Chapter IV: Section II (2)

The variation of the same legend which we find in the _Harivanças_[225] proves these identities, and adds a new and notable particular. The wife of Viçvâmitras designs, on account of her poverty, to barter her middle son for a hundred cows, and with that view already keeps him tied with a rope like a slave. The grandfather of Rohitas, Hariçcandras's father, Triçañkus, wanders through the woods, and delivers this son of Viçvâmitras, whose family he thenceforth protects and maintains. The deeds of Triçañkus, who begs of Vasishtas to be allowed to ascend to heaven bodily, and who, by grace of Viçvâmitras, obtains instead the favour of remaining suspended in the air like a constellation, are also attributed to his son Hariçcandras; whence we may affirm, without much risk of contradiction, that as Triçañkus is another name for his son Hariçcandras, so Hariçcandras is another name for his son Rohitas, and that, therefore, the Triçañkus of the _Harivanças_ is the same as the Rohitas of the _Âitareya_, with this difference, that Triçañkus buys the son destined to the sacrifice in order to free him, while Rohitas buys him to free himself. But the first hundred cows given by Triçañkus to Viçvâmitras do not suffice for him, and the fruits of his hunting in the forest are not enough to maintain the family, a circumstance which weighs upon him almost as much as if the family were his own; upon which, in order to save Viçvâmitras, in order to save Viçvâmitras's son, and, we can perhaps add, to save himself, he resolves to sacrifice, to kill the beautiful and dearly-prized wife of Vasishtas (the very luminous). I have said the wife of Vasishtas, but the _Harivanças_ says, speaking strictly, it was the cow of Vasishtas who was killed. But we know from the _Râmâyanam_[226] that this cow of Vasishtas, this kâmadhuk or kâmadhenus, which yields at pleasure all that is wished for, this cow of abundance, is kept by Vasishtas, under the name of Çabâlâ, as his own wife. Viçvâmitras is covetous of her; he demands her from Vasishtas, and offers a hundred cows for her, the exact price which, in the _Harivanças_, he receives from Triçañkus for his own son. Vasishtas answers that he will not give her for a hundred, nor for a thousand, nor even for a hundred thousand cows, for Çabâlâ is his gem, his riches, his all, his life.[227] Viçvâmitras carries her off; she returns to the feet of Vasishtas, and bellows; her bellowing calls forth armies, who come out of her own body; the hundred sons of Viçvâmitras are burned to ashes by them. These armies which come out of the body of Vasishtas's cow remind us again of the Vedic cow, from which come forth winged darts, or birds, by which the enemies are filled with terror. Vasishtas is a form of Indras; his cow is here the rain-cloud. Viçvâmitras, who wishes to ravish the cow from Vasishtas, often assumes monstrous forms in the Hindoo legends, and is almost always malignant, perverse, and revengeful. His hundred sons burned to cinders by Vasishtas remind us, from one point of view, of the hundred cities of Çambaras destroyed by Indras, and the hundred perverse Dhritarâshtrides of the _Mahâbhâratam_; whence his name, Viçvâmitras, which may also mean the enemy of all (_viçva-amitras_), would agree well with his almost demoniacal character.

This story of the cow of Vasishtas, whose relationship with the legend of Çunahçepas cannot be doubted, brings us back to the animal forms of heroes and heroines from which we started. In the story of Vasishtas, the cow-cloud, the cow çabâlâ, or the spotted-cow, plays in the epic poem the part of the cow Aditis, the cow priçnis (spotted, variegated), with which we are already familiar in the Vedic hymns. This cow is benignant towards the god, or the hero, or the wise Vasishtas, as the priçnis is to the god Indras. But we have seen in the _Rigvedas_ itself the cloud as the enemy of the god, and represented as a female form of the monster, as his sister. This sister generally tries to seduce the god, promising to deliver into his hands the monster her brother, and she sometimes succeeds, as the witch Hidimbâ of the _Mahâbhâratam_, who gives up her brother, the monster Hidimbas, into the hands of the hero Bhîmas, who thereupon espouses her. On the other hand, Çûrpanakhâ, the sister of the monster Râvanas, does not succeed in her intent; making herself beautiful, she endeavours to win the affection of the hero Râmas; but being ridiculed by him and by Lakshmanas, she becomes deformed, and sends forth cries like a cloud in the rainy season,[228] exciting her brothers to annihilate Râmas.

The same cloud-monster is found again in the _Râmâyanam_, under the name of Dundubhis, in the form of a terrible buffalo with sharpened horns.[229] The buffalo, as a wild animal, is often chosen to represent the principle of evil, in the same way as the bull, increaser of the bovine herds, is selected as the image of good. This bellowing buffalo, whence his name of Dundubhis (drum), strikes and knocks with his two horns at the door of the cavern[230] of the son of Indras (Bâlin), the king of the monkeys. But Bâlin takes Dundubhis by the horns, throws him on the ground, and destroys him.

Dundus is also a name given to the father of Krishnas, or the black one, who in the _Rigvedas_ is still a demon, and only later becomes the god of cows and cowherds, a govindas, or pastor _par excellence_.[231] Indras, his enemy in the Vedas, having fallen from heaven, he became one of the most popular gods, and even sometimes the most popular form of the deity. In the _Mahâbhâratam_, for instance, he is almost the _deus ex machina_ of the battles between the Pândavas and the Dhârtarâshtrâs, and presents many analogies to the Zeus of the Iliad; whereas Indras plays only a part in the episodes, the rain-giver and thunderer being often forgotten for the black one who prepares and hurls the light. But the fall of Indras begins in the Vedâs themselves. In the _Yagurvedas_, Viçvarûpas, the son of Tvashtar, whom Indras kills, appears as no less than the purohitas or high-priest of the gods, and son of a daughter of the Asurâs; he has three heads, of which one drinks the ambrosia, another the spirituous drink, while the third eats food. Indras cuts off Viçvarûpas's three heads, in revenge of the one which drinks his ambrosia; he is therefore charged with having killed a Brâhman, and decried as a brâhmanicide.[232] In the _Âitareya-brâhmanam_,[233] the criminality of Indras in this regard is confirmed, to which the _Kâushîtaki-Upanishad_ also refers. In the seventh book of the _Râmâyanam_, even the multiform monster Râvanas is represented as a great penitent, whom Brâhman fills with supreme grace; in the sixth book, the son of the wind, Hanumant, cuts off the three heads of the Râvanide monster Triçiras (having three heads), as one day Indras cut off the three heads of the monster Vritras, son of Tvashtar;[234] and he cuts all the three heads off together (_samas_), as the hero of the European popular tales must cut off, at a blow, the three heads of the serpent, the wizard, otherwise he is powerless, and able to do nothing. The monster, like the hero, seems to have a special affinity for the number three: hence the three heads of Triçiras, as also the three brothers of Lañkâ--Râvanas, the eldest brother, who reigns; Kumbhakarnas, the middle brother, who sleeps; Vibhishanas, the third brother, whom the two others do not care about, but who alone is just and good, and who alone obtains the gift of immortality.[235] We have evidently here again the three Vedic brothers; the two eldest in demoniacal form, the youngest a friend of the divine hero, and who, by the victory of Râmas over the monster Râvanas, obtains the kingdom of Lañkâ. As to the brothers Râmas and Lakshmanas, and the brothers Bâlin and Sugrîvas, their natural place is in the story of the two twins, which will be referred to in the next chapter, although Hanumant, the son of the wind, figures second to them in the character of strong brother.

The three interesting heroic brothers come out more prominently in the _Mahâbhâratam_, where of the five Pândavas brothers, three stay on one side, and are Yudhishthiras, son of the god Yamas, the wise brother; Bhîmas (the terrible), or Vrikodâras (wolf's belly), son of Vâyus (the wind), the strong brother (another form of Hanumant, in company with whom he is also found in the _Mahâbhâratam_, on Mount Gandhamâdanas); and Argunas (the splendid), the son of Indras, the genial, dexterous, fortunate, victorious brother, he who wins the bride. The first brother gives the best advice; the second shows proof of greatest strength; the third brother wins, conquers the bride. They are precisely the three Vedic brothers Ribhavas, Ekatas, Dvîtas, and Tritas, in the same relationships to one another and with the same natures; only the legend is amplified.[236] As to their other brothers, twins, born of another mother, Nakulas and Sahadevas, they are the sons of the two Açvinâu, and feebly repeat in the _Mahâbhâratam_ the exploits of the two celestial twins. Bhîmas or Vrikodâras, the second brother, is considered the strongest, (balavatâm çreshthah), because immediately after birth, _i.e._, scarcely has he come forth out of his mother (like the Vedic Marutas), than he breaks the rock upon which he falls, because he breaks his fetters as soon as he is bound with them (like Hanumant when he becomes the prisoner of Râvanas), because he carries his brothers during the night (as Hanumant carries Râmas), as he flees from the burning house prepared by the impious Duryodhanas (_i.e._, from the burning sky of evening), and because in the kingdom of serpents, where Duryodhanas threw him down (that is, the night), he drinks the water of strength. A serpent, wishing to benefit Bhîmas, says to Vasukis, king of the serpents--"Let there be given to him as much strength as he can drink from that cistern in which is placed the strength of a thousand serpents."[237] Bhîmas, at one draught, drinks the whole cisternful; and with similar expedition, he drains consecutively eight cisterns.[238] The first-born of the Pândavas is dear to his father Yamas, the god of justice, Dharmarâgas,--and is himself indeed called Dharmarâgas; and when he prepares himself to ascend into heaven, the god Yamas follows him in the form of a dog: by his skill in solving enigmas, he saves his brother Bhîmas from the king of the serpents. The third brother, Argunas, son of Indras, is the Benjamin of the Vedic supreme God. Indras welcomes him with festivals in heaven, whither Argunas had gone to find him. Argunas is an infallible archer, like Indras; like Indras, he several times regains the cows from the robbers or from the enemies; and, like Indras, he wins and conquers his bride; he is born by the assistance of all the celestials; he is invincible (_agayas_); he is the best son (_varah putras_);[239] he alone of the three brothers has compassion on his master Dronas and delivers him from an aquatic monster.[240]

But there is yet another particular which shows the resemblance between the three brothers Pândavas and the three brothers of the Vedas; it is their dwelling, hidden in the palace of the king Virâta, in the fourth book of the _Mahâbhâratam_. They are exiled from the kingdom, like Râmas; they flee from the persecution of their enemies, now into the woods, now, as the Ribhavas, disguised as workmen in the palace of Virâtas, to whom their presence brings every kind of happiness.

We meet with these three brothers again, episodically, in the three disciples of Dhâumyas, in the first book of the _Mahâbhâratam_.[241] The first disciple, Upamanyus, takes his master's cows out to pasture, and, out of sensitive regard for his master's interest, refuses to drink not only their milk, but even the foam from their mouths, and fasts till, like to perish of hunger, he bites a leaf of arkapatrâ (properly, leaf of the sun, the _aristolochia indica_), when he instantly becomes blind. He wanders about and falls into a well; he there sings a hymn to the Açvinâu, and they come immediately to deliver him. The second brother, Uddâlakas, places his body, as a dike, to arrest the course of the waters. The third brother is Vedas, he who sees, he who knows, whose disciple Utañkas is himself in the form of a hero. Utañkas, like the Vedic Tritas, and the Pândavas Argunas, is protected by Indras. He is sent by the wife of his master to abstract the earrings of the wife of King Pâushyas. He sets out; on his way he meets a gigantic bull, and a horseman, who bids him, if he would succeed, eat the excrement of the bull; he does so, rinsing his mouth afterwards. He then presents himself to King Pâushyas and informs him of his message; the king consigns the earrings to him, but cautions him to beware of Takshakas, the king of the serpents. Utañkas says that he is not afraid of him, and sets out with the earrings; but as he puts down the earrings upon the shore, in order to bathe, Takshakas presents himself in the shape of a naked mendicant, whips them up, and flees away with them. Utañkas follows him, but Takshakas resumes his serpent form, penetrates the ground, and descends under it; Utañkas attempts to follow the serpent, but does not succeed in cleaving the entrance, which corresponds to the Vedic rock under which the monster keeps his prey. Indras sees him tiring himself in vain, and sends his weapon, in order that it may be for a help to Utañkas; that weapon, or club, penetrating, opened the cavern.[242] This club, this weapon of Indras is evidently the thunderbolt.[243] Utañkas descends into the kingdom of the serpents, full of infinite wonders. Indras reappears at his side in the shape of a horse,[244] and obliges the king, Takshakas, to give back the earrings; having taken which, Utañkas mounts the horse, that he may be carried more swiftly to the wife of his master, from whom he learns that the horseman seen by him on the way was none other than Indras himself; his horse, Agnis, the god of fire; the bull, the steed of Indras, or the elephant Âiravatas; the excrement of the bull, the ambrosia, which made him immortal in the kingdom of the serpents. In another episode of the same (the first) book of the _Mahâbhâratam_,[245] we again find Indras busied in the search of the earrings, that is to say, of the excessively fleshy part hanging from the ears of Karnas, the child of the sun, who, as soon as born, had been abandoned upon the waters. We have seen above how the two Açvinâu are also represented in the _Râmâyanam_ as the two ears of Vishnus Râmas (as the sun and moon are said to be his eyes); hence it seems to me that these mythical earrings, coveted by Indras, and protected by him, are nothing else than the two Açvinâu, the two luminous twilights (in connection with the sun and the moon), in which Indras, and, still more than he, the aurora, his wife, take such delight.[246]

In the commentary of _Buddhagoshas_ on the Buddhist Dhammapadam, we have the three brothers again; the two eldest are represented as fleeing from the persecution of their cruel step-mother; the third brother, Suriyas (Sûryas, the sun), goes to overtake them. The eldest counsels or commands, the second lends his aid, and the youngest fights. The second and third brothers fall into a fountain, under the power of a monster; the first-born saves them by his knowledge, as, in the _Mahâbhâratam_, Yudhishthiras, by his skill in solving riddles, delivers the second brother from the fetters of the forest of the monster serpent.

This mode of delivering the hero, by propounding a question or a riddle, is very common in the Hindoo legends. Even in the _Pancatantram_,[247] a Brâhman who falls under the power of a forest monster who leaps on his shoulders, frees himself by asking why his feet are so soft. The monster confesses that it is because, on account of a vow, he cannot touch the earth with his feet. The Brâhman then betakes himself to a sacred pond; the monster wishes to take a bath, and the Brâhman throws him in; the monster orders him to stay there till he has bathed and said his orisons. The Brâhman profits by this opportunity to make his escape, knowing that the monster will not be able to overtake him, as he cannot put his feet to the ground. It is the usual vulnerability, weakness, or imperfection of the hero, or the monster, in the feet, and, if an animal is spoken of, in the tail.[248]

The _Mahâbhâratam_ has shown us the three Vedic brothers, of whom the youngest has fallen into the well; it also presents to us, in the witch (_asurî_) Çarmishthâ, daughter of Vrishaparvan, king of the demons, and in the nymph Devayânî, daughter of Çukras, who credits herself with the virtue of Indras as the rain-giver,[249] the two rival sisters of the Vedas, the good and the evil. In the _Râmâyanam_,[250] the witch Çûrpanakhâ, who seduces Râmas, in order to take the place of Sîtâ at his side, is compared to Çarmishthâ, who seduced Nâhushas. In the _Mahâbhâratam_, Çarmishthâ assumes the guise of Devayânî, whom she throws into a well. Yayâtis, son of King Nâhushas, goes to the chase; feeling thirsty, he stops near the well; from the bottom of the well a young girl looks up, like a flame of fire.[251] The prince takes her by the right hand and draws her up; and because in the marriage ceremony, the bride is taken by the right hand,[252] the prince Yayâtis is said to marry Devayânî. But even after she is a wife, Çarmishthâ continues to seduce her husband, to whom she unites herself. Two sons are born of Devayânî, Yadus and Turvasas, similar to Indras and Vishnus (a new form of the twins, of the Açvinâu); three are born of Çarmishthâ, Duhyus, Anus, and Pûrus; and here also the third brother is the most glorious and valiant. And in this way the episode is connected with the essential legend of the _Mahâbhâratam_, and one and the same general myth is multiplied into an infinity of particular legends. As the genealogy of the gods and heroes is infinite, so is there an infinite number of forms assumed by the same myth and of the names assumed by the same hero. Each day gave birth in the heavens to a new hero and a new monster, who exterminate each other, and afterwards revive in an aspect more or less glorious, according as their names were more or less fortunate.

It is for the same reason that the sons always recognise their fathers without having once seen them or even heard them spoken of; they recognise themselves in their fathers. Thus Çakuntalâ and Urvacî enable their mother to find again the husband that she has lost, and their father to recover his lost wife. Thus in the episode of Devayânî and Çarmishthâ, when the former wishes to know who is the father of the three sons of Çarmishthâ, so similar to the sons of immortals, she turns to them, and they tell her at once.

For this fault, Yayâtis, from being young, is fated to become old. He then beseeches the two eldest of the three sons that he had by Çarmishthâ to take on themselves the old age of their father; they refuse, but the third son, Pûrus, out of reverence for his father, consents to become old in his stead, to give up his youth to his father. After a thousand years, the king Yayâtis, satiated with life, restores to his son Pûrus his youth, and although he is the youngest, along with his youth, the kingdom, because he found him the only one of the three who respected the paternal will; and he expels the two eldest brothers.[253]

Sometimes, however, the blind old father is entirely abandoned by his sons. Thus the old Dîrghatamas (of the vast darkness), blind from birth, is deprived of food, and thrown into the water by his wife and sons,[254] but a heroic king saves him, in order, by his wife, to beget sons for him. We have in Dîrghatamas and Yayâtis, King Lear in embryo.

In the same legend of Dîrghatamas, we find an exchange of wives. Queen Sudeshnâ, instead of going herself, sends her servant-maid, her foster-sister, to be embraced by Dîrghatamas.[255] In the cunning Sudeshnâ we have an ancient variation of Queen Berta.

Other blind men occur frequently in the Hindoo legends. I shall here cite only Andhakas (the blind one) and Vrishnis (the sheep, as the lame one),[256] who appear in the _Harivanças_[257] as the two sons of Mâdrî. But we know from the _Mahâbhâratam_, that the two sons of Mâdrî are a human incarnation of the celestial twins, the Açvinâu; and here we come again upon the blind-lame one of the Vedas, the solar hero in his twin forms, the two Açvinâu protected by Indras, and companions of the dawn.

The _Pancatantram_[258] represents the blind and the crooked, or hunchbacked,[259] in union with the three-breasted princess (_i.e._, the triple sister, the aurora in the evening, the aurora in the night, the aurora in the morning; the breast of the night nourishing the defective, the monstrous, which the morning sweeps away). The crooked guides the blind with a stick; they both marry the three-breasted princess. The blind recovers sight by the steam of the poison of a black serpent, cooked in milk (the darkness of night, or of winter, mixed with the clearness of day, or of the snow); he then, being a strongly-built man, takes the hunchback by the legs, and beats his hunch against the third and superfluous breast of the princess. The anterior prominence of the latter, and the posterior one of the former, enter into their respective bodies;[260] thus the blind, the crooked, and the three-breasted princess help and cure each other; the two Açvinâu and the aurora (or the spring) reappear together in beauty. The Açvinâu and the aurora also come forth together from the monstrous shades of night; the Açvinâu contend for the aurora; as we shall see soon, and in the next chapter, the delivered bride disputed for by the brothers.

The sun and the aurora flee from each other; this spectacle has been represented in different ways by the popular imagination; and one of the most familiar is certainly that of a beautiful young girl who, running more quickly than the prince, escapes from him. This incident, which is already described in the _Rigvedas_, occurs again in the _Mahâbhâratam_,[261] in the legend of the loves of the virgin Tapatî, daughter of the sun (the luminous and burning aurora, and also the summer season, ardent as Dahanâ), with the king Samvaranas, son of the bear (_rikshaputras_, a kind of Indras). The king Samvaranas arrives on horseback with his retinue at the mountain, in order to hunt; he ties his horse up and begins the chase, when he sees on the mountain the beautiful girl, the daughter of the sun, who, covered with ornaments, shines like the sun; he declares his love and wishes to make her his own; she answers not a word, but flees and disappears like the lightning in the clouds;[262] the king cannot overtake her, because his horse, while he was hunting, has died of hunger and thirst; he searches in vain through the forest, but not seeing her, he throws himself almost breathless to the ground. As he lies there the beautiful girl appears again, approaches and wakens him; he again speaks to her of love, and she answers that he must ask her father the sun, and then, still quite innocent, she disappears swiftly on high (_ûrdhvam_). The king again faints; his minister sprinkles him with the water of health, and makes him revive, but he refuses to leave the mountain, and having dismissed his hunting company, he awaits the arrival of the great purohitas Vasishthas, by whose mediation he demands from the sun his daughter Tapatî to wife; the sun consents, and Vasishthas reconducts to Samvaranas, for the third time, the beautiful girl as his legitimate wife. The husband and wife live together happily on the mountain of their loves; but as long as King Samvaranas remains with Tapatî upon this mountain, no rain falls upon the earth; wherefore the king, out of love for his subjects, returns to his palace, upon which Indras pours down the rain, and begins again to fructify the earth.[263]

We said a little ago that Vasishthas himself caused it to rain (_abhyavarshata_); and the mention of Vasishthas reminds us of the particularly rain-giving, cloudy, and lunar function of his cow Kâdmadhenus, whose wonderful productions are again described in the _Mahâbhâratam_.[264] Besides milk and ambrosia, she yields herbs and gems, which we have already referred to, as analogous products in mythology. The cow of Vasishthas is, besides her tail, celebrated for her breasts, her horns, and even her ears ending in a point; whence her name of _çañkukarnâ_ (the masculine form of which is generally applied to the ass). And in the _Mahâbhâratam_, also, the wise Viçvâmitras is covetous of this wonderful cow; the cow bellows and drops fire from her tail, and radiates from every part of her body armies which disperse those of the son of Gadhis. Viçvâmitras then avenges himself in other ways upon the sons of Vasishthas; having, _e.g._, become a cannibal, he eats them.

Vasishthas cannot endure the pain this causes him: he tries to throw himself down from the summit of Mount Merus, but he falls without hurting himself; he throws himself into the fire, but does not burn himself; and, finally, he leaps into the sea, but is not drowned. These three miracles are accomplished every day by the solar hero, who throws himself down from the mountain into the gloomy ocean of night, after having passed through the burning sky of evening.

Vasishthas ends by freeing, with the help of charmed water, the monster Viçvâmitras from his curse; and the latter is no sooner delivered from the demon who possessed him, than he begins again to illumine the forest with his splendour, as the sun illumines a twilight cloud. The friendships, enmities, and rivalries of Vasishthas and Viçvâmitras seem to be another version of those of the two Açvinâu, whom we shall particularly describe in the next chapter.

Meanwhile, it is high time, as the reader will think, to conclude this part of our study, which treats of the mythical cow of India. We might easily, indeed, have made it much larger, had our design been to chain together, link by link, all the traditions and legends in which the cow plays a primary or subordinate part. But it is better to stop short, lest, by expatiating further, we should lose sight of the essential aim of our work, and be tempted into digressions from the legends relating to beasts to those relating to men; besides, we think that we have sufficiently proved the thesis of this chapter, and shown how the principal mythical subjects of the Vedic hymns are not only preserved, but developed, in the posterior Hindoo traditions. It is not entirely our fault if, from cows, we pass so often to princesses, and from bulls to princes; the myth itself involves and indicates these transformations. Hence we find the bull Indras, the winner of the cows, become a winner and a seducer of women; we see the bull Wind, who aids Indras in the conquest of the cows, become the violator of a hundred damsels;[265] we read of the bull and god Rudras, as husband of Umâ, given up to sensual indulgence for a hundred years without a pause; that the son of the bull, or of the wind, Hanumant, does prodigies of valour and strength for the sake of a beautiful woman, and receives, as a reward for his zeal, from the king Bharatas, a hundred thousand cows, sixteen wives, and a hundred servant-maids.[266] What could Hanumant have done with so many wives and maids, if he were simply a bull? or what could he have done with so many cows, if he had been an ape? It is these inconsistencies which have caused mythology to be condemned by the crowd of old but prolific pedants, as a vain science; whereas, on the contrary, it is precisely these inconsistencies which raise it, in our esteem, to the rank of a valid science. He who handed down to us the feats of Hanumant, took care also to tell us how he had the faculty of changing his form at will; and this faculty, attributed to this impersonation of a celestial phenomenon, is the fruit of one of the most _naïve_ but just observations of virgin and grandiose nature.

FOOTNOTES:

[132] I must, however, observe that competent authorities, such as Professor Weber, consider the phallical worship of Çivas to have originated in the beliefs of the indigenous tribes of Dravidian race.

[133] _Rigv._ i. 123, 8.

[134] Vidique saepe, sed cumprimis anno 1785 in Malabaria ad flumen templo celebri Ambalapushe proximum, extra oppidum Callureàta in silvula, sententia regis Travancoridis Ráma Varmer, quinque viros arbori appensos et morti traditos, quod, contra regni leges et religionis præscripta, voluntarie unicam vaccam occiderint; _Systema Brahmanicum_, illustr. Fr. Paullinus a S. Bartholomæo, Romæ, 179.--Cfr. _Mânava-Dharmaçâstram_, xi. 60, and _Yâgnavalkya-Dharmaçâstram_, iii. 234.

[135] ii. 1, 8.

[136] Pancagavyam piban goghno mâsam âsîta samyatah goshtreçayo go 'nugâmî gopradânena çudhyati; _Dharm._ iii. 263.

[137] _Dharm._ xi. 166.

[138] Ibid. iii. 271.

[139] Ka imam daçabhir mamendram krînâti dhenubhih; _Rigv._ iv. 24, 10.

[140] _Dharm._ iii. 27.

[141] _Grihyasûtrâni_, i. 8, 9.--It was, moreover, on the occasion of a marriage, the custom to give cows to the Brâhmans; in the _Râmâyanam_, i. 74, the King Daçarathas, at the nuptials of his four sons, gives 400,000 cows.

[142] Â nah pragâm ganayatu pragâpatih; _Rigv._ x. 85, 43.

[143] Gocarmavasano harih; xiii. 1228.

[144] Cfr. Böhtlingk u. Roth's, _Sanskrit Wörterbuch_ s. v. _gocarman_.

[145] Âçvalây. _Grihyasû._ iv. 3.

[146] _Grihyasû._ i. 13.--The commentator _Nârâyanas_, quoted by Professor Stenzler, in his version of _Âçvalâyanas_, explains how the two beans and grain of barley express by their form the male organs of generation.

[147] _Grihyasû._ i. 14.

[148] _Grihyasû._ ii. 10.--The St Antony, protector of animals, of the Vedic faith was the god Rudras, the wind, to whom, when the cattle were afflicted by a disease, it was necessary to sacrifice in the midst of an enclosure of cows.--Cfr. the same, _Âçvalây._ iv. 8.

[149] Yac ca goshu dushvapnyam yac câsme duhitar divah tritâya tad vibhâvary âptyâya parâ vahânehaso va ûtayah suûtayo va ûtayah; _Rigv._ viii. 47, 14.

[150] Payah krishnâsu ruçad rohinîshu; _Rigv._ i. 62, 9.--Cfr. _Rigv._ i. 123, 9.

[151] _Grihyasû._ iv. 3.

[152] Âçvalây; _Grihyasû._

[153] v. 4, 23.

[154] Indro vâi vritram hatvâ viçvakarmâbhavat; iv. 3, 22.

[155] iii. 2, 37.

[156] Ushase carum yoshâh sâ râkâ so eva trishtup gave carum ya gáuh sâ sinîvâlî (the new moon) so eva gagati; iii. 2, 48.

[157] Abhûd ushâ ruçatpaçur ityushaso rûpam; i. 2, 18.--Gobhirarunâir ushâ âgimadhâvat tasmâd ushasyagatâyâm arunam ivaeva pra-bhátyushasorûpam; iv. 2, 9.--Abhûd ushâ ruçatpaçur ityushaso rûpam; i. 2, 18.

[158] _Âit.-brâhm._ vi. 4, 24.

[159] _Âit.-brâhm._ iv. 3, 17.

[160] iii. 8080.

[161] Cfr. Weber's _Über die Krishnagamâshtamî_, Berlin, 1868; _L'Inde Française_, par Eugène Burnouf, Paris, 1828; _The Hindoos_, London, 1834, vol. i.

[162] iv. 3, 20.

[163] i. 3. 22.

[164] Mahînâm payo 'sy oshadhînám rasah; _Taittir. Yagurv._ i. 1, 10.--Kshîrodam sâgaram sarve mathnîmah sahitâ vayam nâuâushadhîh samâhritya prakshipya ca tatastatah; _Râmây._ i. 46.--Cfr. Kuhn's _Die Herabkunft des Feuers und des Göttertranks_, Berlin, 1859.

[165] The _Gandhamâdanas_ is especially defended by the _Gandharvâs_, a word which seems to be composed of _gandha_, perfume, and _arvas_, the one who goes on (and afterwards the horse), from the root _arv_, expansion of _riv_; according to this, they would therefore be those who go in the perfumes, as the nymphs beloved and guarded by them are they who go in the waters (ap-sarasas). Cfr. the chapter on the Ass.

[166] Cfr. _Râmây._ vi. 82, 83.

[167] Böhtlingk's _Indische Sprüche_, 122, erster Theil; 2^te Aufl. S. Petersburg, 1870.--Cfr. _Mahâbhâratam_, i. 1143-1145.

[168] Abhi tyam devam savitâram ûnyoh kavikratum arcâmi satyasavasam ratnadhâm abhi priyam matim; _Tâittir. Yagurv._ i. 2, 6.

[169] i. 46.

[170] xiii. 7034.

[171] Hariv., 12,367.

[172] Âruhya tasya çikhare so 'paçyat paramâushadîm drishtvâ cotpâtayâmâsa viçalyakaranîm çubhâm.--Viçalyo nirugah çîghramudatishthanmahîtalât; vi. 83.

[173] Sa nighrishâñgulim râmo dhâute manahçilâgirâu cakara tilakam patnyâ lalâte ruciram tadâ bâlârkasamavarnena tena sâ giridhâtunâ lalâte vinivishthe na sasamdheva niçâbhavat; _Râmây._ ii. 105.

[174] Sîvyatu apah sûcyâchidyamânayâ dadâtu vîram çatadâyam ukthyam; _Rigv._ ii. 32, 4.

[175] Tatah çubham sâ tarunârkasamnibham gataklamâ vasrayugam sadâ malam srago 'ñgarâgam ca vibhûshanâni ca prasannacetâ gagrihe tu mâithilî; _Râmây._ iii. 5.

[176] _Râmây._ iv. 50-53.

[177] Pîtâirnivâsitâ vastrâih krîdanto gomaye hrade; _Râmây._ v. 27.--Cfr. vi. 23.

[178] Sîtâmuvâca ha dîpyamânâm svayâ lakshmyâ sandhyâmâutpâtikîmiva; _Râmây._ v. 52.

[179] Samarthâ gatanam gantumapivâ tvam rasâtalam--Acirammokshyase sîte; _Râmây._ vi. 9, 10.

[180] Sâumyah somâtmagáh; _Râmây._ vi. 6.

[181] Sitah kakudvâniva tîkshnaçriñgo rarâga candrah paripûrnaçriñgah; _Râmây._ v. 11.--Cfr. v. 20.

[182] Babhâu nashtaprabhah sûryo raganî câbhyavartata; _Râmây._ ii. 92.

[183] Nishâdarâgo guhah sanîlâmbudatulyavarnah; _Râmây._ ii. 48.

[184] Sadâ vanagocarah; _Râmây._ ii. 98.

[185] iii. 63.

[186] _Râmây._ iv. 1.

[187] Sahasrâkshadhanushmadbhis toyadâiriva mârutah; _Râmây._ v. 40.

[188] _Râmây._ v. 73.--In the _Râmâyanam_ itself, Râmas, overpowered with grief, is compared now to a bull (v. 34), now to an elephant tormented by a lion (v. 37).

[189] _Râmây._ vi. 105.

[190] _Râmây._ vi. 102.

[191] Çâradam sthûlaprishatam çriñgâbhyâm govrisho yathâ; _Râmây._ iii. 32.

[192] _Râmây._ v. 28.--The monster Kabandhas salutes them both with the name of _Vrishabhaskandhâu_, or they who have bulls' shoulders; _Râmây._ iii. 74.

[193] _Râmây._ vii. 36-38.

[194] _Râmây._ v. 93.

[195] Çrantânstu na tapet sûryah kathancidvânarânapi abhrâni gagnire digbhyas châdayitvâ raveh prabhâm pravavarsha ca parganyo mârutaçca çivo vavâu; _Râmây._ v. 95.

[196] _Râmây._ iii. 77.

[197] _Râmây._ iii. 23.

[198] _Râmây._ vi. 37.

[199] Paçya lakshmana mârîcam mahâçanisamasvanam sapadânugamâyântam subâhum ca niçâcaram etâvadya mayâ paçya nîlâncanacayopamâu asmin kshane samâdhûtâvanilenâmbudâviva; _Râmây._ i. 33.

[200] Çakreneva vinirmukto vagrastaruvaropari; _Râmây._ iii. 35.

[201] Mâyâmâçritya vipulâm vâtadurdinasamkulâm; _Râmây._ iii. 73.

[202] Te nikrittabhugaskandhâs kavandhâkriti ekadarçanâh nadanto bhâiravânnâdânnâpatanti sma dânavâs; _Mbh._ iii. 806.

[203] Atha tatra mahâghoram vikritam tam mahocchrayam vivriddhamaçirogrîvam kabandhamudare mukham romabhirnicitam tikshnâirmahâgirimivocchritam nîlameghanibham ghoram meghastanitanisvanam mahatâ câtipiñgena vipulenâyatenaca ekenorasi dîrghena nayanenâtidarçinâ; _Râmây._ iii. 74.--The one yellowish eye of Kabandhas reminds us of Vâiçravanas with only one yellowish eye (_ekapinghekshanas_), his other eye having been burnt out by the goddess Parvatî; _Râmây._ vii. 13.

[204] i. 49; ii. 7, _et passim_.

[205] Cfr. the chapter on the Wolf.

[206] iii. 40, _et seq._

[207] Tarunâdityasamkâçâm taptakâncanabhûshitâm raktâmbaradharâm bâlâm; _Râmây._ vi. 103.--Of the dress of Sîtâ we read in another place that it shines "like the light of the sun upon the summit of a mountain" (Sûryaprabheva çâilâgre tasyâh kâusheyamuttamam; iv. 58).

[208] _Râmây._ vi. 99.

[209] Cfr. Weber's _Ueber das Râmâyana_, Berlin, 1870, p. 9.

[210] Ibid. p. 1.

[211] Vîryaçulkâ ca me kanyâ divyarûpâ gunânvitâ bhûtalâdutthitâ pûrvam nâmnâ sîtetyayonigâ; _Râmây._ i. 68.

[212] _Râmây._ vii. 104, 105.

[213] _Kathâ sarit sâgaras_, iii. 17.

[214] i. 3888-3965.

[215] "Apriyanca na kartavyam krite câinâm tyagâmyaham," says Garatkarus; _Mbh._ i. 1871.

[216] _Mbh._ i. 1870-1911.

[217] _Indische Studien_, vol. i. pp. 457-464, vol. ii. pp. 111-128.

[218] _History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature._

[219] Varunas, the god of night, has, like the night, a double aspect; now he is the gloomy ocean, now the luminous milky ocean without a moon. He is represented under the latter aspect in the 7th book of the _Râmâyanam_ (canto 27), in which the solar hero, having entered the celestial city of Varunas, finds the cow which always yields milk (payah ksharantâm satatam tatra gâm ca dadarça sah), whence the white-rayed moon emerges, whence also the ambrosia and the nectar (yataçcandrah prabhavati çîtaraçmih--yasmâdamritamutpannam sudhâ câpi).

[220] Cfr. the chapter on the Horse.

[221] In the _Râmâyanam_, i. 63, the deliverer is Indras, who, even in the _Âitareya_, does much for Çunahçepas.

[222] Tegasâ gharmadah sadâ--Prâsâdaçatasambâdham nirmitam viçvakarmanâ çobhitam padminîbhiçca kâncanâiçca mahâdrumâih nilayah pâçahastasya varunasya mahâtmanah; _Râmây._ iv. 43.

[223] i. 64.

[224] The Puranic-legend gives an instance of such another father in Hiranyakaçipus, who, persecuting his own son Prahlâdas, tries to destroy him in several ways, and finally throws him into the sea; Prahlâdas praises Vishnus, and is delivered.--Cfr. _The Vishnu Purâna_, translated by H. Wilson, i. 17-20. London: Trübner, 1864.

[225] Chap. xii. 13.

[226] i. 54-56.

[227] Etadeva hi me ratnametadeva hi me dhanam etadva hi sarvasvam etadeva hi givitam; _Râmây._ 1. c.

[228] Nanâda vividhân nâdân yathâ prâvrishi toyadah; _Râmây._ iii. 24.

[229] Dhârayan mâhisham rupam tîkshnaçriñgo bhayâvahah; _Râmây._ iv. 9.--Further on, instead (iv. 46), the buffalo is said to be the brother of Dundubhis, and to have the strength of a thousand serpents (balam nâgasahasrasya dhârayan) or elephants, for the word _nâgas_ is equivocal.

[230] Çriñgâbhyâmâlikhan darpat taddvâram; _Râmây_, iv. 9.--Cfr. the two chapters which treat of the Horse and the Monkey.

[231] I do not insist upon this brâhmanic god, because his legend is now popular.--Cfr., for the rest, for the relationship of Krishnas with the cows, the cowherds, and the cow-maiden, the whole 5th book of the _Vishnu Purâna_, translated by H. Wilson, and the _Gîtagovindas_ of Gayadevas, edidit Lassen, Bonn, 1836.

[232] Viçvarûpo vâi tvâshtrah purohito devânâm âsît svasriyo 'surânâm tasya trîni çirshâny asant--Indras tasya vagram âdâya çîrshâny achinad yat somapânam--Brahma-hatyam upâ 'grihnat--Tam bhûtâny abhy akroçan brahmahann iti; _Tâittirîya Samhitâ_, ed. Weber. ii. 5, 1-6.

[233] vii. 5, 28.

[234] Sa tasya khañgena mahâçirânsi kapih samas tâm sukundalâm kruddhah praciccheda tadâ hanûmâns tvâshtrâtmagasyeva çirânsi çakrah; _Râmây._ vii. 50.

[235] _Râmây._ vii. 10.

[236] _Mbh._ i. 4990.--Cfr. also the three phallical and solar brothers of the story of Çunahçepas (him with the luminous tail or phallus).

[237] i. 4775.

[238] Balam nâgasahasrasya yasmin kunde pratishthitam yâvatpivati bâlo 'yam tâvad asmâi pradîyatam--ekocchvâsâttatah kundam danah; _Mbh._ i. 5030, 5032.--A similar legend is found again in the third book of the _Mahâbhâratam_, under the form of an impenetrable forest, in which the king of the serpents envelops Bhîmas.

[239] _Mbh._ i. 4777.

[240] i. 5300-5304.

[241] i. 680-828.

[242] Tam kliçyamânamindro 'paçyatsa vagram preshayâmâsa--gacchâsya brâhmanasya sâhâyyam kurusveti--atha vagram dandakâshthamanupraviçya tadvilamadârayat; _Mbh._ i. 794-795.

[243] In a legend of the Tibetan Buddhists, referred to by Professor Schiefner in his interesting work, _Ueber Indra's Donnerkeil_ (St Petersburg), 1848, we find two valiant heroes who, upon Mount Gridhrakûta (the vulture's peak), strive, in presence of their master, to lift the vagram (that is, the arm in the form of a wedge, the lever-rod, the thunderbolt of Indras), but in vain; Vagrapânis alone succeeds in lifting the vagram with his right hand. Râmas makes a similar trial of strength in the _Râmâyanam_, when he lifts and breaks in pieces a bow, which no one had before been able even to move.

[244] Cfr. the following chapter.

[245] i. 2772-2783.

[246] To the myth of the ravished earrings is almost always joined, even in the popular tales, the story of the horse, which is always especially referred to the Açvinâu, as that of the bull to Indras. In the Puranic legends, Krishnas receives from the earth the earrings of Aditis (whom we already know to be a cow), whilst he frees the princesses from the infernal Narakas.--Cfr. the _Vishnu Purâna_, v. 29.

[247] v. 17.

[248] Cfr. the chapters which treat of the Wolf, the Fox, and the Serpent; and also the foregoing discussion on the Vedic riddles, where the sun is called _anipadyamânas_.

[249] Aham galam kimuncâmi pragânâm hitakâmyayâ; _Mbh._ i. 3317.

[250] iii. 23, 24.

[251] Dadarça râgâ tâm tatra kanyâmagniçikhâmiva; _Mbh._ i. 3294.

[252] _Mbh._ i. 3379-3394

[253] _Mbh._ i. 3435-3545.

[254] _Mbh._ i. 4193-4211.

[255] _Mbh._ i. 4211-4216.

[256] We shall find the lame goat in the chapter which treats of the Lamb and the Goat.

[257] 1908.

[258] v. 12.

[259] The word _badhiras_ means here the crooked, the crippled one, and not the deaf (from the root _badh_ or _vadh_, to wound, to cut); the more so that here the name of the blind man's companion is Mantharakas, a word which properly means the slow one. The curved line and the slow line correspond; and the curved one, who cannot stand upright, may be the hunchback just as well as the cripple, the crooked, the lame.--Cfr. The chapter on the Tortoise.

[260] For the incident of the hunchback who betrays the blind man, in the same popular tale, cfr. next chapter.

[261] i. 6527.

[262] Sâudâminîva câbhreshu tatrâevântaradhîyata; _Mbh._ i. 6557.

[263] Tasminnripatiçârdûle pravishte nagaram punah pravavarsha sahasrâkshah çasyâni ganayanprabhuh; _Mbh._ 6629, 6630.

[264] i. 6651-6772.

[265] The hundred daughters of King Kuçanabhas, and of the nymph Ghritâci, who walks in curdled milk, recalling to us the mythical cow.--Cfr. _Râmây._ i. 35.

[266] Cfr. Virgil, _Ænëid_, I. 65-75, where Juno gives the nymph Deiopea to Æolus.