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Front Matter

DEDICATION

TO MY LOVING DAUGHTERS

AMALA AND SARALA

I Dedicate this Volume

WITH

A FATHER’S BLESSING AND LOVE.

PREFACE

INDIAN poetry has been made known to English readers by distinguished English writers. A hundred years ago Sir William Jones translated the beautiful play of Sakuntalâ into English, and for the first time drew the attention of European readers to the beauty of Indian thought and poetry. H. H. Wilson followed in his footsteps, and rendered into graceful English verse some others of the best dramatic works in the Sanskrit language, and also a beautiful poem called Meghadûta. Wilson’s English translation of the Rig Veda has since been completed and published; and Mr. Griffiths has brought out a commendable metrical translation of the great epic Râmâyana. Max Müller has translated the ancient Upanishads and the Buddhist work Dhammapada into English prose; and the genius of Sir Edwin Arnold has made thousands of readers in Europe and in America familiar with the wealth of Indian thought and imagery, and the beauty of Buddhist precepts and doctrines.

The time has come for placing before English readers a carefully prepared book of selections from the entire range of ancient Indian poetry. Such a book of selections should convey something not only of the beauty of Indian poetry in general, but also of the distinctive features of the poetry of each special period,—something of the freshness and simplicity of the Vedic Hymns, the sublime and lofty thought of the Upanishads, the unsurpassed beauty of Buddhist precepts, and the incomparable richness and imagery of the later or classical Sanscrit poetry. And it seems to me that such a book, comprising specimens from the literature of successive periods, is likely to give the English reader a general bird’s-eye view of Indian poetry, Indian thought, and Indian religion.

I cannot help feeling my own unfitness for undertaking such a task in a language which is not my mother tongue. But nevertheless the reception which has been accorded to my work on Civilisation in Ancient India emboldens me to make the attempt; and I believe that the readers of my previous work, who have studied the history of ancient India through its successive periods, will feel some interest in the Lays of Ancient India, illustrating the life and thought of those periods.

The literature of ancient India, like its history, divides itself into five successive periods. The Vedic period is believed to cover five or six centuries, from 2000 to 1400 B.C.; and of the thousand hymns of the Rig Veda which have been left to us I have translated fourteen in the present volume. The freshness and joyousness of the Vedic Hymns characterise them as a true and faithful picture of the times in which they were composed.

The second or epic period is believed to cover four or five hundred years, from 1400 to about 1000 B.C. The great epics of India, the Mahâbhârata and the Râmâyana, were, in their original shape, composed in this period, and describe the deeds and wars of nations who lived in the Gangitic valley in this age. The Râmâyana has been rendered into English verse by Mr. Griffiths, and portions of the Mahâbhârata have been translated by eminent Englishmen, from Dean Milman to Sir Edwin Arnold. I have not attempted to do once more what these eminent writers have done. I have confined my selections of this period to those remarkable compositions, the Upanishads, which are among the most valuable works in the literature of the world. They show us how the Nature-worship of the Rig Veda developed itself into the worship of Nature’s God,—the Universal Soul from whom the whole universe has emanated, and into whom the whole universe will resolve itself. This is the essence of the Hindu religion and of Hindu thought, and we find this thought in its purest and best form in the Upanishads. They are in prose, but breathe the sublimest poetry, and I have ventured to translate eight passages from these venerable works into English verse.

The third period is one of seven centuries, from 1000 B.C. to the time of Alexander the Great and Chandragupta of Magadha, about 320 B.C. Philosophy and science and grammar were cultivated with remarkable success in India in this period; and the ancient sacrificial rules and social and domestic rules were also compiled in compact works. And it was in this period that Gautama Buddha was born and preached that noble religion which is now the faith of a third of the human race. The Buddhist Scriptures belong to this age, and have been faithfully preserved in the Pali language in Ceylon. The life and teachings of the Light of Asia have been told in English verse as only a true poet can tell them, and there is no room for a mere translator to go over the same ground. I have therefore only given two passages from the Buddhist Scriptures, and a few maxims from the Dhammapada.

The fourth period covers about eight centuries, from B.C. 320 to about 500 A.D., and was the age when Buddhism prevailed in India side by side with the older creed of the Hindus. The imperial Asoka the Great ruled in this period, and issued those celebrated edicts which display to us, after the lapse of over two thousand years, his power, his greatness, and his righteousness. His edicts are of course in prose, but I have taken the liberty of translating two stirring passages from them into verse in the present volume. The Institutes of Manu, in their present shape, also belong to this period, but translations of these Institutes by Sir William Jones and by Bühler are available to the English reader.

The fifth and last epoch of ancient Indian history and literature covers some seven centuries, from about 500 to 1200 A.D. The voluminous Purânas were compiled in this age, which is therefore called the Puranic age; and what is known as the Kâvya poetry belongs to this age. The lovely creations of Kâlidâsa and Bhavabhûti and a host of other poets throw a brilliant light over the first three centuries of this period, and make the task of the translator a difficult and almost an impossible one.

A number of short epics, or Kâvyas, based mostly on the great ancient epics of India, were composed in this age; and these short epics are favourite subjects of study with the modern Hindus. They convey in fact the most perfect picture that we possess of Hindu thought, Hindu poetry, and even of Hindu religion in the later times, and no book of Indian poetry can pretend to be complete without a specimen of this kind of composition. I have therefore, after giving two passages from Kâlidâsa and one from Kshemendra, translated the entire story of a short epic by Bhâravi. And if this poem, The Hunter and the Hero, occupies a large portion of the present volume, it is because it represents a class of compositions which are a favourite study with the Hindus even to the present day, and convey the feelings, the ideas, and the popular beliefs of modern Hindus.

It is well known that the Indian drama is even richer than Indian poetry, but I have refrained in this volume from giving any specimens of the drama. In the first place, a play cannot be judged by extracts, and I cannot make room for entire plays. And in the second place, I could not render them as they have been rendered by the gifted H. H. Wilson. Indeed I shall consider my labours amply rewarded if the present volume can take a humble place by the side of Wilson’s Theatre of the Hindus.

R. C. DUTT.

WIESBADEN, GERMANY, August and September 1893.

CONTENTS

I. VEDIC HYMNS.

  1. INDRA, THE RAIN-GIVER
  2. INDRA, THE SUPREME DEITY
  3. VARUNA, THE GOD OF SKY
  4. VARUNA, THE GOD OF RIGHTEOUSNESS
  5. AGNI, OR THE FIRE
  6. USHAS, OR THE DAWN
  7. SAVITRI, OR THE SUN
  8. THE GODS OF AGRICULTURE
  9. THE GOD OF PASTURE
  10. A BATTLE HYMN
  11. A BRIDAL HYMN
  12. A FUNERAL HYMN
  13. THE GOLDEN CHILD
  14. THE CREATOR

II. PASSAGES FROM THE UPANISHADS.

  1. BRAHMAN, OR THE UNIVERSAL SOUL
  2. THE LEGEND OF SATYAKÂMA
  3. THE LEGEND OF GÂRGÎ
  4. THE LEGEND OF MAITREYÎ
  5. THE LEGEND OF UMÂ
  6. THE LEGEND OF NACHIKETAS
  7. THE LEGEND OF BÂLÂKI
  8. HYMN OF THE DYING MAN

III. PASSAGES FROM BUDDHIST SCRIPTURES.

  1. BUDDHA’S BIRTH
  2. BUDDHA’S DEATH
  3. TEN PRECEPTS FROM DHAMMAPADA

IV. EDICTS OF ASOKA.

  1. MESSAGE TO HIS PEOPLE
  2. MESSAGE TO FOREIGN NATIONS

V. KÂVYA POETRY.

  1. THE PENANCE OF UMÂ
  2. THE CONQUESTS OF RAGHU
  3. MUKTÂLATÂ, PRINCESS OF CEYLON

VI. THE HUNTER AND THE HERO.

BOOK I. DRAUPADÎ’S REMONSTRANCE BOOK II. YUDHISHTHIRA’S REPLY BOOK III. VYÂSA’S INSTRUCTIONS BOOK IV. AUTUMN FIELDS BOOK V. THE HIMALAYAS BOOK VI. ARJUNA’S PENANCE BOOK VII. THE NYMPHS BOOK VIII. THE ADVENT OF INDRA BOOK IX. THE ADVENT OF SIVA BOOK X. THE BOAR HUNT BOOK XI. THE COMBAT BOOK XII. PRAYER AND BLESSING