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NOTES TO THE DEATH OF YAJNADATTA.

P. 280, 1. 11. -on high the welcome clouds appeared.] The beauty of nature after the rainy season has refreshed the earth, is a favourite topic in Indian poetry. The Cloud Messenger, so gracefully translated by Mr. Wilson, is full of allusions to the grateful progress of the cloud, welcomed as it passes along by the joy of animate and inanimate beings. See 61-70, 131–142. Compare, in the Hindu Drama, the Toy Cart, act v.

66

P. 281, 1. 6. As though a pupil's hand accursed.] The offences of a pupil against a tutor, almost the holiest relation of life, are described in the Laws of Menu, ii. 191 to 218, 242, 8. "By censuring his preceptor, though justly, he will be born an ass; by falsely defaming him, a dog; by using his goods without leave, a small worm; by envying his merit, a larger insect or reptile." As the Roman law did not contemplate the possibility of parricide, that of Menu has no provision against the crime in the text.

P. 281, 1. 10. to the five elements returned.] A common Indian phrase for death. The æther is the fifth element.

P. 281, 1. 19.-Kshatriya.] The second, or warrior-caste. The kings in India were usually of this caste.

P. 282, 1. 1.-Raghu.] One of the famous ancestors of Dasaratha. The poem of the Raghu Vansa has recently appeared, edited by M. Stenzler.

P. 282, 1. 7. My sire, a Brahmin hermit he-my mother was of Sudra race.] This seems inconsistent with Menu: "A Brahmin, if he take a Sudra to his bed as his first wife, sinks to the regions of torment; if he begets a child by her, he loses even his priestly rank." iii. 17; also 18, 19.

P. 284, 1. 9. The miserable father now.] See in Menu, the penalties and expiations for killing a Brahmin undesignedly, xi, 74,

NOTES TO THE DEATH OF YAJNADATTA.

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82; compare 90. "An assaulter of a Brahmin with intent to kill, shall remain in hell a hundred years; for actually striking him with like intent, a thousand; as many small pellets of dust as the blood of a Brahmin collects on the ground, for so many thousand years must the shedder of that blood be tormented in hell." xi. 207, 8.

P. 285, 1. 15.—I've reached the wished for realms of joy.] Among the acts which lead to eternal bliss are these: "Studying and comprehending the Veda-showing reverence to a natural or spiritual father." MENU, Xii. 83.

NOTES

ΤΟ

THE BRAHMIN'S LAMENT.

P. 288, 1.21. -α heaven-winning race, may make.] Literally: Whom Brahma has placed with me in trust for a future husband, and through whose offspring I may obtain with my progenitors the regions secured by ablutions made by a daughter's sons.

WILSON.

P. 288, 1. 31. A line is omitted here, which seems to want a parallel to make up the sloka. Bopp has omitted it in his translation.

P. 289, 1. 31, Sudras like.] The lowest caste who are not privileged, and indeed have no disposition in the native barrenness of their minds to study the sacred Vedas.

P. 290, 1. 2. As the storks the rice of offering.] We follow Bopp in refining these birds from birds of coarser prey.

THE DESCENT OF THE GANGES.

FIRST PRINTED IN THE QUARTERLY REVIEW,
VOL. XLV.

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THE descent of the Ganges is the sequel of another fiction, still more monstrous, but perhaps one of the most singular of the cosmogonical notions of the Indians. Sagara, the king of Ayodhya (Oude), was without offspring-in almost all eastern countries the most grievous calamity incident to man, more especially to those of noble or royal race. By the most surpassing penances he obtains an oracle from the wise Brighu, predicting that one of his wives will bring forth a single son, the other sixty thousand! Accordingly the fair Cesina gives birth to Asamanja; his other wife to a gourd, which, like the egg of Leda, is instinct with life. From the seeds of this gourd, preserved with great care, and fed with ghee, come forth in due time the sixty thousand boys. The son of Cesina was a youth of the most malicious and cruel disposition; his pastime was to throw little infants into the river, and solace himself with their cries. He is sent into exile by his just and humane father, where he has a son, Ansuman, as gentle and popular as Asamanja was malignant and odious. King Sagara prepares to offer the Aswameda, the famous sacrifice of the horse. The holy and untouched steed is led forth, as in the "Curse of Kehama," among the admiring multitude, by the youthful Ansuman, when on a sudden a monstrous serpent arises from the earth, and drags it into the abyss. Sagara, in wrath, commands his sixty thousand sons to undertake the recovery of the steed from the malignant demon who has thus interrupted the sacrifice. Having searched long in vain, they begin to dig into the bowels of the earth, until,—

Cloven with shovel and with hoe, pierced by axes and by spades, Shrieked the earth in frantic woe; rose from out the yawning shades

Yells of anguish, hideous roars from the expiring brood of hell-
Serpents, giants, and Asoors, in the deep abyss that dwell.
Sixty thousand leagues in length, all unweary, full of wrath, [path.'
Through the centre, in their strength, clove they down their hellward

The gods, expecting the whole frame of the world, thus undermined, to perish in total ruin, assemble around Brahma to implore his interposition. He informs them that Vishnu, in the form of Kapila, has been the robber of the horse, and that, in due time, the god will avenge himself. From Patala, the hell of Indian mythology, the Sagarida recommence their impious and destructive work.

And downward dug they many a rood, and downward till they saw aghast, [vast. Where the earth-bearing elephant stood, ev'n like a mountain tall and "Tis he whose head aloft sustains the broad earth's forest-clothed round,

With all its vast and spreading plains, and many a stately city crown'd. If underneath the o'erbearing load bows down his weary head, 'tis then The mighty earthquakes are abroad, and shaking down the abodes of [blest

men.

Around earth's pillar moved they slowly, and thus in humble accents
Him the lofty and the holy, that bears the region of the East.
And southward dug they many a rood, until before their shuddering
sight

[height.

The next earth-bearing elephant stood, huge Mahapadmas' mountain Upon his head earth's southern bound, all full of wonder, saw they rest. Slow and awe-struck paced they round, and him, earth's southern pillar, blest.

Westward then their work they urge, king Sagara's six myriad race, Unto the vast earth's western verge, and there in his appointed place The next earth-bearing elephant stood, huge Saumanasa's mountain addrest,

crest;

Around they paced in humble mood, and in like courteous phrase
And still their weary toil endure, and onward dig until they see
Last earth-bearing Himapandure, glorying in his majesty.'

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