Swayamvara, of the maiden. CHAPTER I. manical age; and thus the marriage union involved an expression of preference on the part of the bride, and became known as the Swayamvara, or "selfchoice" of the maiden. In the first instance the damsel, who was offered as a prize in archery, was permitted to exercise the power of prohibiting any objectionable candidate from entering the lists; and even after her hand was won, she was required to express her approbation by presenting the garland to the winner. In another, and apparently later, age there was no competition in arms; and the damsel simply notified her choice in an assembly of Kshatriyas by throwing the garland round the neck of the favourite suitor. Ultimately, in the age of polygamy, when daughters were kept in greater seclusion, the damsel appears to have been guided in her choice by the advice of her father or old nurse, who were present with her at her Swayamvara. But still the idea was retained that the damsel had chosen her own husband; and thus it was sometimes the boast of a handsome and heroic Raja, that he had been the chosen one in many Swayamvaras.11 This graceful institution has for centuries been driven out of India by later Brahmanical law, under which the girl has no voice in the matter, but is betrothed by her parents before reaching the age Traces amongst of maturity. The form, however, or some trace of it, still lingers amongst the modern Rajpoots. The royal maiden perhaps has no real preference, and is merely a puppet in the transaction; but a cocoa the Rajpoots. 14 See in the Markandeya Purána: there is a curious legend of a Raja named Avikshita, who had been chosen by many ladies to be their husband. nut is sent in her name to a selected Raja, and this CHAPTER I. ceremony is deemed equivalent to an offer of her hand. If the cocoa-nut is accepted, the marriage rite is performed in due course; if it is refused, the affront can only be avenged by blood.15 and immor The contrast between the ideas of the Rishis, Ideas of death and those of the Kshatriyas, as regards death and tality. immortality, cannot be so clearly indicated. The later Rishis certainly believed in the existence of the soul after death, and in places of reward and punishment to which the soul would be adjudged according to its merits or demerits. They also formed a dim conception of a deity named Yama, who was clothed with the attributes of a judge of the dead and resided in the infernal regions. But these ideas were more or less speculative and visionary; the creations of the imagination and sentiment, rather than the convictions of undoubting faith. The Kshatriyas, on the other hand, exulted in a belief in a material heaven; a heaven of all the Vedic gods with Indra and Indraní as supreme rulers like Zeus and Hera; a heaven of celestial nymphs, ambrosial nectar, and choice viands. In like manner they believed in a hell or purgatory. But their ideas of the existence of the soul in the place of purgatory may be best gathered hereafter from a description of 15 See infra, chap. viii. A still more striking relic of this ancient institution is to be found in Burma. The people of Burma are Buddhists, and claim to be descendants of the Indian Kshatriyas. Every marriageable damsel in a village places a lamp in her window during certain hours in the evening, whenever she is inclined to receive company; and the hours which custom devotes to such gatherings are universally known throughout Burma as courting time. The damsel takes her seat on a mat, and holds a kind of levee; whilst the young men array themselves in their smartest attire, and pay their visits to one or more lamp-lit houses as they feel disposed. At such social gatherings mutual attachment generally springs up, and the marriage union is the legitimate result. CHAPTER I. their funeral ceremonies. The body was burnt, and Absence of Sátí, or widow burning. the place of burning was some gloomy locality on the bank of a river, which was supposed to be haunted by ghosts. Rice and meat, as well as butter and oil, were placed upon the pile. After the burning the mourners sprinkled water and presented cakes for the refreshment of the dead man; and on certain appointed days the ghost of the deceased was propitiated in like manner by similar offerings to his shade, in the same way that Electra poured out libations on the burning-place of Agamemnon. These feasts in honour of the dead were termed Sraddhas, and are still celebrated throughout India in honour of the Pitris or ancestors.16 It is somewhat remarkable that in the ancient Vedic rite of cremation there is no authentic appearance of Sátí, or the sacrifice of the living wife or concubine in the burning-place of the dead man, in order that the female might accompany his spirit to the world of shades. It would therefore appear that the propitiation of ghosts led to no such horrible sacrifices amongst the Vedic Aryans any more than amongst the Greeks." The mourners offered cakes and water in the simple belief that the spirits of departed heroes were conscious of such pious attentions; and to this day such a faith still lingers in the affections to soften and humanize the world. 16 It is a curious proof of the intermingling of the Aryans and Turanians, that traces of this religious worship are to be found amongst both the Rajpoots of Hindustan and the so-called Turanians of the remote South. In later and Brahmanical times the rite involves not merely an offering of cakes and water to the ghosts of deceased ancestors, but a great feast to the Brahmans. 17 It will be seen hereafter that the burning of the widow with the dead body of her husband was of Rajpoot origin. cient India: old Persian, The history of ancient India under the Kshatriyas CHAPTER I. has fallen into a state of chaos. Persian traditions, History of an-, which are still accepted by educated Mussulmans, re- traditions. fer to the old city and kingdom of Ayodhya, or Oude, in the centre of Hindustan; and represent Krishna, the sovereign of Ayodhya, as the first king of India, and the first of a long line of ancient Rajas. Other traditions refer to ancient Persian invasions of India, and thus seem to indicate that the stream of Aryan culture was flowing into Hindustan from time immemorial. Others, again, refer to wars between the Rajas of Ayodhya and the Dravidian people of the Peninsula, from which it would appear that the civilization of the Dravidian populations of southern India was already in advance of that which prevailed in Hindustan.18 Two other sets of traditions have been preserved in the two Hindú epics, known as the Mahá Bhárata and Rámáyana. Those in the Malá Bhárata are grouped round the city of Delhi, anciently called Indraprastha; and are connected with a very ancient 18 The Persian traditions of the old Hindú empire of Ayodhya are too extravagant to be exhibited in detail, although they may be accepted as indications of the general character of the pre-historic period. The invasions of Roostum and Afrasiab may be regarded as representing ancient Persian and Turki invasions, although they can scarcely be treated as literal facts. Again, there is a legend that a chieftain of Kooch Behar subdued Bengal and Behar proper, and founded the ancient capital of Luknowti, or Gour; and this story may refer to some ancient revolution; though practically it is obsolete and devoid of significance. Compare Ferishta's Mussulman History, translated by Briggs, vol. i., Introductory chapter on the Hindús. One tradition has been preserved by Ferishta, which may possibly relate to a real religious movement. He mentions a certain Hindú sovereign who reigned over the whole of Hindustan, and who was persuaded by a Bráhman to set up idols. Previously the Hindús are said to have worshipped the sun and the stars like the ancient Persians. Ferishta also mentions that musicians, and the science of music, were originally introduced into Hindustan from the Dravidian kingdom of Telinga, the modern Telugu country. CHAPTER I. struggle known as the great war of Bhárata. Those War of Bharata in the Rámáyana are grouped round the city of and exile of Ráma. Main tradition of the Mahá Bharata. Ayodhya, which was the capital of a kingdom known as Kosala; and are connected with another isolated event, which is known as the exile of Ráma. The story of the great war of Bhárata refers to an early period of Vedic Aryan colonization, when the Kshatriyas had only recently crossed the river Saraswatí into Hindustan, and formed rural settlements at Hastinapur and Delhi on the upper streams of the Ganges and Jumna. The story of the exile of Ráma belongs to a much later period, when the Vedic Aryans had advanced down the valleys of the Ganges and Jumna to the centre of Hindustan, and established the great city of Ayodhya as the metropolis of the empire of Kosala. There is thus a marked difference between the rude colonists of Hastinapur and Delhi, and the more polished inhabitants of the city and court of Ayodhyá; and this difference will be readily understood by reference to the traditions of the two royal houses. The main tradition of the Mahá Bhárata has been amplified by the Brahmanical compilers into a huge unwieldy epic, which has already been subjected to a critical analysis in a separate volume. It will therefore only be necessary, in the present place, to bring such incidents and characters under review as will serve to illustrate the life and usages which find expression in the poem. These may be considered under five heads, namely: 1st. The domestic life of the ancient Rajas at Hastinapur. 2nd. The family rivalry between two branches |