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 May 3, 1872.]

REVIEW.

thus expounded in the Siddhanta Kaumudi gāī hantitasmai goghna, atithi, “One kills a cow for him—hence “cowkiller, meaning a guest.” The

practice doubtless fell into desuetude as the Aryans occupied the warmer latitudes of the country, but the litera scripta continues to remind the Brahmans of what their s an ātana d h arm a was in the days of their ancestors.

The story of Rāma to the death of Rāvana as

147

Europe. Night has the agreeable association of ‘rajani,” which is one of the words expressive of it in Sanskrit, and summer is called ‘midāgha. The sun is tapana' or ‘tigmänsu' burning or fierce rayed, the moon is ‘sudhãnsu' or nectar-rayed, and clouds are “mudira” or delightful, being looked upon as causes of hilarity, and eagerly waited

for, both for the relief they afford to exhaustion, and the growth they give to the fruits of the

contained in the Mahá Vira Charita is considered

earth.*

by Professor Pickford as an allegory. He says powers of day, and put an end to the labours of

There is one legend in the story of Râm a on which we must say a few words before we conclude. Although we are loath to reduce the Rāmāyana to a mere allogorical myth, and although we incline to

agriculture, until the sun with its increasing rays drives away the darkness, and restores all things as

the theory of its having had a historical substratum, yet we agree with Professor Pickford that the strug

before : or that winter, from the time that the seed is sown in the ground, robs the earth of its splendour

gle at Lanka, which we believe not to be devoid of some historical element, “takes the form of a combat between good and evil in the world. Rá m a is the

in his preface—“either that the powers of night, Rá v an a and his followers, conquer the bright

until it is dispelled by the glowing sun of summer, when the grain springs up once more.” The appel lative n is fi chara or nightstalker, as a synonym for Rák s h a sa, and the legends of Rá m a's being a lineal descendant of the Sun, and of Sitä having

champion of holiness, Räv an a the type of wicked ness, and though the evil is allowed to flourish for a time, yet his reign is short, and goodness in the

course arguments favouring the Professor's allego rical explanation of the capture of S it 4 by the chief of the night stalkers, who was therefore the prince of

end triumphs.” And we cordially join him in saying “this, then, is no new story.” We may add that in this story of Râm a we discover something, embed ded like a fossil in human traditions of primitive events, which reminds us of a remarkable prediction, that in the great struggle between the principles

darkness, and her subsequent recovery by the might of the solar hero. But the events of the Rāmāyana are so intimately connected with the national tradi tion of the actual conquest of the Dekhan by the

in the heel, would bruise the serpent's head. When the demon-chief, R & van a, representing the prin ciple of evil, had become the dread and scourge

sprung from the ploughing of a field, and therefore identified with the labours of agriculture, are of

of good and evil, the seed of the woman, itself bruised

the whole narrative to an allegorical myth, re

of the world, the gods had to deliberate about his destruction. Brahma said that R & van a had a

presenting either the succession of day and night,

charmed life as against gods and demi-gods, and

Aryans, that we cannot reconcile ourselves to reduce or a casual stoppage of cultivation by inclement weather and its restoration by returning sunshine, or of the annual rotation of winter and summer.

could only die at the hands of man.

Man ex

cepted, he could be in no peril from any other species. He could only be subdued by human agency

Night and day, winter and summer, again, are ideas

and Vishnu (the second person of the Hindu

which must be very different in the latitudes of the Indian Dekhan from what they are in Southern

Trad) was accosted to go down to the earth in human form and destroy the archfiend. †

º

REVIEW. NA'oa’NANDA or the Joy of THE SNARE World: A Bud dhist Drama in Five Acts. Translated into English Prose

with explanatory notes, from the Sanskrit of SRI-iiAR sitAdeva. By PALMER Boyd, B.A., Sanskrit Scholar of Trinity College, Cambridge. With an Introduction by Professor Cowell. (pp. xii and 100). London, Trübner

untranslated plays. Prof. Cowell, however, with Dr. Hall's assistance, got two copies from the North West ; and these with one or two MSS. from Ben gal enabled him to print an accurate text. Mr.

Boyd translated this text, and the Professor, in his

and Co. 1872.

preface, gives an account of the date and authorship

THE learned Professor of Sanskrit in the Univer

of the work.

sity of Cambridge has added an interesting preface to this translation made by one of his students. The Nagananda was edited in Calcutta in 1864 by Mādhava Chandra Ghosha. MS. copies are scarce;

The play is quoted in the Sáhitya-darpana on pages 89, 184, 189 and 249; also in the Dasa-rápa on pages 64, 65, 74, and 178. Now the author of

and it is not mentioned in Prof. Wilson's list of

the Dasa-rápa lived at the court of King Munja, uncle of Bhoja of Dhārā, about the year 993 (see

Again “Twayyayattan Krishiphalamiti." t The Rāmāyana of Wälmiki says: (Bālakānda 16 Chap.)
 * In the Meghadūta-"Santaptănăm twamasi saranam.”

“Mänusham ripamásthāya Rāvananjahi sanyuge, Santushtah pradadau, tasmai rākshastiya varam prabhuh Nánávidhebhyo bhutebhyo bhaya ninyatra manushit Tasmut tasya bando drishto manushebhyah parantapa.”