Reading section 9

[Footnote 42: p. 14. l. 1. _Came the day of happy omen_. The Indians, like all other Asiatic nations, have their fortunate and unfortunate days. The month is divided into thirty lunar days (tithis), which are personified as nymphs. See the Dissertation on the lunar year by Sir W. JONES, Asiatic Researches, iii. 257. In the Laws of Menu are multifarious directions concerning the day of the moon fit or unfit for particular actions. "The dark lunar day destroys the spiritual teacher; the fourteenth destroys the learner; the eighth and the day of the full moon destroy all remembrance of Scripture; for which reason he must avoid reading on those lunar days."]

[Footnote 43: p. 14. l. 5. _They, the court with golden columns, etc._ The literal rendering is, 'they entered the hall (the stage, or place of exhibition, a spacious court or quadrangle) splendid with columns of gold, and brilliant with a portal; a temporary or triumphal arch (torana).' There is allusion to such a porch or portal in the Mudra Rakshasa (Hindu Theatre, ii. 181, 182), also in the Toy Cart, (i. 82). For gold pillars see CRAWFURD's description of the Hall of Audience at Ava.

"The roof is supported by a great number of pillars: with the exception of about fourteen or fifteen inches at the bottom of each pillar, painted of a bright red, the whole interior of the palace is one blaze of gilding--although little reconcilable to our notions of good taste in architecture, the building is unquestionably most splendid and brilliant, and I doubt whether so singular and imposing a royal edifice exists in any other country." _Embassy to Ava_, 133. WILSON.]

[Footnote 44: p. 14. l. 10. _--delicate in shape and hue_. Bopp's text is 'akaravantah suslakshnah, having forms and delicate.' The Calcutta edition reads 'akaraverna suslakshnah, elegant in figure and colour (complexion). Delicacy of colour, i. e. a lighter shade, scarcely amounting to blackness at all, is in general a mark of high caste. WILSON.]

[Footnote 45: p. 14. l. 13. _As with serpents Bhogavati._ Bhogavati, the capital of the serpents in the infernal world. In the Ramayana, Ayodhya is described as guarded by warriors, as Bhogavati by the serpents.]

[Footnote 46: p. 15. l. 22. _Nala's form might not discern._ The form of the gods, as it is here strikingly described by the poet, differs from that of men by the absence of those defects which constitute the inferiority of a mortal body to that of the inhabitants of the Indian heaven. The immortal body does not perspire, it is unsoiled by dust, the garlands which they wear stand erect, that is, the flowers are still blooming and fresh. The gods are further distinguished by their strong fixed gaze, and by floating on the earth without touching it. They have no shadow. Nala's form is the opposite of all these. KOSEGARTEN.]

[Footnote 47: p. 15. l. 23. _--saw she, and with moveless eyes_. "The gods are supposed to be exempt from the momentary elevation and depression of the upper eyelid, to which mortals are subject. Hence a deity is called 'Animisha' or 'Animesha,' one whose eyes do not twinkle." Mr. Wilson, in his note to Vikrama and Urvasi, (Hindu Theatre, i. 237. p. 60.), quotes this passage, and suggests that the "marble eyes of Venus, by which Helen knew the goddess, and which the commentators and translators seem to be much perplexed with, are probably the 'stabdha lochana,' the fixed eyes of the Hindus, full and unveiled for an instant, like the eyes of a marble statue." Mr. Wilson has, I think, been misled by the words [Greek: hommata marmaironta], which rather expresses the contrary. [Greek: Marmairo] is to glitter, and is applied in many places in Homer to the gleaming of armour. The [Greek: marmarigas theeito podon] of the Odyssey is well translated by Gray, "glance their many-twinkling feet." In Mr. Wilson's curious reference to Heliodorus (the passage is in the AEthiopica, iii. 13.) the author appears to write from Egyptian rather than Grecian notions. He extorts, somewhat violently, a meaning from Homer's words, [Greek: deino de ei esse phaanthen], which they by no means necessarily bear; but the analogy is as curious if Egyptian as if Grecian.]

[Footnote 48: p. 15. l. 25. _On his shadow, garland drooping_. According to the Zoroastrian religion, one of the distinctions of human beings after the restoration of all things and the final triumph of Ormuzd, shall be that they shall cast no shadow; [Greek: mete skian paiountas]. THEOPOMP. apud Plut. de Isid. et Osirid. Compare ANQUETIL DU PERRON and KLEUKER, Anhang zum Zendavesta, i. 140.]

[Footnote 49: p. 16. l. 14. _And the happy pair devoutly_. The devotion of the silent spirit, the purely mental worship, is the holiest and most acceptable service to the gods. Compare WILKINS, Bhagavat-Gita, p. 74; MENU, ii. 85; vi. 235.]

[Footnote 50: p. 16. l. 19. _Agni gave his own bright presence_. Agni gave him the command of fire whenever he willed. Hutasa is a name of Agni; hut-asa, 'qui sacrificium edit,' i. e. ignis. Bopp's explanation, 'mundos per Deum Agnem splendentes,' has been adopted as giving the clearest sense. Varuna gave the command of water.]

[Footnote 51: p. 16. l. 23. _--each his double blessing gave_. Bopp translates this, 'par liberorum dederunt,' but the original says, 'all (or each) gave a pair,' i. e. a couple of blessings; making eight, as stated above; each of the four gods giving two. WILSON.]

[Footnote 52: p. 17. l. 4. _Lived in bliss, as with his Sachi_. Indra, the giant-killer; Sachi, his spouse.]

[Footnote 53: p. 17. l. 7. _Of the horse the famous offering_. The reader will be best acquainted with the Aswamedha, or sacrifice of the horse, from the spirit and felicity with which it has been introduced by Southey in the Curse of Kehama. See also the Ramayana.]

[Footnote 54: p. 18. l. 2. _As they parted thence, with Kali_. Dwapara and Kali are the names of the third and fourth ages of the world. The latter is here personified as a male deity.]

[Footnote 55: p. 18. l. 17. _--the Puranas too the fifth_. In the original 'Akhyana, history, legend.' The four Vedas are the Rig-veda, the Yajur Veda, the Sama Veda, and the Atharvana. Akhyana is, as it were, tradition superadded to scripture.]

[Footnote 56: p. 20. l. 5. _Nala in the dusky twilight, etc._ This is rather an unmanageable passage; but the Latin translation has not rendered its purport correctly. 'Upaspris' can in no case mean 'calcare:' it implies touching, and especially touching or sipping water, as part of the ceremony of purification. As Menu; "Let each man sprinkle the cavities of his body, and taste water in due form, etc." In the text of this passage, 'upaspris' is used for touching or sprinkling. In others, it is used in the sense of ablution, bathing. In the lexicons it is explained 'upasparsa sparsamatre, snanachamanay-orapi, touch in general, ablution, sipping water.' In the Mitakshara, on the subject of personal purification, the direction is, after evacuations, 'Dwijo nityam upaspriset, Let the man of two births always perform the upaspersa,' i. e. says the commentator, 'achamet, let him sip water.' The sense of the passage of the text is, 'that Nala sat down to evening prayer; (as Menu directs, he who repeats it sitting at evening twilight, etc.,) after performing his purifications, and sipping water, but without having washed his feet, such ablution being necessary not because they had been soiled, but because such an act is also part of the rite of purification. As the Mitakshara, 'etasmat pada prakshalana prapti, after that purification, comes the washing of the feet,' especially prior to any religious act. So Colebrooke: "Having washed his hands and feet, and having sipped water, the priest sits down to worship." A. R. v. 363. WILSON.]

[Footnote 57: p. 20. l. 12. _In the dice of dice embodied_. 'Sicut taurus boum:' the literal translation of the phrase is explained by the commentator Nilakantha, as 'talus inter talos eximius.' I have adopted Schlegel's reading, which substitutes Dwapara for Kali, as possessing the dice.]

[Footnote 58: p. 20. l. 23. _Then the charioteer advancing_. The charioteer appears as one of the great officers of state: the master of the horse would convey as lofty a meaning to an English ear.]

[Footnote 59: p. 21. l. 1. _Ill they brook this dire misfortune_. Vyasana is a misfortune in a king: neglect of his duty for the pleasures of the chase, gambling, etc.]

[Footnote 60: p. 22. l. 1. _Punyasloka, king of men_. Punyasloka is a title applied to other kings celebrated in Hindu poetry, to Yudishthira, and also to Vishnu: it means, celebrated in sacred poems. WILSON, Dict. in voce.]

[Footnote 61: p. 23. l. 13. _--to Cundina's city go_. Cundina is the capital of the kingdom of Vidarbha.]

[Footnote 62: p. 23. l. 23. _Thence departing, to Ayodhya_. Ayodhya, or Oude, is famous in all the early poetry of India. "On the banks of the Suruyoo is a large country called Koshula, gay and happy, and abounding with cattle, corn, and wealth. In that country was a famous city called Ayodhya, built formerly by Munoo, the lord of men. A great city, twelve yojanas in extent, the houses of which stood in triple and long-extended rows. It was rich, and perpetually adorned with new improvements; the streets and valleys were admirably disposed, and the principal streets well watered. It was filled with merchants of various descriptions, and adorned with abundance of jewels; difficult of access, filled with spacious houses, beautified with gardens, and groves of mango trees, surrounded by a deep and impassable moat, and completely furnished with arms; was ornamented with stately gates and porticoes, and constantly guarded by archers, etc. etc." Ramayana, translated by CAREY and MARSHMAN, vol. i. p. 60.]

[Footnote 63: p. 25. l. 16. _--to the region of the south_. Dakshinaptha signifies properly the land on the right hand; as in the Semitic language the south is that which is on the right hand. It means here the land to the south of the Nerbudda. Dakshinapatha is very probably meant in the word used by Arrian, Dachinabades. KOSEGARTEN.]

[Footnote 64: p. 25. l. 17. _Passing by Avanti's city_. Avanti, which Bopp makes a mountain, according to Kosegarten and Mr. Wilson is a city, Oujein. Bopp draws a somewhat fanciful analogy between Avanti and the Aventine at Rome. He refers also to Himavan, qu. Mavanten, 'montem.' The philological student will do well to consult this note of Bopp. In the Meghaduta, Oujein is Aventi:

Behold the city, whose immortal fame, Glows in Avanti's or Visala's name. line 193.

The synonyms of Oujein are thus enumerated by Hemachandra: Ujjayini, Visala, Avanti, and Pashparavandini. Rikshavan, i. e. bear-having, the mount of bears, is part of the Vindhya chain, separating Malwa from Kandesh and Berar. WILSON.]

[Footnote 65: p. 25. l. 18. _Vindhya here, the mighty mountain_. See note to 'Cloud-Messenger,' page 92 to 94. Compare likewise Asiatic Researches, i. p. 380, where, in one of the famous inscriptions on the staff of Feroz Shah, it is named as one of the boundaries of Aryaverta, the land of virtue, or India. It is named also in the curious Indian grant of land found at Tanna. Asiatic Researches, i. 366.]

[Footnote 66: p. 25. l. 18. _--and Payoshni's seaward stream_. Payoshni, a river that flows from the Vindhya, mentioned in the Brahmanda Purana. Asiatic Researches, viii. 341.]

[Footnote 67: p. 25. l. 20. _--this to Cosala away_. Cosala, a city of Ayodhya, or Oude. Cosala is mentioned in the Brahmanda Purana as beyond the Vindhya mountains. Asiatic Researches, viii. 343.]

[Footnote 68: p. 27. l. 7. _Both together by one garment_. The poet supposes that Damayanti had bestowed half her single garment upon Nala. BOPP. This, however, does not appear to be the case.]

[Footnote 69: p. 28. l. 4. _From her virtue none dare harm her_. Spenser's Una, and still more the lady in Comus, will recur to the remembrance of the English reader. See Quarterly Review, vol. xlv. p. 20.]

[Footnote 70: p. 28. l. 24. _--may the genii of the woods_. He calls on the Adityas, Vasavas, and Rudras, the Aswinas, the Maruts. This is the literal version. They are different orders of genii, each consisting of a definite number. The Adityas are twelve, and preside over the different months. They are called the children of Kasyapa and of Aditi his wife. According to Mr. Wilkins (notes to the Bhagavat-Gita, p. 144), they are no more than emblems of the sun for each month in the year. Mr. Wilkins gives their names:

The Vasavas, or Vasus, are eight. Indra is the first. They are the guardians of the world, and apparently the same with the eight gods mentioned in the early part of the poem.

The Rudras are eleven; according to some the eleven personifications of Siva, who bears the name of Rudra. Bhagavat-Gita, p. 85. note 144. "The lord of creation meditated profoundly on the earth, and created the gods, the Vasus, Rudras, and Adityas." COLEBROOKE, in Asiatic Researches, viii. 453.

For the Aswinas see former note.

The Maruts are forty-nine: they preside over the winds (MENU, iii. 88.) The chief god of the wind, Pavana, is called Marut. Their origin is described in the Ramayana, i. 420. See also the Hindu Pantheon, p. 92.]

[Footnote 71: p. 30. l. 14. _Hence one moment, thus deserted_. Conjugal duty is carried to a great height in the laws of Menu: "Though unobservant of approved usages, or enamoured of another woman, or devoid of good qualities, yet a husband must constantly be revered as a god by a virtuous wife." v. 154.]

[Footnote 72: p. 31. l. 11. _--in the satyr-haunted wood_. Swapada, dog-footed: the dog is an unclean animal in India. As the goat-footed, the 'capripedes satyri' in Greece, I have thought the satyr not so exclusively Greek but that it might be used for any "wild man of the woods." The word is also derived from 'swan, a dog,' and 'apad, to resemble,' and is explained by Mr. Wilson, ferocious, savage.]

[Footnote 73: p. 32. l. 21. _--uttered loud her curse of wrath_. The power of a curse, according to Indian belief, will be best illustrated to the reader of English poetry by "the Curse of Kehama." In the "Death of Yajnadatta," included in this volume, we find the effects of a Brahmin's curse described.]

[Footnote 74: p. 33. l. 5. _Trees of every form and stature_. I have omitted a long list of trees, the names of which, conveying no notion to an English ear, and wanting the characteristic epithets of Ovid's or of Spenser's well-known and picturesque forest description, would only perplex the reader with several lines of unintelligible words. To the Indian ear these names, pregnant with pleasing associations, and descriptive in their etymological meaning, would no doubt convey the same delight as those of the Latin or English poet.]

[Footnote 75: p. 33. l. 9. _--serpents, elves, and giants saw_. Kosegarten has translated this word 'elves:' they are a kind of evil spirit. In Menu, ii. 96, they are named with the Yakshas and Rakshasas as partaking of unclean food.]

[Footnote 76: p. 35. l. 22. _All the trees of richest foliage_. A general description has again been substituted in these two lines for the names of various trees.]

[Footnote 77: p. 36. l. 4. _--of the regal sacrifice_. The king's offering. See COLEBROOKE, in Asiatic Researches, viii. 430.]

[Footnote 78: p. 36. l. 15. _--soma quaffing, fire adoring_. Soma, the juice of the Asclepias acida, the moon plant. Drinking the expressed juice of this plant is a holy ceremony, used at the completion of a sacrifice, and sanctifies the drinker. "He alone is worthy to drink the juice of the moon plant who keep a provision of grain sufficient to supply those whom the law commands him to nourish, for the term of three years or more. But a twice-born man, who keeps a less provision of grain, yet presumes to taste the juice of the moon plant, shall gather no fruit from that sacrament, even though he taste it at the first or solemn, or much less at any occasional ceremony." MENU, iii. 197. All the ancestors of the Brahmins are 'Soma-pas, moon-plant drinkers.']

[Footnote 79: p. 36. l. 15. _--fire adoring_. Watching or maintaining the sacred fire is another duty: it peculiarly belongs to priests and hermits. The latter may watch the fire mentally: "Then having reposited his holy fires, as the law directs, in his mind, let him live without external fire, without a mansion, wholly silent, feeding on roots and fruit." MENU, vi. 25.]

[Footnote 80: p. 37. l. 2. _--sweet as the amrita draught_. For the amrita, the drink of immortality, see Curse of Kehama, the extract from the Mahabharata quoted by Mr. Wilkins in his notes to the Bhagavat-Gita, and Ramayana, I. 410.]

[Footnote 81: p. 37. l. 10. _To the ancient famous hermits_. These famous hermits, whose names I have omitted, were Bhrigu, Atri, and Vasishta.]

[Footnote 82: p. 37. l. 11. _Self-denying, strict in diet_. The sixth book of Menu is filled with instructions to those who are engaged in 'tapasa:' it is entitled, "On Devotion." "When the father of a family perceives his muscles become flaccid, and his hair gray, and sees the child of his child, let him then seek refuge in a forest. Abandoning all food eaten in towns, and all his household utensils, let him repair to the lonely wood, committing the care of his wife to her sons, or accompanied by her, if she choose to attend him. Let him take up his consecrated fire, and all his domestic implements of making oblations to it, and departing from the town to the forest, let him dwell in it with complete power over his organs of sense and of action. With many sorts of pure food, such as holy sages used to eat, with green herbs, roots, and fruit, let him perform the five great sacraments before mentioned, introducing them with due ceremonies. Let him wear a black antelope's hide, or a vesture of bark; let him suffer the hairs of his head, his beard, and his nails, to grow continually." MENU, vi. 2. et seqq.]

[Footnote 83: p. 37. l. 18. _pulchris femoribus_. Clausulam hanc prudens omisi.]

[Footnote 84: p. 37. l. 25. _Take thy seat, they said, oh lady_. The hospitality of the hermits to Damayanti is strictly according to law. "With presents of water, roots, and fruit, let him honour those who visit his hermitage."]

[Footnote 85: p. 37. l. 27. _In your sacred fires, your worship._ "Let him, as the law directs, make oblations on the hearth with three sacred fires." MENU, vi. 9. Compare iv. 25.]

[Footnote 86: p. 37. l. 27. _--blameless, with your beasts and birds._ Hermits were to have "a tender affection for all animated bodies," MENU, vi. 8.]

[Footnote 87: p. 38. l. 12. _--twice-born Sages, know ye me_. The three first castes are "twice-born." The first birth is from the natural mother; the second from the ligation of the zone; the third from the due performance of the sacrifice: such are the births of him who is usually called twice-born, according to the text of the Veda: among them his divine birth is that which is distinguished by the ligation of the zone and sacrificial cord, and in that birth the Gayatri is his mother, and the Acharya his father. MENU, ii. 169.]

[Footnote 88: p. 39. l. 15. _Through devotion now we see him_. The kind of prophetic trance, in which holy men, abstracted from all earthly thoughts, were enwrapt, enabled them to see things future.]

[Footnote 89: p. 40. l. 6. _Best of trees, the Asoca blooming_. The Asoca is a shrub consecrated to Mahadeva; men and women of all classes ought to bathe, on a particular day, in some holy stream, especially the Brahma-putra, and drink water with the buds of the Asoca floating in it. This shrub is planted near the temples of Siva, and grows abundantly on Ceylon. Sita is said to have been confined in a grove of it, while in captivity by Ravana; other relators say that she was confined in a place or house called Asocavan. The Asoca is a plant of the first order of the eighth class, of leguminous fructification, and bears flowers of exquisite beauty. Van Rheede (Hortus Malab. vol. v. tab. 59.) calls it Asjogam. See Asiatic Researches, iii. 254, 277. MOOR, Hindu Pantheon, 55.]

[Footnote 90: p. 40. l. 17. _Truly be thou named Asoca_. Asoca, from _a_, privative, and _soka_, grief: a play of words, as when Helen, in Euripides, is called '[Greek: 'Elenas], the destroyer of ships.' Many other instances will occur to the classical reader. In Malati and Madhava, the forlorn lover in turn addresses different objects of nature, the clouds, the birds, and the elephants, to inform him whether they have seen his lost mistress. ACT ix. See, however, Mr. WILSON's note, who seems to think that he addresses the sylvan deities.]

[Footnote 91: p. 42. l. 8. _--Manibhadra, guard us well_. Manibhadra, the tutelar deity of travellers and merchants: probably a name of Kuvera, the god of wealth.]

[Footnote 92: p. 42. l. 11. _To the realm of Chedi's sovereign_. Chedi is the name of the country now called Chandail. The country is perpetually named in the marriage of Roukmini, extracted from the Harivansa by Mons. LANGLOIS, Monumens de l'Inde, p. 96.]

[Footnote 93: p. 43. Compare the Raghuvansa, ch. v. 43 to 49.]

[Footnote 94: p. 43. l. 12.