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 55

FEB. 2, 1872.)
THE DASYUS AT SÂNCHI.
39
complied by leading the point of a stick which the
An elephant, I thought, was nigh: blind ones held in their hands. When they
I aimed and let an arrow fly,
Swift to the place I made my way, reached their destination, the bereaved parents
And there a wounded hermit lay again gave vent to their feelings by much weeping,
Gasping for breath; the deadly dart and praying to the titular gods. The mother, on
Stood quiveriug in his youthful heart.
I hastened Cear with pain oppressed, examination, finding that all signs of life had
He faltered out bis lant behest, vanished, gave utterance to the following Satya
And quickly, as he bade me do, Kiriya :- If it be true that my son Sáma un
From his pierced side the shaft 1 drew.
I drew the arrow from the rent, ceasingly devoted himself to the duties of Brahma
And up to heaven the hermit went, chariyá and that he has ever maintained the ordin
Lamenting, as from earth he passed, ances of the Attha sila ; and if it be also true
His aged parents to the last.
Thus unaware the deed was done, that I have entertained no other faith except Bud
My hand, unwitting, killed thy son; dhism, and that I have ever performed tilakuna
For what remains, O, let me win, Bhavana, may, by the power of those truths, my
Thy pardon for my heedless sin." son receive life. By the influence of this Satya Mr. Fergusson has published this scene in his Kiriya and by the might of the gods, Sáma great work, but says that it represents one of moved from one side to another. When the those transactions between the Hindus and father had also uttered a similar Satya Kiriya, Das y us which have probably only a local Sáma again moved to a side, and by the power meaning, and to which, therefore, it is improof the goddess already named he revived, and bable we shall ever be able to affix a definite the parents received their lost sight. Instantly meaning. To those, however, who are familiar the morning sun arose, and Sama dismissed the with the story of the Rámáyana and the Játaka, astonished king, after preaching to him on the the indefiniteness will give place to unmistakable merits of nourshing one's parents, and above all certainty, the only difficulty being the presence of leading a religious life, as they were testi- of a companion of the king in the scene of action, fied to by his miraculous restoration to life."- due probably to the Buddhist version laving inp. 167 et seqq.
cluded such a personage in the tale-whose name This story will no doubt appear as a Buddhist has been omitted in Mr. D'Alwis's abstract as adaptation of the anecdote of Dasaratha unimportant. According to the Rámáyana, the and the blind sage Andhaka; but it has been king went Lo the wood in his car, and was atreproduced in stone on the standing pillar of the tended by his charioteer. General Cunningham, western gateway of the Sánchi Tope, and we see as already observed, takes the blind hermits of in it Gotamais Sama wounded by the King, Sánchi to be ascetics, and adds" I am unable and his parents, the hermit and his wife, dress- to offer any explanation of this curious scerie, ed in the same garb which has been assigned but it may possibly have reference to some event to the Das y us. According to the Játaka, in the early life of Shakya." Mr. Fergusson apRamn recovered from his wounds and was repeals to this scene as an evidence of the Aryans stored to his parents, as we see in the sculpture. or Hindus having formerly indulged in the The Rámáyaņa kills the boy and sends his wicked pastime of shooting the inoffensive parents to the funeral pyre, to immolate them- Das y us; but if our identification be correct selves.
it will of course lose its only foothold. The following is Mr. Griffith's versioa of the
Exception might also be taken to our identiRámáyaņa story as related by the king to the
fication of the so-called Dasy us with Vanablind hermits :
prastha ascetics on the ground of its being "High-minded sint, not I thy child,
inconsistent in such people to engage in domesA warrior, Dasaratha styled,
tic and pastoral occupations. But the laws of I bear a grievous sorrow's weight,
Manu do not at all prohibit such pursuits. On Born of a deed which good men hate.
the contrary, they ordained that the retired My lord, I came to Sarju's shore And in my hand my bow I bore,
hermit should not only live in a hut and go For elephant or beast of chase,
about dressed, but even horde food sufficient That seeks by night his drinking place. There from the stream a sound I heard,
to last for a year (vi. 18). He should also proAs it a jar the water stirred.
vide means for the performance of various rites • Ramayana, vol. II. p. 47, and compare another version in Ferguson's Tree and Serpent Worship, Plate XXX. his Spoolmens of Old Indian Poetry, p. 12.
Page 138.