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204
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
the palace-gate for his debtor, and there assail him with-cries of Darúhai-us-Sultán! ("O enemy of the Sultan!) Thou shalt not enter till thou hast paid." But it seems probable that the exclamation really was this of which we speak, "Daha'i Maharaj! Dúhd's Sultan!" Such, too, doubtless was the cry heard by Hawkins at Agra in
1608-9:
"He is severe enough, but all helpeth not; for his poore Riats or clownes complaine of Iniustice done them, and cry for justice at the King's hands."-In Purchas, vol. I. p. 223.
1878:-"As I was walking down to my boat to my dinner, I met a villager in the company of a constable, who shouted 'Duhai, justice, my lord; I have been arrested by warrant, though I came in obedience to a summons.""-Life in the Mofussil, vol. II. p. 154.
(To be continued.)
METRICAL VERSIONS FROM THE MAHABHARATA.
BY J, MUIR, D.C.L., LL.D., &c. (Continued from p. 152.)
The Genesis if Rudra the destroyer.
M. Bh. xii. 2791. Whence springs the god whom mortals fear, The god with awful form severe ? From sin, destroying Rudra springs, On this our world who ruin brings. He is that self who dwells within In men, the source and seat of sin, Which plunges both in woe, the good, As well as all the guilty brood.
I do not recollect to have before met in any Indian author a passage like this, in which the destroying god Rudra (or Mahadeva) is rationalistically represented as being apparently nothing else than the Nemesis or natural and inevitable
retribution following upon sin. I translate literally some of the lines, Kasyapa is the speaker:
2791. "When sin is committed by sinners O Aila, then this god Rudra is born. The wicked by their sins generate Rudra; and then he destroys all, both good and bad." 2792. Aila asks: "Whence comes Rudra? Or of what nature is
1 Another apparent instance of rationalizing, which may not, however, be seriously meant, occurs in Manu ix. 301f., and Mahabharata xii. 2674ff., 2693, and 3408, where it is stated that the four Yugas or great mundane periods (which are represented as differing in regard to the physical and moral condition of the men who lived in each of them,-the first being the most highly blest in these respects, while the others undergo a gradual declension), are really only names for the better or worse character of the king, on which the welfare of his subjects depends. I translate the essential verses of the Mahabharata, xii. 2674: "Either the king causes the time, or the time causes the king. Doubt not as to this alternative; the king causes the time. When the king completely fulfils the duties of criminal justice, then
[JULY, 1879.
Rudra? An existence (or creature, sattva) is seen to be destroyed by creatures. Declare to me all this, O Kasyapa, from what this god Rudra is born." 2793. Kasyapa replies: "The self in the heart of man is Rudra; it slays each its own and others' bodies. They tell us that Rudra is like the hurricane; his form is like the celestial clouds (devair jimataiḥ)."
The commentator remarks as follows on these lines:-" Rudra' means 'himsra,' 'destructive'; 'god' means 'king'; Rudra' (further on in the accusative) means the Kali' age. To the question whence arises the King's destructive character (Rudratva), he replies in the words, "The self,' &c. It is the self (or soul, dtmd"), the living principle (jiva), in the heart of men, which is (or becomes) Rudra, the destroyer. And just as the body of a person possessed by an evil spirit is not the property of the (proper) owner (or master) of that body, but at the time of the possession is the property of the being so possessed, just so at the time of his being possessed by Rudra, the King's body belongs to, or takes the character of, Rudra (Raudram bhavati). Then in reply to the inquiry whence is it that the tranquil self (or soul) takes the character of Rudra ? he answers in the words
The hurricane,' &c. As the hurricane in the air drives hither and thither the cloud-goddess residing in the air, makes her thunder, and causes lightnings, thunderbolts, and rain-falls to be mani. fested from her, just so the passions of desire anger, &c., which have sprung from the self (or soul) impel the principle of life (jiva), which has sprung from the self, to perpetrate all destructive acts."
Moral Goodness essential.
Mahábh. xiv. 2835 (compare xiii. 5544). The knaves, untrained in wisdom's schools, Who, never vexed with scruples, long Who smile at honest men as fools, Have wealth amassed by fraud and wrong, And then their gains, with hearts elate, To pious uses dedicate,
On costly sacrifices spend,
Or ample gifts to Brahmans send,
the Krita Age, a product of time, exists." This principle is then applied to the other three Yugas (or ages). It is then said, v. 2693: "The king is the creator of the Krita,. Trets, and Dvâpara ages, and the cause of the fourth (the Kali)." The same idea is afterwards repeated in v. 3408 (= Manu ix. 301): "The Krita, the Tretâ, the Dråpara, and the Kali Yugas (ages) are modes of a king's action; for it is the king who is denoted by the word Yugs." The commentator on Manu ix. 302 says, however, that that verse (which declares that the king is one or other of the Yugas, according to the character of his action) is merely designed to intimate that a king ought to be intent upon the performance of his duties, and not to deny the real existence of the four Yugas (ages).
