Transcriber’s Notes

Inconsistent punctuation has been silently corrected.

Obvious misspellings have been silently corrected, and the following corrections made to the text. Other spelling and hyphenation variations have not been modified.

[Contents]Page number for chapter CXXXIX in table of contents, corrected from 342-> 742. [Contents] Page number for chapter CLXV in table of contents, corrected from 808-> 880. [Contents]Page number for chapter CLXXXXIV in table of contents, corrected from 1745-> 1045. [Page 570, section 16] missing line “nihilo nihil reverti posse; there the whole universe is a void nothing).” added from from the Parimal edition. [Page 653, section 12] fool-> foul [Page 658, section 9] with -> without [Page 708, section 55] there was darkness nor day -> there was darkness nor day [Page 799, section 7] of one's or bad -> of one's good or bad [Page 980, section 17] creator-> creation [Page 901, section 1] He who is delighted -> He who is delighted [Page 901, section 2] whose mind is moved -> whose mind is moved

The spelling of Sanskrit words are normalized to some extent, including correct/addition of accents where necessary. Note that the author uses á, í, ú to indicate long vowels. This notation has not been changed.

The LPP edition (1999) which has been scanned for this ebook, is of poor quality, and in some cases text was missing. Where possible, the missing/unclear text has been supplied from another edition, which has the same typographical basis (both editions are photographical reprints of the same source, or perhaps one is a copy of the other): Bharatiya Publishing House, Delhi 1978.

A third edition, Parimal Publications, Delhi 1998, which is based on an OCR scanning of the same typographical basis, has also been consulted.

The term “Gloss.” or “Glossary” probably refers to the extensive classical commentary to Yoga Vásishtha by Ananda Bodhendra Saraswati (only available in Sanskrit).

Angle brackets: <...> have been used by the transcriber to indicate editing of the text to insert missing words. The translator (in a very few places) uses square brackets [...].

THE
YOGA-VÁSISHTHA-MAHÁRÁMÁYANA.

VOL. IV (part 2)

THE
YOGA-VÁSISHTHA
MAHÁRÁMÁYANA
OF
VÁLMÍKI

in 4 vols. in 7 pts.
(Bound in 4.)

Vol. 4 (In 2 pts.)
Bound in one.

Containing
The Nirvana-Prakarana, Uttaradha

Translated from the original Sanskrit
By
VIHARI LALA MITRA

THE
YOGA-VÁSISHTHA-MAHÁRÁMÁYANA

CHAPTER CVI.
Invalidation of the Doctrine of Cause and Effect.

Argument:—Arguments in proof of the intellectual vacuum, and the representation of the world therein.

Ráma said:—Tell me again, O Venerable sir, how is intellectual vacuity which you say to be the entity of Brahma; because I am never satiate to hear the holy words, distilling as ambrosia from your lips.

2. Vasishtha replied:—I have fully explained to you that the two states of sleeping and waking imply the same thing; as the twin virtues of composure and self-controul are both the same, though they are differentiated by two names.

3. There is in reality none difference of them, as there is none between two drops of water; they are both the one and same thing, as the vacuous essence of Brahma and the Intellect.

4. As a man travelling from country to country, finds his self consciousness to be every where the same; so and the very same is the Intellect, which dwells within himself in its vacuous form, and is styled the intellectual sphere.

5. This intellectual sphere is as clear, as the etherial sky; wherein the earthly arbours display their verdure, by drawing the moisture of the earth by their roots. (This passage rests on a text of the Sruti; and means that the intellectual sphere of men as the sky of trees is always clear, though they live upon the sap of earth).

6. Again the intellectual sphere is as calm and quiet, as the mind of a man, who is free from desires and is at rest in himself; and whose composure is never disturbed by anything.

7. Again the intellectual sphere is like the quiet state of am; who had got rid of his busy cares and thoughts, reposes himself at ease; before he is lulled to the insensibility of his sleep.

8. Again as trees and plants growing in their season, rise in and fill the sky, without being attached to it; such also is intellectual sphere, which is filled by rising worlds after worlds, without being touched by or related to any.

9. Again the intellectual sphere, is as clear as the cloudless sky; and as vacant as the mind of the saintly man, which is wholly purified from the impressions of visibles, and its thoughts and desires are about any thing in the world.

10. The intellectual state is as steady as those of the stable rocks and trees; and when such is the state of the human mind, it is then said to have attained its intellectuality (or else its restless state is called the active mind and not the intellect).

11. The intellectual chasm, which is void of the three states of the view, viewer and visibles (or the subjective and objective); is said to be devoid also of all its modality and change. (It means the imperceptibility of soul).

12. That is called the intellectual sphere, where the thought of the various kinds of things, rise and last and set by turns, without making any effect of change in its immutable nature.

13. That is said to be the intellectual sphere, which embraces all things, and gives rise to and becomes everything itself; and which is permeated throughout all nature for ever.

14. That which shines resplendent in heaven and earth, and in the inside and outside of everybody with equal blaze; is said to be the vacuity of the intellect.

15. It extends and stretches through all, and bends altogether, connected by its lengthening chain to infinity; and the vacuity of the intellect envelops the universe, whether it rises before us an entity or non-entity.

16. It is the intellectual vacuum which produces everything, and at last reduces all to itself; and the changes of creation and dissolution, are all the working of this vacuity. (But how can the vacuous nothing produce any thing from itself or reduce any into it (Ex nihilum nihil fit, et in nihilo nihil reverti posse; there the whole universe is a void nothing)).

17. The vacuity of the intellect produces the world, as the sleeping state of the mind, presents its sights in our dream; and as the dream is dispersed in our deep sleep, so the waking dream of the world is vanished from view, upon dispersion of its fallacy from the mind.

18. Know the intellectual vacuum to be possessed of its intellection, and as quiet and composed in its nature; and it is by a thought of it, as by twinkling or winking of the eye, that the world comes to exist and disappear by turns. (Manu calls these the waking and sleeping states of the soul, and as causes of the existence and inexistence of the world).

19. The intellectual Vacuum is found in the disquisitions of all the sástras, to be what is neither this nor that nor any thing any where; and yet as all and everything in every place and at all times. (i.e. Nothing concrete, but every thing in the abstract).

20. As a man travelling from country to country, retains his consciousness untravelled in himself; so the intellect always rests in its place in the interim, though the mind passes far and farther in an instant.

21. The world is full of the intellect, both as it is or had ever been before; and its outward sight being dependent on its ideas in the mind, gives it the form and figure as they appear unto us.

22. It is by a slight winking of its eye, that it assumes and appears in varied shapes; though the intellect never changes its form, nor alters the clearness of its vacuous sphere.

23. Look on and know all these objects of sense, with thy external and internal organs, and without any desire of thine for them; be ever wakeful and vigilant about them, but remain as quite sleepy over them.

24. Be undesirous of any thing and indifferent in your mind, when you speak to any one, take any thing or go any where; and remain as deadly cold and quiet, as long as you have to live.

25. But it is impossible for you to remain as such, so long as you fix your eyes and mind on the visibles before you; and continue to view the mirage of the world, and look upon its duality rising as two moons in the sky.

26. Know the world to be no production from the beginning; because the want of its prior cause prevents its sequence; and there is no possibility of a material creation, proceeding from an immaterial causality.

27. Whatever appears as existent before you, is the product of a causeless cause; it is the appearance of the transcendent One, that appears visible to you. (The world is the visible form of the invisible One).

28. The world as it stands at present, is no other than its very original form; and the same undual and undivided pure soul appears as a duality, as the disc of the moon and its halo present their two aspects to us.

29. Thus the strong bias, that we have contracted from our false notion of the duality; has at last involved us in the error of taking the false for true, as to believe the shadow of a dream for reality.

30. Therefore the phenomenal world is no real production, nor does it actually exist or is likely ever to come to existence; it is likewise never annihilated, because it is impossible for a nihility to be nil again.

31. Hence that thing which is but a form of the serene vacuum, must be quiet, calm and serene also; and this being exhibited in the form of the world, is of its own nature quite clear and steady, and imperishable to all eternity. (The Beo-vyom or vacuum being a void, cannot be annulled to a nullity again).

32. It is nothing what is seen before us, nor aught that is visible, is ever reliable as real; neither also is there ever a viewer for want of visible, nor the vision of a thing without its view.

33. Ráma rejoined:—If it is such, then please to explain moreover, O most eloquent sir, the nature of the visibles, their view, and viewer; and what are these that thus appear to our view?

34. Vasishtha replied:—There being no assignable cause, for the appearance of the unreal visibles; their vision is but a deception, and yet it maintained as true by the dogmatism of opponents.

35. Whatever there appears as visible to the vision of the viewer, is all fallacy and offspring of the great delusion of Máyá only. But the world in its recondite sense, is but a reflexion of the Divine mind.

36. The intellect is awake in our sleeping state, and shows us the shapes in our dream, as the sky exhibits the various in its ample garden; thus the intellect manifests itself in the form of the world in itself.

37. Hence there is no formal cause or self evolving element, since the first creation of the world; and that sparkles any where before us, is only the great Brahma Himself (not in his person or formless form, but in his spirit or intellectuality).

38. It is the sunshine of the Intellect within its own hollow sphere, that manifests this world as a reflexion of his own person.

39. The world is an exhibition of the quality, of the unqualified vacuity of the Intellect; as existence is the quality of existent beings, and as vacuity is the property of vacuum, and as form is the attribute of a material substance.

40. Know the world as the concrete counterpart, of the discrete attribute of the transcendent glory of God; and as the very reflexion of it, thus visibly exposed to the view of its beholders.

41. But there being in reality no duality whatever, in the unity of the Divinity; He is neither the reflector nor the reflexion himself; say who can ascertain what he is, or tell whether he is a being or not being, or a something or nothing.

42. Ráma rejoined:—If so it be as you say, that the Lord is neither the reflector nor reflexion, and neither the viewer nor the view (i.e. if he is neither the prototype nor its likeness, and neither the subjective nor objective); then say what is the difference between the cause and effect, what is the source of all these, and if they are unreal why do they appear as realities?

43. Vasishtha replied:—Whenever the Lord thinks on the manifestation of his intellect, He beholds the same at the very moment, and then becomes the subjective beholder of the objects of his own thought.

44. The intellectual vacuum itself assumes the form of the world, as the earth becomes a hill &c. by itself; but it never forgets itself for that form, as men do in their dream. Moreover there is no other cause to move it to action, except its own free will.

45. As a person changing his former state to a new one, retains his self consciousness in the interim, so the Divine Intellect retains its identity, in its transition from prior vacuum to its subsequent state of the plenum.

46. The thought of cause and effect, and the sense of the visible and invisible, proceed from errors of the mind and defects of vision; it is the erroneous imagination that frames these worlds, and nobody questions or upbraids himself for his error. The states of cause and effect, and those of the visible and invisible &c., are mere phantoms of error, rising before the sight of the living soul and proceeding from its ignorance, and then its imagination paints these as the world, and there is nobody that finds his error or blame himself for his blunder.

47. If there be another person, that is the cause, beholder and enjoyer of these (other than the Supreme One) then say what is that person, and what is the phenomenal, that is the point in question; or it is liable to reproof.

48. As the state of our sleep presents us only, an indiscernible vacuity of the Intellect (which watches alone over the sleeping world); how then is it possible to represent the One soul as many, without being blamed for it?

49. It is the self-existent soul alone, which presents the appearance of the world in the intellect; and it is the ignorance of this truth, which has led to the general belief of the creation of the world by Brahmá.

50. It is ignorance of this intellectual phenomenon, which has led mankind to many errors, under the different names of illusion or máyá, of ignorance or avidyá, of the phenomenal or drisya, and finally of the world or jagat.

51. The manifestation in the intellectual vacuum, takes possession of the mind like a phantom; which represents the unreal world as a reality before it, as the false phantom of ghost, takes a firm hold on the mind of an infant.

52. Although the world is an unreality, yet we have a notion of it as something real in our empty intellect; and this is no other than the embodiment of a dream, which shows us the forms of hills and cities in empty air.

53. The intellect represents itself as a hill or a Rudra, or as a sea or as the God Virát himself; just a man thinks in his dream, that he sees the hills and towns in his empty mind.

54. Nothing formal that has any form, can be the result of a formless cause (as God); hence the impossibility of the existence of the solid world, and of its formal causes of atomic elements, at the great annihilation both prior to creation, as also after its dissolution. It is therefore evident, that the world is ever existent in its ideal form only in the Divine Mind.

55. It is a mere uncaused existence, inherent in its vacuous state in the vacuous Mind; and what is called the world, is no more than an emptiness appertaining to the empty Intellect.

56. The minds of ignorant people are as glassy mirrors, receiving the dim and dull images of things set before their senses; but those of reasoning men are as clear microscopes, that spy the vivid light of the Divine Mind that shines through all. (This light is called Pratyagnánátma or the nooscopic appearance of Divine soul).

57. Therefore they are the best of men, who shun the sight of visible forms; and view the world in the light of intellectual vacuity; and remain as firm as rocks in the meditation of the steady Intellect, and place no faith or reliance on anything else.

58. The Intellect shows the revolution of the world in itself by its incessant act of airy intellection; as the sea displays its circuition throughout the watery world, by the continual rotation of its whirlpools.

59. As the figurative tree of our desire, produces and yields our wished for fruits in a moment, so the intellect presents every thing before us, that is thought of in an instant. (It is the subjective mind, that shows the objects of its thought within itself).

60. As the mind finds in itself, its wished-for gem and the fruit of its desire; in the same manner doth the internal soul, meet with its desired objects in its vacuous self in a minute.

61. As a man passing from one place to another, rests calmly in the interim; such is the state of the mind in the interval of its thoughts, when it sees neither the one nor another thing.

62. It is the reflection of the Intellect only, which shines clearly in variegated colours, within the cavity of its own sphere; and though devoid of any shape or colour, yet it exhibits itself like the vacuity of the sky, in the blueness of the firmament.

63. Nothing unlike can result from the vacuous Intellect, other than what is alike inane as itself; a material production requires a material cause, which is wanting in the Intellect; and therefore the created world is but a display of the Divine Mind, like the appearance of dreams before our sleeping minds.

CHAPTER CVII.
The Nature of Ignorance or Illusion of the Mind.

Argument:—Proof of the cosmos as the reflexion of the gem of the Intellect, and the Immateriality of the objective material world.

Vasishtha continued:—The world is the subjective Intellect and inborn in it, and not the objective which is perceived from without. It is the empty space of the Intellect which displays the noumenals in itself, and here the tripart or the triple state of the Intellect, its intellection and the chetya or intellectual combine together. (i.e. The thinking principle, its thinking and thoughts all unite together).

2. Here in its ample exhibition, all living beings are displayed as dead bodies; and I and you, he and it, are all represented as lifeless figures in a picture.

3. All persons engaged in active life, appear here as motionless blocks of wood, or as cold and silent bodies of the dead; and all moving and unmoving beings, appear to be seen here as in the empty air.

4. The sights of all things are exposed here, like the glare of the chrystalline surface of the sky; and they are to be considered as nothing, for nothing substantial can be contained in the hollow mind.

5. The bright sun-beams and the splashing waves, and the gathering vapours in the air; present us with forms of shining pearls and gems in them, but never does any one rely on their reality.

6. So this phenomenon of the world, which appears in the vacuum of the Intellect; and seems to be true to the apprehension of every body, yet it is never relied on by any one.

7. The Intellect is entangled in its false fancies, as a boy is caught in his own hobby; and dwells on the errors of unreal material things rising as smoke before it.

8. Say ye boys, what reliance can you place on your egoism and meity, so as to say “this is I and that is mine.” Ah, well do I perceive it now, that it is the pleasure of boys, to indulge themselves in their visionary flights.

9. Knowing the unreality of the earth and other things, men are yet prone to pass their lives in those vanities and in their ignorance of truth, they resemble the miners, who instead of digging the earth in search of gold, expect it to fall upon them from heaven.

10. When the want of prior and co-ordinate causes, proves a priori the impossibility of the effect; so the want of any created thing, proves a posteriori the inexistence of a causal agent (i.e. there is no creation nor its creator likewise).

11. They who deal in this uncreated world, with all the unreal shadows of its persons and things; are as ignorant as madmen, who take a hobby to nourish their unborn or dead offspring.

12. Whence is this earth and all other things, by whom are they made, and how did they spring to sight; it is the representation of the Intellectual vacuum, which shines in itself, and is quite calm and serene.

13. The minds of those that are addicted to fancy to themselves, a causality and its effect, and their time and place; are thus inclined to believe in the existence of the earth, but we have nothing to do with their puerile reasoning.

14. The world whether it is considered as material or immaterial, is but a display of the intellectual vacuum; which presents all these images like dreams to our minds, and as the empty sky shows its hues and figures to our eyes.

15. The form of the vacuous intellect is without a form, and it is only by our percipience that we have our knowledge of it; it is the same which shows itself in the form of the earth &c., and the subjective soul appears as the subjective world to our sight.

CHAPTER CVIII.
Description of the Knowledge and Ignorance Of The Soul.

Argument:—The Knowledge of the objective continuing with our ignorance of the subjective and the story of the wise prince Vipaschit, attacked by his rude enemies.

Ráma rejoined:—He whose mind is bound by his ignorance, to the bright vividness of visible phenomenal; views the palpable scenes of the noumenal, as mere his idle dreams, and as visionary as empty air.

2. Now, O sage, please to tell me again, the nature and manner of this ignorance of the noumenal; and to what extent and how long, does this ignorance of the spiritual bind fast a man.

3. Vasishtha replied:—Know Ráma, those that are besotted by their ignorance, think this earth and the elementary bodies, to be as everlasting as they believe Brahma to be. Now O Ráma! hear a tale on this subject.

4. There is in some corner of the infinite space, another world with its three lokas of the upper and lower regions, in the manner of this terrestrial world.

5. There is a piece of land therein, as beautiful as this land of ours; and is called the sama bhúmi or level land, where all beings had their free range.

6. In a city of that place, there reigned a prince well known for his learning, and who passed his time in the company of the learned men of his court.

7. He shone as handsome as a swan in a lake of lotuses, and as bright as the moon among the stars; he was as dignified as the Mount Meru or polar pinnacle among mountains, and he presided over his council as its president.

8. The strain of bards, fell short in the recital of his praises, and he was a firm patron of poets and bards, as a mountain is the support of its refugees.

9. The prosperity of his valour flourished day by day, and stretched its lustre to all sides of the earth; as the blooming beauty of lotus blossoms, under the early beams of the rising sun, fills the landscape with delight every morning.

10. That respectable prince of Bráhmanic faith, adored fire as the lord of gods, with his full faith; and did not recognize any other god as equal to him (Because agni is said to be the Brahma or father of the gods).

11. He was beset by conquering forces, consisting of horse, elephants and foot soldiers; and was surrounded by his councillors, as the sea is girt by his whirlpools and rolling waters.

12. His vast and unflinching forces, were employed in the protection of the four boundaries of his realm; as the four seas serve to gird the earth on all its four sides.

13. His capital was as the nave of a wheel, the central point of the whole circle of his kingdom; and he was as invincible a victor of his foes, as the irresistible discus of Vishnu.

14. There appeared to him once a shrewd herald, from the eastern borders of his state; who approached to him in haste, and delivered a secret message that was not pleasing unto him.

15. Lord! may thy realm be never detached, which is bound fastly by thy arms, as a cow is tied to a tree or post; but hear me relate to you something, which requires your consideration. (The word go—Gr. ge.—Pers. gao—cow, means both the earth and a cow and hence their mutual simile).

16. Thy chieftain in the east is snatched away from his post, by the relentless hand of a fever where upon he seems to have gone to the regions of death, to conquer as it were, the god Yama at thy behest.

17. Then as thy chief on the south, proceeded to quell the borderers thereabouts; he was attacked by hostile forces who poured upon him from the east and west, and killed by the enemy.

18. Upon his death as the chieftain of the west, proceeded with his army to wrest those provinces (from the hands of the enemy).

19. He was met on his way, by the combined forces of the inimical princes of the east and south, who put him to death in his half way journey to the spot.

20. Vasishtha continued:—As he was relating in this wise, another emissary driven by his haste, entered the court-hall with as great a rush, as a current of the deluging flood.

21. He represented, saying:—O lord, the general of thy forces on the north, is overpowered by a stronger enemy, and is routed from his post, like an embankment broken down and borne away by the rushing waters.

22. Hearing so, the king thought it useless to waste time, and issuing out of his royal apartment, he bade as follows.

23. Summon the princes and chiefs and the generals and ministers, to appear here forthwith in their full armour; and lay open the arsenal, and get out the horrible weapons (of destruction).

24. Put on your bodies your armours of mail, and set the infantry on foot; number the regiments, and select the best warriors.

25. Appoint the leaders of the forces, and send the heralds all around; thus said the king in haste, and such was the royal behest.

26. When the warder appeared before him, and lowly bending down his head, he sorrowfully expressed: “Lord, the chieftain of the north is waiting at the gate, and expects like the lotus to come to thy sunlike sight”.

27. The king answered:—Go thou quickly there, and get him to my presence; that I may learn from his report the sterling events of that quarter.

28. Thus ordered, the warder introduced the northern chief to the royal presence; where he bent himself down before his royal lord, who beheld the chieftain in the following plight.

29. His whole body and every part and member of it, was full of wounds and scars; it breathed hard and spouted out blood, and supported itself with difficulty.

30. While he with due obeisance, and faltering breath and voice, and contortion of his limbs, delivered this hasty message to his sovereign.

31. The chieftain said:—My lord, the three other chiefs of the three quarters, with numerous forces under them, have already gone to the realms of Yama (Pluto), in their attempt to conquer death at thy behest (i.e. to encounter the enemies on every side).

32. Then the clansmen finding my weakness, to defend thy realms alone on this side, assembled in large numbers, and poured upon me with all their strength.

33. I have with great difficulty, very narrowly escaped from them to this palace, all gory and gasping for life as you see; and pray you to punish the rebels, that are not invincible before your might.

34. Vasishtha continued:—As the yet alive and wounded chieftain, had been telling his painful story in this manner to the king; there appeared on a sudden another person entering the palace after him, and speaking to the king in the following manner.

35. O sovereign of men, the hostile armies of your enemies, likening the shaking leaves of trees, have all beset in great numbers, the skirts of your kingdom, on all its four sides.

36. The enemy has surrounded our lands, like a chain of rocks all around; and they are blazing all about with their brandishing swords and spears, and with the flashing of their forest-like maces and lances.

37. The bodies of their soldiers, with the flying flags and shaking weapons on them, appear as moving chariots upon the ground; while their rolling war-cars, seem as sweeping cities all about.

38. Their uplifted arms in the air, appear as rising forests of fleshy arbours in the sky; and the resounding phalanx of big elephants, seem as huge bodies of rainy clouds roaring on high.

39. The grounds seeming to rise and sink, with the bounding and bending of their snoring horses; give the land an appearance of the sea, sounding hoarsely under the lashing winds.

40. The land is moistened and whitened around, by the thickening froth fallen from the mouths of horses; and bears its resemblance to the foaming main, fell with its salt spray all over.

41. The groups of armed armaments in the field, resemble the warlike array of clouds in the sky; and likens to the huge surges, rising upon the surface of the sea, troubled by the gusts of the deluge.

42. The weapons on their bodies, and their armours and coronets, are shining forth with a flash that equals the flame and fire of thy valour.

43. Their battle array, in the forms of circling crocodiles and long stretching whales; resemble the waves of the sea, that toss about these marine animals upon the shore.

44. Their lines of the lancers &c., are advancing with one accord against us; and flashing with their furious rage and fire, are uttering and muttering their invectives to us.

45. It is for this purpose, that I have come to report these things to my lord, so that you will deign to proceed in battle array to the borders, and drive these insurgents as weeds from the skirts.

46. Now my lord, I take leave of you, with my bow and arrows and club and sword as I came, and leave the rest to your best discretion.

47. Vasishtha added:—Saying so, and bending lowly to his lord, the emissary went out forthwith; as the undulation of the sea disappears, after making a gurgling noise.

48. Upon this the king with his honorable ministers, his knights and attendants and servants; together with his cavalry and charioteers, the men and women and all the citizens at large were struck with terror; and the sentinels of the palace, trembled with fear, as they shouldered their arms and wielded their weapons, which resembled a forest of trees shaken by a hurricane.

CHAPTER CIX.
Fighting with the invading armies at the Gate of the City.

Argument:—Adopting ways and means to quell the disturbances of the hostile enemies.

Vasishtha continued:—In the mean while, the assembled ministers advanced before the king, as the sages of yore resorted to the celestial Indra, being invaded by the Daityas—Titans around.

2. The ministers addressed:—Lord! We have consulted and ascertained, that as the enemy is irresistible by any of the three means (of peace, dissension and bribe or concession); they must be quelled by force or due punishment.

3. When the proffer of amity is of no avail, and the offer of hostages doth also fail; it is useless to propose to them, any other term for a reconciliation.

4. Vile enemies that are base and barbarous, that are of different countries and races, that are great in number and opulence; and those that are acquainted with our weakness and weak parts; are hardly conciliated by terms of peace or subsidy.

5. Now there is no remedy against this insurrection, save by showing our valour to the enemy; wherefore let all our efforts be directed, towards the strengthening of our gates and ramparts.

6. Give orders to our bravos to sally out to the field, and command the people to worship and implore the protection of the gods; and let the generals give the war alarm with loud sounding drums and trumpets.

7. Let the warriors be well armed, and let them rush to the field; and order the soldiers to pour upon the plains in all directions, as the dark deluging clouds inundate the land.

8. Let the outstretched bows rattle in the air, and the bowstrings twang and clang all around; and let the shadows of curved bows, obscure the skies as by the clouds.

9. Let the thrilling bow strings, flash as flickering lightnings in the air, and the loud war whoop of the soldiers, sound as the growling clouds above; let the flying darts and arrows fall as showers of rain, and make the combatants glare, with the sparkling gold rings in their ear.

10. The king said:—Do you all proceed to the battle, and do promptly all what is necessary on this occasion; and I will follow you straightaway to the battle field, after finishing my ablution and the adoration of Agni—the fiery god.

11. Notwithstanding the important affairs, which waited on the king; yet he found a moment’s respite to bathe, by pouring potfuls of pure Gangá water upon him, in the manner of a grove watered by a showering of rain water.

12. Then having entered his fire temple, he worshipped the holy fire with as much reverence, as it is enjoined in the sástras; and then began to reflect in himself, in the following manner.

13. I have led an untroubled and easy life, passing in pleasure and prosperity; and have kept in security all the subjects of my realm stretching to the sea.

14. I have subdued the surface of the earth, and reduced my enemies under my foot; and have filled the smiling land with plenty, under the bending skies on all sides.

15. My fair fame shines in the sphere of heaven, like the clear and cooling beams of the lunar orb; and the plant of my renown, stretches to the three worlds, like the three branches of Gangá.

16. I have lavished my wealth, to my friends and relatives, and to respectable Bráhmans; in the manner, as I have amassed my treasures for myself; and I quenched my thirst with the beverage of the cocoanut fruits, growing on edges of the four oceans. (That is to say:—his realms were चतुराब्धिसोमा or bounded by the four oceans on all sides).

17. My enemies trembled before me for fear of their lives, and they groaned before me as croaking frogs with their distended pouches, and my rule extended over and marked the mountains, situated in the islands amidst the distant seas.

18. I have roved with bodies of siddhas, over the nine regions beyond the visible horizon; and I have rested on the tops of bordering mountains, like the flying clouds that rest on mountain tops.

19. With my full knowing mind, and my perfection in Divine meditation; I have acquired my dominions entire and unimpaired, by cause of my good will for the public weal. (It means the prince’s high attainments in spiritual, intellectual as well as territorial concerns).

20. I have manacled the lawless Rákshasas, in strong chains and fetters; and kept my cares of religious duties, and those of my treasures and personal enjoyments within proper bounds, and without letting them clash with one another.

21. I have passed my life time, in the uninterrupted discharge of those triple duties of mine; and have relished my life with great joy and renown. But now hoary old age hath come upon me, like the snow and frost fallen upon the withered leaf and dried straw.

22. Now hath old age come, and blasted all my pleasures and efforts; and after all, these furious enemies have overpowered upon me, and are eager for warfare.

23. They have poured upon me in vast numbers on all sides, and the victory is doubtful; it is therefore better for me to offer myself as a sacrifice, to the god of this burning fire, which is known to crown its worshipper with victory.

24. I will pluck this head of mine, and make an offering of it to the Fire-god (as a fit fruit to shrine; and say:—O Igneous god, I make here an offering of my head to thee).

25. I give this offering, as I have ever before given my oblations to fire; therefore accept of this also, O god, if thou art pleased with my former offerings.

26. Let the four urns of thy fiery furnace, yield four forms of mine, with brilliant and strong bodies, like that of Náráyana, with his mighty arms.

27. Thus will I be enabled, with those four bodies of mine, to meet my enemies on all the four sides; and be invulnerable like thyself, by keeping my thought and sight, ever fixed in thee.

28. Vasishtha replied:—So saying, the king took hold of a dagger in his hand; and separated the head from his body with one blow of it, as boys tear off a lotus bud from the stalk with their nails. (In many instances, the head is mentioned to be torn off by the nails).

29. As the head became an oblation, to the fire of dusky fumes; the headless trunk of the self-immolated sovereign, sprang and flew also upon the burning furnace.

30. The sacred fire, being fed with the fat and flesh of the royal carcass; yielded forth with four such living bodies, from amidst its burning flames; as it is the nature of the good and great, to make an instantaneous of fourfold, of what they receive in earnest.

31. The king sprang from amidst the fire, in his fourfold forms of his kingly appearance, and these were as luminous with their effulgence, as the radiant body of Náráyana, when it rose at first from the formless deep. (The spirit of god rising over the surface of the deep).

32. These four bodies of the king, shone forth with their resplendent lustre; and were adorned with their inborn decorations of the royal crown and other ornaments and weapons. (The fire born form allude to the Agniculas or fiery races of men).

33. They had their armours and coronets on, together with helmets, bracelets and fittings for all and every part of the body; and necklaces and ear-rings hung upon them as they moved along.

34. All the four princes were of equal forms, and of similar shapes and sizes in all the member of their bodies; and were all seated on horse back, like so many Indras riding on their Uchai-srava horses (having their ears pricked up, as in the plight of their heavenward flight).

35. They had their long and capacious quivers, full with arrows of golden shafts; and their ponderous bows and bowstrings, were equally long and strong with the god of war.

36. They rode also on elephants and steeds, and mounted on their war-cars and other vehicles in their warfare; and were alike impregnable by the arms of the enemy, both themselves as well as the vehicles they rode upon.

37. They sprang from the bosom of the sacred fire, as the flames of the submarine fire, rise from amidst the ocean, by being nourished with the oblations that were offered upon it.

38. Their flowery bodies on jewelled horses, made resplendent on all sides as four smiling faces of the moon; and their good figures looked like Hara-Hari, as if they have come out from fire and water.

CHAPTER CX.
Battle of the Wise Princes, with the Ignorant Barbarian.

Argument:—Description of the warfare before the city gates, betwixt the Royal armies and the Rude Invaders of the Realm.

Vasishtha continued:—In the mean time the battle was raging in its full fury, between the royal forces, and the hostile bands that had advanced before the city gates.

2. Here the enemies were plundering the city and villages, and there they set fire to the houses and hamlets; the sky was obscured by clouds of smoke and dust, and the air was filled by loud cries of havoc and wailing on every side.

3. The sun was obscured by the thickening shadow, of the network of arrows spread over the skies; and the disk of the sun now appeared to view: and was then lost to sight the next moment.

4. The burning fire of the incendiaries, set to flame the leaves of the forest trees; and the fire brands of burning wood, were falling as loosely all around, as the iron sleets of arrow breast were hurling through the air.

5. The flame of the blazing fire, added a double lustre, to the burnished and brandishing weapons; and the souls of the great combatants falling in battle, were borne aloft to the regions of Indra, where they were ministered by the heavenly nymphs.

6. The Thundering peals of fierce elephants, excited the bravery of bravados: and missile weapons of various kinds, were flung about in showers.

7. The loud shouts and cries of the combatants, depressed the spirits of dastardly cowards; and the hoary clouds of dust flying in the air, appeared as elephants intercepting the paths of the midway skies.

8. Chieftains eager to die in the field, were roving about with loud shouts; and men were falling in numbers here and there, as if stricken by lightnings in the battle field.

9. Burning houses were falling below, and fiery clouds dropt from above; flying arrows in the form of rocks, were rolling on high; and descending upon and dispatching to death, numbers of soldiers that were ready to die.

10. The galloping horses in the field gave it the appearance of wavy ocean afar; and the crashing of the tusks of fighting elephants, crackled like the clashing clouds in air.

11. The shafts of the arrows of the combatants, filled the forts and its bastion; and the flashing of the same on the top of it, made a glare of fire around.

12. The dashing of one another in passing to and fro, tore their garments into pieces, and the furling of flags in open air and the clashing of shield between combatants made a pat-pat noise all around.

13. The flash of the tusks of elephant, and the crash of weapons dashing on stony rocks, and the loud uproar and clangour of the battlefield, invited the elephants of heaven to join in the fray.

14. The flights of arrows, ran as rivers into the ocean of the sky; and the flying lances, swords and discuses, which were flung into the air, resembled the sharks and alligators, swimming in the etherial sea.

15. The concussion of the armours of the clamorous combatants, and the clashing of the arms in commingled warfare, represented the sounding main beset by islands.

16. The ground was trodden down to a muddy pool, under the feet of the foot soldiers; and the blood issuing out of their bodies from the wounds of the arrows, ran as river carrying down the broken chariots and slain elephants in its rapid course.

17. The flight of the winged shafts, and the falling of the battle axes, resembled the waves of the arrowy sea in the air; and the broken arms of the vanquished, floated as aquatic animals upon it.

18. The sky was set on fire, by the flames issuing forth from the clashing arms; and the celestial regions were filled with the deified souls of departed heroes, now released from the fetters of their wrinkled and decaying frames of earth.

19. Clouds of dingy dust and ashes filled the firmament, with flashes of lightnings flaming as arches amidst them; the missile weapons filled the air, as the tractile arms occupied the surface of the earth.

20. The contending combatants hooted at one another, and broke and cut their weapons in mutual contest; the cars were cleft by clashing at each other, and the chariots were reft by dashing together.

21. Here the headless trunks of the kabandhas (anthropophagi), mingled with the gigantic bodies of the vetála demons, were disastrous on every side; and there the demoniac vetála plucking their hearts for their hearty meal.

22. The bravos were tearing the arteries of the slain, and breaking asunder their arms, heads and thighs; while the uplifted and shaking arms of the Kabandhas, made a moving forest in the air.

23. The demons moving about with their open and jeering mouths, made their maws and jaws as caskets for carrion; and the soldiers passing with their helmets and coronets on, looked fiercely on all around.

24. To kill or die, to slay or to be slain, was the soldier’s final glory in the field; as it was their greatest infamy, to be backward in their giving or receiving of wounds.

25. He is the gladdener of death, who dries up the boast of soldiers and chieftains, and drains the flowing ichor of ferocious elephants (i.e. puts an end to them); and one who is entirely bent on destruction.

26. There were loud applauses given to the victory, of unboasting and unrenowned heroes; as there were the great censures, which were poured upon the nameless and dastardly cowards.

27. The rousing of the sleeping virtues of prowess and others, is as glorious to the great and strong; as the laying out of their treasures, for the protection of their protégés.

28. The proboscides of the elephants, were broken in the conflict of elephant riders and charioteers; and oozing of the fragrant fluid of ichor from their front, was altogether at a stop.

29. Elephants left loose by their flying leaders, fell into the lakes, and cried like shrill storks in them; and here they were pursued and overcome by men who inflicted terrible wounds upon them with their hands.

30. In some place the unprotected as well as the uninvaded people, being downtrodden and half dead in their mutual scuffle; fled to and fell at the feet of their king, as the daytime takes its shelter under the shining sun.

31. They being maddened by pride with the force of giddiness, became subject to death (i.e. they called death, to be re-born); as millionaires and traders seek a better place in dread of their life.

32. The red coats of soldiers, and the red flags lifted upon their arms as a wood of trees; spread a rubicund colour all around, like the adoration of the three worlds.

33. White umbrellas, resembling the waves of the Milky ocean, when churned by the Mandara mountain; covered the weapons of the soldiers under them, and made the sky appear as a garden of flowers.

34. The eulogies sung by the bards and Gandharvas, added to the valour of the warriors; and profluent liquor of the tall palma trees (i.e. the toddy juice), infused a vigour to their veins, as that of Baladeva (who fought dead drunk in battle).

35. There was the clashing of arms of the Rákshasas, who fought together in bodies; who were as big as lofty trees, and fed on carcasses, with which they filled their abodes in the caverns of mountains.

36. There was a forest of spears rising to the sky on one side, with the detached heads and arms of the slain attached to them; and there were the flying stones on another, which were flung from the slings of the combatants, and which covered the ground below.

37. There was the clapping of the arms and hands of the champions, resembling the splitting and bursting of great trees; and there was heard also the loud wailings of women, echoing amidst the lofty edifices of the city.

38. The flight of fiery weapons in the air, resembled the flying fire brands on high, with a hissing and whistling sound; and the people betook themselves to flight from these, leaving their homes and treasures all behind.

39. The lookers were flying away, from the flying darts all about, in order to save their heads; just as the timid snakes hide themselves, for fear of the devouring phoenix, darting upon them from the sky.

40. Daring soldiers were grinded under tusks of elephants, as if they were pounded under the jaws of death, or as the grapes are crushed in their pressing mills.

41. The weapons flying in the air, were repelled and broken by the stones, flung by the ballistics; and the shouts of the champions, resounded as the re-echoing yells of elephants, issuing out of the ragged caverns.

42. The hollow sounding caves of mountains, resounded to the loud shouts of warriors; who were ready to expose their dear lives and dearly earned vigour in the battle field.

43. The burning fire of firearms, and the flames of incendiarism flashed on all sides; these and mutual conflicts and chariot fightings, went on unceasingly all around.

44. The battle field was surrounded by the surviving soldiers, who were as staunch hearted as the Mount Kailása, with the strong god Siva seated therein.

45. The bravemen that boldly expose their lives in battle, enjoy a lasting life by their death in warfare, and die in their living state, by their flight from the field. (The text is very curt and says:—The brave live by dying, and die by their living).

46. Big elephants being killed in the battle field, like lotus flowers immerging into the waters of lakes; great champions were seen to stalk over the plains, as towering storks strutted on the banks of lakes.

47. Here showers of stones were falling in torrents, with a whizzing sound; and the showers of arrows, were running with a whistling noise around; and the uproar of warriors were growling in the skies. The flying weapons were hurtling through the air, and the neighing of horses, the cries of elephants and the whirling of chariot wheels, together with the hurling of stones from the height of hills, deafened the ears of men all about.

CHAPTER CXI.
The flight of the soldiers on all sides.

Argument:—Description of the Discomfiture of the Royal army, and their use of pneumatic arms.

Vasishtha continued:—Thus the war waged with the fury of the four elements, in their mutual conflict on the last doomsday of the world; and the forces on all sides, were falling and flying in numbers in and about the battle field.

2. The sky was filled with the stridor of the fourfold noise of drums and conch-shells; and the rattling of arrows and clattering of arms on all sides.

3. The furious warriors were violently dashing on one another, and their steel armours were clashing against each other, and splitting in twain with clattering noise.

4. The files of the royal forces, were broken in the warfare; they fell fainting in the field, and were lopped off as leaves and plants, and mown down as straws and grass.

5. At this time the trumpets announced the advance of king, with a peal that filled the quarters of the sky; and the cannons thundered with a treble roar, resounding with uproar of the kapa or doomsday clouds.

6. They rent asunder at the same time, the sides of the highest hill and mountains; and split in twain, the rocky shores and banks every where.

7. The king then issued forth to all the four sides, in the four fold or four parted form of himself; like the four regents of the four quarters of the sky, or like the four arms of Náráyana, stretching to so many sides of heaven.

8. Being then followed by his fourfold forces (composed of horse, elephants, war-cars and foot soldiers); he then rushed out of the confines of his city of palaces, and marched to the open fields lying out of the town.

9. He saw the thinness of his own army, and the strong armament of his enemies all around; and heard their loud clamour all about, like the wild roar of the surrounding sea.

10. Flights of arrows flying thickly through the air, appeared as sharks floating in the sea; and the bodies of elephants, moving in the wide battle field, seemed as the huge waves of the ocean.

11. The moving battalions wheeling circular bodies, seemed as the whirling eddies in the sea; and the coursing chariots with their waving flags, appeared as the sailing ships with their unfurled sails.

12. The uplifted umbrellas were as the foams of the sea, and the neighing of horses, likened the frothing of whales. The glaring of shining weapons, appeared as the flaring of falling rain under the sunshine.

13. The moving elephants and sweeping horses, seemed as the huge surges and swelling waves of the sea; and the dark Dravidian barbarians gabbled, like the gurgling bubbles of sea waters.

14. The big elephants with their towering and lowering bodies, seemed as they were mounting or dismounting from the heights of mountains, and breaking their hollow caves, howling with the rustling winds.

15. The battle field looked like the vast expanse of water, in which the slain horses and elephants seemed to be swimming as fragments of floating rocks, and where the moving legions, appeared as the rolling waves of the sea.

16. The field presented the dismal appearance of an untimely dissolution; appeared as an ocean of blood, stretching to the borders of the visible horizon.

17. The fragments of the shining weapons, showed themselves as the sparkling gems in the womb of the sea; and the movement of forces, resembled the casting of ballast stones into it.

18. The falling weapons, were as showers of gems and snow from above; and presented the appearance of evening clouds in some place, and of fleecy vapours in another.

19. Beholding the ocean like the battalion of the enemy, the king thought of swallowing it up, as the sage Agastya had sucked in the ocean; and with this intent, he remembered his airy instrument, which he thought to employ on this occasion; (and which would disperse the cloud of the hostile force like the wind).

20. He got the airy instrument, and aimed it at all sides; as when the god Siva had set the arrow to his bow on Mount Meru, to slay the demon Tripura. (This passage shows the slaughter of Tripura, when the Indo-Aryans had their habitation on Meru or the polar mountains).

21. He bowed to his god Agni—Ignis, and let fly his mighty missile with all his might; in order to repel the raging fire, and preserve his own forces from destruction.

22. He hurled his airy bolt, together with its accompaniment of the cloudy arms; both to drive off as well as to set down the fire of the enemy.

23. These arms being propelled from his octuple cross bow, burst forth into a thousand dire weapons, which ran to and filled all the four sides or quarters of the sky.

24. Then there issued forth from these, an abundance of darts and arrows; and currents of iron spears and tridents; and volleys of shots and rockets.

25. There were torrents of missiles and mallets, as well as currents of discs and battle axes.

26. There were streams of iron clubs, crows and lances; and floods of bhindipalas or short arrows thrown from the hand or through tubes; and also swashes of spring nets, and air instruments of incredible velocity.

27. There was an effusion of fire bolts, and a profluence of lightnings, as also showers of fallings shorts, and scuds of flying swords and sabres.

28. There were falls of iron arrows, and javelins and spears of great force and strength; and purling of huge snakes, that were found in mountain caves, and grew there for ages.

29. It was in no time, that the force of these flying arms, blasted the ocean of the hostile forces; which fled in full haste and hurry in all directions, as heaps of ashes before the hurricane and whirlwind.

30. The thunder showers of arms, and the driving rain of weapons, were driven away by the impetuous winds; and invading hosts hurried to all sides, as the torrent of a river breaks its embankment, and overflows on the land in the rains.

31. The four bodies of troops (consisting of horse, elephant, chariots and foot-soldiers), fled vanquished from the field to the four directions; just as the mountain cataracts precipitate on all sides during the rains.

32. The lofty flags and their posts, were torn and broken and hurled down as large trees by storm; and the forest of uplifted swords were broken to pieces, and scattered like the petals of mariche flowers over the ground.

33. The sturdy bodies of stout soldiers, were rolling as stones on the ground, and besmeared with blood gushing out of their wounds; while the groans of their agony, broke down the stoutest hearts.

34. Large elephants rolled upon the ground with their elevated tusks rising as trees; and roared aloud with their crackling sounds, vying with thunder claps and roaring clouds.

35. The clashing of the weapons against one another, was as the crashing of the branches of trees against each other; and the horses clashing on one another, sounded as the clashing of waves of the sea.

36. The crackling of war cars and their huge wheels, sounded as the rattling of the hail storm on high; and the mingled noise of the clashing of carriages, horse, elephants and foot-soldiers, sounded as the crashing of stones.

37. The harsh sound of war hoops and shouts, was loud on all sides; and cries of dying soldiers, crying “we die, we are slain,” swelled in the air all around.

38. The army appeared as a sea, and their march was as the whirling of an eddy with its gurgling sound; and the bloodshed on their bodies, exhibited the roseate hue of the evening sky.

39. The waving weapons, appeared as a lowering cloud moving upon the shore; and the ground besmeared in blood seemed as the fragment of a purple cloud.

40. The lancers, mace bearers and spearmen, seemed to bear the tall tala trees in their hands; while the cowardly crowds of men, were seen to cry aloud like the timid deer in the plain.

41. The dead bodies of horses, elephants and warriors, lay prostrate on the ground liken the fallen leaves of trees; and the rotten flesh and fat of the bruised carcasses, were trodden down to mud and mire in the field.

42. Their bones were pounded to dust under the hoofs of the horses; and the concussion of wood and stones under the driving winds, raised a rattling sound all around.

43. The clouds of dooms-day were roaring, and the winds of desolation were blowing; the rains of the last day were falling, and the thunders of destruction were clapping all about.

44. The surface of the ground was all muddy and miry, and the face of the land was flooded all over; the air was chill and bleak, and the sky was drizzling through all its pores.

45. The huts and hamlets, and the towns and villages, were all in a blaze; and the people and their cattle, with all the horses and elephants, were in full cry and loud uproar.

46. The earth and heaven, resounded with the rolling of chariots and rumbling of clouds; and the four quarters of heaven, reverberated to the twanging of his four fold bow on all the four sides.

47. The forky lightnings were playing, by the friction and clashing of the clouds; and showers of arrows and missiles fell profusely from them, with the thunder bolts of maces, and darts of spears.

48. The armies of the invading chiefs, fled in confusion from all the four sides of the field; and the flying forces fell in numbers like swarms of ants and troops of gnats and flies.

49. The myrmidons of the bordering tribes, were burnt amidst the conflagration of fiery arms; and were pierced by the fiery weapons, falling like thunderbolts upon them, from the darkened sky. The flying forces resembled the marine animals of the deep, which being disturbed by the perturbed waters of the sea, plunge at last into the submarine fire.

CHAPTER CXII.
Flight of the Foreign Foes.

Argument.—Account of the routed soldiers, and the names of their countries and places of retreat.

Vasishtha continued:—The Chedis of Deccan, who were as thickly crowded as the sandal wood of their country, and girt with girdles resembling the snakes about those trees, were felled by the battle axes, and driven afar to the southern main—the Indian Ocean.

2. The Persians flew as the flying leaves of trees, and striking against one another in their madness, fell like the vanjula leaves in the forest.

3. Then the demon-like Darads, who dwell in the caverns of the distant Dardura mountains, were pierced in their breasts, and fled from the field with their heart rending sorrow. (The Dardui is a people of Afghanistan).

4. The winds blew away the clouds of weapons, which poured down torrents of missile arms, that shattered the armours of the warriors, and glittered like curling lightnings.

5. The elephants falling upon one another, pierced their bodies and gored each other to death with their tusks; and became heaps of flesh, similar to the lumps of food with which they filled their bellies.

6. Another people of the same country, and of the Raivata mountains, who were flying from the field by night; were waylaid by the horrid Pisáchas, that tore their bodies and devoured them with voracity.

7. Those that fled to the tala and tamala forests, and to the old woods on the bank of the dasárná river; were caught by lions and tigers crouching in them; and were throttled to death under their feet.

8. The yovanas living on the coasts of the western ocean, and those in the land of cocoanut trees; were caught and devoured by sharks, in the course of their flight.