Indian Antiquary Vol 01

SR No.: 032493
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Jas Burgess
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 430
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 22 MB

Page 201

JUNE 7, 1872.]
itself. Here for instance seems to be a further instance of the occurrence of a directly Homeric element:-in the first book of the Ramayana," we are told how Janaka, king of Mithilâ, had given out that his daughter Sitâ should be the prize of the man who should show the greatest prowess (vîryasulka), and how Râm a won her hand by bending an enormous bow which none of her previous suitors had been able to bend; how these latter, feeling ashamed at their defeat, laid siege to Mithilâ, and how Janaka succeeded, by the help of the gods, in conquering them and driving them away. Such an incidentt 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-játaka ; and it has already been made use of by Ernest Kuhn§ as a proof that there are points of agreement between the Buddhist writings and the Odyssey. "In a Játaka quoted by Bigandet," says Kuhn, "we find an account of one who is shipwrecked being rescued by a seagoddess. She carries him to land, into a mangogarden, where he immediately falls asleep. On his awaking he is, in consequence of a divine decision, 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 Odysseus by Leukothea seems here to be combined
WEBER ON THE RAMAYANA.
Cap. lxvi, lxvii, Schlegel.
In the Mahabhar., too, the same story occurs pretty nearly in the same form :-Dru pada offers his daughter as a prize to him who excels in archery (I, 6955); no one is able to bend the bow, except Karna whom Draupadi, however, despises, because he is a sata (7027), and Arjuna (7052), who has consequently to engage in a severe conflict with the other suitors, in which his brother Bhim a stands faithfully by him.
The Life or Legend of Gaudama, first edition, Rangoon, 1858, p. 228 ff., second edition, ibid, 1866, p. 415 ff. In Bigandet: Dzaneka-Dzat, which is evidently identical with Janaka-Jataka; though in another passage, (p. 372-4) Bigandet gives Dzaneka as also the equivalent of the name Chanakya.
§ In the Lit. Centralblatt, 1869, Oct., p. 1246.
Janaka is the only one rescued out of 700 who were in the ship: he "seizing the extremity of a log, swam with all his strength" (vide Od. V, 371). At last a sea-nymph seeing "his generous and courageous behaviour, took pity on him (ibid, v. 336) and came to his assistance. There followed a sort of dialogue." (ibid v. 339 ff).
"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."
The Catalogue of the Copenhagen Páli MSS. gives two Jataka of this name:-a Chala-Janaka-játaka, I (VI) 52, and a Mahd-: XXI (LVI) 581.
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with the bending of the bow which the other suitors were unable to bend; and while by this combining of the two incidents, we are involuntarily reminded of Homer, the second of them at once recalls the incident at the court of Janaka, King of Mithilâ, which, as we have seen, is described in the Ramayana; and with regard to this latter there cannot be the least doubt, for the story in this Játaka, as quoted by Bigandet, is of a young prince of Mithila of the same name as the father of Sitâ (Janaka), who set out from that country in order to win back the throne of his ancestors, and so met with the adventures described. If these incidents, then, be really capable 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 Bigandet 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 interesting to obtain some acquaintance with the Pâli text of this Jataka."-The two other apparently western elements that find a place in the Ramayana are:-Hanumant's commanding the sun, à la Joshua to stand still† 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 connection is here to be looked for. The same prohibition addressed to the sun is also found in Buddhaghosa, vide Rogers 1. c. p. 22, 23, and compare, in Hála, v. 46, the naive request of the maiden addressed to the night, that it would not come to a close.-Besides, our only information on this point as regards Hanumant is derived from Wheeler, p. 369; did he 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 contains altogether (and no doubt correctly) only one such account (VI. 74. 33 ff; cf. VI. 92, 24 ff.) is entirely silent on the point, although it several times refers to the sun's path:thus 74, 50 adityapatham as'ritya jagama sa gatass'ramah ; 74, 65 sa bhaskaradhvânam anuprapannas tam bhaskarabham s'ikharam pragrihya | babhau tada bhaskarasamnikâs'o raveḥ samipe pratibhaskarabhaḥ. 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...."