[FN#15] History tells us another tale. The god Indra and the King of Dhara gave the kingdom to Bhartari-hari, another son of Gandhar-ba-Sena, by a handmaiden. For some time, the brothers lived together; but presently they quarrelled. Vikram being dismissed from court, wandered from place to place in abject poverty, and at one time hired himself as a servant to a merchant living in Guzerat. At length, Bhartari-hari, disgusted with the world on account of the infidelity of his wife, to whom he was ardently attached, became a religious devotee, and left the kingdom to its fate. In the course of his travels, Vikram came to Ujjayani, and finding it without a head, assumed the sovereignty.
He reigned with great splendour, conquering by his arms Utkala, Vanga, Kuch-bahar, Guzerat, Somnat, Delhi, and other places;until, in his turn, he was conquered, and slain by Shalivahan.
[FN#16] The words are found, says Mr. Ward, in the Hindu History compiled by Mrityungaya.
[FN#17] These duties of kings are thus laid down in the Rajtarangini. It is evident, as Professor H. H. Wilson says, that the royal status was by no means a sinecure. But the rules are evidently the closet work of some pedantic, dogmatic Brahman, teaching kingcraft to kings. He directs his instructions, not to subordinate judges, but to the Raja as the chief magistrate, and through him to all appointed for the administration of his justice.
[FN#18] Lunus, not Luna.
[FN#19] That is to say, "upon an empty stomach."[FN#20] There are three sandhyas amongst the Hindus--morning, mid-day, and sunset; and all three are times for prayer.
[FN#21] The Hindu Cupid.
[FN#22] Patali, the regions beneath the earth.
[FN#23] The Hindu Triad.
[FN#24] Or Avanti, also called Padmavati. It is the first meridian of the Hindus, who found their longitude by observation of lunar eclipses, calculated for it and Lanka, or Ceylon. The clepsydra was used for taking time.
[FN#25] In the original only the husband ''practiced austere devotion." For the benefit of those amongst whom the "pious wife"is an institution, I have extended the privilege.
[FN#26] A Moslem would say, "This is our fate." A Hindu refers at once to metempsychosis, as naturally as a modern Swedenborgian to spiritism.
[FN#27] In Europe, money buys this world, and delivers you from the pains of purgatory; amongst the Hindus, it furthermore opens the gate of heaven.
[FN#28] This part of the introduction will remind the reader of the two royal brothers and their false wives in the introduction to the Arabian Nights. The fate of Bhartari Raja, however, is historical.
[FN#29] In the original, "Div"--a supernatural being god, or demon. This part of the plot is variously told. According to some, Raja Vikram was surprised, when entering the city to see a grand procession at the house of a potter and a boy being carried off on an elephant to the violent grief of his parents The King inquired the reason of their sorrow, and was told that the wicked Div that guarded the city was in the habit of eating a citizen per diem.
Whereupon the valorous Raja caused the boy to dismount; took his place; entered the palace; and, when presented as food for the demon, displayed his pugilistic powers in a way to excite the monsters admiration.
[FN#30] In India, there is still a monastic order the pleasant duty of whose members is to enjoy themselves as much as possible. It has been much the same in Europe. "Representez-vous le convent de l'Escurial ou du Mont Cassin, ou les cenobites ont toutes sortes de commodities, necessaires, utiles, delectables. superflues, surabondantes, puisqu'ils ont les cent cinquante mille, les quatre cent mille, les cinq cent mille ecus de rente; et jugez si monsieur l'abbe a de quoi laisser dormir la meridienne a ceux qui voudront."--Saint Augustin, de l'Ouvrage des Moines, by Le Camus, Bishop of Belley, quoted by Voltaire, Dict. Phil., sub v.
"Apocalypse."
[FN#31] This form of matrimony was recognized by the ancient Hindus, and is frequent in books. It is a kind of Scotch wedding--ultra-Caledonian--taking place by mutual consent, without any form or ceremony. The Gandharbas are heavenly minstrels of Indra's court, who are supposed to be witnesses.
[FN#32] The Hindu Saturnalia.
[FN#33] The powders are of wheaten flour, mixed with wild ginger-root, sappan-wood, and other ingredients. Sometimes the stuff is thrown in syringes.
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[FN#35] So the moribund father of the "babes in the wood"lectures his wicked brother, their guardian:
"To God and you I recommend My children deare this day:
But little while, be sure, we have Within this world to stay."But, to appeal to the moral sense of a goldsmith!
[FN#36] Maha (great) raja (king): common address even to those who are not royal.
[FN#37] The name means. "Quietistic Disposition."[FN#38] August. In the solar-lunar year of the Hindu the months are divided into fortnights--light and dark.
[FN#39] A flower, whose name frequently occurs in Sanskrit poetry.
[FN#40] The stars being men's souls raised to the sky for a time pro portioned to their virtuous deeds on earth.
[FN#41] A measure of length, each two miles.
[FN#42] The warm region below.
[FN#43] Hindus admire only glossy black hair; the "bonny brown hair" loved by our ballads is assigned by them to low-caste men, witches, and fiends.
[FN#44] A large kind of bat; a popular and silly Anglo-Indian name. It almost justified the irate Scotchman in calling "prodigious leears" those who told him in India that foxes flew and tress were tapped for toddy.
[FN#45] The Hindus, like the European classics and other ancient peoples, reckon four ages:--The Satya Yug, or Golden Age, numbered 1,728,000 years: the second, or Treta Yug, comprised 1,296,000; the Dwapar Yug had 864,000 and the present, the Kali Yug, has shrunk to 832,000 years.
