20
ECHOES FROM EAST AND WEST.
Thus, at heart with sorrow smitten, speaking in the midst of war,
Arjun, dropping bow and arrows, took his seat upon the car.
May, 1899.
[Note.—The whole philosophy of the Lay, which is called the “Indian Bible,” is based on the question of the righteousness of this war. Righteous activity in and through the world, as opposed to worldless inactivity, forms the central teaching of the Lay. It has been translated again and again into most of the European languages, and in India it is read a thousand times more than the Vedas themselves, for which there is more national than religious veneration. The metre of the present version is that of Tennyson’s “Locksley Hall.”]
