Dry Nagkeser, in silver smiling, Can men resist thy power, when Krishen yields, O thou for ages born, yet ever young TWO HYMNS TO PRACRITI. THE ARGUMENT. 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 reproduction, 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. 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 anMedical Tracts,) speak with rapture of their innumerable 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 metaphorically, the sons of Sereswati, or Minerva; haunt of the god Iswara. The mountain Himalaya, being 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 Vicramaditya, 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 published 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 materials 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 am 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 numberless ages in heaven, before it was revealed on earth by The name Parvati took its rise from a wild poetical fic. 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 celestial 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; Mellicamucule bhati gunjanmattamadhuvratah, Prayane panchaoanasya sanc'hama purayanniva "The intoxicated bee shines and murmurs in the fresh convinced of its correctness: that outline is here filled up, and exhibited in a lyric form, partly in the Indian, 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 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 in the procession of the god with five arrows." 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 of that," said the poet," and, therefore, described the bee as I own language, I cannot refrain from subjoining the first intoxicated: a drunken musician would blow the shell at Nemean Ode, not only in the same measure as nearly as the wrong end." There was more than wit in this answer; possible, but almost word for word with the original; it was a just rebuke to a dull critic; for poetry delights those epithets and phrases only being necessarily added, in general images, and is so far from being a perfect imi- which are printed in Italic letters. tation, that a scrupulous exactness of descriptions and sirniles, 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. 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 Nelumbo, 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 the 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 Jupiter, is the preceptor of the gods in Swerga or the firma. ment: he is usually represented as their orator, when any message is carried from them to one of their superior deities. TO DURGA. I. 1. FROM thee begins the solemn air, I. 2. Rock above rock they ride sublime, And wreathe their giant heads in snows eternal The lamentations of Reti, the wife of Cama, fill a whole Though neither morning beam, nor noontide glare, 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 Cavyas, 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 Diccian 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 kaimas, meaning snowy; and that funeral urns may be seen perpetually on the banks of the river. The two hymns are neither translations from any other poems, nor imitations of any; and have nothing of Pindar in them except the measures, which are nearly the same, syllable for syllable, with those of the first and second Nemean Odes: more musical stanzas might per haps have been formed; but in every art, variety and novelty are considerable sources of pleasure. The style and manner of Pindar have been greatly mistaken; and that a distinct idea of them may be conceived by such, as have not access to that inimitable poet in his I. 3. Nor e'en the fiercest summer heat Could thrill the palace, where their monarch reign'd (Such height had unremitted virtue gain'd!) But she to love no tribute paid; On a morn, when, edged with light, A vale remote and silent pool she sought, II. 2. Not for her neck, which, unadorn'd, * 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, With Cama, horsed on infant breezes flew. The thunder ceased; the day return'd; And sigh'd on gemm'd Cailása's viewless head. 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 Nor e'en her sacred parent's tender chiding, Could her only pain assuage: She spoke, and o'er the rifted rocks Her lovely form with pious frenzy threw ; And waving robes a thousand breezes flew, And in mid-air a downy pillow spreading; 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. 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 acproved. 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 Gità, 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. Nor they alone: those vivid gems, That dance and glitter on their leafy stems, From yon tall palm, who like a sunborn king, To those who throng his gate, Where purple chieftains vernal tribute bring. A gale so sweet o'er Ganga breathes, That in soft smiles her graceful cheek she wreaths. Mark where her argent brow she raises, And blushing gazes On yon fresh Cétaca, whose amorous flower He blends perfume, and multiplies the bower. 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 habitation 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 Dy upeti, 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 Jovem1where 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'lûyùn, 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 mythology 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. |