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INDIAN WISDOM
INDIAN WISDOM;
OB,
EXAMPLES OF THE RELIGIOUS, PHILOSOPHICAL, AND
ETHICAL DOCTEINES OF THE HINDUS.
A BEIEF HISTOKY OF THE CHIEF DEPARTMENTS
OF SANSKRIT LITERATURE.
AND SOME ACCOUNT OP THE
Ernst an& present Condition of Snfcia, Moral an& Intellectual.
BY
SIR MONIER MONIER- WILLIAMS, K.C.I.E.
M.A. HON. D.C.L. OXFORD; HON. LL.D. CALCUTTA; HON. PH.D. GO"TTINGEN; V.P. OF THE ROYAL
ASIATIC SOCIETY ; HON. MEMBER OF THE ASIATIC SOCIETIES OF BENGAL AND BOMBAY,
AND OF THE ORIENTAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETIES OF AMERICA ;
BODEN PROFESSOR OF SANSKRIT ; HON. FELLOW OF
UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, OXFORD, ETC.
FOURTH EDITION, ENLARGED AND IMPROVED.
LONDON:
LUZAC & CO., GREAT RUSSELL STREET,
PUBLISHERS TO THE INDIA OFFICE.
1893.
NOTE
THIS Fourth Edition of " Indian Wisdom " is issued by
Messrs. Luzac & Co. with the Author's permission.
The Author has made several additions and improve-
ments, but the state of his health has not permitted
him to revise the proof-sheets.
CONTENTS
CHAP. PAGE
I. THE HYMNS OF THE VEDA ....... 1
II. THE BRAHMANAS AND UPANISHADS . ... 24
III. THE SYSTEMS OF PHILOSOPHY ...... 46
IV. THE NYAYA ......... 60
V. THE SAN-KHYA . . . . . . . W . -79
VI. THE PORVA-MIMANSA AND VEDANTA ..... 98
VII. IRREGULAR SYSTEMS AND ECLECTIC SCHOOL . . . I 1 8
VIII. SMRITI THE VEDAN-GAS ... . . . . -144
IX. THE SMARTA SUTRAS OR TRADITIONAL RULES . . 1 86
X. THE DHARMA-SASTRAS OR LAW-BOOKS MANU CONTINUED . 213
XI. THE LAW-BOOKS MANU CONTINUED . . 278
Xll. THE ITIHASAS OR EPIC POEMS THE RAMAYANA . . . 306
XIII. THE ITIHASAS OR EPIC POEMS THE MAHA-BHARATA . . 370
XIV. THE INDIAN EPICS COMPARED WITH BACH OTHER AND WITH
THE HOMERIQ POEMS . . . . . . .416
XV. THE ARTIFICIAL POEMS. DRAMAS. PURANAS. TANTRAS. NITI-
SASTRAS ......... 452
INDEX
555
INDIAN WISDOM.
CHAPTER I.
IN adopting the term ' Indian Wisdom ' as the title of
the present work, I wish at the outset to make it clear
that, although my object is to draw attention to the best
Indian writings, yet it by no means follows that every
single extract from those writings will be put forth as an
example of what is wise and just and true.
In point of fact, the following pages have a double
object. They are designed as much to give a summary of
the history of Sanskrit literature as to present the reader
with examples of certain selected portions of that literature.
In attempting this double task I am conscious of my in-
ability to do justice in a single volume to the richness of
the materials at my command. An adequate idea of the
luxuriance and varied character of Sanskrit literature
can with difficulty be conveyed to Occidental scholars.
Naturally, too, the severe European critic will be slow to
acquiesce in any tribute of praise bestowed on composi-
tions too often marked by tedious repetitions, redundant
epithets, and far-fetched conceits ; just as the genuine
Oriental, nurtured under glowing tropical skies, cannot
easily be brought to appreciate the coldness and severe
simplicity of an educated Englishman's style of writing.
We might almost say that with Indian authors merit is
apt to be measured by magnitude, quality by quantity,
were it not for striking thoughts and noble sentiments
2 INDIAN WISDOM.
winch often reward the student who will take the trouble
to release them from the surplusage of matter under which
they lie concealed ; were it not, also, that, with all this
tendency to diffuseness, it is certainly a fact that nowhere
do we find the art of condensation so successfully culti-
vated, as in some departments of Sanskrit literature.
Probably the very prolixity natural to Indian writers
led to the opposite extreme of brevity, not merely by a
law of reaction, but by the necessity for providing short
summaries and epitomes as aids to the memory when
oppressed by too great a burden.
However that may be, every student of Sanskrit will
certainly note in its literary productions a singular in-
equality both as to quantity and quality ; so that in
studying Hindu literature continuously we are liable to
be called upon to pass from the most exuberant verbosity
to the most obscure brevity ; from sound wisdom to little
better than puerile unwisdom ; from subtle reasoning to
transparent sophistry ; from high moral precepts often
expressed in language worthy of Christianity itself to
doctrines implying a social condition scarcely compatible
with the lowest grades of culture and civilization.
In embarking, so to speak, on so vast an ocean of re-
search, it will be necessary for me to start from that
original source and fountain-head of all Indian religious
thought, philosophy, and literature the Veda.
Vedic literature, however, has been already so much
written about, and so clearly and ably elucidated by other
writers, that I shall be excused, if I pass very rapidly over
this part of my subject.
In the first place, I think I may assume that most
educated persons are aware that the Sanskrit word Veda
means 'knowledge.' Some, however, may possibly need
to be informed that the term Veda is properly only applied
to divine unwritten knowledge, imagined to have issued
THE HYMNS OF THE VEDA. 3
like breath from the Self-existent (Brahman), and com-
municated to no single person, but to a whole class of
men called Rishis or inspired sages. By them the divine
knowledge thus apprehended was transmitted, not in
writing, but through the ear, by constant oral repetition
through a succession of teachers, who, as claiming to be
its rightful recipients, were called Brahmans. Manu (I. 3)
declares that the Veda is itself the Self-existent Brahman.
Sayana, on the other hand, affirms that the Veda is his
breath (acchvasita}. There are, however, numerous incon-
sistencies in the accounts' of the production of the Veda
which seem not to have troubled the Brahmans, or inter-
fered with their faith in its divine origin. With reference
to the statement that it issued from the Self-existent, like
breath, one account makes it so issue by the power of
A-drishta (see p. 74), without any deliberation or thought
on his part ; another makes the four Vedas issue from
Brahman, like smoke from burning fuel ; another educes
them from the elements ; another from the Gayatrl. A
hymn in the Atharva-veda (XIX. 54) educes them from
Kala or ' Time.' The Satapatha-brahmana asserts that
the Creator brooded over the three worlds, and thence
produced three lights, fire, the air, and the sun, from which
respectively were extracted the Rig, Yajur, and Sama-
veda. Manu (I. 23) affirms the same. In the Purusha-
sukta the three Vedas are derived from the mystical victim
Purusha. Lastly, by the Mimansakas the Veda is declared
to be itself an eternal sound, and to have existed absolutely
from all eternity, quite independently of any utterer or
revealer of its texts. Hence it is often called sruta, ' what
is heard.' In opposition to all this we have the Rishis
themselves frequently intimating that the Mantras were
composed by themselves.
Here, then, we have a theory of inspiration higher even
than that advanced by Muhammad and his followers, or
4 INDIAN WISDOM.
by the most enthusiastic adherents of any other religion
in the world. It is very true that this inspired knowledge,
though its very essence was held to be mystically bound
up with Sabda or ' articulate sound ' (thought to be
eternal), was ultimately written down, but the writing
and reading of it were not encouraged. It was even pro-
hibited by the Brahmans, to whom alone all property in
it belonged. Moreover, when at last, by its continued
growth, it became too complex for mere oral transmission,
then this Veda resolved itself, not into one single volume,
like the Kuran, but into a whole series of compositions,
which had in reality been composed by a number of dif-
ferent poets and writers at different times during several
centuries.
There is this great difference, therefore, between the
Kuran and the Veda, that whereas the reading of the
former is regarded as a sacred duty, and constantly
practised by all good Muslims, the Veda, even after it had
been committed to writing, became absolutely a sealed
book to the masses of Hindus, and with the exception of
some of the later Vedic works, called Upanishads, is to
this day almost entirely unread, however much it may be
still repeated in religious services, and its divine authority
as an infallible guide nominally upheld. 1 In fact, the
absolute and infallible authority of the Veda is held to be
so manifest as to require no proof, and to be entirely
beyond the province of reason or argument. Manu even
extends this to Smriti (II. 10), where he says, 'By sruti
is meant the Veda, and by smriti the books of tradition ;
1 The want of accuracy in repeating the Mantras of the Big-veda is
illustrated by the native editions of Manu. An edition (with the com-
mentary of Kulluka) in my possession is a scholar-like production, but
almost in every place where the Mantras of the Kig-veda are alluded
to by Manu (as in VIII. 91, XL 250, 252, 253, 254) errors disfigure
the text and commentary.
THE HYMNS OF THE VEDA. 5
the contents of both these must never be questioned by
reason.'
Of what, then, does this Veda consist ? To conduce to
clearness we may regard it as separating itself into three
quite distinct divisions, viz. :
1. Mantra, or prayer and praise embodied in metrical
hymns and texts.
2. Brdlimana, or ritualistic precept and illustration
written in prose.
3. Upanishad, ' mystical or esoteric doctrine ' appended
to the aforesaid Brahmana, in prose and occasional verse.
To begin, then, with the Mantra portion. By this is
meant those prayers, invocations, and hymns which have
been collected and handed down to us from a period after
the Indian branch of the great Indo-European race had
finally settled down in Northern India, but which were
doubtless composed by a succession of poets at different
times (perhaps between 1500 and 1000 years B.C.). These
compositions, though very unequal in poetical merit, and
containing many tedious repetitions and puerilities, are
highly interesting and important, as embodying some of
the earliest religious conceptions, as well as some of the
earliest known forms, of the primitive language of that
primeval Aryan race-stock from which Greeks, Romans,
Kelts, Teutons, and the Slavonic races are all offshoots.
They are comprised in five principal collections of Man-
tras, called respectively Rik, Atharvan, Saman, Taittiriya,
and Vajasaneyin. Of these the Rig-veda containing one
thousand and seventeen hymns is the oldest and most
important, while the Atharva-veda is generally held to be
the most recent, and is perhaps the most interesting.
The Atharva-veda, in fact, seems in its present form to
have been later than Manu. At least it does not appear
to have been recognized as a fourth Veda in the time
of Manu, though he mentions the revelation made to
6 INDIAN WISDOM.
Atharvan and An-giras (XL 33). In book XL, verse 264,
he declares that the Veda is only threefold, thus : Itico
yajunshi cdnydni sdmdni vividhdni 6a, esha jheyas tri-
vrid vedo yo vedainam sa veda-vit. The Atharvans were
a class of priests descended from a man named Atharvan.
They appear to have been the first to institute the worship
of fire before the separation of the Indians and Iranians,
for there were priests called Atharvans in both India and
Persia.
As to the Sama-veda and the two collections of the
Yajur-veda (Taittiriya and Vajasaneyin, or Black and
White), they all three borrow largely from the Rik, and
are merely Brahmauical manuals, the necessity for which
grew out of the complicated ritual gradually elaborated
by the Hindu Aryans. A curious allusion to the Sama-
veda occurs in Manu IV. 123, &c., ' The Rig-veda has the
gods for its deities, the Yajur-veda has men for its objects,
the Sama-veda has the Pitris, therefore its sound is im-
pure.' Kulluka, however, in his commentary is careful to
state that the Sama-veda is not really impure, but only
apparently so. This semblance of impurity may perhaps
result from its association with deceased persons and its
repetition at a time of A-sauca. The Sama-veda is really
a mere reproduction of parts of the Rik, transposed and
scattered about piecemeal, only seventy-eight verses in
the whole Sama-veda being, it is said, untraceable to the
present recension of the Rik. The greatest number of its
verses are taken from the ninth Mandala of the Rik, which
is in praise of the Soma plant, the Sama-veda being a col-
lection of liturgical forms for the Soma ceremonies of the
Udgatri priests, as the Yajus is for the sacrifices performed
by the Adhvaryu priests. Hence we may affirm that the
only two Vedic hymn-books worthy of being called separate
original collections are the Rig-veda and Atharva-veda ;
and to these, therefore, we shall confine our examples.
THE HYMNS OF THE VEDA. 7
To what deities, it will be asked, were the prayers and
hymns of these collections addressed ? This is an interest-
ing inquiry, for these were probably the very deities wor-
shipped under similar names by our Aryan progenitors
in their primeval home somewhere on the table-land of
Central Asia, or elsewhere, perhaps not far from the sources
of the Oxus. 1 The answer is : They worshipped those
physical forces before which all nations, if guided solely
by the light of nature, have in the early period of their
life instinctively bowed down, and before which even the
more civilized and enlightened have always been compelled
to bend in awe and reverence, if not in adoration.
To our Aryan forefathers in their primeval home God's
power was exhibited in the forces of nature even more
evidently than to ourselves. Lands, houses, flocks, herds,
men, and animals were more frequently than in Western
climates at the mercy of winds, fire, and water, and the
sun's rays appeared to be endowed with a potency quite
beyond the experience of any European country. We
cannot be surprised, then, that these forces were regarded
by our Eastern progenitors as actual manifestations, either
of one deity in different moods or of separate rival deities
contending for supremacy. Nor is it wonderful that these
mighty agencies should have been at first poetically per-
sonified, and afterwards, when invested with forms, attri-
butes, and individuality, worshipped as distinct gods. It
was only natural, too, that a varying supremacy and vary-
ing honours should have been accorded to each deified
force to the air, the rain, the storm, the sun, or fire
according to the special atmospheric influences to which
particular localities were exposed, or according to the
1 Professor Whitney and others doubt this usual assumption. Some
even lean to the theory that somewhere in the North of Europe is the
primeval home of the Aryans.
8 INDIAN WISDOM.
seasons of the year when the dominance of each was to be
prayed for or deprecated.
This was the religion represented in the Vedas and
the primitive creed of the Indo-Aryans about twelve or
thirteen centuries before Christ. The first forces deified
seem to have been those manifested in the sky and air.
These were at first generalised under one rather vague
personification, as was natural in the earliest attempts at
giving shape to religious ideas. For it may be observed
that all religious systems, even the most polytheistic, have
generally grown out of some undefined original belief in
a divine power or powers controlling and regulating the
universe. And although innumerable gods and goddesses,
gifted with a thousand shapes, now crowd the Hindu
Pantheon, appealing to the instincts of the unthinking
millions whose capacity for religious ideas is supposed to
require the aid of external symbols, it is probable that
there existed for the first Aryan worshippers a simpler
theistic creed : even as the thoughtful Hindu of the pre-
sent day looks through the maze of his mythology to
the philosophical background of one eternal self-existent
Being, one universal Spirit, into whose unity all visible
symbols are gathered, and in whose essence all entities
are comprehended.
In the Veda this unity soon diverged into various rami-
fications. Only a few of the hymns appear to contain
the simple conception of one divine self-existent omni-
present Being, and even in these the idea of one God
present in all nature is somewhat nebulous and undefined.
It is interesting to note how this idea, vaguely stated as
it was in the Veda, gradually developed and became more
clearly defined in the time of Manu. In the last verses of
the twelfth book (123-125) we have the following : ' Him
some adore as transcendently present in fire ; others in
Manu, lord of creatures ; some as more distinctly present
THE HYMNS OF THE VEDA. 9
in Indra, others in pure air, others as the most high
eternal Spirit. Thus the man who perceives in his own
soul, the supreme soul present in all creatures, acquires
equanimity towards them all, and shall be absorbed at
last in the highest essence.
In the Purusha-sukta of the Rig-veda (X. 90), which is
one of the later hymns, probably not much earlier than
the earliest Brahmana, the one Spirit is called Punish a.
The more common name is Atman or Paramatman, and in
the later system Brahman, neut. (nom. Brahma), derived
from root brih, ' to expand,' and denoting the universally
expanding essence or universally diffused substance of the
universe. It was thus that the later creed became not so
much monotheistic (by which I mean the belief in one god
regarded as a personal Being external to the universe,
though creating and governing it) as pantheistic ; Brahman
in the neuter being ' simple infinite being ' the only real
eternal essence w T hich, when it passes into universal
manifested existence, is called Brahma, when it manifests
itself on the earth, is called Vishnu, and when it again
dissolves itself into simple being, is called S'iva ; all the
other innumerable gods and demigods being also mere
manifestations of the neuter Brahman, who alone is eternal.
This, at any rate, appears to be the genuine pantheistic
creed of India at the present day.
To return to the Vedic hymns perhaps the most ancient
and beautiful Vedic deification was that of Dyaus, 1 ' the
sky/ as Dyaush-pitar, ' Heavenly Father ' (the Zeus or
Ju-piter of the Greeks and Eomans). Then, closely con-
nected with Dyaus, was a goddess A-diti, ' the Infinite
Expanse,' conceived of subsequently as the mother of all
1 From dyu or di/o, the same as the Old German Tiu or Ziu, who,
according to Professor Max Miiller, afterwards became a kind of Mars
(whence Tues-day). For Dyaush-pitar see Rig-veda VI. 51.5.
10 INDIAN WISDOM.
the gods. Next came a development of the same concep-
tion called Varuna, ' the Investing Sky,' said to answer to
Ahura Mazda, the Ormazd of the ancient Persian (Zand)
mythology, and to the Greek Ovpavos but a more spiritual
conception, leading to a worship which rose to the nature
of a belief in the great Ilarrjp rj/jiwv 6 ev rot? ovpavols. This
Varuna, again, was soon thought of in connection witli
another vague personification called Mitra ( = the Persian
Mithra), ' god of day.' After a time these impersonations
of the celestial sphere were felt to be too vague to suit the
growth of religious ideas in ordinary minds. Soon, there-
fore, the great investing firmament resolved itself into
separate cosmical entities with separate powers and attri-
butes. First, the watery atmosphere personified under
the name of Indra, ever seeking to dispense his dewy
treasures (indu), though ever restrained by an opposing
force or spirit of evil called Vritra ; and, secondly, the
wind thought of either as a single personality named
Vayu, or as a whole assemblage of moving powers coming
from every quarter of the compass, and impersonated as
Maruts or ' Storm-gods.' At the same time in this pro-
cess of decentralization if I may use the term the once
purely celestial Varuna became relegated to a position
among seven secondary deities of the heavenly sphere called
Adityas (afterwards increased to twelve, and regarded as
diversified forms of the sun in the several months of the
year), and subsequently to a dominion over the waters
when they had left the air and rested on the earth.
Of these separately deified physical forces by far the
most favourite object of adoration was the deity supposed
to yield the dew and rain, longed for by Eastern culti-
vators of the soil with even greater cravings than by
Northern agriculturists. Indra, therefore the Jupiter
Pluvius of early Indian mythology is undoubtedly the
principal divinity of Vedic worshippers, in so far at least
THE HYMNS OF THE VEDA. I I
as the greater number of their prayers and hymns are
addressed to him.
What, however, could rain effect without the aid of
heat ? A force the intensity of which must have im-
pressed an Indian mind with awe, and led him to invest
the possessor of it with divine attributes. Hence the
other great god of Vedic worshippers, and in some respects
the most important in his connection with sacrificial rites,
is Agni (Latin Ignis), ' the god of fire/ Even Surya, ' the
sun ' (Greek -^Xto?), who was probably at first adored as
the original source of heat, came to be regarded as only
another form of fire. He was merely a manifestation of
the same divine energy removed to the heavens, and con-
sequently less accessible. Another deity, Ushas, ' goddess
of the dawn,' the ^w? of the Greeks, was naturally con-
nected with the sun, and regarded as daughter of the sky.
Two other deities, the Asvins, were fabled as connected
with Ushas, as ever young and handsome, travelling in a
golden car and precursors of the dawn. They are some-
times called Dasras, as divine physicians, ' destroyers of
diseases ' ; sometimes Nasatyas, as ' never untrue.' They
appear to have been personifications of two luminous rays
imagined to precede the break of day. These, with Yama,
' the god of departed spirits/ are the principal deities of
the Mantra portion of the Veda.
We find, therefore, no trace in the Mantras of the Tri-
murti or Triad of deities (Brahma, Vishnu, and S'iva)
afterwards so popular. Nor does the doctrine of trans-
migration, afterwards an essential element of the Hindu
religion, appear in the Mantra portion of the Veda ;
though there is a clear declaration of it in the Aranyaka
of the Aitareya Brahmana. Nor is caste clearly alluded
to, except in the later Purusha-sukta (see p. 21).
But here it may be asked, if sky, air, water, fire, and
the sun were thus worshipped as manifestations of the
12 INDIAN WISDOM.
supreme universal God of the universe, was not the earth
also an object of adoration with the early Hindus ? And
unquestionably in the earlier system the earth under the
name of Prithivi, ' the broad one/ does receive divine
honours, being thought of as the mother of all beings.
Moreover, various deities were regarded as the progeny
resulting from the fancied union of earth with Dyaus,
' heaven.' This imaginary marriage of heaven and earth
was indeed a most natural idea, and much of the later
mythology may be explained by it. But it is remarkable
that as religious worship became of a more selfish charac-
ter, the earth, being more evidently under man's control,
and not seeming to need propitiation so urgently as the
more uncertain air, fire, and water, lost importance among
the gods, and was rarely addressed in prayer or hymn.
In all probability the deified forces addressed in the
hymns were not represented by images or idols in the Vedic
period, though, doubtless, the early worshippers clothed
their gods with human form in their own imaginations. 1
I now begin my examples with a nearly literal transla-
tion of the well-known sixteenth hymn of the fourth book
of the Atharva-veda, in praise of Varuna or * the Investing
Sky': 2 -
1 See Dr Muir's Sanskrit Texts, vol. v. p. 453.
2 Ably translated by Dr. Muir (Sanskrit Texts, vol. v. p. 63) and by
Professor Max Miiller. It may be thought that in giving additional
translations of this and other hymns I am going over ground already
well trodden ; but it should be borne in mind that, as the design of the
work is to illustrate continuously the development of Hindu knowledge
and literature by a selection of good examples rendered into idiomatic
English, I could not, in common justice to such a subject, exclude the
best passages in each department of the literature merely because they
have been translated by others. I here, however, once for all acknow-
ledge with gratitude that, while making versions of my own, I have
derived the greatest assistance from the translations of other scholars.
It must be understood, too, that my examples are not put forth as
THE HYMNS OF THE VEDA. 13
The mighty Varuiia, who rules above, looks down
Upon these worlds, his kingdom, as if close at hand.
When men imagine they do ought by stealth, he knows it.
No one can stand or walk or softly glide along
Or hide in dai-k recess, or lurk in secret cell,
But Varuna detects him and his movements spies.
Two persons may devise some plot, together sitting
In private and alone ; but he, the king, is there
A third and sees it all. This boundless earth is his,
His the vast sky, whose depth no mortal e'er can fathom.
Both oceans l find a place within his body, yet
In that small pool he lies contained. Whoe'er should flee
Far, far beyond the sky, would not escape the grasp
Of Varuna, the king. His messengers descend
Countless from his abode -for ever traversing
This world and scanning with a thousand eyes its inmates.
Whate'er exists within this earth, and all within the sky,
Yea all that is beyond, king Varuna perceives.
The winkings 2 of men's eyes, are numbered all by him.
He wields the universe, as gamesters handle dice.
May thy destroying snares cast sevenfold round the wicked,
Entangle liars, but the truthful spare, king ! 3
I pass from the ancient Aryan deity Varuna to the more
thoroughly Indian god Itidra (see p. 10).
offering rival translations. They are generally intended to be as literal
as possible consistently with the observance of English idiom, and on
that account I have preferred blank verse ; but occasionally they are
paraphrases rather than translations, sentences and words being here
and there omitted or transposed, or fragments joined together, so as to
read like one continuous passage. In fact, it will be seen that my
main design has been to offer English versions of the text for general
readers, and for those students and educated men who, not being neces-
sarily Sanskritists, are desirous of some insight into Hindu literature.
1 That is, air and sea.
2 The winking of the eye is an especial characteristic of humanity,
distinguishing men from gods; cf. Nala V. 25, Magha III. 42.
3 Compare Manu VIII. 82 : ' A witness who speaks falsely is fast
bound by the snares of Varuna. ' These snares are explained by Kulluka
to be ' cords consisting of serpents ' (pd^aih sarpa-rajjubhih}.
14 INDIAN WISDOM.
The following metrical lines bring together various scat-
tered texts relating to this Hindu Jupiter Pluvius : l
Indra, twin brother of the god of fire,
When thou wast born, thy mother Aditi
Gave thee, her lusty child, the thrilling draught
Of mountain-growing Soma source of life
And never-dying vigour to thy frame.
Then at the Thunderer's birth, appalled with fear,
Dreading the hundred-jointed thunderbolt
Forged by the cunning Tvashtri mountains rocked,
Earth shook and heaven trembled. Thou wast born
Without a rival, king of gods and men
The eye of living and terrestrial things.
Immortal Indra, unrelenting foe
Of drought and darkness, infinitely wise,
Terrific crusher of thy enemies,
Heroic, irresistible in might,
Wall of defence to us thy worshippers,
We sing thy praises, and our ardent hymns
Embrace thee, as a loving wife her lord.
Thou art our guardian, advocate, and friend,
A brother, father, mother, all combined.
Most fatherly of fathers, we are thine
And thou art ours ; oh ! let thy pitying soul
Turn to us in compassion, when we praise thee,
And slay us not for one sin or for many.
Deliver us to-day, to-morrow, every day.
Armed for the conflict, see ! the demons come
Ahi and Vritra, and a long array
Of darksome spirits. Quick, then, quaff the draught
That stimulates thy martial energy,
And dashing onward in thy golden car,
Drawn by thy ruddy, Eibhu-fashioned 2 steeds,
Speed to the charge, escorted by the Maruts.
Vainly the demons dare thy might ; in vain
1 The texts which furnish the basis of these and the succeeding verses
will be found in the 5th volume of Dr. Muir's work, and there will also
be found a complete poetical sketch of Indra (pp. 126139).
2 The Eibhus (Greek 'Op<eic) were the celestial artists of the Veda.
THE HYMNS OF THE VEDA. 15
Strive to deprive us of thy watery treasures.
Earth quakes beneath the crashing of thy bolts.
Pierced, shattered, lies the foe his cities crushed,
His armies overthrown, his fortresses
Shivered to fragments ; then the pent-up waters,
Released from long imprisonment, descend
In torrents to the earth, and swollen rivers,
Foaming and rolling to their ocean home,
Proclaim the triumph of the Thunderer.
Let us proceed next to the all-important Vedic deity
Agni, ' god of fire/ especially of sacrificial fire. I propose
now to paraphrase a few of the texts which relate to
him :
Agni, thou art a sage, a priest, a king,
Protector, father of the sacrifice.
Commissioned by us men thou dost ascend
A messenger, conveying to the sky
Our hymns and offerings. Though thy origin
Be threefold, now from air and now from water,
Now from the mystic double Arani, 1
Thou art thyself a mighty god, a lord,
Giver of life and immortality,
One in thy essence, but to mortals three ;
Displaying thine eternal triple form,
As fire on earth, as lightning in the air,
As sun in heaven. Thou art a cherished guest
In every household father, brother, son,
Friend, benefactor, guardian, all in one.
Bright, seven-rayed god ! how manifold thy shapes ,
Revealed to us thy votaries ! now we see thee,
With body all of gold, and radiant hair
Flaming from three terrific heads, and mouths
Whose burning jaws and teeth devour all things.
Now with a thousand glowing horns, and now
Flashing thy lustre from a thousand eyes,
Thou'rt borne towards us in a golden chariot,
Impelled by winds, and drawn by ruddy steeds,
1 Two pieces of the wood of the Ficus religiosa used for kindling fire.
I 6 INDIAN WISDOM.
Marking thy car's destructive course, with blackness.
Deliver, mighty lord, thy worshippers.
Purge us from taint of sin, and when we die,
Deal mercifully with us on the pyre,
Burning our bodies with their load of guilt,
But bearing our eternal part on high
To luminous abodes and realms of bliss,
For ever there to dwell with righteous men.
The next deity is Surya, ' the Sun,' l who, with reference
to the variety of his functions, has various names such
as Savitri, Aryaman, Mitra, Varuna, Pushau, sometimes
ranking as distinct deities of the celestial sphere. As
already explained, he is associated in the minds of Vedic
worshippers with Fire, and is frequently described as sit-
ting in a chariot drawn by seven ruddy horses (represent-
ing the seven days of the week), preceded by the Dawn.
Here is an example of a hymn (Rig-veda I. 50) addressed
to this deity, translated almost literally :
Behold the rays of Dawn, like heralds, lead on high
The Sun, that men may see the great all-knowing god.
The stars slink off like thieves, in company with Night,
Before the all-seeing eye, whose beams reveal his presence,
Gleaming like brilliant flames, to nation after nation.
With speed, beyond the ken of mortals, thou, Sun,
Dost ever travel on, conspicuous to all.
Thou dost create the light, and with it dost illume
The universe entire ; thou risest in the sight
Of all the race of men, and all the host of heaven.
Light-giving Varuna ! thy piercing glance doth scan
In quick succession all this stirring, active world,
And penetrateth too the broad ethereal space,
Measuring our days and nights and spying out all creatures.
Surya with flaming locks, clear-sighted god of day,
Thy seven ruddy mares bear on thy rushing car.
With these thy self-yoked steeds, seven daughters of thy chariot,
Yaska makes Indra, Agni, and Surya the Vedic Triad of gods.
THE HYMNS OF THE VEDA. I/
Onward them dost advance. To thy refulgent orb
Beyond this lower gloom and upward to the light
Would we ascend, O Sun, thou god among the gods.
As an accompaniment to this hymn may here be men-
tioned the celebrated Gayatri. It is a short prayer to the
Sun in his character of Savitri or ' the Vivifier,' and is the
most sacred of all Vedic texts. Though not always un-
derstood, it is to this very day used by every Brahman
throughout India in his daily devotions. It occurs in
Rig-veda III. 62. lo, 1 and can be literally translated as
follows :
Let us meditate (or, we meditate) on that excellent glory of the
divine Vivifier. May he enlighten (or stimulate) our understandings.
[Tat Savitur varenyam Wiargo devasya dhimahi, Dhiyo yo nah pra6o-
dayat.~\
May we not conjecture, with Sir William Jones, that
the great veneration in which this text has ever been held
by the Hindus from time immemorial, indicates that the
more enlightened worshippers adored, under the type of
the visible sun, that divine light which alone could illu-
mine their intellects ?
I may here also fitly offer a short paraphrase descriptive
of the Vedic Ushas, the Greek 'Hco?, or ' Dawn : '
Hail, ruddy Ushas, golden goddess, borne
Upon thy shining car, thou comest like
A lovely maiden by her mother decked,
Disclosing coyly all thy hidden graces
To our admiring eyes ; or like a wife
Unveiling to her lord, with conscious pride,
Beauties which, as he gazes lovingly,
Seem fresher, fairer each succeeding morn.
Through years on years thou hast lived on, and yet
Thou'rt ever young. Thou art the breath and life
1 Note that the Rishi or author was Visvamitra, a Kshatriya.
B
I 8 INDIAN WISDOM.
Of all that breathes and lives, awaking day by day
Myriads of prostrate sleepers, as from death,
Causing the birds to flutter from their nests,
And rousing men to ply with busy feet
Their daily duties and appointed tasks,
Toiling for wealth or pleasure or renown.
Before leaving the subject of the Vedic deities I add a
few words about Yama, ' the god of departed spirits/ It
appears tolerably certain that the doctrine of metempsy-
chosis has no place in the Mantra portion of the Veda, 1
nor do the authors of the hymns evince any sympathy
with the desire to get rid of all action and personal exist-
ence, which became so remarkable a feature of the theology
and philosophy of the Brahmans in later times. But there
are many indirect references to the immortality of man's
spirit and a future life, and these become more marked
and decided towards the end of the Kig-veda. One of
the hymns in the last Mandala is addressed to the Pitris
or fathers, that is to say, the spirits of departed ancestors
who have attained to a state of heavenly bliss, and are
supposed to occupy three different stages of blessedness,
the highest inhabiting the upper sky, the middle the
intermediate air, and the lowest the regions of the at-
mosphere near the earth. Reverence and adoration are
always to be offered them, and they are presided over by
the god Yama, the ruler of all the spirits of the dead,
whether good or bad. The earlier legends represent this
god as a kind of first man (his twin sister being Yami),
and also as the first of men that died. Hence he is
described as guiding the spirits of other men who die to
the same world. In some passages, however, Death is said
to be his messenger, he himself dwelling in celestial light,
1 In Mandala I. 164. 32, bahu-prajdh is explained by bahu-janma-
bliak, ' subject to many births,' but it may mean ' having abundant
offspring.'
THE HYMNS OF THE VEDA. 19
to which the departed are brought, and where they enjoy
his society and that of the fathers. In the Veda he has
nothing to do with judging or punishing the departed (as
in the later mythology), but he has two terrific dogs, with
four eyes, which guard the way to his abode. Here are a
few thoughts about him from various hymns in the tenth
Mandala of the Rig-veda :
To Yama, mighty king, be gifts and homage paid.
He was the first of men that died, the first to brave
Death's rapid rushing stream, the first to point the road
To heaven, and welcome others to that bright abode.
No power can rob us of the home thus won by thee.
O king, we come ; the born must die, must tread the path
That thou hast trod the path by which each race of men,
In long succession, and our fathers, too, have passed.
Soul of the dead ! depart ; fear not to take the road
The ancient road by which thy ancestors have gone ;
Ascend to meet the god to meet thy happy fathers,
Who dwell in bliss with him. Fear not to pass the guards
The four-eyed brindled dogs that watch for the departed.
Return unto thy home, O soul ! Thy sin and shame
Leave thou behind on earth ; assume a shining form
Thy ancient shape refined and from all taint set free.
Let me now endeavour, by slightly amplified transla-
tions, to convey some idea of two of the most remarkable
hymns in the Rig-veda. The first (Mandala X. 1 29), which
may be compared with some parts of the 38th chap, of
Job, attempts to describe the mystery of creation thus :
In the beginning there was neither nought nor aught,
Then there was neither sky nor atmosphere above.
What then enshrouded all this teeming Universe ?
In the receptacle of what was it contained ?
Was it enveloped in the gulf profound of water ?
Then was there neither death nor immortality,
Then was there neither day, nor night, nor light, nor darkness,
Only the Existent One breathed calmly, self-contained.
Nought else than him there was nought else above, beyond.
20 INDIAN WISDOM.
Then first came darkness hid in darkness, gloom in gloom.
Next all was water, all a chaos indiscreet,
In which the One lay void, shrouded in nothingness.
Then turning inwards he by self-developed force
Of inner fervour and intense abstraction, grew.
And now in him Desire, the primal germ of mind,
Arose, which learned men, profoundly searching, say
Is the first subtle bond, connecting Entity
With Nullity. This ray that kindled dormant life,
Where was it then ? before ? or was it found above 1
Were there parturient powers and latent qualities,
And fecund principles beneath, and active forces
That energized aloft ? Who knows ? Who can declare ?
How and from what has sprung this Universe ? the gods
Themselves are subsequent to its development.
Who, then, can penetrate the secret of its rise ?
Whether 'twas framed or not, made or not made ; he only
Who in the highest heaven sits, the omniscient lord,
Assuredly knows all, or haply knows he not.
The next example is from the first Mandala of the Kig-
veda (121). Like the preceding, it furnishes a good argu-
ment for those who maintain that the purer faith of the
Hindus is properly monotheistic :
What god shall we adore with sacrifice ? l
Him let us praise, the golden child that rose
In the beginning, who was born the lord
The one sole lord of all that is who made
The earth, and formed the sky, who giveth life,
Who giveth strength, whose bidding gods revere,
Whose hiding-place is immortality,
Whose shadow, death ; who by his might is king
Of all the breathing, sleeping, waking world
Who governs men and beasts, whose majesty
These snowy hills, this ocean with its rivers
Declare ; of whom these spreading regions form
The arms ; by whom the firmament is strong,
1 In the text this question is repeated at the end of every verse. A
literal translation will be found in Muir's Sanskrit Texts, vol. iv. p. 16.
THE HYMNS OF THE VEDA. 21
Earth firmly planted, and the highest heavens
Supported, and the clouds that fill the air
Distributed and measured out ; to whom
Both earth and heaven, established by his will,
Look up with trembling mind ; in whom revealed
The rising sun shines forth above the world.
Where'er let loose in space, the mighty waters
Have gone, depositing a fruitful seed
And generating fire, there he arose,
Who is the breath and life of all the gods,
Whose mighty glance looks round the vast expanse
Of watery vapour source of energy,
Cause of the sacrifice the only God
Above the gods. May he not injure us !
He the Creator of the earth the righteous
Creator of the sky, Creator too
Of oceans bright, and far-extending waters.
Let me now give a few verses (not in regular order and
not quite literally translated) from the celebrated Purusha-
sukta, one of the most recent of the hymns of the Rig-
veda (M.indala X. 90). It will serve to illustrate the
gradual sliding of Hindu monotheism into pantheism, and
the first foreshadowing of the institution of caste, which
for so many centuries has held India in bondage :
The embodied spirit l has a thousand heads,
A thousand eyes, a thousand feet, around
On every side enveloping the earth,
Yet filling space no larger than a span. 2
He is himself this very universe,
He is whatever is, has been, and shall be.
He is the lord of immortality.
All creatures are one-fourth of him, three-fourths
1 According to the Upanishads and the Tattva-samasa the all-per-
vading self -existent spirit is called Purusha, puri sayandt, from dwelling
in the body.
2 Dr. Muir translates (literally), ' He overpassed the earth by a
space of ten fingers.' The Katha Upanishad (II. 4. 12) says that
Purusha, 'the soul,' is of the measure of a thumb (anrgushtha-matrah).
22 INDIAN WISDOM.
Are that which is immortal in the sky.
From him, called Purusha, was born Viraj,
And from Viraj was Purusha produced l
Whom gods and holy men made their oblation. *
With Purusha as victim they performed
A sacrifice. When they divided him,
How did they cut him up 1 what was his mouth ?
What were his arms 1 and what his thighs and feet ?
The Brahman was his mouth, the kingly soldier 2
Was made his arms, the husbandman his thighs,
The servile S'udra issued from his feet.
I close my examples of the Mantras with slightly
amplified versions of two hymns one in praise of Time,
personified as the source of all things, taken from the
Atharva-veda ; the other addressed to Night, from the
Rig-veda. 3
The following is the hymn to Time (Atharva-veda
XIX. 53). A few verses at the end are omitted, one or
two lines transposed, and a few inserted from the next
hymn on the same subject :
Time, like a brilliant steed with seven rays,
And with a thousand eyes, imperishable,
Full of fecundity, bears all things onward.
On him ascend the learned and the wise.
Time, like a seven- wheeled, seven-naved car, moves on.
1 This is tantamount to saying that Purusha and Viraj are in sub-
stance the same. Viraj, as a kind of secondary creator, is sometimes
regarded as male, sometimes as female. Manu (I, 1 1) says that Purusha,
' the first male,' was called Brahma, and was produced from the supreme
self-existent Spirit. In I. 32 he says that Brahma (see Kulluka's com-
mentary), having divided his own substance, became half male, half
female, and that from the female was produced Viraj, and that from
Viraj was born Manu the secondary progenitor and producer of all
beings.
2 The second caste or Kshatriya is here called Rajanya. By ' hus-
bandman ' in the next line is of course meant the third or Vaisya caste.
3 Both literally translated into prose by Dr. Muir, Texts, vol. v.
p. 408, vol. iv. p. 498.
THE HYMNS OF THE VEDA. 23
His rolling wheels are all the worlds, his axle
Is immortality. He is the first of gods.
We see him like an overflowing jar ;
We see him multiplied in various forms.
He draws forth and encompasses the worlds ;
He is all future worlds ; he is their father ;
He is their son ; there is no power like him.
The past and future issue out of Time,
All sacred knowledge and austerity.
From Time the earth and waters were produced ;
From Time, the rising, setting, burning sun ;
From Time, the wind ; through Time the earth is vast ;
Through Time the eye perceives ; mind, breath, and name
lu him are comprehended. All rejoice
When Time arrives the monarch who has conquered
This world, the highest world, the holy worlds,
Yea, all the worlds and ever marches on.
The hymn to Night is my last example. It is taken
from the tenth Mandala of the Rig-veda (127) :
The goddess Night arrives in all her glory,
Looking about her with her countless eyes.
She, the immortal goddess, throws her veil
Over low valley, rising ground, and hill,
But soon with bright effulgence dissipates
The darkness she produces ; soon advancing
She calls her sister Morning to return,
And then each darksome shadow melts away.
Kind goddess, be propitious to thy servants
Who at thy coming straightway seek repose,
Like birds who nightly nestle in the trees.
Lo ! men and cattle, flocks and winged creatures,
And e'en the ravenous hawks, have gone to rest.
Drive thou away from us, Night, the wolf ;
Drive thou away the thief, and bear us safely
Across thy borders. Then do thou, O Dawn,
Like one who clears away a debt, chase off
This black, yet palpable obscurity,
Which came to fold us in its close embrace.
Receive, O Night, dark daughter of the Day,
My hymn of praise, which I present to thee,
Like some rich offering to a conqueror.
CHAPTER II.
The Brahmanas and Upanishads.
HAVING thus endeavoured to gain an insight into portions
of the Vedic Mantras, turn we now to the second division
of the Veda, called Brahmana, or ritualistic precept and
illustration. This division stands to the Mantra portion
in a relation somewhat resembling that of the Talmud to
the Mosaic code, and of the Hadls or Sunna to the Kuran.
There is, however, a noteworthy difference ; for the Mosaic
code alone contains the true revelation of divine law for
the Jew, and the Kuran for Muslims, whereas the Brah-
manas are as much Veda and Sruti as much revela-
tion, according to the Hindu idea of revelation as the
Mantras.
In fact, in their relation to caste and the dominance of
the Brahmans, these Brahmanas are even more important
than the Hymns. When, however, we are asked to ex-
plain the contents of the Brahmanas, we find it difficult to
define their nature accurately. It is usual to consider
them as a body of ritualistic precepts distributed under
two heads of Vidhi and Artha-vdda, that is, rules and
explanatory remarks. They are really a series of rambling
and unsystematic prose compositions (the oldest of which
may have been written seven or eight centuries B.C.),
intended to serve as ceremonial directories for the use of
the priests in the exercise of their craft, prescribing rules
for the employment of the Mantras at sacrifices, speculat-
ing as to the meaning and effect of certain verses and
metres, and giving detailed explanations of the origin,
24
THE BRAHMANA PORTION OF THE VEDA. 2$
import, and conduct of the sacrifices, with the occasional
addition of controversial remarks (ninda) and illustrations
in the shape of legends and old stories. The great diffuse-
ness of these compositions made them practically useless
as directories to the ritual, until they themselves were
furnished with guides in the form of Sutras or aphoristic
rules, to be afterwards described.
Each of the collections of Mantras has its own Brah-
manas. Thus the Rig-veda has the Aitareya-bramana
(perhaps the oldest) and the Kaushltaki- (or Sau-khayana-)
brahmana. The two collections of the Yajur-veda have
the Taittiriya-brahmana and the Satapatha - brahmana, 1
which last, belonging to the Vajasaneyi-samhita, is per-
haps one of the most complete and interesting of these
productions. The Sama-veda has eight Brahmanas, of
which the best known are the Praudha (Panca-vinsa,
Tandya) and the Shad-vinsa. The Atharva-veda has also
a Brahmana, called Go-patha. 2
Though much of the matter contained in these treatises
is little better than silly sacerdotalism, yet they furnish
valuable materials to any one interested in tracing out the
growth of Brahmauism and many curious and interesting
legends.
One of the most remarkable of these legends, as intro-
ducing the idea of human sacrifice, is called ' the Story of
Sunahsepa' in the Aitareya-brahmana 3 (Haug's edition,
VII. 13; cf. Rig-veda, I. 24, 12, &c., V. 2. 7). It has
1 Edited, with the Vajasaneyi-samhita, by Professor A. Weber of
Berlin.
2 This Brahmana must be less ancient than others, as, according to
some, the Atharva-veda was not recognized as a part of S'ruti, ' revela-
tion,' at the time of the composition of the more ancient Brahmanas.
3 Professor H. H. Wilson conjectured that this Brahmana was
written about six centuries B.C. It is sometimes called Asvalayana-
brahmana.
26 INDIAN WISDOM.
been well translated by more than one scholar. I here
give a metrical epitome of part of the story :
King Harisdandra had no son ; he asked
Great Narada, the sage, ' What benefit
Comes from a son ? ' then Narada replied
' A father by his son clears off a debt, 1
In him a self is born from self. The pleasure
A father has in his own son exceeds
All other pleasures. Food is life, apparel
Is a protection, gold an ornament,
A loving wife the best of friends, a daughter
An object of compassion, 2 but a son
Is like a light sent from the highest heaven.
Go then to Varuiia, the god, and say
" Let but a son be born, O king, to me,
And I will sacrifice that son to thee." '
This Harisc'andra did, and thereupon
A son was born to him, called Rohita.
One day the father thus addressed his son
' I have devoted thee, my son, to him
Who granted thee to me, prepare thyself
For sacrifice to him.' The son said, 'No,'
Then took his bow and left his father's home.
The story goes on to relate that Varuna, being disap-
pointed of his promised victim, punished Hariscandra by
afflicting him with dropsy. Meanwhile
For six long years did Harisdandra's son
Roam in the forest ; there one day he met
A famished Brahman hermit, Ajigarta,
Half dead with hunger in the wilderness.
The hermit was attended by his wife
And three young sons ; then Rohita addressed him
1 A man is in debt to his forefathers till he has a son, because the
happiness of the dead depends on certain ceremonies (called S'raddha)
performed by sons.
2 Those who have lived in the East will perhaps understand why the
birth of a daughter is here described as a calamity.
THE BRAHMAN A PORTION OF THE VEDA. 2/
' Brahman, I will give a hundred cows
For one of these thy sons.' The father answered
Folding his arms around his eldest boy
' I cannot part with him.' The mother then
Clung to her youngest child and weeping said
' I cannot part with him.' Then S'unahsepa,
Their second son, said, ' Father, I will go.' l
So be was purchased for a hundred cows
By Rohita, who forthwith left the forest,
And taking him to Harisc"andra said
' Father, this boy shall be my substitute.'
Then Harisdandra went to Varuna
And prayed, ' Accept this ransom for my son.'
The god replied, ' Let him be sacrificed,
A Brahman is more worthy than a Kshatriya. '
Upon that, the sacrifice with the intended victim was
prepared. Four great Rishis officiated as priests, but they
could not find any one willing to bind the boy to the
sacrificial post. His father Ajigarta, who had followed his
son to the place of sacrifice, then came forward and said
' Give me a hundred cows and I will bind him.'
They gave them to him, and he bound the boy.
But now no person would consent to kill him.
Then said the father, ' Give me yet again
1 The Brahmana merely states that they agreed together upon
selling the middle son. This idea of the voluntary offer of himself on
the part 'of S'unahsepa may, however, be borrowed from the Rama-
yana, where the story is thus related (I. 61, 62) :
Ambarlsha, king of Ayodhya, performed a sacrifice, but the victim
being stolen by Indra, he is told by the priest that either the victim
itself must be recovered, or a human victim substituted in its place.
Ambarlsha wanders over the earth in search of the real victim, and
meets at last with a Brahman named RicTka, to whom he offers a
hundred thousand cattle for one of his sons. Ric"ika refuses to let his
eldest son go, and his wife will not part with the youngest. Upon this
the middle son, S'unah-sepa, volunteers to go, and is accepted. When
about to be offered up as a sacrifice he is saved by Visvamitra, who
teaches him a prayer to Agni, and two hymns to Indra and Vishnu.
28 INDIAN WISDOM.
Another hundred cows and I will slay him.'
Once more they gave a hundred, and the father
Whetted his knife to sacrifice his son.
Then said the child, ' Let me implore the gods,
Haply they will deliver me from death.'
So S'unahsepa prayed to all the gods
With verses from the Yeda, and they heard him.
Thus was the boy released from sacrifice,
And Harisc'andra was restored to health.
As a sequel to the preceding legend I extract the fol-
lowing curious passages from the Aitareya-brahmana, Book
II. (Haug, 1-8), not in order, and not quite literally :
The gods killed a man for their victim. But from him thus killed
the part which was fit for a sacrifice went out and entered a horse.
Thence the horse became an animal fit for being sacrificed. The gods
then killed the horse, but the part fit for being sacrificed went out of
it and entered an ox. The gods then killed the ox, but the part fit for
being sacrificed went out of it and entered a sheep. Thence it entered
a goat. The sacrificial part remained for the longest time in the goat,
thence it became pre-eminently fit for being sacrificed. 1
1 This is curious as indicating that human sacrifice, if it prevailed to
any extent, was superseded by the sacrifice of animals, here enumerated
in the regular order of their fitness for sacrifice according to some sup-
posed inherent efficacy in each class. Such sacrifices were held to be
propitiatory, though one object of a Hindu's oblations was to afford
actual nourishment to the gods, food being a supposed necessity of
their being. The Asva-medha, or ' horse-sacrifice,' was a very ancient
ceremony, hymns 162 and 163 in Mandala I. of the Eig-veda being
used at this rite. It was regarded as the chief of all animal sacrifices,
and in later times its efficacy was so exaggerated that a hundred horse-
sacrifices entitled the sacrificer to displace Indra from the dominion
of heaven. Some think that the horse was not actually immolated,
but merely bound to the post. Mr. Hardwick, in his valuable work,
' Christ and other Masters,' gives some interesting remarks on the
five heads of Hindu sacrifices (vol. i. p. 324). The five heads are
i. Agni-hotra, burnt-offerings and libations of butter on fire every
morning and evening (see p. 121 ) ; 2, Darsapurnamdsa, half- monthly
sacrifices at new and full moon ; 3. Caturmasya, sacrifices every four
THE BRAHMANA PORTION OF THE VEDA. 29
The gods went up to heaven by means of sacrifice. They were
afraid that men and sages, after having seen their sacrifice, might
inquire how they could obtain some knowledge of sacrificial rites and
follow them. They therefore debarred them by means of the Yupa
(or post to which the victim was fastened), turning its point down-
wards. Thereupon the men and sages dug the post out and turned
its point upwards. Thus they became aware of the sacrifice and
reached the heavenly world.
The following lines may serve to give an outline of
another curious legend in the Aitareya-brahmana (Haug's
edition, I. 23), written perhaps seven or eight centuries
B.C. :
The gods and demons were engaged in warfare.
The evil demons, like to mighty kings,
Made these worlds castles; then they formed the earth
Into an iron citadel, the air
Into a silver fortress, and the sky
Into a fort of gold. Whereat the gods
Said to each other, ' Frame we other worlds
In opposition to these fortresses.'
Then they constructed sacrificial places,
Where they performed a triple burnt oblation.
By the first sacrifice they drove the demons
Out of their earthly fortress, by the second
Out of the air, and by the third oblation
Out of the sky. Thus were the evil spirits
Chased by the gods in triumph from the worlds.
I next give a metrical version of part of a well-known
legend in the Satapatha-brahmana (Professor Weber's edi-
tion, I. 8. i. i), which represents the Indo-Aryan tradition
of the flood as it existed in India many centuries before
the Christian era, perhaps not much later than the time
of David :
months ; 4. Asva-medha and pasu-yajna, sacrifices of animals ; 5. Soma-
yajna, offerings and libations of the juice of the Soma or moon-plant
(to Indra especially). Goats are still offered to Kali, but Buddhism
tended to abolish animal sacrifice in India.
30 INDIAN WISDOM.
There lived in ancient time a holy man,
Called Manu, 1 who by penances and prayers
Had won the favour of the lord of heaven.
One day they brought him water for ablution ;
Then, as he washed his hands, a little fish
Appeared and spoke in human accents thus
' Take care of me and I will be thy saviour.'
' From what wilt thou preserve me ? ' Manu asked.
The fish replied, ' A flood will sweep away
All creatures, I will rescue thee from that.'
' But how shall I preserve thee 1 ' Manu said.
The fish rejoined, ' So long as we are small
We are in constant danger of destruction ;
For fish eats fish ; so keep me in a jar ;
When I outgrow the jar, then dig a trench
And place me there ; when I outgrow the trench,
Then take me to the ocean, I shall then
Be out of reach of danger.' Having thus
Instructed Manu, straightway rapidly
The fish grew larger ; then he spake again
' In such and such a year the flood will come ;
Therefore construct a ship and pay me homage.
When the flood rises, enter thou the ship,
And I will rescue thee.' So Manu did
As he was ordered, and preserved the fish,
Then carried it in safety to the ocean ;
And in the very year the fish enjoined
He built a ship and paid the fish respect,
And there took refuge when the flood arose.
Soon near him swam the fish, and to its horn
Manu made fast the cable of his vessel.
Thus drawn along the waters Manu passed
Beyond the northern mountain. Then the fish,
Addressing Manu, said, ' I have preserved thee;
Quickly attach the ship to yonder tree.
But, lest the waters sink from under thee j
1 According to the later mythology this Manu was not the first
Manu, held to be the author of the well-known Code, but the seventh
or Manu (Vaivasvata) of the present period, regarded as a progenitor
of the human race, and represented as conciliating the favour of the
Supreme Being by his piety in an age of universal depravity.
THE UPANISHADS. 31
As fast as they subside, so fast shalt them
Descend the mountain gently after them.'
Thus he descended from the northern mountain.
The flood had swept away all living creatures ;
Manu alone was left. Wishing for offspring,
He earnestly performed a sacrifice.
In a year's time a female was produced.
She came to Manu, then he said to her,
' Who art thou ? ' She replied, ' I am thy daughter.'
He said, ' How, lovely lady, can that be 1 '
' I came forth,' she rejoined, ' from thine oblations
Cast on the waters ; thou wilt find in me
A blessing, use me in the sacrifice.'
With her he worshipped and with toilsome zeal
Performed religious rites, hoping for offspring.
Thus were created men, called sons of Manu.
Whatever benediction he implored
With her, was thus vouchsafed in full abundance.
We shall see hereafter that the fish which figures in this
story is declared, in the Mahabharata, to be an incarnation
of Brahma, the creator, who assumed this form to preserve
the pious Manu from perishing in the waters.
The Brahmanas express belief in a future life more posi-
tively than the Mantras. They also assert that a recom-
pense awaits all beings in the next world according to
their conduct in this. But the doctrine of transmigration,
which became afterwards an essential element of the Hindu
religion, is not developed. 1 There is a remarkable passage
in the Satapatha-brahmana (X. 4. 3. 9), some idea of which
may be gained from the following lines :
The gods lived constantly in dread of death
The mighty Ender so with toilsome rites
They worshipped and performed religious acts
Till they became immortal. Then the Ender
Said to the gods, ' As ye have made yourselves
1 See the third of Professor Weber's Indische Streifen, and compare
note 2, p. 56.
32 INDIAN WISDOM.
Imperishable, so will men endeavour
To free themselves from me ; what portion then
Shall I possess in man ? ' The gods replied,
' Henceforth no being shall become immortal
In his own body ; this his mortal frame
Shalt thou still seize ; this shall remain thy own.
He who through knowledge or religious works
Henceforth attains to immortality
Shall first present his body, Death, to thee.'
I add one other passage extracted from the Aitareya-
brahmana (Dr.Haug's edition, III. 44) :
The sun never sets nor rises. When people think to themselves the
sun is setting, he only changes about (viparyasyate) after reaching the
end of the day, and makes night below and day to what is on the other
side. Then when people think he rises in the morning, he only shifts
himself about after reaching the end of the night, and makes day below
and night to what is on the other side. In fact, he never does set at
all. Whoever knows this, that the sun never sets, enjoys union and
sameness of nature with him and abides in the same sphere. \_Atha yad
enam prdtar udetlti manyante rdtrer eva tad antam itvd atlia dtmdnam
viparyasyate, ahar eva avastdt kurute rdtrlm parastat. Sa vai esha na
kaddcana nimrocati. Na lia vai kaddcana nimrocaty etasya ha sayvjyam
sarupatdm salokatdm asnute ya evam vedaJ\
We may close the subject of the Brahmanas by paying a
tribute of respect to the acuteness of the Hindu mind, which
seems to have made some shrewd astronomical guesses
more than 2000 years before the birth of Copernicus.
The Upanishads.
I come now to the third division of the Veda, called
Upanishad, or mystical doctrine (rahasya). The title Upa-
nishad (derived from the root sad with the prepositions
upa and ni x ) may imply either something mystical that
1 According to some authorities, upa-ni-shad means ' to set ignorance
at rest by revealing the knowledge of the supreme spirit ; ' according
to others, it means ' to sit down at the feet of a teacher so as to learn
from him his most secret doctrines.'
THE UPANISHADS. 33
underlies the surface, or the esoteric doctrine taught to a
pupil who sits near his master. Whatever may be the true
meaning of the word, these Upanishads do in fact lie at the
root of what may- be called the philosophical side of Hin-
duism. Not only are they as much sruti, or revelation, as
the Mantra and Brahmana, but they are practically the only
Veda of all thoughtful Hindus in the present day.
There appear, in real truth, to be two sides to almost
every religious system. Perhaps the one religion of the
world that offers the same doctrines both to the learned
and unlearned is Christianity. Its deeper truths may be
mysteries, but they are not restricted to any single class
of men ; they are open to the reception of all, and offered
equally to the apprehension of all. The case is different
with other religions. We know that the Greeks and
Romans had their so-called mysteries reserved only for the
initiated. We have all heard of Esoteric Buddhism, Occult-
ism, and Theosophy. Even the Kuran is held to possess an
exoteric or evident meaning called zahr, and an esoteric,
deeper significance called batn ; and in later times a mys-
tical system of pantheistic philosophy called Sufi-ism was
developed in Persia out of this esoteric teaching.
Very similar too is the Hindu idea of Veda or sacred
knowledge. It is said to possess two quite distinct
branches. The first is called Karma-kanda, which, embrac-
ing both Mantra and Brahmana, is for that vast majority
of persons who are unable to conceive of religion except as
a process of laying up merit by external rites. For these
the one God, although really without form, assumes various
forms with the sole object of lowering himself to the level
of human understandings. The second branch of the Veda,
on the other hand, is called Jnana-kanda, and is reserved
for that select few who are capable of the true knowledge. 1
1 The one implies action, the other cessation from all action. This
division of the Veda is recognised by Manu, see XII. 88.
34 INDIAN WISDOM.
What then, it will be asked, is this true knowledge?
The answer is, that the creed of the man who is said to
possess the true Veda is singularly simple. He believes
in the unity of all being. In other words, that there is
but one real Being in the universe, which Being also con-
stitutes the universe. This, it will be said, is simple pan-
theism, but it is at least a pantheism of a very spiritual
kind ; for this one Being is thought of as the great universal
Spirit, the only really existing Soul, with which all seem-
ingly existing material substances are identified, and into
which the separate souls of men, falsely regarded as ema-
nations from it, must be ultimately merged.
This, then, is the pantheistic doctrine everywhere trace-
able in some of the more ancient Upanishads, though often
wrapped up in mystic language and fantastic allegory. A
list of about 150 of these treatises has been given, but
the absence of all trustworthy historical records in India
makes it impossible to fix the date of any of them with
certainty. Some of the more ancient, however, may be
as old as 500 years before Christ. These are appended to
the Aranyakas certain chapters of the Brahmanas so awe-
inspiring and obscure that they were required to be read
in the solitude of forests. Properly each Brahmana had
its Aranyakas, but the mystical doctrines they contained
were so mixed up with extraneous subjects that the chap-
ters called Upanishads appear to have been added with
the object of investigating more definitely such abstruse
problems as the origin of the universe, the nature of deity,
the nature of the soul, and the reciprocal connection of
spirit and matter.
It is interesting to trace the rudiments of the later
philosophy amid the labyrinth of mystic language, fanciful
etymologies, far-fetched analogies, and puerile conceits
which bewilder the reader of the Upanishads. Moreover,
it is instructive to mark the connection of these treatises
THE UPANISHADS. 35
with the Brahmanas, manifested by the frequent intro-
duction of legendary matter and allusions to sacrificial
rites. The language of both, though occasionally archaic,
is less so than that of the Mantras, and differs little from
classical Sanskrit.
The following are some of the most important Upa-
nishads : the Aitareya Upanishad and Kaushitaki-brah-
mana Upanishad l of the Rig-veda ; the Taittiriya belonging
to the Taittiriya, or Black Yajur-veda ; the Brihad-
aranyaka attached to the Satapatha-brahmana of the
Vajasaneyin, or White Yajur-veda, and the Isa or Isavasya
forming an actual part (the 4oth chapter) of the Va-
jasaneyin (this being the only instance of an Upanishad
attached to the Mantra rather than to the Brahmana
portion of a Veda) ; the Chandogya and Kena 2 belonging
to the Sanaa- veda ; the Prasna, Mundaka, Mandukya, and
Katha belonging to the Atharva-veda. In some of these
works (written generally in prose in the form of dialogues,
with occasional variations in verse) striking thoughts, ori-
ginal ideas, and lofty sentiments may be found scattered
here and there, as I hope now to show. I commence my
examples with a nearly literal translation of about half of
a very short Upanishad the Isa : 3
Whate'er exists within this universe
Is all to be regarded as enveloped
By the great Lord (Isa from Is), as if wrapped in a vesture.
Renounce, man, the world, and covet not
Another's wealth, so shalt thou save thy soul.
Perform religious works, so may'st thou wish
To live a hundred years ; in this way only
1 Edited and translated for the Bibliotheca Indica by Professor
Cowell.
2 Also called Talava-kara, and also assigned to the Atharva-veda.
3 This has been well edited and translated into prose by Dr. Rber.
Sir W. Jones translated the Isa, but by no means literally.
36 INDIAN WISDOM.
May'st thou engage in worldly acts, untainted.
To worlds immersed in darkness, tenanted
By evil spirits, shall they go at death,
Who in this life are killers of their souls.
There is one only Being who exists
Unmoved, yet moving swifter than the mind ;
Who far outstrips the senses, though as gods
They strive to reach him ; who himself at rest
Transcends the fleetest flight of other beings ;
Who, like the air, supports all vital action.
He moves, yet moves not ; he is far, yet near ;
He is within this universe, and yet
Outside this universe; whoe'er beholds
All living creatures as in him, and him
The universal Spirit as in all,
Henceforth regards no creature with contempt.
The man who understands that every creature
Exists in God alone, and thus perceives
The unity of being, has no grief
And no illusion. He, the all-pervading,
Is brilliant, without body, sinewless,
Invulnerable, pure, and undefiled
By taint of sin. He also is all-wise,
The Ruler of the mind, above all beings,
The Self-existent. He created all things
Just as they are from aD eternity.
Next we may pass to a few passages selected from
different portions of the Brihad-aranyaka Upanishad a
long and tedious but important work :
In this universe there was not anything at first distinguishable.
But indeed it was enveloped by Death, and Death is Voracity that is
to say, the desire to devour (I. 2. i).
As the web issues from the spider, as little sparks proceed from fire,
so from the one Soul proceed all breathing animals, all worlds, all the
gods, and all beings (II. i, 20).
Being in this world we may know the Supreme Spirit ; if there be
ignorance of him, then complete death ensues ; those who know him
become immortal (IV. 4. 14).
THE UPANISHADS. 37
When a person regards his own soul as truly God, as the lord of
what was and is to be, then he does not wish to conceal himself from
that Soul (IV. 4. 15).
That Soul the gods adore as the light of lights (jyotishdm jyotih),
and as the immortal life (IV. 4. 16).
Those who know him as the life of life, the eye of the eye, the ear of
the ear, and the mind of the mind, have comprehended the eternal
pre-existing Spirit (IV. 4. 18).
By the mind is he to be perceived, in him there is no variation.
Whoever sees variation in him obtains death after death (IV. 4. 19).
Infinitely full (or pervasive) is that Spirit (regarded as independent
of all relation) ; infinite too is this Spirit (in his relations and attri-
butes). From the infinite is drawn out the infinite. On taking the
infinite from the infinite, there remains the infinite (V. i).
'I am Brahma.' Whoever knows this, 'I am Brahma,' knows
all. Even the gods are unable to prevent his becoming Brahma
(I. 4. 10).
Man indeed is like a lofty tree, the lord of the forest. His hair is
like the leaves, his skin the external bark. From his skin flows blood
as sap from the bark ; it issues from his wounded body like sap from a
stricken tree. If a tree be cut down, it springs up anew from the
root. From what root does mortal man grow again when hewn down
by death ? [Of. Job xiv. 7-10.] The root is Brahma, who is know-
ledge and bliss (III. 9. 28).
The Ohandogya Upanishad of the Sama-veda has some
interesting passages. In the seventh chapter occurs a
dialogue between Narada and Sanat-kumara, in which the
latter, in explaining the nature of God, asserts that a
knowledge of the four Vedas, Itihasas, Puranas, and such
works, is useless without the knowledge of Brahma, the
universal Spirit (VII. i. 4):
The knowledge of these works is a mere name. Speech is greater
than this name, Mind than Speech, Will than Mind, Sensation (or the
capacity of feeling) is greater than Mind, Reflection is higher than
Sensation, Knowledge than Reflection, Power than Knowledge, and
38 INDIAN WISDOM.
highest of all stands Prana or Life. As the spokes of a wheel are
attached to the nave, so are all things attached to Life. 1
This Life ought to be approached with faith and reverence, and
viewed as an Immensity which abides in its own glory. That immen-
sity extends from above and from below, from behind and from before,
from the south and from the north. It is the Soul of the universe.
It is God himself. The man who is conscious of this divinity incurs
neither disease, nor pain, nor death.
But lest the deity might from this description be con-
founded with space, it is afterwards stated that he is
inconceivably minute, dwelling in a minute chamber of
the heart ; and lest this should lead to the notion of his
being finite, he is afterwards declared to be the Envelope
of all creation.
In another part of the work (VI. 10) human souls are
compared to rivers :
These rivers proceed from the East towards the West, thence from
the ocean they rise in the form of vapour, and dropping again they
flow towards the South and merge into the ocean.
Again (VIII. 4), the supreme Soul is compared to a
bridge which cannot be crossed by disease, death, grief,
virtue, or vice :
Crossing this bridge, the blind cease to be blind, the wounded to be
wounded, the afflicted to be afflicted, and on crossing this bridge nights
become days; for ever-refulgent is the region of the universal Spirit.
Here is a portion of a passage in the Chandogya Upani-
shad (VI. 2) which has some celebrity as containing the
well-known Vedantist formula eJcam evddvitiyam :
In the beginning there was the mere state of being (TO OK) one only
without a second. Some, however, say that in the beginning there was
1 Cf. the hymn to Prana, Atharva-veda, XI. 4 (Muir's Texts, vol. v.
p. 394). It begins thus, ' Reverence to Prana, to whom this universe
is subject, who has become the lord of all, on whom all is supported.'
The text of this Veda has been edited in a masterly manner by Pro-
fessors W. D. Whitney and R Roth.
THE UPANISHADS. 39
the state of non-being (TO ^ o'c) one only without a second. Hence out
of a state of non-being would proceed a state of being. But, of a truth,
how can this be ? How can being (TO O'K) proceed out of non-being ? In
the beginning, then, there was the mere state of being one only with-
out a second. It willed, 1 ' I shall multiply and be born.' It created
heat. That heat willed, ' I shall multiply and be born.' It created
water. The water willed, 'I shall multiply and be born.' It created
aliment. Therefore, wherever rain falls much aliment is produced.
That deity willed, ' Entering these three divinities in a living form, I
shall develop name and form.'
In the Mundaka Upanishad 2 there are some interesting
passages. The following is from the second section of the
second Mundaka (5) :
Know him, the Spirit, to be one alone. Give up all words contrary
to this. He is the bridge of immortality.
The following remarkable passage from the third Mun-
daka (i. 1-3) is quoted by the San-khyas in support of
their doctrine of a duality of principle, but is also appealed
to by Vedantists. It rests on a Mantra of the Big-veda
(I. 164. 20), explained by Say ana in a Vedantic sense : 3 -
1 I follow Dr. Roer. Subjoined are divided Sanskrit words of
the fragment taken from the original text : Sad eva idam agre asld;
eJcam eva advitiyam. Tad ha eke dhur asad eva idam agre dsid, eJcam
eva advitiyam, tasmdd asatah saj jdyeta. Kutas tu khdlu sydd iti,
katham asatah saj jdyeta iti. Sat tv eva idam agre asld ekam eva
advitiyam. Tad aiksliata bahu sydm prajayeya iti, tat tejo asrijata.
Tat teja aiJcshata bahu sydm prajayeya iti, tad apo asrijata. Td dpa
aikshanta bahvah sydma prajdyemahi iti td annam asrijanta. Tasmdd
yatra kva ca varshati tad eva bhuyishtham annam bhavati. Sd iyam
devatd ailcshata, aham imds tisro devatd jlvena dtmand anupravisya
iidma-rupe vydkaravdni iti.
2 The name Mundaka is derived from Mund, ' to shave,' because he
who understands the doctrine of this Upanishad is 'shorn' of all error.
3 Subjoined is the Mantra : Dvd suparnd scnjujd sakhdyd samdnam
rrikxham parishasvajdte, Tayor anyah pippalam svadv atty an-asnann
anyo abhicdkasiti, ' two birds associated together as friends inhabit the
same tree. The one of them tastes the sweet fig, the other looks on
40 INDIAN WISDOM.
Two birds (the Paramatman and Jlvatman or supreme and individual
souls) always united, of the same name, occupy the same tree (abide in
the same body). One of them (the Jlvatman) enjoys the sweet fruit of
the fig (or fruit of acts), the other looks on as a witness. Dwelling on
the same tree (with the supreme Soul), the deluded (individual) soul,
immersed (in worldly relations), is grieved by the want of power; but
when it perceives the Ruler, separate (from worldly relations) and his
glory, then its grief ceases. When the beholder sees the golden-coloured
maker (of the world), the lord, the soul, the source of Brahma, then
having become wise, shaking off virtue and vice, without taint of any
kind, he obtains the highest identity (Roer's edition, p. 305).
Here are two or three other examples from the same
Upanishad :
As the spider casts out and draws in (its web), as from a living man
the hairs of the head and body spring forth, so is produced the universe
from the indestructible Spirit (I. i. 7).
As from a blazing fire consubstantial sparks proceed in a thousand
ways, so from the imperishable (Spirit) various living souls are produced,
and they return to him too (II. i. i).
As flowing rivers are resolved into the sea, losing their names and
forms, so the wise, freed from name and form, pass into the divine
Spirit, which is greater than the great. He who knows that supreme
Spirit becomes spirit (III. 2. 8, 9).
One of the most ancient and important Upanishads is
the Katha. It enjoys considerable reputation in India,
and is also well known by Sanskrit students in Europe.
It opens with the story of Naciketas.
without enjoying.' S'an-kara, commenting on the Upanishad, explains
salfhdya by samana-lchyatau, ' of the same name.' He also remarks that
the Pippala or Asvattha, ' holy fig-tree,' having roots above and branches
bent downwards, is allegorical, and that each tree, springing from an
un perceived root, is emblematic of the body, which really springs from
and is one with Brahma. In the Katha VI. i and Bhagavad-gita XV.
13 the same tree is said to typify the universe. It is supposed to be
the male of the Vata or Banyan (Ficus Indica).
THE UPANISHADS. 41
He was the pious son of a sage who had given all his
property to the priests, and who, in a fit of irritation,
devoted his son to Death.
Naciketas is described as going to Death's abode, and
there, having propitiated Yama, he is told to choose three
boons. The youth chose, for the first boon, that he might
be restored to life and see his reconciled father once more ;
for the second, that he might know the fire by which
heaven is gained. When asked to name the third boon,
he addresses the god of death thus,
Some say the soul exists after death, others say it does not exist.
I request, as my third boon, that I may be instructed by thee in the
true answer to this question.
Death tries to put him off, entreating him to choose any
other boon than this ; but the youth persisting in his
demand to be enlightened as to the mysteries of the next
world, Yama at length gives way and enlarges upon the
desired theme in the following manner (Valli II.) :
The good, the pleasant, these are separate ends,
The one or other all mankind pursue ;
But those who seek the good, alone are blest ;
Who choose the pleasant miss man's highest aim.
The sage the truth discerns, not so the fool.
But thou, my son, with wisdom hast abandoned
The fatal road of wealth that leads to death.
Two other roads there are all wide apart,
Ending in widely different goals the one
Called ignorance, the other knowledge this,
O Na<5iketas, thou dost well to choose.
The foolish follow ignorance, but think
They tread the road of wisdom, circling round
With erring steps, like blind men led by blind.
The careless youth, by lust of gain deceived,
Knows but one world, one life ; to him the Now
Alone exists, the Future is a dream.
The highest aim of knowledge is the soul ;
This is a miracle, beyond the ken
42 INDIAN WISDOM.
Of common mortals, thought of though it be,
And variously explained by skilful teachers.
Who gains this knowledge is a marvel too.
He lives above the cares the griefs and joys
Of time and sense seeking to penetrate
The fathomless unborn eternal essence.
The slayer thinks he slays, the slain
Believes himself destroyed, the thoughts of both
Are false, the soul survives, nor kills, nor dies ;
Tis subtler than the subtlest, greater than
The greatest, infinitely small, yet vast,
Asleep, yet restless, moving everywhere
Among the bodies ever bodiless
Think not to grasp it by the reasoning mind ;
The wicked ne'er can know it ; soul alone
Knows soul, to none but soul is soul revealed.
In the third Valli (3, 4, &c.) of the same Upanishad the
soul is compared to a rider in a chariot, the body being
the chariot, the intellect the charioteer, the mind the
reins, the passions or senses the horses, and the objects of
sense the roads. The unwise man neglects to apply the
reins ; in consequence of which the passions, like unre-
strained vicious horses, rush about hither and thither,
carrying the charioteer wherever they please. 1
In the fifth Valli (i i) the following sentiment occurs :
As the sun, the eye of the whole world, is not sullied by the defects of
the (human) eye or of external objects, so the inner soul of all beings is
not sullied by the misery of the world.
1 Compare Manu II. 88, ' In the restraint of the organs running wild
among objects of sense, which hurry him away hither and thither, a wise
man should make diligent effort, like a charioteer restraining restive
steeds.' So Plato in the Phaedrus (54, 74) compares the soul to a
charioteer (the reason) driving a pair of winged steeds, one of which (the
will) is obedient to the rein, and tries to control its wild and vicious yoke-
fellow (the appetite) : fp'X,fi d/e/AO,ajjv vJ/u^Jj* sxaffrjjn, ixiro(iiip<f>M ^i ^JG rm
f/'Sfy ri\iioyjx.<iv fa /<5oj rplrov, x. r. A.
THE UPANISHADS. 43
I now add a few extracts from one of the most modern
of these treatises, called Svetasvatara, 1 which may serve
to show how epithets of the Supreme Being are heaped
together by the writers of the Upanishads without much
order and often with apparent contradiction :
Him may we know, the ruler of all rulers,
The god of gods, the lord of lords, the greater
Than all the greatest, the resplendent being,
The world's protector, worthy of all homage.
Of him there is not cause nor yet effect.
He is the cause, lord of the lord of causes,
None is there like him, none superior to him,
His power is absolute, yet various,
Dependent on himself, acting with knowledge,
He the one god is hidden in all beings,
Pervades their inner souls and rules their actions,
Dwelling within their hearts, a witness, thinker,
The singly perfect, without qualities.
He is the Universe's maker, he
Its knower, soul and origin of all,
Maker of time, endowed with every virtue,
Omniscient, lord of all embodied beings,
Lord of the triple qualities, the cause
Of man's existence, bondage and release,
Eternal, omnipresent, without parts,
All-knowing, tranquil, spotless, without blame,
The light, the bridge of immortality,
Subtler than what is subtlest, many-shaped,
One penetrator of the universe,
All-blest, unborn, incomprehensible,
Above, below, between, invisible
To mortal eyes, the mover of all beings,
Whose name is Glory, matchless, infinite,
The perfect spirit, with a thousand heads,
A thousand eyes, a thousand feet, the ruler
1 Of the Yajur-veda, though sometimes found (according to Cole-
brooke) in Atharva-veda collections. See Weber's Indische Studien,
I. 420-439-
44 INDIAN WISDOM.
Of all that is, that was, that is to be,
Diffused through endless space, yet of the measure
Of a man's thumb, abiding in the heart,
Known only by the heart, whoever knows him
Gains everlasting peace and deathlessness. 1
I close these extracts from the Upanishads by a metrical
version of part of the first chapter of a short Upanishad
called Maitrayani or Maitrayaniya, belonging to the Black
Yajur-veda : 2
In this decaying body, made of bones,
Skin, tendons, membranes, muscles, blood, saliva,
Full of putrescence and impurity,
What relish can there be for true enjoyment 1 3
In this weak body, ever liable
To wrath, ambition, avarice, illusion,
To fear, grief, envy, hatred, separation
From those we hold most dear, association
With those we hate ; continually exposed
To hunger, thirst, disease, decrepitude,
Emaciation, growth, decline, and death,
What relish can there be for true enjoyment ?
The universe is tending to decay,
Grass, trees, and animals spring up and die.
But what are they ? Earth's mighty men are gone,
Leaving their joys and glories ; they have passed
Out of this world into the realm of spirits.
But what are they ? Beings greater still than these,
Gods, demigods, and demons, all have gone.
1 Most of these epithets will be found in the following sections of the
SVetasvatara Upanishad VI. 7, 8, n, 17, 19, IV. 14, 17, 19, &c. Com-
pare the extract from the Purusha-sukta given at p. 21.
2 Also called Maitrayani, Maitrayana, Maitri, and Maitri. Under the
latter name it has been well edited and translated for the Bibliotheca
Indica by Professor E. B. Cowell. It is in seven chapters, the first of
which was translated into prose by Sir W. Jones, but without any name.
My version is partly based on his, but I have consulted Professor Cowell's
more accurate translation.
3 Compare Manu VI. 77.
THE UPANISHADS. 45
But what are they ? for others greater still
Have passed away, vast oceans have been dried,
Mountains thrown down, the polar star displaced,
The cords that bind the planets rent asunder,
The whole earth deluged with a flood of water,
E'en highest angels driven from their stations.
In such a world what relish can there be
For true enjoyment ? deign to rescue us ;
Thou only art our refuge, holy lord. 1
1 The following sentiment occurs in the text before the concluding
line : Andliodapana-stlio bheka iva aliam asmin samsdre :
Living in such a world I seem to be
A frog abiding in a dried-up well.
Compare some of the Stoical reflections of Marcus Aurelius, given by
Archdeacon F. W. Farrar in his ' Seekers after God : '-
' Oil, sweat, dirt, filthy water, all things disgusting so is every part
of life.'
' Enough of this wretched life, and murmuring, and apish trifles.'
' All the present time is a point in eternity. All things are little,
changeable, perishable.'
CHAPTER III.
The Systems of Philosophy.
I MUST now advert in a general way to the six systems
of philosophy which grew out of the Upanishads. They
are sometimes called the six Sastras or bodies of teach-
ino-, sometimes the Shad Darsanas or six Demonstrations.
O'
They are
1. The Nyaya, founded by Gotama.
2. The Vaiseshika, by Kanada.
3. The San-khya, by Kapila.
4. The Yoga, by Patanjali.
5. The Mimansa, by Jaimini.
6. The Vedanta, by Badarayana or Vyasa.
They are delivered in Sutras or aphorisms, which are
held to be the basis of all subsequent teaching under each
head. These Sutras are often so brief and obscure as to
be absolutely unintelligible without a commentary. They
are commonly called ' aphorisms, but really are mere
memorial suggestions of the briefest possible kind, skil-
fully contrived for aiding the recollection of the teachers
of each system. Probably the first to comment upon the
Sutras thus delivered was the author of them himself.
He was followed by a vast number of other commentators
in succeeding generations (generally a triple set), and by
writers who often embodied in treatises or compendiums
of their own the tenets of the particular school to which
they were attached. The most celebrated of all commen-
tators is the great San-kara Acarya, a native of Malabar,
who lived probably between 650 and 740 A.D., and wrote
46
THE SYSTEMS OF PHILOSOPHY. 47
almost countless works, including commentaries on the
Upanishads, Vedauta-sutras, and Bhagavad-gita.
It is as impossible to settle the date of any of the
Sutras with certainty as it is to determine the period of
the composition of any single work in Sanskrit literature.
Moreover, it is scarcely practicable to decide as to which
of the six systems of philosophy preceded the other in
point of time, though probably the San-khya was the most
ancient. All we can say is, that about 500 years before
the commencement of the Christian era a great stir seems
to have taken place in Indo- Aryan, as in Grecian minds,
and indeed in thinking minds everywhere throughout the
then civilized world. Thus when Buddha arose iu India,
Greece had her thinkers in the disciples of Pythagoras,
Persia in those of Zoroaster, 1 and China in those of Con-
fucius. Men began to ask themselves earnestly such
questions as What am I ? whence have I come ? whither
am I going ? How can I explain my consciousness of
personal existence ? What is the relationship between
my material and immaterial nature ? What is this world
in which I find myself? Did a wise, good, and all-powerful
Being create it out of nothing ? or did it evolve itself out
of an eternal germ ? or did it come together by the com-
bination of eternal atoms ? If created by a Being of
infinite wisdom, how can I account for the inequalities of
condition in it good and evil, happiness and misery?
Has the Creator form, or is he formless ? Has he any
qualities or none ?
Certainly in India no satisfactory solution of questions
such as these was likely to be obtained from the prayers
and hymns of the ancient Indo-Aryan poets, which, though
1 Zoroaster himself, however, seems to have lived many centuries
before. Pythagoras and Confucius were probably contemporaries of
Buddha.
48 INDIAN WISDOM.
called Veda or 'knowledge' by the Brahmaus, did not
even profess to furnish any real knowledge on these
points, but merely gave expression to the first gropings
of the human mind, searching for truth by the uncertain
light of natural phenomena. 1
Nor did the ritualistic Brahmanas contribute anything
to the elucidation of such topics. They merely encouraged
the growth of a superstitious belief in the efficacy of sac-
rifices and fostered the increasing dependence of the mul-
titude on a mediatorial caste of priests, supposed to be
qualified to stand between them and an angry god. Still
these momentous questions pressed for solution, and the
minds of men finding no rest in mere traditional revela-
tion, and no satisfaction in mere external rites, turned
inwards, each thinker endeavouring to think out the great
problems of life for himself by the aid of his own reason.
Hence were composed those. vague mystical rationalistic
speculations called Upanishads, of which examples have
been already given. Be it remembered that these treatises
were not regarded as antagonistic to revelation, but rather
as completory of it. They were held to be an integral
portion of the Veda or true knowledge ; and, even more
they so rose in the estimation of thoughtful persons
that they ended by taking rank as its most important
portion, its grandest and noblest utterance, the apex to
which all previous revelation tended. Probably the
simple fact was, that as it was found impossible to stem
the progress of free inquiry, the Brahmans with true
wisdom determined on making rationalistic speculation
their own, and dignifying its first development in the
Upanisbads with the title of Veda. Probably, too, some
1 The second aphorism of the San-khya-karika states distinctly that
Anusravika, or knowledge derived from S'ruti the revelation con-
tained in the Veda is ineffectual to deliver from the bondage of
existence.
THE SYSTEMS OF PHILOSOPHY. 49
of their number (like Javali) became themselves infected
with the spirit of scepticism, and were not to be re-
strained from prosecuting free philosophical investigations
for themselves.
There are not wanting, however, evident indications
that the Kshatriyas or second caste were the first intro-
ducers into India of rationalistic speculation. The great
Buddha was a Kshatriya, and the Ohandogya Upanishad
(V. 3) has a remarkable passage which, as bearing upon
this point, I here abridge (Roer's edition, p. 315) :
A youth called S'vetaketu (the son of a Brahman named Gautama)
repaired to the court of the king of Pandala, Pravahaiia, who said to him,
' Boy, has thy father instructed thee ? ' ' Yes, sir,' replied he. ' Knowest
thou where men ascend when they quit this world ? ' ' No, sir,' replied
he. ' Knowest thou how they return ? ' ' No, sir,' replied he. ' Knowest
thou why the region to which they ascend is not filled up ? ' ' No, sir,'
replied he. ' Why then saidst thou that thou hadst been instructed ? '
The boy returned sorrowful to his father's house and said, ' The king
asked me certain questions which I could not answer.' His father said,
' I know not the answers.' Then he, Gautama, the father of the boy,
went to the king's house. When he arrived, the king received him
hospitably and said, ' O Gautama, choose as a boon the best of all
worldly possessions.' He replied, ' king, thine be all worldly posses-
sions ; tell me the answers to the questions you asked my son.' The
king became distressed in mind (knowing that a Brahman could not be
refused a request), and begged him to tarry for a time. Then he said,
' Since you have sought this information from me, and since this
knowledge has never been imparted to any other Brahman before thee,
therefore the right of imparting it has remained with the Kshatriyas
among all the people of the world.'
This story certainly appears to favour the supposition
that men of the caste next in rank to that of Brahmans
were the first to venture upon free philosophical specula-
tion. However that may be, it was not long before
Brahmanism and rationalism advanced hand in hand,
making only one compact, that however inconsistent with
each other, neither should declare the other to be a false
50 INDIAN WISDOM.
guide. A Brahman might be a rationalist, or both ration-
alist and Brahman might live together in harmony, pro-
vided both gave a nominal assent to the Veda, maintained
the inviolability of caste, and the ascendency and trust-
worthiness 'of the Brahmans, as teachers both of religion
and philosophy. 1
And no doubt some common philosophical creed must
have prevailed among such teachers long before the crys-
tallisation of rationalistic speculation into separate systems.
If not distinctly developed in the Upauishads, it is clearly
traceable throughout Manu ; 2 and as it is not only the faith
of every Indian philosopher at the present day, but also of
the greater number of thinking Brahmans, whether dis-
ciples of any particular philosophical school or not, and
indeed of the greater number of educated Hindus, whether
nominal adherents of Vishnu or Siva, or to whatever caste
they may belong its principal features may be advan-
tageously stated before pointing out the chief differences
between the six systems.
i. In the first place, then, rationalistic Brahmanism
as I propose to call this common faith holds the eternity
of soul, both retrospectively and prospectively. 3 It looks
upon soul as of two kinds : a. the supreme Spirit or
1 The summary of Buddhism given here in the previous edition of
' Indian Wisdom' has been omitted, because the reader who wishes for
an account of Buddhism can refer to my recent volume called ' Bud-
dhism,' published by John Murray, of Albemarle Street, London.
2 See Manu XII. 12, 15-18.
3 Plato appears to have held the same : ~Yv%ri vata, uddvaro;, TO yap
anxivr)TOv df)d,*arov, Phaed. 51. And again: 'Evrtidri fa ay'svrirov ion, xai 0.810-
(f>Sfipciv awo avdyxq e/va/, Phaed. 52. And again : Touro ds ovr' avoXXvadai
wTt yiywaQa.1 dviarov. Cicero expresses it thus : Id aittem nee nascipotest
nee mori, Tusc. Quaest. I. 23. Plato, however, seems to have given no
eternity to individual souls, except as emanations from the divine ; and
in Timaeus 44 he distinguishes two parts of the soul, one immortal, the
other mortal.
THE SYSTEMS OF PHILOSOPHY COMMON CREED. 51
Self (called variously Atman, Paramdtman, Brahman,
Purusha, &c.) ; b. the personal individuated spirit of living
beings (jivatman) ; 1 and it maintains that if any entity is
eternal it cannot have had a beginning, or else it must
have an end. Hence the personal spirit of every human
being, just as the supreme Spirit, has existed everlastingly
and will never cease to exist. 2
2. In the second p]ace, this creed asserts the eternity of
the visible universe, or of that substance out of which the
universe has been evolved ; in other words, of its substan-
tial or material cause. 3 But, according to one system (the
1 All the systems, as we shall see, are not equally clear about the
existence of a supreme Spirit. One at least practically ignores it. I
use the word ' spirit ' (in preference to ' soul ') as the best translation
of Atman, Brahman, and Purusha, because 'soul' may convey the idea
of thinking and feeling, whereas pure spirit, according to Hindu philo-
sophy, neither thinks nor feels, because that would imply the existence
of some object of thought and feeling. The translation 'self seems
scarcely more suitable than ' soul.'
2 The Muslims have two words for eternity : i. .J \\ azl, ' that eternity
which has no beginning ' (whence God is called Azali, ' having no begin-
ning '); and 2. j^\ aid, 'that eternity which has no end.'
3 The term for substantial or material cause is samavdyi-Jcarana,
literally, ' inseparable inherent cause ; ' in the Vedanta upaddna-kdrana
is used. Though the Greek philosophers are not very definite in their
views as to the eternity of matter or its nature, yet they seem to have
acquiesced generally in the independent existence of some sort of
primordial substance. Plato appears to have held that the elements
before the creation were shapeless and soulless, but were moulded and
arranged by the Creator (Timaeus 27) out of some invisible and form-
less essence (ditpemt i756g ri x.ai ap.op(f)ov, Timaeus 24). Aristotle in one
passage describes the views of older philosophers who held that primeval
substance was affected and made to undergo changes by some sort of
affections like the San-khya Gurtas, whence all the universe was de-
veloped : T?5s (M* ovaiag uro^sfoiffT); ro7g ds Kcid:<ii Atra/3aXXou'<njj, roDro
aroiysfTov xal ravrrjv rrj\> ap^fjv (fraaiv eJvai rout/ ovruv, Metaph. I. 3. (See
Wilson's San-khya-karika, p. 53.) Aristotle adds his own opinion, 'It
is necessary there should be a certain nature (<tff/;) either one or
more out of which other entities are produced.'
52 INDIAN WISDOM.
San-khya), the external world is evolved out of an eter-
nally existing productive germ united to eternally existing
individual spirits. According to another (the Vedanta),
this external world is evolved out of the eternal Illusion
(Maya), which overspreads the one eternal Spirit and is
one with it, though having no real existence. In truth, a
Hindu philosopher's belief in the eternity of the world's
substance, whether that substance has a real material
existence or is simply illusory, arises from that fixed
article of his creed, ' Ex nihilo nihiljit,' ndvastuno vastu-
siddhih. In other words, A-satah saj jdyeta kutas, ' How
can an entity be produced out of a nonentity ? '
3. In the third place, the spirit, though itself sheer
thought and knowledge, can only exercise thought, con-
ymrai ex roD fj,ri OITOJ, 'Nothing is produced out of nothing.'
All the ancient philosophers of Greece and Rome seem also to have
agreed upon this point, as Aristotle affirms (mpl yap raurqz of^oyieafji.6vouffi
rj; So^Jjc a,Trai/ri$ 01 xe.pl (frvffiui). Lucretius (I. 150) starts with laying
down the same principle : ' Principium hinc nobis exordia sumet
Nullam rem e nihilo gigni divinitus unquam.' Aristotle, in the third
chapter of the first book of his Metaphysics, informs us that Thales
made the primitive substance out of which the universe originated
water, Anaximenes and Diogenes made it air, Heracleitus made it fire,
Empedocles combined earth, air, fire, and water. Anaximander, on
the other hand, regarded the primordial germ as an indeterminate but
infinite or boundless principle (rb antipov). Other philosophers affirmed
something similar in referring everything back to a confused chaos.
Parmenides made Desire his first principle, and Hesiod, quoted by
Aristotle, says poetically,
{ First indeed of all was chaos ; then afterwards
Earth with her broad breast (cf. Sanskrit pntlnvi) ;
Then Desire (tp$), who is pre-eminent among all the Immortals.'
Lastly, the Eleatics, like the Indian Yedantists, were thoroughly pan-
theistic, and held that the universe was God and God the universe ;
in other words, that God was TO ?n, or the only one existing thing.
With all these accounts compare the Rig-veda hymn on the creation,
translated on p. 19.
THE SYSTEMS OF PHILOSOPHY COMMON CREED. 53
sciousness, sensation, and cognition, and indeed can only
act and will when connected with external and objective
objects of sensation, 1 invested with some bodily form 2
and joined to mind (manas), which last (viz., mind) is an
internal organ of sense (anta/i-karana) 5 a sort of inlet of
1 It is difficult to find any suitable word to express what the Hindus
mean by material objects. There seems, in real truth, to be no proper
Sanskrit word equivalent to ' matter ' in its usual English sense. Vastu,
as applied to the ' one reality,' is the term for the Vedantist's universal
Spirit ; dravya stands for soul, mind, time, and space, as well as the five
elements ; murtti is anything which has definite limits, and therefore
includes mind and the four elements, but not dkdsa, ' ether ; ' pradhdna
is the original producer of the San-khya system ; paddrtha is used for
the seven categories of the Vaiseshika. What is here meant is not
necessarily a collection of material atoms, nor, again, that imperceptible
substance propounded by some as lying underneath and supporting all
visible phenomena (disbelieved in by Berkeley), and holding together
the attributes or qualities of everything, but rather what is seen, heard,
felt, tasted, and touched, which is perhaps best denoted by the Sanskrit
word vishaya, the terms samavdyi-lcdrana and updddna-lcdrana being
generally used for the substantial or the material cause of the universe.
2 All the systems assign to each person two bodies : a. an exterior or
gross body (stkula-sarira) ; b. an interior or subtle body (sukshma-sarira
or lin-ga-sarlra). The last is necessary as a vehicle for the spirit when
the gross body is dissolved, accompanying it through all its transmigra-
tions and sojournings in heaven or hell, and never becoming separated
from it till its emancipation is effected. The Vedanta affirms the
existence of a third body, called kdrana-sarlra or causal body, described
as a kind of inner rudiment or latent embryo of the body existing with
the spirit, and by some regarded as Ignorance united with the spirit in
dreamless sleep. The Platonists and other Greek and Roman philo-
sophers seem to have held a similar doctrine as to a subtle material
envelope investing the soul after death, serving as its o^jj/ia or vehicle.
See Plato, Timaeus 17. This is like the idea of a deceased person's
ghost or shade (s/ciwXox, umbra, imago, simulacrum). Of. Virgil, Aeneid,
VI. 390, 701.
3 Manas is often taken as the general term applicable to all the
mental powers, but Manas is properly a subdivision of antak-karana,
* which is divided into Buddhi, ' perception or intellection ; ' Ahankdra,
54 INDIAN WISDOM.
thought to the spirit belonging only to the body, only
existing with it, aiid quite as distinct from the spirit as
any of the external organs of the body. 1 The supreme
Spirit has thus connected itself in successive ages with
objects and forms, becoming manifest either as Brahma
the creator, or in the form of other gods, as Vishnu and
Siva, or again in the form of men.
4. Fourthly, this union of the spirit with the body is
productive of bondage, and in the case of human spirits,
of misery, for when ouce so united the spirit begins to
apprehend objects through the senses, receiving therefrom
painful and pleasurable impressions. It also becomes con-
scious of personal existence and individuality ; then it
commences acting ; but all action, whether good or bad,
leads to bondage, because every act inevitably entails
a consequence, according to the maxim, Avasyam eva
bhoktavyam Jcritam karma subhasubham, ' The fruit of
every action good or bad must of necessity be eaten.'
Hence, if an act be good it must be rewarded, and if bad
it must be punished. 2
5. Fifthly, iu order to accomplish the entire working
' self-consciousness ; ' and Manas, ' volition or determination ; ' to which
the Vedanta adds a fourth division, Citta, ' the thinking or reasoning
organ.'
1 This idea of the mind agrees to a great extent with the doctrine
of JLucretius, stated in III. 94, &c. :
' Primum animum dico (mentem quern saepe vocamus)
In quo consilium vitae regimenque locatum est,
Esse hominis partem nihilo minus ac manus et pes
Atque oculi partes animantis totius extant.'
The remainder of his description of the mind is very interesting in con-
nection with the Hindu, theory.
2 In the PancSa-tantra (II. 135, 136) we read : 'An evil act follows
a man, passing through a hundred thousand transmigrations ; in like
manner the act of a high-minded man. As shade and sunlight are
ever closely joined together, so an act and the agent stick close to each
other.'
THE SYSTEMS OF PHILOSOPHY COMMON CREED. 55
out of these consequences or ' ripenings of acts,' as they
are called (karma-vipdkdh}, 1 it is not enough that the
personal spirit goes to heaven or to hell. For all the
systems contend that even in heaven or hell merit or
demerit, resulting from the inexorable retributive efficacy
of former acts, continues clinging to the spirit as grease
does to a pot after it has been emptied. The necessity
for removal to a place of reward or punishment is indeed
admitted ; 2 but this is not effectual or final. In order
that the consequences of acts may be entirely worked out,
the spirit must leave heaven or hell and return to corporeal
existence. Thus it has to pass through innumerable
bodies, migrating into higher, intermediate, or lower forms,
from a god 3 to a demon, man, animal, or plant, or even
1 Bad consequences are called Dur-vipdka. Some of these, in the
shape of diseases, &c., are detailed by Manu (XI. 48-52). Thus any
one who has stolen gold in a former life will suffer from whitlows on
his nails, a drinker of spirits will have black teeth, and the killer of a
Brahman, consumption. In the S'abda-kalpa-druma, under the head of
Karma-vipdka, will be found a long catalogue of the various diseases
with which men are born as the fruit of evil deeds committed in former
states of existence, and a declaration as to the number of births through
which each disease will be protracted, unless expiations (prdyascittd) be
performed in the present life, as described in the eleventh book of Manu.
2 The twenty-one hells (Narakas) are enumerated in Manu IV. 88-90.
One is a place of terrific darkness ; another a pit of red-hot charcoal ;
another a forest whose leaves are swords ; another is filled with fetid
mud ; another is paved with iron spikes. These are not to be con-
founded with the seven places under the earth, of which Patala is one,
the abode of a kind of serpent demon. The Buddhists have one hundred
and thirty-six hells, with regular gradations of suffering. Hindus and
Buddhists have also numerous heavens. The former make six regions
rising above earth, the seventh ; viz., bhur (earth), bhuvar, svar, mahar,
janar, tapah, satya.
3 The gods themselves are only finite beings. They are nothing but
portions of the existing system of a perishing universe. In fact, they
are represented as actually feeding on the oblations offered to them (see
, Bhagavad-gita III. 1 1) ; they go through penances (see Manu XI. 221);
they are liable to passions and affections like men and animals, and are
56 INDIAN WISDOM.
a stone, according to its various shades of merit or
demerit. 1
6. Sixthly, this transmigration of the spirit through a
constant succession of bodies is to be regarded as the
root of all evil. 2 Moreover, by it all the misery, in-
subject, as regards their corporeal part, to the same law of dissolution,
while their souls obey the same necessity of ultimate absorption into
the supreme soul. The following occurs in the San-khya-karika (p. 3 of
Wilson) : ' Many thousands of Indras and other gods have, through
time, passed away in every mundane age, for time cannot be overcome.'
Muir's Texts, vol. v. p. 16.
1 According to Manu XII. 3, Subhasubha-phalam karma mano-vag-
deha-sambhavam Itarma-ja gatayo nrinam uttamadhama-madhyamcih,
' An act either mental* verbal, or corporeal bears good or evil fruit ; the
various transmigrations of men through the highest, middle, and lowest
stages are produced by acts. ' This triple order of transmigration is after-
wards (XII. 40, &c.) explained to be the passage of the soul through
deities, men, and beasts and plants, according to the dominance of one
or other of the three Gunas, goodness, passion, or darkness. And each
of these three degrees of transmigration has three sub-degrees. The
highest of the first degree is Brahma himself, the lowest of the lowest
is any sthdvara or ' stationary substance,' which is explained to mean
either a vegetable or a mineral ; other lowest forms of the lowest degree
are in an upward order worms, insects, fish, reptiles, snakes, tortoises, &c.
Again, in VI. 61, 63, we read : Let the man who has renounced the
world reflect on the transmigrations of men caused by the fault of their
acts (karma-dosha) ; on their downfall into hell and their torments in
the abode of Yama; on their formation again in the womb and the
glidings of the soul through ten millions of other wombs. Again, in
XII. 54, 55, &c. : Those who have committed great crimes, having passed
through terrible hells for many series of years, at the end of that time
pass through various bodies. A Brahman-killer enters the body of a
dog, boar, ass, camel, bull, goat, sheep, stag, bird, &c. The violator of
the bed of a Guru migrates a hundred times into the forms of grasses,
shrubs, plants, &c. In I. 49, XL 143-146, it is clearly implied that
trees and vegetables of all kinds have internal consciousness (antah-
sanjna), and are susceptible of pleasure and pain.
2 The doctrine of metempsychosis, however, does not appear to have
taken hold of the Hindu mind when the Mantras were composed. There
seems at least to be no allusion to it in the Rig-veda (see note, p. 1 8). It
THE SYSTEMS OF PHILOSOPHY COMMON CREED. 57
equality of fortune, and diversity of character in the world
is to be explained. 1 For even great genius, aptitude for
special work, and innate excellence are not natural gifts,
begins to appear, though not clearly defined, in the Brahmanas, and is
fully developed in the Upanishads, Darsanas, and Manu. A passage in
the S'atapatha-brahmana (XI. 6. i. i.), quoted by Professor Weber and
Dr. Muir, describes animals and plants as revenging in a future state of
existence injuries and death inflicted on them by men in this life.
In Greece and Rome the doctrine of transmigration seems never to
have impressed itself deeply on the popular mind. It was confined to
philosophers and their disciples, and was first plainly taught by Pytha-
goras, who is said to have asserted that he remembered his own pre-
vious existences. He was followed by Plato, who is supposed by some to
have been indebted to Hindu writers for his views on this subject. In
the Timaeus (72, 73) he affirms his opinion that those who have lived
unrighteously and effeminately will, at their next birth, be changed to
women ; those who have lived innocently but frivolously will become
birds; those who have lived without knowledge of the truths of philosophy
will become beasts; and those whose lives have been marked by the ex-
treme of ignorance and folly will become fishes, oysters, &c. He sums
up thus : Kara ra\JTO. dri irdvra TOTS xa! vuv diafj,c/(3srei.i ra, Zia. /'; aXXjy.a,
KoD xal avolag UTtofiohii xal xTqatt iiira.fia.\\iiiLwa.. Virgil, in the sixth
book of the Aeneid (680-751), describes the condition of certain souls,
which, after going through a sort of purgatory for a thousand years in
the lower regions, again ascend to earth and occupy new bodies.
The Jews seem to have known something of the doctrine, if we may
judge by the question proposed to our Lord : ' Who did sin, this man
(i.e., in a former life) or his parents, that he was born blind V (John ix. 2).
1 Among Greek philosophers, Aristotle, in the eleventh book of his
Metaphysics (ch. 10), goes into the origin of evil, and his view may
therefore be compared with that of Hindu philosophers. He recognizes
good as a paramount principle in the world, but admits the power of
evil, and considers matter (uX?j) as its prime and only source, much in
the same way as the Gnostics and other early Christian philosophical
sects, who, like Indian philosophers, denied the possibility of anything
being produced out of nothing, and repudiated the doctrine that God
could in any way be connected with evil They, therefore, supposed
the eternal existence of a sluggish, inert substance, out of which the
world was formed by God, but which contained in itself the principle
of evil.
58 INDIAN WISDOM.
but the result of habits formed and powers developed
through perhaps millions of previous existences. So, again,
sufferings of all kinds weaknesses, sicknesses, and moral
depravity are simply the consequences of acts done by
each spirit, of its own free will, in former bodies, which
acts exert upon that spirit an irresistible power called very
significantly Adrishta, because felt and not seen.
Thus the spirit has to bear the consequences of its own
acts only. It is tossed hither and thither at the mercy of
a force set in motion by itself alone, but which can never
be guarded against, because its operation depends on past
L j
actions wholly beyond control and even unremembered.
Nor does the absence of all recollections of acts done in
former states of existence seem to strike Hindu philo-
sophers as an objection to their theory of transmigration.
They say that we do not remember our state of infancy
and childhood up to the age of three or four years, and yet
we do not doubt that the individuality of old people is
different from their earliest individuality. 1 Most of the
1 The Garbha Upanishad (4) attributes the loss of memory to the
pain and pressure suffered by the soul in the act of leaving the womb.
Cases are recorded of men who were gifted with the power of recollect-
ing former existences. Gautama Buddha, we know, is said to have
possessed the power. In the Phaedo of Plato (47) Cebes is described
as saying to Socrates, ' According to that doctrine which you are fre-
quently in the habit of advancing, if it is true, that all knowledge
is nothing else than reminiscence (on q/j,Tv q fiddtiais ovx aXXo n Jj ana^-
uriaif ruy-^civii ouffa), it is surely necessary that we must at some former
time have learned what we now remember. But this is impossible,
unless our soul existed somewhere before it came into this human
form.' Cicero, in Tusc. Quaest. I. 24, says, speaking of the soul,
' Habet primam memoriam, et earn infinitam rerum innumerabilium,
quam quidem Plato recordationem esse vult superioris vitae.' Cf.
S'akuntala, Act V. 104, 'Can it be that the dim memory of events
long past, or friendships formed in other states of being, flits like
a passing shadow o'er the spirit ? ' Virgil (Aeneid VI. 7 1 4) wisely
THE SYSTEMS OF PHILOSOPHY COMMON CREED. 59
systems evade the difficulty by maintaining that at each
death the soul is divested of mind, understanding, con-
sciousness, and brain-memory.
7. Seventhly and lastly, from a consideration of these
essential articles of Hindu Rationalism it is plain that the
great aim of philosophy is to teach a man to abstain from
every kind of action ; from liking or disliking, from loving
or hating, and even from being indifferent to anything.
The living personal spirit must shake off the fetters of
action, and getting rid of body, mind, and all sense of
separate personality, return to the condition of simple spirit.
This constitutes Pramd or Jnana, the true measure of
all existing difficulties the right apprehension of truth
which, if once acquired by the spirit, confers upon it final
emancipation, whether called Mukti, MoJcsha, Nihsreyasa,
Apavarga, or Nirvana. This, in short, is the summum
bonum of philosophical Brahmanism ; this is the only real
bliss, the loss of all personality and separate identity by
absorption into the supreme and only really existing Being
mere life with nothing to live for, mere joy with nothing
to rejoice about, and mere thought with nothing upon
which thought is to be exercised. 1
Having thus attempted to set forth the common tenets
of Indian philosophy, I must next indicate the principal
points in which the systems differ from each other.
makes the souls who are to occupy new bodies upon earth throng
the banks of Lethe that they may drink a deep draught of oblivion
from its waters.
1 Mr. Hard wick has well shown that the great boon conferred by
the Gospel, in contradistinction to these false systems, is the recogni-
tion of man's responsible free agency and the permanence of his
personality. ' Not to be ' is the melancholy result of the religion and
philosophy of the Hindus. See 'Christ and other Masters,' vol. i.
p. 355. Christianity satisfies the deepest want of man's religious life,
viz., to know and love God as a person. See Canon Liddon's ' Elements
of Religion/ p. 36.
CHAPTER IV.
The Nyaya.
WE begin with the Nyaya of Gotama or Gautama, with
its important supplement, the Vaiseshika, not because
this is first in order of time (see p. 46), but because t is
generally the first studied, and much of its terminology is
adopted by the other systems. 1
The word Nyaya signifies ' going into a subject,' that is,
investigating it analytically. In this sense of ' analysis,'
Nyaya is exactly opposed to the word Sau-khya, ' synthesis.'
It is common to suppose that the Nyaya is chiefly con-
cerned with logic ; but this is merely one part of a single
topic. The fact rather is that this system was intended
to furnish a correct method of philosophical inquiry into
all the objects and subjects of human knowledge, includ-
ing, amongst others, the process of reasoning and laws of
thought. The Nyaya proper differs from its later develop-
ment, the Vaiseshika, by propounding sixteen topics in its
first Sutra. The first topic of these sixteen is Pramdna,
1 The Nyaya Sutras, consisting of five books, with the commentary,
were printed at Calcutta in 1828, under the title of Nyaya-sutra-vritti.
Four of the five books were edited and translated by the late Dr. Ballan-
tyne. He also published the Nyaya compendium, called Tarka-san-graha.
A favourite text-book of this system is the Bhasha-paridclieda, with its
commentary, called Siddhanta-muktavali. This has been edited and
translated by Dr. Roer. The Vaiseshika Sutras, consisting of ten
books, have been edited and translated by Mr. A. E. Gough. Professor
E. B. Cowell's edition of the Kusumanjali, a Nyaya treatise proving the
existence of a God, is a most interesting work.
THE SYSTEMS OF PHILOSOPHY NYAYA. 6 1
that is, the means or instruments by which Pramd or the
right measure of any subject is to be obtained. Under
this head are enunciated the different processes by which
the mind arrives at true and accurate knowledge.
These processes are declared in the third Sutra of the
first book to be four, viz. :
a. Pratyakslta, 'perception by the senses.' b. Anumdna, 'inference.'
c. Upamdna, 'comparison' or 'analogy.' d. Sabda, 'verbal authority'
or ' trustworthy testimony,' including Vedic revelation.
The treatment of the second of these, viz., inference,
possesses more interest for Europeans, as indicating that
the Hindus have not, like other nations, borrowed their
logic and metaphysics from the Greeks.
Inference is divided in Sutra I. 32 into five Avayavas
or 'members.'
1 . The pratynd or proposition (stated hypothetically).
2. The hetu or reason.
3. The uddharana (sometimes called nidarsand) or example (equiva-
lent to the major premiss).
4. The upanaya or application of the reason (equivalent to the minor
premiss).
5. The nigamana or conclusion, (i.e., the pratynd or 'proposition'
re-stated as proved).
This method of splitting an inference or argument into
five divisions is familiarly illustrated by native commen-
tators thus :
i. The hill is fiery; 2. for it smokes; 3. whatever smokes is fiery,
as a kitchen-hearth (or, inversely, not as a lake, which is invariably
without fire); 4. this hill smokes; 5. therefore this hill is fiery.
Here we have a combination of enthymeme and syllo-
gism, which seems clumsy by the side of Aristotle's more
concise method ; the fourth and fifth members being repe-
titions of the second and first, which, therefore, appeal-
superfluous. But it possesses some advantages when
62 INDIAN WISDOM.
regarded, not as a syllogism, but as a full and complete
rhetorical statement of an argument.
Perhaps the most noticeable peculiarity in the Indian
method, stamping it as an original and independent ana-
lysis of the laws of thought, is the use of the curious
terms, Vydpti, ' invariable pervasion' or ' concomitance ' ;
Vydpaka, 'pervader' or 'invariably pervading attribute' ;
and Vydpya, 'invariably pervaded.' These terms are em-
ployed in making a universal affirmation or in affirming
universal distribution ; as, for example, ' Wherever there
is smoke there is fire.' ' Wherever there is humanity there
is mortality.' In such cases an Indian logician always ex-
presses himself by saying that there is an invariably per-
vading concomitance of fire with smoke and of mortality
with humanity.
Similarly, fire and mortality are called the pervaders
( VyclpaJca), smoke and humanity the pervaded ( Vydpya).
The first argument would therefore be thus briefly stated
by a Naiydyika : ' The mountain has invariably fire-per-
vaded smoke, therefore it has fire.'
To show the importance attached to a right under-
standing of this technical expression Vydpti, and to serve
as a specimen of a Naiyayika writer's style, I now make
an abridged extract from San-kara-misra's comment on the
fourteenth Sutra of the first daily lesson of the third book
of the Vaiseshika Sutras (Gough, p. 86) :
It may be asked, What is this invariable concomitance 1 (Nanu key am
vydptih). It is not merely a relation of co-extension. Nor is it the
relation of totality. For if you say that invariable concomitance is the
connection of the middle term with the whole of the major term (krits-
nasya sddhyasya sddhana-sambandhah), such connection does not exist
in the case of smoke, &c. [for although fire exists wherever smoke exists,
smoke does not always exist where fire exists, not being found in red-
hot iron]. Nor is it natural conjunction ; for the nature of a thing is
the thing's proper mode of being. Nor is it invariable co-inherence of
the major, which is absent only when there is absolute non-existence
THE SYSTEMS OF PHILOSOPHY NYAYA. 63
of that of which the middle is predicated ; for volcanic fire must always
be non-existent in a kitchen-hearth, though smoky. Nor is it the not
being a subject of incompatibility with the predicate. Nor is it the
possession of a form determined by the same connection as something
else ; as, for instance, the being fiery is not determined by connection
with smoke, for the being fiery is more extensive. We proceed, then,
to state that invariable concomitance is a connection requiring no
qualifying term or limitation (an-aupddhikah sambandhah). 1 It is an
extensiveness co-extensive with the predicate (sddliya-vydpaka-vydpakat-
ram). In other words, invariable concomitance is invariable co-inher-
ence of the predicate. 2
The second head or topic of the Nyaya is Prameya,
by which is meant all the objects or subjects of Prama
those points, in short, about which correct knowledge is to
be obtained. This topic includes all the most important
subjects investigated by Indian philosophy. The Pra-
meyas are twelve, as given in the ninth Sutra ; thus :
i. Soul (dtman). z. Body (sarira). 3. Senses (indriya). 4. Objects
of sense (artha). 5. Understanding or intellection (buddhi). 6. Mind
(manas). 7. Activity (pravritti). 8. Faults (doslid). 9. Transmigration
(preti/a-bhdvd). 10. Consequences or fruits (pliala). n. Pain (duhkha).
12. Emancipation (apavargd).
In his first topic Gautama provides for hearing opposing
disputants who desire to discuss fairly any of these Pra-
meyas which form his second topic.
With regard to his fourteen other topics, they seem to
1 Hence, ' the mountain is smoky because it has fire ' is not vyapti, but
ati-vyapti, becaxise the upddhi or qualification drdrendana-jdta, ' produced
by wet wood,' must be added to make the argument correct. When the
middle term (fire) and the major (smoke) are made co-extensive then the
fault of ati-vydpti is removed.
2 It would be difficult to convey to a general reader any idea of the
terseness with which the use of long compounds enables all this to be
expressed in the original Sanskrit. Of course the obscurity of the style
is proportionably great, and the difficulty of translation enhanced. Mr.
Gough, however, is not responsible for every word of the above.
INDIAN WISDOM.
be not so much philosophical categories as an enumeration
of the regular stages through which a controversy is likely
to pass. In India argument slides into wrangling dispu-
tation even more easily than in Europe, and these remain-
ing topics certainly illustrate very curiously the captious
propensities of a Hindu disputant, leading him to be quick
in repartee and ready with specious objections in opposi-
tion to the most conclusive logic.
There is, first, the state of Samsaya, or ' doubt about the
point to be discussed.' Next, there must be a Pray oj ana,
or ' motive for discussing it.' Next, a Drishtanta, or ' fami-
liar example,' must be adduced in order that a Siddhanta,
or ' established conclusion,' may be arrived at. Then comes
an objector with his Avayava, or ' argument' split up, as
we have seen, into five members. Next follows the Tarka,
or ' refutatiou (reductio ad absurdum) of his objection/
and the Nirtmya, or ' ascertainment of the true state of the
case.' But this is not enough to satisfy a Hindu's passion
for disputation. Every side of a question must be exa-
mined every possible objection stated and so a further
Vdda, or ' controversy,' takes place, which of course leads
to Jalpa, ( mere wrangling,' followed by Vitanda, ' cavil-
ling ' ; Hetv-dbhdsa, ' fallacious reasoning ' ; * &hala, ' quib-
bling artifices' ; Jdti, ' futile replies ' ; and Nigraha-sthdna,
' the putting an end to all discussion' by a demonstration
of the objector's incapacity for argument.
The above are Gotama's sixteen topics. After enume-
rating them he proceeds to state how deliverance from the
misery of repeated births is to be attained ; thus,
1 As an example of fallacious argument may be taken the sixteenth
Aphorism of the third book of the Vaiseshika Sutras, yasmdd vishdnl
tasmdd asvah, ' because this has horns, therefore it is a horse ; ' or the
next Sutra, yasmdd vishdnl tasmdd gauh, ' because it has horns, therefore
it is a cow,' which last is the fallacy of ' undistributed middle.'
THE SYSTEMS OF PHILOSOPHY VAISESHIKA. 65
Misery, birth, activity, fault, false notions ; on the removal of these in
turn (beginning with the last), there is the removal also of that which
precedes it ; then ensues final emancipation.
That is to say, from false notions comes the fault of
liking, disliking, or being indifferent to anything ; from
that fault proceeds activity ; from this mistaken activity
proceed actions involving either merit or demerit, which
merit or demerit forces a man nolens volens to pass
through repeated births for the sake of its reward or
punishment. From these births proceed misery, and it is
the aim of philosophy to correct the false notions at the
root of this misery.
A Naiyayika commentator, Vatsyayana, thus comments
on the foregoing statement (Banerjea, p. 185) :
From false notion proceed partiality and prejudice ; thence come the
faults of detraction, envy, delusion, intoxication, pride, avarice. Acting
with a body, a person commits injury, theft, and unlawful sensualities,
becomes false, harsh, and slanderous. This vicious activity produces
demerit. But to do acts of charity, benevolence, and service with the
body ; to be truthful, useful, agreeable in speech, or given to repetition
of the Veda ; to be kind, disinterested, and reverential these produce
merit (dharma). Hence merit and demerit are fostered by activity.
This activity is the cause of vile as well as honourable births. Attendant
on birth is pain. That comprises the feeling of distress, trouble, disease,
and sorrow. Emancipation is the cessation of all these. What intelli-
gent person will not desire emancipation from all pain ? For, it is said,
food mixed with honey and poison is to be rejected. Pleasure joined
with pain is to be avoided.
I pass at once to the most important part of the Nyaya
system, its supplement :
The Vaiseshika.
We now come to the Vaiseshika development of the
Nyaya, attributed to an author Kanada. 1 This is not
1 This was probably a mere nickname, meaning ' Feeder on Atoms/
He is also called Uliika. Gautama, the author of the Nyaya proper,
66 INDIAN WISDOM.
so much a branch of this system as a supplement to it,
extending the Nyaya to physical inquiries, which it does
very imperfectly, it is true, and often with strange fancies
and blunders ; but, nevertheless, with occasional exactness
and not unfrequently with singular sagacity. It is cer-
tainly the most interesting of all the systems, both from
its more practical character and from the parallels it offers
to European philosophical ideas. It begins by arranging
its inquiries under seven Padarthas, which, as they are
more properly categories (i.e., an enumeration of certain
general properties or attributes that may be predicated or
affirmed of existing things 1 ), are now the generally received
categories of Naiydyikas. They are as follow : i . Sub-
stance (dravya}. 2. Quality or property (guna). 3.
Act or action (karman). 4. Generality or community of
properties (sdmdnya). 5. Particularity or individuality
(visesha). 6. Co-inherence or perpetual intimate relation
(samavdya). 7. Non-existence or negation of existence
(abhdva)*
had also a nickname, Aksha-pdda, 'eye footed,' having his eyes always
fixed in abstraction on his feet, or supernaturally gifted with eyes in his
feet, because too absent to see with those in his head.
1 Thus man is a substance, so also is a chair and a stone ; whiteness,
blackness, breadth, and length, though very different things, are yet
all qualities, &c.
2 It is interesting to compare the ten Aristotelian categories. They
are: i. Oi<r/a, 'Substance.' 2. Tloaov, 'How much?' 'Quantity.' 3.
now, 'Of what kind?' 'Quality.' 4. n*6t n, 'In relation to what?'
' Relation.' 5. TIoit?v, ' Action.' 6. Uda^nv, ' Passiveness ' or ' Pas-
sivity.' 7. noD, 'Where?' 'Position in space.' 8. HOTS, 'When?'
' Position in time.' 9. Ki7o8ai, Local situation.' 10. "E X sn, ' Posses-
sion.' Mr. J. S. Mill, in his Logic, declares that this enumeration is
both redundant and defective. Some objects are admitted and others
repeated under different heads. ' It is like,' he says, ' a division of
animals into men, quadrupeds, horses, asses, and ponies.' . Action,
passivity, and local situation ought not to be excluded from the cate-
gory of relation, and the distinction between position in space and
THE SYSTEMS OF PHILOSOPHY VAISESHIKA. 67
Kanada, however, the author of the Sutras, enumerated
only six categories. The seventh was added by later
writers. This is stated in the fourth Sutra of Book I. ;
thus (Gough's translation, p. 4):
The highest good results from knowledge of the truth which springs
from particular merit, and is obtained by means of the similarity and
dissimilarity of the categories, substance, attribute, action, generality,
particularity, co-inherence.
The commentator adds :
In this place there is mention of six categories, but in reality non-
existence is also implied by the sage as another category.
The seven categories are all subdivided.
Let us begin with the first category of Dravya or ' sub-
stance.' The fifth Sutra makes the following enumeration
of nine Dravyas :
Earth (pritliivl], water (apas), light (tejas), air (vdyu\ ether (dkdsa),
time (kdla), space (dis), soul (dtmari), the internal organ, mind (manas)
are the substances.
The commentator adds :
If it be objected, there is a tenth substance, darkness (tamas), why is
it not enumerated ? for it is recognised by perception, and substantially
belongs to it, because it is possessed of colour and action ; and because
devoid of odour, it is not earth ; and because it possesses dark colour,
local situation is merely verbal. His own enumeration of all existing
or describable things is as follows: i. 'Feelings or states of con-
sciousness.' Even the external world is only known as conceived by
the mind. 2. ' The minds ' which experience those feelings. 3. ' The
bodies,' supposed to excite feelings or sensations. 4. ' The successions
and co-existences, the likenesses and unlikenesses ' between these feel-
ings. Further, he shows that all possible propositions affirm or deny
one or other of the following properties or facts: i. Existence, the
most general attribute. 2. Co-existence. 3. Sequence or Succession
4. Causation. 5. Resemblance. See Chambers's Encyclopaedia, under
the article ' Categories.'
68 INDIAN WISDOM.
it is not water, &c. : we reply that it is not so, because it is illogical to
imagine another substance, when it is necessarily produced by non-
existence of light.
It should be stated that of these substances the first
four (earth, water, light, and air) and the last (mind) are
held to be atomic, and that the first four are both eternal
and non-eternal non-eternal in their various compounds,
eternal in their ultimate atoms, to which they must be
traced back. 1
Next follows the second category of ' quality.' The
sixth Sutra enumerates seventeen qualities or properties
which belong to or are inherent in the nine substances :
Colour (rupa), savour (rasa), odour (gandha), tangibility (sparsa),
numbers (sankhyah), extensions (parimdnani), individuality (prithaldva),
conjunction (samyoga), disjunction (vibhdga), priority (paratva), poste-
riority (aparatva), intellections (buddhayak), pleasure (sukha), pain
(duhkha), desire (iccha), aversion (dvesha), volitions (prayatndk), are
(the seventeen) qualities.
/
The commentator San-kara-misra adds seven others,
1 According to the Platonic school, substances (waiai) are ranged
under two heads a. cojjra/' xai UKIMITOI b. a/V^ra; xai en x/ttjan : a. per-
ceptible by the mind and immovable ; b. perceptible by the senses and
in motion. Aristotle, in his Metaphysics (XL i), seems to divide sub-
stances into three classes a. Those that are cognizable by the mind,
immovable, unchangeable, and eternal ; b. Those cognizable by the
senses and eternal ; c. Those cognizable by the senses and subject to
decay, as plants and animals. O-jaiai Ss rpt7$" //,/cc jj.tv } a'lnBr^r^' rjg jj ( o.er
aidto;, ft 3 (frdetprfi, jf* TCCC o/ioXoyouu/v, Jov TO. <ura xa! ra w<r r, d' utdiog.
"AXX>j 3e ax/nroc. In another place (VII. 8) he defines substance as the
essence or very nature of a thing (TO n jjn /%/). Again, in illustration
(IV. 8), he says that whatever may be the cause of being is a substance,
as soul in an animal (^ -4/o^Ji rp o)w) ; and again, as many inherent
parts in anything as define and indicate what it is, e.g., superficies, a
line, number, and that essence of which the formal cause (o Xo'yo;) is
the definition; and, thirdly, he says that earth, fire, water, &c., and all
bodies and all animals consisting of these, are substances. See the Rev.
J. H. M'Mahon's useful translation, published by Bohn.
THE SYSTEMS OF PHILOSOSHY VAISESHIKA. 69
which, he says, are implied, though not mentioned, making
twenty-four in all. They are :
Gravity (gurutva), fluidity (dravatva), viscidity (sneha), self-reproduc-
tion (sanskdra, implying a. impetus as the cause of activity ; b. elas-
ticity ; c. the faculty of memory), merit, demerit, and sound.
In point of fact the Nyaya goes more philosophically
and more correctly than the other systems into the
qualities of all substances. The twenty-four which it
enumerates may be regarded as separating into two classes,
according as they are the sixteen qualities of material
substances or the eight properties of soul. These eight
are intellection, volition, desire, aversion, pleasure, pain,
merit, and demerit.
The third category, Karman, ' act ' or ' action,' is thus
divided in Sutra I. I. 7 :
Elevation (literally throwing upwards), depression (throwing down-
wards), contraction, dilatation, and going (or motion in general) are
the (five kinds of) acts. \_Utksliepanam avak-shepanam akuncanam pra-
sdranam gamanam iti karmani.~\
The fourth category, Sdmdnya, ' generality,' is said to
be twofold, viz., higher (para) and lower (apara) ; the
first being 'simple existence,' applicable to genus; the
second being ' substantiality,' applicable to species.
The fifth category, Visesha, ' particularity,' belongs to
the nine eternal substances of the first category, viz., soul,
time, place, ether, and the five atoms of earth, water,
light, air, and mind, all of which have an eternal ultimate
difference, distinguishing each from the other.
The sixth category, Samavdya, ' co-inherence ' or ' inti-
mate relation,' is of only one kind. This relation appears
to be that which exists between a substance and its
qualities, between atoms and what is formed out of them,
or between any object and the general idea connected
with it, and is thought to be a real entity, very much in
70 INDIAN WISDOM.
accordance with the Platonic realism of the Middle Ages.
It is the relation between a jar and the earth which com-
poses it, between a cloth and its threads, between the idea
of round and any round thing, between a whole and its
parts, between a genus or species and its individuals,
between an act and its agent, between individuality and
eternal substance.
In connection with this sixth category may be men-
tioned the Nyaya theory of causation. Sutra I. 2. i, 2
states :
From non-existence of cause (Mrana) is non-existence of effect (Mrya),
but there is not from non-existence of effect non-existence of cause.
In the Tarka-san-graha a cause is declared to be ' that
which invariably precedes an effect which otherwise could
not be/ and three kinds of causes are enumerated, viz. :
a. Co-inherence cause, or that resulting from intimate and constant
relation perhaps best rendered by ' substantial cause ' (samavayi-
kdrand), as threads are the substantial cause of cloth. This corre-
sponds to the material cause of Aristotle, b. Non-substantial cause
(a-samavayi-kdrana), as the putting together of the threads is of cloth.
This corresponds to the formal cause, c. Instrumental cause (nimitta-
kdrana), as the weaver's tools, the loom, or the skill of the weaver
himself, &c., are of cloth. This corresponds to the efficient cause. 1
1 Aristotle's four causes are : i. Material cause, i.e., the matter
(DXjj) from which anything is made, as marble of a statue, silver of a
goblet. 2. Formal cause, i.e., the specific form or pattern according to
which anything is made, as a drawing or plan is the formal cause of
the building of a house. 3. Efficient cause, i.e., the origin of the prin-
ciple of motion (odiv tj a^ri rrig juv^ffsw;), as the energy of a workman is
the prime mover in producing any work. 4. Final cause, i.e., the pur-
pose for which anything is made, the motive for its production, or the
end served by its existence. According to Dr. Ballantyne (Lecture on
the Nyaya, p. 23), Aristotle's final cause has a counterpart in the
Naiyayika's prayojana, i.e., motive, purpose, or use. The writer in
Chambers's Encyclopaedia, under the head of ' Cause,' shows that these
causes of Aristotle and the Nyaya should rather be called the aggre-
gate of conditions necessary to the production of any work of man.
THE SYSTEMS OF PHILOSOPHY VAISESHIKA. 7 I
As to the seventh category of non-existence or negation,
four kinds are specified, viz. :
a. Antecedent (or the non-existence of anything before it began to
exist, as a jar not yet made), b. Cessation of existence (as of a jar when
it is smashed to pieces), c. Mutual non-existence (as of a jar in cloth).
d. Absolute non-existence (as of fire in a lake).
Without dwelling longer on the seven categories, we
must briefly indicate, how the views of the Nydya and
Vaiseshika, as to the external world and the nature of
soul, differ from those of the other systems. First, then,
as to the formation of the world. This is supposed to be
effected by the aggregation of Anus or 'atoms.' These
are innumerable and eternal, and are eternally aggregated,
disintegrated, and redintegrated by the power of Adrishta.
According to Kanada's Sutras (IV. i) an atom is 'some-
thing existing, having no cause, eternal ' (sad akdranavan
nityam}. They are, moreover, described as less than the
least, invisible, intangible, indivisible, imperceptible, by
the senses ; and what is most noteworthy in distinguish-
ing the Vaiseshika system from others as having each of
them a Visesha or eternal essence of its own. The com-
bination of these atoms is first into an aggregate of
two, called Dvy-anuka. Three of them, again, are sup-
posed to combine into a Trasa-renu, which, like a mote
in a sunbeam, has just sufficient magnitude to be per-
ceptible. 1
According to Colebrooke's statement of the Vaiseshika
theory, the following process is supposed to take place in
1 The binary compound only differs from the single atom by number,
and not by measure, size, or perceptibility. Both are infinitesimal, and,
being joined, can only produce an infinitesimal result (like multiplied
fractions). It is the tertiary compound which first introduces magnitude
and causes measure, just as a jar's measure is caused by that of its two
halves. See Professor CowelPs translation of the Kusumanjali, p. 66.
72 INDIAN WISDOM.
the aggregation of atoms to form earth, water, light, and
air :
Two earthly atoms concurring by an unseen peculiar virtue (a-drishta),
or by the will of God, or by time, or by other competent cause, consti-
tute a double atom of earth j and by concourse of three binary atoms
a tertiary atom is produced, and by concourse of four triple atoms a
quaternary atom, and so on to a gross, grosser, or grossest mass of earth ;
thus great earth is produced; and in like manner great water from
aqueous atoms, great light from luminous, and great air from aerial. 1
From the Tarka-san-graha we may continue the account
thus :
a. Earth possesses the property of odour, which is its distinguishing
quality. It is of two kinds, eternal and non-eternal eternal in the form
of atoms (paramdnu-rupd), non-eternal in the form of products (kdrya-
rupa). The non- eternal character of aggregated earth is shown by the
1 As these Lectures were delivered before classical scholars, I thought
it superfluous, at the time of their delivery, to indicate all the obvious
points of comparison between Indian and European systems. Refer-
ence might here, however, be made to the doctrines of Epicurus,
especially as expounded by Lucretius, who begins his description of the
coalescing of atoms or primordial seeds to form the world and various
material objects thus :
' Nunc age, quo motu genitalia materialia
Corpora res varias gignant, genitasque resolvant
Et qua vi facere id cogantur, quaeve sit ollis
Reddita mobilitas magnum per inane meandi
Expediam.' (II. 61-64.)
Nearly the whole of the second book of Lucretius might be quoted.
It is full of interest in connection with the Vaiseshika system. Cicero's
criticisms on the Epicurean theory are also interesting in relation to
this subject. In his De Natura Deorum (II. 37) he says, 'If a con-
course of atoms could produce a world (quod si mundum efficere potest
concursus atomorum), why not also a portico, a temple, a house, a city,
which are much less difficult to form ? ' We might even be tempted to
contrast some of the discoveries of modern chemists and physicists with
the crude but shrewd ideas of Indian philosophers prosecuting their
investigations more than 2000 years ago without the aids and appli-
ances now at every one's command.
THE SYSTEMS OF PHILOSOPHY VAISESHIKA. 73
want of permanence in a jar when crushed to powder. When aggregated
it is of three kinds, organized body (sarira), organ of sense (indriya),
and unorganic mass (vishaya). The organ connected with it is the nose
or sense of smell (ghrdna), which is the recipient of odour. 6. Water
possesses the property of being cool to the touch. It is also of two kinds,
eternal and non-eternal, as before. Its organ is the tongue or taste
(rasana), the recipient of savour, which is one of the qualities of water.
c. Light is distinguished by being hot to the feel. 1 It is similarly of
two kinds, and its organ is the eye (cakshus), the recipient of colour or
form, which is its principal quality, d. Air is distinguished by being
sensible to the touch. It is similarly of two kinds, and is colourless.
Its organ is the skin (tvac), the percipient of tangibility, e. Ether is
the substratum of the quality of sound. It is eternal, one, and all-
pervading. Its organ is the ear (srotra), the recipient of sound. 2
The great commentator San-karacarya (quoted by Pro-
fessor Banerjea, p. 62) states the process thus :
' At the time of creation action is produced in aerial atoms, which is
dependent on A-drishta. That action joins its own atom with another.
Then from binaries, by gradual steps, is produced the air. The same is
the case with fire. The same with water. The same with earth. The
same with organized bodies. 3 Thus is the whole universe produced from
atoms.' 4
1 Light and heat are regarded by Naiyayikas as one and the same
substance. Curiously enough, gold is described as mineral (dkara-ja)
light.
2 Professor H. H. Wilson has observed (San-khya-karika, p. 122) that
something like the Hindu notion of the senses and the elements partak-
ing of a common nature is expressed in the dictum of Empedocles :
Tairj fj.sv ya.0 ya/av OTw-Tra/isv, vdan 5' USwj,
A/diet d' a'lQ'ioa. diav, urao <x\joi KVff di^Xov.
' By the earthly element we perceive earth; by the watery, water; by the
aerial element, the air of heaven ; and by the element of fire, devouring
fire.' Plato, Repub. VI. 18, has the following: 'AXX.' j-X/os/sfffs-aron yt
oJfAai ruv Kt>l -rds aiadrioiis liyavuv, ( I regard it (the eye) as of all the
organs of sense possessing most likeness to the sun.' See Muir's Texts,
V. 298.
3 In Manu (I. 75-78) and the San-khya and the Vedanta the order of
the elements is ether, air, light or fire, water, and earth. See p. 83.
4 Compare Cicero, De Natura Deorum II. 33, 'Since there are four
74 INDIAN WISDOM.
With regard to the question whether God or the
supreme Soul is to be regarded as having taken part in
the bringing together and arranging of these atoms, it
should be noted that although the name of Isvara is in-
troduced once into Gotama's Sutras, 1 it is not found in
Kanada's. 2 Probably the belief of both was that the
formation of the world was simply the result of Adrishta,
or ' the unseen force, which is derived from the works or
acts of a previous world/ and which becomes in Hindu
philosophy a kind of god, if not the only god (see p. 58).
Later Naiyayika writers, however, affirm the existence of a
supreme Soul, Paramdtman, distinct from the Jlvdtman,
or 'human soul;' and this supreme Soul is described as
eternal, immutable, omniscient, without form, all-pervad-
ing, all-powerful, and, moreover, as the framer of the
universe.
Thus the Tarka-san-graha states (Ballantyne, p. 12) :
The seat of knowledge is the soul (dtman). It is twofold, the living
soul (jlvdtman) and the supreme soul (paramdtman). The supreme soul
sorts of elements, the continuance of the world is caused by their re-
ciprocal action and changes (vicissitudine). For from the earth comes
water ; from water arises air ; from air, ether ; and then conversely in
regular order backwards, from ether, air ; from air, water ; from water,
earth, the lowest element.
1 The Sutra is IV. 5. 19, and is as follows. Some one suggests, ' God
is the (sole) cause, because we see that the acts of men are occasionally
unattended by their fruits' (isvarah kdranam puruslia-karmaphalya-
darsandt). The next Aphorism is an answer to this suggestion, and
seems to assert that God was not the cause of the universe ; thus, ' Not
so, because in the absence of men's acts the fruit is not produced.'
The next Aphorism runs thus : ' It (man's agency ?) is not the (sole)
cause, because that is caused by that.' The word ' sole,' however, is
introduced by the commentator, and all three Aphorisms seem de-
signedly obscure.
2 According to Banerjea, p. 62 ; but the commentators say it is
implied in the third Sutra.
THE SYSTEMS OF PHILOSOPHY VAI8ESHIKA. 75
is lord, omniscient, one only, subject to neither pleasure nor pain, infinite
and eternal.
Indeed the Nyaya is held by some to be the stronghold
of Theism.
As to the living individual souls of corporeal beings,
the Nyaya view is that they are eternal, manifold, 1 eter-
nally separate from each other and distinct from the
body, senses, and mind, yet capable of apprehension, voli-
tion (or effort), desire, aversion, pleasure, pain, merit, and
demerit.
In the Vaiseshika Aphorisms (III. 2. 4) other charac-
teristic signs (lin.gdni) of the living soul are given, such
as the opening and shutting of the eyes, the motions of
the mind and especially life. 2 The commentator, in com-
menting upon this, describes the soul as the ' governor
or superintendent over the body.' Here is the passage
(Gough, p. no) :
Vitality is a mark of the existence of the soul ; for by the word ' life '
the effects of vitality, such as growth, the healing of wounds and bruises,
are implied. For as the owner of a house builds up the broken edifice
or enlarges a building which is too small, so the ruler of the body effects
by food, &c., the increase and enlargement of the body, which is to him
in the stead of a habitation, and with medicine and the like causes what
is wounded to grow again and mutilated hands or feet to heal. Thus a
superintendent of the body (dehasya adhishthdta) is proved like a master
of a house.
It should be added that souls are held to be infinite,
ubiquitous, and diffused everywhere throughout space, so
1 According to the Vaiseshika-sutra III. 2. 20, Vyavastliato nana,
( because of its circumstances (or conditions), soul is manifold.' The
commentator adds, ' Circumstances are the several conditions ; as, one
is rich, another mean ; one is happy, another unhappy ; one is of high,
another of low birth ; one is learned, another reads badly. These cir-
cumstances evince a diversity and plurality of souls.'
2 Plato (Phaedrus 52) defines soul as ro aM avrb x/voDf, quoted by
Cicero, Tusc. Quaest. I. 23.
76 INDIAN WISDOM.
that a man's soul is as much in England as in Calcutta,
though it can only apprehend and feel and act where the
body happens to be.
The Nyaya idea of the mind or internal organ (Manas)
is that it, like the soul, is a Dravya or ' eternal substance.'
Instead, however, of being diffused everywhere like the
soul, it is atomic, like earth, water, fire, and air. Indeed,
if it were infinite, like the soul, it might be united with all
subjects at once, and all apprehensions might be contem-
poraneous, which is impossible. It is therefore regarded
as a mere atom or atomic inlet to the soul, not allowing
the latter to receive more than one thought or conception
at a time. So in Nyaya-sutra I. 3. 16, and in Vaiseshika
VIII. i. 22, 23, it is affirmed as follows :
' The characteristic of the mind is that it does not give rise to more
than one notion simultaneously.' ' Ether, in consequence of its universal
pervasion, is infinitely great, and so likewise is soul. In consequence of
non-existence of that universal pervasion, the internal organ (mind) is
an atom.' 1
In regard to the authority to be accorded to the Veda,
the views of the Nyaya appear by no means unorthodox.
Gautama, in his Aphorisms (II. 58-60, 68), declares
plainly that the Veda is not false, that it is not charge-
able either with self-contradiction or tautology, and that
OJ
it is an instrument' of true knowledge. Similarly, the
third Aphorism of Kanada may be regarded as a kind
of confession of faith in the Veda, intended apparently,
like that of Gautama, to counteract imputations of hetero-
doxy.
In further proof of the Theism claimed for the Nyaya
1 The theory propounded by Lucretius was that the mind is composed
of exceedingly subtle atoms; he says (III. 180) of it, 'Esse aio persub-
tilem atque minutis Perquam corporibus factum constare.' As to ether,
see note 4, p. 105.
THE SYSTEMS OF PHILOSOPHY VAISESHIKA. //
I here give a short passage from the Kusumanjali, a
Naiyayika treatise by Udayana Acarya, which will serve
as a specimen of the sort of arguments employed to prove
the existence of a personal God (Isvara) in opposition to
atheistical objectors. This work has been ably edited and
translated by Professor E. B. Cowell. 1 The following is
merely the opening of the fifth chapter, with a portion of
Hari-dasa's comment :
An omniscient and indestructible Being is to be proved from the exist-
ence of effects, from the combination of atoms, from the support of the
earth in the sky, from traditional arts, from belief in revelation, from
the Veda, from its sentences, and from particular numbers.
Comment : The earth must have had a maker, because it is an effect
like a jar. Combination is an action, and therefore the action which
produced the conjunction of two atoms at the beginning of a creation
must have been accompanied by the volition of an intelligent being.
Again, the world depends upon some being who wills to hinder it from
falling, like a stick supported by a bird in the air. Again, the tradi-
tional arts (pada) now current, as that of making cloth, &c., must have
proceeded from an independent being. Again, the knowledge derived
from the Yeda is derived from a virtue residing in its cause, because it
is true knowledge 2 (this virtue consisting in the Veda's being uttered
by a fit person, and therefore necessarily implying a personal inspirer).
From this brief statement of the distinctive features of
the Nyaya school, it is clear that this system, at least
in its Vaiseshika cosmogony, is dualistic in the sense of
assuming the existence of gross material eternal atoms,
1 I have referred to his edition and to Dr. Muir's extracts in the
appendix to the third volume of his Texts.
2 Those who wish to pursue the argument should consult Professor
Cowell's translation. It is interesting to compare Cicero, De Natura
Deorum (II. 34) : ' But if all the parts of the universe are so constituted
that they could not be better for use or more beautiful in appearance,
let us consider whether they could have been put together by chance
or whether their condition is such that they could not even cohere unless
divine wisdom and providence had directed them (nisi sensu moderante
divinaque providentid). '
78 INDIAN WISDOM.
side by side either with eternal souls or with the supreme
Soul of the universe. It sets itself against any theory
which would make an impure and evil world spring from
a pure and perfect spirit. Nor does it undertake to decide
positively what it cannot prove dialectically, the precise
relation between soul and matter.
CHAPTER V.
i
The Sdn-Miya.
THE San-khya 1 philosophy, though possibly prior in date,
is generally studied next to tbe Nyaya, and is more
peremptorily and categorically dualistic (dvaitavadin).
It utterly repudiates the notion that impure matter can
originate from pure spirit, and, of course, denies that
anything can be produced out of nothing.
The following are Aphorisms, I. 78, 114-117, propound-
ing its doctrine of evolution, which may not be altogether
unworthy of the attention of Darwinians :
There cannot be the production of something out of nothing (ndvas-
tuno vastii-siddldh) ; that which is not cannot be developed into that
1 Kapila, the reputed founder of this school (sometimes fabled as a
son of Brahma, sometimes as an incarnation of Vishnu and identified
with the sage described in the Ramayana as the destroyer of the sixty
thousand sons of Sagara, who in their search for their father's horse
disturbed his devotions), was probably a Brahman, though nothing is
known about him. See Maha-bharata XII. 13703. The word Kapila
means ' of a tawny brown colour,' and may possibly have been applied
as a nickname, like Aksha-pada and Kanada. He is the supposed
author of two works, viz., a. the original San-khya Sutras, sometimes
called Sdnlthya-pravacana, comprising 526 aphorisms in six books; b. a
short work called the Tattvasamasa or 'Compendium of Principles'
(translated by Dr. Ballantyne). The original Sutras are of course
accompanied with abundant commentaries, of which one of the best
known is the San-khya-pravadana-bhashya, by Vijnana-bhikshu, edited
with an able and interesting preface by Dr. Fitz-Edward Hall. A
very useful and popular compendium of the doctrines of this system,
called the San-khya-karika, was edited and translated by Professor
H. H. Wilson.
79
80 INDIAN WISDOM.
which is. The production of what does not already exist (potentially)
is impossible, like a horn on a man (ndsad-utpddo nri-srin gavat) ;
because there must of necessity be a material out of which a product
is developed ; and because everything cannot occur everywhere at all
times (sarvatra sarvadd sarvdsambhavdt) ; and because anything possible
must be produced from something competent to produce it. 1
' Thus,' remarks a commentator, ' curds come from milk, not water.
A potter produces a jar from clay, not from cloth. Production is only
manifestation of what previously existed.' Aphorism 121 adds, 'De-
struction is a resolution of anything into its cause.'
In the San-khya, therefore, instead of an analytical
inquiry into the universe as actually existing, arranged
under topics and categories, we have a synthetical system
propounded, starting from an original primordial tattva
or ' eternally existing essence,' 2 called Prakriti (a word
meaning 'that which evolves or produces everything else').
1 See the note on the dogma Ex nihilo nihil fit, p. 52. We are also
here reminded of Lucretius I. 160, &c. :
Nam si de Nihilo fierent ex omnibu* rebus
Oinne genus nasci posset ; nil semine egeret ;
E mare primum hominet; e terrd posset oriri
Squammigerum genus et volucres ; erumpere caelo
Armenia, alque aliae pecudes ; genus omne ferarum
Incerto partu culta ac deserta teneret :
Nee fructus iidem arboribus constare solerent,
Sed mutarentur : ferre omnes omnia possent.
1 If things proceed from nothing, everything might spring from every-
thing, and nothing would require a seed. Men might arise first from
the sea, and fish and birds from the earth, and flocks and herds break
into being from the sky ; every kind of beast might be produced at
random in cultivated places or deserts. The same fruits would not
grow on the same trees, but would be changed. All things would be
able to produce all things.'
2 It is usual to translate tat-tva, ' that-ness,' by ' principle ; ' but such
words as 'essence,' 'entity,' and in some cases even 'substance,' seem
to convey a more definite idea of its meaning. It corresponds to the
barbarous term 'quiddity' (from quid est?), discarded by Locke and
modern English philosophers. Certainly 'nature' is anything but a
THE SYSTEMS OF PHILOSOPHY SAN-KHYA. 8 I
It is described by Kapila in his sixty-seventh Aphorism
as ' a rootless root,' l amulam mulam, thus :
From the absence of a root in the root, the root (of all things) is
rootless.
Then he continues in his sixty-eighth Aphorism :
Even if there be a succession of causes (one before the other) there
must be a halt at some one point ; and so Prakriti is only a name for
the primal source (of all productions).
good equivalent for Prakriti, which denotes something very different
from matter or even the germ of mere material substances. It is an
intensely subtle original essence wholly distinct from soul, yet capable
of evolving out of itself consciousness and mind as well as the whole
visible world. Prdka-roti iti prakriti is given as its derivation in the
Sarva-darsana-san-graha, p. 147, where pra seems to stand for 'forth/
not ' before.' The commentator on the San-khya-karika (p. 4) uses the
word paddrtha as applicable to all the twenty-five Tattvas. A Vedan-
tist would not regard tat-tva as an abstract noun from tat, ' that,' but
would say it meant ' truth,' and in its etymology contained the essence
of truth, viz., tat tvam, ' that art thou.'
1 In a passage in the Timaeus (34) Plato propounds a theory of
creation in allegorical and not very intelligible language, which the
reader can compare with the San-khyan view : 'En d' ovv vij WOLDMTI %PYI
TPITTO., TO (J,iv yiyvo/Aivov, TO d' iv y; yiyviTat.i TO 8' S6tv a,(f>o-
<j)uerai rb y/yvo'/isvov, xa'i df) xui KgoGtiKaaai ngsirii TO /MSV di%6/Atvov
rb d' odt taTgi, THV de fj.srafy'j TOVTUV <f>u<fiv exyoHti, dib 6?) T^V TOV
at ffavrus aicdtfrou ^u.jjriga xa/ itTrodo'^v p.r)Tt y5jn p,?iT aigct
p,?irs Tug (jj^Ti vdua \fyUfttfj {A^TS oaot. IK TOVTUV (*f,T s< uv Tavrat, yiyovtv' XX'
avowTbv /'3o'g TI xctl a/j,og(j>ov, rat&tyif. l For the present, therefore, we
ought to consider three things, that which is produced, that in which
it is produced, and that from which a thing is produced, having a
natural resemblance. And especially it is proper to compare that
which receives to the mother, that from which it receives to the father,
and the nature which is between these to the child. Then, as to this
mother and receptacle of things created which are visible and altogether
perceptible, we cannot term it either earth, air, fire, or water, nor any
one of their compounds, nor any of the elements from which they were
produced, but a certain invisible and shapeless essence, which receives
all things,' &c. Compare note 3, p. 51.
F
82 INDIAN WISDOM.
Beginning, then, with this original eternal germ or
element, the San-khya reckons up synthetically, whence
its name of ' Synthetic enumeration/ x twenty-three other
Tattvas or ' entities,' which are all productions of the first,
evolving themselves out of it as naturally and spontane-
ously as cream out of milk or milk out of a cow.
The twenty-fifth entity is Purusha, ' the soul/ which is
neither producer nor produced, but eternal, like Prakriti.
It is quite distinct from the producing or produced ele-
ments and creations of the phenomenal world, though
liable to be brought into connection with them. In fact,
the object of the San-khya system is to effect the libera-
tion of the soul from the fetters in which it is involved
by union with Prakriti. It does this by conveying the
Prama or ' correct knowledge ' of the twenty-four consti-
tuent principles of creation, and rightly discriminating the
soul from them ; its Pramdnas, or ' means of obtaining
the correct measure of existing things/ being reduced from
four (see p. 61) to three, viz., Drishta, Anumdna, and
Apta-vacana, ' perception by the senses, inference, and
credible assertion or trustworthy testimony.'
The third Aphorism of the San-khya-karika thus reckons
up the catalogue of all existing entities :
The root and substance of all things (except soul) is Prakriti. It is
no production. Seven things produced by it are also producers. Thence
come sixteen productions. Soul, the twenty-fifth essence, is neither a
production nor producer.
Hence it appears that from an original Prakriti (vari-
ously called Mula-prakriti, ' root-principle ; ' Amulam
mulam, ' rootless root ; ' Pradhdna, ' chief one ; ' A-vyakta,
1 Hence Sir W. Jones called the San-khya the Numeral philosophy.
It has been compared partly with the metaphysics of Pythagoras,
partly (in its Yoga) with the system of Zeno ; also with that of
Berkeley.
THE SYSTEMS OF PHILOSOPHY SAN-KHYA. 83
' unevolved evolver ; ' Brahman, ' supreme ; ' Maya,
1 power of illusion ' *), seven other producers are evolved,
and as so evolved are regarded as Vikaras or ' produc-
tions.' The first production of the original producer is
Buddhi, commonly called ' intellect or intellectual percep-
tion' (and variously termed Mahat, from its being the
Great source of the two other internal faculties, Ahan-kara
and Mauas or ' self-consciousness and mind '). Third in
order comes this Ahan-Jcdra, the 'I-making' faculty, that
is, self-consciousness or the sense of individuality (some-
times conveniently termed ' Ego-ism '), which produces
the next five principles, called Tanmdtras or ' subtle
elementary particles/ out of which the grosser elements
(Mahd-bhuta) are evolved. 2 These eight constitute the
producers.
Then follow the sixteen that are productions ( Vikdra)
only ; and first in order, as produced by the Tanmdtras,
come the five grosser elements already mentioned, viz. :
a. Akdsa, 3 'ether,' with the distinguishing property of sound, or, in
other words, the substratum of sound (which sound is the vishaya or
object for a corresponding organ of sense, the ear), b. Vdyu, 'air,'
1 According to Gaudapada's commentary on San-khya-karika, 22.
2 These Tanmatras appear nearly to correspond to the vpuru oro/x^a
of Plato (Theaet. 139), or rather to the aroi^tta. aroi^it'uv, 'elements of
elements' (Theaet. 142), and to the g/w,.a7-a of Empedocles.
3 Akasa, as shown elsewhere (see p. 105, note 4), must not be exactly
identified with the modern ' ether,' though this word is usually taken as
its nearest possible equivalent. In some of its properties and functions
it more corresponds with the inane, ' vacant space,' of Lucretius. Qua-
propter locus est intactus Inane, vacansque (I. 335). At any rate, one
synonym of akasa is mnya. Cicero, De Nat. Deorum II. 40, seems to
identify ether with sky or space, which stretches to the remotest point
and surrounds all things. The Ramayana, II. no. 5, makes Brahma
spring from ether, but the Epic and Puranic accounts of akasa are very
inconsistent. Some say that it was created and is perishable, others
that it was not created and is eternal. See Muir's Texts, IV. 119,
Maha-bharata XII. 6132.
84 INDIAN WISDOM.
with the property of tangibility (which is the vishaya for the skin),
c Tejas or jyotis, 'fire or light,' with the property of form or colour
(which is the vishaya for the eye), d. Apas, < water,' with the property
of savour or taste (which is the vishaya for the tongue), e. Pritlnvi or
bhumi, 'earth,' with the property of odour or smell (which is the vishaya
for the nose).
Each of these elements after the first has also the pro-
perty or properties of the preceding besides its own.
Next follow the eleven organs produced, like the Tan-
matras, by the third producer, Ahan-k'ara, viz., the five
organs of sense, the five organs of action, 1 and an eleventh
organ standing between these two sets, called Manas, ' the
mind,' which is an internal organ of perception, volition,
and action.
The eight producers, then, with the five grosser elements,
ether, air, fire, water, earth, and with the eleven organs,
constitute the true elements and constituent substances of
the phenomenal world. As, however, the most important
of the producers, after the mere unintelligent original
germ, is the third, called Ahan-kara, ' self-consciousness
or individuality,' it is scarcely too much to maintain that,
according to the San-khya view, the whole world of sense
is practically created by the individual Ego, 2 who is,
nevertheless, quite distinct from the soul, as this soul
is supposed to possess in itself no real consciousness of
separate individuality, though deluded by it.
It should also be noted that, according to the San-khya
theory, Prakriti, though a subtle elementary essence, is
1 The five organs of sense or perception (buddlnndriyani) are, ear,
skin, eye, nose, tongue ; those of action (karmendriyani) are, larynx,
hand, foot, and the excretory and generative organs.
' 2 This idea of personal individual creation is what chiefly distinguishes
the San-khya from the pantheism of the Vedanta, which denies all real
personal individuality. It has also led to the Sau-khya system being
compared to the theory of Berkeley.
THE SYSTEMS OF PHILOSOPHY SAN-KHYA. 85
yet to be regarded as consisting of three ingredients or
constituent principles in equipoise, called Gunas. These
are Sattva, Rajas, and Tamas, ' goodness or purity, passion
or activity, and darkness or ignorance.'
Thus Kapila (Aphorism 61) affirms as follows :
Prakrit! is the state of equipoise (Samydvastha) of goodness, passion,
and darkness.
Evidently, then, these three constituents of the primal
elementary germ are really themselves elementary sub-
stances, and not qualities, although they are called Gunas,
and although such expressions as goodness, purity, &c.,
convey more the notion of a quality than of any actual sub-
stance. According to the San-khya-pravacana-bhashya,
These Gunas are not like the ' qualities ' of the Vaiseshika. They
are substances possessing themselves qualities or properties, such as
conjunction, disjunction, lightness, motion, weight, &c. The word
Guna, therefore, is employed because these three substances form the
triple cord by which the soul, like an animal (purusha-pasu), is bound. 1
It is plain, indeed, that as one meaning of the word
Guna is ' rope ' or ' cord,' the San-khya three Gunas may
be supposed to act like a triple-stranded rope, binding and
confining souls in different degrees. 2 In point of fact,
goodness, passion, and darkness are imagined to be the
actual substances of which Prakriti is constituted, just as
trees are the constituents of a forest. Moreover, as they
are the ingredients of Prakriti, so they make up the whole
1 Aristotle (Metaph. I. 3) describes primordial substance as under-
going changes through different affections, something after the manner
of the San-khya Gunas. See note 3, p. 51.
2 Manu states the doctrine of the three Gunas very similarly (XII. 24,
25, &c.) : ' One should know that the three Gunas (bonds or fetters) of
the soul are goodness, passion, and darkness (bound) ; by one or more of
these, it continues incessantly attached to forms of existence. When-
ever any one of the three Gunas predominates wholly in a body, it makes
the embodied spirit abound in that Guna.'
86 'INDIAN WISDOM.
world of sense evolved out of Prakriti. Except, however,
in the case of the original producer, they are not con-
joined in equal quantities. They form component parts
of everything evolved, but in varying proportions, one or
other being in excess. In other words, they affect every-
thing in creation unequally ; and as they affect man, make
him divine and noble, thoroughly human and selfish, or
bestial and ignorant, according to the predominance of
goodness, passion, or darkness respectively. The soul, on
the other hand, though bound by the Gunas, is itself wholly
and entirely free from such constituent ingredients (nir-
guna). It stands twenty-fifth in the catalogue of Tattvas,
and is to be wholly distinguished from the creations evolved
by the three evolvers, Prakriti, Buddhi, and Ahankdra.
It has, in short, nothing whatever in common with the
world- evolver, Prakriti, except eternal existence.
But although Prakriti is the sole originator of creation,
yet, according to the pure San-khya, it does not create for
itself, but rather for each individual soul which comes into
connection or juxtaposition with it, like a crystal vase
with a flower. Souls, indeed, exist eternally separate from
each other and from the world-evolver Prakriti ; and with
whatever form of body they may be joined, they are held
to be all intrinsically equal, and each retains its individu-
ality, remaining one and unchanged through all transmigra-
tions. 1 But each separate soul is a witness of the act of
creation without participating in the act. It is a looker-
1 This separate eternal existence of innumerable individual souls is
the great feature distinguishing the Nyaya and San-khya from the
Vedanta, which holds the oneness of all soul. And yet it would seem
that each soul must be regarded as universally diffused both in San-khya
and Nyaya (see p. 75) ; for unless the soul is all-pervading it cannot be
eternal. All Hindus hold that nothing can be eternal that is divisible
into parts ; and all things have parts except the infinite (soul) and the
infinitesimal (atoms).
THE SYSTEMS OF PHILOSOPHY SAN-KHYA. 8/
on, uniting itself with unintelligent Prakriti, as a lame
man mounted on a blind man's shoulders, for the sake
of observing and contemplating the phenomena of crea-
tion, which Prakriti herself is unable to observe. In the
San-khya-karika (19) we read :
The soul is witness, solitary, bystander, spectator, and passive. For
its contemplation of Prakriti the union of both takes place, as of the
halt and blind ; by that union a creation is formed.
It appears, too, that all Prakriti's performances are
solely for the benefit of soul, who receives her favours
ungratefully. Thus, in the San-khya-karika 59, 60, we
have the following :
As a female dancer, having exhibited herself to a spectator, desists
from the dance, so does Prakriti desist, having manifested herself to
soul. By various means Prakriti, endowed with qualities (gunavat},
acting as a benefactress, accomplishes without profit to herself the
purpose of soul, who is devoid of qualities (aguna) and makes no return
of benefit.
In fact, Prakriti is sometimes reproached with boldness
in exposing herself to the gaze of soul, who takes no in-
terest whatever in the sight. There is something to a
European mind very unreal, cloudy, and unpractical in all
this. Certainly no one can doubt that the San-khya view
of the soul is inferior to that of the Nyaya, which ascribes
to it, when joined to mind, activity, volition, thought, and
feeling (see p. 76). Obviously, too, its view of all existing
things is even more atheistical than that of the earliest
Naiyayikas. For if the creation produced by the Evolver,
Prakriti, has an existence of its own independent of all
connection with the particular Purusha to which it is
joined, there can be no need for an intelligent Creator of
the world or even of any superintending power. 1
1 I presume this is the reason why in a catalogue of MSS. edited
by Rajendralal Mitra the San-khya is styled the Hylotheistic philo-
sophy.
88 INDIAN WISDOM.
Here are two or three of Kapila's Aphorisms bearing
upon the charge of atheism brought against him. An
objection is made that some of his definitions are incon-
sistent with the supposed existence of a supreme Lord
(Isvara). To this he replies in the ninety-second and
following Aphorisms, thus :
(They are not inconsistent) because the existence of a supreme Lord
is- unproved (Isvardsiddheh). Since he could not be either free (from
desires and anxieties) or bound by troubles of any kind, there can be
no proof of his existence. Either way he could not be effective of any
creation. (That is, if he were free from anxieties he could have no
wish to create ; and if he were bound by desires of any kind, he would
then be under bondage, and therefore deficient in power.)
The commentary of Gauda-pada on San-khya-karika 6 1
ought, however, to be here quoted :
The San-khya teachers say, ' How can beings composed of the three
Gunas proceed from Isvara (God), who is devoid of Gunas ? Or how
can they proceed from soul, equally devoid of qualities ? Therefore
they must proceed from Prakriti. Thus from white threads white cloth
is produced ; from black threads, black cloth ; ' and so from Prakriti,
composed of the three Gunas, the three worlds composed of the three
Gunas are produced. God (Isvara) is free from Gunas. The production
of the three worlds composed of the Gunas from him would be an
inconsistency.
Again, with reference to the soul, we- have the following
in Kapila's ninety-sixth Aphorism :
' There is a ruling influence of the soul (over Prakriti) caused by
their proximity, just as the loadstone (draws iron to itself).' That is,
the proximity of soul to Prakriti impels the latter to go through the
steps of production. This sort of attraction between the two leads to
creation, but in no other sense is soul an agent or concerned in creation
at all. 1
1 It is stated in Kapila's fifty-eighth Aphorism, quoted by Dr. Bal-
lantyne, that the bondage of the soul caused by its union with Prakriti
is after all merely nominal, and not real, because it resides in the mind,
and not in the soul itself (vdnmdtram na tu tattvam citta-sthiteh). See
Mullens' Essay, p. 183.
THE SYSTEMS OF PHILOSOPHY SAN-KHYA. 89
Notwithstanding these atheistical tendencies, the San-
khya evades the charge of unorthodoxy by a confession of
faith in the Veda. Hence in Aphorism 98 we have :
The declaration of the meaning of the texts of the Veda is an
authority, since the author of them knew the established truth.
And it should be noted that some adherents of the
San-khya maintain the existence of a supreme Soul, 1 called
Hiranya-garbha, and of a general ideal phenomenal uni-
verse with which that supreme Soul is connected and into
which all the subcreations of inferior souls are by him
gathered. Nor can it be affirmed that the San-khya proper
commits itself to a positive denial of the existence of a
supreme Being, so much as to an ignoring of what the
founder of the school believed to be incapable of dialectic
demonstration. As, however, the original World-evolver
only evolves the world for the sake of the spectator, soul,
this is practically an admission that there can be no
realization of creation without the union of Prakriti with
Purusha, the personal soul. In all probability Kapila's
own idea was that every Purusha, though he did not
himself create, had his own creation and his own created
universe comprehended in his own person. 2 It may easily
be supposed that this union of Purusha and Prakriti
began soon to be compared to that of male and female ;
and it may be conjectured that the idea of the production
of the universe by the male and female principles asso-
ciating together, which was symbolized by the Ardha-nari
form of Siva, and which lies at the root of the whole later
1 Or, according to Professor E. B. Cowell, ' personified Sum of exist-
ence.' Elphinstone's India, p. 126, note.
2 Something after the manner of Berkeley, who held that the ' with-
out ' was all within, though he believed in the real existence of external
objects produced by other minds and wills.
pO INDIAN WISDOM.
mythology of India, was derived mainly from the San-khya
philosophy.
It was not indeed to be expected that the uneducated
masses could make anything of a metaphysical mysticism
which could not be explained to them in intelligible lan-
guage. How could they form any notion of a primordial
eternal energy evolving out of itself twenty-three other
elements or substances to form a visible world for the soul,
described as apathetic, inactive, devoid of all qualities,
and a mere indifferent spectator, though in close contact
with the individual Evolver and deluded by its self-
consciousness ? But they could well understand the idea
of a universe proceeding from Prakriti and Purusha as
from mother and father. Indeed the idea of a union
between the female principle, regarded as an energy,
and the male principle, is of great antiquity in Hindu
systems of cosmogony. In the Rig-veda and Brahmanas
there are various allusions, as we have already seen, to
a supposed union of Earth and Heaven, who together
produce men, gods, and all creatures. 1
Buddhism, moreover, which represented many of the
more popular philosophical ideas of the Hindus perhaps as
early as the fifth century B.C., has more in common with
San-khya doctrines than with any of the other systems.
Even the cosmogony of Manu, although a compound
of various theories, presents a process of evolution very
similar, as we shall see hereafter, to that of the San-khya.
Again, the antiquity and prevalence of San-khyan ideas
is proved by the frequent allusions to them in the great
Indian epic poem, called Maha-bharata ; 2 and the per-
1 See Muir's Texts, vol. v. pp. 22, 23.
2 In the Sabha-parvan (Muir, vol. iv. p. 173) Krishna is described as
undeveloped Prakriti, the eternal creator (esha prakritir a-vyaMd kartd
caiva sandtanah). On the other hand, in the Vana-parvan (1622, &c.,
THE SYSTEMS OF PHILOSOPHY SANKHYA. 9 I
manence of their popularity till at least the first century
of our era is indicated by the fact that the celebrated
philosophical poem called Bhagavad-gita attempts to re-
concile the San-khya with Vedantist views. 1
Perhaps, however, the extensive prevalence of San-khyan
ideas in India is best shown by the later cosmogony and
mythology. In those repositories of the popular Hindu
creed, the Puranas and Tantras, Prakriti becomes a real
Mother of the universe. It is true that in some of the
Puranas there is occasional confusion and perversion of
San-khyan doctrines. Thus, for example, in the Vishnu-
purana I. 2. 22, we have the following :
' There was neither day nor night, neither sky nor earth ; there was
neither darkness nor light nor anything else. There was then the One,
Brahma, the Male, possessing the character of Pradhana (prddhdnika).' 2
And farther on : ' The principles or elements, commencing with Mahat,
presided over by Purusha and under the influence of Pradhana, generated
an egg, which became the receptacle of Vishnu in the form of Brahma.'
But generally in the later mythology, especially as
represented by the Tantras, the San-khya principle of
Prakriti takes the form of female personifications, who
are thought of as the wives or creative female energies
of the principal male deities, to whom, on the other hand,
the name Purusha, in the sense of the supreme Soul or the
supreme Male, is sometimes applied. 3 This is especially
the case with the Sakti or female energy of Siva, wor-
shipped by a vast number of persons as the true Jagad-
amba, or ' Mother of the universe.'
Muir, vol. iv. p. 195) the god S'iva is declared to be the cause of the
causes of the world (loka-kdraiia-kdranam), and therefore superior and
antecedent to Pradhana and Purusha. Again, in S'anti-parvan 12725,
12737, I 34 I > & c -> the sons of Brahma are called Prakritayah.
1 See Chapter VII. on the Eclectic School and Bhagavad-gita.
2 Compare the Rig-veda hymn, translated at p. 19 of this book.
3 Vishnu or Krishna is called Purushottama, and the name Purusha
is equally given to Brahma and S'iva.
9 2 INDIAN WISDOM.
These proofs of the ancient popularity of the San-khya
and its influence on the later mythology may help us to
understand that, although in modern times there are com-
paratively few students of the San-khya amoDg the Pandits
of India, there is still a common saying current every-
where (which will be found in Maha-bharata, Santi-parvan,
1 1676), Nasti Sdn-khya-samamjnanam nasti Yoga-samam
balam, ' There is no knowledge equal to the San-khya and
no power equal to the Yoga.'
The Yoga.
The Yoga, 1 commonly regarded as a branch of the
San-khya, is scarcely worthy of the name of a system of
philosophy, though it has undoubted charms for the
naturally contemplative and ascetical Hindu, and lays
claim to greater orthodoxy than the San-khya proper,
by directly acknowledging the existence of Isvara or a
supreme Being. 2 In fact, the aim of the Yoga is to teach
the means by which the human soul may attain complete
union with the supreme Soul. This fusion (laya) or
union of individual with universal spirit may be effected
even in the body. According to Patanjali, the author of
the system, the very word Yoga is interpreted to mean
the act of ' fixing or concentrating the mind in abstract
meditation,' and this is said to be effected by preventing
1 I have given a later account of the Yoga and its connection with
Buddhism in my recent work on Buddhism (John Murray, Albemarle
Street, London), p. 223.
2 The Yoga was propounded by Pataiijali (of whom nothing is
known, except that he was probably not the same person as the author
of the Maha-bhashya) in Aphorisms called the Yoga-sutra, a work in
four books or chapters, two of which, with some of the commentary of
Bhoja-raja or Bhoja-deva, were translated by Dr. Ballantyne. Other
commentators were Vacaspati-misra, Vijnana-bhikshu, and Nagoji-
bhatta.
THE SYSTEMS OF PHILOSOPHY YOGA. 93
the modifications of Oitta or the thinking principle [which
modifications arise through the three Pramanas, percep-
tion, inference, and verbal testimony, as well as through
incorrect ascertainment, fancy, sleep, and recollection], by
the constant habit (abhydsa) of keeping the mind in its
unmodified state a state clear as crystal when uncoloured
by contact with other substances and by the practice of
Vairdgya that is, complete suppression of the passions.
This Vairdgya is only to be obtained by Isvara-pranid-
lidna or the contemplation of the supreme Being, who is
defined to be a particular Purusha or Spirit unaffected by
works, afflictions, &c., and having the appellation Pranava
or Om. The repetition of this monosyllable is supposed
to be attended with marvellous results, and the muttering
of it with reflection on its meaning * is said to be con-
ducive to a knowledge of the Supreme and to a preven-
tion of all the obstacles to Yoga. The eight means of
mental concentration are i. Yama, 'forbearance,' 're-
straint/ 2. Niyama, ' religious observances/ 3. Asana,
' postures/ 2 4. Prdnaydma, ' suppression of the breath '
or ' breathing in a peculiar way/ 5. Pratydhdra, ' re-
straint of the senses/ 6. Dhdrdna, ' steadying of the
mind/ 7. Dkydna, 'contemplation/ 8. Samddhi, 'pro-
found meditation/ or rather a state of religious trance,
which, according to the Bhagavad-gita (VI. 13), is most
effectually attained by such practices as fixing the eyes
intently and incessantly on the tip of the nose, &c. 3 The
1 Om is supposed to be composed of the three letters A, U, M, which
form a most sacred monosyllable (eJcakshara), significant of the supreme
Being as developing himself in the Triad of gods, Brahma, Vishnu, and
S'iva. See Bhagavad-gita VIII. 13, and especially Manu II. 83, 84.
2 One of these postures is called paryan-ka-bandhana or paryan-Jca-
granthi, ' bed-binding ' or ' bed-knot,' and is performed by sitting on
the hams with a cloth fastened round the knees and back. See line i
of the Mri6-chakatika.
3 See the account of the Bhagavad-gita, p. 130 of this volume.
94 INDIAN WISDOM.
system of Yoga appears, in fact, to be a mere contrivance
for getting rid of all thought, or at least for concentrat-
ing the mind with the utmost intensity upon nothing
in particular. It is a strange compound of mental and
bodily exercises, consisting in unnatural restraint, forced
and painful postures, twistings and contortions of the
limbs, suppressions of the breath, and utter absence of
mind. But although the Yoga of Patanjali professes to
effect union with the universal Spirit by means such
as these, it should be observed that far more severe
austerities and self-imposed physical mortifications are
popularly connected with the Yoga system. All Hindu
devotees and ascetics, especially those who, as forming
a division of the Saiva sect, identify the terrific god Siva
with the supreme Being, are commonly called Yogins or
Yogis, and indeed properly so called, in so far as the pro-
fessed object of their austerities is union with the Deity. 1
The variety and intensity of the forms of austerity prac-
tised by such Yogis in India would appear to surpass all
credibility were they not sufficiently attested by trust-
worthy evidence. A few illustrations may not be out of
place here, or at least may be instructive, especially as
bearing upon an interesting field of inquiry, viz., first, how
is it that faith in a false system can operate with sufficient
force upon a Hindu to impel him to submit voluntarily to
almost incredible restraints, mortifications of the flesh, and
physical tortures ? and secondly, how is it that an amount
of physical endurance may be exhibited by an apparently
weakly and emaciated Asiatic, which would be impossible
in a European, the climate and diet in the one case tend-
ing to debilitate, in the other to invigorate ?
1 The name Fakir or Faqlr, sometimes given to Hindu devotees,
ought to be restricted to Muslims. It is an Arabic word, meaning
' poor,' ' indigent.'
THE SYSTEMS OF PHILOSOPHY YOGA. 95
In the Sakuntala (Act VII. verse 175) there is a de-
scription of an ascetic engaged in Yoga, whose condition
of fixed trance and immovable impassiveness had lasted so
long that ants had thrown up a mound as high as his
waist without being disturbed, and birds had built their
nests in the long clotted tresses of his tangled hair. This
may be thought a mere flight of poetical fancy, but a
Mohammedan traveller, whose narrative is quoted by Mr.
Mill (British India, I. 355), once actually saw a man in
India standing motionless with his face turned towards
O
the sun. The same traveller, having occasion to revisit
the same spot sixteen years afterwards, found the very
same man in the very same attitude. Such men have
been known to fix their gaze on the sun's disk till sight
has been extinguished. This is paralleled by a particular
form of austerity described in Manu VI. 23, where men-
tion is made of the Panca-tapds, a Yogi who, during the
three hottest months (April, May, and June), sits between
four blazing fires placed towards the four quarters, with
the burning sun above his head to form a fifth. In fact,
a Yogi was actually seen not long ago (Mill's India, I.
353) seated between four such fires on a quadrangular
stage. He stood on one leg gazing at the sun while these
fires were lighted at the four corners. Then placing him-
self upright on his head, with his feet elevated in the
air, he remained for three hours in that position. He then
seated himself cross-legged and continued bearing the
raging heat of the sun above his head and the fires which
surrounded him till the end of the day, occasionally add-
ing combustibles with his own hands to increase the
flames.
Again, in the Asiatic Monthly Journal for March 1829,
an account is given of a Brahman who, with no other
apparatus than a low stool, a hollow bamboo, and a kind
of crutch, poised himself apparently in the air, about four
g6 INDIAN WISDOM.
feet from the ground, for forty minutes. This actually
took place before the governor of Madras. Nor does there
appear to be any limit to the various forms of austerity
practised by Hindu devotees. We read of some who
acquire the power of remaining under water for a space
of time quite incredible ; of others who bury themselves
up to the neck in the ground, or even below it, leaving
only a little hole through which to breathe ; of others
who keep their fists clenched for years till the nails grow
through the back of their hands ; of others who hold one
or both arms aloft till they become immovably fixed in
that position and withered to the bone ; of others who
roll their bodies for thousands of miles to some place of
pilgrimage; of others who sleep on beds of iron spikes.
One man was seen at Benares (described in the Asiatic
Researches, vol. v. p. 49) who was alleged to have used
such a bed for thirty-five years. Others have been known
to chain themselves for life to trees : others, again, to
* f O '
pass their lives, heavily chained, in iron cages. Lastly,
the extent to which some Indian ascetics will carry fast-
ing far exceeds anything ever heard of in Europe, as may
be understood by a reference to the rules of the lunar
penance given by Manu (XL 20, XL 216-220). This
penance is a kind of fast which consists in diminishing
the consumption of food every day by one mouthful for
the waning half of the lunar month, beginning with
fifteen mouthfuls at the full moon until the quantity is
reduced to o at the new moon, and then increasing it
in like manner during the fortnight of the moon's increase.
Of course all these mortifications are explicable by their
connection with the fancied attainment of extraordinary
sanctity and supernatural powers.
As a conclusion to the subject of Yoga, I quote a re-
markable passage from Professor Banerjea (Dialogues, pp.
69, 70) :
THE SYSTEMS OF PHILOSOPHY YOGA. 97
The Yogi may not see or hear what passes around, he may be in-
sensible to external impressions, but he has intuition of things which
his neighbours cannot see or hear. He becomes so buoyant, or rather
so sublimated by his Yoga, that gravitation, or, as Bhaskara^arya calls
it, the attractive power of the earth, has no influence on him. He can
walk and ascend in the sky, as if he were suspended under a balloon.
He can by this intuitive process inform himself of the mysteries of
astronomy and anatomy, of all things, in fact, that may be found in any
of the different worlds. He may call to recollection the events of a
previous life. He may understand the language of the brute creation.
He may obtain an insight into the past and future. He may discern
the thoughts of others. He may himself vanish at pleasure, and, if he
choose to do so, enter into his neighbour's body and take possession of
his living skin.
By these and other doctrines of Hindu philosophy we
are often reminded that the human mind repeats itself
according to the sentiment expressed in Ecclesiastes i. 9,
' The thing that hath been, it is that which, shall be ; and
that which is done is that which shall be done : and there
is no new thing under the sun.' Certainly almost all
extravagant ideas now current seem to have their counter-
part, if not their source, in the East. The practisers of
self-imposed superstitious restraints and mortifications, not
to speak of the votaries of animal magnetism, clairvoyance,
and so-called spiritualism, will find most of their theories
represented or rather far outdone by corresponding notions
existing in this Yoga system invented by the Hindus con-
siderably more than 2000 years ago, and more or less
earnestly believed in and sedulously practised up to the
present day.
CHAPTER VI.
The Purva-mwidnsd and Veddnta.
OUR next subject is the Mimansa of Jaimini, 1 which is
sometimes connected with the Vedanta, this latter being
called the Uttara-mlmdnsd or Brahma -mimansa- as
founded on the Upanishads or latter part of the Vedas
while Jaimini's system is styled the Purva-mlmdnsd
or Karma-mimdnsd, as concerned with the Mantras and
Brahmanas only. It is more usual, however, to indicate
the opposition of the two systems to each other by calling
the one Mimansa and the other Vedanta. In fact, Jaimini's
system, like the Yoga, cannot suitably be called a subdivi-
sion of any other system, for it is in real truth not a
system of philosophy, but rather of ritualism. It does
not concern itself, like the other systems, with investiga-
tions into the nature of soul, mind, and matter, but with
a correct interpretation of the ritual of the Veda and the
solutions of doubts and discrepancies in regard to Vedic
texts caused by the discordant explanations of opposite
1 Jaimini, as usual, enunciated his doctrines in aphorisms. His work
called the Mimansa-sutra or Jaimini-sutra is in twelve books. It has
been partly edited and translated by Dr. Ballantyne. A commentary
on it was written by Sabara-svamin, which is being published in the
Bibliotheca Indica, and this again was commented on by the celebrated
Mimansa authority, Kumarila (also styled Kumarila-bhatta, Kumarila-
svamin), whose work was again followed by numerous other commen-
taries and treatises. A compendious explanation of the system, called
Jaiminlya-nyaya-mala-vistara, was written by Madhavadarya. Jaimini
must have been a learned Brahman, but nothing is known as to the
date of his life.
9 8
THE SYSTEMS OF PHILOSOPHY PURVA-MIMANSA. 99
schools. Its only claim to the title of a philosophy
consists in its mode of interpretation, the topics being
arranged according to particular categories (such as autho-
ritativeness, indirect precept, &c.), and treated according
to a kind of logical method, commencing with the pro-
position to be discussed, the doubt arising about it, the
Purva-paJcsha or prima facie and wrong view of the
question, the Uttara-paksha or refutation of the wrong
view, and the conclusion. The main design of the whole
system appears to be to make a god of ritualism. Hence
it consists chiefly of a critical commentary on the Brah-
mana or ritual portion of the Veda in its connection with
the Mantras, the interpretation given being an exposition
of the obvious literal sense and not of any supposed occult
meaning underlying the text, as in the Upanishads and
Vedanta. Jaimini was, in point of fact, the opponent of
both rationalism and theism. Not that he denied a God,
but the real tendency of his teaching was to allow no
voice or authority to either reason or God. The Veda
was to be everything. A supreme Being might exist,
but was not necessary to the system. The Veda, said
Jaimini, is itself authority and has no need of an Autho-
rizer. His first Aphorism states the whole aim and
object of his system, viz., a desire to know duty (dharma-
jijhdsd}. When amplified, it may be thus stated :
Understand, O student, that, after studying the Veda with a pre-
ceptor, a desire to know Dliarma or duty is to be entertained by thee.
The fifth Aphorism asserts the strange doctrine of an
original and perpetual connection between a word and its
sense. It is thus paraphrased :
The connection of a word with its sense is contemporaneous with the
origin of both. In consequence of this connection, the words of the
Veda convey unerring instruction in the knowledge of duty.
But it is to be understood that Dharma or duty con-
IO Q INDIAN WISDOM.
sists in the performance of the ritual acts prescribed by
the Veda because they are so prescribed, without reference
to the will or approval of any personal god, for Dharma
is itself the bestower of reward. Some recent Miman-
sakas, however, maintain that Dharma ought to be per-
formed as an offering to a supreme Being, and that it
is to be so performed as a means of emancipation. Even
a verse of the Bhagavad-gita is quoted in support of
this view. Krishna, regarded by his worshippers as a
manifestation of the supreme lord of the universe, says
to Arjuna,
Whatever thou doest, whatever thou eatest, whatever thou sacrificest,
whatever thou givest away, whatever austerity thou practisest, do that
as an offering to me (IX. 27). (See Lecture VII. on the Eclectic School
and Bhagavad-gita, p. 131 of this volume.)
Some singular speculations occur in Jaimini's system.
As he maintains the inherent authority of the Veda,
without any dependence on an eternal Authorizer or
Revealer, so he asserts its own absolute eternity, and
declares that only eternally pre-existing objects are men-
tioned in it. This theory is supported by affirming that
sound is eternal, or rather that an eternal sound underlies
all temporary sound. From Aphorism 18 we gather the
.following :
Sound must be[[eternal, because its utterance [exhibition] is intended
to convey a meaning to others. If it were not eternal it would not con-
tinue till the hearer had learned its sense, and thus he would not learn
the sense, because the cause had ceased to exist
If, on the other hand (says a commentator), it continues to exist for
any period, however short, after ceasing to be perceived, it is impossible
to assign any other instant at which there is any evidence of the dis-
continuance of its existence, whence its eternity is inferred. 1
1 See Muir's Texts, vol. iii. pp. 53, 57; Dr. Ballantyne's Mlmansa-
sutra, p. 23.
THE SYSTEMS OF PHILOSOPHY VEDANTA. IOI
This eternity of sound is further pretended to be estab-
lished by the . two following short passages, one from the
Rig-veda (VIII. 64. 6) and one from Smriti, with which
I close this brief notice of the Mimansa :
' Send forth praises, O Viriipa, with an eternal voice.'
' An eternal voice, without beginning or end, was uttered by the
self-existent.' 1 .
' Let me conclude these remarks on the singular theory
of the eternity of sound by observing that the Chinese are
said to have a saying, ' The echoes of a word once uttered
vibrate in space to all eternity.'
The Veddnta.
Of orthodox systems there only remains the Vedanta of
Vyasa or Badarayana ; 2 but this is in some respects the
1 The whole text of the Rig-veda (VIII. 64 or 75. 6) is Tasmai nunam
abhidyave vdcd Viriipa nityayd, vrishne codasva sushtiitim, ' send forth
praises to this heaven-aspiring and prolific Agni, Virupa, with an
eternal voice.' Nitya, though taken by the Mimansakas in the sense of
1 eternal,' probably means only ' unceasing.' Dr. Muir's Texts, vol. iii.
p. 51. The text from Smriti has only as yet been found in Maha-
bharata, S'anti-parvan 8. 533, An-ddi-nidhand nityd vdg utsrishtd
svayam-bhuvd.
2 The reputed author of this system, Badarayana, is very loosely
identified with the legendary person named Vyasa, who is supposed to
have arranged the Vedas and written the Maha-bharata, Puranas, and
a particular Dharma-sastra or law-book. No doubt the name Vyasa,
* arranger,' was applied as a kind of title to various great writers or
compilers, and in this sense it seems to have been given to the founder
of the Vedanta system. He propounded his views, as usual, in Sutras,
but Badarayana's Aphorisms are generally called Brahma-sutra, or
sometimes S'ariraka-sutra, and the system itself is variously styled
Brahma-mimansa and S'ariraka-mimansa (investigation into the supreme
Soul or embodied Spirit). The text of the Sutras and the celebrated
commentary by S'art-karac"arya have been edited in the Bibliotheca
I02 INDIAN WISDOM.
most important of all the six, both from its closer con-
formity to the pantheistic doctrines propounded in the
Upanishads, on which treatises as forming the end of the
Veda it professes to be founded, and from its greater adap-
tation to the habits of thought common among thinking
and educated Hindus, as much in present as in former
periods. The pantheism pervading the Upanishads and
leading directly to the Vedanta system has already been
illustrated by a selection of examples.
The following simple confession of a Vedantist's faith
can be added from the Chandogya Upanishad (III. 14) :
All this universe (ri> vav) indeed is Brahma ; from him does it pro-
ceed ; into him it is dissolved ; in him it breathes. 1 So let every one
adore him calmly.
Here, then, we have presented to us a different view of
the origin of the world. In the Nyaya it was supposed
to proceed from a concurrence of innumerable eternal
atoms ; in the San-khya from one original eternal element
called Prakriti ; both operating independently, though as-
sociated with eternal spirits, and, according to one view,
presided over by a supreme Spirit. But in the Vedanta
there is no real material world at all, as distinct from the
universal Spirit. Hence the doctrine of this school is called
A-dvaita, ' non-dualism.' The universe exists but merely
as an illusory form of the one eternal essence (TO ei/). He is
the all-pervading Spirit, the only really existing substance
Indica by Dr. Rber, and a portion translated by Professor Banerjea.
Dr. Ballantyne also edited and translated a portion of the Sutras and
commentary and a popular compendium called the Vedanta-sara. A
vast number of other commentaries and treatises on the Vedanta exist.
1 This is expressed in the text by one compound, taj-jaldn, interpreted
as equivalent to taj-ja, tal-la, tad-ana. The whole text is sarvam khalv
idam brahma taj-jaldn iti santa updslta. The philosophy of the Sufis,
alleged to be developed out of the Kuran (see p. 33), appears to be a
kind of pantheism very similar to that of the Vedanta.
THE SYSTEMS OF PHILOSOPHY VEDANTA. 1 03
(vastu). Even as early as the Rig-veda the outlines of
this pantheistic creed, which became more definite in the
Upanishads and Vedanta, may be traced. The germ of
the Vedanta is observable in the Purusha-sukta, as we
have already shown by the example given at p. 21. The
early Vedantic creed has the merit of being exceedingly
simple. It is comprised in these three words, occurring in
the Qhandogya Upanishad (see p. 38), Ekam evddvitlyam,
' one only Essence without a second ; ' or in the following
line of nine short words, Brahma satyam jagan mithyd
jlvo brahmaiva ndparah, ' Brahma is true, the world is
false, the spirit is only Brahma and no other.'
As the Nyaya has much in common with the practical
philosophy of Aristotle, which gave to things and indi-
viduals, rather than to ideas, a real existence, so the
Vedanta offers many parallels to the idealism of Plato. 1
1 Plato does not always state his theory of ideas very intelligibly,
and probably modified them in his later works. He seems, however,
to have insisted on the doctrine that mind preceded and gave rise to
matter, or, in other words, that the whole material world proceeded
from or was actually produced by the Creator according to the idea or
pattern of a world existing eternally and for ever the same in his own
mind. In the Timaeus (10) he says: 'To discover the Maker and
Father of this universe (roD TravrJg) is difficult, and, when he has been
discovered, it is impossible to describe him to the multitude. Accord-
ing to which of two patterns (^jog vorsw run TrapaSe/y^ar&jv) did he
frame the world ? According to one subsisting for ever the same ? Or
according to one which was produced 1 Since, then, this universe is
beautiful and its Artificer good, he evidently looked in modelling it to
an eternal (uidicv) pattern.' Similarly, Plato seems to have held that
the human mind has existing within it certain abstract ideas or ideal
forms which precede and are visibly manifested in the actual concrete
forms around us. For example, the abstract ideas of goodness and
beauty are found pre-existing in the mind, and, as it were, give rise to
the various good and beautiful objects manifested before our eyes. In
the same manner all circular things must have been preceded by some
ideal circular form existing as an eternal reality. For, according to
104 INDIAN WISDOM.
Badaray ana's very first Aphorism states the object of
the whole system in one compound word, viz., Brahma-
jijhasa, ' Brahma-inquisitiveness,' i.e., the desire of know-
ing Brahman (neut.), or the only really existing being.
Here we may quote a portion of San-karacarya's com-
mentary (Roer's edition, pp. 29 and 43) :
The knower of Brahma attains the supreme good and supreme object
of man (param purushdrtham = ro dyadov, TO aglarov, summum bonum).
A really existing substance (vastu) cannot alternately be thus and
not thus, cannot (optionally) be and not be. The knowledge of a sub-
stance just as it is in reality (i.e., true knowledge) is not dependent
on a man's own personal notions (na purusha-buddhy-apeksham). 1 It
depends on the substance itself. To say of one and the same post that
it is either a post or a man or something else is not true knowledge
(tattva-jndnam). It is a false notion (mifhya-jnanam)? That it is a
post is alone the truth, because it is dependent on the substance itself
(vastu-tantratvdf). Thus the proving of an existing substance is depen-
dent on the substance itself. Thus the knowledge of Brahma is depen-
dent on the substance itself (not on the notion a man may form of
Brahma), because it relates to a really existing substance (bhuta-vastu-
vishayatvdt).
Plato, these abstract ideas had a real, eternal, unchanging existence of
their own, quite separate from and independent of the ever-varying
concrete objects and appearances connected with them.
1 S'an-kara appears here to argue against a doctrine like that ascribed
to Protagoras, irfaruv titrpv uvdeuircg, ' the individual man is the stan
dard of all things.'
2 One of Plato's causes of mistaken notion is that when two persons
or things have been seen and their forms impressed on the mind, they
are yet, owing to imperfect observation, mistaken the one for the
other : ' It remains that I may form a false notion in this case, when
knowing you and Theodorus and having the impression of both of you on
that waxen tablet of the mind (sv 1-x.ii^ r xjjg/i/^) made by a seal ring
as it were, seeing you both from a distance and not sufficiently distin-
guishing you, I fit the aspect of each to the impression of the other,
changing them like those that put their shoes on the wrong feet : ro'rg
ft wppctlvti r, mgokfra xai r& -^evBrj aogae,' Theaet. 122. Compare
Banerjea's translation of the Brahma-sutra, p. 2.
THE SYSTEMS OF PHILOSOPHY VEDANTA. 1 05
In the second Aphorism Brahma l is defined to mean
* that from which the production of this universe results.'
San-kara adds a fuller definition, thus (Eoer's edition,
P. 38) :-
Brahma is that all-knowing, all-powerful Cause from which arises
the production, continuance, and dissolution of the universe, which
(universe) is modified by name and form, contains many agents and
patients (Icartri-bhoktri-samyukta), is the repository (asrayd) of actions
and effects, and in the form of its arrangement cannot be conceived
even by the mind.
The Aphorisms which follow, as far as the 28th, proceed
to define and describe the character of God as. the supreme
Soul of the universe. I here give a summary 2 of the most
interesting of them, with portions of the commentary :
That the supreme Being is omniscient follows from the fact that he
is the source of the Veda (sastra-yonitvaf). As from that Being every
soul is evolved, so to that same Being does every soul return. How
can souls be merged into Prakriti 1 3 for then the intelligent would be
absorbed in the unintelligent. He, the supreme Being, consists of
joy. This is clear from the Veda, which describes him as the cause
of joy; for as those who enrich others must be themselves rich, so
there must be abundant joy with him who causes others to rejoice.
Again, he, the one God, is the light (jyotis). He is within the sun
and within the eye. He is the ethereal element (akdsa). 4 He is the
1 The name Brahman is, in fact, derived from the root brih or vrih,
'to grow and expand,' and therefore means literally the one essence
which grows or expands. Vriksha, ' a tree,' is from the same root.
2 See Dr. Ballantyne's translation, and that of Professor Banerjea.
3 The Prakriti or Pradhana of the San-khya system.
4 Professor Banerjea considers that the word ' ether ' is not a good
rendering for aMsa, which pervades everything. There is akasa in
our cups and within our bodies, which are surely not ethereal. One
of the synonyms of akasa is sunya, and this may be compared in some
respects to the 'inane' or space of Lucretius (I. 330) :
Nee tamen undique corpored stipata tenentur
Omnia naturd ; namque est in refais inane.
* And yet all things are not on all sides held and jammed together in
close and solid parts ; there is a space (or void) in things.'
106 INDIAN WISDOM.
life and the breath of life (prdna). He is the life with which Indra
identified himself when he said to Pratardana, ' I am the life, consist-
ing of perfect knowledge. Worship me as the life immortal.' 1
From other portions of the Aphorisms it appears that
the TO ev, or one universal essence called Brahma, is to
the external world what yarn is to cloth, what milk to
curds, what earth to a jar, and gold to a bracelet. He
is both creator and creation, 2 actor and act. He is also
Existence, Knowledge, and Joy (Sa6-6id-dnanda\ but is
at the same time without parts, unbound by qualities
(nir-guna, see p. 85), without action, without emotion,
having no consciousness such as is denoted by ' I ' and
' Thou,' 3 apprehending no person or thing, nor appre-
hended by any, having neither beginning nor end, im-
mutable, the only real entity.
This is surely almost tantamount to asserting that
pure Being is identical with pure Nothing, so that the
two extremes of Buddhistic Nihilism and Vedantic Pan-
theism, far as they profess to be apart, appear in the end
to meet.
1 This is from the Kaushitaki-brahmana Upanishad, chapter 3. See
Professor E. B. CowelFs translation.
2 A true Vedantic spirit is observable in the Orphic hymns when
they identify Zeus with the universe ; thus, ' Zeus is the ether ; Zeus
is the earth; Zeus is the heaven; Zeus is all things.' Orphic. Fragm.
rV". 363, VI. 366. Compare also Virgil, Aeneid VI. 724, &c. :
' Principio caelum ac terras, camposque liquentes
Lucentemque globum Luuae, Titaniaque astra,
Spiritus intus alit, totamque infusa per artus
Mens agitat molem et magno se corpore miscet.'
3 As shown by Professor Banerjea, San-kara compares the second
person Thou with darkness, because there cannot be a real Thou. So
San-kara affirms that 'Thou' and 'I' are as opposed as darkness and
light. Plato speaks similarly of darkness and light in connection with
nonentity and real entity. Sophist. 254.
THE SYSTEMS OF PHILOSOPHY VEDANTA.
I add two or three extracts from San-karacaiya's com-
ment on Sutra II. i. 34 : l
It may be objected that G-od is proved not to be the cause of the
universe. Why ? From the visible instances of injustice (vaishamya)
and cruelty (nairghrinya). Some he makes very happy, as the gods, &c. ;
some very miserable, as the brutes, &c. ; and some in a middling condi-
tion, as men, &c. Being the author of such an unjust creation, he is
provetl to be subject to passions like other persons that is to say, to
partiality and prejudice and therefore his nature is found wanting in
spotlessness. And by dispensing pain and ruin, he is chargeable with
malicious cruelty, deemed culpable even among the wicked. Hence,
because of the instances of injustice and cruelty, God cannot be the
cause of the universe. To this we reply : Injustice and cruelty cannot
be charged upon God. Why ? Because he did not act independently
(sdpeksliatvdi). God being dependent (sdpekshafy) creates this world of
inequalities. If you ask on what he is dependent, we reply, on merit
and demerit (dharmddharmau). That there should be an unequal
creation dependent on the merit and demerit of the souls created, is no
fault of God. As the rain is the common cause of the production of
rice and wheat, but the causes of their specific distinctions as rice and
wheat are the varying powers of their respective seeds ; so is God the
common cause in the creation of gods, men, and others ; but of the dis-
tinctions between gods, men, and others, the causes are the varying
works inherent in their respective souls.
In commenting on the next Aphorism (35), he answers
the objection, ' How could there be previous works at the
original creation ? ' The objection and reply are thus
stated : 2
The supreme Being existed at the beginning, one without a second
(see p. 103). Hence, before the creation there could be no works in
dependence on which inequalities might be created. God may be
dependent on works after distinctions are made. But before the
1 Quoted by Professor Banerjea and Mr. Mullens, and translated by
them. Dialogues, p. 120, &c. Essay on Hindu Philosophy, p. 190.
The Aphorism is, Vaishamya-nairglirinye na sdpekshatvdt tatlidhi dar-
sayati.
The original Sutra is, Na karmdvibhdgdd iti cen ndndditvdt.
108 INDIAN WISDOM.
creation there could be no works caused by varying instruments, and
therefore we ought to find a uniform creation (tulyd srishtih}. We
reply : This does not vitiate our doctrine, because the world is without
'beginning (andditvdt samsdrasya). The world being without beginning,
nothing can prevent works and unequal creations from continuing in
the states of cause and effect, like the seed and its plant (vljdnkura-vat).
Other objections to the Vedanta theory are thus treated
by San-kara :
How can this universe, which is manifold, void of life, impure, and
irrational, proceed from him who is one, living, pure, and rational ?
"We reply : The lifeless world can proceed from Brahma, just as lifeless
hair can spring from a living man. But in the universe we find him
who enjoys and him who is enjoyed ; how can he be both ? We reply :
Such are the changes of the sea. Foam, waves, billows, bubbles, are
not different from the sea. There is no difference between the universe
and Brahma. The effect is not different from its cause. He is the
soul ; the soul is he. The same earth produces diamonds, rock-crystal,
and vermilion. The same sun produces many kinds of plants. The
same nourishment is converted into hair, nails, &c. As milk is changed
into curds, and water into ice, so is Brahma variously transformed
without external aids. So the spider spins its web from its own sub-
stance. So spirits assume various shapes.
Such a creed really implies (though some Vedantists
deny this) that the world is all Maya, ' a mere illusion.'
In point of fact, a true Vedantist, though he affirms that
Brahma alone is real, allows a vyavaharika, ' practical
existence,' to souls, the world, and Isvara, as distinguished
from paramarthika, ' real,' and pratibhasika, ' apparent or
illusory existence.' How, indeed, can it be denied that
external things exist, when we see them before our eyes
and feel them at every instant ? But how, on the other
hand, can it be maintained that an impure world is the
manifestation of a pure spiritual essence ? To avoid this
difficulty, the supreme Spirit is represented as ignoring
himself by a sort of self-imposed ignorance, in order to
draw out from himself for his own amusement the separate
THE SYSTEMS OF PHILOSOPHY VEDANTA. 'I Op
individuated spirits and various appearances, which, al-
though really parts of his own essence, constitute the
apparent phenomena of the universe. Hence the external
world, the living spirits of individual men, and even
Isvara, the personal God, are all described as created by
a power which the Vedantist is obliged, for want of a
better solution of his difficulty, to call Maya, ' Illusion/
or A-vidya, 1 'Ignorance,' that is, 'False knowledge' or
' False notion.'
Of this power there are two distinct forms of operation,
viz., i. that of envelopment (avarana), which, enveloping
the soul, causes it to imagine that it is liable to mundane
vicissitudes that it is an agent or a patient ; that it
rejoices or grieves, &c. as if a person under a delusion
were to mistake a rope for a snake : 2. that of projection
(vikshepa), which, affecting the soul in its state of pure
intelligence, raises upon it the appearance of a world,
producing first the five subtile elements and drawing out
from them seventeen subtile bodies (also called linga-
sarlra, comprising the five organs of sense, the five
organs of action, the five vital airs, with buddhi and
manas, and the five gross elements in the same order as
in the San-khya(see p. 83). Hence the soul mistakes itself
for a mere mortal, as it mistook the rope for a snake. 2
By reason of Maya or A-vidya, then, the Jivatman, or
' personal spirit of every individual,' mistakes the world,
as well as its own body and mind, for realities, just as a
rope in a dark night might be mistaken for a snake. The
moment the personal soul is set free from this self-imposed
Delusion or Ignorance by a proper understanding of the
1 Something like the 'Ayvo/'a of Plato. See Banerjea's translation of
the Sutras, p. 3.
2 See Ballantyne's Lecture on the Vedanta-sara, p. 25. Reference
may also be made to the Vedanta-paribhasha, a text-book of the most
modern Vedantic school.
IIO INDIAN WISDOM.
truth, through the Vedanta philosophy, all the illusion
vanishes and the identity of the Jivatman and of the
whole phenomenal universe with the Paramatman, or ' one
only really existing spirit/ is re-established. 1
Let me here introduce a version of part of a short
Vedantic tract in verse, called Atma-bodha, ' knowledge
of soul/ attributed to the great San-karacarya. It is
highly esteemed as an exposition of Vedantic doctrines,
and has therefore been inserted by Dr. Haberlin in his
anthology of shorter poems. 2 The following metrical lines
may serve as a specimen of some of the ideas contained
in this well-known epitome of Hindu pantheistic philo-
sophy :
Knowledge alone effects emancipation.
As fire is indispensable to cooking,
So knowledge is essential to deliverance (2).
Knowledge alone disperses ignorance,
As sunlight scatters darkness not so acts ;
For ignorance originates in works (3).
The world and all the course of mundane things
Are like the vain creation of a dream, 3
In which Ambition, Hatred, Pride, and Passion
Appear like phantoms mixing in confusion.
While the dream lasts the universe seems real,
But when 'tis past the world exists no longer (6).
Like the deceptive silver of a shell, 4
So at first sight the world deludes the man
Who takes mere semblance for reality (7).
As golden bracelets are in substance one
With gold, so are all visible appearances
And each distinct existence one with Brahma (8).
1 See the passage from the Mundaka Upanishad, quoted p. 39.
2 There is also a Tamil version and commentary translated by the
Rev. I. F. Kearns, Madras, 1867. I have consulted the Tamil com-
mentary as given by Mr. Kearns.
3 Of. Shakspeare's ' We are such stuff As dreams are made on, and
our little life Is rounded with a sleep.' Tempest, Act iv. Scene i.
4 That is, the mother-of-pearl oyster (sukti).
THE SYSTEMS OF PHILOSOPHY VEDANTA. I I I
By action of the fivefold elements l
Through acts performed in former states of being,
Are formed corporeal bodies, which become
The dwelling-place of pleasure and of pain (n).
The soul inwrapped in five investing sheaths 2
Seems formed of these, and all its purity
Darkened, like crystal laid on coloured cloth (14).
As winnowed rice is purified from husk,
So is the soul disburdened of its sheaths
By force of meditation, 3 as by threshing (15).
The soul is like a king whose ministers
Are body, senses, mind, and understanding. 4
The soul is wholly separate from these,
Yet witnesses and overlooks their actions (18).
The foolish think the Spirit acts, whereas
The senses are the actors, so the moon
Is thought to move when clouds are passing o'er it (19).
When intellect and mind are present, then
Affections, inclinations, pleasures, pains
Are active ; in profound and dreamless sleep
When intellect is non-existent, these
Exist not ; therefore they belong to mind (22).
As brightness is inherent in the sun,
Coolness in water, warmness in the fire,
E'en so existence, knowledge, perfect bliss, 5
1 This is called Pancl-Tcrita or Panci-karana, the production of the
body, and indeed of the whole world, by the action of the five elements
(see p. 83), being a dogma of the Vedanta.
2 See the remarks, p. 113.
3 Yukti seems here to be equivalent to yoga. It may also mean
' argument,' ' reasoning.'
4 The soul is supposed by Vedantists to have three conditions besides
the conditions of pure intelligence, viz., waking, dreaming, and profound
or dreamless sleep (su-slmpti}. While awake, the soul, associated with
the body, is active and has to do with a real creation. While dreaming,
it has to do with an unreal or illusory world. When profoundly and
dreamlessly asleep, it is supposed to have retired by the channel of
some of the pericardial arteries into the perfect repose of union with
the supreme Soul. See Vedanta-sutra III. 2. i-io.
5 Hence the Vedantist's name for the one universal Spirit, Sac-cid-
dnanda.
! ! 2 INDIAN WISDOM.
And perfect purity inhere in soul (23).
The understanding cannot recognize
The soul, nor does the soul need other knowledge
To know itself, 1 e'en as a shining light
Requires no light to make itself perceived (27, 28).
The soul declares its own condition thus
' I am distinct from body, I am free
From birth, old age, infirmity, and death.
I have no senses ; I have no connection
With sound or sight or objects of sensation.
I am distinct from mind, and so exempt
From passion, pride, aversion, fear, and pain.
I have no qualities, 2 I am without
Activity, and destitute of option, 3
Changeless, eternal, formless, without taint,
For ever free, for ever without stain.
I, like the boundless ether, permeate
The universe within, without, abiding
Always, for ever similar in all,
Perfect, immovable, without affection,
Existence, knowledge, undivided bliss,
Without a second, One, supreme am I ' (31-35).
The perfect consciousness that ' I am Brahma '
Removes the false appearances projected
By Ignorance, 4 just as elixir, sickness (36).
The universal Soul knows no distinction
Of knower, knowledge, object to be known.
Rather is it enlightened through itself
And its own essence, which is simple knowledge (40).
When contemplation rubs the Aram 5
1 The celebrated Hindu maxim, Atmanam dtmand patya, ' know (see)
thyself by thyself,' or ' know the soul by the soul,' has, therefore, a deeper
philosophical meaning than the still more celebrated Greek precept yvuOi
eiavrov, attributed to Thales.
2 The epithet nir-yuna, 'quality-less,' so commonly applied to the
supreme Being in India, will be better understood by a reference to
p. 85.
3 Nir-vikalpa may perhaps be translated, ' destitute of all reflection,'
or perhaps, ' free from all will.'
4 Avidya-vikshepan, 'the projections of ignorance.' See p. 109.
5 See note, p. 15.
THE SYSTEMS OF PHILOSOPHY VEDANTA. I I 3
Of soul, the flame of knowledge blazing up
Quickly consumes the fuel ignorance (41).
The saint l who has attained to full perfection
Of contemplation, sees the universe
Existing in himself, and with the eye
Of knowledge sees the All as the One Soul (46).
When bodily disguises 2 are dissolved,
The perfect saint becomes completely blended
With the one Soul, as water blends with water,
As air unites with air, as fire with fire (52).
That gain than which there is no greater gain,
That joy than which there is no greater joy,
That lore than which there is no greater lore,
Is the one Brahma this is certain truth (53).
That which is through, above, below, complete,
Existence, wisdom, bliss, 3 without a second, 4
Endless, eternal, one know that as Brahma (55).
That which is neither coarse nor yet minute,
That which is neither short nor long, unborn,
Imperishable, without form, unbound
By qualities, without distinctive marks,
Without a name know that indeed as Brahma (59).
Nothing exists but Brahma, when aught else
Appears to be, 'tis, like the mirage, false 5 (62).
With regard to the five sheaths (panca-Jcosa) alluded to
in the fourteenth verse of the Atma-bodha, it must be noted
that in the Vedanta the individuated soul, when separated
off from the supreme Soul, is regarded as enclosed in a suc-
cession of cases (Jcosa) which envelop it and, as it were, fold
one over the other, ' like the coats of an onion.' 6 The first
or innermost sheath is called the Vijndna-maya-kosa or
' sheath composed of mere intellection,' associated with
1 Yogin, see p. 92.
2 Upadlii, a term for the illusive disguises assumed by Brahma.
3 Sac-cid-dnandam. 4 A-dvayam.
5 Mithyd yathd maru maricikd.
6 As remarked by Dr. Ballantyne, Lecture on the Vedanta-sara,
p. 29.
H
114 INDIAN WISDOM.
the organs of perception. This gives the personal soul its
first conception of individuality. The second case is called
the Mano-maya or 'sheath composed of mind,' associated
with the organs of action. This gives the individual soul
O O
its powers of thought and judgment. The third envelope
is called the Prana-maya or 'breathing sheath,' i.e., the
sheath composed of breath and the other vital airs associated
with the organs of action. The fourth case is called the
Anna-maya or 'covering supported by food/ i.e., the cor-
poreal form or gross body ; the three preceding sheaths,
when combined together, constituting the subtile body.
A fifth case, called Ananda-maya or ' that composed of
supreme bliss,' is also named, although not admitted by all.
It must be regarded as the innermost of all, and ought
therefore, when five are enumerated, to be placed before
the Vijnana-maya. Moreover, a collective totality of sub-
tile bodies is supposed to exist, and the soul, which is
imagined to pass through these subtile bodies like a thread,
is called the Sutoratman, 'thread soul' (occasionally sty led the
Prdnatman), and sometimes identified with Hiranya-garbha.
Of course the Vedanta theory, if pushed to its ultimate
consequences, must lead to the neglect of all duties, reli-
gious and moral, of all activity, physical or intellectual, and
of all self-culture. If everything (TO -n-av) be God, then
you and he and I must be one. Why should any efforts be
made for the advancement of self or for the good of others ?
Everything we have must be common property. Accord-
ing to the Brihad-aranyaka Upanishad (IV. 5) :
Where there is anything like duality there one sees another, one
smells another, one tastes another, one speaks to another, one hears
another, one minds another, one regards another, one knows another ;
but where the whole of this (rb srai/) is one spirit, then whom and by
what can one see ? whom and by what can one smell ? whom and by
what can one taste ? to whom and by what can one speak ? whom and
by what can one hear ? whom and by what can one mind 1 whom and
by what can one regard ? whom and by what can one know ?
THE SYSTEMS OF PHILOSOPHY VEDANTA. I I 5
This Indian pantheism is paralleled by some phases of
modern German thought, as described by Dean Mansel
in the following extract from one of his Essays lately
published :
With German philosophers the root of all mischief is the number
two Self and Not-self, Ego and Non-ego. The pantheist tells me that
I have not a real distinct existence and unity of my own, but that I
am merely a phenomenal manifestation, or an aggregate of many mani-
festations of the one infinite Being. If [then] we shrink from Nihilism,
there remains the alternative of Pantheism. The instincts of our nature
plead against annihilation and maintain, in spite of philosophy, that
there must really exist something somewhere. Granting that some-
thing exists, why is that something to be called Ego ? What qualities
can it possess which shall make it / rather than Thou, or any one
being rather than any other being 1 I am directly conscious of the
existence of a self. But this consciousness is a delusion. This self is
but the phenomenal shadow of a further self, of which I am not con-
scious. Why may not this also be a shadow of something further still ?
Why may there not be a yet more remote reality, which is itself
neither self or not-self, but the root and foundation, and at the same
time the indifference of both ? This ultimate existence, the one and
sole reality, is then set up as the deity of philosophy, and the result is
pure pantheism.
Perhaps it may not be out of place here to contrast
with Indian ideas Aristotle's grand conception of the
nature of God as propounded in the eleventh book of
his Metaphysics. 1 In chapter vii. of that book Aristotle
says (not, however, quite in the order here given) :
The principle of life is in God ; for energy of mind constitutes life,
and God is this energy. He, the first mover, imparts motion and pur-
sues the work of creation as something that is loved (KIVCI & ug spufj.tvo^.
His course of life (<5(aywy?j) must be similar to what is most excellent in
our own short career. But he exists for ever in this excellence, whereas
this is impossible for us. His pleasure consists in the exercise of his
essential energy, and on this account vigilance, wakefulness, and percep-
This work has been well translated by the Rev. J. H. M'Mahon.
H6 INDIAN WISDOM.
tion are most agreeable to him. Again, the more we examine God's
nature the more wonderful does it appear to us. He is an eternal (atoo,)
and most excellent (5g,wo.) Being. He is indivisible (dfcoigcrfc), devoid
of parts (cfcif) and having no magnitude (Aw/efcc), for God imparts
motion through infinite time, and nothing finite, as magnitude is, can
have an infinite capacity. He is a being devoid of passions and unalter-
able (dvadi; xai av
Before quitting the subject of the Vedanta philosophy
it should be stated that in many points the Vedauta
agrees with the San-khya. The order of creation in both
is nearly the same, though the 'Originant' in one case is
Prakriti, in the other A-vidyd, 'ignorance' (or 'false
knowledge '). But even here an attempt is made by some
to establish a community of ideas by identifying both
Prakriti and A-vidyd with Maya or ' illusion.' In both
systems the gross elements proceed from subtile principles,
imperceptible to sense, in the same order (see the San-
khyan account of the elements, p. 83). In both there is
a subtile as well as a gross body. 2 The nature of the
soul in being incapable of cognition without the help of
the mind or internal organ (antak-karana) is described
in nearly similar language by both. Again, this internal
1 Hence, according to the translator, Aristotle's idea of God is that he
is a Being whose essence is love, manifested in eternal energy, the final
cause of this energy being the happiness of his creatures, in which he
himself participates for ever. Aristotle, again, warns his disciples against
regarding God's nature through the medium of their own subjectivity,
There is a celebrated passage in book XI. chap, viii., in which he says
that traditions have been handed down representing the heavens as gods,
and the divine essence (TO deiov) as embracing the whole of nature ; and
these traditions, he affirms, are kept up to win over the multitude and
secure obedience to the laws and for the sake of general expediency. On
that account gods are described as existing in the form of man (dvdw-
Toe/S-T;), or even as taking the shape of animals.
2 The gross body is sometimes called the nine-gated city of Brahma
(Brahma-pura), from its being the abode of the soul and from its having
nine openings.
THE SYSTEMS OF PHILOSOPHY VEDANTA. I I 7
organ (anta/i-karana) is held by both to stand between
the organs of perception and those of action, as an eleventh
organ partaking of the nature of each (see p. 84). But
while the San-khya divides the internal organ into Buddhi,
' intellectual perception,' Ahankdra, ' self -consciousness,'
and Manas, ' the reasoning mind,' the first being the great
source of the others (see p. 83), the Yedanta propounds a
fourth division, viz., Citta or 'the faculty of thought.'
On the other hand, the Vedauta adds two Pramanas or
'instruments of true knowledge' (An-upalabdhi, 'non-
perception ' or ' negative proof,' and Arthapatti, ' inference
from circumstances') to the four admitted by the Nyaya
(see p. 61), while the San-khya rejects the Nyaya Upa-
mdna, and retains as its only three Pramanas, Pratyahsha,
Anumana, and Sabda.
CHAPTER VII.
Irregular Systems and Eclectic School.
BEFORE passing to the Eclectic School I may mention
that a celebrated work by Madhava, called Sarva-darsaua-
san-graha, gives a concise description of various Hindu sys-
tems and sects, religious and philosophical, orthodox and
heterodox, even including the science of applying quick-
silver (rasesvara, regarded as a form of Siva) or its pre-
parations to various chemical and alchemical operations,
and embracing also Panini's theory of grammar.
Madhava lived in the fourteenth century. He was
elder brother of Sayana, and associated with him in the
commentary on the Rig-veda. (By Mr. Burnell, however,
in his preface to the Vansa-brahmana, he is identified
with Sayana.) He was also prime minister in the court
of Bukka I. at Vijaya-nagara. He wrote many works
(e.g., an introduction to the Mimansa philosophy, called
Nyaya-mala-vistara, a commentary on Parasara's law-book,
the Kala-nirnaya, &c.), besides the Sarva-darsana-san-graha.
This latter treats of fifteen systems as follow : i. Carvaka-
darsana ; 2. Bauddha-d ; 3. Arhata-d ; 4. Ramanuja-d ;
5. Purna-prajna-d ; 6. Nakulisa-pasupata-d ; 7. Saiva-d ;
8. Pratyabhijna-d ; 9. Eases vara-d '; 10. Aulukya-d ;
ii. Akshapada-d ; 12. Jaimini-d ; 13. Panini-d c ; 14.
San-khya-d ; 15. Patanjala-d. The Vedanta is not here
included. The third in the list is the system of the Jainas
or Jains, whom Madhava calls Arhata. 1 Ramanuja, the
1 In the previous edition of Indian Wisdom a short account was
here given of the Jainas. This has been superseded by my summary of
IRREGULAR SYSTEMS CARVAKAS. 119
founder of the fourth, was a Vaislmava Reformer, who,
according to H. H. Wilson, lived about the middle of the
twelfth century. The fifth is the doctrine of Anarida-
tirtha, surnamed Madhvacarya, and also called Mudhya-
mandira, his epithet Parna-prajiia merely meaning ' one
whose knowledge is complete. The sixth is the system of
a branch of the Mahesvaras, as shown by Professor E. B.
Cowell (Colebrooke's Essays, I. pp. 431, 434). He con-
jectures that Siva himself, called Nakulisa, may have been
the supposed founder of this sect, and points out that the
Pasupatas are worshippers of Siva as Pasu-pati, ' master
of all inferior creatures ' (explained by some to mean ' lord
of pasu or the soul entangled in the bonds of matter ').
The eighth is like the sixth and that of the Mahesvaras, a
form of Saiva doctrine, but more pantheistic, the Saivas
maintaining that God is in creating, Karmadi-sdpekslia,
' dependent on the acts, &c., of individual souls,' while
this eighth asserts that God's will is the only cause of
creation ; for it is said, ' He being independent (nir^apek-
shah] and regarding no face but his own, threw all exist-
ences as a reflection on the mirror of himself.' Hence
pratyabliijhd is defined as pratimdbhimu-khyena jndnam,
' recognition as of a visible object or image.' The tenth is
the Vaiseshika. (See note, p. 65.) I propose here to speak
of the first only.
The ddrvdJcas.
Nothing is known about Carvaka, the Pyrrho and Epi-
curus of India and founder of the materialistic school.
His system is the worst form of all heresies, and therefore
honoured with the first place in Madhavacarya's Sarva-
the Jaina system, and of the particular points which distinguish it from
Buddhism, in my recent volume on Buddhism (p. 529), published by
Mr. Murray, Albemarle Street.
120 INDIAN WISDOM.
darsana-san-graha. In the Santi-parvan of the Maha-
bharata (1410, &c.) there is a story of a Kakshasa named
Carvaka, who, in the disguise of a mendicant Brahman,
reviled Yudhishthira, during his triumphant entry into
Hastinapura, and uttered profane and heretical doctrines.
He was, however, soon detected, and the real Brahmans,
filled with fury, killed him on the spot. This legend may
possibly rest on some basis of fact.
The creed of the Carvakas, who are sometimes called
Lokayatas or Lokayatikas, 1 is said to have been derived
from the Varhaspatya Sutras (Aphorisms of Vrihaspati).
They reject all the Pramanas, or 'sources of true know-
ledge,' except Pratyaksha, 'perception by the senses'
(see p. 61); they admit only four Tattvas or 'eternal
principles, viz., earth, air, fire, and water, and from these
intelligence (caitanya) is alleged to be produced ; they
affirm that the soul is not different from the body ; and,
lastly, they assert that all the phenomena of the world
are spontaneously produced, without even the help of
Adrishta (see p. 58). I sum up their views with a version
of a passage in the Sarva-darsana-san-graha (Isvara-candra
Vidyasagara's edition, p. 6), setting forth the opinions of
the Carvaka materialists according to the supposed teaching
of Vrihaspati. 2 The sentiments, it will be perceived, are
worthy of the most sceptical, materialistic, and epicurean
of European writers :
1 By some this name is given to a subdivision of the Carvakas. The
name Carvaka is applied to any adherent of the materialistic school ;
see Vedanta-sara, 82-85.
2 I have consulted Professor E. B. Cowell's appendix to Colebrooke's
Essay, and Dr. Muir's prose translation as given by him in his article
on 'Indian Materialists' (Royal Asiatic Society's Journal, vol. xix.,
art. xi.). He compares a passage in the Vishnu-purana III. 18, which
contains similar sentiments. Cf. also the speech of the rationalistic
Brahman Javali, addressed to Rama in the Ramayana.
IRREGULAR SYSTEMS CARVAKAS. 121
No heaven exists, no final liberation,
No soul, no other world, no rites of caste,
No recompense for acts ; the Agnihotra, 1
The triple Veda, triple self-command, 2
And all the dust and ashes of repentance
These yield a means of livelihood for men,
Devoid of intellect and manliness.
If victims slaughtered at a sacrifice
Are raised to heavenly mansions, 3 why should not
The sacrificer immolate his father ?
If offerings of food can satisfy 4
Hungry departed spirits, why supply
The man who goes a journey with provisions ?
His friends at home can feed him with oblations.
If those abiding in celestial spheres
Are filled with food presented upon earth,
Why should not those who live in upper stories
Be nourished by a meal spread out below ?
While life endures let life be spent in ease
And merriment ; 5 let a man borrow money
From all his friends and feast on melted butter.
How can this body when reduced to dust
Revisit earth ? and if a ghost can pass
To other worlds, why does not strong affection
For those he leaves behind attract him back ?
The costly rites enjoined for those who die
1 See note, p. 28.
2 Tri-danda, ' control over thoughts, words, and actions,' denoted by
the three Dandas or staves carried by ascetics. See Manu XII. 10, n.
3 This, as Dr. Muir points out, refers to Manu V. 42, where it is
stated that animals duly sacrificed are conveyed to mansions of supreme
felicity. Cf. MahJ-bharata, Asvamedhika-parvan 793, &c.
4 This is a hit at the S'raddha, one of the most important of all
Hindu religious acts, when oblations of cakes and libations of water
are made to the spirits of deceased fathers, grandfathers, and progeni-
tors. The strict observance of these ceremonies at regular intervals
is at least an evidence of the strength of filial feeling among Hindus,
llespect for parents and their memory has all the sanction of religion,
and is even more insisted on as a religious duty than in Europe.
5 ' Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die ' (i Cor. xv. 32). See
Dr. Muir's note. Compare such Horatian precepts as Epod. XIII. 3, &c.
122 INDIAN WISDOM.
Are a mere means of livelihood devised
By sacerdotal cunning nothing more.
The three composers of the triple Yeda
Were rogues, or evil spirits, or buffoons.
The recitation of mysterious words
And jabber J of the priests is simple nonsense.
Eclectic School of the Bhagavad-glta.
As a fitting conclusion to the subject of Indian philo-
sophy let me endeavour to give some idea of one of the
most interesting and popular works in the whole raoge
of Sanskrit literature, called Bhagavad-gita, the Song of
Bhavagat that is, the mystical doctrines ( Upanishadah 2 )
sung by ' the adorable one ' a name applied to Krishna
when identified with the supreme Being. This poem,
abounding in sentiments borrowed from the Upanishads,
and commented on by the great Vedaiitic teacher San-
karacarya, may be taken to represent the Eclectic school
of Indian philosophy. As the regular systems or Darsanas
were more or less developments of the Upanishads, so the
Eclectic school is connected with those mystical treatises
through the Svetasvatara Upanishad 3 of the Black Yajur-
1 Two curious Vedic words, jarbharl and turphari, are given in the
text as specimens of what I suppose modern scoffers might call ' Vedic
slang.' They occur, as Dr. Muir points out, in Rig-veda X. 106. 6, and
Nirukta XIII. 5. For their explanation see Bohtlingk and Roth and
my Sanskrit-English Dictionary.
2 At the end of each chapter the name of the chapter is given in the
plural ; thus, Hi sri-bliagavad-gltasu upanishatsu, &c. See note 4, p. 125.
3 The name of this Upanishad is derived from a sage, S'vetasvatara,
who, at the end of the work (VI. 21), is said to have taught the doc-
trine of Brahma to the most excellent of the four orders. It has been
translated by Dr. Roer into English, and nearly all by Professor Weber
into German (Indische Studien I. 422-429). The author must have
been a S'aiva (not a Vaishnava, like the author of the Bhagavad-glta),
as he identifies Rudra with the supreme Being. According to Wilson,
ECLECTIC SCHOOL BHAGAVAD-GITA. 123
veda (see p. 43). This latter is doubtless a comparatively
modern work, but whether composed before or after the
Bhagavad - gita, certain it is that the design of both
appears to be the same. They both aim at reconciling
the conflicting views of different systems, and both do
so by attempting to engraft the San-khya and Yoga upon
Vedanta doctrines. 1 Although, therefore, the order of
creation and much of the cosmogony and other San-khya
views are retained in both, the paramount sovereignty of
the supreme Soul of the universe (Brahma) as the source
and ultimate "end of all created things, and yet wholly
independent of all such creations, is asserted by both.
Some extracts from the Svetasvatara, describing the
character and attributes of this supreme Being, who is
everything and in everything, have already been given at
p. 43. The following are additional extracts from the
first and third chapters (Roer, pp. 50, 55, 58) :
This (absolute Brahma) should be meditated on as eternal and as
abiding in one's own soul ; for beside him there is nothing to be known
(natah param veditavyam hi kincit). As oil in seeds (tileshu), butter in
cream, water in a river, and fire in wood, so is that absolute Soul per-
ceived within himself by a person who beholds him by means of truth
and by austerity.
He is the eye of all, the face of all, the arm of all, the foot of all.
Thou art the black bee (nilak pcdan-gali), the green bird with red-
coloured eye, the cloud in whose womb sleeps the lightning, the seasons,
the seas. Without beginning thou pervadest all things by thy almighty
power ; for by thee are all the worlds created.
The following, again, is an example of a passage occur-
veta, ' white,' Svetdsva, ' white-horsed,' &veta-sikha, ' white-haired,' and
Sveta-lohita, 'white-blooded,' were names of four disciples of S'iva.
Weber suspects here a mission of Syrian Christians, and thinks that
both the Upanishad and the Gita, the latter especially, may have bor-
rowed ideas from Christianity.
1 See Dr. Roer's introduction for a full explanation of this.
124 INDIAN WISDOM.
ring in the fourth chapter (5), which is decidedly San-
khyan in its tone :
The one unborn (individual soul), for the sake of enjoyment, lies close
to the One unborn (Prakriti), which is of a white, red, and black colour
[answering evidently to the three San-khyan Gunas], which is of one
and the same form, and produces a manifold offspring. Then the other
unborn (or eternal soul) abandons her (Prdkriti) whose enjoyment he
has enjoyed.
\
Let us now turn to the Bhagavad-gita. The real author
of this work is unknown. It was at an early date digni-
fied by a place in the Maba-bharata, in which poem it lies
imbedded, or rather inlaid like a pearl, 1 contributing with
other numerous episodes to the mosaic-like character of
that immense epic. The Bhagavad-gita, however, is
quite independent of the great epic ; and it cannot be
questioned that its proper place in any arrangement of
Sanskrit literature framed with regard to the continuous
development and progress of Hindu thought and know-
ledge should be at the close of the subject of philosophy.
The author was probably a Brahman and nominally a
Vaishnava, but really a philosopher whose mind was cast
in a broad and comprehensive mould. He is supposed to
have lived in India during the first or second centurv
1 It has been interpolated into the Bhishma-parvan of the Maha-
bharata, and is divided into eighteen chapters or into three sections,
each containing six lectures, commencing at line 830 of the twenty-
fifth chapter of the Parva, and ending at line 1532. Such is the esti-
mation in which the work is held both in Asia and Europe, that it
has been translated into Hindi, Telugu, Kanarese, and other Eastern
languages, and is also well known by European translations, of which
that of Sir C. Wilkins, published in London in 1785, was the first.
Mr. J. C. Thomson's edition and translation, published, with an elabo-
rate introduction, by Stephen Austin in 1855, * s > on the whole, a very
meritorious production, and I am glad to acknowledge my obligations
to it.
ECLECTIC SCHOOL BHAGAV AD-GIT A. 125
of onr era. 1 Finding no rest for his spirit in any one
system of philosophy, as commonly taught in his own
time, much less in the corrupt Brahmanism which sur-
rounded him, he was led to make a selection from the
various schools of rationalistic and dogmatic thought, so
as to construct a composite theory of his own. This he
did with great perspicuity and beauty of language, inter-
weaving various opinions into one system by taking, so to
speak, threads from the San-khya, Yoga, and Vedanta, as
well as from the later theory of Bhakti or ' faith in a
supreme Being.' 2 With these threads he weaves, as it
were, a woof of many-coloured hues of thought, which are
shot across a stiff warp of stern uncompromising panthe-
istic doctrines, worthy of the most decided adherent of
the Vedanta school. 3 Of these cross threads the most
conspicuous are those of the San-khya system, for which
the author of the Gita has an evident predilection. The
whole composition is skilfully thrown into the form of a
dramatic poem or dialogue, something after the manner
of the book of Job or a dialogue of Plato. 4 The speakers
1 Some consider that he lived as late as the third century, and some
place him even later, but with these I cannot agree.
2 The Aphorisms of S'andilya, the editing of which was commenced
by Dr. Ballantyne and continued by Professor Griffith, his successor at
Benares, deny that knowledge is the one thing needful, and insist on
the subjection of knowledge to the higher principle of Bliakti, ' faith in
God.' The first Aphorism introduces the inquiry into the nature of
faith, thus, Atlidto llialdi-jijnasa. Professor Weber and others think
that the introduction of iriarig and ayarnj into the Hindu system is due
to the influence of Christianity.
3 The predominance of pantheistic doctrines, notwithstanding the
attempt to interweave them with portions of the San-khya and Yoga
systems, is denoted by the fact that the Yedantists claim this poem as
an exponent of their own opinions.
4 It is, however, styled an Upanishad, or rather a series of Upani
shads, because, like the Upanishads, it reveals secret and mystical
126 INDIAN WISDOM.
are the two most important personages in the Maha-
bharata, Arjuna, and Krishna. Arjuna is perhaps the
real hero of that epic. He is the bravest, and yet the
most tender-hearted of the five sons of Pandu. The god
Krishna, who is identified with Vishnu, 1 and in this philo-
sophical dialogue is held to be an incarnation of the supreme
Being himself, had taken human form as the son of Devaki
and Vasudeva, who was brother of Kunti, wife of Pandu.
Hence the god was cousin of the sons of Pandu, brother of
Dhritarashtra, the sons of these brothers being of course
related as cousins to each other. In the great war which
arose between the two families, each contending for the
kingdom of Hastinapura, 2 Krishna refused to take up
arms on either side, but consented to act as the charioteer
of Arjuna and to aid him with his advice. At the com-
mencement of the Bhagavad-gita the two contending
doctrines. For instance, at the close of the dialogue (XVIII. 63),
Krishna says, ' I have thus communicated to you knowledge more secret
than secret itself ' (iti me jndnam dkliydtatri guhydd guhyataram mayo).
1 Professor Weber (Indische Studien I. 400) thinks that Brahmans
may have crossed the sea to Asia Minor at the beginning of the Christian
era, and on their return made use of Christian narratives to fabricate
the story of their deified hero, Krishna, whose very name would remind
them of Christ. The legends of the birth of Krishna and his persecu-
tion by Kansa remind us, says Weber, too strikingly of the correspond-
ing Christian narratives to leave room for the supposition that the
similarity is quite accidental. According to Lassen, the passages of
the Mahabharata in which Krishna receives divine honours are later
interpolations, and the real worship of Krishna is not found before the
fifth or sixth century. Dr. Lorinser, as we shall presently see, thinks
he can trace the influence of Christianity throughout the Bhagavad-
glta. The legend of SVeta-dvIpa in the Maha-bharata (XII. 12703)
certainly favours the idea of some intercourse with Europe at an early
date. The legends relating to Krishna are found detailed at full in
the tenth book of the Bhagavata-purana and its Hindi paraphrase, the
Prem Sagar.
2 See the epitome of this great epic in a subsequent Chapter.
ECLECTIC SCHOOL BHAGAVAD-GITA. 127
armies are supposed to be drawn up in battle array, when
Arjuna, struck with sudden compunction at the idea of
fighting his way to a kingdom through the blood of his
kindred, makes a sudden resolution to retire from the com-
bat, confiding his thoughts to Krishna thus (I. 28-33) :
Beholding these my relatives arrayed
Before my eyes in serried line of battle,
Preparing for the deadly fray, my limbs
Are all relaxed, my blood dries up, a tremor
Palsies my frame, the hairs upon my skin
Bristle with horror, all my body burns
As if with fever, and my mind whirls round,
So that I cannot stand upright, nor hold
The bow Gandlva slipping from my hand.
I cannot will not fight O mighty Krishna.
I seek not victory, I seek no kingdom.
What shall we do with regal pomp and power,
What with enjoyments or with life itself,
When we have slaughtered all our kindred here ?
Krishna's reply to this speech is made the occasion of
the long philosophical and theological dialogue which, in
fact, constitutes the Bhagavad-gita, the main design of
which undoubtedly is to exalt the duties of caste above
all other obligations, including the ties of friendship and
affection, but at the same time to show that the practice
of these duties is compatible with all the self-mortification
and concentration of thought enjoined by the Yoga philo-
sophy, as well as with the deepest devotion to the supreme
Being, with whom Krishna claims to be identified. 1 As
Arjuna belongs to the military caste, he is exhorted to
1 There is a sect among the Hindus called Ganapatyas, who identify
Ganapati or Ganesa with the supreme Being. Their doctrines are
embodied in the Ganesa-purana, but they have a poem called the
Ganesa-gita, which is identical in substance with the Bhagavad-gita,
the name of Ganesa being substituted for that of Krishna.
128 INDIAN WISDOM.
perform his duties as a soldier. Again and again is he
urged to fight, without the least thought about conse-
quences, and without the slightest question as to the pro-
priety of slaughtering his relations, if only he acts in the
path of duty. Hence we have the following sentiments
repeated more than once (III. 35, XVIII. 47, 48) :
Better to do the duty of one's caste, 1
Though bad and ill-performed and fraught with evil,
Than undertake the business of another,
However good it be. For better far
Abandon life at once than not fulfil
One's own appointed work ; another's duty
Brings danger to the man who meddles with it.
Perfection is alone attained by him
Who swerves not from the business of his caste.
Kemembering the sacred character attributed to this
poem and the veneration in which it has always been held
throughout India, we may well understand that such
words as these must have exerted a powerful influence for
the last 1800 years ; tending, as they must have done, to
rivet the fetters of caste-institutions which, for several
centuries preceding the Christian era, notwithstanding
the efforts of the great liberator Buddha, increased year
by year their hold upon the various classes of Hindu
society, impeding mutual intercourse, preventing healthy
interchange of ideas, and making national union almost
impossible.
Before proceeding to offer further examples, we may
remark that as the Bhagavad-gita is divided into three
sections, each containing six chapters, so the philosophical
teaching is somewhat distinct in each section.
1 Compare S'akuntala, verse 133, 'Verily the occupation in which a
man is born, though it be in bad repute, must not be abandoned.' The
words used (saha-jam-Jcarma) are the same as those in the Bhagavad-
gita.
ECLECTIC SCHOOL BHAGAVAD-GITA. 129
The first section dwells chiefly on the benefits of the
Yoga system, pointing out, however, as we have already
observed, that the asceticism of the Yoga ought to be
joined with action and the performance of regular caste
duties, and winding up with a declaration that the grand
end and aim of all asceticism is to attain that most desir-
able pantheistic state which enables a man to see God in
everything and everything in God. Arjuna is exhorted as
a member of the soldier-caste to dismiss all doubt about
the propriety of fighting and killing his relations, by an
argument drawn from the eternal existence of the soul,
which is nobly expressed thus (II. i r, &c.) : l
The wise grieve not for the departed, nor for those who yet survive.
Ne'er was the time when I was not, nor thou, nor yonder chiefs, and ne'er
Shall be the time when all of us shall be not ; as the embodied soul
In this corporeal frame moves swiftly on through boyhood, youth,
and age,
So will it pass through other forms hereafter be not grieved thereat.
The man whom pain and pleasure, heat and cold affect not, he is fit
For immortality ; whatever is not cannot be, whatever is
Can never cease to be. Know this the Being that spread this
universe
Is indestructible. Who can destroy the Indestructible 1
These bodies that inclose the everlasting soul, inscrutable,
Immortal, have an end ; but he who thinks the soul can be destroyed,
And he who deems it a destroyer, are alike mistaken ; it
Kills not, and is not killed ; it is not born, nor doth it ever die ;
It has no past nor future unproduced, unchanging, infinite ; he
Who knows it fixed, unborn, imperishable, indissoluble,
How can that man destroy another, or extinguish aught below ?
As men abandon old and threadbare clothes to put on others new,
So casts the embodied soul its worn-out frame to enter other forms.
No dart can pierce it ; flame cannot consume it, water wet it not,
Nor scorching breezes dry it indestructible, incapable
1 I h&ve endeavoured to give a more literal version than the well-
known one of Dean Milman, though I have followed him in some
expressions.
I
130
INDIAN WISDOM.
Of heat or moisture or aridity, eternal, all-pervading,
Steadfast, immovable, perpetual, yet imperceptible,
Incomprehensible, unfading, deathless, unimaginable. 1
The duty of Yoga or ' intense concentration of the mind
on one subject ' (viz., the supreme Being, here identified
with Krishna), till at last the great end of freedom from
all thought, perfect calm, and absorption in the Deity are
obtained, is enjoined with much force of language in the
second and sixth books, from which I extract the following
examples, translated nearly literally, but not quite accord-
ing to the order of the text :
That holy man who stands immovable,
As if erect upon a pinnacle, 2
His appetites and organs all subdued,
Sated with knowledge secular and sacred,
To whom a lump of earth, a stone, or gold, 3
To whom friends, relatives, acquaintances,
Neutrals and enemies, the good and bad,
Are all alike, is called ' one yoked with God. '
' The man who aims at that supreme condition
Of perfect yoking 4 with the Deity
Must first of all be moderate in all things,
In food, in sleep, in vigilance, in action,
In exercise and recreation. Then
Let him, if seeking God by deep abstraction,
Abandon his possessions and his hopes,
Betake himself to some secluded spot, 5
And fix his heart and thoughts on God alone.
There let him choose a seat, not high nor low,
1 Compare the passage from the Katha Upanishad, translated, p. 4 1 .
2 Kuta-sthah (VI. 8) may mean ' standing erect like a peak.'
3 Tersely expressed in Sanskrit by sama-loshtasma-kancanah VI. 8.
4 I use these expressions as kindred words to the Sanskrit yukta and
yoga. ' Joined ' and ' junction ' are also cognate expressions.
5 Cf. Matt. vi. 6, ' But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy
closet, arid when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is
in secret.'
ECLECTIC SCHOOL BHAGAVAD-GITA. I 3 I
And with a cloth or skin to cover him,
And Kusa grass beneath him, let him sit
Firm and erect, his body, head, and neck
Straight and immovable, his eyes, directed
Towards a single point, 1 not looking round,
Devoid of passion, free from anxious thought, '
His heart restrained, and deep in meditation.
E'en as a tortoise draws its head and feet
Within its shell, so must he keep his organs
Withdrawn from sensual objects. He whose senses
Are well controlled attains to sacred knowledge,
And thence obtains tranquillity of thought.
Without quiescence there can be no bliss.
E'en as a storm- tossed ship upon the waves,
So is the man whose heart obeys his passions,
Which, like the winds, will hurry him away.
Quiescence is the state of the Supreme.
He who, intent on meditation, joins
His soul with the Supreme, is like a flame
That flickers not when sheltered from the wind.
I pass now to the second division of this poem, in which
the pantheistic doctrines of the Vedanta are more directly
inculcated than in the other sections. Krishna here in the
plainest language claims adoration as one with the great
universal Spirit, pervading and constituting the universe.
I extract portions from different parts of this section
without observing the order of the text, which contains
much tautology, as well as repetitions of similar ideas in
different language :
Whate'er thou dost perform, whate'er thou eatest,
Whate'er thou givest to the poorj whate'er
Thou offerest in sacrifice, whatever
Thou doest as an act of holy penance,
Do all as if to me, O Arjuna (IX. 2j). 2
1 The text (VI. 1 3) says, ' fixing his eyes on the tip of his nose '
(samprekshya-nasikagrani). See p. 93.
2 Compare i Cor. x. 31, 'Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or
whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.' Dr. Lorinser, expand-
132 INDIAN WISDOM.
I am the ancient sage, 1 without beginning,
I am the Ruler and the All-sustainer, 2
I am incomprehensible in form,
More subtle and minute than subtlest atoms ; 3
I am the cause of the whole universe ;
Through me it is created and dissolved ;
On me all things within it hang suspended,
ing the views of Professor Weber and others concerning the influence
of Christianity on the legends of Krishna, thinks that many of the
sentiments of the Bhagavad-glta have been directly borrowed from the
New Testament, copies of which, he thinks, found their way into India
about the third century, when he believes the poem to have been
written. He even adopts the theory of a parallel in the names of
Christ and Krishna. He seems, however, to forget that fragments of
truth are to be found in all religious systems, however false, and that
the Bible, though a true revelation, is still in regard to the human
mind, through which the thoughts are transfused, a thoroughly
Oriental book, cast in an Oriental mould, and full of Oriental ideas
and expressions. Some of his comparisons seem mere coincidences of
language, which might occur quite naturally and independently. In
other cases, where he draws attention to coincidences of ideas as, for
example, the division of the sphere of self-control into thought, word,
and deed in chap. XVII. 14-16, &c., and of good works into prayer,
fasting, and almsgiving how could these be borrowed from Chris-
tianity, when they are also found in Manu, which few will place later
than the fifth century B.C. ? Thus a Tri-dandin (Manu XII. 10) is
explained to mean ' a triple commander,' who commands his thoughts,
words, and actions (see note 2, p. 121); the same division is found in
Manu II. 192, 236. Professor Cowell has pointed out that it occurs
still earlier than Manu, in the Black Yajur-veda VI. i. 7, and its
Aranyaka X. i. 10, and in the Aitareya-brahmana III. 28. Plato also
has the same in his Protagoras (p. 348), and it is found in the Zand
Avasta (Gatha Ahunavaiti III. 3). Nevertheless, something may be
said for Dr. Lorinser's theory. His German translation (1869) is rich
in notes, pointing out parallels. See also the ' Indian Antiquary ' for
October 1873.
1 Kavih puranah VIII. 9. 'Kavi' in Vedic Sanskrit means 'wise,'
and is an epithet applied to most of the gods, especially to Agni.
The meaning ' poet ' belongs to later Sanskrit.
2 Sarvasya dhdtd VIII. 9.
3 Aiior ai}lydn VIII. 9. Compare p. 71 of this volume.
ECLECTIC SCHOOL BHAGAVAD-GITA. 133
Like pearls upon a string. 1 I am the light
In sun and moon, far, far beyond the darkness ; 2
I am the brilliancy in flame, the radiance
In all that's radiant, and the light of lights, 3
The sound in ether, fragrance in the earth,
The seed eternal of existing things, 4
The life in all, the father, mother, husband,
Forefather, and sustainer of the world,
Its friend and lord. I am its way 5 and refuge,
Its habitation and receptacle,
I am its witness. I am Victory
And Energy ; I watch the universe
With eyes and face in all directions turned. 6
I dwell, as Wisdom, in the heart of all. 7
I am the Goodness of the good, I am
Beginning, Middle, End, eternal Time,
The Birth, the Death of all. 8 I am the symbol A
Among the characters. I have created all
1 VII. 7. Dr. Lorinser compares Rom. xi. 36, 'Of him, and through
him, and unto him, are all things.' John i. 3, 'All things were made
by him ; and without him was not anything made that was made.'
- Prabhdsmi sasi-suryayoh VII. 8. Tamasah parastdt VIII. 9. Cf.
i John i. 5, ' God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.' See Rig-
veda I. 50. 10.
3 Jyotishd m jyotih XIII. 17. Cf. Brihad-aranyaka Upanishad, quoted
p. 37 of this volume.
4 Sarva-Wmtdndm vljam VII. 10, X. 39. Cf. John i. 3, 'All things
were made by him.'
5 Gati IX. 1 8. Cf. John xiv. 6, 'I am the way.'
6 Visvato-mukha, 'facing in all directions/ IX. 15.
7 Jndnam hridi sarvo.sya nishtliitam XIII. 17. Cf. 2 Cor. iv. 6.
8 Compare Rev. i. 17, 18, 'I am the first and the last ; and have the
keys of hell and of death.' Mr. Mullens draws attention to parallel
descriptions of the supreme Ruler in the Greek Orphic hymns : ' Zeus
was the first and Zeus the last ; Zeus is the head ; Zeus, the centre ;
from Zeus have all things been made ; Zeus is the breath of all things ;
Zeus is the sun and moon,' &c. See his Essay, p. 193, and cf. note 2,
p. 1 02. Cf. also an inscription said to exist in a temple of Athene, 'Eyw
lift! TTUV rb yiyovbi KOLI ov y.a.1 iffo/AMOv.
g Aksliardndin a-Mro 'smi X. 33. Compare Rev. i. 8, ' I am Alpha
and Omega.'
134 INDIAN WISDOM.
Out of one portion of myself. E'en those
Who are of low and unpretending birth, 1
May find the path to highest happiness,
If they depend on me ; how much more those
Who are by rank and penance holy Brahmans
And saintly soldier-princes like thyself.
Then be not sorrowful ; from all thy sins
I will deliver thee. 2 Think thou on me,
Have faith in me, adore and worship me, 3
And join thyself in meditation to me ;
Thus shalt thou come to me, Arjuna;
Thus shalt thou rise to my supreme abode,
Where neither sun nor moon have need to shine,
For know that all the lustre they possess is mine. 4
1 Papa-yonayah, ' base-born,' IX. 32. The text states who these are,
viz., Women, Vaisyas, and S'udras. This is significant in regard to
the Hindu estimate of the female sex. A woman's religion is thought
to consist in obedience first to her father and then to her husband, with
attention to domestic duties. See Manu II. 67. But the joining of
Vaisyas with S'udras is curious (cf. p. 149. 6). Brahmans, Kshatriyas,
andRajarshis, i.e., holy personages half princes, half saints are by birth
and rank fitted for religious exercises, and more likely to reach heaven.
2 Aham tvdm sarva-pdpebhyo mocayishyami ma sucah. Cf. Matt,
ix. 2, ' Be of good cheer ; thy sins be forgiven thee.' A sense of original
corruption seems to be felt by all classes of Hindus, as indicated by the
following prayer used after the Gayatrl by many religious persons :
Papo 'ham pdpa-karmdham pdpdtmd pdpa-sambhavah,
Trdhi mam, pundarikdksha sarva-pdpa-hara Hare,
' I am sinful, I commit sin, my nature is sinful, I am conceived in sin,
Save me, O thou lotus-eyed Hari, the remover of sin.'
* The original is, Manmand bhava mad-bhakto mad-ydji mam namas-
kuru IX. 34. Cf. Prov. xxiii. 26, ' My son, give me thine heart.'
4 Na tad bhdsayate suryo na Sasdnkah XV. 6. Yad aditya-gatam
tejo yac candramasi tat tejo viddhi mdmakam XV. 12. Cf. Rev. xxi. 23,
' The city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it : for
the glory of God did lighten it.' Cf. also Maha-bharata III. 1745, &c.,
Na tatra surydh somo vd dyotate na ca pdvakah, Svayaiva prabhayd
tatra dyotante punya-labdhaya, 'there (in Indra's heaven) the sun
shines not, nor the moon nor fire ; there they (righteous men) shine
by their own glory acquired by their own merit.'
ECLECTIC SCHOOL BHAGAVAD-GITA. 135
I come now to chapter XL, called 'the Vision (or
Revelation) of the Universal Form' (visva-rupa-dar-
sanam). Arjuna, filled with awe at the discovery of the
true nature of Krishna, acting as his charioteer, addresses
him thus :
Most mighty Lord supreme, this revelation
Of thy mysterious essence and thy oneness
With the eternal Spirit, clears away
4 The mists of my illusions. Show me then
Thy form celestial, most divine of men, 1
If haply I may dare to look upon it.
To this Krishna replies :
Thou canst not bear to gaze upon my shape
With these thy human eyes, O son of Pandu,
But now I gift thee with celestial vision ;
Behold me in a hundred thousand forms,
In phases, colours, fashions infinite.
Here follows the description of Krishna's supernatural
transformation : 2
Thus having said, the mighty Lord of all
Displayed to Arjuna his form supreme,
Endowed with countless mouths and countless eyes,
With countless faces turned to every quarter,
With countless marvellous appearances,
With ornaments and wreaths and robes divine,
With heavenly fragrance and celestial weapons.
It was as if the firmament were filled,
All in an instant, with a thousand suns,
Blazing with dazzling lustre, so beheld he
The glories of the universe collected
In the one person of the God of gods. 3
1 Purushottama, ' most excellent of men,' a common name for
Krishna.
2 The idea of this, Dr. Lorinser considers borrowed from the Gospel
narrative of the transfiguration. It is certainly very instructive to con-
trast the simplicity of the Gospel scene : ' His face did shine as the sun,
and his raiment was white as the light,' Matt. xvii. 2, Mark ix. 3.
3 In the Udyoga-parva of the Maha-bharata (4419-4430) Krishna
136 INDIAN WISDOM.
Arjuna, with every hair on his body bristling with awe,
bows his head at this vision, and folding his hands in
reverence, gives utterance to a passionate outburst of
enthusiastic adoration, which I here abridge :
I see thee, mighty Lord of all, revealed
In forms of infinite diversity.
I see thee like a mass of purest light,
Flashing thy lustre everywhere around.
I see thee crowned with splendour like the sun,
Pervading earth and sky, immeasurable,
Boundless, without beginning, middle, end,
Preserver of imperishable law,
The everlasting Man ; l the triple world
Is awe-struck at this vision of thy form,
Stupendous, indescribable in glory.
Have mercy, God of gods ; the universe
Is fitly dazzled by thy majesty,
Fitly to thee alone devotes its homage.
At thy approach the evil demons flee,
Scattered in terror to the winds of heaven.
The multitude of holy saints 2 adore thee
Thee, first Creator, 3 lord of all the gods,
The ancient One, 4 supreme Receptacle
Of all that is and is not, knowing all,
And to be known by all. Immensely vast,
reveals his form in the same way to the assembled princes, who are
obliged to close their eyes at the awful sight, while the blind Dhrita-
rashtra is gifted with divine vision that he may behold the glorious
spectacle (4437).
1 Sandtanah purmhah (XI. 1 8) may be translated ' the eternal
Spirit.'
2 Maharshis, great saints and Siddhas, XI. 21. Cf. parts of the Te
Deum. The Siddhas are semi-divine beings supposed to possess great
purity, called Sadhyas in the earlier mythology (Manu I. 22). Siddhas
and Sadhyas are sometimes confused, though mentioned separately in
the text.
3 Cf. John viii. 58, ' Before Abraham was, I am.'
4 Purushah puranah, 'the most ancient person,' XI. 38. Cf. Daniel
vii. 9, ' The Ancient of days did sit. '
ECLECTIC SCHOOL BHAGAVAD-GITA. 137
Thou comprehendest all, thou art the All (XI. 40).
To thee earth's greatest heroes must return,
Blending once more with thy resplendent essence,
Like mighty rivers rushing to the ocean (XI. 28).
To thee be sung a thousand hymns of praise
By every creature and from every quarter,
Before, above, behind. Hail ! Hail ! thou All !
Again and yet again I worship thee.
Have mercy, I implore thee, and forgive,
That I, in ignorance of this thy glory,
Presumed to call thee Friend ; and pardon too
Whate'er I have too negligently uttered,
Addressing thee in too familiar tones.
Unrivalled God of gods, I fall before thee
Prostrate in adoration, thou the Father
Of all that lives and lives not ; have compassion,
Bear with me, as a father with a son,
Or as a lover with a cherished one.
Now that I see thee as thou really art,
I thrill with terror ! Mercy ! Lord of lords,
Once more display to me thy human form,
Thou habitation of the universe. 1
Many other remarkable passages might be adduced in
connection with the first two divisions of the subject-
matter of the Bhagavad-gita. I note the following :
He who has brought his members under subjection, but sits with
foolish mind thinking in his heart of sensual things, is called a hypo-
crite (mifhyaccira). (III. 6. Of. Matt v. 28.)
Many are my births that are past ; many are thine too, Arjuna.
I know them all, but thou knowest them not. (IV. 5. Cf. John
viii. 14.)
For the establishment of righteousness am I born from time to time.
(IV. 8. Cf. John xviii. 37, i John iii. 3.)
1 XI. 45, 46. Dr. Lorinser compares the awe of our Lord's disciples,
Matt. xvii. 6, 'They fell on their face, and were sore afraid.' Also of
Simon Peter, Luke v. 8, ' When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at
Jesus' knees, saying, Depart from me ; for I am a sinful man, Lord. '
138 INDIAN WISDOM.
I am dearer to the wise than all possessions, and he is dear to me.
(VI. 17. Of. Luke xiv. 33, John xiv. 21.)
The ignorant, the unbeliever, and he of a doubting mind perish
utterly. (IV. 40. Of. Mark xvi. 16.)
In him are all beings, by him this universe was spread out. (VIII.
22. Of. Acts xvii. 28.)
Deluded men despise me when I have taken human form. (IX. 1 1.
Of. John i. 10.) i ,
In all the Vedas I am to be known. (XV. 15. Cf. John v. 39.)
As many uses as there are in a reservoir filled with waters coming
from all parts (for bathing, washing, or drinking), so many does a
knowing Brahman find in all the Vedas. (II. 46. Mr. Thomson com-
pares the various uses made of texts from our own sacred Scriptures.)
The next is suggestive of the doctrine that the condi-
tion of the soul for a future state is determined before
death :
Whatever a man's state of mind be at the moment when he leaves
the body to that condition does he always go, being made to conform to
that. (VIII. 6. Cf. Eccles. xi. 3. This is the dying Sanskara which
delays the passage to heaven.)
A similar passage occurs in the Chandogya Upanishad :
Man is a creature of intelligence (kratu-maya) ; whatever ideas he
forms in this life, he becomes so when he departs to another, therefore
lie should reflect (on God, III. 14. i).
The next is a paraphrase of XVI. 12-16. It may be
compared with Luke xii. 1 7-20 :
Entangled in a hundred worldly snares,
Self-seeking men, by ignorance deluded,
Strive by unrighteous means to pile up riches.
Then, in their self-complacency, they say,
' This acqusition I have made to-day,
That I will gain to-morrow ; so much 'pelf
Is hoarded up already, so much more
Remains that I have yet to treasure up.
This enemy I have destroyed, him also
ECLECTIC SCHOOL BHAGAVAD-GITA. 139
And others in their turn I will despatch.
I am a lord ; I will enjoy myself ;
I'm wealthy, noble, strong, successful, happy ;
I'm absolutely perfect ; no one else
In all the world can be compared to me.
Now I will offer up a sacrifice,
Give gifts with lavish hand and be triumphant.'
Such men, befooled by endless, vain conceits,
Caught in the meshes of the world's illusion,
Immersed in sensuality, descend
Down to the foulest hell of unclean spirits.
I add a few lines from chapter III., in which Krishna
exhorts Arjuna to energetic action by an argument drawn
from the example set by himself in his own everlasting
exertions for the good of the world (cf. John v. 17). The
order of the text is not observed in the following version,
and the sentiment in lines 6, 7, is from chapter II. 47 :
Perform all necessary acts, for action
Is better than inaction, none can live
By sitting still and doing nought ; it is
By action only that a man attains
Immunity from action. Yet in working
Ne'er work for recompense ; let the act's motive
Be in the act itself. Know that work
Proceeds from the Supreme. I am the pattern
For man to follow ; know that I have done
All acts already, nought remains for me
To gain by action, yet I work for ever
Unweariedly, and this whole universe
Would perish if I did not work my work (III. 19).
The third division of the poem, comprising the six last
chapters, aims particularly at interweaving San-khya doc-
trines with the Vedanta, though this is done more or less
throughout the whole work. It accepts the doctrine of a
supreme presiding Spirit (called Param Brahma or Adhy-
dtmam, XIII. 12, VIII. i), as the first source of the uni-
verse, but asserts the eternal existence of Prakriti and
140 INDIAN WISDOM.
Purnsha that is, of an original eternal element and soul
both emanating from the supreme Being (then regarded
as Para Prakriti, ' supreme Prakriti'). It maintains the
individuality and personality of souls, and affirms that the
body (kshetra) and all the world of sense is evolved out of
Prakriti by the regular San-khyan process, through Buddhi,
Ahan-kara, the five subtile elements, the five grosser ele-
ments, and the eleven organs, including mind. Thus, in
XIII. 19 and in VII. 4-6, we read :
Learn that Prakriti and Purusha also are both of them without
beginning. And know that the Vikaras, or ' productions,' and the
Gunas (see p. 85) are sprung from Prakriti.
Earth, water, fire, air, ether, mind, intellect, and egoism, into these
eight is my Prakriti divided. This Prakriti is the inferior one, but
learn my superior Prakriti to be other than this. Understand that all
things are produced from this other Prakriti.
Again, in VII. 12-14, Krishna, speaking of the three
Gunas, says :
Know that all the three Gunas, whether Sattva, Rajas, or Tamas
(cf. p. 85), proceed only from me. I am not in them, but they in me.
All this universe, deluded by these three conditions consisting of
the Gunas, does not recognise me, the imperishable Being, superior
to them all.
For this divine illusion (Maya, i.e., 'illusory creation '), consisting of
the three Gunas, caused by me, is difficult to be passed over. Those
only are delivered from it who have recourse to me.
The eclecticism of the Bhagavad-gita will be sufficiently
apparent from these examples. I close my brief survey
of this celebrated poem by three or four passages (taken
from chapter III. 27, chapter XIII. 29, 31), which form
a fit conclusion to the subject, as they contain the gist of
the whole argument, viz., that it is Arjuna's duty as a
soldier to act like a soldier and to do the work of his
caste, regardless of consequences ; and that this may be
ECLECTIC SCHOOL BHAGAVAD-GITA. 141
done consistently with adhesion to the Vedantic dogma of
the soul's real inactivity and state of passionless repose :
All actions are incessantly performed
By operation of the qualities
Of Prakriti ; deluded by the thought
Of individuality, the soul
Vainly believes itself to be the doer.
The soul existing from eternity,
Devoid of qualities, imperishable,
Abiding in the body, yet supreme,
Acts not, nor is by any act polluted.
He who perceives that actions are performed
By Prakriti alone, and that the soul
Is not an actor, sees the truth aright.
Krishna's last advice may be thus summed up :
Act then and do thine own appointed task,
In every action my assistance ask,
Do all with heart and soul absorbed in me,
So shalt thou gain thine end and be from trouble free.
Arj una's conclusion may be thus paraphrased :
Eternal One ! thy glory just beheld
Has all illusion from my soul dispelled ;
Now by thy favour is my conscience clear,
I will thy bidding do and fight without a fear.
To any one who has followed me in tracing the outline
of this remarkable philosophical dialogue, and has noted
the numerous parallels it offers to passages in our sacred
Scriptures, it may seem strange that I hesitate to concur
in any theory which explains these coincidences by sup-
posing that the author had access to the New Testament
or that he derived some of his ideas from the first propa-
gators of Christianity. Surely it will be conceded that
the probability of contact and interaction between Gentile
systems and the Christian religion in the first two cen-
turies of our era must have been greater in Italy than in
142 INDIAN WISDOM.
India. Yet, if we take the writings and recorded sayings
of three great Roman philosophers, Seneca, Epictetus, and
Marcus Aurelius, we shall find them full of resemblances
to passages in our Scriptures, while there appears to be
no ground whatever for supposing that these eminent
Pagan writers and thinkers derived any of their ideas
from either Jexvish or Christian sources. In fact, the
Rev. F. W. Farrar, in his interesting and valuable work,
' Seekers after God,' has clearly shown that ' to say that
Pagan morality kindled its faded taper at the Gospel light
whether furtively or unconsciously, that it dissembled the
obligation and made a boast of the splendour, as if it were
originally her own, is to make an assertion wholly unten-
able.' He points out that the attempts of the Christian
Fathers to make out Pythagoras a debtor to Hebraic
wisdom, Plato an ' Atticizing Moses, Aristotle a picker up
of ethics from a Jew, Seneca a correspondent of St. Paul,
were due 'in some cases to ignorance, and in some to a
want of perfect honesty in controversial dealing.'
His arguments would be even more conclusive if applied
to the Bhagavad-gita, the author of which was probably
contemporaneous with Seneca. It must, indeed, be ad-
mitted that the flashes of true light which emerge from the
o o
mists of pantheism in the writings of Indian philosophers,
must spring from the same source of light as the Gospel
itself; but it may reasonably be questioned whether there
could have been any actual contact of the Hindu systems
with Christianity without a more satisfactory result in the
modification of pantheistic and anti-Christian ideas. In
order that the resemblances to Scripture in the writings
of Roman philosophers may be compared with those just
noted, I subjoin a few instances from ' Seekers after God '
and Dr. Ramage's ' Beautiful Thoughts : '
i. Seneca. 'God comes to men: nay, what is nearer, comes into
men.' ' A sacred spirit dwells within us, the observer and guardian of
ECLECTIC SCHOOL BHAGAVAD-GITA. 143
all our evil and our good.' Of. i Cor. iii. 16. 'Let him who hath con-
ferred a favour hold his tongue.' ' In conferring a favour nothing
should be more avoided than pride.' Cf. Matt. vi. 3. ' If you wish to
be loved, love.' ' Expect from another what you do to another.' ' We
are all wicked ; therefore whatever we blame in another we shall find
in our own bosom.' ' A good man is God's disciple and imitator and
His true offspring, whom that magnificent Father doth, after the
manner of severe parents, educate hardly.' ' God is nigh to thee, He
is with thee, He is in thee.' ' Temples are not to be built for God with
stones piled on high ; He is to be consecrated in the breast of each.'
1 What a foolish thing it is to promise ourselves a long life, who are
not masters of even to-morrow ! ' ' Live with men as if God saw you.'
' Other men's sins are before our eyes ; our own behind our back.' ' The
greater part of mankind are angry with the sinner and not with the
sin.' 'The severest punishment a man can receive who has injured
another, is to have committed the injury.'
2. Epictetus. ' If you always remember that in all you do in soul or
body God stands by as a witness, in all your prayers and your actions
you will not err ; and you shall have God dwelling with you.' ' How
should a man grieve his enemy ? By preparing himself to act in the
noblest manner.' Cf. Horn. xii. 20.
3. Marcus Aurelius. ' The best way of avenging thyself is not to
become like the wrong-doer.' ' Men exist for the sake of one another.
Teach them or bear with them.' Cf. 2 Thess. iv. 15, Col. iii. 13. 'In
the morning when thou risest unwillingly let these thoughts be present,
" I am rising to the work of a human being. Why, then, am I dis-
satisfied if I am going to do the things for which I exist and for which
I was brought into the world ? " Dost thou exist, then, to take thy
pleasure, and not for action or exertion ? Dost thou not see the little
birds, the ants, the spiders, the bees working together to put in order
their several parts of the universe ? ' Cf. Prov. vi. 6.
CHAPTER VIII.
Smriti The Veddngas.
HITHERTO we have been engaged in describing briefly
and illustrating by selected examples the three divisions
of the Veda, viz., Mantra, Brahmana, and Upanishad,
and the six Darsanas or systems of philosophy developed
out of the third of these divisions. All three portions
of the Veda come under the head of Sruti, ' audition/
or Sruta, that which is directly heard or revealed the
eternal voice of divine knowledge heard 1 by certain holy
men called Rishis, and by them orally transmitted ; or
if committed to writing, then written down exactly as
heard, without any intervention of human authorship.
We now pass from Sruti and the six Darsanas to the
second great head of Sanskrit literature, called Smriti,
'recollection,' or that which is remembered and handed
down by tradition (as distinguished from ' audition ').
This is believed to be founded on Sruti, 'direct revela-
tion,' as its primary basis, and only possesses authority
in so far as it is in harmony with such revealed truth. 2
The very essence of Smriti, however, is considered to
be that it was delivered memoriter by human authors
and put into the form of human composition. In its
1 The expression generally used is that the Rishis saw the hymns,
rishi being fancifully connected with drisJii, as if from root dris ; but
the terms Snfti and Sruta, taken in connection with the theory of the
eternity of sound, indicate that the ear was the channel of communi-
cation.
2 If Veda-vdhya, it is declared to be nishpliala. Manu XII. 95.
SMRITI. 145
widest acceptation, Smriti may be said to include six
principal subjects or departments, viz., I. six Vedangas,
' limbs for supporting the Veda,' or, in other words, helps
to aid the student in reading, understanding and apply-
ing it to sacrificial rites (and hence called Pravacana,
Manu III. 184): they are i. Kalpa, 'ceremonial direc-
tory,' comprising rules relating to the Vedic ritual and
the whole complicated process of sacrifices, which rules
are called Srauta-sutra, because they are Vedic, and
relate directly to the application of the Mantra and Brah-
mana portion of Sruti, being especially guides to the
Biahmarias; 2. Siksha, 'the science of pronunciation;'
3. Chandas, 'metre;' 4. Nirukta, ' exposition of difficult
Vedic words ; ' 5. Vyakarana, ' grammar ; ' 6. Jyotisha,
' astronomy,' including arithmetic and mathematics, espe-
cially in connection with astrology. Of these Vedan-gas,
i. and 6. are for employing the Veda at sacrifices, 2. and 3.
are for reading, 4. and 5. for understanding it. II. The
Smarta-sutra, a comprehensive term for such rules as
do not relate to Srauta or Vedic ceremonies, which were
usually on a grand scale and public in their character, but
rather to religious acts of a private and personal kind,
falling naturally under two divisions, viz., a. family or
domestic rites (griliya) performed at stated periods ; 6. con-
ventional usages and every-day practices (samaydcdra) ;
on which account these Smfirta Sutras must be separated
into two classes, a. Grihya-sutra, 6. Samayacarika-sutra.
III. The Dharma-Sdstras or ' Law-books, and especially
the Laivs of Manu, and other so-called inspired law-
givers supposed to have grown out of the Smarta Sutras.
IV. The Itihdsas or ' legendary poems,' under which head I
place as portions of Smriti the two great epic poems called
Ramayana and Maha-bharata, and then, for convenience,
as following and depending on these, but not as properly
Smriti, the artificial poems (Kavyas) and erotic poems
K
146 INDIAN WISDOM.
and the dramas, almost all of which in their subject-
matter are closely connected with the two great epics.
V. The eighteen Puranas or ancient legendary histories
and traditions, with their train of eighteen inferior Puranas
(Upa-purdna) and subsequent Tantras. VI. The Niti-
sdstras or ethical and didactic writings of all kinds, in-
cluding collections of fables and moral precepts.
I propose now to take these six divisions of post-Vedic
literature in order, beginning with I. the Vedan-gas.
I. The Veddn-gas.
They are six in number. Let us consider them (not
quite according to the Hindu order) in the following
sequence : i. Kalpa; 2. iksha; 3. Chandas ; 4. Nirukta ;
5. Vydkarana; 6. Jyotiska.
The Veddn-gas Kalpa, ' ceremonial directory.'
In the first place, then, as regards Kalpa; this denotes,
as we have seen, a kind of ceremonial directory or rubric
put forth in the form of short aphoristic Sutras or rules,
called Srauta, because serving as guides for the applica-
tion of the Mantra and Brahmana portion of Sruti to the
conduct of sacrificial rites. There are Srauta Sutras for
each of the five Samhitas of the Veda. Thus, for the
Rig-veda there are the Asvaldyana, Sdnkhdyana, and
Saunaka Srauta Sutras ; for the Sama-veda, the Masaka,
Ldtydyana, and Drdhydyana ; for the Taittiriya or Black
Yajur-veda, the Apastamba, JBaudhdyana, Satydshddha
Hiranya-kesin. Mdnava, Bhdradvdja, Vddhuna, Vai-
khdnasa, Laugdkshi, Maitra, Katha, and Vdrdha; for
the Vajasaneyi or White Yajur-veda there is only the
Kdtydyana ; l for the Atharva-veda only the Kausika.
1 Edited by Professor Weber to complete the series of his great edition
of the White Yajur-veda with its Brahmana (the S'atapatha).
VEDAN-GAS KALPA-SUTRA OR CEREMONIAL RULES. 147
I should remark here that the word Sutra (derived
from the root Siv, ' to sew ') means properly ' string/ and
that this name was applied to any series l of rules or
aphorisms, either because they were, figuratively, struno-
together, or because they were written on leaves held
together by strings. 2 It is perhaps essential to the true
nature of a Brahmanical Sutra that it should be a rule
or dogma expressed as briefly as possible. In the gram-
matical Sutras not a single letter is allowed which can by
any contrivance be dispensed with, and moreover in these
Sutras letters and syllables are often used symbolically,
like algebraic signs, to indicate ideas which would other-
wise require a whole sentence or more to express them
at full. In the philosophical Sutras, as we have already
seen, great brevity and a rigid economy of words is also
practised, the aim being to furnish the shortest possible
suggestive memorial sentences as an aid to the memory of
both teachers and learners in an age when books were
scarce and paper and printing unknown (see p. 46).
This extreme conciseness is not always maintained, espe-
cially in later Sutra works, but it generally holds good
that the older the Sutra the greater its curtness and ellip-
tical obscurity, so that without a commentary or a key
to their interpretation these ancient aphorisms are quite
unintelligible. In later times, as books became more com-
mon, the necessity for elaborate and overstrained concise-
ness was gradually removed, 3 and rules and aphorisms,
though still strung together in Sutra style, were more
fully and explicitly and even sometimes metrically stated. 4
In fact, these later Sutra works may be regarded as simple
1 Sutra in the singular may denote a whole collection of rules.
2 This last is the theory of the late Professor Goldstucker.
3 This relaxation led at last to the very opposite extreme of prolixity,
as in the Buddhist Sutras.
4 In some Sutra works there is an occasional admixture of S'lokas.
148 INDIAN WISDOM.
collections of formulated precepts or dogmas adapted to
serve as convenient manuals to particular systems of
teaching, whether in ritual, philosophy, law, or grammar.
If Sanskrit scholars are asked to state the age of the
oldest Sutra works, they are again obliged to confess their
inability to fix any precise date. The most ancient are
probably not older than the fifth or sixth century B.C.,
and the time of the compilation of the most recent is
perhaps not far removed from the commencement of the
Christian era. I have placed the Kalpa Sutras first be-
cause they are probably oldest, being closely connected
with the Brahmana or ritual portion of Sruti, and thence
called Srauta.
The following translation of the first ten Sutras of
Katyayana's Srauta-sutra, which belong to the Satapatha-
brahmana and White Yajur-veda (see Weber's edition),
will give some idea of the nature of these rules. To
make each aphorism intelligible, additional matter has
to be introduced from the commentary of Yajnika-deva.
This I have done parenthetically in the examples here
given. I have also given the original text of the Sutras
in italics :
1. Now, therefore, the right (of engaging in sacrificial acts is about to
be laid down in the following rules). [Athdto 'dhikdrah.~\
2. (Sacrificial) acts (like the Agni-hotra, &c.) are attended with recom-
pense (such as the attainment of heaven, of wealth, of a son, &c.) \Phala-
yuldani Jcarmdni.']
3. (According to the primd facie view of the matter there must be a
right) of all (creatures, e.g. of men, even though blind, dumb, lame, or
deaf, of gods, of Kishis, and of animals, but not of plants, to engage in
sacrificial acts), without distinction (because all such creatures are capable
of desiring recompense). [Sarveshdm aviseslidt.~\
4. But (according to the orthodox view, the right belongs) to human
beings (only), because (they only, as the Veda declares, have) the power
of undertaking (sacrificial acts, and not to gods, Rishis, and animals).
\Manushyanam vdrambha-sdm arihydt. ]
VEDAN-GAS SIKSHA OR PHONETIC DIRECTORY. 149
5. Cripples, those ignorant of the Veda, eunuchs, and S'iidras (are to
be) excepted. [^Anga-liindsrotriya-sliandha-sadra-varjam.~\
6. (The right belongs) to Brahrnans, Kshatriyas, 1 and Vaisyas (but
not to S'udras), according to the Veclic precept. [Brdhmana-rdjanya-
vaisydndm sruteh.~\
7. A woman also (has the right), since there is no difference (be-
tween her and her husband in regard to the desire for heaven). [Strl
cdviseshdt.]
8. And since it is so seen (in the Veda). [Darsandc-ca.]
9. (According to one view, the right belongs) to a man of the Ratha-
kara 2 ('chariot-maker') caste, (so far as regards the rite) of placing the
sacred fire (on the sacrificial ground, on the score of this caste being
reckoned among the first three classes). [Rathakdrasyddhdne.]
10. (But according to the orthodox view) it is settled (that the
Rathakara is not to be reckoned among the first three classes). [Ni-
yatam caJ\
The Veddngas Sikshd, 'phonetic directory.'
The next Vedanga in our list is Sikshd or the science
of proper pronunciation, especially as teaching the laws of
euphony peculiar to the Veda. This comprises the know-
ledge of letters, accents, quantity, the right use of the
organs of articulation, and phonetics generally. One short
comparatively modern treatise on phonetics, consisting in
one recension of thirty-five and in another of fifty-nine
verses (ascribed to Panini), and a chapter of the Taittiriya-
ranyaka are regarded as the representatives of this sub-
ject; but the Vedic Pratisakhyas and other works on
Vedic phonetics may be included under it, 3 and it will be
1 The word Rdjanya is used here and in the Purusha-sukta for
Kshatriya, see p. 21.
2 This mixed caste, held to be the offspring of a Mahishya by a
Karani, is also called Saudhanvana. It appears to have enjoyed some
religious privileges, perhaps because the Ribhus were Ratha-karas, see
note, p. 14. Cf. Rig-veda III. 60. 4.
3 A number of works bearing the name of Silcshd, and dealing with
phonetics and other kindred subjects, have been recently brought to
notice. See Haug on the Vedic Accent (Munich, 1874).
150 INDIAN WISDOM.
convenient so to regard them. These Pratisakhyas are
grammatical, or rather phonetic, treatises written in the
Sutra style (some of them perhaps of a more recent date
than Panini), 1 regulating the euphonic combination of
letters and their peculiar pronunciation according to the
practice of the different Sakhas, ' branches/ of the Veda?,
in those traditional versions of the Vedic texts handed
down by different families. The Pratisakhyas do not
undo words in the same way as the Vyakarana, but take
actually formed words as they occur in the hymns, and
teach the phonetic changes they undergo, the mode of
pronouncing the accents, &c. In fact, they show how the
Pada text is converted by a process of euphonic combina-
tion into the Samhita.
Since the chief virtue of the Vedic texts was in their
oral repetition, and since so much importance was attached
to the proper pronunciation and accentuation of every
syllable, it may be easily supposed that these phonetic
manuals were of great value to persons who had to repeat
Mantras every day as an essential part of their religious
exercises. They probably served as guides and aids to the
memory, both for teachers in instructing their pupils and
for pupils in learning to recite the Veda. Four Prati-
sakhyas are extant, viz. : i. one to the Sakala-sakha of the
Kig-veda, ascribed to Saunaka; 2 2. another to a Sakha
of the Taittiriya or Black Yajur-veda ; 3 3. another to a
Sakha of the Madhyandinas, of the family of the Vaja-
saneyins or 'followers of the White Yajur-veda/ whence
1 The late Professor Goldstiicker, in his work on Panini, decides that
all the Pratisakhyas must have been posterior to Panini, but this opinion
is shared by few other scholars.
2 Edited and translated into French by M. Adolphe Regnier, and
into German by Professor Max Miiller.
3 Edited, with its commentary, and translated by Professor William
D. Whitney.
VEDANGAS SIKSHA OR PHONETIC DIRECTORY. !$!
this is called the Vajasaneyi-pratisakhya ; * it is ascribed to
an author, Katyayana, probably identical with the writer
of the Varttikas or ' supplementary rules ' to Panini ; 4. an
Atharva-veda-pratisakhya, called Saunakiya Caturadhya-
yikil, 2 ' Saunaka's treatise in four chapters.' No Prati-
sakhya has yet been found to the Sama-veda.
The relative age of the Pratisakhyas in their present
form is an open question. That to the Rig-veda has been
by some confidently declared the oldest, though written in
Slokas with occasional admixture of other metres.
I here translate the fifth and sixth Sutras of this Prati-
sakhya, as they contain a statement of some of the points
which form the subject of the work :
Heaviness (i.e., prosodial length), lightness (i.e., prosodial shortness),
equality, shortness, longness, and prolation (of vowels), elision, augmen-
tation, and change, original form, non-change of Visarga into a sibilant,
regular order, the mixed tone, high tone, low tone, breath and sound, 3
and both (combined), all this must be accurately understood by one
who reads (or repeats) the words of the Veda.
[Gurutvam lagliutd sdmyam lirasva-dirgha-plutdni 6a \
Lopdgama : vikdrds-6a prdkritir viJcramdh kramah \\
Svaritoddtta-nicatvam &vdso nddas tathobhayam \
Etat sarvam ca vijneyam chando-bhdshdm adhlyatd ||]
The first Atharva-veda-pratisakhya states the subject of
the treatise (Whitney, p. 9), and gives a fourfold division
of all the parts of speech in its first Sutra, thus :
The two qualities of the four kinds of words noun (ndma), verb
(dkhyata), preposition (upasarga), and particle (nipdta) as euphonically
joined and as separate words, are here the subject (prdtijnam).
1 Edited and translated by Professor Weber in the ' Indische
Studien.'
2 Also edited, with a most valuable English translation and notes,
by Professor William D. Whitney.
3 We learn from the Atharva-veda-pratisakhya I. 12, 13, that in the
surd consonants there is mere breath, and in the sonant, sound.
152 INDIAN WISDOM.
That is to say, the design of the Pratisakhya is to form
a Samhita out of a Pada text. In fact, it supposes all the
Avords of the Veda to be separated from each other (as
they are in the Pada), and then teaches how they are to be
euphonically connected, as they must be in the Samhita. 1
The second chapter introduces a number of rules of
Sandhi, which will be familiar to the students of Panini's
Grammar. The first Sutra consists of one word, which
must be amplified thus (Whitney's edition, p. 72):
(The following rules are to be understood as of force when the
separate words of the disjointed text are put together) in the Samhita
[Samhitayam],
Then follow the rules, of which I subjoin three or four
examples (II. 10, n, 18, 19, III. 20):
Before s, n becomes n [na-kdrasya sa-kdre nakdrah],
Also before a sonant palatal (as before./) [ca-varglye ghoshavati].
After the preposition ud, there is elision of the letter s of the roots
stha and stambh \lopa udah sthd-stambhoh sa-7cdrasya].
There is elision of R before r \rephasya rephe].
When r is elided (the preceding vowel is lengthened) \ra-lope\.
The Vajasaneyi-pratisakhya (I. 27) gives a still more
complete enumeration of the parts of speech, thus :
Words are made up of inflected verbal bases [i.e., bases having the
personal endings, technically called tin], nouns derived from verbs by
Krit affixes, nouns derived from nouns by Taddhita affixes and four
kinds of compounds (Avyayi-bhava, Tatpurusha, Dvandva, Bahu-vrlhi).
\Tin-krit-taddMta-catushtaya-samdsdh sabda-mayam. See Professor Max
Miiller's Ancient Sanskrit Literature, p. 164.]
1 In the Krama text the ist word is recited with the 2nd, that is
repeated with the third, that with the 4 th, &c. In the Jatd, the ist
word and 2nd, 2nd and ist, and ist and 2nd again; next the 2nd
and 3rd, 3rd and 2nd, and 2nd and 3rd, and so on. In the Ghana, the
ist and 2nd, 2nd and ist, ist and 2nd again, 3 rd ; then 3rd, 2nd, ist,
ist, 2nd, 3rd; then the 2nd begins a new Ghana.
VEDAN-GAS (^HANDAS OR METRE. I 5 3
The Veddngas Uhandas, 'metre.'
Tins Vedan-ga is imperfectly represented by the Clian-
dah-sdstra ascribed to Pin-gala or Pin-gala-naga, which may
be as old as the second century B.C., and treats of Prakrit
as well as Sanskrit metres, including only a few Vedic.
Other works on metres are the Nidana-sutra in ten Pi a-
/
pfithakas and the Sruta-bodha. In truth, prosody, like
every other subject in Sanskrit literature, affords field for
almost endless investigation. It is a complete study in
itself, and its importance in the estimation of the Hindus
is shown by the excessive cultivation and elaboration be-
stowed upon their whole metrical system. A knowledge
of the metre of each hymn of the Yeda was considered
essential to the right use and proper recitation of the
Mantras. Hence we find Sayana, in his introduction to
the first hymn of the Rig-veda, quoting the following
precept :
He who shall cause any one to repeat (adhydpayef) or shall himself
repeat (any hymn of the Veda) without having acquainted himself with
the name of the Rishi to whom it was revealed, the metre (chandas) in
which it was written, the deity to whom it was addressed, and its right
application (yoga), is the worst of sinners (papiyan).
Again, immediately afterwards, he adds :
Any one who makes use of (a hymn) without knowing the Rishi, the
metre, the deity, the right interpretation according to the Brahmanas
(brahmandrthd), and the accents is called ' a Mantra-thorn ' (mantra-
JcantaJca, as destroying or obstructing its efficacy).
In .the ninth verse of the Pumsha-sukta of the Rig-veda
(see p. 21) the metres are said to have sprung from
Purusha himself, thus :
From that universal sacrifice sprang the Ric and Saman verses, the
metres, and the Yajus (chanddnsi jajnire tasmdd yajus tasmdd ajdyata).
The Taittiriya-samhita VII. i. i. 4, &c., describes the
154 INDIAN WISDOM.
creation of several metres by Prajapati (Muir, vol. i.
p. 15):
Prajapati desired 'may I be propagated.' He formed the Trivrit
from his mouth. After it were produced the deity Agni, the metre
Gayatri, &c.
In Manu IV. 99, 100, we have the following :
Let not a man repeat the Yeda without clear pronunciation (of the
letters, accents, &c., svara varnadi, Kulluka). Let him always be
careful to recite it as composed in metre (chandas-kritam).
It is remarkable that in Pamni's Grammar the usual
name for the Veda is Chandas (see p. 169).
From the importance thus assigned to the metrical
structure of the hymns we shall be prepared to find
frequent allusions to the subject of metres in the Brah-
manas. In fact, these treatises attach a kind of mystical
efficacy to their right use, and whole chapters of the
Upanishads enlarge on the same fanciful theme. The
Gayatri is held in especial veneration, the most sacred
text of the Rig-veda being in this metre. (See p. 17.)
The following passage is from the Satapatha-brahmana
I. 2, 5, 6, &c. (Muir's Texts, vol. iv. p. 123) :
The gods having placed Vishnu to the east surrounded him with
metres (chandoWiir dbhitah paryagrihnari) ; saying, ' On the south side
I surround thee with the Gayatri metre ; on the west I surround thee
with the Trishtubh metre ; on the north I surround thee with the Jagatl.'
Having thus surrounded him with metres, they placed Agni on the east,
and thus they went on worshipping and toiling. By this means they
acquired this whole earth (tena imam sarvdm pritliivlm samavindantd).
Again, in the fourteenth Brahmana of the Brihad-
aranyaka Upanishad we read (Eoer, p. 254) :
The Ricah, Yajunshi, and Samani are eight syllables (aslitdv aksha-
rdni) ; the second Pada (padam) of the Gayatri consists of eight syllables
(ashtaJfsharam). This Pada of the Gayatri represents that nature of the
three Vedas. Whoever knows this Pada of the Gayatri conquers all that
is conquerable by the knowledge of the three Vedas.
VEDAN-GAS dHAKDAS OR METRE. 155
Hence we cannot be surprised that some of the most
sacred metres, especially the Gayatii, were in the end
personified and invested with divine functions. Our
present purpose and limits do not admit of our giving
schemes of even the commonest forms of Sanskrit metre,
whether Vedic or Post-vedic. They will be found enu-
merated in the third edition of my Sanskrit Grammar,
pp. 388-392. l Let me merely observe that great licence
is allowed in Vedic prosody, so that in the Gayatri, which
may be regarded as consisting either of three divisions
of eight syllables each (whence it is called tri-pada) or
of six feet of four syllables each, the quantity of each
syllable is very irregular, although the second, fourth,
and sixth feet generally contain two iambics.
Of Post-vedic metres we have so great a variety that
it becomes necessary to arrange them under classes and
orders, genera and species. In truth, the elaboration of
every kind of complicated metre is carried to an extent
quite beyond the ordinary practice of poetical composi-
tion in other languages. ' A Hindu poet/ says Dr. Yates,
'may proceed to any length he pleases, within the limits
of a thousand syllables to the half-line,' or quarter-stanza.
The Dandaka metre (of which a specimen occurs in the
drama called Malati-madhava, Act V.) 2 offers more than
any other an almost incredible capability of expansion.
It will admit, indeed, of the stanza extending 27 x 4 to
999 x 4 syllables. But the commonest form of metre,
chiefly found in epic poetry the Anushtubh or Sloka
is short and easy. It consists of four half-lines of
eight syllables each or two lines of sixteen syllables each,
1 See also Colebrooke's Essay on Sanskrit and Prakrit metres and
Professor Weber's articles in the ' Indische Studien. '
2 Beginning Pracalita-kari-kriHi, &c. It has fifty-four syllables to the
quarter-verse. This specimen is translated in the Asiatic Researches,
vol. x. p. 456.
156 INDIAN WISDOM.
the last two feet of each line being iambics (see my San-
skrit Grammar, p. 288). The Indra-vajra (with its Upen-
dra-vajra variety) is also a common metre, and one of the
most rhythmical. It nearly corresponds to one occurring
in Horace's fourth Ode :
Vulcanus ardens urit officinas,
Trahuntque siccas machinae carmas.
But to make the Latin agree with the Sanskrit metre we
must suppose the first syllable of machinae and of urit
to be short. It might be represented in an English line
thus, 'Down comes the rain, and with it comes the thun-
der,' an emphasis being placed on the first syllable.
The Veddngas Nirukta, ' exposition.'
The object of this Vedan-ga is etymological explanation
or interpretation of difficult Vedic words. Doubtless,
numerous works devoted to this object once existed, but
all have perished except one, which is now the typical
representative of the whole class. 1 This is a compilation,
accompanied with an exposition, by an author named
Yaska, who, according to the best authorities, lived before
Panini, 2 probably about 400 years B.C., or about 1800
years before Sayana. His work consists first of three bare
lists or catalogues of words in five chapters : viz., a. The
Naighantuka in three chapters of synonyms or rather of
collections of words said to have the same meaning as
some one word of known signification given at the
end, one such collection being called a Nighantu. The
i
No less than seventeen Nairuktikas or ' interpreters of the Veda '
are mentioned by name as having preceded Yaska. See Dr. Muir's
article on the interpretation of the Veda, p. 321.
2 Panini himself implies (IV. I. 112) that the name Yaska means a
descendant of Yaska.
VEDAN-GAS NIRUKTA OR EXPOSITION. 157
synonyms in each collection vary from two (III. 22) to
one hundred and twenty-two (II. 14), and can scarcely
be called synonyms in the strict sense. For example, when
it is said that vartate, ' he turns ; ' lotate, ' he rolls ; ' sar-
pati, ' he creeps ;' sravati, ' he flows ;' sransate, ' he drops ;'
plavate, 'he swims;' dlyate, 'he flies;' patati, ' he falls/
and 122 other words are all synonyms of gamati, 'he
goes/ or gati, ' going/ this must be understood very widely
as intending to include all forms and varieties of motion.
Again, in I. 12, we have a collection of 101 words, which
are all said to be synonyms of water (udaka), but it is
obvious that the only attribute most of these have in
common is, that they are varieties of fluids, including,
for example, nectar (amrita) and clarified butter (havis).
Seeing, therefore, that many of the words brought to-
gether are old Vedic words of doubtful meaning, quite
unknown to classical Sanskrit, and seeing that a complete
explanation of the gradations and modifications of sense
under each head of synonyms is wanting, the practical
utility of these lists is of course very small indeed, b. The
Naigama, a collection of 278 separate words (paddni)
occurring in the Veda (nigama), all in one chapter of
three sections, c. The Daivata or 1 5 1 words relating to
deities and religious or sacrificial acts, in one chapter of
six short sections. Whether these collections were drawn
up by Yaska himself or by some previous compiler is not
certain, but there is no doubt that the second and most
important part of the work, viz., the Nirukta or 'explana-
tion' of the words in these lists, is his own composition.
Although, therefore, the term Nirukta is sometimes ap-
plied to the lists of words, it more properly belongs to
Yaska' s explanation of them, which occupies twelve chap-
ters. The first of the twelve is a kind of introduction,
which contains some interesting discussions of philological
questions and a sort of summary or sketch of grammar ;
158 INDIAN WISDOM.
the following two chapters are an imperfect exposition of
the Naighantuka or ' lists of synonymous words/ the defi-
ciency of which has been to a certain extent supplied by
Durga, a commentator on Yaska ; the next three chapters
explain the Naigama or ' single Vedic words/ and the last
six the Daivata or ' deities addressed in the hymns.'
Thus the three collections with their explanations occupy
seventeen chapters. The value of the work 1 consists in
its being the oldest extant commentary on the Veda.
When words are explained, Vedic passages are quoted in
illustration, and the author often enters into curious
etymological investigations, which possess great interest
from their universally admitted antiquity, but are difficult
to understand from the extreme brevity and obscurity of
their style.
I here abridge some valuable remarks from Dr. John
Muir's article on the 'Interpretation of the Veda/ in
the Eoyal Asiatic Society's Journal (vol. ii. new series,
p. 320) :
The Nirukta makes frequent reference to the Brahmanas, and alludes
to various schools of Vedic interpretation which existed anterior to its
author, such as the Nairuktas or 'etymologists,' the Aitihasikas or
'legendary writers,' and the Yajnikas or 'ritualists.' Yaska supplies
specimens of the mode of explaining the hymns adopted by different
schools of interpreters. Thus we are told (Nirukta XI. 29, 31) that
the Nairuktas understood Anumati, Raka, Sinlvali, and Kuhu to be
goddesses, while the Yajnikas took them for the new and full moons.
The gods called Asvins were a great enigma. The Nirukta (XII. i)
gives the following answers to the question who they were : ' Heaven and
Earth,' say some ; ' Day and Night,' say others ; ' the Sun and Moon,'
say others ; ' two Kings, performers of holy acts,' say the Aitihasikas.
Again, Nirukta (VI. 13) tells us that Aurnabhava understood Nasatyau
(an epithet of the Asvins) as ' true, not false.' Agrayana took it to
mean ' leaders of truth ' (satyasya pranetdrau) ; while Yaska himself
suggests that it may mean ' nose-born ' (nasika-prdbliavau). Again, we
1 It has been ably edited by Professor Roth.
VEDAN'GAS NIRUKTA OR EXPOSITION. I 59
are informed (Nirukta III. 8) that some understood the five peoples
(panca-janali) mentioned in Rig-veda X. 53. 4 to be the Gandharvas,
Pitris, gods, Asuras, and Rakshases ; whilst Aupamanyava took them
for the four castes and the Nishadas. So, again, Katthakya understood
Narasansa to designate ' sacrifice,' but S'akapuni took it for a name of
Agni (Nir. VIII. 4. 5). In like manner, Yaska's predecessors were not
agreed as to what was meant by Vishnu's three steps in Rig-veda I.
22. 17 ; S'akapuni maintaining that they were planted on the earth,
the atmosphere, and the sky respectively ; and Aurnabhava that the hill
over which the sun rises, the meridian, and the hill where he sets, were
the localities referred to. One of these predecessors (Kautsa) had the
audacity to assert that Vedic exposition was useless, as the hymns
were obscure, unmeaning, or mutually contradictory. As instances of
obscurity he cites the texts in which the words amyak (Rig-veda I.
169. 3), yddrUmin (V. 44. 8), jdraydyi (VI. 12. 4), and kdnukd (VIII.
66. 4) occur. In regard to this charge, Yaska replies that it is not the
fault of the post that the blind man does not see it. In the Nirukta-
parisishta the ' four defined grades or stages of speech ' referred to in
Rig-veda I. 164. 45, are said to be explained by the Rishis as meaning
the four mystic words, om, Wiuli, hhuvah, svar; by the grammarians, as
denoting nouns, verbs, prepositions, and particles ; by the ritualists, as
the hymns, liturgical precepts, Brahmanas, and ordinary language j
by the etymologists, as the Rig, Yajush, Saman, and the current lan-
guage; by others, as the speech of serpents, birds, reptiles, and the
vernacular ; by the spiritualists, as that of beasts, musical instruments,
wild animals, and soul.
It is evident from the above remarks that great differ-
ence of opinion existed among expositors of the Veda even
in Yaska's time, considerably more than 2000 years ago,
and that the objections of sceptics and rationalists had to
be met and answered by orthodox theologians like himself.
He commences his own exposition thus (I. i) :
The traditional collection of words has been thus traditionally repeated.
That must now be explained. They call this traditional collection the
Nighantus. \Samdmnayah samdmndtah sa vydkhydtavyas tarn imam
samdrnndyain nigliantava ity dcakshate.]
Perhaps as good an example of Yaska's condensed style
as can be offered is a passage quoted and explained by Pro-
160 INDIAN WISDOM.
fessor Goldstiicker from Koth's edition, I. 3. It is inte-
resting as showing that, for the better interpretation of the
Veda, Yaska aimed at giving some sort of exposition of
grammar and grammatical science as then understood :
(The ancient grammarian) S'akatayana says that prepositions when
not attached (to nouns or verbs) do not express meanings ; but Gargya
says that they illustrate (or modify) the action which is expressed by a
noun or verb, and that their senses are various (even when detached).
Now they express that sense which inheres in them ; that is, that which
modifies the sense of a noun or verb. The preposition a is in the sense
of limit ; pra and para express the reverse of that ; ablii, direction
towards ; prati, the reverse of that ; ati and su, superiority; nir and dur,
the reverse of these two ; ni and ava, the act of taking down ; ud, the
reverse of these two ; sam, combining together vi and apa, the reverse
of that ; anu, similarity or being after ; apt, conjunction ; upa, the being
appended; part, being all around; adhi, being above or supremacy : thus
they express various meanings, and these must be taken into considera-
tion. \_Na nirbaddlid upasarga artlidn nir-dhur iti Qdlcatdyano, ndmd-
l-hydtayos tu karmopasamyoga-dyotaM bhavanty uccdvacdh paddrthd
lliavantlti Gdrgyas, tad ya eshu paddrtliah prdhur ime tarn ndmdkhyd-
tayor artlia-vikaranam ; d ity arvdg-arthe, pra parety etasya prdtilo-
myam ; ability dbhimukhyam, praflty etasya pratilomyam ; ati su ity
abhipujitdrthe, nir dur ity etayoh prdtilomyam ; ny aveti vinigrahdrthiyd,
ud ity etayoh prdtilomyam ; sam ity eJalhavam, vy apety etasya prdtilo-
myam; anv iti sddrisydparabhdvam ; apiti samsargam ; upety upaja-
nam ; pariti sarvato-Widvam ; adJnty uparibhdvam aisvaryam vaivam
uccdvacdn artlian prahus ta zipeJcshitavydh.]
There is a still more interesting passage on the subject of
derivation a little further on in the same chapter (I. 1 2) :
So these four kinds of words have been enumerated, nouns (ndman),
verbs (dkhydta), prepositions (upasarga), and particles (nipdta). S'aka-
tayana affirms that nouns are derived from verbs, and on this point there
is an agreement of the etymologists (nairuUa-samayah). But Gargya
and some of the grammarians say that not all (nouns are derived from
verbs). For if all nouns came from verbs, then whatever performs the
same action ought to have the same name. Thus, if asva, ' a horse,' were
derived from the root a^, 'to pass through,' then every one who passes
along a road ought to be called asva; and if trina, 'a blade of grass,'
were derived from the root trid, ' to pierce,' then everything that pierces
VEDAN-GAS VYAKARANA OR GRAMMAR. l6l
ought to be called trina. Again, if all nouns were derived from verbs,
then everything would have as many names as there are states with
which it could be connected. Thus, sthund, 'a post,' might be called
dara-saya, 'hole-sleeper,' because resting in a hole, or san-jani, 'joiner
together, because things are joined by being attached to it. [Yaska
ends by taking the side of S'akatayana. See Professer Max Mliller's
Ancient Sanskrit Literature, p. 165.]
The thirteenth and fourteenth chapters, commonly called
the Nirukta-parisishta, are thought to be the work of a
more recent author than Yaska. There are numerous
classical glossaries by later lexicographers, e.g. :
The Amara-kosha (sometimes called Tri-kanda, ' having three chap-
ters '), by the Bauddha Amara-sinha, probably not later than A.D. 500;
the Abhidhana-ratna-mala, by Halayudha ; the Abhidhana-6intaniani,
by the Jaina Hema-c'andra ; the Visva-prakasa, by Mahesvara ; the
Dharani ; the Medini ; the Haravali, &c.
The Veddn-gas Vyakarana, 'grammar.'
This word Vy-d-karana means literally ' undoing/ and
is applied first to linguistic analysis, and then generally
to grammar, but especially to Panini's grammar. 1 It is
the opposite to Sanskarana, ' putting together/ whence
the formed language is called Sanskrita, ' constructed.'
Strictly, the great Vyakarana of Paniui can scarcely be
regarded as a Vedan-ga, seeing that it only treats of the
Vedic idiom exceptionally. The grammatical Sutras which
preceded his time, and which have nearly all perished, must
have constituted the Vyakarana division of works ancillary
to the study of the Veda. 2 Nevertheless, the grammar of
1 No Pandit would use Vyakarana except for Sanskrit grammar,
and a man's Sanskrit scholarship is often summed up by describing
him as knowing ' the Vytlkaran.'
2 Panini himself mentions several grammarians as having preceded
him, such as Apisali, Kasyapa, Gargya, Galava, Cakravarmana, Bhara-
dvaja, S'akatayana, S'akalya, Senaka, and Sphotayana. The Unadi-sutras
L
1 62 INDIAN WISDOM.
Paniui, which is the great standard of correct Sanskrit, is
usually taken to represent this Vedanga, and as it is one
of the most remarkable literary works that the world has
ever seen, and as no other country can produce any gram-
matical system at all comparable to it, either for originality
of plan or for analytical subtlety, a brief description of its
characteristic features may be introduced here.
Little or nothing is known of Panini, the author of the
grammar. He is described as a descendant of Paniu and
grandchild of an inspired legislator named Devala. His
mother's name was Dakshi (whence he is culled Daksheya),
and Salatura in the Gandhara country (Kandahar), north-
west of Attock on the Indus, is said to have been his
birth-place (whence his name Salaturiya). He belonged,
therefore, to the North- Western or Western school. As,
however, in later times he became more and more an
object of reverence, he was at last actually canonized by
his admirers, that is to say, exalted to the rank of a Rishi
or inspired Muni. Hence he is fabled to have seen rather
than composed his grammar, which was declared to have
been supernaturally revealed to him, the first fourteen
Sutras especially having^ been communicated, according to
the legend, by the god Sivn, It is, of course, quite impos-
sible to fix with certainty at what period Panini lived.
The late Professor Goldstlicker thought he had good
grounds for deciding that the great grammarian preceded
Buddha. This would kcejiim in the, sixth century B - c -
(commented on by Ujjvala-datta), giving the affixes, commencing with un,
for the formation of words whose meaning has deviated from accordance
with their etymology, and whose root is not always clear, are thought by
some to be anterior to Panini. Possibly he may have made a list of them
himself. At any rate, he mentions the affixes in III. 3. i, III. 4. 75.
S'antanava's Phit-sutras on accent are probably later than Panini. They
have been well edited by Professor Kielhorn. I believe Dr. Biilher has
found part of a work which claims to be S'akatayana's grammar.
VEDAN-GAS VYAKARANA OR GRAMMAR. 163
Other scholars, whose opinions are entitled to respect, con-
sider that an earlier date cannot be assigned to him than
the middle of the fourth century B.C.
His work perhaps the most original of all productions,
of the Hindu mind is sometimes called the Ashtadhya\ I,
sometimes Ashtaknm Panimyam, because it consists of
eight lectures (Adhyayas), each of which is again sub-
divided into four chapters (Padas). In these eight
Adhyayas are contained 3996 Sutras or Aphorisms. 1 The
iirst Aclbyaya explains the technical terms used in the
grammar and the rules for their interpretation and appli-
cation. 2 A root is called Dhatu, and a crude base Prati-
padika, but a root never appears without some appendage
(anubandlia) in the shape of indicatory syllables or letters
(technically called it) which do not really form part of the
root, but merely denote certain peculiarities in its inflec-
tion, conjugation, &c. Similar indicatory letters and syl-
lables (it) are attached either at the beginning or end of
all affixes, augments, &c. 3 The case affixes are called sup,
and the personal endings or terminations of verbs tin-.
1 Three or four of these are supposed to be later additions. In the
excellent edition of Professor Bohtlingk there are 3997, including the
fourteen S'iva Sutras. Panini is also the supposed author of the oldest
Dhatu-patha or dictionary of roots with their Anubandhas.
2 A rule giving the key to Panini's Sutras and their application
is called a Paribhusha ; one which explains the technical terms is a
Sanjna.
3 For example, the root nid is called nidi to show that a nasal is
inserted in conjugation, thus, ninddmi, nindasi, &c. The affix maya is
called may at to show that its feminine is mayi. Sometimes these Its or
Anubandhas serve to distinguish two roots or affixes, which, although
similar in sound, have different senses ; for example, the root da, ' to
give,' is called duddn, while da, 'to divide,' is called dap; the affix vat,
meaning ' like,' is called vati, while the affix vat, meaning ' possessed
of,' is called vatup. Sometimes the only use of these Anubandhas is to
enable Pratyfiharas to be formed ; thus the case-ending of the accusative
dual is called aut merely for the sake of forming the Pratyahara silt.
1 64 INDIAN WISDOM.
Between the latter and the root a conjugational syllable
is inserted, called vikarana. The third chapter of the
first Adhyaya treats of the proper use of the active voice
(Parasmai-pada) and middle or reflexive voice (Atmane-
2)ada). The second Adhyaya explains compound words.
The third, fourth, and fifth Adhyayas enumerate the vari-
ous affixes and their meanings. Those belonging to verbs
occupy the third Adhyaya ; those affixed to nouns, the
fourth and fifth. The sixth, seventh, and eighth Adhyayas
treat of the changes which roots and affixes undergo by
augments and substitutions of various kinds. For brevity
and economy of words nothing can be more successful than
the system in which all this immense and intricate subject
is explained. The Sutras of Panini are indeed a perfect
miracle of condensation, their main design apparently
being to aid the memory of teachers rather than learners
by the briefest possible suggestions. When a single letter
can be saved every other consideration is sacrificed to this
paramount object ; and to attain a greater amount of
abridgment than could be effected by the use of ordinary
words an arbitrary symbolical language is coined, the key
to which must be acquired before the rules themselves
can be rendered intelligible. 1 Perhaps the closing Sutra of
the whole work may be taken as the best instance of the
consummate brevity attained. It consists of two letters,
as follows : a a. This is said to mean :
Let short a be held to have its organ of utterance contracted, now
that we have reached the end of the work in which it was necessary to
regard it as otherwise.
Here is one from the sixth Adhyaya (i. 77): Iko yan
aci. This, of course, is not Sanskrit, but a kind of grara-
1 For example, syan stands for the characteristic of roots of the fourth
class, yak for the passive, nic for the causal, san for the desiderative,
tjan- for the intensive.
VEDAN-GAS VYAKARANA OR GRAMMAR. 165
matical algebra. Ik is a symbol standing for the four
vowels i, u, ri, Iri, and gifted with an imaginary genitive
case ikaJi (here changed to iko). Yan is a symbol for the
letters y, v, r, I; and ac (supposed to possess a locative
case aci) represents all the vowels. The ride at full is :
The letters y, v, r, I, take the place of i, u, rl, Iri, short or long,
respectively, when followed by any dissimilar vowel.
Moreover, an aphorism which stands at the head of a
series, and is hence called an Adhikdra or ' governing rule,'
is never repeated, but must be supplied after the whole
series till the influence (anuvritti) of this governing Sutra
is supposed to cease, such cessation being called nivritti.
Thus the seventy-fourth Sutra of the third chapter of
Adhyaya I. is nicas-ca, which must be interpreted thus :
And after a verbal base ending in the causal affix (nic) the Atmane-
pada must come when the result of the action returns to the agent.
Of course nearly all the matter necessary to make this
rule intelligible has to be supplied from other rules, and
especially from the Adhikara rule 12, which is separated
by sixty-two intervening Sutras.
In short, a careful examination of Panini's grammar
will dispose the student to appreciate Colebrooke's remark
that ' the endless pursuit of exceptions and limitations
so disjoins the general precepts, that the reader cannot
keep in view their intended connection and mutual rela-
tion. * He wanders in an intricate maze, and the clue of
the labyrinth is continually slipping from his hand.'
In point of fact, however, this grammar ought not to
be examined from a European point of view at all. We
must not forget that an Indian Pandit's ideas of grammar
are very different from our own. Europeans are apt to
look on a grammar of any kind as a necessary evil, only
to be tolerated because indispensable to the attainment
1 66 INDIAN WISDOM.
of a desired end beyond. With us the grammar of a
language is in most cases a mere passage to iH literature,
a dreary region to be traversed as soon as possible. A
Pandit, on the other hand, regards grammar as we should
regard the natural sciences. It is with him a something
to be studied and elaborated for its own sake. According
to the late Professor Goldstiicker, ' Panini's work is indeed
a kind of natural history of the Sanskrit language.' l It
gives an account of the linguistic facts and phenomena
as it finds them, tracing them out as they occur without
regard to any scientific or methodical arrangement of
materials. Thus the prolongation of vowels is dealt with
as a fact, and is followed out through a whole chapter in
order to trace all the instances in which such a lengthen-
ing takes place, whether in declension or conjugation or
the composition of words. Hence the rules of declension
and conjugation do not follow each other in their usual
order according to the European system, but are scattered
about in a disjointed and often very perplexing manner,
so that it becomes necessary to search for and put together
Aphorisms in widely separated parts of the work to enable
the statement of some grammatical law or process to be
completed.
Panini's grammar was criticized and its deficiencies
supplied by the celebrated Katyayana, who is called
Varttika-kara, as author of the Varttikas or ' supplemen-
tary rules and annotations.' He must have lived some
time after Panini, perhaps in the century following.
Some, however, believe the two grammarians to have
been contemporaneous. Katyayana, again, was criticized
by his rival Patanjali, who generally supports Panini
against the composer of the supplementary rules. To
Patanjali we owe one of the most wonderful grammatical
1 See Chambers's Encyclopaedia, article Panini.
VEDAN-GAS VYAKARANA OR GRAMMAR. 167
works that the genius of any country has ever produced,
viz., the Mahabhashya or 'great commentary,' 1 written
not so much to explain Panini as to defend such of his
Aphorisms as had been criticized by Katyayana. He was
probably not the same person as the author of the Yoga
philosophy. According to some, his mother's name was
Gonika ; he was born at Gonarda in the east of India, and
he lived for some time in Kashmir, where his work was well
known. According to Professor Goldstiicker, he wrote
between 140 and 120 B.C.; 2 but Professor Weber places
him about twenty-five years after Christ. These three
men, Panini, Katyayana, and Patanjali, compose the great
Indian triumvirate of grammarians, from whose authority
there is no appeal in anything which relates to Vyakarana.
About one hundred and fifty grammarians and commen-
1 The whole of this great work has been lately edited by two Pandits
at Benares. See the able article on it by Professor Weber in the last
volume of the ' Indische Studien.' A copy has been kindly sent to me
by Professor A. E. Gough. Patanjali's additions to the Varttikas are
called Islitis or Desiderata. He is also the author of many Karikas or
memorial verses on grammar. A compendium of such verses was also
made by Bhartri-hari.
2 See the 'Indian Antiquary' for February 1873. See also an
article on Patanjali in Chambers's Encyclopaedia, where it is well said
that Patanjali's method is analogous to that of other classical commen-
taries ; it establishes, usually by repetition, the correct reading of the
text in explaining every important or doubtful word, in showing the
connection of the principal parts of the sentence, and in adding such
observations as may be required. Frequently Patanjali attaches his
own critical remarks to the emendations of Katyayana, often in support
of the views of the latter, but not seldom, too, in order to refute his
criticisms and to defend Panini; while, again, at other times, he com-
pletes the statement of one of them by his own additional rules.
Ramkrishna Gopal Bhandarkar, writing in the ' Indian Antiquary '
for October 1872, states his opinion that Patanjali lived when Push-
pamitra was reigning at Patali-putra, and ' that he probably wrote the
third chapter of his Bhashya between 144 B.C. and 142 B.C.' Professor
Weber, however, controverts this conclusion.
1 68 INDIAN WISDOM.
tators followed in their footsteps, each criticizing or
commenting on his predecessors. Among these may
be mentioned Kaiyata or Kaiyyata, who commented on
Patanjali in a work called the Bhashya-pradrpa, and was
himself commented on by Nagoji-bhatta in the Bhashya-
pradipoddyota. 1 One of the best of the more modern
commentaries on Panini is Vamana's Kasika Vritti, so
called because composed at Kasi or Benares. A gram-
marian named Bhattoji-dlkshita attempted to arrange the
Aphorisms on a plan more in accordance with modern
ideas. His useful work is called the Siddhanta-kaumudL 2
A second and greater simplification of Panini is the Mad-
hyama-kaumudi, and a still greater is the Laghu-kaumudi
of Varada-raja, 3 which is in fact a kind of abridgment of
the Siddhanta-kaumudi, current in the north-west of India.
Vopadeva, a grammarian who is said to have flourished
about the latter half of the thirteenth century at the
court of Hemadri, king of Deva-giri (Dowlatabad), wrote
a grammar for beginners on a system of his own, called
the Mugdha-bodha, 4 which is much valued as an authority
in Bengal, and referred to by many native commentators,
such, for example, as Bharata-mallika or Bharata-sena,
who therefore called his commentary on the Bhatti-kavya,
Mugdha-bodhini.
Vopadeva's arrangement and many of his technical
terms and symbolical expressions (including the technical
forms of his affixes) differ from those of Panini, and the
only allusion to Vedic peculiarities is in the last Sutra of
the work (XXVI. 220), which is as follows :
1 This jSTagoji-bhatta was also the author of a grammatical work
called Paribhashendu-sekhara, lately edited at Bombay, with a trans-
lation, by Professor F. Kielhorn.
2 A new edition of this was published not long ago in India,
3 This was edited and translated by Dr. Ballantyne.
4 It has been edited, like Panini, by Professor Bohtlingk.
VEDAN-GAS VYAKARANA OR GRAMMAR. I 6p
Manifold forms and irregularities are allowed in the Veda. [Balm-
lam brahmani, which corresponds to Panini's often-repeated bahulam
chandasi, II. 4. 39, II. 4. 73, &c. Cf. also Panini's vyatyayo bahulam,
'opposition to the usual rule is frequent in the Veda,' III. i. 85.]
In fact, Vopadeva x does not aim at the completeness of
Panini. He omits all notice of the accents, and his treat-
ment of the laws of euphonic combination is by no means
exhaustive. In his explanation of declension and conjuga-
tion he is more satisfactory, and he gives numerous useful
examples and paradigms, but usually contents himself
with general rules, and does not, like Panini, trouble
himself to trace out minute particulars or examine into
every corner of an intricate subject with a view to a care-
ful search for all possible exceptions. Professor Bohtlingk
has given an analysis of the Mugdha-bodha in the preface
to his excellent edition of the work. Vopadeva's first
chapter explains technical terms ; the second treats of
euphonic laws ; the third, of declension ; the fourth, of
the formation of feminines ; the fifth, of the use of the
cases ; the sixth, of compound words ; the seventh, of
Taddhita affixes ; the eighth, of technical terms applicable
1 It is very necessary to know the commonest of Vopadeva's technical
expressions, as they are not only occasionally used by some native
commentators, but are also employed in some instances by European
expounders of Sanskrit grammar. They often deviate from Panini's
system. For example, the memorial terminations usually given for
verbs are those of Vopadeva (VIII. i) ; dim stands for dhatu, ' a root ; '
rri for vriddhi ; kva for the terminations of the singular ; vva for bahu-
vadana, those of the plural ; li for lin-ga, a nominal base ; lidhu for
nominal verbs ; 6up and up for the characteristic u of the eighth class
of roots ; turn and catum instead of Panini's tumun, for the Krit affix
turn forming the infinitive ; sdna (not sdnac) for the termination of the
present participle Atmane ; sri for the pronominals (called Sarva-
naman by Panini) ; samdhdra for Panini's pratyaliara (see my Sanskrit-
English Dictionary). Nevertheless, Vopadeva adopts a great number
of Panini's technical terms.
I 70 INDIAN WISDOM.
to verbs and of roots of the first class ; the ninth and
tenth, of roots of the second and third classes ; the
eleventh to the seventeenth, of roots of the fourth to the
tenth classes, one chapter being devoted to each class ;
the eighteenth, of causal verbs ; the nineteenth, of de-
sideratives ; the twentieth, of intensives ; the twenty-first,
of nominals ; the twenty-second, of the use of the Paras-
mai-pada ; the twenty-third, of the use of the Atmane-
pada ; the twenty-fourth, of passives, impersonals, and
reflexive verbs ; the twenty-fifth, of the use of the tenses
and moods; the twenty-sixth, of Krit affixes and of
affixes added to roots to form participles, &c.
I conclude by observing that a popular grammar called
the Kdtantra (or Kalapa) is being well edited for the
Bibliotheca Indica by Professor J. Eggeling.
The Veddngas Jyotisha, 'astronomy.'
This Vedan-ga should rather be called ' the astronomical
or astrological calendar.' Strictly speaking, it is repre-
sented by a short tract, consisting of thirty-six verses, in
a comparatively modern style, to which scholars cannot
assign a date earlier than 300 years B.C. According to
the best authorities, no genuine Sutras on astronomy have
as yet been discovered. The object of the Jyotisha
Vedan-ga is to fix the most auspicious days and seasons
for commencing sacrifices. This treatise, brief and unsa-
tisfactory as it is, nevertheless deserves attention as em-
bodying some of the most ancient astronomical ideas,
among which may be mentioned the measure of a day
by thirty Muhurtas or hours of forty-eight minutes, the
division of the zodiac into twenty-seven parts or lunar
asterisms (the first of which is Krittika), and the tradi-
tional place of the solstitial points, from which the
attempt has been repeatedly made (by Jones, Davis,
VEDAN-GAS JYOTISHA OR ASTRONOMY. I/ I
Colebrooke, Pratt, and others) to deduce a date for the
treatise itself, as well as for the whole Vedic literature.
The following is Colebrooke's translation of verses seven
and eight of the Jyotisha tract, 1 which verses have been
the subject of much controversy in relation to their bear-
ing on the determination of dates from a comparison of
the present position of the solstitial points :
The sun and moon turn towards the north at the beginning of S'ra-
vishtha ( = Dhanishtha), but the sun turns towards the south in the
middle of the constellation over which the serpents preside ; and this
(turn towards the south and towards the north) always happens in the
months of Magha and S'ravana. [Prapadyete Sravishthddau surya-
candramasdv udak, Sdrpdrdlie ddksliindrkas tu, mdglia-srdvanayoh saddJ\
In the northern passage an increase of day and decrease of night take
place amounting to a Prastha (or thirty-two Palas) of water ; in the
southern, both are reversed (i.e., the days decrease and the nights
increase), and the difference amounts, by the journey, to six Muhurtas.
\Gharma-vriddhir apdm prastliah kshapd-hrdsa udag-gatau, DaJcsMne
tau viparyastau slian-muhurty ayanena tu.]
Whatever may be the value of these verses in an astro-
nomical point of view, it is clear that a superstitious
belief in the importance of choosing .auspicious days and
lucky moments for the performance of rites and cere-
monies, whether public or domestic, began to show itself
very early in India, and that it grew and strengthened
simultaneously with the growth of priestcraft and the
1 See Professor E. B. Cowell's new edition of Colebrooke's Essays,
republished by his son, Sir T. E. Colebrooke, p. 98 ; and see especially
Professor Whitney's valuable notes on this point (p. 126). The latter
shows that the date derivable from the statement made in the Jyotisha
has a necessary uncertainty of about four centuries (from the I4th to the
loth B.C.), and he claims that the actual uncertainty is still greater
that, in fact, the statement is worth nothing as yielding any definite
date at all. Weber had before pointed out that the difference of six
Muhurtas between the longest and shortest day or night is accurate
only in the extreme north-western corner of India.
I 72 INDIAN WISDOM.
elaboration of a complex ritual. The influence of the sun
upon the .atmosphere and soil made itself so manifest that
it was only natural to infer that similar influences be-
longed to the moon, planets, and stars; and the per-
sonification and deification of all the most conspicuous
luminaries which resulted from the supposed power in-
herent in their rays, of course intensified the superstitious
feeling of dependence upon their favourable aspects for
the success, not only of religious acts, but of all the affairs
of life. Pernicious as such superstitious ideas were in
their effect on the mind and all mental progress, they were
nevertheless productive of good in impelling the acute
Hindu to study the movements of the heavenly bodies, and
stimulating him to undertake arithmetical and mathema-
tical investigations. In all probability, astronomical and
mathematical science had an independent origin in India.
It is at least certain that they were cultivated with some
success at a very early epoch, though of course very
roughly in the absence of all optical and mechanical
appliances. We have already given an example from the
Aitareya-brahmnna, which contains certain shrewd guesses
at scientific truth in regard to the sun (see p. 32).
In some of the earliest hymns of the Veda the Nak-
shatras or lunar mansions 1 are mentioned in connection
with the moon (see Rig-veda I. 50. 2). Moreover, some of
the phases of the moon, such as Anumati, 'the moon one
digit less than full;' Rdka, 'the full moon;' Kuhu (or
1 For the twenty-seven Vedic Nakshatras see my Sanskrit-English
Dictionary (also Appendix). The word Nakskatra at first meant a star
or asterism in general ; then it was applied to the selected series of
asterisms through or near which the moon passes j and finally it was
loosely used for the part of the moon's path, the 2 yth or 2 8th of the
zodiac, marked by each asterism. In the later mythology the lunar
mansions were fabled as the twenty-seven daughters of Daksba and
wives of the moon.
VEDAN-GAS JYOTISHA OR ASTRONOMY. 173
Vjfun.gu), ' the new moon ; ' and Sinlvdli, ' the jEirst thin
crescent preceding or following new moon,' are personified
(see Rig-veda II. 32. 8), so that we are justified in in-
ferring that the movements of the moon in the zodiac and
its use as the time-measurer and month-maker (mdsa-
Jcrit] J were studied and noted by the Hindus perhaps as
early as 1400 years B.C. The twenty-seven lunar man-
sions implied a lunar division of the zodiac into twenty-
seven equal parts of 13 20' to each part. Such a division
(into twenty-seven or twenty-eight parts) is shared by
other Asiatic peoples, as the Arabs and Chinese, and the
question where it originated has provoked much discus-
sion, without leading to any definite and certain results. -
The names of the Indian months have certainly been
taken from the asterisms in which the moon was supposed
to be full at different times of the year, and, what is
still more significant, the names of some of these lunar
asterisms have clearly been derived from ancient Vedic
deities, like the Asvins, 3 &c. In the Yajur-veda and
1 This is a Yedic name of the moon. A root ma, ' to measure,'
meaning also ' the measurer,' is first applied to the moon in Sanskrit,
and then to a lunation or period measured by one revolution of the
moon. Something similar has happened in the cognate Aryan languages.
At least we know that the words for ' month ' are generally derived
from the moon, our word ' month ' being nothing but inoonth. In Rig-
veda X. 85. 2 occurs the following : Atho nakshatrdndm eshdm upasthe
Soma dliitah, ' Soma is deposited in the lap of these Nakshatras.'
2 The various opinions and the arguments by which they have been
supported have been lately reviewed by Professor Whitney in his
'Oriental and Linguistic Studies,' vol. ii. pp. 341-421. He regards
the matter as still unsettled. The solar signs of the zodiac and much
of the later astronomy, with many astronomical terms (such as hora
= upa. kendra = x^-root ; drikdna, the third of a zodiacal sign = dexuvoc
liptd, the minute of a degree, = XsTrro:), were borrowed from the Greeks.
3 The names of the months are Magha (from the Nakshatra MagJid),
Phalguna (from Pha^inl),Caitra (from Gitra], Vaisakha (from Visdkhd),
Jyaishtha (from Jyeshthd), Ashadha (from AshddJtd), S'ravana (from
174
INDIAN WISDOM.
Brahmanas occur the expressions Nakshatra-darsa and
Ganaka, applied to observers of the heavens, either as
astronomers or astrologers; 1 and the adjustment of the
lunar to the solar year by the insertion of a thirteenth
or intercalary month (mala-masa, malimluca, adhimdsa,
sometimes called Purushottama) is probably alluded to in
an ancient hymn (Rig-veda I. 25. 8), and frequently in
more recent parts of the Veda. (Vajasaneyi-samhita 22.
30, Atharva-veda V. 6. 4, &c.)
Whatever conclusions we may arrive at as to the
original source of the first astronomical ideas current in
O
the world, it is probable that to the Hindus is due the
invention of algebra 2 and its application to astronomy and
geometry. From them also the Arabs received not only
their first conceptions of algebraic analysis, but also those
invaluable numerical symbols and decimal notation now
current everywhere in Europe, which have rendered untold
service to the progress of arithmetical science. It will not,
firavana), Bhadrapada or Bhadra (from Bhadra-pada), Asvina (from
Asvini), Karttika (from Krittilta), Margasirsha, commonly called Agra-
hayana (from Mriga-siras), Pausha (from Push yd). I have arranged
these names so as to correspond as nearly as possible with our months,
Mdgha representing January February, and the others continuing in
regular order ; but practically the Hindu calendar generally begins
with Vaisakha, this being considered the first month in the year.
1 Of course astronomy and astrology were mixed up together, and
the progress of the former was impeded in India by its subservience
to the latter.
The name Algebra (from the Arabic al jabr, ' the reduction of
parts to a whole or of fractions to integers ') shows that Europe received
algebra like the ten numerical symbols from the Hindus through the
Arabs. The Sanskrit word for algebra, Vlja-ganita, means ' calculation
of seeds,' 'calculation of original or primary elements,' i.e., analysis.
If the Greeks did not receive their first ideas of algebra from the
o
Hindus, it may at least be taken as proved (from all that Colebrooke
has so ably written on the subject) that the Hindus were certainly
not indebted to the Greeks, but invented their system independently.
VEDAN-GAS JYOTISHA OR ASTRONOMY. 1/5
therefore, be irrelevant if I introduce here a short account
of the chief Hindu astronomical and mathematical works,
with a few illustrative extracts.
By some authorities nine principal astronomical treatises,
called Siddhantas, are named, viz., the Brahma-siddhdnta,
Surya-s, Soma-s, Vrihaspati-s , Garga-s, Ndrada-s,
Pardsara-s, Pulastya-s, Vasishtha-s ; by others five,
viz., the Paulisa-s, Romaka-s, 1 Vdsishtha-s , Saura-s q ,
and Brdhma-s or Paitdmaha-s , and these five, sometimes
called collectively the Panca-siddhautika, are said to be
the original Siddhantas. Whether the Surya-s is the
same as the Saura-s appears somewhat doubtful, but this
treatise, fabled to have been revealed by Surya ' the Sun '
himself, is perhaps the best known of all Hindu astro-
nomical works both in India and Europe. 2
The earliest Hindu astronomer whose name has come
down to us is Arya-bhata, who lived, according to Cole-
brooke, about the fifth century of our era. Others place
him, or another astronomer of his name, in the third
century. Arya-bhata is the author of three works, the
Aryabhatiya, Dasa-gitika, and Aryashta-sata, and is said
to have asserted a diurnal revolution of the earth on
its axis, to have known the true theory of the causes
of lunar and solar eclipses, and noticed the motion of the
solstitial and equinoctial points. 3 Professor Kern has just
published an edition of the Aryabhatiya.
After Arya-bhata came the astronomer Varaha-mihira,
who lived about the sixth century of our era, and was
1 This title Romaka-s points to an exchange of ideas on astronomical
subjects between India, Greece, and Rome.
2 It has been well edited by Dr. Fitz-Edward Hall, and there are two
translations of it, one published in America with notes (by Professor
Whitney), and another by Bapudeva S'astri.
3 According to Brahma-gupta, as quoted by the writer of the article
Sanskrit Literature in Chambers';? Encyclopaedia, which I have consulted.
176 INDIAN WISDOM.
bora at Ujjayini. He wrote a work on nativities called
Vrihaj-jataka, another well-known astrological work called
Brihat-samhita (recently translated by Professor Kern, 1 an
extract from which is given p. 179), and a summary of the
five original Siddhantas called Panca-siddhantika.
o
Next to Arya-bhata and Varaha-mihira lived Brahma-
gupta (probably towards the end of the sixth century),
who wrote the Brahma-siddhanta, containing the chapters
on arithmetic (ganita) and algebra (kuttaka 2 ) in Cole-
brooke's Indian Algebra.
Fourth and last of celebrated astronomers and mathe-
maticians came Bhaskara or Bhaskaracarya, who is sup-
posed to have lived in the twelfth century and composed
a well-known book called the Siddhauta-siromani, contain-
ing the treatises on algebra (Vija-ganita) and arithmetic
(Llldvati 3 ), translated by Colebrooke.
I proceed now to select specimens of the contents of the
above works. The first extract gives the Indian division
of time taken from the Surya-siddhanta (I. 11-13), Bhas-
kara's Siddhauta-siromani (I. 19, 20), and other works
with their commentaries (Burgess, pp. 5, 6). It illustrates
very curiously the natural taste of the Hindus for hyper-
bole, leading them to attempt almost infinite calculations
of inconceivable periods in the one direction, and infini-
tesimal subdivisions of the most minute quantities in the
other. Without any reliable chronology in regard to the
precise dates of any great events in their own history,
they yet delight in a kind of chronology or 'science of
1 For the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society.
2 Kuttaka properly means a ' pulverizer ' or multiplier.'
3 Lilcivati, 'delightful by its elegance,' is merely the name of the
chapter on arithmetic (pdtl-ganita, divided into vyalda-ganita, ' distinct-
computation,' and avyakta-g, ' indistinct.' The name is also applied
to a supposed 'charming woman,' to whom instruction in arithmetic
is given.
VEDAN-GAS JYOTISHA OR ASTRONOMY. 177
time,' making time past, present, and future a subject
of the most elaborate and minute computations. Hence
we find them heaping billions upon millions and trillions
upon billions of years, and reckoning up ages upon ages,
Aeons upon Aeons, with even more audacity than modern
geologists and astronomers. In short, an astronomical
Hindu ventures on arithmetical conceptions quite beyond
the mental dimensions of any one who feels himself incom-
petent to attempt the ta^k of measuring infinity. Here
is the time-table enumerating the subdivisions of what is
called real and unreal time :
' That which begins with respirations (prdnd) is called real (murta)
time ; that which begins with atoms {truti) is called unreal (amurta)
time. Ten long syllables (givrv-aksliara) make one respiration (prdna,
asu) ; six respirations make one Vinadl (also called pcda or vighatika
of twenty-four seconds) ; sixty Vinadis = one Nadi or Nadika (also
called danda, ghatl, (jliatikd of twenty- four minutes); sixty Nadis =
one day (a sidereal day and night); thirty sidereal days = one civil
(sdvana) month ; a civil month consists of thirty sunrises ; a lunar
month of thirty lunar days (t-ifhi) ; a solar (saurd) month is determined
by the entrance of the sun into a sign of the zodiac.' And now with
regard to unreal time : ' One hundred atoms (truti) one speck (tatpara);
thirty specks = one twinkling '(nimesha) ; eighteen twinklings = one bit
(kdshthd) ; thirty bits = one minute (kola) ; thirty minutes = one half-
hour (gliatika) ; two half-hours = one hour (kshana) ; thirty hours =
one day.' This makes the atom -3^7-5^- of a second.
Considerable variations occur in Manu and the Puranas.
According to Manu (I. 64) thirty Kalas = one Muhurta or
hour of forty-eight minutes. The Vislmu-purana (Wilson,
p. 22) makes the atom = -^-^ of a second, and goes back
beyond an atom to a Paramanu or infinitesimal atom,
which it makes = UFOSH f a second. All, however, agree
in dividing the clay into thirty hours, just as the month is
divided into thirty Tithis or lunar days, and the year into
three hundred and sixty days, an intercalary month being
inserted once in five years, which is thought to be the
M
178 INDIAN WISDOM.
most ancient Hindu method of computing time. 1 The
Surya-siddhanta then proceeds, like Maim (I. 68. 71), to
reckon up vast periods of time through ages 2 (yuga) and
great ages (mahd-yuga), till it arrives at an Aeon (kalpa),
the total duration of which is said to be 4,320,000,000
years. In verse 24 we read (Burgess, p. 12) :
One hundred times four hundred and seventy-four divine years
passed while the All-wise was employed in creating the animate and
inanimate creation, plants, stars, gods, demons, and the rest.
Further on, we have the division of a circle, which cor-
responds with our own :
Sixty seconds (vikala) make a minute (halo), sixty minutes make a
degree (bhdga), thirty degrees make a sign (rdsi), twelve signs make a
revolution (bhagana).
The following is the measurement of the earth :
Twice 800 yojanas are the diameter of the earth ; the square root of
ten times the square of that is the earth's circumference.
According to Bhaskara the earth's diameter is 1581
yojanas, PO that if the yojana is reckoned at about four
and a half English miles (which is given as one estimate
of its length, though its value varies), the calculation in
both cnses is not very far from accurate.
At the commencement of Surya-siddhanta, Chapter II.,
we have a strange theory of planetary motion (p. 47) :
1 Almanacs and horoscopes (Ja?tma-patra) are called Paiicdn-ga, as
treating of five things, viz., solar days (commonly called "Varas, from
the days of the week, Aditya-v, Soma-v, Man-gala-v, Budha-v,
Guru-v, S'ukra-v, S'ani-v ), lunar days (Tithis), the twenty-seven
Nakshatras, the twenty-seven Yogas, the eleven Karanas.
2 There are properly four Yugas or ages in every Mahayuga, viz.,
Krita, Tretd, Dvdpara, and Kali, named from the marks on dice, the
Krita being the best throw of four points, and the Kali the worst of
one point.
VEDAN-GAS JYOTISHA OR ASTRONOMY. 179
Forms of time (kdlasya murtayali) of invisible shape (adrisya-rupd/t)
stationed in the zodiac (bhagandsritah), called conjunction (sighrocca),
upper apsis (mandocca), and node (pdta), are causes of the motion of
the planets. The planets attached to these Beings by cords of air are
drawn away by them with the right and left hand, forward or back-
ward, according to nearness, toward their own place. A wind, more-
over, called Pravaha, impels them towards their own apices (ucca) ;
being drawn away forward and backward, they proceed by a varying
motion.
In the previous Chapter (29, 34) the following state-
ment occurs :
In an age (yuya) the revolutions of the sun, Mercury (Budlia), and
Venus (Salira), and of the conjunctions of Mars (Mangala, BJiauma),
Saturn (bani), and Jupiter ( Vrihaspati), moving eastward, are four
million, three hundred and twenty thousand. Of the asterisms, one
billion, five hundred and eighty-two million, two hundred and thirty-
seven thousand, eight hundred and twenty-eight.
I next give a portion of a remarkable passage from
Varaha-mihira's Brihat-sainhitd or ' complete system of
natural astrology' (see Dr. Kern's translation, p. 433, of
vol. iv. of the Royal Asiatic Society's Journal) :
An astrologer ought to be of good family, friendly in his appearance,
and fashionable in his dress ; veracious and not malignant. He, must
have well-proportioned, compact, and full limbs, no bodily defect, and
be a fine man, with nice hands, feet, nails, eyes, chin, teeth, ears, brows,
and head, and with a deep and clear voice; for generally one's good
and bad moral qualities are in unison with one's personal appearance.
As to mathematical astronomy, he must know the divisions of the heaven
and of time, in ages, year's, half-years, seasons, months, half-months,
days, watches, hours, half-hours, minutes, respirations, moments, sub-
divisions of a moment, &c., as taught in the five Siddhantas (see p. 175).
He must know the reason why there are four kinds of months the
solar (saura), natural (sdvana), stellar (nalcsliatrd), and lunar (cdndra)
months and how it happens that there are intercalary .months and
subtractive days. He must know the beginning and end of the Jovian
cycle of sixty years, of the lustrums, years, days, hours, and their
respective lords. He must foretell the moment of commencement and
separation, the direction, measure, duration, amount of obscuration,
ISO INDIAN WISDOM.
colour and place of the eclipses of sun and moon ; also the future
conjunctions and hostile encounters of the nine planets. 1 He must
be skilful in ascertaining the distance of each planet from the earth,
expressed in yojanas ; further, the dimensions of their orbits and the
distance of the places on earth, in yojanas. He ought to be clever in
geometrical operations and in the calculation of time. If, moreover,
he knows how to speak pithily, because he thoroughly understands all
sorts of captious questions ; if the science he expounds, by being put
to the test by his own exertion and unceasing study, has become more
refined like gold is rendered purer by being put on the touchstone,
by purification in fire, and by careful workmanship then he may be
said to be a scientific man. It has been said : ' How can one who
solves no difficulty, nor answers any question, nor teaches his pupils,
be styled a scientific man ? ' And thus it has been said by the great
seer Garga : ' The king who does not honour a scholar accomplished in
horoscopy and astronomy comes to grief.' 'As the night without a
light, as the sky without the sun, so is the king without an astrologer ;
like a blind man he erreth on the road.' ' No one who wishes for
well-being should live in a country where there is no astrologer.' ' No
one that has studied astrology can go to the infernal regions.' 'A
person who, without knowing the science, exercises the profession of
an astrologer is a wicked man and a disgrace to society. Consider him
to be a mere star-gazer. But such a one as properly knows horoscopy,
astronomy, and natural astrology, him ought the king to honour and
his service he ought to secure.'
With, regard to Colebrooke's translation of Bhaskara's
work on algebra (Vlja-ganita), the following extract is
taken from the translator's introduction (p. xxii.) :
The motions of the moon and sun were carefully observed by the
Hindus, and with such success that their determination of the moon's
synodical revolution is a much more correct one than the Greeks ever
achieved. They had a division of the ecliptic into twenty-seven and
twenty-eight parts, suggested evidently by the moon's period in days,
and seemingly their own. It was certainly borrowed by the Arabs. 2
1 The nine planets are the Sun and Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars,
Jupiter, Saturn, with Eahu and Ketu or the ascending and descending
o o
nodes.
2 The Arabs, however, appear to have adopted the division of the
zodiac into twenty-eight segments. Professor Whitney thinks that
VEDAN-GAS JYOTISHA OR ASTRONOMY. l8l
They were particularly conversant with the most splendid of the
primary planets ; the period of Jupiter being introduced by them, in
conjunction with those of the sun and moon, into the regulation of
their calendar in the form of the cycle of sixty years, common to them
:and the Chaldeans.
We may add that from certain expressions in Bhaskara's
work (see p. 106 ; Banerjea's Dialogues, p. 69 x ) it is in-
ferred that some idea of the laws of gravitation was
formed by Hindu astronomers as early as the twelfth
century of our era. The precession of the equinoctial
points (vishuvat, kmnti-pata) was well known to Bhas-
kara, and the effect of the moon in causing tides seems to
have been suspected much earlier (cf. Raghu-vansa V. 61).
The points in which Hindu algebra appears particularly
distinguished from the Greek are (Colebrooke, p. xvi.) :
In addition to a better and more comprehensive algorithm (or nota-
tion) : ist. The management of equations involving more than one
unknown term. 2nd. The resolution of equations of a higher order,
in which, if they achieved little, they had at least the merit of the
attempt and anticipated a modern discovery in the solution of biquad-
ratics. 3rd. General methods for the solution of indeterminate problems
of first and second degrees, in which they went far, indeed, beyond
Diophantus, and anticipated discoveries of modern algebraists. 4th.
Application of algebra to astronomical investigation and geometrical
demonstration, in which they hit on some matters re-invented in later
times. One of their anticipations of modern discoveries is the demon-
stration of the noted proposition of Pythagoras concerning the square
of the base of a rectangular triangle being equal to the squares of the
two legs containing the right angle.
As to the notation or algorithm of algebra, Colebrooke
remarks (p. x.) :
The Hindu algebraists use abbreviations and initials for symbols.
They distinguish negative quantities by a dot, but have not any mark,
the Arabs did not borrow their lunar zodiac from the Hindus. See
p. 173 and the authorities there referred to.
1 See also the 'Indian Antiquary' for July 1872, p. 224.
I 82 INDIAN WISDOM".
besides the absence of the negative sign, to discriminate a positive
quantity. No marks or symbols indicating operations of addition or
multiplication, &c., are employed ; nor any announcing equality or
relative magnitude (greater or less). 1 But a factum is denoted by the
initial syllable of a word of that import, subjoined to the terms which
compose it, between which a dot is sometimes interposed. A fraction
is indicated by placing the divisor under the dividend, but without a
, line of separation. The symbols of unknown quantity are not confined
to a single one, but extend to ever so great a variety of denominations,
and the characters used are initial syllables of the names of colours,
excepting the first, which is the initial of ydvat-tdvat (applied to the
first unknown quantity, i.e., 'so much' of the unknown as this
coefficient number). Colour, therefore, means unknown quantity or
the symbol of it. Letters are likewise employed as symbols, either
taken from the alphabet or else initial syllables of words signifying
the subjects of the problem. Initials of the terms for square and
solid respectively denote those powers. An initial syllable is in like
manner used to mark a surd root (see the next extract and succeeding
examples).
The following is from the Vija-ganita (Chap. VI.) :
This is analysis by equation comprising several colours. In this the
unknown quantities are numerous, two and three or more, for which
ydvat-tdvat and the several colours are to be put to represent the
values. They have been settled by the ancient teachers of the science,
viz., black (Mia), blue (nila), yellow (pita), red (lohita), green (haritaka),
white (foeta), variegated (citra), tawny (kapila), tan-coloured (pin-gala),
grey (dhumra), pink (patala), mottled (savala), blackish (sydmala),
another kind of black (mecaka), &c. Or letters (that is, k, &c.) are
to be employed as names of the unknown. [In practice the initial
syllables of the above words are used thus, yd, Jtd, m, pi, lo.]
I here give some of the Sanskrit equivalents for terms
in arithmetic and algebra :
An absolute quantity which has specific form is rupa (applied in the
singular to a unit, in the plural to an integer number, and often ex-
pressed by the first syllable ru). A surd or irrational number is
1 The sign of equality was first used by Robert Recorde (because, he
said, 'No two things can be more equal than a pair of parallels '), and
those of relative magnitude by Harriot. Colebrooke.
VEDAN-GAS JYOTISHA OR ASTRONOMY. 183
karanl (often denoted by the first syllable A'a). A nought or cipher
is sunya, ca ; a fraction which has a cipher for its denominator ca-hara ;
minus rina, kshaya (negative quantity) ; plus dhana, sva (positive
quantity). A result or product is Widvita (often expressed by the first
syllable bhd ; hence the product of two unknown quantities is expressed
by yd, led bhd, or Jed, m bhd; so also the square of the first unknown
quantity multiplied by the cube of the second is thus abbreviated, yd
va, lid glia, bhd).
It may be interesting to note the system of numeration
increasing in decuple proportion given in Chapter II. of
the Lilavati. This method, with the invention of the nine
numerical figures (anka] and of the nought (sunya) and of
the decuple value assigned to each according to its position
in the series, is thought to be of divine origin :
Unit (eka), ten (dasa), hundred (sata), thousand (saliasra), ten thou-
sand (ayutd), a hundred thousand (laksha, commonly called ' a lac '),
million (prayuta), ten millions (Jcoti, commonly called 'a krore'), a hun-
dred millions (arbuda), a thousand millions (abja orpadma), ten thousand
millions (kharva), a hundred thousand millions (nikharva), a billion or
million of millions (mahd-padma), ten billions (san-ku), a hundred billions,
(jaladhi or samudra}, a thousand billions (antyci), ten thousand billions
(madhya), a hundred thousand billions (pardrdha).
I add four specimens of problems from the Lilavati and
Vija-ganita (Colebrooke, pp. 24, 124, 191, 269, 272) :
1. Out of a swarm of bees, one-fifth part settled on a Kadamba
blossom ; one-third on a S'illndhra flower ; three times the difference
of those numbers flew to the bloom of a Kutaja. One bee, which
remained, hovered about in the air. Tell me, charming woman, the
number of bees.
2. How many are the variations of form of the (ten-armed) god
S'ambhu (S'iva) by the exchange of his ten attributes held reciprocally
in his several hands, viz., the rope (pdsa), the hook for guiding an
elephant (an-kusa), the serpent, the hour-glass-shaped drum (dama'ru))
the human skull, the trident (trisula), the club shaped like the foot of
a bedstead (khatvdn-ga), the dagger, the arrow, the bow ? And those of
the (four-armed) Hari (Vishnu) by the exchange of the mace, the discus
(caJcra), the lotus, and the conch (sankha) ? Answer, 3,628,800 ; 24.
I 84 INDIAN AVISDOM.
3. Eight rubies, ten emeralds, and a hundred pearls, which are in
thy ear-ring, my beloved, were purchased by me for thee at an equal
amount ; and the sum of the rates of the three sorts of gems was three
less than half a hundred : tell me the rate of each, auspicious woman.
4. What four numbers are such that the product of them all is equal
to twenty times their sum 1 The answer to this last is : Here let the first
number be yd i ; and the rest be arbitrarily put 5, 4, and 2. Their sum is
yd i, run, and multiplied by 20, yd 20, ru 2 20. Product of all the quan-
tities, yd 40. Statement for equation, ^ ^' ^ 22Q - Hence by the first
analysis, the value of yd is found n, and the numbers are n, 5, 4, 2.
I should mention here that attached to each Veda there
are certain works called Parisishta or ' Supplements ' in-
tended to supply directions omitted in the Srauta Sutras, &c.
There are also the Anulcramam or 'Indices' giving the first
words of every hymn, the metre, the names of the authors
and of the deities addressed, the number of verses, &c.
There are also Upa-vedas or ' secondary Vedas/ which,
however,, have really little or no connection with either
the Veda or Smriti, They are, i. Ayur-veda, 'the science
of life ' or medieine (regarded as belonging to the Atharva-
veda, and by some to the Rig-veda) ; 2. Gandharvu-veda,
1 the science of music ' (as a branch of the Sama-veda) ;
3. Dh&nur-veda, ' the science of archery f or military art
(connected with the Yajur-veda) ; Sthapatya-veda, ' the
science of architecture,' including the Silpa-sastra :
As to i, Two great medical writers are 6aralm and Su-sruta, whose
works treat of anatomy, physiology, materia medica, pharmacy, surgery
(safya), toxicology (visha), omens, and the evil influence of planets and
demons (bliuta) in causing diseases. (See Wilson's Essays, vol. i. pp.
269-276, 380-393.) Su-sruta's work, in six books, has been well edited
at Calcutta by Sri Madhusudana Gupta. As to 2, Works on music treat
of notes, scales, melodies, singing, musical instruments, and sometimes
of dancing. Six primary modes or modifications of melody, called Ragas,
are enumerated, which are personified, and each of them married to five
or sometimes six Raginis. The chief musical works are the Sangita-
ratncilfara, by S'carn-ga-deva ; the San-gita-darpana, by Damodara ; and
VEDAN-GAS JYOTISHA OR ASTRONOMY. 185
the San-glta-ddmodara, by S'ubban-kara. As to 3, This science is by some
ascribed to Visvamitra, by others to Bhrigu. As to 4, Some assert that
there are sixty-four treatises on the sixty-four S'ilpas or 'mechanical arts,'
such as architecture, sculpture, carpentry, jewellery, farriery, &c. The
principal work on architecture is the Mdna-sdra, ' essence of measure-
ment,' in fifty-eight chapters, giving rules for the construction of build-
ings, temples, ornamental arches (tor and), &c. Other works, by celebrated
Sthapatis or ' architects,' describe the soil suited for building and rites
in honour of the Vdstu-purusha, ' spirit presiding over sites. 5
CHAPTER IX.
II. The Smarta Sutras or Traditional Rules.
IN our classification of Smriti or Post-Vedic literature, at
the commencement of the last chapter, we placed the
Smarta Sutras under the second head, and pointed out
that they were to a great extent the source of the sub-
sequent law-books which form, in our arrangement, the
third head of Smriti. We also observed that the term
Smdrta-sutra is a general expression for collections of
aphoristic rules which are distinguished from the Srauta-
sutra of the Kalpa Vedan-ga, because the} 7 do not relate
to Srauta or Vedic ceremonies, but rather to Grihya or
' domestic rites ' and Samaydcdra or ' conventional every-
day practices.' Hence the Smarta Sttras are commonly
subdivided into, a. Grihya Sutras, and b. Sdmaydcdrika
Sutras. It will be desirable, therefore, before com-
mencing our survey of Manu's celebrated Law-book, to
advert briefly to these sources from which some of its
materials were derived, and especially to the Grihya
Sutras. 1 Of these there are collections of different schools
attached to each Veda. Thus to the Rig-veda belong
the Asvalayana ? and an-khdyana Grihya Sutras ; to the
Sama-veda those of Gobhila ; 2 to the Vajasuneyi-samhita
1 Probably, however, Manu owes more to the Samayacarika than to
the Grihya Siitras, although these latter are now best known to us by
printed editions. We find that the authors of Grihya Sutras have
often the same name as the authors of law-books.
2 There are also, as we have seen, Asvalayana S'rauta-sutra under
the head of 'Kalpa,' and probably each school had all three sets of
Sutras complete, though they are seldom all preserved. The Asvalayana
SMARTA-SUTRA GRIHYA OR DOMESTIC RULES. l8/
or White Yajur-veda those of Pdraskara ; to the Taittiriya
or Black Yajur-veda those of Kdthaka, Baudhdyana,
Blidradvdja, Apastamba, 1 the Maitrdyanlya, Mdnava
(which last have perished, though some of their Kalpa-
sutras have been preserved, see p. 205), &c.
In fact, every Brahmauicul family or school (carana 2 )
had probably its own traditional recension (sdkha, p. 150)
of the Mantra and Brahmana portion of the Vedas, as well
'as its own Kalpa, Grihya, and Samayacarika Sutras; and
even at the present day the domestic rites of particular
families of Brahmans are performed in accordance with the
Siitras of the Veda of which they happen to be adherents.
Since these Grihya and Samayacarika Sutras are older
than Mnnu, they are probably as old as the sixth century
B.C., but possibly the works we possess represent com-
paratively recent collections of the original texts.
It has been already pointed out that the Srauta Sutras
are a kind of rubric for the more public solemn sacrifices
(Jyotishtoma, Agnishtoma, Asva-medha, &c.) enjoined by
the Veda. The subject of the Grihya is rather that indi-
cated by Manu when he says (III. 67) :
Let the householder observe domestic rites with the sacred fire
kindled at his marriage (called Garliapatya) according to rule, and
perform the five devotional acts and the daily domestic oblations.
Grihya Sutras and part of the PSraskara have been edited and trans-
lated into German by Professor Stenzler (Leipzig, 1864, 1865), and
the former have also been edited by Pandits for the Bibliotheca Indica
(Calcutta, 1869). The Gobhillya Grihya Sutras are being edited for
the Bibliotheca Indica.
1 The Apastambas appear to have preserved all three sets of Sutras
complete, for there are also Apastamba S'rauta-sutra and Samayacarika-
sutra. According to Professor Bhandarkar there are numbers of Brah-
mans in the south of India who are adherents of the Black Yajur-veda,
and who receive dalisliina or ' fees ' from rich men for repeating it with
the Apastamba Sutras.
2 A work called the Carana-vyuha gives catalogues of these schools.
I 88 INDIAN WISDOM.
\VawdhiJce 'gnau kurvlta grihyam karma yathd-vidlii Panca-yajha-
vidhdnam ea pdktim (=j)dlcam cdnvdhikwi grilu.']
Indeed the word Grihya means ' household/ and these
Sutras do in fact give rules for the five diurnal acts of
domestic devotion called Maha-yajha (or Pahca-yajha,
four of them being also Paka-yajna, Manu II. 86), as well
as for the domestic ceremonies named Sanskciras, common
to all the three higher classes, and not restricted to Brah-
mans. The twelve Sanskaras are described at p. 239.
They are generally performed at the one domestic hearth,
instead of with all the three fires (called collectively Tretci},
of the Vitdnas or ' hearths used at public sacrifices.'
I proceed to give a brief account of Asvalayana's Grihya
Sutras of the Kig-veda, making one prefatory remark that
the Hindu race affords perhaps the only example of a
nation who, although apparently quite indifferent to the
registering of any of the great facts of their political life,
or even to the recording of any of the most remarkable
events of their history as, for example, the invasion of
the Greeks under Alexander the Great nevertheless, at
a very early period, regulated their domestic rites and
customs according to definite prescribed rules, which were
not only written down, but preserved with religious care,
and are many of them still in force. Moreover, as this
race belongs to the same original race-stock as ourselves,
the antiquity of their customs must of necessity invest
them with great interest in our eyes.
The domestic oblations called Paka-yajna (Manu II. 86,
143) are distinguished from the Vaitanika l in the first
two Sutras, thus (Stenzler's edition, I. 1,2) :
1 Kulluka, on Manu V. 84, derives vitdna from vitan, ' to spread out,'
and explains Vaitanika to be those S'rauta oblations which are performed
when the Garhapatya fire is spread over both the AhavaniyaandDakshina
hearths (vaitdnam srauto homah gdrhapatya-kunda-sfydn agnm ahavani-
SMARTA-SDTRA GRIHYA OR DOMESTIC RULES. I 89
The Vaitanika oblations (performed with all the three sacred fires l )
have been explained (in the S'rauta-sutra), we will now describe those
(performed with the) domestic (fire only). There are three kinds of
Paka-yajna, viz., those that are offered in fire (such as oblations of
butter, &c.) ; those that are presented without being offered in fire;
those that are offered to the supreme Being (Brahmani) in the feeding
of Brahmans (Brdhmana-bJwjane).
Book I. ii. enumerates the gods to whom oblations are
to be offered, such as Agni, Indra, Soma, Heaven and
Earth, Yama, Varuna, the Visve Devah (cf. Manu III.
90, 121), Brahman, &c. These, it will be observed, are
generally Vedic deities. The third prescribes the mode of
preparing the place where oblations are to be made.
The fourth commences with the followin Sutra :
The ceremonies of tonsure (caida = 6udd-karman), investiture with the
sacred cord (npanayanci), shaving the beard (go-ddna), and marriage must
be performed during the northern course of the sun (udag-ayane) in the
light half of the month (dpuryamdne paJcshe), and under an auspicious
constellation (kalyane-nakshatre).
These Sanskara ceremonies are then described (begin-
ning with marriage), and whenever Mantras or texts of the
yddi-kundeshu vitatya Tcriyate). See also Manu VI. 9. There is much
difference of opinion as to the exact meaning of pdka-yajna. Stenzler
translates it by ' Koch-opfer,' and thinks it means an oblation offered
on the domestic fire when the daily food is cooked. Some of the com-
mentators, on the other hand, interpret pdka by 'small,' 'simple,' and
some by 'good.' In Manu II. 86 four Paka-yajnas or 'domestic obla-
tions ' are mentioned (which Kulluka explains by Vaivadeva-homa, bali,
mtya-srdddha, and atitJii-bhojana), thus identifying them with four of
the Maha-yajnas, see p. 194. Seven different kinds of Paka-yajna will
be found enumerated in my Sanskrit-English Dictionary.
1 In Manu III. 100, 185, five sacred fires are mentioned, and a
Brahman who keeps them all burning, called a Pancdgni ( = Agnihotrin),
is regarded as peculiarly pious. They are, i. Dalislrina (Anvdhdrya-
pacana in the Brahmanas) ; 2. Garhapatya ; 3. Ahavanlya ; 4. Sabliya ;
5. Avasathya. The three first fires are the most important, and are
collectively called Tretd. Agnihotris are still met with in India.
INDIAN WISDOM.
Veda have to be repeated during the performance of each
rite, the first word or words of the several texts are cited.
Thus before the marriage ceremony an oblation of clarified
butter is to be offered with repetition of the text : Tvam
Aryamd bhavasi yat kanindm, &c., 'Thou art Aryaman
in relation to maidens' (Big-veda V. 3. 2).
The fifth chapter prescribes the due selection of a wife
after proper inquiry as to family and condition. Sutra 3
says :
A man ought to marry a woman who is possessed of intelligence,
beauty, good character, and auspicious marks, and who is free from
disease. (Compare the directions Manu III. 4-10.)
The sixth chapter specifies and describes the eight
forms of marriage, called, Brahma, Daiva, Prdjdpatya,
Arsha, Gdndharva, Asura, Paisdca, and Rdkshasa.
They are also enumerated by Manu (III. 21), but not
quite in the same order, and by Yajnavalkya (I. 58, 61).
Manu (III. 27-34) describes them more fully than
Asvalayana.
Book I. vii. prescribes a common marriage ceremony :
West of the (sacred) fire a stone (for grinding corn and condiments,
such as is used by women in all households) is placed, and north-east
a water- jar. The bridegroom offers an oblation, standing, looking
towards the west, and taking hold of the bride's hands while she sits
and looks towards the east. If he wishes only for sons, he clasps her
thumbs and says, ' I clasp thy hands for the sake of good fortune ; '
the fingers alone, if he wishes for daughters ; the hairy side of the
hand along with the thumbs, if he wishes for both (sons and daughters).
Then, whilst he leads her towards the right three times round the fire
and round the water- jar, he says in a low tone, ' I am he, thou art she ;
thou art she, I am he ; I am the heaven, thou art the earth ; I am the
Saman, thou art the Rid Come; let us marry, let us possess off-
spring; united in affection, illustrious, well disposed towards each
other (sumanasyamdnau), let us live for a hundred years.' Every time
he leads her round he makes her ascend the mill-stone, and says,
' Ascend thou this stone, be thou firm as a stone ' (a4meva tvam stMrd
SMARTA-SUTRA GRIHYA OR DOMESTIC RULES. 19 I
bhava). Then the bride's brother, after spreading melted butter on
the joined palms of her hands, scatters parched grains of rice on them
twice. Then, after pouring the oblation of butter on the fire, some
Vedic texts are recited. Then the bridegroom unlooses the two braided
tresses of hair, one on each side of the top of the bride's head, repeating
the Vedic text, ' I loose thee from the fetters of Varuna with which
the very auspicious Savitri has bound thee' (Rig-veda X. 85. 24 : ).
Then he causes her to step seven steps towards the north-east quarter,
saying to her, ' Take thou one step (ekapadi bhava) for the acquire-
ment of sap-like energy (ishe) ; take thou two steps for strength (urje
ilmpadl bhava) ; take thou three steps for the increase of wealth (rdyas-
poslidya) ; take thou four steps for well-being (mdyo-bliavyaya} ; take
thou five steps for offspring (prajdbhyah) ; take thou six steps for the
seasons (ritubliyah) ; take thou seven steps as a friend (sakha saptapadl
bhara 2 ) ; be faithfully devoted to me ; may we obtain many sons !
may they attain to a good old age ! ' Then bringing both their heads
into close juxtaposition, some one sprinkles them with water from the
jar. He should then remain for that night in the abode of an old
Brahman woman whose husband and children are alive. When the
bride sees the polar star and Arundhati and the seven Rishis, let her
break silence and say, ' May my tmsband live and may I obtain children.'
In Book I. viii. 12, 13, 14, we have the following :
When he (the bridegroom) has completed the marriage ceremonial
he should give the bride's dress to one who knows the Surya-sukta
(Rig-veda X. 85), and food to the Brahmans; then he should make
them pronounce a blessing on him. [Carita-vratah suryd-vide vadhu-
vastram dadydt \ annam brdhmanebliyah \ atha svasty-ayanam vdcayitaJ]
Book I. ix. directs that after the marriage (pdni-gra-
hana) the first duty of the bridegroom is to attend to
the kindling and maintaining of the household fire. The
tenth chapter prescribes the performance of the rite called
Sthali-pdka, which appears to have been an oblation of
1 The text in the original is Pra tvd muncdmi Varunasya pdad yena
tvdbadhndt Savita susevah. It is from the well-known Surya-sukta
(X. 85), describing the marriage ceremony of Surya, the youthful
daughter of the Sun, united to Soma, the Moon.
2 Sakha is Vedic for Sakhi. See Scholiast on Panini IV. i. 62.
IQ2 INDIAN WISDOM.
rice, &c., cooked in a kind of caldron. The eleventh gives
the rules for the ritual of animal sacrifice (pasu-kalpa),
and the twelfth for the (Jaitya-yajha, which seems to
have been a ceremonial performed at monuments, accom-
panied with offerings, perhaps to the memory of deceased
persons. The thirteenth, fourteenth, fifteenth, sixteenth,
and seventeenth chapters prescribe certain domestic cere-
monies connected with the birth and treatment of chil-
dren, which are included under the Sanskaras enjoined in
the second Book of Manu. They are as follows :
Garbha-lambhana, a rite performed on the first signs of conception,
and Punsavana, one that takes place on the first indication of the con-
ception of a living male.(cf. Manu II. 27,).
Simantonnayana, ' arranging the parting of the mother's hair,'
observed in the fourth, sixth, or eighth month of pregnancy.
Hiranya-madliu-sarpisliam praganam, ' feeding an infant with honey
and clarified butter from a golden spoon' before cutting the navel-
string at birth = jata-kannan (Manu IL 29).
Anna-prd^ana, 'feeding an infant with rice' between the fifth and
eighth month (Manu II. 34).
Caula (--tfuda-karmari), 'tonsure' or shaving the hair except one
lock on the crown, performed in the third year (ef. Manu II. 35).
In Book I. xix. we Lave precise directions in regard
to investiture (upanayanet) with the sacred thread (yajho-
pavlta), a ceremony of great importance, supposed to
confer on the recipients (like the Christian rite of bap-
tism) a second spiritual birth. This is enjoined for a
Brahman in his eighth year, for a Kshatriya in his
eleventh, and for a Vaisya in his twelfth, though the
time may be extended in each case. These are therefore
the three twice-born (dvi-ja) classes. (Cf. Manu II. 36-
38). The twenty-second gives rules for the guidance of
the young Brahman as a Brahma-carin or ' student of the
Veda ' in the house of his preceptor after investiture by
him. It begins thus :
SMARTA-SUTRA GRIHYA OR DOMESTIC RULES. 193
' Thou art now a Brahma-carl, take care to wash out thy mouth daily
with water ( = upa-8pri4, d-cam in Manu II. 51, 53), do thy appointed
work (karma kuru), sleep not in the day-time (diva md svapslh, cf.
divd-svapna, Manu VII. 47), obey thy preceptor, study the Veda
( Vedam adlilsliva) ; every morning and evening go out to beg for alms ;
every evening and morning collect fuel for the fire.' The period of
studentship is to last for twelve years or until the student has acquired
a knowledge of the Vedas (grahandntam ; cf. Manu III. i ; II. 53-60).
The fourth and fifth chapters of the second Book pre-
scribe the Ashtaka and Anvashtakya Sraddha ceremonies.
The subject of Book II. vii. viii. is Vastu-pariksha,
' examination of soil and situation ' before fixing on a site,
or laying the foundation of a house, thus :
A piece of ground (should be chosen;) which does not contain saline
soil, and the title to which is not likely to involve legal disputes, and
which is well stocked with plants and trees, and where there is plenty
of Kusa grass and Virana (fragrant grass). All thorny shrubs and
plants with milky sap should be rooted out, A hole should be dug
knee-deep and filled again with the excavated eart/h. If the earth
when restored to the hole appears more than enough to fill it, the soil
is excellent; if just enough, it is fairly good; if too little, it is bad.
[Adhike prasastam same varttam nyune garhilam, VIII. 3.] At sunset
the hole should be filled with water and allowed to stand all night.
If in the morning it is still full of water, the soil is excellent ; if it
is moist, the soil is fairly good ; if dry, bad. White, sweet-tasting,
sandy soil is good for Brahmans, red for Kshatriyas, yellow for Vaisyas.
Book II. x. prescribes a solemn entrance into the new
house (griha-prapadana), after having stored it with
seed-grain. The owner is then to cause the adjacent land
belonging to him to be ploughed up and sown at the right
season, and, standing at a particular spot with his back to
the wind, he is to offer oblations, repeating a hymn of the
Kig-veda (IV. 57), part of which I here translate freely :
May the land's Lord be present as our friend !
So shall we prosper. 1 May the god accord us
1 Lit. ' with the Lord of land as our friend,' &c. [Kshetrasya
patina vayam hiteneva jayamasi.~\
194 INDIAN WISDOM.
Cattle and horses, nourishment and food !
By gifts like these he manifests his favour.
God of the land ! bestow on us sweet water.
To us may every herb be sweet as honey !
To us may sky and atmosphere and rain
Be kind ! and may the god who owns the soil
Be gracious ! may we fearlessly approach him !
For us may oxen plough auspiciously ! 1
May peasants labour happily ! may ploughshares
Draw every furrow smoothly ! may the ploughmen 2
Follow the oxen joyfully ! May he,
The rain-god, water happily the earth
With sweetest showers ! may the god of air
And sun 3 bestow on us prosperity !
The first chapter of the third Book prescribes the five
solemn offerings or devotional acts which every twice-born
man is required to perform every day. These correspond
to the five Mahd-yajnah of Manu III. 69-71, sometimes
called the five Sacraments. They are acts of homage
directed i. to the gods ; 2. to all beings ; 3. to departed
ancestors ; 4. to the Rishis or authors of the Veda ; 5. to
men (i. deva-yajna, 2. bhiita-y , $.pitri-y, 4. brahma-y,
5. manushya-y }. The first is performed by an oblation
(homo) to the gods offered on the domestic fire ; the second
by an offering (bali) to animals and all creatures ; the third
by pouring out water to the spirits of the departed ; the
fourth by repetition of the Veda ; the fifth by gifts to men
and hospitality to guests (cf. Manu III. 81, &c., where,
however, they are not given in the same order).
The second and third chapters treat of the fourth diurnal
act of devotion (brahma-yajna), and direct the twice-born
man how he is to conduct his private devotions, and how
and what he is to repeat to himself (svddhydya-vidhi) :
1 unam = sukham.
2 Klnasah.
3 This is the native interpretation of Suna-sira. See Wilson.
SMARTA-SUTRA GRIHYA OR DOMESTIC RULES. 195
He is to go in an easterly or northerly direction outside his place of
abode, wearing his sacrificial cord (yajnopavita) over his shoulder ; he
is first to bathe, and, having sipped water (acamya), to sit down on
Kusa grass placed so that the points are directed towards the east
(Manu II. 75), and to repeat the sacred syllable om, the three
Vyahritis (bhur, bJiuvah, svar), and the Savitrl (or Gayatri, see p. 17 ;
cf. Manu II. 75-77, 79). Then he is to repeat, for as long a time
as he may think proper, portions of some of the Rid, Yajus, Saman,
Atharvan-giras, Brahmanas, Kalpas, Gathas, Narasansls, Itihasas, and
"'Puranas 1 (see note 2, p. 245).
With regard to this subject, see p. 245 of this volume.
Book III. vii. declares that if a twice-born man, beiDg
in good health, allows himself to fall asleep while the sun
is setting, he is to pass the remainder of the night in an
upright position, without uttering a word, and at sunrise
to repeat five verses, from the fourth to the eighth inclu-
sive, of Kig-veda X. 37, beginning, 'With whatever light,
sun, tbou dispellest the darkness.' [ Yena surya jyotisha
bddhase tamo, &c.] Again, if the sun should rise while
he is asleep, he is to continue standing and silent during
the day, and to repeat the last four verses of the same
hymn (cf. Manu II. 219-222). The eighth, ninth, and
tenth chapters prescribe the ceremonies to be performed
by a twice-born man whose period of studentship with
his preceptor is completed, and who is about to return
(samdvartamdna) home, and become a householder :
He is to procure various articles for himself and his preceptor (at any
rate for the latter), such as a necklace, two ear-rings, a suit of clothes,
a parasol, a pair of shoes, a staff, a turban, perfumes, &c. (cf. Manu II.
245, 246). Having completed his studies and received permission from
his preceptor to depart, and having inquired what fee (artha) he is to
pay, he must perform an ablution (sndna). He is then to make certain
vows of purity, after which he becomes elevated to the condition of
1 The modern Brahma-yajna of pious Brahmans is based on this
Sutra.
196 INDIAN WISDOM.
a Snataka (cf. Manu III. 4) or Brahman who, after purification, has
passed from the first stage of life that of a student to the second
stage or <that of a householder (f/riha-stha).
The fourth. Book is perhaps the most interesting. In
the first four chapters it prescribes the funeral rites to be
performed at the -burning of dead bodies, 1 and gives some
directions as to the subsequent Sraddha ceremonies :
When a man dies, a piece of ground is to be excavated in a Smaddna
or 'burning-ground' south-east or south-west of his abode. His rela-
tions are to earry the -fires and .the sacrificial implements (yajna-patrdni)
to the excavated place. Those of them who are most advanced in
years (pravayasa/t) are to walk behind in single file the men separated
from the women bearing the corpse, the hair and nails of which have
all been cut off or clipped, and leading the sacrificial animal, either a
cow or a black she-goat. The remaining relations and connexions are
to follow with their garments and sacrificial cords hanging down (adho-
nimtah}, and their hair dishevelled the elder in front, the younger
behind. When they reach the prepared ground, the performer of the
ceremony is -to sprinkle water on it with a branch of the S'ami tree,
repeating Rig-veda X. '14. ():
' Depart (ye evil spirits), slink away from here ; the Fathers (his
departed ancestors) have made for him this place of rest, distinguished
(vyaktam) by days (ahobhir), waters (adbhir\ and bright lights (aldu-
bhih).'*
Then he is to deposit the fires around the margin of the excavated
place the Ahavaniya fire to the south-east, the Garhapatya to the
north-west, and the Dakshina to the south-west (see note, p. 189).
Then some one who understands what is required, is to collect a heap
of fire-wood and pile it up inside the sacrificial ground (antar-vedi).
Next, a layer of Kusa grass is to be spread over the heap along with
1 See the article ' Uber Todtenbestattung,' by Professor Max Muller
in vol. ix. of the Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenlandischen Gesell-
schaft, in which a portion of this division of the Asvalayana Grihya
Sutras is translated into German. With regard to the importance
of the following extracts as bearing upon SatI (Suttee), see p. 251 of
this volun\e.
2 The meaning of this is not very clear. I understand it as denoting
that the ground is open and well exposed to daylight and .well sprinkled
-.with water and surrounded with the fires.
SMARTA-SUTRA GRIHYA OR DOMESTIC RULES. 1 97
the black skin of the goat and the clipped hair, and the dead body is
to be placed upon it with the feet towards the Garhapatya fire and the
head towards the Ahavanlya. North of the body his wife is to be
made to lie down (oh the funeral pile), along with the bow of the
dead man if he was a soldier (Kshatriya). Then either her hus band's
brother (devarak), who is in the place of a husband to her (patisthdni-
yafi), or a pupil, or an old servant causes her to rise up, repeating the
words of Rig-veda X. 18. 8 :
' Rise up, O woman (udirshva nari), come back to the world of life ;
thou art lying by a dead man ; come back. Thou hast sufficiently
fulfilled the duty of a wife and mother (janitvam) to the husband who
wooed thee (didhishos) and took thee by the hand.' (See note 2,
p. 252.)
Next, the brother-in-law is to take back the bow, repeating Rig-veda
X. 18. 9:
' I take the bow out of the hand of the dead man for our own
protection, for our glory, and for our strength ; remain thou there,
we will remain here as heroes, (so that) in all battles we may conquer
our foes.'
Then he is to place the various sacrificial implements and portions of
the sacrificial animal in the two hands and on different parts of the
body of the corpse. This being done, he is to order the three fires to
be kindled (agriin prajvalayatfy. If the Ahavanlya fire reaches the
dead man first, then his spirit is borne to heaven ; if the Garhapatya,
then his spirit is taken to the middle region (antariJcshcc-loka) ; if the
Dakshina, then it remains in the world of mortals (manushya-lolta).
When all three reach him together, this is the most auspicious sign of
all. While the body is burning, portions of hymns of the Rig-veda
(such as X. 14. 7, 8, 10, n; X. 16. 1-4; X. 17. 3-6; X. 18. u;
X. 154. 1-5) are to be repeated.
The following are examples of some of the verses :
Open thy arms, O earth, receive the dead
With gentle pressure arid with loving welcome.
Enshroud him tenderly, e'en as a mother
Folds her soft vestment round the child she loves (X. 18. 1 1).
Soul of the dead ! depart ; take thou the path
The ancient path by which our ancestors
Have gone before thee ; thou shalt look upon
The two kings, mighty Varuiia and Yama,
Delighting in oblations ; thou shalt meet
198 INDIAN WISDOM.
The Fathers and receive the recompense
Of all thy stored-up offerings above.
Leave thou thy sin and imperfection here :
Return unto thy home once more ; assume
A glorious form. By an auspicious path
Hasten to pass the four-eyed brindled dogs
The two road-guarding sons of Sarama ;
Advance to meet the Fathers who, with hearts
Kindly disposed towards thee, dwell in bliss
With Yama ; and do thou, mighty god,
Intrust him to thy guards l to bring him to thee,
And grant him health and happiness eternal (X. 14. y-n). 2
When a dead body is burnt by one who knows and can repeat these
verses properly, then it is certain that the soul (invested with a kind of
subtile body 3 ) rises along with the smoke to heaven (saliaiva dlmmena
svargam loJcam etlti ha vijhayate).
Then the performer of the ceremony is to repeat the verse (Rig-veda
X. 18.3):-
We living men, survivors, now return
And leave the dead ; may our oblations please
The gods and bring us blessings ! now we go
To dance and jest and hope for longer life.
After this they are to move to a spot where there is a pool of still
water, dip themselves once, cast a handful of water into the air, pro-
nouncing the name of the dead man and that of his family (e.g., O
Devadatta Kasyapa, this water is for thee ; ) ; then coming out of the
water, they are to put on other clothes and to sit down till the stars
appear or else till the sun is quite invisible, when they are to proceed
homewards, the younger ones walking first, the elder behind. Before
1 These are the four-eyed watch-dogs mentioned before.
2 Part of this has been freely rendered in a version given p. 19.
3 The eighth Sutra of Chapter IV. states that a hole ought to be dug
north-eastward of the Ahavaniya fire and strewn with the plants Avakfi
and S'Ipala ; and the commentator adds that the soul of the dead man,
invested with its vehicular subtile body (called dtivahika and some-
times adhishthana and distinct from the Unga or sukshma, being
anguslithamatra, 'of the size of a thumb'), waits in this hole until
the gross body is burnt, and then emerging, is carried with the smoke
to heaven.
SMARTA-SUTRA GRIHYA OR DOMESTIC RULES. 199
entering the house they are (for purification) to touch a stone, fire,
cow-dung, grains of barley, oil, and water. During one night they
are not to cook any food, but to eat only what is already prepared,
and for three nights they are not to touch anything containing salt.
Book IV. v. prescribes the gathering together the bones
and ashes of the deceased (sancayana, Maim V. 59) :
This is to take place after the tenth day of the dark half of the
inonth, on an odd day (i.e, the eleventh, thirteenth, fifteenth, &c.), and
under a single Nakshatra (i.e., not under one like Ashadha, which is
both purvd and Puttara).
The bones and ashes of a man are to be placed in an undecorated
funeral vase or long vessel (alakshane kumbhe), and those of a woman
in a female vase (of a fuller shape, supposed to resemble the female
figure). A hole is to be excavated and the bones thus collected in a
vessel are to be placed in it, while Rig-veda X. 18. 10 is repeated :
' Go to thy mother Earth, the Widely -extended (uru-vyacasam), the
Broad, the Auspicious ; may she be to thee like a young maiden, soft
as wool (urna-mrada), to a pious person ! may she protect thee from
the embrace of the goddess of corruption ! ' (Nirriter upasthdt.)
Then earth is to be scattered over the excavation, and Rig-veda X.
1 8. n, 12 are to be repeated (see p. 197 for verse n). Lastly, a
cover or lid is to be placed over the vase or long vessel and the hole is
to be filled up with earth, so that the vessel is quite hidden from view,
while Rig-veda X. 18. 13 is repeated :
' I raise up the earth around thee for a support, placing this cover
on thee without causing injury. May the Fathers guard this fune-
real monument for thee ! May Yama establish a habitation for thee
there ! '
This being accomplished, the relations are to return home, without
looking about, and after they have performed an ablution they are to
offer the first S'raddha to the deceased person separately (elwddishta).
Book IV. vii. prescribes four kinds of Srdddha, i.e.,
offerings to deceased persons and Pitris or ancestors
generally : i. Pdrvana, ' monthly,' to ancestors for three
generations on the days of conjunction or new moon (cf.
Manu III. 282 ; those to ancestors generally being called
Nitya, ' constant/ ' daily,' and others Ashtaka, as per-
formed on the eighth day of certain months) ; 2. Kamya,
200 INDIAN WISDOM.
'voluntary/ performed for some object of desire (as
the obtaining of a son) ; 3. Abhyudayika, performed as
thank-offerings on occasions of family rejoicing (as at the
Sanskaras) or for increase of prosperity, &e. (Vriddhi-
purta)-, 4- Ekoddishta, 'special/ having reference to one
person recently deceased, and not to ancestors generally.
It is repeated annually on the anniversary of his death.
(Those which are occasional are sometimes called Naimit-
tika.) To these funeral ceremonies Brahmans are to be
invited. They are to be feasted, and gifts presented to
them. The guests are to be made to sit down with their
faces towards the North, and water is to be poured into
their hands with Kusa grass and Sesamum seed (tila, cf.
Manu III. 223.). Cakes of rice (pinda) and libations of
water are to be offered with the auspicious exclamation
Svadha. There is also another Sraddha called Daiva, in
honour of the Visve Devah, l deities collectively/ or of a
particular troop of deities, ten in number. Hence some
distinguish eight kinds of Sraddha (see p. 247); and the
Nirnaya-sindhu, twelve.
A fuller description of these solemn Sradd'has is given
by Manu III. 123-286, and in verse 202 the meaning of
the term Sraddha is explained as follows :
Mere water (vary apij offered with faith (Sraddhaya) to the Pitris
in silver or plated (rdjatdnvitaiK) vessels procures imperishable bliss
(akshayayopakalpate).
I close my account of the Asvalayana Grihya Sutras
by remarking that the rules relating to funeral ceremonies
in the fourth Book, of which an abstract has just been
given, possess great interest in their connexion with the
eighteenth hymn of the tenth Mandala of the Rig-veda.
Although the Sutras direct that the texts of this hymn
are to be used, yet the rite must have undergone con-
siderable modifications since the period when the hymn
was composed.
SMARTA-SUTRA GRIHYA OR DOMESTIC RULES. 2OI
It may be gathered from a study of the text of the
hymn, that at the early period when the Aryan race first
settled on the plains of Hindustan, there was not the same
prolonged and elaborate observance of funeral rites, which
in later times was converted into an excuse for the osten-
tatious and costly feasting of priests and guests (see p. 249).
But there was no less solemnity in the conduct of the cere-
luouial, no less exhibition of grief for the dead in the
tender treatment of his remains, and no less affectionate
respect for his memory, a feeling cherished as a religious
duty, more tenaciously in India than in Europe.
We notice, too, even at that early epoch an evident
belief in the soul's eternal existence and the permanence
of its personality hereafter, which notably contrasts with
the later ideas of transmigration, absorption into the
divine essence, and pantheistic identification with the
supreme Soul of the universe.
We learn also from this same hymn that the body in
ancient times was not burnt but buried ; nor can we dis-
cover the slightest allusion to the later practice of Sati or
cremation of the widow with her husband.
The corpse of the deceased person was deposited close
to a grave dug ready for its reception, and by its side his
widow, if he happened to be a married man, seated herself,
while his- children, relatives, and friends ranged them-
selves in a circle round her. The priest stood near at
an altar, on which the sacred fire was kindled, and having
invoked Death, called upon him to withdraw from the
path of the living, and not to molest the young and
healthy survivors, who were assembled to perform pious
rites for the dead, without giving up the expectation of
a long life themselves. He then placed a stone between
the dead body and the living relations, to mark off the
boundary-line of Death's domain, and offered up a prayer
that none of those present might be removed to another
202 INDIAN WISDOM.
world before attaining to old age, and that none of the
younger might be taken before the elder. Then the
widow's married female friends walked up to the altar
and offered oblations in the fire ; after which the widow
herself withdrew from the inner circle assigned to the
dead, and joined the survivors outside the boundary-line,
while the officiating priest took the bow out of the hand
of the deceased, in order to show that the manly strength
which he possessed during life, did not perish with him,
but remained with his family. The body was then ten-
derly laid in the grave with repetition of the words of the
hymn already translated, ' Open thy arms, Earth, receive
the dead,' &c. (see p. 197). The ceremony was concluded
by the careful closing of the tomb with a stone slab.
Finally a mound of earth was raised to mark and conse-
crate the spot. 1
With regard to the Samayacarika Sutras little remains
to add to what has already been stated. Not many
collections of this third class of Sutras (as distinguished
from the Srauta and Grihya) have been preserved. Were
they better known to us, we should probably find that
they furnished materials for Manu's compilation, even
more than the Grihya Sutras appear to have done. It
is for this reason that, as introductory to the Dkarma-
sastras or Law-books, they are sometimes called Dhar-
masutras. Since ' conventional, every-day practices '
constitute the proper subject of these Sutras, and it is
clear that conventional usages may often come under the
head of Grihya or ' domestic rites/ it may easily be under-
stood that the Samayacarika not unfrequeutly go over the
same ground as the Grihya Sutras. For instance, we find
them both giving rules for the Sanskaras &c. (see p. 239).
1 A fuller account of the whole rite will be found in Professor Stenz-
ler's ' Rede iiber die Sitte,' which I have consulted throughout.
THE LAW-BOOKS MANU. 2O3
Perhaps the best known Samayacarika Sutras are those of
Apastamba belonging to the Black Yajur-veda (see note i,
p. 187). An account of these will be found in Professor
Max Miiller's 'Ancient Sanskrit Literature' (p. 100, &c.),
and in No. 732 of Bajeudralala Mitra's MSS. They
commence as follows :
1. Therefore let us now explain the Samaya6arika duties. \_Atliatah
mmaydcdrikdn dharmdn vydlchydsyamah.]
2. These agreements which were made by men who knew the law
are an authority. [Dharma-jna-samayak pramdnamJ\
3. And the Vedas (are an authority). \Veda-caJ\
III. The Dliarma-sdstras or Laiv-books Manu.
At least forty-seven independent Law-books * are enu-
merated, and of these at least twenty are still extant and
are mentioned by Yajnavalkya (I. 3-5), as follows:
i. That of Manu. 2. Yajnavalkya (second in importance to Manu).
3. Atri. 4. Vishnu. 5. Harlta. 6. Usanas. 7. An-giras. 8. Yama.
9. Apastamba. 10. Samvarta. n. Katyayana. 12. Vrihaspati. 13.
Parasara. 14. Vyasa. 15. S'an-kha. 16. Likhita. 17. Daksha.
1 8. Gotama or Gautama. 19. S'atatapa. 20. Yasishtha. There is
also a Law-book, the joint production of S'an-kha and Likhita ; and
others ascribed to Narada, Bhrigu, &c. (see the end of Chapter X.);
and Kulluka, the commentator on Manu, mentions the names of Baud-
hayana, Medhatithi, Govinda-raja, &c.
Let us first endeavour to gain some idea of the char-
acter of the most celebrated and ancient of these books
commonly called ' the Code of Manu.'
This well-known collection of laws and precepts is
perhaps the oldest and most sacred Sanskrit work after
1 Professor Stenzler enumerates forty-six, Dr. Boer forty-seven.
The names of the authors of some of these law-books are the same as
those of some of the Grihya Sutras, e.g., Apastamba, Paraskara, and
Baudhayana. The same men may have been authors of both Sutras
and Dharrna-sastras.
204 INDIAN WISDOM.
the Veda and its Sutras. Although standing in a manner
at the head of Post-vedic literature, it is connected with
the Veda through these Sutras, as the philosophical Dar-
sanas are through the Upauishads. Even if not the oldest
of Post-vedic writings (see note, p. 207), it is certainly
the most interesting, both as presenting a picture of the
institutions, usages, manners, and intellectual condition of
an important part of the Hindu race at a remote period,
and as revealing the exaggerated nature of the rules by
which the Brahmans sought to secure their own ascen-
dency, and to perpetuate an organized caste-system in
subordination to themselves. At the same time it is in
other respects perhaps one of the most remarkable books
that the literature of the whole world can offer, and some
of its moral precepts are worthy of Christianity itself.
Probably the compilation we now possess is an irregular
compendium of rules and maxims by different authors,
which existed unwritten for a long period -of time, and
were handed down orally. An original collection is
alluded to by commentators under the titles Vriddha
and Vrihat, which is said to have contained 100,000
couplets, arranged under twenty-four heads in one thou-
sand chapters ; whereas the existing Code contains only
2685 verses. Possibly abbreviated versions of old collec-
tions were made at successive periods, and additional
matter inserted, the present text merely representing
the latest compilation.
At any rate we must guard against a supposition that
the expression 'Code/ often applied to this collection,
is intended to denote a systematic arrangement of pre-
cepts which existed as actual laws in force throughout one
country. It is probable that the whole of India was never
under one government. Some few powerful monarchs
are known to have acquired sovereignty over very exten-
sive territories, and were then called Cakra-vartins, but
THE LAW-BOOKS MANU. 2O5
we must beware of imagining that Manu's Law-book
is a record of national ordinances and institutions pre-
valent over the whole of such territories. No doubt
ultimately it worked its way to acceptance with the
entire Hindu community ; and certainly in the end it not
only secured for itself a high place in popular estimation
and a degree of reverence only second to that accorded
to the Veda, but it became, moreover, the chief authority
as a basis of Hindu jurisprudence. Originally, however,
its position must have been different. It merely repre-
sented certain rules and precepts (perhaps by different
authors) current among a particular tribe, or rather school
of Brahmans called Manayas, who probably lived in the
North-western region between the rivers Sarasvati and
Drishadvati (see p. 208), not far from Delhi and the scene
of the great social conflict described in the Mahabharata. 1
This tribe seems to have belonged to the Taittirlyakas,
'adherents of the Black Yajur-veda;' and their Mantras,
Brahmana, and Srauta Sutras are still extant, 2 but their
Grihya and Samayacarika Sutras appear to have perished.
In all probability, -too, many of the rules, as \ve have them
presented to us, were simply theoretical, inserted to
complete an ideal of what ought to constitute a perfect
system of religious, ceremonial, moral, political,, and social
duties. Who the real compiler and promulgator of the
Institutes was, is not known. He was probably a learned
Brahman of the Manava school.
We must, of course, make a due allowance for the
1 The inference deducible from II. 17, 18, that the Manavas lived
in the region of the earliest Aryan settlements, must have weight in
determining -the antiquity of the Code and its value as representing
the ancient social life of the Hindus before their advance into the
Dekhan.
2 A countecpart of a MS. of a commentary on part of the Manava-
kalpa-sutra has been edited by the late Professor Goldstiicker.
206 INDIAN WISDOM.
mythical element in the Code, as, for instance, when a
divine sage named Manu 1 (or Svayambhuva 'sprung
from the great self-existent Being') is made to say (I. 58-
60) as follows :
The god (Brahma) having framed this system of laws himself,
taught it fully to me in the beginning. I then taught it to Marici
and the nine other sages, my offspring (of whom Bhrigu is one, cf. I.
35). Of these (my sons) Bhrigu is deputed by me to declare the Code
to you (Rishis) from beginning to end, for he has learned from me to
recite the whole of it. Then the great sage, Bhrigu, having been thus
appointed by Manu to promulgate his laws, addressed all the Rishis
with a pleased mind, saying, ' Listen ! '
Manu, therefore, is supposed to speak in his own person
as far as I. 60. After that, Bhrigu is the speaker, and
the closing verse of the whole Code (XII. 126) describes
it as Manavam Sdstram JShrigu-proJctam, ' enunciated by
Bhrigu ; while in XL 243 Prajapati or Brahma himself
1 This name of the supposed divine progenitor of all beings is derived
from the root man, which means ' to think,' or ' reason ' (and especially
according to the Hindu theory, ' to think upon and understand the
Veda,' whence the desiderative form Mimdnsd from the same root,
signifying ' investigation of the meaning of the Veda '). Bhrigu states
(L 61) that Manu sprang from Svayambhu, and that six other Manus
descended from him; whereas Manu himself (I. 33-36) declares that
he was created by Viraj, the male power produced by Brahma, and
that being so created he produced the ten Maharshis or Prajapatis,
who again produced seven Manus. The name, however, is generic.
In every Kalpa or interval from creation to creation there exist four-
teen successive Manus, whence each whole period is called a Manv-
antara, described as innumerable in I. 80. In the present creation
there have been as yet seven Manus : i. Manu Svayambhuva, the
supposed author of the Code, who produced the ten Prajapatis or
'patriarchs' for peopling the universe; 2. Svdrocisha ; 3. Auttami ;
4. Tamasa; 5. Raivata ; 6. (Jakshusha ; 7. Vaivasvata, son of the
Sun, the Manu of the present period, regarded as a kind of Indian
Adam or Noah (see note, p. 30). According to some, this last Manu
was the author of the Code, and therefore, as progenitor of the Solar
line of kings, a Kshatriya.
THE LAW-BOOKS MANU. 2 07
is declared to have created it by the power of austerity
(tapasa).
We need hardly, however, explain that these are merely
ideal personages, introduced dramatically like Krishna in
the Bhagavad-gita ; or rather perhaps are later additions,
designed to give an air of antiquity and divine authority
to the teaching of the Code.
The work in its present form can scarcely, I think, be
assigned to a date earlier or later than the fifth century
B.C. 1 Strictly speaking, or at least according to European
notions, it is, as I have already hinted, no orderly codifi-
cation of national statutes and customs, but rather an
unsystematic compilation from previous sources, 2 which,
1 Sir W. Jones held that Manu's book was drawn up in about the
year 1280 B.C. Mr. Elphinstone placed it 900 years B.C. Possibly
some parts of it may represent laws and precepts which were current
among the Manavas at the latter date, but no one would now assign so
early a date to the actual compilation of the Code. Nor can it, I think,
reasonably be placed later than the fifth century B.C. The gods men-
tioned are chiefly Vedic, and the fourfold caste system is that of the
Purusha-sftkta (see p. 21). There is no direct allusion to Buddhism,
though many of Manu's precepts are decidedly Buddhistic, having
frequent parallels in the Dhamma-pada, which indicate that Buddhistic
ideas were gaining ground in the locality represented by the Code.
Nor is there any allusion to Sat!, nor to the worship of Vishnu and
S'iva, which, from a statement of Megasthenes, may be inferred to have
prevailed in India soon after Alexander's invasion. Nor is there any
mention of the stories of the Mahabharata and Ramayana. At the
same time the former Epic often contains verses identical with those
of Manu. These are probably either taken from Manu or derived from
a common source. Possibly, however, portions of the Mahabharata
may be older than Manu. Certainly in III. 232 occur the words
Dharma-sastra, Akhyana, Itilidsa, Purdna, and Kliila, as titles of sacred
works, and Kulluka explains Itihdsa by Mahd-bhdrata, but these words
may refer to the older works, which were the sources of the present
compilations.
2 An evidence in favour of the supposition that more than one person
may have had a hand in the Code is deducible from the emphasis laid
208 INDIAN WISDOM.
by blending civil and criminal law with religious, moral,
and ceremonial precepts, philosophical doctrines, and meta-
physical theories, confounds the ordinances of government
with the obligations of religion, domestic life, and private
morals. It is in twelve Chapters or Books.
In verse 6 of Book II. we have a statement as to the
'root' or basis of all law (dharma-mulam). This is
declared to be (i.) the whole Veda (Vedo'khilah), (2.) the
traditional law (Smriti), (3.) morality (Silam) of those
who know the Veda, and (4.) the practices and customs
(dcdra/i), established from time immemorial, of good men.
In matters indifferent a man is free to follow his own
inclination (atma-tushti).
Again, in verses 107, 108 of Book I. it is said :
In this >(Code) appears the whole system of law, with definitions of
good and bad actions, and the traditional practices (dcdra) of the four
classes, which usages are held to be eternal (dvatah, since they reach
back to a period beyond -the memory of man). Traditional practice
(dcdra) is ^equivalent to supreme law (paramo -dharmah), since it is so
pronounced by the Veda and by Smriti (Smdrta).
This Law-book, therefore, is a metrical compendium of
/ _ *
rules of Smriti, Sila, and Acara, most of which had been
previously collected and propounded under the name of
Grihya and Samayacarika Sutras. At the end of Book I.
a summary of subjects is given, but we may more conve-
niently examine the contents of the twelve books under six
principal heads, viz., i. Veda, 'sacred knowledge' and reli-
gion ; 2. Vedanta or Atma-Vidya, as -terms for philosophy
in general ; 3. Acara; 4. Vyavahara ; 5. Prayas-citta ; 6.
Karma- phala.
It will be found that after eliminating the purely reli-
upon certain maxims which are especially ascribed to Manu himself,
such, for example, as V. 41, 131 ; VI. 54; VIII. 124, 168, 279, 339;
IX. 158, 182, 239; X. 63, 78, all of which introduce some phrase like
Manur dbravit.
THE LAW-BOOKS MANU. 209
gious and pliilosopiiical precepts the greater number of
rules propounded fall under the third head of Acara,
'established practices/ which are described (II. 17, 18) as
Sad-dcdra, ' approved practices/ sanctioned by the Veda
and Smriti, if they are those which prevailed between the
two sacred rivers. Saras \ 7 ati and Drishadvati, in the region.
o
called Brahmavarta. The word Acara is, in truth, a very
wide term, including under it all the observances of caste,
regarded as constituting the highest law and highest
religion such observances, for instance, as the division
of a Brahman's life into four periods, the conduct of a
student in the house of his preceptor, investiture with the
sacred cord, the five diurnal devotional acts, the domestic
ceremonies of marriage, funeral rites, the various modes
of gaining subsistence (vpitti) t the rules of diet, the laws
concerning women, and, in short, all the observances of
private morality and social economy. 1
The fourth head, Vyavahdra, 'practices of law and kingly
government/ embraces the procedure of legal tribunals and
all the rules of judicature and civil and criminal law.
The fifth head of Prdyas-citta, ' penitential exercises/
comprehends all the rules of penance and expiation.
The sixth head, Karma-pliala, ' recompenses or conse-
quences of acts/ is concerned not so much with rules of
conduct as with the doctrine of transmigration ; the un-
avoidable effect of acts of all kinds being to entail repeated
births through numberless existences until the attainment
of final beatitude.
All these rules apply especially to the highest class,
viz., Brahmans, whose ascendency in the social scale is in
fact the first Acara, which must be accepted as paramo
dliarmah, ' the highest law and highest religion.'
1 In Book V. 4 there is a curious passage which attributes Death's
power over Brahmans to four- causes, viz., i. omitting to repeat the
Veda, 2. neglect of Adara, 3. idleness, 4. sins of diet.
O
2IQ INDIAN WISDOM.
It is only natural that, since the precepts included
under these six heads were framed by Brahmans, they
should have been framed with especial reference to the
life of Brahmans, the regulations for which engross six
Books, and are besides introduced everywhere throughout
the other six. But as the Brahman could not be sup-
ported in his priority of rank without the strong arm
of the Kshatriya or military class, a large portion of the
work is devoted to the definition of the Kshatriya's duties
and an exaggerated delineation of the kingly character
and office, while the Vaisyas and Sudras, though essential
to Manu's Caturvarnya or fourfold social system, 1 and the
mixed classes are little noticed. (See p. 226, &c.)
1 ' Caste ' is quite a modern word, and is supposed to be a corruption
of the Portuguese casta, ' a race.' Manu's word for the four classes is
varna, ( colour,' which suggests some original distinction of colour as
marking the dominant races. The later term for caste isjdti, 'birth,'
corrupted iTatojat. Of Manu's four castes the Brahmans alone remain,
though the Rajputs claim to be descendants of the ancient Kshatriyas.
The mixed castes of the present day are almost innumerable, each sepa-
rate trade forming a separate one. In Bengal there are the Rajaks,
' washermen,' the Tantis, ' weavers,' the Kansaris, ' braziers,' the Jaliyas,
'fishermen,' the Suris, 'spirit sellers;' besides low and servile castes,
such as the Bagdis, Bediyas, Doms, Hadis. Moreover, we find castes
within castes, so that even the Brahmans are broken up and divided
into numerous races, which again are subdivided into numerous
tribes, families, or sub-castes. There are the Kanyakubja Brahmans,
the Sarasvata, the Gauda or Gaur (Gor), the Maithila, the Utkala, the
Dravida, the Karnata, the Maharashtra, the Gurjara, &c., all of which
races are subdivided into a greater or less number of tribes and families,
forming, as it were, sub-castes, which do not intermarry. It is said
that in Bengal religion was once at so low an ebb that a king, named
Adisura (Adl&ara), sent to the Raja of Kanyakubja or Kanouj for
some high-caste Brahmans to revive it. These were accordingly sent,
and, having settled in Bengal, became divided into one hundred and
fifty-six tribes, of which one hundred were called Varendra and fifty-
six Radha or Rarh, as belonging to the district of Radha in the West
of Bengal. Of the former eight, and of the latter six, are regarded
THE LAW-BOOKS MANCJ. 2 I I
Hence, after an account of the creation of the world in
the first Book, the four stages of a Brahman's life are the
first and only subjects treated of in regular order in the
second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth Books ; the sixth
being devoted to the duties of the last two stages of
anchorite (vana-prastha) and religious mendicant (bhikshu).
The fifth Book contains, moreover, rules and regulations
about food, the killing of animals, purification after defile-
ment, the duties of wives and the position of women
generally. The seventh and eighth Books propound the
rules of government and judicature, principally, of course,
for the guidance of the second great class or Kshatriyas,
from which the king was chosen. The ninth Book con-
tains further precepts on the subject of women, husband
and wife, their offspring, and the law of inheritance and
as Kulina or ' noble.' Kulluka, the commentator on Manu, was a
Varendra Brahman. The six Kulina Rarh tribes are called Banerjea,
(Bandyopadhyaya), Mukhurjea (Mukhopadhyaya), Caturjea (Cattopa-
dhyaya), Ganguli, Goshala, Kanjalala. The caste which in Bengal now
comes next in rank to the Brahman is the Vaidya or Baidya, ' medical '
( = Ambashtha, Manu X. 8) ; and the Kanouj Brahmans, when they
settled in Bengal, brought with them a number of Kayasthas or
'writers,' from whom sprang the present numerous Kayastha or
' writer-caste,' subdivided into various tribes, such as Gos (Ghosha),
Bose (Yasu), Mitra, De, Datta, Palita, Dasa, Sena, &c. After them
come the Nava S'ak or 'nine divisions,' viz., Gopa, Mali Taili, Tantii,
Modaka, Yaraji (' betel-grower '), Kulala, Karmakara, Napita. See
Professor Cowell's Colebrooke's Essays, II. 169. The power of caste
and the effect of contact with Europeans in weakening it, are illus-
trated by the following extract from Dr. Hunter's valuable work on
Orissa : ' Elderly Uriyas have more than once deplored to me the
hopeless degeneracy of their grown-up sons, many of whom have
actually no objection to wearing English shoes. In 1870 a Uriya
Brahman held the post of sub-inspector of police in Purl itself, within
the shadow of Jagan-nath, although a leather belt formed part of his
uniform. Five years ago a Brahman who accidentally touched leather
would have had to choose between public expiation or degradation and
expulsion from caste.' Vol. ii. p. 147.
212 INDIAN WISDOM.
division of property. At the end (221, &c.) there are
additional rules of government for kings and a few pre-
cepts which have direct reference to^the two remaining
principal castes the Vaisyas and Sudras the former
comprising agriculturists and merchants ; the latter, slaves
and servants. The tenth Book treats of the mixed classes,
arising out of intermarriage between the four original
principal castes. It also describes the employments to
which the several classes are restricted, and states the
occupations permitted to Brahmans, Kshatriyas, Vaisyas,
and Sudras in times of great exigency and distress. There
are some verses at the end (122-129) which are interest-
ing as treating directly of the duties and position of
Sudras. The eleventh Book gives rules for expiation and
penance (prdyas-cittci), both for sins committed in this
life especially sins against caste and for the effects of
offences perpetrated in previous bodies, as shown in con-
genital diseases, &c. (XL 48, 49). The twelfth continues
the subject of the recompenses or consequences of acts
(karma-phala), good or bad, as leading to reward in
heaven or punishment in various hells (XII. 75, 76), and
to triple degrees of transmigration (see p. 275). It closes
with directions as to the best means of obtaining final
beatitude and absorption into the universal Essence.
From this outline of the contents of the so-called Code
of Manu, we may perceive that the most diversified topics
are introduced, some of which are quite out of the pro-
vince of a mere code of laws or even of a collection of
social and moral precepts. In the next chapter I propose
examining the contents more in detail.
CHAPTER X.
The Dharma-sdstras or Laiv-books Manu continued.
THE Code of the Manavas, which we have assigned in its
present form to about the fifth century B.C. (see p. 207),
and which for convenience we may call ' Manu's Law-
book,' is a metrical version of the traditions (smriti) of
the Manavas, probably before embodied in their Grihya
and Samayacarika Sutras (p. 205), the metre being Anush-
tubh or that of the common Sloka 1 (p. 155). My aim in
the present chapter will be to analyze and arrange in a
connected manner the contents of the Code, 2 offering prose
translations of selected passages and pointing out in a
general way the characteristic features of (i) its sacred
knowledge and religion, (2) its philosophy, (3) its Acdra
or ' social rules and caste organization,' (4) its Vyavahdra
or ' criminal and civil laws and rules of government,' (5)
its system of Prdyas-citta or ' penance,' (6) its system of
Karma-phala or ' future recompenses of acts done in this
life.' In the next chapter I propose to give specimens of
1 The use of the common Epic S'loka throughout the whole work is
one reason for regarding it as Post-vedic, but we must not forget that
the Anushtubh metre is found even in the Veda (see X. 85 ; X. 90, &c.)
2 I have used the Calcutta edition, which has the excellent commen-
tary of Kulluka-bhatta. I have always consulted Sir W. Jones' trans-
lation, and I owe much to Dr. Johaentgen's tract, Uber das Gesetzbucli
des Manu. When Kulluka lived is not known, but he describes him-
self in his modest preface (written in the S'ardula-vikrldita metre) as a
Brahman, the son of Bhatta-divakara, of the Varendra tribe of Gauda
(Gaur) or Bengal, and as having fixed his abode at Benares. I did not
read Mr. Talboys Wheeler's analysis till my own was completed.
214 INDIAN WISDOM.
the most striking passages, under the last four heads, in
a metrical English version.
I. First, then, as to its religious teaching. We may
notice that this generally agrees with the later Vedic
period, especially that represented by the Purusha-sukta
and some of the Brahmanas.
' Divinely revealed knowledge ' in general is called Veda
(IV. 125, &c.); sometimes Trayl vidyd (IV. 125); some-
times Brahman (nom. neut. brahma, I. 23 ; II. 81 ; VI.
83, in which last passage this title is also applied to the
Vedanta or Upanishads) ; sometimes Sruti (as distin-
guished from Smriti, II. 10); sometimes Chanddnsi
(when the metrical Mantras are especially intended, IV.
95-97 ; III. 188) ; onceArsha (neut., XII. 106), and even
Vac, ' word,' described as a Brahman's weapon (XI. 33).
The three Vedas are mentioned by name in I. 23, IV.
123, 124 ; XL 264, and their Samhita in XL 77, 200, 258,
262. In I. 23 we read that Brahma milked out the triple
Veda (trayam brahma), Rik, Yajus, and Saman from Fire,
Air, and the Sun, for the complete performance of sacri-
fice ; and in II. 77 he is said to have milked out the
sacred text called Savitri ( = Gayatil, p. 1 7) from the
three Vedas. 1 The Brahmana portion of the Veda does
not seem to be directly mentioned, except under the name
of Brahma, as distinguished from the Mantra portion,
called Ohandas (IV. 100). The eternity and infallible
authority of the Veda and the duty and expiatory efficacy
1 See p. 5. In XI. 265 the three Vedas are said to be included
in the triliteral Om. In IY. 125, Om, the Vyahritis (viz., Bhuh,
Bhuvah, Svar), and the Savitri text are described as extracted from
the three Vedas. In III. 185, a Brahman who understands the appli-
cation of some portion of the Yajur-veda is called Tri-waciketa, and
one skilled in some part of the Rig-veda a Tri-suparna, though it is
clear from Kulluka's remarks that the exact meaning of these words
o
was not known in his time.
THE LAW-BOOKS MANU. 2 I 5
<>f a complete knowledge of all three Vedas (XI. 262) are
insisted on in the strongest language. In illustration, I
here give a version of a passage in Book XII. 94, &c. :
The Yeda is of patriarchs and men,
And e'en of gods, a very eye eternal,
Giving unerring light ; it is beyond
All finite faculties, nor can be proved
By force of human argument this is
A positive conclusion. Codes of laws
Depending on the memory of men
Not grounded on the Veda heresies
And false opinions, all are held to be
Barren and worthless and involved in darkness.
Whatever doctrine rests not on the Veda
Must pass away as recent, false, and fruitless.
The triple world arid quadruple distinction
Of classes and of Asramas, 1 with all
That has been, is, and ever will be, all
Are through the Veda settled and established.
By this eternal Veda are sustained
All creatures ; hence we hold it as supreme
Chief instrument of happiness to man.
Command of armies, regal dignity,
Conduct of justice and the world's dominion
He merits who completely knows the Veda.
As with augmented energy the fire
Consumes e'en humid trees, so he who knows
This book divine burns out the taint of sin
Inherent in his soul through former works.
For he who apprehends the Veda's truth,
Whatever be his Order, is prepared
For blending with the great primeval Spirit,
E'en while abiding in this lower world.
The inferior relationship of the Sama-veda to the two
others is remarkable. The Rig-veda is said to be most
concerned with the gods, the Yajur-veda with the religious
1 That is, the four orders or stages of life (of student, householder,
anchorite, and mendicant) into which a Brahman's life is divided.
2l6 INDIAN WISDOM.
rites of men, and the Sama-veda with those of the Pitris
(IV. 1 24). Hence the sound of the latter is described as
impure (a-suci, see p. 6).
In unison with this, an order of precedence is prescribed
in III. 145. The preference at a Sraddba is directed to be
given to a priest called Bahv-rica (elsewhere Hotri), who
has made the Rig-veda his special study ; then to one who
has studied all the branches ($akhanta-ga) and especially
the Yajur-veda, and who is called Adhvaryu ; and lastly to
a Sama-veda priest, who is styled Chando-ga ( = Udgatri).
It is clear that when the Code was compiled the Atharva-
veda had not yet been generally accepted as a fourth Veda,
though it must have existed, as there is express allusion
(XL 33) to the revelation 1 made to Atharvan and Angiras.
I annex three other remarkable examples of the estima-
tion in which the Veda was held :
A Brahman by retaining the Eig-veda in his memory incurs no guilt,
though he should destroy the three worlds (XI. 261).
This Veda is the refuge (Parana) of those who do not understand it
(ajndnam) as well as those who do (vijanatam), of those who seek heaven
and of those who seek immortality (anantyam, VI. 84).
When there is (apparent) contradiction of two precepts in the Veda
(ruti-dvaidh<wi) both are declared to be law ; both have been justly pro-
mulgated (samyag-uktau] by ancient sages as valid law. Thus, there is
a Vedic precept (enjoining the sacrifice to be performed) when the sun
has risen, and before it has risen, and when neither sun nor stars are
visible (samayadliyusliite). Wherefore the oblation to fire (yajnah = agni-
hotra-homah) may be made at all times (II. 14, 15).
The doctrine of the Upanishads is directly mentioned in
VI. 29 and alluded to elsewhere, thus :
He should study the Upanishad portion of the Veda (aupanishadlh
drutifi) for the sake of attaining union with the universal Spirit.
Let the whole Veda be studied (or repeated) by a twice-born man
1 Described by Kulluka as consisting of charms and incantations.
THE LAW-BOOKS MANU. 2 \"J
along with the TJpanishads. [ Vedah kritsno 'ahigantavyafi sa-rahasyo
dvijanmand, II. 165; cf. also II. 140, XI. 262.]
He should continually repeat (japet) that part of the Yeda (bralnna)
which is on the subject of sacrifice (adliiyajhani), and that relating to
the deities (adhidaivikam), and that relating to soul (ddhydtmikam),
and that declared in the Upanishads ( Veddntdbliiliitam, VI. 83).
The Kalpa Sutras are probably referred to in II. 140.
A knower of Nirukta (see p. 156) is reckoned among
the Brahmans who compose a Parishad in XII. in, but
no reference is made to Yaska, nor is it likely that his
work then existed (see p. 156).
In I. ii. 50 the name Brahmnn is applied to the
supreme Being ( = Brahma, Kulluka) ; in XII. 50 the
Creator of the universe is called Brahma (see p. 9) ;
in XL 243, XII. 121, Prajapati. In I. 6 the supreme
Spirit is termed Svayambhu, 'the Self-existent;' in I. 10,
Narayana. In XII. 121 the names Vishnu and Hara
occur ; but generally the gods named belong more to the
Vedic than to the Epic and Puranic period. For instance,
in Book IX. 303 we have the following list of deities :
Of Indra, Surya, Vayu (or Maruta), Yama, Varuna, Candra, Agni,
and Prithivl, let the king emulate the power and conduct.
There is no allusion to the Post-vedic Tri-murti or
/
popular worship of Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva, nor to the
still more recent worship of the Sakti that" is to say,
'the energy' represented by the wives of the deities,
especially by Durga, wife of Siva. Nor, again, is there
any recognition of that principle of bhakti or 'faith' in
Krishna, as supreme Lord of the universe, which was
a subsequent development of Hindu religious thought
(P- I2 5)
The doctrine of transmigration is, however, fully stated,
and, as a consequence of this, the hells described in the
Code (IV. 88-90; XII. 75, 77), though places of terrible
torture, resolve themselves into merely temporary purga-
218 INDIAN WISDOM.
tories, wliile the heavens (IV. 182, 260; VI. 32 ; II. 244)
become only steps on the road to union with Brahma.
The three worlds (trailokya, loka-traya) alluded to in
XI. 236, 261, are probably the heavens, atmosphere, and
earth.
What must strike every one as singular in regard to
the religion of the Code is the total absence of allusion to
public and congregational services or teaching in temples.
Public sacrifices are certainly mentioned, but the chief
rites of religion were evidently of a domestic kind, and
the priests, whatever their ancient functions may have
been, were at the time of the composition of the Code
more like domestic chaplains (see p. 230). Little, too, is
said about idols 1 certainly nothing to countenance the
adoration of them or to encourage Biahmans to under-
take the care of idol-temples, nor are there directions as
to offering rice, flowers, and perfumes at idol-shrines,
which oblations (naivedya) are commonly presented before
images in temples at the present day.
II. In the second place, as to the philosophy of
Manu's Law-book. It is plain, from a passage already
quoted, that a love for rationalistic speculations (hetu-
sdstra) and a spirit of free scepticism were beginning
to show themselves in India at the time the Code
1 It is very doubtful whether idolatry was at all commonly practised
.at the time of the compilation of the Code. We have already seen
that there is no satisfactory proof of the existence of idols in the
Vedic period. Seep. 1 2 of this volume. In Manu III. 152 a Deva-
laka, ' attendant on an idol ' ( =pratimd-paricdraka), is directed to be
shunned. Certainly in II. 176 the Brahman student is enjoined to
perform devatdbhyarSanam, 'worship of the deities,' and this is in-
terpreted by Kulluka to mean pratimddishu hari-harddi-deva-pujanam,
' doing homage to Vishnu and S'iva before images,' &c., but whether
Manu really intended to denote pratimd by devoid is questionable.
In IX. 285, however, the accidental breaker of images (prathndndm
bhedakah) is directed to repair them and pay a fine.
THE LAW-BOOKS MANU. 219
was compiled ; and it is possible that Buddha's ad-
herents, though not mentioned by name, were pointed
at with reprobation under the designation Ndstikdh,
' atheists ' ( = Carvaka, Kulluka II. 1 1 ), and Pdshan-
dinah, 'heretics' ( = dkya-bhikshu-]cshapanafaidi, Kul-
luka IV. 30 ; I. 1 1 8). The Code itself may have been an
attempt to stem the current of opinion which was set-
ting in the direction of Buddhism and rationalistic Brah-
manism. The compiler, however, thought it necessary
to adopt some of the current philosophical theories, and
accordingly we find them interspersed throughout the
work, though more directly stated at the beginning and
end. They are of that vague and misty kind which
probably prevailed at the period preceding the crystal-
lization of the various systems into distinct schools. The
words San-khya, Yoga, Nyaya, Vaiseshika, and Mimansa
do not occur as designations of philosophical systems.
We notice indeed a strong leaning towards the San-khyan
line of thought, though we find only a confused state-
ment of some leading ideas of that system, without any
mention of its twenty-five Tattvas. The growth of pan-
theistic ideas, as foreshadowed in the Purusha-sukta of
the Rig-veda (see p. 21), is also traceable. All existing
things are said to emanate from Brahma, the one self-
existent Spirit, to whom all things must also return.
Atma-vidya, equivalent to Brahma-vidya and to the
Vedanta doctrine, is directed to be studied in VII. 43,
and Vedantic ideas pervade the whole twelfth Book,
which, however, may possibly be due to later additions.
Still more remarkable is the attention directed to be
given to the study of Anvikshiki, ' logic ' (VII. 43 = tarka-
vidyd) ; and although the Nyaya and Mimansa had evi-
dently not become schools, we find from XII. 1 1 1 that a
Parishad or ' assembly of twelve Brahmans,' competent
to decide on disputed points of law, includes a Haituka
220 INDIAN WISDOM.
( = nyaya-jna) and a Tarkin (-mlmansaka, Kulluka).
Moreover, in XII. 106, it is declared that be only under-
stands the Veda who investigates it by the rules of Tarka
( = mlmdnsddi-nydya), agreeably to Vedic doctrine all of
which precepts are, of course, inconsistent with the repro-
bation of Hailukas in II. 11, IV. 30; as well as with a
precept in II. 10, where Sruti and Smriti are affirmed to
be a-mlmdnsye, ' not to be reasoned about.'
The cosmogony adopted presents us with a compound
of both the San-khya and Vedanta theories of creation
before they had diverged into distinct systems. There is,
however, in Book I. a synthetical scheme advanced which,
though a confusion of two separate statements, one made
by Maim himself (I. 14, &c.), the other by Bhrigu (I. 74,
&c.), certainly more accords with the San-khyan doctrine
than with any other (see p. 90). I here abridge the
account, commencing I. 5 :
This universe first existed only in darkness (tamo-bhutam), impercep-
tible, undefinable, as if immersed in sleep (prasuptam). Then the Self-
existent (Svayam-bhu, described by the same epithet as the San-khyan
PraJcriti, viz., A-vyalda, ' undiscerned ' or 'undeveloped'), having willed
to produce various beings from his own substance, first with a thought
created the waters, and placed on them a productive seed or egg
(wja or anda). Then he himself was born in that egg in the form of
Brahma. Next he caused the egg to divide itself, and out of its two
divisions framed the heaven above and the earth beneath. Afterwards,
having divided his own substance, he became half male, half female
(I. 32), and from that female produced Viraj (see note i, p. 22), from
whom was created Manu, the secondary progenitor of all beings. Then
he (Brahma, according to Kulluka on I. 14) from the supreme Soul
(Atmari) drew forth Manas ( = Mdhat or Buddhi, ' Intellect,' as ex-
plained by Kulluka on I. 74, 75, 1 in which passage Manas is the
principle of thought and stands for both Buddhi and Ahan-kara).
1 But according to I. 14 (Kulluka) Manas must be distinguished
from Buddhi, and regarded as a product of Ahan-kara, as in the
San-khya system.
THE LAW-BOOKS MANU. 221
Next to that came Ahan-kfira, and, after that, the Tan-matras or
' subtile principles of the elements.' From these seven active principles
(called 'the seven Purushas,' I. 19) viz., Mahat or Buddhi (called
Manas in I. 14, 74, 75), Ahan-kara, and the five subtile elements
were evolved the five gross or material elements (mahd-bhuta), the
organs of sense, and the whole world of sense. (Compare the
San-khyan doctrine at pp. 83, 84.)
It is curious to compare Strabo XV. 59 (see p. 276).
All this confusion and obscurity in the account of the
creation is symptomatic of diversity of authorship. Of tLe
two narratives, that of Bhrigu is the simplest. But both
(I. 14 and I. 74) make 'the principle of thought' the first
product that which is and is not (sad-asad-atmdkani)
to which belongs a real existence, and yet not eternity,
because it is a product (see San-khya-pravacana V. 56).
I now abridge what follows according to Bhrigu's state-
ment :
The first Manu Svayambhuva produced six other Manus, and these
seven Manus (see note, p. 206), each in his own period, were the creators
of all things (I. 61-63).
In order to show the duration of a Manv-antara or Manu-
period, the divisions of time from a moment to a day of
Brahma (12,000,000 years) are specified (I. 64-73) '
A Manu-period consists of seventy-one times the 12,000 years, which
constitute an age of the gods (I. 79). Each Maha-yuga or great age of
the world is subdivided into four Yugas or ages, viz., i. Krita, 2.
Treta, 3. Dvapara, and 4. Kali, each decreasing in excellence; and the
life of man lasts for 400 years in the first, 300 years in the second, 200
years in the third, and 100 years in the present or Kali age. 1
In I. 87-101 the account of the creation is concluded
by a description of the origin of the four castes from the
mouth, arm, thigh, and foot of Brahma, and the pre-
eminence assigned to Brahman s (see extracts, pp. 233, 234).
1 We find it constantly implied in Hindu writings that the natural
term of human life in the present age is 100 years.
222 INDIAN WISDOM.
In the twelfth Book the leaning towards a San-khyan
line of thought is again conspicuous. In 24-38 we have
a description of the three Gunas of the San-khya, viz.,
Sattva, Rajas, and Tamas, all three of which are said to
pervade, and one or other of which predominate in every
mortal frame (see note 2, p. 85). In XII. 24 it is asserted
that these three form the constituent substances of atman
(self or soul), and that the first developed principle
Mahat or Buddhi is also pervaded by them. Again,
the triple degrees of transmigration, highest, -middle, and
lowest, through gods, men, and beasts, are supposed to
result from acts done under the dominance of these three
Gunas (see note i, p. 56). We have also the three Pra-
manas of the San-khya philosophy clearly laid down iti
XII. 105 :-
Three means of attaining true knowledge or three standards of truth,
viz., perception by the senses (pratyaksha), inference (amimdna), and
the Veda (&dbda) or various books founded on it these three must be
known thoroughly by one wishing for a clear idea of duty (see pp. 61,
82 of this volume).
Although, however, the germ of the San-khya is clearly
traceable, there is an evident commingling of pantheistic
ideas, tending towards the Vedanta, in the frequent declara-
tion that all existing things emanate from, and will ulti-
mately be absorbed into Brahma, ' the universal Spirit.'
The distinction between the Jivatman and Paramatman
(see p. 51) is recognised in VIII. 91, which verse Kulluka
explains by a reference to the Vedic allegory of the two
birds (quoted p. 40 of this volume). Nevertheless, we miss
in Manu what we find in the later philosophical schools,
a clear definition of the subtile body, as composed of the
subtile elements, and a plain statement of its relationship
to the individual soul and of its accompanying the soul
through all its transmigrations. The survival of this soul
over the dissolution of the gross body is indeed plainly
THE LAW-BOOKS MANU. 223
implied ; but Manu's doctrine is that if a man has been
wicked the soul clothed in a kind of body, composed of
coarse and impure elements, undergoes along with it tor-
ment in hell for a time (XII. 21); whereas, if a man has
been virtuous, the soul invested in a kind of ethereal and
shining body (kha-sanrin), composed of pure elemen-
tary particles of air, wind, and fire, enjoys bliss in heaven
with it for a certain period (IV. 243, III. 93, II. 82, XII.
20) ; after which both the wicked and the virtuous are
born again.
Nor do we find any precise definition of Brahman (neut.)
as pure absolute Spirit, the only really existing entity,
according to the Vedanta doctrine. Brahma seems rather
to be regarded as a kind of shining ethereal essence, out
of which the universe was evolved and into which it
becomes absorbed (cf. II. 28; IV. 232; VI. 79, 81, 85;
XII. 123-125).
III. Thirdly, as to the Acara, ' rules and precepts of
conduct,' and social legislation of the Mauavas.
The organization of classes in I. 87-91 is so simple
that this simplicity, if it be not merely theoretical, bears
witness to the antiquity of a considerable portion of the
Code. According to Book X. 3, 4, there are only four
pure classes (varndh, p. 210), as follows :
The Brahman (or priestly class), the Kshatriya (or military class),
and the Vaisya (or agricultural class) constitute the three twice-born
(dvi-jdti or dvi-ja) classes (as obtaining a second spiritual birth through
investiture with the sacred thread, see p. 239); the S'udra (or servile
class) is once-born (eka-jati), and constitutes the fourth class ; there is
no fifth class.
From priority of birth, from superiority of origin (in being sprung
from the mouth of the Creator), from possession of the Veda (niyam-
asya [ = vedasyd\ dharandt, i.e., from the right of studying, teaching,
and expounding it), and from a distinction in the reception of the
sacrificial thread (as the most important of the twelve Sanskaras or
'purificatory rites,' specified in II. 27, &c.), the Brahman is the lord
(prabliu) of all the classes (X. 3. See p. 233).
224 INDIAN WISDOM.
The only allusion in the Veda to this fourfold division
is in the Purusha-sukta (Kig-veda X. 90. 12), which, as
we have seen (p. 21), is one of its most recent hymns.
A similar division into classes or professions is found
to have prevailed in almost all countries. 1
In the same tenth Book of Manu, however, we have a
more developed social system depicted, and a number of
mixed castes (varna-san-karak, san-Tcara-jdtlydh, X. 12)
are described as resulting from the intermarriage of the
pure classes : z
1 Megasthenes (according to Strabo's India, 39), the Greek am-
bassador of Seleukos Nikator (Alexander's successor between the
Euphrates and Indus, B.C. 312) at the court of Sandrokottos (Candra-
gupta) in Pataliputra (naXiftodpa), divided the Hindu people into seven
classes, viz., philosophers, husbandmen, shepherds, tradesmen or arti-
ficers, soldiers, spies or overseers (efpopot), and councillors of state (see
note 2, p. 237); perhaps because Herodotus divided the inhabitants of
Egypt into seven, viz., priests, soldiers, cowherds, swineherds, trades-
men, interpreters, and pilots ; but Diodorus and Plato made only five
divisions, and Strabo only three. From Plato's Timaeus (6) it appears
that a similar division of professions existed among the Athenians.
TlpS>TOv p.fv TO T>V lepecav yevos, OTTO raiv it\\<av ^wptr d(pa>picrp.evov, p.era 8t
TOVTO TO TOJV brjp.iovpytov, OTI Kad' avrb fnavTov XXw 8e OVK fT7ifj.iyvvp.fvov
Srjiiiovpyel, Tore T>V vofiftav Kal TO T>V drjptvTaiv, Tore TU>I> yfa>pya>v KOI 17 Kal
TO fjidxip-ov ytvos ycrdrja-ai TTOV TrjBe OTTO iravrutv TG>V yevav Ke^picrjjLfvoVj ols
Ov8(V XXo 7T\TJV TO. TTtpl TOV TToXf/iOJ/ V7TO TOV VOfJ.OV TTpOCrfTa^Qr] fJLf\flV. Again,
from a passage in Herodotus (I. 101), it is inferred that a similar
distinction existed among the Medes. In Malcolm's History of Persia
(I. 205) the Persian monarch Jamshid is said to have divided the
Persians into four classes. Mr. Mill also points out an instructive
passage in Plato's Republic (II. n), in which, describing the simplest
form of a political association, he makes it to consist of four or five
classes of men : EH; 8' av fj ye dvayK.aiora.TT] iroXis fK rerrapcw tj TrevTf dvftpav.
Finally, we read in Millar's Historical View of the English Govern-
ment (I. u) that the Anglo-Saxons were originally divided into four
great classes artificers and tradesmen, husbandmen, soldiers, and
clergy.
2 Mr. W. F. Sinclair gives some interesting information (in the
February and March numbers of the ' Indian Antiquary ') in regard to
THE LAW-BOOKS MANU. 22$
By unlawful intermarriage of the classes (vyabhicdrena varndndm),
by their marrying women who ought not to be married, and by neglect
of their own duties, mixed classes are produced (X. 24).
These have a great variety of names, such as Murdha-
vasikta, Mahishya, Karana or Kaya-stha, Ambashtha or
Vaidya, Ayogava, Dhigvana, Pukkasa, Candala (see p.
229), and are restricted to particular occupations. Still
the various subdivisions or sub-castes of Brahmans, and adds a list of
forty mixed castes, now found in the Dekhan. With regard to the
Brahmans, he places at the head the Chitpdvan (' race of the corpse '
or ' race of the burning-ground ') or Konkanasth ( Kon-kana-stha)
Brahmans, to whom the notorious Nana Sahib of Bithur belonged.
Then come the Desastli ( = Desa-stlia] or Rigvedl Brahmans, who claim
for themselves descent from the Rishis, and therefore the highest rank ;
then the Yajur-tedi, who are chiefly engaged in trade ; and then the
Devrnlili (?), who are mostly agricultural. There are also in the
Dekhan Telangl (i.e., Telingl, from Sanskrit tri-lin-ga) Brahmans, from
the Karnatak, chiefly engaged in trade ; Kanouj Brahmans (from
Hindustan), who are often Sipahis in native regiments or employes
upon the railway, and some other tribes. With regard to the forty
mixed castes enumerated by Mr. Sinclair, I here subjoin some of them
as given by him, with a few notes of my own PraWms (Sanskrit
prabhu), who are the highest, and divided into Kdyastli and Path-are ;
Sonars ( = Suvarna-kdra) or goldsmiths, a subdivision of whom are the
Ratlia-kdra Sonars, who claim to be of Brahman race (cf. note 2, p.
149); Vdnis (Banias, Banians = Baniyas, Sanskrit banik), who are
grocers and grain-dealers, and are distinguished by great reverence for
animal life ; Bhdtiyds or cloth and cotton merchants ; Khattrls, who
claim Rajput ( = Kshatriya) descent, but are dealers in cloth, gold and
silver lace, &c. ; Vaistjas, who claim to be a remnant of the original
Vaisyas, and are traders ; Mdrvddi, merchants, from Mdrvdd or
Marwdr ; Simpls or tailors ; Satars ( = Sutra-dhdra) or carpenters ;
Sikalgars (Saiqal-gar), turners and weapon-sharpeners ; Lohdrs ( = Loha-
Jidra) or smiths ; TfiEs ( = Taill, from Tallin) or oilmen ; Koshtis and
Sails or weavers ; Kuniblidrs ( Kumbha-kdra) or potters ; Rolls, who
are Bhistls or water-bearers; Pants or washermen; Londrls ( = Lavana-
kdrin) or preparers of salt and lime and charcoal ; Rangdris ( = Ran-ga-
kdriri) or dyers; Chambhdrs (= Carm a- kdrin] or leather-cutters and
shoemakers, &c.
P
226 INDIAN WISDOM.
the superiority of the Brahmans in the Hindu lawyer's
scheme is the hinge on which the whole social system
turns. In fact, the state of society depicted is that of
pure and unmitigated Brahmanism, a state of things
which, if it really admitted of the amount of Brahmanical
arrogance described as existing, would more than account
for the Buddhist reaction. The Brahmans are made to
constitute the great central body around which all other
classes and orders of beings revolve like satellites. Not
only are they invested with the highest dignity and im-
portance, but they are bound together, and their position
secured by the most stringent rules ; while the other three
classes of soldiers, agriculturists, and servants are made
powerless for combined resistance by equally stringent
regulations, one class being separated from the other by
insurmountable lines of demarcation.
We must, however, guard against supposing that a
Brahman claimed to take the lead merely in the character
of a priest. To understand more clearly the nature of
Brahmanical ascendency we must ask ourselves the ques-
tion, What physical and moral forces Jed to the first
movements which ended in the crystallization of social
distinctions into the caste-system ?
It seems probable, then, that the formation of hard lines
of separation between the classes was more the result of
gradual and natural adjustment than of preconcerted plan.
There can be little doubt that when the Aryan Hindus
came into India as immigrants and conquerors, they were
without any systematic arrangement of classes. Their
first seat was in the Panjab, around the five chief affluents
of the Indus and in the neighbourhood of Delhi. This
was a productive plain watered by rivers. 1 Hence it
1 By degrees they spread themselves over the whole region called by
Maim (II. 21,22) Arycavarta, ' the abode of Aryas,' i.e., the great central
THE LAW-BOOKS MANU.
happened that, although in their primeval abode, some-
where in Central Asia, they were probably half nomad,
half agricultural, they became, when fairly settled in Hin-
dustan, a nation of agriculturists. 1 The soil, too, being
fertile, yielded more than enough to supply the necessities
of the cultivators. Hence the surplus produce enabled a
large non-agricultural population to spring up. Some of
these applied themselves to trade and the improvement of
mechanical arts ; others were enabled to devote them-
selves to one of three occupations : i. mental and religious
culture ; 2. military exercises ; 3. domestic service. 2 It
was, indeed, absolutely necessary that the cultivators who
were called Vaisyas, because they 'settled down' on the
soil and gradually acquired an hereditary right to its
occupation, 3 should have a class of military men above
plains (Madhya-desa), extending from the western to the eastern sea, and
bounded on the north and south by the Himalaya and Vindhya moun-
tains. Only in this region were the three first classes allowed to dwell,
but S'udras might sojourn wherever they liked. (See Manu II. 21-24.)
1 The very name Arya is, as every one now knows, connected with the
root 4 ri ' = ar, whence aratrum, ' a plough ' (cf. Sanskrit aritra). It is
curious to note how Brahmans, after their segregation as the dominant
class, sought to depreciate agriculture. Manu (X. 84) says, ' Some think
that agriculture (Jcrishi) is an excellent thing, but it is a mode of exist-
ence blamed by the good, because the iron-mouthed ploughshare wounds
the earth and the creatures living in it.' Mr. W. F. Sinclair informs
us in the ' Indian Antiquary,' that in the Dekhan the cultivators of the
soil are by the modern races of Brahmans considered pure S'udras.
2 The same happened in the fertile plains of Egypt and Mesopotamia.
3 In modern times they are called Ryots, from the Arabic iHj^ . ra"iyat,
1 protected people ' (root ^-j ' to pasture, guard '). The Hindu term
"Vaisya is more expressive of their original condition. It is derived from
the root vis, ( to enter into,' ' sit down on,' ' settle down on,' ' occupy '
(whence vesa, ' an abode '), cognate with vicus, ' a village,' and o7xo;, ' an
abode,' and our affix ' wick ' at the end of names of towns, denoting
originally a settlement or station of cultivators. Hence the root vis,
when used as a substantive, means 'a man of the people.' The Vaisyas
228 INDIAN WISDOM.
them, with leisure either to cultivate arms, and so defend
the land thus occupied from the attacks of other invaders,
or to undertake the cares of government, and so protect
property from the dangers incident to anarchy. These
ultimately received the name Kshatriya. But in the
earliest times, as represented by the Vedic hymns, they
were called Rdjanya, ' the kingly class.' (See the Purusha-
sukta, translated p. 21, and see p. 22, note 2.) Doubtless,
when this class first arose they must have constituted the
most powerful order of society ; and so, indeed, practi-
cally they must have always remained, notwithstanding
the intellectual superiority of the Brahmanical class. 1
That the close interdependence of the two higher classes
was recognized by the Brahmans themselves is shown by
the following :
were allowed to become merchants if they preferred trading to agricul-
ture ; but the only provision for classes of artisans and mechanics, is
from the mixed classes. This indicates that Manu's division belongs to
an early period, before the industrial and mechanical arts had acquired
much importance, though they must have been considerably advanced
even in Vedic times (as shown by Dr. Muir, Texts V. 450-472). The
Hindu village system of the present day seems to have been developed
out of that represented in Manu's Code. Almost everywhere are found
bodies of agriculturists who have settled on the soil from time imme-
morial, and formed themselves into little republics presided over by
a half-elective, half-hereditary headman, and a number of village offi-
cials (properly twelve, e.g., watchman, accountant, priest, schoolmaster,
doctor, barber, astrologer, &c.), the lands around the village forming a
sort of jurisdiction, and disputes being settled by gatherings of the vil-
lagers under trees, while various low-caste menials who have no interest
in the soil are attached to the community.
1 The name Kshatriya comes from Jcshatra, ' dominion,' which is
probably from root i kshi= xra.op.ai, 'to possess, rule.' It is fancifully
derived from kshatdt tra, 'preserving from injury,' in Raghu-vansa II.
53. Manu X. 119 says, 'While defending the Yaisyas by his arms
(sastrena vai&yan raJcahitva) he may raise from them the rightful
revenue (dharmyam ahdrayed balim),' which was really taken from
the soil in kind.
THE LAW-BOOKS MANU. 22p
A Kshatriya cannot thrive without a Brahman, nor a Brahman with-
out a Kshatriya. The Brahman and the Kshatriya when associated
together prosper in this world and the next (IX. 322).
It was also necessary that there should be a class willing
to perform personal domestic service. These were called
Sudras ; and this class was probably made up to some
extent of the remnants of the Turanian tribes, who were
conquered by the Aryan Hindus, and who were mostly
driven southwards. 1 But, although servants, they were
neither slaves nor serfs. They merely occupied the lowest
step in the social organization. It is true that in theory
(X. 129) they were debarred from any superfluous accumu-
lation of wealth, yet, in point of fact, they sometimes rose
to affluence, and even became kings : 2
1 It may be questioned whether S'udra (though found in the Purusha-
sukta, Rig-veda X. 90. 12) is a genuine Sanskrit word. At least no
satisfactory etymology is given for it, and this favours the idea of its
denoting some pre- Aryan race. The fanciful derivation from $uc, ' to
grieve,' and dru, l to run,' is hardly worth noticing. Besides the
Turanian races who partially blended with the Aryans there were
doubtless other aboriginal tribes who occupied the hills and outlying
districts and who were called Mle66has, as constituting those more
barbarous and uncultivated communities who stood aloof and would
not amalgamate with the Aryans. Mleccha-deda is defined to be a
country where the four classes do not dwell. In Manu X. 44 a number
of degraded tribes are mentioned, such as Paundrakas, Odras, Dravidas,
Kambojas, Yavanas, S'akas, Paradas, Cinas, Kiratas, &c. As these
were probably powerful warlike tribes, they are declared by Manu
to be outcaste Kshatriyas. It is clear that the mountaineer Kiratas
were a martial race; nor could they have been greatly despised, for
Arjuna lived among them and adopted their style of life in order to
learn archery from S'iva, regarded as their god. See my account of
the Kiratarjuniya and the 'Indian Antiquary' for June, 1874, p. 178.
The most degraded outcastes were men called Uandalas or Candalas
(children of a S'udra man and a Brahman!) ; they were expelled from
towns, where they could not even walk except by day ; they wore only
dead men's clothes, rusty iron ornaments, &c. (X. 51-56).
2 Professor Cowell, in a note to Elphinstone's India, p. 18, well
230
INDIAN WISDOM.
As a S'udra, without censuring others, performs lawful acts, so,
without being censured, he obtains exaltation in this world and the
next (X. 128).
Again, the gradual assumption of superiority over tbe
Kshatriyas, Vaisyas, and Sudras, by a class of men who
called themselves Brahmans, 1 seems to have been due to
the operation of a law of intellectual development, such as
lias been common among all nations in their progress
towards civilization, in all periods of the world's history.
Those who were intellectually superior took advantage of
that growth of religious cravings which generally accom-
panies political growth, and formed themselves into a
fraternity of religious teachers, who afterwards became
priests. Religion, or a sense of dependence upon God and
a desire to propitiate Him, has always formed a marked
feature of the Hindu character. Hence in India, the
fraternity of priests multiplied with unusual rapidity ; so
that a considerable number of the sacerdotal class were
shows that the condition of a S'udra was very superior to that of the
helot, slave, and serf of the Greek, Roman, and feudal system. The
Puranas record dynasties of S'udra kings, and even Manu notices
these. In II. 238 it is said, 'A believer in Scripture may receive pure
knowledge even from a S'udra.' In modern times cultivators of the
soil are in some places regarded as S'udras. There are occasional
passages in the Mahabharata depreciating caste and even Yedic know-
ledge in comparison with moral character ; cf. the Raja-dharma of the
S'anti-parvan 2955.
1 According to some scholars the original meaning of brahman was
'prayer,' or rather 'devotional spirit pervading and filling the soul'
(root brih or vrih). Hence it came afterwards to mean Veda, ' sacred
knowledge,' in which sense it is often used by Manu. Similarly,
brahman and brdhmana meant originally ' a prayer- offerer,' and after-
wards 'religious teacher,' the signification 'priest' not having been
attached to these words till sacrificial ideas had fully developed them-
selves in the Hindu mind. It is a mistake to suppose that Brahmana
and priest are convertible terms. Brahmans are rather ' men of the
first class.'
THE LAW-BOOKS MANU. 2 3 I
thrown out of employment and forced to engage in secular
occupations. In this manner it came to pass that although
all priests were properly Brahmans, all Brahmans were by
no means necessarily priests. Nor was it likely that with
the partial secularization of the Brahmans the complicated
Vedic ceremonial could be long maintained. Some public
sacrifices, such as the Agnishtoma, were still performed,
,but the more intricate rites enjoined by the Brahmanas
and occasionally practised in ancient times, lasting for
long periods, and requiring for their efficacious perform-
ance a staff of sixteen different orders of priests, 1 fell into
partial if not entire desuetude. It was found, however,
indispensable to the retention of power over the other
classes that some sacerdotal offices should be maintained.
In proportion, indeed, to the neglect of high ceremonial
observances was there an increased strictness in exacting
a knowledge of the Veda, and the discharge of domestic
rites for which a priest's teaching and superintendence
were required.
In II. 84, 85, it is declared that all Vedic rites, oblations
to fire, and solemn sacrifices gradually pass away (kslia-
ranti), but that the act of repeating the Veda, especially
the repetition of the Gayatri with the four mystic syl-
lables, is ten times better than the appointed sacrifice
(see pp. 245, 246).
Manu is careful to assign distinct functions and titles
to the priests qualified for these duties ; thus we read :
Some Brahmans are intent on knowledge (of the supreme Spirit),
others are intent on acts of austerity (tapo-nislithdJi), others on acts of
austerity and repetition of the Veda combined, and others on sacrificial
rites (III. 134).
He who is selected for the office of preparing the sacred fire, for con-
1 See their names all given in my Sanskrit-English Dictionary under
Ilitv-ij, p. 1 8 1, col. i.
232 INDIAN WISDOM.
ducting the Paka-yajna (see note, p. 188) and performing the Agnish-
toma l and other sacrifices, is called the Ritv-ij of his employer (II. 143).
He who having invested his pupil with the sacred thread afterwards
instructs him in the whole Veda, with the rules of ceremonial (sakal-
pam 2 ) and the Upanishads, is called an Acdrya (II. 140).
He who, for the sake of a livelihood, gives instruction in one part
only of the Veda or in the Vedan-gas (such as grammar, &c.) is called
an Upddliydya or sub-teacher (II. 141).
The Brahman who performs the Sanskara ceremonies on conception,
&c., according to rule, and who feeds the child with rice (i.e., performs
the anna-prdsanam in the sixth month, see II. 34 and p. 192 of this
volume), is called a Guru 3 (II. 142).
Manu, however, found it necessary to conciliate the
Kshatriya class. The most exalted eulogies were lavished
on kings ; but Brahmans were to act as their advisers and
to have much of the judicial authority and interpretation
of the laws in their own hands, and were always theoreti-
cally superior in rank a circumstance which led in the
end to jealousies, feuds, and even internecine warfare
between the first two classes. Certain privileges also
naturally fell to the Vaisyas, and both they and the
Kshatriyas were equally with the Brahmans entitled to
the appellation Dvi-ja, ' twice-born.' Their whole status,
however, depended upon various domestic rites, to the
1 The Agnishtoma is a protracted sacrifice of five days' duration, per-
formed by one who is desirous of obtaining heaven. It is either a part or
a modification of the Jyotishtoma, and in ancient times required sixteen
priests.
2 That is, probably, ' the Kalpa Sutras.'
3 The title Guru, however, appears to have been applied in a general
way to all spiritual preceptors, cf. p. 238. It is sometimes used alone
as a distinctive epithet of Prabha-kara, a teacher of the Mimansa, often
named in conjunction with Kumarila, to denote whom the title Bhatta
is generally employed in the same way. According to Yajnavalkya I. 34,
a Guru is one who imparts the Veda, while an Adarya is one who invests
with the Yajnopavlta or ' sacred thread.' Similarly in the Paiijab the
teachers of the Grantha (Granthls) are called Gurus.
THE LAW-BOOKS MANU. 233
due conduct of which the superintendence 'of Brahmans
was indispensable. Yet, in spite of the importance and
dignity thus attached to the priestly office, a Brahman,
according to Manu's Code, was by birth and divine right
not by profession or self-elevation at the head of all
creatures. He was born a Brahman and did not become
one. He not only inherited superiority as his birthright,
1- it was created a leader of mankind a sort of deity in
human shape by the fiat of the great Creator himself.
He is declared, in B'ook I. 87, to have proceeded from
the mouth of Brahma, as the Kshatriya did from his arm,
the Vaisya from his thigh, and the Sudra from his foot.
Manu's theory, in short, was that the distinction of caste
and the inherent superiority of one class over the three
others was as much a law of nature and a matter of divine
appointment, as the creation of separate classes of animals,
with insurmountable differences of physical constitution,
such as elephants, lions, horses, and dogs.
That the Brahmans assumed a pre-eminence nothing
short of divine, is clear from numerous passages. I select
the following :
Since the Brahman sprang from the most excellent part, since he has
the priority arising from primogeniture (jyaishtlnjat\ and since he pos-
sesses the Veda, he is by right the lord (prablni) of this whole creation
(I. 93. See also p. 223 of this volume).
A Brahman, whether learned or unlearned, is a mighty divinity
(daivatam mahai), just as fire is a mighty divinity, whether consecrated
(pramta) or unconsecrated (IX. 317).
Even when Brahmans employ themselves in all sorts of inferior occu-
pations (an-ishteshu), they must under all circumstances be honoured,
for they are to be regarded as supreme divinities (paramam daivatcmi,
IX. 319).
From his high birth alone (sambhavenaiva) a Brahman is regarded as
a divinity even by the gods (devdndm api). His teaching must be
accepted by the rest of the world as an infallible authority (pramdnam),
for the Veda (brahma) itself is the cause (of its being so accepted,
XL 84).
234 INDIAN WISDOM.
Consistently with the divine nature thus ascribed to
the Brahman, he is declared to possess powers of the most
tremendous and awe-inspiring character :
Let not a king, although fallen into the greatest distress (through a
deficiency of revenue), provoke Brahmans to anger (by taking revenue
from them), for they, if once enraged, could instantly (by pronouncing
curses and mystical texts) destroy him with all his army and retinue.
Who, without bringing destruction on himself, can provoke those
men, by whose imprecation (abliUapena, Kulluka) all-devouring fire was
created, and by whom the undrinkable ocean was swallowed, 1 and the
wasted moon restored to its full size 2 (cipyayitah - pa^cdt puritah, IX.
What king would gain increase of revenue by oppressing those who,
if angry, could create other worlds and guardians of worlds (loka-palari),
and could create new gods and mortals (IX. 315) ?
A Brahman well skilled in the law, need not make any representa-
tion to the king (if he has received an injury), for, by his own power
(svaviryena), he may punish (sisliyat) those who injure him. His own
power is stronger than the power of the king, therefore by his own
might may a Brahman chastise (nigriJimyat) his foes. He may, with-
"* This seems to refer to the legend of Agastya, who is said to have
swallowed the ocean and was afterwards raised to be regent of the star
Canopus. Much, however, of the detail of this legend must be later.
2 This refers to the legend of (jandra, ' the Moon,' afflicted with con-
sumption for fifteen days by his father-in-law. Daksha, because of his
(the Moon's) partiality for Robini, one of Daksha's daughters, some of
whom had become his wives. On the Moon's repentance, his wasted
W V* V I*
strength and size were restored. Manu IX. 129 states that Daksha gave
ten of his daughters to Dharma, thirteen to Kasyapa, and twenty-seven
to Soma, the Moon. The legend of Daksha's daughters is found (like
many other of Manu's allusions) in the Taittiriya-samhita, ii. 3, 5 :
' Prajapati had thirty-three daughters he gave them to king Soma ;
among them he only went to Rohini. The others jealous returned [to
their father] : he went after them, he sought them again ; but he [the
father] did not give them again to him. He said to him, " Take an
oath that you will go to them alike, then I will give them to you
again." He took an oath ; he gave them back to him. He only out
of them went to Rohini. Him, the king [Soma], consumption attacked.
This is the origin of the Raja-yakshma.'
THE LAW-BOOKS MANU. 235
out hesitation, make use of (as magical formularies) the sacred texts
(srutlK) revealed to Atharvan and An-giras (Atliarvdn-girasik, see
p. 6) ; for the uttering of texts (vdk = abhicdra-mantroccdranam) is the
weapon (sastram) of a Brahman ; with that he may destroy his foes
(XL 31-33).
The crime of striking and killing a Brahman involves,
of course, terrible consequences, thus :
He who merely assails a Brahman with intent to kill him will con-
tinue in hell (narakam) for a hundred years, and he who actually
strikes him, a thousand years (XI. 206. Compare also IV. 165, where
it is said that the hell to which he will be consigned, and where he
will be made to wander about incessantly, is called Tamisra., ' profound
darkness ').
As many particles of dust (pdnsun) as the blood of a Brahman
absorbs from the soil, so many thousands of years must the shedder
of that blood abide in hell (XI. 207).
The above may be thought an exaggeration of the
powers and status claimed by the highest order of Hindu
society, and doubtless the compiler of the Code often draws
an ideal picture of a condition of things which never actu-
ally existed, and was never likely to exist ; much in the
same manner as we in England maintain that our king
can do no wrong. Yet in the matter of the Brahman we are
compelled to accept the colouring as, in the main, truthful.
Some time ago there appeared in a leading journal a report
of a sermon preached by a converted Brahman, in which
the preacher asserted that the Brahmans of the present day
pretend to ' dethrone the Creator and put themselves in
his place. Moreover, that he himself (the preacher) had
claimed and received divine honours, and had seen be-
lievers (among his own fellow-countrymen) greedily drink
the water in which his feet had been washed.' *
1 The Rev. Narayan S'eshadri (a Marathl name derived from the ser-
pent-like folds of the serpent S'esha, Vishnu's seat), who preached on
Easter Sunday, April 5, 1874 (in a Presbyterian Church in Kensington
236 INDIAN WISDOM.
It may be asked how did the Brahman, laden with all
this weight of dignity and theoretically debarred from all
other occupations, except studying and teaching the Veda,
and performing religious rites, contrive to support him-
self? The answer is that he took care to provide for his
own material comforts l by making the efficacy of all repe-
titions of the Veda and all sacrificial rites depend upon tie
gifts (dakshindh) with which they were accompanied :
A sacrifice performed with trifling presents (alpa-dalisliinali) destroys
the organs of sense, fame, heaven, life, reputation, offspring, cattle ;
therefore let no man undertake a sacrifice who has not plenty of money
to make liberal gifts (XI. 40).
Park Road), a sermon, the report of which appeared in the next day's
Daily News. He embraced the Christian faith on September 13, 1843.
He had to give up father, mother, three brothers, and three sisters.
Such is the condition of Brahmanical society that a man must renounce
all former associations when converted. I subjoin a further portion of
the matter reported as preached. ' He had been emptied of Hindooism.
This creed dealt largely in the marvellous ; for instance, it is said that
one great saint drank up all the ocean in three sips, and was afterwards
seated among the constellations on account of this feat. But there was
a philosophic as well as a popular form of Hindooism. There were
atheistical and theistical forms, the latter having as many advocates
in India as it had in this country, in Germany, and in the United
States. He dwelt at length on the pantheistic notion of Brahm,
which ignored man's responsibility. Man's sins, in fact, became God's
sins ; and gradually the preacher had become convinced that this was
blasphemy.'
1 This appears to hold good even in the present day ; for Professor
Ramkrishna Bhandarkar, writing in the ' Indian Antiquary ' for May
1874, remarks that repetition of the Veda for daksldna still prevails in
Gujarat, and to a much greater extent in the Marathi country and
Tailangana. 'Numbers of Brahmans go about to all parts of the
country in search of dakshina, and all well-to-do natives patronise
them according to their means, by getting them to repeat portions of
their Veda, which is mostly the Black Yajush, with Apastamba for
their Sutra. Hardly a week passes here in Bombay in which no
Tailanga Brahman comes to ask me for da
THE LAW-BOOKS MANU. 237
Let a man, according to his ability, give wealth to Brahmans who
know the Vedas and keep apart from the world. By so doing he
obtains heaven when he dies (XI. 6).
A king, even though dying (from want), must not receive taxes from
a Brahman learned in the Yedas, nor must he allow such a Brahman
dwelling in his country to pine away with hunger. Of that king in
whose territory a Brahman learned in the Vedas wastes with hunger,
the whole kingdom will in a short time be wasted with famine (VII.
133, M4).
All that exists in this universe is the Brahmans' property (I. 100).
Moreover, when tlie increase of the Brahmanical class
compelled the secularization of many of its members, they
were allowed to engage in the occupations of the other
classes. This was at first only permitted under circum-
stances of exigency and distress. Some verses in XII. 7 1 ,
^- 75' 76, 80-82, lay down the law on this point:
A Brahman who swerves from his own peculiar duty is, on depart-
ing this life, born again as a vomit-eating demon called Ulka-mukha
(XII. 71).
Repetition (or study) of the Veda (adliyayanam), expounding it (or
literally, teaching others to repeat it, adhydpanam), sacrificing (yaja-
nam) and assisting others to sacrifice (yajanam), giving (ddnam) and
receiving gifts (pratigraliaJi) are the six legitimate acts 1 (skat-karma ni)
of a Brahman. Of these six acts, three are the means of his subsistence,
viz., assisting at sacrifices, teaching the Veda, and receiving presents from
a pious giver (visuddhdt). These three privileges (dharmdh) are limited
to Brahmans, and do not extend to Kshatriyas (X. 75-77). Hence a
Brahman is called Tri-karman, ' one who engages in three acts. '
The most proper occupation for the Brahman is teaching and expound-
ing the Veda (veddbhydsah) ; for a Kshatriya, defending the people; for
a Vaisya, agriculture, keeping cattle, and trade (vdrtd-karma 2 ). Yet a
Brahman, unable to subsist by his proper employment, may live by the
duty of a soldier, for that is the next in dignity. If it be asked, how is
1 Called the 'six privileges.' A particular tribe of Konkan Brahmans
is said to be excluded from these privileges because its members eat fish.
2 This word vdrtd-karman, as may be gathered from Kulliika's com-
mentary on these three verses, includes krishi, go-raksha, and bdnijya.
The caste-division of Megasthenes (note i, p. 224) separates these three.
238 INDIAN WISDOM.
he to live if unable to subsist by either of these occupations ? the answer
is that he may adopt the mode of life of a Vaisya (X. 80-82. See also
X. 101, 102. Cf. note 3, p. 227).
Here are some of the rules by which the whole exist-
ence of a Brahman from the cradle to the grave was
regulated :
Every Brahman was supposed to pass through four
Asramas or ' Orders/ that is to say, his life was divided
into four stages or periods according as he became succes-
sively, i. Keligious student (brahma-cdrin) ; 2. House-
holder (griha-stha) ; 3. Anchorite or hermit (vdnaprastha) ;
4. Eeligious mendicant (bhikshu or parivrajaka or san-
nyasin). For the regulation of his life in the first two of
these periods the most minute instructions are spread over
the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th Books with much wearisome
detail and repetition. 1
To begin with the religious student. The young
Brahman is to reside with his preceptor (guru) until
he has gained a thorough knowledge of the three Vedas.
This residence may continue for thirty-six years, or for
half that time, or for a quarter of it, according to his
capacity for acquiring the requisite instruction (cf. Grihya
Sutras, p. 193). He may even be a student for life (naish-
thika, III. i, II. 243).
He is of course to go through all the twelve Sanskaras
or 'purificatory rites' (II. 27, &c.). They are supposed to
purify a man from the taint of sin derived from his parents
(gdrbhikam enas), and are enjoined, with certain variations,
on all the three first classes alike ; some being performed
1 It is interesting to find that Megasthenes (Strabo XV. i, 59),
three centuries B.C., had noted that Brahmans, even from the time of
conception (%fy 6' eudls xa} xwpsvov;), were under the care of learned
men, and lived for thirty-seven years as philosophers before becoming
householders.
THE LAW-BOOKS MANU. 239
before the birth of a male child, and some during the first
year after birth. I here enumerate them :
i. Garbhadhdna or Garbha-lambhana, 'the ceremony on conception'
(p. 192); 2. Punsavana (p. 192); 3. Simantonnayana (p. 192); 4. Jdta-
karman (p. 192) ; 5. Ndma-karman or Nama-karana, ' the ceremony of
giving a name ' on the tenth or twelfth day after birth (Manu II. 30) ;
6. Nish-kramana, f taking out the child ' in the fourth month to see
the sun (II. 34) ; 7. Anna-prdsana (p. 192); 8. tfudd-kcmnan or 6aula
(p. 192); 9. Upanayana (p. 192); 10. KeSdnta, ' cutting off the hair,'
performed on a Brahman in his sixteenth year, on a Kshatriya in his
twenty-second, on a Vaisya in his twenty-fourth (Manu II. 65); n.
Samdvartana, performed on the student's return home after completing
his studies with his preceptor (pp. 195, 242); 12. Vivdha, 'marriage.'
This last is the principal purificatory rite for women ; but they are
allowed some of the others, provided there is an omission of the
Mantras or Vedic texts, with which all the Sanskaras were accompanied
(II. 66, 67).
It is noteworthy that marriage is the twelfth Sanskara,
and hence a religious duty incumbent upon all, completing
the purification and regeneration of the twice-born :
Of the above twelve rites, i, 2, 3, and 10 are little observed. The
other eight are more worthy of attention ; 8 and 9 are of considerable
legal importance even in the present day, and 7 is still practised. 7
and 12 are said to be the only rites allowed to S'udras. Other
Sanskaras, practised in some parts of India, are mentioned, such as
Karna-vedha, ' boring the ears ; ' and occasionally the imparting of the
Savitrl or 'sacred Vedic text' ( = GayatrI, p. 17), which ought to be
performed at Upanayana, is reserved for a separate ceremony four days
later.
But the most important of the above Sanskaras is
Upanayana, 'investiture with the sacred cord,' already
described in the-Grihya Sutras (p. 192). This cord,
which is a thin coil of three threads, commonly called
the Yajiiopavlta or ' sacrificial thread/ is worn over the
left shoulder and allowed to hang down diagonally across
the body to the right hip, and the wearing of it by the three
240 INDIAN WISDOM.
twice-born classes was the mark of their second birth. 1 A
third birth is mentioned for Brahmans (II. 169) :
The first birth is from the natural mother; the second from the binding
on of the girdle (maunji-bandhane) ; the third is at initiation into sacriti-
cial rites (as thejyotishtoma, &c.), according to a precept of the Veda,
There was some difference in the kind of thread worn,
according to the class of the wearer. In II. 44 we read :
The sacred cord of a Brahman must be of cotton (kdrpdsd) so as to be
put on over his head in a coil of three threads (tri-vrit) ; that of a
Kshatriya of flax or hemp (sana) ; that of a Vaisya of wool (avika).
[In the previous two verses Manu intimates that a Brahman must also
have a girdle (mekhala) either of Munja grass or of Kusa grass. From
II. 169, 170, it might be inferred that the girdle and sacrificial thread
are equivalent, but II. 174 clearly distinguishes them. The leather
mantle, thread, girdle, staff, and underclothing are, all five, prescribed
at the time of Upanayana, and the binding on of the girdle seems to
complete the rite.]
The ceremony of investiture begins by the youth's
standing opposite the sun and walking thrice round the
fire. Then girt with the thread, he asks alms from the
assembled company. This begging for alms still consti-
tutes part of the rite, and indicates that the youth under-
takes to provide himself and his preceptor (guru, dSarya),
with food (p. 193). The Guru then initiates him into the
daily use of the Savitii or holy prayer in the three mea-
sured Gayatri (pp. 17, 154), preceded by three suppressions
of breath (tribhih prdndydmai/i), the triliteral syllable
Om, and three Vyahritis or mystical words, Bhur Bhuvah
Svar* and admits him to the privilege of repeating the
1 It is still worn, but the word Yajhopavlta for ' the sacred thread '
has been corrupted into Jane-o. In Bengali it is called Poita for
Pavitra.
2 The utterance of these three mystical words, meaning ' earth, the
middle region, and heaven' (note 2, p. 55), together with the awful
THE LAW-BOOKS MANU. 241
three Vedas, and of performing other religious rites, none
of which are allowed before investiture (II. 171, 173). The
Guru or Aciirya is thus his spiritual father.
Purifications, ablutions, and libations (called Savanas)
are enjoined on Vanaprasthas or 'hermits' (p. 254) at all
the three Sandhyas, 1 that is, at the three divisions of the
day sunrise, noon, and sunset but on Brahma-carins
and Griha-sthas at the two Sandhyas of sunrise and
sunset only, when the Gayatri (p. 1 7) is by all means to
be repeated. Thus in II. 222, we have :
Let him constantly observe the two Sandhyas according to rule,
sipping water, with all his organs controlled and with fixed attention,
repeating the Gayatri prayer (japyam, which ought to be repeated).
The young Brahman is also every day to bathe ; to
offer oblations of water (tarpana) to the. gods, holy sages
(JRishis) generally, and departed ancestors (Pitris) ; to
reverence the deities [according to Kulluka, Devata =pra-
timd, the images of the deities] ; and to offer an oblation
of fuel to the sacred fire (II. 176). But in V. 88 he is
forbidden to perform the regular offerings of water to
deceased persons, till his studentship is completed. He
is to abstain from meat, perfumes, unguents, sensuality,
wrath, covetousness, dancing, music, gambling, detraction
syllable Om (pp. 93, 214), is supposed to be attended with marvellous
and mysterious effects (see II. 76, 79, 83, 84). Note the sacredness
attached to the number three.
1 See Book VI. 22, 24, and compare Kulluka, savaneshu snayat,
prdtar - madhyandina - say am savaneshu trisliu devarshi -pitri - tarpanam
kurvan. Sandhya often means 'twilight,' but is applied to morning
and evening twilight and to the change from midday to afternoon.
With reference to the Hindu and Mohammedan custom of performing
religious rites three times a day, we may compare a passage in Daniel,
who ' kneeled upon his knees three times a day, and prayed, and gave
thanks before his God,' Dan. vi. 10. And David says, 'Evening, and
morning, and at noon, will I pray, and cry aloud,' Ps. Iv. 17.
242 INDIAN WISDOM.
of others, falsehood, impurity of all kinds, and is never to
injure any being (II. 177-179)-
Every day, too, both morning and evening, he is to
go round the neighbouring villages begging for food for
himself and his preceptor, and collecting fuel for the main-
tenance of the sacred fire (II. 187).
He is always to pay the most profound respect to his
religious teacher (guru), as well as to his parents and to
all persons older than himself :
By reverencing his mother he gains this terrestrial world ; by rever-
encing his father, the middle world; by constant attention to his spiritual
master (guru}, the celestial world of Brahma (II. 233).
A youth who habitually salutes and constantly reveres the aged,
prospers in four things, life, knowledge, fame, and strength (II. 121).
In short, even Christians may learn from Hindus, as
indeed from Oriental nations generally, 1 ' to love, honour,
and succour their father and mother, to submit them-
selves to all their governors, teachers, spiritual pastors
and masters, and to order themselves lowly and reverently
to all their betters ; ' and, moreover, to extend the duty of
1 hurting nobody by word or deed ' to animals and the
whole inferior creation. 2
On completing his studies the young Brahman is to give
some valuable present to his preceptor. He is then to
perform the proper Sanskara ceremony of ablution (sndna)
on the occasion of his solemn return to his own home
(samdvartana), ns already described (see pp. 195, 239) :
Let not a student who knows his duty make a present to his spiritual
master before the ceremony on his return ; but when, being permitted
by his preceptor, he is about to perform the requisite ablution (sndsyan),
1 Notably from the Chinese as well as from the Hindus.
2 I am told, however, that, notwithstanding the strict rules of a-hinsa,
the ' Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals ' might find work to
do in Some parts of India.
THE LAW-BOOKS MANU. 243
let him offer him some valuable article (gurv-artham, such as a field,
gold, a jewel, cow, horse, &c.) as a gift to the best of his ability (II.
245, 246).
The young Brahman's return to his own house is made
an occasion of festivity ; he is decked with flowers and
receives a present of a cow (III. 3). He is then to select
a wife of the same class with himself, endowed with
auspicious marks (lakshana), and thereupon he enters the
second Asrama, and becomes a householder (griha-stha) .
Some curious directions for his guidance in choosing a
wife are given (III. 8-10) :
Let him not marry a girl with reddish hair, nor one with a superfluity
of limbs (as, for instance, one with six fingers), nor one who is sickly,
nor one with either too little or too much hair, nor one who talks too
much, nor one who is red-eyed, nor one named after a constellation,
a tree, or a river, nor one with a barbarous name (antya = mleccha),
or the name of a mountain, a bird, a snake, a slave, or any frightful
object. But let him marry a woman without defective or deformed
limbs, having an agreeable name, whose gait is like that of a flamingo
(hansa) or elephant, 1 whose hair and teeth are moderate in quantity,
and whose whole body is soft.
We have seen that marriage is a Sanskara. Hence it
is a religious duty and a purificatory rite (p. 239).
It is clear from III. 12-15, IX. 45, 101, that, as a
general rule, a twice-born man is expected to have one
wife only ; but polygamy is not illegal, and he might take
other wives of classes different from his own, being careful
to settle their precedence according to the order of these
classes (IX. 85). A Brahman might thus have four wives,
one from his own class and one from each of the three
classes below him ; a Kshatriya three ; and a Vaisya two.
But the sons of inferior wives are degraded and called
1 That is, having a kind of rolling gait, corresponding to Homer's
244 INDIAN WISDOM.
Apasadah (X. 10). Nevertheless, if there be four wives of
a Brahman in the order of the classes, and sons are born
to all four wives, there is a rule for dividing the inherit-
ance between them (IX. 149).
Manu's eight forms of marriage are specified in the
Grihya Sutras (see p. 190). Of these the first four, viz.,
that of Brahma (which is described as 'the gift of a
daughter to a man learned in the Veda'), the Devas
(daiva), Rishis (arsha), and Prajapatis (prajapatya), are
the most approved for a Brahman. The Gandharva
marriage (' from affection without any nuptial rite ') and
Kakshasa ('marrying a girl carried off as a prize in war')
were allowable for Kshatriyas ; the Asura and Paisaca
were prohibited.
A description has been given of one of the oldest mar-
riage rites (p. 190), as well as of the ceremony on com-
mencing residence in a new house (p. 193). The house-
holder is to fulfil every day all his domestic religious duties
(grihyam karma), some of which, such as the morning
and evening oblation (agnihotra, sdyam-prdtar-homa), are
to be performed with the fire of the nuptial ceremony
maintained ever afterwards (vaivdhike ' gnau, III. 67,
see p. 28).
He is especially to perform the five Mahd-yajhdh, great
devotional acts 1 (III. 70, &c.) : viz., i. towards the divine
1 The Musalmans have also five principal devotional acts, but these
are not all diurnal. They are i. Prayer (namaz) five times a day,
practically reduced to three times, morning, midday, and evening. 2.
Alms-giving (zalidf). 3. Fasting (roza), especially keeping the great-
fast during the ninth month, Kamazan (^^LcJ), once a year. 4. Pil-
grimage to Mecca (haj) once in a lifetime. 5. Confession of faith
(shahddat), i.e., repeating the tawhid or 'declaration of faith in the
unity of God : ' ' there is no god but God, and Muhammad is the
apostle of God.' A Hajji is a pilgrim who has performed the Haj.
There is no duty of pilgrimage among the five necessary devotional
acts prescribed by Manu, but the Hindu system has, nevertheless, it
THE LAW-BOOKS MANU. 245
Kishis, by repetition and teaching of the Veda (Brahma-
yajha] ; 2. towards departed fathers (Pitri-y), by the
Sraddha ceremonies ; 3. towards the gods (Deva-y), by
oblations (Jioma 1 ) to Fire, Prajapati, Heaven and Earth,
Indra, Soma, &c. (85-89) ; 4. towards all creatures (Bhuta-
y), including good and evil spirits supposed to people the
air, by the bali or offering of rice-grains, &c., generally
scattered on the house-top or outside the door for animals
to devour (91); 5. towards men, by hospitality (Manushya-
y). A description of all five has already been given (p. 1 94).
The last four are sometimes called Paka-yajnas (II. 86).
Of these five, the first, viz., repetition of the Veda (Brahma-
yajna, japa-y svddhydya? III. 81, II. 85, 86), and espe-
Haj. Purl, in Orissa (the abode of Jagan-nath), is described by Mr.
Hunter as the Jerusalem of India. It is really only one of the Indian
Meccas. Other great places of pilgrimage (Tirthas) are Haridvar, in the
Himalaya (one of the most celebrated), where the Ganges is supposed
to have descended from the head of S'iva on to the earth ; Citrakut, in
Bundelkhand, Kama's first abode after his banishment; Jvala-mukhl,
in the Panjab, where SatI, wife of S'iva, burned herself, and her presence
is thought to be denoted by gas flaming from the ground.
1 The homa or ' oblation of butter ' was the peculiar offering to the god
of fire, as the Soma juice was to Indra, the rain-god. See note, p. 28.
2 It seems to me that Sir W. Jones' usual translation of this and
similar words by ' reading and studying the Veda,' conveys a somewhat
wrong idea. The words generally used to denote the performance of
the Brahma-yajiia rather imply 'going over inaudibly to one's self/
' repeating or muttering texts in a low tone of voice.' It is doubtful
whether the Veda was ever read or studied as we should read a book
in the present day. Neither the word Veda nor any of the words
connected with it imply truth written down like our word ' Scripture ; '
and for a long period the writing of it was discouraged, if not prohibited.
The very object of the long residence with a Guru (see p. 238) was to
learn to repeat the sacred texts by heart, not to study them. Indeed,
very little mention of writing is made in Manu. Even written evidence
is not alluded to as it is in Yajnavalkya. In connection with the repe-
tition of the Veda at the present day I here give the substance of an
interesting article by Professor Bhandarkar in the ' Indian Antiquary '^
246 INDIAN WISDOM.
cially of the Gayatri text, is regarded as the most effica-
cious; and a peculiar virtue is attributed to its being
repeated in a low tone or even mentally :
The Japa-yajna or 'repetition of the Veda' is declared to be ten
times superior to the Vidhi-yajna (or appointed oblations at the changes
of the moon, called Darsa and Paurnamdsa, see note, p. 28) ; a hundred
times superior, if it is muttered in a low voice (upansu) ; and a thousand
times superior, if it is only mentally repeated (mdnasah, II. 85).
The four Paka-yajnas, even when accompanied with the Vidhi-yajna,
are not together worth a sixteenth part of the Japa-yajna (II. 86).
A Brahman becomes fit for beatitude by simple repetition of the
Veda, whether he perform other rites or not ; of this there is no doubt
(II. 87).
Let him habitually repeat (abliyaset =japet) the Veda at the right
season without weariness, for that is called his highest duty (paro
dharmah} ; every other duty is called subordinate (upa - dharmah,
IV. 147).
The filial piety of the Hindus is notably manifested
for May 1874. Every Brahmanic family is devoted to the study of a
particular Veda or S'akha of a Veda, and its family domestic rites are
performed in accordance with the Sutra of that Veda. In Northern
India the favourite Veda is the White Yajur-veda in its Madhyandina
S'akha, but the study has almost died out except at Benares. (According
to Mr. Burnell the Black Yajur-veda is the favourite in the Telugu
country.) Brahmans of each Veda are divided into two classes
Grihasthas, who are devoted to worldly avocations, and Bhikshukas,
who study the sacred texts and perform religious rites. Both classes
have to repeat the Sandhya-vandana or ' morning and evening prayers '
(see p. 241), which principally consist of the Gayatri (see p. 17), re-
cited five, ten, twenty-eight, or a hundred and eight times. Besides
these prayers, many perform daily the Brahma-yajna, incumbent on all
alike on certain occasions. This for Eig-vedi Brahmans consists of
i. Part of Rig-veda I. i. 2. Aitareya-brahmana I. i. 3. Portions of
the Aitareya-aranyaka (1-5). 4. The opening text or a portion of the
White Yajur-veda. 5. Of the Sama-veda, 6. Of the Atharva-veda.
7. Of the Asvalayana Kalpa-sutra. 8. Of the Nighantu. 9. Of the
Nirukta. 10. Of the dhandas. u. Of the Jyotisha. 12. Of the
S'iksha. 13. Of Panini. 14. Of Yajiiavalkya's Smriti. 15, Of the
THE LAW-BOOKS MANU. 247
in the importance attached to the Sraddkas, sometimes
reckoned as twelve in number (the three principal being
Nitya, 'daily;' Parvana, 'monthly;' Ekoddislita, 'special,'
p. 199), consisting of an offering of water (udaka-ddna,
tarpana) and cakes of rice-meal, &c. (pinda) to a deceased
father, grandfather, and great-grandfather, and to fore-
fathers and progenitors (Pitris) collectively, on which
offerings they are supposed really to feed (III. 237).
The custom was probably very ancient, as the Pitris are
addressed with the utmost reverence in the Rig-veda
(VI. 52. 4, VII. 35. 12, X. 14. 7, 8, &c. See p. 18 of
this volume).
The actual funeral, when the bodies of all deceased per-
sons (except those of infants up to two years old, cf. p. 299)
are burnt, is described at p. 196. The offering to deceased
fathers at the Sraddha is the key to the Hindu law of
inheritance. It furnishes the principal evidence of kin-
Mahabharata. 16. Of Kanada's Sutra. 17. Of Jaimini's Mimansa.
1 8. Of Badarayana's Vedanta-sutra. This course of Svadhyaya is based
on Asvalayana's Sutra III. 23 (given at p. 195 of this volume). No. i
corresponds to his Rid ; 4, 5, 6 to his Yajur, Saman, and Atharvan--
giras ; 2, 3 to his Brahmanas, &c. Those Bhikshukas who have studied
the whole Veda follow Asvalayana's precept ydvan manyeta tdvad
adhitya. Some of them are also Yajnikas, skilled in the performance
of sacred rites, and some are Yaidikas, whose sole occupation in life is
to learn the Vedas by heart in the Samhita, Pada, Krama, Jata, and
Ghana arrangement of the texts (see p. 152) without making a single
mistake in the Sandhi changes or even in the accents. The Rig-vedis
pronounce the accents differently from the Taittiriyas, while the
Madhyandinas indicate the accents by movements of the right hand.
In addition to the Mantra portion of the Veda, the Rig-vedis learn to
recite the Brahmana portion and the Vedan-gas, including the Kalpa
and Grihya Sutras. At a public recitation the first place is given to
Rig-vedis, the second to Yajur-vedis, and the third to Sama-vedis (cf.
p. 215). As the Black and White Yajur- vedis are liable to quarrel
about precedence, they are not generally invited to recital-meetings
(Mantra jdrgaras) together.
248 INDIAN WISDOM.
ship, on which the title to participate in the patrimony
is founded, no power of making wills being recognized
in Mann or any other authoritative code of Hindu juris-
prudence (see p. 265). The Gotra or family is in fact a
corporate body bound together by what may be called
Sapinda&hip (Sapindatd) and SamdnodaJcasliip (Samdno-
daka-bhdva, Manu V. 60). All who offer the funeral cake
(pinda) and water (udaka) together are Sapindas and
Samanodakas to each other, and a kind of intercommunion
and interdependence is thus continually maintained between
the dead and living members of a family between past,
present, and future generations. Practically, however, the
closeness of the interconnection extends only to three
generations on each side, so that if we imagine a clasp
connecting two short chains of three links each, this will
represent the householder uniting father, grandfather, and
great-grandfather, on the one side, with son, grandson,
and great-grandson on the other in all seven persons
connected by the Pinda (Manu V. 60). The first three are
supposed to be dependent on the living paterfamilias for
their happiness, and even for their support, through the
constant offering of the sacred cakes and water; and he
himself, the moment he dies, becomes similarly dependent
on the three succeeding generations.
The connection of Samdnodakashiip lasts longer, and
ends only when the family names are no longer known
(V. 60).
The object of such Sraddhas is twofold, viz., first, the
re-embodying of the soul of the deceased in some kind
of form after cremation of the corpse, or simply the
release of the subtile body which is to convey the soul
away (see p. 197). Secondly, the raising him from the
regions of the atmosphere, where he would have other-
wise to roam for an indefinite period among demons and
evil spirits to a particular heaven or region of bliss.:
THE LAW-BOOKS MANU. 249
There he is eventually half deified among the shades of
departed kinsmen. Manu, however, is not clear as to the
precise effect of the Sraddha. He merely states that its
performance by a son or the nearest male kinsman is neces-
sary to deliver a father from a kind of hell called Put, 1
and that the spirits of the departed (Pitris) feed on the
offered food (III. 237).
Special Sraddhas such as these (p. 199), which form to
this very day the most important religious rite among the
Hindus, are accompanied with much feasting and costly
gifts to the Brahmans invited to assist at their celebra-
tion 2 (III. 145). The performance of the first Sraddha is
more particularly marked by largesses of all kinds, and
sometimes, it is said, costs a rich mau a sum equivalent to
several thousand pounds. 3 It should take place the day
after mourning expires, and then at intervals during
twelve successive mouths, this monthly ceremony being
called by Manu Anvdhdrya (III. 123). Afterwards it
should be performed on all anniversaries of a father's
death. Other Sraddhas are described at p. 199.
It is curious to learn from III. 150-168 Manu's idea of
the persons to be excluded from these ceremonies (viz.,
thieves, spirit-drinkers, atheists, men with diseased nails
or teeth, dancers, physicians, &c., see note, p. 270).
At some Sraddhas the old Dharma-sastras Akhyanas,
Itihasas, and Puranas were recited (III. 232, note, p. 206).
1 See Manu IX. 1 38. Whence a son who performs the rite is called
Put-tra, ' the rescuer from Put.' This explains the desire of every
Hindu for the birth of a son rather than a daughter ; but it seems
inconsistent that the S'raddha should have -an effect irrespective
of deeds done during life.
2 In Book III. 145 we have yatnena Wwjayec chrdddhe bahv-ricam
veda-paragam, see p. 201. Manu, however, discouraged too much
feasting (vistara), and limited the number of guests, see III. 125, 126.
3 That of the Bengali millionaire, Ramdoolal Dey, cost ^50,000,
according to Mr. Wheeler.
250 INDIAN WISDOM.
With reference to the subject of diet, it is clear from
V. 15. 5, &c., that as a general rule the eating of flesh
(mama) and of fish (matsya) by twice-born men was
prohibited ; that the drinking of spirituous liquor was
included among the five great sins (see p. 270) ; and that
many other kinds of food, such as garlic, onions, leeks
(lasuna, grihjana, palandu), mushrooms (kavaka, cha-
traka), and carnivorous birds (kravyadah paksJiinah,
V. n), were forbidden. But it is an argument for the
antiquity of Manu's Law-book that it directs flesh-meat
(dmisha) to be eaten at some of these Sraddhas (III.
123, IV. 131). I annex a few interesting passages which
bear upon the killing of animals for sacrifice and the
eating of flesh-meat under certain circumstances :
Never let a Brahman eat the flesh of cattle unconsecrated with
Mantras, but let him eat it only when hallowed with texts of the Yeda
(IV. 36).
On a solemn offering to a guest (madlm-parlcci) at a sacrifice, and in
holy rites to departed ancestors or to the gods on these occasions and
no other may cattle be slain (V. 41).
As many hairs as grow on any animal, so many similar deaths shall
one who slays it unnecessarily (vritha) endure hereafter from birth to
birth. By the Self-existent himself were animals created for sacrifice,
which was ordained for the welfare (bliutyai) of all this universe ; there-
fore slaughter of animals for sacrifice is no slaughter (Y. 38, 39). 1
In eating meat (mcmsa-bhakshane) and in drinking wine (madye)
there is no crime (provided it be on a lawful occasion, Y. 56).
Hospitality is enjoined on the householder, in the strongest
language, as a religious duty (see also p. 282) :
No guest (atitlii) who arrives in the evening, brought by the setting
sun (suryodhaJi), must be dismissed. Whether he arrives in season or
out of season, let him be allowed to sojourn in the house and be well
entertained.
1 This is another indication of the priority of at least part of Manu's
Code to the general spread of Buddhism, which reformation led to the
almost total abolition of animal sacrifice in India.
THE LAW-BOOKS MANU. 25 I
A Brahman sojourning in a house and not honoured takes to himself
all the merit of the householder's good deeds (III. IOQ).
Let the householder not eat anything himself till he has made his
guest eat. The honouring of a guest confers wealth, reputation, life,
and heaven (III. 105, 106. Compare also IV. 29).
An oblation (of food) in the fire of a Brahman's mouth delivers (the
offerer) from great guilt (III. 98).
With regard to the householder's wife and the condition
of women as depicted by Manu, we may observe that their
position is one of entire subordination, amounting, in
theory, to a complete abnegation of what in these days
would be called ' women's rights.' But although it is
certain that the inferiority of women is affixed Oriental
dogma which no contact with Europeans is likely entirely
to eradicate, yet it must be borne in mind that the prac-
tice does not always conform to the theory. The influence
of Hindu mothers in their own families, and the respect
paid to them by their children, have always been great ;
and it is one indication of the antiquity of Maim's Code
that, although some of its precepts pronounce women
unfit for independence, and debarred from the study of the
Veda, others concede to them an amount of freedom to
which they became strangers in times subsequent to the
influx of Mohammedan customs. 1 In some cases a girl, if
unmarried for three years, is even allowed to choose her
own husband, 2 when she is called Svayam-vara (IX. 90,
92). It is very true that Manu distinctly directs (V. 162,
IX. 47, 65) that no second husband is to be allowed to
widows, but he nowhere alludes to that exaggerated
devotion which induced the Sati or ' devoted wife ' to burn
herself with her husband's body a custom which from
1 The seclusion of Hindu women is chiefly due to the introduction of
Muslim customs when the Mohammedans invaded India.
2 Girls of the Kshatriya class sometimes chose their own husbands, as
we know from the story of Nala and other episodes of the Mahabharata,
INDIAN WISDOM.
about the time of Alexander's invasion, 1 more than 300
years B.C., till the year 1829, has led to the sacrifice of
innumerable lives, and has left a blot on the anuals of our
own administration. 2
1 It is clear from Strabo XY. 30 and 62 that Sati prevailed in India
about the time of Alexander. Strabo says that the Kathaei ( = Kanya-
kubja or perhaps Kshatriya), a tribe in the Paiijab, in order to prevent
wives poisoning their husbands, made a law that they should be burnt
with them when they died (awyxa,raxu,/ea9<zi nSnuai 7015 avdpdai TO.C, ywauKa,^,
and that some wives burnt themselves voluntarily (a.a/^sva:'). Compare
also Diodorus Siculus (XIX. 33), who describes how, after the battle
between Antiochus and Eumenes, one of the wives of the Indian general
KriTiii; ( = Ketu or Khatri ? ) burnt herself, after contending with the
other for the honour. But Arrian makes no mention of any Sati. He
only describes (VII. 2, 3) how KdXouof (perhaps = Sanskrit Kalyana),
one of a sect of Indian wise men who went naked, burnt himself upon
a pile. The description is like that of the self-cremation of the ascetic
S'arabhan-ga in Ramayana III. 9. Cf. Cicero Tusc. Disp. II. 22 and de
Divin. I. 23. The following is a portion of the latter passage : ' Est
profecto quiddam etiam in barbaris gentibus praesentiens, atque divi-
nans : siquidem ad mortem proficiscens Calanus Indus, cum adscenderet
in rogum ardentem, praeclarum discessum, inquiet, e vita ! ' The
idea of Sati seems to have been borrowed by the Hindus from the
Scythians (Herod. IV. 71). A similar custom prevailed among the
Thracians (Herod. V. 5). Cf. also Propertius III. 13, ' Ardent victrices,
et flammae pectora praebent, Imponuntque suis ora perusta viris.'
Madri, wife of Pandu, became a Sati (Maha-bharata, Adi-parva 4896).
Compare Dr. Host's edition of Wilson's Works, vol. ii. pp. 270-309).
2 The practice of Sati was for a long time thought to be so intimately
connected with the religious belief of the Hindus, that our Government
did not venture to put a stop to it. It was known to be enjoined in the
Brahma-purana and Codes of Vyasa, An-giras, &c. ; and such authorities
as Colebrooke (see hie life by his son, p. 287) and H. H. Wilson (in
1828) gave their opinion against interference, although it was ascer-
tained that neither the Veda nor Manu directed or even hinted at
concremation of the living wife with the dead husband. To Raghu-
nandana (according to Dr. F. Hall) is due the alteration of the last word
of a Eig-veda text (X. 18, 7, see p. 201) on which the authority for Sati
was made to rest : Anafravo 'namwdh su-ratna a rohantu janayo yonim
agre, ' without tears, without sorrow, bedecked with jewels, let the wives
THE LAW-BOOKS MANU. 253
Indeed, the marriage of widows is even spoken of as
practised, though reprehended (IX. 66-68) ; and a damsel
given away in marriage may be re-betrothed, if her hus-
band die before she is actually married (69).
The following passages will be sufficient to fill up the
picture of Hindu domestic life (see also p. 284) :
Day and night must women be made to feel their dependence on their
husbands. But if they are fond of worldly amusements (visliayesliu
sajjantyak), let them be allowed to follow their own inclinations (IX. 2).
Even if confined at home by faithful guardians they are not (really)
guarded ; but those women who guard themselves by their own will
(dtmdnam dtmand yds tu ral\slieyuli) are well guarded (IX. 12).
Let not (a husband) eat with his wife, nor look at her eating (IV. 43).
Women have no business to repeat texts of the Veda (ndsti stnndm
kriya mantrair), thus is the law established (IX. 18).
Domestic rites are to be performed in common with a wife (sddhdrano
dharmah patnyd saha), so it is ordained in the Veda (IX. 96).
No sacrifice is permitted to women separately (from their husbands),
no religious observance (vratatii), no fasting (wposhitam). As far as a
wife obeys her husband so far is she exalted in heaven (V. 155).
A husband must continually be revered (upacaryah) as a god (deva-
vat) by a virtuous wife (V. 154).
A virtuous wife who remains unmarried after the death of her husband
goes to heaven, even though she have no son (V. 160).
We have already indicated that in the third and fourth
periods of his life a Brahman, according to Manu, is to
go up to the altar first,' where agneh, ' of fire,' was substituted for agre,
'first.' (Compare pp. 197, 201, 202). It is true that our Government
adopted a middle course, and prohibited the burning of the widow,
except under strict regulations, and except with her own full consent,
and officials were to be present to see the rules enforced ; but I have
been informed by a distinguished friend (Mr. Seton-Karr) who held
high offices in India, that, in consequence of our half-sanction, the
number of widows actually returned as burnt, rose in one year to 800,
while in other years (between 1815 and 1828) it varied from 300 to
600. Lord William Bentinck passed a law in 1829 (Reg. xvii.) which
suppressed the practice with entire success and without difficulty.
254 INDIAN WISDOM.
become first an anchorite (vdnaprastha) and then a reli-
gious mendicant (bhikshu or parivrdjaka). It is indeed
wholly improbable that all Brahmans conformed to this
rule, but the second verse of the sixth Book prescribes
that when the father of a family perceives his hair to be
turning grey, or as soon as his first grandchild is born,
and after he has paid his three debts, 1 he is to retire to a
forest and there as a hermit to practise austerities :
Having taken up his sacred fire (agni-hotram) and all the domestic
utensils for making oblations to it, and having gone forth from the
town to the forest, let him dwell there with all his organs of sense well
restrained (VI. 4).
With many kinds of pure food let him perform the five Maha-yajnas
or 'devotional rites' (VI. 5).
Let him also offer the Vaitarrika oblations with the (three sacred) fires
according to rule (see p. 188, note i, p. 189).
Let him roll backwards and forwards on the ground, or stand all day
on tiptoe (prapadaih), let him move about by alternately standing up
and sitting down, going to the waters to bathe at the three Savanas
(sunrise, sunset, and midday, VI. 22. See p. 241).
Let him practise the rules of the lunar penance (VI. 20. See p. 96).
In the hot weather let him be a Panda-tapas (VI. 23. See p. 95).
Let him offer libations (tarpayet) to the gods and Pitris, performing
ablutions at the three Savanas (VI. 24).
Having consigned the three sacred fires (vaitanari) to his own person
(by swallowing the ashes) according to prescribed rules, let him remain
without fire, without habitation, feeding on roots and fruits, practising
the vow of a Muni (i.e., the Mauna-vrata of perpetual silence, VI. 25).
Book VI. 33 directs him for the fourth period of his
life to wander about as a Bhikshu or Parivrajaka, 'reli-
gious mendicant' (caturtham dyusho bhdgam parivrajei).
Here are a few rules for the regulation of this final stage
of his existence, when he is sometimes called a Sannydsin,
1 These three debts (trim rindni) are, i. to the gods, 2. to the Pitris,
3. to the Rishis. The ist is liquidated by sacrifices, the 2nd by
begetting a son for performance of the S'raddha, the 3rd by repetition
of the Veda.
THE LAW-BOOKS MANTJ. 255
' one who has given up the world ; ' sometimes a Yati,
' one who has suppressed his passions : l '
Let him remain without fire, without habitation (a-niketdh) ; let
him resort once a day to the town for food, regardless of hardships,
resolute, keeping a vow of silence (muni}, fixing his mind in meditation
(VI. 43).
With hair, nails, and beard well clipped, carrying a bowl (patri),
a staff (dandl), and a pitcher (kusumbhavaii), let him wander about
continually, intent on meditation and avoiding injury to any being
(VI. 52).
In this manner, having little by little (sanaih sanaih} abandoned all
worldly attachments (san-gari), and freed himself from all concern about
pairs of opposites 2 (dvandva), he obtains absorption into the universal
Spirit (brahmany avatishthate, VI. 81).
IV. Let us now note, in the fourth place, the chief
characteristics of Manu's ordinances of government and
judicature (vyavahara), and a few of the most remarkable
1 I find that some of M. Earth's remarks in the ' Revue Critique '
for June 13, 1874, bear on what I have stated with regard to Manu's
ordinances in the preceding pages : ' Si nous remontons plus haut, aux
livres ve'diques, aux plus anciens comme aux plus modernes, nous
trouvons la nation Indienne divise"e en un grand nombre de petites
principauteX ou domine le principe ethnique de la peuplade et du clan.
Cette organisation qui n'avait certainement pas beaucoup change^ a
F^poque du Buddha, s'accorde encore moins avec le systeme de Manu,
qui suppose une certaine uniformity et 1'existence de grands e"tats. La
plupart de ces peuplades avaient sans doute un etat social analogue : de
temps immemorial elles e"taient divise"es en 4 classes. . . . Mais il est
difficile de pre'ciser le degr de rigueur de cette division. Encore k une
epoque relativement r^cente (Chandog. Up. iv. 4. 2) la plus jalouse, et
la plus ferm^e de ces classes, celle des Brahmanes, ne parait pas tres
scrupuleuse quant k la purete" du sang. Je ne puis done voir autre
chose dans la th^orie omcielle de la caste qu'une sorte de theme convenu
dont il faut faire usage avec la plus grande prudence, theme dont la
donne"e fondamentale a du, parce qu'elle e"tait consacre"e par une tradi-
tion sainte, se preter successivement, et d'une facon plus ou moins
artificielle a 1'explication d'e"tats de socie'te' bien diffe" rents.'
2 Such as honour and dishonour (manapamana), joy and sorrow, &c.
256 INDIAN WISDOM.
civil and penal laws and rules of evidence. 1 The treat-
ment of these subjects, which ought to constitute the most
important department of a code of laws, is only commenced
by Manu in the second half of his work, and is chiefly com-
prised in one quarter of it, viz., the seventh, eighth, and
ninth Books. As the state of society depicted in the first
six Books is of a simple and primitive character, recogniz-
ing only four principal divisions of the people, so the only
form of government prescribed in the seventh Book is of
a paternal and patriarchal description. The king is to rule
by divine right, and, though a despot, to act like a father 2
towards his subjects (varteta pitri-van nrishu, VII. 80).
That he was treated as a kind of divinity is evident :
The Creator created a king for the protection of the whole world by
drawing forth eternal particles (mdtrdk sdsvatih] from the essence of
Indra, Anila (Wind), Yama (god of justice), Surya (Sun), Agni (Fire),
Varuna, Candra (Moon), and Kuvera (god of wealth, VII. 3, 4).
A king, even though a child, must not be treated with contempt, as
if he were a mortal ; he is a great divinity in human shape (VII. 8).
He is directed to appoint seven or eight ministers
(VII. 54) and to consult them first apart, and then collec-
tively, as a kind of council. His prime minister (VII. 58)
is to be a Brahman, 3 and in him he is to place implicit
confidence (59). He is to have a standing army (VII.
1 02, 103), commander-in-chief (VII. 65), and an ambas-
sador (dutah) of great knowledge and abilities (VII. 63).
The following is very significant :
1 I have here consulted Elphinstone's and Mill's India.
2 Compare S'akuntala, Act V. : Tvayi parisamdptam bandhu-lirityam
prajdndm, 'in thee (the king) is comprehended the whole duty of a
kinsman towards thy subjects.' Asff-orjjs is said to be = Sanskrit ddsa-
pati, 'lord of conquered races.'
3 This rule was followed by S'ivaji in the constitution of the Marathi
empire, and the Peshwa or chief of the eight Pradhanas, ' principal
ministers,' ultimately superseded S'ivaji's weak successors and usurped
the supremacy.
THE LAW-BOOKS MANU. 257
Determination not to retreat in battle (san-grdmeshu anivartitvarn),
protection of the people, and obedience (susrusha) to Brahmans is the
highest duty of kings, and secures their felicity in heaven (VII. 88).
The king's mode of life and the distribution of his time
are carefully regulated (VII. 145, &c.) He is to rise in the
last watch of the night, then to hold a court, then to
assemble his council and deliberate on the affairs of his
kingdom and all the eightfold business of kings (VII. 1 54) ;
after that, to engage in manly exercises, then to dine,
taking care that his food is not poisoned (VII. 2 1 8), and
then to regulate his family ; after that, he is allowed some
relaxation ; then he is to review his troops ; then to
perform religious exercises ; and lastly, being himself well
armed, to receive the report of his spies (cara), informers
and secret emissaries (pranidhi), who are regarded as of
great importance. 1 He is to conclude the day by a frugal
meal and musical recreations, and to go to bed early (VII.
225). 2 The rules for diplomacy and war show that India
1 In IX. 256 a king is called cdra-cakshuh, 'spy-eyed..'
2 The royal office was no sinecure. This is evident from the Maha-
bharata and Dasa-kumara-c'arita as well as from Manu. It appears
that the day and night were each divided into eight portions of one
hour and a half each, reckoned from sunrise, and thus distributed.
Day i. the king being dressed is to audit accounts; 2. he is to pro-
nounce judgments in appeals ; 3. he is to breakfast ; 4. he is to receive
and make presents; 5. he is to discuss political questions with his
ministers; 6. he is to amuse himself ; 7. he is to review his troops ; 8.
he is to hold a military council. Night i. he is to receive the reports
of his spies and envoys ; 2. he is to dine ; 3. he is to retire to rest
after the perusal of some sacred work ; 4. and 5. he is to sleep ; 6. he
is to rise and purify himself ; 7. he is to hold a private consultation
with his ministers and instruct his officers ; 8. he is to attend upon the
Purohita or ' family priest ' for the performance of religious ceremonies
(Wilson's Hindu Theatre, i. 209). Megasthenes (Strabo XY. i, 55)
says that the Indian king may not sleep in the daytime, but continues
the whole day judging causes. Compare Macaulay's account of the
daily life of Frederic the Great (Essays, p. 805).
R
258 INDIAN WISDOM.
was divided into a number of unequal states. Intrigues
are to be carried on with the leaders of the enemy, and
negotiation is declared to be better than force (VII. 197,
198). In battle the king is to set an example of personal
bravery (VII. 87). The chief weapon is the bow (VIT.
74). Elephants, chariots, cavalry, and infantry form the
Gatur-an-ga or 'fourfold army,' 1 and minute directions are
given for its marching (VII. 187, &c.).
With regard to internal administration, it is clear from
the Code that the country was partitioned into divisions
governed by vicegerents, to whom the king delegated his
own despotic powers, and whose authority was again dele-
gated to other subordinate governors, who again divided
their power by committing it to other rulers of townships
in a regular chain, the highest governor ruling over a
thousand towns, the next over a hundred, the next over
twenty, the next over ten (cf. Luke xix. 17), and the
lowest ruling over one town :
Let the lord of one town (gramikah) notify of his own accord, and
in due order, to the lord of ten towns (grama-dasesaya) any crimes
which have taken place in his own district, and the lord of ten to the
lord of twenty ; let the lord of twenty notify everything to the lord
of a hundred, and the lord of a hundred to the lord of a thousand
(VII. 1 1 6, 117).
Another important subject is revenue, which the monarch
is to obtain from the following sources : i. Taxes on
the produce of land, which was probably held in common
by village communities, though occasional grants may
have been made to individuals, the king being theoreti-
cally the only absolute proprietor of the soil (bhumer adhi-
patih), VIII. 39). 2 2. Taxes on the produce of labour.
1 In VII. 185 a sixfold (shad-vidha) army is spoken of, the two other
component parts being officers and attendants.
2 In later times a sort of middle-man, to whom the name Zamlnddr
THE LAW-BOOKS MANU. 2 59
3. Taxes on certain metals and commodities added to
capital stock. 4. Taxes on purchases and sales. 5. A
kind of poll-tax. 6. Another kind paid in labour.
With regard to i, the usual proportion of produce taken
by the king was a sixth part, but in times of necessity
(as of war or invasion), he might even take a fourth of
the crops. But, even though dying for want of money, he
i& never to receive a tax from a Brahman conversant with
the Veda (VII. I33). 1 The following passages illustrate
the above six heads of taxation :
1. A sixth, an eighth, or a twelfth part of grain may be taken by the
king (according to the goodness or badness of the soil, VII. 130).
The king who, without giving protection, takes a sixth part of the
grain as tax (bali) is declared to draw upon himself all the sins of all
his subjects (VIIL 308).
A military king (lisliatriyaJi) who takes even a fourth part in a time
of necessity (dpadf) while protecting his subjects to the utmost of his
ability is freed from all culpability (X. 118).
2. Moreover, he may take a sixth part of the annual increase of trees
(dru), meat, honey, clarified butter, perfumes, medicinal herbs, liquids,
flowers, roots, and fruits, of leaves (patra), pot-herbs (6aka\ grass,
wicker-work (vaidala), hides, earthenware vessels, and all articles made
of stone (VII. 131, 132).
3. Of cattle and gold and silver (MranyayoJi) added to the capital
stock (mulad adhikayoh), a fiftieth part may be taken by the king
(VII. 130).
Of old treasures and precious metals in the earth the king may take
(introduced by the Muhammadans) is applied, acquired an ownership
nearly absolute in the soil; or, at any rate, intervened between the
Ryot or ' cultivator ' and the king, receiving a share of the produce
from the former and paying a stipulated proportion to the sovereign.
1 In S'akuntala, Act II., Mathavya says to the king, ' Say you have
come for the sixth part of their grain which they owe you for tribute.'
The Maha-bharata allows secularized Brahmans to be taxed. Strabo
(XV. i, 40) says, ' The whole land belongs to the king, but the Indians
work it on condition of receiving the fourth part of the crops (Iw/
260 INDIAN WISDOM.
one half, because he protects his subjects and is the paramount lord of
the soil (VIII. 39).
4. Having well considered the rates of purchase and sale, the length of
transit (adhvdnam), with cost of food, &c., on the journey (saparivya-
yam), the profit gained, and expense of insurance (yoga-kshemam), let
him make merchants pay taxes on their commodities (VII. 127).
5. The king should cause the lower classes (prithag-janam = nikrislita-
janam, Kulluka) in his kingdom, who live by petty trading, to pay some
small sum (per head) in the name of the annual tax (VII. 137).
6. The king should cause inferior artisans and artificers (such as
blacksmiths, &c.) and men of the servile class ($udrari), who support
themselves by their own labour, to work for one day in every month
(VII. 138). '
As regards the administration of justice, this is also
to be performed by the king in person, aided by Brahmans
or else by a Brahman acting as his deputy, assisted by
three others (VIII. 9, 10). In Book VII. 14 we read :
For the use of the king the great Creator (Isvarah] created in the
beginning his own son Justice, composed of particles of his own divine
essence, to act as the protector of all creatures (by wielding) the rod of
punishment.
The terrible consequences of neglecting to wield this
rod are described in VII. 20, &c. (see p. 285). The king
is not to encourage litigation (notpddayet karyam, VIII.
43). Nevertheless, he is to be ready every day to decide
causes in the court (sabJid] when brought before him.
The mode of conducting a trial is simple and patriarchal.
In VIII. 23 we read:
Let the king, having seated himself on the judgment-seat, with his
body suitably attired and his mind collected (samdhttah), and having
offered homage (pranamya) to the gods who are guardians of the world,
commence the trial of causes (kdrya-darsana). (Of. Strabo XV. i, 55.)
The litigant parties are to be heard in person, and the
plaintiff's accusation is to be made vivd voce. The wit-
nesses are to be examined by the judge, who is to observe
THE LAW-BOOKS MANU. 26 1
their countenances carefully (VIII. 25, 26). In his deci-
sion the judge is to attend to local usage, established
practice (dcard), the decisions of former j udges (VIII. 45,
46), and written codes of law (sdstra, VIII. 3).
Let me pass on to notice the broad features of the civil
and criminal code. It is, of course, very desirable that
the distinction between civil and criminal laws should be
clearly marked out. They are, however, mixed together
very confusedly in the eighteen heads or divisions of la\v
given by Manu (Book VII. 4-7) as follows :
The eighteen titles or branches of law are : i. recovery of debts (rind-
ddnam) ; 2. deposits (niksliepah] 3. sale of property by one who is not
the rightful owner (asvdmi-vikrayah] ; 4. engaging in business after
joining partnership, association in trade (sambhuya samutthdnam) ;
5. non-delivery of what has been given (dattasydnapakarma) ; 6. non-
payment of wages (vetanasya addnam) ; 7. breach of contract (samvido
vyatikramali) ; 8. annulling of purchase or sale (kraya-vikraydnu$ayah} ;
9. disputes between the owner and tender of cattle or between master
and servant (vivddah svamipdlayoh) ; 10. the law respecting disputes
about boundaries (simd-vivdda-dharmali) ; u, 12. the two kinds of
assault, viz., blows and abuse, or assault with blows and assault with
slander (pdrusliye-danda-vdcike) ; 13. theft and larceny (steyain) ; 14.
robbery with violence (sdhasam) ; 15. adultery (stri-san-grahanam) ;
1 6. the law regulating (the duties of) husband and wife (stri-pun-
dharmali) ; 17. partition of patrimony or inheritance (vibhdgah) ; 18.
gambling with dice and betting on animals, such as fighting-cocks
(dyutam dhvayas ca).
The first nine of the above titles and the sixteenth and
seventeenth belong to civil law ; those from the eleventh
to the fifteenth, and the eighteenth relate to criminal
law ; the tenth belongs partly to civil, partly to criminal.
With reference to the whole arrangement of the subject,
Mr. James Mill's History of India (vol. i. p. 195, &c.) has
some valuable remarks, the substance of which I here
give :
Though no arrangement would appear more natural than the division
of laws into civil and penal, we find them here mixed together. Another
262 INDIAN WISDOM.
obvious ground of division the distinction between the laws about
persons and the laws about things which prevailed in Roman law and
was transferred, rude as it was, to English, seems never to have occurred
to Hindu lawyers in the time of Manu. The first nine of the heads in
Manu's arrangement relate to contracts, but the division is rude and
imperfect. It begins with ' Loans/ one of the most refined of contracts.
The subject of ' purchase and sale ' is divided into two parts, but one
occupies the third place in the list, the other the eighth, and a number
of heterogeneous subjects intervene. ' Partnership ' occupies a middle
place between two subjects, to neither of which it has any relation.
' Non-payment of wages ' stands immediately before c Breach of con-
tract,' as a separate title, though it ought to be included under that
head. In fact, this seventh head is so general that it comprehends the
whole subject of contracts. When the subject of contracts is ended,
the principal branches of criminal law are introduced. After these and
some other topics follows the great subject of inheritance. 1
Under the head of Civil Laiv the most interesting of
Manu's ordinances are on the important subject of pro-
perty, whether acquired by possession or occupancy (labha,
bhukti, bhoga), by purchase (kraya), by contract (samvid,
vyavahdra), by labour (karma-yoga), by donation (prati-
graha), by inheritance (ddya). I note the following :
He who has acquired any property through the sale of it (vikraydt)
in the presence of a number (of buyers and sellers) justly obtains the
right to that property by reason of having paid the purchase money
(VIII. 201).
The property of infants who are heirs let the king hold in trust until
the owner has completed his term of studentship or till he is of age
(at sixteen, VIII. 27).
Let the king fix the rate of sale and purchase of all marketable com-
modities (sarva-panydnam), after having considered the distance (from
which they have been imported), the remoteness of the place to which
they are sent, the time they are kept, and the gain or loss upon them.
Once in every five nights or once a fortnight he should fix the proper
rate in the presence of those (who understand it, VIII. 401, 402).
1 In consulting Mr. James Mill I have found that some of his state-
ments must be taken with considerable qualification, prejudiced as he
appears to have been against everything Hindu.
THE LAW-BOOKS MANU. 263
A lost article, when found, should be guarded by trusty men. Any
thieves convicted of stealing it should be condemned to be trampled to
death by the royal elephant (VIII. 34).
It is evidence of a somewhat rude state of society
that in certain cases a man is allowed to repent of a
bargain and to have a contract annulled, thus :
When a man has bought or sold anything (not perishable, such as
land or copper), and may afterwards repent, he may restore it or take
it back within ten days (antar-dasdhdt, VIII. 222).
Marriage is regarded as a contract, but the same liberty
of annulling is in this case not allowed :
If a man shall give away in marriage a girl who has any defects
(dosliavatwri) without notifying these defects, the king must fine him
ninety-six Panas (Imrydd dandam sliannavatim pancin, VIII. 224).
The repetition of the nuptial texts (panigralianikd mantrali) are the
settled mark (niyatam lakslianam) of a marriage contract. Of those
texts (the one) repeated on (making) the seventh step (viz., saklid sapta-
padi lhava, see p. 191) is decided by the wise to be (the sign of)
the completion (iiislitha) of the contract (VIII. 227).
Throughout Eastern countries, especially in ancient times,
the insecurity of property has led to two practices little
resorted to by the peoples of modern Europe, viz., conceal-
ment of valuable articles and the habit of entrusting them
for safety to the keeping of others. We can understand,
therefore, the importance assigned in Manu's Law-book
(Book VIII. 179, &c.) to the subject of 'deposits' or,
according to legal phraseology, ' bailments.' This branch
of law opens thus :
A wise man should make a deposit (nilisliepam niksliipet} with a person
of good family, of good conduct, acquainted with law, a speaker of truth,
possessing numerous relations, wealthy and honourable (VIII. 179)-
If a bailee (nyasa-dliariri) fail to restore a deposit, and there are no
witnesses, the judge is to cause secret agents (pranidlii) to deposit gold
with him, and should he fail to redeliver it, he is to be made to pay
(dapyah] the equivalent of both deposits (VIII. 181-184).
264 INDIAN WISDOM.
Another proof of a primitive state of society may be
found in the rules respecting interest and the premium
paid for the use of borrowed property. This is sometimes
allowed to be paid in kind ; l as, for instance, when grain,
fruit, wool, animals, &c., have been borrowed, showing
that coined money was still uncommon as a general circu-
lating medium. (Compare the mention of ndnaka, ' coin,'
in the later Code of Yajnavalkya II. 241.)
Interest on money (kuslda-vriddliili) received all at once (and not by
the month, &c.) must not exceed the double (of the sum lent) ; 2 on grain
(dhanye), fruit (sade), wool (lave), and beasts of burden (vdhye) it must
not exceed five times the value (pancatd, VIII. 151).
The rate of interest (vriddhi) is not only high, but
varies according to the class of the man to whom any-
thing is lent; but compound interest (cakra-vriddhi} is
not approved (VIII. 153) :
A money-lender (vardliushikah) may take two per cent, (dvikam fatam)
as interest per month from a Brahman, three (triham) from a Ksha-
triya, four (catushkam) from a Vaisya, and five (pahcaJcarn) from a
Sudra, in the order of the classes (VIII. 142).
In VIII. 156, 157, there is a law bottomry, which is
interesting as showing that sea-voyages were undertaken
in Manu's time.
The recovery of debts is enforced by stringent laws, and
the debtor is not only made to pay what he owes, but an
additional fine to the kino-, thus : 3
C5'
1 Compare Deut. xxiii. 19, 20, 'Thou shalt not lend upon usury to
thy brother ; usury of money, usury of victuals, usury of anything that
is lent upon usury : unto a stranger thou mayest lend upon usury,' &c.
2 Principal doubled by accumulated interest is called in Marathi
Damdupat. Even now a village Mahajan will take from 50 to 75 per
cent.
3 No sanction, however, is given by Manu to the later practice of
Dliarna or ' sitting at the door of a house to compel payment of a debt.'
THE LAW-BOOKS MANU. 265
When a debt has to be paid (rine deye) which is admitted to be just,
the debtor owes a fine of five per cent, (paiicakam satam) in addition,
and ten per cent, if it be repudiated (though it be just, VIII. 139).
The laws respecting herdsmen (pasu-pala) and their
employers (svdmin) are carefully laid down (VIII. 229,
&c.). I note one instance (VIII. 232) :
The herdsman himself must restore an animal that has been lost
(nashta), or destroyed by vermin (krimibhih), or killed by dogs, or has
perished by falling into a hole (vishame) through want of his having
exerted himself to save it (hlnam purusha-lmrena).
We may also observe that the hire of some kinds of
agricultural labourers is directed to be paid in kind : l
That hired herdsman whose hire is paid with milk must be allowed
by the owner of the cattle to milk the best cow out of ten (dasato-
vardm), unless he be paid with some other kind of food (VIII. 231).
The most important subject connected with property is
the law of inheritance (daya) treated of in the ninth Book
of Manu's Code. And here we cannot fail to be struck
with the remarkable circumstance that Hindu law does
not allow the owner of property any testamentary power. 2
Indeed, a proper word for ' will ' or ' testament ' does not
exist in the Sanskrit language. It must be borne in mind
that in a patriarchal state of society all family property
The person so sitting refuses to eat, and as long as he does so the debtor
must abstain from food too, and if the suitor perishes the crime of his
death falls on the debtor. Originally the person sitting in Dharna,
either on his own behalf or that of another, was a Brahman. See H. H.
Wilson's Glossary of Indian Terms.
1 Payments in kind in aid of money wages are not unusual even in
the present day. Even quite recently in British territory the land-tax
was sometimes paid in kind, and is still so paid in some native states.
2 Our Government made this legal by the Hindu Wills Act (xxi. of
1870). Certain peculiar documents, however, resembling wills, but
bearing other titles, were previously recognized by our courts.
266 INDIAN WISDOM.
was supposed to be held in common by a sort of joint
ownership, the father or principal person in a household
being regarded as a head partner.
In India, where customs become stereotyped for cen-
turies, this primitive idea of a common title to the family
property has continued to prevail up to recent times. The
family is, as we have seen, a corporate society, whose bond
of union is the sacred oblation offered in common by its
living to its deceased members. On the death of a father
o
the sons or nearest relatives succeed to the inheritance
by simple right of Sa-pindaship, that is, by a right ob-
tained through the common offering of rice-cakes (pinda)
and of water, &c., to a deceased father, grandfather, and
great-grandfather at the Sraddha ceremonies (see p. 248).
It must be noted, however, that although the whole family
has a joint-interest in the property, the estate cannot
be divided during the lifetime of the parents, and even at
their death the eldest son is allowed to take the father's
place as chief manager of the family partnership, thus :
The eldest brother may take the paternal property (pitryam dhanam)
entirely (into his own hands). The rest of the family (sesliah) may
live under him (tarn upajweyuJi) exactly as they lived under the father
(IX. 105).
An eldest brother conducting himself as he ought (towards his
younger brothers) is to be regarded by them as a mother and father
(IX. no).
Nevertheless, the brothers are allowed, if they like, to
separate, and full directions are given in Book IX. 112,
&c., for the partition of the family estate ; a distinction
being made according to merit as well as age, and some
being, very unjustly according to our ideas, disqualified :
After the death of the father and mother, the brothers having
assembled together may make a partition of the paternal property,
but they have no power to do so during the lifetime of their parents
(IX. 104).
THE LAW-BOOKS MANU. 267
Either let them live together (sahavaseyuk) or separately, from reli-
gious motives ; since the number of religious rites (such as the five
Malid-yajiiah, see p. 244) are increased by separation of households,
therefore separation is legal (IX. in).
The portion taken out (of the estate) by the eldest son is a twentieth,
along with the best of all the chattels ; by the middle son, a fortieth ;
and by the youngest, an eightieth (IX. 112).
A deduction (uddlidra) being thus made, the remainder should be
allotted among the brothers in equal shares ; if no deduction is made
they should share in the following manner : Let the eldest take a
double share and the next born a share and a half (if they excel in
learning and merit), and let the younger sons have a share each
(IX. 1 1 6, 117).
Those brothers who are addicted to vicious habits (such as gambling,
licentiousness, &c.) forfeit a right (ndrlianti) to any share in the in-
heritance (IX. 214).
Impotent persons (Jdiva), those who have lost caste (patita), those
who are blind, deaf, insane, paralyzed (jada\ dumb, defective in limb
or sense, are also debarred from sharing (IX 201).
But a wise heir will in common justice supply all such persons with
food and raiment (grasacchadanam) to the best of his ability. Other-
wise he is guilty of a great crime (IX. 202).
It must be observed that women are generally excluded
from a direct title to share in the division of property :
Three persons are declared to have no property of their own
(a-dhanah), a wife, a son, and a slave. Whatever money they earn
is his to whom they belong (VIII. 416).
Nevertheless, some marriage portions (sulka) or gifts
received by a married woman at and after the nuptial
ceremony, are regarded as her own peculiar property.
These constitute what is still called Strl-dhana, 1 'a
1 Commonly written Stridhun. Mr. Herbert Cowell, in his Tagore
Law Lectures for 1871 (p. 28), says, that although this property is sup-
posed to belong exclusively to a wife, the husband has a concurrent
power over it, so that he may use it in any exigency, without being
held accountable for it. Stri-dhana is now, however, acquired ' by gift,
by earnings, and by inheritance,' and the Dayabhaga lays down that
268 INDIAN WISDOM.
woman's (separate) wealth or dower,' which, according to
Maun, is sixfold :
Whatever was given over the nuptial fire (adhy-agni), whatever she
receives while being led in procession from her father's to her hus-
band's house (adhydvdhanikam), a gift (from her husband) in token of
affection (prtti), and a similar gift received from her brother, from her
mother, from her father, all these are declared to be a woman's own
property (IX. 194).
Those young girls, too, who are unmarried (kanydJi) at
a father's death are directed (IX. 118) to receive an allot-
ment out of the shares accruing to their brothers. The
following also (IX. 130) is noteworthy :
A man's own son is even as himself, and a daughter is like a son.
How, then (if he have no son), ought any one else than a daughter,
who is part of his own person (atmani tishthanti), to inherit his own
property ?
I pass on to a brief notice of Manu's Criminal Code.
The three most conspicuous features of his penal laws are
exactly those which mark the earliest forms of criminal
legislation, viz., severity, inconsistency, and a belief in the
supposed justice of the lex talionis, the latter leading to
punishments which in later times would be considered
unjustifiably disproportionate to the offences committed,
and sometimes barbarously cruel. 1 Thus :
the husband has power over the wife's earnings and ' any presents she
may receive from any other but kindred.'
1 Mr. Mill on this point quotes Sir W. Jones, who is not, like him-
self, disposed to view everything Hindu in an unfavourable light.
' The cruel mutilations practised by the native powers are shocking to
humanity.' We know what was said by our Lord about ' an eye for
an eye and a tooth for a tooth,' Matt. v. 38. See Lev. xxiv. 20;
Deut. xix. 21. Compare the laws of Draco and of the ancient
Egyptians. Strabo (XY. i. 54) says of the Hindus, 'He who has
given false testimony suffers mutilation of the extremities
fyrai), and he who maims a limb is condemned to suffer maiming.'
THE LAW-BOOKS MANU. 269
With whatever member of the body a low-born man may injure a
superior, that very member of his must be mutilated (VIII. 279).
A once-born man insulting (kshipan) twice-born men with abusive
language (vd6d ddrunaya) must have his tongue cut (VIII. 270).
Should he mention their name and caste with insulting expressions
(as, ' Hallo ! there, Yajnadatta, vilest of Brahmans '), a red-hot iron
spike ten fingers long is to be thrust into his mouth (VIII. 271).
Should he, through arrogance, attempt to instruct a Brahman in his
duty (saying, ' You ought to do so and so '), the king is to have boiling
oil poured into his mouth and ears (VIII. 272).
Thieves are to have their hands cut off, and then to be impaled on a
sharp stake (IX. 276).
A goldsmith detected in committing frauds is to have his body cut
to pieces with razors (IX. 292).
Perhaps the most objectionable feature in the penal
code is not the cruel retaliation, which was probably
more a matter of theory than actual practice, but the
leniency with which Brahmans are directed to be treated.
It will be observed that a graduated scale is prescribed
according to the rank of the offender and the class to
which he belongs, thus :
A king must never kill a Brahman, though he may be found guilty
of all possible crimes (sarva-papesliv api stliitam) ; let him expel him
from the kingdom unharmed in body and intact in all his property.
There is no greater injustice on earth than the killing of a Brahman.
The king, therefore, must not harbour a thought about putting him to
death (VIII. 380, 381).
A Kshatriya insulting a Brahman must be fined a hundred Panas
(satam dandam arhati) ; a Vaisya doing the same must pay one hundred
and fifty or two hundred Panas ; a S'udra doing the same must receive
corporal punishment l (badham arhati, VIII. 267).
Five great crimes (mahd-pdtakdni) are enumerated in
Book XL 54, which are described as entailing the highest
degree of guilt, though certainly from a European point
of view they cannot all be regarded as equally heinous :
1 Badha might be rendered ' capital punishment,' but Kulluka
explains it by ' the lash.'
2/0 INDIAN WISDOM.
i. Killing a Brahman (brahma-hatya) ; 2. drinking intoxicating
liquor (surd-pdna) ; 3. stealing gold from a Brahman (steya) ; 4. adul-
tery with the wife of a Guru or spiritual teacher (gurv-angandgamah] ;
and 5. associating with any one guilty of such sins.
Severe penances voluntarily performed, rather than
legal penalties judicially inflicted, are enjoined for some
of these crimes (see p. 274); and they are declared in
XI. 49 to involve rather singular consequences (phala) in
future states of existence. Thus for i. a man will suffer
from consumption (kshaya-rogitvam) in a future life (see
also XI. 73) ; for 2. he will have discoloured teeth ; for 3.
diseased nails (kaunakhyam). 1
Moreover, in XII. 54-57, much, more awful results are
alleged to follow hereafter ; inasmuch as those who are
guilty of these great crimes are condemned to dwell for a
vast number of years in terrible hells (ghordn narakdn)
before entering on new states of being. After protracted
torture in one or other of these hells (see p. 217) a Brah-
man-slayer (brahma-hd) must enter the body of a dog,
boar, ass, camel, bull, goat, sheep, stag, bird, or outcaste
Candala, according to the degree of his guilt ; a spirit-
drinker will become a worm, insect, moth, &c. ; a gokl-
stealer will pass a thousand times into the bodies of
spiders, snakes, noxious demons, &c. (Compare p. 276.)
Some crimes in the second degree are the following :
Falsely asserting oneself to be of too high a caste, falsely accusing
a Guru, forgetting texts of the Veda through neglect of repeating
them (brahmojjJiatd), giving false testimony (kauta-sdkshyam), eating
impure food, stealing deposits, incest, intercourse with women of the
lowest class.
A long list of crimes in the third degree (upapdtaka) is
given in XL 59-66. Some of them are :
1 For this reason it is directed in Book IIL 153, 154, that consump-
tive persons and persons with diseased nails (ku-nakhiri) and discoloured
teeth (sydva-dantaka) ought to be excluded from S'raddhas.
THE LAW-BOOKS MANU. 2/1
Killing a cow (go-ladhah} ; neglect of repetition of the Veda (i.e., of
the daily Brahma-yajiia) ; neglect of the sacred fire ; usury (vdrdhu-
sliyam) ; selling a tank or garden or wife or child ; neglecting investiture
(vrdtyata) ; superintendence over mines of any kind (sarvdJcareshv adhi-
kdrafi) ; cutting down green trees for fuel ; performing religious rites
for selfish motives (dtmdrtliam) ; reading infidel books (asac-chdstrddhi-
gamanairi) ; addiction to music and dancing (kausilavyasya Jcriya) ;
atheism (nastikyam).
For many of these crimes also voluntary penances con-
stitute the only punishment. Thus the killer of a cow
must undergo great hardships and make atonement by
attending upon a herd, guarding them from injury,
following them day and night in all weathers for three
months, swallowing the dust raised by their hoofs, &c.
(XI. 108-115).
Trial by ordeal (divya) is recognized by Manu, though
the ten different forms of it are not all specified as in later
works : *
Let him cause a man (whose veracity is doubted) to take hold of fire
or dive under water (apsu nimqjjayef), or touch the heads of his wife
and sons one by one. The man whom flaming fire burns not and water
forces not up (dpo nonmajjayanti], and who suffers no harm, must be
instantly held innocent of perjury (VIII. 114, 115).
It remains to notice a few of the laws of evidence.
Fearful denunciations are pronounced against those who
deliver false testimony in a court of justice (VIII. 82).
The strictest rules are also to be observed in selecting
witnesses competent to give trustworthy evidence (see
1 These ten forms (some of which are given by Yajnavalkya, see p.
297) are i. Tula, 'the balance;' 2. Agni, 'fire;' 3. Jala, 'water;'
4. Vislia, ' poison ; ' 5. Kosa, ' drinking water in which an idol has been
washed ; ' 6. Tandula, ' ejecting chewed rice- grains ; ' 7. Tapta-mdslia,
' taking a Masha weight of gold out of heated oil ; ' 8. Phdta, ' holding
a hot ploughshare ; ' 9. Dharmadharma, ' drawing concealed images of
virtue and vice out of a vessel filled with earth;' 10. Tulasl, 'holding
the leaves of holy basil.' This holy basil is said to be sacred to Vishnu.
2/2 INDIAN WISDOM.
p. 287). At least three witnesses are required to establish
a fact in dispute :
If a man is summoned (kritdvastliaJi) by a creditor for a debt and
denies it when questioned, he is to be proved guilty by three witnesses
at least (try-avaraih saksliibliih] in the presence of a Brahman appointed
by the king * (VIII. 60).
Witnesses are to deliver their testimony vivd voce,
and no directions are given about written documents,
which makes it probable that this kind of evidence,
though fully recognized by Yajnavalkya (see p. 297), was
not received, or at least not usual, at the early epoch when
Manu's Law-book was composed. If the testimony is
contradictory, the judge is to decide by the majority of
credible witnesses. If the number of witnesses is equal,
he is to be guided by the testimony of those who are most
distinguished for virtuous qualities (VIII. 73). A similar
rule is propounded by Yajnavalkya (see p. 298). It is a
noteworthy point that women are, as a rule, debarred from
giving evidence, except for women (VIII. 68). Moreover,
the distinctions between the credibility of witnesses must
strike a European mind as somewhat extraordinary and
whimsical. A man who has male offspring is thought more
worthy of credence than a man who has female (VIII. 62),
perhaps because he is supposed to have a greater stake
in the common weal. A hungry or thirsty and tired per-
son is excluded from all right of bearing testimony (VIII.
67). The reason for the following is not very clear :
In cases of robbery with violence (sahaseshu), theft, and adultery
(steya-san-grahaneshu), calumny and assault (vdg-dandayoh parusliye), a
judge must not examine (the competence of) witnesses too strictly (na
parikslieta saksliinah, VIII. 72).
1 Compare Yajnavalkya's rules about witnesses, which are a develop-
ment of those of Manu. See p. 298.
THE LAW-BOOKS MANU. 273
The following precept is calculated, I fear, to diminish
the favourable impression which the laws of the Manavas,
taken together and regarded relatively to circumstances,
must produce on a candid mind :
In certain cases a man stating a fact falsely from a pious motive
(dharmatah}, even though he knows the truth, is not excluded from
heaven ; such a statement they call divine speech.
Whenever the death of a Brahman, Kshatriya, Vaisya, or S'udra may
result from speaking the truth, then an untruth may be told, for false-
hood is in this case preferable to truth (VIII. 103, 104).
A similar precept occurs in Yajnavalkya's Code, but an
expiation is there prescribed. (See the examples, p. 298.)
V. I now turn to some of the Prayas-citta or 'penances'
enjoined in the eleventh Book of Manu :
A twice-born man performing the Prajapatya penance (i.e., that called
after Prajapati) must for three days eat only once in the morning, for
three days only once in the evening, for three days food unsolicited (but
given as alms), and for three days more nothing at all (XI. 211).
A twice-born man performing the penance called Ati-liricchra (' very
severe') must eat, as before (i.e., as described in the last), a single
mouthful (grdsam) for three times three days, and for the last three
days must fast entirely (XI. 2 1 3).
A Brahman performing the penance called Tapta-kricckra (' hot and
severe ') must swallow hot water, hot milk, hot clarified butter, and hot
air, each of them for three days successively, after bathing and keeping
his organs of sense all restrained (XL 214).
The act of fasting for twelve days, performed by one whose heart is
restrained, and whose mind is attentive, is called the Par oka penance,
which removes all guilt (XI. 215).
Eating for one day the excrement and urine of a cow mixed with milk,
curds, clarified butter and water boiled with Kusa grass, and fasting
entirely for a day and night is the penance called Sdntapana (XI. 2 1 2).
This last penance is to be performed by any one who
does any voluntary act causing loss of caste (jdti-bhransa-
Jcaram Jcarma) ; if the act be involuntary, the Prajapatya
is to be performed. (See XI. 124.)
The Pahcagavya penance consists in swallowing the
s
274 INDIAN WISDOM.
five products of a cow mentioned above under the Santa-
pana penance. This is declared to be a sufficient atone-
ment for having stolen food, a carriage, bed, chair, roots,
flowers, or fruit (XL 165). A variety of other curious
penances and expiations are enumerated :
A twice-born man having, through infatuation, drunk intoxicating
liquor, may (as an expiation) drink the same liquor when boiling hot
(agni-varndm). If his body is completely scalded by this process he is
absolved from guilt (XI. 90).
When the divine knowledge (Irdhmd) which is in his body (Jcdya-
gatam) is once immersed in spirituous liquor, his Brahmanical rank
departs and he descends to the condition of a S'udra (XI. 97).
He who says ' hush ' (hum) to a Brahman, or ' thou ' to one who is
his superior (in knowledge) must perform an ablution, eat nothing for
the rest of the day, and appease the Brahman's anger by prostrating
himself at his feet (XI. 204).
If a Brahman who has drunk the Soma-juice (at a Soma-sacrifice, see
p. 6) smells the breath of a man who has been drinking spirituous liquor,
he is absolved from the taint by thrice suppressing his breath under
water and swallowing clarified butter (XI. 149).
One of the most severe penances is called Cdndrdyana
or 'the lunar penance,' described in VI. 20, XL 216-221.
We have already given a short account of this (see p. 96),
and have only here to note, as peculiar, some of the offences
for which it is required to be performed :
The Candrayana is declared to be an expiation for carrying off a man
or woman, for seizing a field or house, and for taking without per-
mission the water of a well or reservoir (XI. 163). It is also to be
performed for acts which cause mixture of caste and exclusion from
society (XL 125).
The following will show that the greatest atoning
efficacy is attached to a repetition of the Veda :
Having repeated (japitva) the Savitrl (or Gayatri, see p. 17) three
thousand times with a collected mind, and having drunk milk for one
month in a cow-house, a Brahman is delivered from the guilt of receiving
gifts from wicked persons (asat-pratigrahdt, XI. 194).
THE LAW-BOOKS MANU. 2/5
Desiring to obtain absolution (cilclrshan apanodanam) for all his sins
great and small, he should repeat once a day for a year the text beginning
Ava and that beginning Ycdkim cedam (Eig-veda VII. 89. 5).
Having accepted a prohibited gift or eaten improper food, he is
absolved by repeating for three days the texts (Eig-veda IX. 58)
beginning Tarat sa mandl dhavati (XL 252, 253).
Although he be guilty of many crimes (bahv-endk) he is absolved
(sudhyate) by repeating (abhyasya) for a month the text beginning
Somdrudrd (Eig-veda VI. 74. i, Atharva-veda VII. 42. i, and the three
texts beginning Aryamanam varunam mitram, &c. (Eig-veda IV. 2. 4),
while performing ablution in a running stream (XI. 254).
By intently (samdhitah) repeating three times the whole Samhita
(and Brahmana Kidluka] of the Big, Yajur, and Sama-veda with their
Upanishads (sa-raliasya), he is absolved from all his sins (XL 262).
VI. The sixth and last head is that of karma-phala,
' acts-recompenses.' I select a few passages illustrative of
the most characteristic of all Hindu doctrines that of the
soul's transmigration through three stages of being, until
a complete recompense of its acts is effected.
Book XII. 3, 9, n, 39, 40, declares that the triple
order of transmigration through the highest, middle, and
lowest stages, results from good or bad acts, words, and
thoughts produced by the influence of the three Gunas,
Sattva, Kajas, and Tamas (see note i, p. 56) ; and that
for sins of act, a man takes a vegetable or mineral form
(sthdvaratam) ; for sins of word, the form of a bird or
beast ; for sins of thought, that of a man of the lowest caste ;
but that a triple self-command (p. 132, note i, p. 288) leads
to emancipation from all births and final beatitude :
Those who are endowed with the Sattva Guna (' purity ') take the
form of gods (devatvani), those who are filled with Rajas (' passion ')
become men, and those who are overwhelmed with Tamas (' darkness
and ignorance ') become beasts (XII. 40).
But in XII. 41, 50 each of the three orders of transmi-
gration is described as divided into a threefold scale of
being, the gradations and subdivisions of which proceed on
principles which are not very consistent or intelligible :
2; 6 INDIAN WISDOM.
1. a. Highest highest Brahma, the creator, Maric"i, &c. b. Highest
middle Sacrificers (yajvdnah), Rishis, incarnate deities (devdh = devatah
vigrdhavatyaJi), regents of the stars, Pitris, Sadhyas, &c. c. Highest
lowest Ascetics, religious mendicants, Brahmans, demigods borne in
heavenly cars (vaimdnikdh), those that preside over the lunar mansions,
Daityas, &c. (XII. 48-50).
2. a. Middle highest Gandharvas, Guhyakas, Yakshas, Apsarases,
&c. b. Middle middle Kings, Kshatriyas, the chaplains of kings
(purohitah), &c. c. Middle lowest Club-fighters (jhalldh), prize-
fighters (malldh), actors, those who live by the use of weapons,
gamblers, and drinkers (XII. 45-47).
3. a. Lowest highest Dancers, birds (suparnah = pdksliindfi), deceitful
men, Rakshasas, Pisadas, &c. b. Lowest middle Elephants, horses,
S'udras, despicable Mledchas, lions, tigers, boars, c. Lowest lowest
Vegetables and minerals (sthdvardh vrikshddayafi), worms, insects,
fish, reptiles, tortoises, cattle, animals of various kinds (XII. 42-44).
It is curious to note the effect of apparently slight sins
of commission and omission in degrading a man to lower
conditions of being, or in exposing him to diseases :
Through speaking ill (parwdddt) of his preceptor, a man will be born
an ass ; if he reviles him, a dog ; if he uses his property without leave,
a worm; if he envies him, an insect (II. 201).
If a man steal grain he shall be born a mouse; if brass, a gander; if
water, a water-duck ; if honey, a gad-fly ; if milk, a crow ; if syrup, a
dog; if ghee, a weasel (XII. 62).
A Brahman neglecting his own appointed caste duty (dharmdt
svdkdf) will be born as a vomit-eating demon ; a Kshatriya, as a demon
feeding on excrement and dead bodies ; a Vaisya, as a demon feeding
on putrid carrion (Ulkd-mukha, Kata-putana, and Maitrdksha-jyotika,
XII. 71, 72).
A stealer of grain will be afflicted with dyspepsia (in a future exist-
ence) ; a stealer of the words (of the Veda, by repeating it without
authority), with dumbness ; a stealer of cloth, with leprosy ; a horse-
stealer with lameness (XI. 51). Compare p. 27O. 1
1 It may be interesting to annex to this Chapter a few of the statements
of Megasthenes (300 years B.C.) about the Brahmans (Strabo XV. i, 59) :
'They practise the greatest austerities to prepare for death (aaxJGsi
rXfferp \pr t a6ai <xpl$ rb kroifj.o&a.varov), which they hold to be birth to a real
and happy life (yiviciv si; roi/ ovru; ftinv *</; rov ii>8a/'ij,ota) they maintain
THE LAW-BOOKS MANU. 277
that nothing of what happens to men is good or bad ; that the world
was created and is perishable ; that it is spheroidal ; that the God who
made and rules it pervades every part of it ; that water was the first
element created ; that besides the four elements there is a fifth (vpls
ro?$ -riri-apai GToiyjiioiz vi/mrri rig Isrt (fruffi:) and that the earth is in the
centre of the universe. Besides, like Plato, they weave many fables
(iLuSoug) about the immortality of the soul and punishments in hell.
As to the Hindus generally they are ignorant of writing, have no
written laws, and arrange everything from memory (XV. 53, 66).
They do not employ slaves (54). They worship Jupiter Pluvius (rbv
oufiiov A/a), the river Ganges, and the gods of the country ; those who
live in the mountains worship Dionysos ( = S'iva) j those in the plains,
Herakles ( = Vishnu, XV. 58, 69) ; they never drink wine except at sacri-
fices (53). It is not permitted to any one to marry a person of another
caste, nor to change from one business or trade to another, nor to engage
in many pursuits, unless he belong to the caste of philosophers (XV. 49).
These philosophers are of two kinds, Brachmanes and Garmanes (B/aa^-
pavts, r/tyiaz/ = Brahmans and S'ramanas or Buddhist ascetics, 59),
Both practise endurance (xa/arep/av), and will remain a whole day in
one posture without moving (60. Cf. also XV. 61, 63).'
CHAPTER XL
The Law-books Manu continued.
I NOW endeavour to give, as literally as possible, a
metrical version of some of Mann's most noteworthy
precepts, selected from different parts of the Code, under
the four heads of A cam, ' rules of conduct ; ' Vyavahdra,
' rules of government and judicature ; ' Prdyas-citta, ' pen-
ance ; ' Karma-phala, ' rewards and punishments of acts.'
Acara, ' rules of conduct.'
A Brahman from exalted birth is called
A god among the gods, and is a measure
Of truth for all the world, so says the Yeda (XI. 84).
Knowledge, 1 descending from her home divine,
Said to a holy Brahman, I am come
To be thy cherished treasure, trust me not
To scorners, but to careful guardians,
Pure, self-restrained, and pious ; so in them
I shall be gifted with resistless power (II. 114, 115).
The man with hoary head is not revered
As aged by the gods, but only he
Who has true knowledge; 2 he, though young, is old (II. 156).
A wooden elephant, an antelope
Of leather, and a Brahman without knowledge
These are three things that only bear a name (II. 157).
1 In II. 117 knowledge is divided into three parts i. Laukika,
'secular;' 2. Vaidika, 'Vedic;' 3. Adhyatmika, 'spiritual' or that
which relates to soul.
2 Strabo XV. I, 54, says of the Hindus, Ovds rfj fiXixlq ruv yiwvruv
S,v ^ xa! rui <f)oviw
278
THE LAW-BOOKS MANU. 279
As with laborious toil the husbandman,
Digging with spade beneath the ground, arrives
At springs of living water, so the man
Who searches eagerly for truth will find
The knowledge hidden in his teacher's mind (II. 118).
With pain the mother to her child gives birth,
With pain the father rears him ; as he grows
He heaps up cares and troubles for them both ;
Incurring thus a debt he ne'er can pay,
Though he should strive through centuries of time (II. 227).
Think constantly, O son, how thou mayest please
Thy father, mother, teacher these obey.
By deep devotion seek thy debt to pay.
This is thy highest duty and religion (II. 228).
Who finds around him only wicked sons,
When called by fate to pass the gloom of death,
Is like a man who seeks to cross a flood
Borne on a raft composed of rotten wood (IX. 161).
Even though wronged, treat not with disrespect
Thy father, mother, teacher, elder brother (II. 226).
From poison thou mayest take the food of life,
The purest gold from lumps of impure earth,
Examples of good conduct from a foe,
Sweet speech and gentleness from e'en a child,
Something from all ; from men of low degree
Lessons of wisdom, if thou humble be (II. 238, 239).
Wound not another, though by him provoked,
Do no one injury by thought or deed,
Utter no word to pain thy fellow-creatures (II. 161).
Say what is true, speak not agreeable falsehood (IV. 138).
Treat no one with disdain, 1 with patience bear
Reviling language ; with an angry man
Be never angry ; blessings give for curses (VI. 47, 48).
1 In IV. 135 the householder is especially warned against treating
with contempt a Brahman well versed in the Veda, a Kshatriya, and a
serpent, because (says Kulluka) the first has the power of destroying
280 INDIAN WISDOM.
E'en as a driver checks his restive steeds,
Do thou, if thou art wise, restrain thy passions,
Which, running wild, will hurry thee away (II. 88).
When asked, give something, though a very trifle,
Ungrudgingly and with a cheerful heart,
According to thy substance ; only see
That he to whom thou givest worthy be (IV. 227, 228).
Pride not thyself on thy religious works,
Give to the poor, but talk not of thy gifts.
By pride religious merit melts away,
The merit of thy alms by ostentation (IY. 236, 237).
None sees us, say the sinful in their hearts ;
Yes, the gods see them, and the omniscient Spirit
Within their breasts. Thou thinkest, O good friend,
' I am alone,' but there resides within thee
A Being who inspects thy every act,
Knows all thy goodness and thy wickedness (VIII. 85, 91).
The soul is its own witness ; yea, the soul
Itself is its own refuge ; grieve thou not,
O man, thy soul, the great internal Witness (VIII. 84).
The Firmament, the Earth, the Sea, the Moon,
The Sun, the Fire, the Wind, the Night, and both
The sacred Twilights, 1 and the Judge of souls, 2
The god of Justice, and the Heart itself
All constantly survey the acts of men (VIII. 86).
When thou hast sinned, think not to hide thy guilt
Under a cloak of penance and austerity (IV. 198).
No study of the Veda nor oblation,
No gift of alms, nor round of strict observance
Can lead the inwardly depraved to heaven (II. 97).
him by his unseen power of magical texts and spells, the other two by
their seen power (drislita-saktya). Cf. the passages relative to the
power of the Brahmans, translated p. 234.
1 See the account of the Sandhyas, p. 241.
2 Yama, see p. 19.
THE LAW-BOOKS MANU. 28 I
If with the great Divinity who dwells
Within thy breast thou hast no controversy,
Go not to Ganges' water to be cleansed,
Nor make a pilgrimage to Kuru's fields (VIII. 92). 1
Iniquity once practised, like a seed,
Fails not to yield its fruit to him who wrought it,
If not to him, yet to his sons and grandsons (IV. 173).
Contentment is the root of happiness,
And discontent the root of misery.
"VVouldst thou be happy, be thou moderate (IV. 12).
Honour thy food, receive it thankfully,
Eat it contentedly and joyfully,
Ne'er hold it in contempt ; avoid excess,
For gluttony is hateful, injures health,
May lead to death, and surely bars the road,
To holy merit and celestial bliss (II. 54, 57).
Desire is not extinguished by enjoyment,
Fire is not quenched by offerings of oil,
But blazes with increased intensity (II. 94).
Shrink thou from worldly honour as from poison,
Seek rather scorn ; the scorn 'd may sleep in peace,
In peace awake; the scorner perishes (II. 162, 163).
Daily perform thy own appointed work
Unweariedly ; and to obtain a friend
A sure companion to the future world
Collect a store of virtue like the ants
Who garner up their treasures into heaps ;
For neither father, mother, wife, nor son,
Nor kinsman, will remain beside thee then,
When thou art passing to that other home
Thy virtue will thy only comrade be (IV. 238, 239).
Single is every living creature born,
Single he passes to another world,
Single he eats the fruit of evil deeds,
Single, the fruit of good ; and when he leaves
1 See note, p. 244.
282 INDIAN WISDOM.
His body like a log or heap of clay
Upon the ground, his kinsmen walk away ;
Virtue alone stays by him at the tomb
And bears him through the dreary trackless gloom (IV. 240-242}.*
Thou canst not gather what thou dost not sow ;
As thou dost plant the tree so will it grow (IX. 40).
Depend not on another, rather lean
Upon thyself ; trust to thine own exertions.
Subjection to another's will gives pain ;
True happiness consists in self-reliance (IV. 160).
Strive to complete the task thou hast commenced ;
Wearied, renew thy efforts once again ;
Again fatigued, once more the work begin,
So shalt thou earn success and fortune win (IX. 300).
Never despise thyself, nor yet contemn
Thy own first efforts, though they end in failure ;
Seek Fortune with persistency till death,
Nor ever deem her hard to be obtained (IV. 137).
Success in every enterprise depends
On Destiny 2 and man combined, the acts
Of Destiny are out of man's control ;
Think not on Destiny, but act thyself (VII. 205).
Be courteous to thy guest who Visits thee ;
Offer a seat, bed, water, food enough,
According to thy substance, hospitably ;
Naught taking for thyself till he be served ;
Homage to guests brings wealth, fame, life, and heaven (III. 106, IV. 29).
He who possessed of ample means bestows
His gifts on strangers while his kindred starve,
Thinks to enjoy the honey of applause,
But only eating poison dies despised
Such charity is cruelty disguised (XL 9).
1 Dr. Muir has pointed out that the expression tamas tarati dustaram,
' he crosses the gloom difficult to be passed,' may be taken from Atharva-
veda IX. 5. i, tirtva tamansi bahudha mahdnti.
2 Daiva is here the Adrishta described p. 58.
THE LAW-BOOKS MANU. 283
He who pretends to be what he is not,
Acting a part, commits the worst of crimes,
For, thief-like, he abstracts a good man's heart (IV. 255).
Though thou mayest suffer for thy righteous acts,
Ne'er give thy mind to aught but honest gain (IV. 171).
So act in thy brief passage through this world
That thy apparel, speech, and inner store
Of knowledge be adapted to thy age,
Thy occupation, means, and parentage (IV. 18).
The man who keeps his senses in control,
His speech, heart, actions pure and ever guarded, 1
Gains all the fruit of holy study ; he
Needs neither penance nor austerity (II. 160).
But if a single organ fail, by that defect
His knowledge of the truth flows all away
Like water leaking from a leathern vessel (II. 99).
Contentment, patience under injury,
Self -subjugation, honesty, restraint
Of all the sensual organs, purity,
Devotion, 2 knowledge of the Deity, 3
Veracity, and abstinence from anger,
These form the tenfold summary of duty (VI. 92).
Long not for death, nor hanker after life ;
Calmly expect thy own appointed time,
E'en as a servant reckons on his hire (IV. 45).
This mansion of the soul, composed of earth,
Subject to sorrow and decrepitude,
Inhabited by sicknesses and pains,
Bound by the bonds of ignorance and darkness,
Let a wise man with cheerfulness abandon (VI. 77).
Quitting this body, he resembles merely
A bird that leaves a tree. Thus is he freed
From the fell monster of an evil world 4 (VI. 78).
1 See note i, p. 288.
2 Kulluka interprets dhl by 'knowledge of the sacred truth contained
in the S'astras.'
3 Vidyd, ' knowledge of the supreme Spirit.' Kulluka.
4 Kricchrdd grdhdt = samsdra-kashtdd yrdhdd iva.
284 INDIAN WISDOM.
Duties of Women and Wives.
In childhood must a father guard his daughter ;
In youth the husband shields his wife ; in age
A mother is protected by her sons
Ne'er should a woman lean upon herself (V. 148, IX. 3).
A faithful wife who wishes to attain
The heaven of her lord, must serve him here
As if he were a god, and ne'er do aught
To pain him, whatsoever be his state,
And even though devoid of every virtue (Y. 154, 156).
She who in mind, speech, body, honours him,
Alive or dead, is called a virtuous wife (V. 165).
Be it her duty to preserve with care
Her husband's substance ; let her too be trusted
With its expenditure, with management
Of household property and furniture,
Of cooking and purveying daily food.
Let her be ever cheerful, skilled in all
Domestic work, and not too free in spending (V. 150).
Drink, bad companions, absence from her lord,
Rambling about, unseasonable sleep,
Dwelling in others' houses, let her shun
These are six things which tarnish woman's fame (IX. 13).
Whatever be the character and mind
Of him to whom a woman weds herself,
Such qualities her nature must imbibe,
E'en as a river blending with the sea (IX 22).
Women, united by the marriage tie
To men they love, in hope of virtuous offspring, '
Worthy of honour, eminently blessed,
Irradiate the houses of their lords,
Like shining lights or goddesses of fortune (IX. 26).
Then only is a man a perfect man
When he is three himself, his wife, his son
For thus have learned men the law declared,
'A husband is one person with his wife' (IX. 45).
THE LAW-BOOKS MANU. 285
Fidelity till death, this is the sum
Of mutual duties for a married pair (IX. 101).
And if the wife survives, let her remain
Constant and true, nor sully her fair fame,
E'en by the utterance of another's name (Y. 157).
Vyavalidra, ' rules of government and judicature.'
The Lord of all in pity to our needs
Created kings, to rule and guard us here ;
Without a king this world would rock with fear (VII. 3).
A king, e'en though a child, must not be treated
As if he were a mortal; rather he
Is a divinity in human shape (VII. 8).
The king, his council, and the royal city,
The country, 1 treasure, army, and ally,
These are the seven members of a realm (IX. 294).
Dread of the rod alone restrains the bad,
Controls the good, and makes a nation happy (VII. 15).
The king must therefore punish fearlessly ;
Else would the strong oppress the weak, the bad
Would wrong the good, and pierce them as with iron ; 2
The crow would eat the consecrated rice,
The dog the burnt oblation ; ownership
And rights of property would be subverted ;
All ranks and classes would become confused,
All barriers and bridges broken down,
And all the world turned wrong side uppermost (VII. 20, 21, 24).
But let the monarch, ere he wield his rod,
Consider place and time, the written law
Of justice, and the measure of his strength (VII. 16).
1 For rashtra ( = desa) Yajnavalkya (I. 352) substitutes jana, 'the
people.'
2 The literal translation of the text here is ' the stronger would roast
the weaker like fish on a spit' (sule matsyan ivapalishyan durbalan
lalavattardK).
286 INDIAN WISDOM.
Gamesters and public dancers, heretics,
Revilers of the Yeda, infidels,
Sellers of liquor, men who interfere
In others' duties and neglect their own,
All such he should expel from his domain (IX. 225).
To women, children, crazy men, and fools,
The old, the poor, the sickly, and infirm
Let him be never harsh ; if they do wrong
Let them be bound or punished tenderly 1 (IX. 230).
That king is equally unjust who frees
The guilty or condemns the innocent.
The wicked he must treat like thorny weeds,
They must be rooted out with active arm ;
The good and virtuous let him shield from harm (IX. 252, 253).
Let not a king or judge promote disputes,
But if a suit be tried, let him with fairness
Adjudicate between the disputants (VIII. 43).
When Goodness, wounded by Iniquity,
Comes to a court of justice, and the judge
Extracts not tenderly the pointed dart,
That very shaft shall pierce him to the heart (VIII. 12).
Justice destroyed will ruin the destroyer ;
Preserved, it will preserve. Beware, judge,
Lest outraged justice overthrow the world (VIII. 15).
E'en as a hunter tracks the lurking-place
Of some poor wounded deer by drops of blood,
So must a king by strict investigation
Trace out the source of violated justice (VIII. 44).
Let him with full deliberation weigh
The evidence, the place, the mode, the time,
The facts, the truth, and his own frame of mind,
Firmly adhering to the rules of law (VIII. 45).
1 The text says ' with a whip, twig, or rope.' It must be presumed
that the whip and twig are intended to be used in the case of children
only.
THE LAW-BOOKS MANU. 287
Just men and men of sense, whate'er their caste,
And those who know their duty and are free
From love of gain, may tender evidence ;
The opposite must not be witnesses (VIII. 63).
Kings, priests, religious students, anchorites,
All interested men, friends, boon companions,
Foes, criminals, diseased and perjured men,
Low artisans and dancers, lunatics,
Old men, and children, drunkards, vagabonds,
Thieves, starving wretches, irritated persons,
A single witness these are all excluded (VIII. 64-67).
Let women act as witnesses for women ;
The twice-born classes for the twice-born ; slaves
For slaves, and only lowest men for outcastes (VIII. 68).
The court must not be entered by a witness,
Unless he speak the truth without reserve ;
For equally does he commit a crime,
Who tells not all the facts, or tells them falsely (VIII. 13).
A witness who gives evidence with truth
Shall be absolved from every sin, and gain
Exalted glory here and highest bliss above (VIII. 81, 83).
Headlong in utter darkness shall the wretch
Fall into hell, who in a court of justice
Answers a single question falsely ; he
Shall be tormented through a hundred births (VIII. 82, 94).
And all the merit of his virtuous acts
Shall be transferred to dogs. Therefore be true,
Speak the whole truth without equivocation (VIII. 90, 101).
Let no considerate witness take an oath
Lightly, or in a trifling matter ; he
Who does so shall incur eternal ruin (VIII. 1 1 1 ).
Prdyas-citta, ' penance and expiation.'
According to a man's sincerity
In penitent confession of his crime,
And detestation of the evil deed,
Shall he be pardoned and his soul released
From taint of guilt, like serpent from its skin (XI. 227, 228).
288 INDIAN WISDOM.
If he do wrong, 'tis not enough to say
I will not sin again ; release from guilt
Depends on true contrition, which consists
In actual abstinence from sinful deeds (XI. 230).
Therefore, whatever fault a man commits,
Whether from ignorance or knowingly,
Let him, desiring quittance from his crime,
Beware how he offend a second time (XI. 232).
Revolving in his mind the certainty
Of retribution in a future state,
Let him be pure in thought, in word, in deed 1 (XL 231).
By free confession, penitence, and penance,
By daily repetition of the Veda, 2
By the five holy acts, 3 by giving alms,
By patience, and by bearing injuries,
The greatest sinner may obtain release (XL 227, 245).
Whate'er is hard to cross, whate'er is hard
To have or do or be, may be attained
By penance sins of heart and speech and act
May be burnt out; therefore be rich in penance (XL 238, 241).
E'en as a clod of earth melts all away
Cast in a mighty lake, so every sin
Becomes effaced, merged in the triple Veda (XL 263).
In penance all the bliss of gods and men
Is said to have its root, continuance, end 4 (XL 234).
Karma-phala, ' recompenses of acts.'
Innumerable souls, endued with form,
Issue like scintillations 5 from the substance
1 Here and in another example below further instances occur of
Manu's triple division of ' thought, word, and deed ' (see note 2, p. 131).
The same triple division is frequent in Buddhistic writings.
2 Khycipanena, anutapena, tapasd, adhyayena ca.
3 That is, the five Maha-yajiias ; see p. 244.
4 A variety of penances will be found detailed at p. 273.
5 Compare the extracts from the Upanishads, pp. 36, 40.
THE LAW-BOOKS MANU. 289
Of the great Self-existent, constantly
Impelling beings multiform to action (XII. 15).
Whate'er the act a man commits, whate'er
His state of mind, of that the recompense
Must he receive in corresponding body (XII. 8 1 ).
Action of every kind, whether of mind
Or speech or body, must bear fruit, entailing
Fresh births through multifarious conditions,
In highest, mean, and lowest transmigrations (XII. 3).
Souls gifted with the quality of goodness
Attain the state of gods ; those filled with passion,
The state of men ; and those immersed in darkness,
The state of beasts this is the triple course (XII. 40)-
Let all men ponder with attentive mind
The passage of the soul through diverse forms,
Of Brahma, gods and men, beasts, plants, and stones,
According to their good or evil acts,
And so apply their minds to virtue only (XII. 22-, 42, 50).
Just in proportion as a vital soul
Addicts itself to sensuality,
In that degree its senses shall become
Intensely keen in future transmigrations (XII. 7-3),
Reflect thou on man's manifold transitions
And passages through forms of being, caused
By faults of action, 1 and his headlong fall
Down to the lower regions ; then the torments
Reserved for him by Yama ; then in life
His partings from his loved ones and his meetings
With those he loves not ; then the victory
Of sickness and decrepitude and death ;
Then the soul's painful egress from the body,
And lastly its return to other forms,
Passing from womb to womb to undergo
Ten thousand millions of existences 2 (VI. 61-63).
1 Aveksheta gatir nrinam karma-dosha-samudbhavdh.
2 Yoni-koti-sahasreshii sritl-ca antar-atmanah.
T
290 INDIAN WISDOM.
Then do thou contemplate with fixed attention
The subtile essence of the Soul supreme,
Existing in the highest and the lowest
Pervading every creature equally (VI. 65).
He who perceives the omnipresent God
Is nevermore enslaved by acts, but he
Who sees him not, can never be released (VI. 74).
Those who repeat their vicious acts are doomed
To misery, increasing more and more,
In forms becoming more and more debased (XII. 74).
They shall be born as despicable beasts,
Suffer the worst extremes of cold and heat,
Painful diseases, various kinds of terror (XII. 77, 80).
He who by firmness gains the mastery
Over his words, his mind, and his whole body,
Is justly called a triple-governor 1 (XII. 10).
Exerting thus a threefold self-command
Towards himself and every living creature,
Subduing lust and wrath, he may aspire
To that perfection which the good desire (XII. n).
Every created being which exists
And yet is not eternal, 2 is in SouL
He who with fixed abstraction sees himself
And all things in the universal Self 3
Cannot apply his soul to wickedness (XII. 118).
1 This is the Tri-dandin (see note, p. 132). It is noticeable that the
Indian ascetic, who is described by Arrian (VII. 2) as exciting the wonder
of Alexander the Great by his xacrigia, is named Aa3a,,/;, probably from
the same root as danda (dam, ' to subdue,' in Intens.). By others he is
called Mandanis (root mand ?).
2 This seems to mean, as explained by Dr. Johaentgen, that to which
belongs a real existence and yet not eternity, because it is a product.
Cf. San-khya-prava6ana V. 56.
3 Dr. Johaentgen thinks that Atman in these passages is wrongly
translated ' the supreme Soul.' He believes that it denotes ' the whole
self or soul ' of man, regarded as an epitome of the universe, and he
refers in confirmation of his view to Tattva-samasa 56. See also Manu
VIII. 84, translated p. 280.
THE LAW-BOOKS YAJNAVALKYA. 291
This universal Soul is all the gods,
Is all the worlds, and is the only source
Of all the actions of embodied spirits (XII. 119).
He is their ruler, brighter than pure gold,
Subtler than atoms, imperceptible,
Except by minds abstracted, all-pervading,
Investing all with rudiments of matter,
Causing all beings to revolve like wheels
In regular and constant revolution
Through birth and growth, decay and dissolution (XII. 122, 124).
The man who sees by means of his own soul
The universal Spirit present there,
Present in every creature everywhere,
With perfect equanimity may wait
Till he has reached the state of bliss supreme
Complete absorption in the eternal essence (XII. 125).
TJie Code of Yajnavalkya.
The most important Law-book next to Manu is the
Dharma-sastra of Yajnavalkya, which, with its most
celebrated commentary, the Mitakshara by Vijnanesvara,
is at present the principal authority of the school of
Benares and Middle India. It seems originally to have
emanated from a school of the White Yajur-veda in
Mithila * or North Behar, just as we have seen (p. 205) that
the Code of the Manavas did from a school of the Black
Yajur-veda in the neighbourhood of Delhi. Book I. 2
makes the author say :
The chief of devout sages (Yajnavalkya), dwelling in Mithila, having
reflected for a moment, said to the Munis, ' Listen to the laws which
prevail in the country where the black antelope is found ' (cf. Manu
II. 23).
1 According to Dr. Koer, it is still the leading authority of the
Mithila school, but Colebrooke names other works as constituting the;
chief texts of this school.
292 INDIAN WISDOM.
Yajnavalkya's work 1 is much more concise than that
of Manu, being all comprised in three books instead of
twelve, which circumstance leads to the inference that
it has suffered even more curtailment at the hands of
successive revisers of the original text than the Code of
the Manavas. Like that Code, it seems to have been
preceded by a Vriddha and a Vrihad Yajnavalkya. The
whole work, as we now possess it, is written in the ordi-
nary Sloka metre. The first Book, consisting of 376
couplets, is chiefly on social and caste deities (acdra) ;
the second, consisting of 307 verses (which have been
transferred almost word for word to the Agni Purana),
is mainly on administrative judicature and civil and
criminal law (vyavahdra) ; the third, consisting of 335
verses, is principally on devotion, purification, expiation,
penance (prdyas-citta), &c. The Mitakshara commentary
follows the same arrangement, and is divided also into
three parts.
As to the date of Yajnavalkya's Law-book, it has been
conjecturally placed in the middle of the first century of
our era. The period of its first compilation cannot, of
course, be fixed with certainty, but internal evidence
clearly indicates that the present redaction is much more
recent than that of Manu's Law-book.
The following points have been noted by me :
i. Although Yajnavalkya's Code must have represented the customs
and practices prevalent in a district (Mithila) situated in a different and
more easterly part of India, yet nearly every precept in the first book,
and a great many in the second and third, have their parallels in similar
precepts occurring throughout the Code of the Manavas.
1 The edition I have used is the excellent one of Stenzler. I have
consulted his preface and translation, and the translation of part of the
Code made by Dr. Hoer and W. A. Montr iou, to which there is an
instructive introduction.
THE LAW-BOOKS YAJNAVALKYA. 293
2. Although generally founded on Manu, it represents a later stage
of Hindu development. Its arrangement is much more systematic. It
presents fewer repetitions and inconsistencies, and less confusion of
religion, morality, and philosophy, with civil and criminal law.
3. In Book I. 3 the sources of law are expanded beyond those stated
by Manu ; although afterwards in I. 7 Manu's fourfold Dharma-mulam
(see p. 208) is adopted, thus :
' The Yedas, with the Puranas, the Nyaya, the Mimansa, the codes of
law (dliarma-sdstrd), and the (six) Vedan-gas are the fourteen repositories
(i&thdndm) of the sciences (vidydndrn) and of law (dharmasya, I. 3).
'The Yeda (sruti), traditional law (smritf), the practices of good
men (sad-dcdra), and one's own inclination, are called the root of
law ' (I. 7).
4. Those of its precepts which introduce new matter evince a more
advanced Brahmanism and a stricter caste-organization ; thus, for
example, it is directed in I. 57 that a Brahman must not have a S'udra
as a fourth wife, but only wives of the three higher classes, whereas in
Manu (see p. 243) such a wife is permitted. 1
5. In I. 271, 272, there is an allusion to the shaven heads (munda)
and yellow garments (kashaya-vdsas) of the Buddhists, which marks a
period subsequent to the establishment and previous to the expulsion
of Buddhism. It must be admitted, however, that there is no mention
of the Buddhists by name.
6. In II. 185 the king is recommended to found and endow monas-
teries and to place in them Brahmans learned in the Vedas.
7. In II. 241 mention is made of Ndnaka, 'coined money,' both true
and counterfeit (alcuta and leutaka), whereas, although Manu speaks of
weights of gold and silver, such as S'uvarnas, Palas, Nishkas, Dharanas,
and Puranas (VIII. 135-137), it is very doubtf ul whether any stamped
coin was current in his day.
8. Written accusations and defences (lekliyd) are required to be made
(II. 6, 7), and written documents (likhitam) are allowed as evidence
(II. 22) ; and in I. 318 grants of land and copper- plates, properly sealed,
are mentioned.
9. The worship of Ganesa, as the remover of obstacles, is expressly
alluded to in I. 270, and Gralia-yajna or '^offerings to the planets' are
directed to be made in I. 294.
10. In III. no the author of the Code (Yajnavalkya) speaks of an
Aranyaga or Upanishad (of the White Yajur-veda), which he had
Later Codes limit Brahmans to wives of their own classes only.
294 INDIAN WISDOM.
himself received from the Sun, and of a Yoga-sastra, ' Yoga system of
philosophy,' which he had himself delivered (to Patanjali). 1
Some of these points seem decisive as to the lapse of
a considerable period between Manu and Yajnavalkya,
and lead us to agree with those who hesitate to refer
the latter Code, in its present form, to an earlier epoch
than the first century of our era. 2 On the other hand,
some of the facts stated incline us to attribute a greater
antiquity to portions of the work than that usually as-
signed to it.
I proceed to give specimens of the three divisions of
Yajnavalkya's Code.
I. The following are from the first Book on Acdra
or ' social customs and immemorial practices.' Attention
should be directed to the parallels in Manu at the end
of several of the translated passages. The mention of
four Vedas and the efficacy attributed to their repetition
is noticeable :
Brahmans, Kshatriyas, and Vaisyas are called twice-born (dci-jdh],
since they are born once from their mothers and a second time through
the binding on of the girdle (Maunji-bandhanat, I. 39. Cf. Manu
II. 169, and see p. 240).
The Veda is more efficacious in effecting the final salvation of the
twice-born (dvijdtmdm nihsreyasa-karah parah) than sacrifices, than
penances, and even than good works (I. 40. Cf. Manu II. 166).
A twice-born man 3 who every day repeats the texts of the Rig-veda
1 See p. 92 of this volume. Patanjali, who flourished, according to
Lassen, about 200 B.C., is not, however, mentioned in the text.
2 Some of Yajnavalkya's verses are found in the Panda-tantra, the
date of the oldest portions of which is usually referred to the fifth century
of our era. In almost all Sanskrit works the introduction of apposite
verses from older sources, for the illustration of the original text, is
common.
3 These following five verses are more explicit than Manu in describ-
ing the efficacy of the Brahma-yajiia or Japa-yajna (see p. 245). They
THE LAW-BOOKS YAJNAVALKYA. 295
(ricali) satiates the gods with honey and milk, and the fathers (Pitrln)
with honey and butter (I. 41. Of. Manu II. 107).
He who every day to the best of his ability repeats the texts of the
Yajur-veda* (yajunslii) refreshes the gods with butter and nectar and
the fathers with honey and butter (I. 42).
He who every day repeats the texts of the Sama-veda (samdni)
satiates the gods with Soma-juice and butter and the fathers as before
(I- 43).
Twice-born men who every day to the best of their power repeat the
texts of the Atharva-veda (Atharvan-girasah, see p. 216) satiate the
gods with marrow (medasa) and the fathers as before (I. 44).
He who every day to the best of his power repeats the sacred discus-
sions (vdJcovakyam), 1 the Puranas, the Narasansis, 2 the sacred songs
(gatliilidh], the Itihasas, and the sciences (vidyah), satiates the inhabi-
tants of the skies (divaukasali) with flesh, milk, rice, and honey, and
the fathers as before (I. 45, 46).
The precept that the twice-born can take a S'udra as a wife (cf.
Manu III. 13, IX. 149) is not approved by me, since in that wife
(tatra) he is himself born again (whence she is called jdyd, according
to Manu IX. 8).
Three wives in the regular order (of the first three classes) may
belong to a Brahman, two to a Kshatriya, and one to a Vaisya. A
S'udra must only have one of his own class (I. 56, 57).
Once every year (the following persons) are to be honoured with a
respectful offering (argha) : a Snataka (see p. 196), an Adarya (see
p. 232), a king, a friend, and a son-in-law, but a sacrificing priest at
every sacrifice 3 (I. no. Cf. Manu III. 119).
A traveller is to be treated as a guest, and also a Brahman who
knows the entire Veda. These two a householder, who wishes to
obtain the world of Brahman, must especially honour (I. in. Cf.
Manu I. 1 20, 130).
are based on S'atapatha-brahmana XI. 5, 6, 4-8, and on Asvalayana
Grihya-sutra III. 3. 2, &c.
1 This might be translated ' dialogue.' It appears from S'atapatha-
brahmana IY. 6, 9, 20, that some portions of Vedic tradition were
called vakovdkyam or Iralimodyam.
2 See this word in my Sanskrit-English Dictionary. Compare the
directions as to the brahma-yajna in the Asvalayana Grihya-sutra,
translated p. 194 of this volume.
3 These six are also named in Paraskara's Grihya-sutra I. i (Stenzler)
as worthy of the Argha.
296 INDIAN WISDOM.
The success of every action depends on destiny and on a man's own
effort ; but destiny is evidently nothing but (the result) of a man's act
in a former state of existence (I. 348. Cf. Manu VII. 205 and p. 282
of this volume).
Some expect the whole result from destiny or from the inherent
nature (or force of a thing) ; some expect it from the lapse of time ;
and some, from a man's own effort : other persons of wiser judgment
expect it from a combination of all these (I. 349).
II. The following are from the second section of Yajna-
valkya's Code on Vyavahdra or ' the administration of
justice : '
Every day should a king, reflecting on his reward equal to that of
sacrifices, personally investigate lawsuits in regular order surrounded
by assessors 1 (I. 359. Cf. Manu VIII. i).
1 Colebrooke, in one of his Essays (Professor E. B. Cowell's edition,
vol. ii. p. 490), gives an interesting account of the composition of an
Indian court of justice, according to the rules of Hindu Law-books.
The administration of justice, civil and criminal, is one of the chief
duties of the Raja or sovereign. Hence the king's court takes prece-
dence of all. He is assisted by learned Brahmans as assessors, one of
whom acts as chief judge in his absence. It is not stationary, but
follows him about. The second court, which is stationary, is that of
the chief judge (Prcidvivdlia), appointed by the king, and assisted by
three or more Brahman assessors, not exceeding seven. The third court
is that of the inferior judges for local trials. Besides these, there are
country courts or assemblies of townsmen (Puga), of traders, artisans,
&c. (Sreni), and of kinsmen (Kula) for arbitration in small matters.
The sovereign or supreme court (to which there is an appeal from all
the others) is compared to a body consisting of various members, viz.,
i. the king, 2. the chief judge, 3. the assessors, 4. the ministers of
state, 5. the king's domestic priest, 6. the written law, 7. gold, fire
and water (used for oaths and ordeals), 8. the accountant, 9. the scribe
(Kdyastlia), 10. the keeper of things in dispute and the enforcer of
judgments, n. the messenger, 12. the moderator of the court. The
audience or bystanders are also regarded as a component part of the
court, any one duly qualified to interpose with a suggestion or advice
being at liberty to do so. All this is illustrated in a most interesting
manner by the ninth act of the drama called Mric'chakatika, to which
THE LAW-BOOKS YAJNAVALKYA. 297
A king, having duly corrected the castes, families, companies of
artisans (srenl), schools, and communities of people that have swerved
from the duty of their caste (sva-dkarmdt, cf. p. 128), should place them
in the right path (I. 360. Cf. Manu VIII. 41).
Let the king, keeping himself free from anger and covetousness, try
lawsuits along with learned Brahmans in accordance with the rules of
written law (dharma-sdstrdnusdrena, II. i. Cf. Manu VIII. i).
He should appoint as judges men well versed in the study of the
Veda, conversant with the laws, speakers of truth, impartial to friend
and foe (II. 2).
When any one, injured by others in any way contrary to law or
usage, makes a representation to the king, this is a proper subject for
a lawsuit (vyavahara-padam, II. 5).
The charge, as made by the plaintiff, is to be put down in writing
in presence of the defendant, marked with the year, month, half-month,
day, names, caste, &c. (II. 6).
The answer to the charge is to be then written down in presence of
the person who made the first representation ; after which the plaintiff
shall immediately cause to be committed to writing the proofs by which
his accusation is supported (II. 6, 7).
Legal proof (pramdnani) is of three kinds, viz., written documents
(l&chitam), actual possession (bhuMih), and witnesses (sdlcshinaK). In
the absence of any one of these, some one of the ordeals (divydnya-
tamam) is enjoined (II. 22. Cf. Manu VIII. 114).
The scales (tula), fire, water, poison, drinking the water in which
idols have been washed (Iwsa), these are the ordeals for the testing of
innocence (II. 95. See note, p. 271).
There should be at least three witnesses, persons who act in accord-
ance with the precepts of the Veda or traditional law and are of suitable
caste (II. 69. Cf. Manu VIII. 60, and see p. 272 of this volume).
The judge should thus address the witnesses standing near the
plaintiff (vddiri) and defendant (prativddin), ' Whatever worlds are
appointed for the worst criminals, for incendiaries, for murderers of
women and children, these shall be the abode of him who gives false
evidence' (sdksliyam anritam, II. 73, 74. Cf. Manu VIII. 89).
Know that whatever merit has been acquired by thee through good
reference will be made in a subsequent chapter. In the description of
a court of justice there given, as Professor Cowell has remarked, the
S'reshthin or ' chief of the merchants ' and the Kayastha or 'scribe'
seem to sit as assessors with the judge.
298 INDIAN WISDOM.
actions in hundreds of former births shall become the property of him
whom thou defeatest by false evidence 1 (II. 75. Of. Manu VIII. 90).
In conflicting evidence (dvaidhe), that of the majority (bahunam)
must be taken ; in the case of an equality of testimony, that of the
virtuous persons ; when these disagree, then the statements of the most
virtuous must be taken (II. 78. Of. Manu VIII. 73).
Whenever the evidence of a witness might occasion the death of
a person of whatever class, the witness may tell an untruth. To obtain
expiation (pavanaya) after such false evidence twice-born men must offer
an oblation (cam) to Sarasvati (II. 83. Of. Manu VIII. 104, 105).
When a murder or robbery has occurred (ghdtite 'pahrite) and no
traces of it are found beyond the village, the blame must rest on the
governor of the village (grdma-bhartuh) and the village must pay (II.
271, 272).
When a Brahman is a thief, he must be marked with a hot iron and
banished from the country (II. 270).
Housebreakers, stealers of horses and elephants, and those who
commit murder with violence should be impaled (II. 273. Of. Manu
IX. 276, 280).
A stealer of clothes should have his hand cut off ; cut-purses should
have the thumb and forefinger amputated (II. 274. Cf. Manu IX. 277).
The highest fine should be imposed on any one who knowingly gives
a thief or murderer food, shelter, fire, water, advice, implements, or
money (II. 276. Cf. Manu IX. 278).
Whoever falsifies scales, an edict, measures or coins, or does business
with them so falsified, should be made to pay the highest fine (II. 240.
Cf. Manu IX. 232).
One who falsely practises as a physician must pay the first fine, if
his deception be practised towards animals ; the middle fine, if towards
men; the highest fine, if towards any of the king's officers (II. 242.
Cf. Manu IX. 284).
Any one who adulterates medicine, or oil, or salt, or perfumes, or
corn, or sugar, or other commodities, should be made to pay sixteen
Panas (II. 245. Cf. Manu VIII. 203, IX. 286, 291).
The highest fine should be imposed on those who, knowing the rise or
fall in prices, combine to make a price of their own to the detriment of
workmen and artisans (II. 249).
If a king has imposed any fine unjustly, he must give thirty times
the amount to Brahmans after having made an offering to Varuna
(II. 307. Cf. Manu IX. 244).
1 In Manu the merit is said to be transferred to dogs, see p. 287.
THE LAW-BOOKS YAJNAVALKYA. 299
III. The third Book gives various rules for Prdyas-
citta, ' penance, expiation, and purification.' Many of the
laws are like those of Manu. It will suffice to note a few
examples which have reference to funeral ceremonies :
A child under two years old must be buried, and no offering of water
should be made to him. (The corpse of) any other deceased person
should be accompanied by (a procession of) relations to the burning-
place (d-smasandt, III. i. See p. 196. Of. Manu Y. 68, 69, 103).
It is then to be burnt with common fire (lauldkagnina) while they
repeat the hymn to Yama (yama-sulctam] and the sacred chant (gatham,
III. 2).
It is usual (for the relatives) to pour out a libation of water once (to
the deceased), uttering his name and family, (and then) remaining
silent (see p. 198).
But religious students and outcastes are not allowed to offer the
oblations of water (III. 5. Of. Manu Y. 88).
The funeral oblation is not allowed for heretics (pdshandin), persons
without any fixed station (an-dsritdJi), thieves, women who have killed
their husbands, or who have lived an independent life (Mma-gdh), or
"have been drunkards, or have committed suicide (atma-tydginyah,
III. 6. Cf. Manu V. 89, 90).
When the relatives have poured out water, have completed their
ablutions, and have seated themselves on a spot covered with soft
grass, (the elder ones) may repeat to the others some verses from the
ancient Itihasas, such as the following (III. 7) :
Does it not argue folly to expect
Stability in man, who is as transient
As a mere bubble and fragile as a stalk ?
Why should we utter wailings if a frame,
Composed of five material elements,
Is decomposed by force of its own acts,
And once again resolved into its parts ?
The earth, the ocean, and the gods themselves
Must perish, how should not the world
Of mortals, light as froth, obey the law
Of universal death and perish too (III. 8-u)?
After hearing verses of this kind they should return home, the
younger ones leading the way, stopping solemnly outside the door of
the house to chew leaves of the Nimb tree (Nimba-patrani, III. 12).
300 INDIAN WISDOM.
After they have rinsed out their mouths and touched fire, water, cow-
dung, white mustard-seed, and placed their feet on a stone, they should
enter the house slowly (III. 13. Cf. the account of the funeral proces-
sion in the Grihya-sutras, pp. 196-199).
Impurity caused by the ceremonies connected with touching a corpse
(wam dsaucatn) lasts for either three nights or ten nights (III. 18.
Cf. Manu V. 59, 64).
Those who preserve this Law-book diligently in their memories shall
obtain reputation in this world and shall go to heaven (III. 330).
He who repeats only three verses out of this Law-book at a S'raddha
causes perpetual satisfaction to his departed ancestors ; of this there is
no doubt. A Brahman may obtain merit, a Kshatriya may become vic-
torious, and a Vaisya may become rich in corn and money by preserving
this book in his memory (III. 332, 333).
The eighteen principal Codes posterior to Manu and
Yajnavalkya.
A list of eighteen of the most important of these has
been given at p. 203. They are all extant in some form
or other, as described by Colebrooke. 1 Little or nothing
is known about the authorship of any one of them. They
have arisen from the necessity of framing new laws or
modifying old ones to suit particular localities arid parti-
cular periods. In order to invest them with antiquity
and authority, they are all eighteen ascribed, like the
Codes of Manu and Yajnavalkya, to various mythical
inspired sages. The fact is, that although Manu and
Yajnavalkya still form the basis of Hindu jurisprudence,
many of their laws are regarded by more recent Hindu
legislators as only intended for the first three ages of the
world, and therefore as having no force, or superseded by
others, in the present fourth and more degenerate Kali-
1 See Professor E. B. Cowell's edition of his Essays, vol. i. pp. 468-
470. The works or their abridgments, ascribed to these eighteen
inspired law-givers, have been all printed at Calcutta.
THE LAW-BOOKS YAJNAVALKYA. 30 1
yuga (see note 2, p. 178). Thus the author of the work
ascribed to Narada l says :
Marriage with the widow of a deceased brother, the slaughter of
cattle in entertaining guests, flesh-meat at funeral obsequies, and the
entrance into the third order (or that of a Vanaprastha, ' hermit ') are
forbidden in the fourth age.
The following acts, allowed under certain circumstances
by ancient law, are also forbidden in the fourth age :
Drinking any spirituous liquor, even at a religious ceremony ; 2 the
gift of a young married woman to another bridegroom if her husband
should die while she is still a virgin ; the marriage of twice-born men
with women not of the same class ; any intercourse with a twice-born
man who has passed the sea in a ship ; the slaughter of a bull at a
sacrifice, &c.
And the author of Parasara's Code 3 affirms :
The laws of various ages are different. Manu's Law-book belongs to
the Krita age, Gautama's to the Treta, that of S'an-kha and Likhita to
the Dvapara, and Parasara's Code to the Kali age.
Many modern lawyers, however, regard the whole of
Smriti, beginniflg with Manu, as one, and assert that the
inconsistencies and contradictions it contains are all capable
of explanation.
I here annex a few particulars relative to the eighteen
principal Codes posterior to Manu and Yajnavalkya :
i. That attributed to Atri, one of Manu's ten Prajapatis (I. 35), is
in verse, and written in a perspicuous style. 2. That of Vishnu is also
in verse, and is regarded as an excellent treatise, an abridgment of which
is also extant. 3. That of Hdrita, on the contrary, is in prose, but has
been abridged in a metrical form. 4. That of Usanas or S'ukra is in
verse, and an abridgment is extant. 5. A short treatise of about seventy
verses is ascribed to An-gims, one of Manu's Prajapatis and Maharshis
(I. 35). 6. A tract consisting of one hundred verses, commented on by
Kulluka-bhatta, is mythically attributed to Tama (brother of Manu
1 Quoted by Sir W. Jones, vol. viii. p. 153.
2 As, for example, the SautramanL
3 Quoted by Professor Stenzler in his preface to Yajnavalkya.
302 INDIAN WISDOM.
Vaivasvata), ruler of the world of spirits. 7. That of Apastamla is in
prose, but an abridgment in verse also exists. 8. Samvarta's Code has
also a metrical abridgment. 9. Kdtydy 'ana's law- treatise is full and
perspicuous. 10. Vriliaspati's has been abridged, and it is doubtful
whether we possess the abridgment or the Code itself, n. Para&ara's
treatise is regarded by some as the highest authority for the Kali or
fourth age of the world. It has been commented on by Madhavadarya.
12. A law-treatise is ascribed to the celebrated Vydsa, son of Parasara.
13, 14. Two separate tracts in verse by San-Telia and Lilihita exist, but
their joint treatise in prose is the one usually cited by Kulluka and
others. It is supposed to be adapted to the Dvapara age. 15. A Code
in verse of no special interest is attributed to Ddksha, one of Manu's
ten Prajapatis (I. 35). 16. A prose treatise written, in a clear style
bears the name of Gautama. It is held to have been written for the
Treta age. 17. S'atatapa's Code is chiefly on penance and expiation.
There is an abridgment of it in verse. 18. The treatise attributed to
Vasishtha, another of Manu's Prajapatis (I. 35), is a mixture of prose
and verse.
Of other codes ascribed to various mythical lawgivers
in the Padma-purana, &c., it will be sufficient to mention
those of Marici, Pulastya, Bhrigu, Narada (Manu I. 35),
Kasyapa, Visvamitra, Gargya, Baudhayana, Paithiuasi,
Sumantu, Lokakshi, Kuthumi or Kuthumi, and Dhaumya.
Besides, there are a vast number of legal treatises and
commentaries based on ancient codes by modern lawyers,
whose works are current and more or less esteemed as
authorities in different parts of India. They form five
schools, of which I here give a brief account.
TJie Five Schools of Hindu Law.
These are the schools of i. Bengal, 2. Benares, 3.
Mithila (North Behar and Tirhut), 4. Madras (Dravida),
and 5. Bombay (Mahd-rashtra). 1 There are certain
1 I have here consulted Mr. Herbert Cowell's Tagore Law Lectures,
copies of which have always been kindly given to me by the Senate of
the Calcutta University.
THE LAW-BOOKS OTHER CODES AND SCHOOLS. 303
books regarded as special authorities in each of these
principal schools.
i. In Bengal both Manu and Yajnavalkya are of course
held in great reverence as original sources of law. We
have already noted that the best commentary on Manu is
one called Manv-artha-muktavali, by Kulluka-bhatta (see
note 2, p. 213). There is also a commentary by Medhatithi
(partially lost, and completed by another author) ; another
by Govinda-raja ; another by Dharam-dhara, Bhaguri,
and others. To Yajnavalkya belong at least four other
commentaries besides the Mitakshara, viz., that of Apa-
rarka (which is the oldest of all) ; of Sula-pani (called
the Dipa-kalika) ; of Deva-bodha, and of Visva-rupa.
Sula-pani is also the author of a work on penance and
expiation. The Mitakshara of Vijnanesvara 1 is, however,
the principal commentary on Yajnavalkya (as before
noticed). It is much studied in Bengal, but the chief
authority in the Bengal school is a well-known work,
somewhat different in character and principles, called
the Daya-bhaga or ' treatise on inheritance,' ascribed to
Jimuta-vahana, 2 by some thought to have been a prince
of the house of Silara, who either composed this work
himself or caused it to be compiled rather earlier than the
beginning of the sixteenth century. It should be stated
that both the Mitakshara and Daya-bhaga are develop-
ments of, rather than commentaries on, Manu and Yajna-
valkya. Although they profess to be based on these
ancient books, they sometimes modify the laws there pro-
pounded to suit a more advanced social system. In other
1 Vijnanesvara belonged to a sect of Sannyasins founded by S'an-kara-
6arya, and his commentary may have been written as early as the ninth
century of our era.
2 Translated by Colebrooke. Jimuta-vahana's work seems to have
been called Dharma-ratna, and only the chapter on inheritance is
preserved.
304 INDIAN WISDOM.
cases they discuss doubtful points and supply omissions ;
while they, in their turn, have been commented on by
succeeding lawyers, whose works introduce still further
modifications on various important points, 1 thus :
Three principal commentaries on the Mitakshara are named, viz.,
the Subodhini of Visvesvara-bhatta (thought by Colebrooke to be as
old as the fourteenth century) ; a later work by Balam-bhatta ; and a
third (called the Pratltakshara) by Nanda-pandita, who was also the
author of the work on adoption called Dattaka-mlmansa and of the
Vaijayanti (see next page). The commentaries on the Daya-bhaga are
numerous. Some of these (published under the patronage of Prasanna
Kumar Thakur) are, that of S'rikrishna-tarkalan-kara, which, with a
treatise by the same author called Daya-krama-san-graha, is highly
esteemed in Bengal ; that of S'rl-nathadarya-6udamani ; that of Ac"yuta-
dakravartin ; and that of Mahesvara. Before any of these ought to
be placed the works of a celebrated Brahman (who lived at the beginning
of the sixteenth century), named Raghu-nandana, in about twenty-
seven books, on rites and customs and the times of their observance.
His treatises, intended to comment on and support Jimuta-vahana, are
called Smriti-tattva, Tithi-tattva, &c., the former including the Vyava-
hara-tattva and Daya-tattva. 2
2. As regards the school of Benares and Middle India it
should be noted that the Mitakshara of Vijnanesvara is
acknowledged as an authority, and studied by the ad-
herents of this school, as it is to a certain extent by all
five schools. But in the Benares school certain popular
commentaries on the Mitakshara, such as the Vira-mitro-
daya of Mitra-misra and the Vivada-tandava of Kamala-
kara, have great weight.
3. In the Maithila school or that of Mithila (North Behar
1 The certainty we feel as to the accuracy of the texts of all im-
portant Sanskrit works is due to the practice of writing commentaries,
which always quote the words of the original, and so prevent changes.
Again, the accuracy and genuineness of the best commentaries are
secured by other commentaries on them.
2 Printed at Calcutta in 1828. Raghu-nandana is often called Smarta-
bhattadarya.
THE LAW-BOOKS OTHER CODES AND SCHOOLS. 305
and Tirhut), besides the Code of Yajnavalkya with the
Mitakshara, the Vivada-cintamani and Vyavahara-cintil-
mani of Vacaspati Misra l are much studied ; also the
Vivada-ratnakara of Candesvara (who lived about 1314)
and the 'Vivada-candra, composed by a learned female
named Lakhima-devi, who is said to have set the name of
her kinsman, Misaru-misra, to her own works.
4. In the Dravidian or South-Indian school, besides the
Mitakshara, as before, there is the Smriti-candrika and
Dattaka-candrika of Devana-bhatta ; Madhavacarya's com-
mentary on Parasara's Code (called Parasara-smriti-vya-
khya) ; and Nanda-pandita's commentary on Vishnu's Code
(called Vaijayanti), and on Parasara's Code, and his treatise
on the law of adoption called Dattaka-candrika.
5. In the Western school (of Bombay and Maha-ra^htra),
besides the Mitakshara, certain treatises by Nilakantha-
bhatta, particularly one called Vyavabara-mayukha, 2 have
the most weight.
1 Often called Misra. His work has been translated by Prasanna
Kumar Thakur, and printed at Calcutta in 1863. A copy was kindly
sent to me by the translator.
2 A translation of this by Mr. H. Borrodaile of the Bombay Civil
Service was published at Surat at the Mission Press in 1827.
U
CHAPTER XII.
IV. The Itihdsas or Epic Poems The Rdmdyana. 1
IN India, literature, like the whole face of nature, is
on a gigantic scale. Poetry, born amid the majestic
scenery of the Himalayas, and fostered in a climate which
inflamed the imaginative powers, developed itself with
Oriental luxuriance, if not always with true sublimity.
Although the Hindus, like the Greeks, have only two
great epic poems 2 the Ramayana and Maha-bharata
yet to compare these vast compositions with the Iliad
and the Odyssey, is to compare the Indus and the Ganges,
rising in the snows of the world's most colossal ranges.
O O 7
swollen by numerous tributaries, spreading into vast
shallows or branching into deep divergent channels, with
the streams of Attica or the mountain-torrents of Thessaly.
There is, in fact, an immensity of bulk about this, as
about every other department of Sanskrit literature, which
to a European mind, accustomed to a more limited horizon,
is absolutely bewildering.
1 A portion of the matter of this chapter and of that on the Maha-
bharata was delivered by me as a public Lecture before the University
of Oxford, on the gth of May 1862, and was afterwards published in a
little work called ' Indian Epic Poetry,' which is now out of print.
2 I am here speaking of that form of epic poetry which may be called
natural and spontaneous as distinguished from artificial. Whether the
Indian Epics (Itihasas) or even the Iliad can be strictly said to answer
Aristotle's definition of Epos, is another question. Artificial epic
poems (Kavyas) are not wanting in later Sanskrit, and specimens will
be given in a subsequent chapter.
306
ORIGIN OF THE EPIC POEMS. 307
Nevertheless, a sketch, however imperfect, of the two
Indian Epics can scarcely fail to interest Occidental
scholars ; for all true poetry, whether European or Asiatic,
must have features of resemblance ; and no poems could
have achieved celebrity in the East as these have done,
had they not addressed themselves to feelings and affec-
tions common to human nature, and belonoinsf alike to
7 O O
Englishmen and Hindus.
I propose, therefore, in the next three chapters, to give
a brief general idea of the character and contents of the
Kamayana and Maha-bharata, 1 comparing them in some
important particulars with each other, and pointing out
the most obvious features of similarity or difference,
which must strike every classical scholar who contrasts
them with the Iliad and the Odyssey.
It is, of course, a principal characteristic of epic poetry,
as distinguished from lyrical, that it should concern itself
more with external action than internal feelings. It is
this which makes Epos the natural expression of early
national life. When centuries of trial have turned the
mind of nations inwards, and men begin to speculate, to
reason, to elaborate language and cultivate science, there
may be no lack of refined poetry, but the spontaneous
production of epic song is, at that stage of national exist-
ence, as impossible as for an octogenarian to delight in the
giants and giant-killers of his childhood. The Kamayana
and Maha-bharata then, as reflecting the Hindu character
in ancient times, may be expected to abound in stirring
incidents of exaggerated heroic action.
Songs in celebration of great heroes were probably
current in India quite as early as the Homeric poems in
1 A more complete analysis of the Ramayana and Maha-bharata was
given by me at the end of the little work called ' Indian Epic Poetry,'
and will probably be reprinted with additions hereafter.
308 INDIAN WISDOM.
Greece. No mention, indeed, is made of Kama, Arjuna,
and Yudhi-shthira in the hymns of the Rig-veda, but the
deeds of Indra and other gods and heroes, who were sup-
posed to protect the more civilized Aryas from the bar-
barous An-aryas, are there narrated and lauded, and it
is in the songs composed in their praise that we may
trace the foreshadowings of Indian epic poetry. Again,
we know that Itihasas, or legendary narratives, were
recited orally at the period when the Grihya Sutras
and Manu were composed (see p. 195 ; note i, p. 207 ;
and p. 249). Such narratives doubtless recounted the
adventures of the popular heroes of the period, with
all the warmth of colouring natural to writers whose
imaginations were stimulated by an Eastern climate and
environments ; but it is scarcely credible that they could
have achieved much popularity had they not rested on a
basis of historical truth.
It is certainly likely that at some early date, not long
after the first settlement of the Aryan races in the country
of the five rivers, rival tribes of immigrants, called Kurus,
advancing from that region towards the plains of Hindu-
stan, contended for supremacy. It is, moreover, probable
that soon after their final occupation of the Gangetic
districts, a body of invaders headed by a bold leader, and
aided by the warlike but uncivilized hill-tribes, forced
their way southwards into the peninsula of India as far
as Ceylon. The heroic exploits of the chieftains in both
cases would naturally become the theme of epic poetry,
and the wild Aborigines of the Vindhya and neighbouring
hills would be poetically converted into monkeys, 1 while
1 Strabo (XV. 29) relates that on a particular occasion a large number
of monkeys came out of a wood and stood opposite the Macedonian
troops, who seeing them apparently stationed in military array, mistook
them for a real army and prepared to attack them as enemies.
ORIGIN OF THE EPIC POEMS. 309
the powerful pre-Aryan races of the south would be repre-
sented as many-headed ogres and bloodthirsty demons. 1
1 We must be careful not to confound the great Dravidian races
occupying the Madras Presidency and speaking Tamil, Telugu, Kanarese,
and Malayalam, with the uncivilized aboriginal tribes found on the hills
and in the jungles of India. The Dravidian races (probably symbolized
by the Riivanas and Vibhishanas of epic poetry) were the precursors of
the Sanskrit-speaking Aryans, and possibly had their origin in the same
districts of Central Asia, whence they immigrated by the same mountain-
passes into the Panjab and Northern India. Theyjmay have partially
amalgamated with the advancing Aryans, but were mostly driven south-
wards. There they attained a considerable independent civilization.
Their languages, although eventually more or less intermingled with
Sanskrit words, are agglutinating (commonly called Turanian) in struc-
ture, and possess an extensive and important literature of their own.
On the other hand, the hill-tribes and others (such as were symbolized
by the monkey-armies of Hanumat) the Gonds of Central India, the
Bhils of the hills to the west of the Gonds, the Khonds or Kus of the
eastern districts of Gondvana and the ranges south of Orissa, the
Santhals and Kols of the hills to the west of Bengal, the Khasias and
Garos of the eastern border are the present representatives of numerous
wild Tartar tribes who swarmed into India at various epochs, some of
them probably coming from Chinese Tartary and Tibet, and taking
the course of the Brahma-putra into Bengal. These speak an infinite
number of different dialects and are almost all mutually unintelligible.
If the term Turanian is to embrace races so widely separated by language
and customs as the Dravidians and various hill-tribes of India, the
sooner it is expelled from the vocabulary of philologists and ethnologists
the better. At any rate, there must be two great classes of Turanian
languages, the North and the South ; the former comprising the three
sisters Tungusic (or Mantchu), Mongol, and Turkish, besides Samoyedic
and Finnish, while the latter takes in Tibetan, Siamese, Burmese, and
the Dravidian languages ; the monosyllabic Chinese standing, as it were,
between the two. Perhaps the dialects of the Himalayan tribes have,
of all hill- dialects, the best title to be ranked among the South Turanian
class. Dr. Caldwell, in his valuable Comparative Grammar of the South-
Indian Languages, has discussed the affiliation of the Dravidian family
with great ability. He considers that the Dravidians were the first
inhabitants of India, and that they were driven southwards by other
invaders, who were afterwards subdued by the Aryans. The rude dialects
310 INDIAN WISDOM.
These races, who are called An-arya, ' ignoble,' in opposi-
tion to Arya, 'noble/ had been gradually driven south-
wards or towards the hills by the Aryan settlers. They
probably made great resistance in the North at the time
the Rig-veda was composed. They are there called
Dasyus, Yatudhanas, &c., and described as monstrous in
form, godless, inhuman, haters of Brahmans, disturbers of
sacred rites, eaters of human and horse flesh (Rig-veda
X. 87, 1 6 ; Muir's Texts II. 435). In the epic poems they
are generally called Kakshasas or evil demons, the relent-
less enemies of gods and good men and of all sacred rites. 1
of the more southern hill-tribes are partially connected with the Dra-
vidian, especially the Tuda, Kota (two dialects of the Nil-giri hills),
Gond, and Khond (Ku). The Ramusies and most of the Korawars
speak a patois of Telugu. The Male-arasars ('hill-kings') of the
Southern Ghats speak partly corrupt Malayalam and corrupt Tamil.
The Lambadies, or gipsies, speak a dialect of Hindustani. Among the
barbarous tribes of the South are included the Vedars of the forests of
Ceylon.
1 In one place (Ramayana III. i. 15) they are described as black,
with woolly hair and thick lips. The following is from III. i. 22, &c. :
' Men-devouring Rakshasas of various shapes and wild beasts dwell in
this vast forest. They harass the devotees in the settlements. These
shapeless and ill-looking monsters testify their abominable character
by various cruel and terrific displays of it. These base-born wretches
(an-dryd) perpetrate the greatest outrages. Changing their shapes
and hiding in the thickets they delight in terrifying devotees. They
cast away the sacrificial ladles and vessels (srug-bhandarn), pollute the
cooked oblations, and defile the offerings with blood. They utter
frightful sounds in the ears of the faithful.' Viradha, a Rakshasa, is
said (Ramayana III. vii 5; Muir II. 427) to be 'like a mountain-
peak, with long legs, a huge body, a crooked nose, hideous eyes, a long
face, pendent belly, &c., like Death with an open mouth. ' The Nishadas
of the Puranas, though described as dwarfish, have similar features, and
are no doubt intended for the same race. In the same way, in describ-
ing races unknown to the Greeks, such as the Cyclopes, Laestrygones,
Centauri, &c., Homer and other Grecian writers are given to exaggera-
tion, and relate the most absurd fables.
ORIGIN OF THE EPIC POEMS. 3 I I
It is to the subjugation of these non-Aryan races by heroic
Aryan leaders who were Kshatriyas, as well as to the rivalry
between different tribes of the settlers themselves, that we
owe the circumstances out of which the two great Epics
arose. Whether the celebrated Aryan warriors of the
Ramayana and Maha-bharata were identical with those
of the Itihasas of which mention is made in the Grihya
Sutras and in Manu (III. 232) cannot be proved ; but this
much is clear, that the exploits of the three Ramas,
Arjuna, &c., became, soon after Manu's time, the theme
of song, and that these heroes were in the first instance
represented as merely men of great strength and prowess,
whose powers, however extraordinary, were not more than
human. The oral descriptions of their deeds and adven-
tures by public reciters formed the original basis of the
two great Epics, and were naturally the peculiar property
of the Kshatriya and conquering class. Probably these
narratives were in the first instance delivered in prose,
which became gradually interspersed with the simplest
forms of metre, such as that called Anushtubh or Sloka. 1
It is easy indeed for the most cursory reader of the
Ramayana and Maha-bharata to trace a substratum or
basis (mula) of simple heroic narration underlying the
mass of more recent accretions. But to what date is
this first framework of the poems to be referred ? And
again When occurred that first process of brahmauizing
which obscured and transformed its original character?
And lastly When was the structure completed and the
1 The oldest part of the Maha-bharata has a section entirely in
prose (see note i, p. 371). The invention of the Sloka is attributed
to Valmiki, the reputed author of the Ramayana, with the object
doubtless of establishing his claims to be regarded as one of the
earliest and most ancient of Indian poets. This metre is found in
the Veda.
312 INDIAN WISDOM.
whole work moulded into a form similar to that we now
possess ?
With regard to the first of these questions, I have
now to submit five reasons in support of the view that
the earliest or pre-brahmanical composition of both Epics
took place at a period not later than the fifth century
B.C., as follows :
1. The Ramayana records no case of Sati. In the Maha-bharata,
Madrl, wife of Pandu, is made to immolate herself with her husband, 1
and the four wives of Vasu-deva and some of Krishna's wives do the
same ; 2 but it is remarkable that none of the numerous widows of the-
slain heroes are represented as burning themselves in the same manner.
This shows that the practice of Sati was beginning to be introduced in the
North-west of India near the Panjab (where we know it prevailed about
300 years B.C.), but that it had not at the time of the earliest composi-
tion of the Ramayana reached the more eastern districts. But if one
Epic records no Sati, and the other only rare cases notwithstanding
the numerous opportunities for referring to the practice afforded by
the circumstances of the plot it follows that we ought to place the
laying down of the first lines of both compositions before the third
century B.C., when we know from Megasthenes that it prevailed
generally even as far east as Magadha.
2. The first construction, or, so to speak, ' first casting ' of the stories
of Rama and of the Pandavas as poems with definite plots, seems to
have been pre-buddhistic quite as clearly as it was pre-brahmanical by
which I mean, that it took place anterior to the actual establishment
of Buddhism as a rival system. Only one direct mention of Buddha
and Buddhism occurs in the Ramayana, and the verses in which it
occurs (II. cviiL 30-38), and in which Buddha is compared to a thief,
are admitted to be an interpolation and not part of the original poem.
Nor can it be proved that any such direct reference occurs in the original
Maha-bharata. Nevertheless, there are numerous allusions (not bearing
the stamp of later additions) in both Epics, especially the latter, to that
development of rationalistic inquiry and Buddhistic scepticism, which
we know commenced about 500 years B.c. 3
1 Adi-parvan 4896. See also 3030.
2 Mausala-parvan 194, 249.
3 Note particularly the infidel doctrines expressed by the Brahman
Javali (see p. 351), and Book I. 12. of the Bengali recension of the
ORIGIN OF THE EPIC POEMS. 313
3. It is evident from the Asoka inscriptions that the language of the
mass of the people in Hindustan in the third century B.C. was not pure
Sanskrit. It consisted rather of a variety of provincial Sanskritic
dialects, to which the general name of Prakrit is applied. If, then, the
first redaction of these popular poems had taken place as late as the
third century, is it likely that some forms of Prakrit would not have
been introduced into the dialogues and allowed to remain there, as we
find has been done in the dramas, the oldest of which the Mric"6ha-
katika can scarcely be much later than the second century B.C. 1 It
is true that the language of the original story of both Epics, as trace-
able in the present texts, is generally simple Sanskrit, and by no means
elaborate or artificial; but this is just what might have been under-
stood by the majority of the people about five centuries B.C., before the
language of the people had become generally prakriticized.
4. When the story of the poems was first put together in a continuous
form, it is clear that the Dekhan and more westerly and southerly
regions of India had not been occupied by the Aryans. But we know
from the Asoka inscriptions that the empire of the kings of Magadha
and Palibothra in the third century radiated in all directions, as
inscriptions are found in the Panjab, at Delhi, in Kuttack, and as far
west as Gujarat.
5. The Greek writer, Dion Chrysostomos, who was born about the
middle of the first century, and was especially honoured by the emperor
Trajan, mentions (Or. LIII. 555) that records existed in his time of epic
poems, recited by the Hindus, which had been copied or translated from
Homer. These statements, as Professor Lassen has shown (Ind. Alt.
III. 346), must have been taken from the accounts of Megasthenes,
who lived at the court of Candra-gupta (see note i, p. 224). They indi-
cate that poems resembling the Iliad were current in India at least as
early as the third or fourth century B.C., though it by no means follows
that the Hindu poets borrowed a single idea from Homer. 1
Ramayana, where S'ramanas, or Buddhist mendicants, are mentioned
(see also p. 121).
1 The passage in Dion Chrysostomos is as follows : 'OTO'TI xai ira.
'Ivdo~$ qifitadai <f>a.ai rr\v ' O,a^f ou iroiqaiv, f^sraftaXovruv O.VTW ' ri\v fffarsguv
didXtxrov rs xai (f)Uv^v (Reiske's Edit., p. 253). There seems too great a
disposition among European scholars to regard the Hindus as destitute of
all originality. I cannot but agree with Professor Lassen that Megas-
thenes was mistaken, though obviously the story of the great war between
the rival tribes, and that of the carrying off of Sita by a South-Indian
chief, have, of course, points of resemblance to the Iliad, which may have
INDIAN WISDOM.
These points seem to merit consideration in fixing
500 B.c. as an approximate date for the first or pre-
brahmanical and pre-buddhistic versions of the two poems.
The names of the authors of these original versions appear
to have perished, unless it be held (which seems highly
improbable) that the story of Kama must be assigned to
Valmiki from its very first existence as a Kavya.
We come next to the second stage of their construction.
We have suggested the fifth century B.C. as the probable
date of the rise of Brahmanism, as depicted in Manu
(see p. 207), and with it of Buddhistic scepticism. The
ambitious Brahmans, who aimed at religious and intel-
lectual supremacy, gradually saw the policy of converting
the great national Epics, which they could not suppress,
into instruments for moulding the popular mind in accord-
ance with their own pattern. Possibly, too, they may have
hoped to turn them into important engines for arresting
the progress of Buddhistic rationalism. Accordingly, I
conjecture that in the fourth century B.C. they commenced
reconstructing and remodelling the two great Epics.
They proceeded, in short, to brahmanize what was before
the property of the Kshatriya or warrior caste. This
process was of course committed to poets who were
Brahmans, and was not completed all at once. Those
songs which described too plainly the independence of
the military caste, were modified, obscured by allegory,
and rendered improbable by monstrous fable and mytho-
suggested the idea of plagiarism. The sufferings of king Dhrita-rashtra
are like those of Priam, and the lamentations of the wives of the slain
heroes after the battles between the Pandavas and Kauravas are like
those of Hecuba and Andromache, while the martial deeds of Arjuna
and Duryodhana resemble those of Achilles and Hector. According to
Professor Weber the passage in Dion contains the earliest notice by
other writers of the Indian epic poems. He is, moreover, of opinion
that the Indian poets really took ideas from Homer.
ORIGIN OF THE EPIC POEMS. 315
logical embellishments. Any circumstance which appeared
opposed to the Brahmanical system, was speciously ex-
plained away, glossed over, or mystified. 1 If unbelievers,
like Javali, were brought on the scene, it was only that
their arguments might be refuted, and their characters
reprobated (see p. 351). The great Kshatriya dynasties
were made to trace back their origin to Brahmanical sages
o o
(see p. 344). Kings were allowed to undertake nothing
except under the direction of Brahman ministers ; 2 while
the great heroes themselves were not really Kshatriyas,
or even human beings, but emanations of the Deity.
In the case of the Ramayana, the unity of the story
was never broken by calling in the aid of more than
one author, whose name was Valmiki, and who must
have completed the task single-handed. Hence it never
lost its character of a Kavya, or poem, with a clear
and coherent plot. On the other hand, the brahmanizing
of the story of the great war between the Pandavas and
Kauravas seems to have attracted a succession of poets,
who interwove their own compositions into the original
1 Thus when Dasaratha kills a boy while hunting (see p. 349), the
dying youth is made to explain that, although a hermit's son, he is no
Brahman, thereby relieving the king from the guilt of Brahmanicide,
which, according to Manu, was unpardonable either in this world or
the next (Manu VIII. 381, XII. 55). Again, the account of the victory
of the Kshatriya Rama-dandra over the Brahman Parasu-rama the
mythical champion of the sacerdotal caste is surrounded with a haze
of mysticism (see p. 329, note 2 ; p. 347) ; while the episode which
relates at full Visvamitra's quarrel with the great saint Vasishtha,
and the success of the former, though a Kshatriya, in elevating him-
self to a Brahman's rank, introduces the wildest hyperbole, with the
manifest object of investing the position of a Brahman with unap-
proachable grandeur, and deterring others from attempts in the same
direction (see p. 361).
2 King Dasaratha in the Ramayana is described as surrounded by
Brahman ministers (see p. 340).
316 INDIAN WISDOM.
texture of the work, so that its individuality, and even the
name of its first author, disappeared under the constant
accession of new matter. Hence we must suppose, in the
case of the Maha-bharata, more than one Brahmanical
redaction and amplification, which need not be assumed
for the completion of the Ramayana. Moreover, the
great mass of ever-increasing materials under which the
original story of the Pandavas became almost lost to view,
and under which the title to the name Kavya merged
in that of a rambling Itihasa, had to be adjusted and
arranged by an imaginary compiler, called Vyasa.
The first orderly completion, then, of the two poems in
their brahmanized form, may have taken place, I think,
in the case of the Ramayana about the beginning of the
third century B.C., and in the case of the Maha-bharata
(the original story of which is possibly more ancient than
that of the Ramayana) still later, perhaps as late as the
second century B.C. The posteriority of the brahmanized
Maha-bharata may be supported by the more frequent
allusions it contains to the progress of Buddhistic opinions,
and to intercourse with the Yavanas or Greeks, who had
no considerable dealings with the Hindus till two or three
centuries after Alexander's invasion. 1
1 A candid study of Professor Weber's writings, and especially of
the reproduction of his views lately put forth in the ' Indian Anti-
quary,' has led me to modify to a certain extent the statements in my
Lecture on 'Indian Epic Poetry,' delivered May 9, 1862 ; but I cannot
agree in thinking that the work of Valmlki is to be referred to as late
a date as the beginning of the Christian era. Nor can I concur in
the opinion that the Ramayana is later than, and to a certain extent
a copy of the Buddhist story of Rama, called Dasaratha-jataka, in
which Rama is represented as the brother of Slta, and in which there
are certain verses almost identical with verses in the present text of
the Ramayana. Nor do I think that the great Indian Epic has been
developed out of germs furnished by this or any other Buddhistic
legends. Still less can I give in my adhesion to the theory that the
ORIGIN OF THE EPIC POEMS. 317
It is, however, necessary to refer the final construction
of both poems in their present form to a third and still
later epoch, and even to assign portions of them to the
early centuries of our own era, if we are to accept as
integral parts of the two Epics such a supplement to the
Ramayana as the Uttara-kanda, and such additions to the
Maha-bharata as the Bhagavad-gita and Hari-vansa, as well
as those later episodes which identify Rama and Krishna
with the Supreme Being. And here again in this final con-
struction of both poems, we must bear in mind, that the
deification of Rama represents an earlier stage of Vishnu-
worship than that of Krishna ; and that the Ramayana, as
now presented to us, contains far fewer recent additions
than the Maha-bharata.
My reasons, therefore, for placing the first Brahmanical
construction of the two Indian Epics in the third and
second century B.C. respectively, and for commencing an
account of epic poetry with the story of Rama, rather than
with that of Pandavas, will be clear. It must be remem-
bered, however, that the priority of one poem over the
other cannot be made to rest on any certain chronological
basis. Indeed, the Maha-bharata describes a conflict be-
tween rude colonists in a district nearer to the earliest
settlements of the Aryans, while the Ramayana is con-
cerned with a more established kingdom (Kosala), and a
more civilized and luxurious capital city (Ayodhya).
Before commencing our summary of either story it will
be desirable to note more particularly when and how the
doctrine of divine incarnation was imported into both
poems, imparting to them that religious and sacred
Hindu Epics took ideas from the Homeric poems ; or to the suggestion
of Mr. Talboys Wheeler, that the story of the Kamilyana was invented
to give expression to the hostile feeling and contention between the
Brahmans and Buddhists of Ceylon, alleged to be represented by the
Rakshasas.
3l8 INDIAN WISDOM.
character which they have ever since retained, and which is
a distinguishing feature in comparing them with the epic
poetry of other nations. We know from the statements
of Megasthenes, preserved in Strabo and Diodorus, that
the worship of Vishnu in his heroic incarnations prevailed
in Hindustan about 300 years before Christ (see note,
p. 276). The deification of great men probably began
with the desire of the Brahmans to incorporate the most
eminent Kshatriya heroes into their system. It pro-
ceeded, however, from necessity rather than from any
wish to do honour to the warrior caste. The Buddhistic
movement in India had broken down the Brahmanical
monopoly and introduced a rival principle. Some counter-
acting and equally popular expansion of religious creed
seemed essential to the very existence of Brahmanism,
and it became absolutely necessary to present the people
with deities of their own as a counter-attraction to Bud-
dhism. Hence the previously human heroes Rama and
Krishna were exalted by the Brahmans to divine rank,
and even Buddha himself was, in the end, adopted into
their system and represented as one of the ten incarna-
tions of the god Vishnu. 1
But the idea of divine incarnation had taken possession
of the Hindu mind still earlier. It is probable that in
that primeval country, where the ancestors of Greeks and
Hindus had their common home, men satisfied their first
religious instincts by idealizing and worshipping, under
no defined form and without precise ritual, the principal
forces and energies of nature the air, the rain, the wind,
1 Heroism, undaunted bravery, and personal strength will always
find worshippers in India. It is recorded that a number of Panjabi
Hindus commenced worshipping the late John Nicholson, one of the
bravest and noblest of men, under the name Nikkil Seyn. He endea-
voured to put a stop to the absurdity, but they persisted in their
worship notwithstanding.
THE EPIC POEMS THEORY OF INCARNATION. 319
the storm, the fire, the sun the elements on which, as
an agricultural and pastoral race, their welfare depended.
This was the earliest religion of nature which the Aryan
family carried with them when they first left their home,
and which they cherished in their wanderings ; and in
this we may trace the germ of their subsequent religious
systems. When they had settled down in new resting-
places, their religious cravings naturally found utterance
in prayers, hymns, and a simple form of ritual. Religion,
or a sense of dependence on a higher Power, and a desire
to realize his presence, grew with their growth and
strengthened with their strength. But in all ages and /
countries the religion of the mass of mankind rapidly '
assumes an anthropomorphic character. A richly peopled
mythology arose in India and Greece as naturally as
poetry itself. The one was the offspring of the other,
and was in fact the poetical expression of those high
aspirations which marked the Aryan character. Soon the
Hindu, like the Greek, unguided by direct revelation,
personified and deified not only the powers of external
nature, but all the internal feelings, passions, moral and
intellectual qualities and faculties of the mind. Soon he
began to regard every grand and useful object as a visible
manifestation of the supreme Intelligence presiding over
the universe, and every departed hero or benefactor as
a mere reflection of the same all-wise and omnipresent
Ruler. Hence, to give expression to the varied attributes
and functions of this great Being, thus visibly manifested
to the world, both Hindu and Greek peopled their pan-
theons with numerous divine and semi-divine creations,
clothing them with male and female forms, and inventing
in connection with them various fanciful and often mon-
strous myths, fables, and allegories, which the undis-
criminating multitude accepted as realities, without at all
understanding the ideas they symbolized. In India we
320 INDIAN WISDOM.
are able to trace back the development of these anthropo-
morphic ideas to their source in the Rig-veda, and thence
follow them step by step through Manu, the epic poems,
and Puranas. In the Rig-veda a god Vishnu is often
named as a manifestation of the Solar energy, or rather
as a form of the Sun ; and the point which distinguishes
him from the others is his striding over the heavens in
three paces, supposed to symbolize the three stages of
the Sun's daily course in his rising, culminating, and
setting (see note i, p. 329). Subsequently he takes a fore-
most place among the twelve Adityas, or twelve distinct
forms of the Sun in the twelve months of the year. In
the Brahmanas he is identified with sacrifice (Yajna),
and once described as a dwarf (Vdmana; Satapatha-
brahmana XIV. I, i, 6, I. 2, 5, 5). In Manu, Brahman,
the universal Soul, is represented as evolving his essence
in the form of Brahma, the Creator of all things, and
various other visible manifestations of the Deity are re-
cognized, as in the Veda. In Book XII. 121, Vishnu and
Hara ( = Siva) are mentioned as present in the human
body, the former imparting movement to its muscles, the
latter bestowing strength.
In all this, however, there was not enough to satisfy
the cravings of the human heart for a religion of faith
in a personal god a god sympathizing with humanity,
and even with the lower forms of animal life, loving all
his creatures, interested in their affairs, and ever at hand
to assist them in their difficulties. Nor, on the other
hand, was there sufficient to meet the demands of other
constituent parts of man's complex nature for a religion
of activity and good works ; of austerity and subjugation
of the passions ; of contemplation and higher spiritual
knowledge. Soon, therefore, the great Spirit of the
universe began to be viewed still more anthropomor-
phically, through the medium of man's increasing sub-
THE EPIC POEMS THEORY OF INCARNATION. 321
jectivity, as a Being who not only created man but
condescended to human sympathies, and placed himself
in the closest connection with all his creatures, whether
gods, men, or animals.
But first arose the inquiry why and how this great
Being willed to create at all ? To account for this it was
conceived that when the universal and infinite Being
Brahma (nom. case of the neut. Brahman) the only
really existing entity, wholly without form and unbound
and unaffected by the three Gunas or by qualities of any
kind (pp. 85, 107) wished to create for his own enter-
tainment the phenomena of the universe, he assumed
the quality of activity (rajas) and became a male person
as Brahma (nom. case masc.) the Creator. Next, in the
progress of still further self-evolution, he willed to invest
himself with the second quality of goodness (sattva) as
Vishnu the Preserver, and with the third quality of dark-
ness (tamas) 1 as Siva the Destroyer. This development
of the doctrine of triple manifestation (tri-murti), which
appears first in the brahmanized version of the Indian
Epics, had already been adumbrated in the Veda in the
triple form of fire (see p. 15), and in the triad of gods,
Agni, Surya, and Indra (see note, p. 16) ; and in other
ways. 2
In fact the Veda, rather than Manu, was the source of
the later incarnations (see notes, pp. 326-329). It was the
Vedic Vishnu (connected with Surya, ' the Sun') who
1 In the Kumara-sambhava II. 4, we have the following : Namas
trimurtaye tubhyam prak-srishteh kevaldtmane Guna-traya-vibhagaya
pascdd bhedam upeyushe, 'Hail to thee of triple form, who before
creation wast simple Soul, and afterwards underwent partition for the
distribution of the three Gunas.'
2 The thirty-three gods (3 multiplied by n) of the Rig-veda (tribhir
eltddasair devebliir yatam, I. 34, n, I. 45, 2) point to the same idea of
triple manifestation.
X
322 INDIAN WISDOM.
became Vishnu the world-preserver, while Rudra (connected
with Indra and the Maruts), the god of tempests, became
the world-dissolver Siva. Under the latter form, the
Supreme Being is supposed to pass from the operation
of creation and preservation to that of destruction, these
three separate acts being assigned to separate deities who
are themselves finite, and obey the universal law of dis-
solution at the end of a Kalpa (see note 3, p. 330), when they
again become merged in simple Soul (kevaldtman). But as
it was essential that even the god of dissolution should con-
nect himself with humanity, and as, according to a funda-
mental dogma of Hinduism, all death leads to new life,
all destruction to reproduction, it was natural that the
latter operation should be chosen as the link of connection,
rather than the former. His function of destroyer is,
therefore, interchanged with that of creator (note 3,
p. 323) ; he himself is called Siva, 'the Auspicious/ and
his character is oftener typified by the reproductive Lin-ga
(without necessary implication of sensual ideas) than by
any symbol of destruction. Under this image, in fact, he
is generally worshipped in India. 1 Nevertheless, he is also
represented in human form, living in the Himalaya moun-
tains along with his wife Parvati, 2 sometimes in the act
1 Twelve celebrated Lin-gas were set up, about the tenth century, in
twelve great shrines, in twelve chief cities of India, of which Somnath
was one. The representation of the generative organ is not offensive
to delicacy even when surrounded by the Yoni, or female symbol.
Quite enough, however, is implied to account for the degeneration of
S'iva-worship in modern times, as expressed in the works called Tantras
and in the practices of the S'aktas. The representation of S'iva as
Ardhanari, half male, half female, symbolizes the unity of the gene-
rative principle. Some think the god S'iva with the Lin-ga (Phallus)
was adopted by the Aryans from the aborigines. The word S'iva means
' auspicious,' and being first applied euphemistically to the god of tem-
pests (Rudra) afterwards passed into the name of the god of destruction.
2 The sakti or active energy of a deity is personified as his wife, and
THE EPIC POEMS THEORY OF INCARNATION. 323
of trampling on and destroying demons, wearing round
his black neck (nila-kantha) a serpent and a necklace of
skulls, and furnished with a whole apparatus of external
emblems (such as a white bull on which he rides, a
crescent, a trident, 1 tiger's skin, elephant's skin, rattle,
noose, &c.), the exaggeration of which imparts a childish
and grotesque character to Hindu symbolism when re-
garded from a European point of view. Again, Maha-
derva, or the great deity Siva, is sometimes connected with
humanity in one other personification very different from
that just noted, viz., that of an austere naked ascetic, with
matted hair 2 (Dig-ambara, Dhurjati), living in a forest
apart from his consort, abiding in one spot fixed and
immovable (Sthdnu) teaching men by his own example,
first, the power to be acquired by penance (tapas), morti-
fication of the body, 3 and suppression of the passions ;
and, secondly, the great virtue of abstract meditation
(samadhi), as leading to the loftiest spiritual know-
ledge (jndna) and ultimately to union (yoga) or actual
those who worship the female principle are called S'aktas. Parvati,
daughter of the mountain, and worshipped under the name Durga in
Bengal, is the chief object of the adoration of S'aktas and Tantrikas.
1 This three-pronged symbol may denote creation, destruction, and
regeneration. He has also three eyes (one of which is in his forehead),
in allusion to either the three Yedas or time past, present, and future
(whence he is called Try-ambaka), and five faces (whence his name
Pancdnana) ; the crescent moon also symbolizing his power over the
measurement of time. He is sometimes said to manifest himself under
eight forms ether, air, fire, water, earth, sun, moon, the sacrificing
priest (whence his name Ashta-murti}. His black throat was caused
by the deadly poison churned out of the ocean, which would have
destroyed the universe had he not swallowed it.
2 The hair is so worn by S'iva- worshipping Yogis (see p. 95).
3 In Maha-bharata, Sauptika-parvau 769, Brahma, the Creator, is
represented as calling on S'iva to create living creatures; and the
latter, to qualify himself for the task, undergoes a severe penance
under water.
324 INDIAN WISDOM.
identification with the great Spirit of the universe
(Paramdtman). 1
These three manifestations of Brahma, Vishnu, and
Siva, whose functions are sometimes interchanged, 2 exhibit
the three sides of Hinduism as developed in the epic
poems, and still more unfolded in the subsequent Puranas.
The first is the religion of activity and works, the second
that of faith and love, the third that of austerity, con-
templation, and spiritual knowledge. This last is regarded
as the highest, because it aims at entire cessation of action
and total effacement of all personal entity and identity
by absorption into simple SouL
In medieval times bitter rivalries and disputes sprung
up between the upholders of these three doctrines ex-
1 In the character of 'lord of abstract meditation,' S'iva is called
Yogesa, Yogin. Indeed, in some of the Puranas the origin of the Yoga
(see p. 94) is ascribed to S'iva. In Book I. 55 and III. 45-50 of the
Kumara-sambhava, and in the opening invocation or Nandl of the
Mridchakatika, there is a description of S'iva's posture and whole ap-
pearance while engaged in profound meditation. He is seated on his
hams in the posture called paryan-lcu-landha (p. 93, note 2), with his
breath suppressed and his vision fixed on his nose. While in this
situation the god of love attempted to inspire him with affection for
Parvati, daughter of Himalaya, in order that a son might be born to
S'iva for the destruction of the Daitya Taraka, who had extorted, by
his penances, so many boons from Brahma, that the whole universe
had become subject to him. S'iva, indignant at the interruption of his
austeritiesj reduced Kama (Love) to ashes by a flash from his eye.
Parvati then herself followed S'iva's example, and commenced a course
of penance whereby she conciliated S'iva and became his wife. A son,
Karttikeya, ' god of war/ was then born, who killed Taraka. This is
the subject of the Kumara-sambhava. The use of ashes rubbed upon
the body and of Rudraksha berries, to form rosaries, is of great im-
portance in S'iva-worshipi
2 Thus, Vishnu-worship (like Siva-worship) is connected with the
highest spiritual knowledge in the Bhagavad-gita. See also note 3,
p. 323. In some parts of India a saint Dattdtreya is revered as
combining the Hindu Triad in himself.
THE EPIC POEMS THE TRIAD. 325
pressed by the worship of Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva 1
respectively. Each sect was jealous of the superiority of
his own system, and particular Puranas were devoted to
1 Brahma, ' the Creator,' however, is supposed to have done his
work. Hence the worship of this manifestation fell into desuetude,
and only in one place do traces of it continue, viz., Pushkara in Ajmlr
(Rajputana). Even the worship of the other two manifestations began
in time to languish, until that of S'iva was revived by the great teacher
and reformer S'an-karadarya (sometimes described as an incarnation of
S'iva) in the eighth century ; and that of Vishnu or Krishna by Rama-
nuja in the twelfth, and by Vallabhadarya at the end of the fifteenth.
S'iva is now the favourite manifestation with Brahmans and the better
classes, as Krishna is with the others. Benares is a stronghold of
S'iva-worship (whence his name Kasl-natha), but even there Krishna is
the popular god of the lower orders. The chiefs of many monasteries
in the south of India are to this day called S'an-karac'aryas. A popular
festival, or rather fast (upavdsa, vrata), called S'iva-riitri, in honour of
the god S'iva (under the form of the Linrga), is kept for a whole day
and night, on the i4th of the dark half of the month Magha (January
February). The spring festival (utsava), commonly called Hull or
HolT, celebrated a few days before the full moon of Phalguna (February
March), and still more popular than the last, is said to be in honour
of Krishna and the Gopis dancing round fires. Their frolics are com-
memorated in a variety of sports and jokes. In some parts of India
the Holl corresponds to the Dola-yatra or ' swinging festival,' when
figures of Krishna and his favourite wife Radha are swung in an orna-
mented swing. The Dlvali (dlpdU) or ' festival of lights,' 'at the end of
Asvin and beginning of Kartik (October November), is in honour of
Vishnu's wife Lakshmi. Those who worship Durga or Parvati, wife of
S'iva, are called Saktas (see note 2, p. 322). Besides the three prin-
cipal sects of $aivas, Vaishnavas, and Saktas, three other inferior ones
are often named, viz., the Ganapatyas or worshippers of Gana-pati or
Ganesa, the Sauryas or Sauras, worshippers of Surya, ' the sun,' and
the Blidgavatas, who are supposed to worship Bhagavat, ' the Supreme
Being.' There are also the Sikhs of the Paiijab, disciples of Guru
Nanak Shah born near Lahore who in the reign of Baber, at the
end of the fifteenth century, attempted to combine Hinduism with
Islam, and promulgated about the time of our Reformation a book
called the Adi Grantha, 'first Book' (prohibiting idol-worship and
teaching the unity of the Godhead pantheistically), as a kind of new
326 INDIAN WISDOM.
the exaltation of the one god or the other. But in the
present day the strife of sects has generally given way
to universal toleration, and a liberal school of theology
has arisen in India. Most thinking men among the
educated classes, whatever may be the form of religion to
which they nominally incline, regard the names Brahma,
Rama, Krishna, and Siva as mere convenient symbols
for different manifestations of the one Supreme Being,
who may be worshipped under different external forms
and by separate methods, according to the disposition,
circumstances, and preference (ishti) of his worshippers.
They hold, in short, that there are three ways or means of
salvation, i. the way of works (/carman), 2. that of faith
(bhakti), 3. that of spiritual knowledge (jndna) ; and
heaven, they assert, may be reached by any one of these
three roads or by a combination of all. The second,
however, represents the popular side of the Indian creed,
as of all religions, false or true.
It is as Vishnu, then, that the Supreme Being, accord-
ing to the Hindus, exhibited his sympathy with human
trials, his love for the human race, his respect for all
forms of life, and his condescension towards even the
inferior animals as integral parts of his creation. Por-
tions of his essence, they assert, became incarnate in
the lower animals, as well as in men, to rescue the
world in great emergencies. Nine principal occasions
have already occurred in which the god has thus
interposed for the salvation of his creatures. A tenth
Veda. He was succeeded by nine other Gurus, each of whom was in
some way remarkable. The tenth, Govind, added another ' Book ' to
the first, and, meeting with persecution under Aurangzib, converted
the Sikhs from peaceable disciples of a peculiar teacher into a military
nation and enemies of the Mogul empire. The Sikh chiefs formed
themselves into confederacies called Misals, over whom Runjit Sinh
eventually became supreme.
THE EPIC POEMS INCARNATIONS OF VISHNU. 327
has still to take place. These incarnations are briefly as
follows : l
1. Matsya, the fish. In this Vishnu became a fish to
save the seventh Manu, the progenitor of the human race,
from the universal deluge. 2 (See the story told p. 393.)
2. Krirma* the tortoise. In this he descended to aid
in recovering certain valuable articles lost in the deluge.
Fofc this purpose he stationed himself as a tortoise at
the bottom of the ocean, that his back might serve as
a pivot for the mountain Mandara, around which the
gods and demons twisted the great serpent Vasuki. They
then stood opposite to each other, and using the snake
as a rope and the mountain as a churning-stick, churned
the ocean 4 for the recovery of the Amrita or ' nectar/ the
goddess Lakshmi, 5 and twelve other sacred things which
had been lost in the depths.
3. Varaha, the boar. In this he descended to deliver
the world from the power of a demon called Hiranyaksha,
who had seized the earth and carried it down into the
1 It should be mentioned that the Bhagavata-purana gives twenty-two
incarnations of Vishnu. Muir's Texts IV. 156.
2 The oldest version of this legend, which furnished the germ of the
subsequent incarnation, is found in the S'atapatha-brahmana, as given
pp. 30-31 of this volume. The legend is also told in Maha-bharata
Vana-parvan 12747, &c., where the fish is represented as an incarnation
of Brahma; and in the Bhagavata-purana VIII. 24, 7, where it is
identified with Vishnu. Muir's Texts I. 208, &c.
3 In S'atapatha-brahmana VII. 4, 3, 5, Prajapati (or Brahma) is said
to have assumed the form of the tortoise : ' Having assumed the form
of a tortoise, Prajapati created offspring. That which he created he
made (alcarot] ; hence the word kurma.' Muir's Texts IV. 27.
4 In this there appears to be an allegory, and the lesson that may be
supposed to be taught is, that nothing valuable can be produced or
recovered by man without great labour without, as it were, stirring
the lowest depths of his whole nature.
5 Goddess of beauty, and wife of Vishnu, a kind of Hindu Venus,
Aphrodite ((/> oS/rjj, ' foam-born ').
328 INDIAN WISDOM.
lowest depths of the sea. Vishnu, as a boar, dived into
the abyss, and after a contest of a thousand years, slew
the monster and raised the earth. 1 In the earlier legends
O
the universe is represented as a mass of water, and the
earth being submerged, was upheaved by the tusks of
the divine boar. According to some, the object of this
incarnation was to recover the lost Vedas. It is notice-
able that the first three incarnations are all connected
with the tradition of a universal deluge.
4. Nara-sinha, the man-lion. In this he assumed the
shape of a creature, half man, half lion, to deliver the
world from the tyranny of a demon called Hiranya-kasipu,
who had obtained a boon from Brahma that he should
not be slain by either god or man or animal. Hence he
became so powerful that he usurped the dominion of the
three worlds, and appropriated the sacrifices made to
the gods. When his pious son Prahlada praised Vishnu,
the demon tried to destroy the boy, but Vishnu appeared
out of a pillar in the form Nara-sinha and tore Hiranya-
kasipu to pieces.
These first four incarnations are said to have taken
place in the Satya or first age of the world.
5. Vamana, the dwarf. In the second or Treta age
Vishnu descended as a dwarf, to deprive the demon
Bali (who resembles Havana and Kansa in the stories of
1 The germs of the fable in the earlier literature are very simple. In
Taittiriya-brahmana I. i, 3, 5, we read : 'This universe was formerly
water. Prajapati, as a boar, plunged beneath. He found the earth
below. Breaking off a portion of her he rose to the surface.' In
S'atapatha-brahmana XIV. i, 2, u, occurs the following: 'The earth
was formerly so large Emusha, a boar, raised her up ' (Muir's Texts
IV. 27). In the Ramayana II. no, Brahma, not Vishnu, is repre-
sented as taking the form of the boar : ' All was water only in which
the earth was formed. Thence arose Brahma. He, becoming a boar,
raised up the earth,' &c. See Muir's Texts I. 53, IV. 36, &c.
THE EPIC POEMS INCARNATIONS OF VISHNU. 329
Rama and Krishna) of the dominion of the three worlds.
Vishnu presented himself before him as a diminutive man,
and solicited as much land as he could step in three paces.
When his request was granted he strided in two steps
over heaven and earth, but out of compassion left the
lower world or Patala in the demon's possession. 1
6. Parasu-rama, Rama with the axe. In this Vishnu
was born as the son of the Brahman Jamad-asmi and
o
descendant of Bhrigu, in the second age, to restrain the
Kshatriyas from arrogating dominion over the Brahmani-
cal caste. Parasu-rarna is said to have cleared the earth
twenty-one times of the Kshatriya class 2 (see p. 347).
1 The germ of this incarnation in the Rig-veda. I quote one pas-
sage : ' Vishnu strode over this (universe) ; in three places he planted
his step' (I. 22, 17). Hence Vishnu is called Tri-vikratna. See also
p. 320 of this volume and Muir's Texts, vol. iv. p. 63. An account of
the Dwarf incarnation is given in Ramayana (Schlegel) I. 31, 2, and
(Bombay ed.) I. 29, 2, &c. (Gorresio I. 32, 2). It is noticed in the
Maha-bharata, S'anti-parvan 12943, &c., Vana-parvan 484, &c.
2 Though now regarded as the mythical type of Brahmanism, arrayed
in opposition to the military caste, he was probably, in the first instance,
the hero of a quarrel caused by a Kshatriya stealing a cow from a
Brahman named Jamad-agni. In revenge, his son Parasu-rama slew
the Kshatriya, upon which the other Kshatriyas murdered Jamad-agni,
and a fierce contest ensued between his son and the murderers. All
this points to the historical fact of constant struggles between the two
leading classes, and it may be inferred from the circumstance that
Parasu-rama is described as fighting with (and conquered by) Rama-
dandra, as well as with Bhishma in the Maha-bharata, that the
Kshatriyas held their own if they did not gain the upper hand. The
story of Parasu-rama is told in the Vana-parvan 11071, &c., and in
the S'anti-parvan 1707, &c. ; also in the ninth book of the Bhagavata
and in the Padma and Agni Puranas. In the Vana-parvan 8679,
Parasu-rama is described as struck senseless by Rama-c'andra. The
Udyoga-parvan 7142, &c., relates the long single combat between
Parasu-rama and Bhishma. They both repeatedly strike each other
senseless. Ultimately they are persuaded by some Munis to leave off
fighting. In Adi-parvan 272-280, the destruction of the Kshatriyas
330 INDIAN WISDOM.
7. Rama (commonly called Rama-candra, 1 ' the mild
or moon-like Kama'), the hero of the Ramayana, son of
king Dasaratha of the Solar race, and therefore a Ksha-
triya. Vishnu took this form at the close of the second
or Treta age, to destroy the demon Ravana (see p. 343).
8. Krishna, ' the dark god ' the most popular of all
the later deities of India. 2 This incarnation of Vishnu,
at the end of the Dvapara or third age of the world, 3
by Parasu-rama is said to have taken place between the Treta and
Dvapara ages. Muir's Texts I. 447. Tradition ascribes the formation
of the Malabar coast to Parasu-rama, who is said to have compelled
the ocean to retire and to have caused fissures in the western Ghats by
blows of his axe.
1 The addition of Candra, to distinguish this Rama from the other
two, is only found in the later literature (see note, p. 360).
2 Especially in Bengal. In the upper provinces (except at Mathura
or Muttra, Krishna's own city), Oude, Behar, and the greater part of
Hindustan Proper, the seventh incarnation, Rama-dandra, is principally
worshipped. That Krishna-worship is comparatively modern is shown
by the fact that in the old Buddhist Sutras the gods reverenced at the
time Buddhism arose are named, viz., Brahma, Narayaiia, S'iva, Indra,
&c., but not Krishna.
3 The Kali-yuga or fourth age of the world was supposed to com-
mence at the death of Krishna. Hence the events of the Maha-bharata
must have taken place during the third or Dvapara age, and those
of the Ramayana at the end of the second or Treta age. From the
gambling scene in the Second Act of the Mric'c'hakatika, it is probable
that the names of the four ages are connected with throws of dice ;
Krita being the best throw ; Treta, the throw of three or the second
best throw ; and Dvapara, the throw of two or a worse throw ; the
worst of all being Kali. The Hindu notion appears to have been that
gambling prevailed especially in the Dvapara and Kali Yugas. In
the episode of Nala, the personified Dvapara enters into the dice, and
the personified Kali into Nali himself, who is then seized with the
fatal passion for play. The Hindu idea of a succession of four Yugas
or ages, in which a gradual deterioration of the human race takes
place, has its counterpart among the Romans in the Golden, Silver,
Brazen, and Iron ages, as described in Ovid's Metamorphoses (I. 89,
&c.). But the Hindu system of mundane periods is more elaborately
THE EPIC POEMS INCARNATIONS OF VISHNU. 331
as the eighth son of Vasu-deva and Devald of the Lunar
race, was for the destruction of the tyrant Kansa, the
representative of the principle of evil, corresponding to
Havana in the previous in carnation.
The details of the later life of Krishna have been inter-
woven with the later portions of the Maha-bharata, but
they do not belong to the plot, and they might be omitted
without imparing its unity. He is certainly not the hero
of the great Epic. He appears as a great chief who takes
the part of the real heroes the Panda vas 1 and his
claims to deification are often disputed. His earlier days
and juvenile feats, though not found in the oldest parts
of the Maha-bharata, may be gathered from the Hari-vansa
and Puranas, especially the tenth book of the Bhagavata-
purana, from which we learn as follows :
extended, and perhaps agrees better with modern scientific theories
(see p. 178, note 2). A Maha-yuga or period of four ages comprises
12,000 years of the gods, which (according to the Vishnu- purana) are
equal to 12.000x360 (the assumed number of days in an ordinary
year), and therefore to 4,320,000 years of mortals, when another cycle
of four ages is commenced. One thousand of these periods of four ages
constitute a Kalpa or day of Brahma = 4,320,000,000 human years
(comprising under it fourteen Manv-antaras or periods presided over
by fourteen successive Mantis), after which there is a universal collapse
(pratisancara, mahd-pralaya) of all creation including Brahma, Vishnu,
S'iva, gods, demons, men, animals into Brahman or simple being. In
the present Kalpa or Aeon, six Manus have passed away, of whom
the first was Svayambhuva, the present or seventh being Vaivasvata.
Manu's account is confused, and some think the periods of his four
Yugas are no more than 4800, 3600, 2400, and 1200 ordinary years
respectively (Manu I. 69-71). There is no allusion to mundane periods
in the Rig-veda, but there is in the Aitareya-brahmana (VII. 15). The
present Kali-yuga is reckoned to have begun February i8th, 3102
B.C. at midnight, on the meridian of Ujjayini. Whitney's 2nd Series
of Oriental Studies, p. 366 ; Muir's Texts I. 43 ; Weber's Indische
Studien I. 286, 460.
1 Later additions to the Maha-bharata make the Pandavas also incar-
nations of certain deities.
332 INDIAN WISDOM.
Vasu-deva (a descendant of the Yadu who with Puru, as sons of
Yayati, formed the two branches of the lunar dynasty) had two wives,
Rohim and Devakl. The latter had eight sons, of whom the eighth
was Krishna. It was predicted that one of these would kill Kansa,
king of Mathura and cousin of Devakl. He therefore imprisoned
Vasu-deva and his wife, and slew their first six children. The seventh,
Bala-rama, was abstracted from Devaki's womb, transferred to that of
Rohini, and thus saved. The eighth was Krishna, born with black
skin and the mark called Qrl-vatsa on his breast. 1 His father, Vasu-
deva, escaped from Mathura with the child, and, favoured by the gods,
found a herdsman named Nanda of the race of the Yadavas whose
wife, Yasoda, had just had a son, whom Vasu-deva conveyed to Devakl,
after substituting his own son in its place. Nanda took the infant
Krishna and settled first in Gokula or Vraja, and afterwards in
Vrindavana, where Krishna and Bala-rama grew up together, roaming
in the woods, and joining in the sports of the herdsmen's sons. While
still a boy, Krishna destroyed the serpent Kaliya, and lifted up the
mountain Govardhana on his finger to shelter the GopTs from the
wrath of Indra, who, enraged by their love for Krishna, tried to destroy
them by a deluge. He is described as sporting constantly with these
Gopis or shepherdesses, of whom a thousand became his wives, though
only eight are specified, Radha being the favourite. Krishna built
Dvaraka in Gujarat, and thither transported the inhabitants of Mathura
after killing Kansa.
According to some, Krishna is not an incarnation of
o '
Vishnu, but Vishnu himself; in which case, Bala-rama,
'the strong Kama,' 2 born at the end of the Dvapara or
third age of the world, as son of Vasu-deva and Devakl, and
1 The anniversary of the birthday of Krishna, called Janmashtami,
because his birth is said to have occurred on the eighth day of the
month Bhadra (August September), is celebrated as a great festival.
Professor Weber has lately published some valuable information on
this subject.
2 This third Rama, usually held to be the seventh son of Vasu-
deva, and sometimes called Halayudha, ' armed with a plough-shaped
weapon,' sometimes Musalin, ' club-armed,' is the Hindu Hercules.
In Maha-bharata I. 7308 (as well as in the Vishnu-purana), he is said
to have been produced from a white hair of Vishnu, as Krishna was
from a black. Elsewhere he is said to be an incarnation of the great
serpent S'esha, and in Anusasana-parvan 6163 he is regarded as a
THE EPIC POEMS INCARNATIONS OF VISHNU. 333
elder brother of Krishna, is sometimes substituted for
Krishna as the eighth incarnation of Vishnu.
9. Buddha. According to the Brahmans, Vishnu as-
sumed the form of the great sceptical philosopher, in
the fourth age of the world, to delude the Daityas or
demons into neglecting the worship of the gods, and
thus exposing them to destruction.
10. Kalld or Kalkin, who is yet to appear at the close
of the fourth or Kali age, when the world has become
wholly depraved, for the final destruction of the wicked,
for the re-establishment of righteousness upon the earth,
and the renovation of all creation with a return to a new
age of purity (satya-yuga). According to some, he will
be revealed in the sky, seated on a white horse, with a
drawn sword in his hand, blazing like a comet. 1
Looking more closely at these ten incarnations, we may
observe that in the first three Vishnu is supposed to be
present in the body of animals, and in the fourth to take
the form of a being half animal, half human. This last
may be regarded as a kind of intermediate link, the object
Naga, or semi-divine being, half man, half serpent ; and at his death
(recorded in Mausala-parvan 117), a large Naga is described as coming
out of his mouth and entering the ocean. Diodorus Siculus, in his
account of the Indians (II. 39), has the following : ' It is said that
Hercules also (as well as Aiovvao*, worshipped by the inhabitants of the
mountains) lived amongst them j and, like the Greeks, they represent
him with a club and lion's skin; and that in strength of body and
bravery, he excelled all mortals, and purged the earth and sea from
monsters (#?j?/w). And that since he had numerous sons from his
many wives, but only one daughter, when they were grown up, he
divided the whole of India into equal parts, so that each of his sons
should have a kingdom of his own, and his one daughter he made
queen. And that he founded many cities, and among them the largest
and most celebrated was Palibothra (TlaXi^oBpa) ; and that after his
death, he obtained divine honours.'
1 According to Vishnu-purana IV. 24, he is to be born as Kalki in
the family of Vishnu-yasas, an ancient Brahman of S'ambhala.
334 INDIAN WISDOM.
of which is to prevent too great abruptness in connecting
the Deity with the higher forms of worldly existence.
From the mixed manifestation of half a lion, half a man,
the transition is natural to that of a complete man. The
divine essence passing into human forms commences with
the smallest type of humanity, represented by a dwarf.
Thence it rises to mighty heroes, who deliver the world
from the oppression of evil demons and tyrants whose
power increases with the deterioration of mankind during
the four ages. In the tenth and final manifestation, which
remains to be revealed, evil and wickedness are to be
entirely rooted out. We see in all this the working of
the Hindu idea of transmigration. Even in Manu's time
it was an accepted dogma that the souls of men, popularly
regarded as emanations from the Deity, might descend
into the bodies of animals, or rise to those of higher
beings. It was therefore an easy expansion of such a
doctrine to imagine the divine Soul itself as passing
through various stages of incarnation for the delivery of
the world from the effects of evil and sin, and for the
maintenance of order in the whole cycle of creation.
Let me introduce here a curious legend from the Bha-
gavata-purana X. Ixxxix. also told in the Prem Sagar.
I translate it (with a little amplification) as well illus-
trating the distinctive characters of the three gods,
Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva. (The Sanskrit text is given
at p. 516.)
The great sage Bhrigu, one of the ten Maharshis or primeval patriarchs
created by the first Manu (I. 35), was asked which god was the greatest.
He said he would endeavour to ascertain, and first went to Brahma ;
on approaching whom, he purposely omitted an obeisance. Upon this,
the god reprehended him very severely, but was pacified by seasonable
apologies. Next he entered the abode of Siva, in Kailasa, and omitted
to return the god's salutation. The vindictive deity was enraged, and
would have destroyed the sage, but was conciliated by his wife Parvati.
Lastly, he repaired to Vaikuntha, the heaven of Vishnu, whom he found
THE EPIC POEMS THE RAMAYANA. 335
asleep with his head on Lakshml's lap. To make a trial of his for-
bearance, he boldly gave the god a kick on his breast, which awoke
him. Instead of showing anger, however, the god arose, and on seeing
Bhrigu, inquired tenderly whether his foot was hurt, and then pro-
ceeded to rub it gently. < This,' said Bhrigu, < is the mightiest god ;
he overpowers by the most potent of all weapons sympathy and
generosity. '
The RdmdycMia.
I proceed now to give a brief account of ValmlkiV
poem, the Ramayana (Rdma-ayana, ' the goings or doings
of Kama'), which in its present form consists of about
24,000 stanzas, mostly in the common heroic Anushtubh
metre. 2
It should be noted in the first place that the purity of
1 Valmlki is thought to have been born in that part of India which
corresponds to Kosala, the chief town of which was Ayodhya (reigned
over by Dasaratha, Rama's father), and which was close to the region
of Videha, whose king, Janaka, was the father of Sita, and whose con-
nection with Yajiiavalkya is described in the Brahmana of the White
Yajur-veda, and in some of the Maha-bharata legends. Valmlki himself
is believed to have been an adherent of the Black Yajur-veda, and it is
certain that the story of Rama was carefully preserved among the Tait-
tirlyakas, and that Valmlki interweaves their legends into his narrative.
According to Mr. Gust (Calcutta Review XLV.) Valmlki resided on the
banks of the Jumna, near its confluence with the Ganges at Allahabad ;
and tradition has marked a hill in the district of Banda, in Bundelkund,
as his abode. Some actually assert that he began life as a highway
robber, but repenting of his misdeeds, betook himself to a hermitage
on this hill, where he eventually received Sita, the wife of Rama, when
banished by her over-sensitive husband. There were born her two
sons, Kusa and Lava (sometimes combined into one compound, thus
Kusl-lavau), who were taught to sing the poe.m descriptive of their
unknown father's actions, and from whom are traced the proudest
Rajput castes. The reviewer thinks it not unlikely that Valmlki may
have been contemporaneous with the heroes whom he describes.
2 The metre in which the greater part of the Ramayana and Maha-
bharata is written is the common S'loka (see my Sanskrit Grammar,
336 INDIAN WISDOM.
its text lias been exposed to risks, which the longer Epic
has escaped. Its story was more popular and attractive.
It was shorter, and far less burdened with digressions ;
it had more unity of plot ; its language was simpler and
presented fewer difficulties. As a result of these circum-
stances it was more easily committed to memory. Hence
it happened that, even after the final settlement of its
text, it became orally current over a great part of India.
We know from the fourth chapter of the first book that
it had its minstrels and reciters like the Greek pa^wSoi,
and variations in the wording of the narratives became
almost unavoidable. In process of time, as written copies
of the poem multiplied, the unfettered flow of the common
heroic metre facilitated slight alterations and interpola-
tions by transcribers who sometimes aimed at being poets
themselves. Hence we have at least three versions of
the text of the poem : one belonging to Benares and the
North-west ; another, which is generally, though not
always, more diffuse and open to suspicion of interpola-
tions, peculiar to Calcutta and Bengal Proper; and a
third, to Western India (Bombay). These principal recen-
sions, as well as all the known MSS., whatever may be
their occasional variations, 1 divide the poem into seven
books, as follows :
935), in which only five syllables out of sixteen in each line are really
fixed. The others may be either long or short. The Indra-vajra variety
of Trishtubh is, however, frequently used in the Maha-bharata ; and in
the Ramayana, at the end of the chapters, we have often the Jagati
(Gram. 937, 941). The former of these has eleven syllables to the
half-line, the latter twelve J and the quantity of every syllable being
fixed, there is less simplicity and freedom of style.
1 Professor Weber shows that the variations now discovered in MSS.
of the Ramayana in different parts of India are so great, that it is no
longer possible to talk of three recensions only. With regard to the
Bengal (Gauda) recension, it may be observed that in that part of
India, where there is less demand for MSS., learned men have been
THE EPIC POEMS THE RAMAYANA. 337
i. Bala-kanda, the section relating to the boyhood of Rama. 2. Ayo-
dhyd-k, descriptive of the transactions in Ayodhya and the banish-
ment of Rama by his father, king Dasaratha. 3. Aranya-k, narrating
events in the forest-abode of Rama after his banishment, including
the carrying off of Slta by Ravana. 4. Kishkindhya-k" ', detailing the
occurrences at Kishkindhya, the capital city of Rama's ally Sugrlva.
5. Sundara-fi", 'the beautiful section,' giving an account of the miracles
by which the passage of the straits and the arrival of the invading
armies in Lan-ka (Ceylon) were effected. 6. Yuddha-k , describing
the actual war with Ravana in Lan-ka, the victory over his armies and
his destruction by Rama, the recovery of Slta, the return to Ayodhya,
the reunion of the four brothers, and final coronation of Rama. 7. Utta-
ra-k, narrating the concluding events of the history of Rama after his
coronation on returning to Ayodhya, his sensitiveness to the gossip
and scandal of the citizens, his consequent banishment of Slta to the
hermitage of Valmiki, notwithstanding the absolute certainty of her
blameless conduct during her captivity in Ravana's palace, the birth of
his twin sons, Kusa and Lava, in the hermitage, his final reunion with
her, and translation to heaven. All this supplement to the story has
been dramatized by Bhava-bhuti in his Uttara-rama-c'aritra, and the
whole previous history in his Maha-vira-c'aritra.
We have already noted that the seventh Book, as well
their own scribes, and have always tampered more freely with original
texts than the unlearned copyists of the North. In 1806 and 1810
Carey and Marshman published the text and translation of two books
out of the seven which complete this recension ; but here and there
they have followed the northern. Twenty years afterwards Augustus
William Schlegel published the text of two books of the northern
version, with a Latin translation of the first; and after another in-
terval of twenty years Signer Gorresio, a learned Italian scholar,
published, at the expense of king Charles Albert, a very beautiful and
accurate edition of the Bengal recension, with an Italian translation,
which I have generally followed in my summary of the narrative. The
remainder of that particular recension, the editing of which was com-
menced by Schlegel, was left unprinted. More than ten years have
elapsed since editions of the more reliable recension, with commentary,
were put forth at Calcutta and Bombay. That of Calcutta is dated
Samvat, 1917. Mr. R. Griffith's poetical translation of the Ramayana,
which has appeared since, deserves, and has received, the greatest
commendation.
Y
338 INDIAN WISDOM.
as the introductory chapters of the first, giving a sum-
mary of the plot, and the passages identifying Kama
with Vishnu or the Supreme Being (such as VI. cii. 12,
Gorresio), are in all probability comparatively modern
appendages. -
No suspicion, however, of interpolations and variations
avails to impair the sacred character of the poem in the
eyes of the natives. 1 Some idea of the veneration in
which it is held may be formed from the verses at the
end of the introductory chapter, which declare
He who reads and repeats this holy life-giving Ramayana is liberated
from all his sins and exalted with all his posterity to the highest
heaven.
Brahma also, in I. 2, 40, is made to utter the following
prophecy in the presence of the poet Valmiki :
As long as the mountains and rivers shall continue on the surface of
the earth, so long shall the story of the Ramayana be current in the
world. \Tdvat sthdsyanti girayah saritad-ca mahitale Tdvad Rdmdyana-
kathd lokesliu pracarishyatiJ\
The main story of the poem, 2 although often inter-
rupted by long episodes which have little bearing on the
plot, flows in a far more continuous and traceable course
than that of the Maha-bharata. It may be divided into
four principal parts or periods, corresponding to the chief
epochs in the life of Kama. I. The account of his youth-
1 Weber has noted that in the Sarva-darsana-san-graha (p. 72, 1. 15)
a passage is quoted from the Skanda-purana which places the Mula-
ramayana, ' original Ramayana,' as a S'astra after the four Yedas, the
Bharata, and the Panca-ratraka. Some of the Sargas in the Uttara-
kanda have no comment as being prdkshipta.
2 While writing my account of the Ramayana, I have consulted an
able article on this poem in the Calcutta Review (XLV.), to which I
am under great obligations. The author of the article is my friend
Mr. R. N. Gust, a late distinguished member of the Bengal Civil
Service.
THE EPIC POEMS THE RAMAYANA. 339
ful days ; his education and residence at the court of his
father Dasaratha, king of Ayodhya ; his happy marriage
to Slta ; and his inauguration as heir-apparent or crown-
prince. II. The circumstances that led to his banish-
ment ; the description of his exile and residence in the
forests of Central India. III. His war with the giants
or demons of the South for the recovery of his wife Slta,
carried off by their chief Eavana ; his conquest and
destruction of Eavana, and reunion with Slta. IV. His
return with Slta to Ayodhya ; his restoration to the
throne of his father; and his subsequent banishment of
Slta. 1
The poem opens with a description of Ayodhya, 2 and
an eulogium on Dasaratha and his ministers, of whom
the most eminent were the two prime ministers Vasishtha
and Vamadeva. Besides these, there were eight other
1 According to Professor Lassen the development of the story of
Rama may be divided into four stages. The first construction of the
poem did not carry the narrative beyond the banishment of Rama to
the Himalaya and the circumstances which caused his wife Slta and
his brother Lakshmana to follow him into exile. The second changed
the place of banishment to the Godavari, and described the protection
afforded to the hermits against the attacks of the aborigines. The
third embraced the account of the first attempts to subdue the inhabi-
tants of the Dekhan. The fourth amplification, which resulted from
the knowledge gained by the Hindus of the island of Ceylon, included
the description of Rama's expedition against Lan-ka. See Ind. Alt. II.
P- 5C5-
2 Although Ayodhya is the base of operations in the Ramayana, yet
the poet carries us through a vast extent of country, conducting us
now beyond the Sutlej into the Panjab, now across the Vindhya moun-
tains into the Dekhan, and now across the Narmada and Godavari to
the most southern parts of India, even to the island of Ceylon. The
geography of the poem, however, though far more interesting, and
extending to wider points in every direction, than that of the Maha-
bharata, is not always to be trusted. The river Sarayu is now called
the Gogra.
340 INDIAN WISDOM.
councillors (amdtyak), agreeably to the precept laid down
by Manu (see p. 256, with note 2). These are of course
all Brahmans, and direct the affairs of the government.
King Dasaratha has no son (VIII. i) a serious calamity
in India, where a son is needed for the due performance
of the Sraddha (see p. 249, with note i). The usual
remedy for this misfortune was a great sacrifice, pur-
posely cumbered with a most tedious and intricate cere-
monial, not to be performed except by Brahmans, who
received in return enormous gifts. The Eakshasas were,
of course, eagerly on the watch for any flaw, defect, or mis-
take. If any occurred, the whole ceremony was seriously
obstructed, and its efficacy destroyed.
Rishyasrin-ga, therefore, a celebrated sage, is married
to Dasaratha's daughter Santa, and induced to assist at
the celebration of a great Asva-medha or horse-sacrifice.
The episode in which the story of this sage is told is
very curious :
It so happened, that in the neighbouring kingdom of An-ga, now
known as Bhagulpore, in Bengal, there had been a great dearth, and
the king, Lomapada, had been assured that the only chance of obtaining
rain was to entice the ascetic Rishyasrin-ga from his retirement, and
induce him to marry the king's daughter, or rather the adopted child
of Lomapada, and real daughter of Dasaratha. This ascetic was the
son of Vibhandaka, a sainted mortal of frightful power, who had pro-
duced him apparently without a mother, and had brought him up alone
in the wilderness, where he had never seen or even heard of the fascina-
tions of women. The plan was to send a party of young females, dis-
guised as ascetics, and inveigle the great saint from his retreat. The
description of the surprise and unsettlement of mind, the interruption
of devotion, and heart's unrest, that befell the unhappy saint when he
received his strange guests, is very singular. In the end, the ascetic
is seduced from his hermitage, put on board a vessel on the Ganges,
married to the king's daughter, and brought to Ayodhya, to conduct
the sacrifice. 1
1 I have consulted here Mr. Gust's article in the Calcutta Review
(XLV.). He there remarks that 'we might laugh at the conceit of
THE EPIC POEMS THE RAMA Y ANA. 341
The horse-sacrifice, 1 therefore, was successfully per-
formed. We are told that no oblation was neglected,
nor any mistake committed ; all was in exact conformity
to the Veda (I. xiii. 10). The queen Kausalya, mother
of Kama, and the other two queens, Sumitra and Kai-
keyi, 2 remain with the slaughtered horse for one whole
such a case being possible had not a modern traveller in the Levant,
Mr. Curzon, assured us of the existence of a similar case in one of the
convents of Mount Athos in the nineteenth century. He there found
a monk in middle life who had never set eyes on women, nor had any
notion of them beyond what could be formed from a black and hideous
altar-picture of the Virgin Mary. The cruel traveller, by an accurate
description of the many charms of the fair sisterhood, entirely destroyed
the poor monk's peace of mind for the future.'
1 The horse chosen for this purpose was let loose and allowed to roam
about for a year. If no one was able to seize it during this period, it
was deemed fit for sacrifice ; but the seizure was sometimes effected by
the god Indra, whose tenure of heaven was imperilled by the great power
acquired by those who completed many Asva-medhas. Another year
was consumed in preparations for the sacrifice. The description of the
ceremony, in I. xiii., is curious. Twenty-one Yupas or sacrificial posts
were erected, to which were tied various animals, and the horse. Near
the latter the queens of Dasaratha watched for a whole night. The
marrow (vapa) of the horse [patatrin = horse ; according to the com-
mentator, pura asvdndm paltshdh sanfitt] was then taken out and
dressed, and the horse itself cut up and offered in the fire, and the king,
smelling the smoke of the burning flesh, became absolved from his sins.
Various other sacrifices seem to have accompanied the Asva-medha,
such as the Catushtoma, Jyotishtoma, Atiratra, Abhijit, &c. The
Pravargya and Upasad are described in Aitareya-brahmana I. 18, i,
23-25. Compare the Asva-medha hymns of the Rig-veda (I. 162, 163)
and the rules for this sacrifice given in S'atapatha-brahmana XIII. and
Katyayana's Sutras XX. 6, 78. An important part of the proceedings
was the feasting and the largesses. King Dasaratha is described as
giving to the priests a million cows, a hundred million pieces of gold,
and four times as many pieces of silver.
2 Of Dasaratha's three wives, the chief, Kausalya, is said to have
been of his own race and country (probably so called from Kosala, the
country of Dasaratha) ; the second, Kaikeyi, was the daughter of Asva-
342 INDIAN WISDOM.
night (I. xiii. 36, 37). The gods, Brahma, Vishnu, and
Siva, along with Indra and his troop of Maruts, assemble
to receive their shares of the sacrificial oblations, and
being satisfied, promise four sons to Dasaratha (I. xiv. 9).
The scene then changes to the abode of the gods, where
a deputation of the deities waits on Brahma, and repre-
sents to him that the universe is in danger of being
destroyed by the chief of the Kakshasas or evil demons,
called Eavana, who from his island- throne in Ceylon
menaces earth and heaven with destruction. His power
is described as so great that
Where he is, there the sun does not give out its heat ; the winds
through fear of him do not blow ; the fire ceases to burn ; and the
ocean, crowned with rolling billows, becomes motionless (I. xiv. 17).
The secret of this power lay in a long course of aus-
terity, 1 which, according to the Hindu doctrine, gained for
pati, king of Kekaya, supposed to be in the Panjab (whence the king
himself is sometimes called Kekaya) ; and the third, Sumitra, was
probably from Magadha or Behar. The father of the last is said to
have been a Vaisya. It is noticeable that Asva-pati, king of Kekaya,
is mentioned in the Brahmana of the White Yajur-veda as nearly
contemporary with Janaka, father of Sita.
1 According to the Hindu theory, the performance of tapas or
austerities of various kinds was like making deposits in the bank of
heaven. By degrees an enormous credit was accumulated, which enabled
the depositor to draw to the amount of his savings, without fear of his
drafts being refused payment. The merit and power thus gained by
weak mortals was so enormous, that gods as well as men were equally
at the mercy of these all but omnipotent ascetics. Hence both Eishis
and Rakshasas and even gods, especially S'iva (p. 323), are described
as engaging in self-inflicted austerities, in order to set mere human
beings an example, or perhaps not to be supplanted by them, or
else not to be outdone in aiming at re-absorption into Brahma. In
these cases it is incorrect (as remarked by Professor Banerjea) to
translate tapas by ' penance,' if expiation for sin is thereby implied.
It is simply self-inflicted pain and suffering, with a view to the
acquisition of superhuman powers, or of final emancipation. The
THE EPIC POEMS THE RAMAYANA. 343
him who persevered sufficiently, however evil his designs,
superiority to the gods themselves, and enabled Havana
to extort from the god Brahma this remarkable boon
that neither gods, genii, demons, nor giants should be
able to vanquish him. As, however, in his pride, he
scorned to ask security from man also, he remained vul-
nerable from this one quarter, if any mortal could be
found capable of coping with him. While the discussion
of the matter is carried on in heaven, Vishnu joins the
conclave, and at the request of the other gods, promises
to take the form of man that he may kill Eavana, and
consents to become incarnate for this purpose, in the
family of Dasaratha, king of Ayodhya (Oude), of the
Solar dynasty.
It should be stated here that, according to the legendary
history of India, two lines of rulers were originally domi-
nant in the north of India, called Solar and Lunar, under
whom numerous petty princes held authority and to
whom they acknowledged fealty. Under the Solar
dynasty the Brahmanical system gained ascendency more
rapidly and completely than under the Lunar kings in
the more northern districts, where fresh arrivals of martial
tribes preserved an independent spirit among the popula-
tion already settled in that district.
This Solar line, though practically commencing with
Ikshvaku, is fabled to have derived its origin from the
Sun, and even from an earlier source the god Brahma
himself. Perhaps the object of the Brahman poet or
later constructor of the poem might have been to connect
Kama in his then acknowledged character of an incar-
root tap signifies first 'to burn' and then 'to torment.' It is con-
nected with Lat. tepeo. Also with Greek r'eppa, root rap, Qawru,
which last originally signified 'to burn,' not 'to bury,' dead bodies.
As, however, ' penance ' is derived from poena, ' pain,' it is perhaps a
suitable equivalent for the Sanskrit tapas.
344 INDIAN WISDOM.
nation of Vishnu, with the solar Vishnu of the Veda (see
p. 320). However this may have been, nothing shows
more clearly than the legendary pedigree of Eama how
the whole poem was subjected to a brahmanizing process.
We see from it that the most powerful line of Kshatriya
kings is thus made to owe its origin to Brahmanical
sages of the greatest sanctity. I here abridge the
genealogy :
Ikshvaku was the son of Manu Vaivasvata (i.e., the seventh Manu,
or Manu of the present period). The latter was a son of Vivasvat or
the Sun (commonly called Surya). The Sun again was a son of the
Muni Kasyapa, who was the son of the Rishi Marie"!, who was the son
of Brahma. From Ikshvaku sprang the two branches of the Solar
dynasty, viz., that of Ayodhya or Oude, which may be said to have
commenced in Kakutstha, the grandson of Ikshvaku (as the latter's
son Vikukshi, father of Kakutstha, did not reign), and that of Mithila,
or Videha (North Behar and Tirhut), which commenced in another of
Ikshvaku's sons, Nimi. Thirty-fifth in descent from Kakutstha came
Sagara ; fourth from him Bhagiratha ; third from him Ambarisha ;
and fifteenth from him Raghu, who was father of Aja, who was father
of Dasaratha. Hence we have the following order of names : Brahma,
Maridi, Kasyapa, Vivasvat or Surya, Yaivasvata, Ikshvaku [Vikuk-
shi], Kakutstha [ ],
Sagara [. .], Dilipa, Bhagiratha [. .], Ambarisha [. . .], Nala [ ],
Raghu, Aja, Dasaratha, Rama.
This explains why Rama is variously called Kakutstha, Raghava,
Dasaratha, Dasarathi, &C. 1
We are thus brought to the real commencement of the
story the birth of Eama. 2 Four sons are born from the
1 This list agrees with the usual one as exhibited in Prinsep's table ;
but there is considerable variation in the genealogy, as given in Rama-
yana II. ex. and in the Raghu-vansa. For instance, the son of Iksh-
vaku is said to be Kukshi, and his son Vikukshi ; the son of Dilipa is
Bhagiratha, and his son is Kakutstha, and his son is Raghu. In the
Raghu-vansa, Raghu, father of Aja (V. 36), is said to be the son of
Dilipa (III. 13).
2 In Schlegel's and the Bombay Ramayana, the horoscope of Rama's
THE EPIC POEMS THE RAMA Y ANA. 345
three wives of Dasaratha ; the eldest, Rama, possessing
half the nature of Vishnu, from Kausalya ; the second,
Bharata, possessing a fourth part, from Kaikeyi ; and the
other two, Lakshmana and Satru-ghna, sharing the re-
maining quarter between them, from Sumitra. The
brothers are all deeply attached to each other ; but
Lakshmana (often called Saumitri) is especially the com-
panion of Rama, and Satru-ghna of Bharata. 1
While yet striplings, Rama and his brothers are taken
by Visvamitra (see p. 361) to the court of Janaka, king
of Mithila or Videha. 2 He had a wonderful bow, once the
property of Siva, and had given out, that the man who
birth is given. His birthday is called Rama-navarm (see p. 365,
note i), because he is said (I. xix. i, 2, II. xv. 3) to have been born
on the Qth Tithi of Caitra, about the vernal equinox, Jupiter being in
Cancer (Karlcata). Weber thinks that the mention of the Zodiacal
sign and the planet Jupiter is a proof of the late date to be assigned
to the composition of the Ramayana, or at least of this passage, seeing
that the Hindus obtained their knowledge of the signs and planets
from the Greeks, and these latter only completed their Zodiac in the
first century B.C. Weber, however, remarks that in the Ramayana
Ceylon is never called Tamraparni or Sinhala (by which name alone it
was known to the Greeks), but always Lan-kd,
1 Although in xix. the birth of Bharata is narrated after that of Rama,
he is supposed to have been born after the twins ; and we read in
I. xv. that the divine nectar containing the essence of the god Vishnu
was drunk by Sumitra next to Kausalya. According to Schlegel,
Bharata was eleven months junior to Rama, and the twins only three
months. Probably the mother of Bharata was higher in rank than
Sumitra, which would give him the precedence. Lakshmana was to
Rama like another self (Rdmasya Lakslimano vdhihprdna ivdparah, na
ca tena vind nidrdm labhate, na tarn vind mishtam annam updnltam
afadti, I. xix. 20-22).
2 It is evident that Mithila (North Behar and Tirhut), situated quite
towards the east, was an Aryan country at this time, for Janaka is
described (Ram. I. 12) as conversant with all the S'astras and Vedas.
He is a frequent interlocutor in the Brihad-aranyaka.
34^ INDIAN WISDOM.
could bend it should win his beautiful daughter Sita. 1
On the arrival of Kama and his brothers the bow is brought
on an eight-wheeled platform, drawn by no less than 5000
men. Kama not only bends the bow, but snaps it asunder
with a concussion so terrible that the whole assembly is
thrown to the ground, and the earth quivers as if a
mountain were rent in twain.
Sita thus becomes the wife of Kama, and she remained
his one wife the type of wife-like Devotion. Kama also
remained her faithful lord the type of all that a husband
ought to be in loving tenderness and fidelity. 2
On their way back to Ayodhya, Dasaratha and his sons
are met by Parasu-rama, and here we have introduced
the curious episode of the conflict between the second
Kama and the previous incarnation of Vishnu who
suddenly appears on the scene (though not till various
strange omens and awful portents had given notice of his
approach) to challenge the young son of Dasaratha. The
object of this digression, which is clearly not part of the
original story, seems to be, that the ex-incarnation of
1 Called Sita because not born from a woman, but from a furrow
(sita) while Janaka was ploughing (I. Ixvi. 14). This has given rise
to a theory that the story of Rama allegorizes the introduction of
agriculture into the south of India. The name Sita occurs in
Taittiriya-brahmana II. 3, 10, 1-3, as applied to the daughter of
Savitri, or Prajapati, and as in love with the Moon, who on his part
loves another daughter, S'raddha, but in the end is brought to love
Sita. (See also Rig-veda IV. 57, 6, 7; Atharva-veda XL 3, 12.)
This is a variation of the older legend which represents Savitri as
giving his daughter Surya in marriage to the Moon. This may account
for the name Rama-candra, 'moon-like Rama,' which was ultimately
given to the hero of the Ramayana.
2 In this respect he contrasts very remarkably with the five
Pandavas the heroes of the Maha-bharata who had one wife be-
tween them as common property, besides others on their own private
account.
THE EPIC POEMS THE RAMAYANA. 347
Vishnu, as a Brahman, may, by acknowledging himself
justly superseded by the Kshatriya incarnation, give a
Brahmanical sanction to the deification of the second
Kama ; but much mythological mysticism is mixed up
with the narrative, with the apparent design of obscuring
the actual facts of the Kshatriya hero's victory, which
could not, if stated in plain language, be otherwise than
mortifying to Brahmanical pride. I here abridge the story
as told in Ramayana I. Ixxiv., &c. (Schlegel ; Muir's Texts,
vol. iv. pp. 176, 177): *
When the king and his son Rama were returning home after the
marriage of the latter to Sita, he was alarmed by the ill-omened sounds
uttered by certain birds, which, however, were counteracted, as the sage
Vasishtha assured the king, by the auspicious sign of his being perambu-
lated by the wild animals of the forest. Then a hurricane shook the
earth, uprooting the trees, and thick darkness veiled the sun. Finally,
Parasu-rama appeared, fearful to behold, brilliant as fire, with his axe
in his hand, and a bow on his shoulder. He was angry at the breaking
of the bow of S'iva, of whom he was a disciple. Being reverently received,
he proceeded to tell Rama, Dasaratha's son, that he had heard of his
success in breaking S'iva's bow, and had brought another bow, once the
property of Vishnu (I. Ixxv. 13), which he asked Rama to bend, and
fit an arrow on the string, adding, that if he succeeded in bending it, he
(Parasu-rama) would challenge him to single combat. Rama replies that
though his powers were slighted by his rival, he would give him a proof
of his strength. Whereupon, he angrily snatches the bow from Parasu-
rama, bends it, fits an arrow on the string, and tells his challenger that
he will spare his life because he is a Brahman, but will either destroy his
supernatural power of movement, or deprive him of the abode in bliss he
had acquired by his austerities. The gods now arrive to be witnesses of
the scene. Parasu-rama becomes disheartened, loses his strength, and
entreats not to be deprived of his faculty of moving in the air (lest he
should be unable to fulfil his promise, made to Kasyapa, to leave the
earth every night). He then continues to say that by the bending of
the bow he recognizes Rama's divinity, and that he regards defeat by
the lord of the three worlds as no disgrace. The second Rama then
shoots the arrow, and thereby in some mysterious manner destroys
Parasu-rama's abode in the celestial world.
Dasaratha and his party now return to the capital, and
INDIAN WISDOM.
preparations are made for the inauguration of Rama as
successor to the throne, when Kaikeyi, mother of his
brother Bharata, jealous of the preference shown to the
son of Kausalya, demands of the king the fulfilment of a
promise, made to her in former years, that he would grant
her any two boons she asked. A promise of this kind in
Eastern countries is quite inviolable ; and the king being
required to banish his favourite son Rama for fourteen
years to the forest of Dandaka, and to instal Bharata, is
forced to comply.
Rama, therefore, with his wife Sita and his brother
Lakshmana, is banished. They establish themselves in the
forest near the river Godavari. 1 Meanwhile the heart-
broken king pines away in inconsolable anguish. Here
occurs a touching episode (II. Ixiii.). The king, in the
midst of his despondency, confesses that his present be-
reavement is a punishment for a deed of blood committed
by himself accidentally in his youthful days. Thus it
happened : (I translate as nearly as I can word for word,
in a metre resembling the sixteen-syllable heroic verse of
the original, omitting portions here and there) :
One day when rains refreshed the earth, and caused my heart to swell with joy,
When, after scorching with his rays the parched ground, the summer sun
Had passed towards the south ; when cooling breezes chased away the heat,
And grateful clouds arose ; when frogs and pea-fowl sported, and the deer
Seemed drunk with glee, and all the winged creation, dripping as if drowned,
Plumed their dank feathers on the tops of wind-rocked trees, and falling showers
Covered the mountains till they looked like watery heaps, and torrents poured
Down from their sides, filled with loose stones and red as dawn with mineral earth,
Winding like serpents in their course ; then at that charming season I,
Longing to breathe the air, went forth, with bow and arrow in my hand,
To seek for game, if haply by the river-side a buffalo,
Or elephant or other animal might cross, at eve, my path,
Coming to drink. Then in the dusk I heard the sound of gurgling water :
1 The Dandaka forest is described as beginning south of the Jumna, and
extending to the Godavari. The whole of that country was a wilderness,
inhabited by savage tribes (Rakshasas), and infested by wild beasts.
THE EPIC POEMS THE RAMA Y ANA. 349
Quickly I took my bow, and aiming toward the sound, shot off the dart.
A cry of mortal agony came from the spot, a human voice
Was heard, and a poor hermit's son fell pierced and bleeding in the stream.
' Ah ! wherefore then,' he cried, ' am I a harmless hermit's son struck down ?
Hither to this lone brook I came at eve to fill my water-jar.
By whom have I been smitten ? whom have I offended ? Oh ! I grieve
Not for myself or my own fate, but for my parents, old and blind,
Who perish in my death ! Ah ! what will be the end of that loved pair,
Long guided and supported by my hand ? this barbed dart has pierced
Both me and them.' Hearing that piteous voice, I DaSaratha,
Who meant no harm to any human creature, young or old, became
Palsied with fear ; my bow and arrows dropped from my senseless hands ;
And I approached the place in horror ; there with dismay I saw,
Stretched on the bank, an innocent hermit-boy, writhing in pain and smeared
With dust and blood, his knotted hair dishevelled, and a broken jar
Lying beside him. I stood petrified and speechless. He on me
Fixed full his eyes, and then, as if to burn my inmost soul, he said,
' How have I wronged thee, monarch ? that thy cruel hand has smitten me
Me, a poor hermit's son, born in the forest : father, mother, child
Hast thou transfixed with this one arrow : they, my parents, sit at home
Expecting my return, and long will cherish hope a prey to thirst
And agonizing fears. Go to my father tell him of my fate,
Lest his dread curse consume thee, as the flame devours the withered wood.
But first in pity draw thou forth the shaft that pierces to my heart,
And checks the gushing life-blood, as the bank obstructs the bounding stream.' 1
He ceased, and as he rolled his eyes in agony, and quivering writhed
Upon the ground, I slowly drew the arrow from the poor boy's side.
Then with a piteous look, his features set in terror, he expired.
Distracted at the grievous crime, wrought by my hand unwittingly ;
Sadly I thought within myself, how best I might repair the wrong,
Then took the way he had directed me towards the hermitage.
There I beheld his parents, old and blind ; like two clipped wingless birds
Sitting forlorn, without their guide, awaiting his arrival anxiously,
And, to beguile their weariness, conversing of him tenderly.
Quickly they caught the sound of footsteps, and I heard the old man say,
With chiding voice, 'Why hast thou lingered, child ? Quick give us both to drink
A little water. Long forgetful of us, in the cooling stream
Hast thou disported ; come in for thy mother yearneth for her son.
If she or I in ought have caused thee pain, or spoken hasty words,
Think on thy hermit's duty of forgiveness ; bear them not in mind.
Thou art the refuge of us refugeless the eyes of thy blind sire.
Why art thou silent ? Speak ! Bound up in thee are both thy parents' lives.'
He ceased, and I stood paralyzed till by an effort resolutely
1 I have omitted the youth's statement that he is not a Brahman, but
begotten by a Vai6ya on a Sudra woman (II. Ixiii. 48, &c.).
35 INDIAN WISDOM.
Collecting all my powers of utterance, with faltering voice I said,
' Pious and noble hermit ; I am not thy son ; I am the king :
Wandering with bow and arrow by a stream, seeking for game, I pierced
Unknowingly thy child. The rest I need not tell. Be gracious to me.'
Hearing my pitiless words, announcing his bereavement, he remained
Senseless awhile ; then drawing a deep sigh, his face all bathed in tears,
He spake to me as I approached him suppliantly, and slowly said,
' Hadst thou not come thyself, to tell the awful tale, its load of guilt
Had crushed thy head into ten thousand fragments. This ill-fated deed
Was wrought by thee unwittingly, O king, else hadst thou not been spared,
And all the race of Raghavas had perished. Lead us to the place :
All bloody though he be, and lifeless, we must look upon 1 our son
For the last time, and clasp him in our arms.' Then weeping bitterly
The pair, led by my hand, came to the spot and fell upon their son.
Thrilled by the touch, the father cried, 'My child, hast thou no greeting for us?
No word of recognition : wherefore liest thou here upon the ground ?
Art thou offended ? or am I no longer loved by thee, my son ?
See here thy mother. Thou wert ever dutiful towards us both.
Why wilt thou not embrace me ? speak one tender word. Whom shall I hear
Beading again the sacred S'astra in the early morning hours ?
Who now will bring me roots and fruits to feed me like a cherished guest ?
How, weak and blind, can I support thy aged mother, pining for her son ?
Stay ! Go not yet to Death's abode stay with thy parents yet one day,
To-morrow we will both go with thee on the dreary way. Forlorn
And sad, deserted by our child, without protector in the wood,
Soon shall we both depart toward the mansions of the King of death.'
Thus bitterly lamenting, he performed the funeral rites ; then turning
Towards me thus addressed me, standing reverently near ' I had
But this one child, and thou hast made me childless. Now strike down
The father : I shall feel no pain in death. But thy requital be
That sorrow for a child shall one day bring thee also to the grave.'
After narrating this affecting incident of his early life,
king Dasaratha, struck with remorse, sickens and dies. 2
O '
Soon afterwards the ministers assemble, and decide that
Bharata shall assume the government (II. Ixxix.), but he
declines to deprive his elder brother Kama of his rightful
inheritance, and declares his intention of setting out for
1 This is literally translated. It is well known that blind people
commonly talk of themselves as if able to see.
2 His body is burnt with much pomp. We have already noted, as a
proof of the antiquity of the poem, that his widows are not burnt with
him (see p. 312).
THE EPIC POEMS THE RAMAYANA. 3 5 I
the forest with a complete army (catur-an-ga] to bring
Kama back, and his determination to undergo in his place
the appointed term of fourteen years' exile in the forest
(II. Ixxix. 8, 9).
After some trouble he discovers Kama's retreat at Citra-
kuta. 1 There and then he breaks the sad news of his
father's death, and entreats him to return to Ayodhya
and assume the sovereignty (cii.).
Next ensues a generous contest between the brothers ;
Bharata imploring Rama to accept the throne, and Kama
insisting on the duty of fulfilling his father's vow (cvi.,
cvii.).
Here occurs the episode in which the Brahman Javali,
who is a sort of impersonation of scepticism, tries in a
brief address (II. cviii.) to instil atheistic and irreligious
sentiments into Kama, hoping to shake his resolution and
induce him to accept the kingdom. His speech, which is
full of interest as indicating the prevalence of infidel and
materialistic doctrines at the time when the brahmanized
version of the Kamayana was completed, may be thus
abridged :
You ought not by abandoning your paternal kingdom to enter upon
a wrong road, beset with difficulties and troubles. Permit yourself to
be enthroned in Ayodhya. Dasaratha (your father) is dead and is now
nothing to you, nor you to him. Any one who feels attachment for
any other person is insane, since no one is anything to any other. I
1 The isolated hill Citra-kuta is the holiest spot of the worshippers
of Rama, and is crowded with temples and shrines of Rama and
Lakshmana. Every cavern is connected with their names; the heights
swarm with monkeys, and some of the wild-fruits are still called Slta-
phal. It is situated on a river called the Pisuni, described as the
Mandakini (II. xcv.), fifty miles south-east of the town of Bandah in
Bundelkund, lat. 25. 12, long. 80. 47. The river is lined with ghats
and nights of stairs suitable for religious ablutions. It is worthy of
note that at some holy places all distinctions of caste are laid aside by
the Hindus.
35 2 INDIAN WISDOM.
grieve for those who swerve not from virtue and justice ; such persons
suffer affliction here, and when they die incur annihilation. Men are
careful to offer oblations to their progenitors, but what can a dead man
eat ? If an oblation eaten here by one person, passes into the body of
another, then let a S'raddha be offered to a man who is travelling
abroad ; he need not eat upon his journey (cf . the doctrine of the Car-
vakas, p. 120). The books composed by theologians (in which men
are enjoined to) worship, give gifts, offer sacrifice, practise austerities,
abandon the world, are mere artifices to draw forth gifts (ddna-sam-
vanana). Make up your mind (kuru buddhim) that no one exists here-
after. Have regard only to what is visible and perceptible by the
senses (pratyaksham). Cast everything beyond this behind your back
(prishthatah Icuru). (See Dr. Muir's article on Indian Materialists,
Journal of the Asiatic Society, vol. xix. p. 303. )
Rama's reply, in which he indignantly rebukes Javali,
is a noble vindication of religion and faith, but his refer-
ence to Buddhism and his designation of Buddha himself
as a (Jora or thief (II. cviii. 33) must be regarded as
interpolations. 1
In the end Bharata desists from pressing his brother to
accept the throne, but only consents to take charge of the
kingdom as a deposit. He bears away Kama's shoes on
his head in token of this (cxiii. i), and takes up his abode
outside Ayodhya, at Nandi-grama, until the return of the
rightful king, never transacting any business without first
laying it before the shoes (cxv.). Before dismissing him,
the forgiving Rama entreats him not to indulge angry
feelings towards his mother for having caused the family
calamities, in these words :
Cherish thy mother Kaikeyi, show no resentment towards her (II.
cxii. 27).
After Bharata's departure ten years of Rama's banish-
ment pass in moving from one hermitage to another. In
1 Other allusions to rationalistic doctrines will be found scattered
throughout the Ramayana.
THE EPIC POEMS THE RAMAYANA. 353
the description of the quiet life of the exiles we find that
their morning and evening devotions are never omitted,
and that Sita dutifully waits on her husband and brother-
in-law, never eating till they have finished. 1 When they
travel, Kama walks first, Sita in the middle, and Laksh-
mana behind (III. xv. i ). At length they move westward
to visit the hermitage of the sage Agastya, near the
Vindhya mountains. He advises Kama to live for the
remainder of his exile in the neighbourhood of Janastnana
at Pancavati on the Grodavari 2 (xix.). This district is
infested by Hakshasas, and, amongst others, by Havana's
sister, Surpa-nakha, who becomes smitten with love for
Rama. He of course repels her, telling her that he is
already married (xxiv. i ) ; but this only rouses the
jealousy of Surpa-nakha, who makes an attack on Sita,
and so infuriates the fiery Lakshmana that he thought-
lessly cuts off her ears and nose 3 (xxiv. 22). Surpa-
nakha, smarting with pain and bent on revenge, repairs
to her brother Havana, the demon-monarch of Ceylon.
The description of Havana (III. xxxvi. ; Bombay ed.
xxxii.) is as follows:
This mighty demon had ten faces, twenty arms, copper- coloured eyes,
a huge chest, and bright teeth like the young moon. His form was as
a thick cloud, or a mountain, or the god of death with open mouth.
He had all the marks of royalty ; but his body bore the impress of
wounds inflicted by all the divine arms in his warfare with the gods.
It was scarred by the thunderbolt of Indra, by the tusks of (Indra's)
elephant Airavata, and by the discus of Vishnu. His strength was so
great that he could agitate the seas and split the tops of mountains.
He was a breaker of all laws, and a ravisher of other men's wives.
He once penetrated into Bhogavatl (the serpent -capital of Patala),
1 This custom remains unaltered to the present day. Compare Manu
IV. 43 : ' Let him not eat with his wife, nor look at her eating.'
2 A spot now known as Nasik, in the Bombay Presidency.
3 It was from this circumstance that Pandavatl is now called Nasik
(ndsika, ' the nose ').
Z
354 INDIAN WISDOM.
conquered the great serpent Yasuki, and carried off the beloved wife of
Takshaka. He defeated Yaisravana (i.e., his own brother Kuvera, the
god of wealth), and carried off his self-moving chariot called Pushpaka.
He devastated the divine groves of Citra-ratha, and the gardens of the
gods. Tall as a mountain peak, he stopped with his arms the sun and
moon in their course, and prevented their rising. The sun, when it
passed over his residence, drew in its beams in terror. He underwent
severe austerities in the forest of Gokarna for ten thousand years,
standing in the midst of five fires (see p. 95) with his feet in the air;
whence he was released by Brahma, and obtained from him (among
other boons, see p. 343) the power of taking what shape he pleased. 1
The better to secure the mighty Havana's co-operation,
Surpa-nakha succeeds in inspiring him with a passion for
Sita (III. xxxviii. 17), whom he determines to carry off.
Having with difficulty secured the aid of another demon,
Marica who was the son of the Tadaka (I. xxvii. 8)
formerly killed by Rama Ravana transports himself and
his accomplice in the aerial car Pushpaka to the forest
near Rama's dwelling. Marica then assumes the form of
a beautiful golden deer, which so captivates Sita (III.
xlviii. 1 1) that Rama is induced to leave her with Laksh-
mana, that he may catch the deer for her, or kill it.
Mortally wounded by his arrow, the deer utters cries for
help, feigning Rama's voice, which so alarms Sita that
1 One cannot help comparing part of this description with Milton's
portrait of Satan. The majestic imagery of the English poet stands
out in striking contrast to the wild hyperbole of Yalmiki. It appears
from III. liii. (Gorresio) that Ravana was the son of Yisravas, who was
the son of the sage Pulastya, who was the son of Brahma. Hence
Ravana was the brother of the god Kuvera (though by a different
mother), and in verse 30 he calls himself his brother and enemy. Both
he and Kuvera are sometimes called Paulastya. Yibhishana and
Kumbha-karna were also brothers of Havana, and, like him, propitiated
Brahma by their penances, and, like him, obtained boons, but the boon
chosen by Yibhishana was that he should never swerve from virtue,
and by Kumbha-karna (whose size was gigantic and appetite voracious)
that he should enjoy deep sleep for long periods of time. (See Maha-
bharata III. 15916.)
THE EPIC POEMS THE RAMAYANA. 355
she persuades Lakshmana against his will to leave her
alone and go to the assistance of his brother. Meanwhile
Bavaria approaches in the guise of a religious mendicant.
All nature seems petrified with terror as he advances (III.
lii. 10, n); and when Sita's eyes fall on the stranger,
she starts, but is lulled to confidence by his mendi-
cant's dress, and offers him food and water. Sud-
denly Ravana declares himself. Then throwing off his
disguise he avows his intention to make her his queen.
Sita's indignation bursts forth, but her wrath is powerless
against the fierce Ravana, who takes her up in his arms,
places her in his self-moving car, and bears her through
the sky to his capital. As Sita is carried along, she in-
vokes heaven and earth, mountains and streams (Iv. 43).
The gods and saints come to look on, and are struck with
horror, but they stand in awe of the ravisher, and know
that this is part of the plan for his destruction. All
nature shudders, the sun's disc pales, darkness over-
spreads the heavens (Iviii. 16-43). ^ * s the short-lived
triumph of evil over good. Even the great Creator
Brahma rouses himself, and exclaims, ' Sin is consum-
mated ' (III. Iviii. 17).
Arrived in the demon-city, Ravana forces Sita to inspect
all the wonders and beauties of his capital (III. Ixi.), and
then promises to make them hers, if she will consent to
become his queen. Indignantly rejected, he is enraged,
and delivers her over to the guardianship of a troop of
Rakshasis or female furies, who are described as horrible
in appearance, and cannibal in their propensities (III. Ixii.
29-38). Tormented by them, she seems likely to die of
despair, but Brahma in compassion sends Indra to her
with the god of sleep, 1 and a vessel containing celestial
food (Ixiii. 7, 8) to support her strength.
1 Similarly in the Odyssey (IV. 795) Minerva sends a dream to
console and animate Penelope.
35 6 INDIAN WISDOM.
Terrible is the wrath of the usually gentle Rama when
on his return he finds that Sita is carried off by Havana
(Ixix.). He and Lakshmana at once set off on a long
search, determined to effect her rescue. After many ad-
ventures, in the course of which they have a battle with
a headless fiend called Kabandha, who opposes their pro-
gress, but is killed, and then restored to life by them (III.
Ixxiv.), they make an alliance with Sugriva, king of the
monkeys (foresters), and assisted by Hanumat, one of the
monkey-generals, and by Havana's brother Vibhishana, in-
vade Lan-ka, the capital of Havana, in Ceylon (IV. Ixiii.).
To transport the army across the channel, a bridge is
constructed under the direction of the monkey-general
Nala, son of Visva-karman :
Thousands of monkey bridge- builders, flying through the sky in
every direction, tear up rocks and trees, and throw them into the
water. In bringing huge crags from the Himalayas, some are acci-
dentally dropped, and remain to this day monuments of the exploit.
At length a pier l is formed twenty Yojanas long and ten wide (V.
xcv. 11-15), by which the whole army crosses, Vibhishana taking the
lead. The gods, Rishis, Pitris, &c., look on, and utter the celebrated
prophecy
' As Jong as the sea shall remain, so long shall this pier (setu) endure,
and the fame of Rama be proclaimed.' 2
1 The god of the ocean at first objected to a regular embankment
(V; xciVi 8), though a pier (described as a setu) was afterwards con-
structed : the line of rocks in the channel is certainly known in India
as Rama-setu. In maps it is called 'Adam's bridge.' Everywhere in
India are scattered isolated blocks, attributed by the natives to Rama's
bridge-builders. More than this, the hill Govardhana, near Muttra,
and the whole Kymar range in Central India are firmly believed to
have arisen from the same cause.
2 ' In the midst of the arm of the sea is the island Ramesurum
(Ramesvara), or the pillar of Rama, of as great repute and renown as
the pillars of the western Hercules. There to this day stands a temple
of massive Cyclopean workmanship, said to have been built by the
hero, the idol of which is washed daily with water from the Ganges.
THE EPIC POEMS THE RAMAYANA. 357
After various engagements, described with much weari-
some exaggeration, the great battle between Eama and
Havana takes place :
The gods assemble to take the side of the former, and all the demons
and evil spirits back their own champion (VI. Ixxxvii. 8). Havana is
mounted on a magic car, drawn by horses having human faces (manu-
shyavadanair hayaih] ; and, in order that the two champions may fight
on an equality, Indra sends his own car, driven by his charioteer
Matali, for the use of Rama. Both armies cease fighting, that they
may look on (xci. 2) ; but the gods and demons in the sky, taking the
part of either warrior, renew their ancient strife. 1 The heroes now
overwhelm each other with arrows. Rama cuts off a hundred heads
from Ravana successively ; but no sooner is one cut off than another
appears in its place 2 (xcii. 24), and the battle, which has already lasted
seven days and seven nights without interruption, seems likely to be
endlessly protracted, until Matali informs Rama that Ravana is not
vulnerable in the head. Thereupon Rama shoots off the terrible arrow
of Brahma, 3 given to him by the sage Agastya, and the demon-king
falls dead (xcii. 58).
From the highest point is a commanding view of the ocean, and the
interminable black line of rocks stretching across the gulf of Manaar.
Thither, from all parts of India, wander the pilgrims, who are smitten
with the wondrous love of travel to sacred shrines. From Chuteer-
kote (Citra-kuta), near the Jumna, it is roughly calculated to be one
hundred stages. We have conversed with some who have accomplished
the great feat : but many never return ; they either die by the way,
or their courage and strength evaporate in some roadside hermitage.
Whatever may be its origin, there is the reefy barrier, compelling every
vessel from or to the mouths of the Ganges, to circumnavigate the
island of Ceylon.' Calcutta Review, XLV.
1 This is just what takes place in the Iliad before the great battle
between Achilles and Hector, the gods taking their respective places
on either side (II. XX.). It is interesting to compare the simple
Homeric narrative with the wild improbabilities of the Indian poem.
2 This reminds one of Hercules and the Hydra.
3 Here called paitamaham astram, and described as having the wind
for its feathers, the fire and the sun for its point, the air for its body,
and the mountains Meru and Mandara for its weight (VL xcii. 45).
It had the very convenient property of returning to its owner's quiver
358 INDIAN WISDOM.
Great portents and prodigies precede the fall of Havana,
and when the victory is consummated a perfect deluge of
flowers covers the conqueror. The generous Kama causes
magnificent obsequies to be performed over the body of
his enemy, which is duly consumed by fire, 1 and then
places Vibhishana on the throne of Lan-ka (VI. xcvii. 15).
Kama then sends Hanumat with a message to Sita, and
Vibhishana brings her into his presence in a litter (sivika);
but Kama allows her to come before him on foot, that
she may be seen by all the army.
The monkeys crowd round her, admiring her incomparable beauty,
the cause of so much toil, danger, and suffering to themselves. 2 On
seeing her, Rama is deeply moved. Three feelings distract him joy,
grief, and anger (xcix. 19) and he does not address his wife. Sita,
conscious of her purity, is hurt by his cold reception of her, and bursts
into tears, uttering only the words, ha aryaputra, ' alas ! my husband ! '
Rama then haughtily informs her, that having satisfied his honour by
the destruction of the demon who had wronged his wife, he can do no
more. He cannot take her back, contaminated as she must certainly
be (VI. c.). Sita asserts her innocence in the most dignified and touch-
ing language, and directs Lakshmana to prepare a pyre, that she may
prove her purity. She enters the flames, invoking Agni (ci.) ; upon
which all the gods with the old king Dasaratha appear, and reveal to
Rama his divine nature, 3 telling him that he is Narayana, and that
Sita is Lakshml (cii.). Agni, the god of fire, then presents himself,
holding Sita, whom he places in Rama's arms unhurt. 4 Thereupon
after doing its work. There appear to have been various forms of this
unerring weapon.
1 Contrast this with Achilles' treatment of the fallen Hector.
2 The whole scene is very similar to that in Iliad III. 121, &c.,
where Helen shows herself on the rampart, and calls forth much the
same kind of admiration.
3 He never appears to be conscious of it, until the gods enlighten
him. (See VI. cii. 10, cxix.) This is not the case with Krishna in
the Maha-bharata. It is probable, as we have seen, that all these
passages are later additions.
4 The whole description of Sita's repudiation by Rama is certainly
one of the finest scenes in the Ramayana.
THE EPIC POEMS THE RAMAYANA. 359
Rama is overjoyed, and declares that he only consented to the ordeal
that he might establish his wife's innocence in the eyes of the world
(ciii.). Dasaratha then blesses his son, gives him good advice, and
returns to heaven (civ.) ; while Indra, at the request of Rama, restores
to life all the monkeys killed during the war (cv.).
Kama and Lakshmana, along with Vibhishana, Sugriva,
and the allies, now mount the self-moving car Pushpaka,
which is described as containing a whole palace within
itself, and set out on their return to Ayodhya ; Kama, to
beguile the way as they travel through the sky, recount-
ing to Sita all the scenes of their late adventures lying
beneath their feet 1 (cviii.). On their reaching the hermi-
tage of Bharadvaja at Prayaga, the car is stopped ; and
the fourteen years of banishment having now expired (cix.),
Hanumat is sent forward to announce their return to
Bharata. Kama and the three brothers are now once
more reunited, and, accompanied by them and by Sita
and the monkeys, who assume human forms (cxii. 28), he
makes a magnificent entry into Ayodhya. He is then
solemnly crowned, associates Lakshmana in the empire,
and, before dismissing his allies, bestows on them splendid
presents (cxii.). Hanumat, at his own request, receives as
a reward the gift of perpetual life and youth (cxii. 101).
Every one returns happy and loaded with gifts to his
own home, and Kama commences a glorious reign at
Ayodhya (cxiii.).
Such is a brief sketch of the Kamayana, omitting the
Uttara-kanda or supplementary chapters, which contain
the concluding events in the life of Kama (see p. 337).
1 Kalidasa devotes nearly the whole of the thirteenth chapter of his
Raghu-vansa to this subject, which he makes a convenient pretext for
displaying his geographical and topographical knowledge, as in the
Megha-duta. Bhava-bhiiti does the same in the seventh act of his
drama, Maha-vira-daritra ; and Murari, the same in his play on the
same subject.
360 INDIAN WISDOM.
Much of the story, exaggerated as its later details are,
probably rests, as we have already pointed out, on a
foundation of historical truth.
It is clear, too, that a moral lesson is intended to be
conveyed by the whole narrative. Under the story of the
conflict between the armies of the noble Kama and the
barbarous races of the South, figured by the Eakshasas,
there appears to lie a typical representation of the great
mystery of the struggle ever going on between the powers
of good and evil. With regard, however, to any other
allegorical and figurative ideas involved, as, for example,
that Kama is a mere impersonation of the Solar energy ; l
Sita, of agriculture or of civilization introduced into the
South of India by immigrants from the North ; the Eak-
shasas, of night, darkness or winter whatever ingenuity
there may be in any or all of these theories, it seems
very questionable whether any such conceptioDS ever
entered into the mind of the author or authors of any
part of the poem.
1 Certainly Rama belongs to the Solar race of kings, but this points
to the connection of the Epic Vishnu (of whom Rama came to be
regarded as an incarnation) with the Solar Vishnu of the Veda. Pro-
fessor Weber remarks that as Rama is at a later period called Rama-
candra, and is even in one place called Candra alone, the mildness so
conspicuous in his character might be explained by supposing that he
was originally a kind of moon-genius, and that the legend in the Tait-
tirlya-brahmana (see note i, p. 346) representing the love of Slta (the
field-furrow) for the Moon might be regarded by some zealous mytho-
logists as the first germ of the story of the Ramayana ; the beautifying
ointment (an-ga-raga) which Anasuya, wife of Atri, poured over the
limbs of Slta (III. 2), representing the dew spread over the furrow in
which the moonlight is reflected. Weber, however, thinks that as the
name Rama-<5andra was not given to the second Rama till a late date
(the first application of it occurring in Bhava-bhiiti's Maha-vlra-caritra
III. 1 8), the converse is rather true, viz., that a poetical spirit among
the Brahmans connected Rama with the Moon merely on account of the
mildness of his character.
THE EPIC POEMS THE RAMAYANA. 361
Time would fail, if we were to attempt even the briefest
epitome of all the episodes in the Kamayana. I note two
others in addition to those already given. That of Visva-
mitra (I. 51-65), which is one of the most interesting, may
be thus abridged : l
Visvamitra, son of Gadhi, was a prince of the Lunar race, sovereign
of 3anoj, and the district of Magadha, He had a tremendous conflict
with the Brahman Vasishtha for the possession of the cow of plenty
(Kamadhenu, also called S'avala), which no doubt typified the earth (go)
or India. At the command of Vasishtha, the cow created hordes of
barbarians, such as Pahlavas (Persians), S'akas (Scythians), Yavanas
(Greeks), Kambojas, &c., by whose aid Vasishtha conquered Visvamitra.
Hence the latter, convinced of the superior power inherent in Brah-
manism, determined to raise himself to that dignity, and in order to
effect this object, increased the rigour of his austerities for thousands
of years. The gods, who always had a hard struggle to hold their own
against resolute ascetics, did what they could to interrupt him, and
partially succeeded. Visvamitra yielded for a time to the seductions of
the nymph Menaka, sent by them to entice his thoughts towards sensual
objects. A daughter (S'akuntala) was the result of this temporary back-
sliding. However, in the end, the obstinate ascetic was too much for the
whole troop of deities. He obtained complete power over his passions,
and when the gods still refused to brahmanize him, he began creating
new heavens and new gods, and had already manufactured a few stars,
when the celestial host thought it prudent to concede the point, and
make him a veritable Brahman.
Another curious episode is the story of the Ganges
(I. 36-44) : 2 ~
Gan-ga, the personified Ganges, was the eldest daughter of Himavat,
lord of mountains, her younger sister being lima. Sagara, a king of
Ayodhya, of the Solar race, had 60,000 sons, who were directed by their
father to look for a horse which had been stolen by Kakshasa at an
Asva-medha or horse-sacrifice. Having first searched the earth unsuc-
cessfully, they proceeded to dig up the ground towards the lower regions.
1 The episode of Visvamitra includes under it the story of Ambarlsha
given at p. 27 of this volume.
2 The story is also told in the Maha-bharata, Vana-parvan 9920, &c.
362 INDIAN WISDOM.
Meeting with the sage Kapila, they accused him of the theft, which
enraged him to such a degree, that without more ado he reduced them
all to ashes. Sagara's grandson some time afterwards found their
remains, and commenced performing the funeral obsequies of his rela-
tives, but was told that it was necessary for Gan-ga to water the ashes
with her sacred stream. Neither Sagara, however, nor his grandson
could devise any means for effecting the descent of the heavenly river
It was reserved for his great-grandson, Bhagiratha, by his austerities
to bring down the sacred stream from heaven. In her descent she
fell first with great fury on the head of S'iva, who undertook to break
her fall.
Mr. Ralph Griffith has translated the description of this descent
with great skill and taste. I subjoin a portion of his version (vol. i.
p. 194) :
On S'iva's head descending first
A rest the torrents found,
Then down in all their might they burst
And roared along the ground.
On countless glittering scales the beam
Of rosy morning flashed,
Where fish and dolphins through the stream
Fallen and falling dashed.
Then bards who chant celestial lays,
And nymphs of heavenly birth,
Flocked round upon that flood to gaze
That streamed from sky to earth.
The gods themselves from every sphere,
Incomparably bright,
Borne in their golden cars drew near
To see the wondrous sight.
The cloudless sky was all aflame
"With the light of a hundred suns,
Where'er the shining chariots came
That bore those holy ones.
So flashed the air with crested snakes
And fish of every hue,
As when the lightning's glory breaks
Through fields of summer blue.
And white foam-clouds and silver spray
Were wildly tossed on high,
Like swans that urge their homeward way
Across the autumn sky.
THE EPIC POEMS THE RAMAYANA. 363
Then, by further austerities, Bhagiratha forced the sacred river to
flow over the earth, and to follow him thence to the ocean (therefore
called Sagara), and thence to the lower regions (Patala), where she
watered the ashes of Sagara's sons, and became the means of con-
veying their souls to heaven. Hence a common name for the Ganges
is Bhagirathl.
Another name for the river Ganges is Jahnavi, because
in its course it inundated the sacrificial ground of the
sage Jahnu, who thereupon without any ceremony drank
up its waters, but consented to discharge them again
from his ears.
Notwithstanding the wilderness of exaggeration and
hyperbole through which the reader of the Indian Epics
has occasionally to wander, there are in the whole range
of the world's literature few more charming poems than
the Ramayana. The classical purity, clearness, and sim-
plicity of its style, the exquisite touches of true poetic
feeling with which it abounds, its graphic descriptions of
heroic incidents and nature's grandest scenes, the deep
acquaintance it displays with the conflicting workings
and most refined emotions of the human heart, all entitle
it to rank among the most beautiful compositions that
have appeared at any period or in any country. It is like
a spacious and delightful garden ; here and there allowed
to run wild, but teeming with fruits and flowers, watered
by perennial streams, and even its most tangled thickets
intersected with delightful pathways. The character of
Kama is nobly pourtrayed. It is only too consistently
unselfish to be human. We must, in fact, bear in mind
that the poet is bent on raising his hero to the rank of a
god. Yet though occasionally dazzled by flashes from
his superhuman nature, we are not often blinded or
bewildered by it. At least in the earlier portion of the
poem he is not generally represented as more than a
heroic, noble-minded, pious, and virtuous man a model
364 INDIAN WISDOM.
son, husband, brother whose bravery, unselfish gene-
rosity, filial obedience, tender attachment to his wife,
fraternal affection, and freedom from all resentful feelings,
we cannot help admiring. When he falls a victim to the
spite of his father's second wife, he cherishes no sense of
wrong. When the sentence of banishment is pronounced,
not a murmur escapes his lips. In noble language he
expresses his resolution to sacrifice himself rather than
allow his parent to break his pledged word ; and he per-
sists in this determination, notwithstanding the entreaties
of his mother Kausalya, the taunting remarks of his fiery
brother Lakshmana, and his own anxious fear for the
safety of his wife Sita, who resolves to accompany him.
Again, after the death of his father, when Bharata urges
Kama to accept the government, and when all the citizens
add their entreaties, and the atheistical Javali his sophis-
tical arguments (see p. 351), Kama replies :
There is nothing greater than truth ; and truth should be esteemed
the most sacred of all things. The Yedas have their sole foundation
in truth. Having promised obedience to my father's commands, I will
neither, through covetousness nor forgetfulness nor blind ignorance,
break down the barrier of truth (II. cix. 17).
As to Sita, she is a paragon of wife-like virtues. Her
pleadings for permission to accompany her husband into
banishment breathe such noble devotion to her lord and
master, that I close my examples with a few extracts : J -
A wife must share her husband's fate. My duty is to follow thee
Where'er thou goest. Apart from thee, I would not dwell in heaven itself.
Deserted by her lord, a wife is like a miserable corpse.
Close as thy shadow would I cleave to thee in this life and hereafter.
Thou art my king, my guide, my only refuge, my divinity.
1 I have translated these nearly literally, but not consecutively, in
the sixteen-syllable metre of the original. The substance of them will
be found in the text of Gorresio's Ramayana, vol. ii. p. 74, &c.
THE EPIC POEMS THE RAMAYANA. 365
It is my fixed resolve to follow thee. If thou must wander forth
Through thorny trackless forests, I will go before thee, treading down
The prickly brambles to make smooth thy path. Walking before thee, I
Shall feel no weariness : the forest-thorns will seem like silken robes ;
The bed of leaves, a couch of down. To me the shelter of thy presence
Is better far than stately palaces, and paradise itself.
Protected by thy arm, gods, demons, men shall have no power to harm me.
With thee I'll live contentedly on roots and fruits. Sweet or not sweet,
If given by thy hand, they will to me be like the food of life.
Roaming with thee in desert wastes, a thousand years will be a day ;
Dwelling with thee, e'en hell itself would be to me a heaven of bliss.
As if in support of the prophecy recorded in the begin-
ning of the work (see p. 338) the story of Kama down
to the death of Ravana and recovery of Sita, is still
regularly recited every year throughout a great part of
India, at an annual festival in the beginning of October,
called Rama-lila. 1 Moreover, Hindu writers never seem
tired of working up the oft-repeated tale into various
forms. Hence the history of the adventures of Rama,
or at least some reference to them, is found in almost
every work of the subsequent literature. I conclude
this chapter with instances :
1 On the day in the month Asvln or beginning of October, when
the Bengalis consign their images of Durga to the waters (i.e., at the
Durgapuja, of which the fourth day is called Dasahara, and during
which for a whole fortnight all business is suspended, and even thieves
and rogues allow themselves a vacation), Hindus of other provinces
perform the Kama4ila, a dramatic representation of the carrying off
of Sita, concluding with the death of Ravana, of which that day is
the anniversary. Rama's birth is celebrated on the gth of the month
Oaitra (April), called Rama-navami, The sequel of the story of Rama,
as contained in the Uttara-kanda and Uttara-rama-6arita, is not so
popularly known. See an article in the ' Indian Antiquary ' for May
1872, by the Rev. K. M. Banerjea. It is noteworthy that the Rama
legends have always retained their purity, and, unlike those of Brahma,
Krishna, S'iva, and Durga, have never been mixed up with indecencies
and licentiousness. In fact, the worship of Rama has never degene-
rated to the same extent as that of some of these other deities.
366 INDIAN WISDOM.
In the Maha-bharata (Vana-parvan 1587216601) the Ramopakhyana
is told very nearly as in the Ramayana, but there is no mention of
Valmiki as its author, and no allusion to the existence of the great
sister Epic. Markandeya is made to recount the narrative to Yudhi-
shthira, after the recovery of Draupadi (who had been carried off by
Jayad-ratha, as Sita was by Havana), in order to show that there were
other examples in ancient times of virtuous people suffering violence
at the hands of wicked men. It is probable (and even Professor
Weber admits it to be possible) that the Maha-bharata episode was
epitomized from the Ramayana, and altered here and there to give it
an appearance of originality. There are, however, remarkable differ-
ences. The story in the Maha-bharata, although generally treating
Rama as a great human hero only, begins with the circumstances
which led to the incarnation of Vishnu, and gives a detailed account
of what is first mentioned in the Uttara-kanda of the Ramayana
the early history of Ravana and his brother. The birth of Rama, his
youth, and his father's wish to inaugurate him as heir-apparent are
then briefly recounted. Dasaratha's sacrifice, Rama's education, his
winning of Sita, and other contents of the Bala-kanda are omitted.
The events of the Ayodhya-kanda and much of the Araiiya-kanda are
narrated in about forty verses. A more detailed narrative begins
with the appearance before Ravana of the mutilated S'urpa-nakha (see
p. 353), but many variations occur; for instance, Kabandha is killed,
but not restored to life (see p. 356) ; the story of S'avari is omitted,
and there is no mention of the dream sent by Brahma to comfort Sita
(see p. 35 s). 1
There are other references to, and brief epitomes of parts of the
story of the Ramayana in the Maha-bharata, e.g., in Vana-parvan
11177-11219; in Drona-parvan 2224-2246; in S'anti-parvan 944-955 ;
in Hari-vansa 2324-2359, 8672-8674, 16232.
The story of Rama is also (as Professor Weber observes) referred to
in the Mricclidkatika (Act I.); and although not mentioned in Kalidasa's
1 These and other differences have led Professor Weber to suggest
the inquiry whether the Maha-bharata version may not be more
primitive than that of the Ramayana, and possibly even the original
version, out of which the other was developed. ' Or ought we,' he
asks, ' to assume only that the Maha-bharata contains the epitome of
an earlier recension of our text of the Ramayana; or should both
texts, the Ramopakhyana and the Ramayana, be regarded as resting
alike upon a common groundwork, but each occupying an independent
standpoint ? '
THE EPIC POEMS THE RAMAYANA. 367
dramas, it is alluded to in his Megha-duta (verses i, 99); and in his
Raglm-vansa which is a kind of abridged Ramayana the poet Valmiki
is named (XV. 63, 64). ^loreover, the Ramayana forms the basis of
a Prakrit work called the Setu-landha (ascribed to one Kalidasa, and
mentioned in Dandin's Kdvyddarsa I. 34), as well as of the Bhatti-
Mvya, or grammatical poem of Bhatti (written, according to Lassen,
Ind. Alt. III. 512, in Valabhi-pura under king S'rldhara-sena, between
530 and 545 of the Christian era), and of the two celebrated dramas of
Bhava-bhuti, called Malid-mra-caritra and Uttara-rdma-caritra (whose
date is fixed by Lassen between 695 and 733). The last of these
dramas quotes verses from the Ramayana in three places, one in the
second and two in the sixth Act. Indeed, the dramatic literature which
makes use of the adventures of Rama for the subject-matter of the plots
of its plays is extensive. Besides the two dramas of Bhava-bhuti, there
is the Hanuman-ndtalta or Malid-ndtalta, 'great drama,' in fourteen
acts, fabled to have been composed by the monkey-chief Hanumat him-
self, who first wrote it on the rocks, and then to please Valmiki (lest
it should throw his Ramayana into the shade), cast it into the sea,
whence some portions were recovered in Bhoja's time and arranged by
Misra-damodara (probably about the tenth century). There is also the
Anargha-rdghava or Anarghya-rdghava in seven acts by Murari; the
Prasanna-rdghava by Jaya-deva (probably not the author of the Gita-
govinda) ; the Abhirdma-mani in seven acts by Sundara-misra ; the
(jampu rdmdyana by Vidarbha-raja (or Bhoja) in five acts ; the Rag-
Tiavabliyudaya ; the Bdla-rdmdyana by Raja-sekhara ; the Uddtta-
rdghava ; the 6halita-rdma ; (the last three quoted by the well-known
work on the Ars poetica called Sdhitya-darpana) ; the Dutdn-gada, a
short piece by Su-bhata, and others.
Other works mentioned by Weber as noticing the Ramayana are
that of Vardha-mihira written between 505 and 587 of our era which
takes for granted that Rama was honoured as a demigod about that
time ; the &atrunjay& mdhdtmya written in Valabhi under king S'lla-
ditya about A.D. 598 ; the Vdsava-datta of Subandhu (about the begin-
ning of the seventh century, Weber's Indische Streifen I. 373, 380),
in which mention is made of the Sundara-karida as a section of the
Ramayana; the Kddambari of Bana (written a little later, Indische
Streifen I. 354), in which repeated reference is made to the great Epic
(I. 36, 45, 81); the Sapta-atalca of Hala (35, 316), on which Weber
has written a treatise ; the Pracanda-pdndava of Raja-sekhara (about
the end of the tenth century); the Dasa-mpa of Dhananjaya (I. 61,
about the same date); the Sapta-satl of Govardhana (32, about the
tenth century or later); the Damayantl-lcatha of Trivikrama-bhatta (i i) ;
368 INDIAN WISDOM.
the Rdja-taran-ginl (I. 166); the Sdrn-gadhara-paddhati (Bohtlingk,
Ind. Spr. 1586), &c.
The eighteen Puranas (which are to a great extent drawn from the
two great Epics) contain, of course, numerous allusions to the Rama-
yana, and sometimes relate the whole story. The Agni-purdna has an
epitome of the seven Books in seven chapters. The Padma and Skanda
also devote several chapters to the same subject The Vishnu-purcina
has also a section (IV. 4) about Rama, and in III. 3 describes Valmiki
as the Vyasa of the 24th Dvapara. The Brahmdnda-purdna a con-
fused medley of various subjects has a Rdmdyana-mdhdtmya, and in
this Purana is also contained the well-known Adhyatma-ramayana,
' Spiritual Ramayana,' divided into seven Books, bearing the same
titles as those of Valmiki's Ramayana. Its object is to show that
Rama was a manifestation of the Supreme Spirit, and Slta (identified
with Lakshmi), a type of Nature.
This Adhyatma-ramayana contains two chapters, held to be especially
sacred : i. The Rdma-hridaya or first chapter, in which the inner or
hidden nature of Rama is explained and his identification with Vishnu,
as the Supreme Spirit, is asserted ; 2. the Rdma-gitd or fifth chapter
of the seventh Book, in which the author, who is evidently a Vedantist,
sets forth the advantage of giving up all works in order to meditate
upon and become united with the Supreme Spirit.
There is also a remarkable work called Vdsishtha-rdmdyana (or Yoga-
vasishtha or Vdsishtliam Malid-rdmdyanam) in the form of an exhorta-
tion with illustrative narratives addressed by Vasishtha to his pupil,
the youthful Rama, on the best means of attaining true happiness, and
considered to have been composed as an appendage to the Ramayana
by Valmiki himself.
We ought also here to mention the celebrated Hindi Ramayana by
the poet Tulasi-dasa (Tulsi-das). This poem is so well known and so
greatly esteemed in some parts of India, that it is sometimes affirmed
that there are three epic poems called Ramayana : i. that of Valmiki,
2. that attributed to Vyasa called Adhyatma-ramayana, 3. the Hindi
Epic by Tulasi-dasa.
I conclude the list by noting the following comparatively modern
artificial poems on the same subject: i. the Rdghavapdndavlya by
Kavi-raja, a very singular production, much admired and imitated
by later Indian writers, being nothing less than a poem worded with
such dexterous ' double-entendre,' that it may serve as an epitome
of either the Ramayana or Maha-bharata ; 2. the Rdghava-vildsa by
Visva-natha (author of the Sahitya-darpana) ; 3. the Rdma-vildsa by
Rama- Parana ; 4. another Rdma-vildsa by Hari-natha (in imitation of
THE EPIC POEMS THE RAMAYANA. 369
the Glta-govinda) ; 5. the Rdmacandra-caritra-sdra by Agni-vesa;
6. the Ragliu-ndthdbhyu-daya mentioned by Professor Weber. 1
With regard to the composition called Campu, this is a kind of
highly artificial style in alternations of prose and verse (cjadya and
padya).
1 The story of the Ramayana and Maha-bharata, as given in full by
Mr. Talboys Wheeler in his History of India, is most interesting and
instructive, although it does not profess to be an analysis made by
himself from the original Sanskrit.
2 A
CHAPTER XIII.
The Itihdsas or Epic Poems TJie Maha-bharata.
I PASS on now to the Maha-bharata probably by far
the longest epic poem that the world has ever produced.
Its main design is to describe the great contest between
the descendants of king Bharata. 1 He was the most
renowned monarch of the Lunar dynasty, and is alleged
to have reigned in the neighbourhood of Hastina-pur or
ancient Delhi, and to have extended his authority over a
great part of India, so that India to this day is called by
the natives Bharata- varsha. The great Epic, however,
is not so much a poem with a single subject as a vast
cyclopaedia or thesaurus of Hindu mythology, legendary
history, ethics, and philosophy. The work, as we now
possess it, cannot possibly be regarded as representing
the original form of the poem. Its compilation appears to
have proceeded gradually for centuries. At any rate, as
1 The title of the poem is Mahd-bhdratam, a compound word in the
neuter gender, the first member of which, mahd (for mahat), means
' great,' and the second, bhdrata, ' relating to Bharata.' The title of a
book is often in the neuter gender, some word like kdvyam, l a poem,'
being understood. Here the word with which Maha-bharatam agrees
may be either dkhydnam, 'a historical poem,' or yuddham, 'war.' It
is curious that in the San-graha-parva, or introductory summary
(1. 264), the word Maha-bharata is said to be derived from its large
size and great weight, because the poem is described as outweighing all
the four Vedas and mystical writings together. Here is the passage :
Ekadas caturo Veddn Bhdratam caitad ekatah Purd Itila suraih sarvaih
sametya tulayd dhritam, 6aturbhyah saraliasyebhyo Vedebhyo hy adhikam
yadd, Tadd prabliriti loke 'smin \mdhattvdd bliaravattvdc-6d\ Malid-
bhdratam itcyate.
37
THE EPIC POEMS THE MAHA-BHARATA. 371
we have already indicated (pp. 316, 317), it seems to
have passed through several stages of construction and
reconstruction, until finally arranged and reduced to
orderly written shape by a Brahman or Brahmans, whose
names have not been preserved. 1 The relationship which
the original Brahman compiler bore to the scattered
legends and lays of India, many of them orally trans-
mitted until transferred to the Maha-bharata, was similar
to that borne by Pisistratus to the Homeric poems. But
the Hindus invest this personage, whoever he was, with
a nimbus of mystical sanctity, and assert that he was also
the arranger of various other celebrated religious works,
such as the Vedas and Puranas. He is called Vyasa, but
this is, of course, a mere epithet derived from the Sanskrit
verb vy-as, meaning ' to dispose in regular sequence/ and
therefore would be equally applicable to any compiler. 2
1 Professor Lassen, in his ' Indische Alterthumskunde ' (II. 499,
new edition), considers that it may be proved from an examination of
the Introduction to the Maha-bharata that there were three consecutive
workings-up (bearbeitung) of that poem by different authors. The
first or oldest version, called simply JShdrata, which contained only
24,000 verses, began with the history of Manu, the progenitor of the
Kshatriya or military class (Adi-parvan 3126), 'and a short section
describing the pedigree of Vyasa, and how he appeared at the Snake-
sacrifice, and how, at the request of Janamejaya, he commissioned Vai-
sampayana to relate the story of the strife between the Pandavas
and Kauravas (I. 2208, &c.) might have formed the introduction
(einleitung) to this oldest Bharata. The second reconstruction or re-
casting of the poem thought by Professor Lassen to be identical with
the Itihasa mentioned in Asvalayana's Grihya-sutras, and recited at
S'aunaka's Horse-sacrificetook place about 400 B.C. It began with
the history of king Vasu, whose daughter Satyavati was mother of
Vyasa; and the section called Pausliya (I. 661), the antiquity of which
is indicated by its being almost entirely in prose, might have served
as its introduction. The section called Pauloma (I. 851) probably
formed the commencement of the third reconstruction of the great
Epic, which he considers must have preceded the era of Asoka.
2 Vivydsa Veddn yasmdt sa tasmdd Vyasa Hi sinritah (I. 2417).
37-2 INDIAN WISDOM.
Many of the legends are Vedic, and of great antiquity ;
while others, as we have already pointed out, are com-
paratively modern probably interpolated during the first
centuries of the Christian era. In fact, the entire work,
which consists of about 220,000 lines in eighteen Parvaus
or sections, nearly every one of which would form a large
volume, may be compared to a confused congeries of
geological strata. The principal story, which occupies
little more than a fifth of the whole, forms the lowest
layer ; but this has been so completely overlaid by suc-
cessive incrustations, and the mass so compacted together,
Similarly the name Homerus ("OaTjcoj) is thought by some to come from
6/ioD and ciu. It may seem strange that the compilation of wholly
different works composed at very different epochs, such as the Vedas,
Maha-bharata, and Puranas undoubtedly were, should be attributed to
the same person ; but the close relationship supposed by learned natives
to subsist between these productions, will account for a desire to call in
the aid of the same great sage in their construction. The following
passage from the Vedartha-prakasa of Madhava A6arya (who lived in
the fourteenth century) commenting on the Taittiriya Yajur-veda (p. i),
translated by Dr. Muir in his Sanskrit Texts, vol. iii. p. 47, attributes
the actual composition of the Maha-bharata to the sage Yyasa, and gives
a remarkable reason for his having written it : ' It may be said that
all persons whatever, including women and S'udras, must be competent
students of the Yeda, since the aspiration after good (ishtam me sydd
iti) and the deprecation of evil are common to all mankind. But it
is not so. For though the expedient exists, and women and S'udras are
desirous to know it, they are debarred by another cause from being
competent students of the Veda. The scripture (sdstrd) which declares
that those persons only who have been invested with the sacrificial cord
are competent to read the Yeda, intimates thereby that the same study
would be a cause of unhappiness to women and S'udras (who are not so
invested). How then are those two classes of persons to discover the
means of future happiness 1 We answer, from the Puranas and other
such works. Hence it has been said : Since the triple Yeda may not
be heard by women, S'udras, and degraded twice-born men, the Maha-
bharata (Bharatam dkhyanavi) was, in his benevolence, composed (kritam)
by the Muni.'
THE EPIC POEMS THE MAHA-BHARATA. 373
that the original substratum is not always clearly trace-
able. If the successive layers can ever be critically
analysed and separated, the more ancient from the later
additions, and the historical element from the purely
fabulous, it may be expected that light will be thrown
on the early history of India, religious, social, and political
a subject still veiled in much obscurity, notwithstanding
the valuable researches of Professor Lassen and others.
I now give the names of the eighteen sections or Books
which constitute the poem, with a brief statement of their
contents :
1. Adi-parvan, ' introductory Book,' describes how the two brothers,
Dhrita-rashtra and Pandu, are brought up by their uncle Bhishma ; and
how Dhrita-rashtra, who is blind, has one hundred sons commonly
called the Kuru princes by his wife Gandhari ; and how the two wives
of Pandu Pritha (Kuntl) and Madri have five sons, called the Pan-
davas or Pandu princes.
2. SaWid-parvan describes the great Sabha or ' assembly of princes '
at Hastina-pura, when Yudhi-shthira, the eldest of the five Pandavas,
is persuaded to play at dice with S'akuni and loses his kingdom. The
five Pandavas and Draupadi, their wife, are required to live for twelve
years in the woods.
3. Vana-parvan narrates the life of the Pandavas in the Kamyaka
forest. This is one of the longest books, and full of episodes such as the
story of Nala and that of the Kiratarjumya.
4. Vimta-parvan describes the thirteenth year of exile and the adven-
tures of the Pandavas while living disguised in the service of king
Virata.
5. Udyoga-parvan. In this the preparations for war on the side of
both Pandavas and Kauravas are described.
6. BUlshma-parvan. In this both armies join battle on Kuru-kshetra,
a plain north-west of Delhi. The Kauravas are commanded by Bhishma,
who falls transfixed with arrows by Arjuna.
7. Drona-parvan. In this the Kuru forces are commanded by Drona,
and numerous battles take place. Drona falls in a fight with Dhrishta-
dyumna (son of Drupada).
8. Karna-parvan. In this the Kurus are led by Kama.
battles are described. Arjuna kills Karna.
9. Salya-parvan. In this S'alya is made general of the Kuru army.
374 INDIAN WISDOM.
The concluding battles take place, and only three of the Kuru warriors,
with Duryodhana, are left alive. Bhima and Duryodhana then fight with
clubs. Duryodhana, chief and eldest of the Kurus, is struck down.
10. Sauptika-parvan. In this the three surviving Kurus make a
night attack on the camp of the Pandavas and kill all their army, but
not the five Pandavas.
i r. Stri-parvan describes the lamentations of queen Gandharl and
the other wives and women over the bodies of the slain heroes.
1 2. Sdnti-parvan. In this Yudhi-shthira is crowned in Hastina-pura.
To calm his spirit, troubled with the slaughter of his kindred, Bhishma,
still alive, instructs him at great length in the duties of kings (raja-
dharma 1995-4778), rules for adversity (dpad-dharma 4779-6455),
rules for attaining final emancipation (moJcsha-dharma 6456 to end).
13. Anusdsana-parvan. In this the instruction is continued by
Bhishma, who gives precepts and wise axioms on all subjects, such as
the duties of kings, liberality, fasting, eating, &c., mixed up with tales,
moral and religious discourses, and metaphysical disquisitions. At the
conclusion of his long sermon Bhishma dies.
14. Asvamedhika-parvan. In this Yudhi-shthira, having assumed the
government, performs an Asva-medha or ' horse-sacrifice ' in token of his
supremacy.
15. Asrdmavdsika-parvan narrates how the old blind king Dhrita-
rashtra, with his queen Gandharl and with Kunti, mother of the Pan-
davas, retires to a hermitage in the woods. After two years a forest
conflagration takes place, and they immolate themselves in the fire to
secure heaven and felicity.
1 6. Mausala-parvan narrates the death of Krishna and Bala-rama,
their return to heaven, the submergence of Krishna's city Dvaraka by
the sea, and the self-slaughter in a fight with clubs (musala) of Krishna's
family the Yadavas through the curse of some Brahmans.
17. Mahaprasthdnika-parvan describes the renunciation of their
kingdom by Yudhi-shthira and his four brothers, and their departure
towards Indra's heaven in Mount Meru.
1 8. Smryarohanika-parvan narrates the ascent and admission to
heaven of the five Pandavas, their wife Draupadi, and kindred.
Supplement or Hari-vansa-parvan, a later addition, recounting the
genealogy and birth of Krishna and the details of his early life.
The following is a more complete and continuous
account of the story of the poem, which is supposed to
be recited by Vaisampayana, the pupil of Vyasa, to Jana-
mejaya, great-grandson of Arjuna.
THE EPIC POEMS THE MAHA-BHARATA. 375
We have seen that the Ramayana commences by recount-
ing the genealogy of the Solar line of kings, of whom Rama
was one. The heroes of the Maha-bharata are of the
other great race, called Lunar. Here, however, as in the
Solar race, the Brahman compiler was careful to assign
the origin ' of the second great dynasty of kings to a
noted sage and Brahman. I epitomize the genealogy as
essential to the comprehension of the story :
Soma, the Moon, the progenitor of the Lunar race, who reigned at
Hastina-pur, was the child of the Blshi Atri, and had a son named
Budha, who married Ila or Ida, daughter of the Solar prince Ikshvaku,
and had by her a son, Aila or Pururavas. The latter had a son by
Urvasi, named Ayus, from whom came Nahusha, the father of Yaydti.
The latter had two sons, Puru x and Yadu, from whom proceeded the
two branches of the Lunar line. In the line of Yadu we need only
mention the last three princes, Sura, Vasu-deva? and Krishna with his
brother Bala-rdma. Fifteenth in the. other line that of Puru came
Dusliyanta, father of the great Bharata, from whom India is called
Bhiirata-varsha. Ninth from Bharata came Kuru, and fourteenth from
him Sdntanu. This S'antanu had by his wife Satyavati, a son named
Vicitra-wrya. Bhlshma (also called S'antanava, Deva-vrata, &c.), who
renounced the right of succession and took the vow of a Brahmac'arl, 3
was the son of S'antanu by a former wife, the goddess Gan-ga, whence one
of his names is Gan-geya. Satyavati also had, before her marriage with
S'antanu, borne Vyasa, to the sage Parasara ; so that Vicitra-vlrya,
Bhlshma, and Vyasa were half-brothers; 4 and Vyasa, although he
1 This name Puru (nom. case Purus) is probably the original of
Porus, whose country in the Panjab, between the Hydaspes and Acesines,
was conquered by Alexander the Great.
2 Frith a or KuntI, wife of Pandu, and mother of three of the Pandu
princes, was a sister of Vasu-deva, and therefore aunt of Krishna.
3 I.e., perpetual celibacy. Adya-prabhriti me Irahmacaryam bha-
vishyati ; Aputrasydpi me loM bhavishyanty dkshaya dim (I. 4060).
4 Parasara met with Satyavati when quite a girl, as he was crossing
the river Yamuna (Jumna) in a boat. The result of their intercourse
was a child, Vyasa, who was called Krishna, from his swarthy com-
plexion, and Dvaipayana, because he was brought forth by Satyavati on
an island (dmpa) in the Jumna. (See Maha-bharata I. 2416, 2417, and
4235-)
376 INDIAN WISDOM.
retired into the wilderness, to live a life of contemplation, promised
his mother that he would place himself at her disposal whenever she
required his services. Satyavatl had recourse to him when her son
Viditra-virya died childless, and requested him to pay his addresses to
Viditra-virya's two widows, named Ambika and Ambalika. He con-
sented, and had by them respectively two children, Dhrita-rashtra, who
was born blind, and Pandu, who was born with a pale complexion. 1
When Satyavatl begged Vyasa to become the father of a third son
(who should be without any defect), the elder wife, terrified by Vyasa's
austere appearance, sent him one of her slave-girls, dressed in her own
clothes ; and this girl became the mother of Vidura (whence he is
sometimes called Kshattri). 2
Dhrita-rashtra, Pdndu, and Vidura were thus brothers, sons of
Vyasa, the supposed author or compiler of the Maha-bharata. Vyasa
after this retired again to the woods ; but, gifted with divine presci-
ence, appeared both to his sons and grandsons whenever they were
in difficulties, and needed his advice and assistance.
1 The mother of Pandu was also called Kausalya ; and this name
(which was that of the mother of Rama-dandra) seems also to be
applied to the mother of Dhrita-rashtra. Paleness of complexion, in
the eyes of a Hindu, would be regarded as a kind of leprosy, and was
therefore almost as great a defect as blindness. The reason given for
these defects is very curious. Ambika was so terrified by the swarthy
complexion and shaggy aspect of the sage Vyasa (not to speak of the
(jandha emitted by his body), that when he visited her she closed her
eyes, and did not venture to open them while he was with her. In
consequence of this assumed blindness her child was born blind.
Ambalika, on the other hand, though she kept her eyes open, became
so colourless with fright, that her son was born with a pale complexion
(I. 4275-4290). Pandu seems to have been in other respects good-
looking Sa devl kumdram ajljanat pdndu-lalishana-sampannam dlpya-
mdnam vara-iriyd.
2 Vyasa was so much pleased with this slave-girl that he pronounced
her free, and declared that her child, Vidura, should be sarva-buddhi-
matdm varah, ' the most excellent of all wise men.' Kshattri, although
described in Manu as the child of a S'udra father and Brahman
mother, signifies here the child of a Brahman father and S'udra
mother. Vidura is one of the best characters in the Maha-bharata,
always ready with useful advice (hitopadesa) both for the Panda vas and
for his brother Dhrita-rashtra. His disposition leads him to side with
the Pandu princes and warn them of the evil designs of their cousins.
THE EPIC POEMS THE MAHA-BHARATA. 377
The two brothers, Dhrita-rashtra and Pandu, were
brought up by their uncle Bhishma, 1 who, until they
were of age, conducted the government of Hastina-pur. 2
Dhrita-rashtra was the first-born, but renounced the
throne, in consequence of his blindness. The other,
brother, Vidura, being the son of a Sudra woman, could
not succeed, and Pandu therefore, when of age, became
king (I. 4361). Meanwhile Dhrita-rashtra married Gan-
dhari, also called Saubaleyi or Saubali, daughter of
Subala, king of Gandhara. When she first heard that
her future husband was blind, she from that moment
showed her respect for him, by binding her own eyes with
a handkerchief, and always remaining blindfolded in his
presence. 3 Soon afterwards a Svayamvara was held by
king Kuntibhoja, and his adopted daughter, Pritha or
KuntI, then chose Pandu for her husband. She was
really the child of a Yadava prince, Sura, who gave her
to his childless cousin Kuntibhoja ; under whose care she
was brought up :
One day, before her marriage, she paid such respect and attention to
a powerful sage named Durvasas, a guest in her father's house, that he
gave her a charm and taught her an incantation, by virtue of which
she might have a child by any god she liked to call into her presence.
Out of curiosity, she invoked the Sun, by whom she had a child, who
was born clothed in armour. 4 But Pritha (KuntI), fearing the censure
of her relatives, deserted her offspring, after exposing it in the river.
It was found by Adhiratha, a charioteer (suta), and nurtured by his
wife Radha ; whence the child was afterwards called Radheya, though
1 They were all three thoroughly educated by Bhishma. Dhrita-
rashtra is described as excelling all others in strength (I. 43S 6 )> Pandu
as excelling in the use of the bow, and Vidura as pre-eminent for virtue
and wisdom (4358).
2 Hastina-pur is also called Gajasahvaya and Nagasahvaya.
3 Sd patam dddya kritvd bahu-gunam tadd Babandha netre sve rdjan
pativrata-pardyand (I. 4376). She is described as so devoted to her
husband that Vdca 'pi purushdn anydn suvrata ndnvakirtayat.
4 The Sun afterwards restored her kanydtva (I. 4400).
3/8 INDIAN WISDOM.
named by his foster-parents Vasu-shena. When he was grown up, the
god Indra conferred upon him enormous strength, and changed his
name to Karna. 1
After Pandu's marriage to Pritha, his uncle Bhishma
wishing him to take a second wife, made an expedition to
visit Salya, king of Madra, and prevailed upon him to
bestow his sister Madri upon Pandu, in exchange for vast
sums of money and jewels. Soon after this second mar-
riage Pandu undertook a great campaign, in which he
subjugated so many countries, that the kingdom of Has-
tina-pur became under him as glorious and extensive as
formerly under his ancestor Bharata (I. 4461). Having
acquired enormous wealth, he distributed it to Bhishma,
Dhrita-rashtra, and Vidura, and then retired to the woods
to indulge his passion for hunting, living with' his two
wives as a forester on the southern slope of the Hima-
layas. The blind Dhrita-rashtra, who had a very useful
charioteer named Sanjaya, was then obliged, with the
assistance of Bhishma as his regent, to assume the reins
of government.
We have next an account of the supernatural birth of
Dhrita-rashtra's sons :
One day the sage Vyasa was hospitably entertained by queen Gan-
dharl, and in return granted her a boon. She chose to be the mother
of a hundred sons. After two years she produced a mass of flesh,
which was divided by Vyasa into a hundred and one pieces, as big as
the joint of a thumb. From these in due time the eldest, Duryodhana,
' difficult to be subdued ' (sometimes called Su-yodhana, see p. 382,
note 2), was born. At his birth, however, various evil omens took
place ; jackals yelled, asses brayed, whirlwinds blew, and the sky
seemed on fire. Dhrita-rashtra, alarmed, called his ministers together,
1 He is also called Yaikartana, as son of Vikartana or the Sun, and
sometimes Vrisha. Karna is described (4405) as worshipping the Sun
till his back became warm (d-prishtha-tdpdt, i.e., 'till after midday,'
when the sun began to shine behind him). Compare Hitop., Book
II. v. 32.
THE EPIC POEMS THE MAHA-BHARATA. 379
who recommended him to abandon the child, but could not persuade
him to take their advice. The miraculous birth of the remaining
ninety-nine sons then occurred in due course. 1 There was also one
daughter, called Duhsala (afterwards married to Jayad-ratha).
Next follows the description of the supernatural birth
of the five reputed sons of Pandu :
One day, on a hunting expedition, Pandu transfixed with five
arrows a male and female deer. These turned out to be a certain
sage and his wife, who had assumed the form of these animals. The
sage cursed Pandu, and predicted that he would die in the embraces
of one of his wives. In consequence of this curse, Pandu took the
vow of a Brahmadari, 2 gave all his property to the Brahmans, and
became a hermit.
Thereupon his wife Pritha (also called Kuntl), with his
approval, made use of the charm and incantation formerly
given to her by Durvasas, and had three sons, Yudhi-
shthira, Bhima, and Arjuna, by the three deities, Dharma,
Vayu, and Indra respectively :
Yudhi-shthira was bora first, and at the moment of his birth a
heavenly voice was heard to utter these words, 'This is the most
virtuous of men.' Bhima, the son of Pritha and Vayu, was born on
the same day as Duryodhana. Soon after his birth, his mother acci-
dentally let him fall, when a great prodigy indicative of the vast
strength which was to distinguish him occurred ; for the body of the
child falling on a rock shivered it to atoms. On the birth of Arjuna
auspicious omens were manifested; showers of flowers fell, 3 celestial
minstrels filled the air with harmony, and a heavenly voice sounded
his praises and future glory.
Madri, the other wife of Pandu, was now anxious to
have children, and was told by Pritha (Kuntl) to think
on any god she pleased. She chose the two Asvins (see
p. n), who appeared to her, and were the fathers of her
1 Their names are all detailed at I. 454-
2 The brahmaearya-vrata, or vow of continence.
3 Showers of flowers are as common in Indian poetry as showers of
blood ; the one indicating good, the other portending evil
380 INDIAN WISDOM.
twin sons Nakula and Sahadeva. While the five princes
were still children, Pandu, forgetting the curse of the sage
whom he had killed in the form of a deer, ventured one
day to embrace his wife Madri, and died in her arms.
She and Pritha (Kunti) then had a dispute for the honour
of becoming a Sati (see p. 312), which ended in Maclri
burning herself with her husband's corpse (I. 4896).
Pritha and the five Pandu princes were then taken by
certain Rishis, or holy men companions of Pandu to
Hastioa-pur, where they were presented to Dhrita-rashtra,
and all the circumstances of their birth and of the death
of Pandu narrated. The news of the death of his brother
was received by Dhrita-rashtra with much apparent sorrow;
he gave orders for the due performance of the funeral
rites, and allowed the five young princes and their mother
to live with his own family. The cousins were in the
habit of playing together :
In their boyish sports the Pandu princes excelled the sons of Dhrita-
rashtra, which excited much ill-feeling ; and Duryodhana, spiteful
even when a boy, tried to destroy Bhlma by mixing poison in his food,
and then throwing him into the water when stupefied by its effects
(I. 5008). Bhima, however, was not drowned, but descended to the
abode of the Nagas (or serpent-demons), who freed him from the poison
(5052), and gave him a liquid to drink which endued him with the
strength of ten thousand Nagas. From that moment he became a kind
of Hercules.
Then Duryodhana, Karna, and Sakuni l devised schemes
for destroying the Pandu princes, but without success.
The characters of the five Pandavas are drawn with
much artistic delicacy of touch, and maintained with
general consistency throughout the poem. 2 The eldest,
1 S'akuni was the brother of Gandhari, and therefore maternal
uncle (mdtuld) of the Kaurava princes. He was the counsellor of
Duryodhana, He is often called Saubala, as Gandhari is called
Saubali.
2 Complete consistency must not be expected in such a poem as
THE EPIC POEMS THE MAHA-BHARATA. 381
Yudhi-shthira, is the Hindu ideal of excellence a pattern
of justice, integrity, calm passionless composure, chivalrous
honour, and cold heroism. 1 Bhima is a type of brute
courage and strength : he is of gigantic stature, impe-
tuous, irascible, somewhat vindictive, and cruel even to
the verge of ferocity, making him, as his name implies,
' terrible.' It would appear that his great strength had
to be maintained by plentiful supplies of food ; as his
name Vrikodara, ' wolf-stomached,' indicated a voracious
appetite ; and we are told that at the daily meals of the
five brothers, half of the whole dish had to be given to
Bhima (I. 7161). But he has the capacity for warm
unselfish love, and is ardent in his affection for his
mother and brothers. Arjuna rises more to the European
standard of perfection. He may be regarded as the real
hero of the Maha-bharata, 2 of undaunted bravery, gene-
rous, 3 with refined and delicate sensibilities, tender-hearted,
forgiving, and affectionate as a woman, yet of superhuman
strength, and matchless in arms and athletic exercises.
Nakula and Sahadeva are both amiable, noble-minded,
and spirited. 4 All five are as unlike as possible to the
the Maha-bharata, which was the growth of several centuries. The
act of the five Pandavas, described p. 385, cannot be reconciled with
their usual probity and generosity, though committed under great
provocation. Bhima appears to have been most in fault, which is so
far consistent.
1 Yudhi - shthira, ' firm in battle,' was probably of commanding
stature and imposing presence. He is described as Mahd-sinha-gati,
'having a majestic lion-like gait,' with a Wellington - like profile
(Pralam'bojjvala-cdru-gliona} and long lotus-eyes (kamalayataksha).
2 Strictly, as in the Iliad, there is no real hero kept always in view.
3 Perhaps it may be objected that some of Arjuna's acts were in-
consistent with this character. Thus he carried off Subhadra, the
sister of Krishna, by force. It must be borne in mind, however,
that Krishna himself encourages him to this act, and says, Prasaliya,
haranam Kshatri-yanam prasasyate (I. 7927). Compare p. 391.
4 The five Pandu princes are known by various other names in the
382 INDIAN WISDOM.
hundred sons of Dhrita-rashtra, commonly called the
Kuru princes, or Kauravas, 1 who are represented as
mean, spiteful, dishonourable, and vicious.
So bad indeed are these hundred brothers, and so
uniformly without redeeming points, that their characters
present few distinctive features. The most conspicuous
is the eldest, Duryodhana, 2 who, as the representative of
the others, is painted in the darkest colours, and embodies
all their bad qualities. When the Maha-bharata (like the
Ramayana) is regarded as an allegory, then Duryodhana
(like Ravana) is a visible type of the evil principle in
human nature 3 for ever doing battle with the good and
divine principle, symbolized by the five sons of Pandu.
The cousins, though so uncongenial in character, were
educated together at Hastina-pur, the city of Dhrita-
Maha-bharata, some of which it may be useful here to note. Yudhi-
shthira is also called Dharma-raja, Dharma-putra, and sometimes
simply Raj an. His charioteer was called Indrasena. Bhima's other
names are Bhimasena, Vrikodara, Bahusalin. Arjuna is also called
Kiritin, Phalguna, Jishnu, Dhananjaya, Bibhatsu, Savyasac"in, Paka-
sasani, Guda-kesa, SVeta-vahana, Nara, Vijaya, Krishna, and some-
times par excellence Partha, though Bhlma and Yudhi - shthira, as
sons of Pritha, had also this title. Nakula and Sahadeva are called
Madreyau (as sons of Madri), and sometimes Yamau (the twins).
1 This name, however, is occasionally applied to the Pandavas,
as they and the sons of Dhrita-rashtra were equally descendants of
Kuru.
2 ' Difficult to conquer,' cf. p. 408. The names of all are given in
Adi-Parvan 4541. Duhsasana is one of the most conspicuous.
3 There are certainly many points in his character, as well as in
that of Ravana, which may be compared to Milton's conception of
Satan. Perhaps his intimacy with the Asura (jarvaka may be in-
tended to mark him out as a type of heresy and infidelity, as well as
of every other bad quality. In the case of Ravana it is remarkable
that he gained his power by penance, and that he is described as
well read in the Veda (Ram. VI. xciii. 58). Some Rakshasas, such
as Vibhishana, Atikaya, are described as religious (Ram. VI. Ixsi. 31).
Cf. Manu VII. 38.
THE EPIC POEMS THE MAHA-BHARATA. 383
rashtra, by a Brahman named Drona, 1 who found in the
Pandu princes apt pupils. From him the five sons of
Pandu acquired 'intelligence and learning, lofty aims,
religious earnestness, and love of truth.' All the cousins
were equal] y instructed in war and arms ; but Arjuna, by
the help of Drona, who gave him magical weapons, ex-
celled all, distinguishing himself in every exercise, ' sub-
missive ever to his teacher's will, contented, modest,
affable, and mild/ and both Bhima and Duryodhana
learnt the use of the club from their cousin Bala-rama
(I- 5520).
Their education finished, a tournament was held, at which
all the youthful cousins displayed their skill in archery,
in the management of chariots (ratlia-caryd], horses, and
elephants, in sword, spear, and club exercises, and wrest-
ling. The scene is graphically described (I. 5324) :
An immense concourse of spectators cheered the combatants. The
agitation of the crowd was like the roar of a mighty ocean. Arjuna,
after exhibiting prodigies of strength, shot five separate arrows simul-
taneously into the jaws of a revolving iron boar, and twenty-one
arrows into the hollow of a cow's horn suspended by a string. Sud-
denly there was a pause. The crowd turned as one man towards a
point in the arena, where the sound of a warrior striking his arms in
defiance 2 rent the sky like a thunder-clap, and announced the entrance
of another combatant. This proved to be a warrior named Karna,
who entered the lists in full armour, and after accomplishing the same
feats in archery, challenged Arjuna to single combat. But each
champion was required to tell his name and pedigree; and Karna's
parentage being doubtful (see p. 377), he was obliged to retire, ' hang-
ing his head with shame like a drooping lily.'
1 Drona appears to have kept a kind of school, to which all the
young princes of the neighbouring countries resorted (I. 5220). He
married Kripi, sister of Kripa, and had by her a son, Asvatthaman.
2 So in Vishnu-purana, p. 513 : 'Krishna having dived into the pool
struck his arms in defiance, and the snake-king, hearing the sound,
came quickly forth.'
384 INDIAN WISDOM.
Kama, thus publicly humiliated, became afterwards a
conspicuous and valuable ally of the Kurus against his
own half-brothers. His character is well imagined. Feel-
ing keenly the stain on his birth, his nature was chastened
by the trial. He exhibited in a high degree fortitude,
chivalrous honour, self-sacrifice, and devotion. Especially
remarkable for a liberal and generous disposition, 1 he
never stooped to ignoble practices like his friends the
Kurus, who were intrinsically bad men.
The tutor's fee (Gurv-arthra, see pp. 195, 242, Manu
II. 245, Raghu-vansa V. 17) which Drona required of his
pupils for their instruction was, that they should capture
Drupada, king of Pancala, who was his old schoolfellow,
but had insulted him by repudiating his friendship (I.
5446) :-
They therefore invaded Drupada's territory and took him prisoner;
but Drona generously spared his life, and gave him back half his king-
dom. Drupada, however, burning with resentment, endeavoured to
procure the birth of a son, to avenge his defeat, and bring about the
destruction of Drona. Two Brahmans undertook a sacrifice for him,
and two children were born from the midst of the altar, out of the
sacrificial fire, a son, Dhrishta-dyumna, and a daughter, Krishna or
Draupadi, afterwards the wife of the Pandavas (see p. 387).
After this, Yudhi-shthira was installed by Dhrita-rashtra
as Yuva-raja or heir-apparent, and by his exploits soon
eclipsed the glory of his father Pandu's reign.
The great renown gained by the Pandu princes excited
the jealousy and ill-will of Dhrita-rashtra, but won the
affections of the citizens. The latter met together, and
after consultation declared that, as Dhrita-rashtra was
blind, he ought not to conduct the government, and that
as Bhishma had formerly declined the throne, he ought
not to be allowed to act as regent. They therefore pro-
1 He is often to this day cited as a model of liberality. Hence his
name, Vasu-shena.
THE EPIC POEMS THE MAHA-BHARATA. 385
posed to crown Yudhi-shthira at once. When Duryo-
dhana heard of this, he consulted with Kama, Sakuni,
and Duhsasana, how he might remove Yudhi-shthira out
of the way, and secure the throne for himself :
Urged by Duryodhana, Dhrita-rashtra was induced to send the Pan-
dava princes on an excursion to the city of Yaranavata, pretending that
he wished them to see the beauties of that town, and to be present at
a festival there. Meanwhile Duryodhana instigated his friend Puro-
cana to precede them, and to prepare a house for their reception, which
he was to fill secretly with hemp, resin, and other combustible sub-
stances, plastering the walls with mortar composed of oil, fat, and lac
(IdksJid, jatu). When the princes were asleep in this house, and un-
suspicious of danger, he was to set it on fire. The five Pandavas and
their mother left Hastina-pur amid the tears and regrets of the citizens,
and in eight days arrived at Yaranavata, where, after great demonstra-
tions of respect from the inhabitants, they were conducted by Purodana
to the house of lac. Having been warned by Vidura, they soon dis-
covered the dangerous character of the structure, and with the assistance
of a miner (Iclianaka) sent by Yidura, dug an underground passage, by
which to escape from the interior (I. 5813). Then they devised a
counterplot, and agreed together that a degraded outcaste woman
(nisliacK) with her five sons should be invited to a feast, and stupefied
with wine. Bhlma was then to set fire to the lac- house in which they
were all assembled (see note 2, p. 380). This was done. Purodana was
burnt, as well as the woman with her five sons, but they themselves
escaped by the secret passage (surun-ga). The charred bodies of the
woman and her sons being afterwards found, it was supposed that the
Pandava princes had perished in the conflagration, and their funeral
ceremonies were actually performed by Dhrita-rashtra. Meanwhile
they hurried off to the woods; Bhima, the strong one, carrying his
mother and the twins, and leading his other brothers by the hands
when through fatigue they could not move on. Whilst his mother and
brothers were asleep under a fig-tree, Bhima had an encounter with a
hideous giant named Hidimba, whom he slew. 1 Afterwards he married
Hiclimba, the sister of this monster, and had a son by her named
Ghatotkada.
By the advice of their grandfather Vyasa, the Pandava
princes next took up their abode in the house of a
1 This forms the subject of a celebrated episode, edited by Bopp.
2 B
386 INDIAN WISDOM.
Brahman at a city called Ekacakra. There they lived
for a long time in the guise of mendicant Brahmans, safe
from the persecution of Duryodhana. Every day they
went out to beg for food as alms (bhiksha, bhaiksha),
which their mother Kunti divided at night, giving half
of the whole to Bhima as his share (cf. p. 381). While
resident in the house of the Brahman, Bhima delivered
his family and the city of Ekacakra from a fierce giant
(or Kakshasa) named Baka (or Vaka), who forced the
citizens to send him every day a dish of food by a man,
whom he always devoured as his daintiest morsel at the
end of the repast. 1
The turn had come to a poor Brahman to provide the Eakshasa with
his meal. He determined to go himself, but lamented bitterly the hard-
ness of his fate. Upon this, his wife and daughter addressed him in
language full of the deepest pathos, each in turn insisting on sacrificing
herself for the good of the family. Lastly, the little son, too young to
speak distinctly, ran with beaming eyes and smiling face to his parents,
and in prattling accents said, ' Weep not, father ; sigh not, mother.'
Then breaking off and brandishing a pointed spike of grass, he ex-
claimed, 'With this spike will I kill the fierce man-eating giant.' His
parents, hearing this innocent prattle of their child, in the midst of
their heartrending anguish felt a thrill of exquisite delight. In the
end Bhima, who overheard the whole conversation, undertook to
convey the meal to the monster, and, of course, speedily despatched
him (I. 6202).
After this Vyasa appeared to his grandsons, and informed
them that Draupadi, the daughter of Drupada, king of
Pancala, was destined to be their common wife :~
1 This story forms a touching episode, which has been printed by
Bopp, and translated by Milman.
2 Polyandry is still practised among some hill-tribes in the Himalaya
range near Simla, and in other barren mountainous regions, such as
Bhotan, where a large population could not be supported. It prevails
also among the Nair (Nayar) tribe in Malabar. Our forefathers, or at
least the ancient Britons, according to Csesar, were given to the same
THE EPIC POEMS THE MAHA-BHARATA. 387
In real fact she had been in a former life the daughter of a sage,
and had performed a most severe penance, in order that a husband
might fall to her lot. S'iva, pleased with her penance, had appeared
to her, and had promised her, instead of one, five husbands. When
the maiden replied that she wanted only one husband, the god answered,
' Five times you said to me, Grant me a husband ; therefore in another
body you will obtain five husbands' (I. 6433, 7322). This Rishi's
daughter was thereupon born in the family of Drupada as a maiden of
the most distinguished beauty, and was destined to be the wife of the
Panda vas. 1
practice : ' Uxores habent deni duodenique inter se communes,' &c.
De Bello Gallico, Y. 14.
1 Yyasa, who is the type and representative of strict Brahmanism, is
made to explain at length the necessity for the marriage of Draupadi
to five husbands (which is called a sukshma-dharma, I. 7246). He also
gifted Drupada with divine intuition (cakshur divyani) to perceive the
divinity of the Panda vas and penetrate the mystic meaning of what
otherwise would have been a serious violation of the laws and institu-
tions of the Brahmans (7313). Hence Drupada became aware of his
daughter's former birth, and that Arjuna was really a portion of the
essence of Indra (SaJerasydnsa), and all his brothers portions of the same
god. Draupadi herself, although nominally the daughter of Drupada,
was really born, like her brother Dhrishta-dyumna, out of the midst of
the sacrificial fire (vedi-madliyat, I. 6931 ; see p. 384), and was a form
of Lakshml. In no other way could her supernatural birth, and the
divine perfume which exhaled from her person, and was perceived a
league off (Itrosa-nidtrdt pravdti), be accounted for. Yyasa at the same
time explained the mysterious birth of Krishna and Baladeva; how
the god Yishnu pulled out two of his own hairs, one white and the other
black, which entered into two women of the family of the Yadavas
(Devaki and KohinI), and became, the white one Baladeva, the black
one Krishna (I. 7307 ; Yishnu-purana V. i). The Markancleya-purana
(ch. 5) shows how the five Pandavas could be all portions of Indra, and
yet four of them sons of other gods. When Indra killed the son of
Tvashtri (or Yisvakarman as Prajapati, the Creator), his punishment
for this brahma-hatyd was that all his tejas, ' manly vigour,' deserted
him, and entered Dharma, the god of justice. The son of Tvashtri was
reproduced as the demon Yritra, and again slain by Indra ; as a punish-
ment for which his bala, 'strength,' left him, and entered Mdmta, ' the
Wind.' Lastly, when Indra violated Ahalya, the wife of the sage
Gautama, his riipa, ' beauty,' abandoned him, and entered the Nasatyau
388 INDIAN WISDOM.
In obedience to the directions of their grandfather, the
five Pandavas quitted Ekacakra, and betook themselves
to the court of king Drupada, where Draupadi was about
to hold her Svayamvara :
An immense concourse of princely suitors, with their retainers, came
to the ceremony ; and king Drupada eagerly looked for Arjuna among
them, that, strengthened by that hero's alliance, he might defy Drona's
anger. He therefore prepared an enormous bow, which he was per-
suaded none but Arjuna could bend, and proposed a trial of strength,
promising to give his daughter to any one who could by means of the
bow shoot five arrows simultaneously through a revolving ring into a
target beyond. An amphitheatre was erected outside the town, sur-
rounded by tiers of lofty seats and raised platforms, with variegated
awnings. Magnificent palaces, crowded with eager spectators, over-
looked the scene. Actors, conjurors, athletes, and dancers exhibited
their skill before the multitude. Strains of exquisite music floated in
the air. Drums and trumpets sounded. When expectation was at its
height, Draupadi in gorgeous apparel entered the arena, and the bow
was brought. The hundred sons of Dhrita-rashtra strained every
nerve to bend the ponderous weapon, but without effect. Its recoil
dashed them breathless to the ground, and made them the laughing-
stock of the crowd.
Arjuna now advanced, disguised as a Brahman. I here
translate a portion metrically (I. 7049, &c.) :
A moment motionless he stood and scanned
The bow, collecting all his energy.
Next walking round in homage, breathed a prayer
To the Supreme Bestower of good gifts ;
Then fixing all his mind on Draupadi
He grasped the ponderous weapon in his hand,
And with one vigorous effort braced the string.
or Asvins. When Dharma gave back the tejas of Indra, Yudhi-shthira
was born ; when the Wind gave up Indra's bala, Bhlma was born ; and
when the Asvins restored the rupa of Indra, Nakula and Sahadeva were
born. Arjuna was born as half the essence of Indra. Hence, as they
were all portions of one deity, there could be no harm in Draupadi
becoming the wife of all five.
THE EPIC POEMS THE MAHA-BHARATA. 389
Quickly the shafts were aimed ; they flew ;
The mark fell pierced ; a shout of victory
Rang through the vast arena ; from the sky
Garlands of flowers crowned the hero's head,
Ten thousand fluttering scarfs waved in the air,
And drum and trumpet sounded forth his triumph.
I need not suggest the parallel which will at once be
drawn by the classical scholar between this trial of archery
and a similar scene in the Odyssey.
When the suitors found themselves outdone by a mere
stripling in the coarse dress of a mendicant Brahman,
their rage knew no bounds. A real battle ensued :
The Pandu princes protected Drupada, and enacted prodigies.
Bblma tore up a tree, and used it as a club. Karna at last met
Arjuna in single combat, rushing on him like a young elephant.
They overwhelmed each other with showers of arrows, which darkened
the air. But not even Karna could withstand the irresistible onset of
the godlike Arjuna, and he and the other suitors retired vanquished
from the field, leaving Draupadi as the bride of Arjuna.
Arjuna having been chosen by Draupadi, the five
brothers returned with her to their mother, who being
inside the house, and fancying that they had brought
alms, called out to them, 'Share it between you' (blmn-kteti
sametya sarve, I. 7132). The words of a parent, thus
spoken, could not be set aside without evil consequences ;
and Drupada, at the persuasion of Vyasa, who acquainted
him with the divinely ordained destination of his daughter, 1
consented to her becoming the common wife of the five
brothers. She was first married by the family -priest
Dhaumya to Yudhi-shthira (I. 7340), and then, according
to priority of birth, to the other four. 2
1 See note i, p. 387. Drupada at first objected. Yudhi-shthira's
excuse for himself and his brothers is remarkable ; Purveshdm anupur-
vyena yatam vartmdnuydmahe (I. 7246).
2 She had a son by each of the five brothers Prativindhya by
390 INDIAN WISDOM.
The Pandavas, being now strengthened by their alliance
with the powerful king of Pancala, threw off their dis-
guises; and king Dhrita-rashtra thought it more politic
to settle all differences by dividing his kingdom between
them and his own sons. He gave up Hastina-pur to the
latter, presided over by Duryodhana, and permitted the
five Pandavas to occupy a district near the Yamuna
(Jumna), called Khandava-prastha, where they built Indra-
prastha (the modern Delhi), and, under Yudhi-shthira as
their leader, subjugated much of the adjacent territory by
predatory incursions (1. 6573).
One day, when Arjuna was bathing in the Ganges, he was carried
off by the serpent-nymph Ulupi, daughter of the king of the Kagas,
whom he married (I. 7809). Afterwards he married Citran-gada,
daughter of the king of Manipura, and had a child by her named
Babhru-vahana (I. 7883).
Wandering for twelve years in the forests, to fulfil a
vow, Arjuna came to Prabhasa, a place of pilgrimage in
the west of India, where he met Krishna, 1 the details of
Yudhi-shthira; Sutasoma by Bhima ; S'rutakarman by Arjuna; S'ata-
nika by Nakula ; S'rutasena by Sahadeva (I. 8039). Arjuna had also
another wife, Subhadra, the sister of Krishna, with whom he eloped
when on a visit to Krishna at Dvaraka. By her he had a son,
Abhimanyu. He had also a son named Iravat by the serpent-nymph
Ulupi. Bhima had also a son, Ghatotka6a, by the Rakshasi Hidimba
(see p. 385) ; and the others had children by different wives (Vishnu-
purana, p. 459). Arjuna's son Abhimanyu had a son Parikshit, who
was father of Janamejaya. Parikshit died of the bite of a snake ; and
the Bhagavata-purana was narrated to him between the bite and his
death.
1 See note i, p. 387. I enumerate some of the other names by
which Krishna is known in the Maha-bharata, as follows: "Vasti-
deva, Kesava, Govinda, Janardana, Damodara, Dasarha, Narayana,
Hrishlkesa, Purushottama, Madhava, Madhu-sudana, Ac"yuta. (See
Y. 2560). In the Draupadi-harana (75) Krishna and Arjuna are
called Krishnau,
THE EPIC POEMS THE MAHA-BHARATA. 391
whose early life have already been given (p. 332), and
who here first formed a friendship with Arjuna, and took
him to his city Dvaraka, where he received him as a
visitor into his own house (I. 7905). Soon afterwards,
some of the relatives of Krishna celebrated a festival
in the mountain Raivataka, to which both Arjuna and
Krishna went. There they saw Bala-rama, elder brother
of Krishna (p. 332), in a state of intoxication (kshwa) 1
with his wife Revati ; and there they saw Subhadra,
Krishna's sister. Her beauty excited the love of Arjuna,
who, after obtaining Krishna's leave, carried her off (see
note 2, p. 389) and married her (I. 7937). In the
twelfth year of his absence he returned with her to
Indra-prastha.
The Panclavas and all the people of Indra-prastha then
lived happily for some time under the rule of Yudhi-
shthira, who, elated with his conquests, undertook, assisted
by Krishna, to celebrate the Rajasuya, a great sacrifice,
at which his own inauguration as paramount sovereign
was to be performed.
A great assembly (sabha) was accordingly held :
Various princes attended, and brought either rich presents or
tribute (II. 1264). Among those who came were Bhishma, Dhrita-
riishtra and his hundred sons, Subala (king of Gandhara), Sakuni,
Drupada, S'alya, Drona, Kripa, Jayad-ratha, Kuntibhoja, S'isu-pala,
and others from the extreme south and north (Dravida, Ceylon, and
Kasmir, II. i27i). 2 On the day of the inauguration (abhisheka)
Bhishma, at the suggestion of the sage Narada, proposed that a re-
spectful oblation (argha) should be prepared and offered in token of
worship to the best and strongest person present, whom he declared to
1 Compare Megha-duta, verse 51, where Bala-rama's fondness for
wine is alluded to. See also Vishnu- purana V. 25.
2 The details in this part of the poem are interesting and curious.
As shown by Professor H. H. Wilson, they throw light on the
geographical divisions and political condition of India at an early
epoch.
39 2 INDIAN WISDOM.
be Krishna. To this the Pandavas readily agreed ; and Sahadeva was
commissioned to present the offering. S'isu-pala (also called Sumtha),
however, opposed the worship of Krishna ; and, after denouncing him
as a contemptible and ill-instructed person (II. 1340), challenged him
to fight ; l but Krishna instantly struck off his head with his discus
called Su-darsana. 2
After this, Dhrita-rashtra was persuaded to hold another
assembly (sabhd) at Hastina-pur ; and Vidura was sent to
the Pandavas, to invite them to be present (II. 1993).
They consented to attend ; and Yudhi-shthira was easily
prevailed on by Duryodhana to play with Sakuni. By
degrees Yudhi-shthira staked everything his territory,
his possessions, and last of all Draupadi. All were suc-
cessively lost ; and Draupadi, then regarded as a slave,
was treated with great indignity by Duhsasana. He
dragged her by the hair of the head into the assembly ;
upon which Bhima, who witnessed this insult, swore that
he would one day dash Duhsasana to pieces and drink his
blood 3 (II. 2302). In the end a compromise was agreed
upon. The kingdom was 'given up to Duryodhana for
twelve years ; and the five Pandavas, with Draupadi,
were required to live for that period in the woods, and
1 Duryodhana also, in a subsequent part of the Maha-bharata, evinces
scepticism in regard to the divine nature of Krishna (V. 4368).
2 The story of S'isu-pala and his destruction by Krishna form the
subject of the celebrated poem of Magha. The particulars of the
narrative as told in this book of the Maha-bharata are given by Dr.
Muir in his Sanskrit Texts, vol. iv. The Vishnu-purana identifies
S'isu - pala with the demons Hiranya - kasipu and Havana (Wilson,
P- 437)-
3 This threat he fulfilled. The incident is noticeable as it is the
subject of the well-known drama by Bhatta-narayana called Venl-
sambhara, ' braid-binding,' which describes how the braided hair torn by
Duhsasana was again bound together by Bhima, who is made to say
Svayam akam samharami, ' I myself will again bind the braid together.'
See Sahitya-darpana, p. 169.
THE EPIC POEMS THE MAHA-BHARATA. 393
to pass the thirteenth concealed under assumed names in
various disguises.
They accordingly retired to the Kamyaka forest, and
took up their abode on the banks of the Sarasvati.
While they were resident in the forest, various episodes
occurred, thus :
Arjuna went to the Himalaya mountains to perform severe penance,
and thereby obtain celestial arms. After some time S'iva, to reward
him and prove his bravery, approached him as a Kirata or wild
mountaineer living by the chase, at the moment that a demon named
Muka, in the form of a boar, was making an attack upon him. S'iva
and Arjuna both shot together at the boar, which fell dead, and both
claimed to have hit him first. This served as a pretext for S'iva,
as the Kirata, to quarrel with Arjuna, and have a battle with him.
Arjuna fought long with the Kirata, 1 but could not conquer him.
At last he recognized the god, and threw himself at his feet. S'iva,
pleased with his bravery, gave him the celebrated weapon Pasupata,
to enable him to conquer Kariia and the Kuru princes in war (III.
1650, 1664).
Many legends were also repeated to console and amuse
the Pandu princes in their time of exile. For instance,
we have here introduced (III. 12746-12804) the epic
version of the tradition of the Deluge (the earliest account
of which occurs in the Satapatha-brahmana, see p. 29 of
this volume), as follows :
Manu, the Hindii Noah (not the grandson of Brahma, and reputed
author of the Code, but the seventh Manu, or Manu of the present
period, called Vaivasvata, and regarded as one of the progenitors of
the human race, Manu I. 61, 62), is represented as conciliating the
favour of the Supreme Being by his austerities in an age of universal
depravity. A fish, which was an incarnation of Brahma (cf. p. 327),
appeared to him whilst engaged in penance on the margin of a river, and
accosting him, craved protection from the larger fish. Manu complied,
1 This forms the subject of a celebrated poem by Bharavi called the
Kiratarjumya. S'iva was regarded as the god of the Kiratas, who were
evidently a race of aborigines much respected by the Hindus for their
bravery and skill in archery.
394 INDIAN WISDOM.
and placed him in a glass vessel. Having outgrown this, he requested
to be taken to a more roomy receptacle. Manu then placed him in a
lake. Still the fish grew, till the lake, though three leagues long,
could not contain him. He next asked to be taken to the Ganges ;
but even the Ganges was soon too small, and the fish was finally
transferred to the ocean. There he continued to expand, till at last,
addressing Manu, he warned him of the coming Deluge.
Manu, however, was to be preserved by the help of the fish, who
commanded him to build a ship and go on board, not with his own
wife and children, but with the seven Rishis or patriarchs ; and not
with pairs of animals, but with the seeds of all existing things. The
flood came ; Manu went on board, and fastened the ship, as directed,
to a horn in the fish's head. He was then drawn along l (I translate
nearly literally) :
Along the ocean in that stately ship was borne the lord of men, and through
Its dancing, tumbling billows, and its roaring waters ; and the bark,
Tossed to and fro by violent winds, reeled on the surface of the deep,
Staggering and trembling like a drunken woman. Land was seen no more,
Nor far horizon, nor the space between ; for everywhere around
Spread the wild waste of waters, reeking atmosphere, and boundless sky.
And now when all the world was deluged, nought appeared above the waves
But Manu and the seven sages, and the fish that drew the bark.
Unwearied thus for years on years the fish propelled the ship across
The heaped-up waters, till at length it bore the vessel to the peak
Of Himavan ; then, softly smiling, thus the fish addressed the sage :
Haste now to bind thy ship to this high crag. Know me the lord of all,
The great creator Brahma, mightier than all might omnipotent.
By me in fish-like shape hast thou been saved in dire emergency.
From Manu all creation, gods, Asuras, men, must be produced ;
By him the world must be created that which moves and moveth not.
Another tale told in this section of the poem (III.
16619, &c.) may be cited for its true poetic feeling and
pathos qualities in which it is scarcely excelled by the
1 There is still a later account of the Deluge in the Bhagavata-
purana, where the fish is represented as an incarnation of Vishnu.
The god's object in descending as a fish seems to have been to steer
the ship. In the Assyrian account (as interpreted by Mr. G. Smith)
sailors and a helmsman are taken on board.
THE EPIC POEMS THE MAHA-BHARATA. 395
story of Admetus and Alcestis. I subjoin the briefest
epitome :
Savitri, the beautiful daughter of a king Asvapati, loved Satyavan,
the son of an old hermit, but was warned by a seer to overcome her
attachment, as Satyavan was a doomed man, having only one year to
live. But Savitri replies : l
Whether his years be few or many, be he gifted with all grace
Or graceless, him my heart hath chosen, and it chooseth not again.
The king's daughter and the hermit's son were therefore married,
and the bride strove to forget the ominous prophecy ; but as the last
day of the year approached, her anxiety became irrepressible. She
exhausted herself in prayers and penances, hoping to stay the hand of
the destroyer ; yet all the while dared not reveal the fatal secret to her
husband. At last the dreaded day arrived, and Satyavan set out to cut
wood in the forest. His wife asked leave to accompany him, and walked
behind her husband, smiling, but with a heavy heart. Satyavan soon
made the wood resound with his hatchet, when suddenly a thrill of
agony shot through his temples, and feeling himself falling, he called
out to his wife to support him.
Then she received her fainting husband in her arms, and sat herself
On the cold ground, and gently laid his drooping head upon her lap ;
Sorrowing, she call'd to mind the sage's prophecy, and reckoned up
The days and hours. All in an instant she beheld an awful shape
Stand ing before her, dressed in blood-red garments, with a glitteringcrown
Upon his head : his form, though glowing like the sun, was yet obscure,
And eyes he had like flames, a noose depended from his hand ; and he
Was terrible to look upon, as by her husband's side he stood
And gazed upon him with a fiery glance. Shuddering she started up
And laid her dying Satyavan upon the ground, and with her hands
Joined reverently, she thus with beating heart addressed the Shape :
Surely thou art a god, such form as thine must more than mortal be !
Tell me, thou godlike being, who thou art, and wherefore art thou here?
The figure replied that he was Yama, king of the dead ; that her
husband's time was come, and that he must bind and take his
spirit :
1 I translate as closely as I can to the original. This and other
select specimens of Indian poetry have been more freely and poetically
translated by Mr. R. Griffiths.
396 INDIAN WISDOM.
Then from her husband's body forced he out and firmly with his cord
Bound and detained the spirit, clothed in form no larger than a thumb. l
Forthwith the body, reft of vital being and deprived of breath,
Lost all its grace and beauty, and became ghastly and motionless.
After binding the spirit, Yama proceeds with it towards the quarter
of which he is guardian the south. The faithful wife follows him
closely. Yama bids her go home and prepare her husband's funeral
rites ; but she persists in following, till Yama, pleased with her devo-
tion, grants her any boon she pleases, except the life of her husband.
She chooses that her husband's father, who is blind, may recover his
sight. Yama consents, and bids her now return home. Still she
persists in following. Two other boons are granted in the same way,
and still Savitrl follows closely on the heels of the king of death. At
last, overcome by her constancy, Yama grants a boon without exception.
The delighted Savitrl exclaims
Nought, mighty king, this time hast thou excepted : let my husband live;
Without him I desire not happiness, nor even heaven itself ;
Without him I must die. 'So be it! faithful wife,' replied the kingof death;
'Thus I release him;' and with that he loosed the cord that bound his soul.
During the residence of the five brothers in the forest,
Jayad-ratha attempted to carry off Draupadi, while they
were absent on a shooting excursion. This resembles in
some respects the story of Sita's forcible abduction by
Eavana in the Bamayana (III. 15572), which story,
therefore, is here told (15945. See p. 366 of this
volume).
In the thirteenth year of exile, the Pandavas journeyed
to the court of king Virata, and entered his service in
different disguises :
Yudhi-shthira called himself a Brahman and took the name of Kan-ka
(23) ; Arjuna named himself Vrihan-nala, and pretending to be a eunuch
(trifiyam prakritim gataJi), adopted a sort of woman's dress, putting
bracelets on his arms and ear-rings in his ears, in order, as he said, to
hide the scars caused by his bow-string. He undertook in this capacity
to teach dancing, music, and singing to the daughter of Virata and
1 Compare note 3, p. 198 of this volume.
THE EPIC POEMS THE MAHA-BHARATA. 397
the other women of the palace, and soon gained their good graces
(IV. 310).
One day when Virata and four of the Pandavas were absent, Duryo-
dhana and his brothers made an expedition against Virata's capital,
Matsya, and carried off some cattle. Uttara the son of Virata (in the
absence of his father) determined to follow and attack the Kuru army,
if any one could be found to act as his charioteer. Vrihan-nala (Arjuna)
undertook this office, and promised to bring back fine clothes and orna-
ments for Uttara and the other women of the palace (IV. 1226). When
they arrived in sight of the Kuru army, the courage of Uttara, who was
a mere youth, failed him. Vrihan-nala then made him act as charioteer,
while he himself (Arjuna) undertook to fight the Kauravas. Upon that
great prodigies occurred. Terror seized Bhishma, Duryodhana, and
their followers, who suspected that Vrihan-nala was Arjuna in disguise,
and even the horses shed tears 1 (IV. 1290). Duryodhana, however,
declared that if he turned out to be Arjuna, he would have to wander in
exile for a second period of twelve years. Meanwhile Arjuna revealed
himself to Uttara, and explained also the disguises of his brothers and
Draupadi. Uttara, to test his veracity, inquired whether he could
repeat Arjuna's ten names, and what each meant. Arjuna enumerated
them (Arjuna, Phalguna, Jishnu, Kirltin, S'vetavahana, Bibhatsu,
Vijaya, Krishna, Savyasacin, Dhananjaya), and explained their deriva-
tion 2 (IV. 1380). Uttara then declared that he was satisfied, and no
longer afraid of the Kuru army (IV. 1393).
Arjuna next put off his bracelets and woman's attire, strung his bow
Gand'va, and assumed all his other weapons, which had been concealed
in a S'ami tree. They are described as addressing him suppliantly, and
saying, 'We are your servants, ready to carry out your commands' 3
(IV. 1421). He also removed Uttara's standard and placed his own
ape-emblazoned banner in front of the chariot. Then was fought a
great battle between Arjuna and the Kauravas. In the end the whole
Kuru army fled before him, and all the property and cattle of Virata
was recovered. Arjuna told Uttara to conceal the real circumstances
of the battle, but to send messengers to his father's capital announcing
his victory, which so delighted Virata that he ordered the whole city to
be decorated.
Not long afterwards Virata held a great assembly, at
1 Compare Homer, Iliad XVII. 426.
2 See Arjuna's other names in note 4, p. 381.
3 Compare note, p. 402.
INDIAN WISDOM.
which the five Pandavas attended, and took their seats
with the other princes. Virata, who did not yet know
their real rank, was at first angry at this presumption
(IV. 2266). Arjuna then revealed who they were. Virata
was delighted, embraced the Pandavas, offered them all
his possessions, and to Arjuna his daughter Uttara in
marriage. Arjuna declined, but accepted her for his son
Abhimanyu (IV. 2356).
A council of princes was then called by Virata, at which
the Pandavas, Krishna, and Bala-rama were present, and
a consultation was held as to what course the Pandavas
were to take :
Krishna, in a speech, advised that they should not go to war with
their kinsmen until they had sent an ambassador to Duryodhana, sum-
moning him to restore half the kingdom. Bala-rama supported Krishna's
opinion, and recommended conciliation (sdman), but Satyaki, in an angry
tone, counselled war (V. 40). Drupada supported him, and recom-
mended that they should send messengers to all their allies, and collect
forces from all parts. The upshot was that the family-priest of Drupada
was despatched by the Pandavas as an ambassador to king Dhrita-rashtra
at Hastina-pur, to try the effect of negotiation.
Meanwhile Krishna and Bala-rama returned to Dva-
raka. Soon afterwards Duryodhana visited Krishna there,
hoping to prevail on him to fight on the side of the Kuru
army.
On the same day Arjuna arrived there also, and it happened that they
both reached the door of Krishna's apartment, where he was asleep, at
the same moment. Duryodhana succeeded in entering first, and took
up his station at Krishna's head. Arjuna followed behind, and stood
reverently at Krishna's feet. On awaking, Krishna's eyes first fell on
Arjuna. He then asked them both the object of their visit. Duryo-
dhana thereupon requested his aid in battle, declaring that although
Krishna was equally related to Arjuna, yet that, as he (Duryodhana)
had entered the room first, he was entitled to the priority. Krishna
answered that, as he had seen Arjuna first, he should give Arjuna the
first choice of two things. On the one side, he placed himself, stipu-
lating that he was to lay down his weapons and abstain from fighting.
THE EPIC POEMS THE MAHA-BHARATA. 399
On the other, he placed his army of a hundred million (arbuda) warriors,
named Narayanas. Arjuna, without hesitation, chose Krishna; and
Duryodhana, with glee, accepted the army, thinking that as Krishna
was pledged not to fight, he would be unable to help the Pandavas in
battle (V. 154).
Duryodhana next went to Bala-rama and asked his aid ;
but Bala-rama declared that both he and Krishna had
determined to take no part in the strife. 1 Krishna, how-
ever, consented to act as Arjuna's charioteer, and soon
afterwards joined Yudhi-shthira, who with his brothers was
still living in the country of Virata. Various attempts
at negotiation followed, and before any actual declaration
of war the Pandavas held a final consultation, at which
Arjuua begged Krishna to undertake the office of a
mediator. Krishna consented and departed for Hastina-
pura :
Midway he was met by Parasu-rama and various Rishis, who informed
him of their resolution to be present at the coming congress of Kuru
princes. On reaching Hastina-pura, Krishna retired to rest in the house
of Vidura. In the morning he performed all the appointed religious
ceremonies, dressed himself, put on the jewel Kaustubha (V. 3343),
and set out for the assembly. Then followed the great congress. The
Rishis, headed by Narad a, appeared in the sky, and were accommodated
with seats. Krishna opened the proceedings by a speech, which com-
menced thus : ' Let there be peace (Jama) between the Kurus and Pan-
davas.' Then, looking towards Dhrita-rashtra, he said, ' It rests with
you and me to effect a reconciliation.' When he had concluded a long
harangue, all remained riveted and thrilled by his eloquence (V. 3448).
None ventured for some time to reply, except Parasu-rama, the sage
Kanva, and Narada, who all advocated harmony and peace between the
rival cousins. At length Duryodhana spoke, and flatly refused to give
up any territory : ' It was not our fault,' he said, ' if the Pandavas were
conquered at dice.' "Upon that Krishna's wrath rose, and addressing
Duryodhana, he said, ' You think that I am alone, but know that the
Pandavas, Andhakas, Vrishnis, Adityas, Rudras, Yasus, and Rishis are
1 Compare Megha-duta, verse 51, where Bala-rama is described as
Bandhu-prltyd samara-vimukh ah.
40O INDIAN WISDOM.
all present here in me.' Thereupon flames of fire, of the size of a thumb,
settled on him. Brahma appeared on his forehead, Rudra on his breast,
the guardians of the world issued from his arms, Agni from his mouth.
The Adityas, Sadhyas, Yasus, Asvins, Maruts with Indra, Yisvadevas,
Yakshas, Gandharvas, and Rakshasas were also manifested out of his
body ; Arjuna was produced from his right arm ; Bala-rama from his
left arm ; Bhima, Yudhi-shthira, and the sons of Madrl from his back ;
flames of fire darted from his eyes, nose, and ears ; and the sun's rays
from the pores of his skin 1 (Y. 4419-4430). At this awful sight, the
assembled princes were compelled to close their eyes; but Drona,
Bhishma, Yidura, Sanjaya, the Rishis, and the blind Dhrita-rashtra
were gifted by Krishna with divine vision that they might behold the
glorious spectacle of his identification with every form (cf. p. 135 of
this volume). Then a great earthquake and other portents occurred,
and the congress broke up. Krishna, having suppressed his divinity,
reassumed his human form and set out on his return. He took Karna
with him for some distance in his chariot, hoping to persuade him to
take part with the Pandavas as a sixth brother. But, notwithstanding
all Krishna's arguments, Karna would not be persuaded ; and, leaving
the chariot, returned to the sons of Dhrita-rashtra (Y. 4883).
Meanwhile Bhishma consented to accept the general-
ship of the Kuru army (V. 5719). Though averse from
fighting against his kinsmen, he could not as a Kshatriya
abstain from joining in the war, when once commenced. 2
Before the armies joined battle, Yyasa appeared to his son Dhrita-
rashtra, who was greatly dejected at the prospect of the war, consoled
him, and offered to confer sight upon him, that he might view the
combat. Dhrita-rashtra declined witnessing the slaughter of his kin-
dred, and Yyasa then said that he would endow Sanjaya (Dhrita-
rashtra's charioteer) with the faculty of knowing everything that took
place, make him invulnerable, and enable him to transport himself by
a thought at any time to any part of the field of battle (YI. 43-47).
1 This remarkable passage, identifying Yishnu with everything in the
universe, is probably a later interpolation.
2 Bhishma, though really the grand-uncle of the Kuru and Pandu
princes, is often styled their grandfather (pitdmalia) ; and though really
the uncle of Dhrita-rashtra and Pandu, is sometimes styled their father.
He is a kind of Priam in caution and sagacity, but like a hardy old
veteran, never consents to leave the fighting to others.
THE EPIC POEMS THE MAHA-BHARATA. 401
The armies DOW met on Kuru-kshetra, a vast plain
north-west of the modern Delhi ; the Kuru forces beino-
5
commanded by Bhishma, and the Pandavas by Dhrishta-
dyumna, son of Drupada (VI. 832). While the hosts
stood drawn up in battle array, Krishna, acting as Arjuna's
charioteer, addressed him in a long philosophical discourse,
which forms the celebrated episode called Bhagavad-gita
(\[. 830-1532), an epitome of which is given at pp. 124-
140 of this volume.
And now as the armies advanced a tumult filled the
sky ; the earth shook ; ' Chafed by wild winds, the sands
upcuiied to heaven, and spread a veil before the sun.'
Awful portents occurred'; showers of blood fell ; l asses
were born from cows, calves from mares, jackals from dogs.
Shrill kites, vultures, and howling jackals hung about
the rear of the marching armies. Thunder roared in
the cloudless sky. Then darkness supervened, lightnings
flashed, and blazing meteors shot across the darkened
firmament ; yet,
The mighty chiefs, with martial ardour fired,
Scorning Heaven's portents, eager for the fray,
Pressed on to mutual slaughter, and the peal
Of shouting hosts commingling, shook the world.
There is to a European a ponderous and unwieldy
character about Oriental warfare, which he finds it diffi-
cult to realize ; yet the battle-scenes, though exaggerated,
are vividly described, and carry the imagination into the
midst of the conflict. Monstrous elephants career over
the field, trampling on men and horses, and dealing
destruction with their huge tusks; enormous clubs and
iron maces clash together with the noise of thunder ;
1 So Jupiter rains blood twice in the Iliad, XI. 53 and XVI. 459.
We have also the following in Hesiod, Scut. Here. 384 : KS 5' *' *'
a/',aarosff<Jaj.
2 C
402 INDIAN WISDOM.
rattling chariots dash against each other ; thousands of
arrows hurtle in the air, darkening the sky ; trumpets,
kettle-drums, and horns add to the uproar ; confusion,
carnage, and death are everywhere.
In all this, however, there is nothing absolutely ex-
travagant ; but when Arjuna is described as killing five
hundred warriors simultaneously, or as covering the whole
plain with dead and filling rivers with blood ; Yudhi-
shthira, as slaughtering a hundred men ' in a mere
twinkle ' (nimesha-matrena) ; Bhima, as annihilating a
monstrous elephant, including, all mounted upon it, and
fourteen foot-soldiers besides, with one blow of his club ;
Nakula and Sahadeva, fighting from their chariots, as
cutting off heads by the thousand, and sowing them
like seed upon the ground ; when, moreover, the principal
heroes make use of mystical god-given weapons, possessed
of supernatural powers, and supposed to be themselves
celestial beings ; * we at once perceive that the utter
unreality of such scenes mars the beauty of the descrip-
tion. Still it must be borne in mind that the poets
1 About a hundred of these weapons are enumerated in the Rama-
yana (I. xxix.), and constant allusion is made to them in battle-scenes,
both in the Ramayana and Maha-bharata. Arjuna underwent a long
course of austerities to obtain celestial weapons from Siva (see p. 393).
It was by the terrific brahmastra that Vasishtha conquered Yisvamitra,
and Rama killed Ravana. Sometimes they appear to be mystical
powers exercised by meditation, rather than weapons, and are supposed
to assume animate forms, and possess names and faculties like the
genii in the Arabian Nights, and to address their owners (see p. 397).
Certain distinct spells, charms, or prayers had to be learnt for their
due use (prayoga) and restraint (samhara). See Ram. I. xxix., xxx.,
where they are personified ; also Raghu-vansa V. 57 (Sammohanam
nama astram adfiatsva prayoga- samhara- vibhaMa-mantram). When
once let loose, he only who knew the secret spell for recalling them,
could bring them back ; but the brahmastra returned to its possessor's
quiver of its own accord.
THE EPIC POEMS THE MAHA-BHARATA. 403
who brahmabized the Indian Epics gifted the heroes
with semi-divine natures, and that what would be in-
credible in a mere mortal is not only possible but appro-
priate when enacted by a demigod. 1 The individual
deeds of prowess and single combats between the heroes
are sometimes graphically narrated. Each chief has a
conch-shell (san-Jcha) for a trumpet, which, as well as
his principal weapon, has a name, as if personified. 2
Thus we read :
Arjuna blew his shell called Deva-datta, ' god-given,' and carried a
bow named Gandiva. Krishna sounded a shell made of the bones of
the demon Pandajana and hence called Panc"ajanya, Bhima blew a
great trumpet named Paundra, and Yudhi-shthira sounded his, called
Ananta-vijaya, 'eternal victory.'
The first great single combat was between Bhishma
and Arjuna. It ended in Arjuna transfixing Bhishma
with innumerable arrows, so that there was not a space
of two fingers' breadth on his whole body unpierced.
Then Bhishma fell from his chariot ; but his body could not touch
the ground, surrounded as it was by countless arrows (VL 5658).
There it remained, reclining as it were on an arrowy couch (3ara-talpe
saydna). In that state consciousness returned, and the old warrior
became divinely supported. He had received from his father the
power of fixing the time of his own death, 3 and now declared that he
intended retaining life till the sun entered the summer solstice (uttard-
1 Aristotle says that the epic poet should prefer impossibilities
which appear probable to such things as, though possible, appear im-
probable (Poetics III. 6). But previously, in comparing epic poetry
with tragedy, he observes, 'the surprising is necessary in tragedy,
but the epic poem goes further, and admits even the improbable and
incredible, from which the highest degree of the surprising results'
(III. 4).
2 Trumpets do not appear to have been used by Homer's heroes.
Whence the value of a Stentorian voice. But there is express allusion
in II. XVIII. 219 to the use of trumpets at sieges.
3 Compare Kiratarjuniya III. 19.
404 INDIAN WISDOM.
yana). All the warriors on both sides ceased fighting that they
might view this wonderful sight, and do homage to their dying rela-
tive (VI. 5716). As he lay on his arrowy bed, his head hanging
down, he begged for a pillow ; whereupon the chiefs brought soft
supports, which the hardy old soldier sternly rejected. Arjuna then
made a rest for his head with three arrows, which Bhishma quite
approved, and soon afterwards asked Arjuna to bring him water.
Whereupon Arjuna struck the ground with an arrow, and forthwith
a pure spring burst forth, which so refreshed Bhishma that he called
for Duryodhana, and in a long speech begged him, before it was too
late, to restore half the kingdom to the Panda vas (VI. 5813).
After the fall of Bhishma, Kama advised Duryodhana
to appoint his old tutor Drona who was chiefly for-
midable from his stock of fiery arrows and magical
weapons 1 to the command of the army (VII. 150).
Several single combats and general engagements (saiikula-
yuddham, tumula-yuddham), in which sometimes one
party, sometimes the other had the advantage, took place.
Here is an account of a single combat (VII. 544) :
High on a stately car
Swift borne by generous coursers to the fight,
The vaunting son of Puru proudly drove,
Secure of conquest o'er Subhadra's son.
The youthful champion shrank not from the conflict.
Fierce on the boastful chief he sprang, as bounds
The lion's cub upon the ox ; and now
The Puru chief had perished, but his dart
Shivered with timely aim the upraised bow
Of Abhimanyu. 2 From his tingling hand
The youthful warrior cast the fragments off,
And drew his sword, and grasped his iron-bound shield ;
Upon the car of Paurava he leapt
And seized the chief his charioteer he slew,
And dragged the monarch senseless o'er the plain. 3
1 These agneydstra were received by Drona from the son of Agni,
who obtained them from Drona's father, Bharadvaja.
2 The name of Arjuna's son by Subhadra.
3 The translation of this and the short passage at p. 401 is a
THE EPIC POEMS THE MAHA-BHARATA. 405
Amongst other battles a oreat fight was fought between
o o o O
Ghatotkaca and Kama, in which the former as a Rakshasa
(son of the Rakshasi Hidimba and Bhima) assumed various
forms, but was eventually slain (VII. 8104). This disaster
filled the Pandavas with grief, but the fortunes of the
day were retrieved by Dhrishta-dyumna (son of Drupada),
who fought with Drona, and succeeded in decapitating
his lifeless body, not, however, till Drona had laid down
his arms and saved Dhrishta-dyumna from the enormous
crime of killing a Brahman and an Acarya, by transport-
ing himself to heaven in a glittering shape like the sun.
His translation to Brahma-loka was only witnessed by
five persons, and before leaving the earth he made over
his divine weapons to his son Asvatthaman. The loss of
their general Drona caused the flight of the whole Kuril
army (VII. 8879), but they appointed Kama general, in
his place, and renewed the combat :
In this engagement so terrible was the slaughter that- the rivers
flowed with blood, and the field became covered with mutilated corpses
(VIII. 2550, 3899). Numbers of warriors bound themselves by oath
(sam4ap-taka) to slay Arjuna, but were all destroyed, and an army
of Mle<tfhas or barbarians with thirteen hundred elephants, sent by
Duryodhana against Arjuna, were all routed by him (4133)-
Then Bhima and Duhsasana joined in deadly conflict. The latter
was slain, and Bhima, remembering the insult to DraupadI, and the
vow he made in consequence (see p. 392), cut off his head, and drank
his blood on the field of battle (4235).
Then occurred the battle between Kama and Arjuna :
Arjuna was wounded and stunned by an arrow shot off by Kama,
and seemed likely to be defeated had not the wheel of Kama's chariot
come off. This obliged Karna to leap down, and his head was then
shot off by one of Arjuna's arrows 1 (VIII. 4798)- His death struck
slightly altered version of some spirited lines by Professor H. H.
Wilson, given in vol. iii. of his collected works edited by Dr. E
1 This arrow is called in the text Anjalika (VIII. 4788).
406 INDIAN WISDOM.
terror into the Kuru army, which fled in dismay, while Bhlma and
the Pandu party raised a shout of triumph that shook heaven and
earth.
On the death of Karna, Salya, king of Madra, was
appointed to the command of the Kuru army, then much
reduced in numbers (IX. 327). Another general engage-
ment followed, and a single combat between Salya and
Bhima with clubs or maces, in which both were equally
matched (IX. 594). Here is a version of the encounter :
Soon as he saw his charioteer struck down,
Straightway the Madra monarch grasped his mace,
And like a mountain firm and motionless
Awaited the attack. The warrior's form
Was awful as the world-consuming fire,
Or as the noose-armed god of death, or as
The peaked Kailasa, or the Thunderer
Himself, or as the trident-bearing god,
Or as a maddened forest elephant.
Him to defy did Bhima hastily
Advance, wielding aloft his massive club.
A thousand conchs and trumpets and a shout,
Firing each champion's ardour, rent the air.
From either host, spectators of the fight,
Burst forth applauding cheers : ' The Madra king
Alone,' they cried, ' can bear the rush of Bhima ;
None but heroic Bhima can sustain
The force of S'alya. ' Now like two fierce bulls
Sprang they towards each other, mace in hand.
And first as cautiously they circled round,
Whirling their weapons as in sport, the pair
Seemed matched in equal combat. S'alya's club,
Set with red fillets, glittered as with flame,
arrows used in the Maha-bharata are of various kinds, some having
crescent-shaped heads. It may be useful to subjoin a list of words
for arrow, which occur constantly in the description of battles :
sara, vana, ishu, sdydka, patrin, kdnda, vUiklia, ndrdca, vipdtha,
prishatka, bhalla, tomara (a kind of lance), salya (a dart), isliika,
sillmuJcJia.
THE EPIC POEMS THE MAHA-BHARATA. 407
While that of Bhlma gleamed like flashing lightning.
Anon the clashing iron met, and scattered round
A fiery shower ; then fierce as elephants
Or butting bulls they battered each the other.
Thick fell the blows, and soon each stalwart frame,
Spattered with gore, glowed like the Kinsuka,
Bedecked with scarlet blossoms ; yet beneath
The rain of strokes, unshaken as a rock
Bhlma sustained the mace of S'alya, he
With equal firmness bore the other's blows.
Now like the roar of crashing thunder-clouds
Sounded the clashing iron ; then, their clubs
Brandished aloft, eight paces they retired,
And swift again advancing to the fight,
Met in the midst like two huge mountain-crags
Hurled into contact. Nor could either bear
The other's shock ; together down they rolled,
Mangled and crushed, like two tall standards fallen.
After this f a great battle was fought between Yudhi-
shthira and Salya, who was at first aided and rescued by
Asvatthaman, but was eventually killed (IX. 919).
The Kauravas, after suffering continual reverses, rallied
their scattered forces for a final charge, which led to a
complete rout and general slaughter, Duryodhana, Asvat-
thaman (son of Drona), Krita-varman (also called Bhoja),
and Kripa (see note i, p. 383) being the only chiefs of the
Kuru army left alive. 1 Nothing remained of eleven whole
armies (IX. 1581). Duryodhana, wounded, disheartened,
and alarmed for his own safety, resolved on flight :
On foot, with nothing but his mace, he took refuge in a lake, hiding
himself under the water, and then, by his magical power, supporting
it so as to form a chamber around his body. 2 The Panda vas, informed
1 Sanjaya was taken by Dhrishta-dyumna, and would have been
killed had not Yyasa suddenly appeared and demanded that he should
be dismissed unharmed (compare p. 376).
2 So I interpret astamlhayat toyam mayaya (IX. 1621) and vish-
falliya apah sva-mayaya (1680, 1739). Duryodhana is described as
lying down and sleeping at the bottom of the lake (1705).
40 8 INDIAN WISDOM.
of his hiding-place, came to the lake, and Yudhi-shthira commenced
taunting Duryodhana, ' Where is your manliness ? where is your
pride ? where your valour 1 where your skill in arms, that you hide
yourself at the bottom of a lake ? Rise up and fight ; perform your
duty as a Kshatriya' (IX. 1774). Duryodhana answered, that it was
not from fear, but fatigue, that he was lying under the water, and that
he was ready to fight them all. He entreated them, however, to go
and take the kingdom, as he had no longer any pleasure in life, his
brothers being killed. Yudhi-shthira then continued his sarcasm^,
till at last, thoroughly roused by his goading words (vdk-pratoda),
Duryodhana rose up out of the lake, his body streaming with blood
and water (IX. 1865).
It was settled that a single combat with clubs should
take place between Duryodhana and Bhima ; and when
Bala-rama heard that his two pupils (see p. 383) were
about to engage in conflict, he determined to be present,
that he might ensure fair play. 1
Then followed the great club-fight (gadd-yuddha) :
The two combatants entered the lists and challenged each other,
while Krishna, Bala-rama, and all the other Pandavas sat round as
spectators. The fight was tedious, the combatants being equally
matched. At last Bhima struck Duryodhana a blow on his thighs,
broke them, and felled him to the ground. Then reminding him of
the insult received by Draupadi, he kicked him on the head with his
left foot (IX. 3313). Upon this Bala-rama started up in anger,
declaring that Bhima had fought unfairly (it being a rule in club-
fights that no blow should be given below the middle of the body),
and that he should ever after be called Jihma-yodhin (unfair-fighter),
while Duryodhana should always be celebrated as Riju-yodhin (fair-
fighter).
Bala-rama thereupon returned to Dvaraka, and the five
Pandavas with Krishna entered the camp of Duryodhana,
. l An interesting episode about the mahdtmya of Tirthas, and
especially of those on the sacred Sarasvati (IX. 2006), is inserted in
this part of the poem. The story of the Moon, who was afflicted with
consumption, on account of the curse of Daksha, is also told (2030),
as well as the celebrated legend of Vasishtha and Visvamitra (2296,
see p. 361).
THE EPIC POEMS THE MAHA-BHARATA. 409
and took possession of it and its treasures as victors
(IX. 3492).
^The three surviving Kuru warriors (Asvatthaman,
Kripa, and Krita-varman), hearing of the fall of Duryo-
dhana, hastened to the place where he was lying. There
they found him weltering in his blood (IX. 3629)*, but still
alive. He spoke to them, told them not to grieve for
him, and assured them that he should die happy in
having done his duty as a Kshatriya. Then leaving
Duryodhana still lingering alive with broken thighs on
the battle-field, they took refuge in a forest.
There, at night, they rested near a Nyagrodha-tree, where thousands
of crows were roosting. Asvatthaman, who could not sleep, saw an
owl approach stealthily and destroy numbers of the sleeping crows
(X. 41). This suggested the idea of entering the camp of the Pandavas
by night and slaughtering them while asleep (suptd). 1 Accordingly
he set out for the Pandu camp, followed by Kripa and Krita-varman.
At the gate of the camp his progress was arrested by an awful figure,
described as gigantic, glowing like the sun, dressed in a tiger's skin,
with long arms, and bracelets formed of serpents. This was the deity
S'iva; 2 and after a tremendous conflict with him, Asvatthaman recog-
nized the god, worshipped and propitiated him (X. 251).
Asvatthaman then directed Kripa and Krita-varman to stand at the
camp-gate and kill any of the Pandu army that attempted to escape
(X. 327). He himself made his way alone and stealthily to the tent
of Dhrishta-dyumna, who was lying there fast asleep. Him he killed
by stamping on him, declaring that one who had murdered his father
(Drona, see p. 405) a Brahman and an Adarya was not worthy to
1 Hence the name sauptika applied to this section of the poem.
Compare Homer's narrative of the night adventures of Diomed and
Ulysses in the camp of the Trojans (Iliad X.).
2 The description of S'iva in this passage is remarkable. Hundreds
and thousands of Krishnas are said to be manifested from the light
issuing from his person. Many of S'iva's names also are enume-
rated as follows : Ugra, Sthanu, S'iva, Rudra, S'arva, Isana, Isvara,
Girisa, Yarada, Deva, Bhava, Bhavana, S'itikantha, Aja, Sukra,
Daksha-kratu-hara, Hara, Visvarupa, Virupiiksha, Bahurupa, Umapati
(X. 252).
410 INDIAN WISDOM.
die in any other way (X. 342). After killing every one in the camp
and destroying the whole Pandu army (except the five Pandavas
themselves with Satyaki and Krishna, who happened to be stationed
outside the camp), Asvatthaman joined his comrades, and they all
three proceeded to the spot where Duryodhana was lying. They found
him just breathing (kihcit-prana), but weltering in his blood and sur-
rounded by beasts of prey. Asvatthaman then announced that he was
avenged, as only seven of the Pandu army were now left ; all the rest
were slaughtered like cattle (X. 531). Duryodhana hearing this,
revived a little, and gathering strength to thank them and say fare-
well, expired ; his spirit rising to heaven and his body entering the
ground (X. 536).
Thus perished both armies of Kurus and Pandavas.
Dhrita-rashtra was so overwhelmed with grief for the
death of his sons, that his father Vyasa appeared to him
and consoled him by pointing out that their fate was
predestined, and that they could not escape death. He
also declared that the Pandavas were not to blame ; that
Duryodhana, though born from Gandhari, was really a
partial incarnation of Kali l (Kaler ansa), and Sakuni of
Dvapara (see p. 330, note).
Vidura also comforted the king with his usual sensible
advice, and recommended that the funeral ceremonies
(preta - kdrydni) should be performed. Dhrita-rashtra
then ordered carriages to be prepared, and with the
women proceeded to the field of battle (XL 269).
There he met and became reconciled to the five Pan-
davas, but his wife Gandhari would have cursed them had
not Vyasa interfered. The five brothers next embraced
and comforted their mother Pritha, who with the queen
Gandhari, and the other wives and women, uttered lamen-
tations over the bodies of the slain heroes, as one by
one they came in sight on the field of battle (XL 427-
755)-
1 So also S'akuni is said to be an incarnation of Dvapara (XVIII.
1 66).
THE EPIC POEMS THE MAHA-BHARATA. 411
Finally, the funeral obsequies (sraddha) were per-
formed at the command of Yudhi-shthira (XL 779),
after which he, with his brothers, entered Hastina-pura
in triumph.
All the streets were decorated ; and Brahmans offered him con-
gratulations, which he acknowledged by distributing largesses among
them (XII. 1410). Only one person stood aloof. This turned out
to be an impostor, a friend of Duryodhana a Rakshasa named
Carvaka who in the disguise of a mendicant reviled him and the
Brahmans. He was, however, soon detected ; and the real Brahmans,
filled with fury and uttering imprecations, killed him on the spot (see
p. 119).
After this incident, Yudhi-shthira, seated on a golden
throne, was solemnly crowned (XII. 1443).
Nevertheless, restless and uneasy, and his mind filled with anguish
at the slaughter of his kindred, he longed for consolation (sdnti), and
Krishna recommended him to apply to Bhlshma, who still remained
alive on the field of battle, reclining on his soldier's bed (vlra-sayand),
surrounded by Yyasa, Narada, and other holy sages. Accordingly,
Yudhi-shthira and his brothers, accompaned by Krishna, set out for
Kuru-kshetra, passing mutilated corpses, skulls, broken armour, and
other evidences of the fearful nature of the war. This reminded
Krishna of the slaughter caused by Parasu-rama, who cleared the earth
thrice seven times of the Kshatriya caste (see p. 329). His story was
accordingly narrated to Yudhi-shthira (XII. 1707-1805). They then
approached Bhishma lying on his couch of arrows (sara-samstara-
sdyinam], and Krishna entreated him to instruct Yudhi-shthira, and
calm his spirit.
Upon that Bhlshma, who had been lying for fifty-eight nights on
his spiky bed (XIII. 7732), assisted by Krishna, Narada, Vyasa, and
other Rishis, commenced a series of long and tedious didactic discourses
(contained in the S'anti-parvan and Anusasana-parvan). 1
1 In XII. 1241 we have some curious rules for expiation (prayat-
citta), and at 1393 rules for what to eat and what to avoid (Wiakshyd-
bhakshya). Some of the precepts are either taken from or founded on
Manu. For instance, compare 6071 with Manu II. 238. Many of the
moral verses in the Hitopadesa will be found in the S'anti-parvan ; and
412 INDIAN WISDOM.
Then having finished instructing his relatives, he bade them fare-
well, and asked Krishna's leave to depart. Suddenly the arrows left
his body, his skull divided, and his spirit, bright as a meteor, ascended
through the top of his head to the skies (XIII. 7765). They covered
him with garlands and perfumes, carried him to the Ganges, and per-
formed his last obsequies.
And here a European poet would have brought the
story to an end. The Sanskrit poet has a deeper know-
ledge of human nature, or at least of Hindu nature.
In the most popular of Indian dramas (the Sakuntala)
there occurs this sentiment : l
'Tis a vain thought that to attain the end
And object of ambition is to rest.
Success doth only mitigate the fever
Of anxious expectation : soon the fear
Of losing what we have, the constant care
Of guarding it doth weary.
If then the great national Epic was to respond truly
to the deeper emotions of the Hindu mind, it could not
leave the Panda vas in the contented enjoyment of their
kingdom. It had to instil a more sublime moral a
lesson which even the disciples of a diviue philosophy
are slow to learn that all who desire rest must aim
at union with the Infinite. Hence we are brought in the
concluding chapters to a sublime description of the renun-
ciation of their kingdom by the five brothers, and their
journey towards Indra's heaven in the mountain Meru.
Part of this (XVII. 24, &c.) I now translate :
When the four brothers knew the high resolve of king Yudhi-shthira,
Forthwith with Draupadi they issued forth, and after them a dog
Followed : the king himself went out the seventh from the royal city,
the fable of the three fishes is founded on the story at 4889. For the
contents of the Asvamedhika, Asramavasika, and Mausala Parvans, see
P- 374-
1 See my translation of this play, 4th edition, p. 124 (recently pub-
lished by W. H." Allen & Co., 13 Waterloo Place).
THE EPIC POEMS THE MAHA-BHARATA. 413
And all the citizens and women of the palace walked behind ;
But none could find it in their heart to say unto the king, ' Return. '
And so at length the train of citizens went back, bidding adieu.
Then the high-minded sons of Pandu and the noble DraupadI
Eoamed onwards, fasting, with their faces towards the east; their hearts
Yearning for union with the Infinite ; bent on abandonment
Of worldly things. They wandered on to many countries, many a sea
And river. Yudhi-shthira walked in front, and next to him came Bhima,
And Arjuna came after him, and then, in order, the twin brothers.
And last of all came DraupadI, with her dark skin and lotus- eyes
The faithful DraupadI, loveliest of women, best of noble wives
Behind them walked the only living thing that shared their pilgrimage
The dog and by degrees they reached the briny sea. There Arjuna
Cast in the waves his bow and quivers. 1 Then with souls well-disciplined
They reached the northern region, and beheld with heaven-aspiring hearts
The mighty mountain Himavat. Beyond its lofty peak they passed
Towards a sea of sand, and saw at last the rocky Meru, king
Of mountains. As with eager steps they hastened on, their souls intent
On union with the Eternal, DraupadI lost hold of her high hope,
And faltering fell upon the earth.
One by one the others also drop, till only Bhima,
Yudhi-shthira, and the dog are left. Still Yudhi-shthira
walks steadily in front, calm and unmoved, looking neither
to the right hand nor to the left, and gathering up his
soul in inflexible resolution. Bhima, shocked at the fall
of his companions, and unable to understand how beings
so apparently guileless should be struck down by fate,
appeals to his brother, who, without looking back, explains
that death is the consequence of sinful thoughts and too
great attachment to worldly objects ; and that Draupadl's
fall was owing to her excessive affection for Arjuna;
Sahadeva's (who is supposed to be the most humble-
minded of the five brothers) to his pride in his own know-
ledge ; Nakula's (who is very handsome) to feelings of
1 Arjuna had two celebrated quivers, besides the bow named
Gaiidlva, given to him by the god AgnL See Kiratarjunlya
XI. 1 6.
414 INDIAN WISDOM.
personal vanity; and Arjuna's to a boastful confidence in
his power to destroy his foes. Bhima then feels himself
falling, and is told that he suffers death for his selfishness,
pride, and too great love of enjoyment. The sole survivor
is now Yudhi-shthira, who still walks steadily forward,
followed only by the dog :
When with a sudden sound that rang through earth and heaven the mighty god
Came towards him in a chariot, and he cried, ' Ascend, resolute prince.'
Then did the king look back upon his fallen brothers, and address'd
These words unto the Thousand-eyed in anguish ' Let my brothers here
Come with me. Without them, god of gods, I would not wish to enter
E'en heaven ; and yonder tender princess DraupadI, the faithful wife,
Worthy of endless bliss, let her too come. In mercy hear my prayer.'
Upon this, Indra informs him that the spirits of Drau-
padI and his brothers are already in heaven, and that he
alone is permitted to ascend there in bodily form. Yudhi-
shthira now stipulates that his dog shall be admitted with
him. Indra says sternly, ' Heaven has no place for men
accompanied by dogs ' (svavatam) ; but Yudhi-shthira is
unshaken in his resolution, and declines abandoning the
faithful animal. Indra remonstrates * You have aban-
doned your brothers and DraupadI ; why not forsake the
dog ? ' To this Yudhi-shthira haughtily replies, ' I had
no power to bring them back to life : how can there be
abandonment of those who no longer live ? '
The dog, it appears, is his own father Dharma in dis-
guise (XVII. 88). 1 Eeassuming now his proper form,
he praises Yudhi-shthira for his constancy, and they enter
heaven together. There, to his surprise, he finds Duryo-
dhana and his cousins, but not his brothers or DraupadI.
Hereupon he declines remaining in heaven without them.
1 So I infer from the original, which, however, is somewhat obscure.
The expression is dharma-svarupl bhagavan. At any rate, the dog was
a mere phantom created to try Yudhi-shthira, as it is evident that a
real doer is not admitted with Yudhi-shthira to heaven.
THE EPIC POEMS THE MAHA-BHARATA. 415
An angel is then sent to conduct him to the lower regions
and across the Indian Styx ( Vaitaranl) to the hell where
they are supposed to be. The scene which now follows
may be compared to the Nekyomanteia in the eleventh
book of the Odyssey, or to parts of Dante.
The particular hell to which Yudhi-shthira is taken is
a dense wood, whose leaves are sharp swords, and its
ground paved with razors (asi-patra-vana, see p. 55,
note 2). The way to it is strewed with foul and muti-
lated corpses. Hideous shapes flit across the air and
hover over him. Here there is an awful sensation of
palpable darkness. There the wicked are burning in
flames of blazing fire. Suddenly he hears the voices of
his brothers and companions imploring him to assuage
their torments, and not desert them. His resolution is
taken. Deeply affected, he bids the angel leave him to
share their miseries. This is his last trial. The whole
scene now vanishes. It was a mere illusion, to test his
constancy to the utmost. He is now directed to bathe in
the heavenly Ganges ; and having plunged into the sacred
stream, he enters the real heaven, where at length, in
company with Draupadi and his brothers, he finds that
rest and happiness which were unattainable on earth.
CHAPTER XIV.
The Indian Epics compared with each other and with
the Homeric Poems.
I PROCEED to note a few obvious points that force them-
selves on the attention in comparing the two great Indian
Epics with each other, and with the Homeric poems. I
have already stated that the episodes of the Maha-bharata
occupy more than three-fourths of the whole poem. 1 It
is, in fact, not one poem, but a combination of many
poems ; not a Kdvya, like the poem of Valmiki, by one
author, but an Itihasa by many authors. This is one
great distinctive feature in comparing it with the Rama-
yana. In both Epics there is a leading story, about which
are collected a multitude of other stories ; but in the
Maha-bharata the main narrative only acts as a slender
thread to connect together a vast mass of independent
legends, and religious, moral, and political precepts ; while
in the Ramayana the episodes, though numerous, never
break the solid chain of one principal and paramount
subject, which is ever kept in view. Moreover, in the
Ramayana there are few didactic discourses and a remark-
able paucity of sententious maxims.
It should be remembered that the two Epics belong
to different periods and different localities. Not only was
1 Although the Maha-bharata is so much longer than the Ramayana
as to preclude the idea of its being, like that poem, the work of one or
even a few authors, yet it is the number of the episodes which, after all,
causes the disparity. Separated from these, the main story of the Maha-
bharata is not longer than the other Epic.
THE EPICS COMPARED TOGETHER AND WITH HOMER. 4 1 7
a large part of the Maha-bharata composed later than the
Ramayana, parts of it being comparatively modern, but
the places which gave birth to the two poems are distinct
(see p. 317). Moreover, in the Ramayana the circle of
territory represented as occupied by the Aryans is more
restricted than that in the Maha-bharata. It reaches to
Videha or Mithila and An-ga in the East, to Su-rashtra in
the South-west, to the Yamuna and great Dandaka forest
in the South. Whereas in the Maha-bharata (as pointed
out by Professor Lassen) the Aryan settlers are described
as having extended themselves to the mouths of the
Ganges in the East, to the mouth of the Godavari on
the Koromandel coast, and to the Malabar coast in the
West ; and even the inhabitants of Ceylon (Sinhala) bring
tribute to the Northern kings. It is well known that in
India different customs and opinions frequently prevail in
districts almost adjacent ; and it is certain that Brah-
mauism never gained the ascendency in the more martial
north which it acquired in the neighbourhood of Oude, 1
so that in the Maha-bharata we have far more allusions to
Buddhistic scepticism than we have in the sister Epic.
In fact, each poem, though often running parallel to
the other, has yet a distinct point of departure ; and the
Maha-bharata, as it became current in various localities,
diverged more into by-paths and cross-roads than its sister.
Hence the Ramayana is in some respects a more finished
composition than the Maha-bharata, and depicts a more
polished state of society, and a more advanced civilization.
1 Professor Weber (Ind. Stud. I. 220) remarks that the north-western
tribes retained their ancient customs, which those who migrated to the
east had at one time shared. The former (as represented in the Maha-
bharata) kept themselves free from those influences of hierarchy and
caste, which arose among the inhabitants of Ayodhya (in the Ramayana)
as a consequence of their intermingling and coming more in contact
with the aborigines.
2 D
41 8 INDIAN WISDOM.
In fact, the Maha-bharata presents a complete circle of
post-Vedic mythology, including many myths which have
their germ in the Veda, and continually enlarging its cir-
cumference to embrace the later phases of Hinduism, with
its whole train of confused and conflicting legends. 1 From
this storehouse are drawn much of the Puranas, and many
of the more recent heroic poems and dramas. Here we
have repeated many of the legends of the Ramayana, and
even the history of Rama himself (see p. 366). Here also
we have long discourses on religion, politics, morality, and
philosophy, introduced without any particular connection
with the plot. Here again are most of the narratives
of the incarnation of Vishnu, numberless stories connected
with the worship of Siva, and various details of the life
of Krishna. Those which especially bear on the modern
worship of Krishna are contained in the supplement called
Hari-vansa, which is itself a long poem consisting of
16,374 stanzas 2 longer than the Iliad and Odyssey com-
bined. 3 Hence the religious system of the Maha-bharata
is far more popular, liberal, and comprehensive than that
of the Ramayana. It is true that the god Vishnu is con-
nected with Krishna in the Maha-bharata, as he is with
Rama in the Ramayana, but in the latter Rama is every-
1 It should be noted, that the germs of many of the legends of
Hindu epic poetry are found in the Rig-veda. Also that the same
legend is sometimes repeated in different parts of the Maha-bharata,
with considerable variations ; as, for example, the story of the combat
of Indra god of air and thunder with the demon Vritra, who re-
presents enveloping clouds and vapour. See Vana-parvan 8690, <kc. ;
and compare with S'anti-parvan 10124, &c. Compare also the story
of the 'Hawk and Pigeon,' Vana-parvan 10558, with Anusasana-parvan
2046.
2 The Hari-vansa bears to the Maha-bharata a relation very similar
to that which the TJttara-kanda, or last Book of the Ramayana, bears
to the preceding Books of that poem.
3 The Iliad and Odyssey together contain about 30,000 lines.
THE EPICS COMPARED TOGETHER AND WITH HOMER. 4 1 9
thing ; whereas in the Maha-bharata, Krishna is by no
means the centre of the system. His divinity is even
occasionally disputed. 1 The five Pandavas have also
partially divine natures, and by turns become prominent.
Sometimes Arjuna, sometimes Yudhi-shthira, at others
Bhima, appears to be the principal orb round which the
plot moves. 2 Moreover, in various passages Siva is
described as supreme, and receives worship from Krishna.
In others, Krishna is exalted above all, and receives
honour from Siva. 3 In fact, while the Eamayana gene-
rally represents one-sided and exclusive Brahmanism, 4 the
Maha-bharata reflects the multilateral character of Hin-
duism ; its monotheism and polytheism, its spirituality and
materialism, its strictness and laxity, its priestcraft and
anti-priestcraft, its hierarchical intolerance and rational-
istic philosophy, combined. Not that there was any
intentional variety in the original design of the work,
but that almost every shade of opinion found expression
in a compilation formed by gradual accretion through a
long period.
In unison with its more secular, popular, and human
1 As by S'isu-pala and others. See p. 392, with notes.
2 In this respect the Maha-bharata resembles the Iliad. Achilles
is scarcely its hero. Other warriors too much divide the interest
with him.
3 In the Bhagavad-glta Krishna is not merely an incarnation of
Vishnu ; he is identified with Brahma, the Supreme Spirit, and is so
in numerous other places. It is well known that in Homer the
supremacy of one god (Jove), and due subordination of the other
deities, is maintained.
4 Some free thought, however, has found its way into the Rama-
yana; see II. cviii. (Schl.) ; YI. Ixii. 15 (Gorr., Bomb. Ixxxiii. 14).;
VI. Ixxxiii. 14 (Calc.). It is remarkable that in the Ramayana the
same gods are appealed to by Rama and Ravana, just as by Greeks
and Trojans in the Iliad ; and Hanumat, when in Lan-ka, heard the
Brahma-ghosha in the morning. Ramay. V. xvi. 41. This has been
noticed by Weber.
420 INDIAN WISDOM.
character, the Maba-bharata has, as a rule, less of mere
mythical allegory, and more of historical probability in.
its narratives than the Ramayana. The reverse, however,
sometimes holds good. For example, in Ramayana IV. xl.
we have a simple division of the world into four quarters
or regions, whereas in Maha-bharata VI. 236, &c., we have
the fanciful division (afterwards adopted by the Puranas)
into seven circular Dvipas or continents, viz., i. Jambu-
dvipa or the Earth, 2. Plaksha-dvipa, 3. Salmali-dvipa,
4. Kusa-dvipa, 5. Kraunca-dvipa, 6. Saka-dvipa, 7. Push-
kara-dvipa ; surrounded respectively by seven oceans in
concentric belts, viz., i. the sea of salt-water (lavana),
2. of sugar-cane juice (ikshu), 3. of wine (sura), 4. of
clarified butter (sarpis), 5. of curdled milk (dadhi), 6. of
milk (dugdha), 7. of fresh water (Jala) ; the mountain
Meru, or abode of the gods, being in the centre of
Jambu-dvlpa, which again is divided into nine Varshas
or countries separated by eight ranges of mountains, the
Varsha called Bhdrata (India) lying south of the Himavat
range. 1
Notwithstanding these wild ideas and absurd figments,
the Maha-bharata contains many more illustrations of real
life and of domestic and social habits and manners than
the sister Epic. Its diction, again, is more varied than
that of the Eamayana. The bulk of the latter poem
(notwithstanding interpolations and additions) being by
1 The eight ranges are Nishadha, Hema-kuta, Nishadha on the
south of Meru ; Nila, SVeta, Srin-gin on the north ; and Malyavat
and Gandha-madana on the west and east. Beyond the sea of fresh
water is a circle called ' the land of gold,' and beyond this the circle
of the Lokaloka mountains, which form the limit of the sun's light,
all the region on one side being illuminated, and all on the other side
of them being in utter darkness. See Raghu-vansa I. 68. Below the
seven Dvipas are the seven Patalas, and below these are the twenty-one
Hells (note 2, p. 55).
THE EPICS COMPARED TOGETHER AND WITH HOMER. 421
one author, is written with uniform simplicity of style
and metre (see p. 335, note 2) ; and the antiquity of the
greater part is proved by the absence of any studied
elaboration of diction. The Maha-bharata, on the other
hand, though generally simple and natural in its language,
and free from the conceits and artificial constructions
of later writers, comprehends a greater diversity of com-
position, rising sometimes (especially when the Indra-
vajra metre is employed) to the higher style, and using
not only loose and irregular, but also studiously complex
grammatical forms, 1 and from the mixture of ancient
legends, occasional archaisms and Vedic formations.
In contrasting the two Indian poems with the Iliad
and the Odyssey, we may observe many points of simi-
larity. * Some parallel passages have been already pointed
out. "We must expect to find the distinctive genius of
two different people (though both of the Aryan race) in
widely distant localities, colouring their epic poetry very
differently, notwithstanding general features of resem-
blance. The Eamayana and Maha-bharata are no less
wonderful than the Homeric poems as monuments of
the human mind, and no less interesting as pictures of
human life and manners in ancient times, yet they bear
in a remarkable degree the peculiar impress ever stamped
on the productions of Asiatic nations, and separating
them from European. On the side of art and harmony
of proportion, they can no more compete with the Iliad
and the Odyssey than the unnatural outline of the ten-
headed and twenty-armed Havana can bear comparison
i Thus, jlvaee (I. 732), kurmi (III. 10943* and Ramay. II. xii. 33),
dhita forMa(Hari-vansa ^ 99 ),parinaydmdsafoT parinayaydmasa, ma
bhaih for ma bhaishlh, vyavasishytimi for vyavasasyami.
irregular grammatical forms is sometimes due to the exigency o
metre.
422 INDIAN WISDOM.
with the symmetry of a Grecian statue. While the
simplicity of the one commends itself to the most
refined classical taste, the exaggerations of the other
only excite the wonder of Asiatic minds, or if attractive
to European, can only please imaginations nursed in an
Oriental school.
Thus, in the Iliad, time, space, and action are all
restricted within the narrowest limits. In the Odyssey
they are allowed a wider, though not too wide, a cycle ;
but in the Ramayana and Maha-bharata their range is
almost unbounded. The Ramayana, as it traces the life
of a single individual with tolerable continuity, is in this
respect more like the Odyssey than the Iliad. In other
points, especially in its plot, the greater simplicity of its
style, and its comparative freedom from irrelevant episodes,
it more resembles the Iliad. There are many graphic
passages in both the Ramayana and Maha-bharata which,
for beauty of description, cannot be surpassed by any-
thing in Homer. It should be observed, moreover, that
the diction of the Indian Epics is more polished, regular,
and cultivated, and the language altogether in a more
advanced stage of development than that of Homer.
This, of course, tells to the disadvantage of the style on
the side of nervous force and vigour; and it must be
admitted that in the Sanskrit poems there is a great
redundance of epithets, too liberal a use of metaphor,
simile, and hyperbole, and far too much repetition, ampli-
fication, and prolixity.
In fact, the European who wishes to estimate rightly
the Indian Epics, must be prepared not to judge them
exclusively from his own point of view. He should beat-
in mind that to satisfy the ordinary Oriental taste, poetry
requires to be seasoned with exaggeration.
Again, an Occidental student's appreciation of many
passages will depend upon his familiarity with Indian
THE EPICS COMPARED TOGETHER AND WITH HOMER. 423
mythology, as well as with Oriental customs, scenery,
and even the characteristic idiosyncrasies of the animal
creation in the East. Most of the similes in Hindu epic
poetry are taken from the habits and motions of Asiatic
animals, such as elephants and tigers, 1 or from peculiarities
in the aspect of Indian plants and natural objects. Then,
as to the description of scenery, in which Hindu poets are
certainly more graphic and picturesque than either Greek
or Latin, 2 the whole appearance of external nature in the
East, the exuberance of vegetation, the profusion of trees
and fruits and flowers, 3 the glare of burning skies, the
freshness of the rainy season, the fury of storms, the
serenity of Indian moonlight, 4 and the gigantic mould in
1 Thus any eminent or courageous person would be spoken of as ' a
tiger of a man.' Other favourite animals in similes are the lion (sinha),
the ruddy goose (cakravdka or rathdn-ga), the buffalo (mahisha), the
boar (vardha), the ko'il or Indian cuckoo (kokila), the heron (kraunca),
the ox (gavaya, i.e., bos gavaeus), &c. &c. A woman is sometimes said
to have a rolling gait like that of an elephant. It should be noted,
however, that similes in the Indian Epics, though far too frequent, are
generally confined to a few words, and not, as in Homer, drawn out for
three or four lines.
2 The descriptions of scenery and natural objects in Homer are too
short and general to be really picturesque. They want more colour-
ing and minuteness of detail. Some account for this by supposing
that a Greek poet was not accustomed to look upon nature with a
painter's eye.
3 The immense profusion of flowers of all kinds is indicated by the
number of botanical terms in a Sanskrit dictionary. Some of the most
common flowers and trees alluded to in epic poetry are, the cuta or
mango ; the cutoka (described by Sir William Jones) ; the Uniuka (butea
frondosa, with beautiful red blossoms) ; the tamarind (amliM) ; the jas-
mine (of which there are many varieties, such as mdlatl, jdfi, yutliil;,
&c.) ; the kuruvaka (amaranth) ; the sandal (tandana) ; the jujube (kar-
kandhu) ; the pomegranate (dddima) ; the kadamba (ntpa) j the tamarisk
(picula) ; the vakula, Jtarnikdra, 6ringdta, &c.
4 See the beautiful description of night in Ramayana (Gorr.) I.
xxx vi. 15.
424 INDIAN WISDOM.
which natural objects are generally cast these and many
other features are difficult to be realized by a European.
We must also make allowance for the difference in Eastern
manners ; though, after conceding a wide margin in this
direction, it must be confessed that the disregard of all
delicacy in laying bare the most revolting particulars of
certain ancient legends which we now and then encounter
in the Indian Epics (especially in the Maha-bharata) is
a serious blot, and one which never disfigures the pages
of Homer, notwithstanding his occasional freedom of ex-
pression. Yet there are not wanting indications in the
Indian Epics of a higher degree of civilization than that
represented in the Homeric poems. The battle-fields of the
Ramayana and Maha-bharata, though spoiled by childish
exaggerations and the use of supernatural weapons, are
not made barbarous by wanton cruelties ; l and the de-
scriptions of Ayodhya and Lan-ka imply far greater luxury
and refinement than those of Sparta and Troy.
The constant interruption of the principal story (as
before described) by tedious episodes, in both Ramayana
and Maha-bharata, added to the rambling prolixity of the
story itself, will always be regarded as the chief drawback
in Hindu epic poetry, and constitutes one of its most
marked features of distinction. Even in this respect,
however, the Iliad has not escaped the censure of critics.
Many believe that this poem is the result of the fusion
of different songs on one subject, long current in various
localities, intermixed with later interpolations, something
after the manner of the Maha-bharata. But the artistic
instincts of the Greeks required that all the parts and
1 There is something savage in Achilles' treatment of Hector ; and
the cruelties permitted by Ulysses, in the 22nd Book of the Odyssey,
are almost revolting. Compare with these Rama's treatment of his
fallen foe Ravana, in the Yuddha-kanda.
THE EPICS COMPARED TOGETHER AND WITH HOMER. 425
appendages and more recent additions should be blended
into one compact, homogeneous, and symmetrical whole.
Although we have certainly in Homer occasional digres-
sions or parentheses, such as the description of the ' shield
of Achilles,' the ' story of Venus and Mars,' these are not
like the Indian episodes. If not absolutely essential to
the completeness of the epic conception, they appear to
arise naturally out of the business of the plot, and cause
no violent disruption of its unity. On the contrary, with
Eastern writers and narrators of stories, continuity is often
designedly interrupted. They delight in stringing together
a number of distinct stories detached from each other,
yet connected like the figures on a frieze. They even
purposely break the sequence of each ; so that before one
is ended another is commenced, and ere this is completed,
others are interwoven ; the result being a curious inter-
twinino- of stories within stories, the slender thread of an
o *
original narrative running through them all. A familiar
instance of this is afforded by the well-known collection of
tales called ' Hitopadesa,' and by the 'Arabian Nights.'
The same tendency is observable in the composition of
the epic poems far more, however, in the Maha-bharata
than in the Ramayana.
Passing on to a comparison of the plot and the per-
sonages of the Ramayana with those of the Iliad, without
supposing, as some have done, that either poem has been
imitated from the other, it is certainly true, and so far
remarkable, that the subject of both is a war undertaken
to recover the wife of one of the warriors, carried off by
a hero on the other side ; and that Rama, in this respect,
corresponds to Menelaus, while in others he may be com-
pared to Achilles, Sita answering to Helen, Sparta to
Ayodhya, Lan-ka to Troy. It may even be true that
some sort of analogy may be traced between the parts
played by Agamemnon and Sugriva, Patroclus and Lak-
426 INDIAN WISDOM.
shmana, Nestor and Jambavat. 1 Again, Ulysses, 2 in one
respect, may be compared to Hanumat ; and Hector, as
the bravest warrior on the Trojan side, may in some points
be likened to Indrajit, in others to the indignant Vibhi-
shana, 3 or again in the Maha-bharata to Duryodhana,
while Achilles has qualities in common with Arjuna.
Other resemblances might be indicated ; but these com-
parisons cannot be carried out to any extent without
encountering difficulties at every step, so that any theory
of an interchange of ideas between Hindu and Greek epic
poets becomes untenable. Rama's character has really
nothing in common with that of Menelaus, and very little
with that of Achilles ; although, as the bravest and most
powerful of the warriors, he is rather to be compared with
the latter than the former hero. If in his anger he is
occasionally Achillean, his whole nature is cast in a less
human mould than that of the Grecian hero. He is the
type of a perfect husband, son, and brother. Sita also
rises in character far above Helen, and even above
Penelope, 4 both in her sublime devotion and loyalty to
her husband, and her indomitable patience and endurance
under suffering and temptation. As for Bharata and
Lakshmana, they are models of fraternal duty ; Kausalya
of maternal tenderness ; Dasaratha of paternal love : and
it may be affirmed generally that the whole moral tone of
the Ramayana is certainly above that of the Iliad. Again,
1 Jambavat was the chief of the bears, who was always giving sage
advice.
2 When any work had to be done which required peculiar skill or
stratagem, it was entrusted to iroX-j^ns 'Odvosfvg.
3 Hector, like Vibhishana, was indignant with the ravisher, but he
does not refuse to fight on his brother's side.
4 One cannot help suspecting Penelope of giving way to a little
womanly vanity in allowing herself to be surrounded by so many
suitors, though she repudiated their advances.
THE EPICS COMPARED TOGETHER AND WITH HOMER. 427
iu the Iliad the subject is really the anger of Achilles ;
and when that is satisfied the drama closes. The fall of
Troy is not considered necessary to the completion of the
plot. Whereas in the Kamayana the whole action points
to the capture of Lan-ka and destruction of the ravisher.
No one too can read either the Eamayana or Maha-bharata
without feeling that they rise above the Homeric poems
in this that a deep religious meaning appears to underlie
all the narrative, and that the wildest allegory may be
intended to conceal a sublime moral, symbolizing the
conflict between good and evil, and teaching the hopeless-
ness of victory in so terrible a contest without purity of
soul, self-abnegation, and subjugation of the passions.
In reality it is the religious element of the Indian
Epics that constitutes one of the principal features of con-
trast in comparing them with the Homeric. We cannot of
course do more than indicate here the bare outlines of so
interesting a subject as a comparison between the gods of
India, Rome, and Greece. Thus :
Indra 1 and S'iva certainly offer points of analogy to Jupiter and
Zeus ; Durga or Parvati to Juno ; Krishna to Apollo ; S'rl to Ceres ;
Prithivl to Cybele ; Varuna to Neptune, and, in his earlier character,
to Uranus ; Sarasvati, goddess of speech and the arts, to Minerva ;
Karttikeya or Skanda, god of war, to Mars; 2 Yama to Pluto or
Minos ; Kuvera to Plutus ; Visvakarman to Vulcan ; Kama, god of
1 Indra is, as we have already seen (p. 10), the Jupiter Pluvius who
sends rain and wields the thunderbolt, and in the earlier mythology is
the chief of the gods, like Zeus. Subsequently his worship was super-
seded by that of Krishna and S'iva.
2 It is curious that Karttikeya, the war-god, is represented in Hindu
mythology as the god of thieves I suppose from their habit of sapping
and mining under houses. (See Mric-chakatika, Act III.) Indian
thieves, however, display such skill and ingenuity, that a god like
Mercury would appear to be a more appropriate patron. Karttikeya
was the son of S'iva, just as Mars was the offspring of Jupiter.
428 INDIAN WISDOM.
love, to Cupid ; Rati, his wife, to Venus ; l Narada to Mercury ; 2
Hanumat to Pan ; Ushas, and in the later mythology Aruna, to Eos
('Hw:;) and Aurora; Vayu to Aeolus; Ganesa, as presiding over the
opening and beginning of all undertakings, to Janus ; the Asvinl-
kumaras 3 to the Dioscuri (A/o'ff/couso/), Castor and Pollux.
But in Greece, mythology, which was in many respects
fully systematized when the Homeric poems were com-
posed, 4 never passed certain limits, or outgrew a certain
symmetry of outline. In the Iliad and the Odyssey, a
god is little more than idealized humanity. His form and
his actions are seldom out of keeping with this character.
Hindu mythology, on the other hand, springing from the
same source as that of Europe, but spreading and rami-
fying with the rank luxuriance of an Indian forest, speedily
outgrew all harmony of proportions, and surrounded itself
with an intricate undergrowth of monstrous and confused
allegory. Doubtless the gods of the Indian and Grecian
Epics preserve some traces of their common origin, resem-
bling each other in various ways ; interfering in human
concerns, exhibiting human infirmities, taking part in the
battles of their favourite heroes, furnishing them with
celestial arms, or interposing directly to protect them.
But in the Kamayana and Maha-bharata, and in the
Puranas to which they led, the shape and operations of
1 In one or two points Lakshml may be compared to Venus.
2 As Mercury was the. inventor of the lyre, so Narada was the
inventor of the Vina or lute.
3 These ever-youthful twin sons of the Sun, by his wife Sanjna,
transformed into a mare (asvinl), resemble the classical Dioscuri,
both by their exploits and the aid they render to their worshippers
(see p. n).
4 Herodotus says (Euterpe, 53) that ' Homer and Hesiod framed
the Greek Theogony, gave distinctive names to the gods, distributed
honours and functions to them, and described their forms.' I con-
clude that by the verb TTOICIV, Herodotus did not mean to imply that
Homer invented the myths, but that he gave system to a mythology
already current; see, however, Grote's History of Greece, I. 482, &c.
THE EPICS COMPARED TOGETHER AND WITH HOMER. 429
divine and semi-divine beings are generally suggestive of
the monstrous, the frightful, and the incredible. The
human form, however idealized, is seldom thought adequate
to the expression of divine attributes. Brahma is "four-
faced ; Siva, three-eyed and sometimes five-headed ; Indra
has a thousand eyes ; Karttikeya, six faces ; Havana, ten
heads ; Ganesa has the head of an elephant. Nearly every
god and goddess has at least four arms, with symbols of
obscure import exhibited in every hand. 1 The deeds of
heroes, who are themselves half gods, transport the imagi-
nation into the region of the wildest chimera ; and a whole
pantheon presents itself, teeming with grotesque fancies,
with horrible creations, half animals, half gods, with man-
eating ogres, many-headed giants and disgusting demons,
to an extent which the refined and delicate sensibilities
of the Greeks and Eomans could not have tolerated. 2
Moreover, in the Indian Epics, the boundaries between
the natural and supernatural, between earth and heaven,
between the divine, human, and even animal creations,
are singularly vague and undefined ; troops of deities
and semi-divine personages appear on the stage on every
occasion. Gods, men, and animals are ever changing
places. A constant communication is kept up between
the two worlds, and such is their mutual interdependence
that each seems to need the other's help. If distressed
mortals are assisted out of their difficulties by divine
interposition, the tables are often turned, and perturbed
gods, themselves reduced to pitiful straits, are forced to
implore the aid of mortal warriors in their conflicts with
1 The Roman god Janus (supposed to be for Dianus and connected
with dies) was represented by two and sometimes four heads.
2 It is true that Homer now and then indulges in monstrous crea-
tions ; but even the description of Polyphemus does not outrage all
probability, like the exaggerated horrors of the demon Kabandha, in
the 3rd Book of the Ramayana (see p. 356).
430 INDIAN WISDOM.
the demons. 1 They even look to mortals for their daily
sustenance, and are represented as actually living on the
sacrifices offered to them by human beings, and at every
sacrificial ceremony assemble in troops, eager to feed upon
their shares. In fact, sacrifice with the Hindus is not
merely expiatory or placatory ; it is necessary for the food
and support of the gods. If there were no sacrifices the
gods would starve to death. This alone will account for
the interest they take in the destruction of demons, whose
great aim was to obstruct these sources of their suste-
nance. Much in the same way the spirits of dead men are
supposed to depend for existence and happiness on the
living, and to be fed with cakes of rice and libations of
water at the Sraddba ceremonies.
Again, not only are men aided by animals which usurp
human functions, but the gods also are dependent on and
associated with birds and beasts of all kinds, and even with
plants. Most of the principal deities are described as using
animals for their Vahanas or vehicles. Brahma is carried
on a swan, and sometimes seated on a lotus ; Vishnu is
borne on or attended by a being, half eagle, half man
(called Garuda) ; Lakshmi is seated on a lotus or carries
one in her hand ; Siva has a bull for his vehicle or com-
panion ; Karttikeya, god of war, has a peacock ; 2 Indra has
an elephant ; Yama, god of death, has a buffalo (mahisha); 3
Kama-deva, a parrot and fish ; 4 Ganesa, a rat ; 5 Agni, a
ram ; Varuna, a fish ; Durga, a tiger. The latter is some-
1 Indra does so in the S'akuntala and Vikramorvasl.
2 Karttikeya is represented as a handsome young man (though with
six faces). This may account for his being associated with a peacock.
3 Perhaps from its great power.
4 A parrot often figures in Indian love stories. He is also associated
with a kind of crocodile as his symbol (whence his name Makara-dhvaja).
Such an animal is kept in tanks near his temples.
5 Supposed to possess great sagacity.
THE EPICS COMPARED TOGETHER AND WITH HOMER. 431
times represented with her husband on a bull, Siva him-
self being also associated with a tiger and antelope as
well as with countless serpents. Vishnu (Hari, Narayana)
is also represented as the Supreme Being sleeping on a
thousand-headed serpent called Sesha (or Ananta, c the
Infinite ').
This Sesha is, moreover, held to be the chief of a race of
Nagas or semi-divine beings, sometimes stated to be one
thousand in number, half serpents, half men, their heads
being human and their bodies snake-like. They inhabit
the seven Patalas l or regions under the earth, which, with
the seven superincumbent worlds, are supposed to rest on
1 Patala, though often used as a general term for all the seven regions
under the earth, is properly only one of the seven, called in order, Atala,
Vitala, Sutala, Rasdtala, Taldtala, Mahatala, and Patala ; above which
are the seven worlds (Lokas), called Bhu (the earth), Bhuvar, Svar,
Maliar, Janar, Tapah, and Brahma or Satya (see note 2, p. 55) ; all
fourteen resting on the heads of the great serpent. The serpent-race
who inhabit these lower regions (which are not to be confounded with
the Narakas or hells, note 2, p. 55) are sometimes regarded as belong-
ing to only one of the seven, viz., Patala, or to a portion of it called
Naga-loka, of which the capital is Bhogavatl. They are fabled to have
sprung from Kadru, wife of Kasyapa, and some of the females among
them (Naga-kanyas) are said to have married human heroes. In this
way Ulupi became the wife of Arjuna (p. 389, note 2), and, curiously
enough, a tribe of the Rajputs claims descent from the Nagas even in
the present day. A particular day is held sacred to the Nagas, and a
festival called Naga-paiic"ami is kept in their honour about the end of
July (S'ravana). Vasuki and Takshaka are other leading Nagas, to
whom a separate dominion over part of the serpent-race in different
parts of the lower regions is sometimes assigned. All the Nagas are
described as having jewels in their heads. Their chiefs, S'esha, Vasuki,
and Takshaka, are said to rule over snakes generally, while Garuda is
called the enemy of Nagas (Ndgari) ', so that the term Naga sometimes
stands for an ordinary serpent. The habit which snakes have of
hiding in holes may have given rise to the notion of peopling the lower
regions with Nagas. The Rev. K. M. Banerjea has a curious theory
O O
about them.
43 2 INDIAN WISDOM.
the thousand heads of the serpent Sesha, who typifies
infinity inasmuch as, according to a common myth, he
supports the Supreme Being between the intervals of
creation, as well as the worlds created at the commence-
ment of each Kalpa (note 3, p. 330). Again, the earth is
sometimes fabled to be supported by the vnst heads and
backs of eight male and eight female mythical elephants,
who all have names, 1 and are the elephants of the eight
quarters. When any one of these shakes his body the
whole earth quakes (see Ramayana I. xli.).
In fact, it is not merely in a confused, exaggerated,
and overgrown mythology that the difference between the
Indian and Grecian Epics lies. It is in the injudicious
and excessive use of it. In the Ramayana and Maha-
bharata, the spiritual and the supernatural are every-
where so dominant and overpowering, that anything
merely human seems altogether out of place.
In the Iliad and Odyssey, the religious and super-
natural are perhaps scarcely less prevalent. The gods
are continually interposing and superintending ; but they
do so as if they were themselves little removed from men,
or at least without destroying the dramatic probability of
the poem, or neutralizing its general air of plain matter-
of-fact humanity. Again, granted that in Homer there is
frequent mention of the future existence of the soul, and
its condition of happiness or misery hereafter, and that
the Homeric descriptions of disembodied spirits correspond
in many points with the Hindu notions on the same
1 The eight names of the male elephants are given in the Amara-
kosha, thus : Airavata, Pundarlka, Vamana, Kumuda, Anjana, Pushpa-
danta, Sarva-bhauma, Supratika, Four are named in Ramayana (I. xli.),
Viru-paksha, Maha-padma, Saumanas, and Bhadra. Sometimes these
elephants appear to have locomotive habits, and roam about the sky in
the neighbourhood of their respective quarters (see Megha-duta 14).
THE EPICS COMPARED TOGETHER AND WITH HOMER. 433
subject 1 yet even these doctrines do not stand out with
such exaggerated reality in Homer as to make human
concerns appear unreal. Nor is there in his poems the
slightest allusion to the soul's pre-existence in a former
body, and its liability to pass into other bodies hereafter _
a theory which in Hindu poetry invests present actions
with a mysterious meaning, and gives a deep distinctive
colouring to Indian theology.
Above all, although priests are occasionally mentioned
m the Iliad and the Odyssey, there is wholly wanting in
the Homeric poems any recognition of a regular hierarchy,
or the necessity for a mediatorial caste of sacrificers. 2
This, which may be called the sacerdotal element of the
Indian Epics, is more or less woven into their very tissue.
Brahmanism has been at work in these productions almost
as much as the imagination of the poet ; and boldly
claiming a monopoly of all knowledge, human and divine,
has appropriated this, as it has every other department
of literature, and warped it to its own purposes. Its
policy having been to check the development of intellect,
and keep the inferior castes in perpetual childhood, it
encouraged an appetite for exaggeration more insatiable
than would be tolerated in the most extravagant European
1 See the following passages, which bear on the existence of
after death as an s'tduXov in Hades : II. XXIII. 72, 104 : Od. XL 213,
476; XX. 355; XXIV. 14. It is curious that the Hindu notion of the
restless state of the soul until the S'raddha is performed (see p. 247)
agrees with the ancient classical superstition that the ghosts of the dead
wandered about as long as their bodies remained unburied, and were
not suffered to mingle with those of the other dead. See Odyss. XI.
54 j II. XXIII. 72 ; and cf. Aen. VI. 325 : Lucan I. II. : Eur. Hec. 30.
2 A king, or any other individual, is allowed in Homer to perform
a sacrifice without the help of priests. See II. II. 411; III. 392.
Nevertheless we read occasionally of a Ouoaxoo;, or 'sacrifice-viewer,'
who prophesied from the appearance of the flame and the smoke at the
sacrifice. See II. XXIV. 221 : Odyss. XXI. 144; XXII. 319.
2 E
434 INDIAN WISDOM.
fairy-tale. This has been done more in the Ram ay ana than
in the Maha-bharata ; but even in the later Epic, full as it
is of geographical, chronological, and historical details, few
assertions can be trusted. Time is measured by millions
of years, space by millions of miles ; and if a battle has
to be described, nothing is thought of it unless millions
of soldiers, elephants, and horses are brought into the
field. 1
This difference in the religious systems of Europe and
India becomes still more noteworthy, when it is borne in
mind that the wildest fictions of the Ramayana and Maha-
bharata are to this very day intimately bound up with
the religious creed of the Hindus. It is certain that the
more intelligent among them, like the more educated
Greeks and Romans, regarded and still regard the fictions
of mythology as allegorical. But both in Europe and Asia
the mass of the people, not troubling themselves about
the mystical significance of symbols, took emblem and
allegory for reality. And this, doubtless, they are apt to
do still, as much in the West as in the East. Among
European nations, however, even the ductile faith of the
masses is sufficiently controlled by common sense to pre-
vent the fervour of religious men from imposing any great
extravagance on their credulity ; and much as the Homeric
poems are still admired, no one in any part of the world
now dreams of placing the slightest faith in their legends,
so as to connect them with religious opinions and practices.
In India a complete contrast in this respect may be ob-
served. The myths of the Indian Epics are still closely
interwoven with present faith. In fact, the capacity of
an uneducated Hindu for accepting and admiring the most
monstrous fictions is apparently unlimited. Hence the
absence of all history in the literature of India. A plain
1 Cf. extract from Aristotle's Poetics, p. 435, note i, of this volume.
THE EPICS COMPARED TOGETHER AND WITH HOMER. 435
relation of facts has little charm for the ordinary Hindu
mind.
Even in the delineation of heroic character, where Indian
poets exhibit much skill, they cannot avoid ministering
to the craving for the marvellous which appears to be
almost inseparable from the mental constitution of Eastern
peoples.
Homers characters are like Shakespeare's. They are
true heroes, if you will, but they are always men; never
perfect, never free from human weaknesses, inconsistencies,
and caprices of temper. If their deeds are sometimes
praeterhuman, they do not commit improbabilities which
are absolutely absurd. Moreover, he does not seem to
delineate his characters ; he allows them to delineate
themselves. They stand out like photographs, iu all the
reality of nature. We are not so much told what they
do or say. 1 They appear rather to speak and act for
themselves. In the Hindu Epics the poet gives us too
long and too tedious descriptions in his own person ; and,
as a rule, his characters are either too good or too bad.
How far more natural is Achilles, with all his faults, than
Kama, with his almost painful correctness of conduct !
Even the cruel vengeance that Achilles perpetrates on
the dead Hector strikes us as more likely to be true than
Kama's magnanimous treatment of the fallen Kavana.
True, even the heroes sometimes commit what a European
would call crimes ; and the Pandavas were certainly guilty
of one inhuman act of treachery. In their anxiety to
provide for their own escape from a horrible death, they
1 Aristotle says that ' among the many just claims of Homer to our
praise, this is one that he is the only poet who seems to have under-
stood what part in his poem it was proper for him to take himself. The
poet, in his own person, should speak as little as possible. . . . Homer,
after a few preparatory lines, immediately introduces a man, a woman,
or some other character; for all have their character.' (Poetics III. 3.)
436 INDIAN WISDOM.
enticed an outcaste woman and her five sons into their
inflammable lac-house, and then burnt her alive (see p.
385). But the guilt of this transaction is neutralized
to a Hindu by the woman being an outcaste ; and besides,
it is the savage Bhiina who sets fire to the house. Rama
and Lakshmana again were betrayed into a deed of cruelty
in mutilating Surpa-nakha. For this, however, the fiery
Lakshmana was responsible. If the better heroes sin,
they d|> not sin like men. We see in them no portraits
of ourselves. The pictures are too much one colour.
There are few gradations of light and shadow, and little
artistic blending of opposite hues. On the one side we
have all gods or demigods ; on the other, all demons or
fiends. We miss real human beings with mixed charac-
ters. There is no mirror held up to inconsistent humanity.
Duryodhana and his ninety-nine brothers are too uniformly
vicious to be types of real men. Lakshmana has perhaps
the most natural character among the heroes of the Rama-
yana, and Bhima among those of the Maha-bharata. In
many respects the character of the latter is not unlike
that of Achilles ; but in drawing his most human heroes
the Indian poet still displays a perpetual tendency to run
into extravagance.
It must be admitted, however, that in exhibiting pictures
of domestic life and manners the Sanskrit Epics are even
more true and real than the Greek and Roman. In
the delineation of women the Hindu poet throws aside
all exaggerated colouring, and draws from nature. Kai-
keyi, Kausalya, Mandodari (the favourite wife of Ravana), 1
and even the hump-backed Manthara (Rarnayana II.
viii.), are all drawn to the very life. Sita, Draupadi, and
1 What can be more natural than Mandodari's lamentations over the
dead body of Ravana, and her allusions to his fatal passion for Sita in
Ramayana VI. 95 (Gorresio's ed.)?
THE EPICS COMPARED TOGETHER AND WITH HOMER. 437
Damayanti engage our affections and our interest far more
than Helen, or even than Penelope. Indeed, Hindu wives
are generally perfect patterns of conjugal fidelity; nor
can it be doubted that in these delightful portraits of the
Pativrata or 'devoted wife' we have true representations
of the purity and simplicity of Hindu domestic manners
in early times. 1 We may also gather from the epic poems
many interesting hints as to the social position occupied
by Hindu women before the Muhammadan conquest. No
one can read the Ramayana and Maha-bharata without
coming to the conclusion that the habit of secluding
o O
women, and of treating them as inferiors, is, to a certain
extent, natural to all Eastern nations, and prevailed in the
earliest times. 2 Yet various passages in both Epics clearly
establish the fact, that women in India were subjected to
1 No doubt the devotion of a Hindu wife implied greater inferiority
than is compatible with modern European ideas of independence. The
extent to which this devotion was carried, even in little matters, is
curiously exemplified by the story of Gandharl, who out of sympathy
for her blind husband never appeared in public without a veil .over her
face (see p. 377). Hence, during the grand sham-fight between the
Kuru and Pandu princes, Yidura stood by Dhrita-rashtra, and KuntI
by Gandhari, to describe the scene to them (see p. 3'83).
2 It was equally natural to the Greeks and Romans. Chivalry and
reverence for the fair sex belonged only to European nations of northern
origin, who were the first to hold ' inesse foeminis sanctum aliquid '
(Tac. Germ. 8). That Hindu women in ancient times secluded them-
selves, except on certain occasions, may be inferred from the word
asuryam-pasya, given by Panini as an epithet of a king's wife (' one who
never sees the sun ') a very strong expression, stronger even than the
parda-nisliin of the Muhammadans. It is to be observed also that in
the Ramayana (VI. xcix. 33) there is clear allusion to some sort of
seclusion being practised ; and the term avarodha, ' fenced or guarded
place,' is used long before the time of the Muhammadans for the women's
apartments. In the Ratnavall, however, the minister of king Vatsa,
and his chamberlain and the envoy from Ceylon, are admitted to an
audience in the presence of the queen and her damsels ; and although
Rama in Ramayana VI. 99 thinks it necessary to excuse himself for
INDIAN WISDOM.
less social restraint in former days than they are at present,
and even enjoyed considerable liberty. 1 True, the ancient
lawgiver, Manu, speaks of women as having no will of their
own, and unfit for independence (see p. 253 of this volume);
but he probably described a state of society which it
was the aim of the priesthood to establish, rather than
that which really existed in his own time. At a later
period the pride of Brahmanism, and still more recently
the influence of Muhammadanism, deprived women of
even such freedom as they once enjoyed ; so that at the
present day no Hindu woman has, in theory, any inde-
pendence. It is not merely that she is not her own
mistress : she is not her own property, and never, under
any circumstances, can be. She belongs to her father
first, who gives her away to her husband, to whom she
belongs for ever. z She is not considered capable of so
permitting his wife to expose herself to the gaze of the crowd, yet he
expressly (99, 34) enumerates various occasions on which it was allow-
able for a woman to show herself unveiled. I here translate the passage,
as it bears very remarkably on this interesting subject. Rama says to
Vibhishana
' Neither houses nor vestments, nor enclosing walls, nor ceremony,
nor regal insignia (rdja-satkdra), are the screen (dvarana) of a woman.
Her own virtue alone (protects her). In great calamities (vyasaneshu),
at marriages, at the public choice of a husband by maidens (of the
Kshatriya caste), at a sacrifice, at assemblies (samsatsu), it is allowable
for all the world to look upon women (strlnam darganam sdrvalaultikani).'
Hence S'akuntala appears in the public court of king Dushyanta ;
Damayanti travels about by herself; and in the Uttara-rama-darita, the
mother of Rama goes to the hermitage of Valmiki. Again, women were
present at dramatic representations, visited the temples of the gods,
and performed their ablutions with little privacy; which last custom
they still practise, though Muhammadan women do not.
1 In Maha-bh. I. 4719 we read: An-avritah kila purd striya dsan
kdma-cara-vihdrinyah svatantrdh, &c.
2 Hence when her husband dies she cannot be remarried, as there
is no one to give her away. In fact, the remarriage of Hindu widows,
which is now permitted by law, is utterly opposed to all modern Hindu
THE EPICS COMPARED TOGETHER AND WITH HOMER. 439
high a form of religiou as man, 1 and she docs not mix
freely in society. But in ancient times, when the epic
songs were current in India, women were not confined
to intercourse with their own families ; they did very
much as they pleased, travelled about, and showed them-
selves unreservedly in public, 2 and, if of the Kshatriya
caste, were occasionally allowed to choose their own hus-
bands from a number of assembled suitors. 3 It is clear,
moreover, that, in many instances, there was considerable
dignity and elevation about the female character, and that
much mutual affection prevailed in families. Nothing can
ideas about women ; and many persons think that the passing of this
law was one cause of the mutiny of 1857. It is clear from the story
of Damayanti, who appoints a second Svayamvara, that in early times
remarriage was not necessarily improper; though, from her wonder
that the- new suitor should have failed to see through her artifice, and
from her vexation at being supposed capable of a second marriage, it
may be inferred that such a marriage was even then not reputable.
1 See, however, the stories of Gargi and Maitreyl (Brihad-aranyaka
Upanishad, Roer's transl. pp. 198, 203, 242). No doubt the inferior
capacity of a woman as regards religion was implied in the epic poems,
as well as in later works. A husband was the wife's divinity, as
well as her lord, and her best religion was to please him. See Sita's
speech, p. 364 of this volume ; and the quotation from Madhava Adarya
(who nourished in the fourteenth century), p. 372, note. Such verses
as the following are common in Hindu literature : Bhartd hi paramam
ndrya bhushanam bhushanair vind, ' a husband is a wife's chief orna-
ment even without (other) ornaments.' Manu says (V. 151), Yasmai
dadydt pita tv endm bhrdtd vdnumate pituh, Tarn u&riLslieta jlvantam
samsthitam ca na lan-gliayet See p. 284 of this volume. In IV. 198,
Manu classes women with S'udras.
2 Especially married women. A wife was required to obey her
husband implicitly, but in other respects she was to be independent
(svdtantryam arhati, Malm-bhar. I. 4741).
3 The Svayamvara, however, appears to have been something ex-
ceptional, and only to have been allowed in the case of the daughters
of kings or Kshatriyas. See Draupadl-svayamvara 127; Maha-bhar.
I. 7926.
440 INDIAN WISDOM.
be more beautiful and touching than the pictures of
domestic and social happiness in the Ramayana and Maha-
bharata. Children are dutiful to their parents 1 and sub-
missive to their superiors ; younger brothers are respectful
to elder brothers ; parents are fondly attached, to their
children, watchful over their interests and ready to sacri-
fice themselves for their welfare ; wives are loyal, devoted,
and obedient to their husbands, yet show much indepen-
dence of character, and do not hesitate to express their
own opinions ; husbands are tenderly affectionate towards
their wives, and treat them with' respect and courtesy ;
daughters and women generally are virtuous and modest,
yet spirited, and, when occasion requires, firm and coura-
geous ; love and harmony reign throughout the family
circle. Indeed, in depicting scenes of domestic affection,
and expressing those universal feelings and emotions which
belong to human nature in all time and in all places, San-
skrit epic poetry is unrivalled even by Greek Epos. It is
not often that Homer takes us out of the battle-field ; and
if we except the lamentations over the bodies of Patroclus
and Hector, the visit of Priam to the tent of Achilles, and
the parting of Hector and Andromache, there are no such
pathetic passages in the Iliad as the death of the hermit
boy (p. 349), the pleadings of Sita for permission to accom-
pany her husband into exile (p. 364), and the whole ordeal
1 Contrast with the respectful tone of Hindu children towards their
parents, the harsh manner in which Telemachus generally speaks to
his mother. Filial respect and affection is quite as noteworthy a
feature in the Hindu character now as in ancient times. It is
common for unmarried soldiers to stint themselves almost to' starva-
tion point, that they may send home money to their aged parents.
In fact, in proportion to the weakness or rather total absence of the
national is the strength of the family bond. In England and America,
where national life is strongest, children are less respectful to their
parents.
RELIGIOUS AND MORAL SENTIMENTS. 441
scene at the end of the Ramayana. In the Indian Epics
such passages abound, and, besides giving a very high
idea of the purity and happiness of domestic life in
ancient India, indicate a capacity in Hindu women for
the discharge of the most sacred and important social
duties.
We must guard against the supposition that the women
of India at the present day have altogether fallen from
their ancient character. Notwithstanding the corrupting
example of Islamism, and the degrading tendency of
modern Hinduism, some remarkable instances may still
be found of moral and even intellectual excellence. 1
These, however, are exceptions, and we may rest assured,
that until Asiatic women, whether Hindu or Muslim, are
elevated and educated, our efforts to raise Asiatic nations
to the level of European will be fruitless. 2 Let us hope
that when the Ramayana and Maha-bharata shall no longer
be held sacred as repositories of faith and storehouses of
trustworthy tradition, the enlightened Hindu may still
learn from these poems to honour the weaker sex ; and that
Indian women, restored to their ancient liberty and raised
to a still higher position by becoming partakers of the
' fulness of the blessing ' of Christianity, may do for our
Eastern empire what they have done for Europe soften,
invigorate, and dignify the character of its people.
I close my present subject with examples of the re-
ligious and moral teaching of the two Indian Epics. A
few sentiments and maxims, extracted from both poems,
here follow :
1 In some parts of India, especially in the MarathI districts, there
is still considerable freedom of thought and action allowed to women.
2 Manu gives expression to a great truth when he says (III. i45)
Sahasram tu pitfin mata gauravenatiricyate, ' a mother exceeds in value
a thousand fathers.'
442 INDIAN WISDOM.
A heavy blow, inflicted by a foe, 1
Is often easier to bear, than griefs,
However slight, that happen casually.
Ramayana (ed. Bombay) II. Ixii. 16.
To carry out an enterprise in words
Is easy, to accomplish it by acts
Is the sole test of man's capacity.
Ramayana (ed. Gorresio) VI. Ixvii. 10.
Truth, justice, and nobility of rank
Are centred in the King ; he is a mother,
Father, and benefactor of his subjects.
Ramayana (ed. Bombay) II. Ixvii. 35.
In countries without monarchs, none can call
His property or family his own ;
No one is master even of himself.
Ramayana (ed. Gorresio) II. Ixix. u.
Where'er we walk, Death marches at our side ;
Where'er we sit, Death seats himself beside us ;
However far we journey, Death continues
Our fellow-traveller and goes with us home.
Men take delight in each returning dawn,
And with admiring gaze, behold the glow
Of sunset. Every season, as it comes,
Fills them with gladness, yet they never reck
That each recurring season, every day
Fragment by fragment bears their life away.
As drifting logs of wood may haply meet
On Ocean's waters, surging to and fro,
And having met, drift once again apart j
So fleeting is a man's association
1 Though some of these translations were made years ago from
Bbhtlingk's admirable collection of Indische Spriiche, I have since
been assisted in my renderings of many examples by Dr. Muir's
' Religious and Moral Sentiments freely translated from Indian
writers,' lately printed at Edinburgh, with an appendix and notes. I
may not have succeeded so well as Dr. Muir, but rhymeless metre may
have enabled me to keep somewhat closer to the original.
RELIGIOUS AND MORAL SENTIMENTS. 443
With wife and children, relatives and wealth,
So surely must a time of parting come.
Ramayana (ed. Bombay) II. cv. 24-27.
Whate'er the work a man performs,
The most effective aid to its completion
The most prolific source of true success
Is energy without despondency.
Ramayana (ed. Bombay), V. xii. n.
Fate binds a man with adamantine cords,
And drags him upwards to the highest rank
Or downward to the depths of misery.
Ramayana (ed. Bombay) V. xxxvii. 3.
He who has wealth has strength of intellect ;
He who has wealth has depth of erudition ;
He who has wealth has nobleness of birth ;
He who has wealth has relatives and friends ;
He who has wealth is thought a very hero ;
He who has wealth is rich in every virtue.
Ramayana (ed. Bombay) YI. Ixxxiii. 35, 36.
Time is awake while mortals are asleep,
None can elude his grasp or curb his course,
He passes unrestrained o'er all alike.
Maha-bh. I. 243.
Thou thinkest : I am single and alone
Perceiving not the great eternal Sage
Who dwells within thy breast. Whatever wrong
Is done by thee, he sees and notes it all.
Maha-bh. I. 3015.
Heaven, Earth, and Sea, Sun, Moon, and Wind, and Fire,
Day, Night, the Twilights, and the Judge of souls,
The god of justice and the Heart itself,
All see and note the conduct of a man. 1
Maha-bh. I. 30 1 7.
A wife is half the man, his truest friend,
Source of his virtue, pleasure, wealth the root
Whence springs the line of his posterity.
Maha-bh. I. 3028.
Compare Manu VIII. 86, p. 280 of this volume.
444 INDIAN WISDOM.
An evil-minded man is quick to see
His neighbour's faults, though small as mustard-seed ;
But when he turns his eyes towards his own,
Though large as Bilva l fruit, he none descries.
Maha-bh. I. 3069.
If Truth and thousands of Horse-sacrifices
Were weighed together, Truth would weigh the most. 2
Maha-bh. I. 3095.
Death follows life by an unerring law ;
Why grieve for that which is inevitable ?
Maha-bh. I. 6144.
Conquer a man who never gives by gifts ;
Subdue untruthful men by truthfulness ;
Vanquish an angry man by gentleness ;
And overcome the evil man by goodness. 3
Maha-bh. III. 13253.
Triple restraint of thought and word and deed,
Strict vow of silence, coil of matted hair,
Close shaven head, garments of skin or bark,
Keeping of fasts, ablutions, maintenance
Of sacrificial fires, a hermit's life,
Emaciation these are all in vain,
Unless the inward soul be free from stain.
Maha-bh. III. 13445.
To injure none by thought or word or deed,
To give to others, and be kind to all
This is the constant duty of the good.
High-minded men delight in doing good,
Without a thought of their own interest ;
When they confer a benefit on others,
They reckon not on favours in return. 4
Maha-bh. III. 16782, 16796.
1 This is the Aegle Marmelos (BeT) or Bengal Quince, bearing a large
fruit. It is esteemed sacred to Maha-deva. Compare St. Matthew
vii. 3, 4. 2 Hitopadesa IV. 135.
3 See Rom. xii. 21. Compare the Pali Rajovada Jataka (Fausboll's
Ten Jatakas, p. 5), AMcodhena jine Jcodham, Asddlmm sddhund jine,
Jine Tcadariyam ddnena, Saccena alika-vddinam. See also ^Dhamma-
pada 223. 4 Compare St. Luke vi. 35.
RELIGIOUS AND MORAL SENTIMENTS. 445
An archer shoots an arrow which may kill
One man, or none ; but clever men discharge
The shaft of intellect, whose stroke has power
To overwhelm a king and all his kingdom.
Maha-bh. V. 1013.
Two persons will hereafter be exalted
Above the heavens the man with boundless power
Who yet forbears to use it indiscreetly,
And he who is not rich and yet can give. 1
Maha-bh. V. 1028.
Sufficient wealth, unbroken health, a friend,
A wife of gentle speech, a docile son,
And learning that subserves some useful end
Theses-are a living man's six greatest blessings.
Maha-bh. V. 1057.
Good words, good deeds, and beautiful expressions
A wise man ever culls from every quarter,
E'en as a gleaner gathers ears of corn.
Maha-bh. V. 1126.
The gods defend not with a club or shield
The man they wish to favour but endow him
With wisdom ; and the man whom they intend
To ruin, they deprive of understanding ; 2
So that to him all things appear distorted.
Then, when his mind is dulled and he is ripe
To meet his doom, evil appears to him
Like good, and even fortunate events
Turn to his harm and tend to his destruction.
Maha-bh. V. 1122, 2679.
To curb the tongue and moderate the speech,
Is held to be the hardest of all tasks. 3
The words of him who talks too volubly
Have neither substance nor variety.
Maha-bh. V. 1170.
1 Compare St. Mark xii. 41-44-
2 Quos Deus vult perdere prim dementat.
s St. James iii. 8.
446 INDIAN WISDOM.
Darts, barbed arrows, iron-headed spears,
However deep they penetrate the flesh,
May be extracted ; but a cutting speech,
That pierces, like a javelin, to the heart,
None can remove ; it lies and rankles there.
Maha-bh. Y. 1173.
Repeated sin destroys the understanding,
And he whose reason is impaired, repeats
His sins. The constant practising of virtue
Strengthens the mental faculties, and he
Whose judgment stronger grows, acts always right.
Maha-bh. V. 1242.
Bear railing words with patience, never meet
An angry man with anger, nor return
Reviling for reviling, smite not him
Who smites thee ; let thy speech and acts be gentle.
Maha-bh. V. 1270, 9972.
If thou art wise, seek ease and happiness
In deeds of virtue and of usefulness ;
And ever act in such a way by day
That in the night thy sleep may tranquil be ;
And so comport thyself when thou art young,
That when thou art grown old, thine age may pass
In calm serenity. So ply thy task
Throughout thy life, that when thy days are ended,
Thou may'st enjoy eternal bliss hereafter.
Maha-bh. V. 1248.
Esteem that gain a loss which ends in harm ;
Account that loss a gain which brings advantage.
Maha-bh. Y. 1451.
Reflect that health is transient, death impends,
Ne'er in thy day of youthful strength do aught
To grieve thy conscience, lest when weakness comes,
And thou art on a bed of sickness laid,
Fear and remorse augment thy sufferings.
Maha-bh. Y. 1474.
Do naught to others which if done to thee
Would cause thee pain ; this is the sum of duty.
Maha-bh. Y. 1517.
RELIGIOUS AND MORAL SENTIMENTS. 447
How can a man love knowledge yet repose 1
Would'st thou be learned, then abandon ease.
Either give up thy knowledge or thy rest.
Maha-bh. V. 1537.
No sacred lore can save the hypocrite,
Though he employ it craftily, from hell ;
When his end comes, his pious texts take wing,
Like fledglings eager to forsake their nest.
Maha-bh. V. 1623.
When men are ripe for ruin, e'en a straw
Has power to crush them, like a thunderbolt.
Maha-bh. VII. 429.
By anger, fear, and avarice deluded,
Men do not strive to understand themselves,
Nor ever gain self-knowledge. One is proud
Of rank, and plumes himself upon his birth,
Contemning those of low degree ; another
Boasts of his riches, and disdains the poor ;
Another vaunts his learning, and despising
Men of less wisdom, calls them fools ; a fourth
Piquing himself upon his rectitude,
Is quick to censure other people's faults.
But when the high and low, the rich and poor,
The wise and foolish, worthy and unworthy,
Are borne to their last resting-place the grave
When all their troubles end in that last sleep,
And of their earthly bodies naught remains
But fleshless skeletons can living men
Mark differences between them, or perceive
Distinctions in the dust of birth or form ?
Since all are, therefore, levelled by the grave,
And all must sleep together in the earth
Why, foolish mortals, do ye wrong each other ?
Maha-bh. XI. 116.
Some who are wealthy perish in their youth,
While others who are fortuneless and needy,
Attain a hundred years ; the prosperous man
Who lives, oft lacks the power to enjoy his wealth.
Maha-bh. XII. 859
448 INDIAN WISDOM.
A king must first subdue himself, and then
Vanquish his enemies. How can a prince
Who cannot rule himself, enthral his foes ?
To curb the senses, is to conquer self.
Maha-bh. XII. 2599.
Who in this world is able to distinguish
The virtuous from the wicked ? both alike
The fruitful earth supports, on both alike
The sun pours down his beams, on both alike
Refreshing breezes blow, and both alike
The waters purify. Not so hereafter
Then shall the good be severed from the bad ;
Then in a region bright with golden lustre
Centre of light and immortality
The righteous after death shall dwell in bliss. 1
Then a terrific hell awaits the wicked
Profound abyss of utter misery
Into the depths of which bad men shall fall
Headlong, and mourn their doom for countless years.
Maha-bh. XII. 2798.
He who lets slip his opportunity,
And turns not the occasion to account,
Though he may strive to execute his work,
Finds not again the fitting time for action.
Maha-bh. XII. 3814.
Enjoy thou the prosperity of others,
Although thyself unprosperous ; noble men
Take pleasure in their neighbour's happiness.
Maha-bh. XII. 3880.
Even to foes who visit us as guests
Due hospitality should be displayed ;
The tree screens with its leaves, the man who fells it. 2
Maha-bh. XII. 5528.
1 Compare St. Matthew xiii. 43, xxv. 46.
2 This verse occurs in Hitopadesa I. 60. Cf. Rom. xii. 20. Pro-
fessor H. H. Wilson was induced to commence the study of Sanskrit
by reading somewhere that this sentiment was to be met with in
Sanskrit literature.
RELIGIOUS AND MORAL SENTIMENTS. 449
What need has he who subjugates himself
To live secluded in a hermit's cell ?
Where'er resides the self-subduing sage,
That place to him is like a hermitage.
Maha-bh. XII. 5961.
Do good to-day, time passes, Death is near.
Death falls upon a man all unawares,
Like a ferocious wolf upon a sheep.
Death comes when his approach is least expected.
Death sometimes seizes ere the work of life
Is finished, or its purposes accomplished.
Death carries off the weak and strong alike,
The brave and timorous, the wise and foolish,
And those whose objects are not yet achieved.
Therefore delay not ; Death may come to-day.
Death will not wait to know if thou art ready,
Or if thy work be done. Be active now,
While thou art young, and time is still thy own.
This very day perform to-morrow's work,
This very morning do thy evening's task.
When duty is discharged, then if thou live,
Honour and happiness will be thy lot,
And if thou die, supreme beatitude. 1
Maha-bh. XII. 6534.
The building of a house is fraught with troubles,
And ne'er brings comfort ; therefore, cunning serpents
Seek for a habitation made by others,
And creeping in, abide there at their ease.
Maha-bh. XII. 6619.
Just as the track of birds that cleave the air
Is not discerned, nor yet the path of fish
That skim the water, so the course of those
Who do good actions, is not always seen.
Maha-bh. XII. 6763, 12156.
Let none reject the meanest suppliant
Or send him empty-handed from his door.
1 The order of the text has been slightly changed in this translation,
and a few liberties taken in the wording of it.
2 F
450 INDIAN WISDOM.
A gift bestowed on outcasts or on dogs
Is never thrown away or unrequited.
Maha-bh. XIII. 3212.
Time passes, and the man who older grows
Finds hair and teeth and eyes grow ever older.
i One thing alone within him ne'er grows old
The thirst for riches and the love of gold.
Maha-bh. XIII. 3676, 368".
This is the sum of all true righteousness
Treat others, as thou would'st thyself be treated.
Do nothing to thy neighbour, which hereafter
Thou would'st not have thy neighbour do to thee.
In causing pleasure, or in giving pain,
In doing good, or injury to others,
In granting, or refusing a request,
A man obtains a proper rule of action
By looking on his neighbour as himself. 1
Maha-bh. XIII. 5571.
No being perishes before his time,
Though by a hundred arrows pierced ; but when
His destined moment comes, though barely pricked
By a sharp point of grass, he surely dies. 2
Maha-bh. XIII. 7607.
Before infirmities creep o'er thy flesh ;
Before decay impairs thy strength and mars
The beauty of thy limbs ; before the Ender,
Whose charioteer is sickness, hastes towards thee,
Breaks up thy fragile frame and ends thy life, 3
Lay up the only treasure : do good deeds ;
Practise sobriety and self-control ;
Amass that wealth which thieves cannot abstract,
Nor tyrants seize, which follows thee at death,
Which never wastes away, nor is corrupted. 4
Maha-bh. XIII. 12084.
1 Compare St. Matthew xxii. 39; St. Luke vi. 31.
2 This occurs also in Hitopadesa II. 15.
3 Compare Eccles. xii. i.
4 Compare St. Matthew vi. 19; Job xxi. 23.
RELIGIOUS AND MORAL SENTIMENTS. 4 5 I
Heaven's gate is very narrow and minute, 1
It cannot be perceived by foolish men,
Blinded by vain illusions of the world.
E'en the clear-sighted who discern the way,
And seek to enter, find the portal barred
And hard to be unlocked. Its massive bolts
Are pride and passion, avarice and lust.
Maha-bh. XIV. 2784.
Just heaven is not so pleased with costly gifts,
Offered in hope of future recompense,
As with the merest trifle set apart
From honest gains, and sanctified by faith. 2
Maharbh. XIV. 2788.
1 Compare St. Matthew vii. 14.
2 Compare St. Matthew vi. 1-4 ; St. Mark xii. 43, 44.
CHAPTER XV.
The Artificial Poems. Dramas. Pur anas. Tantras
Nlti-sdstras.
I CAN only notice very briefly the remaining classes of
Indian writings which follow on the Ramayana and Maha-
bharata. In their religious bearing, as constituting part
of Smriti, and as chiefly drawn from the two great Epics,
the eighteen Puranas possess the next claim on our atten-
tion. It will be convenient, however, to introduce here
an enumeration of some of the more celebrated artificial
poems and dramas, which are connected with the Epics,
adding a few explanations and examples, but reserving
the fuller consideration of these and other departments of
Sanskrit literature to a future opportunity.
The Artificial Poems.
Some of the best known of the artificial poems are :
i. The Raghu-vana or 'history of Raghu's race,' in nineteen chapters,
by Kalidasa, on the same subject as the Ramayana, viz., the history of
Rama-c'andra, but beginning with a longer account of his ancestors ;
2. the Kumdra-sambhava, by Kalidasa, on the 'birth of Kumara' or
Karttikeya, god of war, son of S'iva and Parvati originally in sixteen
cantos, of which only seven are usually edited, though nine more have
been printed in the Pandit at Benares ; 3. the Megha-duta, ' cloud-
messenger,' also by Kalidasa a poem of 116 verses, in the Manda-
kranta metre (well edited by Professor Johnson), describing a message
sent by a banished Yaksha to his wife in the Himalayas ; a cloud being
personified and converted into the messenger ; 4. the Kirdtdrjunlya,
' battle of the Kirata and Arjuna,' by Bharavi, in eighteen cantos, on a
subject taken from the fourth chapter of Maha-bharata TIL, viz., the
penance performed by Arjuna, one of the Panda va princes, and his
THE ARTIFICIAL POEMS. 453
combat with S'iva disguised as a Kirata or wild mountaineer (see p.
393) ; 5- tne Sisupala-badha or ' destruction of S'isu-pala,' a poem in
twenty cantos, by Magha, on a subject taken from the seventh chapter
of the Sabha-parvan of the Maha-bharata, viz., the slaying of the impious
S'isu-pala by Krishna at a Bajasuya sacrifice performed by Yudhi-shthira
(see p. 392) ; 6. the Naishadha or Naishadhiya, by S'rI-harsha, 1 on a sub-
ject drawn from an episode in the sixth chapter of the Vana-parvan
of the Maha-bharata, viz., the history and adventures of Nala, king of
N'shadha.
The above six are sometimes called Maha-kavyas, ' great
poems/ not with reference to their length (for they are
generally short), but with reference to the subjects of
which they treat. To these may be added :
7. The Ititu-samhdra or 'collection of the seasons,' a short but cele-
brated poem by Kalidasa, on the six seasons of the year (viz., Gmshma,
the hot season ; Varshd, the rains ; Sarad, autumn ; Hemanta, the cold
season; Sisira, the dewy season; Vasanta, the spring); 8. the Nalodaya
or 'rise of Nala,' an artificial poem, also ascribed to one Kalidasa, but
probably not the composition of the celebrated poet of that name, on
much the same subject as the Naishadha, and describing especially the
restoration of the fallen Nala to prosperity and power ; 9. the Bhatti-
kdvya, ' poem of Bhatti,' according to some the work of Bhartri-hari or
his son, on the same subject as the Ramayana, written at Valabhl
(Ballabhi) in the reign of S'ridhara-sena (probably the king who reigned
in Gujarat from about A.D. 530-544) ; its aim being to illustrate the
rules of Sanskrit grammar, as well as the figures of poetry and rhetoric,
by introducing examples of all possible forms and constructions, as well
as of the Alan-karas (see p. 457) ; it is divided into two great divisions,
viz., &abda-lakshana, ' illustration of grammar,' and Kavya-lakshana,
1 illustration of poetry,' together comprising twenty-two chapters ;
10. the Raghava-pandavlya, an artificial poem by Kavi-raja, giving a
narrative of the acts of both the descendants of Raghu and Pandu, in
1 He is supposed to have lived about the year 1000 (cf. note, p. 55)-
This S'rI-harsha was the greatest of all sceptical philosophers, and wrote
a book called Khandana-lthanda-khadya for the refutation of all other
systems. It is alluded to in Naishadha VI. 113 (Premadandra's com-
mentary). The commentator Narayana does not seem to have under-
stood this. There are some philosophical chapters in the Naishadha.
454 INDIAN WISDOM.
such language that it may be interpreted as a history of either one or the
other family ; n. the Amaru-sataka or Amari^sataka, ' hundred verses
of Amaru,' on erotic subjects, to which a mystical interpretation is
given, especially as they are supposed to have been composed by the great
philosopher S'an-kara-darya, when, according to a popular legend, he
animated the dead body of king Amaru, his object being to become the
husband of his widow, that he might argue on amatory subjects with
the wife of a Brahman, named Mandana ; 12. the Glta-govinda or
' Krishna in his character of Govinda (the Cow-finder or Herdsman)
celebrated in song,' by Jaya-deva, a lyrical or erotic poem, thought to
have been composed about the twelfth or thirteenth century of our era ;
it was written nominally to celebrate the loves of Krishna and the
Gopis, especially of Krishna and Radha ; but as the latter is supposed to
typify the human soul, the whole poem is regarded as susceptible of a
mystical interpretation.
Some of these poems, especially the Raghu-vansa, Ku-
mara-sambhava, Megha-duta, and Ritu-samhara of Kali-
dasa (who, according to native authorities, lived a little
before the commencement of the Christian era, but is now
placed in the third century), 1 abound in truly poetical ideas,
and display great fertility of imagination and power of
description ; but it cannot be denied that even in these
works of the greatest of Indian poets there are occasional
fanciful conceits, combined with a too studied and artificial
elaboration of diction, and a constant tendency to what
a European would consider an almost puerile love for
alliteration and playing upon words (wort-spiel). Some
of the other poems, such as the Kiratarjuniya, Sisupala-
badha, Nalodaya, Naishadha, and Bhatti-kavya, are not
wanting in occasional passages containing poetical feeling,
striking imagery, and noble sentiment ; but they are arti-
ficial to a degree quite opposed to European canons of
taste ; the chief aim of the composers being to exhibit their
artistic skill in bringing out the capabilities of the Sanskrit
language, its ductility, its adaptation to every kind of style
1 Professor Weber places him either in the third or sixth century.
THE ARTIFICIAL POEMS. 455
from the most diffuse to the most concise, its power of
compounding words, its intricate grammatical structure, its
complex system of metres, and the fertility of its resources
in the employment of rhyme, rhythm, and alliteration.
In fact, there is nothing in the whole range of Greek or
Latin or any other literature that can be compared witli
these poems. Nearly every verse in them presents a
separate puzzle so that when one riddle is solved, little
is gained towards the solution of the next or exhibits
rare words, unusual grammatical forms, and intricate com-
pounds, as it were twisted together into complicated verbal
knots, the unravelment of which can only be effected by
the aid of a native commentary.
Of course, in such cases the sense, and even the strict
grammatical construction, are sometimes sacrificed to the
display of ingenuity in the bending and straining of words
to suit a difficult metre or rhyme ; and this art is studied
as an end in itself, the ideas to be conveyed by the lan-
guage employed being quite a secondary matter. To such
an extreme is this carried, that whole verses are sometimes
composed with the repetition of a single consonant, 1 while
in other cases a string of epithets is employed, each of
which will apply to two quite distinct words in a sentence,
and thus be capable of yielding different senses, suited to
1 English, I fear, would be quite unequal to such a task as the pro-
duction of a verse like the following from the Kiratarjumya (XV. 14)
Na nonanunno nunnono ndnd ndndnand nanu \
Nunno nunnonanunneno ndnena nunnanunnanut \\
Or the following from Magha (XIX. 1 14)
Dddadoduddaduddddi dddddodudadldadoh \
Duddddam dadade dudde dadddadadadodadah \\
Though in Latin we have something similar in Ennius, Tite tute Tati
tiU tanta tyranne tulisti. It must be admitted, however, that the cele-
brated nursery stanza beginning Peter Piper picked a peck of pepper is
an effort in the same direction.
45 6 INDIAN WISDOM.
either word, according to the will of the solver of the
verbal puzzle.
Again, stanzas are sometimes composed so as to form
fanciful shapes or figures, such as that of a lotus (padma-
bandha) ; or so that the lines or' parts of the lines com-
posing the verses, whether read horizontally, diagonally,
or perpendicularly, or in opposite directions, will yield
significant and grammatical sentences of some kind, the
sense being a matter of subordinate consideration. This
is called the Fanciful-shape (citra) ornament.
The formation of the octopetalous Lotus-stanza is described in Sahitya-
darpana X. p. 268. One of the commonest of these artificial stanzas,
called Sarvato-bhadra, is a verse so contrived that the same syllables
occur in each Pada of the verse, whether read backwards or forwards,
or from the centre to each extremity, while all the Padas together read
the same either downwards or upwards, whether the reader commence
at the centre or each extremity. An example of this verse occurs in
Kiratarjuniya XV. 25.
Still more complicated forms are occasionally found, as
described by Dr. Yates in his edition of the Nalodaya.
Thus we have the muraja-bandha, a stanza shaped like a drum ; the
khadga-bandha, like a sword ; the dhanu-bandha, like a bow ; the srag-
bandha, like a garland/ the vriksha-bandha, like a tree; and the go-
mutrika, like a stream of cow's urine, in uneven or undulating lines.
The art, too, of inventing and employing an almost
endless variety of rhetorical figures called Alan-karas,
' ornaments of speech,' for the sake of illustrating the
various sentiments, feelings, and emotions depicted in
dramatic and erotic poetry, is studied to a degree quite
unknown in other languages, the most refined subtlety
being shown in marking off minute gradations of simile,
comparison, metaphor, &c. There are numerous works on
this subject which may be called a kind of Ars poetica
or rhetorica some of the best known of which are :
THE ARTIFICIAL POEMS. 457
i. The Sdhitya-darpana, ' mirror of composition,' by Visvanatha-kavi-
raja (said to have lived in Dacca about the fifteenth century), giving
rules and canons for literary composition from simple sentences to epic
poems and dramas, illustrated by examples from standard authors,
especially dramatic (see p. 470, note i). 2. The Kdvyddarifa, 'mirror of
poetry,' by Dandin. 3. The Kdvya-prakdsa, 'illumination of poetry,'
by Mammata (the commentary to which, by Govinda, is called Kavya-
pradipa). 4. The Dasa-rupaka, 'description of the ten kinds of dramatic
coi iposition called Rupakas,' by Dhananjaya (p. 469, note 2). 5. The
K -1 vydlan-kdra-vritti, ' explanation of the ornaments of poetry,' by
Vamana. 6. The Sarasvatl-kanthdbharana, ' necklace of the goddess of
speech,' by Bhoja-deva. 7. The Sringdra-tilaka, ' mark of love,' a work
by Rudra-bhatta, describing and illustrating by examples the various
emotions, feelings, and affections of lovers, male and female (ndyaka
and ndyika), as exhibited in dramas, &c. 8. The Rasa-manjari, ' cluster
of affections,' a work on the Rasas, 1 by Bhanu-datta, of much the same
character as the last.
I add here a brief description of some of the commonest
Alan-karas. They are divided into two classes : A. Sabdd-
lan.hara, those produced by the mere sound of words ;
B. Arthdlan-Jcara, those arising from the meaning. The
tenth Books of the Sahitya-darpana and Bhatti-kavya are
devoted to the illustration of this subject.
Examples of A. are, i. Anuprdsa, a kind of alliteration or repetition
of the same consonants, although the vowels may be dissimilar, e.g.,
Samd-lin-gan an-gan. 2. Yamaha, more perfect alliteration or repeti-
tion of vowels and consonants, e.g., Sakalaih sakalaih. Various kinds
of Yamaka will be found in Bhatti-kavya X. 2-2 1 ; and in Kiratarjumya
XV. 52 there is a Mahd-yamaka.
Examples of B. are, i. Upamd, comparison or simile (the subject of
comparison is called upameyam, sometimes prastuta, prakrita, prakrdnta,
vastu, vishaya ; while the object to which it is compared is called upama-
nam, sometimes a-prastuta, a-prakrita, &c.). It is essential to an Upamd
that the upameya, the upamdna, and common attribute (sdmdnya-dharmd)
1 There are* ten Rasas or 'feelings,' enumerated as exemplified in
dramatic composition, i. rin-gdra, love; 2. Vira, heroism ; 3. Blb-
hatsa, disgust; 4. Raudra, anger; 5. Easy a, mirth; 6. Bhaydnaka,
terror; 7. Karuna, pity; 8. Adbhuta, wonder; 9. $dnta, calmness;
10. Vatsalya, parental fondness. Some authors only allow 1-8.
458 INDIAN WISDOM.
should be all expressed, and the complete subordination of the upamdna
to the upameya preserved ; thus ' her face is like the moon in charming-
ness,' where ' her face ' is the upameya ; ' moon,' the upamdna ; and
' charmingness,' the common quality. If the latter is omitted it is a
luptopamd (see Bhatti-kavya X. 30-35). 2. Utprekshd, a comparison
in which the upamdna is beginning to encroach on the upameya and to
assume equal prominence. It is thirty-two-fold, under two classes, one
called vdeya when a word like iva is expressed, as ' her face shines as
if it were a moon ; ' the other pratlyamdna when iva is understood (cf.
Bhatti-k. X. 44). 3. Rupaka, 'super-imposition,' consisting in the super-
imposition (dropd) of a fancied form over the original subject, the upa-
meya and upamdna being connected as if possessing equal prominence,
and their resemblance implied rather than expressed ; thus ' moon-face,'
' her face is the moon ' (Bhatti-k. X. 28). 4. Atisayokti, hyperbole,
exaggeration, pleonasm (Bhatti-k. X. 42), in which the upameya is
swallowed up in the upamdna, as when ' her moon ' is used for ' her
face,' or 'her slender stem' for 'her figure.' 5. Tulya-yogitd, in which
the upamdna or upameya is connected with the common quality, as ' a
snow-white flower' (Bhatti-k. X. 61 ; Kumara-s. I. 2). 6. Drishtdnta,
exemplification by comparing or contrasting similar attributes (Magha
II. 23). 7. Dlpaka, 'illuminator,' i.e., using an illustrative expression,
placed either in the beginning (ddi), middle (madhyd), or end (anta) of
a verse to throw light on a description (Bhatti-k. X 22-24; Kumara-s.
11. 60). 8. Vydja-stuti, artful or indirect eulogy in which praise is
rather implied than directly expressed (Bhatti-k. X. 59). 9. Sleslia (lit.
coalescence), paronomasia, using distinct words which have identity of
sound, the meaning being different ; thus vidhau may mean ' in fate ' if
it comes from vidhi, or 'in the moon' if from vidhu. 10. Vibhavana,
description of an effect produced without a cause (Kumara-sambhava
I. 10). ii. Vi&shokti, description of a cause without its natural effect.
12. Arthdntara-nydsa, transition to another matter, i.e., the turning
aside to state a general truth as an illustration of a particular case
(Bhatti-k. X. 36; Kiratarjuniya VII. 15). 13. ArtJidpatti, inference
of one fact from another. 14. Sara, climax. 15. Karana-mdld, series
of causes. 16. VyatireJca, contrast or dissimilitude. 17. Akshepa, hint.
1 8. Sahokti, a hyperbolical description of simultaneous action connected
by the word saha. 19. PariJcara, employment of a number of signifi-
cant epithets. 20. Samsrishti, conjunction, i.e., the employment of
more than one figure in the same verse independently of each other
(Bhatti-k. X. 70). When there is a commixture or combination of more
than one figure, it is called San-Jcara ; especially when they are combined
as principal and subordinates (an-gdn-gi-bhdva).
THE ARTIFICIAL POEMS. 459
To give examples from all the artificial poems enume-
rated (pp. 452, 453) would be wearisome. It will be suffi-
cient to select a passage from Kalidasa's Raghu-vansa,
and a few of the moral sentiments scattered through the
Kiratarjuniya and the Sisupala-badha. I first translate
Raghu-vansa X. 16-33. The inferior gods are supposed
to be addressing Vishnu as the Supreme Being (cf. a
similar address in Kumara-sambhava II.) :
Hail to thee, mighty lord, the world's creator,
Supporter and destroyer, three in one
One in thy essence, tripartite in action ! l
E'en as heaven's water one in savour gains
From different receptacles on earth
Diversity of flavours, so dost thou,
Unchangeable in essence, manifest
Changes of state in diverse qualities. 2
Unmeasured and immeasurable, yet
Thou measurest the world ; desireless, yet
Fulfilling all desire ; unconquered and
A conqueror ; unmanifested, yet
A manif ester; uniformly one,
Yet ever multiform from various motives.
Thy manifold conditions are compared
To those of clearest crystal, which reflects
Varieties of hue from diverse objects.
Though ever present in the heart, thou art
Held to be infinitely distant; free
From passion, yet austere in self-restraint ;
Full of all pity, yet thyself untouched
By misery ; the ever ancient one,
Yet never growing ancient ; knowing all,
Yet never known ; unborn, yet giving birth
To all ; all-ruling, yet thyself unruled ;
One in thyself, yet many in thy aspects.
Men hymn thy praises in seven songs ; and say
Thou liest sleeping on the earth's seven seas ; 3
Thy face is seven-flamed fire, and thou thyself
1 See p. 321. 2 See p. 321, note 2. 3 See p. 420.
460 INDIAN WISDOM.
The sole asylum of the world's seven spheres. 1
From the four mouths of thee, pourtrayed as four-faced,
Proceeds the knowledge of life's fourfold objects,
Time's quadruple divisions through four ages, 2
Man's fourfold distribution into castes.
On thee abiding in man's heart, the source
Of light, with minds and senses all subdued,
The pious meditate in hope of bliss.
Of thee the mystic nature who can fathom ?
Unborn, yet taking birth ; from action free,
Yet active to destroy thy demon- foes ;
Seeming asleep, yet ever vigilant ;
Possessing senses fitted for enjoyment,
Yet in all points restrained ; protecting all
Thy creatures, yet apparently indifferent.
The ways which lead to everlasting bliss,
Though variously distinguished in the Veda,
Converge to thee alone ; e'en as the streams
Of Gan-ga's waters to their ocean home.
Thou art the only way, the only refuge
Of all whose hearts are fixed on thee, whose acts
Are centred in thee, and whose worldly longings,
Checked and suppressed, have passed away for ever.
Thy greatness is displayed before our eyes
In this thy world and these thy mighty works ;
Yet through the Veda and by inference
Alone can thy existence be established. 3
How then can we, the finite, tell thy essence ?
Since merely by the thought of thee thy creatures
Are purified, much more have other acts
Which have thee for their object, full reward.
As jewels lying deep in ocean's bed,
And fires deep hidden in the solar orb
Are far beyond the reach of mortals, so thy deeds
Exceed our praises. Naught is unattained
By thee, and naught is unattainable ;
Yet love, and love alone, for these thy worlds
1 See p. 431. 2 See p. 330, note 3.
?l This is an allusion to the three Pramanas of the Saii-khya, viz.,
Pratyaksha, Anumana, and Apta-vadana or S'abda ; see p. 82.
THE ARTIFICIAL POEMS MORAL SENTIMENTS. 461
Moves thee to act, leads to thy incarnations. 1
That in the celebration of thy praises
Our voices are restrained, deign to ascribe
This to our limited capacities,
Not to the limitation of thy glory.
I next translate some moral sentiments and wise sayings
from the Kiratarjumya of Bharavi :
Those who wish well towards their friends disdain
To please them by fair words which are not true (I. 2).
Better to have a great man for one's foe
Than court association with the low (I. 8).
As drops of bitter medicine, though minute,
May have a salutary force, so words
Though few and painful, uttered seasonably,
May rouse the prostrate energies of those
Who meet misfortune with despondency (II. 4).
Do nothing rashly, want of circumspection
Is the chief cause of failure and disaster.
Fortune, wise lover of the wise, selects
Him for her lord who ere he acts, reflects (II. 30).
He who with patience and deliberation
Prepares the ground whence issue all his actions,
Obtains, like those who water seeds and roots,
An ample harvest of autumnal fruits (II. 31).
The body's truest ornament consists
In knowledge of the truth ; of sacred knowledge
The best embellishment is self-control ;
Of self-control the garniture is courage,
Courage is best embellished by success (II. 32).
In matters difficult and dark, concealed
By doubt and disagreement of opinion,
The Yeda, handed down by holy men,
Explained with clearness, and well put in practice,
Like a bright lamp throws light upon the way,
Guiding the prudent lest they go astray (II. 33).
1 See p. 320.
462 INDIAN WISDOM.
To those who travel on the rugged road
Trodden by virtuous and high-minded men,
A fall, if pre-ordained by destiny,
Becomes equivalent to exaltation ;
Such falls cause neither evil nor distress,
The wise make failures equal to success (IL 34).
Would'st thou be eminent, all passion shun,
Drive wrath away by wisdom ; e'en the sun
Ascends not to display his fullest light
Till he has chased away the mists of night (II. 36).
That lord of earth who, equable in mind,
Is on occasion lenient and kind,
Then acts in season with severity,
Rules like the sun by his own majesty (II. 38).
The man who every sacred science knows,
Yet has not strength to keep in check the foes
That rise within him, mars his Fortune's fame
And brings her by his feebleness to shame (II. 41).
Be patient if thou would'st thy ends accomplish,
For like to patience is there no appliance
Effective of success, producing surely
Abundant fruit of actions, never damped
By failure, conquering impediments (II. 43).
If the constituent members of a state
Be in disorder, then a trifling war
May cause a ruler's ruin, just as fire
Caused by the friction of the dried-up branches
Of one small tree, may devastate a mountain (II. 51).
Success is like a lovely woman, wooed
By many men, but folded in the arms
Of him alone who free from over-zeal
Firmly persists and calmly perseveres (III. 40).
The drops upon a lovely woman's face
Appear like pearls ; no marks avail to mar,
But rather to her beauty add a grace (VII. 5).
The noble-minded dedicate themselves
To the promotion of the happiness
Of others e'en of those who injure them.
True happiness consists in making happy (VII. 13, 28).
THE ARTIFICIAL POEMS MORAL SENTIMENTS. 463
Let not a little fault in him who does
An act of kindness, minish aught its value (VII. 15).
If intercourse with noble-minded men,
Though short and accidental, leads to profit,
How great the benefit of constant friendship ! (VII. 27).
As persons though fatigued forbear to seek
The shelter of the fragrant sandal-trees,
If deadly serpents lurk beneath their roots,
So must the intercourse of e'en the virtuous,
If vicious men surround them, be avoided (VII. 29).
A woman will not throw away a garland,
Though soiled and dirty, which her lover gave ;
Not in the object lies a present's worth,
But in the love which it was meant to mark (VIII. 37).
To one who pines in solitude apart
From those he loves, even the moon's cool rays
Appear unbearable ; for in affliction
Even a pleasant object heightens grief (IX. 30).
Wine is averse from secrecy ; it has
A power to bring to light what is concealed
The hidden qualities both good and bad (IX. 68).
True love is ever on the watch, and sees
Risks even in its loved one's happiness (IX. 70).
Youth's glories are as transient as the shadow
Of an autumnal cloud ; and sensual joys,
Though pleasant at the moment, end in pain (XI. 12).
Soon as a man is born, an adversary
Confronts him, Death the Ender ; ceaseless troubles
Begin ; his place of birth the world
Must one day be abandoned ; hence the wise
Seek the full bliss of freedom from existence (XI. 13).
Riches and pleasure are the root of evil ;
Hold them not dear, encourage not their growth ;
They are aggressors hard to be subdued,
Destroyers of all knowledge and of truth (XI. 20).
INDIAN WISDOM.
To one united with a much-loved object
The empty turns to fulness ; evil fortune
Brings festive joys ; and disappointment, gain ;
But not to him who lives in separation
He in the midst of friends feels solitary ;
The pleasant causes grief ; and life itself,
Before so dear, pains lite a piercing shaft (XL 27, 28).
The enemies which rise within the body,
Hard to be overcome thy evil passions
Should manfully be fought; who conquers these
Is equal to the conqueror of worlds (XL 32).
Why give thyself to pleasure ? this day's joys
Are thought upon to-morrow, then like dreams
They pass away and are for ever lost (XI. 34).
Who trusts the passions finds them base deceivers :
Acting like friends, they are his bitterest foes ;
Causing delight, they do him great unkindness ;
Hard to be shaken off, they yet desert him (XL 35).
The clear and quiet minds of prudent men,
Though ruffled on the surface and disturbed
Like the deep waters of the ocean, fear
To pass the limits of self-mastery (XL 54).
The friendship of the bad is like the shade
Of some precipitous bank with crumbling sides,
Which falling buries him who sits beneath (XL 55).
The natural hostility of beasts
Is laid aside when flying from pursuers ;
So also when calamities impend
The enmity of rivals has an end (XIL 46).
The following are from Book II. of the Sisupala-badha
of Magha (I translate nearly literally) :
Alliance should be formed with friendly foes,
Not with unfriendly friends ; of friend and foe
The test is benefit and injury (37). 1
1 This verse occurs also in Hitopadesa IV. 16.
THE ARTIFICIAL POEMS MORAL SENTIMENTS. 465
He who excites the wrath of foes and then
Sits down inactively, is like a man
Who kindles withered grass and then lies near
While a strong wind is blowing from beyond (42).
He who by virtue of his rank, his actions,
And qualities, effects no useful purpose,
Is like a chance-invented word ; his birth
Is useless, for he merely bears a name (47).
A man of feeble character resembles
A reed that bends with every gust of wind (50).
Soft words, intended to alleviate,
Often foment the wrath of one enraged,
Like drops of water poured on burning butter (55).
A rambling speech whose meaning is confused,
Though long, is spoken easily ; not so
A clear, connected, logical discourse (73).
Two only sources of success are known
Wisdom and effort ; make them both thine own
If thou would'st rise and haply gain a throne (76).
Science is like a couch to sapient men ;
Reclining there, they never feel fatigue (77).
A subtle- witted man is like an arrow,
Which rending little surface, enters deeply ;
But they whose minds are dull, resemble stones,
Dashing with clumsy force, but never piercing (78).
The foolish undertake a trifling act
And soon desist, discouraged ; wiser men
Engage in mighty works and persevere (79).
The undertaking of a careless man
Succeeds not, though he use the right expedients ;
A clever hunter, though well placed in ambush,
Kills not his quarry if he fall asleep (80).
A monarch's weapon is his intellect ;
His minister and servants are his limbs ;
Close secrecy of counsel is his armour ;
Spies are his eyes; ambassadors, his mouth (82).
2 G
\
466 INDIAN WISDOM.
That energy which veils itself in mildness
Is most effective of its object ; so
The lamp that burns most brightly owes its force
To oil drawn upwards by a hidden wick (85).
Wise men rest not on destiny alone,
Nor yet on manly effort, but on both (86).
Weak persons gain their object when allied
With strong associates ; the rivulet
Reaches the ocean by the river's aid (100).
A good man's intellect is piercing, yet
Inflicts no wound ; his actions are deliberate,
Yet bold ; his heart is warm, but never burns ;
His speech is eloquent, yet ever true (109).
The Dramas.
If we bear in mind that the nations of modern Europe
can scarcely be said to have possessed a dramatic litera-
ture before the fifteenth century of the present era, the
antiquity of the extant Hindu plays, some of which may
be traced back to about the first or second century of our
era, will of itself appear a remarkable circumstance. But
to the age of these dramas must be added their undoubted
literary value as repositories of much true poetry, though
of an Oriental type. They are also valuable as repre-
senting the early condition of Hindu society, and as
serving to illustrate some of its present peculiarities ; for
notwithstanding the increasing intercourse with Europe,
India, like other Eastern countries, is slow in delivering
itself from subjection to the stereotyped laws of tradition
which appear to be stamped on its manners and social
practices.
In all likelihood the germ of the dramatic representa-
tions of the Hindus, as of the Greeks, is to be sought for
THE DRAMAS. 467
in public exhibitions of dancing, which consisted at first
of simple movements of the body, executed in harmony
with singing and music. Indeed, the root not and the
nouns natya and natalca, which are now applied to dramatic
acting, are probably mere corruptions of nrit, ' to dance,'
nritya, ' dancing/ and nartaka, ' a dancer.' Of this dancing
various styles were gradually invented, such as the Ldsya
aud Tdndava, 1 to express different actions or various
sentiments and emotions.
Very soon dancing was extended to include pantomimic
gesticulations accompanied with more elaborate musical
performances, and these gesticulations were aided by
occasional exclamations between the intervals of singing.
Finally, natural language took the place of music and
singing, while gesticulation became merely subservient to
emphasis in dramatic dialogue.
When we come to actual dramatic writing we are
obliged to confess that its origin, like that of epic poetry,
and of nearly every department of Sanskrit composition,
is lost in remote antiquity. There is evidence that plays
were acted in India as early as the reign of Asoka, in the
third century B.C. At that period intercourse between
India and Greece had certainly commenced, but it does not
appear that the Hindus borrowed either the matter or
form of any of their dramas from the Greeks. (See
Lassen's Ind. Alt. II. 507.)
Semitic nations have never inclined towards theatrical
representations. The Book of Job is a kind of dramatic
dialogue. The same may be said of parts of the Song of
Solomon, and there is occasional dialogue in the Makamat
of al Hariri and Thousand and One Nights ; but neither
1 The Tdndava is a boisterous dance regarded as the peculiar inven-
tion of S'iva ; the Ldsya is said to have been invented by Parvati ; the
Rasamandala is the circular dance of Krishna.
468 INDIAN WISDOM.
the Hebrews nor Arabs seem to have carried dramatic ideas
beyond this point. Among the Aryans, on the other band,
as well as among the Chinese, the drama appears to have
arisen naturally. At least, its independent origin in
Greece and India both which countries also gave birth
independently to epic poetry, grammar, philosophy, and
logic can scarcely be called in question, however probable
it may be that an interchange of ideas took place in later
times. In fact, the Hindu drama, while it has certainly
much in common with the representations of other
nations, has quite a distinctive character of its own
which invests it with great interest.
At the same time the English reader, when told that
the author of the earliest Hindu drama which has come
down to us the Mric-chakatika or ' Clay-cart ' probably
lived in the first or second century of the Christian era,
will be inclined to wonder at the analogies it offers to
our own dramatic compositions of about fifteen centuries
later. The dexterity with which the plot is arranged,
the ingenuity with which the incidents are connected,
the skill with which the characters are delineated and
contrasted, the boldness and felicity of the diction are
scarcely unworthy of our own great dramatists. Nor
does the parallel fail in the management of the stage-
business, in minute directions to the actors and various
scenic artifices. The asides and aparts, the exits and the
entrances, the manner, attitude, and gait of the speakers,
their tones of voice, tears, smiles, and laughter are as
regularly indicated as in a modern drama.
A great number of other ancient plays besides 'the
Clay-cart' are extant, and many of the most celebrated
have been printed. To classify these Hindu dramas ac-
cording to European ideas, or even to arrange them under
the general heads of tragedy and comedy, is impossible.
Indeed, if a calamitous conclusion be necessary to consti-
THE DRAMAS. 469
tute a tragedy, Hindu plays are never tragedies. 1 They
are rather mixed representations, in which happiness and
misery, good and evil, right and wrong, justice and in-
justice are allowed to blend in confusion until the end
of the drama. In the last act harmony is restored, tran-
quillity succeeds to agitation, and the minds of the spec-
tators, no longer perplexed by the ascendency of evil, are
soothed and purified by the moral lesson deducible from
the plot, or led to acquiesce in the inevitable results of
Adrishta (see p. 58). Such dramatic conceptions are, in
truth, exactly what might be expected to prevail among
a people who look upon no occurrence in human life as
really tragic, but regard evil and suffering of all kinds
as simply the unavoidable consequences of acts done by
each soul, of its own free will, in former bodies.
Nevertheless, to invest the subject of dramatic compo-
sition with dignity, a great sage is, as usual (compare
p. 371), supposed to be its inventor. He is called Bharata,
and is regarded as the author of a system of music, as
well as of an Alan-kara-sastra containing Sutras or rules.
His work is constantly quoted as the original authority
for dramatic composition. 2 On Bharata's Sutras followed
various treatises which laid down minute precepts and
regulations for the construction and conduct of plays, and
subjected dramatic writing to the most refined and artificial
rules of poetical and rhetorical style.
Besides the Dasa-rupaka, Kdvya-prakdda, Kdvyddarsa, and Sdhitya-
darpana, &c., mentioned at p. 457, others are named which treat of
dramatic composition as well as of ornaments (dlan-kdra) and figures
of rhetoric. For example : the Kdvydlan-ltdra-vritti, by Vamana ; the
1 A rule states that the killing of a hero is not to be hinted at. This
does not always hold good. No one, however, is killed on the stage.
2 Dr. Fitz-Edward Hall has a MS. of the work in 36 Books, of which
1 8, 19, 20, and 34 were printed at the end of his Dasa-riipa. Dr.
Heymann is now editing the whole work.
470 INDIAN WISDOM.
Alankdra-sarvasva, by Bhama ; the Alan-kara-kaustubha, by Kavi Karna-
piiraka; the Kuvalaydnanda, by Apyaya [or Apya]-dikshita ; the tfandra-
loTca, by Jaya-deva ; and a work on music, singing, and dancing, called
the San-gita-ratndkara, by Sarn-gadeva, thought by Wilson to have been
written between the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.
These treatises classify Sanskrit plays very elaborately
under various subdivisions ; and the Sahitya-darpana
a favourite authority 1 divides them into two great
classes, viz., i. RilpaJca, 'principal dramas,' of which there
are ten species ; 2. Upa-riipaka, 'minor or inferior dramas,'
of which eighteen are enumerated. The trouble taken to
invent titles for every variety of Hindu play, according
to far more subtle shades of distinction than those denoted
by our drama, melodrama, comedy, farce, and ballet, proves
that dramatic composition has been more elaborately cul-
tivated in India than in European countries. The ten
species of Rupaka, are as follow :
i. The Ndtaka, or 'principal play,' should consist of from five to ten
acts (an-Jca), and should have a celebrated story (such as the history
of Rama) for its plot (yastu). It should represent heroic or godlike
characters, and good deeds ; should be written in an elaborate style, and
be full of noble sentiments. Moreover, it should contain all the five
' joints ' or ' junctures ' (sandhi) 2 of the plot ; the four kinds of action
(vrittt) ; the sixty-four members (an-ga) or peculiar properties ; and the
thirty-six distinctive marks (lakshana). The hero or leading character
(ndyaka) should be of the kind described as high-spirited but firm, 3
1 The Sahitya-darpana is in ten sections, treating of the nature and
divisions of poetry, the various powers of a word, varieties of style,
ornaments of style and blemishes (dosha). I have here consulted the
late Dr. Ballantyne's translation of part of it, published at Benares.
2 These five junctures are, i. the muJcha or 'opening' ; 2. the prati-
mukha or ' first development of the germ (vlj'a) of the plot ' ; 3. the
garbha or 'actual development and growth of the germ'; 4. the vimarslia
or 'some hindrance to its progress'; 5. the nirvahana or upa-samhriti,
' conclusion.'
8 There are four kinds of heroes : i. high-spirited but firm (dhlro-
ddtta) ; 2. firm and haughty (dlilroddhata) ; 3. gay and firm (dhira-
lalita) j 4. firm and mild (dhlra-prasdnta).
THE DRAMAS.
471
being either a royal sage of high family (as Dushyanta in the S'akun-
tala), or a god (as Krishna), or a demigod (divyddivya), who, though a
god (like Rama-candra) thinks himself a man (nardbhimdril, see note t,
p. 358). The principal sentiment or flavour (rasa, see p. 457, note)
should be either the erotic (srin-gdra] or heroic (mra), and in the con-
clusion (nirvahana) the marvellous (adbJiuta). It should be composed
like the end of a cow's tail (go-pncchdgra], i.e., so that each of the acts
is gradually made shorter. If it also contain the four Patdkd-sthanaka
or ' striking points,' and the number of its acts (an-Jca) be ten, it is
entitled to be called a Mahd-ndtaka. An example of the Ndtaka-is the
S'akuntala, and of the Mahd-ndtaka is the Bala-ramayana (see p. 508).
2. The Prakarana should resemble the Nataka in the number of its acts
as well as in other respects ; but the plot must be founded on some
mundane or human story, invented by the poet, and have love for its
principal sentiment, the hero or leading character being either a
Brahman (as in the Mric'-c'hakatika), or a minister (as in the Malatl-
madhava), or a merchant (as in the Pushpa-bhushita), of the description
called firm and mild (dhlra-prasdnta), while the heroine (ndyika) is some-
times a woman of good family, sometimes a courtesan, or both. 3. The
Bhdna, in one act, should consist of a variety of incidents, not progres-
sively developed, the plot being invented by the poet. It should only
have the opening and concluding juncture (see note 2, p. 470). An
example is the Llld-madhu-kara. 4. The Vydyoga, in one act, should
have a well-known story for its plot, and few females in its dramatis
personae. Its hero should be some celebrated personage of the class
called firm and haughty (virod-dhata). Its principal sentiments or
flavours (rasa, see p. 457, note) should be the comic (hdsya), the erotic
(srin-gdrd), and the unimpassioned (sdntd). 5. The Samavakdra, in
four acts, in which a great variety of subjects are mixed together
(samavaklryante) ; it dramatizes a well-known story, relating to gods
and demons. An example is the Samudra-matliana, ' churning of the
ocean ' (described in Bharata's S'astra IV.). 6. The Dima, in four acts,
founded on some celebrated story; its principal sentiment should be
the terrible (raudra} ; it should have sixteen heroes (a god, a Yaksha,
a Rakshasa, a serpent, goblin, &c.). An example is the Tripura-ddha,
1 conflagration of Tripura' (described in Bharata's S'astra IV.). 7. The
Ihd-mriga, in four acts, founded on a mixed story (mifra-vritta), partly
popular, and partly invented ; the hero and rival hero (prati-ndyaJca)
should be either a mortal or a god. According to some it should have
six heroes. It derives its name from this, that the hero seeks (ihate)
a divine female, who is as unattainable as a deer (mriga). 8. The
An-ka or Utsrishtikdn-ka, in one act, should have ordinary men (prdk-
47 2 INDIAN WISDOM.
rita-nardh) for its heroes ; its principal sentiment should be the pathetic
(karuna), and its form (srisliti) should transgress (utkrdnta) the usual
rules. An example is the &armislithd-yaydti. 9. The Vlthl, in one
act, is so called because it forms a kind of garland (vitlii) of various
sentiments, and is supposed to contain thirteen members (an-ga) or
peculiar properties. An example is the Mdlawka. 10. The Prahasana,
properly in one act, is a sort of farce representing reprobate characters
(nindya), and the story is invented by the poet, the principal sentiment
being the comic (hdsyci) ; it may be either pure (suddha), of which the
Kandarpa-keli, 'love-sports,' is an example; or mixed (san-kirna), like
the Dhurta-darita, ' adventures of a rogue ; ' or it may represent
characters transformed (vilcrita) by various disguises.
The eighteen Upa-rupakas need not be so fully described.
Their names are as follow :
i. The Ndtika, which is of two kinds Ndtikd pure, and Prakaranikd
differing little from the Nataka and Prakarana. The Ratnavali is an
example of the Natika. 2. The Trotaka, in five, seven, eight, or nine acts;
the plot should be founded on the story of a demigod, and the Vidushaka
or ' jesting Brahman ' should be introduced into every act. An example
is the Vikramorvasl. 3. The Goshthl. 4. The Sattaka. 5. The Ndtya-
rdsaka. 6. The PrastJidna. 7. The Ulldpya. 8. The Kdvya. 9. The
PrenJfhana. 10. TheRdsaka. n. Tine Samldpaka. 12. The Srl-gadita,
in one act, dedicated chiefly to the goddess S'ri. 13. The Silpaka.
14. The Vildsikd. 15. The DurmalUkd. 16. The Prakaranl. 17. The
Halllsa, chiefly consisting in music and singing. 18. The Blidnikd.
As I have elsewhere stated (see Introduction to trans-
lation of the Sakuntala), it is probable that in India, as
in Greece, scenic entertainments took place at religious
festivals, and especially at the Spring festival ( Vasanto-
tsava, corresponding to the present Holi) in the month
Phalguna. Kalidasa's Sakuntala seems to have been
acted at the commencement of the summer season
a period sacred to Kama-deva, the Indian god of love.
We are told that it was enacted before an audience ' con-
sisting chiefly of men of education and discernment.'
As the greater part of every play was written in Sanskrit,
which was certainly not the vernacular of the country
THE DRAMAS. 473
at the t5me when the dramas were performed, few spec-
tators could have been present who were not of the
learned classes. This circumstance is in accordance with
the constitution of Hindu society, whereby the produc-
tions of literature, as well as the offices of state, were
reserved for the privileged castes. The following is a
brief account of the construction of an ordinary Hindu
Nataka :
Every play opens with a prologue (prastdvana), or, to speak more
correctly, an introduction, designed to prepare the way for the en-
trance of the dramatis personae. The prologue commences with a
benediction (ndndi) or prayer a (pronounced by a Brahman, or if the
stage-manager happens to be a Brahman, by the manager himself), in
which the poet invokes the favour of his favourite deity in behalf of
the audience. The blessing is generally followed by a dialogue between
the manager and one or two of the actors, in which an account is
given of the author of the drama, a complimentary tribute is paid to
the critical acumen of the spectators, and such a reference is made to
past occurrences or present circumstances as may be necessary for
the elucidation of the plot. At the conclusion of the prologue, the
manager, by some abrupt exclamation, adroitly introduces one of the
dramatic personages, and the real performance commences. The play
being thus opened, is carried forward in scenes and acts ; each scene
being marked by the entrance of one character and the exit of another.
The dramatis personae are divided into three classes the inferior
characters (riica), who are said to speak Prakrit in a monotonous
unaccented tone (anudattoktya) ; the middling (madliyama} ; and the
superior (pradhdna). These latter are to speak Sanskrit with accent
and expression (udattoktya). The commencement of a new act, like
that of the whole piece, is often marked by an introductory monologue
or dialogue spoken by one or more of the dramatis personae, and called
Vishkambha or Praveiaka. In this scene allusion is made to events
supposed to have occurred in the interval of the acts, and the audience
is prepared to take up the thread of the story, which is then skilfully
i
The fact that scarcely a single work in Sanskrit literature is com-
menced without a prayer to some god, is, as Professor Banerjea has
remarked, a testimony to the universal sentiment of piety animating
the Hindu race.
474 INDIAN WISDOM.
carried on to the concluding scene. The piece closes, as it began, with
a prayer for national prosperity, addressed to the favourite deity, and
spoken by one of the principal personages of the drama.
Although in the conduct of the plot, and the delinea-
tion of character, Hindu dramatists show considerable
skill, yet in the plot itself, or in the story on which it
is founded, they rarely evince much fertility of invention.
The narrative of Kama's adventures and other well-known
fictions of Hindu mythology are constantly repeated.
Love, too, according to Hindu notions, is the subject of
most of their dramas. The hero and heroine are generally
smitten with attachment for each other at first sight,
and that, too, in no very interesting manner. By way
of relief, however, an element of life is introduced in
the character of the Vidushaka or 'jester,' who is the
constant companion of the hero ; and in the young
maidens, who are the confidential friends of the heroine,
and soon become possessed of her secret. By a curious
regulation, the jester is always a Brahman ; yet his
business is to excite mirth by being ridiculous in person,
age, and attire. Strictly he should be represented as
grey-haired, humpbacked, lame, and ugly. He is a species
of buffoon, who is allowed full liberty of speech, being
himself a universal butt. His attempts at wit, which are
rarely very successful, and his allusions to- the pleasures
of the table, of which he is a confessed votary, are absurdly
contrasted with the sententious solemnity of the despairing
hero, crossed in the prosecution of his love-suit. On the
other hand, the shrewdness of the heroine's confidantes
never seem to fail them under the most trying circum-
stances ; while their sly jokes and innuendoes, their love
of fun, their girlish sympathy with the progress of the
love-affair, their warm affection for their friend, heighten
the interest of the plot, and contribute to vary its
monotony.
THE DRAMAS. 475
Let me now introduce a few remarks on certain well-
known plays, some of which have been already mentioned.
And first with regard to the earliest extant Sanskrit
drama the Mric-chakatikd or ' Clay-cart.'
This was attributed (probably out of mere flattery) to a royal author,
king S'udraka, who is said to have reigned in the first or second century
B.C. Its real author is unknown, and its exact date is, of course, un-
certain. According to Professor Weber, so much at least may be
affirmed, ' that it was composed at a time in which Buddhism was
nourishing in full vigour.' Some, indeed, may be inclined to infer from
the fact of its describing a Sramana or Buddhist ascetic as appointed
to the head of the Viharas or monasteries, that one hundred years after
Christ is too early an epoch to allow for the possibility of representing
Buddhism as occupying such a position in India. At any rate, the date
of this drama ought not to be placed before the first century of our
era. 1 The play is in ten acts, and though too long and tedious to suit
European theatrical ideas, has nevertheless considerable dramatic merit,
the plot being ingeniously developed, and the interest well sustained
by a rapid succession of stirring incidents and picturesquely diversified
scenes of every-day life. In fact, its pictures of domestic manners and
descriptions of the natural intercourse of ordinary men and women,
followed by the usual train of social evils, make it more interesting
than other Sanskrit dramas, which, as a rule, introduce too much of
the supernatural, and abound in overwrought poetical fancies unsuited
to occidental minds.
I now give an epitome of this interesting drama, omitting
the underplot ; which is not essential to the unity of the
play, though ingeniously interwoven with it. 2
1 Professor Lassen assigns it to about 150 after Christ.
2 In composing this epitome from Professor Stenzler's edition of the
text, I am bound to state that I have made free use of Professor H. H.
Wilson's translation of the Mric-clialcatika, to which, as well as to
Professor Stenzler's edition, I am under the greatest obligations,
fessor Wilson's translation is executed with a spirit and power which
could only be displayed by a writer himself gifted with poetical and
dramatic genius. Nevertheless, although I have made use of many of
his expressions, I have not always ventured to depart so widely as he
has done from the original text in giving my own translation.
476 INDIAN WISDOM.
The first scene represents a court in front of Caru-datta's house.
His friend Maitreya, who, although a Brahman, acts the part of
a sort of jovial companion, and displays a disposition of mixed
shrewdness and simplicity, laments Caru-datta's fallen fortunes,
caused by his too great liberality. Caru-datta replies thus :
Cam. Think not, my friend, I mourn departed wealth ;
One thing alone torments me, that my guests
Desert my beggared house, like bees
That swarm around the elephant, when dews
Exhale from his broad front ; but quickly leave
His dried-up temples when they yield no sweets.
Maitreya. The sons of slaves ! These guests you speak of are always
ready to make a morning meal off a man's property.
Cam. It is most true, but I bestow no thought
On my lost property ; as fate decrees
Wealth comes and goes, but this is torture to me
That friendships I thought firm hang all relaxed
And loose, when poverty sticks closest to me.
From poverty, 'tis but a step to shame
From shame, to loss of manly self-respect ;
Then comes disdainful scorn, then dark despair
O'erwhelms the mind with melancholy thoughts,
Then reason goes, and last of all comes ruin.
Oh ! poverty is source of every ill.
Mail. Ah well, cheer up ! Let's have no more of these woebegone
memories. What's lost can't be recovered.
Odru. Good ! I will grieve no more. Go you, my friend,
And offer this oblation, just prepared,
Unto the gods, and mothers of us all.
Mail. Not I.
Cam. And why not, pray ?
Mail. Why, what's the use, when the gods you have worshipped
have done nothing for you ?
Cam. Friend, speak not thus, for worship is the duty
Of every family ; the gods are honoured
By offerings, and gratified by acts
Of penance and restraint in thought and word.
Therefore delay not to present the oblation.
Matt. I don't intend to go ; send some one else.
Caru. Stay quiet then for a little, till I have finished
My religious meditation and prayer.
THE DRAMAS. 477
They are supposed here to retire, and a voice is heard behind
the scenes
Stop ! Vasanta-sena, stop !
The heroine of the play now appears in front of daru-datta's
house pursued by the king's worthless but wealthy brother-in-law,
called Samsthanaka, 1 who is an embodiment of everything vicious
and mean, in exact contrast to Caru-datta.
Samsth. Stop ! Vasanta-sena, stop ! Why do you run away ? Don't
be alarmed ! I am not going to kill you. My poor heart is on fire
with love, like a piece of meat placed ou a heap of burning coals.
Fas. Noble sir, I am only a weak woman.
Samsth. That is just why I don't intend murdering you.
Fas. Why, then, do you pursue me ? Do you seek my jewels ?
Samsth. No, T only seek to gain your affections.
At this point the frightened Vasanta-sena discovers that she is
close to Caru-datta's house. He is not only loved by her, but
greatly respected as a man of honour, and under cover of the
evening darkness, now supposed to have supervened, she slips
into the courtyard of his house by a side-door, and hides herself.
A companion who is with the king's brother now counsels him to
desist from following her by remarking
An elephant is bound by a chain,
A horse is curbed by a bridle and rein ;
But a woman is only held by her heart
If you can't hold that, you had better depart.
Samsthanaka, however, forces his way into daru-datta's house,
and there finding Caru-datta's friend and companion, Maitreya,
thus addresses him :
Take this message to daru. Vasanta-sena loves you, and has
taken refuge in your house. If you will deliver her up, you shall be
rewarded by my everlasting friendship ; if not, I shall remain your
enemy till death. Give this message, so that I may hear you from
the neighbouring terrace ; refuse to say exactly what I have told you
and I will crush your head as I would a wood-apple beneath a door.
He then leaves the stage.
Maitreya accordingly delivers the message. Soon afterwards
We shall sometimes speak of him as the king's brother.
47 8 INDIAN WISDOM.
the heroine Vasanta-sena ventures into the presence of Caru-
datta, asks pardon for intruding into his house, requests him to
take charge of a golden casket containing her ornaments as a
deposit left in trust, and solicits his friend's escort back to her
own house.
Maitreya is too much alarmed to accompany her, so Caru-datta
himself escorts Vasanta-sena home.
So far is an epitome of the first act.
At the commencement of the second act a gambler is introduced
running away from the keeper of a gaming-house named Mathura,
and another gambler, to whom the first gambler has lost money,
who are both pursuing him.
ist Gambler. The master of the tables and the gamester are at my
heels ; how can I escape them ? Here is an empty temple ; I will enter
it walking backwards, and pretend to be its idol.
Mathura. Ho ! there ! stop thief ! A gambler has lost ten Suvarnas,
and is running off without paying. Stop him, stop him !
2nd Gambler. He has run as far as this point ; but here the track
is lost.
Math. Ah ! I see, the footsteps are reversed ; the rogue has walked
backwards into this temple which has no image in it.
They enter and make signs to each other on discovering the
object of their search, who pretends to be an idol fixed on a
pedestal.
2nd Gambler. Is this a wooden image, I wonder ?
Math. No, no, it must be made of stone, I think. (So saying, they
shake and pinch him.) Never mind, sit we down here and play out
our game. (They commence playing.)
ist Gambler. (Still acting the image, but looking on and witli difficulty
restraining his wish to join in the game Aside.) The rattling of dice is
as tantalizing to a penniless man as the sound of drums to a dethroned
monarch ; verily, it is sweet as the note of a nightingale.
2nd Gambler. The throw is mine, the throw is mine !
Math. No, no, it is mine, I say.
ist Gambler. (Forgetting himself and jumping off his pedestal.) No,
I tell you it is mine.
2nd Gambler. We've caught him !
Math. Yes, rascal, you're caught at last; hand over the Suvarnas.
ist Gambler. Worthy sir, I'll pay them in good time.
THE DRAMAS. 479
Math. Hand them over this very minute, I say. (They beat him.)
ist Gambler. (Aside to 2nd Gambler.) I'll pay you half if you will
forgive me the rest.
2nd Gambler. Agreed.
ist Gambler. (Aside to Math.) I'll give you security for half if
you will let me off the other half.
Math. Agreed.
ist Gambler. Then good morning to you, sirs, I'm off.
Math. Hullo ! stop there, where are you going so fast ; hand over
the money.
ist Gambler. See here, my good sirs, one has taken security for
half, and the other has let me off another half. Isn't it clear I have
nothing to pay.
Math. No, no, my fine fellow ; my name is Mathura, and I'm not
such a fool as you take me for. Don't suppose I'm going to be cheated
out of my ten Suvarnas in this way. Hand them over, you scoundrel.
Upon that they set to work beating the unfortunate gambler,
whose cries for help bring another gamester who happens to be
passing to his rescue. A general scuffle now takes place, and in
the midst of the confusion the first gambler escapes. In his flight
he comes to the house of Vasanta-sena, and finding the door open,
rushes in. Vasanta-sena inquires who he is and what he wants.
He then recites his story, and makes known to her that having
been once in the service of Oaru-datta, and having been discharged
by him on account of his reduced circumstances, he has been
driven to seek a livelihood by gambling. The mention of Caru-
datta at once secures Vasanta-sena's aid, and the pursuers having
now tracked their fugitive to the door of her house, she sends
them out a jewelled bracelet which satisfies their demands, and
they retire. The gambler expresses the deepest gratitude, hopes
in return to be of use to Vasanta-sena at some future time, and
announces his intention of abandoning his disreputable mode of
life and becoming a Buddhist mendicant.
The third act opens with a scene inside Caru-datta's house. The
time is supposed to be night. Caru-datta and Maitreya are absent
at a concert. A servant is preparing their sleeping-couches, and
commences talking to himself thus:
A good master who is kind to his servants, even though he be poor,
is their delight ; while a harsh fellow who is always finding fault and
has nothing but his money to be proud of, is a perpetual torment from
480 INDIAN WISDOM.
morning to night. Well, well ! one can't alter nature ; an ox can't be
kept out of a field of corn, and a man once addicted to gambling
can't be induced to leave off. My good master has gone to a concert.
I must await his return ; so I may as well take a nap in the hall.
Meanwhile Caru-datta and Maitreya come back, and the servant
delivers Vasanta-sena's golden casket, saying that it is his turn to
take charge of it by night. They now lie down.
Mait. Are you sleepy ?
&aru. Yes ;
I feel inconstant sleep, with shadowy form
"Viewless and wayward, creep across my brow
And weigh my eyelids down ; her soft approach
Is like Decay's advance, which stronger grows,
Till it has mastered all our faculties,
And life is lost in blank unconsciousness.
The whole household is soon buried in slumber, when a thief
named Sarvilaka is seen to approach.
His soliloquy, while he proceeds to accomplish his design of
breaking into the house, is curious, as showing that an Indian
burglar's mode of operation in ancient times differed very little
from that now in fashion. Moreover, it appears that the whole
practice of housebreaking was carried on by professional artists
according to certain fixed rules and principles, which a master of
the science, named Yoga6arya, had embodied in a kind of ' Thieves'
Manual ' for the better training of his disciples. It is evident,
too, that the fraternity of thieves, burglars, and rogues had a
special presiding Deity and Patron in India, much in the same
way as in ancient Greece and Rome.
It may be noted also, as still more curious, that the particular
burglar here introduced is represented as a Brahman, that he is
made to speak the learned language, Sanskrit, and to display
acquaintance with Sanskrit literature, while all the subordinate
characters in Indian dramas, including women of rank, are repre-
sented as speaking one or other of the provincial dialects called
Prakrit. Here is part of the burglar's soliloquy :
I advance creeping stealthily along the ground, like a snake wriggling
out of its worn-out skin, making a path for my operations by the sheer
force of my scientific craft, and artfully constructing an opening just
big enough to admit my body with ease.
THE DRAMAS. 481
This friendly night which covers all the stars
With a thick coat of darkness, acts the part
Of a kind mother, shrouding me, her son,
Whose valour is displayed in night assaults
Upon my neighbours, and whose only dread
Is to be pounced upon by royal watchmen.
^ ! I have made a hole in the garden-wall, and am now in the
midst of the premises. Now for an attack on the four walls of the
house itself.
Men call this occupation mean, which thrives
By triumphing o'er sleeping enemies.
This, say they, is not chivalry but burglary ;
But better far reproach with independence,
Than cringing service without liberty :
And did not Aswatthaman long ago
O'erpower in night-attack his slumbering foe 1 l
Then follows a little of the burglar's plain prose :
Where shall I make my breach ? Ah ! here's a rat-hole this is the
very thing we disciples of the god Skanda hail as the best guide to
our operations, and the best omen of success. Here, then, I must
begin my excavation, that's clear; but how shall I proceed? The
golden - speared god has taught four methods of making a breach,
namely, pulling out baked bricks, cutting through unbaked ones ;
soaking a mud wall with water, and boring through one made of wood.
This wall is evidently of baked bricks, so they must be pulled out.
Now for the shape of the hole. It must be carved according to some
orthodox pattern Shall it be like a lotus-blossom, the sun, a crescent,
a lake, a triangle, or a jar ? I must do it cleverly, so that to-morrow
morning people may look at my handiwork with wonder, and say to
each other, ' None but a skilled artist could have done this ! ' The jar-
shape looks best in a wall of baked bricks. Be it so ; now, then, to
work ! Reverence to the golden-speared god, Karttikeya, the giver of
all boons ! Reverence to Yogadarya, whose chief disciple I am, and
1 This is an allusion to Karttikeya or Skanda. The God of War
was the patron of burglars, probably from the fact that excavations,
mining operations, and the making of breaches in walls are often
resorted to in Eastern warfare as in the present day. Professor H.
H. Wilson states that modern thieves worship some of the forms of
Durga.
2 H
482 INDIAN WISDOM.
who was so pleased with his pupil that he gave me a magical pigment,
which, when spread over my body, prevents any police-officer from
catching sight of me and any weapons from harming my limbs. Ah !
what a pity ! I have forgotten my measuring-line. Never mind, I
can use my Brahmanical cord a most serviceable implement to all
Brahmans, especially to men of my profession. It serves to measure
a wall, or to throw round ornaments which have to be drawn from their
places, or to lift the latch of a door, or to bind up one's finger when
bitten by insects or snakes. And now to commence measuring.
Good ! the hole is exactly the right size ; only one brick remains ! Ah !
botheration ! I am bitten by a snake ; I must bind up my finger and
apply the antidote ; that's the only cure. Now I am all right again.
Let me first peep in. What ! a light gleams somewhere ! Never mind !
the breach being perfect, I must creep in. Reverence to Karttikeya !
How now ! two men asleep ! Are they really asleep, or only shamming?
If they are shamming, they won't bear the glimmer of this lamp when
passed over their faces ; they are fast asleep, I believe ; their breathing
is regular ; their eyes are firmly closed, their joints are all relaxed,
and their limbs protrude beyond the bed. What have we here 1 Here
are tabours, a lute, flutes, and books ; why, I must have broken into
the house of a dancing-master ; I took it for the mansion of a man of
rank. I had better be off.
Maitreya here calls out in his sleep
Master, I am afraid some thief is breaking into the house ; take you
charge of the golden casket.
Sarvtt. What ! does he see me ? Shall I have to kill him 1 No, no,
it's all right ; he's only dreaming and talking in his sleep. But sure
enough, he has hold of a casket of jewels wrapped up in an old bathing-
dress. Very good ! I will relieve him of his burden ; but no, it's a
shame to take the only thing the poor creature seems to possess ; so
I'll be off without more ado.
Mait. My good friend, if you won't take the casket, may you incur
the curse of disappointing the wishes of a cow and of a Brahman.
&arvil. The wishes of a cow and a Brahman ! These are much too
sacred to be opposed ; so take the casket I must.
Accordingly he helps himself to the casket, and proceeds to
make good his escape.
The noise he makes in going out rouses its inmates, and they
discover that the house has been robbed. Caru-datta is greatly
shocked at the loss of Vasanta-sena's casket, which had been
deposited with him in trust. He has only one valuable thing left
THE DRAMAS. 483
a necklace or string of jewels forming part of the private pro-
perty of his wife. This he sends by Maitreya to Vasanta-sena as
a substitute for the casket.
The fourth act commences with a scene in Vasanta-sena's house.
The burglar 3arvilaka is seen to approach, but this time with no
burglarious designs. It appears that he is in love with Vasanta-
sena's slave-girl, and hopes to purchase her freedom by offering
as a ransom the stolen casket of jewels, being of course ignorant
that he is offering it to its owner.
As he advances towards the house, he thus soliloquizes :
I have brought blame and censure on the night,
I've triumphed over slumber, and defied
The vigilance of royal watchmen, now
I imitate the moon, who when the night
Is closing, quickly pales beneath the rays
Of the ascending sun, and hides himself.
I tremble, or I run, or stand aside,
Or seek deliverance by a hundred shifts,
If haply from behind some hurried step
Appears to track me, or a passer-by
Casts but a glance upon me ; every one
Is viewed by me suspiciously, for thus
A guilty conscience makes a man a coward,
Affrightening him with his unrighteous deeds.
On reaching the house, he sees the object of his affections the
female-slave of Vasanta-sena. He presents her with the casket,
and begs her to take it to her mistress, and request in return
freedom from further service. The servant-girl, on seeing the
casket, recognizes the ornaments as belonging to her mistress.
She then reproaches her lover, who is forced to confess how they
came into his possession, and to explain that they were stolen
entirely out of iove for her. The altercation which ensues leads
him to make some very disparaging remarks on the female sex
generally. Here is a specimen of his asperities, which are some-
what softened down in the translation :
A woman will for money smile or weep
According to your will ; she makes a man
Put trust in her, but trusts him not herself.
Women are as inconstant as the waves
Of ocean, their affection is as fugitive
4 8 4 INDIAN WISDOM.
As streak of sunset glow upon a cloud.
They cling with eager fondness to the man
Who yields them wealth, which they squeeze out like sap
Out of a juicy plant, and then they leave him.
Therefore are men thought foolish who confide
In women and in fortune, for their windings
Are like the coils of serpent nymphs, insidious.
Well is it said, you cannot alter nature ;
The lotus grows not on the mountain-top,
Asses refuse to bear a horse's burden,
He who sows barley reaps not fields of rice ;
Do what you will, a woman will be woman.
After other still more caustic aspersions, the thief Sarvilaka
and his lover make up their differences, and it is agreed between
them that the only way out of the difficulty is for him to take the
casket to Vasanta-sena, as if he were a messenger from Caru-datta,
sent to restore her property. This he does ; and Vasanta-sena,
who, unknown to the lovers, has overheard their conversation,
astonishes Sarvilaka by setting her slave- girl free, and permitting
her to become his wife ; thus affording a practical refutation of
his charge against women of selfishness and want of generosity.
Soon after the departure of the lovers an attendant announces
the arrival of a Brahman from Caru-datta. This turns out to be
Maitreya, who is honoured by an introduction into the private
garden attached to the inner apartments of Vasanta-sena's house.
His passage through the courts of the mansion, no less than seven
in number, is made an occasion for describing the interior of the
splendid residence which a Hindu lady of wealth and fashion might
be supposed, allowing for a little play of the imagination, to
occupy.
The description affords a striking picture of Indian life and
manners, which to this day are not greatly changed. The account
of the courtyards will remind those who have seen Pompeii of
some of the houses there, and will illustrate the now universally
received opinion of the common origin of Hindus, Greeks, and
Eomans. Of course the object of Maitreya's visit to Vasanta-sena
is to confess the loss of the casket, and to request her acceptance
of the string of jewels from Caru-datta as a compensation. The
good man in his simplicity expects that she will politely decline
the costly present tendered by daru-datta as a substitute for her
THE DRAMAS. 485
far less valuable casket of ornaments ; but, to his surprise and
disgust, she eagerly accepts the proffered compensation, and dis-
misses him with a few complimentary words, intending, however,
as it afterwards appears, to make the acceptance of Caru-datta's
compensation an excuse for going in person to his house, that she
may see him once again and restore to him with her own hand
both the necklace and casket.
The fifth act opens with a scene in Caru-datta's garden. A
heavy thunderstorm is supposed to be gathering, when Maitreya
enters, salutes Caru-datta, and informs him of the particulars of
his interview with Vasanta-sena. The rain now begins to descend
in torrents, when a servant arrives to announce that Vasanta-sena
is waiting outside. On hearing this, Maitreya says :
What can she have come for ? Oh ! I know what she wants. She
considers the casket worth more than the necklace of jewels, and so she
wants to get the balance out of you.
Caru-datta. Then she shall go away satisfied.
Meanwhile some delay occurs in admitting Vasanta-sena, which
is made an occasion for introducing a dialogue between her and
her attendant, in the course of which they are made to describe
very poetically the grandeur of the approaching storm, the sudden
accumulation of dense masses of threatening clouds, the increasing
gloom followed by portentous darkness, the terrific rolling of
thunder, the blaze of blinding lightning, the sudden outburst of
rain, as if the very clouds themselves were falling, and the effect
of all this upon the animals, some of which, such as the peacocks
and storks, welcome the strife of elements with their shrillest cries.
In her descriptions of the scene, Vasanta-sena speaks Sanskrit,
which is quite an unusual circumstance, and an evidence of her
superior education (no good sign, however, according to Eastern
ideas) the female characters in Indian dramas being supposed
to be incapable of speaking anything but the ordinary provincial
Prakrit. 1 Vasanta-sena is ultimately admitted to the presence of
1 There is a suitableness in this, however, when it is remembered that
Prakrit words are to Sanskrit what Italian is to Latin. Harsh con-
sonants are often softened off and compound ones are simplified.
Piombo certainly comes more suitably from female lips than plumbum,
and Sa-undala than S'akuntala.
486 INDIAN WISDOM.
Caru-datta, and before returning the necklace practises a little
playful deception upon him as a set-off against that tried upon
herself. She pretends that the string of pearls sent to her by
Carn-datta has been accidentally lost by her; she therefore pro-
duces a casket which she begs him to accept in its place. This,
of course, turns out to be the identical casket which the thief had
carried off from Caru-datta's house. In the end, the whole matter
is explained, and both casket and necklace are given over to Caru-
datta, and the storm having now increased in violence, Vasanta-
sena, to her great delight, is obliged to accept the shelter of his
roof and is conducted to his private apartments. This brings five
acts of the drama to a close.
At the commencement of the sixth act Vasanta-sena is supposed
to be at Caru-datta's house waiting for a covered carriage which is
to convey her away. While the vehicle is preparing, Caru-datta's
child, a little boy, comes into the room with a toy-cart made of
clay. He appears to be crying, and an attendant explains that
his tears are caused by certain childish troubles connected with
his clay-cart, which has ceased to please him since his happening
to see one made of gold belonging to a neighbour's child. Upon
this, Vasanta-sena takes off her jewelled ornaments, places them
in the clay-cart, and tells the child to purchase a golden cart with
the value of the jewels as a present from herself. While this is
going on, the carriage which is to convey her away is brought up
to the door, but is driven off again to fetch some cushions acci-
dentally forgotten by the driver. Meanwhile an empty carriage
belonging to Samsthanaka the worthless brother-in-law of the
king which is on its way to meet him at an appointed place in
a certain garden called Pushpa-karandaka, happens to stop for a
moment, impeded by some obstruction in the road close to the door
of daru-datta's house. Vasanta-sena having been told that Caru-
datta's carriage is ready and waiting for her, goes suddenly out
and jumps by mistake into the carriage of the man who is most
hateful to her, and the very man who is represented as persecuting
her by his attentions in the first act. The driver of the empty
vehicle, quite unaware of the passenger he has suddenly received,
and finding the road now clear before him, drives on to meet his
master. Soon afterwards the empty carriage of daru-datta is
brought to the door, and in connection with this incident an im-
portant part of the underplot of the drama is then introduced.
THE DRAMAS. 487
The seventh act continues this underplot, which, although in-
geniously interwoven with the main action of the drama, is not
sufficiently interesting to be worth following out in this epitome.
The eighth act commences with, a scene in the Pushpa-karandaka
garden. Our old friend the gambler of the second act, who has
abjured his evil ways and is now converted into a Sramana or
Buddhist mendicant, appears with a wet garment in his hand.
He begins his soliloquy with some verses, of which the following
is a slightly amplified translation :
Hear me, ye foolish, I implore
Make sanctity your only store ;
Be satisfied with meagre fare ;
Of greed and gluttony beware ;
Shun slumber, practise lucubration,
Sound the deep gong of meditation.
Restrain your appetites with zeal,
Let not these thieves your merit steal ;
Be ever storing it anew,
And keep eternity in view.
Live ever thus, like me, austerely,
And be the home of Virtue merely.
Kill your five senses, murder then
Women and all immoral men.
Whoever has slain these evils seven
Has saved himself, and goes to heaven ;
Nor think by shaven face and head
To prove your appetites are dead ;
Who shears his head and not his heart
Is an ascetic, but in part ;
But he whose heart is closely lopped
Has also head and visage cropped.
He then proceeds with his soliloquy thus :
My tattered garment is now properly dyed of a reddish-yellow colour.
I will just slip into this garden belonging to the king's brother-in-law,
wash my clothes in the lake, and then make off as fast as I can.
(4 voice behind.) Hollo ! there ! you wretch of a mendicant, stop, stop.
Mendicant. Woe's me ! here is the king's brother himself coming.
A poor mendicant once offended him, so now whenever he sees another
like me, he slits his nose and drags him away like an ox. Where shall
I take refuge ? None but the venerated Buddha can be my protector.
488 INDIAN WISDOM.
Samsthanaka, the king's brother-in-law, now enters the garden,
and laying hold of the luckless mendicant, commences beating him.
A companion of Samsthanaka, however, here interposes, and begs
that the mendicant may be released.
Samsthanaka then says :
I will let him go on one condition, viz., that he removes all the mud
from this pool without disturbing the water, or else collects all the clear
water in a heap and then throws the mud away.
After some wrangling, and a good deal of nonsense of this sort,
spoken by the king's brother, the mendicant is allowed to make off.
Nevertheless, he still hangs about the precincts of the garden. In
the meantime the carriage containing Vasanta-sena approaches.
Samsth. (to his companion). What o'clock is it ? That driver of
mine, Sthavaraka, was ordered to be here sharp with the carriage, and
has not yet arrived. I am dying with hunger ; it is mid -day, and one
cannot stir a step on foot ; the sun is in mid-sky, and can no more be
looked at than an angry ape ; the ground is as parched as the face of
Gandharl when her hundred sons were slain ; the birds seek shelter
among the branches ; men panting with heat hide themselves from the
sun's rays as well as they can in the recesses of their houses. Shall I
give you a song to while away the time? My voice is in first-rate con-
dition, for I keep it so with asafoetida, cumin-seed, cyperus, orris-root,
treacle and ginger. (Sings.)
The driver Sthavaraka now enters with the carriage containing
Vasanta-sena.
Samsth. (continues.) Oh ! here is the carriage at last.
On seeing it he is about to jump into the vehicle, but starts
back in alarm, declaring that either a thief or a witch is inside.
In the end he recognizes Vasanta-sena, and in his delight at having
secured the object of his affection, kneels at her feet, in the attitude
of a lover. She is at first terrified at the mistake she has made,
then in her anger and scorn spurns him with her foot. This dis-
dainful treatment so enrages the king's brother-in-law that he
resolves to kill her on the spot. He tries first to induce his com-
panion to put her to death, but he will not listen to so scandalous
a proposal. Stopping his ears, he says :
What ! kill a woman, innocent and young,
Our city's ornament ! were I to perpetrate
THE DRAMAS. 489
A deed so foul, who could transport my soul
Across the stream that bounds the other world ?
Samsth. Never fear. I'll make you a raft to carry you across.
To this his companion replies, quoting with a little alteration
from Manu : 1
The heaven and all ten quarters of the sky,
The moon, the light -creating sun, the winds,
This earth, the spirits of the dead, the god
Of Justice, and the inner soul itself,
Witness man's actions, be they good or bad.
Samsth. Conceal her under a cloth, then, and kill her under a cover.
His associate remaining firm in his indignant refusal to have
any hand in the crime, Samsthanaka next tries first by bribes and
then by 
