Vikram and the Vampire
by
Sir Richard F. Burton
Part 5 out of 5
With these mysterious words the king, followed by his son,
returned to the palace unmolested. As the Vampire had predicted,
everything was prosperous to him, and he presently obtained the
remarkable titles, Sakaro, or foe of the Sakas, and
Sakadhipati-Vikramaditya.
And when, after a long and happy life spent in bringing the world
under the shadow of one umbrella, and in ruling it free from care,
the warrior king Vikram entered the gloomy realms of Yama, from
whom for mortals there is no escape, he left behind him a name
that endured amongst men like the odour of the flower whose
memory remains long after its form has mingled with the
dust.[FN#197]
FOOTNOTES
[FN#1] Metamorphoseon, seu de Asino Aureo, libri Xl. The well
known and beautiful episode is in the fourth. the fifth, and the sixth
books.
[FN#2] This ceremony will be explained in a future page.
[FN#3] A common exclamation of sorrow, surprise, fear, and
other emotions. It is especially used by women.
[FN#4] Quoted from view of the Hindoos, by William Ward, of
Serampore (vol. i. p. 25).
[FN#5] In Sanskrit, Vetala-pancha-Vinshati. "Baital" is the
modern form of " Vetala.
[FN#6] In Arabic, Badpai el Hakim.
[FN#7] Dictionnaire philosophique sub v. " Apocryphes."
[FN#8] I do not mean that rhymes were not known before the days
of Al-Islam, but that the Arabs popularized assonance and
consonance in Southern Europe.
[FN#9] "Vikrama" means "valour " or " prowess."
[FN#10] Mr. Ward of Serampore is unable to quote the names of
more than nine out of the eighteen, namely: Sanskrit, Prakrit,
Naga, Paisacha, Gandharba, Rakshasa, Ardhamagadi, Apa, and
Guhyaka - most of them being the languages of different orders of
fabulous beings. He tells us, however, that an account of these
dialects may be found in the work called Pingala.
[FN#11] Translated by Sir Wm. Jones, 1789; and by Professor
Williams, 1856.
[FN#12] Translated by Professor H. H. Wilson.
[FN#13] The time was propitious to savans. Whilst Vikramaditya
lived, Magha, another king, caused to be written a poem called
after his name For each verse he is said to have paid to learned
men a gold piece, which amounted to a total of 5,280l. - a large
sum in those days, which preceded those of Paradise Lost. About
the same period Karnata, a third king, was famed for patronizing
the learned men who rose to honour at Vikram's court. Dhavaka, a
poet of nearly the same period, received from King Shriharsha the
magnificent present of 10,000l. for a poem called the Ratna-Mala.
[FN#14] Lieut. Wilford supports the theory that there were eight
Vikramadityas, the last of whom established the era. For further
particulars, the curious reader will consult Lassen's Anthologia,
and Professor H. H. Wilson's Essay on Vikram (New), As. Red..
ix. 117.
[FN#15] History tells us another tale. The god Indra and the King
of Dhara gave the kingdom to Bhartari-hari, another son of
Gandhar-ba-Sena, by a handmaiden. For some time, the brothers
lived together; but presently they quarrelled. Vikram being
dismissed from court, wandered from place to place in abject
poverty, and at one time hired himself as a servant to a merchant
living in Guzerat. At length, Bhartari-hari, disgusted with the
world on account of the infidelity of his wife, to whom he was
ardently attached, became a religious devotee, and left the
kingdom to its fate. In the course of his travels, Vikram came to
Ujjayani, and finding it without a head, assumed the sovereignty.
He reigned with great splendour, conquering by his arms Utkala,
Vanga, Kuch-bahar, Guzerat, Somnat, Delhi, and other places;
until, in his turn, he was conquered, and slain by Shalivahan.
[FN#16] The words are found, says Mr. Ward, in the Hindu
History compiled by Mrityungaya.
[FN#17] These duties of kings are thus laid down in the
Rajtarangini. It is evident, as Professor H. H. Wilson says, that the
royal status was by no means a sinecure. But the rules are
evidently the closet work of some pedantic, dogmatic Brahman,
teaching kingcraft to kings. He directs his instructions, not to
subordinate judges, but to the Raja as the chief magistrate, and
through him to all appointed for the administration of his justice.
[FN#18] Lunus, not Luna.
[FN#19] That is to say, "upon an empty stomach."
[FN#20] There are three sandhyas amongst the Hindus--morning,
mid-day, and sunset; and all three are times for prayer.
[FN#21] The Hindu Cupid.
[FN#22] Patali, the regions beneath the earth.
[FN#23] The Hindu Triad.
[FN#24] Or Avanti, also called Padmavati. It is the first meridian
of the Hindus, who found their longitude by observation of lunar
eclipses, calculated for it and Lanka, or Ceylon. The clepsydra was
used for taking time.
[FN#25] In the original only the husband ''practiced austere
devotion." For the benefit of those amongst whom the "pious wife"
is an institution, I have extended the privilege.
[FN#26] A Moslem would say, "This is our fate." A Hindu refers
at once to metempsychosis, as naturally as a modern
Swedenborgian to spiritism.
[FN#27] In Europe, money buys this world, and delivers you from
the pains of purgatory; amongst the Hindus, it furthermore opens
the gate of heaven.
[FN#28] This part of the introduction will remind the reader of the
two royal brothers and their false wives in the introduction to the
Arabian Nights. The fate of Bhartari Raja, however, is historical.
[FN#29] In the original, "Div"--a supernatural being god, or
demon. This part of the plot is variously told. According to some,
Raja Vikram was surprised, when entering the city to see a grand
procession at the house of a potter and a boy being carried off on
an elephant to the violent grief of his parents The King inquired
the reason of their sorrow, and was told that the wicked Div that
guarded the city was in the habit of eating a citizen per diem.
Whereupon the valorous Raja caused the boy to dismount; took his
place; entered the palace; and, when presented as food for the
demon, displayed his pugilistic powers in a way to excite the
monsters admiration.
[FN#30] In India, there is still a monastic order the pleasant duty
of whose members is to enjoy themselves as much as possible. It
has been much the same in Europe. "Representez-vous le convent
de l'Escurial ou du Mont Cassin, ou les cenobites ont toutes sortes
de commodities, necessaires, utiles, delectables. superflues,
surabondantes, puisqu'ils ont les cent cinquante mille, les quatre
cent mille, les cinq cent mille ecus de rente; et jugez si monsieur
l'abbe a de quoi laisser dormir la meridienne a ceux qui
voudront."--Saint Augustin, de l'Ouvrage des Moines, by Le
Camus, Bishop of Belley, quoted by Voltaire, Dict. Phil., sub v.
"Apocalypse."
[FN#31] This form of matrimony was recognized by the ancient
Hindus, and is frequent in books. It is a kind of Scotch wedding--
ultra-Caledonian--taking place by mutual consent, without any
form or ceremony. The Gandharbas are heavenly minstrels of
Indra's court, who are supposed to be witnesses.
[FN#32] The Hindu Saturnalia.
[FN#33] The powders are of wheaten flour, mixed with wild
ginger-root, sappan-wood, and other ingredients. Sometimes the
stuff is thrown in syringes.
[FN#34] The Persian proverb is-- "Bala e tavilah bar sat i
maimun": "The woes of the stable be on the monkey's head!" In
some Moslem countries a hog acts prophylactic. Hence probably
Mungo Park's troublesome pig at Ludamar.
[FN#35] So the moribund father of the "babes in the wood"
lectures his wicked brother, their guardian:
"To God and you I recommend
My children deare this day:
But little while, be sure, we have
Within this world to stay."
But, to appeal to the moral sense of a goldsmith!
[FN#36] Maha (great) raja (king): common address even to those
who are not royal.
[FN#37] The name means. "Quietistic Disposition."
[FN#38] August. In the solar-lunar year of the Hindu the months
are divided into fortnights--light and dark.
[FN#39] A flower, whose name frequently occurs in Sanskrit
poetry.
[FN#40] The stars being men's souls raised to the sky for a time
pro portioned to their virtuous deeds on earth.
[FN#41] A measure of length, each two miles.
[FN#42] The warm region below.
[FN#43] Hindus admire only glossy black hair; the "bonny brown
hair" loved by our ballads is assigned by them to low-caste men,
witches, and fiends.
[FN#44] A large kind of bat; a popular and silly Anglo-Indian
name. It almost justified the irate Scotchman in calling "prodigious
leears" those who told him in India that foxes flew and tress were
tapped for toddy.
[FN#45] The Hindus, like the European classics and other ancient
peoples, reckon four ages:--The Satya Yug, or Golden Age,
numbered 1,728,000 years: the second, or Treta Yug, comprised
1,296,000; the Dwapar Yug had 864,000 and the present, the Kali
Yug, has shrunk to 832,000 years.
[FN#46] Especially alluding to prayer. On this point, Southey
justly remarks (Preface to Curse of Kehama): "In the religion of
the Hindoos there is one remarkable peculiarity. Prayers, penances,
and sacrifices are supposed to possess an inherent and actual value,
in one degree depending upon the disposition or motive of the
person who performs them. They are drafts upon heaven for which
the gods cannot refuse payment. The worst men, bent upon the
worst designs, have in this manner obtained power which has
made them formidable to the supreme deities themselves."
Moreover, the Hindu gods hear the prayers of those who desire the
evil of others. Hence when a rich man becomes poor, his friends
say, "See how sharp are men's teeth!" and, "He is ruined because
others could not bear to see his happiness!"
[FN#47] A pond. natural or artificial; in the latter case often
covering an extent of ten to twelve acres.
[FN#48] The Hindustani "gilahri," or little grey squirrel, whose
twittering cry is often mistaken for a bird's.
[FN#49] The autumn or rather the rainy season personified - a
hackneyed Hindu prosopopoeia.
[FN#50] Light conversation upon the subject of women is a
persona offence to serious-minded Hindus.
[FN#51] Cupid in his two forms, Eros and Anteros.
[FN#52] This is true to life in the East, women make the first
advances, and men do the begueules.
[FN#53] Raja-hans, a large grey goose, the Hindu equivalent for
our swan.
[FN#54] Properly Karnatak; karna in Sanskrit means an ear.
[FN#55] Danta in Sanskrit is a tooth.
[FN#56] Padma means a foot.
[FN#57] A common Hindu phrase equivalent to our " I manage to
get on."
[FN#58] Meaning marriage maternity, and so forth.
[FN#59] Yama is Pluto; 'mother of Yama' is generally applied to
an old scold.
[FN#60] Snake-land: the infernal region.
[FN#61] A form of abuse given to Durga, who was the mother of
Ganesha (Janus); the latter had an elephant's head.
[FN#62] Unexpected pleasure, according to the Hindus, gives a
bristly elevation to the down of the body.
[FN#63] The Hindus banish " flasks,'' et hoc genus omne, from
these scenes, and perhaps they are right.
[FN#64] The Pankha, or large common fan, is a leaf of the
Corypha umbraculifera, with the petiole cut to the length of about
five feet, pared round the edges and painted to look pretty. It is
waved by the servant standing behind a chair.
[FN#65] The fabulous mass of precious stones forming the sacred
mountain of Hindu mythology.
[FN#66] "I love my love with an 'S,' because he is stupid and not
pyschological."
[FN#67] Hindu mythology has also its Cerberus, Trisisa, the "
three headed " hound that attends dreadful Yama (Pluto)
[FN#68] Parceque c'est la saison des amours.
[FN#69] The police magistrate, the Catual of Camoens.
[FN#70] The seat of a Hindu ascetic.
[FN#71] The Hindu scriptures.
[FN#72] The Goddess of Prosperity.
[FN#73] In the original the lover is not blamed; this would be the
Hindu view of the matter; we might be tempted to think of the old
injunction not to seethe a kid in the mother's milk.
[FN#74] In the original a "maina "-the Gracula religiosa.
[FN#75] As we should say, buried them.
[FN#76] A large kind of black bee, common in India.
[FN#77] The beautiful wife of the demigod Rama Chandra.
[FN#78] The Hindu Ars Amoris.
[FN#79] The old philosophers, believing in a " Sat " (xx xx),
postulated an Asat (xx xx xx) and made the latter the root of the
former.
[FN#80] In Western India, a place celebrated for suicides.
[FN#81] Kama Deva. "Out on thee, foul fiend, talk'st thou of
nothing but ladies?"
[FN#82] The pipal or Ficus religiosa, a favourite roosting-place
for fiends.
[FN#83] India.
[FN#84] The ancient name of a priest by profession, meaning "
praepositus " or praeses. He was the friend and counsellor of a
chief, the minister of a king, and his companion in peace and war.
(M. Muller's Ancient Sanskrit Literature, p. 485).
[FN#85] Lakshmi, the Goddess of Prosperity. Raj-Lakshmi would
mean the King's Fortune, which we should call tutelary genius.
Lakshichara is our " luckless," forming, as Mr. Ward says, an
extraordinary coincidence of sound and meaning in languages so
different. But the derivations are very distinct.
[FN#86] The Monkey God.
[FN#87] Generally written "Banyan."
[FN#88] The daughter of Raja Janaka, married to Ramachandra.
The latter placed his wife under the charge of his brother
Lakshmana, and went into the forest to worship, when the demon
Ravana disguised himself as a beggar, and carried off the prize.
[FN#89] This great king was tricked by the god Vishnu out of the
sway of heaven and earth, but from his exceeding piety he was
appointed to reign in Patala, or Hades.
[FN#90] The procession is fair game, and is often attacked in the
dark with sticks and stones, causing serious disputes. At the supper
the guests confer the obligation by their presence, and are
exceedingly exacting.
[FN#91] Rati is the wife of Kama, the God of Desire; and we
explain the word by "Spring personified."
[FN#92] The Indian Cuckoo (Cucuius Indicus). It is supposed to
lay its eggs in the nest of the crow.
[FN#93] This is the well-known Ghi or Ghee, the one sauce of
India which is as badly off in that matter as England.
[FN#94] The European reader will observe that it is her purity
which carries the heroine through all these perils. Moreover, that
her :virtue is its own reward, as it loses to her the world.
[FN#95] Literally, "one of all tastes"--a wild or gay man, we
should say.
[FN#96] These shoes are generally made of rags and bits of
leather; they have often toes behind the foot, with other similar
contrivances, yet they scarcely ever deceive an experienced man.
[FN#97] The high-toper is a swell-thief, the other is a low dog.
[FN#98] Engaged in shoplifting.
[FN#99] The moon.
[FN#100] The judge.
[FN#101] To be lagged is to be taken; scragging is hanging.
[FN#102] The tongue.
[FN#103] This is the god Kartikeya, a mixture of Mars and
Mercury, who revealed to a certain Yugacharya the scriptures
known as "Chauriya-Vidya"--Anglice, "Thieves' Manual." The
classical robbers of the Hindu drama always perform according to
its precepts. There is another work respected by thieves and called
the "Chora-Panchashila," because consisting of fifty lines.
[FN#104] Supposed to be a good omen.
[FN#105] Share the booty.
[FN#106] Bhawani is one of the many forms of the destroying
goddess, the wife of Shiva.
[FN#107] Wretches who kill with the narcotic seed of the
stramonium.
[FN#108] Better know as "Thugs," which in India means simply
"rascals."
[FN#109] Crucifixion, until late years, was common amongst the
Buddhists of the Burmese empire. According to an eye-witness,
Mr. F. Carey, the puishment was inflicted in two ways.
Sometimes criminals were crucified by their hands and feet being
nailed to a scaffold; others were merely tied up, and fed. In these
cases the legs and feet of the patient began to swell and mortify at
the expiration fo three or four days; men are said to have lived in
this state for a fortnight, and at last they expired from fatigue and
mortification. The sufferings from cramp also must be very
severe. In India generally impalement was more common than
crucifixion.
[FN#110] Our Suttee. There is an admirable Hindu proverb,
which says, "No one knows the ways of woman; she kill her
husband and becomes a Sati."
[FN#111] Fate and Destiny are rather Moslem than Hindu fancies.
[FN#112] Properly speaking, the husbandman should plough with
not fewer than four bullocks; but few can afford this. If he plough
with a cow or a bullock, and not with a bull, the rice produced by
his ground is unclean, and may not be used in any religious
ceremony.
[FN#113] A shout of triumph, like our "Huzza" or "Hurrah!" of
late degraded into "Hooray." "Hari bol" is of course religious,
meaning "Call upon Hari!" i.e. Krishna, i.e. Vishnu.
[FN#114] This form of suicide is one of those recognized in India.
So in Europe we read of fanatics who, with a suicidal ingenuity,
have succeeded in crucifying themselves.
[FN#115] The river of Jaganath in Orissa; it shares the honours of
sanctity with some twenty-nine others, and in the lower regions it
represents the classical Styx.
[FN#116] Cupid. His wife Rati is the spring personified. The
Hindu poets always unite love and spring, and perhaps
physiologically they are correct.
[FN#117] An incarnation of the third person of the Hindu Triad,
or Triumvirate, Shiva the God of Destruction, the Indian Bacchus.
The image has five faces, and each face has three eyes. In Bengal
it is found in many villages, and the women warn their children not
to touch it on pain of being killed.
[FN#118] A village Brahman on stated occasions receives fees
from all the villagers.
[FN#119] The land of Greece.
[FN#120] Savans, professors. So in the old saying, "Hanta, Pandit
Sansara "--Alas! the world is learned! This a little antedates the
well-known schoolmaster.
[FN#121] Children are commonly sent to school at the age of five.
Girls are not taught to read, under the common idea that they will
become widows if they do.
[FN#122] Meaning the place of reading the four Shastras.
[FN#123] A certain goddess who plays tricks with mankind. If a
son when grown up act differently from what his parents did,
people say that he has been changed in the womb.
[FN#124] Shani is the planet Saturn, which has an exceedingly
baleful influence in India as elsewhere.
[FN#125] The Eleatic or Materialistic school of Hindu
philosophy, which agrees to explode an intelligent soparate First
Cause.
[FN#126] The writings of this school give an excellent view of the
"progressive system," which has popularly been asserted to be a
modern idea. But Hindu philosophy seems to have exhausted every
fancy that can spring from the brain of man.
[FN#127] Tama is the natural state of matter, Raja is passion
acting upon nature, and Satwa is excellence These are the three
gunas or qualities of matter.
[FN#128] Spiritual preceptors and learned men.
[FN#129] Under certain limitations, gambling is allowed hy Hindu
law and the winner has power over the person and property of the
loser. No "debts of honour" in Hindustan!
[FN#130] Quotations from standard works on Hindu criminal law,
which in some points at least is almost as absurd as our civilized
codes.
[FN#131] Hindus carry their money tied up in a kind of sheet. which
is wound round the waist and thrown over the shoulder.
[FN#132] A thieves' manual in the Sanskrit tongue; it aspires to the
dignity of a "Scripture."
[FN#133] All sounds, say the Hindus, are of similar origin, and they
do not die; if they did, they could not be remembered.
[FN#134] Gold pieces.
[FN#135] These are the qualifications specified by Hindu classical
authorities as necessary to make a distinguished thief.
[FN#136] Every Hindu is in a manner born to a certain line of life,
virtuous or vicious, honest or dishonest and his Dharma, or religious
duty, consists in conforming to the practice and the worship of his
profession. The "Thug," for instance, worships Bhawani, who enables
him to murder successfully; and his remorse would arise from
neglecting to murder.
[FN#137] Hindu law sensibly punishes, in theory at least, for the
same offence the priest more severely than the layman--a hint for him
to practice what he preaches.
[FN#138] The Hindu Mercury, god of rascals.
[FN#139] A penal offence in India. How is it that we English have
omitted to codify it? The laws of Manu also punish severely all
disdainful expressions, such as "tush" or "pish," addressed during
argument to a priest.
[FN#140] Stanzas, generally speaking, on serious subjects.
[FN#141] Whitlows on the nails show that the sufferer, in the last
life, stole gold from a Brahman.
[FN#142] A low caste Hindu, who catches and exhibits snakes and
performs other such mean offices.
[FN#143] Meaning, in spite of themselves.
[FN#144] When the moon is in a certain lunar mansion, at the
conclusion of the wet season.
[FN#145] In Hindustan, it is the prevailing wind of the hot weather.
[FN#146] Vishnu, as a dwarf, sank down into and secured in the
lower regions the Raja Bali, who by his piety and prayerfulness was
subverting the reign of the lesser gods; as Ramachandra he built a
bridge between Lanka (Ceylon) and the main land; and as Krishna he
defended, by holding up a hill as an umbrella for them, his friends the
shepherds and shepherdesses from the thunders of Indra, whose
worship they had neglected.
[FN#147] The priestly caste sprang, as has been said, from the
noblest part of the Demiurgus; the three others from lower members.
[FN#148] A chew of betel leaf and spices is offered by the master of
the house when dismissing a visitor.
[FN#149] Respectable Hindus say that receiving a fee for a daughter
is like selling flesh.
[FN#150] A modern custom amongst the low caste is for the bride
and bridegroom, in the presence of friends, to place a flower garland
on each other's necks, and thus declare themselves man and wife. The
old classical Gandharva-lagan has been before explained.
[FN#151] Meaning that the sight of each other will cause a smile,
and that what one purposes the other will consent to.
[FN#152] This would be the verdict of a Hindu jury.
[FN#153] Because stained with the powder of Mhendi, or the
Lawsonia inermis shrub.
[FN#154] Kansa's son: so called because the god Shiva, when struck
by his shafts, destroyed him with a fiery glance.
[FN#155] "Great Brahman"; used contemptuously to priests who
officiate for servile men. Brahmans lose their honour by the
following things: By becoming servants to the king; by pursuing any
secular business; by acting priests to Shudras (serviles); by officiating
as priests for a whole village; and by neglecting any part of the three
daily services. Many violate these rules; yet to kill a Brahman is still
one of the five great Hindu sins. In the present age of the world, the
Brahman may not accept a gift of cows or of gold; of course he
despises the law. As regards monkey worship, a certain Rajah of
Nadiya is said to have expended œ10,000 in marrying two monkeys
with all the parade and splendour of the Hindu rite.
[FN#156] The celebrated Gayatri, the Moslem Kalmah.
[FN#157] Kama again.
[FN#158] From "Man," to think; primarily meaning, what makes
man think.
[FN#159] The Cirrhadae of classical writers.
[FN#160] The Hindu Pluto; also called the Just King.
[FN#161] Yama judges the dead. whose souls go to him in four
hours and forty minutes; therefore a corpse cannot be burned till after
that time. His residence is Yamalaya. and it is on the south side of the
earth; down South, as we say. (I, Sam. xxv. 1, and xxx. 15). The
Hebrews, like the Hindus, held the northern parts of the world to be
higher than the southern. Hindus often joke a man who is seen
walking in that direction, and ask him where he is going.
[FN#162] The "Ganges," in heaven called Mandakini. I have no idea
why we still adhere to our venerable corruption of the word.
[FN#163] The fabulous mountain supposed by Hindu geographers
to occupy the centre of the universe.
[FN#164] The all-bestowing tree in Indra's Paradise which grants
everything asked of it. It is the Tuba of Al-Islam and is not unknown
to the Apocryphal New Testament.
[FN#165] "Vikramaditya, Lord of the Saka." This is prevoyance on
the part of the Vampire; the king had not acquired the title.
[FN#166] On the sixth day after the child's birth, the god Vidhata
writes all its fate upon its forehead. The Moslems have a similar idea,
and probably it passed to the Hindus.
[FN#167] Goddess of eloquence. "The waters of the Saraswati " is
the classical Hindu phrase for the mirage.
[FN#168] This story is perhaps the least interesting in the collection.
I have translated it literally, in order to give an idea of the original.
The reader will remark in it the source of our own nursery tale about
the princess who was so high born and delicately bred, that she could
discover the three peas laid beneath a straw mattress and four feather
beds. The Hindus, however, believe that Sybaritism can be carried so
far; I remember my Pandit asserting the truth of the story.
[FN#169] A minister. The word, as is the case with many in this
collection, is quite modern Moslem, and anachronistic.
[FN#170] The cow is called the mother of the gods, and is declared
by Brahma, the first person of the triad, Vishnu and Shiva being the
second and the third, to be a proper object of worship. "If a European
speak to the Hindu about eating the flesh of cows," says an old
missionary, "they immediately raise their hands to their ears; yet
milkmen, carmen, and farmers beat the cow as unmercifully as a
carrier of coals beats his ass in England."The Jains or Jainas (from ji,
to conquer; as subduing the passions) are one of the atheistical sects
with whom the Brahmans have of old carried on the fiercest religious
controversies, ending in many a sanguinary fight. Their tenets are
consequently exaggerated and ridiculed, as in the text. They believe
that there is no such God as the common notions on the subject point
out, and they hold that the highest act of virtue is to abstain from
injuring sentient creatures. Man does not possess an immortal spirit:
death is the same to Brahma and to a fly. Therefore there is no
heaven or hell separate from present pleasure or pain. Hindu
Epicureans!--"Epicuri de grege porci."
[FN#171] Narak is one of the multitudinous places of Hindu
punishment, said to adjoin the residence of Ajarna. The less
cultivated Jains believe in a region of torment. The illuminati,
however, have a sovereign contempt for the Creator, for a future
state, and for all religious ceremonies. As Hindus, however, they
believe in future births of mankind, somewhat influenced by present
actions. The "next birth" in the mouth of a Hindu, we are told, is the
same as "to-morrow" in the mouth of a Christian. The
metempsychosis is on an extensive scale: according to some, a person
who loses human birth must pass through eight millions of successive
incarnationsÄfish, insects, worms, birds, and beastsÄbefore he can
reappear as a man.
[FN#172] Jogi, or Yogi, properly applies to followers of the Yoga or
Patanjala school, who by ascetic practices acquire power over the
elements. Vulgarly, it is a general term for mountebank vagrants,
worshippers of Shiva. The Janganis adore the same deity, and carry
about a Linga. The Sevras are Jain beggars, who regard their chiefs
as superior to the gods of other sects. The Sannyasis are mendicant
followers of Shiva; they never touch metals or fire, and. in religious
parlance, they take up the staff They are opposed to the Viragis,
worshippers of Vishnu, who contend as strongly against the
worshippers of gods who receive bloody offerings. as a Christian
could do against idolatry.
[FN#173] The Brahman, or priest, is supposed to proceed from the
mouth of Brahma, the creating person of the Triad; the Khshatriyas
(soldiers) from his arms; the Vaishyas (enterers into business) from
his thighs; and the Shudras, "who take refuge in the Brahmans," from
his feet. Only high caste men should assume the thread at the age of
puberty.
[FN#174] Soma. the moon, I have said, is masculine in India.
[FN#175] Pluto.
[FN#176] Nothing astonishes Hindus so much as the apparent want
of affection between the European parent and child.
[FN#177] A third marriage is held improper and baneful to a Hindu
woman. Hence. before the nuptials they betroth the man to a tree,
upon which the evil expends itself, and the tree dies.
[FN#178] Kama
[FN#179] An oath. meaning, "From such a falsehood preserve me,
Ganges!"
[FN#180] The Indian Neptune.
[FN#181] A highly insulting form of adjuration.
[FN#182] The British Islands--according to Wilford.
[FN#183] Literally the science (veda) of the bow (dhanush). This
weapon, as everything amongst the Hindus, had a divine origin: it
was of three kinds--the common bow, the pellet or stone bow, and the
crossbow or catapult.
[FN#184] It is a disputed point whether the ancient Hindus did or did
not know the use of gunpowder.
[FN#185] It is said to have discharged balls, each 6,400 pounds in
weight.
[FN#186] A kind of Mercury, a god with the head and wings of a
bird, who is the Vahan or vehicle of the second person of the Triad,
Vishnu.
[FN#187] The celebrated burning springs of Baku, near the Caspian,
are so called. There are many other "fire mouths."
[FN#188] The Hindu Styx.
[FN#189] From Yaksha, to eat; as Rakshasas are from Raksha, to
preserve.--See Hardy's Manual of Buddhism, p. 57.
[FN#190] Shiva is always painted white, no one knows why. His
wife Gauri has also a European complexion. Hence it is generally
said that the sect popularly called "Thugs," who were worshippers of
these murderous gods. spared Englishmen, the latter being supposed
to have some rapport with their deities.
[FN#191] The Hindu shrine is mostly a small building, with two
inner compartments. the vestibule and the Garbagriha, or adytum, in
which stands the image.
[FN#192] Meaning Kali of the cemetery (Smashana); another form
of Durga.
[FN#193] Not being able to find victims, this pleasant deity, to
satisfy her thirst for the curious juice, cut her own throat that the
blood might spout up into her mouth. She once found herself dancing
on her husband, and was so shocked that in surprise she put out her
tongue to a great length, and remained motionless. She is often
represented in this form.
[FN#194] This ashtanga, the most ceremonious of the five forms of
Hindu salutation, consists of prostrating and of making the eight parts
of the body--namely, the temples, nose and chin, knees and hands--
touch the ground.
[FN#195] "Sidhis," the personified Powers of Nature. At least, so we
explain them: but people do not worship abstract powers.
[FN#196] The residence of Indra, king of heaven, built by Wishwa-
Karma, the architect of the gods.
[FN#197] In other words, to the present day, whenever a Hindu
novelist, romancer, or tale writer seeks a peg upon which to suspend
the texture of his story, he invariably pitches upon the glorious, pious,
and immortal memory of that Eastern King Arthur, Vikramaditya,
shortly called Vikram.
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