Page:The Indian Antiquary Vol 1.pdf/203

 JUNE 7, 1872.] itself.

WEBER ON THE RAMAYANA.

175

Here for instance seems to be a further

with the bending of the bow which the other

instance of the occurrence of a directly Hom

suitors were unable to bend; and while by this

eric element:—in the first book of the Ramayana,"

combining of the two incidents, we are involun tarily reminded of Homer, the second of them at

we are told how Janaka, king of Mithilä, had given out that his daughter S it à should be the prize of the man who should show the great

once recalls the incident at the court of Janaka, King of Mithilä, which, as we have seen, is de

est prowess (viryasulka), and how R am a won

scribed in the Ramayana; and with regard to this

her hand by bending an enormous bow which none of her previous suitors had been able to bend;

latter there cannot be the least doubt, for the

how these latter, feeling ashamed at their defeat,

laid siege to M it hila, and how Janaka suc ceeded, by the help of the gods, in conquering them and driving them away. Such an incidentf naturally reminds us of the bow of Odysseus ; and the coincidence gains additional significance from the fact that we are able to bring forward another Indian form of the same Saga. This is found, namely, according to Bigandet, in the Janaka-jātaka if and it has already been made use of by Ernest Kuhn S as a proof that there are

points of agreement between the Buddhist writ ings and the Odyssey. “In a Játaka quoted by Bigandet,” says Kuhn, “we find an account of one who is shipwrecked being rescued by a seagod

dess. She carries him to land, into a mango garden, where he immediately falls asleep. On his awaking he is, in consequence of a divine deci

sion, saluted as king; and he marries the queen of the country, when, by bending an enormous bow, and by other proofs" he has shown that he is her appointed husband.” The rescuing of Odys seus by Leukothea seems here to be combined + In the Mahabhár., too, the same story occurs pretty nearly in the same form —D r up a d a 9tters his daughter as a prize to him who excels in archery (I, 6955); no one is able to bend the bow, except K a r ) a whom Pra up a di, however, despises, because he is a sūta (7027), and Arjun a
 * Cap. lxvi, lxvii, Schlegel.

story in this Jātaka, as quoted by Bigandet, is of a young prince of Mithilä of the same name as the father of Si tā (Janaka), who set out from that country in order to win back the throne of his ancestors, and so met with the adventures de

scribed.

If these incidents, then, be really capa

ble of being referred to Homer(and the combining of the two hardly leaves any room for doubt on this point), it seems to follow that the scene in the Ramayana may also be assigned to the same source! It is true that the evidence thus furnished by Bigan det is derived only from a Burmese translation; but since his testimony regarding other matters has proved to be trustworthy and reliable, there is no ground for suspecting it in reference to this question. There can be no doubt, at the same time, that it would be peculiarly interest

ing to obtain some acquaintance with the Pāli text of this Jātaka."—The two other appa rently western elements that find a place in the Rāmāyana are :—Hanum ant's command

ing the sun, & la Joshua to stand still if and Rama’s satisfying the ritual requirements of the horse-sacrifice regarding chastity by sleep + More strictly, “not to rise'; and consequently it must be allowed, a very different circumstance, so much so as to make it on the whole questionable whether any real connec tion is here to be looked for. The same prohibition address ed to the sun is also found in Buddhaghosa, vide Rogers

l. c. p. 22, 23, and comparé, in Håla,

v. 46, the naive request

(7052), who has consequently to engage, in a severe conflict

of the maiden addressed to the night, that it would not come to a close.—Besides, our only information on this point

with the other suitors, in which his brother Bhim a stands faithfully by him.

as regards Hanumantis derived from Wheeler, p. 369; did he

f The Life or Legend of Gaudama, first edition, Ran oon, 1858, p. 228 ft., second edition, ibid, 1866, p. 415 f. In

igandet : Dzaneka-Dzat, which is evidently identical with andet gives. Dzaneka as also the equivalent of the

Janaka-Jätaka : though in another passage, (p. 372-4). Big name Chānakya.

§ In the Lit. Centralblatt, 1869, Oct., p. 1246. in the ship : he “seizing the extremity of a log, swam with all his strength” (vide 0d. W, 371). At last a sea-nymph
 * Janaka is the only one rescued out of 700 who were

seeing “his generous and courageous behaviour, took pity on him (ibid, v. 336) and came to his assistance. There follow ed a sort of dialogue.” (ibid v. 339 ft). “ He was to be able to bend and unbend an enormous

bow, a feat that the united efforts of a thousand soldiers could scarcely achieve, and find the place where he" that is, the former king “ had concealed 16 golden cups.”

two Jataka of this name :—a Chūla-Janaka-jātaka, I (VI)
 * The Catalogue of the Copenhagen Pāli, MSS., gives

52, and a Mahá-: XXI (LVI) 531.

obtain his from his North-West Recension ? Gorresio's edition makes no mention of the incident, in either of the accounts which it furnishes of Hanumant's expedition

(VI. 53 and VI. 83). The Bombay edition, too, which con tains altogether (and no doubt correctly) only one such ac count (v1.74.33 ff; cf. VI. 92, 24 f.) is entirely silent on the point, although it several times refers to the sun's path – thus 74, 50 àdityapatham as ritya jagāma sa gatassramah ; 74, 55 sabhāskaradhvānam anuprapannas tam bhāskarábham sikharam pragrihya babhau tadā bhāskarasamnikāso raveh samipe pratibhaskarábhah. It is exactly the same also in A (fol. 59a) and in C (fol. 251a). According to a notice in the Magazin f. d. Lit. d. Ausl. 1870, p. 296, the command of Joshua, in precisely analogous circumstances, belongs also to Japan; and the incident is assigned to the year 200 of our era. “Before the battle was decided, the sun was in the act of setting. Then the Princess, the consort of the Mikado Tsin Ai, drew her sword, and waved it toward the sun, which turned back in its course : and once more it became mid-day.

.

.”