CHAPTER 23

37. This poem is from the Hervarer Saga, an ancient Icelandic history. See Edda, vol. ii. p. 192.

38. The Vulcan of the Hindus.

39. For an account of the initiation to arms of Bappa, the founder of the Guhilots, see p.264[Vol. I.].

40. See p.311[Vol. I.].

41. The Mori prince, from whom Bappa took Chitor, was of the Tak or Takshak race [?], of whom Nagnaicha or Nagini Mata was the mother, represented as half woman and half serpent; the sister of the mother of the Scythic race, according to their legends; so that the deeper we dive into these traditions, the stronger reason we shall find to assign a Scythic origin to all these tribes. As Bappa, the founder of the Guhilots, retired into Scythia and left his heirs to rule in India, I shall find fault with no antiquary who will throw overboard all the connexion between Kanaksen, the founder of the Valabhi empire, and Sumitra, the last of Rama’s line. Many rites of the Rama’s house are decidedly Scythic.

42. [Lovely maidens.]

43. See p.317[Vol. I.].

44. [“The kernel of the Rāmāyana was composed before 500B.C., while the more recent portions was probably not added till the second centuryB.C., and later” (Macdonell,Hist. Sanskrit Literature, 309).]

45. One of the names of the divinity of war, whose images are covered with vermilion in imitation of blood. (Qy.the Germanroodur, ‘red’)[596]. [Rudra, ‘the roarer,’ originally “god of storms.”]

46. The Pleiades.

47. The festival of the birth of this son of Ganga, or Jahnavi, is on the 10th of Jeth. Sir W. Jones gives the following couplet from the Sancha: “On the 10th of Jyaishtha, on the bright half of the month, on the day of Mangala,[A]son of the earth, when the moon was in Hasta, this daughter of Jahnu brought from the rocks, and ploughed over the land inhabited by mortals.”

A. Mangala is one of the names (and perhaps one of the oldest) of the Hindu Mars (Kumara), to whom the Wodens-dag of the Northmen, the Mardi of the French, the Dies Martis of the Romans, are alike sacred. Mangala also means ‘happy,’ the reverse of the origin of Mongol, said to mean ‘sad’ [‘brave’]. The juxtaposition of the Rajput and Scandinavian days of the week will show that they have the same origin:RajputScandinavian and Saxon.SuryavarSun-day.Som, or InduvarMoon-day.BudhvarTuis-day.MangalvarWodens-day.Brihaspativar[a]Thors-day.Sukravar[b]Frey-day.Sani, or } -varSatur-day[c]Sanichara }(a) Brihaspati, ‘he who rides on the bull’; the steed of the Rajput god of war [probably ‘lord of prayer,’ or ‘of increase,’ confounded in the original note with Vrishapati, ‘Lord of the bull,’ a title of Siva.]](b) Sukra is a Cyclop, regent of the planet Venus.](c) [See Max Müller,Selected Essays, 1881, ii. 460 ff.]]

(a) Brihaspati, ‘he who rides on the bull’; the steed of the Rajput god of war [probably ‘lord of prayer,’ or ‘of increase,’ confounded in the original note with Vrishapati, ‘Lord of the bull,’ a title of Siva.]]

(b) Sukra is a Cyclop, regent of the planet Venus.]

48. [Kumāra probably means ‘easily dying.’]

49. It will be recollected that the moon with the Rajputs as with the Scandinavians is a male divinity. The Tatars, who also consider him a male divinity, pay him especial adoration in this autumnal month.

50. [Apsaras means ‘going in the waters, or in the waters of the clouds.’]

51. [The owl is a bird of ill omen, and does not seem to be associated with Lakshmi except in Bengal.]

52. The Hindu god of riches.

53. Yamala is the great god of the Finlanders (Clarke).

54. Fromgo, ‘a cow’ [dhūli, ‘the dust raised by them as they return to the stall’].F

55. See anecdote in Chap. 21, which elucidates this practice of princes becoming herdsmen.

56. Matsya Purana. [Vishnu is generally said to wake on the Deothān, 11th light half of Kārttik.]

57. [Makara, a kind of shark or sea-monster, marks the 10th sign of the Zodiac, Capricorn.]

58. Iswara, Isa, or as pronounced, Is.

59. [Monier-Williams in hisSanskrit Dict.records no such form asphalīsa. φαλλός = Lat.palus, Englishpole,pale. The Author follows Wilford (Asiatic Researches, iii. 135 f.).]

60. ‘The land of the sun’ (aditya). [This is impossible. The true derivation is unknown; to the Greeks the word meant ‘swarthy-faced.’]

61. Ferishta calls the Indus the Nilab, or ‘blue waters’; it is also called Abusin, the ‘father of streams.’

62. According to Diodorus Siculus. [Rudra-Siva has a benign side to his character, and may be associated with the Sun (R. G. Bhandarkar,Vaisnavism, Saivism and Minor Religious Systems, 105). But the Author, in his constant references to “Bāl”-Siva, has pressed this conception to an excessive length.]

63. The vulture and crane, which soar high in the heavens, are also calledgaruda, and vulgarlygidh. The ibis is of the crane or heron kind.

64. Phaeton was the son of Cephalus and Aurora. The former answers to the Hindu bird-headed messenger of the sun. Aruna is the Aurora of the Greeks, who with more taste have given the dawn a female character.

65. Also called Dolayatra.

66. Bhagavat and Matsya Puranas. See Sir W. Jones on the lunar year of the Hindus,Asiatic Researches, vol. iii. p. 286.

67. [Mr. F. Ll. Griffith tells me that this comes from a French translation of Plutarch,De Iside et Osiride, cap. xii. (birth of Osiris on the first of the epagomenal days). This entry of Osiris into the moon seems to mean his conception rather than his birth. Φαμενώθ is the name of the seventh month, about 25th February.]

68.Arka, ‘the sun,’ in Sanskrit. [This is due to Wilford (Asiatic Researches, iii. 134) and is, of course, impossible.]

69. Pha-ra is but a title, ‘the king.’ [Egyptian Pro, ‘the great house.’]

70.Des divinités génératives: ou du culte du Phallus chez les anciens et les modernes(Paris).

71. Of the former race the Ranas of Mewar, of the latter the princes of Narwar and Amber, are the representatives.

72. Aethiopia, ‘the country of the sun’; fromAit, contraction of Aditya. Aegypt may have the same etymology,Aitia[see p.699above].

73. [The Author may refer to Pārsvanātha, 23rd Jain Tīrthakara, whose symbol was his serpent; but his mother was Vāmadevi. Trisala was mother of the 24th Tīrthakara, Mahāvira or Vardhamāna, but his cognizance was a lion.]

74. It is absurd to talk of these being modern; decipher the characters thereon, and then pronounce their antiquity. [Ellora, 5th to 9th or 10th centuriesA.D.; Elephanta, 8th to 10th (IGI, xii. 22, 4).]

75. Vulg.Sharifa.

76. Rama subjected her to the fiery ordeal, to discover whether her virtue had suffered while thus forcibly separated.

77. Vulg.Nariyal.

78. Palmyra is Sanskrit corrupted, and affords the etymology of Solomon’s city of the desert, Tadmor. Theﺙﺙp, by the retrenchment of a single diacritical point, becomes ت t; and the ل (l) and د (d) being permutable, Pal becomes Tad, or Tal—the Palmyra, which is the Mor, or chief of trees; hence Tadmor, from its date-trees [?].

79. The Jayaphala, ‘the fruit of victory,’ is the nutmeg; or, as a native of Java, Javuphala, ‘fruit of Java,’ is most probably derived from Jayadiva, ‘the victorious isle.’ [The nutmeg is Jātiphala: Java isyavadwīpa, ‘island of barley.’]

80. The Kamari of the Saura tribes, or sun-worshippers of Saurashtra, claims descent from the bird-god of Vishnu (who aided Rama[A]to the discovery of Sita), and the Makara[B]or crocodile, and date the monstrous conception from that event, and their original abode from Sankodra Bet, or island of Sankodra. Whether to the Dioscorides at the entrance of the Arabian Gulf this name was given, evidently corrupted from Sankhadwara to Socotra, we shall not stop to inquire. Like the isle in the entrance of the Gulf of Cutch, it is thedwaraor portal to the Sinus Arabicus, and the pearl-shell (sankha) there abounds. This tribe deduce their origin from Rama’s expedition, and allege that their Icthyiopic mother landed them where they still reside. Wild as is this fable, it adds support to this hypothesis. [The Sanskrit name of Bet Island (“Bate” in the text) is Sankhuddhāra, from the conch fishery. Socotra is Dwīpa Sukhadāra, ‘island of pleasure’ (not Sakhādāra, as inEB, xxv. 355) (Yule,Marco Polo, 1st ed. ii. 342).]

A. Rama and Vishnu interchange characters.

B. It is curious that the designation of the tribe Kamar is a transposition of Makar, for the final letter of each is mute.

81. See Lempriere, arts.PhagesiaandPhallica.“L’Abbé Mignot pense que lePhallusest originaire de l’Assyrie et de la Chaldée, et que c’est de ce pays que l’usage de consacrer ce symbole de la génération a passé en Égypte. Il croit, d’après le savant Le Clerc, que le nom de ce symbole est phénicien: qu’il dérive dePhalouqui, dans cette langue, signifie unechose secrèteetcachée, et du verbephala, qui veut direêtre tenu secret.”[A]

A.Des divinités génératives.

82.Anna, ‘food,’ andasaorisa, ‘the god.’ [Ananas comes from BrazilianNanaorNanas(Yule,Hobson-Jobson, 2nd ed. 25).]

83. [It is unnecessary to discuss these theories, which are based on incorrect assumptions and obsolete etymologies.]

84. The Hindus divide the month into two portions calledpakhor fortnights. The first is termedbadi, reckoning from the 1st to the 15th, which day of partition is calledamavas, answering to the Ides of the Romans, and held by the Hindus as it was by the Jews in great sanctity. The last division is termedsudi, and they recommence with the initial numeral, thence to the 30th or completion, calledpunim; thus instead of the 16th, 17th, etc., of the month, they saySudi ekam(1st),Sudi duj(3rd).

85. Sogdiana and Transoxiana.

86. Hence the word Saka [?].

87. SeeGenealogical Table No. 2for these names. The sons of the three Midas, pronounced Mede, founded kingdoms at the precise point of time, according to calculation from the number of kings, that Assyria was founded.

88. The former were more pastoral, and hence the origin of their name, corrupted to Keltoi. The Getae or Jats pursued the hunter’s occupation, living more by the chase, though these occupations are generally conjoined in the early stages of civilization.

89. Rubruquis and other travellers.

90. Colonel Mackenzie’s invaluable and gigantic collection.

91. Isis and Osiris, Serapis and Canopus, Apis and Ibis, adopted by the Romans, whose temples and images, yet preserved, will allow full scope to the Hindu antiquary for analysis of both systems. The temple of Serapis at Pozzuoli is quite Hindu in its ground plan.

92. In the reign of Theodosius.

93.Du Culte, etc., etc., p. 47.

CHAPTER 23

The Character of the Rājput. Influence of Custom.—The manners of a nation constitute the most interesting portion of its history, but a thorough knowledge of them must be the fruit of long and attentive observation: an axiom which applies to a people even less inaccessible than the Rajputs. The importance and necessity of such an illustration of the Rajput character, in a work like the present, call for and sanction the attempt, however inadequate the means. Of what value to mankind would be the interminable narrative of battles, were their moral causes and results passed by unheeded? Although both the Persian and Hindu annalists not unfrequently unite the characters of moralist and historian, it is in a manner unsuitable to the subject, according to the more refined taste of Europe. In the poetic annals of the Rajput, we see him check his war-chariot, and when he should be levelling his javelin, commence a discourse upon ethics; or when the battle is over, the Nestor or Ulysses of the host converts his tent into a lyceum, and delivers lectures on morals or manners. But the reflections which should follow, and form the corollary to each action, are never given; and even if they were, though we might comprehend the moral movements of a nation, we should still be unable to catch the minute shades of character that complete the picture of domestic life, and which are to be collected from those familiar sentiments uttered in social intercourse, when the mind unbends and nature throws aside the trammels of education and of ceremony. Such a picture would represent the manners, which are continually undergoing modifications, in contradistinction to the morals of society; the latter, having a fixed creed for their basis, are definite and unchangeable. Thechalof the Rajput, like themoresof the Romans, orcostumiof modern Italy, is significant alike of mental and external habit. In the moral point of view it is the path chalked out for him by the sages of antiquity [608]; in the personal, it is that which custom has rendered immutable.Kaisi buri chal men chalta, ‘in what a bad path does he march!’ says the moralist:Bap, Dada ki chal chhori, ‘he abandonsthe usages of his ancestors,’ says the stickler for custom, in Rajasthan.[1]

Rājput Morals.—The grand features of morality are few, and nearly the same in every nation not positively barbarous. The principles contained in the Decalogue form the basis of every code—of Manu and of Muhammad, as well as of Moses. These are grand landmarks of the truth of divine history; and are confirmed by the less important traits of personal customs and religious rites, which nations the most remote from each other continue to hold in common. The Koran we know to have been founded on the Mosaic law; the Sastra of Manu, unconsciously, approaches still more to the Jewish Scriptures in spirit and intention; and from its pages might be formed a manual of moral instruction, which, if followed by the disciples of the framer, might put more favoured societies to the blush.

Variety of Customs due to Environment.—As it has been observed in a former part of this work, the same religion governing all must tend to produce a certain degree of mental uniformity. The shades of moral distinction which separate these races are almost imperceptible: while you cannot pass any grand natural barrier without having the dissimilarity of customs and manners forced upon your observation. Whoever passes from upland Mewar, the country of the Sesodias, into the sandy flats of Marwar, the abode of the Rathors, would feel the force of this remark. Innovations proceeding from external causes, such as conquest by irreligious foes, and the birth of new sects and schisms, operate important changes in manners and customs. We can only pretend, however, to describe facts which are obvious, and those which history discloses, whence some notions may be formed of the prevailing traits of character in the Rajput; his ideas of virtue and vice, the social intercourse and familiar courtesies of Rajasthan, and their recreations, public and private.

“The manners of a people,” says the celebrated Goguet, “always bear a proportion to the progress they have made in the arts and sciences.” If by this test we trace the analogy between past and existing manners amongst the Rajputs, we must conclude at once that they have undergone a decideddeterioration. Where can we look for sages like those whose systems of philosophy were the [609] prototypes of those of Greece: to whose works Plato, Thales, and Pythagoras were disciples? Where shall we find the astronomers, whose knowledge of the planetary system yet excites wonder in Europe, as well as the architects and sculptors, whose works claim our admiration, and the musicians, “who could make the mind oscillate from joy to sorrow, from tears to smiles, with the change of modes and varied intonation.”[2]The manners of those days must have corresponded with this advanced stage of refinement, as they must have suffered from its decline: yet the homage paid by Asiatics to precedent has preserved many relics of ancient customs, which have survived the causes that produced them.

A RAJPOOTNI,Returned from Batlang in the Jumna.DARAB KHAN, MEWATTI.BUDDUN SING, RAHTORE.SUDRAM GOSAEN.PORTRAITS OF A RĀJPUTNI, A RĀJPUT, A MEWĀTI AND GUSĀĪN.To face page 708.

A RAJPOOTNI,Returned from Batlang in the Jumna.DARAB KHAN, MEWATTI.

A RAJPOOTNI,Returned from Batlang in the Jumna.

DARAB KHAN, MEWATTI.

BUDDUN SING, RAHTORE.SUDRAM GOSAEN.

BUDDUN SING, RAHTORE.

SUDRAM GOSAEN.

PORTRAITS OF A RĀJPUTNI, A RĀJPUT, A MEWĀTI AND GUSĀĪN.To face page 708.

Treatment of Women by the Rājputs.—It is universally admitted that there is no better criterion of the refinement of a nation than the condition Of the fair sex therein. As it is elegantly expressed by Comte Ségur,“Leur sort estune boussole sûreune boussole sûrepour le premier regard d’un étranger qui arrive dans un pays inconnu.”[3]Unfortunately, the habitual seclusion of the higher classes of females in the East contracts the sphere of observation in regard to their influence on society; but, to borrow again from our ingenious author,“les hommes font les lois, les femmes font les mœurs”;and their incarceration in Rajasthan by no means lessens the application of the adage to that country. Like the magnetic power, however latent, their attraction is not the less certain.“C’est aux hommes à faire des grandes choses, c’est aux femmes à les inspirer,”is a maxim to which every Rajput cavalier would subscribe, with whom the age of chivalry is not fled, though ages of oppression have passed over him. He knows there is no retreat into which the report of a gallant action will not penetrate, and set fair hearts in motion to be the object of his search. The bards, those chroniclers of fame, like the Jongleurs of old, have everywhere access, to the palace as to the hamlet; and a brilliant exploit travels with all the rapidity of a comet, and clothed with the splendid decorations of poetry, from theIndian desert to the valley of the Jumna. If we cannot paint the Rajput dame as invested with all the privileges which Ségur assigns to the first woman,“compagne de l’homme et son égale, vivant par lui, pour lui, associée à son bonheur, à ses plaisirs, à la puissance qu’il exerçait sur ce vaste univers,”she is far removed from the condition which demands commiseration [610].

The Seclusion of Women.—Like the ancient German or Scandinavian, the Rajput consults her in every transaction; from her ordinary actions he draws the omen of success, and he appends to her name the epithet ofdevi, or ‘godlike.’ The superficial observer, who applies his own standard to the customs of all nations, laments with an affected philanthropy the degraded condition of the Hindu female, in which sentiment he would find her little disposed to join. He particularly laments her want of liberty, and calls her seclusion imprisonment. Although I cordially unite with Ségur, who is at issue with his compatriot Montesquieu on this part of discipline, yet from the knowledge I do possess of the freedom, the respect, the happiness, which Rajput women enjoy, I am by no means inclined to deplore their state as one of captivity. The author of theSpirit of Laws, with the views of a closet philosopher, deems seclusion necessary from the irresistible influence of climate on the passions; while the chivalrous Ségur, with more knowledge of human nature, draws the very opposite conclusion, asserting all restraints to be injurious to morals. Of one thing we are certain, seclusion of females could only originate in a moderately advanced stage of civilization. Amongst hunters, pastors, and cultivators, the women were required to aid in all external pursuits, as well as internal economy. The Jews secluded not their women, and the well, where they assembled to draw water, was the place where marriages were contracted, as with the lower classes in Rajputana. The inundations of the Nile, each house of whose fertile valleys was isolated, is said to have created habits of secluding women with the Egyptians; and this argument might apply to the vast valleys of the Indus and Ganges first inhabited, and which might have diffused example with the spread of population. Assuredly, if India was colonized from the cradle of nations, Central Asia, they did not thence bring these notions within the Indus; for the Scythian women went to the opposite extreme,and were polyandrists.[4]The desire of eradicating those impure habits, described by Herodotus, that the slipper at the tent-door should no longer be a sign, may have originated the opposite extreme in a life of entire seclusion. Both polygamy and polyandry originated in a mistaken view of the animal economy, and of the first great command to people the earth: the one was general amongst all the nations [611] of antiquity; the other rare, though to be found in Scythia, India, and even amongst the Natchez, in the new world; but never with the Rajput, with whom monogamy existed during the patriarchal ages of India, as amongst the Egyptians.[5]Of all the nations of the world who have habituated the female to a restricted intercourse with society, whether Grecian, Roman, Egyptian, or Chinese, the Rajput has given least cause to provoke the sentiment of pity; for if deference and respect be proofs of civilization, Rajputana must be considered as redundant in evidence of it. The uxoriousness of the Rajput might be appealed to as indicative of the decay of national morals; “chez les barbares(says Ségur)les femmes ne sont rien: les mœurs de ces peuples s’adoucissent-t’-elles, on compte les femmes pour quelque chose: enfin, se corrompent-elles, les femmes sont tout”; and whether from this decay, or the more probable and amiable cause of seeking, in their society, consolation for the loss of power and independence, the women are nearly everything with the Rajput.

It is scarcely fair to quote Manu as an authority for the proper treatment of the fair sex, since many of his dicta by no means tend to elevate their condition. In his lengthened catalogue of things pure and impure he says, however, “The mouth of a woman is constantly pure,”[6]and he ranks it with the running waters and the sunbeam; he suggests that their names should be “agreeable, soft, clear, captivating the fancy, auspicious, ending in long vowels, resembling words of benediction.”[7]

“Where females are honoured” (says Manu), “there the deities are pleased; but where dishonoured, there all religious rites become useless”: and he declares, “that in whatever house a woman not duly honoured pronounces an imprecation, that house, with all that belongs to it, shall utterly perish.”[8]“Strike not, even with a blossom, a wife guilty of a hundred faults,”[9]says another sage: a sentiment so delicate, that Reginald de Born, the prince of troubadours, never uttered any more refined.

However exalted the respect of the Rajput for the fair, he nevertheless holds that

Nothing lovelier can be foundIn woman, than to study household good [612].

Nothing lovelier can be found

In woman, than to study household good [612].

The Chief of Sādri and his Wife.—In the most tempestuous period of the history of Mewar, when the Ranas broke asunder the bonds which united them to the other chiefs of Rajasthan, and bestowed their daughters on the foreign nobles incorporated with the higher class of their own kin, the chief of Sadri, so often mentioned, had obtained a princess to wife. There was a hazard to domestic happiness in such unequal alliance, which the lordof Sadri soon experienced. To the courteous request, “Ranawatji, fill me a cup of water,” he received a contemptuous refusal, with the remark, that “The daughter of a hundred kings would not become cup-bearer to the chieftain of Sadri.”—“Very well,” replied the plain soldier, “you may return to your father’s house, if you can be of no use in mine.” A messenger was instantly sent to the court, and the message, with every aggravation, was made known; and she followed on the heels of her messenger. A summons soon arrived for the Sadri chief to attend his sovereign at the capital. He obeyed; and arrived in time to give his explanation just as the Rana was proceeding to hold a full court. As usual, the Sadri chief was placed on his sovereign’s right hand, and when the court broke up, the heir-apparent of Mewar, at a preconcerted sign, stood at the edge of the carpet, performing the menial office of holding the slippers of the chief. Shocked at such a mark of extreme respect, he stammered forth some words of homage, his unworthiness, etc.; to which the Rana replied, “As my son-in-law, no distinction too great can be conferred: take home your wife, she will never again refuse you a cup of water” [613].[10]

Could authority deemed divine ensure obedience to what is considered a virtue in all ages and countries, the conjugal duties of the Rajputs are comprehended in the following simple text: “Let mutual fidelity continue to death; this, in few words, may be considered as the supreme law between husband and wife.”[11]

Devotion of Rājput Women.—That this law governed theRajputs in past ages, as well as the present, in as great a degree as in other stages of society and other countries, we cannot doubt. Nor will the annals of any nation afford more numerous or more sublime instances of female devotion, than those of the Rajputs; and such would never have been recorded, were not the incentive likely to be revered and followed. How easy would it be to cite examples for every passion which can actuate the human mind! Do we desire to see a model of unbounded devotion, resignation, and love, let us take the picture of Sita, as painted by the Milton of their silver age, than which nothing more beautiful or sentimental may be culled even from Paradise Lost. Rama was about to abandon his faithful wife for the purpose of becoming a Vana-prastha or hermit, when she thus pours out her ardent desire to partake of his solitude.

A woman’s bliss is found, not in the smileOf father, mother, friend, nor in herself:Her husband is her only portion here,Her heaven hereafter. If thou indeedDepart this day into the forest drear,I will precede, and smooth the thorny way.A gay recluseOn thee attending, happy shall I feelWithin the honey-scented grove to roam,For thou e’en here canst nourish and protect;And therefore other friend I cannot need.To-day most surely with thee will I go,And thus resolved, I must not be deny’d.Roots and wild fruit shall be my constant food;Nor will I near thee add unto thy cares,Nor lag behind, nor forest-food refuse,But fearless traverse every hill and dale.Thus could I sweetly pass a thousand years;But without thee e’en heaven would lose its charms [614].Pleased to embrace thy feet, I will resideIn the rough forest as my father’s house.Void of all other wish, supremely thine,Permit me this request—I will not grieve,I will not burden thee—refuse me not.But shouldst thou, Raghuvu, this prayer denyKnow, I resolve on death.

A woman’s bliss is found, not in the smile

Of father, mother, friend, nor in herself:

Her husband is her only portion here,

Her heaven hereafter. If thou indeed

Depart this day into the forest drear,

I will precede, and smooth the thorny way.

A gay recluseOn thee attending, happy shall I feelWithin the honey-scented grove to roam,For thou e’en here canst nourish and protect;And therefore other friend I cannot need.To-day most surely with thee will I go,And thus resolved, I must not be deny’d.Roots and wild fruit shall be my constant food;Nor will I near thee add unto thy cares,Nor lag behind, nor forest-food refuse,But fearless traverse every hill and dale.

A gay recluse

On thee attending, happy shall I feel

Within the honey-scented grove to roam,

For thou e’en here canst nourish and protect;

And therefore other friend I cannot need.

To-day most surely with thee will I go,

And thus resolved, I must not be deny’d.

Roots and wild fruit shall be my constant food;

Nor will I near thee add unto thy cares,

Nor lag behind, nor forest-food refuse,

But fearless traverse every hill and dale.

Thus could I sweetly pass a thousand years;But without thee e’en heaven would lose its charms [614].

Thus could I sweetly pass a thousand years;

But without thee e’en heaven would lose its charms [614].

Pleased to embrace thy feet, I will resideIn the rough forest as my father’s house.Void of all other wish, supremely thine,Permit me this request—I will not grieve,I will not burden thee—refuse me not.But shouldst thou, Raghuvu, this prayer denyKnow, I resolve on death.

Pleased to embrace thy feet, I will reside

In the rough forest as my father’s house.

Void of all other wish, supremely thine,

Permit me this request—I will not grieve,

I will not burden thee—refuse me not.

But shouldst thou, Raghuvu, this prayer deny

Know, I resolve on death.

VideWard,On the History, Literature, and Mythology of the Hindus,ed. 1815, ii. p. 308 ff. [Cp. Manu, vi. 2 ff.]

VideWard,On the History, Literature, and Mythology of the Hindus,

ed. 1815, ii. p. 308 ff. [Cp. Manu, vi. 2 ff.]

The publication of Mr. Wilson’s specimens of the Hindu drama has put the English public in possession of very striking features of ancient Hindu manners, amongst which conjugal fidelity and affection stand eminently conspicuous. The Uttara Rama Charitra, the Vikrama and Urvasi, and the Mudra Rakshasa, contain many instances in point. In the latter piece occurs an example, in comparatively humble life, of the strong affection of a Hindu wife. Chandana Das, like Antonio in theMerchant of Venice, is doomed to die, to save his friend. His wife follows him to the scene of execution, with their only child, and the succeeding dialogue ensues:

The Tale of Dewaldai.—The annals of no nation on earth record a more ennobling or more magnanimous instance of female loyalty than that exemplified by Dewaldai, mother of the Bannaphar brothers, which will at once illustrate the manners of the Rajput fair, and their estimation and influence in society.

The last Hindu emperor of Delhi, the chivalrous Prithiraj of the Chauhan race, had abducted the daughter of the prince of Sameta. Some of the wounded who had covered his retreat were assailed and put to death by Parmal, the Chandel prince of Mahoba.[12]In order to avenge this insult, the emperor had no sooner conveyed his bride to Delhi than he invaded the territory of the Chandel, whose troops were cut to pieces at Sirswa,[13]theadvanced post of his kingdom. While [615] pursuing his success, the Chandel called a council, and by the advice of his queen Malandevi demanded a truce of his adversary, on the plea of the absence of his chieftains Alha and Udala. The brother of the bard of Mahoba was the envoy, who found the Chauhan ready to cross the Pahuj. He presented his gifts, and adjured him, “as a true Rajput, not to take them at such disadvantage.” The gifts were accepted, and the Chauhan pledged himself, “albeit his warriors were eager for the fight,” to grant the truce demanded; and having dismissed the herald, he inquired of his own bard, the prophetic Chand, the cause of the disaffection which led to the banishment of the Bannaphar; to which he thus replies: “Jasraj was the leader of the armies of Mahoba when his sovereign was defeated and put to flight by the wild race of Gonds; Jasraj repulsed the foe, captured Garha their capital, and laid his head at his sovereign’s feet. Parmal returning with victory to Mahoba, in gratitude for his service, embraced the sons of Jasraj, and placed them in his honours and lands, while Malandevi the queen made no distinction between them and her son.” The fief of the young Bannaphar[14]chieftains was at the celebrated fortress Kalanjar, where their sovereign happening to see a fine mare belonging to Alha, desired to possess her, and being refused, so far forgot past services as to compel them to abandon the country. On retiring they fired the estates of the Parihara chief who had instigated their disgrace. With their mother and families they repaired to Kanauj, whose monarch received them with open arms, assigning lands for their maintenance. Having thus premised the cause of banishment, Chand conducts us to Kanauj, at the moment when Jagnakh the bard was addressing the exiles on the dangers of Mahoba.

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