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204
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
Whence spring'st thou ? from what outcast race? All nobler sires thou would'st disgrace. Who can of thee with honour speak PIn spirit faint, in act so weak. Desponding thus, hast thou no care Thy shattered fortunes to repair? Contemn thyself no longer; rise, Awake to deeds of high emprize. Why liest thou prone, as if the dread Forked bolt of heaven had struck thee dead ? Start up, aspire to high renown; By knightly deeds regain thy crown. By force of will respect command; Blaze fiercely, like a glowing brand. Like smouldering chaff, that only smokes, A weakling men's contempt provokes. Whoever strikes a manly blow, And strives to lay his foeman low, Has done his duty: though he fail, That failure let him ne'er bewail. For duty wage a constant strife; Than this, what other use has life ?
Thy pious acts have borne no fruit; And cut is now thy welfare's root. If all thy hopes of good are gone, In life why should'st thou linger on? Though hardly pressed, a warrior ne'er Should yield to sad and weak despair. Though fell'd to earth, a man should seize With deadly grasp his foeman's knees, Should drag him down with all his might, And, smiting, end the deadly fight. The sons who earn no honoured name Can bring their mothers only shame. Whoe'er in splendour, valour, lore, Stands forth all other men before, He justly claims-no other canThe high and noble name of man. He's falsely called a man whose heart Is weak, who plays a woman's part.
On this our sad condition think: We stand on utter ruin's brink, From home and country driven, laid low, Of joy bereft, and plunged in woe. And wilt thou, nerveless, thus lie low, Nor dare to strike another blow ?
I called thee son, but now I see
I bore the Kali age in thee.1
May woman never bear again A son so base, so dire a bane!
The Kali, which is the present Yuga, is the last of the four immense periods into which the Indian system of cosmogony divides the duration of the existing creation. The first, or Satya Yuga, was the age of perfection; and during those which have followed, the world is conceived to have been undergoing a gradual course of deterioration to the extent of one-fourth in each succeeding Yuga. In
[AUGUST, 1878.
Submission, meekness, ne'er can raise The sunk, or bring them happier days. Fierce, energetic, strife alone Can win thee back thy father's throne. Ambition only, restless, proud, Can lift a man above the crowd. Steel, then, thy heart:-a hero grown, From haughty foes wrest back thy own." Sanjaya.
"What worth has earth, its wealth, its joys, Its power, its state, its glittering toys,What worth has even life,--for thee, My mother, if thou hast not me? Then urge me not to peril life, Ia fruitless, bootless, desperate strife."
Viduld.
"Their lot is base who once were great, But now have fallen from high estate, Who, masters once, dependent now, To others' wills must humbly bow, Whom none regards, and who, by need Constrained, on others' bounty feed. To such a servile life as now Thou lead'st, my son, no longer bow. Win back those days,-alert and brave,When thou wast lord, and not a slave, When all men watched thy kingly nod, And bent before thee as a god. Like heavenly bliss is kingly sway, Like hell their lot who must obey." The prince whose arm his rule assures, And well his kinsfolks' weal secures, He during life enjoys renown, And earns at length a heavenly crown. Yet thou continuest faint of heart, And wilt not act a hero's part. But know, whene'er from love of life, A Kshatriya shrinks from battle's strife, With no fierce warlike ardour burns,His tribe that recreant soldier spurns.
Yet why should I my speech prolong? No pleas of mine, however strong,
Can sway, poor youth, thy wavering mind, To all bold action disinclined.
Just so, no drugs his death can stay Whose life is ebbing fast away.
Yet hear another reason why Thou still in war thy chance should'st try. The foe who now usurps thy throne The peoples' love has never known.
the Kali age corruption and calamity are thus regarded as attaining their climax. The word Kali as used in the text may thus be considered as denoting an impersonation or incarnation of all evils.
This line, which has nothing corresponding to it in the original, is given as a counterpart to the preceding.
