The Birth of the War-God Part 10

"Then, too, the pearl from out its sh.e.l.l Unsightly, in the sunless sea (As 'twere a spirit, forced to dwell In form unlovely) _was set free_, And round the neck of woman threw _A light it lent and borrowed too_."

MOORE--_Loves of the Angels._

Moore is frequently the best interpreter, unconsciously, of an Indian poet's thought. It is worth remarking, that the Sanskrit word _mukta_, pearl (literally _freed_), signifies also the _spirit_ released from mundane existence, and re-integrated with its divine original.

_The sweetest note that e'er the Koil poured._] The _Kokila_, or _Koil_, the black or Indian cuckoo, is the bulbul or nightingale of Hindustan. It is also the herald of spring, like its European namesake, and the female bird is the especial messenger of Love.

_When holy Narad._] A divine sage, son of Brahma.

_The holy bull._] The animal on which the G.o.d ['S]iva rides, as Indra on the elephant.

_Who takes eight various forms._] ['S]iva is called Wearer of the Eight Forms, as being identical with the Five Elements, Mind, Individuality, and Crude Matter.

_Where the pale moon on ['S]iva's forehead._] ['S]iva's crest is the new moon, which is sometimes described as forming a third eye in his forehead. We shall find frequent allusions to this in the course of the poem.

_CANTO SECOND._

_While impious Tarak._] A demon who, by a long course of austerities, had acquired power even over the G.o.ds. This Hindu notion is familiar to most of us from Southey's "Curse of Kehama."

_Whose face turns every way._] Brahma is represented with four faces, one towards each point of the compa.s.s.

_The mystic Three._] "The triad of qualities," a philosophical term familiar to all the systems of Hindu speculation. They are thus explained in the _Tattwa Samasa_, a text-book of the Sankhya school:--"Now it is asked, What is the 'triad of qualities'? It is replied, The triad of qualities consists of 'Goodness,' 'Foulness,'

and 'Darkness.' By the 'triad of qualities' is meant the 'three qualities.' Goodness is endlessly diversified, accordingly as it is exemplified in calmness, lightness, complacency, attainment of wishes, kindliness, contentment, patience, joy, and the like; summarily, it consists of happiness. 'Foulness' is endlessly diversified, accordingly as it is exemplified in grief, distress, separation, excitement, anxiety, fault-finding, and the like; summarily, it consists of pain. 'Darkness' is endlessly diversified, accordingly as it is exemplified in envelopment, ignorance, disgust, abjectness, heaviness, sloth, drowsiness, intoxication, and the like; summarily, it consists of delusion."

_Thou, when a longing_, &c.] "Having divided his own substance, the mighty power became half male, half female, or _nature active and pa.s.sive_."--_Manu_, Ch. I.

So also in the old Orphic hymn it is said,

[Greek: Zeus a.r.s.en geneto, Zeus ambrotos epleto numphe.]

"Zeus was a male; Zeus was a deathless damsel."

_The sacred hymns._] Contained in the Vedas, or Holy Scriptures of the Hindus.

_The word of praise._] The mystic syllable OM, prefacing all the prayers and most of the writings of the Hindus. It implies the Indian triad, and expresses the Three in One.

_They hail thee, Nature._] The object of Nature's activity, according to the Sankhya system, is "the final liberation of individual soul."

"The incompetency of nature, an irrational principle, to inst.i.tute a course of action for a definite purpose, and the unfitness of rational soul to regulate the acts of an agent whose character it imperfectly apprehends, const.i.tute a princ.i.p.al argument with the theistical Sankhyas for the necessity of a Providence, to whom the ends of existence are known, and by whom Nature is guided.... The atheistical Sankhyas, on the other hand, contend that there is no occasion for a guiding Providence, but that the activity of nature, for the purpose of accomplishing soul's object, is an intuitive necessity, as ill.u.s.trated in the following pa.s.sage:--As it is a function of milk, an unintelligent (substance), to nourish the calf, so it is the office of the chief principle (nature) to liberate the soul."--Prof. Wilson's _Sankhya Karika_.

_Hail Thee the stranger Spirit_, &c.] "Soul is witness, solitary, bystander, spectator, pa.s.sive."--_Sankh. Kar._ verse xix.

_See, Varun's noose._] The G.o.d of Water.

_Weak is Kuvera's hand._] The G.o.d of Wealth.

_Yama's sceptre._] The G.o.d and Judge of the Dead.

_The Lords of Light._] The adityas, twelve in number, are forms of the sun, and appear to represent him as distinct in each month of the year.

_The Rudras._] A cla.s.s of demi-G.o.ds, eleven in number, said to be inferior manifestations of ['S]iva, who also bears this name.

_E'en as on earth_, &c.] Thus the commandment,--Thou shalt not kill, is abrogated by the injunction to kill animals for sacrifice.

_The heavenly Teacher._] Vrihaspati, the son of Angiras.

_His own dear flower._] The lotus, on which Brahma is represented reclining.

_Their flashing jewels._] According to the Hindu belief, serpents wear precious jewels in their heads.

_Chakra._] A discus, or quoit, the weapon of Vishnu.

_As water bears to me._] "HE, having willed to produce various beings from his own divine substance, first with a thought created the waters, and placed in them a productive seed."--_Manu_, Ch. I.

_Mournful braids._] As a sign of mourning, especially for the loss of their husbands, the Hindustani women collect their long hair into a braid, called in Sanskrit _ve[n.]i_.

_The mango twig._] We shall meet with several allusions to this tree as the favourite of Love and the darling of the bees.

_CANTO THIRD._

_Who angers thee, &c._] To understand properly this speech of Kama, it is necessary to be acquainted with some of the Hindu notions regarding a future state. "The highest kind of happiness is absorption into the divine essence, or the return of that portion of spirit which is combined with the attributes of humanity to its original source. This happiness, according to the philosopher, is to be obtained only by the most perfect abstraction from the world and freedom from pa.s.sion, even while in a state of terrestrial existence.... Besides this ultimate felicity, the Hindus have several minor degrees of happiness, amongst which is the enjoyment of Indra's Swarga, or, in fact, of a Muhammadan Paradise. The degree and duration of the pleasures of this paradise are proportioned to the merits of those admitted to it; and they who have enjoyed this lofty region of Swarga, but whose virtue is exhausted, revisit the habitation of mortals."--Prof. Wilson's _Megha Duta_. Compare also "The Lord's Song."--_Specimens of Old Indian Poetry_, pp. 67, 68.

Indra, therefore, may be supposed to feel jealous whenever a human being aspires to something higher than that heaven of which he is the Lord.

The "chain of birth" alluded to is of course the metempsychosis, or transmigration of souls, a belief which is not to be looked upon (says Prof. Wilson in the preface to his edition of the _Sankhya Karika_) as a mere popular superst.i.tion. It is the main principle of all Hindu metaphysics; it is the foundation of all Hindu philosophy. The great object of their philosophical research in every system, Brahminical or Buddhist, is the discovery of the means of putting a stop to further transmigration; the discontinuance of corporeal being; the liberation of soul from body.

_As on that Snake._] Sesha, the Serpent King, is in the Hindu mythology the supporter of the earth, as, in one of the fictions of the Edda,--

"That sea-snake, tremendous curled, Whose monstrous circle girds the world."

He is also the couch and canopy of the G.o.d Vishnu, or, as he is here called, Krish[n.]a,--that hero being one of his incarnations, and considered identical with the deity himself.

_The threefold world._] Earth, heaven, and h.e.l.l.

_His fearful Rati._] The wife of Kama, or Love.

_To where Kuvera &c._] The demi-G.o.d Kuvera was regent of the north.

_Nor waited for the maiden's touch._] Referring to the Hindu notion that the A['s]oka blossoms at the touch of a woman's foot. So Sh.e.l.ley says,

"I doubt not, the flowers of that garden sweet Rejoiced in the sound of her gentle feet."

_Sensitive Plant._

_Grouping the syllables._] This comparison seems forced rather too far to suit a European taste. Kalidas is not satisfied with calling the mango-spray the Arrow of Love; he must tell us that its leaves are the feathers, and that the bees have marked it with the owner's name.

_That loveliest flower._] The Karnikara.

_His flowery Tilaka._] The name of a tree; it also means a mark made with coloured earths or unguents upon the forehead and between the eyebrows, either as an ornament or a sectarial distinction; the poet intends the word to convey both ideas at once here. In this pa.s.sage is another comparison of the mango-spray: it is called the _lip_ of Love; its _rouge_ is the blush of morning, and its darker beautifying powder the cl.u.s.tering bees. From the universal custom of dying the lips, the Sanskrit poets are constantly speaking of their "vermeil tints," &c., as will be sufficiently evident in the course of this work.