HYMNS OF THE RIG-VEDA
FIRST HYMN ADDRESSED TO AGNI, THE SACRIFICIAL FIRE
1
WORSHIP Agni, who is the priest of the house, the divine priest
of the sacrifice, and the priest of oblations.
FIRST HYMN ADDRESSED TO AGNI, THE SACRIFICIAL FIRE
1
WORSHIP Agni, who is the priest of the house, the divine priest
of the sacrifice, and the priest of oblations.
Warner - World's Best Literature - v14 - Ibn to Juv
The style, like the language, is simple;
the movement rapid; and the lyric songs, which are an important
factor in the drama, are composed with the sweetness' for which
the author is famous.
In the Cakuntalā' the plot is extremely simple. In the first act
the king secretly falls in love with Çakuntalā, the daughter of a
hermit, and she with him. This sentimental scene is followed by
one of burlesque humor, wherein the king's jester complains of the
passion for hunting which leads the king to frequent places where
there is nothing fit to eat. Çakuntalā's lovesick plaint, overheard by
the king, who thereupon declares himself and becomes her accepted
lover, forms the substance of the next act. The fourth tells that a
priest, whose dignity was offended by Çakuntalā's indifference to him,
curses her so that all lovers shall forget her; a curse subsequently
modified to mean that they shall forget her till they see a ring he
gives to her. The fifth act relates how Çakuntalā travels to court
and appears before the king, who cannot remember their intimate
relation, but is much moved by the sight of her. She seeks for the
ring, but it is lost! Pathos reigns in this scene. The sixth act again
introduces the antithetic element of burlesque to modify the senti-
mental effect produced in the last. Policemen hustle a fisherman
upon the stage, declaring that he has a ring of priceless value, which
he must have stolen. The seventh and eighth acts show how the
fisherman's ring (cut out of a fish which had swallowed it as Çakun-
talā dropped it in the water) gives the king recollection, and how he
finds Çakuntalā, who disappeared before the mystery of the ring was
cleared up and went grieving back to her father's hut. This whole
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INDIAN LITERATURE
scene.
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>
story is taken from the Mahābhārata,' embellished with dramatic
incidents.
The tale of the second drama goes even further back, and relates
the loves of Urvaçi and Purūravas, who (see above) are known as
lovers in the Rig Veda collection. Urvaçi is the Psyche and Purū-
ravas is the Eros of India. This drama has only five acts, or rather
scenes, and may be called in part an elf drama. Urvaçi is a cloud
nymph, and she disappears from heaven, having been captured by a
monster. The first scene shows her attendant nymphs bewailing her
loss, and relates how the earthly king Purūravas rescues her and
falls in love with her. The king's jealous queen makes the next
The third scene is very curious. Urvaçī, having been rescued,
and being the fairest of all nymphs, is chosen (in heaven) as the
proper person to represent a goddess in a mystery-play given to
entertain the gods. At a certain point in the play she should say
“I love Purushottama” (the god); but instead of this, owing to the
love which has grown up in her for Purūravas, she makes a mistake
and says “I love Purūravas. ” A Divine seer, who has coached her for
the part, is doubly furious, both because she has made such a mess
of her part, and that a nymph of heaven should love a mortal. He
curses her to lose her place in heaven. God Indra modifies the curse
to be this, – that she shall be with her lover on earth till he sees
her child, when she may (or must) return to heaven. The fourth
act is almost wholly lyric. Urvaçi is on earth with Purūravas, but
she steps into a holy grove into which no woman may enter, and
thereupon is changed into a vine. The king seeks her, asking in
lyric strain of bird, bee, and flower, whither his love is gone. She is
finally found by means of a wonder-stone which has power to unite
people. The fifth act gives a pretty psychological situation. Urvaci's
expected child has been born, but she has carefully concealed it
lest the fact that Purūravas sees it should banish her. He however
sees the boy by accident. Then comes the conflict of sentiment: the
joy of the father in the son, the grief of the husband in the loss of
his wife. But the Hindu drama must leave no sadness.
The gods
change the curse again. Urvaçi may remain on earth till her hus-
band's death.
The outline of these two plays gives a notion of the substance if
not the beauty of Hindu dramatic art. Kālidāsa's third drama is the
love story of Mālavikā and Agnimitra, and is more complex than
the other legendary dramas. The third great dramatist belongs to
the eighth century. This is the Southerner, Bhavabhūti, who excels
in the grandeur rather than in the delicacy of his descriptions. He
also has left three great dramas: Mālatīmādhava,' or the tale of (the
heroine) Mālati's and (the hero) Mādhava's love; Mahāvīracarita,'
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INDIAN LITERATURE
7933
-
n
and Uttararāmacarita. ' The first is deservedly the most famous,
and has been called the 'Romeo and Juliet' of India. It is a lo
drama in ten acts. The two young people love each other, and their
parents have agreed on the match. But political influence makes
them change their intentions. The lovers are separated and are for-
mally promised to other suitors by their parents, who dare not dis-
obey the king's express wish in this regard. Then a savage priest
appears, who steals away Mālati and is about to sacrifice her on the
altar of the terrible goddess Durgā, Çiva's wife. Mādhava saves her
and slays the priest. All is about to end happily when a comical
Shakespearean sub-motif is introduced. Mādhava's friends in sport
substitute at the wedding a young man dressed as a girl, for Mālati.
Mālati, stolen again, is however finally found, and the drama ends
well, as usual. Conspicuous is the agency of Buddhist nuns in help-
ing the young people, and equally conspicuous is the diabolical char-
acter of the Brahmanic priest.
Between Bhavabhūti and Kālidāsa comes the author of a little
drama called the Ratnāvali, ascribed to the King Çrīharsha, but
probably written by one of his subjects - either Bāna, author of the
Kādambari' (see above), or Dhāvaka. It was written in the seventh
century, as nearly as can be determined, and to its author are also
attributed the Nāgananda' and Priyadarçikā. ' But though these fill
satisfactorily the blank between the sixth and eighth centuries, the
product of this time is distinctly inferior to that which immediately
precedes and follows, and Bhavabhūti is the next literary follower of
his older rival. In the following centuries, drama succeeded drama
with greater rapidity, and a large number of late inferior dramatic
compositions are extant. Among these one of the best is Mudrārā-
kshasa) or King's Guardian of the Seal”; a play that reminds us of
(Richelieu,' and is notable as being wholly a political drama. It is
forcibly and dramatically written, and some of the scenes are of great
power and intense interest. It is doubtful when its author, Viçākha-
datta, lived in the eighth or in the eleventh century. An admirable
drama by Kshemiçvara (uncertain date), entitled Canda-Kauçika' or
the Wrath of Kauçika, should also be mentioned as well worthy of
study. Among lesser lights of later times the best known dramatists
are Bhatta, of the tenth century, whose play called “Venisanhāra' or
Binding of the Braid” is based on an Epic incident; and Rājace-
khara, of the ninth century, who has left four rather indifferent dramas.
Sanskrit Literature: (C) Lyric. It may be said that even in the
Rig Veda Collection there is a lyric strain, perceptible not only in the
praises of the gods but also in one or two of the triumphant battle
hymns. At a later period the language of religious ecstasy in the
Upanishads, though framed in the simple octosyllabic verse, also rises
>
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INDIAN LITERATURE
>
not infrequently to lyric heights; and this is especially true of some
of the short religious effusions to be found in Buddhistic literature.
But formal lyric, with its varied metre, its wild and pathetic strains,
appears first at the period of the Renaissance (see above). Here
too Kālidāsa's name heads the list, not only in virtue of the lyric
parts of his dramas, but because of his lyric poetry per se. His two
lyric poems are models for after time. One of these describes in
order the seasons, and hence is called (Ritu-sanhāra' or Union of
Seasons. ) * In varied note the poet gives us pictures of each of the
seasons: the summer heat, the joyful rains, the fresh autumn, the win-
ter, the “cool” season, and last the spring. Each is delineated with
true touches, which show that nothing escapes the fine observation of
the great poet. The effect of each season upon the mood of man
and beast is beautifully described. No land ever offered more superb
contrasts to the artist; and each feature is represented not only with
accuracy, but with such facile ease in the varied metres employed,
that to translate without the rhythmic flow is to lose more here than
in the case of any foreign lyric, not excepting that of Pindar. All
lyric depends for its beauty largely upon the rhythm, but in the case
of Kālidāsa no English version can satisfy at all; for the complex
metre cannot be imitated, and even if it could, the dexterous fitting
of plant names to the metrical flow of words, which gives exquisite
effect in the original, would be completely lost. Kālidāsa's other
lyric, the Meghadūta' or Cloud Messenger,' is quite well known in
Europe through the medium of many English and German transla-
tions. This pictures a lover sending a message by a cloud to his
beloved. Pathos, longing, despair, hope, all the passions of the lover,
are here rendered into verse in metre which, like that of the Ritu-
sanhāra,' defies imitation. The poem is of course erotic, but it is
filled with passages illustrating the fineness and delicacy of the lyric
master. The later poets were apt to imitate and exceed the model
in the erotic features, while they were left far behind in point of
style and execution.
Only a few of these later bards deserve special attention. As
in the case of the drama, much was subsequently written but little
was written well. Of these inferior works, however, the twenty-two
strophes called “Ghatakarpana' deserve to be spoken of because the
author lived at so early a date, being probably almost a contemporary
of Kālidāsa himself; while the Pancāçikā' of the eleventh century
may be cited as an example of the later erotic poems. The author
of the latter, probably Bilhana, describes in passionate language the
* See the translation of Grishma) from this poem under Sir Edwin Arnold,
Vol. ii. of this work.
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INDIAN LITERATURE
7935
delight of a fortunate lover in the embrace of his mistress. No
detail of love's enjoyment is omitted, and the fifty strophes are quite
untranslatable in their indecency.
But long lyric effusions do not show the peculiar genius of the
Hindu lyric in its later development. In artificial language, where
every syllable is pregnant with meaning, the Hindu delights in giving
a complete idyl in as few verses as possible. Thus we have an
enormous mass of little poems, each without introduction or end,
describing a situation. This is often a lover's complaint, but as often
it is a meditative expression of some moral or even physical truth.
In short, in this lyric, which closes the development of native liter-
ature, we have a reversion to the aphoristic sententious style which
marked the close of the Vedic period; only in the latter the didactic
matter was the one thing considered, while in the sentimental apho-
ristic lyric, style and language were even more considered than was
the truth or fancy to be expressed. Even in the Epic, some of the
aphoristic verses are almost lyrical in this sense; and in the fables,
there is much that aspires to beauty in expression as well as to truth
in what is said.
Chief master of this sort of lyric, so well beloved and so often
imitated by Heine, is Bhartrihari. He was philosopher and poet, and
lived in the seventh century. According to tradition he was a Bud-
dhist monk, who, as was permitted to the monks, joined the order
seven times and seven times left it, being influenced beyond his own
control by desire for religion and in turn by love of the world. It is
said that he was so well aware of his weakness that when he was
a monk he always kept a horse ready harnessed, in order that if he
should feel overpowered by sinful desires, he might have the means
to escape and gratify them without delay. He wrote three 'Çataka,'
literally Centuries, of little lyrics (the “Çringāraçataka'). They are
marked by esprit, humor, and delicate sentiment. Another such col-
lection, the 'Çringāratilaka, is ascribed to Kālidāsa, but the author-
ship is not beyond doubt. A Century' of lyrics was also composed
by Amaru (Amaruçataka'), who is regarded as the greatest master
in depicting love scenes and in understanding women. Love is here,
as it usually is in this literature, rather coarse passion like that of
Sappho; but we have no right to demand modern refinement from
the ancients, and we are only surprised to find it in Kālidāsa. Still
another book of Centuries is written in a Prakrit patois. It is that
of Hāla, called simply his Seven Centuries (Saptaçataka').
erotic nature of the poems interchanges with what, in view of the
patois, is called by German critics volkspoesie; but there is probably
as little of the real folk here as in Theocritus. There are however
in Hāla, descriptions of nature which show a fine touch. The erotic
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INDIAN LITERATURE
lyric of India closes with a wonderful production of almost modern
times, the Gitagovinda' of Jayadeva, a Bengal poet of the twelfth
century. This is a lyric-dramatic effusion describing the love of the
god Krishna-l'ishnu for his mistress Rādhā. It is an ode, and was
intended to be sung to music. The name comes from gorinda (neat-
herd, i. e. , Krishna, see above) and gita, song. As a literary product
this work may be defined as a sort of mystery-play, in point of lan-
guage refined to excess, but in the unbridled excess of its description
quite equal to Bilhana's Pancāçikā (see above). The intent of the
poem withal is quite religious. It is the model of modern devotional-
erotic poetry, which, in its strange mixture of worship and obscenity,
reminds one of Dionysiac rites.
FOURTH PERIOD: Modern Sanskrit and Dialectic Literature. — For
fully a hundred years before and for five hundred years after the
Christian era, India was overrun by northern barbarians. For the
next five hundred years the land enjoyed comparative security from
the Mohammedans. The Muslim indeed invaded India as early as the
eighth century, but Hindu rule was not overthrown till the latter
half of the tenth century. The next five hundred years, from the
crowning of Mahmud the devastator of India in 997, to the middle
of the sixteenth century, was a period of rapine and ruin. Under
Akbar, the Great Mogul, who reigned from 1556 to 1605, the land had
peace; but literary originality was totally destroyed by this very
security of the time. Persian, Christian, Jew, and Mohammedan lived
amicably together, discussing religion, philosophy, and literature at
Akbar's court. Moreover, the Portuguese landed in India in the fif-
teenth century and the English in 1600. From this time on, therefore,
Indian literature loses its old character. The first extant works of
this period, chiefly religious, are a reflex of the confluence of Hindu
and Mohammedan thought. Nor are they untouched by Christian
doctrine. As early as the seventh century Christians were welcomed
by a northern king, and the late Purānas have many traits taken
directly from the New Testament. But the terrible oppression of
the Mohammedan from about the years 1000 to 1500 leaves even the
centuries preceding Akbar's reign almost bare of original productions.
To the eleventh and twelfth centuries belong fable, drama, and lyric,
in steadily decreasing amount and value (see above); but the crushed
genius of the Hindus after this seems to be content with the manu-
facture of commentaries and of religious works (the animus of the
latter being a fierce sectarianism), till the catholicity of Akbar's reign
produces the refined and philosophic religious works of modern times.
The narrow and devoutly furious sectarian tracts are known as Tan-
tras (i. e. , books or Bibles). They describe minutely the obscure rites
of the lower religious orders. Other works of this class are called
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INDIAN LITERATURE
7937
Āgamas, or « Traditional works,” which scarcely differ from the late
sectarian Purānas. Most of these late Purānas claim for themselves a
great antiquity; but none is probably older than the ninth century,
and many of them are as late as the fifteenth or sixteenth centu-
ries. Beside these devotional works stands a mass of late Smriti or
« Tradition”; generally in the form of a miscellaneous assortment
of rules, called a law-book, but partaking largely of the character of
a Purāna. The formal History of Sects) forms one of the liter-
ary features of this time. In the ninth century appears the first of
these, by Ananda Giri, a pupil of Çankara. In the fourteenth century
another was composed by Madhava Acārya. This may be designated
also as the greatest period of commentators. In the seventh century,
during the period following on the Renaissance (see above), the ancient
Brahmanism was re-established ritually by Kumārila. Later scholars
contented themselves with writing commentaries on the Vedic texts.
Best known of these is Sāyana, who in the fourteenth century re-
edited with his exhaustive commentary the Rig Veda Collection and
other early texts.
The sectaries did, however, produce some original matter. Nota-
bly is this the case with the Rāma-Vishnu sects; that is, the sects
that believe in Rāma (rather than in Krishna) as an incarnation of
Vishnu. These sects, or at least their leaders, are in general more
philosophical than are the Krishna sects. Thus in the twelfth cen-
tury Rāmānuja, the next able philosopher after Çankara (above),
founded a new sect; and this sect possesses the most important San-
skrit poem of modern times, the Ramcaritmanas) of Tulasidāsa, who
is generally acknowledged to be the strongest modern Hindu poet.
He lived in the sixteenth century, and his Ramcaritmanas) a sort
of modern (Rāmāyana,' a New Testament to that older Bible of the
Rāma sect. The Krishna sect has on the other hand, as its older
Bible, a religious chapter of the Mahābhārata' (called the Bhagavat
Gita' or Divine Song); but for a New Testament it has only the
trashy Bhāgavata Purāna. '
Commentaries not only on Vedic texts but on modern sects also
characterize this period. Thus in the sixteenth century a Life of
Krishna,' virtually a commentary on the doctrines of his sect, was
written by Vallabha, one of the few Krishnaite scholars. But mod-
ern religious literature is usually a plain combination of Mohamine-
danism, Hinduism, and Christianity; notably so in the compositions
of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, but not less surely so
in every work since the sixteenth. Thus the famous "Ādi-granth' or
Original Bible) of the Sikhs is a sixteenth-century composite of
Mohammedan and Hindu thought; although Kabir and Nānak, the
first leaders of this sect, who lived in the fifteenth century, actually
XIV-497
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INDIAN LITERATURE
))
broke with both these State religions, and formed what they claimed
was a “new” faith. The same again is true in regard to the Bible of
the Dādū Pānthis of the seventeenth century: while Rāmmohun Roy
(born in 1772) and the numerous leaders of Samājas Congregations,
who followed him, have done nothing more than make latter-day
Upanishads based on eclectic Christian doctrine superadded to more
native teaching - a curious amalgam, which represents very well the
parasitic character of modern religious literature in India. Some of
this is in Sanskrit, some in Tamil (the language of the Southern
Dravidians), and some in local Hindu patois. Of these, the sacred
Kural of Tiruvalluvar, and the Prem Sāgar or Ocean of Love, are
typical examples. In general, besides such religious works, Tamil
literature is composed either of reproduced Sanskrit works or of
folk tales, and may therefore be omitted from the best literature”
of India, inasmuch as it lacks either originality or the qualities that
constitute the right to be called fine literature. A good deal of folk
poetry and folk stories, both in Tamil and in Hindu patois, has been
published, but the value of this literature is not great. Even bucolic
“Epics” have been discovered, and one missionary has actually found
an Epic among the wild tribes! But the ballads are too rude and
the stories are too stupid to be classed as literature. They are the
oral, long-winded, tiresome productions common to all peasants from
Greenland to India, interesting only to the student of folk-lore, and
valuable merely as showing how small is the literary merit that lies
in the unaided (more particularly in the not touched up) genius of
the common people.
In the domain of the late literature which is impregnated with
foreign ideas, one passes beyond the true province of Indian liter-
ature. No less does one exceed the limit of Sanskrit literature in
speaking of modern works written in Sanskrit. Sanskrit is still writ-
ten and spoken, but so is Latin; and Sanskrit literature stops with
the aftergrowth of the Renaissance just as truly as Latin literature
ceases with the silver age. The Sanskrit writings of the last few
centuries are to Sanskrit literature what the Latin of the Middle Ages
is to Latin literature. The age when Sanskrit was a people's lan-
guage is long since past; and even in the later drama it is probable
that the artificial Sanskrit employed is a true index of its decline as
a spoken tongue, and that in ordinary conversation even the Brah-
mans used the colloquial patois of their respective homes. In one of
these dramas it is said that there is nothing more ridiculous than a
man singing pianissimo and a woman speaking Sanskrit; while, as
we have seen, even the early drama made all low-caste men and
women converse in patois. In the Epic there is no indication that
the characters used any other language than Sanskrit. It is there
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INDIAN LITERATURE
7939
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considered a mark of cultivation to be able to “speak in patois," as
if this were an accomplishment. Pānini's explicit rules for “dialects,"
and the fact that the earlier Buddhistic works are preserved not in
Sanskrit but in Pāli, show that Sanskrit was a local language to a
great extent, and that, as the exponent of the Brahmanic faith, it was
probabiy more or less a revived language even at the period of the
Renaissance. In the northwest, Sanskrit was probably spoken at the
same time that it was unused in other districts; and as the various
patois gradually encroached upon it, it became, as its name denotes,
the “cultivated” or «refined" language, in contradistinction to Pra-
krit, the natural language or local patois.
In closing this outline of Indian literature, it will not be amiss to
point out, if only for convenience in remembering its long course of
three thousand years, the semi-millennium groups into which it nat-
urally falls in respect of time. In the sense of original Hindu compo-
sitions, Indian literature extends from about 1500 B. C. to 1500 A. D.
The first five hundred years go to the completion of the Rig-Veda
Collection. Then follow about five hundred years of Vedic decline,
additions, elucidations, the Ritual period. A religious and sectarian
literary awakening succeeds this epoch. It is typified by the first
Upanishads and by the growth of Buddhism; while Vedic literature
expires in Sūtras, a period of five hundred years, from about B. C.
500 to our era. Another era of five hundred years covers a time of
political ruin at the hands of barbarians and decadent Buddhism,
from our era to 500 A. D. Then in the sixth century comes the liter-
ary awakening, the Renaissance, the effect of which in the growth of
art endures till, about 1000 A. D. , the Mohammedan again brings ruin
to India, The decline of this art follows during five hundred years
more in the works of inferior poets and the rise of commentators.
After 1500 A. D. the literature is no longer Indian. ”
{. w. Hopkins.
HYMNS OF THE RIG-VEDA
FIRST HYMN ADDRESSED TO AGNI, THE SACRIFICIAL FIRE
1
WORSHIP Agni, who is the priest of the house, the divine priest
of the sacrifice, and the priest of oblations. He gives wealth.
He is the god Agni, who was adored by the ancient Seers,
and he is fit to be worshiped by those [that live] to-day. May
he conduct the gods to us. By means of Agni one can acquire
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INDIAN LITERATURE
wealth, prosperity from day to day, and the glory of excellent
heroes. O Agni, whatever be the rite that thou surroundest on
every side, that sacrifice reaches the gods. . May the Agni who
gives oblations, who is the wisest priest, the true one, the most
famous, may this god in company with all the other gods ap-
proach to us. Thou doest good to every one that worships thee,
O Agni, and this is thy real virtue. Unto thee, O Agni, day by
day, at evening and at morning, we come with prayer bringing
obeisance to thee to thee, who art the lord of sacrifice and the
brilliant protector of the rite, who art magnified in thine own
dwelling. Be thou easy of access to us and lead us on to happi-
ness, as if thou wert father and we thy sons.
HYMN TO THE DEIFIED MOON-PLANT SOMA
Thou
HOU, O Soma, art the wisest in understanding; thou guidest
us by the straightest pathway; and it is through thy direc-
tion that our wise fathers got happiness among the gods.
Thou didst become wisest in wisdom, 0 Soma; most skillful
in skill. Thou obtainest all things; thou art a bull in strength
and in greatness; thou art splendid in thy splendor, O thou that
seest man. The laws of the god of heaven are thine; high and
deep are thy places, O Soma, thou art bright as the sun; thou
deservest our worship. Whatever places thou hast, whether in
earth or in heaven, whether in the mountains, the plants, or the
waters, do thou in all of these meet our oblations, and accept
them, King Soma, being kindly disposed and not hurtful to us.
Thou, O Soma, art the true lord, thou art the king, thou art the
slayer of the demon who withholds the rain; thou art the strength
that gives success.
Thou bestowest bliss upon old and
young; and to the pious thou givest power to live.
then, O Soma, upon all sides, guard us from him that sins; may
no harm touch the one who is thy friend. Be our benefactor,
and help us to all the enjoyments wherever thou canst aid thy
worshiper. Accept this our sacrifice, and this our song; be well
pleased with us, and come to us; do us good, O Soma.
nify thee in song, we who are clever in words. Be merciful and
come to us.
Guard us,
We mag-
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7941
VEDIC HYMN TO INDRA, THE STORM GOD
I
NDRA hath grown great, he hath grown great for heroic deeds.
He alone is without age, he alone hath riches to give. Indra
hath extended himself beyond earth and heaven; the half of
him is equal to both the worlds. So great is he, so high is his
godly nature. There is none that can impair what he hath estab-
lished. He is a Sun, conspicuous day by day, and being wisely
strong he divides his wide dominions. To-day, even now, thou
hewest a pathway for the rivers. The hills bow down [before
thee] as were they friends; the wide spaces of the universe are
knit together by thee. 'Tis true that no other is like unto Indra;
nor is any god or mortal more venerable. Thou didst slay the
great snake that hemmed in the rain; thou didst let out the
waters to the ocean. Thou didst free the waters, opening wide
the doors; thou didst break the stronghold of the mountains.
Thou hast become the king of all that moves, bringing to light
the sun, the dawn, and heaven.
VEDIC HYMN TO DAWN
Asplendid "as waves of water
.
LOFT the lights of Dawn, gleaming for beauty, have risen
Ushas [Aurora) makes fair
the paths, she makes all things accessible. She is good,
munificent, and kindly disposed. Thou art lovely in appearance;
thou shinest through the wide spaces; up to heaven fly thy fiery
glowing beams. Thou revealest thy bosom, adorning thyself, O
Dawn, and gleamest bright in thy greatness. The red clouds
bear her along, her the blessed one, who extendeth far and wide.
She compels the darkness as a hero armed with arrows routs his
foes. Thy ways are fair, thy paths upon the mountains. Thou
goest in calm across the waters, self-shining one. O thou, whose
paths are wide, thou lofty daughter of the sky, bring to us wealth
and nourishment. Bring sustenance, O Dawn, who dost bring us
good as thou willst. Though thou art indeed the daughter of the
sky, yet dost thou come to us bright and early every morning,
when we pray to thee [to come). At thy clear dawning the birds
fly from their nests; and [from their homes come] men who
seek for food. And even when a man stays at home, thou bring-
est him much good, if he worships thee.
?
## p. 7942 (#134) ###########################################
7942
INDIAN LITERATURE
VEDIC HYMN TO THE SUN
A'
LOFT the beams of light bear now this all-wise shining god,
so that every one may see the Sun. Yonder stars, with the
night, withdraw, as were they thieves, before the Sun, who
seeth all. His beams of light have been beheld afar, among all
creatures, rays of light as brilliant as altar fires. Impetuously
swift, O Sun, beheld of all, maker of light, art thou. Thou illu-
minest all the gleaming sky. Thou risest up before the people of
the shining gods, before men also, before all, to be seen as pure
light; to be thy eye, O pure bright Heaven, wherewith thou gazest
down on busy man among all creatures. Thou goest across the
broad spaces of the sky, measuring out the days with thy beams,
O Sun, and watching pass the generations of men. Seven are
the steeds that bear thee on thy car, O thou god whose hair is
flame, shining god, o Sun seen afar. Now the Sun has yoked
his seven fair steeds, daughters of his car, and with these, his
own steeds yoked only by him, he comes hither.
A
.
VEDIC HYMN TO HEAVEN (VARUNA)
LTHOUGH we who are thy people, O Heaven, thou resplendent
god, injure thy laws day by day, yet do thou not give us
over to death, nor to the blow of angry foe. By means
of a song we free thy thought for mercy as a charioteer [frees]
a steed that is bound. . . He knows the path of the birds
that fly in air; he knows the ships upon the sea; and he knows
also, he, the god of unvarying order, the twelve months and
the little [intercalated] month. He knoweth also the path of the
wind, the high, the mighty (wind); and he knows [the gods]
who sit above [the wind). Varuna, the god of unvarying order,
the very wise one, sits down in his home to be the lord of all.
Thence he looks down upon all things that are concealed, and
considers what has been done and what is still to be done. May
he, the wise son of [the goddess] Boundlessness [infinity ? ] make
our cattle-pasture good every day, and prolong our lives. Varuna
is clothed in a garment of gold and jewels. Round about him
sit his spies, for he is a god whom no injurer can injure, no
cheater among the people can cheat, and no plotter can plot
against. He hath gained glory unequaled among [Other] men
and also among us.
My thoughts go out to him afar, as go the
## p. 7943 (#135) ###########################################
INDIAN LITERATURE
7943
eager cows that seek the meadow-grass, and I long to see the
wide-eyed god. Now that I bring the sweet offering thou lovest,
let us converse together again, while thou like a priest dost par-
take of it. Behold I see the god, the wide-eyed god, I see his
chariot on the earth! He hath accepted my song with joy. Hear
this my call, O Varuna. Be merciful to-day to me. I long for
thee, desiring thy help. Thou, O wise one, art the king of sky
and earth alike, thou art the lord of all. Being such a god, do
,
thou upon thy way give ear to us, and loose from us the bonds
(of sickness], [every bond] upper, middle, and lower, in order
that we may live.
VEDIC HYMN TO EARTH
Tao
HOU, O broad extended earth, dost in truth endure even the
[lightning), the render of thy hills. Thou, O mighty mount-
ainous one, quickenest with might all created things. The
Hymns that accompany the light [of dawn] praise thee, far-going
goddess. Thou sendest the gushing rain like eager steeds. Thou
holdest up mightily the forest trees when the rains come from
the clouds and from the far-gleaming lighting of Dyaus [Zeus].
A LATE VEDIC HYMN TO STARLIT NIGHT
N
IGHT comes, the shining goddess, who now looks out afar
with many eyes and puts on all her beauties. She, the
immortal shining goddess, hath filled the depths and heights
alike, and driven away darkness with the light [of the moon
and stars]. She comes to me, she, the well-adorned one, a dark-
ness now made sightly. O Sunlight, pay thy debt, and depart
[as night in the morning departs). The bright one is coming.
She puts aside her sister [the bright sunset light), and darkness
departs. Even such [a kind friend] art thou to us.
At thy
appearing we go to rest as birds fly home to the tree.
To rest
come the throngs of men; to rest, the beasts; to rest, the birds;
and even the greedy eagles rest. Keep off from us the she-wolf
and the wolf. Keep off the thief, O billowy Night, and be our
savior now.
( Night, as a conqueror brings a herd of cattle,
so do I bring (as a sacrifice] this Hymn to thee. Daughter of
Heaven, accept it!
## p. 7944 (#136) ###########################################
7944
INDIAN LITERATURE
VEDIC HYMN TO THE TWIN HORSEMEN, THE AÇVINS (DIOS-
KUROI)
B
EFORE the Dawn her sister, the Night, withdraws. The black
one now leaves a pathway for the ruddy one. Ye Horse-
men, who have kine and horses [to give], we invoke you.
Keep far from us your arrows by day and by night. Come now
hither and meet the mortal who worships you. Bring him good
things upon your chariot. Keep off from us destroying sickness.
Protect us, Osweetest pair, both by day and night. May the
joy-desiring virile steeds bring your chariot with Dawn's first
approach; that chariot of which the reins are rays of light, and
there is wealth upon it. Come with the steeds which observe the
order of the seasons. Approach, O lords of heroes, O true ones,
upon your car which has three seats and is full of riches, which
goes upon a golden path. Let this car of yours, bringing us
food, come to us. Ye freed Cyavāna from his old age; ye gave
a swift steed to Pedu; ye rescued Atri from the anguish of
darkness; ye set down, released from his fetters, Jāhusha. The
prayer is said, O Horsemen; the song is withered. Accept the
;
skillful poem, O manly heroes. These prayers have now ascended
to you, they belong to you. O all ye gods, protect us evermore
with blessings.
N°"thundering with "noise.
A LATE VEDIC HYMN TO VĀTA, THE WIND
ow the greatness of Vāta's chariot! It goes breaking and
It touches the sky and rushes
across the earth, making clouds, rearing up the dust. Then
all the forms of Vāta [different winds] rush together. They come
to him like women coming to a rendezvous. United with them,
going on the same chariot, is borne the god, the king of all cre-
ated things. He sleeps not when he goes on his pathway, wan-
dering through the air. He is the friend of the [Divine] Waters.
He is first-born and holy. Where was he created, whence did he
arise ? Vāta is the spirit [breath] of the gods; he is the source
of created things. He goes where he will. His sound is heard
but not his form. This Vāta let us duly honor with our oblations.
## p. 7945 (#137) ###########################################
INDIAN LITERATURE
7945
BURIAL HYMN (TO YAMA AND THE DEAD)
To YAMA
EVERE with oblations King Yama, who once went over the
great mountains and spied out a path for many, him, the
Yama was
son of the gleaming sky, him who collects men.
the first to find us a way.
R
TO THE DEAD
GO FORTH, go forth on the old paths, where are gone our old
fathers; and thou shalt see both joyous kings, Yama and Heaven.
Unite thyself with the fathers, get satisfaction of all thy desires,
in the highest heaven.
Yama will give to this spirit a
resting-place. Run past on a good path the two dogs, the four-
eyed [dogs), the spotted [dogs that guard the path]. Depart unto
the fathers who rejoice with Yama.
.
A LATE VEDIC PHILOSOPHICAL HYMN
As soon
I
N THE beginning arose the Golden Germ.
as he was
born he became the lord of all. He established earth and
heaven. To what god shall we offer sacrifice? He who gives
breath and strength, whose command the shining gods obey — to
what god shall we offer sacrifice ? He whose shadow is life and
death to what god shall we offer sacrifice ?
When first
the great waters went everywhere, holding the Germ [of life), and
generating light, then arose from them the one Spirit [breath] of
the gods.
May he who is the begetter of earth, the holy
one who begot heaven, injure us not. Lord of all beings, thou
alone embracest all things. To this god, to the Lord of all beings,
let us offer sacrifice.
A LATE VEDIC HYMN OF CREATION
T
HERE was then neither being nor not-being. There was no
air, no sky. What hid it ? Where was it and in whose pro-
tection was it? Was it water or deep darkness? There was
neither death nor immortality. There was no difference between
## p. 7946 (#138) ###########################################
7946
INDIAN LITERATURE
night and day. That One breathed.
That One breathed. Other than the One, above
the One, nothing existed. Darkness was concealed in darkness
in the beginning. Undifferentiated water was all this universe.
.
Through desire, the primal seed of mind, creation arose. After
this came the gods.
A LATE VEDIC MYSTIC HYMN TO VĀC (SPEECH, LOGOS)
I
WANDER with the tempest-gods, with the light-gods, with all
the gods. I support the Sun, Heaven, Indra, Agni, and the
Twin Horsemen.
To him that worships me, to him
that offers me the soma sacrifice, I give wealth. I am the queen,
the best of those that deserve sacrifice.
The gods have
established me in many places.
I am that by means of
which one eats, breathes, sees, and hears. Him that I love I
make strong, to be priest, seer, and wise. 'Tis I bend the bow
of the destroyer Rudra, to hit the unbeliever.
I prepare war
for the people. I am entered into earth and heaven. I beget
upon the height the father of the Universe. My place is in the
waters, in the sea; thence I extend myself among all creatures,
and touch heaven with my crown. Like Wind I blow, encom-
passing all creatures. Above heaven and above earth am I; so
great am I grown in majesty.
Translations of E. W. H.
AN INCANTATION
From the Atharva-Veda)
T"
He sin-hated, god-born plant, which frees from the curse as
the waters wash out a spot, has washed away all curses, the
curse of my rival and of my sister. I have put under my
feet the curse of the Brahman.
With this plant protect
my wife, protect my child, protect our property.
May
the curse (of my rival] return to the curser.
I smite the
ribs of the foe that has the evil eye.
Translation of E. W. H.
## p. 7947 (#139) ###########################################
INDIAN LITERATURE
7947
LEGEND OF THE FLOOD
From the "Çatapatha Brāhmana)
IN
»
N THE morning they brought water to Manu to wash with, even
as to-day they bring it to wash hands with. While he was
washing, a fish came into his hands. The fish said, "Keep
me and I will save thee. ” — “From what wilt thou save me?
the movement rapid; and the lyric songs, which are an important
factor in the drama, are composed with the sweetness' for which
the author is famous.
In the Cakuntalā' the plot is extremely simple. In the first act
the king secretly falls in love with Çakuntalā, the daughter of a
hermit, and she with him. This sentimental scene is followed by
one of burlesque humor, wherein the king's jester complains of the
passion for hunting which leads the king to frequent places where
there is nothing fit to eat. Çakuntalā's lovesick plaint, overheard by
the king, who thereupon declares himself and becomes her accepted
lover, forms the substance of the next act. The fourth tells that a
priest, whose dignity was offended by Çakuntalā's indifference to him,
curses her so that all lovers shall forget her; a curse subsequently
modified to mean that they shall forget her till they see a ring he
gives to her. The fifth act relates how Çakuntalā travels to court
and appears before the king, who cannot remember their intimate
relation, but is much moved by the sight of her. She seeks for the
ring, but it is lost! Pathos reigns in this scene. The sixth act again
introduces the antithetic element of burlesque to modify the senti-
mental effect produced in the last. Policemen hustle a fisherman
upon the stage, declaring that he has a ring of priceless value, which
he must have stolen. The seventh and eighth acts show how the
fisherman's ring (cut out of a fish which had swallowed it as Çakun-
talā dropped it in the water) gives the king recollection, and how he
finds Çakuntalā, who disappeared before the mystery of the ring was
cleared up and went grieving back to her father's hut. This whole
## p. 7932 (#124) ###########################################
7932
INDIAN LITERATURE
scene.
))
>
story is taken from the Mahābhārata,' embellished with dramatic
incidents.
The tale of the second drama goes even further back, and relates
the loves of Urvaçi and Purūravas, who (see above) are known as
lovers in the Rig Veda collection. Urvaçi is the Psyche and Purū-
ravas is the Eros of India. This drama has only five acts, or rather
scenes, and may be called in part an elf drama. Urvaçi is a cloud
nymph, and she disappears from heaven, having been captured by a
monster. The first scene shows her attendant nymphs bewailing her
loss, and relates how the earthly king Purūravas rescues her and
falls in love with her. The king's jealous queen makes the next
The third scene is very curious. Urvaçī, having been rescued,
and being the fairest of all nymphs, is chosen (in heaven) as the
proper person to represent a goddess in a mystery-play given to
entertain the gods. At a certain point in the play she should say
“I love Purushottama” (the god); but instead of this, owing to the
love which has grown up in her for Purūravas, she makes a mistake
and says “I love Purūravas. ” A Divine seer, who has coached her for
the part, is doubly furious, both because she has made such a mess
of her part, and that a nymph of heaven should love a mortal. He
curses her to lose her place in heaven. God Indra modifies the curse
to be this, – that she shall be with her lover on earth till he sees
her child, when she may (or must) return to heaven. The fourth
act is almost wholly lyric. Urvaçi is on earth with Purūravas, but
she steps into a holy grove into which no woman may enter, and
thereupon is changed into a vine. The king seeks her, asking in
lyric strain of bird, bee, and flower, whither his love is gone. She is
finally found by means of a wonder-stone which has power to unite
people. The fifth act gives a pretty psychological situation. Urvaci's
expected child has been born, but she has carefully concealed it
lest the fact that Purūravas sees it should banish her. He however
sees the boy by accident. Then comes the conflict of sentiment: the
joy of the father in the son, the grief of the husband in the loss of
his wife. But the Hindu drama must leave no sadness.
The gods
change the curse again. Urvaçi may remain on earth till her hus-
band's death.
The outline of these two plays gives a notion of the substance if
not the beauty of Hindu dramatic art. Kālidāsa's third drama is the
love story of Mālavikā and Agnimitra, and is more complex than
the other legendary dramas. The third great dramatist belongs to
the eighth century. This is the Southerner, Bhavabhūti, who excels
in the grandeur rather than in the delicacy of his descriptions. He
also has left three great dramas: Mālatīmādhava,' or the tale of (the
heroine) Mālati's and (the hero) Mādhava's love; Mahāvīracarita,'
## p. 7933 (#125) ###########################################
INDIAN LITERATURE
7933
-
n
and Uttararāmacarita. ' The first is deservedly the most famous,
and has been called the 'Romeo and Juliet' of India. It is a lo
drama in ten acts. The two young people love each other, and their
parents have agreed on the match. But political influence makes
them change their intentions. The lovers are separated and are for-
mally promised to other suitors by their parents, who dare not dis-
obey the king's express wish in this regard. Then a savage priest
appears, who steals away Mālati and is about to sacrifice her on the
altar of the terrible goddess Durgā, Çiva's wife. Mādhava saves her
and slays the priest. All is about to end happily when a comical
Shakespearean sub-motif is introduced. Mādhava's friends in sport
substitute at the wedding a young man dressed as a girl, for Mālati.
Mālati, stolen again, is however finally found, and the drama ends
well, as usual. Conspicuous is the agency of Buddhist nuns in help-
ing the young people, and equally conspicuous is the diabolical char-
acter of the Brahmanic priest.
Between Bhavabhūti and Kālidāsa comes the author of a little
drama called the Ratnāvali, ascribed to the King Çrīharsha, but
probably written by one of his subjects - either Bāna, author of the
Kādambari' (see above), or Dhāvaka. It was written in the seventh
century, as nearly as can be determined, and to its author are also
attributed the Nāgananda' and Priyadarçikā. ' But though these fill
satisfactorily the blank between the sixth and eighth centuries, the
product of this time is distinctly inferior to that which immediately
precedes and follows, and Bhavabhūti is the next literary follower of
his older rival. In the following centuries, drama succeeded drama
with greater rapidity, and a large number of late inferior dramatic
compositions are extant. Among these one of the best is Mudrārā-
kshasa) or King's Guardian of the Seal”; a play that reminds us of
(Richelieu,' and is notable as being wholly a political drama. It is
forcibly and dramatically written, and some of the scenes are of great
power and intense interest. It is doubtful when its author, Viçākha-
datta, lived in the eighth or in the eleventh century. An admirable
drama by Kshemiçvara (uncertain date), entitled Canda-Kauçika' or
the Wrath of Kauçika, should also be mentioned as well worthy of
study. Among lesser lights of later times the best known dramatists
are Bhatta, of the tenth century, whose play called “Venisanhāra' or
Binding of the Braid” is based on an Epic incident; and Rājace-
khara, of the ninth century, who has left four rather indifferent dramas.
Sanskrit Literature: (C) Lyric. It may be said that even in the
Rig Veda Collection there is a lyric strain, perceptible not only in the
praises of the gods but also in one or two of the triumphant battle
hymns. At a later period the language of religious ecstasy in the
Upanishads, though framed in the simple octosyllabic verse, also rises
>
## p. 7934 (#126) ###########################################
7934
INDIAN LITERATURE
>
not infrequently to lyric heights; and this is especially true of some
of the short religious effusions to be found in Buddhistic literature.
But formal lyric, with its varied metre, its wild and pathetic strains,
appears first at the period of the Renaissance (see above). Here
too Kālidāsa's name heads the list, not only in virtue of the lyric
parts of his dramas, but because of his lyric poetry per se. His two
lyric poems are models for after time. One of these describes in
order the seasons, and hence is called (Ritu-sanhāra' or Union of
Seasons. ) * In varied note the poet gives us pictures of each of the
seasons: the summer heat, the joyful rains, the fresh autumn, the win-
ter, the “cool” season, and last the spring. Each is delineated with
true touches, which show that nothing escapes the fine observation of
the great poet. The effect of each season upon the mood of man
and beast is beautifully described. No land ever offered more superb
contrasts to the artist; and each feature is represented not only with
accuracy, but with such facile ease in the varied metres employed,
that to translate without the rhythmic flow is to lose more here than
in the case of any foreign lyric, not excepting that of Pindar. All
lyric depends for its beauty largely upon the rhythm, but in the case
of Kālidāsa no English version can satisfy at all; for the complex
metre cannot be imitated, and even if it could, the dexterous fitting
of plant names to the metrical flow of words, which gives exquisite
effect in the original, would be completely lost. Kālidāsa's other
lyric, the Meghadūta' or Cloud Messenger,' is quite well known in
Europe through the medium of many English and German transla-
tions. This pictures a lover sending a message by a cloud to his
beloved. Pathos, longing, despair, hope, all the passions of the lover,
are here rendered into verse in metre which, like that of the Ritu-
sanhāra,' defies imitation. The poem is of course erotic, but it is
filled with passages illustrating the fineness and delicacy of the lyric
master. The later poets were apt to imitate and exceed the model
in the erotic features, while they were left far behind in point of
style and execution.
Only a few of these later bards deserve special attention. As
in the case of the drama, much was subsequently written but little
was written well. Of these inferior works, however, the twenty-two
strophes called “Ghatakarpana' deserve to be spoken of because the
author lived at so early a date, being probably almost a contemporary
of Kālidāsa himself; while the Pancāçikā' of the eleventh century
may be cited as an example of the later erotic poems. The author
of the latter, probably Bilhana, describes in passionate language the
* See the translation of Grishma) from this poem under Sir Edwin Arnold,
Vol. ii. of this work.
## p. 7935 (#127) ###########################################
INDIAN LITERATURE
7935
delight of a fortunate lover in the embrace of his mistress. No
detail of love's enjoyment is omitted, and the fifty strophes are quite
untranslatable in their indecency.
But long lyric effusions do not show the peculiar genius of the
Hindu lyric in its later development. In artificial language, where
every syllable is pregnant with meaning, the Hindu delights in giving
a complete idyl in as few verses as possible. Thus we have an
enormous mass of little poems, each without introduction or end,
describing a situation. This is often a lover's complaint, but as often
it is a meditative expression of some moral or even physical truth.
In short, in this lyric, which closes the development of native liter-
ature, we have a reversion to the aphoristic sententious style which
marked the close of the Vedic period; only in the latter the didactic
matter was the one thing considered, while in the sentimental apho-
ristic lyric, style and language were even more considered than was
the truth or fancy to be expressed. Even in the Epic, some of the
aphoristic verses are almost lyrical in this sense; and in the fables,
there is much that aspires to beauty in expression as well as to truth
in what is said.
Chief master of this sort of lyric, so well beloved and so often
imitated by Heine, is Bhartrihari. He was philosopher and poet, and
lived in the seventh century. According to tradition he was a Bud-
dhist monk, who, as was permitted to the monks, joined the order
seven times and seven times left it, being influenced beyond his own
control by desire for religion and in turn by love of the world. It is
said that he was so well aware of his weakness that when he was
a monk he always kept a horse ready harnessed, in order that if he
should feel overpowered by sinful desires, he might have the means
to escape and gratify them without delay. He wrote three 'Çataka,'
literally Centuries, of little lyrics (the “Çringāraçataka'). They are
marked by esprit, humor, and delicate sentiment. Another such col-
lection, the 'Çringāratilaka, is ascribed to Kālidāsa, but the author-
ship is not beyond doubt. A Century' of lyrics was also composed
by Amaru (Amaruçataka'), who is regarded as the greatest master
in depicting love scenes and in understanding women. Love is here,
as it usually is in this literature, rather coarse passion like that of
Sappho; but we have no right to demand modern refinement from
the ancients, and we are only surprised to find it in Kālidāsa. Still
another book of Centuries is written in a Prakrit patois. It is that
of Hāla, called simply his Seven Centuries (Saptaçataka').
erotic nature of the poems interchanges with what, in view of the
patois, is called by German critics volkspoesie; but there is probably
as little of the real folk here as in Theocritus. There are however
in Hāla, descriptions of nature which show a fine touch. The erotic
## p. 7936 (#128) ###########################################
7936
INDIAN LITERATURE
lyric of India closes with a wonderful production of almost modern
times, the Gitagovinda' of Jayadeva, a Bengal poet of the twelfth
century. This is a lyric-dramatic effusion describing the love of the
god Krishna-l'ishnu for his mistress Rādhā. It is an ode, and was
intended to be sung to music. The name comes from gorinda (neat-
herd, i. e. , Krishna, see above) and gita, song. As a literary product
this work may be defined as a sort of mystery-play, in point of lan-
guage refined to excess, but in the unbridled excess of its description
quite equal to Bilhana's Pancāçikā (see above). The intent of the
poem withal is quite religious. It is the model of modern devotional-
erotic poetry, which, in its strange mixture of worship and obscenity,
reminds one of Dionysiac rites.
FOURTH PERIOD: Modern Sanskrit and Dialectic Literature. — For
fully a hundred years before and for five hundred years after the
Christian era, India was overrun by northern barbarians. For the
next five hundred years the land enjoyed comparative security from
the Mohammedans. The Muslim indeed invaded India as early as the
eighth century, but Hindu rule was not overthrown till the latter
half of the tenth century. The next five hundred years, from the
crowning of Mahmud the devastator of India in 997, to the middle
of the sixteenth century, was a period of rapine and ruin. Under
Akbar, the Great Mogul, who reigned from 1556 to 1605, the land had
peace; but literary originality was totally destroyed by this very
security of the time. Persian, Christian, Jew, and Mohammedan lived
amicably together, discussing religion, philosophy, and literature at
Akbar's court. Moreover, the Portuguese landed in India in the fif-
teenth century and the English in 1600. From this time on, therefore,
Indian literature loses its old character. The first extant works of
this period, chiefly religious, are a reflex of the confluence of Hindu
and Mohammedan thought. Nor are they untouched by Christian
doctrine. As early as the seventh century Christians were welcomed
by a northern king, and the late Purānas have many traits taken
directly from the New Testament. But the terrible oppression of
the Mohammedan from about the years 1000 to 1500 leaves even the
centuries preceding Akbar's reign almost bare of original productions.
To the eleventh and twelfth centuries belong fable, drama, and lyric,
in steadily decreasing amount and value (see above); but the crushed
genius of the Hindus after this seems to be content with the manu-
facture of commentaries and of religious works (the animus of the
latter being a fierce sectarianism), till the catholicity of Akbar's reign
produces the refined and philosophic religious works of modern times.
The narrow and devoutly furious sectarian tracts are known as Tan-
tras (i. e. , books or Bibles). They describe minutely the obscure rites
of the lower religious orders. Other works of this class are called
## p. 7937 (#129) ###########################################
INDIAN LITERATURE
7937
Āgamas, or « Traditional works,” which scarcely differ from the late
sectarian Purānas. Most of these late Purānas claim for themselves a
great antiquity; but none is probably older than the ninth century,
and many of them are as late as the fifteenth or sixteenth centu-
ries. Beside these devotional works stands a mass of late Smriti or
« Tradition”; generally in the form of a miscellaneous assortment
of rules, called a law-book, but partaking largely of the character of
a Purāna. The formal History of Sects) forms one of the liter-
ary features of this time. In the ninth century appears the first of
these, by Ananda Giri, a pupil of Çankara. In the fourteenth century
another was composed by Madhava Acārya. This may be designated
also as the greatest period of commentators. In the seventh century,
during the period following on the Renaissance (see above), the ancient
Brahmanism was re-established ritually by Kumārila. Later scholars
contented themselves with writing commentaries on the Vedic texts.
Best known of these is Sāyana, who in the fourteenth century re-
edited with his exhaustive commentary the Rig Veda Collection and
other early texts.
The sectaries did, however, produce some original matter. Nota-
bly is this the case with the Rāma-Vishnu sects; that is, the sects
that believe in Rāma (rather than in Krishna) as an incarnation of
Vishnu. These sects, or at least their leaders, are in general more
philosophical than are the Krishna sects. Thus in the twelfth cen-
tury Rāmānuja, the next able philosopher after Çankara (above),
founded a new sect; and this sect possesses the most important San-
skrit poem of modern times, the Ramcaritmanas) of Tulasidāsa, who
is generally acknowledged to be the strongest modern Hindu poet.
He lived in the sixteenth century, and his Ramcaritmanas) a sort
of modern (Rāmāyana,' a New Testament to that older Bible of the
Rāma sect. The Krishna sect has on the other hand, as its older
Bible, a religious chapter of the Mahābhārata' (called the Bhagavat
Gita' or Divine Song); but for a New Testament it has only the
trashy Bhāgavata Purāna. '
Commentaries not only on Vedic texts but on modern sects also
characterize this period. Thus in the sixteenth century a Life of
Krishna,' virtually a commentary on the doctrines of his sect, was
written by Vallabha, one of the few Krishnaite scholars. But mod-
ern religious literature is usually a plain combination of Mohamine-
danism, Hinduism, and Christianity; notably so in the compositions
of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, but not less surely so
in every work since the sixteenth. Thus the famous "Ādi-granth' or
Original Bible) of the Sikhs is a sixteenth-century composite of
Mohammedan and Hindu thought; although Kabir and Nānak, the
first leaders of this sect, who lived in the fifteenth century, actually
XIV-497
## p. 7938 (#130) ###########################################
7938
INDIAN LITERATURE
))
broke with both these State religions, and formed what they claimed
was a “new” faith. The same again is true in regard to the Bible of
the Dādū Pānthis of the seventeenth century: while Rāmmohun Roy
(born in 1772) and the numerous leaders of Samājas Congregations,
who followed him, have done nothing more than make latter-day
Upanishads based on eclectic Christian doctrine superadded to more
native teaching - a curious amalgam, which represents very well the
parasitic character of modern religious literature in India. Some of
this is in Sanskrit, some in Tamil (the language of the Southern
Dravidians), and some in local Hindu patois. Of these, the sacred
Kural of Tiruvalluvar, and the Prem Sāgar or Ocean of Love, are
typical examples. In general, besides such religious works, Tamil
literature is composed either of reproduced Sanskrit works or of
folk tales, and may therefore be omitted from the best literature”
of India, inasmuch as it lacks either originality or the qualities that
constitute the right to be called fine literature. A good deal of folk
poetry and folk stories, both in Tamil and in Hindu patois, has been
published, but the value of this literature is not great. Even bucolic
“Epics” have been discovered, and one missionary has actually found
an Epic among the wild tribes! But the ballads are too rude and
the stories are too stupid to be classed as literature. They are the
oral, long-winded, tiresome productions common to all peasants from
Greenland to India, interesting only to the student of folk-lore, and
valuable merely as showing how small is the literary merit that lies
in the unaided (more particularly in the not touched up) genius of
the common people.
In the domain of the late literature which is impregnated with
foreign ideas, one passes beyond the true province of Indian liter-
ature. No less does one exceed the limit of Sanskrit literature in
speaking of modern works written in Sanskrit. Sanskrit is still writ-
ten and spoken, but so is Latin; and Sanskrit literature stops with
the aftergrowth of the Renaissance just as truly as Latin literature
ceases with the silver age. The Sanskrit writings of the last few
centuries are to Sanskrit literature what the Latin of the Middle Ages
is to Latin literature. The age when Sanskrit was a people's lan-
guage is long since past; and even in the later drama it is probable
that the artificial Sanskrit employed is a true index of its decline as
a spoken tongue, and that in ordinary conversation even the Brah-
mans used the colloquial patois of their respective homes. In one of
these dramas it is said that there is nothing more ridiculous than a
man singing pianissimo and a woman speaking Sanskrit; while, as
we have seen, even the early drama made all low-caste men and
women converse in patois. In the Epic there is no indication that
the characters used any other language than Sanskrit. It is there
## p. 7939 (#131) ###########################################
INDIAN LITERATURE
7939
((
>
considered a mark of cultivation to be able to “speak in patois," as
if this were an accomplishment. Pānini's explicit rules for “dialects,"
and the fact that the earlier Buddhistic works are preserved not in
Sanskrit but in Pāli, show that Sanskrit was a local language to a
great extent, and that, as the exponent of the Brahmanic faith, it was
probabiy more or less a revived language even at the period of the
Renaissance. In the northwest, Sanskrit was probably spoken at the
same time that it was unused in other districts; and as the various
patois gradually encroached upon it, it became, as its name denotes,
the “cultivated” or «refined" language, in contradistinction to Pra-
krit, the natural language or local patois.
In closing this outline of Indian literature, it will not be amiss to
point out, if only for convenience in remembering its long course of
three thousand years, the semi-millennium groups into which it nat-
urally falls in respect of time. In the sense of original Hindu compo-
sitions, Indian literature extends from about 1500 B. C. to 1500 A. D.
The first five hundred years go to the completion of the Rig-Veda
Collection. Then follow about five hundred years of Vedic decline,
additions, elucidations, the Ritual period. A religious and sectarian
literary awakening succeeds this epoch. It is typified by the first
Upanishads and by the growth of Buddhism; while Vedic literature
expires in Sūtras, a period of five hundred years, from about B. C.
500 to our era. Another era of five hundred years covers a time of
political ruin at the hands of barbarians and decadent Buddhism,
from our era to 500 A. D. Then in the sixth century comes the liter-
ary awakening, the Renaissance, the effect of which in the growth of
art endures till, about 1000 A. D. , the Mohammedan again brings ruin
to India, The decline of this art follows during five hundred years
more in the works of inferior poets and the rise of commentators.
After 1500 A. D. the literature is no longer Indian. ”
{. w. Hopkins.
HYMNS OF THE RIG-VEDA
FIRST HYMN ADDRESSED TO AGNI, THE SACRIFICIAL FIRE
1
WORSHIP Agni, who is the priest of the house, the divine priest
of the sacrifice, and the priest of oblations. He gives wealth.
He is the god Agni, who was adored by the ancient Seers,
and he is fit to be worshiped by those [that live] to-day. May
he conduct the gods to us. By means of Agni one can acquire
## p. 7940 (#132) ###########################################
7940
INDIAN LITERATURE
wealth, prosperity from day to day, and the glory of excellent
heroes. O Agni, whatever be the rite that thou surroundest on
every side, that sacrifice reaches the gods. . May the Agni who
gives oblations, who is the wisest priest, the true one, the most
famous, may this god in company with all the other gods ap-
proach to us. Thou doest good to every one that worships thee,
O Agni, and this is thy real virtue. Unto thee, O Agni, day by
day, at evening and at morning, we come with prayer bringing
obeisance to thee to thee, who art the lord of sacrifice and the
brilliant protector of the rite, who art magnified in thine own
dwelling. Be thou easy of access to us and lead us on to happi-
ness, as if thou wert father and we thy sons.
HYMN TO THE DEIFIED MOON-PLANT SOMA
Thou
HOU, O Soma, art the wisest in understanding; thou guidest
us by the straightest pathway; and it is through thy direc-
tion that our wise fathers got happiness among the gods.
Thou didst become wisest in wisdom, 0 Soma; most skillful
in skill. Thou obtainest all things; thou art a bull in strength
and in greatness; thou art splendid in thy splendor, O thou that
seest man. The laws of the god of heaven are thine; high and
deep are thy places, O Soma, thou art bright as the sun; thou
deservest our worship. Whatever places thou hast, whether in
earth or in heaven, whether in the mountains, the plants, or the
waters, do thou in all of these meet our oblations, and accept
them, King Soma, being kindly disposed and not hurtful to us.
Thou, O Soma, art the true lord, thou art the king, thou art the
slayer of the demon who withholds the rain; thou art the strength
that gives success.
Thou bestowest bliss upon old and
young; and to the pious thou givest power to live.
then, O Soma, upon all sides, guard us from him that sins; may
no harm touch the one who is thy friend. Be our benefactor,
and help us to all the enjoyments wherever thou canst aid thy
worshiper. Accept this our sacrifice, and this our song; be well
pleased with us, and come to us; do us good, O Soma.
nify thee in song, we who are clever in words. Be merciful and
come to us.
Guard us,
We mag-
## p. 7941 (#133) ###########################################
INDIAN LITERATURE
7941
VEDIC HYMN TO INDRA, THE STORM GOD
I
NDRA hath grown great, he hath grown great for heroic deeds.
He alone is without age, he alone hath riches to give. Indra
hath extended himself beyond earth and heaven; the half of
him is equal to both the worlds. So great is he, so high is his
godly nature. There is none that can impair what he hath estab-
lished. He is a Sun, conspicuous day by day, and being wisely
strong he divides his wide dominions. To-day, even now, thou
hewest a pathway for the rivers. The hills bow down [before
thee] as were they friends; the wide spaces of the universe are
knit together by thee. 'Tis true that no other is like unto Indra;
nor is any god or mortal more venerable. Thou didst slay the
great snake that hemmed in the rain; thou didst let out the
waters to the ocean. Thou didst free the waters, opening wide
the doors; thou didst break the stronghold of the mountains.
Thou hast become the king of all that moves, bringing to light
the sun, the dawn, and heaven.
VEDIC HYMN TO DAWN
Asplendid "as waves of water
.
LOFT the lights of Dawn, gleaming for beauty, have risen
Ushas [Aurora) makes fair
the paths, she makes all things accessible. She is good,
munificent, and kindly disposed. Thou art lovely in appearance;
thou shinest through the wide spaces; up to heaven fly thy fiery
glowing beams. Thou revealest thy bosom, adorning thyself, O
Dawn, and gleamest bright in thy greatness. The red clouds
bear her along, her the blessed one, who extendeth far and wide.
She compels the darkness as a hero armed with arrows routs his
foes. Thy ways are fair, thy paths upon the mountains. Thou
goest in calm across the waters, self-shining one. O thou, whose
paths are wide, thou lofty daughter of the sky, bring to us wealth
and nourishment. Bring sustenance, O Dawn, who dost bring us
good as thou willst. Though thou art indeed the daughter of the
sky, yet dost thou come to us bright and early every morning,
when we pray to thee [to come). At thy clear dawning the birds
fly from their nests; and [from their homes come] men who
seek for food. And even when a man stays at home, thou bring-
est him much good, if he worships thee.
?
## p. 7942 (#134) ###########################################
7942
INDIAN LITERATURE
VEDIC HYMN TO THE SUN
A'
LOFT the beams of light bear now this all-wise shining god,
so that every one may see the Sun. Yonder stars, with the
night, withdraw, as were they thieves, before the Sun, who
seeth all. His beams of light have been beheld afar, among all
creatures, rays of light as brilliant as altar fires. Impetuously
swift, O Sun, beheld of all, maker of light, art thou. Thou illu-
minest all the gleaming sky. Thou risest up before the people of
the shining gods, before men also, before all, to be seen as pure
light; to be thy eye, O pure bright Heaven, wherewith thou gazest
down on busy man among all creatures. Thou goest across the
broad spaces of the sky, measuring out the days with thy beams,
O Sun, and watching pass the generations of men. Seven are
the steeds that bear thee on thy car, O thou god whose hair is
flame, shining god, o Sun seen afar. Now the Sun has yoked
his seven fair steeds, daughters of his car, and with these, his
own steeds yoked only by him, he comes hither.
A
.
VEDIC HYMN TO HEAVEN (VARUNA)
LTHOUGH we who are thy people, O Heaven, thou resplendent
god, injure thy laws day by day, yet do thou not give us
over to death, nor to the blow of angry foe. By means
of a song we free thy thought for mercy as a charioteer [frees]
a steed that is bound. . . He knows the path of the birds
that fly in air; he knows the ships upon the sea; and he knows
also, he, the god of unvarying order, the twelve months and
the little [intercalated] month. He knoweth also the path of the
wind, the high, the mighty (wind); and he knows [the gods]
who sit above [the wind). Varuna, the god of unvarying order,
the very wise one, sits down in his home to be the lord of all.
Thence he looks down upon all things that are concealed, and
considers what has been done and what is still to be done. May
he, the wise son of [the goddess] Boundlessness [infinity ? ] make
our cattle-pasture good every day, and prolong our lives. Varuna
is clothed in a garment of gold and jewels. Round about him
sit his spies, for he is a god whom no injurer can injure, no
cheater among the people can cheat, and no plotter can plot
against. He hath gained glory unequaled among [Other] men
and also among us.
My thoughts go out to him afar, as go the
## p. 7943 (#135) ###########################################
INDIAN LITERATURE
7943
eager cows that seek the meadow-grass, and I long to see the
wide-eyed god. Now that I bring the sweet offering thou lovest,
let us converse together again, while thou like a priest dost par-
take of it. Behold I see the god, the wide-eyed god, I see his
chariot on the earth! He hath accepted my song with joy. Hear
this my call, O Varuna. Be merciful to-day to me. I long for
thee, desiring thy help. Thou, O wise one, art the king of sky
and earth alike, thou art the lord of all. Being such a god, do
,
thou upon thy way give ear to us, and loose from us the bonds
(of sickness], [every bond] upper, middle, and lower, in order
that we may live.
VEDIC HYMN TO EARTH
Tao
HOU, O broad extended earth, dost in truth endure even the
[lightning), the render of thy hills. Thou, O mighty mount-
ainous one, quickenest with might all created things. The
Hymns that accompany the light [of dawn] praise thee, far-going
goddess. Thou sendest the gushing rain like eager steeds. Thou
holdest up mightily the forest trees when the rains come from
the clouds and from the far-gleaming lighting of Dyaus [Zeus].
A LATE VEDIC HYMN TO STARLIT NIGHT
N
IGHT comes, the shining goddess, who now looks out afar
with many eyes and puts on all her beauties. She, the
immortal shining goddess, hath filled the depths and heights
alike, and driven away darkness with the light [of the moon
and stars]. She comes to me, she, the well-adorned one, a dark-
ness now made sightly. O Sunlight, pay thy debt, and depart
[as night in the morning departs). The bright one is coming.
She puts aside her sister [the bright sunset light), and darkness
departs. Even such [a kind friend] art thou to us.
At thy
appearing we go to rest as birds fly home to the tree.
To rest
come the throngs of men; to rest, the beasts; to rest, the birds;
and even the greedy eagles rest. Keep off from us the she-wolf
and the wolf. Keep off the thief, O billowy Night, and be our
savior now.
( Night, as a conqueror brings a herd of cattle,
so do I bring (as a sacrifice] this Hymn to thee. Daughter of
Heaven, accept it!
## p. 7944 (#136) ###########################################
7944
INDIAN LITERATURE
VEDIC HYMN TO THE TWIN HORSEMEN, THE AÇVINS (DIOS-
KUROI)
B
EFORE the Dawn her sister, the Night, withdraws. The black
one now leaves a pathway for the ruddy one. Ye Horse-
men, who have kine and horses [to give], we invoke you.
Keep far from us your arrows by day and by night. Come now
hither and meet the mortal who worships you. Bring him good
things upon your chariot. Keep off from us destroying sickness.
Protect us, Osweetest pair, both by day and night. May the
joy-desiring virile steeds bring your chariot with Dawn's first
approach; that chariot of which the reins are rays of light, and
there is wealth upon it. Come with the steeds which observe the
order of the seasons. Approach, O lords of heroes, O true ones,
upon your car which has three seats and is full of riches, which
goes upon a golden path. Let this car of yours, bringing us
food, come to us. Ye freed Cyavāna from his old age; ye gave
a swift steed to Pedu; ye rescued Atri from the anguish of
darkness; ye set down, released from his fetters, Jāhusha. The
prayer is said, O Horsemen; the song is withered. Accept the
;
skillful poem, O manly heroes. These prayers have now ascended
to you, they belong to you. O all ye gods, protect us evermore
with blessings.
N°"thundering with "noise.
A LATE VEDIC HYMN TO VĀTA, THE WIND
ow the greatness of Vāta's chariot! It goes breaking and
It touches the sky and rushes
across the earth, making clouds, rearing up the dust. Then
all the forms of Vāta [different winds] rush together. They come
to him like women coming to a rendezvous. United with them,
going on the same chariot, is borne the god, the king of all cre-
ated things. He sleeps not when he goes on his pathway, wan-
dering through the air. He is the friend of the [Divine] Waters.
He is first-born and holy. Where was he created, whence did he
arise ? Vāta is the spirit [breath] of the gods; he is the source
of created things. He goes where he will. His sound is heard
but not his form. This Vāta let us duly honor with our oblations.
## p. 7945 (#137) ###########################################
INDIAN LITERATURE
7945
BURIAL HYMN (TO YAMA AND THE DEAD)
To YAMA
EVERE with oblations King Yama, who once went over the
great mountains and spied out a path for many, him, the
Yama was
son of the gleaming sky, him who collects men.
the first to find us a way.
R
TO THE DEAD
GO FORTH, go forth on the old paths, where are gone our old
fathers; and thou shalt see both joyous kings, Yama and Heaven.
Unite thyself with the fathers, get satisfaction of all thy desires,
in the highest heaven.
Yama will give to this spirit a
resting-place. Run past on a good path the two dogs, the four-
eyed [dogs), the spotted [dogs that guard the path]. Depart unto
the fathers who rejoice with Yama.
.
A LATE VEDIC PHILOSOPHICAL HYMN
As soon
I
N THE beginning arose the Golden Germ.
as he was
born he became the lord of all. He established earth and
heaven. To what god shall we offer sacrifice? He who gives
breath and strength, whose command the shining gods obey — to
what god shall we offer sacrifice ? He whose shadow is life and
death to what god shall we offer sacrifice ?
When first
the great waters went everywhere, holding the Germ [of life), and
generating light, then arose from them the one Spirit [breath] of
the gods.
May he who is the begetter of earth, the holy
one who begot heaven, injure us not. Lord of all beings, thou
alone embracest all things. To this god, to the Lord of all beings,
let us offer sacrifice.
A LATE VEDIC HYMN OF CREATION
T
HERE was then neither being nor not-being. There was no
air, no sky. What hid it ? Where was it and in whose pro-
tection was it? Was it water or deep darkness? There was
neither death nor immortality. There was no difference between
## p. 7946 (#138) ###########################################
7946
INDIAN LITERATURE
night and day. That One breathed.
That One breathed. Other than the One, above
the One, nothing existed. Darkness was concealed in darkness
in the beginning. Undifferentiated water was all this universe.
.
Through desire, the primal seed of mind, creation arose. After
this came the gods.
A LATE VEDIC MYSTIC HYMN TO VĀC (SPEECH, LOGOS)
I
WANDER with the tempest-gods, with the light-gods, with all
the gods. I support the Sun, Heaven, Indra, Agni, and the
Twin Horsemen.
To him that worships me, to him
that offers me the soma sacrifice, I give wealth. I am the queen,
the best of those that deserve sacrifice.
The gods have
established me in many places.
I am that by means of
which one eats, breathes, sees, and hears. Him that I love I
make strong, to be priest, seer, and wise. 'Tis I bend the bow
of the destroyer Rudra, to hit the unbeliever.
I prepare war
for the people. I am entered into earth and heaven. I beget
upon the height the father of the Universe. My place is in the
waters, in the sea; thence I extend myself among all creatures,
and touch heaven with my crown. Like Wind I blow, encom-
passing all creatures. Above heaven and above earth am I; so
great am I grown in majesty.
Translations of E. W. H.
AN INCANTATION
From the Atharva-Veda)
T"
He sin-hated, god-born plant, which frees from the curse as
the waters wash out a spot, has washed away all curses, the
curse of my rival and of my sister. I have put under my
feet the curse of the Brahman.
With this plant protect
my wife, protect my child, protect our property.
May
the curse (of my rival] return to the curser.
I smite the
ribs of the foe that has the evil eye.
Translation of E. W. H.
## p. 7947 (#139) ###########################################
INDIAN LITERATURE
7947
LEGEND OF THE FLOOD
From the "Çatapatha Brāhmana)
IN
»
N THE morning they brought water to Manu to wash with, even
as to-day they bring it to wash hands with. While he was
washing, a fish came into his hands. The fish said, "Keep
me and I will save thee. ” — “From what wilt thou save me?
