Dry Nagkeser, in silver smiling, Can men resist thy power, when Krishen yields, O thou for ages born, yet ever young The haunts of bless'd or joyless lovers, TWO HYMNS TO PRACRITI. THE ARGUMENT. In all our conversations with learned Hindoos, we find them enthusiastic admirers of poetry, which they con sider as a divine art, that had been practised for number. less ages in heaven, before it was revealed on earth by several books of Tasso, and to the dramas of Metastasio, are obvious instances; but, that any interest may be taken in the two hymns addressed to Pracriti, under different names, it is necessary to render them intelligible by a previous explanation of the mythological allusions, which could not but occur in them. Iswara, or Isa, and Isani, or Isi, are unquestionably the Osiris and Isis of Egypt; for, though neither a resemblance of names, nor a similarity of character, would separately prove the identity of Indian and Egyp tian deities, yet, when they both concur, with the addition of numberless corroborating circumstances, they form a proof little short of demonstration. The female divinity, in the mythological systems in the East, represents the active power of the male; and that Isi means active nature appears evidently from the word s'acta, which is derived from s'acti, or power, and applied to those Hindoos who direct their adoration principally to that goddess: this feminine character of Pracriti, or created nature, is so familiar in most languages, and even in our own, that the gravest English writers, on the most serious subjects of religion and philosophy, speak of her operations as if she were actually an animated being; but such personifications are easily misconceived by the multitude, and have a strong tendency to polytheism. The principal operations of nature are, not the absolute annihilation and new creation of what we call material substances, but the temporary extinction and reproduc tion, or rather, in one word, the transmutation of forms: whence the epithet Polymorphos is aptly given to nature by European philosophers: hence Iswara, Siva, Hara, (for those are his names and near a thousand more) united with Isi, represent the secondary causes, whatever they may be, of natural phenomena, and principally those of temporary destruction and regeneration; but the Indian Isis appears in a variety of characters, especially in those of Parvati, Cali, Durga, and Bhavani, which bear a strong resemblance to the Juno of Homer, to Hecate, to the armed Pallas, and to the Lucretian Venus. The name Parvati took its rise from a wild poetical fic tion. Himalaya, or the Mansion of Snow, is the title given Valmic, whose great heroic poem is fortunately preserved: the Brahmins of course prefer that poetry, by the Hindoos to that vast chain of mountains, which which they believe to have been actually inspired; limits India to the north, and embraces it with its eastern and western arms, both extending to the Ocean; the forwhile the Vaidyas, (who are in general perfect gramma. rians and good poets, but are not suffered to read any of mer of those arms is called Chandrasec'hara, or the the sacred writings except the Ayurveda, or Body of Moon's Rock; and the second, which reaches as far west as the mouths of the Indus, was named by the an. Medical Tracts,) speak with rapture of their innumera. ble popular poems, epic, lyric, and dramatic, which cients Montes Parveti. These hills are held sacred by were composed by men not literally inspired, but called, the Indians, who suppose them to be the terrestrial haunt of the god Iswara. The mountain Himalaya, being metaphorically, the sons of Sereswati, or Minerva; among whom the Pandits of all sects, nations, and de. per sonified, is represented as a powerful monarch, whose grees, are unanimous in giving the prize of glory to Ca. wife was Mena: their daughter is named Parvati, or lidasa, who flourished in the court of Vieramaditya, Mountain-born, and Durga, or of difficult access; but the fifty-seven years before Christ. He wrote several dra. Hindoos believe her to have been married to Siva in a mas, one of which, entitled Sacontala, is in my posses-pre-existent state, when she bore the name of Sati. The sion; and the subject of it appears to be as interesting as the composition is beautiful; besides these he pub. lished the Meghaduta, or cloud-messenger, and the Nalodaya, or rise of Nala, both elegant love tales: the Raghuvansa, an heroic poem; and the Cumara Sambhava, or birth of Cumara, which supplied me with ma terials for the first of the following odes. I have not indeed yet read it; since it could not be correctly copied for me during the short interval in which it is in my pow. er to amuse myself with literature: but I have heard the story told, both in Sanscrit and Persian, by many Pandits, who had no communication with each other; and their outline of it coincided so perfectly, that I are Mellicamucule bhati gunjanmattamadhuvratah, convinced of its correctness: that outline is here filled Prayane panchaoanasya sanc'hamapurayanniva. up, and exhibited in a lyric form, partly in the Indian, "The intoxicated bee shines and murmurs in the frest partly in the Grecian taste; and great will be my pleasure, when I can again find time for such amusements, in read-blown Mellica, like him who gives breath to a white conch ing the whole poem of Calidassa, and in comparing my in the procession of the god with five arrows." descriptions with the original composition. To anticipate the story in a preface, would be to destroy the interest that may be taken in the poem: a disadvantage attending all prefatory arguments, of which those prefixed to the daughter of Himalaya had two sons; Ganesa, or the Lord of Spirits, adored as the wisest of deities, and always invoked at the beginning of every literary work, and Cumara, Scanda, or Carticeya, commander of the celes tial armies. The pleasing fiction of Cama, the Indian Cupid, and his friend Vasanta, or the Spring, has been the subject of another poem: and here it must be remembered, that the god of Love is named also Smara, Candarpa, and Ananga. One of his arrows is called Mellica, the Nyctanthes of our botanists, who very unadvisedly reject the vernacular names of most Asiatic plants: it is beautifully introduced by Cálidasa into this lively couplet; A critic to whom Cálidasa repeated this verse, observed that the comparison was not exact: since the bee sits on the blossom itself, and does not murmur at the end of the tube, like him who blows a conch. "I was aware o that," said the poet," and, therefore, described the bee as intoxicated: a drunken musician would blow the shell at the wrong end." There was more than wit in this answer; it was a just rebuke to a dull critic; for poetry delights in general images, and is so far from being a perfect unitation, that a scrupulous exactness of descriptions and suniles, by leaving nothing for the imagination to supply, never fails to diminish or destroy the pleasure of every reader who has an imagination to be gratified. the It may here be observed, that Nymphæa, not Lotos, is the generic name in Europe of the flower consecrated to Isis: the Persians know by the name of Nilufer that species of it which the botanists ridiculously call Nelum bo, and which is remarkable for its curious pericarpium, where each of the seeds contains in miniature the leaves of a perfect vegetable. The lotos of Homer was probably sugar-cane, and that of Linnæus is a papilionaceous plant; but he gives the same name to another species of the Nymphæa; and the word is so constantly applied among us in India to the Nilufer, that any other would be hardly intelligible: the blue lotos grows in Cashmir and in Persia, but not in Bengal, where we see only the red and white; and hence occasion is taken to feign, that the lotus of Hindoostan was dyed crimson by the blood of Siva. Cuvera, mentioned in the fourteenth stanza, is the god of weath, supposed to reside in a magnificent city, called Alaca; and Vrihaspati, or the genius of the planet Jupi ter, is the preceptor of the gods in Swerga or the firınament: he is usually represented as their orator, when any message is carried from them to one of their superior deities. own language, I cannot refrain from subjoining the first Nemean Ode, not only in the same ineasure as nearly as possible, but almost word for word with the original; those epithets and phrases only being necessarily added, which are printed in Italic letters. TO DURGA. I. 1. FROM thee begins the solemn air, I. 2. Rock above rock they ride sublime, I. 3. And wreathe their giant heads in snows eternal Gilt by each revolving sun; The lamentations of Reti, the wife of Cama, fill a whole Though neither morning beam, nor noontide glare, book in the Sanscrit poem, as I am informed by my teach-In wintry sign or vernal, er, a learned Vairlya; who is restrained only from read ing the book, which contains a description of the nuptials; Their adamantine strength impair; for the ceremonies of a marriage where Brahma himself officiated as the father of the bridegroom, are too holy to be known by any but Brahmins. The achievements of Durga in her martial character as the patroness of Virtue, and her battle with a demon in the shape of a buffalo, are the subject of many episodes in the Puranas and Cávyas, or sacred and popular poems; but a full account of them would have destroyed the unity of the ode, and they are barely alluded to in the last stanza. It seemed proper to change the measure, when the goddess was to be addressed as Bhavani, or the power of fecundity; but such a change, though very common in Sanscrit, has its inconveniences in European poetry: a distinct hymn is therefore appropriated to her in that capacity; for the explanation of which we need only premise, that Lacshmi is the goddess of abundance; that the Cetata is a fragrant and beautiful plant of the Diœcian kind, known to botanists by the name Pandanus; and that the Durgotsava, or great festival of Bhavani at the close of the rains, ends in throwing the image of the god. dess into the Ganges, or other sacred waters. I am not conscious of having left unexplained any difficult allusion in the two poems; and have only to add (lest European critics should consider a few of the images as inapplicable to Indian manners) that the ideas of snow and ice are familiar to the Hindoos; that the mountains of Himalaya may be clearly discerned from a part of Bengal; that the Grecian Hamus is the Sanscrit word heimas, meaning snowy; and that funeral urns may be seen perpetually on the banks of the river. Nor e'en the fiercest summer heat (Such height had unremitted virtue gain'd!) But she to love no tribute paid; On a morn, when, edged with light, II. 2. Not for her neck, which, unadorn'd, Art she knew not, or she scorn'd; The two hymns are neither translations from any Nor had her language e'en a name for pride, second Nemean Odes: more musical stanzas might per. hove have been formed; but in every art, variented And spread the garland o'er his shoulders broad, novelty are considerable sources of pleasure. The Where serpents huge lay twining, style and manner of Pindar have been greatly mistaken; Whose hiss the round creation awed and that a distinct idea of them may be conceived by Ruch, as have not access to that inimitable poet in his *See p. 58. II. 3. IV. 3. He view'd, half-smiling, half-severe, There on a crag whose icy rift The prostrate maid—that moment through the rocks Hurl'd night and horror o'er the pool profound, He who decks the purple year, Vasanta, vain of odoriferous locks, With Cama, horsed on infant breezes flew. III. 1 Dire sacrilege! the chosen reed, That Smara pointed with transcendant art, And tinged its blooming barb in Siva's heart : Some drops divine, that o'er the lotos blue Still mark'd it with a crimson hue. III. 2. Soon closed the wound its hallow'd lips; And meteors rare betray'd the trembling sky; The keenest lightnings were but idle flashes, Reduced th' inflamer of our souls. III. 3. Vasant, for thee a milder doom, Accomplice rash, a thundering voice decreed: While ten gay signs the dancing seasons lead. But when the bull has rear'd his golden horn, IV. 1. The thunder ceased; the day return'd; And sigh'd on gemm'd Cailása's viewless head. With fluttering heart, soft Parvati descended; Drank solace through the night, but lay alarm'd, The god her powerful beauty charm'd. IV. 2. All arts her sorrowing damsels tried, [smooth. Her brow, where wrinkled anguish lour'd, to But nor art nor counsel sage, Nor e'en her sacred parent's tender chiding, Could her only pain assuage: The rest my song conceal : Unhallow'd ears the sacrilege might rue. In what stupendous notes th' immortals woo. The nuptial feast, heaven's opal gates unfolding. The mountain drear she sought in mantling shade And sage Himálaya shed blissful tears, Her tears and transports hiding, And oft to her adorer pray'd. With aged eyes beholding His daughter, empress of the spheres. VI. 3. Whilst every lip with nectar glow'd, The bridegroom blithe his transformation told; And laughter free o'er plains of ether roll'd: But in delight supreme the phantasm ends; VII. 1. Then rose Vrihaspati, who reigns His periods eloquent heaven loves to hear He told how Taraca with snaky legions, Had menaced long old Meru's golden head, And Indra's beaming regions With desolation wild had spread: VII. 2. How, when the gods to Brahma flew In routed squadrons, and his help deplored; 'Sons! (he said) from vengeance due The fiend must wield secure his fiery sword, (Thus th' unerring Will ordains) Till from the great Destroyer's pure embraces, Knit in love's mysterious chains With her, who, daughter to the mountain-king, Yon snowy mansion graces, Cumara, warrior child, shall spring; VII. 3. 'Who bright in arms of heavenly proof, The rash invaders fiercely shall assail, on a stately peacock borne, shall rush Against the dragon of the deep; Nor shall his thundering mace insatiate sleep, Till their infernal chief it crush." VIII. 1. "The splendid host with solemn state (Still spoke th' ethereal orator unblamed) Reason'd high in long debate; Till, through my counsel provident, they claim'd At Indra's wish appear'd the soul's inflamer Engaged (ah, thoughtless!) in the bold emprise And soften Him who shakes the skies. VIII. 2. 'See now the God, whom all adored, An ashy heap, the jest of every gale! And toward her widow'd pile with piercing ditty How ill the funeral with the feast agrees! Come, and the lover's wrath appease." The forms of animated nature lay; Sat like a nestling dove, From heaven's dun concave shot a golden ray. Still brighter and more bright it stream'd, An opening lotos rose, and smiling spread Mother of gods, rich nature's queen, Thou badest the softly-kindling flame Pervade this peopled frame, HYMN TO INDRA. THE ARGUMENT. So many allusions to Hindoo mythology occur in the following Ode, that it would be scarce intelligible with And smiles, with blushes tinged, the work ap-out an explanatory introduction, which, on every ac proved. Goddess, around thy radiant throne The scaly shoals in spangled vesture shone, Some slowly, through green waves advancing, Some swiftly glancing, As each thy mild mysterious power impell'd: E'en orcs and river dragons felt Their iron bosoms melt count, and on all occasions, appears preferable to notes in the margin. A distinct idea of the god, whom the poem celebrates, may be collected from a passage in the ninth section of the Gita, where the sudden change of measure has an effect similar to that of the finest modulation: te punyamasadya surendra locam asnanti divyan dividevabhogan, te tam bhuctwa swergalocam visalam cshine punye mertyalocam visanti. With scorching heat; for love the mightiest quell'd. "These having through virtue reached the mansion of But straight ascending vapours rare While, through young Indra's new dominions Mix'd with thy beams a thousand varying dyes, Them yielding, and with music fill'd the skies. And now bedeck'd with sparkling isles Send forth a shaggy brood, who, frisking light Impart their tender cares; All animals to love their kind invite. Thus, in one vast eternal gyre, Of melting tints illudes the visual ray : To sentient forms, that sink again to clay. Ye maids and youths on fruitful plains, Tripping at eve these hallow'd banks along; With many a smiling race shall bless your song. the king of Sura's, feast on the exquisite heavenly food of the gods: they, who have enjoyed this lofty region of Swerga, but whose virtue is exhausted, revisit the habi tation of mortals." Indra, therefore, or the king of Immortals, corresponds with one of the ancient Jupiters (for several of that name were worshipped in Europe,) and particularly with Jupiter the conductor, whose attributes are so nobly described by the Platonic philosophers; one of his numerous titles is Dyupeti, or, in the nominative case before certain letters, Dyupetir; which means the Lord of Heaven, and seems a more probable origin of the Hetruscan word than Juvans Pater; as Diespiter was probably, not the father, but the Lord of day. He may be considered as the Jove of Ennius in this memorable line: "Aspice hoc sublime candens, quem invocant omnes Jovem where the poet clearly means the firmament, of which Indra is the personification. He is the god of thunder and the five elements, with inferior genii under his com. mand; and is conceived to govern the eastern quarter of the world, but to preside, like the genius or Agathodæman of the ancients over the celestial bands, which are stationed on the summit of Meru or the north pole, where he solaces the gods with nectar and heavenly music; hence, perhaps, the Hindoos, who give evidence, and the magistrates, who hear it, are directed to stand fronting the east or the north. This imaginary mount is here feigned to have been seen in a vision at Varanasi, very improperly called Banaris, which takes its name from two rivulets that embrace the city; and the bard, who was favoured with the sight, is supposed to have been Vyasa, surnamed Dwaipayana, or Dwelling in an Island; who, if he really composed the Gità, makes very flattering mention of himself in the tenth chapter. The plant lata, which he describes weaving a net round the mountain Mandara, is transported by a poetical liberty to Sumeru, which the great author of the Mahabharat has richly painted in four beautiful couplets: it is the generic name for a creeper, though represented here as a species, of which many elegant varieties are found in Asia. The Genii named Cinnarus are the male dancers in Swerga, or the heaven of Indra: and the Apsaras are his dancing-girls, answering to the fairies of the Persians, and to the damsels called in the Koran hhuru'lûyun, or with antelopes' eyes. For the story of Chitrarat'ha, the chief musician of the Indian paradise, whose painted car was burned by Arjun; and for that of the Chaturdesaretna, or fourteen gems, as they are called, which were produced by churning the ocean: the reader must be referred to Mr. Wilkins's learned annotations on his accurate version of the Bhagavadgità. The fable of the pomegranate-flower is borrowed from the popular my. thology of Nepal and Tibet. In this poem the same form of stanza is repeated with variations, on a principle entirely new in modern lyric poetry, which on some future occasion may be explained. |