The Sanskrit Epics

by Delphi Classics

  To her lord she spake: —

  “Why dost thou, the mighty,

  Of no rite partake?

  Straight I speed to Daksha

  Such a sight to see:

  If he be my father,

  He must welcome thee.”

  Wondrous was in glory

  Daksha’s holy rite;

  Never had creation

  Viewed so brave a sight.

  Gods, and nymphs, find fathers,

  Sages, Bráhmans, sprites, —

  Every diverge creature

  Wrought that rite of rites.

  Quickly then a quaking

  Fell on all from far;

  Umá stood among them

  On her lion car.

  “Greeting, gods and sages,

  Greeting, father mine!

  Work hath wondrous virtue,

  Where such aids combine.

  Guest-hall never gathered

  Goodlier company:

  Seemeth all are welcome.

  All the gods but me.”

  Spake the Muni Daksha,

  Stern and cold his tone: —

  “Welcome thou, too, daughter,

  Since thou com’st alone.

  But thy frenzied husband

  Suits another shrine;

  He is no partaker

  Of this feast of mine.

  He who walks in darkness

  Loves no deeds of light:

  He who herds with demons

  Shuns each kindly sprite.

  Let him wander naked. —

  Wizard weapons wield, —

  Dance his frantic measure

  Round the funeral field.

  Art thou yet delighted

  With the reeking hide,

  Body smeared with ashes.

  Skulls in necklace tied?

  Thou to love this monster?

  Thou to plead his part!

  Know the moon and Gangá

  Share that faithless heart

  Vainly art thou vying

  With thy rivals’ charms.

  Are not coils of serpents

  Softer than thine arms?”

  Words like these from Daksha

  Daksha’s daughter heard:

  Then a sudden passion

  All her bosom stirred.

  Eyes with fury flashing.

  Speechless in her ire,

  Headlong did she hurl her

  ‘Mid the holy fire.

  Then a trembling terror

  Overcame each one,

  And their minds were troubled

  Like a darkened sun;

  And a cruel Vision,

  Face of lurid flame,

  Umá’s Wrath incarnate,

  From the altar came.

  Fiendlike forms by thousands

  Started from his side,

  ‘Gainst the sacrificers

  All their might they plied:

  Till the saints availed not

  Strength like theirs to stay,

  And the gods distracted

  Turned and fled away.

  Hushed were hymns and chanting,

  Priests were mocked and spurned;

  Food defiled and scattered;

  Altars overturned. —

  Then, to save the object

  Sought at such a price,

  Like a deer in semblance

  Sped the sacrifice.

  Soaring toward the heavens,

  Through the sky it fled?

  But the Rudras chasing

  Smote away its head.

  Prostrate on the pavement

  Daksha fell dismayed: —

  “Mightiest, thou hast conquered

  Thee we ask for aid.

  Let not our oblations

  All be rendered vain;

  Let our toilsome labour

  Full fruition gain.”

  Bright the broken altars

  Shone with Shiva’s form;

  “Be it so!” His blessing

  Soothed that frantic storm.

  Soon his anger ceases,

  Though it soon arise; —

  But the Deer’s Head ever

  Blazes in the skies.”

  Indian Ballads and other Poems.

  Page 286. Urvasí.

  “The personification of Urvasî herself is as thin as that of Eôs or Selênê. Her name is often found in the Veda as a mere name for the morning, and in the plural number it is used to denote the dawns which passing over men bring them to old age and death. Urvasî is the bright flush of light overspreading the heaven before the sun rises, and is but another form of the many mythical beings of Greek mythology whose names take us back to the same idea or the same root. As the dawn in the Vedic hymns is called Urûkî, the far-going (Têlephassa, Têlephos), so is she also Uruasî, the wide-existing or wide-spreading; as are Eurôpê, Euryanassa, Euryphassa, and many more of the sisters of Athênê and Aphroditê. As such she is the mother of Vasishtha, the bright being, as Oidipous is the son of Iokastê; and although Vasishtha, like Oidipous, has become a mortal bard or sage, he is still the son of Mitra and Varuṇa, of night and day. Her lover Purûravas is the counterpart of the Hellenic Polydeukês; but the continuance of her union with him depends on the condition that she never sees him unclothed. But the Gandharvas, impatient of her long sojourn among mortal men resolved to bring her back to their bright home; and Purûravas is thus led unwitingly to disregard her warning. A ewe with two lambs was tied to her couch, and the Gandharvas stole one of them; Urvasî said, ‘They take away my darling, as if I lived in a land where there is no hero and no man.’ They stole the second, and she upbraided her husband again. Then Purûravas looked and said, ‘How can that be a land without heroes or men where I am?’ And naked he sprang up; he thought it was too long to put on his dress. Then the Gandharvas sent a flash of lighting, and Urvasî saw her husband naked as by daylight. Then she vanished. ‘I come back,’ she said, and went. ‘Then he bewailed his vanished love in bitter grief.’ Her promise to return was fulfilled, but for a moment only, at the Lotos-lake, and Purûravas in vain beseeches her to tarry longer. ‘What shall I do with thy speech?’ is the answer of Urvasî. ‘I am gone like the first of the dawns. Purûravas, go home again. I am hard to be caught like the winds.’ Her lover is in utter despair; but when he lies down to die, the heart of Urvasî was melted, and she bids him come to her on the last night of the year. On that night only he might be with her; but a son should be born to him. On that day he went up to the golden seats, and there Urvasî told him that the Gandharvas would grant him one wish, and that he must make his choice. ‘Choose thou for me,’ he said: and she answered, ‘Say to them, Let me be one of you.’ ”

  Cox’s Mythology of the Aryan Nations. Vol. I. p. 397.

  Page 324.

  The sovereign of the Vánar race.

  “Vánar is one of the most frequently occurring names by which the poem calls the monkeys of Ráma’s army. Among the two or three derivations of which the word Vánar is susceptible, one is that which deduces it from vana which signifies a wood, and thus Vánar would mean a forester, an inhabitant of the wood. I have said elsewhere that the monkeys, the Vánars, whom Ráma led to the conquest of Ceylon were fierce woodland tribes who occupied the mountainous regions of the south of India, where their descendants may still be seen. I shall hence forth promiscuously employ the word Vánar to denote those monkeys, those fierce combatants of Ráma’s army.” Gorresio.

  Page 326.

  No change of hue, no pose of limb

  Gave sign that aught was false in him.

  Concise, unfaltering, sweet and clear,

  Without a word to pain the ear,

  From chest to throat, nor high nor low,

  His accents came in measured flow.

  Somewhat similarly in The Squire’s Tale:

  “He with a manly voice said his message,

  After the form used in his language,

  Withouten vice of syllable or of letter.

  A
nd for his talë shouldë seem the better

  Accordant to his wordës was his chere,

  As teacheth art of speech them that it lere.”

  Page 329. Ráma’s Alliance With Sugríva.

  “The literal interpretation of this portion of the Rámáyana is indeed deeply rooted in the mind of the Hindu. He implicitly believes that Ráma is Vishnu, who became incarnate for the purpose of destroying the demon Rávana: that he permitted his wife to be captured by Rávana for the sake of delivering the gods and Bráhmans from the oppressions of the Rákshasa; and that he ultimately assembled an army of monkeys, who were the progeny of the gods, and led them against the strong-hold of Rávana at Lanká, and delivered the world from the tyrant Rákshasa, whilst obtaining ample revenge for his own personal wrongs.

  One other point seems to demand consideration, namely, the possibility of such an alliance as that which Ráma is said to have concluded with the monkeys. This possibility will of course be denied by modern critics, but still it is interesting to trace out the circumstances which seem to have led to the acceptance of such a wild belief by the dreamy and marvel loving Hindi. The south of India swarms with monkeys of curious intelligence and rare physical powers. Their wonderful instinct for organization, their attachment to particular localities, their occasional journeys in large numbers over mountains and across rivers, their obstinate assertion of supposed rights, and the ridiculous caricature which they exhibit of all that is animal and emotional in man, would naturally create a deep impression.… Indeed the habits of monkeys well deserve to be patiently studied; not as they appear in confinement, when much that is revolting in their nature is developed, but as they appear living in freedom amongst the trees of the forest, or in the streets of crowded cities, or precincts of temples. Such a study would not fail to awaken strange ideas; and although the European would not be prepared to regard monkeys as sacred animals he might be led to speculate as to their origin by the light of data, which are at present unknown to the naturalist whose observations have been derived from the menagerie alone.

  Whatever, however, may have been the train of ideas which led the Hindú to regard the monkey as a being half human and half divine, there can be little doubt that in the Rámáyana the monkeys of southern India have been confounded with what may be called the aboriginal people of the country. The origin of this confusion may be easily conjectured. Perchance the aborigines of the country may have been regarded as a superior kind of monkeys; and to this day the features of the Marawars, who are supposed to be the aborigines of the southern part of the Carnatic, are not only different from those of their neighbours, but are of a character calculated to confirm the conjecture. Again, it is probable that the army of aborigines may have been accompanied by outlying bands of monkeys impelled by that magpie-like curiosity and love of plunder which are the peculiar characteristics of the monkey race; and this incident may have given rise to the story that the army was composed of Monkeys.”

  Wheeler’s History of India. Vol. II. pp. 316 ff.

  Page 342. The Fall Of Báli.

  “As regards the narrative, it certainly seems to refer to some real event amongst the aboriginal tribes: namely, the quarrel between an elder and younger brother for the possession of a Ráj; and the subsequent alliance of Ráma with the younger brother. It is somewhat remarkable that Ráma appears to have formed an alliance with the wrong party, for the right of Báli was evidently superior to that of Sugríva; and it is especially worthy of note that Ráma compassed the death of Báli by an act contrary to all the laws of fair fighting. Again, Ráma seems to have tacitly sanctioned the transfer of Tárá from Báli to Sugríva, which was directly opposed to modern rule, although in conformity with the rude customs of a barbarous age; and it is remarkable that to this day the marriage of both widows and divorced women is practised by the Marawars, or aborigines of the southern Carnatic, contrary to the deeply-rooted prejudice which exists against such unions amongst the Hindús at large.”

  Wheeler’s History of India, Vol. II. 324.

  Page 370. The Vánar Host.

  “The splendid Marutas form the army of Indras, the red-haired monkeys and bears that of Râmas; and the mythical and solar nature of the monkeys and bears of the Râmâyaṇam manifests itself several times. The king of the monkeys is a sun-god. The ancient king was named Bâlin, and was the son of Indras. His younger brother Sugrívas, he who changes his shape at pleasure (Kâmarúpas), who, helped by Râmas, usurped his throne, is said to be own child of the sun. Here it is evident that the Vedic antagonism between Indras and Vishṇus is reproduced in a zoological and entirely apish form. The old Zeus must give way to the new, the moon to the sun, the evening to the morning sun, the sun of winter to that of spring; the young son betrays and overthrows the old one.… Râmas, who treacherously kills the old king of the monkeys, Bâlin, is the equivalent of Vishṇus, who hurls his predecessor Indras from his throne; and Sugrívas, the new king of the monkeys resembles Indras when he promises to find the ravished Sítá, in the same way as Vishṇus in one of his incarnations finds again the lost vedás. And there are other indications in the Râmâyaṇam of opposition between Indras and the monkeys who assist Râmas. The great monkey Hanumant, of the reddish colour of gold, has his jaw broken, Indras having struck him with his thunderbolt and caused him to fall upon a mountain, because, while yet a child, he threw himself off a mountain into the air in order to arrest the course of the sun, whose rays had no effect upon him. (The cloud rises from the mountain and hides the sun, which is unable of itself to disperse it; the tempest comes, and brings flashes of lightning and thunder-bolts, which tear the cloud in pieces.)

  The whole legend of the monkey Hanumant represents the sun entering into the cloud or darkness, and coming out of it. His father is said to be now the wind, now the elephant of the monkeys (Kapikunjaras), now Keśarin, the long-haired sun, the sun with a mane, the lion sun (whence his name of Keśariṇah putrah). From this point of view, Hanumant would seem to be the brother of Sugrívas, who is also the offspring of the sun.…

  All the epic monkeys of the Râmâyaṇam are described in the twentieth canto of the first book by expressions which very closely resemble those applied in the Vedic hymns to the Marutas, as swift as the tempestuous wind, changing their shape at pleasure, making a noise like clouds, sounding like thunder, battling, hurling mountain-peaks, shaking great uprooted trees, stirring up the deep waters, crushing the earth with their arms, making the clouds fall. Thus Bâlin comes out of the cavern as the sun out of the cloud.…

  But the legend of the monkey Hanumant presents another curious resemblance to that of Samson. Hanumant is bound with cords by Indrajit, son of Rávaṇas; he could easily free himself, but does not wish to do so. Rávaṇas to put him to shame, orders his tail to be burned, because the tail is the part most prized by monkeys.…

  The tail of Hanumant, which sets fire to the city of the monsters, is probably a personification of the rays of the morning or spring sun, which sets fire to the eastern heavens, and destroys the abode of the nocturnal or winter monsters.”

  De Gubernatis, Zoological Mythology, Vol. II. pp. 100 ff.

  “The Jaitwas of Rajputana, a tribe politically reckoned as Rajputs, nevertheless trace their descent from the monkey-god Hanuman, and confirm it by alleging that their princes still bear its evidence in a tail-like prolongation of the spine; a tradition which has probably a real ethnological meaning, pointing out the Jaitwas as of non-Aryan race.”1040 Tylor’s Primitive Culture, Vol. I. p. 341.

  Page 372.

  The names of peoples occurring in the following ślokas are omitted in the metrical translation:

  “Go to the Brahmamálas,1041 the Videhas,1042 the Málavas,1043 the Káśikośalas,1044 the Mágadnas,1045 the Puṇḍras,1046 and the Angas,1047 and the land of the weavers of silk, and the land of the mines of silver, and the hills that stretch into the sea, and the towns and the hamlets that are about the top of Mandar, and the Karṇaprávaraṇas,10
48 and the Oshṭhakarṇakas,1049 and the Ghoralohamukhas,1050 and the swift Ekapádakas,1051 and the strong imperishable Eaters of Men, and the Kirátas1052 with stiff hair-tufts, men like gold and fair to look upon: And the Eaters of Raw Fish, and the Kirátas who dwell in islands, and the fierce Tiger-men1053 who live amid the waters.”

  Page 374.

  “Go to the Vidarbhas1054 and the Rishṭikas1055 and the Mahishikas,1056 and the Matsyas1057 and Kalingas1058 and the Kauśikas1059 … and the Andhras1060 and the Puṇḍras1061 and the Cholas1062 and the Paṇḍyas1063 and the Keralas,1064 Mlechchhas1065 and the Pulindas1066 and the Śúrasenas,1067 and the Prasthalas and the Bharatas and Madrakas1068 and the Kámbojas1069 and the Yavanas1070 and the towns of the Śakas1071 and the Varadas.”1072

  Page 378. Northern Kurus.

  Professor Lassen remarks in the Zeitschrift für die Kunde des Morgenlandes, ii. 62: “At the furthest accessible extremity of the earth appears Harivarsha with the northern Kurus. The region of Hari or Vishṇu belongs to the system of mythical geography; but the case is different with the Uttara Kurus. Here there is a real basis of geographical fact; of which fable has only taken advantage, without creating it. The Uttara Kurus were formerly quite independent of the mythical system of dvípas, though they were included in it at an early date.” Again the same writer says at p. 65: “That the conception of the Uttara Kurus is based upon an actual country and not on mere invention, is proved (1) by the way in which they are mentioned in the Vedas; (2) by the existence of Uttara Kuru in historical times as a real country; and (3) by the way in which the legend makes mention of that region as the home of primitive customs. To begin with the last point the Mahábhárata speaks as follows of the freer mode of life which women led in the early world, Book I. verses 4719-22: ‘Women were formerly unconfined and roved about at their pleasure, independent. Though in their youthful innocence they abandoned their husbands, they were guilty of no offence; for such was the rule in early times. This ancient custom is even now the law for creatures born as brutes, which are free from lust and anger. This custom is supported by authority and is observed by great rishis, and it is still practiced among the northern Kurus.’

  “The idea which is here conveyed is that of the continuance in one part of the world of that original blessedness which prevailed in the golden age. To afford a conception of the happy condition of the southern Kurus it is said in another place (M.-Bh, i. 4346.) ‘The southern Kurus vied in happiness with the northern Kurus and with the divine rishis and bards.’