Sítá's speech in favour of the ahinsa[1], especially the protest which she raises against the attack on the Rákshasa as inconsistent with Ráma's character as a devotee[2] may be fairly regarded as a reflex from an old Buddhistic legend embodying this idea that[3] a Kshatriya was not justified "in interfering in the disputes between the Brahmans and the Buddhists," so long as the latter, that is the Rákshasa of the poem, have not shown towards him any feeling of hostility. There is nothing, however, in the representation of the town Lanká and its inhabitants that can be regarded as having a direct reference to Buddhism; on the contrary, the same gods[4] are invoked alike by Rávana and by Ráma, just as is done by the Greeks and the Trojans in Homer. The red turban and the red garments of the priests who officiated at Indrajit's magical sacrifice[5] remind us also of the magic ritual of the Samaveda[6]; and they are consequently not to be connected with the yellowish-red garments of the Buddhists (kashaya, raktapata). And finally, the solitary passage in which Buddha is directly, referred to, and then indeed only to be likened to a thief,[7] has been pointed out by Schlegel as being probably a later interpolation. Any one, therefore, who may be disposed, notwithstanding the preceding considerations, to adopt Wheeler's view must be prepared to draw this further conclusion, from the great caution with which the poet has veiled his intention to depict the struggle with and the conquest of the Buddhists of Ceylon,—that he himself lived under a Buddhistic power, and therefore found himself compelled to conceal his real purpose—and that besides, to secure his own safety, he just took an old Buddhistic legend, and modified it to suit the object he had in view!
In addition to this tendency, whether it be specially political or having reference to the history of cultivation in general, which unquestionably runs through the Ramayana, and secures for it its character as a national Epic, it has still another purpose which may be said to lie on the very surface, namely, to represent Ráma as an incarnation of Vishnu, and to confirm the supremacy of this god over all the other gods. With respect to this matter, however, it is difficult to decide in how far Valmiki himself had this purpose in view, or whether it may not have been introduced in later additions to the poem. On account of the loose connection in which the portions that bring out this idea stand with the general structure of the work, it is well known that the latter view has been most generally adopted.[8] But if Wheeler's opinion as to the anti-Buddhistic tendency of the poet should be positively established, then the view of those who believe that he had himself given this Vaishnava complexion to his work[9] would undoubtedly receive no inconsiderable support, inasmuch as this view so completely harmonises with the anti-Buddhistic theory. As a matter of fact, at least, the result was that by means of the Rámáyaṇa, and especially by means of the Vaishnava elements in it just referred to, assistance of the most important kind was rendered to the efforts of the Bráhmans, which were directed, by the clothing of their divinities and of the worship, of their gods with new life, to the recovering of the ground which Buddhism had won among the people. And it is at all events a remarkable phenomenon that the old Buddhistic Saga of the pious prince Ráma, which glorified him as an ideal of Buddhistic equanimity, should have been cast by the skilful hand of Valmiki into a form[10] which, whether in accordance with his own plan or through the introduction of subsequent elements, has so powerfully contributed to the suppression and overthrow of Buddhism—the Buddhistic elements so favourable and gratifying to the popular spirit being preserved, and merely clothed in a garb subservient to the Brahmanical pretensions.
In addition to the Buddhistic legend, it is beyond question that Valmiki must have had access to other materials for his work, which enter into its composition, and which must from the very first have secured it a favourable reception among the people. It is very obvious, for instance, to trace a connection between Ráma, the hero of his work, and the agricultural demi-god of the same name, the Ráma Halabhrit of the Brahmans. I have already called attention to this elsewhere[11], and have laid special stress on this point, that in the versions of the Ráma-Saga which are found in the Mahábhárata, and some of which are of considerable antiquity[12], a special prominence is given almost throughout to the fact that the reign of Ráma was a Golden Age, and that cultivation and
agriculture were then vigorously flourishing. The
- ↑ III, 13, 2 ff.
- ↑ rakshasánám viná vairam bádho vira na yujate ||22.|| aparádhád ṛite ná ′pi hantavyaſrákshasás tvayá.
- ↑ Wheeler vol. II. p. 249, 250, 260, 261.
- ↑ Vide Muir, IV, 349 ff.; Cf. also Rám. V, 16, 41 Gorr., where Hanumant in the morning in Lanká:—Shaḍangavedavidushám kratupravarayájinám | susrava brahmaghosham… |
- ↑ VI, 19, 40, 52, 21.
- ↑ Vide Ind. Stud. 1, 51, 52, borrowed no doubt from the Vratína.
- ↑ II, 109, 33, Ed. Schl.
- ↑ Vide Lassen, Ind. A. K. I, 488-489; Muir, Orig. S. Texts IV, 142 ff. 377 ff.
- ↑ Gorresio, vol. X. p. xlvii, is at least undecided.
- ↑ This Buddhistic germ of Ráma's personality is still in fact apparent enough in the Ramayana in its present form; and in opposition to Monier Williams, who supposed that we were to find here later Christian influences, I had already pointed out this fact in my treatise on the Ráma Táp. Up. p. 276 (1864,) even before D'Alwis had made us acquainted with the contents of the Dasarathajátaka.
- ↑ Cf. Ind. Stud. I. 175, 277, II. 392, 410. Vorles. über Ind. Lit. Gesch. p. 181. Ráma Tapan. Upan. p. 275, (where at the same time I have made mention also of the Ráman hvás′tra of the Avesta, that genius of the air who as the friendly genius of taste, but also as a brave hero is represented as wearing golden armour.
- ↑ Vide infra.
