Nala And Damayanti And Other Poems Part 18

[Footnote 89: p. 40. l. 6. _Best of trees, the Asoca blooming_. The Asoca is a shrub consecrated to Mahadeva; men and women of all cla.s.ses ought to bathe, on a particular day, in some holy stream, especially the Brahma-putra, and drink water with the buds of the Asoca floating in it. This shrub is planted near the temples of Siva, and grows abundantly on Ceylon. Sita is said to have been confined in a grove of it, while in captivity by Ravana; other relators say that she was confined in a place or house called Asocavan. The Asoca is a plant of the first order of the eighth cla.s.s, of leguminous fructification, and bears flowers of exquisite beauty. Van Rheede (Hortus Malab. vol. v.

tab. 59.) calls it Asjogam. See Asiatic Researches, iii. 254, 277.

MOOR, Hindu Pantheon, 55.]

[Footnote 90: p. 40. l. 17. _Truly be thou named Asoca_. Asoca, from _a_, privative, and _soka_, grief: a play of words, as when Helen, in Euripides, is called '??e?as, the destroyer of ships.' Many other instances will occur to the cla.s.sical reader. In Malati and Madhava, the forlorn lover in turn addresses different objects of nature, the clouds, the birds, and the elephants, to inform him whether they have seen his lost mistress. ACT ix. See, however, Mr. WILSON's note, who seems to think that he addresses the sylvan deities.]

[Footnote 91: p. 42. l. 8. _--Manibhadra, guard us well_. Manibhadra, the tutelar deity of travellers and merchants: probably a name of Kuvera, the G.o.d of wealth.]

[Footnote 92: p. 42. l. 11. _To the realm of Chedi's sovereign_. Chedi is the name of the country now called Chandail. The country is perpetually named in the marriage of Roukmini, extracted from the Harivansa by Mons. LANGLOIS, Monumens de l'Inde, p. 96.]

[Footnote 93: p. 43. Compare the Raghuvansa, ch. v. 43 to 49.]

[Footnote 94: p. 43. l. 12.

--_lo, a herd of elephants, Oozing moisture from their temples_--

Where the wild elephant delights to shed The juice exuding fragrant from his head

WILSON's Cloud-Messenger, p. 127, and note.]

[Footnote 95: p. 44. l. 7. _--the three worlds seemed all appalled_. Swerga, heaven, Martya or Bhumi, the earth, and Patala, h.e.l.l.]

[Footnote 96: p. 44. l. 21. _And Vaisravana the holy_. Vaisravana is another name of Kuvera, the G.o.d of wealth.]

[Footnote 97: p. 45. l. 13. _In some former life committed_. The soul, in its transmigration, expiates the sins committed in a former state of being. This necessary corollary from the doctrine of the metempsychosis appear to have prevailed among the pharisaic Jews in the time of our Saviour: "Master, who did sin, this man or his parents, that he was born blind." JOHN, ix. 2.]

[Footnote 98: p. 46. l. 15. _--in their curious gamesome play_. Kutuhalat, rendered by Bopp 'c.u.m voluptate,' means, 'from curiosity.' WILSON.]

[Footnote 99: p. 47. l. 13. _I with but one robe, him naked_. Bopp's text is incorrect here. Instead of 'Tam. ekavasanam,' the accusative masculine, it should be 'Tam. ekavasana, I with one garment clad,' the nominative feminine, referring to Damayanti, not to Nala: "I with one garment following him naked and deprived of reason, like one crazed, had not slept for many nights." WILSON.]

[Footnote 100: p. 47. l. 28. _That I eat not broken victuals_. Among the kinds of food proscribed to a Brahmin are, "the food of a servile man and the orts of another."]

[Footnote 101: p. 47. l. 28. _--wash not feet with menial hand_. The Latin translation, 'ne faciam pedibus cursum,' is faulty: the sense is, "that I perform not washing of the feet." Damayanti means that she is not to perform menial offices appropriated to persons of low caste.

Stipulating for a carriage would be rather extraordinary. WILSON.]

[Footnote 102: p. 49. l. 9. _Narada, the famous hermit_. One of the Devarshis, and a great prophet, who is supposed to be still wandering about the world. 'Nara' signifies a thread or clew, a precept, and 'da,' giver.

Whenever he appears he is constantly employed in giving good counsel.

WILKINS, note on Bhagavat-Gita.]

[Footnote 103: p. 49. l. 23. _Ere the tenth step he had counted--him the sudden serpent bit_. 'Dasa' means both 'bite' and 'ten.']

[Footnote 104: p. 50. l. 12. _Neither Brahmin fear, nor Sages_. In Indian poetry four cla.s.ses of holy men, or Rishis, are distinguished, and rise, one above the other, in the following rank: Rajarshis, royal Rishis; Maharshis, great Rishis; Brahmarshis, Brahminical Rishis; and Dewarshis, divine Rishis. KOSEGARTEN. Another enumeration specifies seven grades. WILSON, in voce.]

[Footnote 105: p. 50. l. 26. _Saying thus, of vests celestial--gave he to the king a pair_. The dress of a Hindu consists of two pieces of cloth, one, the lower garment fastened round his waist, and one the upper garment thrown loosely and gracefully over the shoulders. WILSON.]

[Footnote 106: p. 51. l. 6. _In the art of dressing viands_. This, it will be remembered, was one of the gifts bestowed by the G.o.ds on Nala at his marriage.]

[Footnote 107: p. 51. l. 12. _--hundred hundreds is thy pay_. Suvarnas, a certain measure of gold. WILSON, Dict. in voce.]

[Footnote 108: p. 52. l. 2. There is in the text a second line, repeating the same sentiment. Bopp proposes to reject the first, I have omitted the second.]

[Footnote 109: p. 53. l. 7. _And a royal grant for maintenance_. See Bopp's note. I have adopted the second sense of the word Agraharah. Such grants were not uncommon in India, as throughout the east. See the grants on copper-plates found near Bombay, Asiatic Researches, i. 362.

So the well-known gifts of the king of Persia to Themistocles.]

[Footnote 110: p. 53. l. 15. _--on a royal holiday_. A day proclaimed as fortunate by the king.]

[Footnote 111: p. 54. l. 1. _--like Manmatha's queen divine_. The bride of Kamadeva is Rati, pleasure.]

[Footnote 112: p. 54. ls. 4--10. This long train of similes, in which the images of the lotus flower and the moon so perpetually occur, is too characteristic to be omitted or compressed. I have here and there used the license of a paraphrase.]

[Footnote 113: p. 54. l. 5. _Like the pallid night, when Rahu_. This is a favourite simile of the Indian poets.

That s.n.a.t.c.hed my love from the uplifted sword, Like the pale moon from Rahu's ravenous jaws.

WILSON'S Malati and Madhava, p. 62.

-------------and now thou fall'st, a prey To death, like the full moon to Rahu's jaws Consigned.

Ibid. p. 115.

In Indian mythology, eclipses are caused by the dragon Rahu attempting to swallow up the moon. The origin of their hostility is given in a pa.s.sage quoted by Mr. Wilkins from the Mahabharata, in his notes to the Bhagavat-Gita:--"And so it fell out that when the Soors were quenching their thirst for immortality, Rahu, an Asoor, a.s.sumed the form of a Soor, and begun to drink also; and the water had but reached his throat, when the sun and moon, in friendship to the Soors, discovered the deceit, and instantly Narayan cut off his head as he was drinking, with his splendid weapon, chakra. And the gigantic head of the Asoor, emblem of a monstrous summit, being thus separated from his body by the chakra's edge, bounded into the heavens with a dreadful cry, whilst the ponderous trunk fell, cleaving the ground asunder, and shaking the whole earth unto its foundations, with all its islands, rocks, and forest. And from this time the head of Rahu resolved on eternal enmity, and continueth even unto this day at times to seize upon the sun and moon." p. 149.]

[Footnote 114: p. 54. l. 15. _To the unadorned a husband._ "Married women must be honoured and adorned by their fathers and brethren, by their husbands, and by the brethren of their husbands, if they seek abundant prosperity." MENU, iii, 55.]

[Footnote 115: p. 54. l. 22.--_the moon's bride_. Rohinia. The moon, as in the northern mythologies, is a male deity. See WILFORD, in Asiatic Researches, iii, 384. Rohinia is explained by Mr. Wilson, the fourth lunar asterism, figured by a wheeled carriage, and containing five stars, probably a ? d e, Tauri. In mythology the asterism is personified as one of the daughters of Daksha, and wives of the moon.--Sanscrit Dict. in voce. Comp. Vikrama and Urvasi, p. 57.]

[Footnote 116: p. 57. _Dasarna_. Dasarna is mentioned in the Cloud Messenger of Kalidasa.

Dasarna's fields await the coming shower.

See likewise Mr. Wilson's note, p. 37.]

[Footnote 117: p. 59. l. 2. _By the wind within the forest--fanned, intensely burns the fire._ Kosegarten supposes this to mean, that as the incessant wind kindles the fire in the grove of bamboos, so their repeated words may fan the fire of pity in the heart of Nala.]

[Footnote 118: p. 63. l. 9. _To desire this deed unholy._ A second marriage in a woman is considered in India an inexpiable breach of conjugal fidelity. "A virtuous wife ascends to heaven, though she have no child, if after the decease of her lord she devotes herself to pious austerity. But a widow, who from a wish to bear children, slights her deceased husband by marrying again, brings disgrace on herself here below, and shall be excluded from the seat of her lord." MENU, v, 160-161. "She who neglects her former (purva) lord, though of a lower cla.s.s, and takes another (para) of a higher, becomes despicable in this world, and is called para purva, or one who had a different husband before." Ibid. 163.]

[Footnote 119: p. 64. l. 4. _With the ten good marks distinguished._ Avarttas are "locks," curls, or twists of the hair in certain forms on different parts of the body--here they are apparently: forehead 1, head 2, chest 2, ribs 2, flanks 2, crupper 1. In the Magha, v. 9, we have the term Avarttina applied to horses; on which the commentator observes, "Avarttina signifies horses having the ten Avarttas, marks of excellence; they are, two on the breast, two on the head, two on the hollows of the ribs, two on the hollows of the flanks, and one on the crupper (Prapata); these are called the ten Avarttas. Avartta means an eddy, or whirlpool, and the name is applied to dispositions of the hair of a horse which resemble a whirlpool." WILSON.]

[Footnote 120: p. 64. l. 4. _--born in Sindhu_. The Sindhu is the Indian name for the Indus; the neighbouring territory is called Sind. See Asiatic Researches, viii. 336.]

[Footnote 121: p. 65. l. 7. _Matali_. The charioteer of Indra. See Rhaguvansa, xii, 86, and Sacontala.]

[Footnote 122: p. 66. l. 10. _Ten miles, lo, it lies beyond us._ A Yojana; according to some eleven, according to others five or six English miles. I have given a round number.]

[Footnote 123: p. 66. l. 12. _Vibhitak_. 'Beleric Myrobalan.' WILSON, Sanscrit Dict. in voce.]

[Footnote 124: p. 66. l. 21. _Kotis_. A Koti is ten millions.]

[Footnote 125: p. 68. l. 11. _Kali_. It must be remembered that Kali, while within the body of Nala, had been enchanted by the serpent Karkotaka.]