Nala And Damayanti And Other Poems Part 19

[Footnote 126: p. 68. l. 16. Damayanti; who had cursed in the forest all who had caused the misery of Nala.]

[Footnote 127: p. 68. l. 25. Compare Prospero's power in the Tempest.]

[Footnote 128: p. 70. l. 4. _All the region round him echoing--with the thunders of his car._ This scene rather reminds us of the watchman reporting the rapid approach of Jehu, "The driving is like the driving of Jehu the son of Nimshi; for he driveth furiously." II Kings ix, 20.]

[Footnote 129: p. 70. l. 6. _In their joy they pawed and trampled._ The horses of Nala had been before conveyed to the city of king Bhima by Varshneya.]

[Footnote 130: p. 70. l. 16. _--as at sound of coming rain._ The rejoicing of the peac.o.c.ks at the approach of rain is very sweetly described in the play of Malati and Madhava, translated by Mr. Wilson.

Ah Malati, how can I bear to contemplate The young Tamala, bowed beneath the weight Of the light rain; the quivering drops that dance Before the cooling gale; the joyful cry That echoes round, as pleased the pea-fowl hail The bow of heaven propitious to their loves.--p. 108.

In the Cloud Messenger, the Yaksha who addresses the cloud, fears lest it should be delayed by the cry of the peac.o.c.k--

Or can the peac.o.c.k's animated hail The bird with lucid eyes, to lure thee fail.--l. 147.

In another pa.s.sage,

Pleased on each terrace, dancing with delight, The friendly peac.o.c.k hails thy grateful flight.--l. 215.]

[Footnote 131: p. 76. l. 19. _--much and various viands came_. The reader must remember the various gifts bestowed on king Nala by the G.o.ds upon his marriage.]

[Footnote 132: p. 77. l. 22. _--of her mouth ablution made_. Washing the mouth after food, which Damayanti in her height of emotion does not forget, is a duty strictly enjoined in the Indian law, which so rigidly enforces personal cleanliness. "With a remnant of food in the mouth, or when the Sraddha has recently been eaten, let no man even meditate in his heart on the holy texts." MENU, iv, 109. "Having slumbered, having sneezed, having eaten, having spitten, having told untruths, having drunk water, and going to read sacred books, let him, though pure, wash his mouth." v. 145.]

[Footnote 133: p. 79. l. 17. _--hair dishevelled, mire-defiled_. As a sign of sorrow and mourning.]

[Footnote 134: p. 80. l. 4. _I will be._ "I will be," must be the commencement of the prayer uttered by the bridegroom at the time of marriage. It does not correspond with any of those cited by Mr. Colebrooke. It is probably a.n.a.logous to that given by him, Asiatic Researches, viii, p.

301. WILSON.]

[Footnote 135: p. 81. l. 11. _He through all the world that wanders--witness the all-seeing lord._ See the curious Law of Ordeal, Asiatic Researches, vol. i, p. 402, "On the trial by fire, let both hands of the accused be rubbed with rice in the husk, and well examined: then let seven leaves of the Aswatha (the religious fig-tree) be placed on them, and bound with seven threads." Thou, O fire, pervadest all beings; O cause of purity, who givest evidence of virtue and of sin, declare the truth in this my hand.]

[Footnote 136: p. 81. l. 27. _--flowers fell showering all around._ These heavenly beings are ever ready, in the machinery of Hindu epics, to perform their pleasing office (of showering flowers on the head of the happy pair) on every important occasion: they are called Pushpa-vrishti, or flower-rainers. MOOR, Hindu Pantheon, 194. See in the Raghuvansa, ii, 60. No sooner has king Dilipa offered himself to die for the sacred cow of his Brahminical preceptor, than "a shower of flowers" falls upon him.]

[Footnote 137: p. 86. l. 3. _--stands the Apsara in heaven._ The birth of the Apsarasas is thus related in the Ramayana.

Then from the agitated deep upsprung The legion of Apsarasas, so named That to the watery element they owed Their being. Myriads were they born, and all In vesture heavenly clad, and heavenly gems; Yet more divine their native semblance, rich With all the gifts of grace and youth and beauty.

A train innumerous followed, yet thus fair Nor G.o.d nor demon sought their widowed love; Thus Raghava they still remain, their charms The common treasure of the host of heaven.

--WILSON's Translation, Preface to the Drama of Vikrama and Urvasi, p. 13.]

[Footnote 138: p. 87. l. 16. _Pushkara appeased._ The Calcutta edition has a better reading than that of Bopp. Instead of Prasante Pushkare (Pushkara appeased), it is Prasante tu pure, (the city being tranquil, the rejoicings having ceased). WILSON.]

[Footnote 139: p. 87. l. 21. _Nala sate, as in Nandana_. Nandana is the garden of Indra.]

[Footnote 140: p. 87. l. 23. _Ruled his realm in Jambudwipa_. Sic in Puranis India nominatur. BOPP.]

NOTES TO

THE DEATH OF YAJNADATTA.

[Footnote 141: p. 91. l. 15. _So I the lovely Amra left_. The Amra is the Mangifern Indica. This tree is not only valuable in the estimation of the Indians for the excellence of its fruits; the belief that the burning juice of its flowers is used to steep the darts of love, enhances their veneration for this beautiful tree. It is frequently mentioned in their poetry. M. CHEZY.]

[Footnote 142: p. 91. l. 15. _--for the Palasa's barren bloom_. The Palasa is the Butea Frondosa of Koenig. Its flowers, of great beauty, are papilionaceous; and its fruit, entirely without use in domestic economy, compared particularly with the Amra, may well be called barren. M. CHEZY. See Sir W. Jones's Essay on the Botany of India; and the Asiatic Researches, vol. iii.]

[Footnote 143: p. 91. l. 19. _--hath fallen upon my fatal head_. "Yes, iniquity once committed, fails not of producing fruit to him who wrought it; if not in his own person, yet in his son's; or if not in his son's, yet in his grandson's." MENU, iv. 173.]

[Footnote 144: p. 92. l. 2. _--where haunt the spirits of the dead!_ The south; the realm of Yama, the judge of the dead.]

[Footnote 145: p. 92. l. 3. _--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 pa.s.ses along by the joy of animate and inanimate beings. Quote 61-70, 131-142. Compare, in the Hindu Drama, the Toy Cart, act v.]

[Footnote 146: p. 93. l. 2. _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 a.s.s; 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.]

[Footnote 147: p. 93. l. 6. _--to the five elements returned_. A common Indian phrase for death. The ether is the fifth element.]

[Footnote 148: p. 93. l. 15. _Kshatriya_. The second, or warrior-caste. The kings in India were usually of this caste.]

[Footnote 149: p. 93. l. 25. _Raghu_. One of the famous ancestors of Dasaratha.

The poem of the Raghu Vansa has recently appeared, edited by M.

Stenzler.]

[Footnote 150: p. 94. l. 3. _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.]

[Footnote 151: p. 96. l. 14. _The miserable father now_. See in Menu, the penalties and expiation for killing a Brahmin undesignedly, xi, 74, 82; compare 90. An a.s.saulter of a Brahman with intent to kill, shall remain in h.e.l.l 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 h.e.l.l. xi. 207, 8.]

[Footnote 152: p. 97. l. 23. _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 TO

THE BRAHMIN'S LAMENT.

[Footnote 153: p. 104. l. 5.--_a 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.]

[Footnote 154: p. 104. l. 15. A line is omitted here, which seems to want a parallel to make up the sloka. Bopp has omitted it in his translation.]

[Footnote 155: p. 105. l. 21. _--Sudra 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.]

[Footnote 156: p. 105. l. 25. _As the storks the rice of offering_.

We follow Bopp in refining these birds from birds of coa.r.s.er prey.]