The Ramayana Part 194

Signor Gorresio has published an excellent translation of the Uttaraka??a, in Italian prose, from the recension current in Bengal;(1030) and Mr. Muir has epitomized a portion of the book in the Appendix to the Fourth Part of his Sanskrit Texts (1862). From these scholars I borrow freely in the following pages, and give them my hearty thanks for saving me much wearisome labour.

"After Rama had returned to Ayodhya and taken possession of the throne, the ris.h.i.+s [saints] a.s.sembled to greet him, and Agastya, in answer to his questions recounted many particulars regarding his old enemies. In the Krita Yuga (or Golden Age) the austere and pious Brahman ris.h.i.+ Pulastya, a son of Brahma, being teased with the visits of different damsels, proclaimed that any one of them whom he again saw near his hermitage should become pregnant. This had not been heard by the daughter of the royal ris.h.i.+ Tri?avindu, who one day came into Pulastya's neighbourhood, and her pregnancy was the result (Sect. 2, vv. 14 ff.). After her return home, her father, seeing her condition, took her to Pulastya, who accepted her as his wife, and she bore a son who received the name of Visravas.

This son was, like his father, an austere and religious sage. He married the daughter of the muni Bharadvaja, who bore him a son to whom Brahma gave the name of Vaisrava?-Kuvera (Sect. 3, vv. 1 ff.). He performed austerities for thousands of years, when he obtained from Brahma as a boon that he should be one of the guardians of the world (along with Indra, Varu?a, and Yama) and the G.o.d of riches. He afterwards consulted his father Visravas about an abode, and at his suggestion took possession of the city of Lanka, which had formerly been built by Visvakarman for the Rakshasas, but had been abandoned by them through fear of Vish?u, and was at that time unoccupied. Rama then (Sect. 4) says he is surprised to hear that Lanka had formerly belonged to the Rakshasas, as he had always understood that they were the descendants of Pulastya, and now he learns that they had also another origin. He therefore asks who was their ancestor, and what fault they had committed that they were chased away by Vish?u. Agastya replies that when Brahma created the waters, he formed certain beings,-some of whom received the name of Rakshasas,-to guard them. The first Rakshasas kings were Heti and Praheti. Heti married a sister of Kala (Time). She bore him a son Vidyutkesa, who in his turn took for his wife Lankatanka[t.]a, the daughter of Sandhya (V. 21). She bore him a son Sukesa, whom she abandoned, but he was seen by Siva as he was pa.s.sing by with his wife Parvati, who made the child as old as his mother, and immortal, and gave him a celestial city. Sukesa married a Gandharvi called Devavati who bore three sons, Malyavat, Sumali and Mali. These sons practised intense austerities, when Brahma appeared and conferred on them invincibility and long life. They then hara.s.sed the G.o.ds. Visvakarma gave them a city, Lanka, on the mountain Triku?a, on the sh.o.r.e of the southern ocean, which he had built at the command of Indra.... The three Rakshasa, Malyavat and his two brothers, then began to oppress the G.o.ds, ris.h.i.+s, etc.; who (Sect. 6, v. 1 ff.) in consequence resort for aid to Mahadeva, who having regard to his protege Sukesa the father of Malyavat, says that he cannot kill the Rakshasas, but advises the suppliants to go to Vish?u, which they do, and receive from him a promise that he will destroy their enemies. The three Rakshasa kings, hearing of this, consult together, and proceed to heaven to attack the G.o.ds. Vish?u prepares to meet them. The battle is described in the seventh section. The Rakshasas are defeated by Vish?u with great slaughter, and driven back to Lanka, one of their leaders, Mali, being slain. Malyavat remonstrates with Vish?u, who was a.s.saulting the rear of the fugitives, for his unwarrior-like conduct, and wishes to renew the combat (Sect. 8, v. 3 ff.). Vish?u replies that he must fulfil his promise to the G.o.ds by slaying the Rakshasas, and that he would destroy them even if they fled to Patala. These Rakshasas, Agastya says, were more powerful than Rava?a, and, could only be destroyed by Naraya?a, _i.e._ by Rama himself, the eternal, indestructible G.o.d. Sumali with his family lived for along time in Patala, while Kuvera dwelt in Lanka. In section 9 it is related that Sumali once happened to visit the earth, when he observed Kuvera going in his chariot to see his father Visravas. This leads him to consider how he might restore his own fortunes. He consequently desires his daughter Kaikasi to go and woo Visravas, who receives her graciously. She becomes the mother of the dreadful Rava?a, of the huge k.u.mbhakar?a, of Surpa?akha, and of the righteous Vibhisha?a, who was the last son. These children grow up in the forest. k.u.mbhakar?a goes about eating ris.h.i.+s. Kuvera comes to visit his father, when Kaikasi takes occasion to urge her son Rava?a to strive to become like his brother (Kuvera) in splendour. This Rava?a promises to do.

He then goes to the hermitage of Gokarna with his brothers to perform austerity. In section 10 their austere observances are described: after a thousand years' penance Rava?a throws his head into the fire. He repeats this oblation nine times after equal intervals, and is about to do it the tenth time, when Brahma appears, and offers a boon. Rava?a asks immortality, but is refused. He then asks that he may be indestructible by all creatures more powerful than men; which boon is accorded by Brahma together with the recovery of all the heads he had sacrificed and the power of a.s.suming any shape he pleased. Vibhisha?a asks as his boon that even amid the greatest calamities he may think only of righteousness, and that the weapon of Brahma may appear to him unlearnt, etc. The G.o.d grants his request, and adds the gift of immortality. When Brahma is about to offer a boon to k.u.mbhakar?a, the G.o.ds interpose, as, they say, he had eaten seven Apsarases and ten followers of Indra, besides ris.h.i.+s and men; and beg that under the guise of a boon stupefaction may be inflicted on him. Brahma thinks on Sarasvati, who arrives and, by Brahma's command, enters into k.u.mbhakar?a's mouth that she may speak for him. Under this influence he asks that he may receive the boon of sleeping for many years, which is granted. When however Sarasvati has left him, and he recovers his own consciousness, he perceives that he has been deluded. Kuvera by his father's advice, gives up the city of Lanka to Rava?."(1031) Rava?a marries (Sect. 12) Mandodari the beautiful daughter of the Asur Maya whose name has several times occurred in the Ramayan as that of an artist of wonderful skill. She bears a son Meghanada or the Roaring Cloud who was afterwards named Indrajit from his victory over the sovereign of the skies. The conquest of Kuvera, and the acquisition of the magic self-moving chariot which has done much service in the Ramayan, form the subject of sections XIII., XIV. and XV. "The rather pretty story of Vedavati is related in the seventeenth section, as follows: Rava?a in the course of his progress through the world, comes to the forest on the Himalaya, where he sees a damsel of brilliant beauty, but in ascetic garb, of whom he straightway becomes enamoured. He tells her that such an austere life is unsuited to her youth and attractions, and asks who she is and why she is leading an ascetic existence. She answers that she is called Vedavati, and is the vocal daughter of V?ihaspati's son, the ris.h.i.+ Kusadhwaja, sprung from him during his constant study of the Veda. The G.o.ds, gandharvas, etc., she says, wished that she should choose a husband, but her father would give her to no one else than to Vish?u, the lord of the world, whom he desired for his son-in-law. Vedavati then proceeds: 'In order that I may fulfil this desire of my father in respect of Naraya?a, I wed him with my heart. Having entered into this engagement I practise great austerity. Naraya?a and no other than he, Purushottama, is my husband. From the desire of obtaining him, I resort to this severe observance.' Rava?a's pa.s.sion is not in the least diminished by this explanation and he urges that it is the old alone who should seek to become distinguished by acc.u.mulating merit through austerity, prays that she who is so young and beautiful shall become his bride; and boasts that he is superior to Vish?u. She rejoins that no one but he would thus contemn that deity. On receiving this reply he touches the hair of her head with the tip of his finger. She is greatly incensed, and forthwith cuts off her hair and tells him that as he has so insulted her, she cannot continue to live, but will enter into the fire before his eyes. She goes on 'Since I have been insulted in the forest by thee who art wicked-hearted, I shall be born again for thy destruction. For a man of evil desire cannot be slain by a woman; and the merit of my austerity would be lost if I were to launch a curse against thee. But if I have performed or bestowed or sacrificed aught may I be born the virtuous daughter, not produced from the womb, of a righteous man.' Having thus spoken she entered the blazing fire. Then a shower of celestial flowers fell (from every part of the sky). It is she, lord, who, having been Vedavati in the Krita age, has been born (in the Treta age) as the daughter of the king of the Janakas, and (has become) thy [Rama's] bride; for thou art the eternal Vish?u. The mountain-like enemy who was [virtually] destroyed before by her wrath, has now been slain by her having recourse to thy superhuman energy." On this the commentator remarks: "By this it is signified that Sita was the princ.i.p.al cause of Rava?a's death; but the function of destroying him is ascribed to Rama."

On the words, "thou art Vish?u," in the preceding verse the same commentator remarks: "By this it is clearly affirmed that Sita was Lakshmi." This is what Parasara says: "In the G.o.d's life as Rama, she became Sita, and in his birth as Krish?a [she became] Rukmini."(1032)

In the following section (XVIII.) "Rava?a is described as violently interrupting a sacrifice which is being performed by king Marutta, and the a.s.sembled G.o.ds in terror a.s.sume different shapes to escape; Indra becomes a peac.o.c.k, Yama a crow, Kuvera a lizard, and Varu?a a swan; and each deity bestows a boon on the animal he had chosen. The peac.o.c.k's tail recalls Indra's thousand eyes; the swan's colour becomes white, like the foam of the ocean (Varu?a being its lord); the lizard obtains a golden colour; and the crow is never to die except when killed by a violent death, and the dead are to enjoy the funeral oblations when they have been devoured by the crows."(1033)

Rava? then attacks Arjuna or Karttavirya the mighty king of Mahishmati on the banks of the Narmada, and is defeated, captured and imprisoned by Arjuna. At the intercession of Pulastya (Sect. XXII.) he is released from his bonds. He then visits Kishkindha where he enters into alliance with Bali the King of the Vanars: "We will have all things in common," says Rava?, "dames, sons, cities and kingdoms, food, vesture, and all delights." His next exploit is the invasion of the kingdom of departed spirits and his terrific battle with the sovereign Yama. The poet in his description of these regions with the detested river with waves of blood, the dire lamentations, the cries for a drop of water, the devouring worm, all the tortures of the guilty and the somewhat insipid pleasures of the just, reminds one of the scenes in the under world so vividly described by Homer, Virgil, and Dante. Yama is defeated (Sect. XXVI.) by the giant, not so much by his superior power as because at the request of Brahma Yama refrains from smiting with his deadly weapon the Rakshas enemy to whom that G.o.d had once given the promise that preserved him. In the twenty-seventh section Rava? goes "under the earth into Patala the treasure-house of the waters inhabited by swarms of serpents and Daityas, and well defended by Varu?." He subdues Bhogavati the city ruled by Vasuki and reduces the Nagas or serpents to subjection. He penetrates even to the imperial seat of Varu?. The G.o.d himself is absent, but his sons come forth and do battle with the invader. The giant is victorious and departs triumphant. The twenty-eighth section gives the details of a terrific battle between Rava? and Mandhata King of Ayodhya, a distinguished ancestor of Rama. Supernatural weapons are employed on both sides and the issue of the conflict is long doubtful. But at last Mandhata prepares to use the mighty weapon "acquired by severe austerities through the grace and favour of Rudra." The giant would inevitably have been slain. But two pre-eminent Munis Pulastya and Galava beheld the fight through the power given by contemplation, and with words of exhortation they parted King Mandhata and the sovereign of the Rakshases. Rava? at last (Sect. x.x.xII.) returns homeward carrying with him in his car Pushpak the virgin daughters of kings, of Ris.h.i.+s, of Daityas, and Gandharvas whom he has seized upon his way. The thirty-sixth section describes a battle with Indra, in which the victorious Meghanada son of the giant, makes the King of the G.o.ds his prisoner, binds him with his magic art, and carries him away (Sect.

XXVII.) in triumph to Lanka. Brahma intercedes (Sect. x.x.xVIII.) and Indrajit releases his prisoner on obtaining in return the boon that sacrifice to the Lord of Fire shall always make him invincible in the coming battle. In sections x.x.xIX., XL, "we have a legend related to Rama by the sage Agastya to account for the stupendous strength of the monkey Hanuman, as it had been described in the _Ramaya?a_. Rama naturally wonders (as perhaps many readers of the _Ramaya?a_ have done since) why a monkey of such marvellous power and prowess had not easily overcome Bali and secured the throne for his friend Sugriva. Agastya replies that Hanuman was at that time under a curse from a Ris.h.i.+, and consequently was not conscious of his own might."(1034) The whole story of the marvellous Vanar is here given at length, but nothing else of importance is added to the tale already given in the Ramaya?a. The Ris.h.i.+s or saints then (Sect.

XL.) return to their celestial seats, and the Vanars, Rakshases and bears also (Sect. XLIII.) take their departure. The chariot Pushpak is restored to its original owner Kuvera, as has already been related in the Ramaya?.

The story of Rama and Sita is then continued, and we meet with matter of more human interest. The winter is past and the pleasant spring-time is come, and Rama and Sita sit together in the shade of the Asoka trees happy as Indra and Sachi when they drink in Paradise the nectar of the G.o.ds.

"Tell me, my beloved," says Rama, "for thou wilt soon be a mother, hast thou a wish in thy heart for me to gratify?" And Sita smiles and answers: "I long, O son of Raghu, to visit the pure and holy hermitages on the banks of the Ganges and to venerate the feet of the saints who there perform their rigid austerities and live on roots and berries. This is my chief desire, to stand within the hermits' grove were it but for a single day." And Rama said: "Let not the thought trouble thee: thou shalt go to the grove of the ascetics." But slanderous tongues have been busy in Ayodhya, and Sita has not been spared. Rama hears that the people are lamenting his blind folly in taking back to his bosom the wife who was so long a captive in the palace of Rava?. Rama well knows her spotless purity in thought, word, and deed, and her perfect love of him; but he cannot endure the mockery and the shame and resolves to abandon his unsuspecting wife. He orders the sad but still obedient Lakshma? to convey her to the hermitage which she wishes to visit and to leave her there, for he will see her face again no more. They arrive at the hermitage, and Lakshma?

tells her all. She falls fainting on the ground, and when she recovers her consciousness sheds some natural tears and bewails her cruel and undeserved lot. But she resolves to live for the sake of Rama and her unborn son, and she sends by Lakshma? a dignified message to the husband who has forsaken her: "I grieve not for myself," she says "because I have been abandoned on account of what the people say, and not for any evil that I have done. The husband is the G.o.d of the wife, the husband is her lord and guide; and what seems good unto him she should do even at the cost of her life."

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 Ramaya?. The years pa.s.s 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 recognizes them as his sons. Sita is invited to return and solemnly affirm her innocence before the great a.s.sembly.

"But Sita's heart was too full; this second ordeal was beyond even her power to submit to, and the poet rose above the ordinary Hindu level of women 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 low her face, spoke thus in a voice choked with tears: "as I, even in mind, have never thought of any other than Rama, so may Madhavi the G.o.ddess 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 resplendent dragons on their heads: and seated on it, the G.o.ddess 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.'(1035)"

"Both the great Hindu epics thus end in disappointment and sorrow. In the _Mahabharata_ 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 afterthought of a self-conscious time, which has been subsequently added to cast a gloom on the strong cheerfulness of the heroic age."(1036)

"The termination of Rama's terrestrial career is thus told in Sections 116 ff. of the Uttaraka?da. Time, in the form of an ascetic, comes to his palace gate, and asks, as the messenger of the great ris.h.i.+ (Brahma) to see Rama. He is admitted 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 Lakshma? 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._ Vish?u) 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 a.s.sume the function of Preserver, and that the latter had in consequence become Vish?u, being born as the son of Aditi, and had determined to deliver mankind by destroying Rava?a, 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 G.o.ds. 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 G.o.ds. While they are speaking the irritable ris.h.i.+ Durvasas comes, and insists on seeing Rama immediately, under a threat, if refused, of cursing Rama and all his family."

Lakshma?, 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 ris.h.i.+'s message to Rama. Rama comes out, and when Durvasas has got the food he wished, and departed, Rama reflects with great distress on the words of Time, which require that Lakshma? should die. Lakshma? however exhorts Rama not to grieve, but to abandon him and not break his own promise. The counsellors concurring in this advice, Rama abandons Lakshma?, who goes to the river Sarayu, suppresses all his senses, and is conveyed bodily by Indra to heaven. The G.o.ds are delighted by the arrival of the fourth part of Vish?u. Rama then resolves to install Bharata as his successor and retire to the forest and follow Lakshma?. Bharata however refuses the succession, and determines to accompany his brother. Rama's subjects are filled with grief, and say they also will follow him wherever he goes. Messengers are sent to Satrughna, 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 G.o.ddess 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 Gayatri, the Omkara, the Vasha?kara, by ris.h.i.+s, by his women, female slaves, eunuchs, and servants. Bharata with his family, and Satrughna, follow together with Brahmans 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 G.o.ds and innumerable celestial cars, now appears, and all the sky is refulgent with the divine splendour. Pure and fragrant breezes blow, a shower of flowers falls. Rama enters the waters of the Sarayu; and Brahma utters a voice from the sky, saying: "Approach, Vish?u; Raghava, thou hast happily arrived, with thy G.o.dlike brothers.

Enter thine own body as Vish?u 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 Vish?u 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.(1037)

ADDITIONAL NOTES.

Queen Fortune.

"A curious festival is celebrated in honour of this divinity (Lakshmi) on the fifth lunar day of the light half of the month Magha (February), when she is identified with Saraswati the consort of Brahma, and the G.o.ddess of learning. In his treatise on festivals, a great modern authority, Raghunandana, mentions, on the faith of a work called _Samvatsara-sandipa_, that Lakshmi is to be wors.h.i.+pped 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 performing the necessary rites, ...

all the members of the family a.s.semble and make their prostrations; the books, the pens, and ink having an entire holiday; and should any emergency require a written communication on the day dedicated to the divinity of scholars.h.i.+p, 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 G.o.d of the atmosphere 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 atmosphere Divaspati; as lord of the eight Vasus or demiG.o.ds, Fire, etc., Vasava; as breaking cities into fragments, Purandara, Puranda; as lord of a hundred sacrifices (the performance of a hundred Asvamedhas elevating the sacrificer to the rank of Indra) Satakratu, Satamakha; as having a thousand eyes, Sahasraksha; as husband of Sachi, Sachipati. His wife is called Sachi, Indra?i, Sakra?i, Maghoni, Indrasakti, 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."

PROFESSOR M. WILLIAMS'S English-Sanskrit Dictionary. _Indra_.

Vishnu.

"The second person of the Hindu triad, and the most celebrated and popular 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 temporary annihilation, he is supposed to sleep on the waters, floating on the serpent Sesha, and is then identified with Naraya?a. Brahma, 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:

"1. The Matsya, or fish. In this avatar Vish?u descended in the form of a fish to save the pious king Satyavrata, who with the seven Ris.h.i.+s 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 G.o.ds 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,' Hira?yaksha. This demon had seized on the earth and carried it with him into the depths of the ocean. Vish?u dived into the abyss, and after a contest of a thousand years slew the monster. 4. The Narasinha, or Man-lion. In this monstrous shape of a creature half-man, half-lion, Vish?u delivered the earth from the tyranny of an insolent demon called Hira?yakasipu. 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 first or Satyayug; the object of this avatar was to trick Bali out of the dominion of the three worlds. a.s.suming 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 Vish?u 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. Krish?a, or according to some Balarama. 9. Buddha. In this avatar Vish?u 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 p.r.o.neness to animal sacrifice. Many of the Hindus will not allow this to have been an incarnation of their favourite G.o.d. 10. Kalki, or White Horse. This is yet to come. Vish?u 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."

WILLIAM'S DICTIONARY. _Vish?u._

Siva.

"A celebrated Hindu G.o.d, 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 regeneration. Hence he is sometimes confounded with Brahma, the creator or first person of the Triad. He is the particular G.o.d of the Tantrikas, or followers of the books called Tantras. His wors.h.i.+ppers are termed Saivas, and although not so numerous as the Vaish?avas, exalt their G.o.d 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 Siva is Time, Justice, Fire, Water, the Sun, 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 G.o.d of generation and justice, which latter character he shares with the G.o.d 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. 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 sometimes 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 relations.h.i.+p to water, 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. Siva has more than a thousand names which are detailed at length in the sixty-ninth chapter of the Siva Pura?a."-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 personifies there especially the Fire of the Sun, expanded into the Fire of Lightning, 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 a.s.sociated with that life; thus in the _Yajurveda_ Sunbeams are called the Apsarasas a.s.sociated with the Gandharva who is the Sun; Plants are termed the Apsarasas connected with the Gandharva Fire: Constellations are the Apsarasas 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 a.s.sist 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 unbroken austerities."-GOLDSTuCKER'S _Sanskrit Dictionary_.

Vishnu's Incarnation As Rama.

"Here is described one of the _avatars_, descents or manifestations of Vish?u in a visible form. The word _avatar_ signifies literally _descent_.

The _avatar_ which is here spoken of, that in which, according to Indian traditions, Vish?u descended and appeared upon earth in the corporeal form of Rama, the hero of the Ramayana, 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 Incarnation. 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 Incarnation there is such an immensity of difference that it is impossible to find any reasonable a.n.a.logy that can approximate them. The idea of the _avatars_ is intimately united with that of the Trimurti; the bond of connection between these two ideas is an essential notion common to both, the notion of Vish?u. What is the Trimurti? I have already said that it is composed of three G.o.ds, Brahma (masculine), Vish?u the G.o.d of _avatars_, and Siva.

These three G.o.ds, who when reduced to their primitive and most simple expression are but three cosmogonical personifications, three powers or forces of nature, these G.o.ds, I say, are here found, according to Indian doctrines, entirely external to the true G.o.d 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 wors.h.i.+pped; the indeterminate Being is never invoked; he is inaccessible to the prayers as 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, Vish?u the power which preserves, and Siva the power which destroys: 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 G.o.d of India is by himself without power; real efficacious power is attributed only to three divinities who exist externally to him. Brahma, Vish?u, and Siva, 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 G.o.d, 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 G.o.d 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 Vish?u and the Incarnation of Christ. The _avatar_ was effected altogether externally to the Being who is in India regarded as the true G.o.d. The manifestation of one essentially cosmogonical divinity wrought for the most part only material and cosmogonical 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 cosmogonical they consist in some protection accorded to men or G.o.ds, 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 Vish?u 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 Vish?u is discovered the inpress of pantheistic 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 G.o.d 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 a.s.sume 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. According to the doctrines of Christianity the Everlasting Word, Infinite Love, the Son of G.o.d, and equal to Him, a.s.sumed a human body, and being born as a man accomplished 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 G.o.d 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 Brahmanical 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 G.o.d, which by one of those intellectual errors, which Vico attributes to the vanity of the learned, had been transferred to Vish?u, have by a better inspired philosophy 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, between the two principles."-GORRESIO.