The Ramayana, Valmiki [best authors to read txt] 📗
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“Go to the Vidarbhas1054 and the Rishṭikas1055 and the Mahishikas,1056 and the Matsyas1057 and Kalingas1058 and the Kauśikas1059 … and the Andhras1060 and the Puṇḍras1061 and the Cholas1062 and the Paṇḍyas1063 and the Keralas,1064 [pg 550] Mlechchhas1065 and the Pulindas1066 and the Śúrasenas,1067 and the Prasthalas and the Bharatas and Madrakas1068 and the Kámbojas1069 and the Yavanas1070 and the towns of the Śakas1071 and the Varadas.”1072
Professor Lassen remarks in the Zeitschrift für die Kunde des Morgenlandes, ii. 62: “At the furthest accessible extremity of the earth appears Harivarsha with the northern Kurus. The region of Hari or Vishṇu belongs to the system of mythical geography; but the case is different with the Uttara Kurus. Here there is a real basis of geographical fact; of which fable has only taken advantage, without creating it. The Uttara Kurus were formerly quite independent of the mythical system of dvípas, though they were included in it at an early date.” Again the same writer says at p. 65: “That the conception of the Uttara Kurus is based upon an actual country and not on mere invention, is proved (1) by the way in which they are mentioned in the Vedas; (2) by the [pg 551] existence of Uttara Kuru in historical times as a real country; and (3) by the way in which the legend makes mention of that region as the home of primitive customs. To begin with the last point the Mahábhárata speaks as follows of the freer mode of life which women led in the early world, Book I. verses 4719-22: ‘Women were formerly unconfined and roved about at their pleasure, independent. Though in their youthful innocence they abandoned their husbands, they were guilty of no offence; for such was the rule in early times. This ancient custom is even now the law for creatures born as brutes, which are free from lust and anger. This custom is supported by authority and is observed by great rishis, and it is still practiced among the northern Kurus.’
“The idea which is here conveyed is that of the continuance in one part of the world of that original blessedness which prevailed in the golden age. To afford a conception of the happy condition of the southern Kurus it is said in another place (M.-Bh, i. 4346.) ‘The southern Kurus vied in happiness with the northern Kurus and with the divine rishis and bards.’
Professor Lassen goes on to say: ‘Ptolemy (vi. 16.) is also acquainted with Uttara Kuru. He speaks of a mountain, a people, and a city called Ottorakorra. Most of the other ancient authors who elsewhere mention this name, have it from him. It is a part of the country which he calls Serica; according to him the city lies twelve degrees west from the metropolis of Sera, and the mountain extends from thence far to the eastward. As Ptolemy has misplaced the whole of eastern Asia beyond the Ganges, the relative position which he assigns will guide us better that the absolute one, which removes Ottorakorra so far to the east that a correction is inevitable. According to my opinion the Ottorakorra of Ptolemy must be sought for to the east of Kashgar.’ Lassen also thinks that Magasthenes had the Uttara Kurus in view when he referred to the Hyperboreans who were fabled by Indian writers to live a thousand years. In his Indian antiquities, (Ind. Alterthumskunde, i. 511, 512. and note,) the same writer concludes that though the passages above cited relative to the Uttara Kurus indicate a belief in the existence of a really existing country of that name in the far north, yet that the descriptions there given are to be taken as pictures of an ideal paradise, and not as founded on any recollections of the northern origin of the Kurus. It is probable, he thinks, that some such reminiscences originally existed, and still survived in the Vedic era, though there is no trace of their existence in latter times.” Muir's Sanskrit Texts, Vol. II. pp. 336, 337.
The corresponding passage in the Bengal recension has “these silvans in the forms of monkeys, vánaráh kapirupinah.” “Here it manifestly appears,” says Gorresio, “that these hosts of combatants whom Ráma led to the conquest of Lanká (Ceylon) the kingdom and seat of the Hamitic race, and whom the poem calls monkeys, were in fact as I have elsewhere observed, inhabitants of the mountainous and southern regions of India, who were wild-looking and not altogether unlike monkeys. They were perhaps the remote ancestors of the Malay races.”
[pg 552]All these exploits of Rávaṇ are detailed in the Uttarakáṇḍa, and epitomized in the Appendix.
The Bráhman householder ought to maintain three sacred fires, the Gárhapatya, the Ahavaniya and the Dakshiṇa. These three fires were made use of in many Brahmanical solemnities, for example in funeral rites when the three fires were arranged in prescribed order.
“I have not noticed in the Úttara Káṇda any story about the daughter of Varuṇa, but the commentator on the text (VI 60, 11) explains the allusion to her thus:
“The daughter of Varuṇa was Punjikasthalí. On her account, a curse of Brahmá, involving the penalty of death, [was pronounced] on the rape of women.” Muir, Sanskrit Texts, Part IV. Appendix.
“Here are indicated those admirable rites and those funeral prayers which Professor Müller has described in his excellent work, Die Todtenbestattung bei den Brahmanen, Sítá laments that the body of Ráma will not be honoured with those rites and prayers, nor will the Bráhman priest while laying the ashes from the pile in the bosom of the earth, pronounce over them those solemn and magnificent words: ‘Go unto the earth, thy mother, the ample, wide, and blessed earth.… And do thou, O Earth, open and receive him as a friend with sweet greeting: enfold him in thy bosom as a mother wraps her child in her robes.’ ” Gorresio.
We read in Josephus that Caesar was so well versed in chiromancy that when one day a soi-disant son of Herod had audience of him, he at once detected the impostor because his hand was destitute of all marks of royalty.
“Here the commentator explains: ‘the battle resembled the dance of the Gandharvas,’ in accordance with the notion of the Gandharvas entertained in his day. They were regarded as celestial musicians enlivening with their melodies [pg 553] Indra's heaven and the banquets of the Gods. But the Gandharvas before becoming celestial musicians in popular tradition, were in the primitive and true signification of the name heroes, spirited and ardent warriors, followers of Indra, and combined the heroical character with their atmospherical deity. Under this aspect the dance of the Gandharvas may be a very different thing from what the commentator means, and may signify the horrid dance of war.” Gorresio.
The Homeric expression is similar, “to dance a war-dance before Ares.”
“The story of Anaraṇya is told in the Uttara Kaṇḍa of the Rámáyaṇa.… Anaraṇya a descendant of Ixváku and King of Ayodhyá, when called upon to fight with Rávaṇa or acknowledge himself conquered, prefers the former alternative; but his army is overcome, and he himself is thrown from his chariot.
When Rávaṇa triumphs over his prostrate foe, the latter says that he has been vanquished not by him but by fate, and that Rávaṇa is only the instrument of his overthrow; and he predicts that Rávaṇa shall one day be slain by his descendant Ráma.” Sanskrit Texts, IV., Appendix.
“With regard to the magic image of Sítá made by Indrajit, we may observe that this thoroughly oriental idea is also found in Greece in Homer's Iliad, where Apollo forms an image of Æneas to save that hero beloved by the Gods: it occurs too in the Æneid of Virgil where Juno forms a fictitious Æneas to save Turnus:
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