Page:TheBirth of the War-God.djvu/98

86 human being aspires to something higher than that heaven of which he is the Lord.

The "chain of birth" alluded to is of course the metempsychosis, or transmigration of souls, a belief which is not to be looked upon (says Prof. Wilson in the preface to his edition of the Sánkhya Kárika) as a mere popular superstition. It is the main principle of all Hindú metaphysics; it is the foundation of all Hindú philosophy. The great object of their philosophical research in every system, Brahminical or Buddhist, is the discovery of the means of putting a stop to further transmigration; the discontinuance of corporeal being; the liberation of soul from body.

As on that Snake.] Sesha, the Serpent King, is in the Hindu mythology the supporter of the earth, as, in one of the fictions of the Edda,—

He is also the couch and canopy of the God Vishnu, or, as he is here called, Krishna,—that hero being one of his incarnations, and considered identical with the Deity himself.

The threefold World.] Earth, Heaven, and Hell.

His fearful Reti.] The wife of Káma, or Love.

To where Kuvera, &c.] The demi-god Kuvera was regent of the North.

Nor waited for the Maiden's touch.] Referring to the Hindú notion that the Asoka blossoms at the touch of a woman's foot. All poets believe this: Shelley says,—

Grouping the syllables.] This comparison seems forced rather too far to suit a European taste. Kálidas is not satisfied with calling the Mango-spray the Arrow of Love; he must tell us that its leaves are the feathers, and that the bees have marked it with the owner's name.

That loveliest flwer'.] The Karnikára.

His flowery Tilaka.] The name of a tree; it also means a mark made with coloured earths or unguents upon the forehead and between the eyebrows, either as an ornament or a sectarial distinction; the poet intends the word to convey both ideas at once here. In this passage is another comparison of the Mango-spray: it is