Chapter 6

_The mystic Three._] "The triad of qualities," a philosophical term familiar to all the systems of Hindú speculation. They are thus explained in the _Tattwa Samása_, a text-book of the Sánkhya school:--"Now it is asked, What is the 'triad of qualities'? It is replied, The triad of qualities consists of 'Goodness,' 'Foulness,' and 'Darkness.' By the 'triad of qualities' is meant the 'three qualities.' Goodness is endlessly diversified, accordingly as it is exemplified in calmness, lightness, complacency, attainment of wishes, kindliness, contentment, patience, joy, and the like; summarily, it consists of happiness. 'Foulness' is endlessly diversified, accordingly as it is exemplified in grief, distress, separation, excitement, anxiety, fault-finding, and the like; summarily, it consists of pain. 'Darkness' is endlessly diversified, accordingly as it is exemplified in envelopment, ignorance, disgust, abjectness, heaviness, sloth, drowsiness, intoxication, and the like; summarily, it consists of delusion."

_Thou, when a longing_, &c.] "Having divided his own substance, the mighty power became half male, half female, or _nature active and passive_."--_Manu_, Ch. I.

So also in the old Orphic hymn it is said,

[Greek: Zeus arsên geneto, Zeus ambrotos epleto numphê.] "Zeus was a male; Zeus was a deathless damsel."

_The sacred hymns._] Contained in the Vedas, or Holy Scriptures of the Hindús.

_The word of praise._] The mystic syllable OM, prefacing all the prayers and most of the writings of the Hindús. It implies the Indian triad, and expresses the Three in One.

_They hail thee, Nature._] The object of Nature's activity, according to the Sánkhya system, is "the final liberation of individual soul." "The incompetency of nature, an irrational principle, to institute a course of action for a definite purpose, and the unfitness of rational soul to regulate the acts of an agent whose character it imperfectly apprehends, constitute a principal argument with the theistical Sánkhyas for the necessity of a Providence, to whom the ends of existence are known, and by whom Nature is guided.... The atheistical Sánkhyas, on the other hand, contend that there is no occasion for a guiding Providence, but that the activity of nature, for the purpose of accomplishing soul's object, is an intuitive necessity, as illustrated in the following passage:--As it is a function of milk, an unintelligent (substance), to nourish the calf, so it is the office of the chief principle (nature) to liberate the soul."--Prof. Wilson's _Sánkhya Káriká_.

_Hail Thee the stranger Spirit_, &c.] "Soul is witness, solitary, bystander, spectator, passive."--_Sánkh. Kár._ verse xix.

_See, Varun's noose._] The God of Water.

_Weak is Kuvera's hand._] The God of Wealth.

_Yama's sceptre._] The God and Judge of the Dead.

_The Lords of Light._] The Ádityas, twelve in number, are forms of the sun, and appear to represent him as distinct in each month of the year.

_The Rudras._] A class of demi-gods, eleven in number, said to be inferior manifestations of ['S]iva, who also bears this name.

_E'en as on earth_, &c.] Thus the commandment,--Thou shalt not kill, is abrogated by the injunction to kill animals for sacrifice.

_The heavenly Teacher._] Vrihaspati, the son of Angiras.

_His own dear flower._] The lotus, on which Brahmá is represented reclining.

_Their flashing jewels._] According to the Hindú belief, serpents wear precious jewels in their heads.

_Chakra._] A discus, or quoit, the weapon of Vishnu.

_As water bears to me._] "HE, having willed to produce various beings from his own divine substance, first with a thought created the waters, and placed in them a productive seed."--_Manu_, Ch. I.

_Mournful braids._] As a sign of mourning, especially for the loss of their husbands, the Hindústáni women collect their long hair into a braid, called in Sanskrit _ve[n.]i_.

_The mango twig._] We shall meet with several allusions to this tree as the favourite of Love and the darling of the bees.

_CANTO THIRD._

_Who angers thee, &c._] To understand properly this speech of Káma, it is necessary to be acquainted with some of the Hindú notions regarding a future state. "The highest kind of happiness is absorption into the divine essence, or the return of that portion of spirit which is combined with the attributes of humanity to its original source. This happiness, according to the philosopher, is to be obtained only by the most perfect abstraction from the world and freedom from passion, even while in a state of terrestrial existence.... Besides this ultimate felicity, the Hindús have several minor degrees of happiness, amongst which is the enjoyment of Indra's Swarga, or, in fact, of a Muhammadan Paradise. The degree and duration of the pleasures of this paradise are proportioned to the merits of those admitted to it; and they who have enjoyed this lofty region of Swarga, but whose virtue is exhausted, revisit the habitation of mortals."--Prof. Wilson's _Megha Dúta_. Compare also "The Lord's Song."--_Specimens of Old Indian Poetry_, pp. 67, 68.

Indra, therefore, may be supposed to feel jealous whenever a human being aspires to something higher than that heaven of which he is the Lord.

The "chain of birth" alluded to is of course the metempsychosis, or transmigration of souls, a belief which is not to be looked upon (says Prof. Wilson in the preface to his edition of the _Sánkhya Káriká_) as a mere popular superstition. It is the main principle of all Hindú metaphysics; it is the foundation of all Hindú philosophy. The great object of their philosophical research in every system, Brahminical or Buddhist, is the discovery of the means of putting a stop to further transmigration; the discontinuance of corporeal being; the liberation of soul from body.

_As on that Snake._] Sesha, the Serpent King, is in the Hindú mythology the supporter of the earth, as, in one of the fictions of the Edda,--

"That sea-snake, tremendous curled, Whose monstrous circle girds the world."

He is also the couch and canopy of the God Vishnu, or, as he is here called, Krish[n.]a,--that hero being one of his incarnations, and considered identical with the deity himself.

_The threefold world._] Earth, heaven, and hell.

_His fearful Rati._] The wife of Káma, or Love.

_To where Kuvera &c._] The demi-god Kuvera was regent of the north.

_Nor waited for the maiden's touch._] Referring to the Hindú notion that the A['s]oka blossoms at the touch of a woman's foot. So Shelley says,

"I doubt not, the flowers of that garden sweet Rejoiced in the sound of her gentle feet." _Sensitive Plant._

_Grouping the syllables._] This comparison seems forced rather too far to suit a European taste. Kálidás is not satisfied with calling the mango-spray the Arrow of Love; he must tell us that its leaves are the feathers, and that the bees have marked it with the owner's name.

_That loveliest flower._] The Karnikára.

_His flowery Tilaka._] The name of a tree; it also means a mark made with coloured earths or unguents upon the forehead and between the eyebrows, either as an ornament or a sectarial distinction; the poet intends the word to convey both ideas at once here. In this passage is another comparison of the mango-spray: it is called the _lip_ of Love; its _rouge_ is the blush of morning, and its darker beautifying powder the clustering bees. From the universal custom of dying the lips, the Sanskrit poets are constantly speaking of their "vermeil tints," &c., as will be sufficiently evident in the course of this work.

_The Hermit's servant._] By name Nandi.

_His neck of brightly-beaming blue._] An ancient legend tells us that after the deluge the ocean was churned by Gods and demons, in order to recover the Amrit and other treasures that had been lost in it:--

"Then loud and long a joyous sound Rang through the startled sky: 'Hail to the Amrit, lost and found!' A thousand voices cry. But from the wondrous churning streamed A poison fierce and dread, Burning like fire: where'er it streamed Thick noisome mists were spread. The wanting venom onwards went, And filled the Worlds with fear, Till Brahmá to their misery bent His gracious pitying ear; And ['S]iva those destroying streams Drank up at Brahmá's beck. Still in thy throat the dark flood gleams, God of the azure neck!" Specimens of Old Indian Poetry--_Churning of the Ocean._

_Gates of sense._] The eyes, ears, &c.

_CANTO FOURTH._

_Late, dim, and joyless shall his rising be._] The Moon, in Hindú mythology, is a male deity.

_This line of bees._] Káma's bow is sometimes represented as strung in this extraordinary manner.

_And stain this foot._] "Staining the soles of the feet with a red colour, derived from the Mehndee, the Lac, &c., is a favourite practice of the Hindú toilet."--WILSON.

_CANTO FIFTH._

_And worn with resting on her rosary._] The Hindús use their rosaries much as we do, carrying them in their hands or on their wrists. As they turn them over, they repeat an inaudible prayer, or the name of the particular deity they worship, as Vish[n.]u or S'iva. The _Rudrákshá málá_ (which we may suppose Umá to have used) is a string of the seeds or berries of the Eleocarpus, and especially dedicated to S'iva. It should contain 108 berries or beads, each of which is fingered with the mental repetition of one of S'iva's 108 appellations.

_Not e'en her boy._] Kártikeya, the God of War.

_Of those poor birds._] The Chakraváki. These birds are always observed to fly in pairs during the day, but are supposed to remain separate during the night.

_That friendship soon in gentle heart is bred._]

"Amor in cor gentil ratto s'apprende." DANTE.

_CANTO SIXTH._

_The Heavenly Dame._] Arundhatí, wife of one of the Seven Saints.

_The Boar._] An Avatár, or incarnation of Vish[n.]u. In this form he preserved the world at the deluge.

_That thirsty bird._] The Chátaka, supposed to drink nothing but rain-water.

_Proud Alaká._] The capital of Kuvera, the God of Wealth.

_The bright Champac._]

"The maid of India blest again to hold In her broad lap the Champac's leaves of gold." _Lalla Rookh._

_Angiras._] One of the Seven Saints; the father of Vrihaspati, the teacher of the gods.

_Vast grew his body._] Alluding to the Vámana, or Dwarf Avatár of Vish[n.]u, wrought to restrain the pride of the giant Bali, who had expelled the Gods from heaven. In that form he presented himself before the giant, and asked him for three paces of land to build a hut. Bali ridiculed and granted the request. The dwarf immediately grew to a prodigious size, so that he measured the earth with one pace, and the heavens with another.

_Sumeru._] Another name of the sacred Mount Meru; or rather the same word, with su, good, prefixed.

_CANTO SEVENTH._

_Kailása's side._] A mountain, the fabulous residence of Kuvera, and favourite haunt of S'iva, placed by the Hindús among the Himálayas.

_Kalí came behind._] The name of one of the divine matrons. The word also signifies in Sanskrit a row or succession of clouds, suggesting the comparison which follows.

_In twofold language._] In Sanskrit and Prakrit. The latter is a softened modification of the former, to which it bears the same relation as Italian to Latin; it is spoken by the female characters of the Hindú drama.

THE END.

PRINTED BY BALLANTYNE, HANSON AND CO. EDINBURGH AND LONDON

TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES

1. Passages in italics are surrounded by _underscores_.

2. For this text version the Greek letters have been replaced with transliterations in brackets [Greek:] using English alphabet table, without diacritical marks.

3. The following words use accented characters in the original: ['S]iva has S with an acute A['s]oka has s with an acute Vish[n.]u has n with with dot below Krish[n.]a has n with with dot below ve[n.]i has n with with dot below

4. Other than the changes listed above, printer's inconsistencies in spelling, punctuation, hyphenation, and ligature usage have been retained.