173
WEBER ON THE RAMAYANA.
JUNE 7, 1872.]
rigines, or with the Buddhists, as Wheeler ima gines? or has he borrowed the materials for this part of the poem from some other quarter? Let me say at once that I consider the latter alternative to be the true account of the matter, and that the rape of Helen and the siege of Troy have served as a model for the correspond ing incidents in the poem of Vālmīki.” I do not indeed imagine that he had himself studied Homer, or even that he must have been aware
of the existence of the Homeric poems. Nor am I inclined to go so far as to attach importance (though the idea is by no means far-fetched, as even Monier Williams admits)f to the apparent analogies between Agamemnon and Sugriva,
of a dream; the surveying and enumerating of the
hostile troops from the battlements of L a fi kā; and the appearing of S it à before the army. Š Nor do I wish to discuss the very wide and far reaching question,]-In how far an acquaintance with the Greek epic may have exercised an in fluence on the development of the Indian one * I content myself rather with the simple as sumption that in consequence of the mutual relations, which Alexander's expedition into India brought about, between the inhabitants of that country and the Greeks (and which, in so far as the Buddhists are concerned, have found
remarkable expression, for instance in the Mi lindapanha)," some kind of knowledge of the sub
Patroklos and Lakshmana, Nestor and Jämba vant, Odysseus and Hanumant, Hektor and
dia. And I feel all the more justified in assum
stance of the Homeric story found its way to In
Indrajit, analogies which have led Hippolyte
ing this by the fact that, in addition to the coin
Fauche, who has translated the Ramayana into
cidences suggested by the rape of Si tā and the
French, to adopt the converse theory that Homer has borrowed the materials for his work from
war before L a ſika, two other Homeric incidents are found, not indeed in the Ramayana itself, but
that of Vālmīki! I pass over the coincidences also noticed by Monier Williams himself:f —the consoling of the forsaken Si tā by means
in the Pāli texts of Ceylon:*—namely, the ad venture of Odysseus and his companions on the is land of Kirke, in the Mahavanso;f and the Trojan
- Without questioning the possible anti-Buddhistic de
sign in the selection of Laſikā as the scene of the conflict. f Ind. Ep. Poetry, p. 46. f P. 74, 82, 86. As Monier Williams (p. 3) assumes that the greater part of the Rāmāyana, if not the entire work, dates from a period so early as the fifth century B. C., he regards these
(edible) roots, as well as water with lotus flowers. There upon she stood up and said to him, “Thou art my food (prey) " Then he stood spell-bound ; but because the
details, as well as those which he imagines are borrowed
cast him bellowing loudly (Od. X, 241) into an under ground cave (v. 14 tam gahetvā suruñgåyam rudantam
from a Christian source (p. 75), as probably only later em
(charmed) thread was tied (on his hand), she could not de
vour him ; and although she begged him to give her the thread, he would not.
She therefore laid hold of him, and
bellishments—that is, if he sees in them anything more
yakkhini khipi). And in like manner the whole 700 com
than purely accidental coincidences. | Wide Ind. Stud. II. 166. It is greatly to be desired that this important work were given to the public with the least possible delay. It
panions (of the Prince) were gradually, one by one, caught and shut up in the cave. Seeing that none of them came back, Vijay a became anxious, went after them, and also
contains the conversations held by the Yavana king of
Sagala, Milinda (Menandros, cf. Ind. Skizzen p. 83, reigned according to Lassen, Ind. Alt. II. 327 and p. xxiv, from 144 B.C.), with the Buddhist priest Nāgasena ; but as yet we have been made acquainted only with extracts from it, in Hardy. Cf. Ind. Stud. III. 359.
Wide Ind. Streifen II, 216. I, 370.
+ Cap. VII. vide Turnour, p. 48. I think it advisable to give here the Indian version in detail. When Vijaya, sent into exile on account of his insolence by his father
Sihabāhu, King of Lāla, landed on Laſikä with 700 compa nions exhausted by the fatigues of the voyage, they imme
diately fell in with the tutelary divinity of the island, the god Up p a la v. a p_n a (Vishnu), who was sitting, in the form of a p a rib, b a ja ka (“devotee,” Turnour), at the foot of a tree, for the purpose of receiving them and them with a counter-charm against enchantment (Cf. Od. X, 277,287. Lane, Arabian Nights III. 299,307). In reply to their enquiry, he told them the name of the island, then besprinkled them , with water out of his pitcher, tied “ (charmed) threads on their arms” (suttam, tesam hatthesu laggetvá) and vanished. . Immediately thereafter there appeared to them a Yaksha female attendantin a canine form. Although the Prince warned him not to do so, yet one of the men followed her, saying to himself, “Where you
§§§
º presence of her mistress, the Yak
see dogs, you may look for a village.” And so he found himself in the
khini Kuveni (“with bad plaited hair” 2 or “bad, wick
edly plaiting” 2) who (near a tank) was sitting spinning (Od. X, 220) under a tree, “in the character of a devotee” (tápasi'viya). . When he saw this tank and the anchoress sitting beside it, he bathed and drank from it, and collected
arrived at the tank.
Then he saw that there were no foot
steps of any that had come out (apassi m'uttinnapadam : mä is probably used here for na 2 Turnour has “he could perceive footsteps leading down only into the tank”; but there is nothing of the sort in the text); but he saw the anchoress, and he thought : “I shouldn't wonder if she has caught hold of my attendants.” So he asked her : “Now, hast thou not seen my attendants?” She said : “What are thy attendants to me, Prince Drink and bathe " Then he perceived—“She is a Y a k k h in i (enchantress) she
knows my rank :” and, resolved in a moment, bending his bow and naming his own name, he sprang on her, caught her by the neck with a näråcha-noose, seized her hair with his left hand, drew his sword with his right (Od. X, 294,321) and said: “Slave, deliver up my attendants : or I will put thee to death.” Struck with terror, she begged for her life: “Lord, grant me life : I will give thee a kingdom, I will serve thee as thy wife, and do everything that thou may'st wish.” In order to avoid the risk of a similar danger being repeated, he made her swear on oath (Od. X, 299, 343). Forthwith she restored to him his attendants, and, because
she saw that they were exhausted (Od. X,463), she set before them rice and other food, and all kinds of ships' stores, once the property of merchants who had formerly fallen a prey
to her. The attendants prepared the rice, &c., and they
enjoyed, with the Prince, a delicious meal. The Y . . k
. in i also received
some of it to taste ; and she was in
consequence so delighted, that she changed her form into that of a maiden of sixteen. Having adorned her person with splendid attire, the Māra-wife (Māranganā: Turnour has erroneously : “lovely as Māranga approached he Prince, and speedily conquered his heart. Under a trees the caused a sumptuous bed to arise, enclosed with curtains as with a wall, and perfumed with the most fragrant odours
..",
