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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[NOVEMBER, 1921
a big sheep or a small one it was all the same, the daughter-in-law always had the stone in her plate. Her father-in-law, who happened to be on the other side of the wall where she was standing with her neighbour friend, overheard this, and he wanted to find out if what the daughter-in-law said was right. When that evening his wife gave Padmavati her plate of food he suddenly went over and snatched it away from her hand and actually found the stone urderneath a thin layer of rice. He got very angry with his wife for her cruel treatment towards the daughter-in-law. His wife thought that Padmavati must have informed him of this, as there could be no other person who knew about it. Oh, such audacity and such contumatiousness on the part of a daughter-in-law designed to bring on trouble to her mother-in-law! So she fretted and harboured more hatred than ever towards Padmavati and constantly spoke ill of her to her son in order to prejudice his mind against his wife. She span thread as fine as the fibres of the lotus stalk, yet her step mother-in-law would scold her for having spun it coarsely. At last she brought this chapter of her life to a close by quitting her home. Fired as she was with divine love, she tore away her clothes and began to roam about naked. Just prior to her tearing away her clothes her lal or abdomen increased in size, so that her pubic region became pendulous answering the purpose of the loin cloth. Thenceforward she was called Lal, because of her pendulous pubes.
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Lal Ded became the disciple of Sidh and learnt Yoga from him, but in course of time she far excelled him in practising it. Sidh's house was at the Nambalbal Mohalla at Pámpur. There was a cave there in which he used to perform the worship of God. This cave does not exist now. The ghat at which he used to bathe is called Sidh-Yár, and since then a sanctity is attached to it. It is among others a tirtha at which the pil.. grims to Amar Náth bathe.
Lal Ded propounded the Yoga philosophy and also high moral truths in Kashmiri verse. These are called Lal Wákhi or Savings of Lal and are, apart from being the utterances of a holy woman, expressive of gra nd lofty thoughts, and spiritual lawsshort, apt, sweet, thrilling, life-giving and pregnant with the greatest moral principlesaye, simply pearls and diamonds and "gems of the purest ray serene" of the Kashmiri literature. They are current coins of quotation, a volume being packed in a single saying. They touch the Kashmiri's ear as well as the chord of his heart and are freely quoted by him as maxims on appropriate occasions in conversation, having moulded the national mind and set up a national ideal. As the Kashmiri language has undergone much change since she composed them and as they treat of abstruse knowledge of Yoga, they are difficult to be understood by the common people. One or two instances will suffice to show how deep and sublime is the philosophy contained in them. Over one hundred years ago there lived a saint named Mirza Kák at Hángalgund, twelve miles towards the south-east of Achibal. He once went to visit the shrine of Jwála Mukhi at Khrew and on his return, when nearing Pámpur his disciples asked him to explain the meaning of the following saying of Lal Ded:--
Woth rainya artsun sakhar
Athi al pal wakhur heth
Yudwani zának parma-pad akhiur
He shikhar khe shikhar heth.
Arise, O Lady, make preparations for worship,
Keeping liquor, meat and bread with thee;
If thou knowest the highest Eternal Syllable (Brahm),
Take and eat them in company with Ta 1tric worshippers.
