Indian Antiquary Vol 23

SR No.: 032515
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Richard Carnac Temple
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 412
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 16 MB

Page 64

54
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[FEBRUARY, 1894.
RO.
that the marks of junction are clearly visible. place in the land of Patchåla, which reverenced Rama, the national hero, was gradually raised the Pandavas, and which adjoined Kosala, the by later rhapsodists to the dignity of a tribal god, original home of the Rumyana. but he is nowhere consistently identified with The chapters on the alleged Buddhist influence Vishụu, except in the latest added first and and Greek influence on the Rimdyana are of great seventh books. In the five original ones he is interest. Prof. Jacobi combuts the view put only so identified in a few isolated passages, forward by Prof. Weber in his treatise on the which are plainly later additions.
Ramayana, that the original of the poem was a Who was Valmiki.P3 What part did he take in Buddhist legend contained in the Pali Dusaratha the production of the original poem? The Jutaka, and, it must be admitted, has proved his Rimiyana itself (I. 5, 3) helps us to answer this contention; for knowledge has made giant strides question.
since Prof. Weber's well-known essay was publishIkshvikariisis idaria téshánh vanisé réijdin mahdt- ed more than twenty years ago. Attention may manám!
be drawn to the suggestion that by Lanka, mahad utpannam akhyánar Ramayanam iti Valmiki did not mean Ceylon, but a fabulous Srutam 11
country of which he had no real knowledge. Here we are told that the Ramdyana was a Nowhere during the period of classical Sanskrit is national poem born in the family, and celebrat. Lanká identified with Sinhala-dvipa. Curiously ing the prowess, of the Ikshvikuides. The enough, in old Hindi poetry. Serendib, Lanka, and history of the family hero, Råma, must have Sinhala-dvipa are often considered as altogether formed the subject of the legends sung by bards, different countries. Lanka in South India means sita, at the court of these princes, and they must an island, and the well-known Lanká cigars are have been collected and fused by a prominent made of tobacco grown, not in Ceylon, but on the poet, the Bralıman Valmiki, into one complete islands of the Godavari delta.* epic, which, if not the first of its kind in India, Prof. Jacobi's researches have, it will be seen, was at least the first destined to live to after reduced the original Ramayana to a poet of ages, and which rightfully claimed to be the moderate compass, and one of the incidental dd ikdvyam. This must have occurred in Oudh, results has been to eliminate from it the names the land of Kösala, which was the kingdom of the of foreign nations, the Yavanas, the Pablauvas, Ikshvakuides; and, as we learn from references the Sakas, the Tushåras, and the like. So also in the later added first and last books, must have all the so-called traces of Greek influence have spread from thence to the courts of princes disappeared, or are become so faint, that it is related in some way or other, to the main line of impossible to say that the legends which have the descendants of Ikshvaku. Finally, the Rama- hitherto formed the groundwork of that theory yana became the folk-epic of the eastern, as the are not those which are the common property of Mahdbhdrata was that of the western half of all nations. Northern India.
These investigations lead up to the solution Space forbids my describing the arguments of the importent question of the age of the poem. which Prof. Jacobi advances to prove that the It is a noteworthy fact that, though it contains Rimdyana had become a practically completed numerous references to the various kingdoms of poem, while still the Mahdbharata was in a state of Eastern Hindåstån, and though Rama is repreflux; how it is an older work than the greater part sented as passing over the very place where the of that unwieldy encyclopedia, as we now have great city subsequently stood, no mention is it; and how it formed the model both in language made of Pataliputra. The state of society deand metre for all subsequent Indian epic poems. scribed is also a patriarchal one. There is no The Mahabhirata, originally a national epic of mention of the great empire founded by Asoka; the Kauravas, became appropriated by their here- the kingdoms were small, even Kosala could be ditary enemies, the Pâpdavas, and was altered to traversed in a two or three days' journey. Each suit their side of the story. This editing took petty state is occupied with its own palace
Thus, in several cases, when a passage is inserted, ita legends. It contains the hermitage of Rishya Sirige, in conclusion is made evident by the repetition of the line the sub-division of Nawada. The village of Barat is said immediately preceding the insertion, -as a sort of frame- to be the site of Vellmiki's hermitage, and a mile from it is work to help the memory of the reciter.
a cave called Sitamadhi, in which Sit is said to have - Prof. Jucobi mentions two places as sites of the tradi- lived during her exilo, and to have borne Lava and Kuka. tional hermitage of Valmiki, the banks of the Yamuna, 4 So also at the other extremity of India, in Kalmir near the confluence with the Ganges, and a bill in the dis-link means an island. (In the Further East it is an trict of Banda. It is necessary to point out that these are exceedingly common custom to attach classical names to quite distinct places. Prof. Jacobi's language leaves the l quite impossible places. -- ED.) matter in doubt. The District of Gaya is full of Rama