Sita.is honourably received by the saint Valmiki himself, and the holy women of the hermitage are charged to entertain and serve her. In this calm retreat she gives birth to two boys who receive the names of Kusa and Lava. They are carefully brought up and are taught by Valmiki himself to recite the fcamayan. The years pass by: and Rama at length determines to celebrate the Asvamedha or Sacrifice of the Steed. Valmiki, with his two young pupils, attends the ceremony, and the unknown princes recite before the delighted father the poem which recounts his deeds. Rama inquires into their history and recog- nizes them as his sons, Sita is invited to return and solemnly affirm her inno- cence before the great assembly.
"But Sita's heart waa too full; this second ordeal was beyond even' her power to submit to, and the poet rose above the ordinary Hindu level of women 1 Academy -, Vol. III., No, 43, 520 APPENDIX.
when he ventured to paint her conscious purity as rebelling: " Beholding all the spectators, and clothed in red garments, Sita clasping her hands and bending lo\» her face, spoke thus in a voice choked with tears: ' as I, even in mind, have nevei thought of any other than Rama, so may Madhavi the goddess of Earth, grant me a hiding-place.' As Sita made this oath, lo! a marvel appeared. Suddenly cleaving the earth, a divine throne of marvellous beauty rose up, borne by res- plendent dragons on their heads; and seated on it, the goddess of Earth, raising Sita with her arm, said to her, 'Welcome to thee!' and placed her by her side. And as the queen, seated on the throne, slowly descended to Hades, a continuous shower of flowers fell down from heaven on her head." ' 11 Both the great Hindu epics thus end in disappointment and sorrow. Iir the Mahdbhdrata the five victorious brothers abandon the hardly won throne to die one by one in a forlorn pilgrimage to the Himalaya; and in the same way Rama only regains his wife, after all his toils, to lose her. It is the same in the later Homeric cycle—the heroes of the Iliad perish by ill-fated deaths. And even Ulysses, after his return to Ithaca, sets sail again to Thesprotia, and finally falls by the hand of his own son. But in India and Greece alike this is an after- thought of a self-conscious time, which has been subsequently added to cast a gloom on the strong cheerfulness of the heroic age." 2 "The termination of llama's terrestrial career is thus told in Sections 116 if. of the Uttarakanda. Time, in the form of an ascetic, comes to his palace-gate, and asks, as the messenger of the great rishi (Brahma) to see Rama. He is ad- mitted and received with honour, but says, when he is asked what he has to communicate, that his message must be delivered in private, and that any one who witnesses the interview is to lose his life. Rama informs Laxmana of all this, and desires him to stand outside. Time then tells Rama that he has been sent by Brahma to say that when he (Rama, i.e. Vishnu) after destroying the worlds was sleeping on the ocean, he had formed him (Brahma) from the lotus springing from his navel, and committed to him the work of creation; that he (Brahma) had then entreated Rama to assume the function of Preserver, and I that the latter had in consequence become Vishnu, being born as the son of Aditi, and had determined to deliver mankind by destroying Ravana, and to live on earth ten thousand and ten hundred years; that period, adds Time, was now on the eve of expiration, and Rama could either at his pleasure prolong his stay on earth, or ascend to heaven and rule over the gods. Rama replies, that he had been born for the good of the three worlds, and would now return 'to the place whence he had come, as it was his function to fulfil the purposes of the gods. While they are speaking the irritable rishi Durvasas comes, and insists on seeing Rama immediately, under a threat, if refused, of cursing Rama and all his family.
Laxmana. preferring to save his kinsman, though knowing that his own death must be the consequence of interrupting the interview of Rama with Time, enters the palace and reports the rishi's message to Rama. Rama comes out, and 1 E. B. Cowell. Academy, No. 43. The story of Sita's banishment will be found roughly translated from the ftaghvvahia, in the Additional Notes.
* K B. Cowell. Academy, Vol. Ill, No, 43.
APPENDIX. 521 when Durv£sas has got the food he wished, and departed, R£ma reflects with great distress on the words of Time, which require that Laxmana should die. Laxmana however exhorts Rama not to grieve, but to abandon him and not break his own promise. The counsellors concurring in this advice, Rama abandons lyaxmana, who goes to the river Sarayu, suppresses all his senses, and is conveyed bodily by Indra to heaven. The gods are delighted by the arrival of the fourth part of Vishnu. Rama then resolves to install Bharata as his successor and retire to the forest and follow Laxmana. Bharata however refuses the succession, and determines to accompany his brother. Rama's subjects are filled with grief, and gay they also will follow him wherever he goes. Messengers are sent to £atrughna, the other brother, and he also resolves to accompany Rama; who at length sets out in procession from his capital with all the ceremonial appropriate to the "great departure," silent, indifferent to external objects, joyless, with Sri on his right, the goddess Earth on his left, Energy in front, attended by all his weapons in human shapes, by the Vedas in the forms of Brahmans, by the G£yatri, the Omkara, the Vashatkara, by rishis, by his women, female slaves, eunuchs, and servants. Bharata with his family, and 3atrughna, follow together with Brah- mans bearing the sacred fire, and the whole of the people of the country, and even with animals, etc., etc. Rama, with all these attendants, comes to the banks of the Sarayu. Brahma, with all the gods and innumerable celestial cars, now appears, and all the sky is refulgent with the divine splendour. Pure and fra- grant breezes blow, a shower of flowers falls, Rama enters the waters of the Sarayu; and Brahm£ utters a voice from the sky, saying: " Approach, Vishnu; Raghava, thou hast happily arrived, with thy godlike brothers. Enter thine own body as Vishnu or the eternal ether. For thou art the abode of the worlds: no one comprehends thee, the inconceivable and imperishable, except the large-eyed Maya thy primeval spouse." Hearing these words, Rama enters the glory of Vishnu with his body and his followers. He then asks Brahma to find an abode for the people who had accompanied him from devotion to his person, and Brahma appoints them a celestial residence accordingly." l MUIB, Sanskrit Texts, Part IV., Appendix, ADDITIONAL NOTES.
QUEEN FORTUNE, * A curious festival is celebrated in honour of this divinity (Lakshmi) on the lunar day of the light half of the month M&gha (February), when she is identified with Saraswati the consort of Brahma, and the goddess of learning. In his treatise on festivals, a great modern authority, Raghunandana, mentions, on the faith of a work called Sanivatsara-sandipa, that Lakshrni is to be worshipped in the forenoon of that day with flowers, perfumes, rice, and water; that due honour is to be.paid to inkstand and writing-reed, and no writing to be done, Wilson, in his essay on the Religious Festivals of the Hindus (works, vol. ii, p. 188. ff.,), adds that on the morning of the 2nd February, the whole of the pens and inkstands, and the books, if not too numerous and bulky, are collected, the pens or reeds cleaned, the inkstands scoured, and the books wrapped up in new cloth, are arranged upon a platform, or a sheet, and strewn over with flowers and blades of young barley, and that no flowers except white are to be offered. After per- forming the necessary rites, all the members of the family assemble and make their prostrations; the books, the pens, and ink having an entire holiday; and should any emergency require & written communication on the day dedicated to the divinity of scholarship, it is done with chalk or charcoal upon a black or white board.'
CHAMBERS'S ENCYCLOPAEDIA. Lakshmi, INDRA.
'The Hindu Jove or Jupiter Tonans, chief of the secondary deities. He presides over swarga or paradise, and is more particularly the god of the atmos- phere and winds. He is also regent of the east quarter of the sky. As chief of the deities he is called Devapati, Devadeva, Surapati, etc.; as lord of the atmos- phere, Divaspati; as lord of the eight Vasus or demigods, Fire, etc., Vasava; as breaking cities into fragments, Purandara, Puranda; aslcrdofa hundred sacrifices (the performance of a hundred Asvamedhas elevating the sacrficer to the rank of Indra) ^atakratu, Satamakha; as having a thousand eyes, Sahasraksha: as husband <->f $aehi, $achipati. His wife is called Sachi, Indrani, &akranf, Maghoni, Indra- sakti, Pulomaja, and Paulomi. His son is Jayanta. His pleasure garden or <elysium is Nandana; his city, Amaravati; his palace, Vaijayanta; his horse, Uchchaihsravas; his elephant, Airavata; his charioteer, Matali.'
* The second person of the Hindu triad, and the most celebrated and po- pular of all the Indian deities. He is the personification of the preserving power, and became incarnate in nine different forms, for the preservation of mankind in various emergencies. Before the creation of the universe, and after its tem- porary annihilation, he is supposed to sleep on the waters, floating on the serpent Sesha, and is then identified with Narayana. Brahnia, the creator, is fabled to spring at that time from a lotus which grows from his navel, whilst thus asleep His ten avatars or incarnations are: I. The Matsya, or fish, In this avatar Vishnu descended in the form of a fish to save the pious king Satyavrata, who with the seven Rishis and their wives had taken refuge in the ark to escape the deluge which then destroyed the earth. 2, The Kurma, or Tortoise. In this he descended in the form of a tortoise. for the purpose of restoring to man some of the comforts lost during the flood. To this end he stationed himself at the bottom of the ocean, and allowed the point of the great mountain Mandara to be placed upon his back, which served as a hard axis, whereon the gods and demons, with the serpent Vasuki twisted round the mountain for a rope, churned the waters for the recovery of the amrita or nectar, and fourteen other sacred things. 3. The Varaha, or Boar. In this he descended in the form of a boar to rescue the earth from the power of a demon called ' golden-eyed,' Hiranyaksha. This demon had seized on the earth and carried it with him into the depths of the ocean. Vishnu dived into the abyss, and after a contest of a thousand years slew the monster. 4. The Harasinha, or Man-lion. In this monstrous shape of a creature half-man, half-lion, Vishnu delivered the earth from the tyranny of an insolent demon called Hiranyakasipu, 5. Vamana* or Dwarf. This avatar happened in the second age of the Hindus or Tretayug, the four preceding are said to have occurred in the tirst or Satyayug; the object of this avatar was to trick Bali out of the dominion of the three worlds, Assuming the form of a wretched dwarf he appeared before the king and asked, as a boon, as much land as he could pace in three steps. This was granted; and Vishnu immediately expanding himself till he filled the world, deprived Bali at two steps of heaven and earth, but in consideration of some merit, left Patala still in his dominion. 6. Parasurama. 7. Ramchandra, 8. Krishna, or according to some Balarama. 9. Buddha. In this avatar Vishnu descended in the form of a sage for the purpose of making some reform in the religion of the Brahmins, and especially to reclaim them from their proneness to animal sacrifice. Many of the Hindus will not allow this to have been an incarnation of their favourite god. 10. Kalki, or White Horse. This is yet to come. Vishnu mounted on a white horse, with a drawn scimitar, blazing like a comet, will, according to prophecy, end this present age, viz. the fourth or Kaliyug, by destroying the world, and then renovating creation by an age of purity.'
A celebrated Hindu God, the Destroyer of creation, and therefore the most formidable of the Hindu Triad. He also personifies reproduction, since the Hindu philosophy excludes the idea of total annihilation without subsequent re- generation. Hence he is sometimes confounded with Brahma, the creator or first person of the Triad. He is the particular God of the Tantrikas, or followers of the books called Tantras. His worshippers are termed £aivas, and although not so numerous aa the Vaishnavas, exalt their god to the highest place in the heavens, and combine in him many of the attributes which properly belong to the other deities. According to them giva is Time, Justice, Fire, Water, the Suu, the Destroyer and Creator. As presiding over generation, his type is the Linga, or Phallus, the origin probably of the Phallic emblem of Egypt and Greece. As the God of generation and justice, which latter character he shares with the god Yama, he is represented riding a white bull. His own colour, as well as that of the bull, is generally white, referring probably to the unsullied purity of Justice. 35 524 ADDITIONAL NOTES.
His throat is dark-blue; his hair of a light reddish colour, and thickly matted together, and gathered above his head like the hair of an ascetic. He is some- times seen with two hands, sometimes with four, eight, or ten. and with five faces. He has three eyes, one being in the centre of his forehead, pointing up and down. These are said to denote his view of the three divisions of time, past, present, and future. He holds a trident in his hand to denote, as some say, his relationship to \vater, or according to others, to show that the three great attributes of Creator, Destroyer, and Regenerator are combined in him. His loins are enveloped in a tiger's skin. In his character of Time, he not only presides over its extinction, but also its astronomical regulation. A crescent or half -moon on his forehead indicates the measure of time by the phases of the moon; a serpent forms one of his necklaces to denote the measure of time by years, and a second necklace of human skulls marks the lapse and revolution of ages, and the extinction and succession of the generations of mankind. He is often represented as entirely covered with serpents, which are the emblems of immortality* They are bound in his hair, round his neck, wrists, waist, arms and legs; they serve as rings for his fingers, and earrings for his ears, and are his constant companions, $iva has more than a thousand names which are detailed at length in the sixty-ninth chapter of the &va Purana,— WILLIAMS'S DICTIONARY, Siva.
APSARASES.
* Originally these deities seem to have been personifications of the vapours which are attracted by the sun, and form into mist or clouds: their character may be thus interpreted in the few hymns of the Rigveda where mention is made of them. At a subsequent period When the Gandharva of the Rigveda who per- sonifies there especially the Fire of the Sun, expanded into the Fire of Light- ning, the rays of the moon and other attributes of the elementary life of heaven as well as into pious acts referring to it, the Apsarasas become divinities which represent phenomena or objects both of a physical and ethical kind closely associated with that life; thus in the Yajurveda Sunbeams are called the Ap- sarasas associated with the Gandharva who is the Sun; Plants are termed the Apsarasas connected with the Gandharva Fire: Constellations are the Apsarasaa of the Gandharva Moon: Waters the Apsarasas of the Gandharva Wind, etc.
etc In the last Mythological epoch when the Gandharvas have saved from their elementary nature merely so much as to be musicians in the paradise of Indra, the Apsarasas appear among other subordinate deities which share in the merry life of Indra's heaven, as the wives of the Gandharvas, but more especially as wives of a licentious sort, and they are promised therefore, too, as a reward to heroes fallen in battle when they are received in the paradise of Indra; and while, in the Rigveda, they assist Soma to pour down his floods, they descend in the epic literature on earth merely to shake the virtue of penitent Sages and to deprive them of the power they would otherwise have acquired through unbro- ken austerities.'— GOLDSIUCKEE'S Sanskrit Dictionary, VISHNU'S INCARNATION AS &AMA.
' Here is described one of the avatars, descents or manifestations of Vishnu in a visible form. The word avatar signifies literally descent. The avatar which i§ here spoken of, that in which, according to Indian traditions, Vishnu descended ADDITIONAL NOTES. 525 and appeared upon earth in the corporeal form of Rdma, the hero of the Rama- yana, is the seventh in the series of Indian avatars. Much has been said before now of these avatars, and through deficient knowledge of the ideas and doctrines of India, they have been compared to the sublime dogma of the Christian Incar- nation. This is one of the grossest errors that ignorance of the ideas and beliefs of a people has produced. Between the avatars of India and the Christian Incar- nation there is such an immensity of differnce that it is impossible to find any reasonable analogy that can approximate them. The idea of the avatars is in- timately united with that of the Trimurti; the bond of connection between these two ideas is an essential notion common to both, the notion of Vishnu. What is the Trimurti? I have already said that it is composed of three Gods, Brahm£ (masculine), Vishnu the God of avatars, and 3iva. These three Gods, who when reduced to their primitive and most simple expression are but three cosmogonical personifications, three powers or forces of nature, these Gods, I say, are here found, according to Indian doctrines, entirely external to the true God of India, or Brahma in the neuter gender. Brahma is alone, unchangeable in the midst of creation: all emanates from him, he comprehends all, but he remains extraneous to all: he is Being and the negation of beings. Brahma is never worshipped; the indeterminate Being is never invoked; he is inaccessible to the prayers aa the actions of man; humanity, as well as nature, is extraneous to him. External to Brahma rises the Trimurti, that is to say, Brahma ( masculine) the power which creates, Vishnu the power which preserves, and Siva the power which de- stroys: theogony here commences at the same time with cosmogony. The three divinities of the Trimurti govern the phenomena of the universe and influence all nature. The real God of India is by himself without power; real efficacious power is attributed only to three divinities who exist externally to him. Brahma\ Vishnu, and £iva, possessed of qualities in part contradictory and attributes that are mutually exclusive, have no other accord or harmony than that which results from the power of things itself, and which is found external to their own thoughts. Such is the Indian Trimurti. What an immense difference between this Triad and the wonderful Trinity of Christianity! Here there is only one God, who created all, provides for all, governs all. He exists in three Persons equal to one another, and intimately united in one only infinite and eternal substance. The Father represents the eternal thought and the power which created, the Son infinite love, the Holy Spirit universal sanctification. This one and triune God completes by omnipotent power the great work of creation which, •when it has come forth from His hands, proceeds in obedience to the laws which He has given it, governed with certain order by His infinite providence.
The immense difference between the Trimurti of India and the Christian Trinity is found again between the avatars of Vishnu and the Incarnation of Christ. The avatar was effected altogether externally to the Being who is in India regarded as the true God, The manifestation of one essentially cosmo- gonical divinity wrought for the most part only material and cosmogonioal prodigies. At one time it takes the form of the gigantic tortoise which sustains Mount Mandar from sinking in the ocean; at another of the fish which raises the lost Veda from the bottom of the sea, and saves mankind from the waters. When these avatars are not cosmogonieal they consist in some protection accorded to 526 ADDITIONAL NOTES.
men or Gods, a protection which is neither universal nor permanent. The very manner in which the avatar is effected corresponds to its material nature, for instance the mysterious vase and the magic liquor by means of which the avatar here spoken of takes place. What are the forms which Vishnu takes in his descents? They are the simple forms of life; he becomes a tortoise, a boar, a fish, but he is not obliged to take the form of intelligence and liberty, that is to say, the form of man. In the avatar of Vishnu is discovered the inpress of panthe- istic ideas which have always more or less prevailed in India. Does the avatar produce a permanent and definitive result in the world? By no means. It is renewed at every catastrophe either of nature or man, and its effects are only transitory To sum up then, the Indian avatar is effected externally to the true God of India, to Brahma; it has only a cosmogonical or historical mission which is neither lasting nor decisive; it is accomplished by means of strange prodigies and magic transformations; it may assume promiscuously all the forms of life; it may be repeated indefinitely. Now let the whole of this Indian idea taken from primitive tradition be compared with the Incarnation of Christ and it will be seen that there is between the two an irreconcilable difference. Accord- ing to the doctrines of Christianity the Everlasting Word, Infinite Love, the Son of God, and equal to Him, assumed a human body, and being born as a man ac- complished by his divine act the great miracle of the spiritual redemption of man. His coming had for its sole object to bring erring and lost humanity back to Him; this work being accomplished, and the divine union of men with God being re-established, redemption is complete and remains eternal.
The superficial study of India produced in the last century many erroneous ideas, many imaginary and false parallels between Christianity and the Brah- manical religion, A profounder knowledge of Indian civilization and religion, and philological studies enlarged and guided by more certain principles have dissipated one by one all those errors. The attributes of the Christian God, which by one of those intellectual errors, which Vico attributes to the vanity of the learned, had been transferred to Vishnu, have by a better inspired philoso- phy been reclaimed for Christianity, and the result of the two religions, one immovable and powerless, the other diffusing itself with all its inherent force and energy, has shown further that there is a difference, a real opposition, be- tween the two principles.'— GOKRUSIO.
KU&A AND LAVA, Page 10.
As the story of the banishment of Sita and the subsequent birth in VaK miki's hermitage of Kusa and Lava the rhapsodists of the Ramayan, is intimately connected with the account in the introductory cantos of Valmiki's composition of the poem, I shall, I trust, be pardoned for extracting it from my rough tran- slation of Kalidasa's Kaghuvahsa, parts only of which have been offered to the- public.
4 Then, day by day, the husband's hope grew high, Gazing with love on Sita's melting eye: With anxious care he saw her pallid cheek, And fondly bade her all her wishes speak.
' Once more I fain would see,' the lady cried, * The sacred groves that rise on Gangu's side, ADDITIONAL NOTES. 527 Where holy grass is ever fresh and green, Arid cattle feeding on the rice are seen: There would I rest awhile, where once I strayed Linked in sweet friendship to each hermit maid.'
And Rama smiled upon his wife, and sware, With many a tender oath, to grant her prayer.
It chanced, one evening, from a lofty seat He viewed Ayodhya stretched before his feet: He looked with pride upon the royal road Lined with gay shops their glittering stores that showed, He looked on Sarju's silver waves, that bore The light barks flying with the sail and oar; He saw the gardens near the town that lay, Filled with glad citizens and boys. at play.
Then swelled the monarch'bosom with delight, And his heart triumphed at the happy sight.
Be turned to Bhadra, standing by his side,— Upon whose secret news the king relied, — And bade him say what people said and thought Of all the exploits that his arm had wrought.
The spy was silent, but, when questioned still.
Thus spake, obedient to his master's will: 'For all thy deeds in peace and battle done The people praise thee, King, except for one: This only act of all thy life they blame,-— Thy welcome home of her, thy ravished dame.'
Like iron yielding to the iron's blow, Sank Rama, smitten by those words of woe.
His breast^ where love and fear for empire vied, Swayed, like a rapid swing, from side to side.
Shall be this rumour scorn, which blots his life, Or banish her, his dear and spotless wife?
But rigid Duty left no choice between His perilled honour and his darling queen.
Called to his side, his Brothers wept to trace The marks of anguish in his altered face.
No longer bright and glorious as of old, He thus addressed them when the tale was told: ' Alas! my brothers, that my life should blot The fame of those the Sun himself begot; As from the labouring cloud the driven rain Leaves on the mirror's polished face a stain.
E'en as an elephant who loathes the stake And the strong chain he has no power to break, I cannot brook this cry on every side, That spreads like oil upon the moving tide.
I leave the daughter of Videha's King, And the fair blossom soon from her to spring, 528 ADDITIONAL NOTES.
As erst, obedient to ray sire's command, I left the empire of the sea-girt land.
Good is my queen, and spotless; but the blame Is hard to bear, the mockery and the shame.
Men blame the pure Moon for the darkened ray, When the black shadow takes the light away.
And, O my brothers, if ye wish to see Kama live long from this reproach set free, Let not your pity labour to control The firm sad purpose of his changeless soul.'