Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, or the Central and Western Rajput States of India v2.c27.s4.t2: Incantation
Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, or the Central and Western Rajput States of India v2.c27.s4.t2
- Language
- English
Incantation
v2.c27.s4.t2.1
*Hervor*—“Awake, Angantýr! Hervor, the only daughter of thee and Suafu, doth awaken thee. Give me out of the tomb the tempered sword which the dwarfs made for Suafurlama.
v2.c27.s4.t2.2
“Can none of Eyvors’¹ sons speak with me out of the habitations of the dead? Hervardur,¹ Hurvardur?”¹
v2.c27.s4.t2.3
¹ All these proper names might have Oriental etymologies assigned to them; Eyvor-sail is the name of a celebrated Rajput hero of the Bhatti tribe, who were driven at an early period from the very heart of Scythia, and are of Yadu race.
v2.c27.s4.t2.4
The tomb at length opens, the inside of which appears on fire, and a reply is sung within:
v2.c27.s4.t2.5
*Angantýr*—“Daughter Hervor, full of spells to raise the dead, why dost thou call so? I was not buried either by father or friends; two who lived after me got Tyrfing, one of whom is now in possession thereof [593].”
v2.c27.s4.t2.6
*Hervor*—“The dead shall never enjoy rest unless Angantýr deliver me Tyrfing, that cleaveth shields, and killed Hjalmr.”²
v2.c27.s4.t2.7
² This word can have a Sanskrit derivation from *haya*, ‘a horse’; *marna*, ‘to strike or kill’; *Hjalmr*, ‘the horse-slayer.’ [These theories are of no value.]
v2.c27.s4.t2.8
*Angantýr*—“Young maid, thou art of manlike courage, who dost rove by night to tombs, with spear engraven with magic spells,³ with helm and coat of mail, before the door of our hall.”
v2.c27.s4.t2.9
³ The custom of engraving incantations on weapons is also from the East, and thence adopted by the Muhammadan, as well as the use of phylacteries. The name of the goddess guarding the tribe is often inscribed, and I have had an entire copy of the Bhagavadgita taken from the turban of a Rajput killed in action: in like manner the Muhammadans place therein the Koran.
v2.c27.s4.t2.10
*Hervor*—“It is not good for thee to hide it.”
v2.c27.s4.t2.11
*Angantýr*—“The death of Hjalmr⁴ lies under my shoulders; it is all wrapt up in fire: I know no maid that dares to take this sword in hand.”
v2.c27.s4.t2.12
⁴ The metaphorical name of the sword Tyrfing.
v2.c27.s4.t2.13
*Hervor*—“I shall take in hand the sharp sword, if I may obtain it. I do not think that fire will burn which plays about the site of deceased men.” ¹
v2.c27.s4.t2.14
¹ I have already mentioned these fires (see p. 89), which the northern nations believed to issue from the tombs of their heroes, and which seemed to guard their ashes ; them they called Hauga Elldr, or ‘ the sepulchral fires,’ and they were supposed more especially to surround tombs which contained hidden treasures. These supernatural fires are termed Shihaba by the Rajputs. When the intrepid Scandinavian maiden observes that she is not afraid of the flame burning her, she is bolder than one of the boldest Rajputs, for Sri-kishan, who was shocked at the bare idea of going near these sepulchral lights, was one of the three non-commissioned officers who afterwards led thirty-two firelocks to the attack and defeat of 1500 Pindaris.
v2.c27.s4.t2.15
Angantýr—“ Take and keep Hjalmr’s bane : touch but the edges of it, there is poison in them both ; ² it is a most cruel devourer of men.” ³
v2.c27.s4.t2.16
² Like the Rajput Khanda, Tyrfing was double-edged ; the poison of these edges is a truly Oriental idea.
v2.c27.s4.t2.17
³ This poem is from the Hervarer Saga, an ancient Icelandic history. See Edda, vol. ii. p. 192.
v2.c27.s4.t2.18
The Magic Sword of Mewār.—Tradition has hallowed the two-edged sword (*khanda*) of Mewar, by investing it with an origin as mysterious as “ the bane of Hjalmr.” It is supposed to be the enchanted weapon fabricated by Viswakarma,⁴ with which the Hindu Proserpine girded the founder of the race, and led him forth to the conquest of Chitor.⁵ It remained the great heirloom of her princes till the sack of Chitor by the Tatar Ala, when Rana Arsi and eleven of his brave sons devoted themselves at the command of the guardian goddess of their race, and their capital falling into the hands of the invader, the last scion of Bappa became a fugitive amidst the mountains of the west. It was then the Tatar inducted the Sonigira Maldeo [594], as his lieutenant, into the capital of the Guhilots. The most celebrated of the poetic chronicles of Mewar gives an elaborate description of the subterranean palace in Chitor, in one of whose entrances the dreadful sacrifice was perpetuated to save the honour of Padmini and the fair of Chitor from the brutalized Tatars.⁶ The curiosity of Maldeo was more powerful than his superstition, and he determined to explore these hidden abodes, though reputed to be guarded by the serpent genii attendant on Nagnaicha, the ancient divinity of its Takshak founders.¹ Whether it was through the identical caverned passage, and over the ashes of those martyred Kaminis,² that he made good his way into those rock-bound abodes, the legend says not; but though
v2.c27.s4.t2.19
⁴ The Vulcan of the Hindus.
v2.c27.s4.t2.20
⁵ For an account of the initiation to arms of Bappa, the founder of the Guhilots, see p. 264 [Vol. I.].
v2.c27.s4.t2.21
⁶ See p. 311 [Vol. I.].
v2.c27.s4.t2.22
¹ 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.
v2.c27.s4.t2.23
² [Lovely maidens.]
v2.c27.s4.t2.24
In darkness, and with dangers compassed round,
And solitude,
v2.c27.s4.t2.25
the intrepid Maldeo paused not until he had penetrated to the very bounds of the abyss, where in a recess he beheld the snaky sorceress and her sister crew seated round a cauldron, in which the materials of their incantation were solving before a fire that served to illume this abode of horror. As he paused, the reverberation of his footsteps caused the infernal crew to look athwart the palpable obscure of their abode, and beholding the audacious mortal, they demanded his intent. The valiant Sonigira replied that he did not come as a spy,
v2.c27.s4.t2.26
With purpose to explore or to disturb
The secrets of their realm,
v2.c27.s4.t2.27
but in search of the enchanted brand of the founder of the Guhilots. Soon they made proof of Maldeo’s hardihood. Uncovering the cauldron, he beheld a sight most appalling: amidst divers fragments of animals was the arm of an infant. A dish of this horrid repast was placed before him, and a silent signal made for him to eat. He obeyed, and returned the empty platter: it was proof sufficient of his worth to wear the enchanted blade, which, drawn forth from its secret abode, was put into the hand of Maldeo, who bowing, retired with the trophy [595].
v2.c27.s4.t2.28
Rana Hamira recovered this heirloom of his house, and with it the throne of Chitor, by his marriage with the daughter of the Sonigira, as related in the annals.¹ Another version says it was Hamira himself who obtained the enchanted sword, by his incantations to Charani Devi, or the goddess of the bards, whom he worshipped.
v2.c27.s4.t2.29
¹ See p. 317 [Vol. I.]. ² [“The kernel of the Rāmāyana was composed before 500 B.C., while the more recent portions was probably not added till the second century B.C., and later” (Macdonell, Hist. Sanskrit Literature, 309).] ³ One of the names of the divinity of war, whose images are covered with vermilion in imitation of blood. (Qy. the German roodur, ‘red’) [596]. [Rudra, ‘the roarer,’ originally “god of storms.”] ⁴ The Pleiades. ⁵ 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,* 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.”
v2.c27.s4.t2.30
The Birth of Kumāra.—We shall conclude this account of the military festival of Mewar with the birth of Kumara, the god of war, taken from the most celebrated of their mythological poems, the Ramayana, probably the most ancient book in the world.² “Mena, daughter of Meru, became the spouse of Himavat, from whose union sprung the beauteous Ganga, and her sister Uma. Ganga was sought in marriage by all the celestials ; while Uma, after a long life of austerity, was espoused by Rudra.”³ But neither sister was fortunate enough to have offspring, until Ganga became pregnant by Hutasana (regent of fire), and “ Kumara, resplendent as the sun, illustrious as the moon, was produced from the side of Ganga.” The gods, with Indra at their head, carried him to the Krittikas⁴ to be nursed, and he became their joint care. “As he resembled the fire in brightness, he received the name of Skanda, when the immortals, with Agni (fire) at their head, anointed him as general of the armies of the gods.”⁵— “Thus (the bard Valmiki speaks), oh ! Rama, have I related the story of the production of Kumar.”
v2.c27.s4.t2.31
∗ 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 :
v2.c27.s4.t2.32
This is a very curious relic of ancient mythology, in which we may trace the most material circumstances of the birth of the Roman divinity of war. Kumara (Mars) was the son of Jahnavi (Juno), and born, like the Romans, without sexual intercourse, but by the agency of Vulcan (regent of fire). Kumara has the peacock (sacred to Juno likewise) as his companion; and as the Grecian goddess is feigned to have her car drawn by peacocks, so Kumara (the evil-striker)¹ has a peacock for his steed [596].
v2.c27.s4.t2.33
¹ [Kumāra probably means ‘easily dying.’]
v2.c27.s4.t2.34
Ganga, ‘the river goddess,’ has some of the attributes of Pallas, being like the Athenian maid (Ganga never married) born from the head of Jove. The bard of the silver age makes her fall from a glacier of Kailasa (Olympus) on the head of the father of the gods, and remain many years within the folds of his tiara (jata), until at length being liberated, she was precipitated into the plains of Aryavarta. It was in this escape that she burst her rocky barrier (the Himalaya), and on the birth of Kumara exposed those veins of gold called jambunadi, in colour like the jambu fruit, probably alluding to the veins of gold discovered in the rocks of the Ganges in those distant ages.
v2.c27.s4.t2.35
The Winter Season.—The last day of the month Asoj ushers in the Hindu winter (sarad rit). On this day, nothing but white vestments and silver (chandi) ornaments are worn, in honour of the moon (Chandra), who gives his² name to the
v2.c27.s4.t2.36
² 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.
v2.c27.s4.t2.37
Pale and common drudge
’Tween man and man.
v2.c27.s4.t2.38
| Rajput. | Scandinavian and Saxon. | Rajput. | Scandinavian and Saxon. |
| Suryavar. | Sun-day. | Brihaspativar (a) | Thors-day. |
| Som, or Induvar | Moon-day. | Sukravar (b) | Frey-day. |
| Budhvar. | Tuis-day. | Sani, or Sanichara } -var | Satur-day (c) |
| Mangalvar | Wodens-day. | | |
v2.c27.s4.t2.39
(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.]
v2.c27.s4.t2.40
This year there was an entire intercalary month : such are called Laund. There is a procession of all the chiefs to the Chaugan ; and on their return, a full court is held in the great hall, which breaks up with ‘ obeisance to the lamp ’ (jot ka mujra), whose light each reverences ; when the candles are lit at home, every Rajput, from the prince to the owner of a “ skin (charsa) of land,” seated on a white linen cloth, should worship his tutelary divinity, and feed the priests with sugar and milk.
v2.c27.s4.t2.41
Karttika.—This month is peculiarly sacred to Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth, the Juno Moneta of the Romans. The 13th is called the Dhanteras, or thirteenth [day] of wealth, when gold and silver coin are worshipped, as the representatives of the goddess, by her votaries of all classes, but especially by the mercantile [597]. On the 14th, all anoint with oil, and make libations thereof to Yama, the judge of departed spirits. Worship (puja) is performed to the lamp, which represents the god of hell, and is thence called Yamadiwa, ‘ the lamp of Pluto ’ ; and on this day partial illumination takes place throughout the city.
v2.c27.s4.t2.42
The Diwāli, or Festival of Lamps.—On the Amavas, or Ides of Karttik, is one of the most brilliant fêtes of Rajasthan, called the Diwali, when every city, village, and encampment exhibits a blaze of splendour. The potters’ wheels revolve for weeks before solely in the manufacture of lamps (diwa), and from the palace to the peasant’s hut every one supplies himself with them, in proportion to his means, and arranges them according to his fancy. Stuffs, pieces of gold, and sweetmeats are carried in trays and consecrated at the temple of Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth, to whom the day is consecrated. The Rana on this occasion honours his prime minister with his presence to dinner ; and this chief officer of the State, who is always of the mercantile caste, pours oil into a terra-cotta lamp, which his sovereign holds ; the same libation of oil is permitted by each of the near relations of the minister. On this day, it is incumbent upon every votary of Lakshmi to try the chance of the dice, and from their success in the Diwali, the prince, the chief, the merchant, and the artisan foretell the state of their coffers for the ensuing year.
v2.c27.s4.t2.43
Lakshmi, though on this festival depicted under the type of riches, is evidently the beneficent Annapurna in another garb, for the agricultural community place a corn-measure filled with grain and adorned with flowers as her representative; or, if they adorn her effigies, they are those of Padma, the water-nymph, with a lotos in one hand, and the pasa (or fillet for the head) in the other. As Lakshmi was produced at “the Churning of the Ocean,” and hence called one of the “fourteen gems,” she is confounded with Rambha, chief of the Apsaras, the Venus of the Hindus. Though both were created from the froth (sara) of the waters (ap),¹ they are as distinct as the representations of riches and beauty can be. Lakshmi became the wife of Vishnu, or Kanhaiya, and is placed at the feet of his marine couch when he is floating on the chaotic waters. As his consort, she merges into the character of Sarasvati, the goddess of eloquence, and here we have the combination of Minerva and Apollo. As of Minerva, the owl [598] is the attendant of Lakshmi;² and when we reflect that the Egyptians, who furnished the Grecian pantheon, held these solemn festivals, also called “the feast of lamps,” in honour of Minerva at Sais, we may deduce the origin of this grand Oriental festival from that common mother-country in Central Asia, whence the Diwali radiated to remote China, the Nile, the Ganges, and the shores of the Tigris; for the Shab-i-barat of Islam is but “the feast of lamps” of the Rajputs. In all these there is a mixture of the attributes of Ceres and Proserpine, of Plutus and Pluto. Lakshmi partakes of the attributes of both the first, while Kuvera,³ who is conjoined with her, is Plutus: as Yama is Pluto, the infernal judge. The consecrated lamps and the libations of oil are all dedicated to him; and “torches and flaming brands are likewise kindled and consecrated, to burn the bodies of kinsmen who may be dead in battle in a foreign land, and light them through the shades of death to the mansion of Yama.”⁴
v2.c27.s4.t2.44
¹ [Apsaras means ‘going in the waters, or in the waters of the clouds.’]
v2.c27.s4.t2.45
² [The owl is a bird of ill omen, and does not seem to be associated with Lakshmi except in Bengal.]
v2.c27.s4.t2.46
³ The Hindu god of riches.
v2.c27.s4.t2.47
⁴ Yamala is the great god of the Finlanders (Clarke).
v2.c27.s4.t2.48
Festival of Yama.—To the infernal god Yama, who is “the son of the sun,” the second day following the Amavas, or Ides of Karttika, is also sacred; it is called the Bhratri dvitiya, or ‘the brothers’ second,’ because the river-goddess Yamuna on this day entertained her brother (*bhratri*) Yama, and is therefore consecrated to fraternal affection. At the hour of curfew (*godhuli*),¹ when the cattle return from the fields, the cow is worshipped, the herd having been previously tended. From this ceremony no rank is exempted on the preceding day, dedicated to Krishna : prince and peasant all become pastoral attendants on the cow, as the form of Prithivi,² or the earth.
v2.c27.s4.t2.49
¹ From *go*, ‘a cow’ [*dhūli*, ‘the dust raised by them as they return to the stall’].
v2.c27.s4.t2.50
² See anecdote in Chap. 21, which elucidates this practice of princes becoming herdsmen.
v2.c27.s4.t2.51
The Annakūta Festival.—The 1st (Sudi), or 16th of Karttika, is the grand festival of Annakuta, sacred to the Hindu Ceres, which will be described with its solemnities at Nathdwara. There is a State procession, horse-races, and elephant-fights at the Chaugan ; the evening closes with a display of fireworks.
v2.c27.s4.t2.52
The Jaljātra Festival.—The 14th (Sudi), or 29th, is another solemn festival in honour of Vishnu. It is called the Jaljatra, from being performed on the water (*jal*). The Rana, chiefs, ministers, and citizens go in procession to the lake, and adore the “ spirit of the waters,” on which floating lights are placed, and the whole surface is illuminated by a grand display of pyrotechny. On this day “ Vishnu rises from his slumber of four [599] months ” ;³ a figurative expression to denote the sun’s emerging from the cloudy months of the periodical flood.
v2.c27.s4.t2.53
³ Matsya Purana. [Vishnu is generally said to wake on the Deothān, 11th light half of Kārttik.]
v2.c27.s4.t2.54
The Makara Sankrānti Festival.—The next day (the Punim, or last day of Karttika), being the Makara sankranti, or autumnal equinox, when the sun enters the zodiacal sign Makara,⁴ or Pisces, the Rana and chiefs proceed in state to the Chaugan, and play at ball on horseback. The entire last half of the month Karttika, from Amavas (the Ides) to the Punim, is sacred to Vishnu ; who is declared by the Puranas to represent the sun, and whose worship, that of water, and the floating-lights placed thereon—all objects emblematic of fecundity—carry us back to the point whence we started—the adoration of the powers of nature : clearly proving all mythology to be universally founded on an astronomical basis.
v2.c27.s4.t2.55
⁴ [Makara, a kind of shark or sea-monster, marks the 10th sign of the Zodiac, Capricorn.]
v2.c27.s4.t2.56
Mitra Saptami, Bhāskara Saptami Festivals.—In the remaining months of Aghan, or Margsir, and Pus, there are no festivals in which a state procession takes place, though in each there are marked days, kept not only by the Rajputs, but generally by the Hindu nation; especially that on the 7th of Aghan, which is called Mitra Saptami, or 7th of Mithras, and like the Bhaskara Saptami or the 7th of Magha, is sacred to the sun as a form of Vishnu. On this seventh day occurred the descent of the river-goddess (Ganga) from the foot of Vishnu; or the genius of fertilization, typified under the form of the river-goddess, proceeding from the sun, the vivifying principle, and impended over the head of Iswara, the divinity presiding over generation, in imitation of which his votary pours libations of water (if possible from the sacred river Ganga) over his emblem, the lingam or phallus: a comparison which is made by the bard Chand in an invocation to this god, for the sake of contrasting his own inferiority “to the mighty bards of old.”
v2.c27.s4.t2.57
“The head of Is ¹ is in the skies; on his crown falls the ever-flowing stream (Ganga); but on his statue below, does not his votary pour the fluid from his patra?”
v2.c27.s4.t2.58
¹ Iswara, Isa, or as pronounced, Is.
v2.c27.s4.t2.59
Phallicism.—No satisfactory etymology has ever been assigned for the phallic emblem of generation, adored by Egyptian, Greek, Roman, and even by the Christian, which may be from the same primeval language that formed the Sanskrit.
v2.c27.s4.t2.60
Phalisa is the ‘fructifier,’ from phala, ‘fruit,’ and Isa, ‘the god.’ ² Thus the type of Osiris can have a definite interpretation, still wanting to the lingam of Iswara [600]. Both deities presided over the streams which fertilized the countries in which they received divine honours: Osiris over the Nile, from ‘the mountains of the moon,’ in Ethiopia,³ Iswara over the Indus ⁴ (also called the Nil), and the Ganges from Chandragiri, ‘the mountains of the moon,’ on a peak of whose glaciers he has his throne.
v2.c27.s4.t2.61
² [Monier-Williams in his Sanskrit Dict. records no such form as phalisa. φαλλός = Lat. palus, English pole, pale. The Author follows Wilford (Asiatic Researches, iii. 135 f.).]
v2.c27.s4.t2.62
³ ‘The land of the sun’ (aditya). [This is impossible. The true derivation is unknown; to the Greeks the word meant ‘swarthy-faced.’]
v2.c27.s4.t2.63
⁴ Ferishta calls the Indus the Nilab, or ‘blue waters’; it is also called Abusin, the ‘father of streams.’
v2.c27.s4.t2.64
Siva and the Sun.—Siva occasionally assumes the attributes of the sun-god; they especially appertain to Vishnu, who alone is styled “immortal, the one, creator, and uncreated”; and in whom centre all the qualities (gunan), which have peopled the Hindu pantheon with their ideal representatives. The bard Chand, who has embodied the theological tenets of the Rajputs in his prefatory invocation to every divinity who can aid his intent, apostrophizes Ganesa, and summons the goddess of eloquence (Sarasvati) “to make his tongue her abode”; deprecates the destroying power, “him whom wrath inhabits,” lest he should be cut off ere his book was finished; and lauding distinctly each member of the triad (trimurti), he finishes by declaring them one, and that “whoever believes them separate, hell will be his portion.” Of this One the sun is the great visible type, adored under a variety of names, as Surya, Mitra, Bhaskar, Vivasvat, Vishnu, Karna, or Kana, likewise an Egyptian epithet for the sun.¹
v2.c27.s4.t2.65
¹ 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.]
v2.c27.s4.t2.66
The emblem of Vishnu is Garuda, or the eagle,² and the Sun-god both of the Egyptians and Hindus is typified with the bird’s head. Aruna (the dawn), brother of Garuda, is classically styled the charioteer of Vishnu, whose two sons, Sampati and Jatayu, attempting in imitation of their father to reach the sun, the wings of the former were burnt and he fell to the earth: of this the Greeks may have made their fable of Icarus.³
v2.c27.s4.t2.67
² The vulture and crane, which soar high in the heavens, are also called garuda, and vulgarly gidh. The ibis is of the crane or heron kind.
v2.c27.s4.t2.68
³ 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.
v2.c27.s4.t2.69
Festivals in Honour of Vishnu.—In the chief zodiacal phenomena, observation will discover that Vishnu is still the object of worship. The Phuladola,⁴ or Floralia, in the vernal equinox, is so called from the image of Vishnu being carried in a dola, or ark, covered with garlands of flowers (phula). Again, in the month of Asarh, the commencement of the periodical rains, which date from the summer solstice, the image of Vishnu is carried on a car, and brought forth on the first appearance of the moon, the 11th of which being the solstice, is called " the night of the gods." Then Vishnu reposes on his serpent-couch until the cessation of the flood on the 11th of Bhadon, when " he turns on his side." ¹
v2.c27.s4.t2.70
⁴ Also called Dolayatra.
v2.c27.s4.t2.71
¹ Bhagavat and Matsya Puranas. See Sir W. Jones on the lunar year of the Hindus, Asiatic Researches, vol. iii. p. 286.
v2.c27.s4.t2.72
The 4th is also dedicated to Vishnu under his infantine appellation Hari (Ἥλιος), because when a child " he hid himself in the moon." We must not derogate from Sir W. Jones the merit of drawing attention to the analogy between these Hindu festivals on the equinoxes, and the Egyptian, called the entrance of Osiris into the moon, and his confinement in an ark. But that distinguished writer merely gives the hint, which the learned Bryant aids us to pursue, by bringing modern travellers to corroborate the ancient authorities : the drawings of Pocock from the sun temple of Luxor to illustrate Plutarch, Curtius, and Diodorus. Bryant comes to the same conclusion with regard to Osiris enclosed in the ark, which we adopt regarding Vishnu’s repose during the four months of inundation, the period of fertilization. I have already, in the rites of Annapurna, the Isis of the Egyptians, noticed the crescent form of the ark of Osiris, as well as the ram’s-head ornaments indicative of the vernal equinox, which the Egyptians called Phamenoth, being the birthday of Osiris, or the sun ; the Phag, or Phalgun month of the Hindus ; the Phagesia of the Greeks, sacred to Dionysus.²
v2.c27.s4.t2.73
² [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.]
v2.c27.s4.t2.74
The Argonauts.—The expedition of Argonauts in search of the golden fleece is a version of the arkite worship of Osiris, the Dolayatra of the Hindus : and Sanskrit etymology, applied to the vessel of the Argonauts, will give the sun (argha) god’s (natha) entrance into the sign of the Ram. The Tauric and Hydra foes, with which Jason had to contend before he obtained the fleece of Aries, are the symbols of the sun-god, both of the Ganges and the Nile ; and this fable, which has occupied almost every pen of antiquity, is clearly astronomical, as the names alone of the Arghanath, sons of Apollo, Mars, Mercury, Sol, Arcus or Argus,¹ Jupiter, Bacchus, etc., sufficiently testify, whose voyage is entirely celestial.
v2.c27.s4.t2.75
¹ Arka, ‘the sun,’ in Sanskrit. [This is due to Wilford (Asiatic Researches, iii. 134) and is, of course, impossible.]
v2.c27.s4.t2.76
Egyptian Influence on Hindu Mythology.—If it be destined that any portion of the veil which covers these ancient mysteries [602], connecting those of the Ganges with the Nile, shall be removed, it will be from the interpretation of the expedition of Rama, hitherto deemed almost as allegorical as that of the Arghanaths. I shall at once assume an opinion I have long entertained, that the western coast of the Red Sea was the Lanka of the memorable exploit in the history of the Hindus. If Alexander from the mouths of the Indus ventured to navigate those seas with his frail fleet of barks constructed in the Panjab, what might we not expect from the resources of the King of Kosala, the descendant of Sagara, emphatically called the sea-king, whose “ 60,000 sons ” were so many mariners, and who has left his name as a memorial of his marine power at the island (Sagar) at the embouchure of the main arm of the Ganges, and to the ocean itself, also called Sagara? If the embarkation of Ramesa and his heroes for the redemption of Sita had been from the Gulph of Cutch, the grand emporium from the earliest ages, the voyage of Rama would have been but the prototype of that of the Macedonians; but local tradition has sanctified Rameswaram, the southern part of the peninsula, as the rendezvous of his armament. The currents in the Straits of Manar, curiosity, or a wish to obtain auxiliaries from this insular kingdom, may have prompted the visit to Ceylon; and hence the vestiges there found of this event. But even from this “ utmost isle, Taprobane,” the voyage across the Erythrean Sea is only twenty-five degrees of longitude, which with a flowing sail they would run down in ten or twelve days. The only difficulty which occurs is in the synchronical existence of Rama and the Pharaoh² of Moses, which would tend to the opposite of my hypothesis, and show that India received her Phallic rites, her architecture, and symbolic mythology from the Nile, instead of planting them there.
v2.c27.s4.t2.77
² Pha-ra is but a title, ‘the king.’ [Egyptian Pr'o, ‘the great house.’]
v2.c27.s4.t2.78
“ Est-ce l’Inde, la Phénicie, l’Éthiopie, la Chaldée, ou l’Égypte, qui a vu naître ce culte ? ou bien le type en a-t-il été fourni aux habitans de ces contrées, par une nation plus ancienne encore ? ” asks an ingenious but anonymous French author, on the origin of the Phallic worship.¹ Ramesa, chief of the Suryas, or sun-born race, was king of the city designated from his mother, Kausalya, of which Ayodhya was the capital. His sons were Lava and Kusa, who originated the races we may term the Lavites and Kushites, or Kushwas of India.² Was then Kausalya [603] the mother of Ramesa, a native of Aethiopia,³ or Kusadwipa, ‘ the land of Cush ’? Rama and Krishna are both painted blue (nila), holding the lotus, emblematic of the Nile. Their names are often identified. Ram-Krishna, the bird-headed divinity, is painted as the messenger of each, and the historians of both were contemporaries. That both were real princes there is no doubt, though Krishna assumed to be an incarnation of Vishnu, as Rama was of the sun. Of Rama’s family was Trisankha,⁴ mother of the great apostle of Buddha, whose symbol was the serpent ; and the followers of Buddha assert that Krishna and this apostle, whose statues are facsimiles of those of Memnon, were cousins. Were the Hermetic creed and Phallic rites therefore received from the Ethiopic Cush? Could emblematic relics be discovered in the caves of the Troglodytes, who inhabited the range of mountains on the Cushite shore of the Arabian straits, akin to those of Ellora and Elephanta,⁵ whose style discloses physical, mythological, as well as architectural affinity to the Egyptian, the question would at once be set at rest.
v2.c27.s4.t2.79
¹ *Des divinités génératives : ou du culte du Phallus chez les anciens et les modernes* (Paris).
v2.c27.s4.t2.80
² Of the former race the Ranas of Mewar, of the latter the princes of Narwar and Amber, are the representatives.
v2.c27.s4.t2.81
³ Aethiopia, ‘ the country of the sun ’; from *Ait*, contraction of Aditya. Aegypt may have the same etymology, *Aitia* [see p. 699 above].
v2.c27.s4.t2.82
⁴ [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.]
v2.c27.s4.t2.83
⁵ It is absurd to talk of these being modern; decipher the characters thereon, and then pronounce their antiquity. [Ellora, 5th to 9th or 10th centuries A.D. ; Elephanta, 8th to 10th (*IGI*, xii. 22, 4).]
v2.c27.s4.t2.84
I have derived the Phallus from Phalisa, the chief fruit. The Greeks, who either borrowed it from the Egyptians or had it from the same source, typified the Fructifier by a pineapple, the form of which resembles the Sitaphala,¹ or fruit of Sita, whose rape by Ravana carried Rama from the Ganges over many countries ere he recovered her.² In like manner Gauri, the Rajput Ceres, is typified under the coco-nut, or sriphala,³ the chief of fruit, or fruit sacred to Sri, or Isa (Isis), whose other elegant emblem of abundance, the kamakumbha, is drawn with branches of the palmyra,⁴ or coco-tree, gracefully pendent from the vase (kumbha).
v2.c27.s4.t2.85
The Sriphala ⁵ is accordingly presented to all the votaries of Iswara and Isa on the conclusion of the spring-festival of Phalguna, the Phagesia of the Greeks, the [604] Phamenoth of the Egyptian, and the Saturnalia of antiquity ; a rejoicing at the renovation of the powers of nature ; the empire of heat over cold—of light over darkness.⁶
v2.c27.s4.t2.86
¹ Vulg. Sharifa. ² Rama subjected her to the fiery ordeal, to discover whether her virtue had suffered while thus forcibly separated. ³ Vulg. Nariyal. ⁴ Palmyra is Sanskrit corrupted, and affords the etymology of Solomon’s city of the desert, Tadmor. The ت p, 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 [?]. ⁵ 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 is yavadwīpa, ‘island of barley.’] ⁶ The Kamari of the Saura tribes, or sun-worshippers of Saurashtra, claims descent from the bird-god of Vishnu (who aided Rama * to the discovery of Sita), and the Makara † 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 the dwara or 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 Sankhudhāra, from the conch fishery. Socotra is Dwīpa Sukhadāra, ‘island of pleasure’ (not Sakhādāra, as in EB, xxv. 355) (Yule, Marco Polo, 1st ed. ii. 342).]
v2.c27.s4.t2.87
∗ Rama and Vishnu interchange characters. † It is curious that the designation of the tribe Kamar is a transposition of Makar, for the final letter of each is mute.
v2.c27.s4.t2.88
The analogy between the goddess of the spring Saturnalia, Phalguni, and the Phagesia of the Greeks, will excite surprise; the word is not derived from (φαγεῖν) eating, with the Rajput votaries of Holika, as with those of the Dionysia of the Greeks; but from phalguni, compounded of guna, ‘quality, virtue, or characteristic,’ and phala, ‘fruit’; in short, the fructifier. From φαλλός,¹ to which there is no definite meaning, the Egyptian had the festival Phallica, the Holika of the Hindus. Phula and phala, flower and fruit, are the roots of all, Floralia and Phalaria, the Phallus of Osiris, the Thyrsus of Bacchus, or Lingam of Iswara, symbolized by the Sriphala, or Ananas, the ‘food of the gods,’² or the Sitaphala of the Helen of Ayodhya.
v2.c27.s4.t2.89
¹ See Lempriere, arts. Phagesia and Phallica. “L’Abbé Mignot pense que le Phallus est 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 de Phalou qui, dans cette langue, signifie une chose secrète et cachée, et du verbe phala, qui veut dire être tenu secret.” *
v2.c27.s4.t2.90
² Anna, ‘food,’ and asa or isa, ‘the god.’ [Ananas comes from Brazilian Nana or Nanas (Yule, Hobson-Jobson, 2nd ed. 25).]
v2.c27.s4.t2.91
From the existence of this worship in Congo at this day, the author already quoted asks if it may not have originated in Ethiopia, “qui, comme le témoignent plusieurs écrivains de l’antiquité, a fourni ses dieux à l’Égypte.” On the first of the five complementary days called “ἐπαγόμεναι ἡμέραι” preceding New Year’s Day, the Egyptians celebrated the birth of the sun-god Osiris, in a similar manner as the Hindus do their solstitial festival, “the morning of the gods,” the Hiul of Scandinavia; on which occasion, “on promenait en procession une figure d’Osiris, dont le Phallus était triple”; a number, he adds, expressing “la pluralité indéfinie.” The number three is sacred to Iswara, chief of the Trimurti or Triad, whose statue adorns the junction (sangam) of all triple streams; hence called Triveni, who is [605] Trinetra, or ‘three-eyed,’ and Tridanta, or ‘god of the trident’; Triloka, ‘god of the triple abode, heaven, earth, and hell’; Tripura, of the triple city, to whom the Tripoli or triple gates are sacred, and of which he has made Ganesa the Janitor, or guardian. The grotesque figure placed by the Hindus during the Saturnalia in the highways, and called Nathurama
v2.c27.s4.t2.92
* Des divinités génératives.
v2.c27.s4.t2.93
(the god Rama), is the counterpart of the figure described by Plutarch as representing Osiris, “ ce soleil printanier,” in the Egyptian Saturnalia or Phamenoth. Even Ramisa and Ravana may, like Osiris and Typhon, be merely the ideal representatives of light and darkness; and the chaste Sita, spouse of the Surya prince, the astronomical Virgo, only a zodiacal sign.¹
v2.c27.s4.t2.94
¹ [It is unnecessary to discuss these theories, which are based on incorrect assumptions and obsolete etymologies.]
v2.c27.s4.t2.95
Wide Extension of Hindu Mythology.—That a system of Hinduism pervaded the whole Babylonian and Assyrian empires, Scripture furnishes abundant proofs, in the mention of the various types of the sun-god Balnath, whose pillar adorned “ every mount ” and “ every grove ”; and to whose other representative, the brazen calf (nandi), the 15th of each month (amavas) ² was especially sacred. It was not confined to these celebrated regions of the East, but was disseminated throughout the earth; because from the Aral to the Baltic, colonies were planted from that central region,³ the cradle of the Suryas and the Indus, whose branches (sakha),⁴ the Yavan, the Aswa, and the Meda, were the progenitors of the Ionians, the Assyrians, and the Medes; ⁵ while in later times, from the same teeming region, the Galati and Getae,⁶ the Kelts and Goths, carried modifications of the system to the shores of Armorica and the Baltic, the cliffs of Caledonia, and the remote isles of the German Ocean. The monumental circles sacred to the sun-god Belenus at once existing in that central region,⁷ in India,⁸ and throughout Europe, is conclusive. The apotheosis of the patriarch Noah, whom the Hindu styles Manu-Vaivaswata, ‘the man, son of the sun,’ may have originated the Dolayatra of the Hindus, the ark of Osiris [606], the ship of Isis amongst the Suevi, in memory of “the forty days” noticed in the traditions of every nation of the earth.
v2.c27.s4.t2.96
² The Hindus divide the month into two portions called pakh or fortnights. The first is termed badi, reckoning from the 1st to the 15th, which day of partition is called amavas, 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 termed sudi, and they recommence with the initial numeral, thence to the 30th or completion, called punim; thus instead of the 16th, 17th, etc., of the month, they say Sudi ekam (1st), Sudi duj (3rd).
v2.c27.s4.t2.97
³ Sogdiana and Transoxiana.
v2.c27.s4.t2.98
⁴ Hence the word Saka [?].
v2.c27.s4.t2.99
⁵ See Genealogical Table No. 2 for 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.
v2.c27.s4.t2.100
⁶ 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.
v2.c27.s4.t2.101
⁷ Rubruquis and other travellers.
v2.c27.s4.t2.102
⁸ Colonel Mackenzie's invaluable and gigantic collection.
v2.c27.s4.t2.103
The time may be approaching when this worship in the East, like the Egyptian, shall be only matter of tradition; although this is not likely to be effected by such summary means as were adopted by Cambyses, who slew the sacred Apis and whipped his priests, while their Greek and Roman conquerors adopted and embellished the Pantheon of the Nile.¹ But when Christianity reared her severe yet simple form, the divinities of the Nile, the Pantheon of Rome, and the Acropolis of Athens, could not abide her awful majesty. The temples of the Alexandrian Serapis were levelled by Theophilus,² while that of Osiris at Memphis became a church of Christ. “Muni de ses pouvoirs, et escorté d’une foule de moines, il mit en fuite les prêtres, brisa les idoles, démolit les temples, ou y établit des monastères.”³ The period for thus subverting idolatry is passed: the religion of Christ is not of the sword, but one enjoining peace and goodwill on earth. But as from him “to whom much is given,” much will be required, the good and benevolent of the Hindu nations may have ulterior advantages over those Pharisees who would make a monopoly even of the virtues; who “see the mote in their neighbour’s eye, but cannot discern the beam in their own.” While, therefore, we strive to impart a purer taste and better faith, let us not imagine that the minds of those we would reform are the seats of impurity, because, in accordance with an idolatry coeval with the flood, they continue to worship mysteries opposed to our own modes of thinking [607].
v2.c27.s4.t2.104
¹ 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.
v2.c27.s4.t2.105
² In the reign of Theodosius.
v2.c27.s4.t2.106
³ Du Culte, etc., etc., p. 47.
Linked texts (9)
- Bhāgavatapurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit
- Matsyapurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit
- Historiae Alexandri Magni — Q. Curtius Rufus, Latin
- Vālmīkirāmāyaṇa — Vālmīki, Sanskrit
- Bhagavadgītā — Vyāsa, Sanskrit
- Πλούταρχος — Πλούταρχος, Ancient Greek
- Khaḍga
- *Valmīkasūtra — Sanskrit
- Elephanta