which he would be protected from fatigue and fever[21] and\nfrom the possibility of being surprised by the Rakshasas against whom\nhe was going to wage war.\n\nThe land through which our travellers journeyed was sparsely inhabited.\nA goodly portion of it seems to have been covered with woods, more or\nless pleasant, abounding in the hermitages of ascetics, some of whom\nhad been carrying on their austerities for _thousands of years_. Beside\nthese pleasant woods there were vast, trackless forests, infested\nby ferocious beasts and grim Rakshasas, and it was not long before\nthe might of the semi-divine stripling, Rama, was tried against one\nof these terrible creatures, Tarika by name, an ogress of dreadful\npower, whom Rama undertook to destroy \u201cin the interests of Brahmans,\nkine and celestials.\u201d When the ascetic and the two princes arrived in\nthe dark forest where the dreaded Tarika ruled supreme, Rama twanged\nhis bowstring loudly, as a haughty challenge to this redoubtable\ngiantess. Incensed at the audacious sound of the bowstring, Tarika\nuttered terrible roars and rushed out to attack the presumptuous\nprince. The ascetic raised a defiant roar in response. That was his\nentire contribution to the combat in which Rama and his adversary were\nimmediately involved, Lakshmana taking part in it also. This, the\nfirst conflict in which Rama was engaged, may be taken as a type of\nall his subsequent battles. Raising clouds of dust, Tarika, \u201cby help\nof illusion,\u201d poured a shower of huge stones upon the brothers, but\nthese ponderous missiles were met and arrested in mid-air by a volley\nof arrows. The battle raged fiercely, but the brothers succeeded with\ntheir shafts in depriving Tarika of her hands, her nose and her ears.\nThus disabled and disfigured, Tarika changed her shape[22] and even\nconcealed herself from view, while still continuing the fight with\nunabated fury; but Rama, guided by sound alone, assailed his invisible\nfoe with such effect that he eventually laid her dead at his feet, to\nthe joy of Vishwamitra and the relief of the denizens of the great\nforest over which she had terrorized.\n\nAfter this successful combat, the ascetic, Vishwamitra, conferred\non Rama a gift of strange weapons, which even the celestials were\nincapable of wielding. How very different the magic weapons received by\nRama were from those familiar to the sons of men, will be apparent from\nthe poet\u2019s statement that the weapons themselves made their appearance\nspontaneously before Rama, \u201cand with clasped hands, they, well-pleased,\naddressed Rama thus: These, O highly generous one, are thy servants, O\nRaghava. Whatever thou wishest, good betide thee, shall by all means be\naccomplished by us.\u201d\n\nSuch wonderful and efficient weapons, endowed with a consciousness and\nindividuality of their own, needed, however, to be kept under strict\ncontrol, lest in their over-zeal or excitement they might effect\nundesigned and irreparable mischief. The sage accordingly communicated\nto Rama the various _mantras_ or spells by which they might, on\ncritical occasions, be restrained and regulated in their operations.\n\nIn their woodland wanderings amongst the hermitages the brothers and\ntheir guide came across many sages whose laborious austerities were\nconstantly being hindered by wicked, flesh-eating Rakshasas. Indeed\nthe world, outside the cities and villages,--which it would seem were\nvery few and far between,--as pictured by Valmiki, is a very strange\none, mostly peopled by two sets of beings, _hermits_ striving after\nsupernatural power through the practice of austerities, and _demons_\nbent on frustrating their endeavours by unseasonable interruptions of\ntheir rites, or impious pollution of their sacrifices. Sometimes, as in\nthe case of Ravana, the demons themselves would practise austerities\nfor the attainment of power.\n\nVery prominent figures in the poem are the great ascetics, like\nVishwamitra himself, who, a Kshatriya by caste and a king by lineage,\nhad obtained, through dire austerities prolonged over thousands of\nyears, the exalted rank and power of _Brahmanhood_. A single example of\nhis self-inflicted hardships and the consequences resulting therefrom\nmay not be out of place. He once restrained his breath for a thousand\nyears, when vapours began to issue from his head, \u201cand at this the\nthree worlds became afflicted with fear.\u201d Like most of his order,\nhe was a very proud and irate personage, ready, upon very slight\nprovocation, to utter a terrible and not-to-be-escaped-from curse.[23]\nOnce, in a fit of rage against the celestials, Vishwamitra created\nentire systems of stars and even threatened, in his fury, to create\nanother India by \u201cthe process of his self-earned asceticism.\u201d\n\nThe life led by the princely brothers in their pedestrian wanderings\nwith this mighty sage was simplicity itself. They performed their\nreligious rites regularly, adoring the rising sun, the blazing fire or\nthe flowing river, as the case might be. Their sojourn in the forests\nwas enlivened by pleasant communion with the hermits to whose kind\nhospitality they were usually indebted for a night\u2019s lodging, if such\nit can be called, and a simple fare of milk and fruits. Vishwamitra\nadded interest to their journeyings by satisfying the curiosity of\nthe brothers in regard to the history of the several places they\nvisited. Here, as he informed them, the god Rudra had performed his\nausterities--for even the gods were not above the necessity and\nambition of ascetic practices--and blasted the impious Kama into\nnothingness with a breath. There, the great god Vishnu of mighty\nasceticism, worshipped of all the deities, dwelt during hundreds of\n_Yugas_, for the purpose of carrying on his austerities and practising\n_yoga_.[24] At one time Vishwamitra would relate the history of the\norigin of Ganga and of her descent upon the earth, as the mighty and\npurifying Ganges, chief of rivers. At another time he would himself\nlisten complacently, along with his princely companions, to the history\nof his own wonderful asceticism and marvellous performances, as the\nwise Satananda related it for the special edification of Rama.\n\nSo passed away the time in the forests, not altogether peacefully,\nhowever, for the object of the journey would not have been fulfilled\nwithout sundry fierce and entirely successful encounters with the\nRakshasas, those fiendish interrupters of sacrifice and persistent\nenemies of the anchorites. Eventually the wanderers came to the kingdom\nof Mithila, whose king, Janaka,[25] had a lovely daughter to bestow\nupon the worthy and fortunate man who should bend a certain formidable\nbow which had belonged to Siva and which he had once threatened to use\nin the destruction of the gods.\n\nJanaka\u2019s daughter, the famous Sita, whose matrimonial future was thus\nconnected with Siva\u2019s bow, was of superhuman origin, having sprung from\nthe earth in a mysterious manner; for, while Janaka was ploughing the\nground in the course of a child-conferring sacrifice, the lovely maiden\nhad, by the favour of the gods, come to him out of the furrow.\n\nAllured by the fame of Sita\u2019s beauty, suitor after suitor had come to\nMithila and tried that tough bow of Siva\u2019s, but without success; and\nRama\u2019s curiosity was awakened about both the mighty weapon and the\nmaiden fair.\n\nHaving been introduced by Vishwamitra to the King of Mithila, Rama\nwas allowed to essay his strength against the huge bow, and huge it\nwas indeed, for it had to be carried on an eight-wheeled cart which\n\u201cwas with difficulty drawn along by five thousand stalwart persons of\nwell-developed frames.\u201d To Rama, however, the bending of this gigantic\nbow was an easy matter, and he not only bent but broke it too, at which\nevent all present, overwhelmed by the noise, rolled head over heels,\nwith the exception of Vishwamitra, the \u201cking and the two Raghavas.\u201d\nThe lovely and much-coveted prize was Rama\u2019s of course. Arrangements\nfor the wedding were carried out in grand style. Dasahratha and his\ntwo other sons were invited to Mithila and brides were found, in the\nfamily of Janaka, for all the _four_ brothers. Upon a da\u00efs covered with\na canopy, and decked with flowers, the happy brides and bridegrooms\nwere placed, attended by the king and the priests of the two families.\nWater-pots, golden ladles, censers, and conches, together with\nplatters containing rice, butter, curds and other things for the _Hom_\nsacrifice, were also arranged for use on the platform. The sacrificial\nfire was lighted, the appropriate _mantras_ repeated, and the four\nbridegrooms led their brides first round the fire, and then round the\nking and the priests. At this stage of the proceedings showers of\ncelestial flowers rained down upon the happy couples, now united in the\nbonds of matrimony.[26] After these marriages the return to Ayodhya was\naccomplished with rejoicings and in great state; but Vishwamitra took\nhis solitary way to the Northern Mountains.\n\nAs the years went by and Rama was grown to man\u2019s estate he was endowed\nwith every princely virtue; the people idolized him, and his father,\ndesirous of retiring from the cares of government, determined to place\nhim upon the throne. But, although apparently simple of execution,\nthis arrangement was beset with difficulties. Rama was the son of the\nRajah\u2019s eldest and principal wife; but Bharata was the son of his\nfavourite wife, the slender-waisted Kaikeyi. The suffrages of the\npeople and Dasahratha\u2019s own wishes were entirely in favour of Rama,\nbut, apparently unwilling to face the grief or opposition of his\ndarling Kaikeyi, the king took advantage of Bharata\u2019s absence on a\nvisit to a distant court to carry out the rather sudden preparations\nfor Rama\u2019s installation as Yuva-Rajah, hoping, it would seem, to keep\nKaikeyi in complete ignorance of what was being done. The whole city,\nhowever, was in a state of bustle and excitement at the approaching\nevent. The streets were being washed and watered, flag-staffs were\nbeing erected on every side, gay bunting was floating about and\ngarlands of flowers adorned the houses. Musicians played in the\nhighways and in the temples, and, notwithstanding the seclusion\nof the women\u2019s apartments, it was impossible to conceal from the\ninmates of the _zenana_ what was going on in the great world outside.\nA deformed and cunning slave-girl, named Manthara, found out and\nrevealed the whole plot to Bharata\u2019s mother. At first Kaikeyi received\nthe intelligence with pleasure, for Rama was dear to everybody; but\nthe slave-girl so worked upon her feelings of envy and jealousy, by\nartfully picturing to her the very inferior position she would hold in\nthe world\u2019s estimation, the painful slights she would have to endure\nand the humiliation she would have to suffer, once Kau\u00e7alya\u2019s son was\nraised to the throne, that in a passion of rage and grief, she threw\naway her ornaments and, with dishevelled hair, flew to the \u201c_chamber\nof sorrow_\u201d and flung herself down upon the floor, weeping bitterly.\nHere the old king found her \u201clike a sky enveloped in darkness with the\nstars hid\u201d and had to endure the angry reproaches of his disconsolate\nfavourite. Acting upon a suggestion of the deformed slave-girl, the\nqueen reminded her husband of a promise made by him long previously,\nthat he would grant her any two requests she might make. She now\ndemanded the fulfilment of the royal promise, her two requests being\nthat Rama should be sent away into banishment in the forests for\na period of fourteen years and that her own son Bharata should be\nelevated to the dignity of Yuva-Rajah. On these terms, and on these\nonly, would the offended and ambitious Kaikeyi be reconciled to her\nuxorious lord. If these conditions were refused she was resolved to\nrid the king of her hated presence. Dasahratha, poor old man, was\noverwhelmed by this unexpected crisis. He fell at his wife\u2019s feet,\nhe explained that preparations for Rama\u2019s installation had already\ncommenced, he besought her not to expose him to ridicule and contempt,\nhe coaxed and flattered her, alluding to her lovely eyes and shapely\nhips, he extolled Rama\u2019s affectionate devotion to herself. He next\nheaped bitter reproaches upon Kaikeyi\u2019s unreasonable pride and finally\nswooned away in despair. But she was firm in her purpose and would not\nbe shaken by anything, kind or unkind, that this \u201clord of earth\u201d could\nsay to her. The royal word she knew was sacred, and had to be kept at\nany cost.\n\nAs soon as it came to be known what a strange and unforeseen turn\nevents had taken, the female apartments were the scene of loud\nlamentations, and the entire city was plunged in mourning. Rama, of\nexpansive and coppery eyes,[27] long-armed, dark blue like a lotus, a\nmighty bowman of matchless strength, with the gait of a mad elephant,\nbrave, truthful, humble-minded, respectful and generous to Brahmans,\nand having his passions under complete control, was the idol of the\nzenana, the court, and the populace. The thought of his unmerited\nbanishment to the forests was intolerable to everyone. But he himself,\nwith exemplary filial devotion, prepared to go into exile at once,\nwithout a murmur. The poet devotes considerable space to a minute\ndescription of the sorrow experienced by the prominent characters in\nthe story on account of Rama\u2019s banishment. Each one indulges in a\nlengthy lamentation, picturing the privations and sufferings of the\nill-fated trio, and nearly everyone protests that it will be impossible\nto live without Rama. With affectionate regard for Sita\u2019s comfort, and\nloving apprehension for her safety, Rama resolved to leave her behind\nwith his mother; but no argument, no inducement, could prevail upon\nthe devoted wife to be parted from her beloved husband. What were the\nterrors of the forest to her, what the discomfort of the wilderness,\nwhen shared with Rama? Racked with sorrow at the proposed separation,\nSita burst into a flood of tears and became almost insensible with\ngrief. At the sight of her tribulation Rama, overcome with emotion,\nthrew his arms about his dear wife and agreed to take her with him,\ncome what may.\n\nLakshmana, with devoted loyalty, would also accompany his brother into\nexile.\n\nKaikeyi, apprehensive of delays, hurried on their preparations, and\nherself, unblushingly, provided them with the bark dresses worn by\nascetics. The two brothers donned their new vestments in the king\u2019s\npresence.\n\n  \u201cBut Sita, in her silks arrayed,\n  Threw glances, trembling and afraid,\n  On the bark coat she had to wear\n  Like a shy doe that eyes the snare.\n  Ashamed and weeping for distress\n  From the queen\u2019s hand she took the dress.\n  The fair one, by her husband\u2019s side,\n  Who matched heaven\u2019s minstrel monarch, cried:\n  \u2018How bind they on their woodland dress,\n  Those hermits of the wilderness?\u2019\n  There stood the pride of Janak\u2019s race\n  Perplexed, with sad appealing face,\n  One coat the lady\u2019s fingers grasped,\n  One round her neck she feebly clasped,\n  But failed again, again, confused\n  By the wild garb she ne\u2019er had used.\n  Then quickly hastening Rama, pride\n  Of all who cherish virtue, tied\n  The rough bark mantle on her, o\u2019er\n  The silken raiment that she wore.\n  Then the sad women when they saw\n  Rama the choice bark round her draw,\n  Rained water from each tender eye\n  And cried aloud with bitter cry.\u201d[28]\n                             --+GRIFFITH.+\n\nAfter giving away vast treasures to the Brahmans the ill-fated trio\ntook a pathetic leave of the now miserable old king, of Kau\u00e7alya\nwho mourned like a cow deprived of her calf, of Sumitra the mother\nof Lakshmana, and of their \u201cother three hundred and fifty mothers.\u201d\nWith an exalted sense of filial duty the exiles also bid a respectful\nand affectionate farewell to Kaikeyi, the cruel author of their\nunmerited banishment, Rama remarking that it was not her own heart,\nbut \u201c_Destiny_ alone that had made her press for the prevention of his\ninstallation.\u201d\n\nWhen Rama and his companions appeared in the streets of the capital,\nin the dress of ascetics, the populace loudly deplored their fate,\nextolling the virtues of Rama while giving vent to their feelings of\ndisapproval at the king\u2019s weak compliance with his favourite\u2019s whim.\nSita came in for her share of popular pity and admiration, since she\n\u201cwhom formerly the very rangers of the sky could not see, was to-day\nbeheld by every passer-by.\u201d\n\nA royal chariot conveyed away to the inhospitable wilderness the two\nbrothers and faithful Sita, torn from stately Ayodhya, their luxurious\npalaces and the arms of their fond parents. All they carried with them,\nin the chariot, was their armour and weapons, \u201ca basket bound in hide\nand a hoe.\u201d Crowds of people, abandoning their homes, followed in the\ntrack of the chariot, resolved to share the fate of the exiles. And\nsuch was the grief of the people that the dust raised by the wheels\nof the car occupied by Rama and his companions was laid by the tears\nof the citizens. They drove at once to the jungles and rested there\nfor the night. During the hours of slumber the exiles considerately\ngave their followers the slip and hurried off, in the chariot, towards\nthe great forest of Dandhaka. When they arrived at the banks of the\nsacred and delightful Ganges the charioteer was dismissed with\ntender messages to the old king from his exiled children. After the\ndeparture of the charioteer Rama and his companions began their forest\nwanderings on foot. Their hermit-life was now to commence in earnest.\nBefore entering the dark forests that lay before them, the brothers\nresolved to wear \u201cthat ornament of ascetics, a head of matted hair,\u201d\nand, accordingly, produced the desired _coiffure_ with the aid of the\nglutinous sap of the banyan tree. Thus prepared and clothed in bark\nlike the saints, the brothers, with faithful Sita, entered a boat\nwhich chanced to be at the river-side and began the passage of the\nGanges. As they crossed the river the pious Sita, with joined hands,\naddressed the goddess of the sacred stream, praying for a happy return\nto Ayodhya, when their days of exile should be over. Having arrived\non the other bank, the exiles entered the forest in Indian file,\nLakshmana leading and Rama bringing up the rear. Passing by Sringavara\non the Ganges, they proceeded to Prayaga at the junction of the Ganges\nand the Jumna. Here they were hospitably entertained by the sage\nBharadvaja, who recommended them to seek an asylum on the pleasant\nslopes of wooded Chitrakuta. On the way thither Sita, ever mindful of\nher religious duties, adored the Kalindi river--which they crossed on\na raft constructed by themselves--and paid her respects to a gigantic\nbanyan tree, near which many ascetics had taken up their abode. On the\nromantic and picturesque side of Chitrakuta the exiles built themselves\na cottage, thatched with leaves, \u201cwalled with wood, and furnished with\ndoors.\u201d Game, fruits, and roots abounded in the neighbourhood, so\nthat they need have no anxiety about their supplies. So much did they\nappreciate the quiet beauties of their sylvan retreat, the cool shade,\nthe perfumed flowers, the sparkling rivulets and the noble river, that\nthey became almost reconciled to their separation from their friends\nand the lordly palaces of Ayodhya, in which city important things were\nhappening.\n\nThe exile of Rama had been too much for the doting old Maharajah.[29]\nWeighed down by sorrow, he soon succumbed to his troubles, and Bharata,\nwho was still absent at Giri-braja, was hastily summoned to take up the\nregal office. He, accompanied by his brother Satrughna, hurried to the\ncapital, and finding, on his arrival, how matters really stood, heaped\nreproaches upon his wicked, ambitious mother, indignantly refusing to\nbenefit by her artful machinations. In a transport of grief Bharata\n\u201cfell to the earth sighing like an enraged snake,\u201d while Satrughna,\non his part, seized the deformed slave-girl Manthara, and literally\nshook the senses out of her. In Rama\u2019s absence, Bharata performed his\nfather\u2019s obsequies with great pomp. The dead body of the late king,\nwhich had been preserved in oil, was carried in procession to the river\nside and there burnt, together with heaps of boiled rice and sacrificed\nanimals. A few days later the _sraddha_ ceremonies for the welfare of\nthe spirit of the departed king were performed, and, as usual, costly\npresents,--money, lands, houses, goats and kine, also servant-men and\nservant-maids were bestowed upon the fortunate Brahmans.\n\nWhen this pious duty, which occupied thirteen days, had been fulfilled,\naffairs of State demanded attention. Bharata, although pressed to do\nso, resolutely declined to accept the sceptre, and resolved to set out,\nwith a vast following, on a visit to Rama in his retreat, hoping to\npersuade him to abandon his hermit-life and undertake the government\nof the realm. Great preparations had to be made for this visit to\nRama, which was a sort of wholesale exodus of the people of Ayodhya\nof all ranks and occupations. A grand army was to accompany Bharata,\nand the court, with all the ladies of the royal family, including\nthe no-doubt-reluctant Kaikeyi, were to swell the procession. A road\nhad to be made for the projected march of this host; streams had to\nbe bridged, ferries provided at the larger rivers, and able guides\nsecured. When the road was ready and the preparations for the journey\ncompleted, chariots and horsemen in thousands crowded the way, mingled\nwith a vast multitude of citizens riding in carts. Artificers of every\nkind attended the royal camp. Armourers, weavers, tailors, potters,\nglass-makers, goldsmiths and gem-cutters, were there; so also were\nphysicians, actors and shampooers, peacock-dancers and men whose\nprofession it was to provide warm baths for their customers. Of course\nthe Brahman element was strongly represented in this great procession\nfrom the flourishing city to the solitudes of the forest. Bharata\u2019s\nmarch is described at great length by the poet; but only one incident\nneed be mentioned here. On the way the hermit Bharadvaja, desirous of\ndoing Bharata honour, and probably not unwilling to display his power,\ninvited him and his followers, of whom, as we have seen, there were\nmany thousands, to a feast at his hermitage. At the command of the\nsaint the forest became transformed into lovely gardens, abounding in\nflowers and fruit. Palaces of matchless beauty sprang into existence.\nMusic filled the cool and perfumed air. Food and drink, including meat\nand wine, appeared in profusion:--soups and curries are especially\nmentioned, and the flesh of goats and bears, deer, peacocks and cocks;\nalso rice, milk and sugar. In addition to all this, a host of heavenly\nnymphs from Swarga descended to indulge in soft dalliance with the\nravished warriors of Bharata\u2019s army.\n\n  \u201cThen beauteous women, seven or eight,\n  Stood ready by each man to wait.\n  Beside the stream his limbs they stripped,\n  And in the cooling water dipped,\n  And then the fair ones, sparkling-eyed,\n  With soft hands rubbed his limbs and dried,\n  And sitting on the lovely bank\n  Held up the wine-cup as he drank.\u201d\n                                --+GRIFFITH.+\n\nFor one day and one night the intoxicating enjoyment continued; and\nthen, at the word of command, all the creations of the sage\u2019s power\nvanished, leaving the forest in its wonted gloom.\n\nHaving taken a respectful leave of the mighty ascetic, Bharata and his\nfollowers threaded their way through the dense forests towards the\nMountain Chitrakuta and the River Mandakini. After a long march they at\nlast found the object of their desire, the high-souled Rama, \u201cseated in\na cottage, bearing a head of matted locks, clad in black deerskin and\nhaving tattered cloth and bark for his garment.\u201d When Rama heard of his\nfather\u2019s death he was deeply moved and fell insensible upon the ground,\n\u201clike a blooming tree that hath been hewn by an axe.\u201d The loving\nVaidehi (Sita) and the brothers Lakshmana and Bharata sprinkled water\non the face of the prostrate man and restored him to animation, when\nhe at once burst into loud and prolonged lamentations. Presently Rama\npulled himself together and duly performed the funeral rites, pouring\nout libations of water and making an offering of _ingudi_ fruits to\nthe spirit of his departed father. These offerings were not worthy of\nbeing presented to the manes of so great a man as Dasahratha; but were\njustifiable, under the circumstances of the case, on the accepted\nprinciple that \u201cthat which is the fare of an individual is also the\nfare of his divinities.\u201d[30] Bharata and the rest, respectfully sitting\nbefore Rama with joined hands, entreated him, with the greatest\nhumility, to undertake the reins of government; but he was not to be\npersuaded to do so. He would not break the resolution he had made, nor\nwould he be disloyal to his dead father\u2019s commands. Then Javali, a\nBrahman atheist, insisting that there was and could be no hereafter,\nthat Dasahratha, once his sire, was now mere nothing, advised the\nprince to yield to the reasonable wishes of the living and return\nwith them to rule over the kingdom of his ancestors. Rama, however,\nwarmly rebuked the atheist for his impiety, and all that Bharata could\naccomplish was merely to induce him to put off from his feet a pair of\nsandals adorned with gold, which he (Bharata) carried back with him\nin great state to the deserted Ayodhya--now inhabited only by cats\nand owls--as a visible symbol of his brother Rama, in whose name he\nundertook to carry on the affairs of the State until the appointed\nfourteen years of exile should have run their course.\n\nThe incidents connected with Rama\u2019s exile to the forests, his life\nand rambles at Chitrakuta, Bharata\u2019s imposing march through the same\nwooded country which the exiles had traversed, affords the poet of\nthe \u201cRamayana\u201d rare opportunities of displaying his love for the\npicturesque and his strong natural leaning towards the serene, if\nuneventful, life of the hermit. Often in these early forest rovings,\nand indeed throughout the fourteen years of exile, does Rama, or\nsome other one, linger to note and admire the beauties of woodland\nand landscape, and to hold loving communion with the fair things of\nfield and forest. Though he praises the cities, and pictures their\ngrandeur of gold and gems, it is plain throughout that the poet\u2019s\nheart is in the woods, displaying on his part an appreciation of\nthe charms of nature and scenery, very remarkable, indeed, when we\nconsider how slowly the taste for the beauties of inanimate nature was\ndeveloped in Europe. After Bharata\u2019s return to Ayodhya, Rama and his\ncompanions moved further southwards, in the direction of the great\nforest of Dandhaka, which extended indeed as far as the Godavari. In\ntheir wanderings they came to the abode of a certain ascetic whose\nwife, having performed severe austerities for ten thousand years,\nwas privileged, during ten years of drought, to create fruits and\nroots for the sustenance of the people and to divert the course of\nthe river Jumna, so that its waters should flow by the thirsty asylum\nof the hermits. This ancient dame took a great fancy to Vaidehi,\nand, woman-like, gave her fair disciple a worthy gift, consisting of\nfine apparel, of beautiful ornaments, a precious cosmetic for the\nbeautification of her person, and a rare garland of flowers. Nor was\nthe old lady contented until she had seen the effect of her present on\nJanaka\u2019s charming daughter, who had pleased her much by her good sense\nin affirming that \u201cthe asceticism of woman is ministering unto her\nhusband.\u201d\n\nWheresoever the exiles turned their steps, in these almost trackless\nforests, they were told of the evil doings of the Rakshasas, who not\nonly interrupted the sacrifices, but actually carried off and devoured\nthe anchorites. Very curious, too, were the ways in which some of these\nRakshasas compassed the destruction of the saints. One of them, the\nwily Ilwala, well acquainted with Sanskrit, would assume the form of\na Brahman and invite the hermits to a _sraddha_ feast. His brother,\nin the assumed form of a sheep, would be slaughtered and cooked for\nhis guests. When they had enjoyed their repast the cruel Ilwala\nwould command his brother Vatapi to \u201ccome forth,\u201d which he would do\nunreluctantly, and with a vengeance, bleating loudly and rending the\nbodies of the unhappy guests, of whom thousands were disposed of in\nthis truly Rakshasa fashion. It is noteworthy that those ascetics who\nhad, by long and severe austerities, acquired a goodly store of merit,\nmight easily have made short work of the Rakshasas; but, on the other\nhand, if they allowed their angry passions to rise, even against such\nimpious beings, they would, while punishing their tormentors, have\ninevitably lost the entire advantage of their long and painful labours.\nHence many of the hermits made a direct appeal to Rama for protection.\n\nEntering the forest of Dandhaka the exiles encountered a huge, terrible\nand misshapen monster, besmeared with fat and covered with blood,\nwho was roaring horribly with his widely distended mouth, while with\nhis single spear he held transfixed before him quite a menagerie of\nlions, tigers, leopards and other wild animals. This awful being\nrushed towards the trio, and, quick as thought, snatched up the gentle\nVaidehi in his arms, bellowing out \u201cI am a Rakshasa, Viradha by name.\nThis forest is my fortress. Accoutred in arms I range (here), feeding\non the flesh of ascetics. This transcendantly beauteous one shall be\nmy wife. And in battle I shall drink your blood, wretches that ye\nare.\u201d At this juncture, Rama, as on some other trying occasions, gave\nway to unseasonable lamentations and tears; but Lakshmana, always\npractical, bravely recalled him to the necessity of immediate action.\nThe Rakshasa, having ascertained who his opponents were, vauntingly\nassured them that, having gratified Brahma by his asceticism, he had\nobtained this boon from him, that no one in the world could slay him\nwith weapons; and he mockingly advised the princes to renounce Sita\nand go their way. But Rama\u2019s wrath was now kindled, and he began a\nvigorous attack upon the monster, piercing him with many arrows. A\nshort, though fierce, combat ensued, the result being that the Rakshasa\nseized and carried off both Rama and Lakshmana on his ample shoulders.\nHis victory now seemed complete, and Sita,--who had apparently been\ndropped during the combat,--dreading to be left alone in the terrible\nwilderness, piteously implored the monster (whom she insinuatingly\naddressed as the \u201cbest of Rakshasas\u201d) to take her and to release the\nnoble princes. The sound of her dear voice acted like a charm upon the\nbrothers, and, with a vigorous and simultaneous effort, they broke both\nthe monster\u2019s arms at once, and then attacked him with their _fists_.\nThey brought him to the ground exhausted, and Rama, planting his foot\nupon the throat of his prostrate foe, directed Lakshmana to dig a deep\npit for his reception, and when it was ready, they flung him into it.\nThe dying monster, thus overcome, _though not with weapons_, explained\nthat he had been imprisoned in that dreadful form of his by the curse\nof a famous ascetic, and was destined to be freed from it only by the\nhand of Rama. With this explanation the spirit of the departed Viradha\npassed into the celestial regions.\n\nRama, with his wife and brother, now sought the hermitage of the sage\nSarabhanga, and on approaching it, a strange, unexpected and imposing\nsight presented itself to Rama\u2019s view:--Indra, attended by his court,\nin conversation with the forest sage! The god of heaven, in clean\napparel and adorned with celestial jewels, was seated in a wondrous\ncar drawn by green horses up in the sky. Over him was expanded a\nspotless umbrella, and two lovely damsels waved gold-handled _chowrees_\nabove his head. About him were bands of resplendent celestials hymning\nhis praises.\n\nAt Rama\u2019s approach the god withdrew and the sage advised the prince to\nseek the guidance of another ascetic named Sutikshna, adding, \u201cThis\nis thy course, thou best of men. Do thou now, my child, for a space\nlook at me while I leave off my limbs, even as a serpent renounces\nits slough.\u201d Then kindling a sacrificial fire, and making oblations\nto it with the appropriate _mantras_, Sarabhanga entered the flames\nhimself. The fire consumed his old decrepit body, and he was gradually\ntransformed, in the midst of the flames, into a splendid youth of\ndazzling brightness, and, mounting upwards, ascended to the heaven of\nBrahma. After Sarabhanga had left the earth in this striking manner,\nbands of ascetics waited on Rama, reminded him of his duty as a king,\nand solicited his protection against the Rakshasas. As Rama and his\ncompanions wandered on through the forests another wonder soon engaged\ntheir attention. Sweet music reached them from beneath the waters of a\ncharming lake covered with lotuses, and on inquiring about the strange\nphenomenon, a hermit told them that a great ascetic had formed that\nlake. By his fierce austerities, extending over ten thousand years,\nhe had acquired such a store of merit that the gods, with Agni at\ntheir head, began to fear that he desired a position of equality with\nthemselves. To lure him away from such ideas they sent him five lovely\nApsaras to try the power of their charms upon him. Sage though he\nwas, he succumbed to their allurements, and now, weaned from his old\nambitions, he passed his time in youth and happiness--the reward of\nhis austerities and _yoga_ practices--in the company of the seductive\nsirens whose sweet voices, blending with the tinklings of their\ninstruments, came softly to the ears of the wandering princes.\n\nSita, who had confidently followed her husband, like his very shadow,\nthrough all these adventurous years in the forest, seems at length to\nhave been somewhat shaken by the very risky encounter with Viradha,\nof which she had been an unwilling and terrified eye-witness, in\nwhich her own person had been the object of contention, and which\nhad threatened, at one critical moment, to end very tragically for\nher and her loved ones. Under the influence of these recent and\nimpressive experiences, Sita ventured, in her gentle, womanly way, to\nsuggest to her husband the advisability of avoiding all semblance of\nhostility towards the Rakshasas. There were, she timidly assured her\nhusband, three sins to which desire gave rise: untruthfulness, the\ncoveting of other men\u2019s wives, and the wish to indulge in unnecessary\nhostilities. Of untruthfulness, and of allowing his thoughts to stray\ntowards other women, Sita unhesitatingly exonerated her lord; but\nshe artfully insinuated that, in his dealings with the Rakshasas, he\nwas giving way to the sin of provoking hostilities without adequate\ncause, and she advised his laying aside his arms during his wanderings\nin the forest; since the mere carrying of bows and arrows was enough\nto kindle the wish to use them. To give point to this contention,\nVaidehi related how, in the olden time, there lived in the woods a\ntruthful ascetic whose incessant austerities Indra desired, for some\nreason or other, to frustrate. For the attainment of his end the king\nof heaven visited the hermit in the guise of a warrior, and left his\nsword with him as a trust. Scrupulously regardful of his obligation\nto his visitor, the ascetic carried the sword with him wherever duty\nor necessity directed his footsteps, till constant association with\nthe weapon began to engender fierce sentiments, leading eventually to\nthe spiritual downfall of the poor ascetic, whose ultimate portion was\nhell. Rama received Sita\u2019s advice in the loving spirit in which it was\noffered, and thanking her for it, explained that it was his _duty_ to\nprotect the saints from the oppression of the evil Rakshasas, and that\nKshatriyas carried bows in order that the word \u201cdistressed\u201d might not\nbe known on this earth.\n\nSeveral years of exile slipped away, not unpleasantly, in the shady\nforests through which the royal brothers roamed from hermitage to\nhermitage, always accompanied by the lovely and faithful Sita, whose\npart throughout is one of affectionate, unfaltering and unselfish\ndevotion to her husband. On the banks of the Godavari, Lakshmana, who\nhas to do all the hard work for the party, built them a spacious hut\nof clay, leaves and bamboos, propped with pillars and furnished with a\nfine level floor, and there they lived happily near the rushing river.\nAt length the brothers got involved in a contest with a brood of giants\nwho roved about the woods of Dandhaka, delighting, as usual, in the\nflesh of hermits and the interruption of sacred rites. This time it\nwas a woman who was at the bottom of their troubles. Surpanakha, an\nugly giantess and sister of Ravana, charmed with the beauty and grace\nof Rama, came to him, and, madly in love, offered to be his wife. But\nRama in flattering terms put her off, saying he was already married.\nIn sport, apparently, he bid her try her luck with Lakshmana. She took\nhis advice, but Lakshmana does not seem to have been tempted by the\noffer, and, while artfully addressing her as \u201csupremely charming and\nsuperbly beautiful lady,\u201d advised her to become the younger wife of\nRama, to whom he referred her again. Enraged by this double rejection,\nthe giantess attempted to kill Sita, as the hated obstacle to the\nfulfilment of her desires. The brothers, of course, interposed, and\nLakshmana, always impetuous, punished the monster by cutting off her\nnose. Surpanakha fled away to her brother Khara, and roused the giant\nRakshasas to avenge her wounds. These terrible giants possessed the\npower of changing their forms at will; but their numbers and their\nprowess were alike of little avail against the valour and skill of\nRama, who, alone and unaided,--for he sent Lakshmana away with Sita\ninto an inaccessible cave,--destroyed fourteen thousand of them in a\nsingle day. The combat, which was witnessed by the gods and Gandharvas,\nSiddhas and Charanas, is described at great length, and the narrative\nis copiously interspersed with the boastful speeches of the rival\nchiefs. In the bewildering conflict of that day his fourteen thousand\nassailants poured upon Rama showers of arrows, rocks, and trees.\nComing to close quarters they attacked him vigorously with clubs,\ndarts, and nooses. Although hard pressed and sorely wounded, the hero\nmaintained the conflict with undaunted courage, sending such thousands\nof wonderful arrows from his bow that the sun was darkened and the\nmissiles of his enemies warded off by them. Finally Rama succeeded\nin laying dead upon that awful field of carnage nearly the entire\nnumber of his fierce assailants. Khara, the leader of the opposing\nhost, a worthy adversary and possessed of wondrous weapons, still\nlived. Enraged at, but undaunted by, the wholesale destruction of\nhis followers, Khara boldly continued the fight. In his war-chariot,\nbright as the sun, he seemed to be the Destroyer himself, as he\nfiercely assailed the victorious Rama. With one arrow he severed the\nhero\u2019s bow in his hand; with seven other shafts like thunder-bolts\nhe severed his armour joints, so that the glittering mail fell from\nhis body. He next wounded the prince with a thousand darts. Not yet\novercome, however, Rama strung another bow, the mighty bow of Vishnu,\nand discharging shafts with golden feathers, brought Khara\u2019s standard\nto the ground. Transported with wrath at this ill-omened event, Khara\npoured five arrows into Rama\u2019s bosom. The prince responded with six\nterrible bolts, some of them crescent-headed. One struck the chief\nin the head, two of the others entered his arms, and the remaining\nthree his chest. Following these up with thirteen of the same kind,\nRama destroyed his enemy\u2019s chariot, killed his horses, decapitated his\ncharioteer, and shattered his bow in his grasp. Khara jumped to the\nground armed with a mace, ready to renew the conflict. At this juncture\nRama paused a moment to read the Rakshasa a homily on his evil doings;\nthe latter replied with fierce boasts, and hurled his mace at Rama,\nwho cut it into two fragments with his arrows as it sped through the\nair. Khara now uprooted a lofty tree and hurled it at his foe; but, as\nbefore, Rama cut it into pieces with his arrow ere it reached him, and\nwith a shaft resembling fire put a period to the life of the gallant\nRakshasa. At this conclusion of the conflict the celestials sounded\ntheir kettle-drums, and showered down flowers upon the victorious son\nof Dasahratha. Thus perished the Rakshasa army and its mighty leader:\n\n  \u201cBut of the host of giants one,\n  Akampan, from the field had run,\n  And sped to Lanka to relate\n  In Ravana\u2019s ear the demon\u2019s fate.\u201d\n                       --+GRIFFITH.+\n\nThis fugitive made his way to the court of Ravana, the king of the\ngiants, and related to him the sad fate of his followers. Close on the\nheels of Akampan came Surpanakha herself, with her cruelly mutilated\nface. Transported with rage at the destruction of his armies and\nat sight of the disfigured countenance of his sister, the terrible\nRakshasa chief vowed vengeance on Rama and Lakshmana. But the necessity\nfor great caution in dealing with such valorous foes was apparent, and\nRavana did not seem over-anxious to leave his comfortable capital,\nLanka, in order to seek out the formidable brothers in the woods of\nDandhaka. But Surpanakha, scorned and mutilated, was thirsting for an\nearly and bitter revenge. Reproaching her brother for his unkingly\nsupineness, she artfully gave him a description of Sita\u2019s beauty,\nfar superior to that of any goddess, which served to kindle unlawful\ndesires in his heart. She referred to Vaidehi\u2019s golden complexion, her\nmoon-like face, her lotus eyes, her slender waist, her taper fingers,\nher swelling bosom, her ample hips and lovely thighs, till the giant\nwas only too willing to assent to her suggestion, that the most\neffectual and agreeable revenge he could take for the destruction of\nhis hosts, and the cruel insults to his sister, would be to carry off\nthe fair Sita, by stratagem, from the arms of her devoted husband, and\nthus add the lovely daughter of Janaka to the number, not very small,\nof the beauties who adorned his palace at Lanka. We shall presently see\nthat the plot was ingeniously contrived and too successfully carried\nout.\n\nHow conveniently the race of Rakshasas could assume at will the forms\nin which they chose to appear, we know already. Taking advantage of\nthis faculty of metamorphosis, a Rakshasa named Maricha, in obedience\nto Ravana\u2019s orders, showed himself near Rama\u2019s hermitage, in the\nshape of a wonderful golden deer, spotted with silver, having horns\nresembling jewels, a belly like a sapphire, and sides like _madbuka_\nflowers. The strange creature captivated the fancy of Sita, and she\nwas so eager to possess it, alive or dead, that Rama was induced to go\nin pursuit of it. Suspecting mischief from this unusual appearance,\nRama left his brother with Sita, commanding him on no account to quit\nher side until he returned from his pursuit of the jewelled deer. The\nchase led him to a considerable distance from the hermitage. Weary of\nhis endeavours to secure the deer, Rama grew angry, and, with one of\nhis flaming arrows, pierced it in the breast. It bounded off the ground\nto the height of a palm tree and, in the act of dying, began to cry,\nexactly in the voice of Rama, \u201cAh! Sita; Ah! Lakshmana.\u201d The words\nreached the hermitage, as they were intended to do, and Sita, in an\nagony of terror, implored Lakshmana to go to the aid of his brother,\nwho seemed to be in some dire trouble. Lakshmana, however, protested\nthat it was all illusion, and refused to believe that Rama could be\nin any real danger; for, as he assured the trembling wife, \u201ceven the\nAlmighty Himself with the celestials and the three worlds cannot defeat\nhim\u201d (Dutt, 609). But Vaidehi took another view of the matter, and\nturning sharply upon her brother-in-law accused him roundly of desiring\nthe destruction of Rama in order that he might gratify an improper wish\nto possess her himself. This, indeed, she said, must have been the\nreason that brought him all the way from Ayodhya. What, if any, grounds\nthe charming lady may have had for this accusation does not appear.\nThey could have been known only to herself and to Lakshmana, who, with\njoined hands, humbly reproached her for her cruel words, and bending\nlow before her went off, with a heavy heart, in search of his brother.\n\nIn a garment (probably a _saree_) of yellow silk, Sita sat alone at the\ndoor of her thatched cottage, weeping bitterly, when Ravana presented\nhimself before her, in the guise of a pious medicant. Ravished by her\nbeauty, this pious medicant began, without ceremony, to praise the\nvarious charms of Sita\u2019s person with the most reprehensible license\nof detail. Nor did he stop there, but telling her that she had carried\naway his heart, as a stream carries away its banks, invited her to\naccompany him out of the gloomy forest, tenanted by Rakshasas and wild\nbeasts, and quite unfit for the abode of a goddess like herself.\n\nAs her visitor was in appearance a Brahman, she dutifully attended\nto him, bringing him water to wash his feet with, and food to eat,\nwhile her eyes were straining through the forest for her absent lord.\nDreading that her Brahman guest might curse her if she did not speak\nto him, Vaidehi began to relate the history of her exile, addressing\nthe seeming medicant in such flattering terms as \u201cthou best of twice\nborn ones.\u201d After listening to her story, Ravana revealed himself to\nher, and again declaring his love, invited her to become his wife in\nthe great city of Lanka, where she should live in luxury, attended\nby five thousand maid-servants. Sita indignantly spurned the offer,\nthreatening the Rakshasa with the consequences of her husband\u2019s anger.\nWhile indulging in boastful speeches regarding his own prowess, Ravana\nassumed his natural form, with ten heads and twenty arms. As he stood\nthere before Vaidehi, \u201chis eyes were bloody,\u201d and he appeared beautiful\nlike unto blue clouds, being dressed in gold-hued apparel (Dutt).\nApproaching the adorable Sita, the enamoured giant caught her hair with\none hand and her legs with another and carried her off, through the\nair, in his golden car drawn by asses. As she was being borne away, the\nfair lady cried aloud for help, invoking the sylvan deities to tell\nher husband whither, and by whom, she had been carried off. Her voice\nreached the virtuous Jatayus, the king of birds, who, though sixty\nthousand years old, immediately interposed to rescue her. A furious\nand picturesque battle ensued, in which the huge vulture-king, with\nhis formidable beak, talons, and wings, made a gallant stand against\nRavana, in the cause of virtue and his friend Rama, but eventually lost\nhis noble life in the struggle, and left his huge bones to mark, to\nthis day, the scene of his terrible a\u00ebrial conflict with the demon.[31]\nThe victorious Ravana carried Sita away through the air in his arms.\nSome of her ornaments fell to the ground as the two sped along in their\njourney towards Lanka, and showers of blossoms, falling from her head,\nwere scattered around. At this sorrowful event the sun hid his face and\nall nature was oppressed with grief. Not yet despairing of succour,\nthe brave-hearted Sita observed, as she passed along in mid-air, five\nmonkey-chiefs seated on the summit of a hill, and, unnoticed by Ravana,\ndropped amongst them her gold-coloured sheet and some glittering\nornaments, in the hope that they might convey to Rama the intelligence\nof her abduction by the giant. But Fate had more sorrow in store for\nher. Over mountain peaks, over rivers, over the sea, Ravana conveyed\nhis prize without meeting with further opposition, and lodged her\nsafely in his magnificent palace in Lanka, where he treated her with\nthe greatest consideration, and wooed her like a youthful lover,\nplacing her tender feet upon his _heads_ and professing himself her\nobedient slave.\n\n                            [Illustration:\n                       +THE ABDUCTION OF SITA.+\n        (From an illustrated Urdu version of the \u201cRamayana.\u201d)]\n\nRama, on discovering the loss he had suffered, was in despair.\nSometimes he would indulge in excessive lamentations, wildly calling\nupon the trees and streams, the deer of the forest and the birds of\nthe air, to tell him where his love had gone. At other times, assuming\na different tone, he would petulantly threaten to destroy \u201cthe three\nworlds,\u201d if the celestials did not restore Vaidehi to his arms. At such\nmoments Lakshmana would address his brother in the most abject terms of\nflattery, and gently remind him of the necessity of doing his duty and\npreserving his dignity.\n\nRoaming about in search of the lost Sita, the brothers came across\nJatayus lying, in mortal agony, amidst the fragments of Ravana\u2019s\nwonderful car and his shattered umbrella. All that Rama could learn\nfrom the dying king of the vultures was the name and rank of the\nRakshasa who had carried off his wife, and in a frenzy of grief he\nrolled upon the ground, uttering vain lamentations. Presently the\nbrothers piously erected a funeral pile for the dead bird, and having\ncremated the body, proceeded in their search for Sita, when they\nencountered a horrid deformed monster, named Kabandha; thus described\nby the poet:\n\n  \u201cThere stood before their wondering eyes\n  A fiend, broad-chested, huge of size;\n  A vast misshapen trunk they saw\n  In height surpassing nature\u2019s law.\n  It stood before them dire and dread,\n  Without a neck, without a head,\n  Tall as some hill aloft in air,\n  Its limbs were clothed with bristling hair,\n  And deep below the monster\u2019s waist\n  His vast misshapen mouth was placed.\n  His form was huge, his voice was loud\n  As some dark-tinted thunder-cloud.\n  A brilliance as of gushing flame\n  Beneath long lashes dark and keen\n  The monster\u2019s single eye was seen.\u201d[32]\n\nIn the battle which ensued the terrible monster had his two arms cut\noff by Rama and Lakshmana respectively, and in this helpless condition\nhe explained that, though naturally endowed with a surpassingly\nbeautiful form, he used to assume this monstrous one in order to\nfrighten the ascetics in the forests; but one of these saints, in a\nmoment of anger, invoked this curse upon him, that he should retain\nthe disgusting form he had adopted, at least till, in course of time,\nRama should in person deliver him from its repulsive deformity. The\nbrothers placed the giant\u2019s bulky body on a funeral pyre, and from\nthe ashes arose a beautiful being, clad in celestial raiment, at\nwhose suggestion Rama sought the friendship and aid of Sugriva, King\nof the Vanaras, by whose assistance he hoped to find out to what\nparticular spot his beloved wife had been conveyed by Ravana. Rama,\nin due course, found Sugriva and made the acquaintance of his chief\ncouncillor the famous Hanuman, a son of the god of the winds. When Rama\nmet Sugriva, the latter was, like himself, an exile from his native\nland, having been expelled from it by his elder brother, King Bali,\nwho had also taken unto himself Ruma, Sugriva\u2019s wife. The deposed\nmonarch was wandering, with a few faithful monkey companions, in the\nforest, and it was amongst them, resting together on a mountain peak,\nthat Sita had dropped her yellow robe and golden ornaments. A sort of\noffensive and defensive alliance was formed between the two banished\nprinces, who were, moreover, drawn towards one another by the fact\nthat each had been forcibly deprived of his consort. Rama was to help\nSugriva to overthrow Bali, secure the Vanar sceptre and recover his\nwife Ruma; while Sugriva, on his part, was to assist Rama to discover\nSita\u2019s whereabouts and to destroy her abductor. So great was the dread\nSugriva entertained of the prowess of his warlike brother Bali, that,\nbefore committing himself to this alliance with Rama, he desired that\nprince to give him some practical illustration of what he could do as\na wielder of warlike weapons; whereupon Rama shot from his mighty bow\na wondrous arrow, which, after passing through the stems of seven palm\ntrees, traversed a hill which stood behind them, then flew through six\nsubterranean realms and finally returned to the hands of the bowman.\nBefore this feat all Sugriva\u2019s doubts vanished and he was ready for\naction.\n\nAt Rama\u2019s suggestion he proceeded to the great Vanar city Kishkindha,\nand, in a voice of thunder, dared Bali to single combat. The impetuous\nand passionate King of the Vanars accepted the challenge at once,\nand an exceedingly fierce encounter took place between the brothers\noutside the walls of the city. At length Sugriva seemed to be failing,\nwhen Rama, who was standing by in ambush, pierced Bali in the breast\nwith one of those fatal arrows of his. As might have been expected,\nBali, with the life-blood welling from his wounds, reproached Rama\nbitterly for his base, unfair, and cowardly interposition in the battle\nbetween himself and Sugriva; but Rama justified his action by saying\nthat he was lord paramount of the whole country, that Kishkindha came\nwithin the realm of Dasahratha, and that Bali had justly forfeited\nhis life by his misconduct in appropriating his brother\u2019s wife. Rama\nfurther remarked, contemptuously, that the lives of mere Vanars or\nmonkeys, as of other animals, were of little account in the eyes of\nmen; a remark which seems strange, indeed, when we reflect that Bali\nwas the king of a magnificent city decorated with gold, silver and\nivory, and that Bali\u2019s brother was Rama\u2019s much desired ally.[33]\n\nAs Bali lay prostrate on the ground his disconsolate queen, Tara,\nhastened to the fatal spot, with her little son Angad, and, in a\npassion of grief, threw herself upon the body of her husband. She gave\nway to the most touching sorrow and lamentation over the dying warrior\nand seemed inconsolable, both then and later on when performing the\nlast rites for the deceased king. Had we seen no more of Tara she\nwould have lived as a tender and pleasant memory in our minds; but,\nunfortunately, she reappears a very short time after as Sugriva\u2019s much\nloved and ardent consort, and actually appears grateful to Rama for the\nbenefit his deed had conferred upon the new king and herself.\n\nBy the time Sugriva was formerly installed in the government of\nKishkindha, the rainy season came round,--a time of the year when, in\na roadless country, all military or other movements were impossible.\nRama, faithful to the conditions of his exile, would not enter the\ncity, and easily contented himself with a life in the woodland, which,\nwith its glittering fountains and laughing streams, its stately trees,\nsweet-throated birds and odorous flowers, he was never tired of\nadmiring.\n\nIn return for the service rendered him by Rama, his ally Sugriva, now\nKing of the Vanars, assembled countless numbers (hundreds of hundreds\nof millions!) of Vanars (monkeys and bears of different colours--white,\nyellow and green) and sent them forth to search for Sita. North, south,\neast and west, these Vanars traversed every land and searched every\npossible retreat. From north, east and west, were received reports\nof want of success; but from the south came welcome tidings of the\ndiscovery of Sita by Hanuman, one of the chief captains of the Vanar\nhost, a son of the wind-god by a nymph of paradise. The discovery of\nSita\u2019s place of captivity was made in this way. In their active search\nfor traces of her whereabouts, some captains of the Vanar army of the\nsouth came across Sampati, the huge brother of Jatayus, the king of the\nvultures, lying upon the top of a high mountain. Bulky and powerful,\nthe bird was yet quite disabled and helpless, having had his wings\nscorched and destroyed in a too adventurous flight towards the sun,\nwhich he had once undertaken in a spirit of vanity and boastfulness.\nBut even in this unhappy state, dependent for his daily food upon the\nfilial devotion of his son, the old bird could, with his penetrating\neye, see clearly to enormous distances. He had witnessed Ravana\u2019s\nhurried flight through the air, with his beautiful prize, and had noted\nalso that she had been conveyed by the Rakshasa to Lanka beyond the\nsea. This information he now communicated to the inquiring Vanars, and\nhaving thereby performed a signal service to the son of Dasahratha,\nhis feathers sprouted again and he joyfully mounted once more into his\nnative element on new and lusty pinions.\n\nSita\u2019s place of captivity was thus known to the Vanar; but how to\nreach Lanka--separated as it was from the mainland by an arm of the\nsea--became the urgent problem of the hour to the Vanar commanders\nof the army of the south. If Sita was to be restored to the arms of\nRama, it was absolutely necessary that some one should get to Lanka as\na spy, in order to ascertain the facts in regard to Sita\u2019s captivity\nthere, and to discover the strength of Ravana\u2019s army and his means of\nresisting an attack from without. Ships or even boats were, in those\nprimitive times, not to be thought of; but the monkey could _leap_,\nand so it was proposed that some leader of the race should essay the\nrather long jump across the strait which separated Lanka from the\ncontinent. Who was so fitted for this undertaking as the son of the\nwind-god, the redoubtable Hanuman? Accordingly, after a great deal of\nboasting, Hanuman, assuming a gigantic size, took the flying leap. The\ngods were well disposed towards his brave venture, but there were also\nenemies on the path, who endeavoured to stop him on his way. One of\nthese was Surasa, the mother of the Nagas, who, rushing upon him with\nwide-extended jaws, mockingly told him that he must pass through her\nmouth before proceeding any further on his journey. Hanuman dilated\nhis person till his stature attained many leagues, but the monster\u2019s\nmouth grew larger still. The cunning monkey now suddenly contracted\nhis dimensions to the size of a man\u2019s thumb and jumped airily into and\nout of Surasa\u2019s gaping mouth. He had fulfilled his enemy\u2019s conditions\nand she good-naturedly acknowledged her defeat. His next opponent, a\nterrific she-dragon, the fierce Sinhika, marvellously caught his shadow\nas it glided over the sea, and in some mysterious way retarded his\nprogress thereby. With open mouth she made a furious onslaught upon the\nwind-god\u2019s son. Hanuman, equal to the occasion, craftily contracted his\ndimensions, and jumping into Sinhika\u2019s cavern-like mouth, inflicted\nso much injury upon her that she died. After this interruption he\ncontinued his a\u00ebrial journey to Lanka, probably making Sinhika\u2019s\ncarcass the base of a fresh leap towards the island, though this is not\nexpressly mentioned by the poet.\n\nWhen he had reached the island-kingdom of Ravana, the Vanar spy,\ncontracting his dimensions to those of an ordinary cat, found his\nway by moonlight within the golden walls of the city, and, lost in\nadmiration, wandered about the wonderful streets of Ravana\u2019s capital,\nwhere tonsured priests and mail-clad warriors mingled freely with bands\nof ascetics in deerskins, and fiends both foul and fair. Eluding the\nguards, Hanuman crept into the palace. Here everything was on a scale\nto astonish even the wind-god\u2019s son, familiar with the glories of\nKishkindha; but most of all did he find food for admiration in Ravana\u2019s\nenchanted car, avowedly the most perfect work that had been produced by\nVisvakarma, the architect of the gods.\n\n  \u201cThere shone with gems that flashed afar,\n  The marvel of the Flower-named car,\n  \u2019Mid wondrous dwellings still confessed\n  Supreme and nobler than the rest.\n  Thereon with wondrous art designed\n  Were _turkis_ birds of varied kind,\n  And many a sculptured serpent rolled\n  His twisted coil in burnished gold.\n  And steeds were there of noblest form,\n  With flying feet as fleet as storm;\n  And elephants with deftest skill\n  Stood sculptured by a silver rill,\n  Each bearing on his trunk a wreath\n  Of lilies from the flood beneath.\n  There Lakshmi, beauty\u2019s heavenly queen,\n  Wrought by the artist\u2019s skill was seen\n  Beside a flower-clad pool to stand,\n  Holding a lotus in her hand.\u201d[34]\n                       --+GRIFFITH+ (bk. v., canto vii.).\n\nThe zenana or women\u2019s apartment, guarded by she-demons,[35] which\nHanuman next entered in the still hours of the night, when the feast\nwas over, the music had ceased and all the inmates were hushed in\nslumber, affords the poet the opportunity of painting a charming\npicture, which the reader will, I am sure, thank me for reproducing\nhere in Mr. Griffith\u2019s agreeable version:\n\n  \u201cHe stood within a spacious hall\n  With fretted roof and painted wall,\n  The giant Ravan\u2019s boast and pride,\n  Loved even as a lovely bride.\n  \u2019Twere long to tell each marvel there,\n  The crystal floor, the jewelled stair,\n  The gold, the silver, and the shine\n  Of crysolite and almandine.\n  There breathed the fairest blooms of spring;\n  There flashed the proud swan\u2019s silver wing,\n  The splendour of whose feathers broke\n  Through fragrant wreaths of aloe smoke.\n  \u2018\u2019Tis Indra\u2019s heaven,\u2019 the Vanar cried,\n  Gazing in joy from side to side;\n  \u2018The home of all the gods is this,\n  The mansion of eternal bliss!\u2019\n  There were the softest carpets spread,\n  Delightful to the sight and tread,\n  Where many a lovely woman lay\n  O\u2019ercome by sleep, fatigued with play.\n  The wine no longer cheered the feast,\n  The sound of revelry had ceased.\n  The tinkling feet no longer stirred,\n  No chiming of a zone was heard.\n  So, when each bird has sought her nest,\n  And swans are mute and wild bees rest,\n  Sleep the fair lilies on the lake\n  Till the sun\u2019s kiss shall bid them wake.\n  Like the calm field of winter\u2019s sky\n  Which stars unnumbered glorify,\n  So shone and glowed the sumptuous room\n  With living stars that chased the gloom.\n  \u2018These are the stars,\u2019 the chieftain cried,\n  \u2018In autumn nights that earthward glide,\n  In brighter forms to reappear\n  And shine in matchless lustre here.\u2019\n  With wondering eyes awhile he viewed\n  Each graceful form and attitude.\n  One lady\u2019s head was backward thrown,\n  Bare was her arm and loose her zone.\n  The garland that her brow had graced\n  Hung closely round another\u2019s waist.\n  Here gleamed two little feet all bare\n  Of anklets that had sparkled there.\n  Here lay a queenly dame at rest\n  In all her glorious garments dressed.\n  There slept another whose small hand\n  Had loosened every tie and band.\n  In careless grace another lay,\n  With gems and jewels cast away,\n  Like a young creeper when the tread\n  Of the wild elephant had spread\n  Confusion and destruction round,\n  And cast it flowerless to the ground.\n  Here lay a slumberer still as death,\n  Save only that her balmy breath\n  Raised ever and anon the lace\n  That floated o\u2019er her sleeping face.\n  There, sunk in sleep, an amorous maid\n  Her sweet head on a mirror laid,\n  Like a fair lily bending till\n  Her petals rest upon the rill.\n  Another black-eyed damsel pressed\n  Her lute upon her heaving breast,\n  As though her loving arms were twined\n  Round him for whom her bosom pined.\n  Another pretty sleeper round\n  A silver vase her arms had wound,\n  That seemed, so fresh and fair and young,\n  A wreath of flowers that o\u2019er it hung.\n  In sweet disorder lay a throng\n  Weary of dance and play and song,\n  Where heedless girls had sunk to rest,\n  One pillowed on another\u2019s breast,\n  Her tender cheek half seen beneath\n  Red roses of the falling wreath,\n  The while her long soft hair concealed\n  The beauties that her friend revealed.\n  With limbs at random interlaced\n  Round arm and leg and throat and waist,\n  That wreath of women lay asleep\n  Like blossoms in a careless heap.\u201d[36]\n                       --+GRIFFITH+ (bk. v., canto ix.).\n\nStill in eager quest of Sita the Vanar roamed stealthily from place to\nplace within the spacious bounds of the royal palace, and, as day was\nbreaking, entered the enchanting ashoka grove, a sort of ideal retreat\nin fairyland. Here Rama\u2019s messenger discovered the weeping, but still\npeerless, captive, guarded by fierce she-demons of monstrous shapes--a\nweird, frightful troupe--some earless, some with ears hanging down to\ntheir feet, some one-eyed, some long-necked and covered with hair, some\nhuge, some dwarfish, some with faces of buffaloes, others with the\nheads of dogs and swine. Perched upon a bough, and concealed by its\nfoliage, Hanuman watched his opportunity to open communication with\nthe object of his search. Presently Ravana, in great state, heralded\nby music and attended by a crowd of ravishing beauties, with tinkling\nzones, entered the grove. Sita, in utter despair, fell upon the ground\n\n  \u201cLike Hope when all her dreams are o\u2019er.\u201d\n\nApproaching her kindly, the King of Lanka, who was passionately\nenamoured of her beauty, endeavoured to reassure her, and wooed her\nsoftly with all the arts of flattery, with offers of boundless wealth,\nand with protestations of deep affection.\n\n  \u201cMethinks when thy sweet form was made\n  His hand the wise Creator stayed;\n  For never more could he design\n  A beauty meet to rival thine.\n  Come let us love while yet we may,\n  For youth will fly and charms decay.\u201d\n                           --+GRIFFITH.+\n\nSita, ever faithful to her lord, treated his suit with scorn; whereupon\nthe demon king, waxing wrath, threatened to have her killed and served\nup at his table if she persisted in rejecting his advances. Turning\nto leave the palace in high dudgeon, he directed the demon guards to\nbend the fair captive to his will by threats and blandishments of every\nkind. Their persuasions being unsuccessful, these horrid monsters\nassailed the unfortunate princess with threatening weapons; but even in\nthis critical moment the pure, chaste wife of Rama preferred death to\ndishonour.[37]\n\nAmidst the persecutions of the luckless Sita an old Rakshasa matron,\nnamed Trajata, raised a warning voice; for she had dreamed a dream\nwhich foreboded the destruction of Lanka by Rama, and she counselled\nthe demons to deal kindly by Sita, if they hoped for mercy from the\nconquerors.\n\nIt seems necessary to explain now that it was not a sense of honour\nor a feeling of chivalry that had restrained the unscrupulous King of\nLanka from the gratification of his passion. It was fear only that kept\nhim back; for, as he confidentially explained to his assembled lords,\nhaving once, under the influence of ungovernable desire, dishonoured\none of the nymphs of Indra\u2019s heaven, fair Punjikashthala, Brahma had\ndecreed that if Ravana committed the same offence again his head should\nbe rent in pieces. Of course this fact and the protection thus enjoyed\nby Sita, through dread of Brahma\u2019s decree, were quite unknown to Rama,\nwhose knowledge was merely human.\n\nAt length the Vanar found the long wished-for opportunity of\ncommunicating with Sita and of consoling her with the hope of an\nearly rescue. He even offered to carry her off, there and then,\non his shoulders, but her modesty shrank from the mere thought of\nvoluntarily touching the body of any male person beside Rama. The\nmonkey-god then set about committing as much destruction as he could\nin the city of Lanka, which, built by Visvakarma, the architect of the\ngods, is described as surpassingly beautiful and encircled by a golden\nwall. After a succession of fierce and successful battles with the\ngiants--thousands at the time with their most famous captains--Hanuman,\ncovered from head to foot with wounds, was _noosed_ by means of a magic\nshaft from the bow of Ravana\u2019s son, Indrajit, overpowered and taken\nprisoner. Exceedingly incensed, Ravana ordered the destructive and\nformidable Vanar to be put to death at once. One of his counsellors,\nhowever, suggesting that Hanuman might be regarded in the light of an\nenvoy from Rama, it was decided to spare his life, but, at the same\ntime, to treat him with the greatest indignity before releasing him. In\npursuance of this determination his tail was wrapped round with cloth\ndipped in oil, which was then set on fire; but at the prayer of Sita,\nwho came to know what was going on in the city, the flames abstained\nfrom harming her friend. By contracting his dimensions, Hanuman easily\nfreed himself from his bonds, and now, by means of his blazing tail,\ncarried fire and destruction through the beautiful city; after which he\nonce more performed his perilous journey through the air, back to the\nmainland of India, bearing tidings of his doings to his master and Rama.\n\nWhen the place of Sita\u2019s captivity became known, the Vanar armies were\nrapidly advanced southward, and encamped on the border of the strait\nwhich separates Lanka from the mainland of India. Here they were\njoined by Vibhishana, Ravana\u2019s brother, who, with four attendants, had\nfled through the air from Lanka, in dread of the consequences of the\noffence he had given his king, by counselling conciliatory proceedings\ntowards Rama, of whose formidable prowess he seems to have formed a\njust estimate.\n\nVibhishana, on account of his local knowledge and great wisdom, was of\nmuch service to the Vanar host.\n\nThe sea, although it could be crossed by the Rakshasas and by the\nwind-god\u2019s son, Hanuman, was a serious impediment to Rama and his Vanar\nallies. Standing on the margin of the trackless ocean which barred his\nmarch, the chief vented his impatience in a shower of his wonderful\narrows, which he angrily shot into the wide bosom of the deep. His\nattack stirred the waters to their very depths and terrified its\nstrange denizens out of their wits. As the hero laid against his bow\na more formidable arrow than the rest (a fiery dart of mystic power),\nby means of which he threatened to dry up the waters of the sea and\npass his legions over on dry land, all Nature was horrified, darkness\nfell upon land and sea, bright meteors flashed across the murky sky,\nred lightning struck the trembling earth, and the firm mountains\nbegan to break and crumble away. At this critical moment of universal\nterror the grand form of the king of the ocean, attended by glittering\nsea-serpents, rose majestically above the seething billows of his\nwatery realm.[38] Addressing Rama with great reverence, the ocean-king\nprotested that it was impossible to make a dry pathway through the sea.\n\n  \u201cAir, ether, fire, earth, water, true\n  To Nature\u2019s will, their course pursue;\n  And I, as ancient laws ordain,\n  Unfordable must still remain.\u201d\n                           --+GRIFFITH.+\n\nBut he advised that Nala, a Vanar chief, who was the son of the\narchitect of the gods (Visvakarma) should be requested to bridge the\nstrait that intervened between Rama and the object of his expedition.\nNala undertook the work, and, under his direction, the bridge was\nsuccessfully completed. The construction of the bridge was not opposed,\nnor the passage disputed, so the countless hosts[39] of Vanars passed\nover to the island, with Rama mounted on Hanuman\u2019s back, Lakshmana on\nAngad\u2019s back, and camped[40] near Ravana\u2019s capital. Even at this stage\nof events Ravana, still under the spell of his passion for the lovely\nSita, resorted to a stratagem to obtain her consent to his wishes.\nHe got a magician of his court to prepare a head exactly resembling\nRama\u2019s, and also a bow and arrows such as the hero usually carried, and\nhad them brought into Sita\u2019s presence, with the tale that her lord had\nbeen killed while asleep in his camp. Sita, completely deceived by the\nwizard\u2019s art, was lamenting her bitter loss, when a messenger hurriedly\nsummoned Ravana away to see to the defence of his capital, and a female\nattendant took advantage of the moment to relieve the fair captive\u2019s\nmind, by explaining the deception that had been practised upon her.\n\nThe attack that shortly followed and the defence made by the giants\nare described by Valmiki in considerable detail, and with much\nmonotonous repetition. The Vanars had, for arms, uprooted trees,\nrocks, and mountain peaks; while the Rakshasas fought with bows and\narrows, swords and spears. Many single combats are described. Indrajit,\nthe redoubtable son of Ravana, in a desperate encounter, concealed\nhimself in a magic mist. Under this protection he fired some wondrous\nserpent-arrows at Rama and Lakshmana, which bound the royal brothers\nin a noose. He then, with a storm of missiles, laid them prostrate and\napparently dying. But it was not thus that the contest was to end. From\ntheir helpless condition Rama and Lakshmana were freed by Garuda, who,\nas the king of birds, possessed a special power over the serpent-arrows.\n\nOn another occasion Rama with his brother Lakshmana, both sorely\nwounded, and ever so many of their Vanar allies, were restored to\nlife and vigour, by the scent of some healing herbs brought by the\nswift-footed Hanuman from the distant Himalayas. In the combats around\nthe walls of Lanka, as in other contests narrated in the \u201cRamayana,\u201d\nthe poet describes the power of the various archers to interrupt\n_with their arrows_ the shafts of their adversaries, or even the most\nponderous missiles hurled at them, such as trees and rocks.\n\nWith varying success the fierce contest raged round the walls of Lanka,\nwhen at length the giants, sorely pressed, called upon Kumbhakarna to\nassist them. This dreadful monster was Ravana\u2019s brother and a terror to\nmen and gods. At his birth, or shortly after it, he devoured a thousand\nmen. Indra interposed to save the human race from his ravages, but\nonly to be himself discomfited and driven to seek the protection of\nBrahma, who decreed that Kumbhakarna should sleep for six months at a\ntime, and then only wake for a single day. The mere appearance of the\nmonstrous giant caused a panic in the Vanar army. Multitudes perished\nunder Kumbhakarna\u2019s arm and were devoured by him; but such was his\nvoracity that he captured and flung thousands of living Vanars into his\nmouth, out of which some fortunate ones managed to escape, through his\nnostrils and ears. But formidable as he was, Kumbhakarna at length fell\nby a crescent-headed arrow from Rama\u2019s bow.\n\n  \u201cThrough skin and flesh and bone it smote,\n  And rent asunder head and throat.\n  Down, with the sound of thunder, rolled\n  The head adorned with rings of gold,\n  And crushed to pieces in its fall\n  A gate, a tower, a massive wall.\n  Hurled to the sea the body fell,\n  Terrific was the ocean\u2019s swell,\n  Nor could swift fin and nimble leap\n  Save the crushed creatures of the deep.\u201d\n                             --+GRIFFITH+ (bk. vi., canto lxvii.).\n\nOne memorable episode in this siege of Lanka was a night attack,\nplanned and successfully carried out by Sugriva. Overpowering the\nguards, the Vanars entered the city, and, amidst the most terrible\ncarnage, gave beautiful and stately Lanka over to the flames:\n\n  \u201cAs earth with fervent head will glow\n  When comes her final overthrow;\n  From gate to gate, from court to spire,\n  Proud Lanka was one blaze of fire,\n  And every headland, rock and bay\n  Shone bright a hundred leagues away!\u201d\n                          --+GRIFFITH.+\n\nSucceeding this night attack came the final struggle. Ravana sallied\nforth from Lanka with a marvellous array of chariots,[41] elephants,\nhorses, and men. He himself was the most formidable adversary yet\nencountered by Rama, having in his time subjugated the Nagas, defeated\nthe gods of heaven, and even successfully invaded the land of departed\nspirits, ruled over by the dreaded Yama. During the battle that ensued,\nIndra, anxious, no doubt, to pay off old scores, sent his own chariot\nto Rama, who, mounted on it, encountered Ravana in single combat, and\nafter a long contest killed his adversary with an arrow which had been\nmade by Brahma himself. As the giant fell, celestial music filled the\nair, perfumed breezes wandered pleasantly over the field, and heavenly\nblossoms were rained down upon the conquering hero, the champion of the\ngods.\n\nWith the death of Ravana the war was at an end, and Vibhishana was\ninstalled king in his place. Sita, so long and so ardently sought,\nwas now brought forth in state from Lanka, borne in a screened litter\non the shoulders of sturdy Rakshasas, to meet her victorious lord.\nThe inquisitive Vanars pressed round to see Vaidehi, on whose account\nthey had so often risked their lives; but the attendants rudely drove\nthem back. Rama, however, interposing, commanded that the lady should\ndescend from the litter and proceed on foot, unveiled, so that his\nVanar friends might have a good look at her; for, as he said:\n\n  \u201cAt holy rites, in war and woe\n  Her face unveiled a dame may show;\n  When at the maiden\u2019s choice they meet,\n  When marriage troops parade the street.\n  And she, my queen, who long has lain\n  In prison, racked with care and pain,\n  May cease awhile her face to hide,\n  For is not Rama by her side?\u201d\n\nThe meeting between Rama and his long-lost queen is a highly dramatic\nand unexpected scene. Instead of Rama folding his darling in his arms,\nas one might have expected he would have done, after all his piteous\nlaments about her loss and his often expressed desire to possess\nhis peerless wife once more, we find him coldly repulsing her, on\nthe ground of her long captivity in Ravana\u2019s power. More than that,\nhe cruelly tells her that it was not love for her, but a desire to\nvindicate his outraged honour, that had brought him to Lanka. Quite\nunprepared for this undeserved and heartless reception, poor Vaidehi\nasks her husband most touchingly if the past is all forgotten, if her\nlove and unfaltering devotion have quite faded from his memory? And,\nwaxing sadly indignant, she requests Lakshmana, in a voice broken with\nsobs, to prepare a funeral pile for her, the only refuge she had left\nto her in her dark despair. With Rama\u2019s tacit consent the pyre was\nerected and ignited. Boldly did the virtuous queen enter the flames,\nand as she fell overpowered by them a cry of grief rose from the\nbystanders. At this important moment a band of celestial beings, headed\nby Brahma himself, appeared before the assembled multitude and revealed\nto Rama his true nature, that he was Vishnu and no mortal man, while\nthe god of fire raised Sita out of the flames, and, publicly attesting\nher purity, restored her to Rama, who now joyfully received her back\nto his heart and home. Before the gods departed to their celestial\nabodes, Indra, at Rama\u2019s considerate request, restored to life all the\nVanars who had fallen in his cause. Thus was the great war brought to a\nconclusion.\n\nRama now proceeded to Ayodhya, carried aloft through the clouds, over\nsea and land, in the famous magic car _Pushpak_, already referred to.\nWith the returning hero went Sita and Lakshmana, the Vanar chiefs and\nVibhishana too. After a meeting with his brother Bharata, who came\nforth with joy to welcome him back, Rama assumed the government of\nDasahratha\u2019s kingdom, and reigned over it for ten thousand years.[42]\n\nBut his life and Sita\u2019s had still more trouble in them. The people of\nAyodhya mocked at Rama for taking back his wife, after she had been\nso long in the giant\u2019s power. They even attributed a famine which\ndesolated the land to the anger of the gods on account of Rama\u2019s\nconduct. About to become a mother, Sita expressed a great desire to\nvisit the forest hermitages of the saints. Her husband accorded his\nconsent to her wishes, and directed Lakshmana to conduct her thither.\nUnable to endure the jibes of his people, Rama resolved to abandon his\ninnocent, unsuspecting wife, alone and unprotected, in the immense\nforests of Dandhaka, near the sources of the Godavari. The bitter duty\nwas intrusted to Lakshmana, who, ever obedient, carried it out to the\nletter. Alas! poor Vaidehi, such was the reward of her pure, unselfish\nlove and devotion through many trying years of hardship and sorrow!\nCast adrift, alone in the pathless wilderness, Sita was found by the\nsaint Valmiki himself, and tenderly entertained by the holy women of\nthe hermitage. Shortly after this she gave birth to twin sons, who\nwere named Kusa and Lava. In his forest-home, Valmiki, under divine\ninspiration, composed the \u201cRamayana,\u201d and taught the sons of Sita\nto recite the immortal epic. On the occasion of a grand ceremony at\nAyodhya, Kusa and Lava had the honour of reciting the great poem in\nthe presence of their father, who, after inquiry, acknowledged them as\nhis sons, and invited Sita to come forward and assert her innocence\npublicly.\n\n                            [Illustration:\n                          [_To face p. 70._]\n     HANUMAN AND THE VANARS REJOICING AT THE RESTORATION OF SITA.\n               (Reduced from Moor\u2019s \u201cHindu Pantheon.\u201d)]\n\n \u201cBut Sita\u2019s heart was too full, this second ordeal was beyond even her\n power to submit to, and the poet rose above the ordinary Hindu level\n of women when he ventured to paint her conscious purity as rebelling.\n Beholding all the spectators, and clothed in red garments, Sita,\n clasping her hands, and bending low her face, spoke thus in a voice\n choked with tears: \u2018As I, even in mind, have never thought of any\n other person than Rama, so may Madhavi, the goddess of earth, grant\n me a hiding-place.\u2019 As Sita made the oath, lo! a marvel appeared.\n Suddenly cleaving the earth, a divine throne of marvellous beauty rose\n up, borne by resplendent dragons on their heads, and seated on it the\n goddess of earth, raising Sita with her arm, said to her, \u2018Welcome to\n thee,\u2019 and placed her by her side. And as the queen, seated on the\n throne, slowly descended to Hades, a continuous shower of flowers fell\n down from Heaven on her head.\u201d[43]\n\nThus in sadness, and with the sting of injustice rankling in her heart,\ndoes the gentle Sita disappear for ever.\n\nIn bidding farewell to Vaidehi we would notice that throughout this\nepic all the female characters are much more human than those of the\nopposite sex, and, in their genuine womanhood, they naturally interest\nus in a far greater degree than the heroes of the story, be they lofty\ndemigods, cruel Rakshasas, volatile Vanars, or Rishis endowed with\nsuperhuman powers.\n\nWe have yet to trace the further fortunes of the sons of Dasahratha.\nWhen Rama had reigned for a long period at Ayodhya, Time, as an\nascetic, sought an interview with him, at which no one might intrude on\npain of certain death. As messenger from Brahma, Time explained to Rama\nhis real nature and position, leaving it to him to continue longer on\nearth or to return to heaven. During the interview an impatient Rishi\ndesired immediate audience of Rama. Lakshmana, who knew the penalty\nof intruding upon him at this moment, raised some difficulties; but\nthe irate saint threatened to launch a curse against Rama and all his\nkinsfolk if he were not admitted to his presence forthwith. Lakshmana,\ndreading, for Rama\u2019s sake, the Rishi\u2019s curse, interrupted his interview\nwith Time and thereby incurred the penalty of death. Lakshmana\naccordingly went to the river Surayu and was thence conveyed bodily to\nheaven. Rama, accompanied by his brothers Bharata and Satrughna, and\nattended by the goddess of earth, also by _all his weapons in human\nshapes, the Vedas in the form of Brahmans_, and his women and servants,\nproceeded to the Surayu and entered its waters. As he did so the voice\nof Brahma was heard from the sky, saying: \u201cApproach, Vishnu, Raghav,\nthou hast happily arrived with thy godlike brothers. Enter thine own\nbody as Vishnu or the eternal ether.\u201d He and his followers were then\nall of them translated to heaven.[44]\n\nSuch is the famous story of Rama and Sita. Ordinary men and women\nare of little account and scarcely figure at all amongst the poet\u2019s\ncreations. Nearly everything in the \u201cRamayana\u201d is superhuman. The dire\nconflicts which occupy so large a part of the epic are waged between\ndemigods and fiends, or giants. The weapons employed are celestial, or\nperhaps only charmed. Mystic spells are of the greatest efficacy, and\nthe results are proportionally great.\n\nIn the war that raged around the walls of Ilium the gods did,\ncertainly, interfere in the combats, and sometimes unfairly too;\nthey even attacked each other occasionally; but, notwithstanding the\nsupernatural element, the Trojan war was still a war of men and heroes.\nNot so that which ensanguined the hills and plains of Lanka.\n\nThe India of the \u201cRamayana\u201d was covered with forests, and it is\nnoteworthy that Rama\u2019s progress is traced rather from forest to forest\nthan from city to city, which last were very few and far between.\n\nThe hero of the tale is a very different one from those who figure\nin the Homeric poems. As a son he is most dutiful, pushing the idea\nof filial respect and obedience to the extreme, bearing no enmity\neven towards his designing stepmother. As a layman he is religious\nand unfeignedly respectful to Brahmans and saints. As a prince he\nis patriotic and benign; as a warrior, skilful and fearless in the\nfight. As an elder brother, however, he is often somewhat exacting and\ninconsiderate, and as a husband his behaviour is, to say the least,\ndisappointing. On the whole the prominent characteristic of this hero,\nlimned by Brahman artists, is a spirit of mild self-sacrifice, as\ndistinguished from bold self-assertion.\n\nThe reader who has glanced through even the brief epitome of Valmiki\u2019s\npoem now presented will not have omitted to note the wealth of\nimagination displayed by the author or authors, nor will he have failed\nto be charmed by many a beautiful picture and many an interesting\nsituation.\n\n\n\n\n                              CHAPTER III\n\n                     THE RAM LILA OR PLAY OF RAMA\n\n\nLet us now see how the stirring events of this Indian epic are brought\ndramatically before nineteenth century spectators.\n\nDays before the time fixed for the Dasahra festival, men, done up like\nmonkeys and attended by drummers, may be seen in the bazaars collecting\nmoney for the fair, at which the more striking leading incidents of\nthe epic are annually performed, part by part, in a rude pantomimic\nfashion. Sometimes the opening scene is a great marriage procession.\nOne such, on an unusually large scale, was got up in Lahore in 1884,\nat the expense of certain rich bankers. This motley and gigantic\nprocession was made up of very heterogeneous elements. Several camels\nled the way; some bulky elephants put in an appearance, and a great\nnumber of mounted men, on good cavalry horses, gave dignity to the\nprocession. Three or four well-filled carriages, gaily decorated with\ntinsel, flowers and coloured cloths, had the honour of accommodating\nthe friends of Rama. A few huge litters, each borne aloft on the\nshoulders of sixteen or twenty bearers, were conspicuous objects in the\nthrong. On some of these sat men personating the gods and goddesses of\nIndia in all their grotesqueness; on others squatted favourite female\nsingers with their attendant minstrels, who delighted the audience with\ntheir grace and vocal performances. Imitation artillery armed with\nexplosive bombs, dancers, mountebanks, musicians, and an innumerable\ncrowd of ordinary citizens on foot, raised noise and dust enough to\ngratify the most pleasure-seeking Indian mob. The hero, Rama, and his\ninseparable brother, were dragged along on wooden horses, placed on\na wheeled platform. There they sat, side by side, holding tiny bows\nand arrows in their hands, in a most ridiculous way, while the less\nimportant mythological personages, divine or other, came along in\ncarriages or litters. There was a painful want of organization about\nthe procession, and the usual mixture of the sumptuous and tawdry, the\nrich and squalid, to which one is accustomed in India.\n\nA feature of the Dasahra festival is the number of men, disfigured\nwith paint and ashes, who go about with iron skewers or pieces of cane\npassed through the skin of their arms, legs, sides, and throat, or even\nthrough the tongue. I once called up a party of these men and examined\nthem. In answer to my remark, thrown out as a feeler, that the skewers\nhad been passed through old perforations, the leader of the party\nindignantly pulled a young man before me, pinched up a good bit of the\nskin of his forearm, and there and then passed a blunt iron needle\nthrough it, which could not have been much thinner than an ordinary\nlead pencil. No blood flowed, and certainly the man operated upon did\nnot wince in the slightest degree. After this the leader of the party,\nhaving satisfied me that the skin of his own neck below the chin was\nperfectly sound, passed a skewer through it with his own hand. In\nboth cases a tolerable amount of force was necessary to pass the iron\nthrough the skin, but no blood flowed. These men, who are looked upon\nwith a sort of awe by the vulgar, assured me that they were protected\nfrom pain or injury by a secret _mantra_ of Guru Gorucknath\u2019s known\nonly to themselves. They have probably learned, by the experience of\nmany generations, safe places for the insertion of their skewers; but\nI was told by a native medical man that serious consequences sometimes\nfollow their senseless ill-treatment of their own persons. The present\nof a rupee sent these absurd fellows away apparently well satisfied.\n\n                            [Illustration:\n                          [_To face p. 76._]\n        MEN WITH KNIVES AND SKEWERS PASSED THROUGH THEIR FLESH.\n                  (From a photograph by W. C. Oman.)]\n\nNear the temple of Vishnu, by Rattan Singh\u2019s Serai, arrangements had\nbeen made for a dramatic representation of Rama\u2019s famous history.\nWhen I first came upon the spot there were five or six hundred\npeople assembled. The women and children, arrayed in their holiday\nbest, crowded the roofs of the surrounding buildings to witness the\nperformance and, with the gay red and yellow of their dresses and their\ntinkling anklets, gave colour and animation to the scene. Men and boys\nwere below. Three merry-go-rounds of the kind patronized by the people,\nwere in full operation, creaking hideously.\n\nOf the Ram Lila itself the only signs were two wooden horses, like\nthose to be seen in European nurseries, only nearly life-size,\nstanding, side by side, on a single wooden platform placed on wheels:\nThey were painted white, with gaudy patches of red all over them. A few\nboys with monkey-masks on, capered about with switches in their hands.\nThe crowd gradually increased, and the arrival of the performers was\neagerly expected. But even yet some money-making bunniahs, surrounded\nby their pots and pans, their jars and other vessels, were busily\nplying their trade in oil, right in the midst of the assembling crowd;\nwhile on one side several women kept diligently separating the chaff\nfrom the wheat and sending clouds of dust amongst the spectators. At\nlength a great shout announced the arrival of Rama and Lakshmana,\nwho were carried in a gaudy litter on the shoulders of a number\nof men. This was the signal for the commencement of business. The\ncrowd began to settle down. The central space was cleared. Rama and\nLakshmana walked bare-footed round the arena, showing themselves to the\nspectators. They were attired in yellow garments adorned with tinsel,\nand had on their heads high and much decorated hats, which, I happened\nto learn subsequently, cost just _three rupees_ each. Garlands of\nflowers encircled their necks, and their hats were literally covered\nwith floral wreaths. Their faces were thickly painted with what looked\nlike yellow tumeric, daubed over with some red powder, these pigments\nbeing, no doubt, considered most suitable for imparting beauty to\nan Indian complexion. The brothers carried small bows, like those\nusually placed in the hands of Cupids, and were attended by a man who\nvigorously waved a _chowree_ over their heads. After this preliminary\nexhibition, during which several masked figures began to appear on the\nscene, a white-headed Brahman, book in hand (it was the Hindi version\nof Tulsi Das[45]) began to instruct the performers in their several\nparts. Seated all together--demigods, monkeys, and Brahman--in the open\nspace, before all the spectators, they learned the first act of the\nday\u2019s performance. In deference to their position, and probably also\nout of consideration for their fine clothes, Rama and his brother were\nmade to sit on a white sheet, whilst the others squatted comfortably\nin the dust. When the actors had received their instructions, they\nproceeded to carry them out in a style which rendered it very\ndifficult to comprehend what they actually meant to represent; but the\nHindu spectators, familiar with the old tale and its usual dramatic\nrendering, seemed to recognize at least the leading events which it\nwas intended to bring before them. At the conclusion of the act, or\nscene, Rama and his brother, with the rest, came together again to\nreceive their instructions from the old Brahman stage-manager, and,\nwhen duly instructed, again dispersed to perform their several parts\nin a more or less imperfect manner. One portion of the performance\nconsisted in dragging the brothers round the arena on their wooden\nhorses. The acting or pantomime was very rude, and the whole seemed\nchildish in the extreme. But the old story, thus brought before them,\nwas evidently as much appreciated by the spectators as it had been by\ntheir ancestors for fifty generations. And rude and childish though\nthe performance might be, it was probably not more so than the Miracle\nPlays which delighted our forefathers in the Middle Ages.\n\nThe dramatic representation extended over several days, the most\npopular scenes being the amputation of Surpanakha\u2019s nose and the\nabduction of Sita. The former, a mere rough and tumble performance,\nwithout anything striking or dramatic about it, was greeted with\nuproarious mirth by the spectators, and may, possibly, be the original\nsuggestion and sanction of much of the female nose-cutting so commonly\npractised in India by jealous husbands. In the other scene Ravana\nappeared as a hermit. The supernatural doe was dragged about the\narena. Rama and his brother were, of course, lured into pursuit of the\ndeceiver and Sita, left alone, was carried off by Ravana. Jatayus, the\nvulture king,--represented by a huge paper bird carried about by a man\nhither and thither in a wild sort of way,--rushed to the rescue of\nthe fair dame; but after a brief, though fierce, struggle was hacked\nto pieces by the demon. After this lamentable encounter, Sita, to the\ngreat grief of the onlookers, was carried away to Lanka.\n\nThe downfall of Lanka and final triumph of Rama are scenes of too\ngreat importance to be dealt with like the rest. For these, special\npreparations and as large a theatre as possible--some wide open plain\nfor example--are requisite, as thousands gather to see Lanka and the\ndemons given over to the flames.\n\nI select for description a favourable instance of the siege and\ndestruction of Lanka which I witnessed at the military station of Meean\nMeer a few years ago. It was got up by the sepoys of some of the native\nregiments stationed there.\n\nUpon an open _maidan_ or plain was assembled an eager crowd of\nspectators. A large space for the performance of the Ram Lila was kept\nclear by sepoys, placed as sentries at short intervals. About the\ncentre of this space towered two huge effigies, without legs, probably\nforty feet high, representing Ravana and Kumbhakarna. Each figure stood\nwith its arms extended right and left, level with the shoulders, in the\nmost absurd of attitudes, resembling the pictures of men which young\nchildren are so fond of drawing. Ravana had ten faces,[46] and two arms\nwith twenty hands,[47] while Kumbhakarna had two hands only. There they\nstood, the terrible demon king of Lanka, and his no less formidable\nbrother, grotesqueness itself. At one side, opposite to and facing the\nfigures, was a painted wooden car--lent by the king of the celestials\nto Rama on this memorable occasion--standing on small wheels, like a\nchild\u2019s toy, with two wooden horses attached to it. On the car were\nseated two handsome, bare-legged and bare-footed boys, dressed in\nyellow satin robes, with bows in their hands. Their hats somewhat\nresembled a bishop\u2019s mitre in shape, and were made of red and silver\nmaterials. These boys, the reader does not need to be told, represented\nRama and his brother Lakshmana. In attendance upon them were about\nthirty men, dressed in dusky red clothes, and with marks on their\nfaces, who personated the army of monkeys that assisted the heroes. To\nthe right of the two huge figures was an inclosed space which stood for\nthe city or citadel of Lanka. Various mythological figures were also to\nbe seen moving about the plain, in a more or less objectless manner.\nTwo tall men, got up as women, went springing about, brandishing naked\nswords. They represented female Rakshasas. A man dressed up to look\nvery corpulent, clothed in yellow, with long flowing hair and having\nserpents coiled round his throat, was dragged about upon a wooden bull\nover the field. This corpulent personage was no other than Mahadeva\n(_Siva_) on his bull (_Nandi_). Thus far the show was, at least,\nmythological and _Hindu_. But, by a curious anachronism, the features\nof a modern fair mixed themselves up with the old-world representation.\nPerhaps Indian taste in this nineteenth century demanded something\nmore than the undiluted ancient epic. Whatever may have been the\ncause, I observed, with surprise, that within the inclosure several\nnatives with painted faces personated Europeans of both sexes, to the\ngreat amusement of the onlookers. A man in shaggy furs, holding a\ntorn umbrella over his head, and attended by a fellow disguised as a\nEuropean policeman, was announced to the spectators as the \u201cNawab of\nCabul.\u201d There were also imitation bears with their leaders and such\nlike grotesque shows for the amusement of the populace. Although the\nvast majority of the spectators were natives, many Europeans were\npresent, some in their carriages, some on elephants, and one or two\non camels. The scene, which was certainly strange and picturesque,\nbecame especially lively when, towards the close of the proceedings,\nthe explosion of bombs and the discharge of rockets alarmed the horses\nand elephants. One huge beast, carrying a European gentleman and three\nladies in a big _howdah_, was an object of interest and a cause of some\nanxiety to me, for his restive and erratic movements seemed to threaten\ndestruction to me or to my carriage, at the least.\n\n                            [Illustration:\n                          [_To face p. 80._]\n \u201cTHE TERRIBLE DEMON KING OF LANKA AND HIS NO LESS FORMIDABLE BROTHER.\u201d\n                 (From a photograph by W. C. Oman.)]\n\nThe proceedings commenced by Ravana\u2019s car, wooden horses and all,\nbeing dragged by men round the inclosure attended by the monkeys.\nThis was apparently a challenge to the enemy; for during the second\ncircumambulation a party of men, dressed in dark blue or black, who\nhad hitherto been kept out of sight, sprang forward to oppose Rama\u2019s\nprogress. These sable warriors were terrible Rakshasas, before whom\nRama and his allies had to beat a retreat, pursued by the victors.\nBefore long, however, the tide of battle seemed to turn. Victory\nchanged sides! The Rakshasas retreated, followed by Rama and his\npeople. This alternate success of one party or the other was repeated\nseveral times, apparently to prolong the proceedings, and was a most\nuninteresting and childish exhibition. Whenever Rama was advancing he\nwas carried along discharging feeble arrows that rarely fell beyond the\nline of men yoked to his car. But when the hero was retreating before\nthe enemy he was generally on foot, probably to obviate the necessity\nof his turning his back to his foes. At length the demigods made a\nfurious and altogether successful onslaught. The black warriors were\nsupposed to have been completely exterminated. They lay stretched on\nthe field dead and dying for a minute or two, and then, in the most\ninconsistent manner, got up and squatted on the grass to watch the\nfurther proceedings. When Ravana\u2019s forces were thus destroyed, a number\nof fireworks were lighted all over the field. Then the fort of Lanka\nwas given over to the flames, and as it was well-filled with fireworks\nit made a brilliant display. Next perished Kumbhakarna, similarly in\na blaze of rockets, and amidst the thunder of exploding bombs. And\nlast of all, the gigantic Ravana disappeared, by what to any bystander\nwould seem a process of spontaneous combustion. All the time the drama\nlasted a regimental brass band played European music; so that Rama\u2019s\nforces may be said to have been animated to the assault of Lanka by the\nsoul-stirring music of European composers.\n\nThis was all! Sita the patient, faithful, loving wife was never brought\nforward. The woman\u2019s part was a quite subordinate one and was left to\nthe imagination of the spectators. The conquering Rama was everything;\nthe long-suffering Sita was forgotten on this occasion. However, the\ngentle wife of Rama has a place of her own in the affectionate regard\nof the people of her native land and her history is well remembered. I\nhave seen a picture of the car in which Sita was abducted tattooed on\nthe arm of an ignorant woman of the lower classes, and found on inquiry\nthat she knew the old old story well.\n\nThe Ram Lila I have just described was a particularly good example of\nthe annual celebration. Ordinarily, huge figures, stuffed with straw,\nrepresent the demons. Rama and Lakshmana, seated on a stage, are\ncarried about on the shoulders of men and, after traversing the ground,\nhither and thither, without any apparent object, at length set fire\nto the effigies, whose combustion concludes the play, if such it can\nbe called; whereupon the crowds assembled to see the sport depart in\nclouds of dust and smoke. Often several sets of demons and Ramas may be\nseen on the same field, got up by rival parties, by different sections\nof a city, or by separate villages.\n\nIt appears that there is some difficulty in getting boys to personate\nRama and his brother on the occasion of the Ram Lila festival, as it\nis the popular belief that they never live to attain manhood.[48]\nThere is also another, if less superstitious reason for the\ndifficulty in question, and it is this: At the close of the festival\nRama and Lakshmana have to feast the Brahmans, and that involves\nno inconsiderable outlay of money. Hence, in the somewhat lawless\nborder districts on the Indus, it is the usual thing for the sons of\nwell-to-do persons to be actually kidnapped and carried off to play\nRama and Lakshmana at the annual festival.\n\nFor ten days during the feast they are believed to be literally\npossessed by the god and are worshipped as Vishnu. But the worship of\nthese boys creates, I was told, a curious and interesting difficulty\nabout the selection of Rama and Lakshmana. The two heroes were men of\nthe warrior caste, and so should their modern representatives be, but,\nas they have divine honours paid to them during the festival, it would\nnot suit the Brahmans to bow down to and touch the feet of youths of\ninferior caste, while even personating demigods, and so, in defiance\nof history, _Brahman_ youths are generally selected to represent the\n_Kshatriya_ heroes in the Ram Lila.\n\nWhat the Indian artist\u2019s conception of the form and appearance of Rama\nis, may be partially understood from the statuettes in stone made at\nthe present day and frequently to be met with, at least in Northern\nIndia. They are usually sculptured in white marble, but painted (I\nmay say enamelled) jet black, the only unblackened portion being the\nwhites of the eyes. The eyebrows are gilded and so is the loin-cloth\nor _dhoty_, which is the only piece of clothing on the person of the\ngod-man. Two big ornaments, shaped like stumpy reels, fill big holes\nin the lobes of the ears, and make them stick out on either side. On\nthe forehead is the Vishnu caste-mark, the central line in red, and\nthe two side lines, diverging from the top of the nose, in gold. These\nfigures chiselled by the Indian sculptor are always stiff and somewhat\nconventional.\n\nThe Dasahra festival of Northern India is replaced in Bengal by the\nDurga Puja, and consequently the Bengalees do not perform the Ram Lila;\nbut I remember to have seen, years ago, in Bengal, a large collection\nof colossal groups of figures representing favourite incidents in\nthe \u201cMahabharata\u201d and \u201cRamayana,\u201d prepared at the expense of the\nMaharajah of Burdwan, to which show, an annual one, I believe, the\npublic were freely admitted. The grotesque forms of the monsters of\nthe Indian epics were reproduced in huge clay statues, variously\ncoloured and clothed. Some, armed with the strange weapons which the\npoets had imagined, were engaged in deadly combat. Gigantic arrows\nwere conspicuous, and some of them, with the aid of thread supports,\nwere shown in the air on their way to some ill-fated warrior or other.\nMore peaceful scenes were also represented, as where Ravana, in the\ndisguise of a Brahman, visits Sita in the forest. Various holy hermits\nwere also there in all the repulsiveness of dirt and emaciation. The\nfigures were coloured yellow, blue, green, brown, or black, according\nto the text of the poet, the conventional notions of the people, or\nthe taste and fancy of the artists. Some of these clay statues were\ndecidedly well modelled. They had real hair on their heads, faces and\nbreasts; they were clothed in cotton fabrics, according to the not\nvery elaborate fashions of the country, and, in some cases, were by no\nmeans unartistic representations of the men, demons and demigods of the\nsacred epics of India.\n\n\n\n\n                               APPENDIX\n\n         +THE STORY OF THE DESCENT OF GANGA (THE GANGES),\n                   AS RELATED IN THE \u201cRAMAYANA\u201d+\n\n\nIn ancient times lived Sangara, a virtuous king of Ayodhya. He had two\nwives but no children. As he and his consorts longed for offspring, the\nthree of them went to the Himalayas and practised austerities there.\nWhen they had been thus engaged for a hundred years, a Brahman ascetic\nof great power granted this boon to Sangara; that one of his wives\nshould give birth to a son who should perpetuate his race and the other\nshould be the mother of sixty thousand manly and high-spirited sons. In\ndue time the elder wife bore the promised son, who was named Asamanja,\nand the younger wife a _gourd_. From this _gourd_, when it burst\nopen, came forth sixty thousand tiny sons, who were fostered, during\ntheir helpless infancy, by keeping them in jars filled with clarified\nbutter. When his numerous sons had grown to man\u2019s estate the king,\ntheir father, determined to offer a _horse-sacrifice_. In accordance\nwith this resolution a horse was, in the usual way, set free to wander\nwhere it listed, attended, for its protection, by mighty warriors of\nSangara\u2019s army.\n\nNow it came to pass that one day Vasava, assuming the form of a\nRakshasa, stole the horse away. The sixty thousand sons of the King of\nAyodhya thereupon commenced, at their father\u2019s command, a diligent\nsearch for the missing animal. They scoured the world in vain for\nthe stolen horse and then set about making a rigorous search in the\nbowels of the earth, digging downwards some sixty thousand _yojanas_.\nIn these subterranean explorations they committed great havoc amongst\nthe dwellers in the under-world; but they persevered in their quest\nand presently, in the Southern Quarter, came upon a huge elephant\nresembling a hill. This colossal elephant, named Verupaksha, supported\nthe entire earth upon his head and caused earthquakes whenever he\nhappened to move his head from fatigue. Going round this mighty beast,\nthe sons of Sangara continued their search in the interior of the\nearth. They at last found the stolen horse and observed, quite close\nto it, \u201cthe eternal Vasudeva in the guise of Kapila,\u201d upon whom they\nrushed with blind but impotent fury; for he, uttering a tremendous\nroar, instantly reduced them all to ashes.\n\nAs the princes did not return home Sangara became alarmed for their\nsafety and sent his grandson--Asamanja\u2019s son--to look for tidings of\nthem. This heroic prince, following the traces they had left of their\neventful journey, at length reached the spot where the missing horse\nwas detained and there discovered also the ashes of his sixty thousand\nuncles. Being piously desirous of making the usual oblations of water\nto the ashes of his deceased relatives, Asamanja\u2019s son looked about for\nwater but could find none. However, he met, in these nether regions,\nSuparna, a maternal uncle of his, \u201cresembling the wind,\u201d and from him\nhe learned that the sixty thousand dead princes would be translated\nto heaven if only the waters of Ganga could be brought down from the\ncelestial regions to lave their dust.\n\nSeeing there was nothing that he could do for the manes of his dead\nrelatives, the young prince took the horse, and returning with it to\nAyodhya helped to complete Sangara\u2019s sacrifice.\n\nSangara himself died after a reign of thirty thousand years. An\u00e7umat,\nwho succeeded him, practised rigid austerities, \u201con the romantic summit\nof Himavat,\u201d for thirty-two thousand years, and left the kingdom to\nDilipa, whose constant thought was how he should bring Ganga down from\nheaven for the benefit of his dead ancestors; but though he performed\nnumerous sacrifices during his long reign of thirty thousand years, he\nmade no progress in this matter. Dilipa\u2019s son, Bhagiratha, earnestly\ndevoted himself to the same object, and practised severe austerities\nwith the view of obtaining the wished-for boon. \u201cRestraining his senses\nand eating once a month and surrounding himself with five fires and\nwith arms uplifted, he for a long lapse of time performed austerities\nat Gokara.\u201d Brahma, pleased with the king\u2019s asceticism, appeared before\nhim and granted his wish, advising him, at the same time, to invoke the\naid of Siva to accomplish it, as the earth would not be able to sustain\nthe direct shock of the descent of Ganga from the celestial regions.\n\nTo obtain the assistance of Siva, Bhagiratha spent a whole year in\nadoring that god, who at the end of that period was graciously pleased\nto say to the king: \u201cO foremost of men, I am well-pleased with thee.\nI will do what will be for thy welfare--I will hold the Mountain\u2019s\ndaughter on my head.\u201d Upon this Ganga precipitated herself from the\nheavens upon Siva\u2019s head, arrogantly thinking to reach the earth\nwithout delay, but Siva, vexed by her proud thought, caused her to\nwander for many a year amongst the tangles of his long hair. It was\nonly when Bhagiratha had recourse to fresh austerities that Siva \u201ccast\nGanga off in the direction of the Vindu lake,\u201d and she flowed in many\nchannels over the joyful earth, to the delight and admiration of the\ncelestials who witnessed her wonderful descent from the sky.\n\nGanga, following the royal ascetic Bhagiratha, flooded with her waters\nthe \u201csacrificial ground of the high-souled Jahna of wonderful deeds,\nas he was performing a sacrifice.\u201d The saint drank up her waters in a\nrage. When this occurred the deities and _Gandharvas_ began to worship\nthe angry Jahna, who, being propitiated by their attentions, allowed\nthe river to flow off through his ears. Proceeding again in the wake\nof Bhagiratha\u2019s chariot, Ganga, having reached the ocean, entered the\nunder-world where the ashes of the sixty thousand sons of Sangara still\nlay. Her sanctifying waters flowed over their earthly remains and their\nspirits ascended to heaven.\n\nSuch is the history of the most sacred river of the Hindus, into whose\nheaven-descended waters millions upon millions of men and women crowd\nannually to have their sins washed away.\n\n\n\n\n                                 NOTES\n\n\nI. _Antiquity of the \u201cRamayana.\u201d_--Older than the \u201cRamayana\u201d ascribed\nto Valmiki is the \u201cRamasaga\u201d itself, which exists as a Buddhist story,\nknown as the \u201cDasahrathajataka.\u201d This is substantially the history\nof Rama and Sita, with the important omission of the rape of Sita\nand the expedition against Lanka, which incidents the poet of the\n\u201cRamayana\u201d is believed by Dr. Albrecht Weber to have borrowed from\nthe Homeric legends.[49] If this conjecture be correct, the treatment\nof the incidents in question by Valmiki is no slavish imitation of\nthat of Homer. In the \u201cMahabharata\u201d the story of Rama and Sita is\nnarrated to Yudhisthira as an example, taken from the olden time, by\nway of consolation on a certain occasion, and agrees so closely with\nthe work of Valmiki that it certainly looks very much like an epitome\nof that work. In regard to the age of this epic, Sir Monier Williams\nsays: \u201cWe cannot be far wrong in asserting that a great portion of the\n\u2018Ramayana,\u2019 if not the entire \u2018Ramayana,\u2019 before us, must have been\ncurrent in India as early as the fifth century +B.C.+\u201d[50]\n\nII. _English versions of the \u201cRamayana.\u201d_--The English reader desirous\nof learning more of the details of the \u201cRamayana\u201d than is contained\nin this epitome, may consult the following works: (1) The excellent\nmetrical version of Mr. Ralph Griffith, in five volumes; (2) the prose\ntranslation now in course of publication by Babu Manmatha Nath Dutt,\nM.A.; (3) Mr. Taiboys Wheeler\u2019s \u201cHistory of India,\u201d vol. iii.; and (4)\nThe \u201cRamayana\u201d of Tulsi Das, translated by Mr. F. T. Growse.\n\nIII. _The \u201cRamayana\u201d only a nature myth._--While one scholar\nfinds _history_ in the pages of the \u201cRamayana,\u201d and discovers in\nits interesting details a poetical version of the conquest of\nSouthern India by the Aryans, another, with a turn for mythological\ninterpretation, assures us that it is only a nature myth. \u201cThe whole\nstory,\u201d he writes, \u201cis clearly an account of how the full moon wanes\nand finally disappears from sight during the last fourteen days of the\nlunar month, which are the fourteen years of Rama and Sita\u2019s exile.\nHer final disappearance is represented by her rape by Ravana, and her\nrescue means the return of the new moon. In the course of the story the\ntriumph of the dark night, lightened by the moon and stars, is further\nrepresented by the conquest of Vali, the god of tempests of the monkey\nrace, who had obscured the stars.\u201d[51]\n\n\n\n\n                                PART II\n\n                            THE MAHABHARATA\n\n\n\n\n                            THE MAHABHARATA\n\n\n\n\n                               CHAPTER I\n\n                         INTRODUCTORY REMARKS\n\n\nStanding on the beautiful fluted column of red sandstone, known as\nthe Kutub Minar, which towers loftily above the lifeless quietude of\nancient Delhi, the eye surveys a landscape which embraces one of the\nmost classic regions in Hindustan.\n\nAcross the ruin-strewn plain, towards the lordly minarets and cupolas\nof modern Delhi, the spectator may note, just a little towards the\neast, the massive remains of the _Poorana killa_, or old fort,\nwhich still preserves, in its traditionary name of _Indrapat_ or\n_Indraprasta_, a suggestion of the glory it enjoyed some fifteen\ncenturies before Christ.\n\nNot only in India and to the Hindus is the _Indraprasta_ a name of\nreverence; for, away in distant Cambodia, the people believe that they\nare descended from colonists who immigrated into the southern peninsula\nfrom the far-off banks of the Jumna, and the stupendous remains\nof Angkor and Battambang, near the great lake of Toul\u00e9-sap, point\nunmistakably to Hindu and Buddhist origin, and bear silent witness\nto the existence, in the remote past, of a powerful and flourishing\nkingdom of Indian origin.[52]\n\nDelhi, and the great plain north of it, are associated with the most\nstirring events in both the ancient and modern history of India, and\nhave witnessed the most decisive struggles for empire which have\noccurred south of the Himalayas.\n\nPerhaps the \u201cMahabharata\u201d was based on simple Aryan sagas like\nthose of the Norsemen--historical traditions of deeds performed by\ngallant warriors to whose nervous hands the spear and axe were more\nfamiliar than the plough and the pen,[53] but, if so, the poets who\nhave used the materials of the sagas of their ancestors to build up\nthe great national epic, have been not too careful to preserve the\nstrict accuracy of the traditions, and when the narrative of events\nis interrupted by long disquisitions and endless palavers, we discern\nunmistakably the hand of the Brahman compiler and _his_ contribution\nto the record. We may, then, as well admit at once that little real\nhistory can be gleaned out of the one hundred thousand verses of the\n\u201cMahabharata.\u201d Yet a very great deal of valuable matter, that does not\nfall under the usual denomination of history, may be readily found in\nthis voluminous epic, giving it a high value for all time.\n\nThe authorship of the \u201cMahabharata\u201d is ascribed to the sage Vyasa,\nor the _compiler_, and its production is, at least, as remarkable\nas that of the \u201cRamayana\u201d already referred to. We are told in the\nintroduction to the poem itself that, \u201cThe son of Satyavati (Vyasa)\nhaving by penance and meditation analyzed the eternal Veda afterwards\ncompiled this holy history.\u201d When he had completed the vast epic,\nwithout, however, committing any portion of it to writing, he began\nto consider how he could teach it to his disciples. Sympathizing with\nhis desire to extend to others the benefits of this most sacred and\ninteresting poem, Brahma, the Supreme Being, appeared before the saint.\n\u201cAnd when Vyasa, surrounded by all the tribes of Munis, saw him, he\nwas surprised; and standing with joined palms, he bowed and he ordered\na seat to be brought. And Vyasa having gone round him, who is called\nHiranyagarbha, seated on that distinguished seat, stood near it, and,\nbeing commanded by Brahma Parameshti, he sat down near the seat full\nof affection and smiling in joy\u201d (P. C. Roy).[54] After expressing\nhis entire approval of the poem Vyasa had composed, the Supreme Being\nsaid: \u201cLet Ganesa be thought of, O Muni, for the purpose of writing\nthe poem,\u201d and then \u201cretired to his own abode.\u201d Ganesa, the god of\nwisdom, being invoked by Vyasa, repaired at once to his hermitage and\nconsented to commit the wondrous tale to writing, provided his pen were\nnot allowed to cease its work for a single moment. This condition was\nagreed to and observed. Thus was the \u201cMahabharata\u201d recorded, as undying\nand infallible scripture, from the lips of its inspired bard.\n\nIn respect of its importance and sanctity we need only cite the\nfollowing passages from the poem itself. \u201cThere is not a story current\nin this world, but doth depend upon this history, even as the body upon\nthe food that it taketh.\u201d\n\n\u201cThe study of the \u2018Bharata\u2019 is an act of piety. He that readeth even\none foot believing hath his sins entirely purged away.\u201d\n\n\u201cThe man who with reverence daily listeneth to this sacred work\nacquireth long life and renown and ascendeth to heaven.\u201d\n\n\u201cA Brahmana whatever sins he may commit during the day through his\nsenses, is freed from them all by reading the \u2018Bharata\u2019 in the evening.\nWhatever sins he may commit also in the night by deed, words, or\nmind, he is freed from them all by reading the \u2018Bharata\u2019 in the first\ntwilight (morning).\u201d\n\nWhat effects such beliefs were likely to have upon the morals of a\npeople we do not stop to inquire.\n\n\u201cChaque peuple,\u201d says Pr\u00e9vost-Paradol, \u201ca dans son histoire un grand\nfait, auquel il rattache tout son pass\u00e9 et tout son avenir, et dont\nla m\u00e9moire est un mot de ralliement, une promesse de salut. La fuite\nd\u2019Egypte, disaient les Juifs; le renversement des M\u00e8des, disaient les\nPerses; les guerres M\u00e9diques, disent \u00e0 leur tour les Grecs. On les\nrappellera \u00e0 tout propos pour en tirer des arguments, des pr\u00e9tentions\npolitiques, des mouvements oratoires, des encouragements patriotiques\ndans les grandes crises, et plus tard, les regrets \u00e9ternels.\u201d[55]\n\nFor the Indian people it is the great war ending with Kurukshetra,\nwhich is the central event of their history. It closes for them their\ngolden age. Before that was a world of transcendent knowledge and\nheroic deeds; since then intellectual decay and physical degeneracy.\nNor is this merely a sentiment, it is a deeply-rooted belief,\nwhich the highly-educated Indian holds in common with his ignorant\ncountryman. I have known an educated Hindu to maintain with much warmth\nthat in the golden age the Rishis and others were well acquainted with\nthe art of a\u00ebrial navigation, and probably with other rapid modes\nof locomotion unknown to us moderns. I have heard him assert boldly\nthat even the telephone, microphone, and phonograph had been known\nto the Hindu sages up to the time when the sciences and arts of the\nancient world perished, wholesale and _for ever_, with the heroes of\nthe \u201cMahabharata\u201d on the fatal field of Kurukshetra. However little\none might be disposed to import such romantic statements into a\nsober history of science, they are, at any rate, true as regards the\nnon-existence of anything like even the germs of progressive science\namong the people of India from a very remote date up to the present\ntime.\n\nOf the one hundred thousand verses of the \u201cMahabharata\u201d not more than\na fourth part is concerned with the main story of the epic--the rest\nconsists of more or less irrelevant, though often beautiful episodes,\nand of disquisitions on government, morals and theology. It is the main\nstory that I have endeavoured to reproduce in brief outline in this\nvolume, and I have also attempted to preserve, as far as possible, the\nimportant doctrinal features of the great epic.\n\n\n\n\n                              CHAPTER II\n\n                      THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR\n\n\nAmongst the long line of kings descended from Chandra, the Moon, who\nreigned in Northern India, was Shantanu, with whom our narrative may\nconveniently commence. This king was, like most of the sovereigns of\nhis house, a pious man and an able administrator, whose sway, we are\ntold, was owned _by the whole world_. He had two wives in succession,\nfirst the goddess Ganga, afterwards Satyavati, and the story of his\nloves is worth recording.\n\nStrange as it may seem, his marriage with the lovely Ganga, the\ndivinity of the sacred river Ganges, resulted from a curse uttered\nby one of those terrible saints, so common in Indian poetry, whose\nirritability of temper seems to have been in direct proportion to\nthe importance of their austerities. The saint in question, Vasishta\nby name, was once engaged in his devotions when a party of celestial\nbeings, known as Vasus, unwittingly passed between him and the rising\nor setting sun. \u201cBe born among men!\u201d exclaimed the irate Rishi to the\nunwelcome intruders, and his malediction, once uttered was, of course,\nirrevocable.[56] Expelled from Heaven, these unfortunate Vasus were\nmet by the goddess Ganga to whom they explained their sad destiny,\nimploring of her to become a woman, so that they might be born of her\nand not of a mere mortal. The goddess who, on account of a slight\nindiscretion on her part, was herself under the obligation of assuming\nthe human form, agreed to their proposal, and made choice of Shantanu\nto be their father. The goddess promised the Vasus that as each one of\nthem was born of her, he should be thrown, as a mere infant, into the\nwater and destroyed, so that all might regain their celestial home as\nspeedily as possible. But Ganga stipulated that each one of the Vasus\nshould contribute an eighth part of his energy for the production of\na son who should be allowed to live his life on earth, but should\nhimself die childless. These preliminaries being settled amongst the\ngods, behind the scenes as it were, the play had to be played out on\nthe terrestrial stage with men as the puppets. To this end Ganga took\nan opportunity of presenting herself before Shantanu for the purpose\nof captivating his heart,--no difficult task for the goddess. So,\none day as he was wandering along the banks of the Ganges, \u201che saw a\nlovely maiden of blazing beauty and like unto another _Sree_ herself.\nOf faultless and pearly teeth and decked with celestial ornaments, she\nwas attired in garments of fine texture, and resembled in splendour\nthe filaments of the lotus. And the monarch beholding that damsel\nbecame surprised. With steadfast gaze he seemed to be drinking her\ncharms, but repeated draughts failed to quench his thirst. The damsel\nalso beholding the monarch of blazing splendour moving about in great\nagitation, was moved herself, and experienced an affection for him. She\ngazed and gazed and longed to gaze at him evermore. The monarch then in\nsoft words addressed her and said: \u2018O thou slender-waisted one, beest\nthou a goddess or the daughter of a Danava, beest thou of the race of\nthe Gandharvas, or Apsaras, beest thou of the Yakshas or of the Nagas\nor beest thou of human origin, O thou of celestial beauty, I solicit\nthee to be my wife.\u2019\u201d\n\nThis wooing, simple enough in form and very much to the point, was, we\nneed not say, entirely successful; the goddess without revealing her\nidentity, consenting at once to become the king\u2019s wife, on condition\nthat she should be free to leave him the moment he interfered with\nher actions or addressed an unkind word to her. The enamoured prince\nreadily agreed to these terms, and Ganga became his wife. Seven\nbeautiful children born of this union were, to the king\u2019s intense\nhorror, thrown by their mother, each in its turn, into the waters of\nthe Ganges with the words \u201cThis is for thy good.\u201d Shantanu\u2019s dread of\nlosing the companionship of his lovely wife, of whom he was dotingly\nfond, kept him tongue-tied even in presence of such enormities; but\nwhen the eighth child was about to be destroyed like the others,\nhis paternal feelings could not be controlled, and he broke out in\nremonstrance and upbraidings which saved his son\u2019s life, but lost him\nhis wife\u2019s society for ever. Ganga, with much dignity, revealed herself\nto the king, explained to him the real circumstances of the case, and\nthe motives which had influenced her actions and, reminding him of\nthe stipulations of the contract between them, took a kind but final\nfarewell of the husband of so many years. She thereupon disappeared,\ncarrying the child away with her.\n\nLater on, the river-goddess appeared once more to King Shantanu, and\nmade over to him his half-celestial son, a youth of the most wonderful\nintellect, learning, strength and daring. This son, indifferently named\nGanga-datta and Deva-bratta, was eventually best-known as _Bhisma_, or\nthe _terrible_, for a reason to be explained immediately.\n\nIn the foregoing legend about the incarnations of the Vasus, we have\nan instructive and interesting illustration of the ideas of the Hindus\nwith respect to the soul in man, which, as in this case, might be a\nspirit from the celestial regions. We also learn how the poor mortal\u2019s\ndestiny on earth is but the fulfilment of predestined events.\n\nShantanu, deserted by the goddess-queen, seems to have had a heart\nready for the reception of another love, and, as his romantic fortune\nwould have it, he was one day rambling on the banks of the Jumna when\nhis attention was attracted by a delicious perfume. To trace this\nfragrance to its source the king roamed hither and thither through\nthe woods, \u201cand, in the course of his rambles, he beheld a black-eyed\nmaiden of celestial beauty, the daughter of a fisherman.\u201d In those\nprimitive times, when men carried their hearts on their sleeves and the\nforms of social life were simple and natural, no tedious courtship was\nnecessary; so, \u201cthe king addressing her said: \u2018Who art thou, and whose\ndaughter? What dost thou do here, O timid one?\u2019 She answered, \u2018Blest be\nthou, I am the daughter of the chief of the fishermen. At his command\nfor religious merit I am engaged in rowing the passengers across this\nriver in my boat.\u2019 And Shantanu beholding that maiden of celestial form\nendued with beauty, amiableness and such fragrance, desired her for\nwife. And repairing unto her father the king solicited his consent to\nthe proposed match.\u201d\n\nThe fisherman was willing to bestow his daughter on the king, but only\non condition that the son born to her should occupy the throne to the\nexclusion of all others. This was a difficulty that staggered the\nking, for he could not find it in his heart to set aside Deva-bratta,\nthe glorious son of Ganga. The matter accordingly dropped, but his\ndisappointment was very great, and he could not conceal from the world\nthat there was something preying upon his mind. Deva-bratta, being\nmuch concerned about Shantanu\u2019s unhappiness, found out the cause of\nit, and going to the father of the sweet-scented maiden, Satyavati, he\nformally renounced his own right to the succession, and recorded a vow\nof perpetual celibacy.\n\nUpon this \u201cthe Apsaras and the gods with the tribes of the Rishis began\nto rain down flowers from the firmament upon the head of Deva-bratta,\nand exclaimed \u2018This one is Bhisma\u2019 (the terrible).\u201d\n\nEverything was now arranged to the satisfaction of the contracting\nparties, and Satyavati, the ferry-girl, became the proud queen of\nBharatvarsha. But this beauteous and odoriferous damsel had already a\nhistory, which, though unknown to the king her husband, may be unfolded\nhere.\n\nIn the discharge of her pious office of ferrying across the Jumna\nthose who desired it, the maiden on one occasion had as her companion\nin the boat \u201cthe great and wise Rishi Parashara, foremost of all\nvirtuous men.\u201d This illustrious saint, who seems to have had an eye for\na pretty wench, immediately made advances to the boat-girl. Dread of\nher father, and a natural disinclination of being seen from the shore,\nmade Satyavati coy; but, on the other hand, she was also in terror of\nthe Rishi\u2019s curse, in case she disobliged him. The sage Parashara was\nnot to be denied. He enveloped the boat in a mist, and, promising the\nboat-girl that her virginity should be restored, and that a certain\nfishy smell which emanated from her person should be changed into a\nsweet perfume, had his way with her. The offspring of this union was\nno other than the renowned Vyasa, who arranged the Vedas and wrote the\n\u201cMahabharata,\u201d and of whom we shall hear more very soon.\n\nSatyavati by her union with King Shantanu became the mother of\ntwo sons, Chitrangada and Vichitra-virya. The former was after a\nshort reign killed, _in a three years\u2019 combat_, by the King of the\nGandharvas, and Vichitra-virya was placed on the throne; but being\na minor the kingdom was ruled by Bhisma, in subordination to Queen\nSatyavati. When the king was old enough to be married Bhisma set about\nfinding a wife for him. Learning that the three lovely daughters of the\nKing of Kasi would elect husbands in a public _swayamvara_, or maiden\u2019s\nchoice, he repaired thither and, acting in accordance with the lawless\ncustoms of the times, carried the fair princesses off in his chariot,\nchallenging anyone and everyone to fight him for the coveted prize.\nA desperate battle ensued, of the kind familiar to the reader of the\nprevious portion of this volume. Bhisma, alone and unaided, assailed by\nten thousand arrows at the same time, was able to check these missiles\nin mid-air by showers of innumerable darts from his own bow, and after\nprodigious slaughter effected the object he had in view.[57] Of the\nthree captured princesses one, named Amba, was allowed to go back to\nher people, as she explained that she had fully made up her mind to\nelect the King of Sanva for her husband, that he had given her his\nheart, and that her father was willing. The Rajah, however, coldly\nrejected Amba, on the ground that she had been in another man\u2019s house;\nso, after undergoing painful austerities, with the object of being\navenged for the humiliations she had suffered, the unhappy princess\nimmolated herself on the funeral pile. In her case the swayamvara was,\n_it would appear, only intended to be a formal ceremony_. The other\ntwo princesses became the wives of Vichitra-virya; but, after a short\nreign, he died, leaving behind him no heirs of his body.\n\nThis failure of issue threatened the extinction of the Lunar dynasty.\nBut, according to the ideas of those primitive times, the deficiency\nof heirs might still be supplied, for Vichitra-virya\u2019s two widows,\nAmvika and Amvalika, still survived, and some kinsman might raise up\nseed to the dead man. Queen Satyavati pressed Bhisma to undertake the\nduty, but he, unwittingly fulfilling his destiny, held his vow of\ncelibacy too sacred to be broken even in such a dynastic emergency. On\nhis refusal Satyavati thought of her son Vyasa as perpetuator of the\nLunar race, and the sage, nothing loth, undertook the family duty and\nvisited the widows in turn. Now this celebrated sage had, by reason\nof his austerities, a terrible and repulsive appearance. The elder\nwidow, Amvika, shut her eyes when she saw him, as he approached in the\nlamplight, and the son born of her was, in consequence, blind. The\nother widow was so blanched with fear at the sight of the sage, that\nthe son she gave birth to was of quite a pale complexion. The blind\nson was named Dhritarashtra, and the white one Pandu.[58]\n\nNeither of these sons being perfect, Satyavati desired Vyasa to beget\nyet another son. For this purpose he was to visit Amvika again;\nbut she, poor soul, had had enough of the wild-looking anchorite,\nwhose grim visage and strong odour had made a deep and disagreeable\nimpression upon her, so she sent a beautiful slave-girl to him in her\nstead. The Sudra maiden made herself agreeable to the sage who was, of\ncourse, too wise to be taken in by the attempted deception. \u201cAnd when\nhe rose up to go away he addressed her and said \u2018Amiable one, thou\nshalt no longer be a slave. Thy child also shall be greatly fortunate\nand virtuous and the foremost of all intelligent men on earth.\u2019\u201d This\nthird son of Vyasa was named Vidura, and, although the offspring of a\nSudra wench was, it seems, no other than the god of justice himself,\nincarnate in human form, owing, as we might well guess, to the _potent\ncurse of a holy ascetic_. This is how it came about. The ascetic was\nperforming his penances under a vow of silence, when there came to\nhis asylum a band of robbers fleeing from the officers of justice.\nThey hid their booty and themselves in the asylum. The police officers\nwho were on their track came to the asylum and requested the hermit\nto point out where the thieves had hidden themselves. The ascetic\nvouchsafed no answer, but the officers themselves soon found both the\nthieves and the stolen property. As an accomplice in the crime that had\nbeen committed, the ascetic was apprehended and sentenced to death.\nHe was in due course impaled, but, even on the cruel stake which was\nrending his body, he serenely devoted himself to contemplation. For\ndays he lived quietly upon the stake, a fact which was brought to the\nking\u2019s knowledge, and greatly alarmed him. He came in person to the\nascetic, addressed him with great humility, begged his forgiveness, and\nordered his immediate removal from the stake. All attempts to extract\nthe stake having failed, it was cut off at the surface of the body,\nand the ascetic, apparently none the worse for this addition to his\ninternal economy, went about as usual, but he was by no means content.\nOf the god of justice he demanded what crime he had committed which\nentailed so heavy a punishment. The god explained that the ascetic had\nonce in his childhood pierced a little insect with a blade of grass,\nhence his impalement. In the Rishi\u2019s opinion the punishment was out of\nall proportion to the offence, particularly as the Shastras exempted\nchildren from responsibility for their actions, and, waxing wroth, he\nuttered the following imprecation: \u201cThou shalt, therefore, O god of\njustice, have to be born among men even in the Sudra order.\u201d[59]\n\nDhritarashtra was set aside on account of his blindness, and Vidura on\naccount of his servile birth, so the _raj_ fell to Pandu, during whose\nminority the country was governed by his uncle, Bhisma.[60]\n\nPandu became a great and celebrated rajah. He had two wives, Kunti\nand Madri. The former, although very beautiful, had no suitors in her\nmaidenhood; so the king, her father, invited to his court the princes\nand monarchs of the neighbouring countries, and desired Kunti to\nchoose her husband from amongst his guests. The princess attracted by\nthe appearance of Pandu who was there, approached him modestly, and\n\u201cquivering with emotion,\u201d as the poet tells us, placed the nuptial\ngarland round his neck. In this romantic fashion Pandu got his first\nwife. For the second, Madri, who was selected for him by Bhisma, he\nhad to pay a very considerable price in gold and precious stones,\nelephants, horses and other things; for, it seems, it was the custom in\nher family for the daughters to be disposed of for such price as could\nbe got for them.\n\nAfter he had reigned a while, Pandu retired with his two wives into the\nforests on the slopes of the Himalaya Mountains to indulge his love of\nfreedom and the chase.\n\nOne day while out hunting he discharged his arrows at two deer sporting\ntogether. Now these, as ill luck would have it, were, in reality, a\nBrahman sage and his wife. In the agonies of death the Brahman assumed\nhis proper form and, as we might expect, _cursed_ the unfortunate\nPandu, saying that he would assuredly die in the embrace of one of his\nwives.\n\nUp to this time Pandu had had no children, and owing to his dread of\nthe Brahman\u2019s curse was cut off from any further hope of offspring.\nDeeming it a most indispensable religious duty to have heirs, he\nconsulted the ascetics in the woods on the subject, saying: \u201cYe\nascetics I am not yet freed from the debt I owe to my (deceased)\nancestors! The best of men are born in this world to beget children\nfor discharging that debt. I would ask ye, should children be begotten\nin my soil (upon my wives) as I myself was begotten in the soil of my\nfather by the eminent Rishi?\u201d\n\nThe ascetics having given the king an answer in the affirmative, he\ndesired his wife, Kunti, \u201cto raise up offspring from the seed of some\nBrahman of high ascetic merit.\u201d But Kunti had another resource to fall\nback upon. It seems that in her maiden days she had pleased a Rishi\nby her attentions, and he had taught her, as a reward, a _mantra_, or\nspell, by the repetition of which she could cause any celestial being\nshe thought of to present himself to her and be obedient to her will,\nwhether he liked it or not. Of the efficacy of this spell Kunti had\nalready had practical experience, for in her early days she had, just\nto test the value of the spell, compelled the attendance of Surya,\nthe sun-god, and had a son by him, named Karna, of whom we shall hear\nagain. Prudently omitting any mention of Surya and Karna, Kunti told\nher husband of the _mantra_ she possessed, and, with his consent, had\nthree sons _for him_ by three different gods, viz., Yudhisthira by\nDharma,[61] Bhisma by Vayu, and Arjuna by Indra.\n\nBut Pandu wanted more sons, and persuaded Kunti to communicate the\nspell to Madri who, greedy of offspring, summoned the twins A\u00e7wins to\nher bed, and gave birth in due course to two sons, Nakula and Sahadeva.\nThese five sons, known as the five Pandavas, are the real heroes of the\ngreat war which forms the main incident of the \u201cMahabharata.\u201d\n\nPandu himself met with a tragic end. One day in lovely spring weather,\nwhen wandering with his younger wife, Madri, through the pleasant\nwoodlands he, in a weak moment, yielded to his passions and, in\nfulfilment of the Brahman\u2019s curse, died in the arms of his wife, who,\nin testimony of her affection for her husband, and on the ground that\nshe was his favourite wife, had herself burnt with his remains.[62]\n\nThe party opposed to the Pandavas, known as the Kauravas, consisted\nprimarily of the one hundred sons of Dhritarashtra, by his wife\nGandhari. Of course it was necessary that persons who had to play a\nleading part in the poet\u2019s story should come into the world in some\nextraordinary manner, and equally necessary that a Rishi should have\na prominent share in the event. Gandhari appears to have been lucky\nenough to please by her hospitalities the great ascetic Dwaipayana, and\nhe granted her the boon she asked, viz., one hundred sons, each equal\nto her lord in strength and accomplishments. Instead of sons, however,\nthe queen gave birth to a shapeless mass of flesh and, in despair,\nwas about to throw it away, when the sage who, in his hermitage, knew\nexactly what was transpiring at the palace, appeared unexpectedly on\nthe scene and, cutting the piece of flesh into one hundred and one\npieces, placed each separately in a pot full of clarified butter;\nwhence, in due time, one hundred sons and one daughter were taken out.\nOf these hundred sons, four--Duryodhana, Dhusashana, Vikarna, and\nChittrasena--afterwards became prominent characters in the story of\nthis epic.\n\nDuring the practical abdication of the throne by Pandu, Dhritarashtra\nseems to have ruled the country; but Pandu\u2019s _sons_, as the Pandavas\nwere considered to be, had a claim to the throne, and the surviving\nwidow of the ill-fated king proceeded at once to Hastinapur with\nthe five boys. A great number of ascetics accompanied them and,\nhaving testified before Dhritarashtra and his court to the celestial\nparentage of these sons of Kunti and Madri, vanished into thin air\nbefore the eyes of all present. The young sons of Pandu were, after\nthis, well received by the blind old king, and took up their abode\nwith his wife, Gandhari, and his sons. But the cousins, if such they\ncan be called, could not live amicably together, and many feuds arose\nbetween them. To such a pass did the bitterness of feeling between the\nkinsmen come, that the eldest son of the blind king, jealous of the\nstrength of Bhima, cunningly drugged him, bound him hand and foot, and\nthen flung him into the Ganges. But Bhima did not perish. As he sank\nthrough the water snakes attacked him, and the venom of their bites,\ncounteracting the effects of the drug he had swallowed, restored him to\nconsciousness. He immediately burst his bonds, and found that he had\ndescended to the city of the Serpent-king in the interior of the earth,\nwhere he was hospitably entertained, and given a draught of nectar\nwhich endowed him with the strength of _ten thousand elephants_. After\nthat he was carried by the Nagas from under the waters and restored\nto the place whence he had been thrown into the river. On his return\nto Hastinapur, Bhima related his adventures to his brothers, but was\ncautioned to say nothing about the matter in the presence of his\ncousins, so as not to awaken their suspicions.\n\nIn accordance with the warlike tastes of the times, all the young\nprinces, Dhritarashtra\u2019s sons and nephews alike, were trained to arms\nand instructed in the science of warfare by a famous Brahman preceptor,\nnamed Drona, on condition that they would fight for him against\nDraupada, Rajah of Panchala, with whom he had a feud of long standing.\nThis Drona, it is needless to say, was of extraordinary origin,\notherwise he would not have been preceptor to the princes. He was\nthe son of a Rishi, named Bharadvaja, but was not born of woman. The\nPandavas and their cousins had also another famous tutor, named Kripa,\nwho had sprung into existence from a clump of heather.\n\nWhen the scions of the royal house of Pandu had been sufficiently\ntrained in the use of arms, their preceptor, Drona, arranged for an\nexhibition of their skill before the chiefs and people of the Raj. An\nauspicious day was fixed upon, and the people informed by proclamation\nof the important function. It was a day of excitement and bustle in the\nland of the Kurus; spectators flocked from far and near to witness the\nroyal assault-at-arms. The wealthier part of the visitors pitched their\ntents near the arena, and others put up convenient stages from which to\nview the events of the day. For the king and his courtiers a theatre\nwas erected \u201caccording to the rules laid down in the scriptures.\u201d It\nwas constructed of gold, and adorned with strings of pearls and lapiz\nlazuli. The ladies had a separate gallery to themselves, and came to\nthe f\u00eate gorgeously attired.\n\nAmidst the blare of trumpets and the sound of drums, Drona, all in\nwhite, his Brahmanical cord conspicuously displayed, entered the\narena attended by his son. The young princes followed in the order\nof their ages. After some preliminary displays of dexterity in\narchery and fencing, and of skill in horsemanship and the management\nof war-chariots, a contest with maces came off between Duryodhana\nand Bhima. They _roared_ at each other \u201clike two mad elephants\ncontending for a female one,\u201d and what was meant to be a sham fight\nsoon changed into a real combat. The princely competitors, actuated\nby mutual animosity, charged each other \u201clike infuriated elephants,\u201d\nand battered each other most vindictively with their ponderous maces.\nThis single combat caused great excitement amongst the spectators, who\ntook sides, and applauded their favourites. Drona had to interpose\nbetween the heated combatants. He commanded the music to cease and,\nto make a diversion, quickly brought forward Arjuna, clad in golden\nmail, to display his inimitable skill in bowmanship. In this art,\nthe most important of the warlike arts in the India of those times,\nArjuna hopelessly surpassed all his rivals and, indeed, besides the\nextraordinary skill he displayed, there was much to wonder at in his\nperformances, for \u201cby the _Agneya_ weapon he created fire, and by\nthe _Varuna_ weapon he created water, and by the _Vayavya_ weapon he\ncreated air, and by the _Paryanya_ weapon he created clouds, and by the\n_Bhanma_ weapon he created land, and by the _Parvatya_ weapon mountains\ncame into being. And by the _Antardhyana_ weapon these were all made to\ndisappear.\u201d\n\nWhen the exhibition was nearly over a formidable champion thundered\nat the gates of the arena. It was Karna, son of Kunti, already\nmentioned, and, as became the offspring of the sun-god, an archer of\nmost wonderful skill. On being admitted, the tall and handsome Karna,\nproudly arrayed in the glittering coat of mail in which he was born,\nand the ear-rings which had similarly come into the world with him,\npresented a dazzling and most striking appearance. He haughtily assured\nArjuna that he would perform before the multitude there assembled\nfeats that would excel all that had been exhibited that day. He even\nexpressed his eagerness for a single combat with the hero. The two\nglorious sons of Kunti, unconscious of their relationship, appeared in\nthe lists; their respective fathers, Indra and Surya, anxiously watched\nevents from their positions in the welkin, and Kunti, as became a fond\nmother, fainted away. At this juncture Kripa interposed, inquiring the\nrace and lineage of the newcomer. This action on Kripa\u2019s part was,\napparently, only a device to avert the threatened fight. Duryodhana\nwas furious at this interruption, and, to remove any objection on the\nscore of difference of rank between the contending parties, raised\nKarna on the spot to the Rajahship of Anga not, however, without the\nindispensable aid of the Brahmans, their _mantras_ and ceremonies. All\nthis took time; and more time was wasted in altercations in which Bhima\ntook a prominent part, insulting Karna in an outrageous fashion, to\nthe great indignation of Duryodhana. Presently the sun went down over\nthe scene, and the royal tournament with its exciting incidents was\nnecessarily brought to an end.\n\nThe princes having thus publicly proved that they were capable of\nbearing arms, Drona called upon them to fulfil their part of the terms\nupon which he had educated them. Joint or common action amongst the\ncousins being out of the question, the Kauravas and their friends went\nforth alone and attacked the Rajah of Panchala. They were defeated\nand compelled to retreat. Then the Pandavas marched out against their\ntutor\u2019s enemy, and after a bloody conflict of the usual kind,--in\nwhich arrows fly from each single bow like flights of locusts; in\nwhich thousands of elephants, horses and men are slain; in which the\nprincipal combatants, although pierced with scores of shafts, seem none\nthe worse for them--the Pandavas met with complete success, bringing\nthe defeated Rajah along with them as a prisoner. He was afterwards\nliberated at the expense of half his kingdom, which was appropriated by\nthe successful Drona.\n\nFresh causes of jealousy arose between the cousins. Yudhisthira\u2019s claim\nto the succession could not be set aside, as the people were all in\nfavour of him; so he was appointed by the blind king, very reluctantly,\nwe may presume, to the office of Yuva-Rajah, or heir-apparent. The\nPandavas, elated by their success against the King of Panchala, and\nconfident in themselves, commenced a series of unprovoked attacks upon\nthe neighbouring princes. Of course the Pandavas performed prodigies\nof valour in these invasions. For example, two of them with a single\nchariot, \u201csubjugated all the kings of the East backed by ten thousand\nchariots.\u201d\n\nThese great achievements inflamed the jealousy of even the blind king\nto such a pitch that he disclosed his feelings to Kanika, his Brahman\ncounsellor, \u201cwell skilled in the science of politics.\u201d As became a sage\npolitician, Kanika advised his master to put the obnoxious Pandavas\nout of the way as soon as possible. He explained to Dhritarashtra his\nobvious duty in such a case, and impressed upon his sovereign such\nimportant maxims of state policy as the following: \u201cWhen thy foe is in\nthy power destroy him by every means, open or secret: Do not show him\nany mercy although he seeketh thy protection.... If thy son, friend,\nbrother, father or even spiritual preceptor, becometh thy foe, thou\nshouldst, if desirous of prosperity, slay him without scruples. By\ncurses and incantations, by gift of wealth, by poison, or by deception\nthe foe should be slain. He should never be neglected from disdain.\u201d\n\nHis counsels fell on only too willing ears. Dhritarashtra was ready\nto do his _duty_ as thus explained to him, but thought it best to act\nwarily. Duryodhana suggested that the Pandavas should be induced to go\nto Varanavartha,[63] and there be disposed of.\n\nPraises of this place were cunningly circulated in Dhritarashtra\u2019s\ncourt, and the king suggested to the Pandavas that they might go there\nfor a holiday. Suspicions naturally arose in the minds of the sons of\nPandu; but there seemed to be no way of eluding the king\u2019s proposal.\nTheir departure was a day of public mourning in Hastinapur, and, before\nthey went, Vidura found an opportunity to warn them of a plot which\nhad been formed to burn them to death in a house made of combustible\nmaterials, which would be erected for their reception at Varanavartha.\nTo be forewarned was to be forearmed, and the Pandavas determined\nto be even with their enemies. Purochana, a confidential agent of\nDuryodhana\u2019s, preceded them on their journey, and began in all haste\nto construct for their reception at Varanavartha and for their ultimate\ndestruction by fire, the famous _house of lac_. What sort of mansion\nthis was we may judge from Yudhisthira\u2019s opinion of it, expressed\nconfidentially to Bhima, after a critical inspection of the edifice,\non their arrival at their destination. \u201cThe enemy, it is evident, by\nthe aid of trusted artists, well skilled in the construction of houses,\nhave finely built this mansion, after procuring hemp, resin, heath,\nstraw and bamboos, all soaked in clarified butter.\u201d\n\nTo escape destruction should their house be set on fire, the Pandavas\nsecretly caused a subterranean passage to be made leading out of the\ndwelling. The work was executed by a trusty messenger, well skilled in\nmining, who had been sent to their assistance by Vidura. One evening\nKunti fed a large number of Brahmans at this combustible house of\nhers. After the guests were gone, the Pandavas, assuring themselves\nthat their enemy, Purochana, was fast asleep, quietly fastened the\ndoors of the house, and themselves set fire to it in several places.\nAs if impelled by _Fate_, a Nishada woman with her five sons had\ncome, uninvited guests, to Kunti\u2019s feast, and, becoming intoxicated\nwith the wine of which they had partaken too freely, lay drunk\nupon the premises. These six drunk and incapable persons perished\nwith Purochana, and their remains, found by the citizens after the\nconflagration had been extinguished, left no doubt in men\u2019s minds that\nKunti and her sons had all been miserably burnt to death.[64]\n\nThe five Pandava brothers _disguised as Brahmans_, accompanied by their\nmother, Kunti, made their escape into the forests and commenced a long\ncourse of wanderings, in which they experienced much hardship and many\nadventures. Often were they wearied out by their long marches, all\nexcept the giant Bhima who, on such occasions, would carry the whole\nfamily on his back and shoulders or under his arms. Of this episode\nBhima is indisputably the hero. It is he who forces his way by giant\nstrength through the almost impenetrable forests, treading down trees\nand creepers to make a passage for himself and his burden. It is he\nwho kills the terrible Rakshasa bent upon devouring Kunti and her\nsons. It is Bhima with whom the cannibal\u2019s sister falls ardently in\nlove and whom, after strange adventurous journeys through the air, she\neventually makes the happy father of a son, Ghatotkacha, afterwards a\nfamous champion in the final struggles between the rival parties. It is\nBhima again who, when they sojourned in Ekachakra (the inhabitants of\nwhich town had to pay a daily toll of a live human being for the table\nof a fierce Rakshasa), killed the monster single-handed, and delivered\nthe trembling citizens from the gloomy horror under which they had been\nliving.[65]\n\nDuring their residence at Ekachakra, where they lived disguised as\nBrahmans, the Pandavas were visited by the famous Rishi Vyasa, who,\nit will be remembered, was really their grandfather, and also the\ncompiler of the \u201cMahabharata\u201d itself. By him they were informed that\nthe lovely princess, Krishn\u00e1, or Draupadi, the daughter of the King of\nthe Panchalas, was about to hold a swayamvara, or \u201cself choice,\u201d at\nwhich she would select a husband. Vyasa also told them the wonderful\nhistory of this Draupadi, and thereby greatly excited their interest\nand curiosity in the handsome maiden, who was no ordinary girl, but had\nsprung into existence, mature and beautiful, in the midst of a great\nsacrifice for offspring, offered by Draupada, King of the Panchalas.\n\nWhen, as has already been narrated, Draupada was defeated by Drona,\nand deprived by him of half his kingdom, a spirit of revenge took\ncomplete possession of the discomfited monarch, and his one thought\nwas to find a means of compassing the overthrow of his successful foe,\nthe redoubtable son of Bharadvaja. How could this object be attained\nwhen there was not a single one amongst the heroes of Panchala to cope\nwith Drona, that mightiest of bowmen and possessor of the terrible\n_Brahma-weapon_? In such a difficulty the Indian chieftain naturally\nbuilt his hopes upon those great national resources--the assistance of\npotent Brahmans, and the efficacy of properly conducted sacrifices. For\nthe handsome fee of ten thousand kine the king succeeded in inducing a\ncouple of learned Brahmans, who had long been engaged in austerities,\nto undertake a sacrifice for the express purpose of obtaining a son\nwho should be invincible in war and capable of slaying Drona. The\nresult of the ceremonies and sacrifices conducted by the learned and\nnot too scrupulous Brahmans was completely successful, for out of the\nsacrificial flames which they had kindled emerged a stately youth,\nencased in full armour, with a crown on his head, and bearing a bow and\narrows in his hands. He was wonderful to behold, and appeared upon the\nscene uttering loud roars. This was Dhrista-dyumna. After him appeared\na beautiful maiden. \u201cHer eyes were black, and large as lotus leaves,\nher complexion was dark, and her locks were blue and curly. Her nails\nwere beautifully convex and bright as burnished copper, her eyebrows\nwere fair, and her bosom was deep.... Her body emitted a fragrance as\nthat of a blue lotus, perceivable from a distance of full two miles.\u201d\nThis damsel, because she was so dark complexioned, received the name\nof Krishn\u00e1 (the dark), but is more commonly known as Draupadi. Being\nthe most lovely woman in the world at that time, her swayamvara would\nnaturally attract the chiefs and princes of all nations, and not chiefs\nand princes only, but also Brahmans in crowds, ready to graciously\naccept the presents which the liberality or ostentation of the\nhigh-born suitors might prompt them to distribute on the occasion.\n\nThe young Pandavas were much excited about the coming event, and set\noff without delay to witness and, if possible, to take part in the\nproceedings of lovely Draupadi\u2019s swayamvara. When they arrived at\nPanchala they took up their abode in the house of a humble potter, and,\nstill disguised as Brahmans, supported themselves by begging alms of\nthe people.\n\nA great amphitheatre covered with a canopy was prepared for the\nimportant occasion. It was erected on a level plain, surrounded by\nlofty seven-storeyed palaces covered with gold, set with diamonds\nand adorned with garlands of fragrant flowers. In these costly\nmansions, \u201cperfectly white and resembling the cloud-kissing peaks\nof Kailasa,\u201d were lodged the kings and princes who had been invited\nto the swayamvara by the father of Draupadi. Commodious platforms\nwere constructed all round the amphitheatre for the convenience of\nless august visitors, and on one of these platforms the Pandavas\nfound places for themselves in the company of a number of Brahmans.\nPublic rejoicings, music, dancing, and performances of various kinds,\nextending over sixteen days, served as a prelude to the business of the\ngreat assembly. At one end of the plain a tall pole was erected, and\non the top of this pole was fixed a golden fish, and below the golden\nfish a _chakra_, or wheel, kept whirling round and round. The condition\nof the swayamvara was that each competitor should be provided with a\nparticular bow and five selected arrows. If he succeeded with these in\ndischarging an arrow through the _chakra_, and in striking the eye of\nthe golden fish behind it, he should be the husband of the dark beauty\nof Panchala.\n\nOn the sixteenth day, when the meeting-place was quite full, Draupadi\nentered the amphitheatre richly attired and adorned with ornaments.\nIn her hands she carried a golden dish with the usual offerings to\nAgni, the god of fire, and a garland of flowers for the neck of the\nhappy man who should win her in the competition. After the offerings\nhad been cast into the sacrificial fire and the appropriate _mantras_\nrecited by the Brahmans appointed to perform the duty, Dhrista-dyumna\nled his sister before the assembly and, in a loud voice, proclaimed the\nconditions of the competition.\n\nAmongst the innumerable suitors present there, we need only mention\nDuryodhana and Karna, who are already known to the reader.\n\nThe sight of the beautiful Draupadi fired the ardour of the assembled\nprinces. One after the other they came forward to essay the feat but,\nthough they tugged and strained and sweated till their faces were\ndistorted and their clothes disordered, they were not even able to\nstring the mighty bow. Karna at length stepped up and stringing the bow\nwith ease placed an arrow for the trial. But seeing Karna, Draupadi\nloudly exclaimed: \u201cI will not elect a Suta for my lord.\u201d[66] \u201cThen\nKarna, laughing in vexation and casting a glance on the sun, threw\naside the bow already drawn to a circle.\u201d Other competitors, princes of\ngreat renown, still pressed forward to try what they could do, but met\nwith no success. When all the Kshatriya lords had retired discomfited,\nArjuna advanced from his place amongst the Brahmans and, amidst a great\ndeal of clamour, strung the bow and, with unerring skill, shot the\nmark. A tumultuous shout arose from the assembled multitude; there was\na great uproar in the firmament, and the gods showered down flowers\nupon the happy hero. \u201cAnd Krishn\u00e1 beholding the mark shot and beholding\nPartha (Arjuna) also like unto Indra himself, who had shot the mark,\nwas filled with joy, and approached the son of Kunti with a white robe\nand a garland of flowers.\u201d The Kshatriya Rajahs and chiefs were wild\nat their defeat by a Brahman, and although they were prepared to admit\nthat their kingdoms, and they themselves also, existed solely for the\nbenefit of the Brahmans, they demurred to such a conclusion of the\nswayamvara of a Kshatriya princess, and made a fierce attack upon King\nDraupada, who was willing to hand Draupadi over to the victor. Arjuna\nrushed at once to the king\u2019s rescue, accompanied by the redoubtable\nBhima, armed with nothing less than an uprooted tree and, though a\ndesperate fight ensued, the Pandava brothers succeeded, partly through\nthe mediation of Krishna--whom we here meet for the first time--in\nleaving the amphitheatre, closely followed by beautiful Draupadi.\n\nThen those illustrious \u201csons of Pretha returning to the potter\u2019s abode,\napproached their mother. And those first of men represented Y\u00e1jnaseni\n(Draupadi) unto their mother as the _alms_ they had obtained that\nday. And Kunti who was there within the room and saw not her sons\nreplied, saying, \u2018Enjoy ye all (what ye have obtained).\u2019\u201d The moment\nafter she beheld Krishn\u00e1, and then she said, \u201cO, what have I said?\u201d\nHowever, Draupadi was fated to have five husbands for, in a previous\nexistence on the earth, she had, on five different occasions, asked\nthe gods for a good husband as the reward of the austerities she\npractised. Yudhisthira knew this. It had been revealed to him by Vyasa.\nSo when the matter was referred to him, as head of the family, he said\nsimply: \u201cThe auspicious Draupadi shall be the common wife of us all;\u201d\na decision which pleased his brothers considerably for, as the poet\ntells us, \u201cThe sons of Pandu then hearing those words of their eldest\nbrother, began to revolve them in their minds in great cheerfulness.\u201d\n\nTheir life in the potter\u2019s house was simplicity itself. Krishn\u00e1\nprepared the food for the family and served it out to the several\nmembers, taking only a little for herself and eating it last of all. At\nnight all seven slept on a bed of _kusa_ grass covered with deerskins.\nThe brothers lay side by side, their mother along the line of their\nheads, and Krishn\u00e1 \u201calong the line of their feet as their nether\npillow.\u201d\n\nWhen Draupadi, nothing loth, had gone away with the handsome victor,\nthe King of Panchala was naturally very anxious to find out who the\nsuccessful suitor really was. By a little artful eavesdropping on\nthe part of Dhrista-dyumna, the secret became known to him, and he\nrejoiced to find what a good match Krishn\u00e1 had made. Arjuna caused\ngreat preparations to be undertaken for the wedding. He did not quite\nlike the proposed fivefold arrangement; but was induced to consent to\nit, after Vyasa himself had explained to him how polyandry was not in\nitself sinful, and how this particular marriage had been pre-arranged\nby _Destiny_. It only remained for Draupadi to be led round the sacred\nfire on five successive days by the five brothers in turn. After the\nfive weddings the King of the Panchalas made valuable presents to\nDraupadi\u2019s husbands, including gold, chariots, horses and elephants,\n\u201cand he also gave them a hundred female servants, all in the prime of\nyouth and decked in costly robes and ornaments and floral wreaths.\u201d\nKrishna also bestowed upon the happy Pandavas presents of various\nsorts,--costly robes, soft blankets, golden ornaments, and superb\nvessels set with gems and diamonds. And, in addition to these, \u201cmany\nelephants and horses, crores of gold coins, and thousands of young and\nbeautiful female servants brought from various countries.\u201d[67]\n\nThe alliance thus formed with the Rajah of Penchala made a great\nchange in the fortunes of the Pandavas, and induced their cousins at\nHastinapur to make overtures of friendship to them. The negotiations\nled, at length, to an amicable arrangement, by which the Kauravas\ncontinued to remain and rule at Hastinapur, while the Pandavas were\nassisted to settle themselves in Khandava-prasta on the banks of the\nJumna. The portion of the country assigned to the sons of Pandu \u201cwas an\nunreclaimed desert,\u201d but they soon built a gorgeous and wonderful city\nthere, Indraprasta,[68] \u201csurrounded by a trench as wide as the sea,\nand by walls reaching high into the heavens ... and the gateways that\nprotected the town were high as the Mandara Mountain and massy as the\nclouds.\u201d\n\nAt Indraprasta the brothers lived happily with their wife, having,\nupon the advice of a Rishi, arranged \u201cthat when one of them would be\nsitting with Draupadi, if any other of the four would see that one\nthus, he (the intruder) must retire into the forest for twelve years,\npassing his days as a Brahmach\u00e1rin.\u201d One day a Brahman, who had been\nrobbed of his cattle, came in great haste to the king\u2019s palace and,\nlamenting bitterly, accused the Pandavas of allowing him to be deprived\nof his property by contemptible thieves. Arjuna, recognizing his duty\nto afford the Brahman redress and protection, resolved to pursue the\nrobbers; but his arms were in the room where Draupadi was sitting with\nYudhisthira. Balancing against each other the sin of allowing the\nBrahman\u2019s wrongs to go unavenged, and the breach of decorum involved\nin entering the chamber when his brother was engaged with Draupadi,\nhe deliberately chose the latter, notwithstanding the consequences of\ntheir mutual agreement on that point. Once in possession of his arms he\npursued the thieves, recovered the stolen property, and restored it to\nthe Brahman; but on returning to the palace he voluntarily determined\nto go into exile in fulfilment of the terms of the compact about\nDraupadi.\n\nArjuna\u2019s twelve years of exile were full of adventure. At the spot\nwhere the Ganges enters the plains (Hurdwar) he stepped into the\nsacred stream for a bath, was drawn down into the water by Ulupi, the\ndaughter of the King of the Nagas, and taken by her to the beautiful\nmansion of her father. The love-sick Ulupi courted Arjuna so warmly\nthat he could not find it in his heart to resist her solicitations. In\nreturn, Ulupi bestowed upon Arjuna the gift of invisibility in water.\n\nFrom one sacred stream to another, from one holy place to another,\nwandered the willing exile, giving away much wealth to the Brahmans.\nAt length he travelled as far as Munipur. Now the King of Munipur\nhad a beautiful daughter named Chitr\u00e1ngad\u00e1. Arjuna saw, and fell\ndesperately in love with the fair maiden. He asked her hand in marriage\nand obtained it, on condition that the first son born of the union\nshould be considered to belong to the King of Munipur, in order to\nsucceed him on the throne of that country. Three years did Arjuna\nlive at Munipur, but when a son was born to Chitr\u00e1ngad\u00e1 he took an\naffectionate farewell of her, and set out again upon his wanderings.\nVisiting many lands and experiencing strange adventures, he at length\narrived at Dwarka, on the shore of the Southern Sea, the capital of his\nkinsman, Krishna, King of the Yadhavas. A casual sight of Subhadr\u00e1,\nthe handsome sister of Krishna, made a strong and visible impression\nupon the susceptible heart of Arjuna. Krishna perceived the effect\nproduced by his sister\u2019s charms, and was not indisposed to an alliance\nwith the Pandava hero. Should Subhadr\u00e1, now of age, hold a swayamvara\nor maiden\u2019s choice? Krishna thought the result of such a plan might be\ndisappointing; for who could say what choice a capricious girl might\nmake! So, he artfully suggested to Arjuna to carry off the maiden by\nforce, since \u201cin the case of Kshatriyas that are brave, a forcible\nabduction for purposes of marriage is applauded, as the learned have\nsaid.\u201d Arjuna, who was ready to achieve anything achievable by man\nto obtain \u201cthat girl of sweet smiles,\u201d soon put the suggestion into\npractice, to the great indignation of the Yadhava chiefs; but Krishna\nthrew oil upon the troubled waters, and everything was amicably settled\nin the end, the wedding being celebrated on a magnificent scale. After\nthe prescribed twelve years of exile were completed, Arjuna returned\nto Khandava-prasta with Subhadr\u00e1, and was loyally welcomed by all. But\nwhen he visited Draupadi she evinced very natural signs of jealousy,\nand recommended Arjuna to go to the daughter of the Satwata race.\nHowever he coaxed her over, and when Subhadr\u00e1, dressed in red silk,\nbut in the simple fashion of a cow-keeper, approached and bowed down\nto Draupadi, saying, \u201cI am thy maid,\u201d her resentful feelings were\ndisarmed; she rose hastily and embraced her young rival with the\nsignificant greeting: \u201cLet thy husband be without a foe.\u201d\n\nKrishna, the Prince of Dwarka, now visited his brother-in-law in great\nstate, and brought with him a vast store of valuable gifts, amongst\nwhich we need only notice \u201ca thousand damsels well skilled in assisting\nat the operations of bathing and at drinking.\u201d No light recommendations\napparently, for it would seem that in those good old times the practice\nof drinking wine was quite common; as we are told by the poet, in\nconnection with a great picnic, given by Arjuna and Krishna, that\n\u201cthe women of the party, all of full rotund hips and fine deep bosoms\nand handsome eyes, and gait unsteady with wine, began to sport there\nat the command of Krishna and Partha (Arjuna). And some amongst the\nwomen sported as they liked in the woods, and some in the waters, and\nsome within the mansions as directed by Partha and Govinda (Krishna).\nAnd Draupadi and Subhadr\u00e1, exhilarated with wine, began to give away\nunto the women so sporting their costly robes and ornaments. And some\namongst those women began to dance in joy, and some began to sing, and\nsome amongst them began to laugh and jest, and some to drink excellent\nwines.\u201d\n\nThe picnic referred to was succeeded by a terrible conflict, in which\nKrishna and Arjuna, in the interests of Agni, opposed Indra and his\ncelestial hosts. Agni, the god of fire, having drunk a continuous\nstream of clarified butter for twelve years, during the sacrifice of\nKing Swetaki, was satiated with his greasy fare, had become pale and\ncould not shine as before. To recover his health a change of diet was\nnecessary for the god, and he, therefore, wished to devour, with his\nflaming tongues, the forest of Khandava in that land; but whenever he\nattempted to do this, Indra opposed him, quenching the flames raised by\nthe fire-god with torrents of rain from above. However, Arjuna, in his\nwonderful way, \u201ccovered the forest of Khandava with innumerable arrows,\nlike the moon covering the atmosphere with a thick fog,\u201d and in this\nmanner protected the burning forest from Indra\u2019s drenching showers. A\nfierce battle with Indra, backed by Asuras, Gandharvas, Yakshas, and\na host of others, resulted in the complete victory of Arjuna and his\nkinsman, in the total consumption of the forest by fire, and the almost\nwholesale destruction of all its inhabitants of every kind.\n\nOnly six of the dwellers in the forest of Khandava were allowed to\nescape with their lives. Aswa-Sena, Maya, and four birds called\n_Sharugakos_. Now Maya was the chief architect of the Danavas and, in\ngratitude for his preservation, built a wonderful _Sabha_, or hall, for\nthe Pandavas, the most beautiful structure of its kind in the whole\nworld.\n\nOne day, while the Pandavas were holding their court in this hall, the\ncelestial Rishi Narada visited them, and the subject of conversation\nhaving turned upon the splendours of Maya\u2019s handiwork, the Rishi\ndescribed the courts of Indra, Yama, Varuna, and Kuvera, as also \u201cthe\nassembly-house of the grandsire, that house which none can describe,\nsaying, it is such, for within a moment it assumes a different form\nthat language fails to paint.\u201d\n\nWithin the narrow limits I have allowed myself, these highly\ninteresting pictures of the different heavens of the Hindus cannot be\nreproduced; but their more salient features must not be passed over,\nsince they are highly characteristic of the ideas of the people who\nconceived them. The hall of Brahma, the Supreme Being, the Creator of\neverything, is an indescribable mansion, peopled by a most august, if\nsomewhat shadowy, assembly. Here, in the presence of the grandsire\nof all, attend, in their personified forms, the various forces and\nphenomena of nature, such as time and space, heat and air, day and\nnight, the months and seasons, the years and _Yugas_. Here also are\never to be found religion, joy, tranquillity, aversion and asceticism;\nhere wisdom, intelligence and fame; here the four Vedas, sacrifices\nand _mantras_. Here also perpetually attend hymns, dramas, songs and\nstories, together with all the sciences, in the company of countless\ncelestial Rishis and all the deities.\n\nThe courts of the other gods, which are less solemn and sedate, always\nresound with strains of delightful vocal and instrumental music, and\nare enlivened with the graceful dancing of the charming Apsaras and\nGandharvas. But it is Yama\u2019s _Sabha_ that most concerns the human race,\nfor it is there that, for the most part, the disembodied spirits of\nmen are to be found. \u201cBright as burnished gold, that assembly-house\ncovers an area of much more than a hundred _Yojanas_. Possessed of\nthe splendour of the sun it yieldeth everything that one may desire.\nNeither very cool nor very hot, it delighteth the heart. In that\nassembly-house there is neither grief nor weakness of age, neither\nhunger nor thirst. Nothing disagreeable findeth a place there, nor\nwretchedness or distress. There can be no fatigue or any kind of evil\nfeelings there. Every object of desire, celestial or human, is to be\nfound in that mansion. And all kinds of enjoyable articles, as also\nof sweet juicy, agreeable, and delicious edibles in profusion, that\nare licked, sucked and drunk, are there. And the floral wreaths in\nthat mansion are of the most delicious fragrance, and the trees that\nstand around it yield fruits that are desired of them. And there are\nboth cold and hot waters, and these are sweet and agreeable. And in\nthat mansion many royal sages of great sanctity and Brahmana sages\nalso of great purity wait upon and worship Yama, the son Vivaswat....\nAnd Agastya and Mataiya and K\u00e1la and Mrityu (Death), performers of\nsacrifices, and Siddhas and many Yogins; the _Pitris_ ... the wheel of\ntime and the illustrious conveyer himself of the sacrificial butter;\nall sinners among human beings, as also that have died during the\nwinter solstice; those officers of Yama who have been appointed to\ncount the allotted days of everybody and everything, the _Shingshapa_,\n_Palasha_, _Kasha_, and _Kusha_, trees and plants, in their embodied\nforms:--these all wait upon and worship the god of justice in that\nassembly-house of his.... And many illustrious Gandharvas and many\nApsaras fill every part of that mansion with music, both instrumental\nand vocal, and with the sounds of laughter and dance. And excellent\nperfumes, and sweet sounds, and garlands of celestial flowers always\ncontribute to make that mansion supremely blest. And hundreds of\nthousands of virtuous persons of celestial beauty and great wisdom\nalways wait upon and worship the illustrious lord of created beings in\nthat assembly-house.\u201d[69]\n\nDuring the period in the history of the Pandavas which we have now\nreached, Draupadi bore five sons[70] to her five husbands, and Subhadr\u00e1\nalso became the mother of the afterwards famous Abhimanyu.\n\nIn their new home the Pandavas had flourished greatly, and having\nestablished an undisputed supremacy over all the chieftains in their\nimmediate neighbourhood, they thought of performing a _rajasuya_ or\nsacrifice of triumph, a sort of formal declaration of imperial claims.\nBut there was a serious difficulty in the way of the accomplishment\nof this proud function; for there reigned at Mathura, the capital of\nMagadha, a powerful king, named Jar\u00e1sandha who, having himself already\nbrought no less than _eighty-six_ kings under his dominion, was not, by\nany means, likely to acknowledge the superiority of Yudhisthira. Hence\nit followed that, until Jar\u00e1sandha were overcome, the _rajasuya_ could\nnot be undertaken.\n\nTo conquer or otherwise dispose of Jar\u00e1sandha was, therefore, the\nproblem before the sons of Pandu. Their kinsman, Krishna, \u201cforemost\nof personages whose strength consists in wisdom and policy,\u201d was on a\nvisit to Indraprasta, and willingly accompanied Arjuna and Bhima (all\nthree disguised as Brahmans) to Mathura. Once in the presence of their\nformidable rival they threw off the mask and made themselves known to\nhim. Krishna upbraided Jar\u00e1sandha with his cruel purpose of offering\nup the vanquished kings, whom he held in captivity, as sacrifices to\nthe god Rudra and, without hesitation, intimated that he and his\ncompanions had come to Mathura expressly to slay him. In addressing\nthe King of Magadha Krishna gave expression to sentiments which remind\none forcibly of the warlike ideas of the Norsemen. \u201cKnow,\u201d said he\n\u201cO bull among men, that Kshatriyas engage in battle with heaven in\nview.... Study of Vedas, great fame, ascetic penances, and death in\nbattle are all acts that lead to heaven. The attainment of heaven by\nthe other three acts may be uncertain. But death in battle hath that\nfor its certain consequence.\u201d The challenge thus given was accepted\nin the chivalrous spirit of the times. A single and public combat\nwas arranged between Bhima and Jar\u00e1sandha. Crowds of all classes of\ncitizens, including women, were present to see the event. Both heroes\nfought without weapons. The encounter, which was carried on with great\nferocity, lasted thirteen days without intermission for rest or food,\nand finally resulted in Jar\u00e1sandha\u2019s backbone being broken against\nBhima\u2019s knee. \u201cAnd the roar of the Pandava, mingling with that of\nJar\u00e1sandha while he was being broken on Bhima\u2019s knee, caused a loud\nuproar that struck fear into the heart of every creature.\u201d After\nJar\u00e1sandha had been slain, Krishna released his royal prisoners, and\nengaged them to assist Yudhisthira in the celebration of the proposed\n_rajasuya_ sacrifice.\n\nAs soon as the occurrences at Mathura had been made known to\nYudhisthira, he despatched his four brothers to the four points of\nthe compass to collect tribute from all the Rajahs of the world.[71]\nThese expeditions were fruitful of wonderful adventures, but we have\nnot space to recount them here, though we must not omit to note, in\npassing, that when those unprovoked aggressors, the sons of Pandu,\nvanquished any prince who offered resistance, he at once and, as a\nmatter of course, joined the victors with his forces, and helped to\nsubjugate the unfortunate king upon whose territories the advancing\ntide of invasion next broke.[72]\n\nAs a sequel to the conquests of the Pandavas, a crowd of Brahmans,\nwith scores of Rajahs, flocked to Indraprasta from all parts of the\ncountry, and were right royally lodged and entertained by Yudhisthira\u2019s\ncommands. The various duties demanded by the occasion were intrusted\nto the different members of the family and to intimate friends of the\nPandavas. Dhusashana was appointed to cater for the visitors; Kripa\nto look after the gold and gems; Duryodhana to receive the tributes;\nand Krishna, at his own desire, was engaged in washing the feet of the\nBrahmans.\n\nArrangements for the _rajasuya_ were pushed forward, and all was\nhubbub and excitement in Indraprasta. The Brahman sages found the\noccasion a grand one for disputations with one another, and they\ntook full advantage of it; but a suppressed fire of discontent and\njealousy was smouldering in the hearts of the assembled Rajahs,\nwhich was set ablaze by a proposal to regard Krishna as the foremost\nchieftain present. Angry and contemptuous objections were made to his\nbeing given precedence in the assembly. The wise Bhisma, however,\nfully aware who and what his kinsman really was, solemnly assured the\nmalcontents that \u201cKrishna is the origin of the universe, and that in\nwhich the universe is to dissolve. Indeed this universe of mobile and\nimmobile creatures has sprung into existence for Krishna only. He is\nthe unmanifest primal matter, the Creator, the eternal and beyond (the\nken of) all creatures.\u201d Notwithstanding this testimony the opposition\ndid not cease. Indeed Shishupala, the mighty King of Chedi, ridiculed\nthe old man\u2019s words, heaped contempt upon Krishna, and eventually, with\nmany taunts and jeers, challenged him to fight. \u201cAnd while Shishupala\nwas speaking thus, the exalted slayer of Madhu thought in his mind\nof the discus that humbleth the pride of the Asuras. And as soon as\nthe discus came into his hands the illustrious one skilled in speech\nloudly uttered these words! \u2018Listen, ye lords of earth, why this one\nhad hitherto been pardoned by me. Asked by his mother, a hundred\noffences (of his) were to be pardoned by me. Even this was the boon\nshe had asked and even this I granted her. That number, ye kings, hath\nbecome full. I shall now slay him in your presence, ye monarchs.\u2019\nHaving said this, the chief of the Yadus, that slayer of all foes, in\nanger instantly cut off the head of the ruler of Chedi by means of his\ndiscus. And the mighty-armed one fell down like a cliff struck with\nthunder. And the assembled kings then beheld a fierce energy, like\nunto the sun in the sky, issue out of the body of the King of Chedi.\nAnd that energy then adored Krishna, possessed of eyes like lotus\nleaves and worshipped of all the worlds, and entered his body. And the\nkings beholding the energy which entered that mighty-armed chief of\nmen regarded it as wonderful.\u201d And indeed they might well do so, yet\nthe poet tells us that many of the chiefs were excited to fierce if\nsuppressed anger by what they had witnessed.[73]\n\nAt length the great sacrifice for imperial sway was successfully\naccomplished, and with the greatest imaginable splendour. After which\nthe subject Rajahs were courteously dismissed to their respective\nprincipalities.\n\nBut the grandeur and wealth displayed on this occasion served to\nre-awaken or inflame the old jealousy of the Kauravas, particularly of\nDuryodhana, who had been the unwilling collector of the vast tribute\npoured into Yudhisthira\u2019s treasury at Indraprasta. Despairing of\ninjuring their rivals by open and fair means, the Kauravas determined\nto resort once more to artifice, having, as usual, discussed the\npros and cons of the question from all points of view; for these\nold-time heroes of India were nothing if not argumentative.[74] They\nbuilt a sumptuous reception-hall, \u201ca crystal-arched palace,\u201d full two\nmiles square, decorated with gold and lapis lazuli, with a thousand\ncolumns and one hundred gates. Hither they invited a large number of\nroyal friends, but the principal guests were the Pandavas, whom they\nchallenged to a friendly gambling match. Yudhisthira well understood\nand clearly stated the objectionable features of gambling, and was\nfully aware that the game of chance he was challenged to take part\nin would not be fairly conducted. However, as a Kshatriya, he could\nnot decline the match, and so sat down to play against Shakuni, Queen\nGandhari\u2019s brother, a skilful and unscrupulous dice-player, who was\nbacked by Duryodhana.\n\nIn a succession of games Yudhisthira lost all his money and jewels, all\nhis cattle, jewelled chariots, war-elephants, slaves and slave-girls,\nand then the whole of the kingdom of the Pandavas. Driven to despair,\nthe luckless gambler would persist in continuing to play while there\nremained anything at all to stake. But his success was no better than\nbefore, and he staked and lost his brothers, one by one, then himself\nand, lastly, the joint-wife of the Pandavas, the famous Draupadi.\n\nAn exciting and most sensational scene followed. To complete the\nhumiliation of their rivals, the successful gamesters ordered Draupadi\nto be conducted into the gaming hall. She astutely objected that,\nas Yudhisthira had first staked and lost himself, and thus entered\na servile condition before he played for her, he was not legally\ncompetent to dispose of her person; but her protest was unheeded.\nBeing dressed at the time in a single robe of cloth, a simple _saree_\napparently, she refused to appear in that attire before the assembled\nchiefs. But Dhusashana, with brutal unceremoniousness, dragged her into\nthe great hall by the hair of her head, treating her, in the presence\nof her husbands, with the familiar license which they were accustomed\nto indulge in when dealing with their female slaves. Dhusashana even\nwent so far as to attempt to strip beautiful Draupadi in the presence\nof the assembly. In her trouble she prayed aloud to Krishna for help,\ninvoking him as the lover of the _gopis_ (milkmaids), the dweller\nin Dwarka, the soul of the universe, the Creator of all things. And\nKrishna, hearing her prayer, miraculously multiplied her garments as\nfast as they were removed. Yet notwithstanding these manifestations\nof divine protection, Duryodhana, not to be behind in affronting\nhis rivals, indecently bared his left thigh and showed it to the\nmodest Draupadi, who, as she said, had never since the occasion of\nher swayamvara been beheld by an assembly like this. These gross\nindignities, it may be well imagined, must have driven the Pandavas\nfrantic. Why then did they not dare to interpose? Because they were\nbound by the acts of their elder brother; and submission to authority\nseems ever to have been the highest virtue of these Hindu heroes! Only\nBhima, with an impetuosity which was not to be restrained even by\nrespect for his elder brother, took a solemn oath before the assembly\nthat, for the deeds that they had done that day, he would break the\nthigh of Duryodhana and drink the blood of Dhusashana, or forfeit his\nhopes of heaven. Both these vows he accomplished in the great war to be\nsubsequently referred to.\n\nWhile this sensational scene was being enacted, a jackal howled in the\n_homa_-chamber of King Dhritarashtra. Terrified by this omen of dire\nevil, the old king began to reprove Duryodhana for his conduct; and,\naddressing Draupadi, in respectful and affectionate terms, desired her\nto ask of him any boon she pleased. Without hesitation she demanded at\nonce that Yudhisthira should be freed from slavery. A second boon being\noffered her, she solicited the freedom of her other husbands; but when\nshe was given the option of a third boon she declined to accept the\nfavour, saying: \u201cO king, these my husbands, freed from the wretched\nstate of bondage, will be able to achieve prosperity by their own\nvirtuous acts.\u201d However, Dhritarashtra dismissed the Pandavas in honour\nto their own city, desiring them to think no more of the unpleasant\nepisode of the gambling match.\n\nThe crestfallen visitors hastened to take advantage of the blind king\u2019s\npermission to depart, and they set out at once on their homeward\njourney, revolving in their minds many a scheme of future vengeance.\nThe Kauravas, however, felt, and justly too, that after what had passed\nthat day the matter could not be thus easily settled. They knew their\noutraged cousins would burn to wipe out the insults they had received,\nand so they entreated the blind old king, their father, to recall the\nPandavas and induce them to play a final game, upon the issue of which\none party or the other should go into voluntary exile. The Pandavas\nwere brought back to try the fortune of the dice once more, and it was\narranged that the losing side should go into exile, spending twelve\nyears in the forests and one additional year in any city they might\nfind convenient; and that if the exiles were discovered, during the\ntime of their concealment in the city, they would have to go through\nanother exile of thirteen years. The game upon which so much hung was\nduly played, with the result that the Pandavas had to exchange the\nsplendour and luxury of the palace for the simple life and scanty fare\nof the forest, with which they had already become acquainted in their\nearlier wanderings.\n\nWhen Dhusashana saw that Sakuni had won the game, he danced about for\njoy, and cried out: \u201cNow is established the Raj of Duryodhana!\u201d But\nBhima said: \u201cBe not elated with joy, but remember my words. The day\nwill come when I shall drink your blood, or never attain to regions\nof blessedness!\u201d The Pandavas seeing that they had lost their wager,\nthrew off their garments, put on deerskins, and prepared to depart into\nthe forest with their joint-wife, their mother Kunti, and their priest\nDhaumya; but Vidura representing to Yudhisthira that Kunti was, by\nreason of her years, unfitted to bear the hardships of exile, proposed\nthat she should be left to his care, and this kindly offer was readily\naccepted. From the assembly the sons of Pandu went out, hanging down\ntheir heads with shame, and covering their faces with their garments.\nOnly Bhima, always more impulsive than his brothers, threw out his\nlong, mighty arms, and glared at the Kauravas furiously, while Draupadi\nspread her long black hair over her face and wept bitterly. The blind\nold king regarded the departure of his nephews with grave misgivings,\nfor he felt that inevitable destruction awaited him and his at the\nhands of the Pandavas. All this, he well knew, was the work of his son\nDuryodhana, constrained by destiny, since \u201cthe whole universe moveth at\nthe will of the Creator under the controlling influence of fate:\u201d and,\nas Sanjaya said, in allusion to Duryodhana, \u201cthe gods first deprive\nthat man of his reason unto whom they send defeat and disgrace.\u201d\n\nSurely it is only a Hindu bard who could imagine such sudden and\ncomplete reverses of fortune and such tame, almost abject, acquiescence\nin the circumstances of the hour, on the part of such redoubtable\nheroes as the sons of Pandu! Nor is it comprehensible why exile to the\nforest should always entail the hermit garb and utter destitution.\n\nThat King Yudhisthira felt his altered position bitterly is evident\nfrom the words he addressed to the Brahmans who accompanied him and his\nbrothers out of the city. \u201cRobbed,\u201d he says, \u201cof our prosperity and\nkingdom, robbed of everything, we are about to enter the deep woods in\nsorrow: depending for our food on fruits and roots and the produce of\nthe chase. The forest too is full of dangers and abounds with reptiles\nand beasts of prey.\u201d However his anticipations were worse than the\nreality. By the advice of a Brahman the exiled monarch made an appeal\nto the sun for help, addressing him in such terms as these. \u201cThou art,\nO sun, the eye of the universe! Thou art the soul of all corporeal\nexistences! Thou art the origin of all things.... Thou art called\nIndra, thou art Vishnu, thou art Brahma, thou art Prajapati! Thou\nart fire and thou art the subtle mind! and thou art the lord and the\neternal Brahma.\u201d[75] In response to this appeal the sun-god appeared to\nthe king, and presented him with a copper cooking-vessel, which proved\nto be an inexhaustible source of fruits and roots, meat and vegetables\nto the exiles during their twelve years of enforced sojourn in the\nwoods.[76]\n\nTheir forest wanderings were productive of many stirring adventures,\nthe narrative of which occupies a large portion of the original poem,\nbut we can find space to notice only a few of these.\n\nFollowing the advice of the sage Vyasa, Arjuna visited the Himalayas\nin order to gain the favour of Siva, and to obtain from him certain\nmost potent celestial weapons for the destruction of the Kauravas,\nof whom the Pandava heroes seem, notwithstanding their own wonderful\nfighting qualities, to have had a wholesome dread. Having arrived upon\nthe sacred mountains, Arjuna went through a course of austerities \u201cwith\narms upraised, leaning upon nothing and standing on the tips of his\ntoes.\u201d For food he at first had withered leaves, but eventually he\nfed on air alone. Such was the fervour of his penances that the earth\naround him began to smoke, and the alarmed Rishis came in a body to\nSiva, and asked him to interfere. The chief of all the gods sent them\naway with comforting assurances and, having assumed the appearance of a\n_Kir\u00e1ta_, or low-class hunter, came upon Arjuna and provoked him to an\nencounter. The battle was fierce, culminating in a desperate personal\nstruggle; but where one of the combatants was the Supreme Being the\nissue could not be doubtful, and Arjuna fell smitten senseless by the\ngod. He soon recovered consciousness, and \u201cmentally prostrating himself\nbefore the gracious god of gods, and making a clay image of that\ndeity, he worshipped it with offerings of floral garlands.\u201d[77] To his\nsurprise he found the garland he had offered to the clay image adorning\nthe head of his victorious enemy, the _Kir\u00e1ta_, who thus revealed\nhimself to the much-relieved son of Pandu. Arjuna prostrated himself\nbefore the deity, who expressed his approval of his worshipper, and\npresently bestowed upon him the gift of a terrible celestial weapon,\ncalled the P\u00e1cupata, with instructions in regard to the appropriate\n_mantras_ or spells to be used with it. At that moment the whole earth,\nwith its mountains, plains, and rivers, trembled with excitement, a\nterrible hurricane expressed the concern of nature in the important\nevent, and the \u201cterrible weapon in its embodied form\u201d stood by the\nside of Arjuna ready to obey his behests. When Siva had vanished from\nsight, the guardians of the four regions (_lokapalah_) Kuvera, Varuna,\nYama, and Indra appeared in great splendour upon the mountain top, and\npresented Arjuna with other celestial weapons; after which he was\ncarried in a wondrous car to the heaven of his real father, the god\nIndra. It was a glorious and delightful region, lighted with its own\ninherent brilliancy, adorned with flowers of every season, fanned by\nfragrant breezes and resounding with celestial music. Here there were\nbands of lovely Apsaras and Gandharvas, who gladdened all hearts with\ntheir ravishing songs and dances. It was a region for the virtuous\nalone, and not for those \u201cwho had turned their back on the field of\nbattle.\u201d\n\nIn this delightful place Arjuna passed five years of his life, treated\nwith the highest honour and consideration, learning the use of the\nvarious celestial weapons with which he was eventually to overthrow\nthose redoubtable champions, Kripa and Drona, Bhisma and Karna. Nor\nwere lighter studies neglected. Arjuna, under a competent instructor,\nbecame proficient in the arts of music and dancing.\n\nThat he might be made \u201cto taste the joys of heaven,\u201d properly, the\nlovely Apsara,[78] Urvasi, of wide hips, crisp soft hair, beautiful\neyes and full bosom, was specially commanded to make herself agreeable\nto Arjuna. Her sensual beauty, described in some detail by the poet,\nfailed, however, to subdue the hero, who met her amatory advances with\na somewhat exaggerated respect, which so enraged the fair temptress\nthat she cursed him, saying: \u201cSince thou disregardest a woman come\nto thy mansion at the command of thy father and of her own motion--a\nwoman, besides, who is pierced by the shafts of Kama,--therefore, O\nPartha, thou shalt have to pass thy time among females, unregarded, and\nas a dancer and destitute of manhood.\u201d\n\nWhile Arjuna was in the heaven of Indra, King Yudhisthira passed some\ntime in the forest of Kamyaka, in company with his three younger\nbrothers and Draupadi, attended by his family priest, Dhaumya, and\na number of faithful Brahmans. Here he learned, from an illustrious\nRishi, Vrihada\u00e7wa, \u201cthe science of dice in its entirety,\u201d ignorance\nof which _science_ had cost him so dear. After a while the party set\nout on a pilgrimage to visit and bathe in those _tirthas_, or sacred\nwaters, which abound all over India to this day. Each _tirtha_ is\nfamous for some event in the history of the gods or the saints of the\nlands, and the water of each one has a virtue of its own. A dip in one\ncleanses the bather from all his sins, a dip in another confers upon\nhim the merit of having bestowed a thousand kine upon the Brahmans, or,\nperhaps, that of having performed a horse-sacrifice. By a plunge in a\nthird _tirtha_ the pilgrim acquires the power of disappearance at will,\nor some other coveted power; while ablution in the water of a fourth\nplaces the heaven of Indra, or of some other god, within his reach.\nIt is evident that by making a round of these _tirthas_ a man might\nacquire superhuman power and the highest felicity in this and a future\nlife.\n\nJourneying leisurely from _tirtha_ to _tirtha_, from the Punjab to the\nSouthern Sea, under the guidance of the sage Loma\u00e7a, King Yudhisthira,\nwith the others, pleasantly acquired an enormous store of merits of\nvarious kinds. But, anxious for reunion with Arjuna, they wended\ntheir way back to the North, visiting the _tirthas_ on their route,\ntill they found themselves in the Himalayas. Pushing into the sacred\nsolitude of these giant mountains they met with many adventures, in\nwhich Bhima\u2019s son, Ghatotkacha, was very helpful to them. At last,\nfrom a lofty summit, these fortunate travellers got a glimpse of the\nabode of Kuvera, the god of wealth, \u201cadorned with golden and crystal\npalaces, surrounded on all sides by golden walls having the splendour\nof all gems, furnished with gardens all around, higher than a mountain\npeak, beautiful with ramparts and towers, and adorned with doorways\nand gates and rows of pennons. And the abode was graced with dallying\ndamsels dancing around, and also with pennons wafted by the breeze....\nAnd gladdening all creatures, there was blowing a breeze, carrying\nall perfumes, and of balmy feel. And there were various beautiful and\nwonderful trees of diverse hues, resounding with diverse dulcet notes.\u201d\n\nKuvera came out to meet the Pandavas, and after some excellent advice\nto Yudhisthira, in which he pointed out to the king that success in\nhuman affairs depended upon \u201cpatience, ability (appropriate), time\nand place and prowess,\u201d requested them to retire to a somewhat less\nelevated position on the mountains, and there await the return of their\nbrother. And it came to pass that one day, while they were thinking of\nArjuna, a blazing chariot driven by Indra\u2019s charioteer, Matali, filled\nthe sky with its brilliancy and, stopping near them, their long-absent\nbrother descended from it, in a resplendent form, adorned with a diadem\nand celestial garlands. He paid his respects, in due form, first to the\nfamily priest and then to Bhima; after that he received the salutations\nof his younger brothers; he next cheered his beloved Krishn\u00e1 by his\npresence, and finally stood, in an attitude of humility, before the\nking. The Pandavas worshipped Matali as if he were Indra himself, and\nthen \u201cduly inquired of him after the health of all the gods.\u201d At dawn\nnext day Indra himself, attended by hosts of Gandharvas and Apsaras,\nvisited the Pandavas and, having received their adoration, and having\nassured Yudhisthira that he would yet rule the earth, desired him to\ngo back to Kamyaka, whereupon the Pandavas, of course, commenced their\nreturn journey.\n\nArjuna, restored to the companionship of his brothers, related to them\nsome of his adventures during the five years of his absence, and dwelt\nin some detail upon the successful destruction of certain Danavas,\nnamed Nivata-Kavachas, which he had carried out single-handed. These\nwere ancient and powerful enemies of Indra, dwellers in the womb of\nthe ocean, and numbering thirty millions.[79] Against these puissant\ndemons Arjuna was sent in Indra\u2019s chariot, driven by Matali; and, after\nprodigies of valour and the most marvellous performances with the\ncelestial weapons which he had received from the gods, he completely\noverthrew them and destroyed their wonderful a\u00ebrial city, Hiranyapura.\nShortly after these events Krishna came on a visit to his friends,\nand they were also joined by the sage Markandeya, who lightened the\ntedium of their wanderings with interesting narratives of past events,\nand profitable discourses on important religious and philosophical\nsubjects. How competent he was for such a task will be readily\nadmitted, when we learn from himself that he, and he alone, of the race\nof men or created beings, was privileged to see the entire universe run\nits cycle of changes through the four appointed _Yugas_ or ages; to\nwatch it undergo gradual degeneracy and decay; and, finally, to witness\nits total destruction by fire,--with all animated beings, even gods\nand demons,--only to be recreated again in order to run its appointed\ncourse through the ages once more.[80]\n\nMarkandeya relates to the Pandavas the whole story of the \u201cRamayana\u201d\nand many another legend of the olden time. Let me here reproduce his\nstory of the _flood_, as it has an interest not confined to India or\nHindus, and also his explanation of the doctrine of _Karma_, of which\nwe are beginning to hear so much in these days.\n\n_Markandeya\u2019s Account of the Universal Deluge._--There was once a\npowerful and great Rishi, named Manu, who \u201cwas equal unto Brahma in\nglory.\u201d For ten thousand years he practised the severest austerities\nin the forest, standing on one leg with uplifted hand and bowed head.\nOne day as he was undergoing his self-inflicted penance, with matted\nlocks and dripping garments, a little fish, approaching the bank\nof the stream near which the Rishi stood, entreated his protection\nagainst the cruel voracity of the bigger fishes; \u201cfor,\u201d said the little\nsuppliant, \u201cthis fixed custom is well established among us, that the\nstrong fish always prey upon the weak ones.\u201d The sage, touched with\ncompassion, took the little fish out of the river, and put it for\nsafety into an earthen vessel of water, and tended it carefully. In\nits new home it grew apace and, at its own request, was removed to a\ntank. Here its dimensions increased so wonderfully that \u201calthough the\ntank was two _yojanas_ in length and one _yojana_ in width,\u201d there was\nnot sufficient room in it for the fish, who again appealed to Manu,\nasking him to place it in the Ganges, \u201cthe favourite spouse of the\nocean.\u201d Gigantic as the fish was, the wonderful Rishi put it into the\nriver with his own hands; but the Ganges itself was too small for this\nmonster of the waters, and the Muni carried it to the sea-shore and\nconsigned it to the bosom of the mighty ocean.\n\n\u201cAnd when it was thrown into the sea by Manu, it said these words to\nhim with a smile:[81] \u2018O adorable being thou hast protected me with\nspecial care; do thou now listen to me as to what thou shouldst do in\nthe fulness of time! O fortunate and worshipful sir, the dissolution\nof this mobile and immobile world is nigh at hand. The time for the\npurging of this world is now ripe. Therefore do I now explain what is\nwell for thee. The mobile and the immobile divisions of the creation,\nthose that have the power of locomotion and those that have it not,\nof all these the terrible doom hath now approached. Thou shalt build\na strong and massive ark, and have it furnished with a long rope. On\nthat must thou ascend, O great Muni, with the seven Rishis, and take\nwith thee all the different seeds which were enumerated by regenerate\nBrahmans in days of yore, and separately and carefully must thou\npreserve them therein. And whilst there, O beloved of the Munis, thou\nshalt wait for me, and I shall appear to thee like a horned animal, and\nthus, O ascetic, shalt thou recognize me.\u2019\u201d\n\nManu, having carried out the instructions of the fish in all its\ndetails, entered his ark and embarked upon the surging ocean. He\nthought of the fish, and it appeared with horns on its head, to which\nManu fastened his vessel. A terrific tempest arose, in which the ark\n\u201creeled about like a drunken harlot.\u201d Water covered everything, even\nthe heavens and the firmament. For many years the fish towed the vessel\nthrough the flood, and at length conveyed it towards the highest peak\nof the Himavat (Himalayas) and instructed the occupants to moor their\nvessel to it. \u201cThen the fish, addressing the associated Rishis, told\nthem these words: \u2018I am Brahma, the lord of all creatures; there is\nnone greater than myself\u2019. Assuming the shape of a fish I have saved ye\nfrom this cataclysm. Manu will create (again) all beings--gods, Asuras\nand men, and all those divisions of creation which have the power of\nlocomotion and which have it not. By practising severe austerities he\nwill acquire this power, and, with my blessing, illusion will have no\npower over him.\u201d Manu, of course, underwent the necessary austerities,\nand recreated \u201call beings in proper and exact order.\u201d\n\nSuch is the \u201cLegend of the Fish,\u201d and whosoever listens to it every day\nis assured of heaven.[82]\n\nFrom this easy mode of reaching heaven,[83] as taught by the sage\nMarkandeya, we turn to his exposition of the _doctrine of Karma_,\nwhich, if less comforting in respect to the means of attaining heavenly\njoys has, at least, something of philosophical plausibility to\nrecommend it to our attention.\n\nThe divine sage, addressing Yudhisthira, explained to him that\nhappiness is to be attained neither by learning, nor good morals, nor\npersonal exertion. There is yet another and more important factor than\nall these to be reckoned with, and that is _Karma_. \u201cIf the fruits of\nour exertion,\u201d says Markandeya, \u201cwere not dependent on anything else,\npeople would attain the object of their desire by simply striving to\nattain it. It is sure that able, intelligent, and diligent persons\nare baffled in their efforts and do not attain the fruits of their\nactions. On the other hand, persons who are always active in injuring\nothers, and in practising deception on the world, lead a happy life.\nThere are some who attain prosperity without any exertion; and there\nare others who with the utmost exertion are unable to achieve their\ndues. Miserly persons with the object of having sons born to them\nworship the gods and practise severe austerities, and these sons ... at\nlength turn out to be very infamous scions of their race; and others\nbegotten under the same auspices, decently pass their lives in luxury,\nwith hoards of riches and grain accumulated by their ancestors. The\ndiseases from which men suffer are undoubtedly the result of their\nown _Karma_,\u201d that is of their actions in previous and unremembered\nexistences. \u201cIt is,\u201d pursues Markandeya, \u201cthe immemorial tradition[84]\nthat the soul is eternal and everlasting, but the corporeal frame of\nall creatures is subject to destruction here (below). When, therefore,\nlife is extinguished the body only is destroyed, but the spirit, wedded\nto its actions, travels elsewhere.\u201d It inhabits innumerable bodies in\nsuccession, it lives countless lives, it passes through the infernal\nregions, it attains to the heaven of the gods; and, after untold woes\nand infinite struggles, is eventually re-absorbed in the divine\nessence from which it sprang.[85]\n\nTurning from these episodes and mystic speculations to the Pandavas\nthemselves, we find that the ever-fair Draupadi having, by her\nperennial and faultless beauty, aroused the passions of Jayadratha,\nRajah of Sindhu, was artfully carried off by him during the temporary\nabsence of her husbands; but the ravisher was overtaken and suffered\npunishment at the hands of the ardent Bhima, who, after inflicting\nsevere bodily chastisement upon the defeated Rajah, cut off his hair,\nall except five locks, and made him confess himself the slave of the\nPandavas. At the request of Yudhisthira, backed by generous Draupadi,\nJayadratha was released.\n\nThis abduction and rescue recalled to the mind of Markandeya the story\nof Rama and Sita, which he proceeded to relate, at considerable length,\nfor the edification of the Pandavas. The sage also recounted the story\nof Savitri, more charming than that of Orpheus and Eurydice. How the\nlovely Savitri set her affections upon young Satyav\u00e1n, the only son of\nthe blind Dyumatsena, ex-king of the Salwas; how she learned from the\nlips of the celestial sage Narada, that the beautiful youth was fated\nto die within a year; how notwithstanding this secret knowledge she\nwillingly linked her lot with his; and how, when the inevitable hour\narrived, and the doom of fate was accomplished in the lonely forest,\nher austere piety and devoted love enabled her to follow Yama, on and\non with fearless footsteps and touching entreaties, as he conveyed away\nher dear husband\u2019s spirit to the Land of Shades, and at last to prevail\nupon the dread deity to restore to her the soul of her Satyav\u00e1n.\n\n  \u201cAdieu, great God!\u201d She took the soul,\n    No bigger than the human thumb,\n  And running swift, soon reached her goal,\n    Where lay the body stark and dumb.\n  She lifted it with eager hands\n    And as before, when he expired,\n  She placed the head upon the bands\n    That bound her breast, which hope new fired,\n  And which alternate rose and fell;\n    Then placed his soul upon his heart,\n  Whence like a bee it found its cell,\n    And lo, he woke with sudden start!\n  His breath came low at first, then deep,\n    With an unquiet look he gazed,\n  As one awaking from a sleep,\n    Wholly \u201cbewildered and amazed.\u201d[86]\n\nOf the doings of the Kauravas, during the twelve years that we have\nbeen following the fortunes of their cousins, little is recorded,\nand that little is not to their credit. Knowing full well where the\nPandavas were passing their term of exile in the forests, Duryodhana,\nupon the advice of Karna, went thither in great state with a view of\nmeanly feasting his eyes upon the wretchedness of his hated kinsmen,\nand of intensifying their misery by the cruel contrast between his\nown grandeur and their destitution. This was the real, if unworthy,\nmotive of the journey to the forest of Kamyaka; the alleged reason\nwas to inspect the royal cattle-stations in order to count the stock\nand mark the calves.[87] Attended by his courtiers, by thousands\nof ladies belonging to the royal household, and by a great army of\nfollowers and soldiers, Duryodhana proceeded towards the sylvan abode\nof the Pandavas; but his advance guard was refused admission into the\nforests by the Gandharvas, whose king had come with his celestial hosts\nand several tribes of Apsaras to have a merry time in those woods.\nAs neither party would abate a jot of its pretensions, a terrible\nbattle ensued, resulting in the complete defeat of the Kauravas, the\nignominious flight of the redoubtable Karna, and the capture, by the\nvictorious enemy, of Duryodhana himself, his court, and all his harem.\n\nIn this extremity the beaten followers of the captive king fled for\nhelp to the Pandavas. For the sake of the honour of the family,\nand particularly for the protection of the ladies of their house,\nArjuna and Bhima, with the twins came, by the magnanimous command of\nYudhisthira, to the rescue of their kinsmen; and, after performing\nfeats of war which none but an Indian poet could imagine, obtained\nthe release of the crestfallen Duryodhana, whose bitterness\nagainst his cousins was only increased by this humiliating and\nnever-to-be-forgotten incident.\n\nStung to the quick by the intolerable mortification of his position,\nDuryodhana, in despair, resolved to give up his kingdom and his life.\nTo the remonstrances of his friends, he answered: \u201cI have nothing more\nto do with virtue, wealth, friendship, affluence, sovereignty and\nenjoyment. Do not obstruct my purpose, but leave me, all of you. I am\nfirmly resolved to cast away my life by foregoing food. Return to the\ncity and treat my superiors there respectfully.\u201d He might have fallen\nupon his own sword; but the Hindu hero elects to die otherwise. \u201cAnd\nthe son of Dhritarashtra, in accordance with his purpose, spread ku\u00e7a\ngrass on the earth, and purifying himself by touching water sat down\nupon that spot. And, clad in rags and ku\u00e7a grass, he set himself to\nobserve the highest vow. And stopping all speech, that tiger among\nkings, moved by the desire of going to heaven, began to pray and\nworship internally, suspending all external intercourse.\u201d\n\nHowever, this meditated suicide was not fated to be accomplished. The\nDaityas and Danavas interfered, \u201cknowing that if the king died, their\nparty would be weakened.\u201d By means of certain rites and sacrifices\nthey called into being \u201ca strange goddess with mouth wide open,\u201d who\ncarried Duryodhana into their presence at night. The Daityas and\nDanavas explained to the dejected king that he was of more than human\norigin, and their especial ally. They undertook to help him in his\nstruggles with the Pandavas, and promised him a complete triumph over\nhis rivals. Cheered by these assurances, the would be suicide abandoned\nhis purpose, resumed his royal position and, emulating the Pandavas,\nperformed a great and costly sacrifice, known as the _Vaishnava_. To\nthis important rite Duryodhana insultingly invited his cousins, who\nprudently declined the invitation on the plea that the period of their\nexile was not yet completed.\n\nNotwithstanding the recent defeat of Karna by the Gandharvas, and his\nprecipitate flight from the field of battle, there seems to have been\na lurking dread of his prowess amongst the friends of the Pandavas.\nIndra, the god of heaven, determined therefore to render him less\nformidable, by depriving him of his native coat of golden mail and\nthe celestial ear-rings with which he was born. For this purpose he\npresented himself before Karna in the guise of a Brahman, and asked\nhim for his armour and ear-rings. Now Karna had made a vow never to\nrefuse anything to a Brahman, and was thus placed on the horns of a\ncruel dilemma. However, he had been forewarned by his own father,\nthe sun-god, of Indra\u2019s intentions, and had been advised to ask\nfor an infallible weapon in exchange for his armour and ear-rings.\nRecognizing the god of heaven under his Brahmanical disguise, Karna\npreferred his request, which was granted with conditions which made\nit almost nugatory. Karna peeled off his natural armour, which act,\nby Indra\u2019s favour, left no scar upon his person. \u201cAnd Sakra (Indra),\u201d\nsays the poet, \u201chaving thus beguiled Karna, but made him famous in the\nworld thought, with a smile, that the business of the sons of Pandu\nhad already been completed.\u201d The Pandavas were naturally elated, and\nthe Kauravas depressed, when the news of these events reached them.\nThough the sons of Pandu had received repeated assurances that they\nwould ultimately triumph over their enemies, they were, it seems,\nsubject to frequent fits of somewhat unreasonable depression; so Vyasa,\never devoted to the interests of the heroes, visited them in their\nforest-home, and consoled Yudhisthira once more by the prediction that,\nafter the thirteenth year of exile had expired, he would regain his\nkingdom and his influence in the world.\n\nThe twelfth year of exile was now drawing to a close; the thirteenth\nyear, it will be remembered, was to be passed by the Pandavas in\ndisguise in some city or other. Their last experience in the woods\nwas as wonderful as any they had previously gone through. A wild stag\ncarried away on its branching antlers the sticks with which a Brahman\nascetic was wont to kindle his fire. The five brothers were appealed to\nby the hermit in his trouble, and pursued the animal, but could neither\nkill it nor run it down. Overcome with fatigue and thirst they sat down\nto take rest. One climbed a tree to look-out for signs of water, and\nhaving discovered them, Nakula was sent to fetch water for the party.\nNot far away he found a pleasant pond, but was warned by the commanding\nvoice of some unseen being not to touch the water. He was too thirsty\nto give heed to the injunction and, proceeding to drink of the crystal\nspring, fell down dead. Wondering at Nakula\u2019s prolonged absence,\nSahadeva set out to look for him and, coming upon the pond, heard the\nwarning voice. He, too, disregarded it, and suffered the same penalty\nas his brother had done. Arjuna and Bhima in turn went through the same\nexperiences with the same sad result. At last the wise Yudhisthira came\nupon the scene; he prudently refrained from touching the water when\nwarned against doing so, and entered into conversation with the a\u00ebrial\nvoice, which now took an embodied form,--that of a mighty _Yaksha_.\nThis being of terrible aspect, interrogated the king upon a number of\nimportant points, and receiving satisfactory answers,[88] revealed\nhimself to Yudhisthira as his father, Dharma, god of justice. He then\nrestored the dead Pandavas to life, and bestowed this boon upon them\nthat, during the thirteenth year of their exile, if they even travelled\nover the entire earth in their proper forms, no one _in the three\nworlds_ would be able to recognize them.\n\nThe twelfth year was now nearly completed, and the brothers left the\nwoods resolved to spend the next twelve months in the city of Virata,\nwhich seems to have been close at hand. Before entering the city they\nhad to conceal their weapons in order to avoid detection (for they\ndo not seem to have placed implicit confidence in the boon granted\nby Dharma). Just outside the city they came upon a cemetery with a\ngigantic _Sami_ tree. To the topmost boughs of this tree they fastened\ntheir weapons. They also hung a corpse on the tree that people might\navoid it. This action of theirs was evidently noticed, for the poet\ntells us that, on being asked by the shepherds and \u201ccowherds regarding\nthe corpse, those repressors of foes said unto them, \u2018This is our\nmother, aged one hundred and eighty years. We have hung up her dead\nbody, in accordance with the custom observed by our forefathers.\u2019\u201d\n\nOn the way Yudhisthira, ever anxious for divine help, invoked the\ngoddess Durga in terms which reveal at once the attributes of the\ngoddess and the Hindu poet\u2019s idea of the most suitable expressions to\nbe employed in addressing a female divinity. \u201cSalutations to thee, O\ngiver of boons.... Salutations to thee, O thou of four hands and four\nfaces, O thou of fair round hips and deep bosom, O thou that wearest\nbangles made of emeralds and sapphires, O thou that bearest excellent\nbraces on thy upper arm.... Thou art the only female in the universe\nthat possessest the attribute of purity. Thou art decked with a pair of\nwell-made ears graced with excellent rings. O goddess thou shinest with\na face that challengeth the moon in beauty! With an excellent diadem\nand beautiful braid, with robes made of the bodies of snakes, and with\nalso the brilliant girdle round thy hips thou shinest like the Mandara\nMountain encircled with snakes! Thou shinest also with peacock-plumes\nstanding erect on thy head, and thou hast sanctified the celestial\nregions by adopting the vow of perpetual maidenhood. It is for this,\nO thou that hast slain the _Buffalo-Asura_, that thou art praised and\nworshipped by the gods for the protection of the three worlds! O thou\nforemost of all deities, extend to me thy grace, show me thy mercy and\nbe thou the source of blessings to me! Thou art Jaya and Vijaya, and it\nis thou that givest victory in battle! Grant me victory, O goddess,\nand give me boons also at this hour of distress. Thy eternal abode is\non Vindhya, that foremost of mountains, O Kali! O Kali thou art the\ngreat Kali, ever fond of wine and meat and animal sacrifice. Capable of\ngoing everywhere at will and bestowing boons on thy devotees, thou art\never followed in thy journeys by Brahma and the other gods,\u201d[89] etc.,\netc.\n\n\u201cThus praised by the son of Pandu, the goddess showed herself unto\nhim,\u201d and promised the exiles that, through her grace, they would\nremain unrecognized, either by the Kurava spies or the inhabitants of\nthe city, as long as they resided in Virata.\n\nUnder such favourable auspices and protection, the Pandavas and\ntheir joint-wife entered Virata. Yudhisthira presented himself\nbefore the Rajah, and was engaged as a companion and teacher of\ndice-playing, in which art, as the reader will remember, he received\nspecial instruction from a Rishi in the woods of Kamyaka. Bhima was\ntaken on as superintendent of the cooks, being it seems especially\nclever in preparing _curries_. Arjuna, who personated a eunuch, was\nappointed music and dancing-master to the ladies, having learned those\naccomplishments in Indra\u2019s heaven. Nakula was taken on as master of the\nhorse, and Sahadeva, who was skilled in milking and managing kine, as\nsuperintendent of the cattle. Draupadi professed to be a _Sairindhri_,\nor maid-servant, ready to serve anybody who would maintain her. The\nqueen chanced to see Draupadi and took her into her service, although\nshe felt and expressed some reluctance to have about her person a\nwoman of such an attractive appearance. The Rani apparently had her\nsuspicions about Draupadi, to whom she candidly expressed her opinion\nthat she was too beautiful to be a servant, \u201cfor,\u201d said she, \u201cyour\nheels are not prominent and your thighs touch one another. And your\nintelligence is great, and your navel deep, and your words solemn.\nAnd your great toes, and bust, and hips, and toe-nails, and palms,\nare all well-developed.\u201d The Rani also na\u00efvely added: \u201cWhat man will\nbe able to resist thy attractions? Surely, O thou of well-rounded\nhips, O damsel of exquisite charms, beholding thy form of superhuman\nbeauty, King Virata is sure to forsake me and will turn to thee with\nhis whole heart.\u201d But the fair wife of the five Pandavas seems to have\nallayed the Rani\u2019s natural jealousy and fear, by assuring her that\nshe was watched over by Gandharvas, and that if anyone attempted to\nmake improper advances to her the Gandharvas would put an end to him.\nHowever, the Rani\u2019s anxiety was fully justified by after events. Her\nbrother, Kechaka, smitten with the charms of the new maid-servant,\nprevailed upon his sister, by his importunities, to send Draupadi\nto his house on the pretext of fetching some wine from his stock.\nDraupadi went as directed to the house of the Rani\u2019s brother; but, on\nhis making insulting proposals to her, she made her escape from him,\nand fled direct to the king\u2019s council chamber, followed by the baffled\nand enraged Kechaka, who seized her by the hair of her head before the\nassembled courtiers and shamefully kicked the beautiful lady in the\npresence of the king and his attendants. The Rajah would not interfere,\nand Bhima, who was present[90] and boiling with suppressed indignation,\nwas restrained by the command of his elder brother from taking notice\nof the affair. But Draupadi was not to be pacified. Bent on having\nrevenge, she went at dead of night to Bhima, and heaped reproaches upon\nhim and his brothers; and well she might, for all the degrading insults\nshe had had to endure while they looked tamely on. Between them they\nplanned that Draupadi should pretend to yield to Kechaka\u2019s desires,\nand should appoint a secret meeting with him, when Bhima should be her\nsubstitute, and kill the man who had insulted and ill-used her. The\nplan was successfully carried out. A terrible fight took place between\nKechaka and Bhima. The latter at length slew his antagonist by whirling\nhim swiftly round his head and dashing him against the ground. He then\nbroke all his bones into small pieces, formed his body into a great\nball of flesh, and brought Draupadi to behold the complete _vengeance_\nhe had taken upon her hated persecutor. To wreak their malice on the\nperson they believed to be the cause of Kechaka\u2019s death, his kinsmen\nseized Draupadi, \u201cof faultless limbs,\u201d who was found leaning against\na pillar hard by the scene of the grim revenge, and carried her off\noutside the city walls with the intention of burning her with the\ndead man\u2019s body. In her distress she cried aloud for help, and Bhima,\nin disguise, came to her rescue. Panic-stricken at the sight of this\nsupposed Gandharva, the men who had assembled at the cremation ground\nfled for their lives, but were pursued by Bhima, who killed a great\nnumber of them.\n\nOf course this event created an immense sensation, and even the king\nfeared to speak to Draupadi, while the Rani only ventured to ask her\nto leave Virata. But Draupadi begged permission to stay just a few\ndays longer, assuring the Rani that her Gandharva husbands would yet\nbe of great service to the king. Shortly after the occurrences just\nrelated, and as a consequence of the death of Kechaka, who was a man\nof great note and generalissimo of Rajah Virata\u2019s forces, Su\u00e7arman,\nKing of the Tregartas, an old enemy of Virata\u2019s, thinking it a\nfavourable opportunity, proposed a raid into his territory for the\npurpose of plunder. The Kauravas willingly agreed to make a separate\nbut simultaneous attack upon their neighbour. When intelligence of the\ninroad into his territory reached Virata, he hastened to repel the\ninvasion, taking in his train his servants Yudhisthira, Bhima, Nakula,\nand Sahadeva, who volunteered to fight for him. The Tregartas and\nMatsyas soon came into conflict, and Virata was, after a bloody fight,\ntaken captive by Su\u00e7arman, but was rescued by the Pandavas who, as\nusual, performed prodigies of valour.\n\nMeanwhile the Kauravas made an unexpected attack in another direction\nand began carrying off the royal herds. There was no one at the\ncapital who could go out to oppose them--the troops being all away\nwith the king--but the king\u2019s son, Uttara, ventured out against the\ninvaders with only Arjuna as his charioteer. At sight of the forces\narrayed against him and the mighty heroes who led them, Uttara\u2019s\ncourage failed him, and leaping off his chariot he fled from the\nfield, but was brought back by Arjuna who, directing him to take the\nreins, boldly resolved to give battle to the enemy. After providing\nhimself with the famous and deadly weapons he had concealed a year\npreviously in the _Sami_ tree near the cemetery, he went out alone,\nwith Uttara as his charioteer, to attack the Kaurava host. All the\nredoubtable heroes of the party were present that day. Old Bhisma the\nterrible, and well skilled Drona with his mighty son A\u00e7wath\u00e1man, and\nKripa and Karna the famous offspring of Kunti and the day-god. There\ntoo, arrayed in all the glittering panoply of war, were the formidable\nDuryodhana and his brother Dus\u00e7asana, with the other proud princes of\nDhritarashtra\u2019s race. But Arjuna alone, armed with his wonderful bow,\nG\u00e1ndiva, completely defeated them all in one of those incomprehensible\nbattles which delight the Hindu bard but bewilder the European reader.\nIn the unfortunate rank and file of the Kaurava host the slaughter\ncaused by Arjuna was prodigious; but not a single one of the leading\nheroes engaged in conflict that day was killed, or even seriously\nincommoded--although each of them, including Arjuna himself, was\npierced by scores of deadly arrows.\n\nThe defeated Kauravas, of course, recognized their conqueror; but the\nstipulated period of exile was now fully completed, and the enforced\ntruce was at an end.\n\nRajah Virata, now enlightened as to the names and proper rank of the\nPandavas, engaged to assist them in regaining their Raj; though, after\nrecent events, it is hard to comprehend what assistance such heroes\ncould want from Virata, or anyone else. To cement the alliance between\nhis royal house and that of the Pandavas, Virata offered his lovely\ndaughter, Uttar\u00e1, in marriage to Arjuna. That hero, however, had been\nthe fair damsel\u2019s dancing-master and on intimate terms with her in the\nharem. He, therefore, with fine delicacy of sentiment, declined the\noffer, lest suspicions injurious to the lady\u2019s reputation might be\nwhispered about; but, to attest her fair fame in the most conclusive\nand impressive way, he accepted her hand for his son, Abhimanyu, to\nwhom she was duly married in the presence of an assembly of kings\ninvited for the occasion, including Krishna, who came attended by a\n\u201chundred millions of horse and a hundred billions of foot-soldiers.\u201d\n\nA resort to the final arbitrament of battle seemed inevitable, and\nwarlike preparations were vigorously pushed on by both parties, who\ndespatched their envoys in all directions, requesting the assistance\nof their friends and allies. Krishna had returned to Dwarka after\nthe marriage festivities at Panchala. Both sides anxiously sought\nhis alliance. Duryodhana and Arjuna posted in hot haste to Dwarka to\nsecure the aid of the mighty Prince of the Vreshnis, and both of them\narrived simultaneously at Krishna\u2019s abode while he was asleep. As\nprivileged kinsmen they entered his bed-chamber and placed themselves\nnear his bed, Duryodhana at the head and Arjuna at the foot, but did\nnot dare to disturb him. As soon as Krishna awoke from his slumber the\ntwo chieftains eagerly claimed his help. As he was equally related to\nboth he desired to divide his favours between them. He placed himself,\nbut strictly as a non-combatant, on one side, and, on the other, his\narmy of a hundred million soldiers, and offered Arjuna, as he had seen\nhim first upon awakening, the choice between the two. Without any\nhesitation Arjuna chose Krishna himself, leaving the mighty army of one\nhundred millions to swell the ranks of Duryodhana\u2019s host.\n\nBut before having recourse to arms one party at least deemed it\nexpedient to endeavour to effect a reconciliation by negotiations; and\nit takes one\u2019s breath away with astonishment to find the mighty Pandava\nheroes--after all the gross indignities they had suffered, after\nthe outrageous insults to which their joint-wife had been exposed,\nand after their terrible vows of vengeance publicly uttered--tamely\nproposing to make peace with their arrogant cousins on condition of\nhaving nothing more than _five villages_ assigned to them. All this,\ntoo, in the face of Draupadi\u2019s bitter and indignant taunts. However,\neven this humble offer of theirs was scornfully rejected by Duryodhana.\nBut the Pandavas, even Bhima and Arjuna, being still anxious to avoid\nshedding the blood of their kinsfolk, Krishna undertook to act as their\nambassador, and in this capacity presented himself at the capital of\nDhritarashtra. His reception was of the most magnificent kind, and his\nmission was attended by many supernatural events. When the princes\nand great officers of State were assembled in solemn conclave to\nconsider Krishna\u2019s proposals, a number of Brahman sages appeared in the\nsky, and were respectfully invited to come down and take part in the\ndeliberations of the assembly, an invitation they readily accepted.\nA prolonged sitting of the council took place, during which many\nspeeches, embellished with instructive stories of olden times, were\nmade in order to induce Duryodhana to come to terms with the Pandavas.\nAdvice was, however, thrown away upon the haughty and obstinate prince,\nwho left the chamber in great indignation.\n\nKrishna, seeing that Duryodhana was bent on pushing matters to\nextremities, expressed an opinion that the best course for the old\nMaharajah to pursue would be to seize the young prince and his abettors\nand make them over to the Pandavas. He argued that \u201cFor the sake of a\nfamily an individual may be sacrificed; for the sake of a village a\nfamily may be sacrificed; for the sake of a province a village may be\nsacrificed; and, lastly, for the sake of one\u2019s self the whole earth\nmay be sacrificed;\u201d and concluded with this exhortation: \u201cO monarch,\nbinding Duryodhana fast, make peace with the Pandavas. O bull among\nKshatriyas let not the whole Kshatriya race be slaughtered on thy\naccount.\u201d This proposal being secretly communicated to Duryodhana,\nhe in turn plotted to seize and confine Krishna, but his plan was\ndiscovered by that monarch. Now, as the reader is aware, Krishna was no\nmere mortal, but an incarnation of the Supreme Being. Addressing the\nprince the next time they met, he said:\n\n\u201cFrom delusion, O Duryodhana, thou regardest me to be alone, and it\nis for this, O thou of little understanding, that thou seekest to\nmake me a captive after vanquishing me with violence. Here, however,\nare all Pandavas and all the Vrishnis and Andhakas. Here are all the\nAdityas, the Rudras, and the Vasus with all the great Rishis. Saying\nthis, Ke\u00e7ava (Krishna), that slayer of hostile heroes, burst out\ninto loud laughter. And as the high-souled Cawri laughed, from his\nbody, that resembled a blazing fire, issued myriads of gods, each of\nlightning effulgence and not bigger than the thumb! And on his forehead\nappeared Brahma, and on his breast Rudra. And on his arms appeared the\nregents of the world, and from his mouth issued Agni, the Adityas,\nthe S\u00e1ddhyas, the Vasus, the A\u00e7wins, the Maruts, with Indra and the\nVi\u00e7wedevas. And myriads of Yakshas and Gandharvas, and Rakshasas also,\nof the same measure and form, issued thence. And from his two arms\nissued Sankarshana and Dhananjaya. And Arjuna stood on his right,\nbow in hand, and Rama stood on his left, armed with the plough. And\nbehind him stood Bhima and Yudhisthira, and the two sons of Madri, and\nbefore him were all the Andhakas and the Vrishnis, with Praddyumna and\nother chiefs bearing mighty weapons upraised. And on his diverse arms\nwere seen the conch, the discus, the mace, the bow called C\u00e1ruga, the\nplough, the javelin, the Nandaka, and every other weapon, all shining\nwith effulgence and upraised for striking. And from his eyes and nose\nand ears, and every part of his body, issued fierce sparks of fire\nmixed with smoke.\u201d All, except a few privileged ones, closed their\neyes, unable to bear the splendour of this divine manifestation, which\nwas attended with an earthquake, celestial music, and a shower of\nheavenly flowers.\n\nAfter this amazing display of his personality as the very embodiment of\nall the gods, Krishna, resuming his human form, left the hall leaning\non the arms of two of his kinsmen. The perverse Duryodhana, however,\nregarded this exhibition of Krishna\u2019s godhood as a mere illusion--a\nclever conjuror\u2019s trick[91]--and, doomed to destruction as he was,\ntreated it with contemptuous disregard.\n\nThe envoy\u2019s mission having thus failed, he prepared for an immediate\nreturn to his friends. Before setting out he paid a friendly visit\nto his aunt Kunti, the mother of the Pandavas; and, as a last piece\nof diplomacy, artfully endeavoured to detach Karna from Duryodhana\u2019s\nparty. He disclosed to the famous bowman that he was Kunti\u2019s son\nand, _therefore_, morally, a son of Pandu; since, according to the\nscriptures, sons \u201cborn of a maiden have him for their father who\nweddeth the maiden.\u201d According to this system of paternity, Karna\nwas not only Pandu\u2019s son, but the elder brother of Yudhisthira; and,\nas such, entitled to the headship of the Pandava family, to the\nsovereignty of Hastinapur, and to supremacy over the kings of the\nwhole earth. Krishna represented this aspect of the matter to Karna\nin the most tempting manner possible, not failing to mention that, if\nhe joined his brothers, the fair Draupadi would be _his_ wife too.\nBut he, who had thus far gone through life known as the humble Suta\u2019s\nson, had the manliness to treat these offers and suggestions of the\ndivine Prince of Dwarka with proud indifference, adhering with unshaken\nloyalty to his friend Duryodhana, and the party with which he had\nbeen so long associated. The crafty Krishna then urged the absolute\ncertainty of the complete success of the Pandavas in the contest\nwhich was approaching; but no cowardly fears disturbed the settled\nresolution of the hero, who, as he said, was pledged to meet Arjuna in\nthe field of battle and would not, even if sure destruction awaited\nhimself, withdraw from his obligations or shirk his obvious duty to the\nKauravas.\n\nKunti herself next made an effort to win over Karna to the side of the\nPandavas. For this purpose she stealthily followed him to the banks of\nthe Ganges and stood silently behind him while he piously performed\nhis devotions. When he discovered her, and respectfully inquired the\nobject of her presence there, she disclosed to him the secret of\nhis parentage, and with well-chosen arguments urged him to join his\nbrothers. An affectionate voice issuing from the sun, the voice of\nSurya himself, confirmed the statements and supported the advice of\nKunti. But Karna, \u201cfirmly devoted to truth,\u201d even though thus solicited\nby both his parents, protested his determination to remain firmly\nfaithful to the cause of his friends. He gently reproached his mother\nfor her abandonment of him in his infancy and her subsequent neglect of\nher maternal duties, but, with noble generosity, he made an important\nconcession in favour of the Pandavas. \u201cI will not speak deceitfully\nunto thee;\u201d said the hero, \u201cFor the sake of Dhritarashtra\u2019s son I shall\nfight with thy sons to the best of my strength and might! I must not,\nhowever, abandon kindness and the conduct that becometh the good. Thy\nwords, therefore, however beneficial, cannot be obeyed by me now. This\nthy solicitation to me will not yet be fruitless. Except Arjuna, thy\nother sons--Yudhisthira, Bhima, and the twins, though capable of being\nwithstood by me in fight, and capable also of being slain--shall not\nyet be slain by me.\u201d Thus did the magnanimous Karna worthily close one\nof the most interesting incidents in the great epic.\n\nWar was now inevitable. Krishna returned to Yudhisthira, and both\nparties prepared to join issue on the famous field of Kurukshetra.[92]\n\nThe Pandavas gave the supreme command of their forces to Dhrista-dyumna\nwho, as the reader will remember, was the destined slayer of Drona.\nThe Kauravas marshalled their cohorts under the leadership of the\nterrible Bhisma. This ancient chief had performed mighty deeds in his\nday; and proudly recounted, in the camp at Kurukshetra, his terrible\nand successful duel with Rama, the son of Jamadagni, a hero who had,\nsingle-handed, vanquished all the Kshatriyas of the earth.\n\nThe old man\u2019s end was, however, approaching, and he himself was\nwell aware that he must fall by the hand of one Cikhandin, an ally\nof the Pandavas, since that prince in a previous existence (being\nthen a woman, the Princess Amba (page 107), and subjected to great\nhumiliations through Bhisma\u2019s conduct) had undergone the most dreadful\nausterities for the express purpose of compassing his destruction, and,\nby the favour of Siva, would succeed in so doing.\n\nBoth parties with their armies and their allies marched to and\nencamped upon the famous battle-field. The Pandavas had seven and the\nKauravas eleven _akshauhinis_ of soldiers on the ground, making a\ntotal of eighteen akshauhinis in all. Now an akshauhini consisted of\n21,870 chariots, 21,870 elephants, 109,350 foot-soldiers, and 65,610\ncavalry; so that there were at Kurukshetra altogether 393,660 chariots\nwith their fighting men, drivers, and horses; 393,660 elephants with\ntheir drivers and riders; 1,968,300 foot-soldiers, and 1,180,980\ncavalry.[93] All this, of course, exclusive of camp followers--a mighty\nhost in themselves; for we learn that there were crowds of artisans\nof all sorts, also bards, singers, panegyrists, venders, traders, and\nprostitutes; besides surgeons, physicians, spies, and spectators--all\nhoused and provided for by the chiefs.\n\nThe commissariat arrangements were necessarily on a gigantic scale, and\nthe arsenals in proportion to the mighty hosts assembled for mutual\ndestruction on that famous battle-field. The leading heroes had their\nown peculiar weapons, often of celestial origin or possessed of magic\nproperties, and their own inexhaustible quivers of wondrous arrows.\nFor the rank and file there were heaps, as high as little hills, of\nbows and bow-strings, coats of mail and weapons of every kind; such as\nbattle-axes, lances, poisoned darts, scimitars, nooses, and lassoes.\nThere was also an ample supply of hot oil, treacle and sand to be\nthrown upon the enemy, and a store of inflammable materials, such as\npulverized lac. And, lastly, there was a collection of earthen pots\nfilled with deadly serpents, designed to cause confusion in the ranks\namidst which they might be cast.\n\nBefore hostilities actually commenced Duryodhana sent a message to the\ncamp of the Pandavas, challenging them to the fight, and scornfully\nreminded them of the many gross insults and humiliating indignities\nthey had had to endure at his hands. He sent an especially insulting\nmessage and challenge to Krishna, making light of his prowess and\nformer achievements. Vaunting and blood-thirsty rejoinders of a\nsuitable kind were, of course, carried back from the insulted Pandavas\nto Duryodhana and the leaders of his armies.\n\nBefore joining issue it was arranged between the hostile parties that\nonly \u201cpersons equally circumstanced should encounter each other,\nfighting fairly;\u201d that car-warriors should engage car-warriors; those\non elephants should fight those similarly mounted; that horsemen should\nencounter horsemen, and foot-soldiers foot-soldiers. It was agreed\nthat no one should strike a disarmed, a panic-stricken, or retreating\nfoeman; that no blow should be given without due notice, and that\nstragglers, charioteers, and chariot-horses, and drummers, with a\nhost of others, were not to be assailed on any account. It is almost\nneedless to say that in the succession of battles which took place at\nKurukshetra these generous covenants were never observed. They seem,\nindeed, to have been only a formal and somewhat farcical preliminary,\ndrawn up in accordance, possibly, with some ideal but inoperative code\nof Kshatriya honour.\n\nWhile the hosts were assembling Vyasa presented himself before King\nDhritarashtra and offered to restore the blind old king\u2019s eyesight,\nbut Dhritarashtra, unwilling to behold the bloodshed of his kinsfolk,\ndeclined the proffered boon, preferring that his charioteer, Sanjaya,\nshould be enabled by the Rishi\u2019s favour to survey any portion, however\nremote, of the field of battle, and relate all the events to him in the\nminutest and most circumstantial detail.\n\nAs preparations for the approaching contest were pushed on many strange\nportents occurred. A shower of flesh and blood fell from the skies.\nUnusual solar and lunar eclipses took place. Earthquakes shook both\nland and ocean, and rivers were turned into blood. Revolting acts of\nimmorality were being commonly committed. Some women were giving birth\nto five daughters at a time, who, as soon as they were born, began to\ndance and sing. Other women, as well as lower animals, were bringing\nforth strange monsters; and, as Vyasa assured the blind king, \u201cThe\nimages of gods and goddesses sometimes laughed and sometimes trembled,\nsometimes vomited blood and sometimes fell down.\u201d[94]\n\nAfter Vyasa had gone away the blind king remarked to Sanjaya that,\nsince \u201cmany hundreds of millions of heroic men\u201d had assembled at\nKurukshetra, he desired to know all about the countries from which they\nhad come, for there were many nationalities represented in the two\narmies. Sanjaya, having been endowed with superhuman perception by the\nRishi Vyasa, gave his master, the king, a long lesson in geography,\nwhich it is rather disappointing to find so largely mythical as to be\nof little value, except perhaps as an indication of the very imperfect\ngeographical knowledge possessed by the authors of the \u201cMahabharata.\u201d\nSanjaya\u2019s inspired description of the countries of the world abounds in\nmountains of gold and gems; it embraces oceans of butter, milk, curds\nand wine; and dwells upon such objects in nature as trees yielding\nfruits which measure 2,500 cubits in circumference. While revelling in\nthese glories of sea and land, Sanjaya\u2019s descriptive narrative does\nnot quite overlook the causes of natural phenomena; for he, no less\nthan the modern scientist, has his own theory of the winds. It is, we\nlearn from him, all due to \u201cfour princely elephants adored by all.\u201d\nThese magnificent beasts, whose enormous proportions Sanjaya does not\nventure to calculate, seize with their lithe trunks the wandering winds\nand then breathe them over the earth. \u201cThe winds thus let out by those\nrespiring elephants, come over the earth and, in consequence thereof,\ncreatures draw breath and live.\u201d\n\nIn the wonderful lands pictured by the inspired geographer, the men\nwere necessarily long-lived. Some races, indeed, were exempt from\ndeath, and there were others whose lives extended to many thousands of\nyears. In respect to their own land of _Bharatavarsha_, where the great\nbattle was about to be fought, Sanjaya makes some statements which seem\nworthy of note. He says, for example, after naming certain mountain\nranges, that there are many \u201csmaller mountains inhabited by barbarous\ntribes;\u201d and he adds that \u201cAryas and Mlecchas, and many races mixed\nof the two elements, drink the waters of the following rivers, viz.,\nmagnificent Ganga, Sindhu, and Saraswati; of Godavari and Narmuda ...\nand that large river called Yamuna,\u201d etc.\n\nAt length the day of real battle arrived. The chiefs on both sides\nmade their final preparations. With tall and handsome standards, borne\nconspicuously aloft,[95] drums beating and conchs sounding, they took\nup their positions on the great plain. Karna alone held aloof from the\ncontest, resolved to take no part in it while Bhisma lived, for he was\nsmarting under some unbearable insults received from the aged leader of\nthe Kauravas.\n\nAs both armies drawn up for battle awaited the dawn, a dust storm arose\nwhich wrapped everything in darkness. When the air cleared and each\nparty could see the other, as well as hear the blare of its trumpets, a\nsort of mutual dread seems to have afflicted them, for the warriors on\neither side trembled at the sight of the mighty heroes of the opposing\nhosts.\n\nAt this critical juncture in the fate of the world, Arjuna, by the\nadvice of Krishna, offered a special prayer for victory to Durga. The\ngoddess in answer to this invocation appeared in the sky and assured\nher votary of complete success.\n\nAs the virtuous Yudhisthira, his white umbrella borne above his head,\nmoved about marshalling his forces, he was attended by a crowd of\nBrahmans and Rishis hymning his praises and praying for the destruction\nof his enemies. Of course the pious king could do no less, even at such\na busy and anxious moment, than bestow upon these saintly allies of his\nwhat, indeed, they, with their habitual proud condescension, were there\nto receive,--rich presents of kine, ornaments, clothes and gold.\n\nWhen the armed millions were finally ranged for immediate hostilities,\nin all the pomp and glitter of approaching battle, Arjuna desired\nKrishna to place his chariot in the open space between the two armies.\nSurveying the embattled hosts from this position, Arjuna appears to\nhave been dismayed at the thought of the unparalleled slaughter of\nkinsmen, which a struggle between such colossal armies would inevitably\nlead to; and, in view of this deplorable issue, hesitated to join\nbattle with his foes, doubtful whether any personal consideration\nwhatever could justify an appeal to arms under such circumstances.\n\nKrishna undertook to remove his doubts, and succeeded in doing so, the\ndialogue between them, known as the \u201cBhagavatgita,\u201d or divine song,\nwhich is introduced into the great epic at this stage of the narrative,\nforming, from a religious point of view, one of its most important\nparts.[96]\n\nWhen Arjuna, convinced of the lawfulness of entering into the contest,\nhad taken up his bow, _Gandiva_, in readiness for the fray, his\nfollowers raised a joyful shout, and the gods with the Gandharvas, the\nRishis and the rest, crowded to the spot eager to witness the impending\nbattle.\n\nBut there was still another interruption. Yudhisthira, suddenly laying\ndown his arms and divesting himself of his armour, advanced eastward\ntowards the opposing forces. Although filled with astonishment at\nthis proceeding, his dutiful brothers immediately followed him,\nthemselves unarmed and unprotected by armour. What was the mission the\nking had undertaken? Was he bent on making a final effort to effect\na reconciliation, or was he, terror-stricken by the superior numbers\nof his adversaries, going to offer an unconditional surrender? No, it\nwas neither the one object nor the other which stirred the heart of\nthe virtuous king to this strange performance in presence of the two\narmies drawn up for deadly strife. He, pious soul, was only going to\ncrave the permission of his elders and preceptors in Dhritarashtra\u2019s\narmy to engage in battle with them; to solicit, with childlike\ntrustfulness, their _blessing_ in the coming contest with themselves;\nand, if possible, to induce them to tell him how their own destruction\nmight be compassed by him! The leaders he went to propitiate, though\nresolved to fight to their utmost for the king whose cause they had\nespoused, were very affable to the pious son of Dharma; they received\nhim with affection and dismissed him with honour. The conduct of the\nPandavas on this occasion excited universal admiration, and met with\nthe hearty approval of all, and we learn that, \u201cin consequence of this,\nthe minds and hearts of everyone there were attracted towards them, and\nthe Mlecchas and the Aryas[97] there, who witnessed or heard of that\nbehaviour of the sons of Pandu, all wept with choked voices.\u201d\n\nThe battle of Kurukshetra, which closed the golden age of India, lasted\nfor eighteen consecutive days.\n\nDuring the first ten days Bhisma commanded Dhritarashtra\u2019s forces,\nwhile Karna held aloof in sullen indignation. A goodly volume is\ndevoted to the incidents of these ten days, each of which seems\nto have had its own special heroes, who, under the influence of a\nsort of divine fury, like that attributed by the Norsemen to their\n_Berserkers_, carried everything before them. In picturing the events\nof these battles the Hindu bards have allowed their imaginations to\nrun riot in a most incomprehensible way. Not only the demigods, but\nthe merely human leaders (very little inferior to the demigods in\nmartial qualities) in both armies, perform the most astonishing feats\nof arms, and display the most wonderful indifference to wounds.\nSometimes a hero will shoot at his adversary arrows enough to envelop\nhim completely and shroud him from view, or to darken the whole sky;\nbut his antagonist, well skilled in the art of self-defence, will, with\nthe greatest composure, stop those myriads of arrows[98] in mid-air\nwith an equal or superior number of shafts from his own bow;[99] or,\nas Cikhandin did, cut in pieces with his dexterous sword the shower of\narrows poured upon him. Sometimes a heavy mace, hurled by a powerful\narm with well-directed aim, will whiz through the air towards some\nleader of men; but as it is hurtling along it will be cut into many\nfragments by crescent-headed arrows discharged at it with unerring\nskill, by the hero for whose destruction it was intended. Sometimes\nstandards are brought down by sharp arrows, sometimes the bow is\nsevered in a warrior\u2019s hand by the shaft of an opponent, while horses\nand elephants, though cased in mail, fall easy victims to the archer\u2019s\nskill. Occasionally, in pressing emergencies, superhuman weapons are\ncalled into requisition, and _mantras_ or spells are employed to give\nthem more destructive force. Nor are the powers of producing strange\nillusions to terrify or baffle the foe neglected by those who possess\nthem, namely, the Rakshasas in either army.[100] These terrible beings,\ncapable of assuming any shape at will, and able to deceive their\nfoes by strange illusions, would at one time raise up a spectral host\nof demons to terrify their opponents, and at another time, perhaps,\nparalyze them by producing before their startled eyes a false picture\nof their friends and allies lying cruelly slaughtered around them, or\nin headlong flight before the enemy.\n\nNotwithstanding their inimitable skill in the arts of attack and\ndefence the heroes do not get off unscathed. In a single fight one of\nthem might be pierced with any number of arrows, from one or two to\nfive hundred or a thousand[101] as the case might be, yet, usually,\nthe chiefs seem hardly the worse for the punishment. Indeed the poets\nlove to depict their dauntless favourites bristling with arrows\nand streaming with blood, when they resemble in beauty blossoming\n_kincukas_ in spring-time, or \u201cclouds tinged with the rays of the\nsun.\u201d One warrior with three arrows fixed in his forehead is likened\nto Mount Meru with its triple summits of gold; another, with a circle\nof sharp arrows lodged in his ample breast, resembles \u201cthe sun with\nhis rays at mid-day.\u201d Odds are of no account when the heroes are once\ncarried away with ungovernable fury, roaring tremendously, and \u201clicking\nthe corners of their mouths like lions in the forest.\u201d Bhima on foot\nwith his club in his hand, is, under such conditions, a match for\nwhole armies, through which he rages, with leonine roars, crushing\nchariots and horses under his blows and smashing luckless elephants\nand their riders by thousands, himself bespattered with the blood, fat\nand marrow of his slaughtered foes; resembling, as the poet tells us,\nthe Destroyer himself, with wide open mouth, as he appears at the end\nof the _yuga_. Similarly Arjuna, when attacked simultaneously by forty\nthousand charioteers and hemmed in by them, kills the entire number\nof his rash assailants with arrows from Gandiva. When Yudhisthira,\nordinarily cold-blooded, blazed up with wrath on the battle-field, \u201cthe\nthought that arose in the minds of all creatures was that this king\nexcited with rage will to-day consume the three worlds.\u201d Bhisma, too,\nand Drona, and many another hero semi-divine or only mortal, seems, in\nhis turn, quite irresistible, and carries everything before him when\nexcited to mad (_Berserk_) fury.\n\nThe dire confusion caused by the vast multitudes of resolute\ncombatants, the blind rage and terror of thousands of wounded elephants\nand horses trampling wildly through the midst of friends and foes, the\ndeafening uproar of the strife, where the tumultuous shouts and cries\nof contending warriors mingled with the clash of arms, the twang of\nbow-strings, the blare of trumpets, and the bellowing of elephants, are\nall vividly pictured by the poet of Kurukshetra.\n\nIt would be too tedious to recount the innumerable combats which the\nauthor describes, or to follow the varying fortunes of the field,\nas victory inclines now to one side, now to the other. It would be\ncruel work, to dwell upon the prodigious slaughter of the rank and\nfile which occurred each day, or to picture the vast plain covered\nwith the mangled corpses of men, horses and elephants. Nor would it\nbe either profitable or pleasant to wander over the ground encumbered\nwith shattered chariots, broken standards and abandoned weapons of\nevery kind, amidst which pitiful wreck flowed great sluggish streams\nof crimson blood. Somehow the sickening horror of the terrible scenes\nof carnage which the epic bards have conjured up does not seem to\nhave struck them, for when they remark upon the appearance of the\nfield--strewn with mangled corpses and broken armour, with banners and\nweapons all reeking with blood--it is usually with admiration of its\n_beauty_, unmingled with any feeling of aversion or regret. In their\neyes the scene of death and ruin, with its gory trophies, \u201cshines as\nif with floral wreaths,\u201d or \u201clooks beautiful like the firmament in\nautumn,\u201d or \u201clike a damsel adorned with different kinds of ornaments.\u201d\nIn the gloom of night, however, the Hindu poets realize, with\nsuperstitious awe, the abhorrent nature of the dreadful battle-field,\n\u201cabounding as it did with spirits and with jackals howling piteously.\u201d\n\nHow the multitudinous dead and the wreckage which littered the field\nwere disposed of we do not learn, but the opposing parties retired each\nday at sunset to their respective camps and renewed the battle with\nthe dawn of next day. However, occasional allusions to hungry dogs and\nvultures, howling jackals, stealthy hyenas and fierce cannibals give a\ndark, if not very intelligible, hint of the fate of the unburied dead.\n\nThe death of Bhisma is the prominent and crowning event of the battles\nwhich raged with unabated fury for the first ten days of the war.\nThe old hero performed prodigies of valour, and many a time proved\nhimself more than a match for his brave opponents, slaughtering no\nless than \u201ca hundred million of warriors in ten days.\u201d[102] Such huge\nwork, it must be admitted, required great celerity of action, and we\nlearn, accordingly, that in one battle Bhisma \u201cfelled the heads of\ncar-warriors like a skilful man felling (with stones) ripe (palmyra)\nfruits from trees that bear them. And the heads of warriors falling\nupon the surface of the earth produced a loud noise resembling that\nof a stony shower.\u201d[103] His success against the Pandavas aroused\nthe anger of Krishna, who had not escaped unwounded in these hotly\ncontested fights, and, jumping off the car he was driving, he rushed\nimpetuously forward to slay the son of Ganga, \u201cand the end of his\nyellow garments waving in the air looked like a cloud charged with\nlightning in the sky.\u201d\n\nBhisma cheerfully awaited his doom from such hands, and Arjuna with\ndifficulty restrained the fury of his divine ally and kinsman by\npromising to slay the chief himself. Later on, Krishna was again roused\nto fury against the aged champion of the Kauravas, and this time could\nonly be dissuaded from taking his life by being reminded that he had\nengaged _not to enter personally into the contest_. So despondent did\nBhisma\u2019s remarkable success make King Yudhisthira that the latter,\naccompanied by his brothers and Krishna, actually sought an interview\nwith the ancient chief for the express purpose of ascertaining from\nhimself in what manner his death might be compassed and victory secured\nfor the Pandavas. In consequence of what Bhisma said on this occasion,\nCikhandin was, on the tenth day of the war, placed prominently in the\nforefront of the battle, supported by Arjuna and the best men of his\nparty. A well-directed and persistent attack was made upon Bhisma.\nA fierce battle ensued, but the chivalrous Bhisma refused to assail\nCikhandin, _because he had once been a woman_, and he was eventually\noverpowered, mostly, however, by the arrows of Arjuna. There was\nnowhere about the person of the hero a space two fingers wide free from\nthe shafts of his enemies, and when he fell from his chariot he did\nnot touch the ground, being literally supported on a couch of arrows.\nAlthough so sorely afflicted by the darts of his enemies, Bhisma did\nnot die immediately. The time was inauspicious and he postponed his\ndeath, as he possessed the privilege of doing, till a more propitious\nmoment. \u201cMeanwhile the valiant and intelligent Bhisma, the son of\nCantanu, having recourse to that _Yoga_ which is taught in the great\nUpanishads, and engaged in mental prayers, remained quiet, expectant of\nhis hour.\u201d\n\nThe fall of the aged leader was the signal for a cessation of the\nbattle, the chiefs of both sides pressing forward to pay their\nrespects to the dying general. While conversing with those around him\nhe complained that his head was unsupported. Luxurious pillows were\nquickly brought for his use, but he rejected them all. Upon this Arjuna\nmade a rest for his head with three arrows, and the grim warrior was\nsatisfied. To allay Bhisma\u2019s burning thirst Arjuna shot an arrow into\nthe ground, whence a fountain of pure water came springing up to the\ngreat comfort of the wounded veteran. Guards were placed round the old\nman as he lay on his arrowy couch, and both sides retired to rest.\n\nIn the dead of night Karna came to pay his homage to the dying general,\nand to ask forgiveness for any faults he may have committed. Bhisma\nfreely forgave him, and advised him to transfer his allegiance to the\nPandavas, but Karna, nobly faithful to the path of honour, rejected the\nsuggestion as on so many previous occasions.\n\nAfter the fall of Bhisma the command of the army was given to Drona,\nand the contest was carried on with unabated vigour, resulting more\nthan once in the defeat of the Pandavas. The record of Drona\u2019s command\nabounds in numerous descriptions of single combats, in which, besides\nthe more prominent leaders, many another chief fought with marvellous\nskill and daring. As was inevitable, many heroic warriors were\nkilled--such as Abhimanyu, the son of Arjuna, and the mighty Rakshasa\nGhatotkacha, Bhima\u2019s son, who in his fall crushed to death a whole\nakshauhini of Dhritarashtra\u2019s troops.\n\nIn one of the battles Jayadartha, King of the Sindhus performed,\nsingle-handed, deeds of matchless daring; for he alone held in check\nall the sons of Pandu. Arjuna, enraged at Jayadartha\u2019s success, and\nattributing Abhimanyu\u2019s death to him, vowed, in the presence of all\nmen, either to slay the victorious chief before the day was done or to\nlay down his own life on the funeral pyre. But the Rajah of Sindhu was\nso well supported by his friends that there appeared every likelihood\nthat he would survive the day. Rather than this should occur and Arjuna\nfall by his own hand, Krishna obscured the sun by his _Yoga_ power. The\nunsuspecting Jayadartha and his friends, believing that the sun had set\nand night come on, were filled with joy at the prospect of Arjuna\u2019s\ndoom, and were carelessly looking up towards the darkened sky, when\nArjuna, at Krishna\u2019s suggestion, taking advantage of their being off\ntheir guard, renewed the battle with redoubled vigour. He eventually\nstruck off Jayadartha\u2019s head with one of his wonderful weapons and sped\nit along through the air with his arrows till it fell into the lap of\nVriddhakshatra, the father of Jayadartha, whence it rolled on to the\nground. It appears that when Jayadartha was born, a voice, proceeding\nfrom some unseen being, predicted that he would meet his death by\nhaving his head cut off. His pious father thereupon prophesied that\nthe man who should cause his son\u2019s head to fall to the _earth_, would\nhave his own cracked into a hundred pieces. For his own protection,\ntherefore, Arjuna, at Krishna\u2019s suggestion, had hurled the dead man\u2019s\nhead into Vriddhakshatra\u2019s lap and, as it fell to the earth, lo! the\nold man\u2019s head cracked into a hundred fragments in grim fulfilment of\nhis own prophecy.\n\nOther marvellous events are not wanting in the narrative; as when,\nin the thick of battle, Arjuna, piercing the earth with one of his\narrows, creates in a moment a lake of water for his thirsty horses to\ndrink from--a lake inhabited by swarms of aquatic birds and covered\nwith lotuses--or when A\u00e7wathaman employs the irresistible _Narayana_\nweapon, and the Pandavas, on their part, _pacify_ and _propitiate_ this\ndestructive missile by laying down their arms before it.\n\nDrona himself, although advanced in years, defeated the Pandavas many\ntimes, and it was only by a cruel stratagem that his destruction was\nultimately effected. When he was carrying everything before him in\nthe battle the Pandavas informed him, falsely, that his son had been\nkilled. He did not credit the report at first, but when assured of\nits truth by the virtuous Yudhisthira himself, who stooped to this\nmean falsehood upon the advice of Krishna, the old hero threw away\nhis arms and, devoting _himself_ to _Yoga contemplation_, passed\naway immediately. After his spirit had ascended to heaven in great\nglory, Dhrista-dyumna beheaded his lifeless corpse,[104] upon which\nDhritarashtra\u2019s troops fled precipitately from the field.\n\nKarna succeeded Drona as generalissimo of the forces, but his\ncommand was of short duration: for although he performed wonders of\ngallantry against his adversaries _fate_ was too strong for him, and\non the second day he was overthrown by Arjuna. There was something\nunfortunate, if not unfair, in the circumstances attending his death;\nfor just when he had obtained an advantage over Arjuna, who seemed\nlikely to get the worst of the contest, a wheel of Karna\u2019s chariot came\noff. He was obliged to leap to the ground and, in this unfavourable\nposition, was despatched by Arjuna.\n\nIn the battles which took place under Karna\u2019s direction an eventful\ncombat occurred between Bhima and Dhusashana, ending in the defeat and\ndeath of the latter, whose warm blood Bhima drank in fulfilment of\nhis vow on the occasion of Draupadi\u2019s humiliation in the gaming hall.\nAnother incident of some interest is the vigorous but unsuccessful\nattack made by an army of Mlecchas on Arjuna, as the narrative shows\nthe poet\u2019s high opinion of the martial qualities of the non-Aryan races\nin the Kaurava army.\n\nFor the fourth time Dhritarashtra\u2019s forces were without a commander.\nThis time the choice fell upon Salya, King of Madra, who gallantly\nemulated the deeds of his heroic predecessors. But though he fought\nwith vigour and determination, though he was ably supported by chiefs\nlike Sakuni, who still survived, though his Mleccha allies, under\ntheir leader Salva, did great execution amongst the enemy, victory\neventually declared for his opponents. A terrific battle was followed\nby a complete rout and the utter annihilation of the Kaurava forces, of\nwhose eleven akshauhinis there remained, at the end of the eighteenth\nday of the war, but _four_ men,--_four men only_ out of all the\ncountless hosts who had joined the blind king\u2019s party!\n\nThese four were Duryodhana himself, Kripa, A\u00e7wathaman and Kritavarman.\nNow Duryodhana possessed a charm by which he could remain under water\nas long as he pleased; and, taking advantage of this, he hid himself\nin the lake, carrying his mace in his hand. But he was traced to his\nhiding-place. Yudhisthira approaching the lake taunted Duryodhana with\ncowardice, and challenged him to come out and fight as a Kshatriya\nshould. Stung by his taunts Duryodhana emerged from his hiding-place,\ndripping with blood and water, having agreed to engage in a single\ncombat with the giant Bhima, both being armed with clubs only. So equal\nwere the combatants that a prolonged fight ensued. Tremendous blows\nwere freely given and received. The very earth trembled under the\ndreadful contest, and the Pandavas began to entertain grave fears that\nif Bhima were vanquished the rest of them would be easily defeated and\nslain in detail by Duryodhana, who was a proficient in the use of the\nmace. At this critical moment Krishna artfully suggested by a gesture\nto Bhima that he should strike Duryodhana on the thigh, and thus fulfil\nhis vow and vanquish his enemy at the same time. A successful blow\ndelivered upon this suggestion, which was contrary to the recognized\nrules of club fighting, laid Duryodhana low, and left the Pandavas\nundisputed masters of the day. But, even though countless millions of\nhuman beings had already perished on the fatal field of Kurukshetra,\nand Duryodhana, the cause of all this havoc, lay there mortally\nwounded, more blood was yet to flow. Of the Kaurava hosts there still\nremained three men, and of these, one, A\u00e7wathaman, lived only in the\nhope of avenging to some extent the blood of his father Drona. Brooding\nschemes of vengeance through the dark hours of the night, the young\nman observed in a forest where he had taken refuge an owl approach\nnoiselessly some sleeping crows and destroy them one after another.\nAccepting this event as a suggestion for his guidance, he persuaded his\ntwo companions to join him in an attempt to steal into the camp of the\nPandavas--whose followers were sleeping in fancied security--with the\nobject of wreaking their vengeance on their unarmed and unsuspecting\nenemies. They justified this nocturnal attack by calling to mind the\nmany unfair advantages which the Pandavas had taken of their more\nhonourable foes during the course of this fratricidal war--as in the\ncases of Bhisma, Drona and Karna.\n\nAt the entrance to the camp the three desperate warriors were met\nby an awful figure who barred their progress. With him A\u00e7wathaman\nfought a fierce battle, during the course of which he recognized in\nhis redoubtable adversary the great god Siva, before whom he humbly\nprostrated himself. Presently there appeared a golden altar attended by\nhideous monsters, and A\u00e7wathaman, to obtain the favour of Siva, offered\nhimself as a sacrifice in the fire which blazed upon the altar. Siva\nwas propitiated by this pious act, and himself graciously entered the\nbody of A\u00e7wathaman, after explaining to him that he had up to that time\nprotected the family of Draupadi in order to please Krishna, but that\nhe would do so no longer as their hour was at hand.\n\nA\u00e7wathaman thus inspired by Siva, and now glorious to behold, boldly\npenetrated the hostile camp, while Kripa and Kritavarman stood at\nthe gate to intercept and destroy all fugitives. The five Pandavas\nthemselves were away in the now vacant camp of the Kauravas, whither\nthey had gone to take possession of the spoils of the vanquished.\n\nThe revenge taken by A\u00e7wathaman and his associates was complete\nand bloody. The first to perish in the nocturnal attack was the\ngeneralissimo of the Pandava army, Dhrista-dyumna himself, whom\nA\u00e7wathaman found sleeping in his tent and whom he literally trampled\nto death under his feet. An indescribable panic was caused by the\nmassacre which followed the murder of the commander-in-chief; and, in\nthe dire confusion of darkness, friends fell upon each other, fathers\nkilled their own sons and sons their fathers. In this terrible \u201cnight\nof slaughter\u201d A\u00e7wathaman killed the five sons of Draupadi, one after\nthe other, and carried away their bleeding heads with him to gratify\nthe heart of the chieftain, his master, who lay in the agony of death\nupon that field of carnage.\n\nA\u00e7wathaman approaching the prince told him that he had slain the\nPandavas and had their heads in his possession. Even with his life\nebbing fast away the feelings of gratified revenge put a transient\nvigour into Duryodhana, and he leaped from the ground in a transport\nof fierce joy. The morning was not far distant, and in the uncertain\ntwilight preceding the dawn he examined the heads and was deceived\nby the resemblance the sons of Draupadi bore to their respective\nfathers. Gloating over the complete vengeance which had been wreaked by\nA\u00e7wathaman he took into his hands what he believed to be the head of\nBhima and squeezed it with all his might. The skull burst in his hands\nunder the violent pressure, and Duryodhana at once perceived that some\ndeception had been practised on him; for he felt that Bhima\u2019s skull\nwould not have thus yielded in his grasp. He desired to see the other\nheads and, on close inspection, understood what had really occurred.\nWith reproaches on his lips and bitterness in his heart the dying man\nexpired, while his three followers made haste to quit the spot and flee\nfrom the pursuit of their enemies.[105]\n\nThe war was over. The five Pandavas, now undisputed masters of the\nsituation, sought a reconciliation with the blind king. Helpless though\nhe was, Dhritarashtra\u2019s feelings of bitterness against Bhima, for the\nunfair defeat of his son Duryodhana, were so intense that he meditated\ncrushing the hero to death in his mighty arms, under the pretence of a\nfriendly welcome; but Krishna, divining his intention, placed an iron\nimage in his embrace, which the blind king, who possessed gigantic\nstrength, crushed to pieces against his breast. Eventually, however, a\nreconciliation was effected between the Pandavas and the heart-broken\nold monarch.\n\nThe scene of the terrible carnage during eighteen consecutive days\nwas now covered with mourners seeking, with breaking hearts, to\nrecognize their beloved dead amongst the reeking corpses. At length\narrangements were made for the cremation of the bodies that lay upon\nthe battle-field, and they were duly disposed of, according to their\nrank.\n\nA triumphal procession was next arranged from the plain of Kurukshetra\nto the city of Hastinapur, where Yudhisthira was installed with great\npomp and ceremony as Rajah, under the nominal sovereignty of his blind\nuncle. At the inauguration a friend of Duryodhana\u2019s began to revile the\nnew king for the slaughter of his kinsfolk; but the Brahmans looked\nupon the reviler with angry eyes, and he fell upon the ground like a\ntree struck by lightning and was burnt to ashes upon the spot.\n\nYudhisthira, though now enthroned at Hastinapur, seems to have found\nhis new office so beset with anxieties that he desired to have the\nadvice of Bhisma for his guidance. He accordingly proceeded to the\nbattle-field at Kurukshetra, where the old hero was still alive upon\nhis couch of arrows. The dying sage gave the king excellent advice on\nmany important subjects relating to the duties of kings and the conduct\nof life, which we cannot, unfortunately, find space for. When he had\npassed fifty-eight days on his uncomfortable bed Bhisma resolved to\ndie. At once the cruel arrows left his body, his head split open, and\nhis released spirit ascended to heaven like a bright star.\n\nAs soon as Yudhisthira was firmly established on the throne of Bharata\nhe determined to perform an _Aswamedha_, or horse-sacrifice. The\nperformance of this sacrifice was an assertion of sovereignty over\nthe whole earth, and had such peculiar virtue that the successful\nperformance of one hundred Aswamedhas gave the sacrificer power even\nover Indra, the god of heaven. In Yudhisthira\u2019s case, it is true, the\nAswamedha was suggested by the sage Vyasa, as atonement for all the\nmonarch\u2019s sins. A horse of a particular colour had to be obtained and,\nas a preliminary to the sacrifice, the animal was set free to wander\nat its pleasure for one year. The Rajah who proposed performing the\nAswamedha, or the deputy of such Rajah, followed with an army in the\ntrack of the horse. If the animal found its way into the territories\nof any foreign state, the ruler of that state was bound either to\nseize the horse and fight the invader, or else to acknowledge his own\ninferiority; and, in proof of submission, to swell with his own forces\nthose of his superior lord.\n\nIn order to be present at the ceremony of loosing the horse, Krishna\njourneyed to Hastinapur. A detailed account of his march is given in\nthe \u201cMahabharata,\u201d and is of special interest when it is remembered\nthat this Rajah is regarded as an incarnation of the Supreme Being.\nKrishna\u2019s trip to Yudhisthira\u2019s capital was a joyous progress. He was\naccompanied by Rukmini and Satyabh\u00e1ma, and his other favourite wives,\nas well as various members of the family. The crowd that attended him\nwas a motley one, and included no small number of loose characters,\ndancing-girls and performers of all sorts, with whom Krishna seems to\nhave been on the most familiar footing. And they are represented as\nhaving been aware of his divine nature, for a harlot having met with an\naccident which excited the mirth of the bystanders, remarked: \u201cThere is\nno occasion for laughing, for every day I behold the divine Krishna and\ntherefore all my sins are forgiven me.\u201d[106]\n\nThe horse destined for the sacrifice was at length set free, and was\nfollowed by Arjuna at the head of a mighty army. It led him and his\nfollowers into many strange adventures, but we shall here only allude\nto a few of them. The horse, in his wanderings, entered the country of\nthe Amazons, young and lovely warriors--\u201cperfect in the arts of love,\nand in the various ways of fascinating men\u201d[107]--whose charms were as\ndangerous as their weapons; but who were prevailed upon to allow the\nhorse free passage through their country. Then the host was conducted\ninto a region where the trees bore men and women, and where the men\nhad ears with one of which they covered their heads and with the other\ntheir bodies. In this land of marvels the terrible prime minister wore,\nas ear-rings, a dead elephant and a dead camel.\n\nThe horse next passed into the country of Manipura, which Arjuna had\nvisited in one of his earlier wanderings, and over which a son of his\nwas now ruling. This king\u2019s magnificence was such that his palace was\nsurrounded by a golden wall and his capital by a silver one. His\nreception-hall was supported on golden pillars, and illuminated at\nnight by torches made of sandal wood, wound round with cloth steeped\nin perfumed oils. The greatness and power of the ruler of this country\nwas commensurate with his wealth and splendour; but his filial respect\nwas so great that he tendered his submission to the invader, his father\nArjuna, in the most abject manner. Arjuna disdainfully repudiated a\nson who exhibited, as he thought, so much cowardice. The result was a\nterrible battle, in which Arjuna\u2019s head was severed from his body by\na crescent-shaped arrow from his son\u2019s bow. However, Arjuna was not\nto perish thus; and his son procured, from the King of the Serpents,\nwho lived in the bowels of the earth, a certain jewel which possessed\nthe power of restoring life. This, when applied to the body of the\ndead Pandava, caused the head and trunk to reunite. Arjuna, restored\nto life, was easily reconciled to his brave son, the mighty Rajah of\nManipur.\n\nThe year appointed for the wandering expedition at length came to\nan end, and the horse with its escort returned to Hastinapur. The\nsacrifice was then performed with the usual magnificence. Gold, jewels,\nelephants, horses, and cows were, as on all such occasions, freely\ngiven away, particularly to the Brahmans. With great ceremony the head\nof the horse was struck off by Bhima and, immediately mounting towards\nthe sky, soared out of sight. The body was cast into the sacrificial\nfire. To crown the great ceremony, Indra, with attendant gods,\npresented himself to partake of the sacrifice, and, amidst general\nrejoicings, feastings and further extravagant largesses, the Aswamedha\nwas brought to a successful conclusion.\n\nYears passed; the blind old Maharajah, weighed down with sorrowful\nrecollections of his sons and followers who had fallen in the great\nwar, retired, with his wife Gandhari, into a jungle on the banks of the\nGanges. Kunti also accompanied them. To this hermitage the Pandavas\npaid a visit. The conversation, as was natural, turned upon the friends\nand kinsfolk who had perished on the plain of Kurukshetra. While this\nsad subject was being discussed the sage Vyasa made his appearance,\nand promised the mourners that he would, that very night, show them\nthe relatives for whom they had been sorrowing. After bathing in the\nGanges the company stood together on the bank of the sacred river.\nVyasa, standing by the king, summoned the dead to appear. A scene of\ninexpressible grandeur followed immediately. The river began to foam\nand boil. A great noise was heard, and out of the troubled water arose\nthe men who had died at Kurukshetra. They came as when alive, but more\nbeautiful and in all the pomp of martial glory, in full armour, upon\ntheir chariots and with music. The foes who had cruelly slaughtered\neach other now appeared as friends, and were attended by troops of\nsingers and of dancing-girls. Dead and living communed freely with each\nother and, in the joy of reunion, the sorrows of so many years were\nforgotten. But, with the morning, the ghostly visitants disappeared.\nAnd now Vyasa gave the widows who wished to rejoin their dead husbands\npermission to do so; upon which all the widows drowned themselves in\nthe Ganges and were reunited to their lords.\n\nThe Pandavas with their followers returned to Hastinapur and, about\ntwo years afterwards, the old king, his wife and Kunti, with their\nattendants, perished in a jungle fire.\n\nKrishna, the friend of the Pandavas, also met with an untimely end\nafter another fratricidal civil war in his own country, and his capital\ncity of Dwarka--from which the remaining inhabitants had been removed\nby Arjuna to Hastinapur--was overwhelmed by a wave of the sea.\n\nAfter the many trials and sorrows they had gone through, a weariness\nof life, such as would seem only too natural under the circumstances,\ntook possession of the Pandavas, and they were minded to be done with\nearthly things.\n\n  \u201cLet us go forth to die! Time slayeth all.\n  We will find Death who seeketh other men.\u201d\n                               --+SIR EDWIN ARNOLD.+\n\nWith this resolve the five brothers adopted the hermit\u2019s garb, and\naccompanied by the still peerless Draupadi, and attended by one\nfaithful dog, they turned their steps towards Mount Meru--the abode of\nthe gods. A long, circuitous and weary journey was theirs, performed\non foot, and in decorous Indian file. The brothers walked one behind\nthe other according to their respective ages. Draupadi, \u201cwith soft\ndark face and lustrous eyes,\u201d dutifully followed her husbands with\nunwavering devotion. The dog brought up the rear. Through hoary\nforests, by running streams, along the shores of the sounding ocean,\nover parched and burning plains lay their toilsome way to the sacred\nmountain. But alas! the king alone was destined to reach it alive. One\nby one the tired pilgrims succumbed to inevitable death. First Draupadi\nfainted and perished on the way, because--her only fault--her woman\u2019s\nheart had loved Arjuna too much. After her Sahadeva paid the penalty of\npride, and Nakula of self-love. The three who still survived hastened\non without looking back, for they knew that their loved companions were\nbeyond the reach of any help. The king with Bhima and Arjuna pressed\non for Meru. But the great archer\u2019s turn to die soon arrived, and the\ngiant Bhima perished also. Of all the pilgrims who, weary of the\nworld, had set out from Hastinapur, King Yudhisthira alone, with the\nhound closely following him, reached the Celestial Mountain and was\nwarmly welcomed by the gods.\n\nWith the gates of Swarga wide open for his reception the magnanimous\nking paused upon the very threshold of Paradise and, more mindful of\nothers than of himself, asked that his brothers and Draupadi should\naccompany him into heaven. Being assured that he would meet them there,\nhis next solicitude was for his canine companion. At the gate he was\ninformed that the hound must be left outside to the fate that might\nawait him, for such could certainly not enter the abode of the gods.\nThe large-hearted king, however, would not consent to abandon even this\nhumble comrade of his weary pilgrimage, and lo!\n\n  \u201cStraight as he spake, brightly great Indra smiled,\n  Vanished the hound, and in its stead stood there,\n  The lord of death and justice, Dharma\u2019s self.\u201d\n                                          --+ARNOLD.+\n\nIn Swarga Yudhisthira did not find his noble brothers, nor the tender\nDraupadi, and learned that they were still in Purgatory expiating the\nsins of their earthly lives. Without them heaven had no charms for\nthe king. He preferred to share the unhappy fate of his kinsfolk,\nand was conducted to the nether regions by a celestial messenger,\nalong a dismal road reeking with loathsome corruption, and through\nhideous scenes of terrible suffering, such as have filled the morbid\nimaginations of men in every nation.\n\nYudhisthira\u2019s presence in those abodes of anguish brought some\nmitigation to the punishments of the many who were there undergoing a\nfierce purgation from the dross of their mundane existence. Wailing\nvoices entreated the great king to stay awhile for their comfort\namongst them, and he magnanimously consented to do so. But the gods,\nat length interposing, conducted him back to Swarga. With him were his\nbrothers and Draupadi--all purified by punishment from such sins or\nfrailties as had marred their perfection during their terrestrial life.\n\nThus grandly closes the wonderful story of the great war!\n\n\n\n\n                              CHAPTER III\n\n                            THE SACRED LAND\n\n\nRound about the town of _Thanesar_ lies _Brahmavarta_ the sacred land\nof the Hindus, and within a short walk of the town is Kurukshetra.\n\nThanesar itself is in ruins, and the lake near which the Pandavas and\nKauravas fought their great battle is now a dismal swamp, yet adorned\non one side by a beautiful fringe of really magnificent banyan trees,\nunder whose leafy covering are sheltered a few of those unimposing\nbrick and plaster temples so common in Upper India.\n\nUnsparing time has strewn the whole world with the ruins of man\u2019s\nhandiwork. The crumbling remains of cities, temples and palaces may be\nfound in every country under the sun; and, according to circumstances,\nappeal to widely different feelings and evoke widely different\nsentiments in the heart of the spectator. Thus, it is with a profound\nsense of the reality and greatness of Roman power that we muse amidst\nthe columns of the Forum, or recall to mind in the mighty Colosseum\nthe tragic pastimes of the imperial people. It is with a respectful\nadmiration, not unmingled with pity, that we see in old Delhi the\nconsiderable ruins of the lordly mosque constructed out of the spoils\nof more ancient Hindu temples. But it is only with a feeling of simple\ndepression, unrelieved by any other sentiment, that we wander amongst\nthe extensive brick ruins of Thanesar, unredeemed by a trace of either\nbeauty or grandeur, and largely tenanted by monkeys, in whom a pious\nPunjabi graduate recognizes \u201cdefunct Brahmans ... watching as it were\nover their old habitations.\u201d[108]\n\nI visited the town in December, 1892, and never have I seen a place\nwhich looked more utterly forlorn. Whole streets of brick-built houses\nquite modern in appearance falling into ruins, which are too mean\nto be interesting, too recent to be picturesque and, for the most\npart, entirely uninhabited, except by the \u201cdefunct Brahmans\u201d already\nreferred to. Where shops and dwellings still exist they partake of the\ngeneral tumble-down character of the town; but the wares for sale are\nby no means ancient, and show that the remnant who burrow in Thanesar\nstill indulge in the rich confectionery of the country and still take\npleasure in the gay-coloured _saree_ and the glittering _chowree_ of\nglass.\n\nAmidst the general decay a few Hindu temples with tall, tapering spires\nstill show a brave front, and the tomb of the Mussulman saint, Shaikh\nChilli, built on a slight elevation, rears its marble dome into the air\nwith something of pride; but the rest, as I have said, is meanness and\nsqualor itself.\n\nWithin the precincts of Shaikh Chilli\u2019s tomb is a school where I saw\nthe boys at their tasks as I passed in to see the place. \u201cWhat unlucky\nboys,\u201d thought I, \u201cto be brought up amidst the unwholesome moral\natmosphere of a decaying city!\u201d\n\nAlthough there is no present glory or grandeur about Kurukshetra, a\nvisit to it will repay the thoughtful student of Indian history and\nreligion.\n\nIn an expanse of flat country, from which, however, the blue outlines\nof the Himalayas may be traced in the distance, the traveller finds,\na short way outside Thanesar, a shallow swamp about three miles in\ncircumference and overgrown with weeds. This is the historic lake\nwhich, according to General Cunningham, was a sacred place long\nanterior to the great war; indeed, as far back as the time of the Rig\nVeda itself. \u201cCan it be possible,\u201d I mused, as I stood beside this\nweed-covered pool, \u201cthat for a hundred generations the affectionate\ndevotion of the Hindu race has consistently and persistently clung to\nthis unattractive bit of water in an open plain?\u201d \u201cAnd how is it,\u201d I\nasked myself, \u201cthat their piety never adorned its banks with temples\n(for there are here no ruins worth speaking of), and why is it now so\nneglected?\u201d\n\nWill the reader accompany me round the lake and survey it from all\npoints of view?[109] On the east side are the only important buildings,\nthe largest being a temple of very modern date and no architectural\npretensions. It is an ordinary _Mandir_; but has just a slight local\ncharacter in the fact that it contains five coloured clay statues of\nthe Pandavas, railed off from the too curious or too pious spectator\nby a strong, rudely constructed railing of bamboos. It rejoices in\nthe possession of a huge iron frying-pan--not less than eight feet\nin diameter and about nine inches deep--to which my attention was\nspecially directed. This gigantic frying-pan is much in demand on\nfestival days, when the multitude pays to be fed by the Brahmans.\n\nA flight of steps leads from the temple into the water, and runs\nnearly along one-half of the eastern and northern sides of the lake.\nA causeway on arches extends into the lake and ends in a small temple\npicturesquely shadowed with trees. Another bridge, now but little above\nthe level of the water, parallel to the causeway just mentioned, leads\nright across the lake, joining to both east and west banks a small\nisland in the middle, on which that famous bigot, the Mughal Emperor\nAurangzeb, erected a diminutive fort to accommodate a small garrison,\nintrusted with the duty of preventing the Hindus from bathing in their\nsacred pool.\n\nProceeding along the east bank we pass a number of small tumble-down\nshrines, overshadowed by majestic banyans, extending their mighty arms\nin graceful curves over the tranquil green water. We still follow the\nsteps and arrive at the north end which has quite a recent look about\nit. Our guide tells us that this modern addition was the work of one\n\u201cLarkeen Sahib,\u201d an official in these parts, who was very fond of the\nHindu, and had built this _ghat_ for them out of a feeling of gratitude\nbecause his wife had owed her recovery from a mysterious illness to\nthe intercession of the Brahmans. Oh! \u201cLarkeen Sahib,\u201d I wonder if the\npious local legend which is told about you has ever reached your ears!\n\nOn the western side we find a little brick cenotaph which commemorates\nthe _suttee_ of the five wives of a Brahman whose name is now forgotten.\n\nSomewhat in advance of this cenotaph, and a little away from the\nlake-side, we are conducted to a \u201c_bythuck_\u201d of Guru Nanak, the\noriginal founder of the Sikh sect, and we take shelter within its walls\nfrom a pelting shower of rain which makes the landscape more cheerless\nthan ever. Here our guide informs us Guru Nanak used to sit beside the\nsacred pool to practise contemplation. But the admiring crowds who\ncame to visit him would give him no peace; so one day, to avoid their\nunwelcome attentions, he just sank into the ground and, following a\nsubterranean tunnel, emerged at Hurdwar on the Ganges. There could\nbe no doubt about this miraculous underground journey, for there was\nthe very tunnel itself to support the truth of the story, with a\nsubstantial flight of steps leading down into it. Yes, true enough,\nthere were three or four steps leading down into a small hole within\nthe walls of the shrine. But how about the tunnel? My son descended\ninto the hole to explore it. A look of chagrin passed over the face of\nour Brahman guide. Why this unnecessary and irreverent curiosity? The\nstory _must_ be true, for _every one_ believed it; and, certainly, the\nposition of this _bythuck_ of Guru Nanak is interesting, for it shows\nhow persistently the Sikhs attach themselves to the old Hindu faith to\nwhich the vast majority of professing Sikhs now practically belong.\n\n                            [Illustration:\n                          [_To face p. 200._]\n   THE TEMPLE AND BATHING GH\u00c2TS ON THE SACRED LAKE AT KURUKSHETRA.]\n\nIf there is anything that strikes one at Kurukshetra--and similar\nplaces in India--it is that the Brahmans have clung with wonderful\ntenacity through the vicissitudes of ages to their sacred _spots_;\nand that though they have, according to universal belief, enjoyed\nconsiderable revenues, they have, through all these ages, done nothing\nto adorn their sacred places, which owe what temporary embellishment\nthey have to the not too magnificent and not too frequent liberality\nof individuals. It strikes one also that, with each changing fashion\nof belief, each rise of a new sect, the Brahmans having willingly\naccommodated it with a convenient local habitation and have hastened to\nassociate its glories with those of its predecessors. Hence the shrine\nof Guru Nanak at Kurukshetra, alongside which we shall, no doubt,\nsome day have one in honour of Swami Dayanand, when the Aryan sect is\nsufficiently grown to impress the Brahmans with its importance; the\nmere matter of orthodoxy or unorthodoxy being somewhat unimportant.\n\nThe reason for the wonderful persistence with which the affectionate\nregard of the Hindus has hovered round their old shrines and holy\nplaces for thousands of years, though at first sight rather strange,\nis not difficult of explanation. _They have a hereditary priesthood_, a\npriesthood that lives by the proceeds of the shrines, and to whom the\nshrines are what land is to the cultivator. In this simple fact lies\nthe explanation of the matter, and of other points in Hindu religious\nhistory, and probably in the history of other nations with hereditary\npriesthoods. Successive generations of priests have, for their own\nsubsistence, to attract to the shrine they have inherited successive\ngenerations of pilgrims, by keeping alive the old traditions, or\ninventing new legends to suit the altered tastes of the times. As the\nweeds that flourish in the lake are lineal descendants of the weeds\nthat grew in the same place time out of mind, so are the Brahmans\non the banks of the lake the lineal descendants of the Brahmans who\nflourished there in times immemorial. As the weeds live on the rank\nsoil and stagnant water of the pond, so live the Brahmans on their wild\nlegends and stale pretensions.\n\nGuru Nanak\u2019s _bythuck_--the presence of which on the lake-side led to\nthe above digression--is but a few hundred yards from the west end of\nAurangzeb\u2019s bridge and, as there appeared to be nothing of interest on\nthe south side, we crossed over to the island, inspected the Mughal\nfort and, following the bridge, returned to the principal temple; but\nbefore doing so we managed to secure a few photographs of the pretty\nscene on the east bank as viewed from the bridge.\n\nIn the region round Kurukshetra, within a \u201ccircuit of one hundred and\nsixty miles,\u201d says General Cunningham, \u201cthere are popularly said to\nbe three hundred and sixty holy sites,\u201d most of which are connected\nwith the names of the heroes of the \u2018Mahabharata.\u2019 Many of these are\nno doubt genuine ancient places, as attested by their high mounds and\nbrick ruins. But the greater number appear to me to be the inventions\nof modern days. According to the Mahatmyas, of which only one is said\nto be old, the holy places had lain desolate for several centuries\nafter the Muhammadan conquest, when a _Dandi_ or mendicant, named Ram\nChandra Sw\u00e2mi, came from K\u00e2si to Kurukshetra. He was grieved to see the\ndesolation and determined to stop there and try to restore the holy\nplaces. But, as even the sites of many were unknown, he professed to\nhave obtained a knowledge of them in his dreams; and, accordingly, he\nwrote a book describing them, which is called the \u201cMahatmya of 6000\nslokas,\u201d and also the \u201cDandi Mahatmya.\u201d Long afterwards a Pandit of\nThanesar, named Banm\u00e1li, traced all the holy sites from the positions\ngiven by the Dandi, whose account is now accepted as genuine by all\nBrahmans, although \u201chis only authority for the identification was a\ndream.\u201d[110]\n\nWith the foregoing in mind I was not very eager to visit the sacred\nplaces, which have neither scenic nor architectural attractions.\nHowever, I could not leave Brahmavarta without seeing the holy\nSaraswati. The only form of conveyance available at Thanesar was the\n_Ekka_ and, though I knew from sad experience what ekkas could do in\nthe way of producing discomfort to every limb, I was fain to call them\ninto requisition as the time at my disposal was short. Two ekkas were\nengaged, one for my son and myself, the other for the indispensable\n_Babu_ and the Brahman guide. What a sight we two _unhindu_ pilgrims\ndid present as we contorted ourselves into the springless vehicle\nand set off for the Saraswati! In a drenching downpour of rain our\n_Ekka-wallah_ drove us, almost jolted to bits, over the worst roads\never made, to a spot where the _Samadh_ of a deceased Rajah of\nFaridekote now stands. Here we had to dismount and proceed on foot to\nthe river, famous since the time when the Aryans settled in India.\nDripping wet, and aching all over, I proceeded with the rest through\nthe grass and slush a hundred yards or so, to find myself on the banks\nof a tiny stream not twenty yards wide, which was sluggishly flowing\nat my feet. I had now seen the historic Saraswati and my visit to the\nsacred land was practically over.\n\nIt is at the time of a lunar eclipse, when the waters of all other\nsacred tanks mingle mysteriously with those of the ponds near Thanesar,\nthat the Brahmans of Kurukshetra reap their harvest of gains; for then\ntens of thousands of pilgrims crowd to bathe in the sacred pool, and,\nof course, fee the priests according to the measure of their means and\ntheir piety.[111] The Punjab University graduate, already quoted, gives\nus some curious particulars in regard to the largesses distributed on\nsuch occasions by the wealthy. He tells us, with reference to solar\neclipses, that \u201cThe Rajahs and Maharajahs of the land, too, are not\nabsent on such occasions. They untie their purse-strings, and hundreds\nand thousands of rupees are considered as nothing when compared with\nthe importance of the moment. The Brahmans, with loads of sweetmeats\non their backs and with money in their unknown (_sic_) pockets, go\nhome cheerfully and thankfully. They do not fail to get many cows in\naddition, and some fortunate few even receive at the hands of the\nRajahs, and other big men, presents of villages or of elephants, which\nare returned for a paltry sum on the following day. Maharajah Narendra\nSingh of Patiala is said to have gone the length of parting with one of\nhis wives on a similar occasion and, when on being asked to name her\nprice, the _parohit_ seemed willing to accept a lakh of rupees, the\nRani was very angry with him for demanding such a low sum in return for\nthe wife of such a wealthy Rajah.\u201d[112]\n\nThe writer of the above curious passage seems strangely unconscious of\nthe real significance of the facts he records, and apparently finds\nnothing to condemn in the vain display of ostentatious liberality,\nmasking actual meanness, to which he refers, and which is especially\nnoteworthy as supplying a probable standard by which to measure the\noverpowering munificence of many personages who figure in the Indian\nepics. This, too, is not mere conjecture. We have a similar instance in\nthe case of King Dasahratha, referred to at p. 20.\n\nAlthough the attractions of Kurukshetra are greatest on the occasion\nof eclipses, a tiny stream of visitors to the shrines trickles through\nThanesar all the year round. Of their visits particular note is taken\nby the Brahmans, who keep a record of the names and family connections\nof the several visitors. On the arrival of a pilgrim the Brahmans\ninquire his name, caste and _gotra_, his native place, his place of\nresidence, and the objects of his visit. With these facts in their\npossession some one amongst them is almost sure to be able to produce\nthe record of the visit to Thanesar, at some previous time, of some\nrelative of the pilgrim. When the Brahman has established this, from\none of his books, he thereby becomes the family priest, _pro tempore_,\nand the privileged guide of the new arrival, out of whom he makes as\nmuch money as he can. I shall not readily forget how the Babu, who\nkindly accompanied me, was pounced upon by the priests; how by the\nlight of a flickering lamp he had read out to him all about the visits\nwhich had been paid to Thanesar by his relatives; and how, having come\nto the sacred land, he could not well leave it until, even in the\npitiless December rain, he had to enter a sacred tank and take sundry\ndips under the water, while the Brahman, standing on the bank in the\nshelter of some trees, repeated the _mantras_ which gave, as it were,\nthe approval of the church to this pilgrimage of his to Brahmavarta.\n\n\n\n\n                              APPENDIX I\n\n                  +THE \u201cBHAGAVATGITA\u201d OR DIVINE SONG+\n\n \u201cHow much more admirable the Bhagvat-Gita than all the ruins of the\n East!\u201d--+H. D. THOREAU.+\n\n\nIt is undoubtedly in religious speculation that the genius of the\nIndian people has risen to the highest level of its possibilities. And\none of the noblest products and best specimens of this theological\nspirit is the \u201cBhagavatgita,\u201d or Divine Song. The date of this grand\nphilosophical poem is very doubtful. European scholars generally\nconsider that it has no claim to great antiquity, and that it was\ncomposed _after_ the commencement of the Christian era; some of them\neven hold that it bears unmistakable traces of the influence of\nChristian doctrine, and evidence of the acquaintance of its author\nwith the Christian scriptures. On the other hand, some Indian scholars\nendeavour to assign a high antiquity to the poem, and suggest that what\nresemblance there may be between the ideas in the \u201cGita\u201d and in the\nsacred books of the Christians, must have been borrowed by the latter\nfrom Hindu sources.[113]\n\nThe \u201cBhagavatgita\u201d early attracted the attention of Europeans, and was\ntranslated into English by Sir Charles Wilkins in the time of Warren\nHastings, who himself wrote an introduction to it. Wilkins\u2019 translation\nhas been followed by those of Thompson and Davis, and by Sir Edwin\nArnold\u2019s metrical version entitled \u201cThe Song Celestial.\u201d The poem has\nbeen rendered into both Latin and Greek, and into most of the leading\nlanguages of Europe, and has secured the highest encomiums possible\nfrom literary and philosophical men in all countries, on account of its\nlofty tone and striking conceptions.\n\nThe reader will remember that the \u201cBhagavatgita\u201d is a dialogue\nbetween Krishna and Arjuna, on the eve of the tremendous struggle at\nKurukshetra, and that the dialogue arose out of the refusal of the\nlatter to take part in a contest destined to lead to such unprecedented\nslaughter of kinsfolk.\n\nIt appears from the \u201cGita\u201d that Arjuna was not only moved by feelings\nof tenderness towards his kinsmen, but was appalled at the thought of\nthe far-reaching consequences of the impending slaughter of so many\nmen. His prescient mind foresaw that the wholesale destruction of the\nKshatriyas would tend to serious immorality amongst their women, and\nthus lead to that most dreadful of all calamities--_the mingling of\ndifferent castes!_ Such an evil was not to be contemplated, except with\nthe extremest religious horror, since so great a sin as a _confusion\nof castes_ would inevitably lead men to the hell prepared for the\nwicked, and even entail the fall of ancestral spirits from the religion\nof the blessed, \u201ctheir rites of Pinda and water ceasing\u201d through the\ndefilement of their descendants. This was a terrible prospect to face,\nbut a more immediate if less weighty objection presented itself to\nArjuna in a doubt as to whether it was lawful for him to contend with\nhis ancient relative Bhisma and his Brahman preceptor Drona, both of\nwhom were eminently worthy of his highest respect.[114]\n\nKrishna proceeds to overcome Arjuna\u2019s scruples, first by dwelling upon\nthe indestructibility of the soul, and then by insisting that the duty\nof a Kshatriya being to fight, it was right and proper for Arjuna to\ntake part in the battle, regardless of consequences. He further assumes\nthe responsibility for the deeds that may be done by Arjuna at his\nsuggestion. On these points Krishna says: \u201cThose that are really wise\ngrieve neither for the dead nor the living. It is not that I or you or\nthose rulers of men never were, or that all of us shall not hereafter\nbe.... As a man casting off robes that are worn out putteth on others\nthat are new, so the embodied (soul) casting off bodies that are worn\nout entereth other bodies that are new. Weapons cleave it not, fire\nconsumeth it not, the waters do not drench it nor doth the wind waste\nit.... There is no (objective) existence of anything that is distinct\nfrom the soul, nor non-existence of anything possessing the virtues of\nthe soul.\u201d\n\nPlainly the life of the individual was, according to Krishna\u2019s\nteaching, of little account, and this is strictly in harmony with\nBrahmanical ideas. To comprehend such an attitude of mind it is\nabsolutely necessary to guard carefully against the mistake of\nsupposing that the Hindu conception of the indestructibility of the\nsoul is the same as the Christian idea of the immortality of the\nindividual spirit. In the opinion of the Hindu the individual soul is\npart of the world-soul, a sort of animating force which may be joined,\non an unlimited number of successive occasions, to any corporeal frame,\nhigh or low, adapting itself to the conditions of its dwelling-house.\nExcept when joined to matter of some sort, gross or subtle, it is void\nof self-consciousness.[115] Conscious existence in the estimation of\nthe Hindu being a distinct and positive evil, the object and desire of\nevery sentient being should be to obtain final and complete extinction\nof separate individual consciousness by emancipation from the trammels\nof matter through suppression of all the senses. Thus far in regard\nto Arjuna\u2019s objection to the impending wholesale slaughter of his\nKshatriya kinsmen. But other subtle questions of theology arise in the\ncourse of the colloquy which Krishna proceeds to elucidate and settle\nfor his dear friend and disciple.\n\nWe do not propose to follow, step by step, the intricacies of the\ndialogue, but merely to set forth, as far as we can disentangle\nthem from the theological mysticism in which they are involved, the\nfundamental doctrines and precepts inculcated by Krishna on this\noccasion.\n\nWork or labour, in any form, has always in Brahmanical theology been\nregarded as an evil. Krishna, too, recognizes it as such, though\nhe holds it to be tolerable and even unobjectionable in certain\ncases. Work for its own sake or for the attainment of any object\nis undesirable, though it is lawful to do such work as may be\nnecessary for the performance of sacrifices[116] or the support of\none\u2019s body; but even this work should be done without thought of\nreward. As to Vedic rites, _i.e._, the old ceremonial observances,\nthese duly carried out lead, no doubt, to the attainment of pleasure\nand power, and even heaven itself for a time.[117] But the highest\nattainable good--_absorption in the Supreme Being, and consequent\nemancipation from re-births_--cannot be obtained by even Vedic rites.\nIt is only to be reached by _knowledge_ or by _faith_. Now both the\nterms _knowledge_ and _faith_ require special elucidation. What\nthen is the nature of this _knowledge_ which is so efficacious for\nemancipation? Not assuredly what the Western world understands by\nthat term, but something very different, viz., subjugation of the\nsenses and a complete suppression of all affections and dislikes, all\nhopes and fears, all desires and aversions, all pride and humility.\nThis condition of utter indifference to every thing, sensual or\nintellectual, is the state of _knowledge_ leading to absorption in the\nSupreme Being or world-soul.[118]\n\nOne method of arriving at this blissful condition, though not the\nshortest or most certain, is through the _Yoga system_, which meets\nwith the approval of Krishna, who gives general directions as to\nhow the devotee, eating little, should sit in some lonely place;\nhow he should concentrate his gaze on the tip of his nose; how he\nshould mingle the \u201cupward and the downward life breath; and how,\nfinally renouncing all desires without exception that are born of\nresolves, restraining the entire group of the senses on all sides by\nmind alone, he should by slow degrees become quiescent, (aided) by\n(his) understanding, controlled by patience, and then, directing his\nmind to self, should _think of nothing_.\u201d When the devotee arrives\nat _this_ stage he is emancipated, for surely he has found _true\nknowledge_! While thus indicating the inefficiency of the Vedas for\n_final emancipation_, and while bestowing only a qualified commendation\nupon the Yoga system, Krishna inculcates very forcibly the doctrine\nof the efficacy of _faith_ and, above all, faith in himself which, it\nwould seem, it is the special object of the dialogue to bring into\nprominence. For himself Krishna claimed that he was \u201cthe productive\ncause of the entire universe and also its destroyer.\u201d He asserted that\nhe was \u201cthe beginning, the middle, and the end of beings,\u201d and that\nthere was \u201cnothing higher than himself.\u201d To give weight to his claims\nthe god vouchsafed to show himself to Arjuna in \u201chis supreme sovereign\nform,\u201d with many mouths and eyes, many wondrous aspects, many celestial\nornaments, many celestial weapons uplifted, wearing celestial garlands\nand robes (and) with unguents of celestial fragrance, full of every\nwonder, resplendent, infinite, with faces turned on all sides. If\nthe splendour of a thousand suns were to burst forth at once in the\nsky (then) that would be like the splendour of that mighty one. The\nson of Panda then beheld there in the body of that god of gods the\nentire universe divided and subdivided into many parts, all collected\ntogether. Then Dhananjaya (Arjuna), filled with amazement, and with\nhair standing on end, bowing with (his) head, with joined hands,\naddressed the god.\n\n\u201cArjuna said: I behold all the gods, O God, as also all the varied\nhosts of creatures (and) Brahma seated on (his) lotus seat, and all\nthe Rishis and the celestial snakes. I behold thee with innumerable\narms, stomachs, mouths (and) eyes, on every side, O thou of infinite\nforms. Neither end, nor middle, nor also beginning of them do I\nbehold, O lord of the universe, O thou of universal form. Bearing\n(thy) diadem, mace, and discus, a mass of energy glowing on all sides,\ndo I behold thee that art hard to look at, endued on all sides with\nthe effulgence of the blazing fire or the sun, and immeasurable. Thou\nart indestructible (and) the supreme object of this universe. Thou\nart without decay, the guardian of eternal virtue, I regard thee to\nbe the eternal (male) being. I behold thee to be without beginning,\nmean, end, to be of infinite prowess, of innumerable arms, having\nthe sun and the moon for thy eyes, the blazing fire for thy mouth,\nand heating this universe with energy thy own. For the space betwixt\nheaven and earth is pervaded by thee alone, as also all the points of\nthe horizon! At sight of this marvellous and fierce form of thine,\nO supreme soul, the triple world trembleth. For these hosts of gods\nare entering thee! Some afraid are praying with joined hands. Saying,\n_Hail to thee_--the hosts of great Rishis and Siddhas praise thee\nwith copious hymns of praise. The Rudras, the Adityas, the Vasus, they\nthat are (called) the S\u00e1ddhyas, the Vi\u00e7was, the A\u00e7wins, the Maruts,\nalso the Ushmapas, the Gandharvas, the Yakshas, the Asuras, the hosts\nof Siddhyas, behold thee and are all amazed. Beholding thy mighty form\nwith many mouths and eyes, O mighty-armed one, with innumerable arms,\nthighs and feet, many stomachs (and) terrible in consequence of many\ntusks, all creatures are affrighted, and I also. Indeed, touching the\nvery skies, of blazing radiance, many-hued, mouth wide open, with eyes\nthat are blazing and large, beholding thee, O Vishnu with (my) inner\nsoul trembling (in fright) I can no longer command courage and peace of\nmind. Beholding thy mouths that are terrible in consequence of (their)\ntusks, and that are fierce as the (all-destroying) fire at the end\nof the Yuga, I cannot recognize the points of the horizon nor can I\ncommand peace of mind. Be gracious, O god of gods, O thou that art the\nrefuge of the universe. And all these sons of Dhritarashtra, together\nwith the hosts of kings, and Bhisma and Drona and also Suta\u2019s this son\n(Karna) accompanied by even the principal warriors of our side, are\nquickly entering thy terrible mouths rendered fierce by thy tusks!\nSome, with their heads crushed, are seen striking at the interstices\nof (thy) teeth. As many currents of water flowing through different\nchannels roll rapidly towards the ocean, so these heroes of the world\nof men enter thy mouths that flame all around. As moths with increasing\nspeed rush for (their own) destruction to the blazing fire, so also\ndo (these) people, with unceasing speed, enter thy mouths for their\ndestruction. Swallowing all these men from every side thou lickest them\nwith thy flaming mouths. Filling the whole universe with (thy) energy,\nthy fierce splendours, O Vishnu, are heating (everything). Tell me who\nthou art of (such) fierce form. I bow to thee, O chief of the gods, be\ngracious to me! I desire to know thee that art the primeval one, for I\ndo not understand thy actions.\u201d\n\nAfter such an overwhelming argument addressed to the senses of his\ndisciple, after such an astounding proof that he alone is not only the\nuniversal soul of nature but the universe itself, Krishna discloses to\nArjuna the efficacy of _faith_ above both _works_ and _contemplation_.\nThus says the god: \u201cFix thy heart on me alone, place thy understanding\non me. Hereafter then shalt thou dwell in me. There is no doubt (in\nthis);\u201d and again: \u201cExceedingly dear art thou to me, therefore I will\ndeclare what is for thy benefit.... Forsaking all (religious) duties\ncome to me as thy sole refuge, I will deliver thee from all sins.\u201d\n\nTo assert the doctrine of the efficacy of _faith_ is obviously the\nspecial object of the _Gita_; but, with the conciliatory spirit of\nHinduism, it is inculcated without too great a rupture with the\northodox notions in respect to those time-honoured props and refuges of\nthe pious Hindu,--the Vedas and Yogaism. Both these are, however, shorn\nof a good deal of their importance by comparison with the _new_ mode of\nattaining heaven and final emancipation--_through faith in Krishna_.\n\nThough the caste-system is strongly upheld in the \u201cBhagavatgita,\u201d and\nthe practices of the Yogis sanctioned, many of the most liberal and\nlofty sentiments find expression in this highly remarkable poem; as\nwhen Krishna says: \u201cWhatever form (of godhead or myself) any worshipper\ndesireth to worship with faith, that faith of his unto that form I\nrender steady. Endued with that faith he payeth his adoration to\nthat (form) and obtaineth from that all his desires, since all those\nare ordained by me. The fruits, however, of those persons endued\nwith little intelligence are perishable. They that worship the\ndivinities go to the divinities, while they that worship me come even\nto me.\u201d Again: \u201cEven those devotees who, endued with faith, worship\nother godheads, even they, O son of Kunti, worship me alone, though\nirregularly.\u201d And in another place: \u201cIn whatever manner men come to me\nin the self-same manner do I accept them.\u201d Krishna also says: \u201cI am\nalike to all creatures, there is none hateful to me, none dear. They,\nhowever, that worship me with reverence are in me and I also am in\nthem.\u201d\n\nIn this serene and lofty impartiality of sentiment the unknown author\nof the \u201cGita\u201d has reached a level of generous and noble theology not\nto be surpassed and probably never before expressed. But, alas! it\nwas impossible for him to stand alone upon this giddy height of calm\nphilosophy, and he descends to a lower plain of sympathetic insight\nwhen his Krishna declares, that \u201cthere are two kinds of created beings\nin this world, viz., the godlike and the demoniac. These latter are\nimpure, given over to their desires, and unholy, asserting that the\nuniverse is void of truth and guiding principle, and even without a\nruler. Wedded to vanity, power, pride, lust and wrath, these revilers\nhate me in their own bodies and those of others. Those haters (of me),\ncruel, the vilest among men and unholy, I hurl continually down into\ndemoniac wombs. Coming into demoniac wombs, deluded birth after birth,\nthey, O son of Kunti, without attaining to me, go down to the vilest\nstate.\u201d\n\nIn regard to divine incarnation, which is an old accepted idea in\nHinduism, Krishna says: \u201cMany births of mine have passed away, O\nArjuna, as also of thine; those all I know, but thou dost not, O\nchastiser of foes! Though I am unborn and of essence that knoweth no\ndeterioration, though (I am) the lord of creatures; still, relying on\nmy own (material) nature, I take birth by my own (powers) of illusion.\nWhensoever, O Bharata, loss of piety occurreth and the rise of impiety,\non those occasions do I create myself. For the protection of the\nrighteous, for also the destruction of evil-doers, for the sake of\nestablishing piety, I am born age after age.\u201d\n\nWhether the author of the \u201cBhagavatgita\u201d borrowed ideas from\nChristianity or not, this, at least, is certain, that Krishna-worship\nis a comparatively new phase of Hinduism; that its doctrine of\nsalvation or final emancipation by _faith_ is also comparatively new;\nand that the tendency of this doctrine of _faith_, as taught in the\n\u201cGita,\u201d is to wean men from rites and ceremonies, and to discourage\nthem from the practice of _Yoga_.\n\nBut since it seems to be a characteristic of each successive stage\nof Hinduism to keep on amicable terms with those that have preceded\nit, the \u201cGita\u201d endeavours to lead men to more doctrine of _faith_ in\nKrishna, without more disparagement of orthodox ideas and practices\nthan appeared absolutely necessary for the object in view--hence the\nqualified approval of Vedic rites and of Yogaism which we find in this\ntreatise.\n\nOf the \u201cBhagavatgita,\u201d which has been extolled as a complete system of\nIndian _religious philosophy_, this brief note will, I believe, give a\nsufficient idea.[119] It is, as regards Hinduism, an eclectic system\nupon which has been grafted a new principle, the doctrine of salvation\nby faith, which may or may not be of foreign origin. Its lofty ideas\nand transcendental philosophy appeal with subtle force to the higher\nfeelings of the thoughtful Hindu. I have known a clever young student\nof the \u201cGita\u201d so powerfully affected by its teaching as to lose mental\nbalance to the extent of believing himself to be Arjuna. When this\nhallucination passed away his one burning desire was to retire from the\nworld in order to live the life of the Rishis of old.\n\nFor my own part I leave this highest attainment of Indian religious\nphilosophy with mingled feelings of admiration and sadness.\n\nIn every nation men have allowed their speculative imaginations to play\naround the great mystery of the Universe. The author of the \u201cGita\u201d has\ndreamed his dream as well as the others; and, like Plato[120] and the\nrest, has presented as a solution of the grand problem of existence\nhis own fancies and his own guess-work. And these dreams, fancies and\nguesses--labelled _theology_ or _philosophy_ as the case may be--have\nbeen accepted as eternal verities and passed down from generation to\ngeneration, only to be superseded, in their turn, by other equally\nsubstantial fancies, equally irrefragable verities.\n\nIn leaving the \u201cGita,\u201d however, let us at least admit that the Indian\npoet\u2019s dream was not deficient in nobility of sentiment and grandeur of\nconception.\n\n\n\n\n                              APPENDIX II\n\n                      +THE CHURNING OF THE OCEAN+\n\n\nOnce upon a time the gods, having practised penances according to the\nprescribed ordinances, assembled in solemn conclave on the golden\nsummit of Mount Meru, to consider how they might obtain _Amrita_--the\nwater of life. \u201cSeeing the celestial assembly in anxious consultation,\nNarayana[121] said to Brahma\u201d: \u201cDo thou churn the ocean with the\nSuras (gods) and the Asuras. By doing so, _Amrita_ shall be obtained,\ntogether with all drugs and all gems.\u201d\n\nIn order to carry out these instructions the gods uprooted from its\nbase the towering mountain named Mandara,[122] and placed it in the\nsea on the back of the tortoise king. This was their churning pole,\nand for a cord they used the mighty hooded serpent, Vasuki. The Asuras\ntaking hold of him by the head and the gods by the tail commenced the\nchurning of the ocean. As they laboured in their gigantic task of\nwhirling Mandara round and round in the seething ocean, the serpent\u2019s\nbody became heated by the friction to which it was subjected, and\nvolumes of black vapour, mingled with red flames, issued from his awful\nmouth. These vapours were condensed in the upper regions and fell in\nrefreshing showers upon the tired gods. With the rain came abundance of\nflowers shaken from the trees of rapidly revolving Mandara.\n\nAs the work proceeded with more and more vigour, the inhabitants of the\ntroubled ocean were destroyed in great numbers, and the forests on the\nsides of rotating Mandara took fire from the friction of the branches\nof the trees which were driven into conflict with one another. However,\nthis conflagration was extinguished by Indra, and the churning was\ncontinued. Then the gums of various trees and many gems began to mingle\nwith the water, but the sought for nectar itself did not appear. Almost\nspent with their exertions, the gods appealed to Narayana for help, and\nhe, renewing their vigour, directed them again to \u201cinsert the mountain\nand churn the waters.\u201d\n\nTheir fresh and vigorous efforts were crowned with success. First of\nall the moon emerged from the waters, then \u201cLakshmi\u201d[123] dressed in\nwhite, and wine, and the white steed, and then the celestial gem,\nKaustuva, which graces the breast of Narayana. Lakshmi, wine, and the\nsteed fleet as the mind, all came before the gods on high. Then arose\nthe divine Dhanvantari himself with the white vessel of nectar in his\nhand. And, seeing him, the \u201cAsuras set up a loud cry, saying: \u2018Ye have\ntaken all, _he_ must be ours.\u2019\u201d\n\nAlthough the object of their quest, the nectar of immortality, had\nbeen produced, the churning was continued apparently in the hope of\nfurther treasures. Airavata, a huge elephant, now emerged from the\ntroubled waters, and was at once appropriated by Indra. But after his\nappearance a baleful poison, the terrible Kalakuta, \u201cblazing like a\nflame mixed with fumes,\u201d began to overspread the earth and to threaten\nthe destruction of the universe. At this perilous juncture, Mahadeva,\nat Brahma\u2019s solicitation, \u201cswallowed the poison and held it in his\nthroat,\u201d which acquired and ever after retained a blue colour. Hence\nMahadeva is often known by the name Nilakantha, the blue-throated.\n\n                            [Illustration:\n                     +THE CHURNING OF THE OCEAN.+\n               (Reduced from Moor\u2019s \u201cHindu Pantheon.\u201d)]\n\nThe Asuras having got possession of Dhanvantari with the vessel of\nnectar, were preparing to defend their acquisition by force of arms,\nbut Narayana, assuming the bewitching form of lovely _Maya_, easily\ninduced the Daityas, ravished with her charms, to part with their\ntreasure.\n\nAs soon as the deception practised upon them became apparent, the\nDaityas and Danavas pursued the gods, who, in the meantime, had been\nhurriedly taking draughts of this wonderful elixir of immortality.\n\nAlong with them a Danava, named Rahu, in the disguise of a god, was\nalso slyly partaking of the _Amrita_, but, before the nectar had gone\nbeyond his throat, he was detected by the sun and moon and had his head\nsevered from his body by the discus of Narayana.\n\nThe severed head of Rahu was, of course, immortal, and ascended into\nthe sky with loud cries. And ever since that eventful day it has\npursued the sun and moon with revengeful feelings, swallowing them up\nperiodically, as is evident in the solar and lunar eclipses which have\nattracted the awed attention of mankind through the ages.\n\nTo these events succeeded the commencement of a terrible battle between\nthe gods on one side, and the Asuras, Daityas and the Danavas on the\nother. The gods, being victorious, carried the _Amrita_ to heaven, and,\n\u201coffering due respect to Mandara, placed him on his own base.\u201d\n\nSuch, in brief, is the wonderfully grand old myth which could have\nbeen conceived by no common mind, which is still believed in, and\ngives rise to practices and ceremonies still observed by two hundred\nmillions of the Indian people, for whom even now it is the malignant\nRahu that periodically threatens the destruction of the greater and\nlesser lights of the firmament. On these dire occasions the Hindus beat\ntheir drums and blow their conchs to terrify away the demon. They throw\naway their earthen cooking-pots, observe a rigid fast during the period\nof obstruction, and crowd the bathing-places for a purifying plunge as\nsoon as the light of sun or moon is once again fully restored to the\ndelighted eyes of mankind.\n\n\n\n\n                             APPENDIX III\n\n                   +THE STORY OF NALA AND DAMAYANTI+\n\n\nThere was once a powerful King of the Nishadhas, named Nala, who was as\nbeautiful as the god of love himself. He was, moreover, an honourable\nman, highly accomplished, and especially well-versed in the management\nof horses, but he had a weakness for dice.\n\nContemporary with Nala was Bhima, King of the Vidharbas, a formidable\nmonarch, and father of Damayanti, the most lovely maiden in the world.\nFame had carried to Nala the report of Damayanti\u2019s unrivalled charms\nand had made him quite love-sick. The fair lady, too, had often been\ntold of the manly beauty and grace of the King of the Nishadhas, and\nhad had a tender chord in her heart touched by what she had heard. Thus\nwere these two young people actually in love with each other, although\nthey had never met or even exchanged glances.\n\nThe enamoured king naturally sought solitude; and one day, while\nmoodily lounging in the inner gardens of his palace, he saw some\nstrange-looking swans with golden wings. He caught one of them with his\nhands. The bird immediately addressed his captor, asking to be spared,\nand promising to speak to Damayanti about him \u201cin such a way that she\nwill not ever desire to have any other person for her lord.\u201d Of course\nthe swan was liberated there and then and, proceeding at once along\nwith his fellows to the land of the Vidharbas, alighted in the gardens\nwhere Damayanti was sporting with her maids. The fair princess was\neager to catch the strange birds as soon as she observed them; so she\nand her attendants began to run after the golden-winged swans, who fled\nin all directions without taking wing. One of these birds led the eager\nDamayanti away from her companions, and then, seizing the opportunity,\ntold the charming girl about Nala and his beauty, winding up with\nthese words: \u201cThou also art a jewel among thy sex as Nala is the prime\namong men. The union of the best with the best is happy.\u201d To which the\ngratified princess replied: \u201cDo thou speak thus unto Nala also.\u201d\n\nThe adventure with the swan had such an effect upon the princess that\nshe became melancholy, pale-faced, and lean. Her thoughts were of Nala\nonly, and she could find no pleasure in her surroundings. Her father\nnoticed the change with much anxiety and, after weighing the matter,\nconcluded that the best thing he could do would be to find a husband\nfor his daughter.\n\nHe accordingly gave notice, far and wide, to the kings and princes of\nthe land that Damayanti would hold her swayamvara on a certain date.\n\nFrom every direction suitors thronged to Bhima\u2019s capital in the hope\nof winning the much-coveted beauty whose fame filled the whole earth.\nThe celestial Rishi, Narada, on a casual visit to Indra\u2019s Heaven,\nmade passing reference to Damayanti\u2019s transcendent beauty and to her\napproaching swayamvara. The gods, excited by his words, exclaimed in\nrapture: \u201cWe also will go there,\u201d and four of them, the Lokapalas or\nguardians of the world--Indra, Yama, Varuna and Kuvera--set out without\ndelay for the country of the Vidharbas, accompanied by their attendants.\n\nOn the way they met the handsome and virtuous Nala bent on the same\nerrand. Leaving their celestial cars in the sky, they descended to\nthe earth and entered into converse with the king. Without revealing\nthemselves to him they cunningly got him to promise to help them,\nand when he had done so requested him to go to Damayanti and inform\nher that the Lokapalas were amongst the suitors for her hand, and to\nrequest her to choose one of them for her lord.\n\nPoor Nala explained his own feelings with respect to the fair princess,\nand the hopes with which he was hastening to the swayamvara. He also\nprotested that it would be impossible for him to have an interview\nwith Damayanti in her well-guarded palace. But the gods removed this\nlast difficulty, Indra simply saying: \u201cThou shalt be able to enter.\u201d\nAnd so it proved; for it was not long before Nala found himself in the\ninner apartments of the palace. His wonderful beauty created a great\nsensation amongst the astonished women of the zenana. Damayanti was the\nfirst to recover from the surprise of his unexpected presence in the\ninner apartments, and smilingly addressed the intruder in these by no\nmeans harsh words: \u201cWhat art thou, O thou of faultless features, that\nhast come here, awakening my love. O sinless one, O hero of celestial\nform, I am anxious to know who thou art that hast come hither, and why\nthou hast come hither. And how it is that thou hast not been discovered\nby anyone, considering that my apartments are well-guarded[124] and the\nking\u2019s mandates are stern.\u201d\n\nNala with a sad heart told her who he was, and honourably discharged\nthe distasteful duty imposed upon him by the celestials. Undazzled by\nthe prospect of having a god for her husband, Damayanti, with charming\nsimplicity, said to Nala with a smile: \u201cO king, love me and command me\nwhat I shall do for thee. Myself and what else of wealth is mine are\nthine.... If thou forsake me who adore thee, for thy sake will I resort\nto poison or fire, or water, or the rope.\u201d Nala dwelt upon the danger\nof offending the gods, and advised the princess to choose one of her\ncelestial suitors for her lord and no blame would attach to him; but\nshe told him to come himself to the swayamvara and she would there give\nhim her hand in the presence of the celestials.\n\nNala returned to the Lokapalas, who were eager in their inquiries about\nthe details of his mission. He faithfully related what had passed\nbetween himself and Damayanti, even so far as to tell them that the\nmaiden had expressed her determination to choose him for her husband.\nHaving discharged his obligations with strict fidelity, Nala left the\nissue in the hands of the gods.\n\nOn the day of the swayamvara the astonished princess saw, on entering\nthe hall, not one but five Nalas before her, all seated together.\nUnable to discriminate from amongst them the King of the Nishadhas,\nthe fond maiden tremblingly prostrated herself before the five and,\nin an appeal full of sweet confidence, begged the gods to reveal\nthemselves to her, as she had in her heart chosen Nala for her lord.\nTouched by her simple prayer, the Lokapalas resumed their celestial\nattributes, and the fair maiden thereupon bashfully caught the hem of\nNala\u2019s garment and placed the garland round his neck. The gods were\npleased with the issue, and generously bestowed many boons upon their\nsuccessful rival, who, appreciating the great honour that had been\nshown him, addressed Damayanti in these words: \u201cSince thou, O blessed\none, hast chosen a mortal in the presence of the celestials, know\nme for a husband ever obedient to thy command. And, O thou of sweet\nsmiles, truly do I tell thee this that as long as life continueth in\nthis body of mine I will remain thine and thine alone.\u201d The charming\ndamsel, of course, made a suitable response. Everything was arranged\nsatisfactorily, the wedding was duly celebrated, and the King of the\nNishadhas returned home with his lovely bride.\n\nBut, as the course of true love never does run smooth, there was sorrow\nawaiting the young couple. It happened that, as the gods were returning\nfrom Damayanti\u2019s swayamvara, they met Kali with Dwapara on the way to\nthe capital of the Vidharbas. It was to seek Damayanti\u2019s hand that\nKali[125] was journeying thither, and it was with great displeasure\nthat he learned that the swayamvara was over and that Nala had obtained\nthe prize.\n\nIn his wicked heart he planned to ruin the happiness of Nala,\nand with that object in view proceeded to his city. Watching his\nopportunity--which presented itself in the neglect by the king of\nsome trifling ceremonial observance--Kali entered his person and took\ncomplete possession of him. The fiend also stirred up Pushkara to\nchallenge Nala to play with him with dice. Nala could not refuse, and,\nbeing under the influence of Kali, gambled recklessly and, needless to\nsay, unsuccessfully; for the dice were not ordinary dice, but _Dwapara\nhimself_ transformed. The gambling match lasted for months, and Nala\nlost everything he possessed, including his kingdom. During the\ncontinuance of the match Nala was like one deprived of reason, so his\nwife sent her two children away to her parents in charge of a faithful\ncharioteer. His successful opponent suggested that he might now stake\nDamayanti as he had lost everything else; but Nala, his heart full\nof rage, rose with silent dignity and, stripping himself of all his\nornaments, left the city. Damayanti, clad in a single piece of cloth--a\n_sari_, no doubt--followed him into exile.\n\nPushkara issued an order that no one should assist Nala under pain\nof death, so the ex-king and his consort were left to shift for\nthemselves. In the hope of capturing some wild birds in the wood\nNala threw his cloth over them, but they rose and flew away with it,\nleaving him naked. He now shared Damayanti\u2019s single garment, and the\npair were soon in the greatest extremities of distress. He could not\nhumble himself to seek the assistance of his wife\u2019s people, but,\nthinking that if she were alone, Damayanti might find an asylum with\nthem, Nala, instigated still by vindictive Kali, abandoned his lovely\nwife one night in the lonesome forest. Her grief and despair upon\nfinding herself deserted were most pathetic. With loud lamentations she\nwandered hither and thither like a maniac, and came unexpectedly upon\na huge serpent, who quietly coiled himself about her gentle form and\nwould have killed her very soon, had not a hunter come to her rescue\nand, with his sharp sword, cut off the serpent\u2019s head. Inquiries and\nexplanations followed, with the result that, \u201cbeholding that beautiful\nwoman clad in half a garment, with deep bosom and round hips and limbs\ndelicate and faultless, and face resembling the full moon, and eyes\ngraced with curved eyelashes, and speech sweet as honey, the hunter\nbecame inflamed with desire.\u201d But virtuous Damayanti in great anger\nrepulsed the wretch and cursed him so that he fell down dead at her\nfeet.\n\nAlone in the vast forests, peopled by wild beasts and infested by\nthieves and Mleccha-tribes, poor bewildered Damayanti wandered about\nin quest of Nala; asking, in her trouble, the fierce tiger and the\nsilent mountain to tell her where her lord had gone. After wandering\nabout for three days and three nights the unfortunate queen came to\nthe delightful asylum of some ascetics, and, entering it fearlessly\nbut with great humility, she was welcomed by the holy men, who, struck\nby her beauty, inquired whether she was the presiding deity of the\nforest, the mountain, or the river. Damayanti explained her situation\nand received from the ascetics most comforting assurances of early\nreunion with Nala and great future happiness. After which \u201cthe ascetics\nwith their sacred fires and asylum vanished from sight,\u201d to the great\namazement of the queen.\n\nFurther wanderings in the denser parts of the forest brought Damayanti\ninto a somewhat open space, where she found a party of merchants\nencamped beside a stream with their horses, elephants, and other\nbeasts of burden. The merchants could give her no information about\nNala, for, as the leader of the party assured her, she was the only\nhuman being they had met in those vast forests. However, as they\nwere bound for the city of Suvahu, Damayanti attached herself to the\ncaravan. The distance to be traversed was evidently a very long one\nand the forest very extensive; for, after they had proceeded many\ndays, they were still in the woods, and one evening encamped on the\nborder of a lovely lotus-covered lake. In the dead of night a herd of\nwild elephants coming down to the lake discovered the tame elephants\nbelonging to the merchants and instantly made a furious onslaught upon\nthem. Indescribable confusion followed. Some members of the party were\ntrampled to death under the feet of the mighty beasts, some perished\nby their huge tusks, others fled for safety in all directions. The\nfugitives concealed themselves in the thickets or took refuge in\nthe branches of trees. Horses, camels and elephants, fighting with\neach other and rushing about in frantic terror, added to the wild\nconfusion of the dreadful scene of disorder and uproar, which was\nintensified by the outbreak of a terrible fire. Amidst the general\npanic, the shouts and cries of men and the noise of wounded and furious\nanimals, Damayanti naturally awoke in the greatest alarm; but she soon\nhad occasion for special fear for her own personal safety from an\nunexpected quarter.\n\n\u201cAnd those of the caravan that had escaped unhurt, met together, and\nasked one another, \u2018Of what deed of ours is this the consequence?\nSurely we have failed to worship the illustrious Manibhadra, and\nlikewise the exalted and graceful Vaisravana, the King of the Yakshas.\nPerhaps we have not worshipped the deities that cause calamities,\nor perhaps we have not paid them the first homage. Or perhaps this\nevil is the certain consequence of the birds (we saw)! Our stars are\nnot unpropitious. From what other cause, then, hath this disaster\ncome?\u2019 Others, distressed and bereft of wealth and relatives, said,\n\u2018That maniac-like woman who came amongst this mighty caravan in guise\nthat was strange and scarcely human, also, it is by her that this\ndreadful illusion has been pre-arranged. Of a certainty, she is a\nterrible Rakshasa or a Yaksha or a Pic\u00e1cha woman. All this evil is\nher work, what need of doubts. If we again see that wicked destroyer\nof merchants, that giver of innumerable woes, we shall certainly slay\nthat injurer of ours, with stones, and dust, and grass, and wood,\nand cuffs.\u2019[126] And hearing these dreadful words of the merchants,\nDamayanti, in terror and shame and anxiety, fled into the woods\napprehensive of evil.\u201d\n\nDamayanti, however, managed to secure the protection of some Brahmans\nwho had been travelling with the merchants, and in their company\nsucceeded in reaching the city of Suvahu. Her strange, unkempt and\nalmost maniac-like appearance, coupled with her scanty clothing,\nexcited the curiosity of the citizens, who rudely followed her about.\nHer painful situation in the street of the town, and her beauty, which\nnothing could destroy, attracted the attention of the queen-mother, who\nwas looking out of one of the windows of the palace. As a consequence\nDamayanti was sent for and installed in the household as a sort of\nhumble companion to the princess.\n\nWe have now to trace the fortunes of Nala. After he had deserted\nDamayanti he came upon a mighty conflagration in the forests. From\nthe midst of the fire a voice addressed him thus: \u201cO righteous Nala,\ncome hither.\u201d Nala obeyed without fear or hesitation, and found in\nthe midst of the fire a mighty Naga or serpent, lying in great coils.\nThe snake explained that he was suffering from the curse of a great\nRishi \u201cof high ascetic merit,\u201d whom he had deceived, and that he was\ndoomed, under the conditions of the curse, to lie where he was until\nNala should remove him to another place, when he would be free again.\nThe snake contracted his dimensions till he was no bigger than a man\u2019s\nthumb. Nala took him up and carried him to a place free from fire. Here\nthe snake bit Nala and resumed his natural form. The effect on Nala\nof the snake\u2019s bite was startling indeed, for he underwent a strange\ntransformation of person and assumed an unprepossessing appearance.\nThe snake explained that what had occurred was for Nala\u2019s good, and\nadvised him to go to Ayodhya and offer his services to the king of that\ncity as a charioteer and trainer of horses, on condition of receiving\ninstruction in the art of gambling. The snake also presented Nala with\na garment, the wearing of which would immediately restore him to his\nproper form. Nala did as directed, and was duly installed as king\u2019s\ncharioteer and superintendent of the royal stables, under the name of\nV\u00e1huka.\n\nIn the meanwhile Brahmans sent out by King Bhima, Damayanti\u2019s father,\nwere searching the country far and wide for the lost couple. One of\nthem met Damayanti and recognized her by a remarkable lotus-shaped\nmole which she had between her eyebrows. This discovery led to her\nreturn to her father\u2019s house, where her children were being reared in\ncomfort, but nothing could console her for the absence of Nala. Through\nher mother she caused Brahmans to go forth into all countries, to cry\nin every assembly, \u201cO beloved gambler, where hast thou gone, cutting\noff half of my garment, and deserting thy dear and devoted wife asleep\nin the forest,\u201d etc. Of course this appeal touched Nala--transformed\ninto V\u00e1huka--to the heart, and certain remarks which he let fall, to\nthe effect that a virtuous woman should not be angry with one who had\nbeen deprived by birds of his garments, and so on, having been reported\nto Damayanti, she suspected who that V\u00e1huka really was, although so\nchanged in person.\n\nTo bring him to her she had it proclaimed in the city of Ayodhya that\nDamayanti, unaware whether Nala was alive or not, had decided to hold\nthe very next day another swayamvara, at which she would choose a\nsecond husband[127] for herself.\n\nKing Ritupama of Ayodhya desired to be present on this occasion, but\nthe distance to Kundina was over one hundred _yojanas_. However, Nala\nin a most wonderful manner managed to do the distance within the\nappointed time, not without adventures on the way and the acquirement\nfrom his royal master of the whole science of dice-playing.\n\nWhen they arrived at Kundina they found to their astonishment that no\npreparations were being made for Damayanti\u2019s swayamvara, and discovered\nthat they had been deceived by a false report.\n\nFrom the remarkable way in which Ritupama\u2019s chariot came rattling into\nAyodhya, Damayanti suspected that it was driven by Nala and Nala only,\nbut she was sore distressed when she saw V\u00e1huka--so unlike her dear\nlord in appearance. Yet, as wonders were common in those days and the\ncharioteer might, after all, be her dear husband in a natural disguise,\nshe opened communication with him through her maid-servant, and by\nvarious indications satisfied herself that V\u00e1huka was no other than her\nlost Nala.\n\nWith the consent of her father and mother she caused V\u00e1huka to be\nbrought to her apartments. She received him clad in a piece of\nred cloth, wearing matted locks and covered with dirt and dust.\nExplanations followed. The wind-god, invoked by Damayanti, testified\nthat it was only to bring Nala to herself that the lovely queen had\nproclaimed her swayamvara in Ayodhya, and that she was faultless in the\nmatter. Flowers descended from the air and celestial kettle-drums began\nto play.\n\nCasting away all doubts about Damayanti, Nala put on the pure garment\nwhich had been given to him by the serpent, and thus regained his\nown beautiful form. \u201cAnd, beholding her righteous lord in his own\nform, Bhima\u2019s daughter of faultless limbs embraced him, and began to\nweep aloud. And King Nala also embraced Bhima\u2019s daughter, devoted to\nhim as before, and also his children, and experienced great delight.\nAnd, burying her face in his bosom, the beauteous Damayanti, of large\neyes, began to sigh heavily, remembering her griefs. And, overwhelmed\nwith sorrow, that tiger among men stood for some time clasping the\ndust-covered Damayanti of sweet smiles.\u201d\n\nAfter these events Nala proceeded to his own country of the Nishadhas\nand challenged his brother to a game of dice, offering to stake all\nthe wealth he had acquired, and lovely Damayanti as well, against\nthe kingdom of which he had been dispossessed. He gave his brother\nthe choice of an alternative--the dice or battle. Pushkara willingly\naccepted the offer, remarking insultingly: \u201cIt is evident that\nDamayanti, adorned with this wealth of thine that I will win, will\nwait upon me like an Apsara in heaven upon Indra.\u201d However, fortune\nhad changed sides. Nala recovered his kingdom, but generously shared\nit with his unworthy brother, and everyone, of course, lived happily\nthereafter.\n\n\n\n\n                                 NOTES\n\n\nI. _Date of the compilation of the \u201cMahabharata.\u201d_--Like the\n\u201cRamayana,\u201d the \u201cMahabharata\u201d is based on popular legends of\nconsiderable antiquity which, according to European scholars, appear to\nhave been _collected together_ into a more or less connected whole at a\ncomparatively recent date.\n\n\u201cThe earliest direct evidence of the existence of an epic, with the\ncontents of the \u2018Mahabharata,\u2019 comes to us from the rhetor Dion\nChrysostom, who flourished in the second half of the first century\nA.D.; and it appears fairly probable that the information in question\nwas then quite new, and was derived from mariners who had penetrated as\nfar as the extreme south of India.... Since Megasthenes says nothing\nof this epic, it is not an improbable hypothesis that its origin is\nto be placed in the interval between his time and that of Chrysostom;\nfor what ignorant sailors took note of would hardly have escaped his\nobservation, more especially if what he narrates of Herakles and his\ndaughter Pandai has reference really to Krishna and his sister, the\nwife of Arjuna; if, that is to say, the Pandu legend was actually\ncurrent in his time.... As to the period when the final redaction of\nthe work in its present shape took place, no approach even to direct\nconjecture is in the meantime possible, but, at any rate, it must have\nbeen some centuries after the commencement of our era.\u201d[128]\n\nII. _Translation of the \u201cMahabharata\u201d into Persian._--The following\naccount of the translation of the \u201cMahabharata\u201d into Persian, in the\nreign of the Mogul Emperor Akbar, is worth reading, as it exhibits an\nestimate of the great epic from the standpoint of a bigoted Muslim:\n\n\u201cIn the year 990\u201d His Majesty assembled some learned Hindus and gave\nthem directions to write an explanation of the \u2018Mahabharata,\u2019 and\nfor several nights he himself devoted his attention to explain the\nmeaning to Nakib Khan, so that the Khan might sketch out the gist of\nit in Persian. On the third night the king sent for me, and desired me\nto translate the \u2018Mahabharata,\u2019 in conjunction with Nakib Khan. The\nconsequence was that in three or four months I translated two out of\nthe eighteen sections, at the puerile absurdities of which the eighteen\nthousand creations may well be amazed. Such injunctions as one never\nheard of--what not to eat, and a prohibition against turnips! But such\nis my fate, to be employed on such works. Nevertheless I console myself\nwith the reflection that what is predestined must come to pass.\n\n\u201cAfter this, Mulla Shi and Nakib Khan together accomplished a portion,\u201d\nand another was completed by Sultan Haji Thanesari by himself. Shaikh\nFaizi was then directed to convert the rough translation into elegant\nprose and verse, but he did not complete more than two sections.\nThe Haji aforesaid again wrote it, correcting the errors which had\nappeared in his first translation and settling the conjectures which\nhe had hazarded. He had revised a hundred sheets, and, nothing being\nomitted, he was about to give the finishing touch when the order was\nreceived for his dismissal, and he was sent to Bakar. He now resides in\nhis own city (Thanesar). Most of the scholars who were employed upon\nthis translation are now with the Kauravas and Pandavas. May those\nwho survive be saved by the mercy of God, and may their repentance be\naccepted.\n\n\u201cThe translation was called \u2018Razm-nama,\u2019 and, when fairly engrossed\nand embellished with pictures, the nobles had orders to take copies,\nwith the blessing and favour of God. Shaikh Abul Faizi, who had already\nwritten against our religion, wrote the Preface, extending to two\nsheets. God defend us from his infidelities and absurdities.\u201d[129]\n\nIII. _English Versions of the \u201cMahabharata.\u201d_--For full details of\nthis epic the reader may be referred to \u201cThe \u2018Mahabharata\u2019 of Krishna\nDwaipayana Vyasa,\u201d translated into English prose by Pratab Chandra Roy\n(Calcutta), of which several volumes have been published.\n\nA tolerably detailed account of the poem, with a running commentary,\noccupies about 500 pages of vol. i. of the \u201cHistory of India,\u201d by J.\nTalboys Wheeler.\n\nA summary of all the eighteen sections of the epic is to be found in\nSir Monier Williams\u2019s \u201cIndian Epic Poetry\u201d (Williams and Norgate,\n1863).\n\n\n\n\n                          CONCLUDING REMARKS\n\n\nHaving presented to the reader the foregoing condensed epitomes of\nthe great Hindu Epics, it only remains for me to offer a few brief\nobservations upon some of the more abiding features of the national\nlife and the religious and moral sentiments of the Hindus, as\nillustrated by these gigantic poems, in which we see, as in a mirror,\nan unconscious reflection of the ideas and tendencies, the intellectual\ncravings and the moral instincts, of the age to which they belong.\n\nIt may seem superfluous to remind the reader that the \u201cRamayana\u201d\ndescribes the adventures of Rama, including amongst them a war which he\nundertook in order to avenge an insult and to recover the person of his\nwife, who had been carried off by an unscrupulous enemy. The campaign\nagainst Ravana had not for its object extension of territory, but the\npunishment of an evil-doer and the righting of a personal wrong; while\nthe protracted struggle, which is the basis of the \u201cMahabharata,\u201d is\npurely a contest for supremacy between kindred families, each side\nbeing backed by friends and allies from amongst their own race, as well\nas from amongst alien tribes (the Mlecchas). In neither poem, be it\nnoted, does any question of patriotism arise; for the contest in which\nthe heroes are involved are not against foreign invaders or national\nenemies.\n\nThe India known to the compilers of the \u201cRamayana\u201d and\n\u201cMahabharata,\u201d--the extensive theatre upon which their heroes played\nthe stirring drama of their lives--was evidently a land covered with\nvast tracts of dense forest, whose mysterious gloom, pervaded with\nthe aroma of incense and burnt-offerings, has cast a vague and mighty\nshadow over the hearts of the Hindu bards, as surely as the breezy\natmosphere and the restless waves of the \u00c6gean have imparted a healthy\nbuoyancy to the Homeric rhapsodists.\n\nThe dreamy solitudes in which Valmiki and Vyasa love to linger have a\nrestfulness about them which the European, unused to Eastern lands,\ncan hardly comprehend. They have also a mystery only to be found in\nprim\u00e6val forests, and they possess a dark background of horror, in the\nroar of the ferocious tiger, the hiss of the deadly serpent, and the\ngrip of the invisible fever-fiend, enough to awaken strange and gloomy\nimaginings.\n\nThe few who have lived, as I have done, through changing seasons in the\ndense forests of Eastern India, can hover in spirit through Valmiki and\nVyasa\u2019s woodlands of the past.\n\nFirst it is summer, and the hot sunbeams come filtering through the\nleafy covering, under the shadow of which man and beast listlessly\nrepose through uneventful hours, while the shrill cricket chirps\nits monotonous song and the _cokil\u2019s_ sweet note fills the hot and\ntrembling air. Then the black clouds gather overhead. God Indra parts\nthem with his flashing bolts. Loud thunder peals in the sky, the\nroaring hurricane enters into fearful conflict with the warring trees,\nand the rain descends, not in tiny drizzles, but in torrents; and its\nvoice, as it buries itself in square miles of standing forest, is like\nthe roar of many waters. Cascades, starting into life, leap gladly from\nthe hill-side. The swollen streams, muddy and impassable, swirl and\nrush along, carrying with them a burden of forest trees. A mantle of\nvivid green covers, as if by magic, the whole earth, and climbs up till\nit almost hides the little cottage in which the proprietor takes refuge\nfrom the incessant drip, which descends from the leafy covering above.\n\nTo this succeeds a period when the steamy miasma rises in the green\nlight from the rotten ground, and man and beast sicken in the malarious\natmosphere, wherein the odour of decaying vegetation mingles with the\nexquisite perfume of orchids and strange flowers of the wilderness. In\nthe glorious sky--in mystic cloudland--appear displays of light and\ncolour, of subtle tints and gorgeous hues, utterly beyond description\nor the artist\u2019s cunningest skill. Watch, with fevered vision, from\nthe neighbourhood of one of these dark forests the rapidly shifting\ncloud-phantasms, arrayed in red and gold, upon the evening sky, then\ncease from marvelling at the exuberant and unbridled imaginings of the\nIndian bard! Fix your attention at night upon the monstrous shapes\nwhich hover, skulking in the background, in the flickering firelight,\nlisten to the unearthly wailing and stifled cries which steal through\nthe hideous darkness, and doubt no more the existence and doings of\ngruesome Rakshasas who change their shapes at will! Learn also, at the\nsame time, how indispensable a god is _Agni_, who protects you through\nthe horrors of darkest night in the forests.\n\nLater in the year winter smiles mildly over the enervated land and\nchills the tepid air. For hours after sunrise a dense fog wraps the\nprim\u00e6val forest in its embrace, but when it, ghost-like, steals\nsilently away, it reveals the white smoke of the cottages curling\nupwards into a blue unclouded sky. The sun hardly affords sufficient\nwarmth to the labourer in the little patch of cultivation near the hut,\nand the moon looks cold and pallid: the streams begin to dwindle away;\nthe cascades are silent.\n\nSuch is the succession of seasons in a tropical forest-land like the\nIndia of the Epics. And, throughout all the seasons, the forest is\nenveloped in a dreamy air of depression and despondency, which peoples\nthe solitudes with hideous Rakshasas, but leaves no place for sporting\nnymphs or dancing fairies. Life in such woodlands is real forest-life,\nnot like Thoreau\u2019s delightful playing at hermit in Walden, within a\ncouple of miles of Concord, and in sight of a railway.\n\nThus far the forests; but the sublime Alps of the Indian world, tallest\nand most majestic of mountains, have not been without influence upon\nthe feelings of the Indian poets, elevating them to lofty heights\nof contemplation. And when we read what the few travellers who have\npenetrated those regions have to tell us of the ineffable grandeur and\nsublimity of the lone mountains, the glittering ice-fields, and the\nuntrodden snows of the interior, when we consider the solemn silence of\nthose uninhabited solitudes, we cannot wonder that the Indian poets who\nhad heard of them, and perhaps visited their rocky fastnesses, made of\nthem a land of mystery and the sporting place of their gods and Apsaras.\n\nNot only from the woods of _Dandhaka_ and the vales and crests of\nmighty _Himavat_ did the epic poets of India gather inspiration; but\nalso from the noble and lovely rivers of their fair land, winding\nbeneficently through many hundreds of miles of fertile country, from\ntheir birth-places above the clouds to the bosom of the all-embracing\nocean, while determining in their course the march of migration and\nconquest.\n\nMountains, forests and rivers, all of colossal proportions, have served\nto impress a grandiose if bewildering character upon the great Epics\nof India, which the reader, even of this volume, can hardly fail to\nobserve.\n\nReligion, being the dominant note of these voluminous poems, claims\nour first consideration. In this connection I would draw attention\nto the fact that India is very far from that stage of intellectual\ndevelopment in which literature, science, art and politics become\nsecularized. In Europe secularization has taken place gradually\nunder the influence of the spirit of rationalism, as Mr. Lecky has\nso admirably explained. In India a beginning has been made in the\nsecularization of knowledge. It is yet only a _mere beginning_,\nwhich owes its origin to the influence of English education; but the\neffects being confined to a _very small class indeed_, it may still\nbe said with truth that all departments of knowledge which form the\nintellectual heritage of the Indian people--even law, poetry and the\ndrama--fall within the domain of theology. And, certainly, there is no\nindigenous science amongst the Hindus which is not subject to priestly\ninfluence and interpretation.\n\nThroughout the Epics we find the supernatural beings, who influence\nthe destinies of mankind, arrayed in two distinctly hostile camps. On\none side are the gods with the Gandharvas and Apsaras. On the other\nside the Asuras, including Daityas and Danavas, Rakshasas and Pic\u00e1chas.\nThe contest lies, be it noted, between the lesser gods and the Asuras\nwith their allies. The superior gods interpose from time to time in\nthe interests of the celestials; but behind and above the turmoil\nof existence the shadowy form of inexorable _destiny_ reveals its\noverwhelming presence.\n\nThe part of man in the perpetual strife carried on between the two\norders of superhuman beings is neither an ignoble nor a passive one.\nMan is not, as in most other religions, either the abject and unworthy\nrecipient of gracious favours from the gods, or the unhappy victim\nof the malice of devils and demons. His position in the universe, as\nconceived by the authors of the Indian Epics, reflecting, no doubt,\nthe prevailing ideas of their time, was a far higher one. Man is no\nnonentity in the struggle between the good and the evil forces of\nnature, but is rather a very important factor; for it is his especial\nduty to piously assist and _nourish_ the celestials by perpetual\nsacrifices, so that they on their part might have the strength to\nperform their respective duties in the government of the universe,\nand insure the repression of the forces of evil. Neither is man a\nmerely useful but servile auxiliary of the celestials; since he may by\nausterities, sacrifices, and ceremonies, earn and acquire rights and\npower for himself, and use his accumulated store of energy at his own\nwill and for his own purposes.\n\nNow it is a noteworthy fact that this high ideal of man\u2019s dignity in\nthe scale of beings has led in India to a degradation of the gods.\nIt would seem as if you could not raise man without pulling down the\ndeity; as if you could not exalt the human race without abasing the\ncelestials. Hence we see the irreverent familiarity with which the\nhighest gods, even Mahadeva, is personated by the Hindus in religious\nprocessions, or even on the occasion of the wild saturnalia of the\n_Holi_ festival, when a man painted white with a wig of long yellow\nhair on his head, a string of huge beads about his neck, and a trident\nin his hand--_the Supreme Deity personified_--is borne aloft amidst\na crowd of excited men who are indulging in the grossest license of\nobscene speech and gesture.\n\nIn regard to a life beyond the grave the writers of the Epics hold\nvery decided opinions, a fact of great interest, if we remember that\nthe Jews acquired their ideas about existence after death and of good\nand evil spirits for the first time in their Babylonian captivity, and\npassed them on as a heritage to Christianity; the conceptions of our\ngreat Christian poet, Milton, being strongly coloured by ideas which,\nundoubtedly, had their roots in Persian _Mazdeism_.\n\nThe heavens of the Hindu gods are essentially material and sensuous,\nwith their palaces and gardens, music and dancing, their lively\nGandharvas and frail Apsaras. Yet the goddesses play a very subordinate\npart, indeed, in India\u2019s heroic age. We find in the Epics no powerful\nHera, no wise Pallas Athene, no lovely Venus, no silver-footed\nThetis--bright creations which lend such a charm to the myths of\nHellas. Ganga, it is true, acts a minor and appointed part in the great\ndrama, and Parbati is mentioned, while Durga and Kali only flit across\nthe stage. But it is quite evident that in the Olympus of the Aryan\nIndians the goddesses had not attained the power and dignity they enjoy\nto-day. The frequent boasts in the Epics against the celestials with\nIndra at their head, the way in which every chief or leader, even of\nthe Venars, is said to be a match for Indra\u2019s self, seem to indicate\nan unmistakable, if covert, hostility to the old gods of the Aryan\ninvaders, which is well worthy of notice, as indicating a transition\nperiod in the religious development of the Hindus, a period of doubt\nand confusion, which is emphasized by the fulsome flattery addressed to\nanyone of whom a favour is desired, be he man or god. He is the _best_\nof men, the greatest of kings; equal to gods, he is a god; he is Indra;\nhe is Yama; he is Prajapati; he is superior to all the gods; he is the\nruler of the three worlds; he is, in fact, anything and all things to\nthe uncertain suppliant who craves his help. And in these perplexities\nwe seem to have a share too; for under the influence of the pantheistic\nnotions of the writers, combined with their conceptions of endless\ntransmigrations and utter indifference to permanent shapes of any\nkind, individuality seems lost (as when we find Krishna addressed\nas the younger brother of Indra[130]), and a world of confused\nphantasmagorial forms seems to dance before us, till we feel dizzy\ncontemplating this distracting and impermanent universe.\n\nBut amidst the ever-shifting pageant of existence the Hindu seems to\nhave arrived at and firmly grasped the idea of a periodic law which has\ngiven a certain grandeur to his speculations about both the past and\nthe hereafter.\n\nFrom the orderly sequence of natural phenomena, as in the succession of\nday and night; in the measured march of the seasons of the revolving\nyear; in the periodic movements of the heavenly bodies; the Hindu\nrecognized an appointed, unvarying and endless cycle of changes.\nGeneralizing from these facts he concluded that this law must hold\nfor the entire Cosmos as well, which would pass through its grand\nbut destined cycle of changes, over and over again, in the \u00e6ons of\neternity. He held these ideas in common with the Greek of old, and,\nlike the Greek of old, he never rose to the conception of progress,\ndevelopment, evolution.[131]\n\nHow the Hindu thinker accounted, by his doctrine of _Karma_, for\nthe striking inequalities and apparent injustice inseparable from\nmundane existence, the reader has learned in sufficient detail\nalready. As to the _moral_ responsibility of man for his actions,\nthe poets of the Epics had thought out the problem in its various\naspects and despairingly left it unsolved. For as Sanjaya, the envoy\nof the Pandavas to their cousins, sadly says, in the true spirit of\nagnosticism: \u201cIn this respect three opinions are entertained; some say\nthat everything is ordained by God;[132] some say that our acts are the\nresults of free will; and others say that our acts are the results of\nthose of our past lives.\u201d[133]\n\nThe attribution of righteousness to the gods does not seem to be\ninsisted upon; for Krishna, as we have seen, is particularly prone to\nguileful arts in order to compass his objects, like the Pallas Athene\nof Homer, at whose suggestion Pandaros treacherously and unjustifiably\nwounded Menelaus with an arrow.\n\nIn regard to the political condition of India in those earlier times we\nmay, I think, gather from the Epics that the petty rulers who shared\nthe land amongst themselves were very numerous--thousands,[134] indeed,\nif the poet\u2019s statements could be relied upon,--and we need not doubt\nthat it was the perpetual endeavour of the more able and ambitious\nof these kings to get as many as possible of their fellow chiefs to\nacknowledge their supremacy.\n\nNo one who studies the narratives attributed to Valmiki and Vyasa\nwill fail to catch glimpses of the simple sagas which formed the\nground-work of the great edifices raised by the Indian poets; but,\nas I have observed in the Introductory Chapter, the value and extent\nof what is usually considered historical matter to be traced in the\n\u201cRamayana\u201d and \u201cMahabharata\u201d is so small and so doubtful that it fails\nto command either my interest or my confidence. It may be due to\nperversity of character, or to want of historical acumen on my part;\nbut when I am expected to believe that the progress of the _Bhojas_\nand their allies eastward may be traced in the legend of Karna, given\nin the \u201cMahabharata,\u201d with which the reader of the foregoing pages is\nfamiliar, I do not feel inclined to acquiesce. And when I am gravely\nassured that the romantic story of Satyavati, the fisherman\u2019s daughter,\nher marriage with Santanu and her previous amour with the father of\nVyasa, _although absurd in Vyasa\u2019s own poem_, becomes intelligible,--if\nwe will only put the individual fisherman out of court altogether,\n_forget_ what the poet tells us about Satyavati, and _imagine_ that the\nyoung lady in question was a personage of some importance in the family\nof the _king of the fishing people_,--I feel such efforts towards\nconstructive history are somewhat beyond my abilities.[135]\n\nWhile writers of one class strain after the hidden historical\nelements in the \u201cRamayana\u201d and \u201cMahabharata,\u201d those of another class\n(represented by both Europeans and Indians), ingeniously discover\nin these narratives merely solar myths or moral allegories. It\nwere needless to enlarge upon this topic here, and I have already\ngiven instances of such interpretations in the Note appended to the\n\u201cRamayana\u201d (p. 91) and in the summary of the \u201cBhagavatgita\u201d (p. 217). I\nwould merely add that if it be the true function of history to reveal\nto us living pictures of bygone times, to disclose to us the social\nlife of earlier days, and to make us acquainted with the thoughts,\nideals and aspirations of former generations, then the Indian Epics\nare a solid contribution to historical literature even if they do not\nhappen to chronicle actual events.\n\nThe heroes of the Epics, being mostly demigods with a long previous\nhistory, an appointed destiny, and subject, like mortal men, to pass\nthrough many future existences in other forms, do not, I confess,\nengage my sympathies very much. Even human beings upon this epic stage\nlose their distinctive character and cease to interest us if we regard\nthem merely as souls masquerading, as it were, for a certain time in\nparticular forms assumed for the occasion, different from the many they\nhave worn in former states, and unlike those which they will wear in\nfuture lives. Indeed the doctrine of metempsychosis, with its fluxional\nsuccession of beings, human and divine, undermines the conceptions of\ndefinite and permanent individuality so thoroughly that I do not wonder\nthat sober human history, with its limited stage and narrow chronology,\nhas had but little charm for the Hindus.\n\nMore remarkable than the heroes of Kurukshetra, however, are the Rishis\nand Hermits, who stand out upon the canvas of the Epic poets with\nstartling distinctness. These sages, with their austerities, their\nsuperhuman powers, their irascibility and their terrible curses, are\nthe Hindu representatives of the magicians and sorcerers of other\ncountries, and form a remarkable feature in the life of even modern\nIndia. As a rule the saints of Christendom are of another type, yet,\nstrange to say, there are a few of them, St. Renan for example, to whom\nhave been attributed characteristics not unlike those of the Indian\nRishis.[136] Elsewhere a large share, perhaps the greater share, of\nmagical power has been credited to the fair sex; but the Hindu has,\ncharacteristically, made no such concession to women, who never at any\ntime in India were granted the free and honoured position accorded them\namongst the Germans of Tacitus or the Norsemen of the Eddas, and never\nenjoyed even the restricted liberty which Greek women were privileged\nto exercise. Nevertheless, there is, undoubtedly, a substratum of\nchivalrous feeling towards the weaker sex manifested throughout the\nEpics, often in a distinct and pronounced manner.\n\nAs to the social life of the early heroic age, of which we get so many\ninteresting glimpses in the Epics, it is certain that it was extremely\nsimple and rude; as, for instance, to cite a single example, the\nlife of the Pandavas in their primitive \u201chouse of lac,\u201d where their\nmother ministered to them without the assistance of any servants at\nall, although, be it remembered, the young princes were supposed to\nbe enjoying themselves away from home on a sort of holiday excursion.\nThere is, however, ample evidence to show that by the time the poems\nwere actually compiled or, at any rate, cast into their present forms,\na complicated society had been evolved, and a life of luxurious ease\nand refinement was not unknown. Throughout the period embraced in the\nEpics the caste-system was well established, animal food commonly\nused,[137] and spirituous drinks not prohibited. Polygamy was common,\nand polyandry a recognized institution, while the practice known as\n_Niyoga_--of raising up offspring to deceased relatives or childless\nmen--was, undoubtedly, fully established.\n\nNow _caste_, with its baleful influences, still dominates Hindu life;\npolygamy continues to be common in some parts of India; polyandry is\nstill practised, here and there, in backward places; and _Niyoga_,\nwhich has never ceased to be orthodox doctrine, has, in these days, had\nspecial prominence given to it by Swami Dayanand, and the sect recently\nfounded by him. The practice in question--which is known in a modified\nform as _levirate_[138] amongst the Jews--has been established in\nIndia since time immemorial, and we have had important instances of it\nin the foregoing pages.\n\nWhat Manu, the great Indian _lawgiver_, says on the subject of _Niyoga_\nis as follows: \u201cOn failure of issue by the husband, if he be of the\nservile class, the desired offspring may be procreated, either by\nhis brother or some other _sapinda_, on the wife, who has been duly\nauthorized. Sprinkled with clarified butter, silent, in the night, let\nthe kinsman thus appointed beget one son, but a second by no means, on\nthe widow or _childless wife_. By men of twice-born classes no widow or\nchildless wife must be authorized to conceive by any other man than her\nlord.\u201d[139]\n\nSwami Dayanand, however, does not limit the practice of _Niyoga_ to\nthe inferior castes, nor to the cases referred to by Manu. The modern\n_reformer_ goes much further, teaching a doctrine, _said to be founded\non the Vedas_, which allows a latitude in respect to the relations\nbetween the sexes that, to say the least, is extremely startling in\nthis nineteenth century.[140] I am bound to add that I have been\nvery positively assured that Swami Dayanand\u2019s precepts in respect\nto _Niyoga_ are not actually practised by his followers, but their\ndangerous tendency is, I presume, undeniable.\n\nFrom the earliest ages known to the writers of the \u201cRamayana\u201d and\n\u201cMahabharata\u201d cremation of the dead has been the practice in India.\nHence in Indian arch\u00e6ology we are deprived of those sources of\ninformation--graves, tumuli, cromlechs and sepulchres--which elsewhere,\nas in Egypt, have furnished such a wealth of facts regarding the\nearlier races of mankind.\n\nThe sacred character of the Brahmans receives abundant recognition\nin the Epics; and it is noteworthy that, except in the relinquishment\nof animal food and vinous drinks by a great majority of the Hindus,\nlittle change has taken place in the social habits of the people since\nthe heroic age depicted in the Epics. We need not doubt, however, that\nthe abstention from animal food and, with it, from wine and spirits of\nall kinds has, in the course of many generations, profoundly modified\nthe national character; and has, perhaps, more than anything else,\ngradually converted the turbulent, aggressive Aryan into the mild and\ncontemplative Hindu.[141]\n\nA high degree of culture had doubtless been attained by the Indians\nbefore the Epics were cast into their present forms. The industrial\narts would seem to have flourished, and we have seen how highly the\npoets appreciated and enjoyed the beauty of the woodlands, and how much\nthey were impressed with the scenery of their grand mountains. This in\nitself is a remarkable fact, as the charms of landscape beauty do not\nseem to have been realized in the West until a somewhat later time.\n\nThe ideal of human (particularly female) beauty which possessed the\nminds of the Hindu bards has been indicated by several allusions and\nquotations in the preceding chapters. It is certainly not that embodied\nin the Venus of Melos or the Apollo Belvedere; but every age and\ncountry has its own ideals.\n\nThroughout the foregoing brief narrative there has been ample evidence\nof the height to which the speculative imagination of the Hindus had\ncarried them in endeavouring to read the riddle of human destiny, and\nnotably so in the subtle pantheism of the \u201cBhagavatgita,\u201d a work which,\neven if the date assigned to it by European scholars be accepted, and\nwith that its authors\u2019 supposed acquaintance with Christian ideas,\nmust still excite our admiration by its largeness of conception and\nliberality of sentiments--expressed many centuries before Luther nailed\nhis famous ninety-five theses upon the door of the church at Wittenberg.\n\nThe imaginative faculty never fails the bards of the Indian\nEpics, who too often indulge in a very delirium of exaggeration.\nYet, notwithstanding their supreme contempt for probabilities or\nconsistency, and their lofty scorn of numerical limitations, it cannot\nbe denied that these Hindu poets, with their lawless imaginations,\ntake us completely captive and carry us along with them, surprised and\ndelighted, through the wonderful scenes of their creation; while one\ncannot but feel in their company that the intellectual atmosphere which\nsurrounds them is a stronger one and more spiritual than that which was\nbreathed by the Greeks of Homer or the Teutons of the Eddas.\n\nOn the whole, it may be said that the Indian Epics as they have\nreached us, reveal to the careful student an ancient free and vigorous\nprimitive social life and turbulent times, overlaid by a later and\nless healthy, if more refined civilization, which was permeated with\necclesiasticism; and that they exhibit a strange mixture of what Mr.\nHerbert Spencer would call the \u201cethics of enmity\u201d and the \u201cethics\nof amity.\u201d The later stage of Indian history--the age of Brahmanism\nsucceeding the heroic age and continuing to the present day--may, I\nthink, be well compared with the Middle Ages in Europe, when priestly\ninfluence was predominant and national life at a low ebb. Europe,\nunder the influence of the spirit of industrialism and modern science,\nhas emancipated itself from the numbing influences of the Dark Ages.\nWhen will India do the same? For how many more centuries is she\ndestined to wrangle over unprofitable theological questions, as did the\nByzantine Greeks while the conqueror was thundering at their gates?\n\nMy pleasant undertaking has occupied more time than I had anticipated\nwhen I took it in hand; but I leave it now with a profound appreciation\nof the capabilities of a people who have produced such works as the\n\u201cRamayana\u201d and \u201cMahabharata.\u201d\n\nIn every age--even in an industrial age of busy scientific progress\nand mechanical triumphs like our own--the human mind turns with fond\ninterest to any picture which shows how men in the fore-time lived\nand thought, and it listens eagerly to any song which echoes through\nthe vanished years the fervent hopes and lofty aspirations of buried\ngenerations. Therefore, I trust that my little work, though it be but\na sketch of a great picture and the echo of a grand old song, may\nfind favour with the public, and help to open up to English readers\na strange but interesting world of Eastern ideas and conceptions.\nAbove all, however, I hope that my pages represent--as I believe they\ndo--both fairly and adequately the great Epics of India.\n\n\n             CHISWICK PRESS:--CHARLES WHITTINGHAM AND CO.\n                  TOOKS COURT CHANCERY LANE, LONDON.\n\n\n                              FOOTNOTES:\n\n[1] \u201cNo other work in India at the present day possesses the attraction\nwhich these epics have for the majority of the people.\u201d--_Life in an\nIndian Village_, by T. Rama Krishna, B.A. (T. Fisher Unwin, 1891).\n\n[2] Professor Max M\u00fcller\u2019s Hibbert Lectures, 1878, p. 50.\n\n[3] Prisoners of war of all ranks were sacrificed in numbers.\n\n[4] Du Chaillu\u2019s \u201cThe Viking Age,\u201d vol i., chapter xx., _et seq._\n\n[5] \u201cA Brief History of the Indian People,\u201d by Sir William Wilson\nHunter, K.C.S.I. (Tr\u00fcbner and Co.).\n\n[6] The world has recently been informed by Dr. Brinton that the theory\nattributed to Dr. Latham was really first advanced by Omalius D\u2019Halloy\nin the \u201cBulletins de l\u2019Academie Royale de Belgique\u201d in May, 1848\n(\u201cNature,\u201d July 21st, 1892).\n\n[7] As is maintained by Dr. Hermann Braunehoffer, \u201cJournal of Royal\nAsiatic Society,\u201d 1890, pp. 687-689.\n\n[8] \u201cThe Origin of the Aryans,\u201d by Isaac Taylor, M.A., LL.D. (Walter\nScott); \u201cPrehistoric Antiquities of the Aryan Peoples,\u201d by Dr. O.\nSchrader, translated by F. B. Jevons, M.A. (Charles Griffin and Co.).\n\n[9] The preparations for a recital of this kind in a village in the\nMadras Presidency are thus described. \u201cPeople came pouring in from\nKelambakam and from neighbouring villages to the house of the village\nheadman. On the _pial_ of his house was seated the preacher. Before him\nwas placed the picture of Krishna playing the flute and leaning on a\ncow. The picture was profusely decorated with flowers. There were also\ntwo small vessels. In one there were camphor and some burning incense,\nin the other were flowers and fruits. The people swarmed about like\nbees.\u201d--_Life in an Indian Village_, by T. Rama Krishna, B.A., p. 144.\n\n[10] \u201cThe Ethnography of Afghanistan,\u201d by Dr. H. W. Bellew, C.S.I., in\nthe \u201cAsiatic Quarterly Review,\u201d October, 1891.\n\n[11] \u201cThe R\u00e1m\u00e1yan of V\u00e1lmik\u00ed,\u201d translated into English verse by Ralph\nT. H. Griffith, M.A., Principal of the Benares College (London, Tr\u00fcbner\nand Co.).\n\n[12] Of Yoga and Yogaism I have given a brief account in a previous\nwork, \u201cIndian Life, Religious and Social,\u201d pp. 11-47 (London, Fisher\nUnwin).\n\n[13] \u201cThe Ramayana,\u201d translated into English prose from the original\nSanskrit of Valmiki by Manmatha Nath Dutt, M.A. (Deva Press, Calcutta).\nIf not otherwise stated, all prose quotations from the \u201cRamayana\u201d\nincluded in the following pages are derived from this work.\n\n[14] \u201cThe ruins of the ancient capital of Kama and the children of the\nSun may still be traced in the present Ajudhya near Fyzabad. Ajudhya is\nthe Jerusalem or Mecca of the Hindus.\u201d--Note, vol. i., p. 35, of Mr.\nGriffith\u2019s translation of the \u201cRamayana\u201d (Tr\u00fcbner and Co., London).\n\n[15] What a terrible thing it is for a Hindu to be childless can be\nunderstood, and then only partially, by bearing in mind that, without a\nson to perform the complex funeral rights and ceremonies for a deceased\nfather, the dead man\u2019s soul must undergo ages of trouble in the next\nworld.\n\n[16] According to Hindu belief the gods and the spirits of departed\nancestors are actually nourished and sustained by the aroma of the\nburnt-offerings made by pious persons. Hence the vital importance of\nthese sacrifices, upon which the very safety and continuance of the\nUniverse depend.\n\n[17] This incident introduces us to an important Hindu idea, that the\n_exact_ performance of certain prescribed rites and sacrifices leads to\nthe attainment of definite objects, as, for example, purification from\na particular sin, the destruction of a hated enemy or the discovery\nof a friend. The gods themselves performed sacrifices, and Indra is\ncommonly addressed as \u201cthe performer of a hundred sacrifices.\u201d\n\n[18] The Indian ideas respecting austerities are very peculiar, and as\nthey pervade their religion and literature are specially noteworthy.\n\u201cAccording to the Hindu theory the performance of penances was like\nmaking deposits in the bank of heaven. By degrees an enormous credit\nwas accumulated, which enabled the depositor to draw to the amount of\nhis savings, without fear of his draughts being refused payment. The\npower gained in this manner by weak mortals was so enormous, that gods\nas well as men were equally at the mercy of these all but omnipotent\nascetics; and it is remarkable, that even the gods are described as\nengaging in penance and austerities, in order, it may be presumed, not\nto be outdone by human beings. Siva was so engaged when the god of\nlove shot an arrow at him.\u201d--Note to page 4 of Professor Sir Monier\nWilliams\u2019s \u201cIndian Epic Poetry.\u201d In the course of the following pages\nof this book we shall meet with ascetics very often and become familiar\nwith their doings.\n\n[19] The belief in divine incarnations, for the benefit or salvation of\nthe world, is a common and familiar one in the Hindu religion.\n\n[20] The modern Gogra.\n\n[21] Protection against _fever_ would be specially desirable in a\ncountry covered with forest and jungle, as the India of the \u201cRamayana\u201d\nevidently was.\n\n[22] The power of assuming a multiplicity of forms at will, and of\npassing from a huge to a minute size, or the reverse, to suit the\nexigencies of the moment is enjoyed by a great number of personages in\nthe Hindu epics.\n\n[23] We shall in the course of the development of this story have\nfrequent opportunities of learning the awful and irrevocable character\nof curses uttered by Brahmans and others, rejoicing in the possession\nof stores of power acquired by the practice of austerities.\n\n[24] _Vide_ M. N. Dutt\u2019s \u201cRamayana,\u201d p. 75.\n\n[25] \u201cThe remains of the capital founded by Janaka and thence termed\nJanakapur are still to be seen, according to Buchanan, on the northern\nfrontier at the Janeckpoor of the maps.\u201d--Note to Professor H. H.\nWilson\u2019s translation of the \u201cUttara Rama Charitra.\u201d\n\n[26] I have had the good fortune to be present at a marriage ceremony,\ncarried out professedly in accordance with Vedic rites, which closely\nresembled the wedding of Rama and his brothers, as described by Valmiki.\n\n[27] In this description of Rama and in other places I have borrowed\nthe epithets I find in Dutt\u2019s translation of the \u201cRamayana,\u201d in order\nto preserve something of the peculiar character of the original.\n\n[28] Here is a pretty picture for an artist, Hindu or other.\n\n[29] Dasahratha himself attributed these misfortunes to his having when\na youth unwittingly killed, with a chance arrow, a young hermit in the\nforest. The boy\u2019s father, himself a hermit, cursed Dasahratha, and the\neffects of the malediction were apparent in the troubles attending the\nking\u2019s declining years.\n\n[30] This significant passage from the \u201cRamayana\u201d ought to clear\naway the doubts that may linger in anyone\u2019s mind regarding the fact\nthat animal food was commonly eaten in ancient India, since animal\nsacrifices are constantly referred to. Of course there is abundant\npositive evidence on the subject as in the preceding page.\n\n[31] Near Salem in Southern India are \u201csome chalk hills supposed by the\nnatives to be formed of the bones of the mythical bird Jatayus, killed\nby Ravana when carrying off Sita.\u201d--+PROFESSOR SIR MONIER WILLIAMS\u2019S+\n\u201cModern India,\u201d p. 165.\n\n[32] Mr. Griffith\u2019s \u201cRamayana,\u201d vol. iii., p. 324.\n\n[33] As respects the Vanars it has to be noted that while implying that\nthey were _monkeys_ and nothing more, the poet has, for the most part,\nrepresented them--if we may judge by their sentiments and actions--as\nbeings of a very superior order.\n\n[34] This car from the hand of Visvakarma recalls the famous embossed\nshield of Achilles, the masterpiece of Vulcan\u2019s art, made of brass,\ntin, gold and silver, and divided into twelve compartments, each\nrepresenting a distinct and complicated scene (for example, a wedding\nprocession or a battle) wrought with marvellous skill.\n\n[35] There can be no doubt whatever that the seclusion of women was\nthe common practice in ancient India. Wherever polygamy exists the\nseclusion of women is a necessity, and that polygamy did exist in the\nIndia of the \u201cRamayana\u201d is abundantly evident from what we are told\nconcerning the courts of Dasahratha, Sugriva and Ravana. The Greeks\nkept their women a good deal in the background; but Helen\u2019s position in\nthe court of her husband Menelaus, or Penelope\u2019s in that of Ulysses,\nwas far more free than the position of any queen mentioned in the\n\u201cRamayana.\u201d\n\n[36] The lover of English poetry will recall to mind the similar\ndescription of sleeping beauties in the sixth canto of \u201cDon Juan,\u201d\nstanzas lxiv.-lxix.\n\n[37] The contrast between the fair Vaidehi and her ruthless persecutors\nin the enchanting ashoka grove might make a striking subject for the\ncanvas of an able artist. Indeed, there is in the \u201cRamayana\u201d no lack of\nsuggestive and satisfactory _motifs_ for the chisel and the brush. It\nis, indeed, a mine not yet wrought.\n\n[38] Whoever has not forgotten his Virgil will probably be reminded of\nthe famous storm in the \u201c\u00c6neid\u201d and of Neptune\u2019s serene and majestic\nappearance above the troubled waters of the sea.\n\n[39] Some hundred thousand billions (see note to Griffith\u2019s \u201cRamayana,\u201d\nvol. v., p. 88).\n\n[40] _Camped_; but not like a modern army under canvas. The Vanars, I\ntrow, needed no commissariat department, living as they did on fruits\nand roots. And the sons of Raghu were nearly as well used to woodland\nfare and lodging as their simian allies.\n\n[41] \u201cThe chariots of Ravana\u2019s present army are said to have been\none hundred and fifty million in number, with three hundred million\nelephants and twelve hundred million horses and asses. The footmen are\nmerely said to have been unnumbered.\u201d--Note to Griffith\u2019s \u201cRamayana,\u201d\nbook vi., canto xcvi.\n\n[42] At this point the great epic of Valmiki properly ends; but a\nsupplementary work, also popularly attributed to Valmiki, exists which\naffords further details of the lives of the principal personages of\nthe poem. Upon the particulars supplied in this work the succeeding\nparagraphs are based.\n\n[43] Professor E. B. Cowell (\u201cAcademy,\u201d No. 43). In Bhavabhuti\u2019s drama,\nentitled \u201cUttara Rama Charitra,\u201d the _d\u00e9nouement_ is different. Sita\u2019s\npurity is attested by the goddess Ganga (the Ganges) and by Prithivi\n(the earth). The people bow in respectful homage to her. Rama welcomes\nher back, and with her two sons, Kusa and Lava, they pass many happy\nyears together.\n\n[44] Muir, \u201cSanskrit Texts,\u201d part iv., appendix.\n\n[45] The \u201cRamayana\u201d of Tulsi Das, which differs in some respects from\nthe original poem of Valmiki, has been translated into English by Mr.\nF. J. Growse of the Bengal Civil Service.\n\n[46] Ravana is described as having ten heads; but the effigy I saw had\nseveral faces, I do not think so many as ten, with the head of an ass\nsurmounting all.\n\n[47] Properly the figure should have had twenty _arms_.\n\n[48] Bishop Heber was told that, in the _good old times_, the poor\nchildren were always \u201cpoisoned in the sweetmeats given to them the last\nday of the show, that it might be said their spirits were absorbed into\nthe deities whom they had represented.\u201d--+HEBER\u2019S+ \u201cNarrative of a\nJourney through the Upper Provinces of India\u201d (1824-25), p. 191.\n\n[49] _Vide_ \u201cOn the Ramayana,\u201d by Dr. Albrecht Weber (Tr\u00fcbner and Co.,\n1863).\n\n[50] \u201cIndian Epic Poetry,\u201d p. 3 (Williams and Norgate, London, 1863).\n\n[51] \u201cEarly History of Northern India,\u201d by J. F. Hewitt, \u201cJournal of\nthe Royal Asiatic Society,\u201d 1890, p. 744.\n\n[52] \u201cNouvelle G\u00e9ographie Universelle,\u201d par Elis\u00e9e Reclus, tome viii.,\np. 873, _et seq._ Keane\u2019s \u201cAsia,\u201d pp. 678-680.\n\n[53] It is, I think, impossible, after reading the tedious genealogies\nof the kings in the \u201cMahabharata,\u201d to avoid the conclusion that there\nis a substratum of history beneath it all, notwithstanding the clouds\nof mythological dust which obscure the view.\n\n[54] The \u201cMahabharata\u201d of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, translated into\nEnglish prose, by Pratap Chundur Roy (Calcutta, Bharata Press). If not\notherwise stated, all prose quotations from the \u201cMahabharata\u201d included\nin the following pages are derived from this work.\n\n[55] \u201cEvery race has in its history one grand achievement on which\nit hangs all its past and all its future: and the memory of which\nis a rallying cry and a pledge of prosperity. The Exodus, the Jews\nwould say; the overthrow of the Medes, would the Persians; the Median\nwars, the Greeks in their turn say. These will be recalled on all\noccasions to furnish arguments, political claims, rhetorical effects,\npatriotic encouragement in great crises, and in the end imperishable\nregrets.\u201d--_Essai sur l\u2019histoire universelle_, par M. Pr\u00e9vost-Paradol,\ntome premier, p. 166.\n\n[56] \u201cAdi Parva,\u201d of the \u201cMahabharata,\u201d section xcvi. A somewhat\ndifferent story is told in section xcix.\n\n[57] The battle, as described by the poet, is of little interest; but\nBhisma\u2019s challenge to the assembled kings is worthy of reproduction,\nas throwing light upon the marriage customs of the olden time in\nIndia. \u201cIn a voice like the roar of the clouds he exclaimed: \u2018The\nwise have directed that after inviting an accomplished person a\nmaiden may be bestowed on him, decked in ornaments and along with\nmany valuable presents. Others again may bestow their daughters by\naccepting of a couple of kine, some again bestow their daughters by\ntaking a fixed sum, and some take away maidens by force. Some wed with\nthe consent of the maidens, some by drugging them into consent, and\nsome by going unto the maidens\u2019 parents and obtaining their sanction.\nSome again obtain wives as presents for assisting at sacrifices. Of\nthese the learned always applaud the eighth form of marriage. Kings,\nhowever, speak highly of the swayamvara (the fifth form as above) and\nthemselves wed according to it. But the sages have said that that wife\nis dearly to be prized who is taken away by force, after slaughter of\nopponents, from amid the concourse of princes and kings invited to a\nswayamvara. Therefore, ye monarchs, I bear away these maidens from\nhence by force. Strive ye to the best of your might to vanquish me or\nbe vanquished.\u2019\u201d--P. C. Roy\u2019s translation of the \u201cAdi Parva\u201d of the\n\u201cMahabharata,\u201d p. 307.\n\n[58] The custom referred to in this paragraph and known as _niyoga_, is\nconsidered briefly in the concluding chapter.\n\n[59] P. C. Roy\u2019s \u201cAdi Parva,\u201d p. 325. This story throws considerable\nlight on the ideas of the Hindus with respect to their gods.\n\n[60] Vyasa, as we have seen, was no blood relation of the house of\nBharata. Similarly, the widows of King Vichitra-virya and the Sudra\nslave-girl were not connected to the family by ties of consanguinity;\nand _yet the children of Vyasa by these women_ are, from the Hindu\npoint of view, lineal descendants of King Shantanu.\n\n[61] This parentage is rather bewildering after what we have learned\nalready about Vidura being no other than Dharma in human form.\n\n[62] This is an instance of _suttee_ in ancient India worth noting.\n\n[63] The modern Allahabad and, at that time, probably a frontier town\nof the Aryan invaders.\n\n[64] \u201cThe traditional site of this event is in the Allahabad district,\non the left bank of the Ganges, three miles south of Handia Taksil. The\nvillage of Lachagarh (Laksha = lac) is said to take its name from this\nevent. It stands on the bank of the river, which is never cut away by\nthe stream. This is said to be due to the melted lac which keeps the\nearth together. People come to bathe on the Somwati Amawas when the\nnew moon falls on a Monday. Jhusi or Pratishtapur, the capital of the\nChandraransi Rajah is twenty-four miles from there.\u201d--_North Indian\nNotes and Queries_, August, 1894, p. 89.\n\n[65] I don\u2019t think it is at all unlikely that cannibalism prevailed\nin India at this early period, as it does in Africa to-day, and these\nstories are only the Hindu bard\u2019s exaggerated way of recording the fact.\n\n[66] Karna had been brought up in the family of a Suta or charioteer\nand was reckoned as belonging to that caste.\n\n[67] From this story of Draupadi it seems evident that polyandry was\npractised at least in parts of ancient India; as, indeed, it is to this\nday, in portions of the Himalayan region. That it was not very uncommon\nin the old-time we may gather from a remark, attributed to Karna,\nin reference to Draupadi herself--\u201cwomen always like to have many\nhusbands\u201d (\u201cAdi Parva\u201d of the \u201cMahabharata,\u201d section cciv.).\n\n[68] \u201cAgain the site of Indraprasta is far more distinctly indicated\nthan the site of Hastinapur. The pilgrim who wends his way from the\nmodern city to Delhi to pay a visit to the strange relics of the\nancient world, which surround the mysterious Kutub, will find on\neither side of his road a number of desolate heaps of the d\u00e9bris of\nthousands of years, the remains of successive capitals which date back\nto the very dawn of history, and local tradition still points to these\nsepulchres of departed ages as the sole remains of the Raj of the sons\nof Pandu and their once famous city of Indraprasta.\u201d--+WHEELER\u2019S+\n\u201cHistory of India,\u201d vol. i., p. 142.\n\n[69] Such is the Hindu poet\u2019s conception of the court of Yama, the\ngod of departed spirits, a delightful place where there is no lack of\nsensuous pleasures. He places amongst the attendants in this court\n\u201call sinners amongst human beings;\u201d but as, according to Brahmanical\ntheology, there is punishment for the wicked, we may presume that the\nsinners referred to are only temporary sojourners in this pleasant\nabode, awaiting their trial and the judgment of Yama upon their deeds.\n\n[70] Pratibhindhya, Sutasoma, Sutakarna, Shotanika, and Srutasena.\n\n[71] It would appear that only one of the armies--that which proceeded\nnorthward--went outside the limits of India, to the countries\nimmediately beyond the Himalayas. India, with the region just referred\nto, was, for the poets of the \u201cMahabharata,\u201d the _whole world_. On this\npoint see Dr. Rajendra Lalla Mitra\u2019s \u201cIndo-Aryans,\u201d vol. ii., pp. 9-12.\n\n[72] This statement, which is so consistent with what is known in\nrespect to genuine historical events in India, throws a strong\nside-light upon the utter inability of the Indian kings from times\nimmemorial to unite for purposes of defence, their ready acceptance of\ndefeat, and their willing allegiance to the conqueror.\n\n[73] The whole story, though so bewilderingly strange, is yet so\ncharacteristically Hindu in its conception and motive, that I could not\nexclude it even from this brief sketch. Nor could I venture to present\nit in words other than those of an orthodox Hindu translator.\n\n[74] Throughout these epics, questions of right and wrong, policy and\nimpolicy are discussed with rare acumen.\n\n[75] A little later Arjuna, addressing Krishna, says: \u201cO slayer of\nall foes, having floated on the primordial waters, thou subsequently\nbecamest Hari, and Brahma, and Surya, and Dharma, and Dhatri, and Yama,\nand Anala, and Vayu, and Vaisravana, and Rudra, and Kala, and the\nfirmament, the earth, and the ten directions! Thyself incarnate, thou\nart the lord of the mobile and immobile universe, the creator of all, O\nthou foremost of all existences.\u201d It would appear that each deity who\nis invoked is credited by his adorer with being the origin and support\nof the entire universe, the beginning and the end of all things.\n\n[76] In a subsequent page, however, we find the following. \u201cTell us\nnow, O Brahman, what was the food of the sons of Pandu while they\nlived in the woods? Was it of the wilderness or was it the produce of\ncultivation?\u201d Vaisampayana said \u201cThose bulls among men collecting the\nproduce of the wilderness, and killing the deer with pure arrows, first\ndedicated a portion of the food to the Brahmans and themselves ate the\nrest.\u201d (Section L.)\n\n[77] This is an interesting and noteworthy instance of idolatry\nattributed to one of the ancient Aryan heroes by the Brahman authors of\nthe \u201cMahabharata.\u201d\n\n[78] \u201c_Apsaras_--The Apsaras are the celebrated nymphs of Indra\u2019s\nheaven.... It is said that when they came forth from the waters (at\nthe churning of the ocean) neither the gods nor the Asuras would have\nthem for wives, so they become common to all.... The Apsaras, then, are\nfairy-like beings, beautiful and voluptuous. Their amours on earth have\nbeen numerous, and they are the rewards in Indra\u2019s paradise held out to\nheroes who fall in battle.\u201d--+PROF. DAWSON\u2019S+ \u201cClassical Dictionary of\nHindu Mythology,\u201d etc.\n\n[79] This is only a single instance of the perpetual and undying\nhostility between the celestials on the one hand and the demons on the\nother.\n\n[80] Markandeya\u2019s description of the dissolution and recreation of\nthe world has undoubtedly a certain grandiose character about it,\nbut betrays the extremely limited geographical knowledge of these\nomniscient sages, whose acquaintance with the earth\u2019s surface is\nstrictly bounded by the Himalayas and the Southern Sea.\n\n[81] _A smiling fish_ is, at least, an original idea. In another\nplace we find the following in regard to a very ancient tortoise.\n\u201cAnd as he came there we asked him, saying: \u2018Dost thou know this King\nIndra-dyumna?\u2019 And the tortoise reflected for a moment. And his eyes\nfilled with tears, and his heart was much moved, and he trembled all\nover and was nearly deprived of his senses. And he said with joined\nhands, \u2018Alas, do I not know that one?\u2019\u201d--_Vana Parva_, p. 604.--P. C.\nRoy.\n\n[82] This Hindu legend of the destruction of the world by water affords\nmaterials for a comparison with the Mosaic account of the same event,\nand the Chaldean story of the deluge, as recorded on the tablets which\nhave been deciphered by the late George Smith.\n\n[83] There are, according to the \u201cMahabharata,\u201d so many easy modes\nof obtaining a complete release from the penalties of sin, and of\nattaining heaven, that it would seem that only the most culpable\nnegligence and obstinacy could lead the Hindu to lose his chance of\nbeing purged from sin and of enjoying beatitude hereafter. It must\nbe remembered, however, that there are also passages, in which it is\nemphatically laid down, that _purity of heart_ is an essential and\nindispensable condition of salvation.--_Vana Parva_, section cc.\n\n[84] This appeal to _tradition_ from a sage who had actually witnessed\nthe destruction and recreation of the entire universe is rather strange.\n\n[85] With important differences and limitations the modern doctrine\nof _heredity_ may be regarded as the scientific analogue of the Hindu\ndoctrine of _Karma_. One, however, is based on indisputable facts,\nthe other on pure fancy. But whatever their merits or shortcomings,\nwhatever the bases of truth or reasonableness on which they rest,\nneither the one doctrine nor the other can, unfortunately, afford a\nrational mind any _consolation_ for the ills and apparent injustice of\nthe present life; and, assuredly, neither the one nor the other can\nsupply any stimulus towards the performance of good actions. A small\nclass of persons in Europe seem to have become profoundly enamoured of\nthe subtle ideas which underlie the doctrine of _Karma_; but he must\nbe strangely constituted whose sense of justice can be satisfied, or\nwho can derive any _comfort_ in his present struggle against the evils\nof life, from the thought that he is suffering the consequences of\ndeeds done by his soul in previous and _unremembered_ existences, or\ncan be induced to make for righteousness by the reflection that, after\nhis physical death, the happiness of some other being, possibly a cat,\ninto which his soul transmigrates, will be influenced by his deeds in\nthe present life. But, at the same time, it may be admitted that the\ndoctrine of _Karma_ may certainly, in the case of some races, conduce\ntowards a helpless and hopeless resignation, counterfeiting contentment.\n\n[86] From \u201cBallads and Legends of Hindustan,\u201d by Miss Toru Dutt, the\ngifted Bengali girl, whose premature death in 1877, at the early age of\ntwenty-one years, caused a sad loss to India.\n\n[87] Here we have a glimpse of the simple life of those primitive times.\n\n[88] A few of the questions put and answers given on this occasion may\nafford some insight into Indian modes of thought.\n\n Q. What is it that maketh the sun rise? Who keep him company? Who\n causeth him to set? In whom is he established?\n\n A. Brahma maketh the sun rise: the gods keep him company: Dharma\n causeth him to set: and he is established in truth.\n\n Q. What is that which doth not close its eyes while asleep? What is\n that which doth not move after birth? What is that without a heart? And\n what is that which swells with its own impetus?\n\n A. A fish doth not close its eyes while asleep: an egg doth not move\n after birth: a stone is without a heart: a river swelleth with its own\n impetus.\n\n Q. What constitutes _the_ way? What hath been spoken of as water? What\n as food? And what as poison?\n\n A. They that are good constitute _the_ way: space has been spoken of as\n water: the cow is food: a request is poison.\n\n [To this answer the translator, Babu P. C. Roy, appends the following\n notes among others. \u201cThe crutis speak of the cow as the only food, in\n the following sense. The cow gives milk. The milk gives butter. The\n butter is used in _Homa_. The Homa is the cause of the clouds. The\n clouds give rain. The rain makes the seeds to sprout forth and produce\n food. Nilakantha endeavours to explain this in a spiritual sense. There\n is, however, no need of such explanation here.\u201d]\n\n[89] This sudden and rather unartistic introduction of the goddess\nKali, unmentioned before, looks very much like a clumsy addition to the\nepic made at a comparatively modern date in the interests of the later\ndevelopments of Hinduism.\n\n[90] The cook in the council chamber! This is a sample of the primitive\nideas which underlie the epic.\n\n[91] \u201cMahabharata Udyoga Parva,\u201d section clx.\n\n[92] \u201cThe plain of Kurukshetra,\u201d says Mr. Talboys Wheeler, \u201cis\ngenerally identified with the field of Panipat, which lies to the\nnorthwest of the modern city of Delhi. This plain is famous in modern\nhistory as being the site of two of the greatest and most decisive\nbattles that have been fought in modern times. It was here that Baber,\nin +A.D.+ 1525, overthrew the Afghan rulers at Delhi and established\nthe dynasty of the Moguls, and it was here in 1761 that Ahmad Shah\nAbdali, the Sovereign of Cabul, inflicted such a crushing blow upon\nthe Mahrattas as indirectly cleared the way for the establishment\nof British supremacy.\u201d--Note to Wheeler\u2019s \u201cHistory of India,\u201d vol.\ni., p. 272. The identification of Panipat with Kurukshetra in the\nabove passage is incorrect, and probably led to the disappointment\nexperienced by Sir Edwin Arnold when he visited Panipat and found\nthat the inhabitants of the place were ignorant of the history of\nKurukshetra and its precise position (see his \u201cIndia Revisited,\u201d\np. 193). It is near _Thanesar_ and not Panipat that the Brahmans\nfind _Kurukshetra_, and the various incidents of the old story are\nassociated with many spots in that locality. In Chapter III., entitled\n\u201cThe Sacred Land,\u201d I have given some account of the modern aspects of\nKurukshetra.\n\n[93] These are large numbers indeed, but the poet does not limit\nhimself to them, and in one of his flights of imagination speaks of a\nhundred millions of warriors having been slain in ten days by a single\nhero (\u201cBhisma Parva,\u201d section xiv.). In another moment of inspiration\nhe places \u201ca hundred millions and twenty thousand\u201d cars in a certain\nstrategical position on the field (\u201cBhisma Parva,\u201d section l.). There\nis, in the \u201cMahabharata\u201d generally, an affectation of precision in\nregard to numbers, as when the narrator informs us that such a one was\nhit with _three_ arrows, another with _four_, and a third with _seven_;\nbut there is no attempt to preserve consistency, and, whenever the\nbard is so disposed, he revels without scruple in the biggest figures\nimaginable.\n\n[94] Here is a reference to the images of gods and goddesses existing\nat the period of the great war, which is both important and suggestive.\nThey are also referred to again in section cxiii. of the \u201cBhisma Parva.\u201d\n\n[95] Bhisma\u2019s standard was a gold palmyra palm; Drona\u2019s a golden altar;\nDuryodhana\u2019s an elephant wrought in gems; Arjuna carried on his car a\nbanner whereon was seated a gigantic ape. Each chief of note had his\nown distinguishing standard or banner.\n\n[96] This famous dialogue is too long to be dealt with in this place\nand too important to be passed over altogether; so I have appended a\nnote on the subject, to which the reader\u2019s attention is invited.\n\n[97] This allusion to the Mlecchas and Aryas fighting side by side is\ninteresting and noteworthy. Later on, we shall have occasion to note\nthe presence of Rakshasas also in either army.\n\n[98] Millions upon millions. _Vide_ section cxv. of the \u201cBhisma Parva.\u201d\n\n[99] \u201cThen with a thousand arrows well shot, Pandu\u2019s son Arjuna, famed\nfor his skill in battle, shrouded Bhisma on all sides. That arrowy net,\nhowever, of Partha, Bhisma the son of Cantanu, baffled with an arrowy\nnet (of his own).... And the successive flights of arrows shot from\nBhisma\u2019s bow were seen to be dispersed by the shafts of Arjuna. And so\nthe flights of arrows shot by Arjuna, cut off by the arrows of Ganga\u2019s\nson, all fell down on the ground.\u201d--_Bhisma Parva_, section lii.\n\n[100] It is worthy of note that Rakshasas are present in both the\nKaurava and Pandava armies.\n\n[101] \u201cMahabharata, Bhisma Parva,\u201d section lxix. That the numbers are\nintended to be precise will be apparent from the following passage\nwhich is quoted merely as a sample:--\u201cThen Bhisma, the grandsire of the\nKauravas, struck Arjuna with seventy-seven arrows, and Drona (struck\nhim) with five-and-twenty, and Kripa with fifty, and Duryodhana with\nfour-and-sixty, and Cala with nine arrows, and Drona\u2019s son, that tiger\namong men, with sixty, and Vikarna with three arrows, and Saindhana\nwith nine, and Cakuni with five. And Artayani pierced Pandu\u2019s son with\nthree broad-headed arrows. And though pierced on all sides by them with\nsharp arrows, that great bowman, that mighty-armed (warrior) wavered\nnot, like a mountain that is pierced with arrows.\u201d--_Ibid._, section\nlii.\n\n[102] \u201cMahabharata, Bhisma Parva,\u201d section xiv.\n\n[103] \u201cMahabharata, Bhisma Parva,\u201d section lxxxvii.\n\n[104] Drona, being a Brahman, it would never have done for him to have\nactually died by the sword of Dhrista-dyumna. Yet this prince was born\nexpressly to destroy Drona--hence this attempt to reconcile Brahman\nsensitiveness and pretensions with the details of the old legend.\n\n[105] This description of Duryodhana\u2019s death scene is based upon the\nversion in Mr. Talboys Wheeler\u2019s \u201cHistory of India,\u201d vol. i. pp.\n351-352, which is derived from a translation of the epic in the library\nof the Asiatic Society of Bengal, supposed to have been prepared by\nProf. H. H. Wilson.\n\n[106] The \u201cMahabharata\u201d quoted in \u201cHistory of India,\u201d by J. Talboys\nWheeler, vol. i., pp. 386-390.\n\n[107] _Ibid._, p. 401.\n\n[108] \u201cA Pilgrimage to the Field of the Mahabharata,\u201d by Madho Ram,\nB.A., \u201cPunjab Magazine,\u201d June, 1890.\n\n[109] It is worth noting that it was on the western side of the lake\nthat the Pandavas encamped, and Kauravas on the eastern side.\n\n[110] \u201cArch\u00e6ological Survey of India Reports,\u201d vol. xiv. (Punjab), by\nGeneral Cunningham, p. 90.\n\n[111] With the decay of Thanesar there has been a marked falling off in\nthe number of pilgrims to the sacred places. \u201cThe sanitary arrangements\nintroduced by the British authorities to prevent the spread of disease\nare said to be most unpopular and to deter large numbers of pilgrims\nfrom attending.... It is said that, whereas in former days great men\nused to march to Thanesar with small armies of followers and attendants\nthey now come by rail with a few servants to the nearest station and\nreturn in the same way.\u201d--_Gazetteer of the Ambala District_, pp.\n73-74. On the other hand, the railways must bring to the shrines many\nwho could not have spared the time or the money to visit them under the\nold conditions of travel.\n\n[112] \u201cA Pilgrimage to the Field of the Mahabharata,\u201d by Madho Ram,\nB.A., \u201cPunjab Magazine,\u201d June, 1890.\n\n[113] _Vide_ Dr. Lorinser\u2019s Essay on the subject in the \u201cIndian\nAntiquary,\u201d vol. ii. and the reply thereto prefixed to the translation\nof the \u201cBhagavatgita,\u201d by Kashi Nath Trimbak Telang, M.A., LL.B.\n\n[114] Arjuna had apparently forgotten that he had already encountered\nand defeated these venerable elders of his in the interests of the King\nof Panchala (p. 162).\n\n[115] As in sacrifices the gods derived sustenance from the ethereal\nportion of the burnt-offering, so, no doubt, the corporeal frame\n(especially when cremated) supplied an ethereal one for the disembodied\nsoul, which was not yet entirely freed from the trammels of _matter_\nthough released from the bonds of its grosser forms.\n\n[116] There is a most important reason in favour of the special\nexception in regard to the performance of work in the case of\nsacrifices, for, as Krishna explains: \u201cFrom food are all creatures;\nfrom rain is the production of food; rain is produced from sacrifice;\nand sacrifice is the outcome of work.\u201d\n\n[117] Neither the joys of heaven nor the pains of hell could, in the\nview of Hindu theologians, be _eternal_. When an embodied soul has,\nby good actions, austerities, etc., acquired sufficient merit, it is\npermitted to taste the joys of heaven for a length of time proportional\nto its deserts. When these are exhausted it returns to be born again\non this earth. Similarly the embodied soul whose evil deeds deserve\npunishment serves its time in hell and then returns to be re-born on\nthe earth. In either case there is _after re-birth_ no recollection of\nprevious existences or of former joys and sorrows. But, in heaven or in\nhell, a recollection would be retained of the last state on earth, of\nwhich, indeed, the celestial or infernal condition would be only a sort\nof continuation.\n\n[118] \u201cAbsence of vanity, absence of ostentation, abstention from\ninjury, forgiveness, uprightness, devotion to preceptor, purity,\nconstancy, self-restraint, indifference to objects of sense, absence\nof egoism, perception of the misery and evil of birth, death,\ndecrepitude and disease, freedom from attachment, absence of sympathy\nfor son, wife, home, and the rest, and constant equanimity of heart\non attainment of good and evil, unswerving devotion to me without\nmeditation on anything else, frequenting of lonely places, distaste\nfor concourse of men, constancy in the knowledge of the relation\nof the individual self to the supreme, perception of the object\nof the knowledge of truth--all this is called knowledge, all that\nwhich is contrary to this is ignorance. That which is the object of\nknowledge I will (now) declare (to thee) knowing which, one obtaineth\nimmortality. (It is) the supreme Brahma, having no beginning, who is\nsaid to be neither existent nor non-existent, etc., etc.\u201d--Krishna, in\n\u201cBhagavatgita.\u201d\n\n[119] Those who have a leaning towards esoterics and mysticism may\nread \u201cDiscourse on the Bhagavatgita,\u201d by T. Subba Row, B.A., B.L.,\nF.T.S. (Bombay, 1888), from which they will learn, pp. 56-58, that\nthe Pandavas represent in reality the five elements which constitute\nman or rather Humanity; that \u201cthe Kauravas are no other than the\nevil propensities of man, his vices and their allies,\u201d and that \u201cthe\nphilosophy of Krishna teaches Arjuna that he must conquer these,\nhowever closely related to him they may be, before he can secure the\nkingdom or the mastery over self.\u201d\n\n[120] \u201cRepublic,\u201d book x., chapters 614-621.\n\n[121] \u201cThe name as commonly used applies to Vishnu, and is that under\nwhich he was first worshipped.\u201d--+DOWSON\u2019S+ \u201cClassical Dictionary of\nHindu Mythology.\u201d\n\n[122] Of Mandara the poet says: \u201cUpwards it riseth eleven thousand\n_Yojanas_ and descendeth downwards as much.\u201d\n\n[123] The goddess of fortune.\n\n[124] If these poems are really ancient, I think we need not have any\nhesitation in concluding that the Zenana system was in force in India\nin early times, and was not introduced, as many Hindus declare, after\nthe conquest of India by the Muhammadans. Possibly the _purdah_ was\nmade more strict after the Muslims established themselves south of the\nHimalayas.\n\n[125] This Kali is the Kali-yuga personified as the spirit of evil\n(Dowson\u2019s \u201cClassical Dictionary of Hindu Mythology\u201d).\n\n[126] I desire to draw special attention to this interesting passage,\nwhich, in its native simplicity, throws considerable light upon the\nideas and sentiments which lie at the root of the practice of the\nworship of the unseen powers who are believed to govern the lives of\nmen.\n\n[127] This shows clearly that widow re-marriage was allowed.\n\n[128] \u201cThe History of Indian Literature,\u201d by Dr. Albrecht Weber, pp.\n185-188.\n\n[129] \u201cTarikh-i-Badauni\u201d of Abdul Kadir Badauni, Elliot\u2019s \u201cMuhammadan\nHistorians of India,\u201d vol. v., pp. 537-538.\n\n[130] \u201cMahabharata, Bhisma Parva,\u201d section lix., p. 224.\n\n[131] \u201cThe favourite idea of classical antiquity was not the idea\nof progress, but the idea of a cycle of changes in which departure\n_from_ the original unity and return _to_ it, or, as we should say,\ndifferentiation and integration, are not united, but follow each other.\nThis idea seems to be adopted even by Aristotle.\u201d--+CAIRD\u2019S+ \u201cEvolution\nof Religion,\u201d vol. i., p. 21.\n\n[132] What god can Sanjaya refer to? Surely it must be fate, inexorable\ndestiny, of which he is thinking.\n\n[133] \u201cMahabharata, Udyoga Parva,\u201d section clix.\n\n[134] \u201cMahabharata, Bhisma Parva,\u201d section lix., p. 217, and section\nlxxxii., p. 295.\n\n[135] However, the reader who considers such historical inferences\nsufficiently interesting and important, may consult the articles\nentitled \u201cEarly History of Northern India,\u201d by F. W. Hewitt, in the\n\u201cJournal of the Royal Asiatic Society,\u201d 1888-89-90.\n\n[136] Renan\u2019s \u201cRecollections of my Youth,\u201d pp. 72-75.\n\n[137] \u201cAll creatures support life by living upon one\nanother.\u201d--\u201cMahabharata, Bhisma Parva,\u201d p. 16.\n\n[138] Deut. xxv. 5 10, and Gen. xxxviii.\n\n[139] Manu, ix. 59, 60 and 64.\n\n[140] On the subject of Niyoga the reader may consult Sir Henry Maine\u2019s\n\u201cDissertation on Early Law and Custom,\u201d pp. 100 and 107, and \u201cA\nTreatise on Hindu Law and Usage,\u201d by John D. Mayne, chapter iv.\n\n[141] The abandonment of animal food and ardent spirits was probably\ndue to Buddhistic influence, though Buddha himself, as is well known,\nate pork. I have been assured by well-informed Indian gentlemen that\nwithin the last few years there has been a marked tendency amongst\nmany sections of the people to take to a flesh diet and alcoholic\nstimulants--in fact to revert to the old Aryan habits in these respects.","title":"The Great Indian Epics : $b The Stories of the Ramayana and the Mahabharata","tradition":"myth-cosmogony","translated_text":null,"word_count":75536}