INDIA. PART III. with the daughter of the Raja as to their re- HISTORY OF spective ranks, which is carried on with considerable spirit, and terminates in an unexpected and amusing manner. referred to the Brahmanic age. The period in which the events seem to have transpired may be easily inferred from the surrounding circumstances. The story contains no satisfac- The story to be tory traces of the Vedic age, and evidently belongs to an early period in the Brahmanic age; inasmuch as the interest turns first upon the Brahmanical rule that a pupil is prohibited from marrying the daughter of his preceptor; and secondly, upon a primitive assertion of Brahmanical supremacy over a superstitious and barbarous tribe. There is one remarkable feature in the story which is of some historical importance. It will be seen that Sukra, the father of Devayání, was not the priest and preceptor of a tribe of Aryans, or Devatás, but of a tribe of Daityas; and the Daityas were the dark-complexioned aborigines who are generally represented as the enemies of the Aryans. From this circumstance it may be inferred The Brahmans that the Brahmans were not originally a tribe or na- class officiating tionality, but a professional class of priests who were and aborigines. as ready to officiate for one race as for another, for the Turanian aborigines of the country as well as for the Aryan invaders. The same circumstance also throws some light upon the means by which the Brahman missionaries, who made their way into the territories of the aborigines, established their ascendancy over the rude and barbarous tribes who appear in the Rig-Veda as the enemies of the Aryans. The legends respecting Devayání may now be related as follows: a professional for both Aryans HISTORY OF INDIA. PART III. Sukra, priest of the Daityas. Vrihaspati, priest of the Devatás. Love passages between Kanju, kra, and Deva ter of Sukra. his pupil from Daityas. 1. Refusal of Kanju to marry Devayání. In days of old when the Daityas and Devatás were at war for the government of the world, Sukra was the priest and preceptor of the Daityas, and Vrihaspatí was the priest and preceptor of the Devatás; and Kanju, the son of Vrihaspatí, became a pupil in the house of Sukra. Now Sukra had a daughter named Devayání; and she the pupil of Su- and Kanju passed their time very pleasantly together; for vání, the daugh- both were very young, and Kanju always reverenced Devayání as though she were his own sister, and rendered her every service as though he were her brother. Sometimes she sang to him, and sometimes he sang to her, or he would relate to her famous stories of ancient times; and Devayání began to feel a deep love for her father's pupil, and could Sukra delivers never be happy save in the presence of Kanju. But all this the wrath of the while the Daityas were wroth that their priest Sukra should teach all his spells and mantras to the son of the priest of their enemy. One day when Kanju was taking his tutor's cows to pasture, the Daityas carried him off; and Devayání seeing the cows return home without him, immediately told her father, who thereupon compelled the Daityas to restore the youth. After this when Kanju had gone into the jungle to gather flowers for the sacrifice, the Daityas again found him and carried him away; and Devayání went to her father, and acquainted him with what the Daityas had done, but Sukra refused to interfere, saying:-"I cannot be always compelling the Daityas to restore Kanju." Then Devayání urgently entreated her father, and said:-"O father, this youth is the son of Vrihaspatí and the grandson of Angiras, and he has served you better than a son, and if you do not interfere I will not live another day." So Sukra threatened the Daityas that he would pronounce a curse upon them unless they delivered up Kanju; and they, being sore afraid of the Brahman, permitted the young man to return to the house of his preceptor. Kanju prepares to return to his father's house. Now when the years of the studentship of Kanju were INDIA. PART III. fully accomplished, he desired to leave his tutor and take up HISTORY OF his abode in his father's house; and Sukra, having taught him all he knew, spoke very kindly to him, and permitted him to take his leave. Then Kanju went to Devayání and prayed her also to permit him to depart; but Devayání said: Devayání pro-"O Kanju, I have long nourished an entire friendship for poses marriage. you: Do you now demand me of my father in marriage, and monstrates. espouse me in proper form." Kanju replied :-"Your father Kanju declines. is the same to me as my father, and you are my perfect sister: How then can I ask for you in marriage? Moreover, you are the daughter of my tutor, and I have served you with clasped hands as a sign of reverence: How then can I take you for a wife, and suffer you to serve me?" Devayání Devayání resaid:"If a young man be instructed by a preceptor he does not thereby become the son of his preceptor: You are the son of the Bráhman Vrihaspatí, and I am the daughter of the Brahman Sukra, and there has always been a firm alliance between your family and mine, and for a very long time there has been a friendship between you and me: How then can it be in any way improper for you to demand me of my father in marriage?" But Kanju still persisted in Kanju persists. his refusal, saying:-"I am the son of your father, and I will never presume to ask your father to give you to me; for you are the daughter of my tutor, and have the right of sisterhood in regard to me." Then Devayání was very Devayání curses wroth, and said:-" As you have refused to accede to my wishes, I pronounce this curse, that all the mantras you have learned of my father may prove of no avail when you utter them." Kanju replied:-"I have served you for many Kanju curses years, and it is my profound respect for you, as the daughter of my tutor, that prevents my asking for you in marriage: So as you have cursed me unjustly I also curse you that no Bráhman shall ever demand you in marriage; and that you shall only marry a Kshatriya." So saying, Kanju threw himself at the feet of Devayání, and declared that he was her servant'; and then he went his way to his father's house, and she saw him no more. Kanju. Devayání. HISTORY OF Devayání, the priest, and Sarmishtha, the daughter of the Raja, take their pleasure in the Quarrel of De vayani and Sar mishthá about respective fathers. their 2. Devayání pushed into a well by Sarmishthá. Some time after this, Devayání went out into the daughter of the jungle, accompanied by Sarmishthá, the daughter of the Raja of the Daityas, and a number of other young damsels of the tribe, to take their pleasure amongst the trees and jungle. flowers. On reaching a pleasant pool, the damsels threw off and went into the water to bathe, when it so garments the rank of their happened that Váyu, the god of the wind, passed by, and seeing their clothes upon the bank, he mingled them up together. Accordingly, when the damsels came out of the water, some of them put on the clothes which belonged to the others, and Sarmishthá put on the dress of Devayání, and Devayání put on the dress of Sarmishthá. Devayání then said to the daughter of the Raja :-"My father is a Brahman, and yours is a Kshatriya, and therefore it does not become you to flaunt about in my clothes." Sarmishthá replied " When my father sits in Council, your father enters with clasped hands and pays him reverence; so what honour can I gain by wearing your clothes? If you say another word about it, I will order my maids to Devayani push beat you and thrust you out of the city." Devayání replied ed into the well. with a scowl so bitter, that Sarmishthá slapped her face, and pushed her into a dry well, and leaving her there returned with her other companions to the city. Devayání de well by Raja Yayati. Now it so happened that a great Raja named Yayáti was livered from the hunting that very day in the same jungle, and being very thirsty he approached the well, where instead of water he saw a beautiful young damsel. Accordingly, the Raja asked her who she was, and what she was doing in that well; and when he had heard her story he stretched his right arm into the well and bade her take his hand. So the Raja took hold of her hand and drew her out of the well, and she uttered a blessing upon him, and he then took leave of her and returned to his own city. Devayání refuses to return to the city of the Daityas. 3. Vindictiveness of Devayání. Devayání then proceeded a little way in the direction of INDIA. PART III. with the Raja's fuses to be com her father's house, when she was met by her own maid who HISTORY OF had come out to rescue her, and who wept very much at seeing her; but she told the girl that it was no time for weeping, and that she had better go and tell Sukra what had happened, for that she herself would never enter the city again. The maid carried the story to Sukra, and he Anger of Sukra was exceedingly wroth at hearing that his daughter had daughter. been pushed into the well by the daughter of the Raja. He set off for the jungle, and taking Devayání in his arms, he bade her not to grieve, for whatever might have been her offence against the Princess, it had been more than wiped away by the insult she had received. But Devayání was Devayání redetermined that her father should procure her revenge, and forted. she said that she cared very little about being thrust into a well, in comparison with hearing that her own father stood with clasped hands in the presence of Sarmishtha's father, and begged alms of him, and that it was because of this saying of Sarmishtha that she was resolved upon never again entering the city. Sukra desired her not to be troubled about that matter, for he never stood with clasped hands in the presence of the Raja, and asked alms of him, but the Raja stood in that posture before him; and the Raja and his tribe were his slaves, for without his prayers they could never procure the rains to fall in proper season. But Devayání refused to be pacified; and though he discoursed to her upon the merit of patience and longsuffering, and of repaying good for evil, she declared that her heart still burned with the taunts of Sarmishthá, and that it was better to die than to live with such insolent people. to abandon the tyas. Sukra, seeing his daughter in such affliction, was greatly Sukra threatens grieved, and he went to the palace, and found the Raja sitting Raja of the Daiwith his Council. And he was received with every respect by all present, and invited to take the highest seat; and after a short pause, he spoke to the Raja as follows:-" He who does evil to another will certainly reap the fruits of that evil, either in his own person or in the persons of his posterity: I am a man of mortifications and penances who has fallen amongst you, and of me you have received nothing |