The Holy City (Benares)

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M.R. Sen, 1912 - 280 pages

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Page 9 - ... metropolis. Commerce had as many pilgrims as religion. All along the shores of the venerable stream lay great fleets of vessels laden with rich merchandise. From the looms of Benares went forth the most delicate silks that adorned the balls of St. James's and of Versailles, and in the bazaars the muslins of Bengal and the sabres of Oude were mingled with the jewels of Golconda and the shawls of Cashmere.
Page 131 - Tis the Great Spirit wide diffused Through everything we see, That with our spirits communeth Of things mysterious — Life and Death, Time and Eternity ! I see Him in the blazing sun, And in the thunder-cloud : I hear Him in the mighty roar, That rusheth through the forest hoar, When winds are piping loud.
Page 42 - ... above us — it was then that I understood, for the first time, a little of that message proclaimed by my ancestors on the banks of the Ganges thirty centuries ago: "They who see but one, in all the changing manifoldness of this universe, unto them belongs Eternal Truth — unto none else, unto none else".
Page 42 - But the quality of the imagination is to flow, and not to freeze. The poet did not stop at the color or the form, but read their meaning; neither may he rest in this meaning, but he makes the same objects exponents of his new thought.
Page 184 - On the western wall was emblazoned a representation of the deity, consisting of a human countenance looking forth from amidst innumerable rays of light which emanated from it in every direction, in the same manner as the sun is often personified with us.
Page 184 - Gold, in the figurative language of the people was "the tears wept by the sun", and every part of the interior of the temple glowed with burnished plates and studs of the precious metal. The cornices, which surrounded the walls of the sanctuary, were of the same costly material; and a broad belt or frieze of gold, let into the stone-work, encompassed the whole exterior of the edifice.
Page 65 - For, indeed, the greatest glory of a building is not in its stones, nor in its gold. Its glory is in its Age, and in that deep sense of voicefulncss, of stern watching, of mysterious sympathy, nay, even of approval or condemnation, which we feel in walls that have long been washed by the passing waves of humanity.
Page 18 - At the mouth of the Indus dwell a seafaring people, active, ingenious, and enterprising, as when, ages subsequent to this great movement, they themselves, with the warlike denizens of the Punjab, were driven from their native land to seek the far- distant climes of Greece. The commercial people dwelling along the coast that stretches from the mouth of the Indus to the Coree, are embarking on that emigration whose magnificent result to civilization, and whose gigantic monuments of art, fill the mind...
Page 30 - Sanskrit literature as a means of preserving and popularizing the best thought and culture of the Hindus, and all that was good and great in the ancient civilization of India...
Page 125 - I find myself a puissant monarch, the shadow of God upon earth. I have seen that he bestows the blessings of his gracious providence upon all his creatures without distinction. Ill should I discharge the duties of my exalted station; were I to withhold my compassion -and indulgence from any of those entrusted to my charge. With all of the human race, with, all of...

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