Chapter 6 (2)

_Aswa_ and _haya_ are synonymous Sanskrit terms for ‘horse’; _asp_ in
Persian; and as applied by the prophet Ezekiel [xxxviii. 6] to the
Getic invasion of Scythia, A.C. 600: “the sons of Togarmah riding on
horses”; described by Diodorus, the period the same as the Takshak
invasion of India.

Footnote 2.6.44:

[Hystaspes is from old Persian, Vishtāspa, ‘possessor of horses.’ The
author derives it from a modern Hindi word _hīnsna_, ‘to neigh,’
possibly from recollection of the story in Herodotus iii. 85.]

Footnote 2.6.45:

[He possibly refers to the statement (_Germania_, v.), that their
coins bore the impress of a two-horse chariot.]

Footnote 2.6.46:

Asirgarh, ‘fortress of the Asi’ [_IGI_, vi. 12].

Footnote 2.6.47:

The great (_maha_) warrior (_vir_). [Buddha lived 567-487 B.C.:
Mahāvīra, founder of Jainism, died about 527 B.C.]

Footnote 2.6.48:

Yeutland was the name given to the whole Cimbric Chersonese, or
Jutland (Pinkerton, _On the Goths_).

Footnote 2.6.49:

Turk, Turushka, Takshak, or ‘Taunak, fils de Turc’ (Abulghazi,
_History of the Tatars_).

Footnote 2.6.50:

_Histoire des Huns_, vol. i. p. 42.

Footnote 2.6.51:

Though Tacitus calls the German tribes indigenous, it is evident he
knew their claim to Asiatic origin, when he asks, “Who would leave the
softer abodes of Asia for Germany, where Nature yields nothing but
deformity?”

Footnote 2.6.52:

In an inscription of the Geta or Jat Prince of Salindrapur (Salpur) of
the fifth century, he is styled “of the race of Tusta” (_qu._
Tuisto?). It is in that ancient nail-headed character used by the
ancient Buddhists of India, and still the sacred character of the
Tatar Lamas: in short, the Pali. All the ancient inscriptions I
possess of the branches of the Agnikulas, as the Chauhan, Pramara,
Solanki, and Parihara, are in this character. That of the Jat prince
styles him “Jat Kathida” (_qu._ of (da) Cathay?). From Tuisto and
Woden we have our Tuesday and Wednesday. In India, Wednesday is
Budhwar (Dies Mercurii), and Tuesday Mangalwar (Dies Martis), the
Mardi of the French.

Footnote 2.6.53:

Tacitus, _Germania_, xxxviii.

Footnote 2.6.54:

The gau, or cow, symbolic of Prithivi, the earth. On this see note, p.
33.

Footnote 2.6.55:

[_Germania_, ix.]

Footnote 2.6.56:

Krishna is the preserving deity of the Hindu triad. Krishna is of the
Indu line of Budha, whom he worshipped prior to his own deification.

Footnote 2.6.57:

‘Mahurat ka shikar.’

Footnote 2.6.58:

The Siebi of Tacitus.

Footnote 2.6.59:

Sammes’s _Saxon Antiquities_.

Footnote 2.6.60:

Hara is the Thor of Scandinavia; Hari is Budha, Hermes, or Mercury.

Footnote 2.6.61:

Mallet derives it from _kempfer_, ‘to fight.’ [The name is said to
mean ‘comrades’ (Rhys, _Celtic Britain_, 116). Irmansūl means ‘a
colossus,’ and has no connexion with Skr. _sūla_ (Grimm, _Teutonic
Mythology_, i. 115).]

Footnote 2.6.62:

_Ku_ is a mere prefix, meaning ‘evil’; ‘the evil striker (_Mar_).’
Hence, probably, the Mars of Rome. The birth of Kumar, the general of
the army of the gods, with the Hindus, is exactly that of the
Grecians, born of the goddess Jahnavi (Juno) without sexual
intercourse. Kumāra is always accompanied by the peacock, the bird of
Juno. [Kumāra probably means ‘easily dying’; there is no connexion
with Mars, originally a deity of vegetation.]

Footnote 2.6.63:

For a drawing of the Scandinavian god of battle see Sammes.

Footnote 2.6.64:

I have in contemplation to give to the public a few of the sixty-nine
books of the poems of Chand, the last great bard of the last Hindu
emperor of India, Prithwiraja. They are entirely heroic: each book a
relation of one of the exploits of this prince, the first warrior of
his time. They will aid a comparison between the Rajput and
Scandinavian bards, and show how far the Provençal Troubadour, the
Neustrienne Trouveur, and Minnesinger of Germany, have anything in
common with the Rajput Bardai. [For Rajput bards on horseback, drunk
with opium, singing songs to arouse warriors’ courage, see Manucci ii.
437 f.]

Footnote 2.6.65:

Ἥλυσιος, from Ἥλιος, ‘the sun’; also a title of Apollo, the Hari of
India. [The two words, from the accentuation, can have no connexion.]

Footnote 2.6.66:

This title of the father of Rama denotes a ‘charioteer’ [‘having ten
chariots.’ Harsha (A.D. 612-647) discarded the chariot (Smith, _EHI_,
339)].

Footnote 2.6.67:

The Indian satrapy of Darius, says Herodotus [iii. 94], was the
richest of all the Persian provinces, and yielded six hundred talents
of gold. Arrian informs us that his Indo-Scythic subjects, in his wars
with Alexander, were the élite of his army. Besides the Sakasenae, we
find tribes in name similar to those included in the thirty-six
Rajkula; especially the Dahae (Dahya, one of the thirty-six races).
The Indo-Scythic contingent was two hundred war chariots and fifteen
elephants, which were marshalled with the Parthii on the right, and
also near Darius’s person. By this disposition they were opposed to
the cohort commanded by Alexander in person. The chariots commenced
the action, and prevented a manœuvre of Alexander to turn the left
flank of the Persians. Of their horse, also, the most honourable
mention is made; they penetrated into the division where Parmenio
commanded, to whom Alexander was compelled to send reinforcements. The
Grecian historian dwells with pleasure on Indo-Scythic valour: “there
were no equestrian feats, no distant fighting with darts, but each
fought as if victory depended on his sole arm.” They fought the Greeks
hand to hand [Arrian, _Anabasis_, iii. 15].

But the loss of empire was decreed at Arbela, and the Sakae and
Indo-Scythae had the honour of being slaughtered by the Yavans of
Greece, far from their native land, in the aid of the king of kings.

Footnote 2.6.68:

The Kathi are celebrated in Alexander’s wars. The Kathiawar Kathi can
be traced from Multan (_the ancient abode_) [_mūlasthāna_, ‘principal
place’]. The Dahya (Dahae), Johya (the latter Hunnish), and Kathi are
amongst the thirty-six races. All dwelt, six centuries ago, within the
five streams and in the deserts south of the Ghara. The two last have
left but a name.

Footnote 2.6.69:

The Sakae had invaded the inhabitants on the borders of the Pontic
Sea: whilst engaged in dividing the booty, the Persian generals
surprised them at night, and exterminated them. To eternize the
remembrance of this event, the Persians heaped up the earth round a
rock in the plain where the battle was fought, on which they erected
two temples, one to the goddess Anaītis, the other to the divinities
Omanus and Anandate, and then founded the annual festival called
_Sacaea_, still celebrated by the possessors of Zela. Such is the
account by some authors of the origin of _Sacaea_. According to others
it dates from the reign of Cyrus only. This prince, they say, having
carried the war into the country of the Sakae (Massagetae of
Herodotus) lost a battle. Compelled to fall back on his magazines,
abundantly stored with provisions, but especially wine, and having
halted some time to refresh his army, he departed before the enemy,
feigning a flight, and leaving his camp standing full of provisions.
The Sakae, who pursued, reaching the abandoned camp stored with
provisions, gave themselves up to debauch. Cyrus returned and
surprised the inebriated and senseless barbarians. Some, buried in
profound sleep, were easily massacred; others occupied in drinking and
dancing, without defence, fell into the hands of armed foes: so that
all perished. The conqueror, attributing his success to divine
protection, consecrated this day to the goddess honoured in his
country, and decreed it should be called ‘the day of the _Sacaea_.’
This is the battle related by Herodotus, to which Strabo alludes,
between the Persian monarch and Tomyris, queen of the Getae. Amongst
the Rajput Sakha, all grand battles attended with fatal results are
termed _sakha_. When besieged, without hope of relief, in the last
effort of despair, the females are immolated, and the warriors,
decorated in saffron robes, rush on inevitable destruction. This is to
perform _sakha_, where every branch (sakha) is cut off. Chitor has to
boast of having thrice (and a half) suffered sakha. _Chitor sakha ka
pap_, ‘by the sin of the sack of Chitor,’ the most solemn adjuration
of the Guhilot Rajput. If such the origin of the festival from the
slaughter of the Sakae of Tomyris, it will be allowed to strengthen
the analogy contended for between the Sakae east and west the Indus.
[For the Sacaea festival see Sir J. Frazer, _The Golden Bough, The
Dying God_, 113 ff. It has no connexion with the Rajput Sākha, ‘a
fight,’ which, again, is a different word from Sākha, ‘a branch,
clan.’]

Footnote 2.6.70:

I presented a work on this subject to the Royal Asiatic Society, as
well as another on Palmistry, etc.

Footnote 2.6.71:

_Madhu_ is intoxicating drink, from _madhu_, ‘a bee,’ in Sanskrit
[madhu, ‘anything sweet’]. It is well known that mead is from honey.
It would be curious if the German mead was from the Indian madhu
(bee): then both cup (_kharpara_) and beverage would be borrowed.
[_Madhu_ does not mean ‘a bee’ in Sanskrit.]

Footnote 2.6.72:

_Amrita_ (immortal), from the initial privative and _mrit_, ‘death.’
Thus the _Immurthal_, or ‘vale of immortality,’ at Neufchatel, is as
good Sanskrit as German [?].

Footnote 2.6.73:

Abhai Singh, ‘the fearless lion,’ prince of Marwar, whose bard makes
this speech at the festal board, when the prince presented with his
own hand the cup to the bard.

Footnote 2.6.74:

Regner Lodbrog, in his dying ode, when the destinies summon him.

Footnote 2.6.75:

Phūl, the flower of the mahua tree, the favourite drink of a Rajput.
Classically, in Sanskrit it is _madhūka_, of the class Polyandria
Monogynia [_Bassia latifolia_] (see _As. Res._ vol. i. p. 300).

Footnote 2.6.76:

A human skull; in the dialects pronounced _khopar_: _Qu._ _cup_ in
Saxon? [Cup, in Low Latin _cuppa_.]

Footnote 2.6.77:

The Kanphara [or Kanphata] Jogis, or Gosains, are in great bodies,
often in many thousands, and are sought as allies, especially in
defensive warfare. In the grand military festivals at Udaipur to the
god of war, the scymitar, symbolic of Mars, worshipped by the
Guhilots, is entrusted to them [_IA_, vii. 47 ff.; _BG_, ix. part i.
543].

Footnote 2.6.78:

An entire cemetery of these, besides many detached, I have seen, and
also the sacred rites to their manes by the disciples occupying these
abodes of austerity, when the flowers of the _ak_ [_Calatropis
gigantea_] and leaves of evergreen were strewed on the grave, and
sprinkled with the pure element.

Footnote 2.6.79:

Mallet’s _Northern Antiquities_, chap. xii.

Footnote 2.6.80:

Mallet chap. xii. vol. i. p. 289.

Footnote 2.6.81:

Edda.

Footnote 2.6.82:

Mallet’s _Northern Antiquities_, chap. xii. The Celtic Franks had the
same custom. The arms of Chilperic, and the bones of the horse on
which he was to be presented to Odin, were found in his tomb.

Footnote 2.6.83:

The Dakini (the Jigarkhor of Sindh) is the genuine vampire [_Āīn_, ii.
338 f.]. Captain Waugh, after a long chase in the valley of Udaipur,
speared a hyena, whose abode was the tombs, and well known as the
steed on which the witch of Ar sallied forth at night. Evil was
predicted: and a dangerous fall, subsequently, in chasing an elk, was
attributed to his sacrilegious slaughter of the weird sister’s steed.

Footnote 2.6.84:

Pitri-deva, ‘Father-lords.’

Footnote 2.6.85:

Mallet chap. xii.

Footnote 2.6.86:

At Gwalior, on the east side of that famed fortress, where myriads of
warriors have fattened the soil, these phosphorescent lights often
present a singular appearance. I have, with friends whose eyes this
will meet, marked the procession of these lambent night-fires,
becoming extinguished at one place and rising at another, which, aided
by the unequal _locale_, have been frequently mistaken for the
Mahratta prince returning with his numerous torch-bearers from a
distant day’s sport. I have dared as bold a Rajput as ever lived to
approach them; whose sense of the levity of my desire was strongly
depicted, both in speech and mien: “men he would encounter, but not
the spirits of those erst slain in battle.” It was generally about the
conclusion of the rains that these lights were observed, when
evaporation took place from these marshy grounds impregnated with
salts.

Footnote 2.6.87:

At Dwarka, the god of thieves is called Budha Trivikrama, or of triple
energy: the Hermes Triplex, or three-headed Mercury of the Egyptians.
[No such cult is mentioned in the account of Dwārka, _BG_, viii. 601.]

Footnote 2.6.88:

Caesar informs us that the Celts of Britain would not eat the hare,
goose, or domestic fowl. The Rajput will hunt the first, but neither
eats it, nor the goose, sacred to the god of battle (Hara). The Rajput
of Mewar eats the jungle fowl, but rarely the domestic.

Footnote 2.6.89:

As he did also to Balnath (the god Bal) in the ancient times of India.
The _baldan_, or gift of the bull to the sun, is well recorded.
[_Baldān_, _balidāna_ does not mean the offering of a bull: it is the
daily presentation of a portion of the meat to Earth and other
deities.] There are numerous temples in Rajasthan of Baalim [?]; and
Balpur (Mahadeo) has several in Saurashtra. All represent the sun—

Peor his other name, when he enticed
Israel in Sittim, on their march from Nile.
_Paradise Lost_, book i. 412 f. [77].

The temple of Solomon was to Bal, and all the idolaters of that day
seem to have held to the grosser tenets of Hinduism.

Footnote 2.6.90:

In _Aswa_ (_medha_ signifies ‘to kill’) we have the derivation of the
ancient races, sons of Bajaswa, who peopled the countries on both
sides the Indus, and the probable etymon of _Asia_ [?]. The Assakenoi,
the Ariaspai of Alexander’s historians, and Aspasianae, to whom
Arsaces fled from Seleucus, and whom Strabo terms a Getic race, have
the same origin; hence Asigarh, ‘the fortress of the Asi’ (erroneously
termed Hansi), and Asgard were the first settlements of the Getic Asi
in Scandinavia. Alexander received the homage of all these Getic races
at ‘the mother of cities,’ Balkh, ‘seat of Cathaian Khan’ (the Jat
Kathida of my inscription), according to Marco Polo, from whom Milton
took his geography.

Footnote 2.6.91:

The last was undertaken by the celebrated Sawai Jai Singh of Amber;
but the milk-white steed of the sun, I believe, was not turned out, or
assuredly the Rathors would have accepted the challenge.

Footnote 2.6.92:

A milk-white steed is selected with peculiar marks. On liberation,
properly guarded, he wanders where he listeth. It is a virtual
challenge. Arjuna guarded the steed liberated by Yudhishthira; but
that sent round by Parikshita, his grandson, “was seized by the
Takshak of the north.” The same fate occurred to Sagara, father of
Dasaratha, which involved the loss of his kingdom.

Footnote 2.6.93:

The Sarju, or Gandak, from the Kumaun mountains, passes through
Kosalades, the dominion of Dasaratha.

Footnote 2.6.94:

The horse’s return after a year evidently indicates an astronomical
revolution, or the sun’s return to the same point in the ecliptic.
This return from his southern declination must have been always a day
of rejoicing to the Scythic and Scandinavian nations, who could not,
says Gibbon, fancy a worse hell than a large abode open to the cold
wind of the north. To the south they looked for the deity; and hence,
with the Rajputs, a religious law forbids their doors being to the
north.

Footnote 2.6.95:

Kaikeya is supposed by the translator, Dr. Carey, to be a king of
Persia, the Kaivansa preceding Darius. The epithet _Kai_ not
unfrequently occurs in Hindu traditional couplets. One, which I
remember, is connected with the ancient ruins of Abhaner in Jaipur,
recording the marriage of one of its princes with a daughter of
Kaikamb.

_Tu beti_ Kaikamb _ki, nam Parmala ho_, etc. ‘Thou art the daughter of
_Kaikamb_: thy name Fairy Garland.’ _Kai_ was the epithet of one of
the Persian dynasties. _Qu._ _Kam-bakhsh_, the Cambyses of the Greeks?
[Cambyses, Kābuzīya or Kambūzīya, possibly ‘a bard’ (Rawlinson,
_Herodotus_, iii. 543).]

Footnote 2.6.96:

Benares.

Footnote 2.6.97:

Tibet or Ava [N. Bengal]

Footnote 2.6.98:

Bihar.

Footnote 2.6.99:

Sind valley.

Footnote 2.6.100:

Unknown to me [W. and S. Panjab and its vicinity].

Footnote 2.6.101:

Peninsula of Kathiawar.

Footnote 2.6.102:

I have seen several of these sacrificial pillars of stone of very
ancient date. Many years ago, when all the Rajput States were
suffering from the thraldom of the Mahrattas, a most worthy and
wealthy banker of Surat, known by the family name of Trivedi, who felt
acutely for the woes inflicted by incessant predatory foes on the sons
of Rama and Krishna, told me, with tears in his eyes, that the evils
which afflicted Jaipur were to be attributed to the sacrilege of the
prince, Jagat Singh, who had dared to abstract the gold plates of the
sacrificial pillars, and send them to his treasury: worse than
Rehoboam, who, when he took away from the temple “the shields of gold
Solomon had made,” had the grace to substitute others of brass.
Whether, when turned into currency, it went as a war contribution to
the Mahrattas, or was applied to the less worthy use of his concubine
queen, ‘the essence of camphor,’ it was of a piece with the rest of
this prince’s unwise conduct. Jai Singh, who erected the pillars, did
honour to his country, of which he was a second founder, and under
whom it attained the height from which it has now fallen. [Some
sacrificial pillars (yūpa) were recently found in the bed of the Jumna
near Mathura, with inscriptions dated in the twenty-fourth year of
Kanishka’s reign, about A.D. 102.]

Footnote 2.6.103:

On the Nauroz, or festival of the new year, the Great Mogul slays a
camel with his own hand, which is distributed, and eaten by the court
favourites. [A camel is sacrificed at the Īdu-l-azha festival (Hughes,
_Dict. Islām_, 192 ff.).]

Footnote 2.6.104:

This was native gold, of a peculiarly dark and brilliant hue, which
was compared to the fruit jambu (not unlike a damson). Everything
forms an allegory with the Hindus; and the production of this metal is
appropriated to the period of gestation of Jahnavi, the river-goddess
(Ganges), when by Agni, or fire, she produced Kumara, the god of war,
the commander of the army of the gods. This was when she left the
place of her birth, the Himalaya mountain (the great storehouse of
metallic substances), whose daughter she is: and doubtless this is in
allusion to some very remote period, when, bursting her rock-bound
bed, Ganga exposed from ‘her side’ veins of this precious metal.

Footnote 2.6.105:

Little bags of brocade, filled with seeds of the sesamum or cakes of
the same, are distributed by the chiefs to friends on this occasion.
While the author writes, he has before him two of these, sent to him
by the young Mahratta prince, Holkar.

Footnote 2.6.106:

Sivaratri would be ‘father night’ [?]. Siva-Iswara is the ‘universal
father.’

Footnote 2.6.107:

Ferishta, the compiler of the imperial history of India, gives us a
Persian or Arabic derivation of this, from _Bal_, ‘the sun,’ and
_bec_, ‘an idol.’ [This has not been traced in Dow or Briggs.]

Footnote 2.6.108:

Corrupted to Palmyra, the etymon of which, I believe, has never been
given, which is a version of Tadmor. In Sanskrit, _tal_, or _tar_, is
the ‘date-tree’; _mor_ signifies ‘chief.’ We have more than one ‘city
of palms’ (_Talpur_) in India; and the tribe ruling in Haidarabad, on
the Indus, is called _Talpuri_, from the place whence they originated.
[Tadmor is Semitic, probably meaning ‘abounding in palms.’ The
suggested derivation is impossible.]

Footnote 2.6.109:

1 Kings xiv. 23.

Footnote 2.6.110:

_Ficus religiosa._ It presents a perfect resemblance to the popul
(poplar) of Germany and Italy, a species of which is the aspen. [They
belong to different orders.] So similar is it, that the specimen of
the pipal from Carolina is called, in the Isola Bella of the Lago
Maggiore, _Populus angulata_; and another, in the Jardin des Plantes
at Toulon, is termed the _Ficus populifolia, ou figuier à feuilles de
peuplier_. The aspen, or ash, held sacred by the Celtic priests, is
said to be the mountain-ash. ‘The calf of Bal’ is generally placed
under the pipal; and Hindu tradition sanctifies a never-dying stem,
which marks the spot where the Hindu Apollo, Hari (the sun), was slain
by the savage Bhil on the shores of Saurashtra. [This is known as the
Prāchi Pīpal, and death rites are performed close to it (_BG_, viii.
271, note 2).]

Footnote 2.6.111:

The religious feelings of the Rajput, though outraged for centuries by
Moguls and mercenary Pathans, will not permit him to see the axe
applied to the noble pipal or umbrageous bar (_Ficus indica_), without
execrating the destroyer. Unhappy the constitution of mind which
knowingly wounds religious prejudices of such ancient date! Yet is it
thus with our countrymen in the East, who treat all foreign prejudices
with contempt, shoot the bird sacred to the Indian Mars, slay the
calves of Bal, and fell the noble pipal before the eyes of the native
without remorse. He is unphilosophic and unwise who treats such
prejudices with contumely: prejudices beyond the reach of reason. He
is uncharitable who does not respect them; impolitic, who does not use
every means to prevent such offence by ignorance or levity. It is an
abuse of our strength, and an ungenerous advantage over their
weakness. Let us recollect who are the guardians of these fanes of
Bal, his pipal, and sacred bird (the peacock); the children of Surya
and Chandra, and the descendants of the sages of yore, they who fill
the ranks of our army, and are attentive, though silent, observers of
all our actions: the most attached, the most faithful, and the most
obedient of mankind! Let us maintain them in duty, obedience, and
attachment, by respecting their prejudices and conciliating their
pride. On the fulfilment of this depends the maintenance of our
sovereignty in India: but the last fifteen years have assuredly not
increased their devotion to us. Let the question be put to the
unprejudiced, whether their welfare has advanced in proportion to the
dominion they have conquered for us, or if it has not been in the
inverse ratio of this prosperity? Have not their allowances and
comforts decreased? Does the same relative standard between the
currency and conveniences of life exist as twenty years ago? Has not
the first depreciated twenty-five per cent, as half-batta stations and
duties have increased? For the good of ruler and servant, let these be
rectified. With the utmost solemnity, I aver, I have but the welfare
of all at heart in these observations. I loved the service, I loved
the native soldier. I have proved what he will do, where devoted,
when, in 1817, thirty-two firelocks of my guard attacked, defeated,
and dispersed a camp of fifteen hundred men, slaying thrice their
numbers.[2.6.111.A] Having quitted the scene for ever, I submit my
opinion dispassionately for the welfare of the one, and with it the
stability or reverse of the other.

Footnote 2.6.111.A:

What says the Thermopylae of India, Corygaum? Five hundred firelocks
against twenty thousand men! Do the annals of Napoleon record a more
brilliant exploit? Has a column been reared to the manes of the brave,
European and native, of this memorable day, to excite to future
achievement? What order decks the breast of the gallant Fitzgerald,
for the exploit on the field of Nagpur? At another time and place his
words, “At my peril be it! _Charge!_” would have crowned his crest!
These things call for remedy! [Korēgāon in Poona District, where
Captain Staunton defeated a large force of Mahrattas on January 1,
1818 (Wilson-Mill, _Hist. of India_, ii. (1846), 303 ff.).]

Footnote 2.6.112:

D’Anville’s derivation of German, from _wer_ (bellum) and _manus_.
[Possibly O. Irish, _gair_, ‘neighbour,’ or _gairm_, ‘battle-cry’
(_New Eng. Dict._ _s.v._).]

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