Ceylon, had fallen under the dominion of a prince named Ravana, who was a demon of such power that by dint of penance he had extorted from the God Brahmá a promise that no mortal should destroy him. Such a promise was as relentless as the Greek Fates, from which Jove himself could not escape; and Ravana, now invulnerable to man, gave up asceticism and tyrannized over the whole of southern India in a fearful manner. At length even the Gods in heaven were distressed at the destruction of holiness and oppression of virtue consequent upon Ravana's tyrannies; and they called a council in the mansion of Brahmá, to consider how the earth could be relieved from such a fiend. To this council came the "God Vishnu, riding on the eagle Vainataya, like the sun on a cloud, and his discus and his mace in hand." The other Gods entreat him to give his aid, and he promises in consequence to be born on earth, and to accomplish the destruction of the terrific Ravana. A superhuman Rishi is then found to perform a sacrifice for the King of Ayodhya, which is followed by his becoming the father of Rama and his three brothers; all his four sons being incarnations of Vishnu after a fashion, but Rama was Vishnu himself in mortal form. The same kind of tone is given to the visit the youths made to Viswamitra's hermitage; instead of their going for the ordinary purpose of learning accomplishments from learned Brahmans, it is the Brahmans who require the assistance of the divine Rama to defeat the evil spirits. The next feat was bending the great bow, which it was easy to exaggerate into a bow requiring eight hundred men to drag along: and after this Rama conducts himself very much like other mortals, until *Westminster Review, Oct. 1848, p. 41. his term of banishment expired, when he and his wife and brother having rapidly returned to Ayodhya, and Bharata having willingly resigned the government in his favour, he declares that the object of his being born is accomplished; and instead of reigning on earth, he and all his company return to heaven, his real abode. 121 CHAPTER V. THE MAHABHARATA. "The verse adorn again : Fierce War and faithful Love, And Truth severe, by fairy fiction drest, In buskin'd measures move; Pale Grief and pleasing Pain, With Horror, tyrant of the throbbing breast."-GRAY. THE Mahabharata is the second great Sanskrit epic, and is a work containing so many episodes, referable to various periods, that it has, with some reason, been designated a Cycle of Poems. The wars of the two rival families, known as the Pandus and the Kurus, constitute the main subject, and this portion Akbar the Great thought worthy of translation into Persian; but the appearance of the Gods upon earth, their consultations in heaven, and the episodes, are all omitted in the Persian copy.* The Pandus and the Kurus were descendants of a king named Bharata, much respected, but apparently quite distinct from him whom we left to reign at Ayodhya. In the Mahabharata the scene of government is Hastinapura, to the north of Delhi; and for this ancestral inheritance we * Heeren, vol. ii. p. 159; Ayin Akbari, ii. 100 sqq. find the rival families contending. The right of the Pandus to priority would have been unquestioned, but that their father was a leper, and before his death obliged to resign in favour of his brother; and the sons of this brother (the Kurus) grow up in consequence ambitious of securing the kingdom to themselves, and jealous of their orphan cousins (the Pandus). There were five young Pandus, and a hundred young Kurus, all residing at Hastinapura; and having arrived at an age when the King, the Pandus' uncle and the Kurus' father, Deem'd the time arrived When the brave scions of each royal house A suitable preceptor for their youth, Who to meet skill in war and arms should join Religious earnestness, and love of truth."* And then we are introduced to a Brahman named Drona, who occupies a prominent place throughout the story. Drona was no ascetic philosopher; and having in childhood shared the lessons and sports of the royal heir of the neighbouring kingdom of Panchala,† he felt inclined to live again at that Court, now that his old playfellow had become king. Never doubting of a hearty welcome, he presented himsef to Draupada quite unceremoniously, merely saying, "Behold in me your friend!" His reception was however totally different from what he anticipated : *Professor Wilson, Oriental Magazine, vol. iii. p. 134. + Panchala was between Delhi and the Punjab, and apparently descended as low as Ajmere.-H. H. W., Or. Mag. vol. ii. p. 231. "The monarch sternly view'd The Sage, and bent his brows, and with disdain 6 Of what is fitting, when thou call'st me friend. The King of Panchala starts at the idea of friendship between a learned Brahman and one to whom the Vedas are a mystery, or between a warrior and one who cannot guide a chariot through the ranks of war, and continues: "He to whose high mandate nations bow Drona was too much astonished to speak, but he instantly withdrew from Panchala to Hastinapura, where he was most reverentially welcomed, and at once entrusted with the instruction of the five young Pandu and the hundred young Kuru princes. He re The King of Panchala in the meantime was in terror to think of the awful calamities to which he had exposed himself by his contumacious conduct to a Brahman, and his first anxiety was to secure a son for his protection. sorted to the usual Hindu plan of performing an expensive sacrifice, aided and guided by powerful Brahmans, and became in consequence the parent of one son and one daughter. Of the son very little is related, but the daughter becomes. the heroine of the poem. She is of dark complexion, but of exceeding loveliness; and the only wish we have for her is, that we could change her name Draupadi, for it is al |