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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[MAY, 1877.
Indians tell certain legends, of which it may be gether many.great and noble works, he was reproper to give a brief summary. I They relate garded as a deity and gained immortal honours. that in the most primitive times, when the It is related also of him that he led about with people of the country were still living in vil- his army a great host of women, and employed, lages, Dionusos made his appearance com- in marshalling his troops for battle, druias and ing from the regions lying to the west, and cymbals, as the trumpet had not in his days been at the head of a considerable army. He over- invented; " and thav after reigning over the ran the whole of India, as there was no great whole of India for two and fifty years he died of city capable of resisting his arms. "The heat, old age, while his sons, succeeding to the gohowever, having become excessive, and the vernment, transmitted the sceptre in unbroken soldiers of Dionusos being afflicted with a pes. succession to their posterity. * At last, after tilence, the leader, who was remarkable for many generations had come and gone, the sohis sagacity, carried his troops away from the vereignty, it is said, was dissolved, and demoplains up to the hills. There the army, re. cratic governments were set up in the cities. cruited by the cool breezes and the waters (39.) * Such, then, are the traditions regard. that flowed fresh from the fountains, recovered ing Dionu so s and his descendants current from sickness. "The place among the moun. among the Indians who inhabit the hill country, tains where Dionusos restored his troops to 5* They further assert that Heraklé s also health was called Méros; from which cir was born among them. 3* They assign to him, cumstance, no doubt, the Greeks have trans- like the Greeks, the club and the lion's skin. He mitted to posterity the legend concerning the far surpassed other men in personal strength and god, that Dionusos was bred in his father's prowess, and cleared sea and land of evil beasts. thigh. ' Having after this turned his attention * Marrying many wives he begot many sons, but to the artificial propagation of useful plants, he one daughter only. The sons having reached communicated the secret to the Indians, and man's estate, he divided all India into equal portaught them the way to make wine, as well as tions for his children, whom he made kings in other arts conducive to human well-being. "Ho different parts of his dominions. He provided was, besides, the founder of large cities, which similarly for his only daughter, whom he reared he formed by removing the villages to conve- up and made a queen. * He was the founder, nient sites, while he also showed the people how also, of no small number of cities, the most reto worship the deity, and introduced laws and nowned and greatest of which he called Palicourts of justice. Having thus achieved alto- bothra. He built therein many sumptuous
FRAGM. I. B.
Diod. III. 63.
Concerning Dion ulos. Now some, as I have already said, supposing their beards with great care to the very end of that there were three individuals of this name, who their life. Dionusos then, at the head of an army, lived in different ages, assign to each appropriate marched to every part of the world, and taught achievements. They say, then, that the most an. mankind the planting of the vine, and how to cient of them was Indos, and that as the country, crush grapes in the winepress, whence he was callwith its genial temperature, produced spontane- ed Lena ios. Having in like manner imparted ously the vine-tree in great abundance, he was to all a knowledge of his other inventions, he obthe first who crushed grapes and discovered the tained after his departure from among men use of the properties of wine. In like manner he immortal honour from those who had benefited by ascertained what culture was requisite for figs and his labours. It is further said that the place is
ther fruit trees, and transmitted this knowledge pointed out in India even to this day where the to after-times; and, in a word, it was he who found god had been, and that cities are called by his out how these fruits should be gathered in, name in the vernacular dialects, and that many whence also he was called Lên aios. This same other important evidences still exist of his having Dionusos, however, they call also Kata pogon, been born in India, about which it would be tedi. since it is a custom among the Indians to nourish ous to write.
við, from " But that Hercules," &c. to "of his daughter." Conf. Fragm. li.
Apparently Siva is meant, though his many wives and 30.3. Conf. Fragm. 1. in Ind. Ant. vol. V. pp. 89-99, c. sons are unknown to Hindu mythology...ED
unpós.
