Page:The Indian Antiquary, Vol. 4-1875.djvu/261

 248 THE INDIAN ANTIQTJ ABY. [Anouir, 1 their allegiance to tho Brahmaolrtal god*. Further, I cannot J] nd that I have JaWtfOtt* RAma B a I it r I m a, the myth irjtl founder of agrinoll are ; liiiinu ii ud the agricultural demigod Humu Ji&iabhrlt" ere ray words, and in the refer ubiu to the Riman Hi-ilifra of the Ami*. Finally, I amfturprined to learn that in my opinion "Mm vi.i.jrv uf the second B4mn over bia elder namesake is to bo considered ax an echo of an acquaintance with the Homeric poem*,*' whereas in fact Fnruaiirama (that ** aider %amjuak'" La nowhere rtven mentinned in my whole trvufiBL'- (Laascu no doubt baa confounded the bow of Janata, and .vli.ir I BftJT *boo» il-i- bending and Log, with the bow of Jumadagnya.) Now, what rcgarda the objection* (bora first I HOI i,'kil to aee that Laaaeu coimitdu.-i wish me in regarding the Buddhistic narration of HI " the now existing oldest fonu" of tho Eama- legend; but on tbo other hand I am qttlto ot a I how to combine frith this acknowledgment hk notion that thia narrative i-. uulv u imi*e«mevjitiou nr distortion of the Brihmanical original, The very circumstance which bo mentions in btipport of thin, namely, that in the DaMamtha-j^lit!. the niricr, not tho wife of llama who aocnm|»auie* himin hLRAtile,— noilnnht bccuuauidie too t3 afraid of the queen Ucr stepmother,— and furth th* *Utcr, becomes thu wife uf her brother after their return from the rale, apjienrn to me to at teat the great imtijK&y of thi* form of the legend, I tg only in the Vedic age (compare t^ctt «rntapS|f?rna(Tn a, and Ambiku aa ritttr of Tt ii d r a) nud earlier, in the Aryan period, [fiat wa Bad trace* of intermarriage between hrothern and listen /Jffe. X.. 1« t to bo composed just in order to put a l'i' B I on the origin of the family baa one in* lance mon) of the kind, That liltl no direct aJhlfjoni Buddhists is just one of the points which 1 if tin vo brought Ebrwoed as milttatinj- Talboyn Wheeler'- -With regard to the <:oti»idoration of Lassen 'm, n't < nut the war* between the BraJunanionJ kin- India be Buddhists > I hat au attank In- Buddhintu could only proceed from the side of CcyU.n, I e my inability to understand their pertinency tv the polnta in question; moreover I beg to draw at- tention to the i the .lf'iii " uirona i iavaafoas in Ceylon from ludia dating in n.r. 257, 207, ana 108 (pp. 127, Tumour* translation)-*- Further, M I batefUtJ " identitied" Rama with Belaracna, it ia of no onna«qnene>.- ihut ttie ftrtlhtuuua always accurately distmguinh Iwt- twoen the two, nor have 1 regarded the second llama dhwtly "ua dkf ne peraonlflcation of agri- culture ;" what I maintain ia simply that iu the o]d kgpudaj from which Y&hnUri drew, "the reign of Rama waa a golden age, and that cultivation and egri ctnlturo were then vigoronaly Ttanriahing. w Tho whole character of B a m a ii certainly not so inn i- that of a warrior — though he appears in the JSYNJyi'iMa also in thin capacity*— a* that uf a right* ! and gentle genius or king, — a* it were a Buddhist ideal of a prince. Now, whether ho waf- originally only a mythio conception of come aw yet undetermined physical phenomenon, or really, aa Lumten lakes him to be, uu h is iu rival personage, 1 dare not o* yet. fl e o M o, Hut when Lassen goes on to say that S 1 1 a too waa origin - nllv uu historical personage who wu» Utratd rni<* m daughter of the earth, into a drifted fnrrow, after Burna hud been transpurted into $C ranks of tho godn, 1 cannot follow him at all. Tho goddess uf the Todio ritual, tho tpoujie of Indra or -', as !>ho appearsi iu the '•' /Jrrfi* mann, the daughter of film at and courtier of tho 5Ir»nn, h protected by uvvvu eharma ugoinut eneb a dethronement,— When Lassen calli it a ri very paradoijeal ejinumption" that tbo nbduntina of Situ and the t-nuHntt. around Laii k& are echoes Of an nequaii rtln ll#Hotneric poeme, aa it imputes to the " Ilrahmanical poets a great porerty in creative power," I have simply to answer that in literary history we luvvS many ia* Lancet of the very first poets having taken the idcaa
 * | very obvious to (race a emtnetiun between
 * itcriala for their poem« portfyfroxn other

sourer* without any damage to their glory and Imlo of their creatrte newer. I I Iv Slinkeapeare. Goethe, and S< 3 And whenLasaenfuMhi'i- remarVs (lint au "who in iIiIh euou would really presuppose an acquaint- ance With the II<m<*l6 jiecM*'," I bey; to klato that 1 Jifvir siukintained, ko much aa that, nor do I think this prefur anyhow need TJinre -ig more rvpslrid than what 1 have assumed, viz. that tt «eMi kind of knowledgo of Of |]ia llmnic itvnj found iU wajr to India," and hero found ■ ]| in the mind of Ynlrnlki, who combined bom* ideas it with the old mythio or hiitorioa] b-g<rudt cf Idea ego of liAma, and crejited by his own lime great poem which i* ilei I the love of every Hindu, To deny to 1 iiirfua any traces whatever of inch m nee with the llnmerie »aga cycle seemi to me rather hard, nfter what we find Ei writings aliout Kirke and the Trojan horse} and aa in thu Jnnnktyillaku tho re«tme of a pf^poe ttdpwreeh by a tca-goddeas in with tha bending of a great bow by him, and win. the hand of the Qoeen, I feel for my jjart fully oemviucc-d that funs too (and coosc-