Indian Antiquary Vol 52

SR No.: 032544
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Richard Carnac Temple, Stephen Meredyth Edwardes, Krishnaswami Aiyangar
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1985
Total Pages: 568
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 24 MB

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80
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
(APRIL, 1923
this time, or with the purpose of concealing the liaison of the Chola king with the Någa princess, this Puranic story was manufactured under Brahmanic influence and began to be believed. The legend of Iļantirayan as the originator of the Pallava dynasty was, however, referred to by Dr. Hultzch in his notes on the Rayakötta plates.16
Thus it will be seen that the name Pallava had really its origin further south than imagined by Dr. Smith, and the name implied a ruling dynasty and not a tribe or clan. If the meaning of the word pallava, as represented later in the several titles adopted by the kings of that dynasty be admitted, the improbability of their connection with the Pahlavas or the Parthians is quite plain. It is impossible to say whether there are any Vellalas or Kallas in South India who claim relationship with the Pallavas, but the Pallis or the Palli. vilis claim to be the descendants of the last Pallava kings, who were defeated and degraded by the Cholas
FLYING THROUGH THE AIR. -
BY A. M. HOCART. THE cominonest miracle of Buddhist literature consists in flying through the air, so much so that the Pali title arahant, one who has attained the summum bonum of religious aspiration,'1'a saint,' has given rise to the Sinhalese verb rahatve-which means 'to disappear, 'to pass instantaneously from one point to another.' . In fact flying through the air has become the test of arahalship.
In Sanskrit literature standing in mid-air is a sign by which one can tell a god from a inan. Sanskrit readers are familiar with that passage in the story of Nala (V. 22 pp.) where Damayanti, at a loss how to clistinguish her lover from the four gods who have assumed his form, in her distress prays to them to reveal their divinity. They do so by appearing "sweatless, unwinking, crowned with fresh and dustless garlands." "Asvedân stabdhalocanan hrsitasragrajohonan sthithân aspréalah ksitim."
By the way this is but another instance of how saints have assumed the attributes of gods, or, rather, to be on the safe side, how both derive their attributes from a common source.
Why this insistence on the power to float in the air? Why is it made a test of divinity or sainthood ? It has rather been taken for granted that, given supernatural beings, they must move in the regions of air instead of treading the earth. We are so used to the idea that we think it perfectly natural, and forget that it only seems natural because we are so used to it. When we come to think of it, there is no reason why they should not walk as we do, swim in the sea, or burrow in the earth. If we are to make a beginning of explaining customs and beliefs we must take nothing for granted, but must seek to explain everything, not by vague phrases such as "poetic fancy," "primitive thought," but by precise causes from which the custom or belief derives with logical, one might almost say mathematical, necessity.
The line of attack I propose is one which has already enabled us to win several minor advantages. It may or may not be successful in this case, but I claim for it that at the least it is a serious attempt to penetrate into the region of myth, and that it conforms to the standard I have set.
16 Epigraphia Indica, vol. V, p. 50. 1 The Pali Text Society's Pali-English Dictionary. 2 Rahatenand : mama dan metana innaudnam me velav Ingaland inga puluvamı.
3 Chieftainship in the Paciflo', Amor. Anthropologist, 1915, p. 631. The Common Sense of Myth', ibid, 1910, p. 307. Polynesian Tombs,' ibid., 1918, p. 456. Myths in the Making,' Folk-Lore, 1922, p. 57.