Indian Antiquary Vol 13

SR No.: 032505
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: John Faithfull Fleet, Richard Carnac Temple
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 492
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 22 MB

Page 50

THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
FEBRUARY, 1884.
cut from the stone the place of the big toe and whose ankle is in the middle of his foot, and of that adjoining it, and deposited the fragment whose toes are united like those of a jdlapáda, in a temple of the town of Zeitun (Tsen-thung), those of a palmipede. whither they go from the remotest provinces." | This conception, so singular, of the foot of
Dr. Davy" says that the footprint of Bud- the god, is of great value, if we compare it dha is "a superficial hollow five feet three with the conception by which the Chakravartin inches and three quarters long, and between has his neck immovable, independently of his two feet seven inches and two feet five inches body, and looks always forward, always in wide."
the same position, and has to turn his whole The plain fact, then, is a depression on the body when he turns his face. summit of the mountain. Of the legends which It is undoubtedly the anthropomorphic conexplain this fact the Buddhist alone has ception of the sun." scientific and historical importance. We shall The complication of myths, says my teacher therefore leave on one side what the Muhammadan in Paris, M. Bergaigne, and of rites which are Masûdi and our chronicler, Osorio, tells us of their image, results from the combination of the race of Cain and of the tombs of Adam natural observations with the idea of the cult and Eve in this island; and let us see how the in its simplest form. The Vedic ritual is the origin of the legend is explained in mythology. reproduction of the Vedic mythology, and the
The myth of the horse of the hero and that domain of Vedic mythology includes earth and of the divine footprints are myths that are heaven. The mythologist, consequently, cannot related. But the horse of the hero, which explain the Vedic mythology either by the defends him, counsels him, even beats down and heaven alone or by the earth alone. conquers the enemies of the hero, represents And, in fact, the ritual represents the phenoforce, rapidity, energy, light, in a word life; mena of the celestial world, and the celestial the divine footprints are the traces of mysteri- world only preserves its order by the order of ous feet which are not known, which no one sacrifice. The liturgical order and the cosmosees, and which scarcely leave impressed the gonic order are interdependent. testimony of his visit after the disappearance of Adolpho Coelho told me, some time ago :the divinity. Among the Gnostics the soles of “The mythologist must never forget that the feet engraved in stone represented death." heaven, the earth, and the sea are confounded
The last rays of the sun, traversing space, when the ancultivated man explains the phenoand as if lighting with the force which draws mena of nature; what is on the earth is in the the luminous god the pyre which devours him, sea, and what is in the sea is on the earth, and the last padas, that is, the last "rays," gilding what is in the heaven is on the earth and in the summits of the mountains, and as if emerg- the sea." ing from the abyss, are the pádas, that is, the Starting from this principle, of which I "feet" of this god, whose tunic is the twilight have already made use in this essay, I shall which is put off when he is about to die. attempt to give another explanation of the And in the midst of these pádas, "feet and divine footprints on the summit of mountains. rays," of these pádas of light, is seen even in! On the mound of earth, the altar raised in the last moments the solar disc, through the the place of Vedic sacrifice, and to the east, impression which the retina retains. His ver was called védi. The uttara-védi® is the supemilion-hued heart is like the bleeding wound of rior, culminating védi, the rédi of fire. In a cruel torment. These feet even converge one the middle was a cavity which was called nábhi, towards the other, are superimposed, and the that is, "navel," where were thrown the pieces god of the large footprints, the god of the three of flesh and the sóma, the drink of the gods footprints, becomes the god of one single and of the sacrificers, fermented, combustible, footprint, and the god of one single foot, whose on the flames of the sacrificial fire. ankle is not seen, or, as the Siamese explain it, This extinguished, Agni dead, there were Apud Sp. Hardy, op. cit., p. 212.
Of. with the whole of this explanation Sénart, Essai c. w. King, The Gnostics and their Remains nur la Légende du Buddha. London, 1864
"Kausika-sútram, 137, apud Sanskrit Wörterbuch.