Indian Antiquary Vol 18

SR No.: 032510
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: John Faithfull Fleet, Richard Carnac Temple
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 454
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 19 MB

Page 388

358
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[DECEMBER, 1889.
notified that the sentence is that he is to be hanged) by the neck." A guard of soldiers on him, all around, took him to Dharwad ; not any device (for saving himself) suggested itself to him after that. (Raising the voice), - Very strict are the English laws; no one can play any tricks !
Ninth Verse. He left the village of Dharwad, and came away; no one could save him. "Take him, and go to Hongal," said the gentleman, the Subhêdâr, the Phaajdâr, and the Kårkan; "be wide awake, with great watchfulness." In front of him and behind, there was an escort with drawn swords; there was all the apparatus for hanging him; and Sangya was seated on a cart. They brought him in close restraint,36 He converses without any fear. On the Thursday he sent for his older and younger brothers, and his mother.
(With a change of metre), - To the mother that bare him, he says, “Why dost thou weep?; all that which was to happen, has occurred; it has befallen me as it did to Abhimanyu in the battle-field; for me from no one was there any aid ;37 to-day the debt is paid ; cease now to grieve for me."
(Lowering the voice), - Saying this, he made the funeral lament, for just a little while, - "That my fate has been settled thus, (is the decree of) an unjust court; they inquired not into my fault; I thought that they would let me go free, with imprisonment for only a year; I have been caught and captured; my fault has been in accordance with that which the god) Brahman wrote ;38 my fate (is like that of) a lamp that has gone out unintentionally while still there is oil left; (to nourish) enmity is very evil; angor should not be felt."
(Raising the voice), - Disputing at every word is bad; to a good man, & (mere) word is a blow !
Tenth Verse. The market-day was Friday 30 that same day the people of the neighbourhood gathered together. He talks with catching breath, and is beside himself. They brought him outside the village. Joining his hands in respectfal salutation, he made a little request to the gentleman, 40 - "Spend five rupees, and have me buried in a matha." His face shrivelled and grew small; his colour lost its lustre, and faded away. Saying “Hara! Hara !", he took his way (to the gallows), and, mounting, stood on the appointed place.
(With a change of metre), - They fastened the rope around his neck, right round his throat; he trod the path of heaven to Kailasa." His elder and younger sisters, his elder and younger brothers, and his mother, (made) lament; the people were standing all around. Four months and twelve days (had elapsed since the date of the Awarátri new-moon.
(Lowering the voice), -The village of Bail Hongal is a great city, this is well known; it is famed far and wide in the surrounding kingdom. (There there is the god Hanumanta, to whom be reverence! Tukaram is our teacher; the ballad-monger Appu has composed this song); the hand-writing, in which there is no fault, is that of Dêmanna, on whose drum there is
» lit. " confined in a net."
The more literal meaning is no one was my charioteer." I bare not a book to refer to; but it seems that Abhimanyu was killed in single fight, hemined in by the Kauravas, with none of his own party near at hand to help him.
- Brahman is supposed to write on a man's forehead all that he is destined to do during his life.
39 We are told further on that this day was four months and twelve days after the new-moon of Pausha. This latter tithi ended on Sunday, 7th February, A.D. 1864. And so we seem to have either Friday, 19th June, or Friday, 26th June, for the day of the execution.
1.. the Magistrate, or the District Superintendent of Polioe, who attended the execution.
41 Compare ante, Vol. XIV. p. 800, where the amount is ten rupees. A matha is a kind of religious college, or residence of priesta.
The mountain Kilden, vapposed to be one of the loftiest peaks in the Him Alayas, is the paradiso of Biva. The term Kaildea-udain, now residing in Kailles,' is of constant occurrence in speaking of deceased persons
• Awarátri-ampdoyd in the popular name, in the Kanarese country, of the new moon day of Paushs. I have been told that it is a corruption of avatarar-atri; but I do not see how it can be connected with any of the avataras. A more probable explanation is that it stands for avare-ratri,'the night on which people can begin to eat the avare-been after its barreet.