122

THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.

Sí tá's speech in favour of the ahinsa”, es pecially the protest which she raises against the attack on the R & k sh as a as inconsistent with

R 4 m a's character as a devoteef may be fairly regarded as a reflex from an old Buddhistic legend embodying this idea that: 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 Lanka and its inhabitants that can be regarded as having a direct reference to Buddhism ; on the contrary, the same gods; are invoked alike by R & van a and by R 4 m a, 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 In drajit's magical sacrifice| remind us also of the magic ritual of the Sama veda"; and they are consequently not to be con nected 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,” 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 conclu sion, 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 spe cially 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 sur face, namely, to represent R 4 m a as an incarnation of Vishnu, and to confirm the supremacy of this god over all the other gods. With respect to this

[APRIL 5, 1872.

to the poem. On account of the loose connec tion 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. 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 worki would un doubtedly receive no inconsiderable support, inas much 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 Rāmāyana, 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 Brähmans, 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 R 4 m a., which glorified him as an ideal of Buddhistic equanimity, should have been cast by the skilful hand of Valmiki into a forms 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 con nection between R 4 m a, the hero of his work, and the agricultural demi-god of the same name, the R 4 m a Hal a b h r it of the Brahmans.

I have

already called attention to this elsewhere, and have laid special stress on this point, that in the versions of the Rāma-Saga which are found in the Mahābhārata, and some of which are of consider able antiquity", a special prominence is given

matter, however, it is difficult to decide in how far

almost throughout to the fact that the reign of

Valmiki himself had this purpose in view, or whether it may not have been introduced in later additions

R 4 m a was a Golden Age, and that cultivation and

III, 13, 2 ft.

f rakshastīnám viná vairam bédho vira na yujatel|22.] aparádhád rite ná 'pi hantavyaſråkshasis twayá.

Wheeler vol. II. p. 219, 230, 20, 26.1.

Wide Muir, IV, 349 ft.; Cf. also Rim. V, 16, 41 Gorr., where Hanumant in the morning in Lan k d S had a ng a vedavidushåm krat up ravarayåjinam | susrava brahmaghosham. . . |

WI, 19, 40, 52, 21.

Wide Ind. Stud. I, 51, 52, borrowed no doubt from

the Vratána.

• • II, 109, 33, Ed. Schl.

+ Vide Lassen, Ind. A. K. I, 488-489; S. Terts IV, 142 fr. 377 ff.

Muir, Orig.

agriculture were then vigorously flourishing. The Gorresio, vol. X. p. xlvii, is at least undecided. This Buddhistic germ of R & In a '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,

had

already pointed out this fact in my treatise on the Rāma Tip. Up. p. 276 (1864,) even before D'Alwis had made us acquainted with the contents of the Dasarathaſataka. | Cf. Ind. Stud. I. 175, 277. II. 392, 410. Vorles. iber Ind. Lit. Gesch. p. 181. Rama Tapan. Upan. p. 275, (where at the same time I have made mention also of the Rāman hwäsſtra 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.

Wide infra.