HISTORY OF not an important one, and may be left unsolved. The narrative is as follows: INDIA. PART II. Sad procession of the women Kurukshetra. The women sit by the dead bodies of their husbands. Gándhárí over hana. After this all the women dishevelled their hair, and to the plain of offered up loud lamentations, and proceeded to the fatal plain of Kurukshetra; and there they beheld the dead bodies of their husbands and fathers, sons and brothers, who had been slain in the war. And each of the women went and sat down by the remains of him whom she had most loved, and whose death had caused her the greatest affliction. And Gándhárí and Kuntí, accompanied by Yudhishthira and Krishna, went to the dead body of Duryodhana; and when Lamentations of Gándhárí saw that it was her own son, she fell down in a her son Duryod- swoon; and after a long interval she revived, and said:"The wise and the learned always used to sit round this son of mine, and nearly all the Rajas of the earth took their stations near him, and prided themselves on it as a promotion, but this night the jackals alone have been his courLamentations of tiers." The widow of Duryodhana likewise came with her hair dishevelled, and placed her husband's head upon her lap, and seated herself there; and Gándhárí said :-"This woman, whom neither sun nor moon were once worthy to look upon, see how she now sits here bare-headed!" There too was the widow of the son of Duryodhana, and the widow of Karna, and the widow of Abhimanyu, and many others; and Gándhárí and all those widows bemoaned their several relations with so many tears, that none of those who were present could refrain from joining them in weeping. the widows. Performance of the funeral rites for the slain. Collection of materials for the burning. After this, Maháraja Dhritarashtra said to Yudhishthira :-"My son, be pleased now to order that all the dead bodies should be burned." And Dhritarashtra and Yudhishthira jointly requested Vidura to superintend the performance of the ceremony. And Vidura, who was the uncle of the Kauravas and Pándavas, and Sanjaya, the charioteer of the Maharaja, and Yuyutsu, the only surviving son of the Maharaja, and Dhaumya, the family priest of the Pándavas, all went out together to the field of battle. And they collected a large quantity of sandal and other odoriferous woods, and sweet oils, to form a pile on which to burn the INDIA. PART II. the Rajas recog charioteers. Rajas of the first bodies of the principal warriors, such as Duryodhana, Karna, HISTORY OF Abhimanyu, Drona, and others; and they also collected many thousand mule-loads of faggots and oil to burn the bodies of those of inferior note. And they ordered all the surviving Dead bodies of charioteers of those Rajas who had been slain, to go through nized by their the plain and point out the corpses of their respective masters, so that such Rajas might be burned separately according to their rank. And they took with them a thousand cart-loads of cloths, some fine and others coarse, to wrap up the dead bodies before burning. Then Vidura, and those appointed with him, went over the plain of Kurukshetra; and they first took up with all reverence and ceremony the corpse of Duryodhana and burned it. Next the Rajas of the first Burning of the rank were wrapped in fine linen and burned with perfumes; rank. and amongst these were the other sons of Dhritarashtra, and the sons of Draupadí, and Abhimanyu, and Drona, and Karna, and the greater Rajas, such as Raja Drupada and his son Dhrishta-dyumna, and Raja Viráta, and Raja Jayadratha, and Raja Sálya, and many others. When this burning had been accomplished they kindled a mighty fire and burned Burning of the remaining all the remaining bodies therein. After this, Yudhishthira bodies. and his brethren, accompanied by Krishna, went to bathe in Bathing in the the Ganges according to the rule; and taking up a handful sprinkling of of water for each kinsman that had been slain in the battle, they sprinkled it in the name of the deceased; and Yudhishthira, at the request of his mother Kuntí, sprinkled some water in the name of Karna. And Raja Yudhishthira and Sorrow of Yudhis brother Arjuna grieved very much for the death of Arjuna for the Karna; and the Raja ordered great charities to be distributed in the name of Karna, and he took under his own protection all Karna's women and young children, and provided for all his remaining dependents. And he called for one of Karna's sons, who was sixteen years of age, and wept in his presence very much for the death of Karna; and he gave him a large Kindness of separate establishment and estate, and paid more attention to all the to him than he did to his own sons; and he placed him dren, and deunder Arjuna to teach him archery and all other military Karna. exercises. And he showed also great tenderness and affec Ganges, and water. hishthira and death of Karna. Yudhishthira, widows, chil pendents of INDIA. PART II. Death of the chief wife of Karna. HISTORY OF tion to the rest of Karna's children, and entertained his widows with all the kindness of a near kinsman. But when the principal wife of Karna, and mother of most of his children, heard of the death of her husband, she heaved a deep sigh and expired; and the rest of Karna's widows were better provided for by Yudhishthira than even his own women, and they had regular appointments for their maintenance. Review of the foregoing narra ing of the slain. Refers to an ante-Brahmanic period. The picture furnished by the foregoing narrative tive of the burn of the burning of the slain apparently refers to a very ancient period of Hindú history. The prominent features are indicated with a realism which seems to have appertained to the original tradition; -the poor widows, with their long black hair dishevelled over their faces, sitting in an agony of grief by the corpses of those they loved; the charioteers searching over the plain for the remains of their masters; the dead bodies wrapped in cloths and burning with oils and perfumes upon the funeral Sati nor satisfac piles. But there is no reference to the hateful Satí, No reference to tory allusion to the Brahmans. 2 A more detailed account of the funeral ceremonies of the ancient Hindús will be found in the Rámáyana, and will consequently appear in the second volume of the present work. The whole ceremony bears a remarkable resemblance to the burning of Hector, which has thus been felicitously translated by the Earl of Derby (Iliad, Book xxiv.): "At length the aged Priam gave command: 'Haste now, ye Trojans, to the city bring He said and they the oxen and the mules Nine days they laboured, and brought back to Troy Brave Hector out; and on the funeral pile While yet the rosy-fingered morn was young Round noble Hector's pyre the people pressed: The range of fire, they poured the ruddy wine, And quenched the flames: his brethren then and friends INDIA. PART II. Account of the liberality and played by Yudhishthira to wards the family of Karna no burning of the widows with their deceased hus- HISTORY OF bands; and it is somewhat remarkable that the Bráhmans do not appear to have officiated upon the occasion. The only point however which requires explanation, is the extraordinary liberality and kind- kindness disness displayed by Yudhishthira towards the family of Karna. It should however be remembered that ascribed to a mythical origin. according to the myth already indicated, Karna was the son of Kuntí before her marriage to Pandú; and consequently these details may have been inserted to prove that Yudhishthira was not wanting in duty to the family of his deceased elder brother. Collected from the pile the whitened bones; With stone in ponderous masses covered o'er; And raised a mound." In the historic period a considerable refinement was introduced by the Greeks, inasmuch as the bodies of the slain were not burned but buried. Thus the Athenians who fell at Marathon were interred on the field of battle; whilst the bodies of those who fell in the first year of the Peloponnesian war were preserved, and ultimately arranged in coffins of cypress wood, according to tribes, and publicly buried with every honour in the fairest suburb of the city.Thucydides, Book ii. c. 34, et seq. CHAPTER XV. HISTORY OF installation of Raja under the nominal sovereignty of Maháraja Dhritar áslitra. THE INSTALLATION OF RAJA YUDHISHTHIRA. AFTER the burning of the slain, Yudhishthira and his brethren proceeded in triumph from the plain of Narrative of the Kurukshetra to the city of Hastinápur, and there Yudhishthira as Yudhishthira was inaugurated as Raja in the room of Duryodhana, under the nominal sovereignty of the Maharaja. The details of this procession, and the subsequent ceremonies of installation demand no preliminary explanation, and may be simply narrated as follows: Disinclination of Yudhishthira to be appointed Raja. Triumphant procession from the plain of Kurukshetra. Now when Raja Yudhishthira beheld the dead bodies of his kinsmen, who had been slain on the plain of Kurukshetra, his heart failed him, and he said that he would not accept the Raj, but would retire into the jungle, and spend the remainder of his days in religious devotion; but those around him offered many topics of consolation to him, and after a while his grief left him, and he prepared himself to undertake the duties of Raja under his uncle, Maharaja Dhritaráshtra. So when all things had been made ready for his progress from the field of Kurukshetra to the city of Hastinápur, he ascended a chariot which was drawn by sixteen white mules. And Bhíma took the reins and seated himself as his charioteer, and bards and eulogists surrounded his chariot on all sides and recited his praises; and Arjuna held the royal umbrella over his head, and his two younger brothers, Nakula and Sahadeva, walked one on each side of his |