A History of Sanskrit Literature Part 7

Go forth, go forth along those ancient pathways To where our early ancestors departed.

There thou shalt see rejoicing in libations The two kings, Varuna the G.o.d and Yama.

Here a tree spreads its branches, in the shade of which Yama drinks soma with the G.o.ds, and the sound of the flute and of songs is heard. The life in heaven is free from imperfections or bodily frailties, and is altogether delectable. It is a glorified life of material joys as conceived by the imagination, not of warriors, but of priests. Heaven is gained as a reward by heroes who risk their lives in battle, but above all by those who bestow liberal sacrificial gifts on priests.

Though the Atharva-veda undoubtedly shows a belief in a place of future punishment, the utmost that can be inferred with regard to the Rigveda from the scanty evidence we possess, is the notion that unbelievers were consigned to an underground darkness after death. So little, indeed, do the Rishis say on this subject, and so vague is the little they do say, that Roth held the total annihilation of the wicked by death to be their belief. The early Indian notions about future punishment gradually developed, till, in the post-Vedic period, a complicated system of h.e.l.ls had been elaborated.

Some pa.s.sages of the Rigveda distinguish the path of the fathers or dead ancestors from the path of the G.o.ds, doubtless because cremation appeared as a different process from sacrifice. In the Brahmanas the fathers and the G.o.ds are thought to dwell in distinct abodes, for the "heavenly world" is contrasted with the "world of the fathers."

The chief of the blessed dead is Yama, to whom three entire hymns are addressed. He is spoken of as a king who rules the departed and as a gatherer of the people, who gives the deceased a resting-place and prepares an abode for him. Yama it was who first discovered the way to the other world:--

Him who along the mighty heights departed, Him who searched and spied out the path for many, Son of Vivasvat, gatherer of the people, Yama the king, with sacrifices worship. (x. 14, 1).

Though death is the path of Yama, and he must consequently have been regarded with a certain amount of fear, he is not yet in the Rigveda, as in the Atharvaveda and the later mythology, a G.o.d of death. The owl and pigeon are occasionally mentioned as emissaries of Yama, but his regular messengers are two dogs which guard the path trodden by the dead proceeding to the other world.

With reference to them the deceased man is thus addressed in one of the funeral hymns (x. 14):--

Run on thy path straight forward past the two dogs, The sons of Sarama, four-eyed and brindled, Draw near thereafter to the bounteous fathers, Who revel on in company with Yama.

Broad-nosed and brown, the messengers of Yama, Greedy of lives, wander among the people: May they give back to us a life auspicious Here and to-day, that we may see the sunlight.

The name of Yama is sometimes used in the Rigveda in its primary sense of "twin," and the chief of the dead actually occurs in this character throughout a hymn (x. 10) of much poetic beauty, consisting of a dialogue between him and his sister Yami. She endeavours to win his love, but he repels her advances with these words:--

The spies sent by the G.o.ds here ever wander, They stand not still, nor close their eyes in slumber: Another man thine arms shall clasp, O Yami, Tightly as twines around the tree the creeper.

The incestuous union which forms the main theme of the poem, though rejected as contrary to the higher ethical standard of the Rigveda, was doubtless the survival of an already existing myth of the descent of mankind from primeval "twins." This myth, indeed, seems to have been handed down from the Indo-Iranian period, for the later Avestan literature makes mention of Yimeh as a sister of Yima. Even the name of Yama's father goes back to that period, for Yima is the son of Vivanhvant in the Avesta as Yama is of Vivasvat in the Rigveda.

The great bulk of the Rigvedic poems comprises invocations of G.o.ds or deified objects as described in the foregoing pages. Scattered among them are to be found, chiefly in the tenth book, about a dozen mythological pieces consisting of dialogues which, in a vague and fragmentary way, indicate the course of the action and refer to past events. In all likelihood they were originally accompanied by a narrative setting in prose, which explained the situation more fully to the audience, but was lost after these poems were incorporated among the collected hymns of the Rigveda. One of this cla.s.s (iv. 42) is a colloquy between Indra and Varuna, in which each of these leading G.o.ds puts forward his claims to pre-eminence. Another, which shows considerable poetic merit and presents the situation clearly, is a dialogue in alternate verses between Varuna and Agni (x. 51), followed by a second (x. 52) between the G.o.ds and Agni, who has grown weary of his sacrificial office, but finally agrees to continue the performance of his duties.

A curious but prosaic and obscure hymn (x. 86), consists of a dialogue between Indra and his wife Indrani on the subject of a monkey which has incurred the anger of the latter. The circ.u.mstances are much more clearly presented in a poem of great beauty (x. 108), in which Sarama, the messenger of Indra, having tracked the stolen cows, demands them back from the Panis. Another already referred to (p. 107) treats the myth of Urvaci and Pururavas. The dialogue takes place at the moment when the nymph is about to quit her mortal lover for ever. A good deal of interest attaches to this myth, not only as the oldest Indo-European love-story, but as one which has had a long history in Indian literature. The dialogue of Yama and Yami (x. 10) is, as we have seen, based on a still older myth. These mythological ballads, if I may use the expression, foreshadow the dramatic and epic poetry of a later age.

A very small number, hardly more than thirty altogether, of the hymns of the Rigveda are not addressed to the G.o.ds or deified objects. About a dozen poems, occurring almost exclusively in the tenth book, are concerned with magical notions, and therefore belong rather to the domain of the Atharva-veda, Two short ones (ii. 42-43) belong to the sphere of augury, certain birds of omen being invoked to utter auspicious cries. Two others consist of spells directed against poisonous vermin (i. 191), and the disease called yakshma (x. 163). Two are incantations to preserve the life of one lying at the point of death (x. 58; 60, 7-12). A couple of stanzas from one of the latter may serve as a specimen:--

Just as a yoke with leathern thong They fasten on that it may hold: So have I now held fast thy soul, That thou mayst live and mayst not die, Anon to be unhurt and well.

Downward is blown the blast of wind, Downward the burning sunbeams shoot, Adown the milk streams from the cow: So downward may thy ailment go.

Here is a stanza from a poem intended as a charm to induce slumber (v. 55):--

The man who sits and he who walks, And he who sees us with his gaze: Of these we now close up the eyes, Just as we shut this dwelling-house.

The first three stanzas of this lullaby end with the refrain, "Fall fast asleep" (ni shu shvapa).

The purpose of one incantation (x. 183) is to procure children, while another (x. 162) is directed against the demon that destroys offspring. There is also a spell (x. 166) aiming at the destruction of enemies. We further find the incantation (x. 145) of a woman desiring to oust her rival wives from the affections of her husband. A sequel to it is formed by the song of triumph (x. 159) of one who has succeeded in this object:--

Up has arisen there the sun, So too my fortunes now arise: With craft victorious I have gained Over my lord this victory.

My sons now mighty warriors are, My daughter is a princess now, And I myself have gained the day: My name stands highest with my lord.

Vanquished have I these rival wives, Rising superior to them all, That over this heroic man And all this people I may rule.

With regard to a late hymn (vii. 103), which is entirely secular in style, there is some doubt as to its original purpose. The awakening of the frogs at the beginning of the rainy season is here described with a graphic power which will doubtless be appreciated best by those who have lived in India. The poet compares the din of their croaking with the chants of priests exhilarated by soma, and with the clamour of pupils at school repeating the words of their teacher:--

Resting in silence for a year, As Brahmans practising a vow, The frogs have lifted up their voice, Excited when Parjanya comes.

When one repeats the utterance of the other Like those who learn the lesson of their teacher, Then every limb of yours seems to be swelling, As eloquent ye prate upon the waters.

As Brahmans at the mighty soma offering Sit round the large and br.i.m.m.i.n.g vessel talking, So throng ye round the pool to hallow This day of all the year that brings the rain-time.

These Brahmans with their soma raise their voices, Performing punctually their yearly worship; And these Adhvaryus, sweating with their kettles, These priests come forth to view, and none are hidden.

The twelvemonth's G.o.d-sent order they have guarded, And never do these men neglect the season.

When in the year the rainy time commences, Those who were heated kettles gain deliverance.

This poem has usually been interpreted as a satire upon the Brahmans. If such be indeed its purport, we find it difficult to conceive how it could have gained admittance into a collection like the Rigveda, which, if not entirely composed, was certainly edited, by priests. The Brahmans cannot have been ignorant of the real significance of the poem. On the other hand, the comparison of frogs with Brahmans would not necessarily imply satire to the Vedic Indian. Students familiar with the style of the Rigveda know that many similes which, if used by ourselves, would involve contempt or ridicule, were employed by the ancient Indian poets only for the sake of graphic effect. As the frogs are in the last stanza besought to grant wealth and length of days, it is much more likely that we have here a panegyric of frogs believed to have the magical power of bringing rain.

There remain about twenty poems the subject-matter of which is of a more or less secular character. They deal with social customs, the liberality of patrons, ethical questions, riddles, and cosmogonic speculations. Several of them are of high importance for the history of Indian thought and civilisation. As social usages have always been dominated by religion in India, it is natural that the poems dealing with them should have a religious and mythological colouring. The most notable poem of this kind is the long wedding-hymn (x. 85) of forty-seven stanzas. Lacking in poetic unity, it consists of groups of verses relating to the marriage ceremonial loosely strung together. The opening stanzas (1-5), in which the ident.i.ty of the celestial soma and of the moon is expressed in veiled terms, are followed by others (6-17) relating the myth of the wedding of Soma the moon with the sun-maiden Surya. The Acvins, elsewhere her spouses, here appear in the inferior capacity of groomsmen, who, on behalf of Soma, sue for the hand of Surya from her father, the sun-G.o.d. Savitri consents, and sends his daughter, a willing bride, to her husband's house on a two-wheeled car made of the wood of the calmali or silk-cotton tree, decked with red kimcuka flowers, and drawn by two white bulls.

Then sun and moon, the prototype of human marriage, are described as an inseparable pair (18-19):--

They move alternately with mystic power; Like children playing they go round the sacrifice: One of the two surveys all living beings, The other, seasons meting out, is born again.

Ever anew, being born again, he rises, He goes in front of dawns as daylight's token.

He, coming, to the G.o.ds their share apportions: The moon extends the length of man's existence.

Blessings are then invoked on the wedding procession, and a wish expressed that the newly-married couple may have many children and enjoy prosperity, long life, and freedom from disease (20-33).

The next two stanzas (34-35), containing some obscure references to the bridal garments, are followed by six others (36-41) p.r.o.nounced at the wedding rite, which is again brought into connection with the marriage of Surya. The bridegroom here thus addresses the bride:--

I grasp thy hand that I may gain good fortune, That thou may'st reach old age with me thy husband.