Indian Antiquary Vol 04

Author(s): Jas Burgess
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 10

4
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
A handsome shape, a well-filled purse, a soulillumined face,
Are theirs on whom great Hari smiles, and sheds peculiar grace.
But the huge elephant erect Bates not one jot of self-respect,
Abstinence from sin of bloodshed, and from speech of others' wives, Truth and open-handed largess, love for men of And after thousand coaxings deigns to taste his holy lives,
food.
Freedom from desire and avarice,-such the path that leads to bliss,
Path which every sect may travel, and the simple cannot miss.
Cowards shrink from toil and peril,
Vulgar souls attempt and fail;
Men of mettle, nothing daunted, Persevere till they prevail.
Not to swerve from truth or mercy, not for life to stoop to shame ;
From the poor no gifts accepting, nor from men of evil fame ;
Lofty faith and proud submission,-who on Fortune's giddy ledge
Firm can tread this path of duty, narrow as the sabre's edge ?
(Here ends the section devoted to the praise of the wise man.)
THIRD SECTION.
The praise of self-respect and valour. Worn with hunger, faint and feeble, shorn of glory and of power,
Still the king of beasts is kingly, even to his dying hour;
Will he graze on hay like oxen? No, he longs to meet once more Task-armed elephants in battle, and to drink their spouting gore.
Lions spare the prostrate jackal, but the forestmonarchs smite,
[JANUARY, 1875.
Dogs fawn on those who bring them meat, And grovel whimpering at their feet With upturned throat, and wag their tails in gamesome mood,
E'en by fortune pressed the valiant scorns to waive his proper right.
The poet's meaning certainly is that a special impurity attaches to eating the flesh of the cow. B&bu Rjendra Lala Mitra has shown that this notion is of very recent origin. In fact it did not prevail in the time of Bhavabhuti, who is generally placed in the eighth
In this revolving world the dead Are ever born again,
But he is truly born whose race By him doth praise attain.
Two paths are open to the proud, As to the woodland flowers, Which flourish high above the crowd, Or wither in the bowers.
Fling a dry and gristly cow's-bone to a lowbred cur to gnaw,
Straight he wags his tail delighted, though it A lion's whelp will boldly face th' earth-shaking cannot fill his maw.
monarch's rage,
Rahu spares the lesser planets, As unworthy of his might,
But he wreaks his lawful vengeance On the lords of day and night.
On his hood the serpent Sesha doth this triple world uphold,
On the broad back of the tortoise he lies stretched in many a fold,
On the ocean's breast the tortoise like a speck eludes the sight:
Who in thought can limit greatness, or set bounds to Nature's might?
Better had the mount Maiņâka borne the brunt of Indra's ire,
Than thus plunged beneath the ocean severed
from his sorrowing sire:†
Though he saved unharmed his pinions from the blazing thunder-stone,
Yet he mourns with all his waters for his selfabandoned throne.
The sun-gem touched by Heaven's rays, Though void of sense, is all ablaze; How then can men of spirit brook A fellow-mortal's scornful look ?
For valour dwells in valorous kind, without regard of age.
(Here ends the praise of self-respect and valour.) (To be continued.)
century. So that this stanza at any rate must have been composed at a far later date than that assigned by Professor Lassen to the majority of Bhartrihari's poems.
Himalaya-his son Mainaks was the only mountain that escaped having its wings clipped by Indra.