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 245

JULY 5, 1872.]
THE RASAKALLOLA.
215
celebrate their Srádılhas; we pay due respect to fire ; we do not use meat without sacrificing it; our feinales lately delivered or in their courses spread their bedding on the floor ; our marriages are celebrated at the most propitious hours, and the widow who has lost her husband is not considered pure. Such are we, the Parsis,-observing daily these religious rites.
9. Till a Parsi woman who has borne a child has passed forty days, she cannot cook victuals; she should be moderate in her talk and sleep ; nor ought she to bathe (snána) for forty days, to pray or adore the sun. We always venerate the other, fire, earth, water, the moon, the sun, and Yasad : So is our tribe ever esteemed and acceptable.
10. Only with fuel six months dried (do we feed the sacred fire); and sandal wood, aloe-wood of Malaya, and benzoin, we use five times a day to perform the Homa (fire oblation), uttering appointed words and formulas (in the Atash Naish] : The fire is kept under a donne in shade from the sun's rays. We are ever true and just in our motives, and never addicted to young women. Such are we Parsis, &c.
11. As spoken by our guru (teacher) and enjoined by our writings, we preserve round the waist above the sadra, a woollen kusti, neat, of golden colour, long and entire like a mekhla (or zone); the many advantages of wearing it are equal to enana (ablution) in the Ganges : Such are we, &c.
12. In our minds we ever reflect upon the æther, the moon, fire, the earth, the sun, and worship Hormazd as the bestower of victory, religion, and
natural desires. We especially observe graces (akshare) before and after meals to render them wholesome. Such are we, &c.
13. Our females are held pure only after passing seven nights from the commencement of their inanner, and a month from childbirth, when only they are pure. We are beautiful in our dress, fair and of goldep colour, vigorous, and strong : Such are we, &c.
14. For expiation of sin we make confession (?) and as panchagavya (five products of the cow) is used, we first anoint our persons with gaumutra, before washing them with water, and after nine days we are clean, We constantly keep all the Bayings of our guru, and are happy in observing his directions for the ablution of our sins. Such are we—the fair, the bold, the brave, the athletic Pareir.
15 The inspired sage who appointed these religious observances for the guidance of men, promised eternal bliss to those who walked according to them. And we believe their supporters have found places in heaven. To their sacred memories devout Parsis strew sandal and pulse upon the ground. Such, &c.
16. (The Rana's Reply :) Welcome to those who walk faithfully in the way of Hortazd I May their race increase ! May their prayers obtain the remission of their sins, and the smile of the sun ; also may abundance of wealth, and the fulfilment of their desires flow from the liberality of Lakshmi ; and may the ornaments of person and of mind which now adorn them continue to distinguish them anong people for ever!
NOTES ON THE RASAKALLOLA, AN ANCIENT ORIYA POEM.
BY JOHN BEAMES, B.C.S., M.R.A.S., BALASOR.
THE Rasakallola or “Waves of Delight" is the manifestation of Krishna. It is to the Vaishnavas most popular poem in Orissa. Its songs are sung in all parts of India that we owe the earliest and by the peasantry'in every part of the country, most copious outpourings of poetic thought. In many of its lines have passed into proverbs, the majority of instances these poems are monoand have become "household words" with all tonous, childish, and indescribably indecent variclasses. It owes this great popularity in some ations on the leading features of the Bhagavata measure to its comparative freedom from long Purâna. The Rasakalloļa is one of this class, Sanskrit words, being for the most part, and superadds to the usual impurity of Indian except when the poet soars into the higher poems on this subject, that special and peculiarly style, written in the purest and simplest Oriya revolting obscenity which is the distinguishing vernacular,
characteristic of the Oriya mind. The great religious revival in India in the four- Fortunately, however, the earlier parts of the teenth and fifteenth centuries, with which the poem, relating as they do to incidents in the name of Chaitanya is inseparably connected childhood of Krishna are free from this objection, throughout Orissa and Bengal, turned the cur- and from them we may be able to reproduce exrent of popular thought in the direction of the tracts which will exhibit the nature and style of worship of Vishnu, under his newly-invented, or this popular work without offending against perhaps I should say, recently popularized, propriety.
* For remarriage ?