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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
after having described the practice of yoga, or abstraction, the writer proceeds: "To a good man thus self-concentrated, impartial in regard to all objects, and constantly abstracted for six months, the verbal Brahma (Sabda-brahman) passes away. Beholding creatures distressed by pain, but regarding with an equal eye clods, stones, and gold, let him (proceeding) on this path cease (from desire), and be free from illusion. Even a man of a low caste, and a woman, seeking after righteousness, may by this road attain to the highest goal. Then the spiritual man beholds through the soul that unborn, ancient, undecaying, eternal (essence), which he can discern when his senses are still, and which is minuter than the minutest, and greater than the greatest."
In Mahábh. xiii. 4835 ff., a Chandala asks how he may be delivered out of his low condition; and is informed, in reply, that he may obtain final liberation by giving his life for a Brahman, but in no other way.
Polyandry in ancient India.
The story of Draupadi leads to the conclusion that polyandry was at one time practised in Hindustan,† as it is still in the Himalayas, and in one district on the south-west coast of India. I give the following particulars of this story from the first book of the Mahabharata. In verses 2791ff. it is said that this princess was a blameless damsel, born in the family of Drupada, but that she sprang from the midst of the sacrificial hearth, and was a portion of Sachi (the wife of Indra). She was of the middle height, fragrant as a blue lotus, with long lotus-like eyes, a handsome figure, and very black and curly hair. Draupadi was her patronymic, and her proper name was Krishna ('the black').
In verses 6322ff. it is related that a Brâhman who came to the house where the Pandavas were living, told them of Krishna's wonderful birth, and of her projected svayamvara (selection of a husband from an assemblage of suitors). The sage Bharadvaja, it appears (6331ff.), had a son called Drona, who studied the Vedas, and a friend in king Prishata, whose son Drupada used to frequent the sage's hermitage, and play as well as: s study with Drona. Drupada succeeds his father as king, and Dropa,
[SEPTEMBER, 1877.
who, though a Brahman, had received instruction in armst from Parasurama (who happened to come to the spot), offers his friendship to Drupada. The latter, however, repels the advances of the friend of his boyhood by saying that none but a Vedic scholar can be the friend of such a scholar, none but a charioteer the friend of a charioteer, and none but a king the friend of a king (6342). Drona then goes to the city of the Kurus, and Bhishma appoints him to instruct the Pandavas, his grandsons (they were really grand-nephews), in the use of arms. When he has taught them, he asks as his fee the kingdom of Drupada (6348). They accordingly conquer Drupada, and deliver him bound to Drona. The latter again asks his friendship, and says they shall divide the kingdom (6350). Drupada agrees to be his friend. He does not, however, forget the injury which he has received, and seeks for Brâhmaps to perform a ceremony whereby he should get a son, who should slay Drona (6355ff.). He succeeds in finding a priest, and a ceremony is performed (6390), and a son, in the accoutrements of a warrior, issues from the sacrificial fire (6391 and 6393ff.), and a daughter of unparalleled beauty rises from the altar (6398ff.). Strange to say, Drona, thinking that destiny could not be eluded, and having regard to his own reputation as a teacher of martial accomplishments, undertakes to train Drupada's son Dhrishtadyumna in them (6408). When the Pandavas have heard the Brahman's story (nothing further is here said about the svayamvara), their mother Kunti proposes that they should go to the country of Drupada, as they had already stayed long enough where they were (6412). While they are living in disguise in the country of Drupada, their relative, the sage Vyasa, comes to see them (6421), and tells them (6426ff.) a story of a certain sage's elegant daughter, who was so unfortunate as not to have got a husband, and who consequently, in order to gain one, practises austerities, by which she pleases the god Śiva, who offers to confer on her the boon which she desires. She asks again and again for a husband endowed with all virtues. The god says she shall have five. She replies that she only wants
See Maitrt Upanishad, vi. 22, and Prof. Cowell's translation; also the Mahabh. xii. 8540 and 9707.
+ See Prof. M. Müller's Ancient Sanskrit Literature, pp. 46ff, Prof. H. H. Wilson's Works, III. p. 340f.
note, and Prof. M. Williams' Indian Epic Poetry, pp.
99.
In verse 6352 he is called a Brahman, and in vv. 6379 and 6881 it is said that no Kshatriya was equal to him.
