The Rámáyan of Válmíki - 73

practised intense austerities, when Brahmá appeared and conferred on them
invincibility and long life. They then harassed the gods. Viśvakarmá gave
them a city, Lanká, on the mountain Trikúṭa, on the shore of the southern
ocean, which he had built at the command of Indra.… The three Rákshasa,
Mályavat and his two brothers, then began to oppress the gods, rishis,
etc.; who (Sect. 6, v. 1 ff.) in consequence resort for aid to Mahádeva,
who having regard to his protégé Sukeśa the father of Mályavat, says that
he cannot kill the Rákshasas, but advises the suppliants to go to Vishṇu,
which they do, and receive from him a promise that he will destroy their
enemies. The three Rákshasa kings, hearing of this, consult together, and
proceed to heaven to attack the gods. Vishṇu prepares to meet them. The
battle is described in the seventh section. The Rákshasas are defeated by
Vishṇu with great slaughter, and driven back to Lanká, one of their
leaders, Máli, being slain. Mályavat remonstrates with Vishṇu, who was
assaulting the rear of the fugitives, for his unwarrior-like conduct, and
wishes to renew the combat (Sect. 8, v. 3 ff.). Vishṇu replies that he
must fulfil his promise to the gods by slaying the Rákshasas, and that he
would destroy them even if they fled to Pátála. These Rákshasas, Agastya
says, were more powerful than Rávaṇa, and, could only be destroyed by
Náráyaṇa, _i.e._ by Ráma himself, the eternal, indestructible god. Sumáli
with his family lived for along time in Pátála, while Kuvera dwelt in
Lanká. In section 9 it is related that Sumáli once happened to visit the
earth, when he observed Kuvera going in his chariot to see his father
Viśravas. This leads him to consider how he might restore his own
fortunes. He consequently desires his daughter Kaikasí to go and woo
Viśravas, who receives her graciously. She becomes the mother of the
dreadful Rávaṇa, of the huge Kumbhakarṇa, of Śúrpaṇakhá, and of the
righteous Vibhishaṇa, who was the last son. These children grow up in the
forest. Kumbhakarṇa goes about eating rishis. Kuvera comes to visit his
father, when Kaikasí takes occasion to urge her son Rávaṇa to strive to
become like his brother (Kuvera) in splendour. This Rávaṇa promises to do.
He then goes to the hermitage of Gokarna with his brothers to perform
austerity. In section 10 their austere observances are described: after a
thousand years’ penance Rávaṇa throws his head into the fire. He repeats
this oblation nine times after equal intervals, and is about to do it the
tenth time, when Brahmá appears, and offers a boon. Rávaṇa asks
immortality, but is refused. He then asks that he may be indestructible by
all creatures more powerful than men; which boon is accorded by Brahmá
together with the recovery of all the heads he had sacrificed and the
power of assuming any shape he pleased. Vibhishaṇa asks as his boon that
even amid the greatest calamities he may think only of righteousness, and
that the weapon of Brahmá may appear to him unlearnt, etc. The god grants
his request, and adds the gift of immortality. When Brahmá is about to
offer a boon to Kumbhakarṇa, the gods interpose, as, they say, he had
eaten seven Apsarases and ten followers of Indra, besides rishis and men;
and beg that under the guise of a boon stupefaction may be inflicted on
him. Brahmá thinks on Sarasvatí, who arrives and, by Brahmá’s command,
enters into Kumbhakarṇa’s mouth that she may speak for him. Under this
influence he asks that he may receive the boon of sleeping for many years,
which is granted. When however Sarasvatí has left him, and he recovers his
own consciousness, he perceives that he has been deluded. Kuvera by his
father’s advice, gives up the city of Lanká to Rávaṇ.”(1031) Rávaṇa
marries (Sect. 12) Mandodarí the beautiful daughter of the Asur Maya whose
name has several times occurred in the Rámáyan as that of an artist of
wonderful skill. She bears a son Meghanáda or the Roaring Cloud who was
afterwards named Indrajít from his victory over the sovereign of the
skies. The conquest of Kuvera, and the acquisition of the magic
self-moving chariot which has done much service in the Rámáyan, form the
subject of sections XIII., XIV. and XV. “The rather pretty story of
Vedavatí is related in the seventeenth section, as follows: Rávaṇa in the
course of his progress through the world, comes to the forest on the
Himálaya, where he sees a damsel of brilliant beauty, but in ascetic garb,
of whom he straightway becomes enamoured. He tells her that such an
austere life is unsuited to her youth and attractions, and asks who she is
and why she is leading an ascetic existence. She answers that she is
called Vedavatí, and is the vocal daughter of Vṛihaspati’s son, the rishi
Kuśadhwaja, sprung from him during his constant study of the Veda. The
gods, gandharvas, etc., she says, wished that she should choose a husband,
but her father would give her to no one else than to Vishṇu, the lord of
the world, whom he desired for his son-in-law. Vedavatí then proceeds: ‘In
order that I may fulfil this desire of my father in respect of Náráyaṇa, I
wed him with my heart. Having entered into this engagement I practise
great austerity. Náráyaṇa and no other than he, Purushottama, is my
husband. From the desire of obtaining him, I resort to this severe
observance.’ Rávaṇa’s passion is not in the least diminished by this
explanation and he urges that it is the old alone who should seek to
become distinguished by accumulating merit through austerity, prays that
she who is so young and beautiful shall become his bride; and boasts that
he is superior to Vishṇu. She rejoins that no one but he would thus
contemn that deity. On receiving this reply he touches the hair of her
head with the tip of his finger. She is greatly incensed, and forthwith
cuts off her hair and tells him that as he has so insulted her, she cannot
continue to live, but will enter into the fire before his eyes. She goes
on ‘Since I have been insulted in the forest by thee who art
wicked-hearted, I shall be born again for thy destruction. For a man of
evil desire cannot be slain by a woman; and the merit of my austerity
would be lost if I were to launch a curse against thee. But if I have
performed or bestowed or sacrificed aught may I be born the virtuous
daughter, not produced from the womb, of a righteous man.’ Having thus
spoken she entered the blazing fire. Then a shower of celestial flowers
fell (from every part of the sky). It is she, lord, who, having been
Vedavatí in the Krita age, has been born (in the Treta age) as the
daughter of the king of the Janakas, and (has become) thy [Ráma’s] bride;
for thou art the eternal Vishṇu. The mountain-like enemy who was
[virtually] destroyed before by her wrath, has now been slain by her
having recourse to thy superhuman energy.” On this the commentator
remarks: “By this it is signified that Sítá was the principal cause of
Rávaṇa’s death; but the function of destroying him is ascribed to Ráma.”
On the words, “thou art Vishṇu,” in the preceding verse the same
commentator remarks: “By this it is clearly affirmed that Sítá was
Lakshmí.” This is what Paráśara says: “In the god’s life as Ráma, she
became Sítá, and in his birth as Krishṇa [she became] Rukminí.”(1032)
In the following section (XVIII.) “Rávaṇa is described as violently
interrupting a sacrifice which is being performed by king Marutta, and the
assembled gods in terror assume different shapes to escape; Indra becomes
a peacock, Yáma a crow, Kuvera a lizard, and Varuṇa a swan; and each deity
bestows a boon on the animal he had chosen. The peacock’s tail recalls
Indra’s thousand eyes; the swan’s colour becomes white, like the foam of
the ocean (Varuṇa being its lord); the lizard obtains a golden colour; and
the crow is never to die except when killed by a violent death, and the
dead are to enjoy the funeral oblations when they have been devoured by
the crows.”(1033)
Rávaṇ then attacks Arjuna or Kárttavírya the mighty king of Máhishmati on
the banks of the Narmadá, and is defeated, captured and imprisoned by
Arjuna. At the intercession of Pulastya (Sect. XXII.) he is released from
his bonds. He then visits Kishkindhá where he enters into alliance with
Báli the King of the Vánars: “We will have all things in common,” says
Rávaṇ, “dames, sons, cities and kingdoms, food, vesture, and all
delights.” His next exploit is the invasion of the kingdom of departed
spirits and his terrific battle with the sovereign Yáma. The poet in his
description of these regions with the detested river with waves of blood,
the dire lamentations, the cries for a drop of water, the devouring worm,
all the tortures of the guilty and the somewhat insipid pleasures of the
just, reminds one of the scenes in the under world so vividly described by
Homer, Virgil, and Dante. Yáma is defeated (Sect. XXVI.) by the giant, not
so much by his superior power as because at the request of Brahmá Yáma
refrains from smiting with his deadly weapon the Rákshas enemy to whom
that God had once given the promise that preserved him. In the
twenty-seventh section Rávaṇ goes “under the earth into Pátála the
treasure-house of the waters inhabited by swarms of serpents and Daityas,
and well defended by Varuṇ.” He subdues Bhogavatí the city ruled by Vásuki
and reduces the Nágas or serpents to subjection. He penetrates even to the
imperial seat of Varuṇ. The God himself is absent, but his sons come forth
and do battle with the invader. The giant is victorious and departs
triumphant. The twenty-eighth section gives the details of a terrific
battle between Rávaṇ and Mándhátá King of Ayodhyá, a distinguished
ancestor of Ráma. Supernatural weapons are employed on both sides and the
issue of the conflict is long doubtful. But at last Mándhátá prepares to
use the mighty weapon “acquired by severe austerities through the grace
and favour of Rudra.” The giant would inevitably have been slain. But two
pre-eminent Munis Pulastya and Gálava beheld the fight through the power
given by contemplation, and with words of exhortation they parted King
Mándhátá and the sovereign of the Rákshases. Rávaṇ at last (Sect. XXXII.)
returns homeward carrying with him in his car Pushpak the virgin daughters
of kings, of Rishis, of Daityas, and Gandharvas whom he has seized upon
his way. The thirty-sixth section describes a battle with Indra, in which
the victorious Meghanáda son of the giant, makes the King of the Gods his
prisoner, binds him with his magic art, and carries him away (Sect.
XXVII.) in triumph to Lanká. Brahmá intercedes (Sect. XXXVIII.) and
Indrajít releases his prisoner on obtaining in return the boon that
sacrifice to the Lord of Fire shall always make him invincible in the
coming battle. In sections XXXIX., XL, “we have a legend related to Ráma
by the sage Agastya to account for the stupendous strength of the monkey
Hanumán, as it had been described in the _Rámáyaṇa_. Rama naturally
wonders (as perhaps many readers of the _Rámáyaṇa_ have done since) why a
monkey of such marvellous power and prowess had not easily overcome Báli
and secured the throne for his friend Sugríva. Agastya replies that
Hanumán was at that time under a curse from a Rishi, and consequently was
not conscious of his own might.”(1034) The whole story of the marvellous
Vánar is here given at length, but nothing else of importance is added to
the tale already given in the Rámáyaṇa. The Rishis or saints then (Sect.
XL.) return to their celestial seats, and the Vánars, Rákshases and bears
also (Sect. XLIII.) take their departure. The chariot Pushpak is restored
to its original owner Kuvera, as has already been related in the Rámáyaṇ.
The story of Ráma and Sítá is then continued, and we meet with matter of
more human interest. The winter is past and the pleasant spring-time is
come, and Ráma and Sítá sit together in the shade of the Aśoka trees happy
as Indra and Śachí when they drink in Paradise the nectar of the Gods.
“Tell me, my beloved,” says Ráma, “for thou wilt soon be a mother, hast
thou a wish in thy heart for me to gratify?” And Sítá smiles and answers:
“I long, O son of Raghu, to visit the pure and holy hermitages on the
banks of the Ganges and to venerate the feet of the saints who there
perform their rigid austerities and live on roots and berries. This is my
chief desire, to stand within the hermits’ grove were it but for a single
day.” And Ráma said: “Let not the thought trouble thee: thou shalt go to
the grove of the ascetics.” But slanderous tongues have been busy in
Ayodhyá, and Sítá has not been spared. Ráma hears that the people are
lamenting his blind folly in taking back to his bosom the wife who was so
long a captive in the palace of Rávaṇ. Ráma well knows her spotless purity
in thought, word, and deed, and her perfect love of him; but he cannot
endure the mockery and the shame and resolves to abandon his unsuspecting
wife. He orders the sad but still obedient Lakshmaṇ to convey her to the
hermitage which she wishes to visit and to leave her there, for he will
see her face again no more. They arrive at the hermitage, and Lakshmaṇ
tells her all. She falls fainting on the ground, and when she recovers her
consciousness sheds some natural tears and bewails her cruel and
undeserved lot. But she resolves to live for the sake of Ráma and her
unborn son, and she sends by Lakshmaṇ a dignified message to the husband
who has forsaken her: “I grieve not for myself,” she says “because I have
been abandoned on account of what the people say, and not for any evil
that I have done. The husband is the God of the wife, the husband is her
lord and guide; and what seems good unto him she should do even at the
cost of her life.”
Sítá is honourably received by the saint Válmíki himself, and the holy
women of the hermitage are charged to entertain and serve her. In this
calm retreat she gives birth to two boys who receive the names of Kuśa and
Lava. They are carefully brought up and are taught by Válmíki himself to
recite the Rámáyaṇ. The years pass by: and Ráma at length determines to
celebrate the Aśvamedha or Sacrifice of the Steed. Válmíki, with his two
young pupils, attends the ceremony, and the unknown princes recite before
the delighted father the poem which recounts his deeds. Ráma inquires into
their history and recognizes them as his sons. Sítá is invited to return
and solemnly affirm her innocence before the great assembly.
“But Sítá’s heart was too full; this second ordeal was beyond even her
power to submit to, and the poet rose above the ordinary Hindu level of
women when he ventured to paint her conscious purity as rebelling:
‘Beholding all the spectators, and clothed in red garments, Sítá clasping
her hands and bending low her face, spoke thus in a voice choked with
tears: “as I, even in mind, have never thought of any other than Ráma, so
may Mádhaví the goddess of Earth, grant me a hiding-place.” As Sítá made
this oath, lo! a marvel appeared. Suddenly cleaving the earth, a divine
throne of marvellous beauty rose up, borne by resplendent dragons on their
heads: and seated on it, the goddess of Earth, raising Sítá with her arm,
said to her, “Welcome to thee!” and placed her by her side. And as the
queen, seated on the throne, slowly descended to Hades, a continuous
shower of flowers fell down from heaven on her head.’(1035)”
“Both the great Hindu epics thus end in disappointment and sorrow. In the
_Mahábhárata_ the five victorious brothers abandon the hardly won throne
to die one by one in a forlorn pilgrimage to the Himálaya; and in the same
way Ráma only regains his wife, after all his toils, to lose her. It is
the same in the later Homeric cycle—the heroes of the _Iliad_ perish by
ill-fated deaths. And even Ulysses, after his return to Ithaca, sets sail
again to Thesprotia, and finally falls by the hand of his own son. But in
India and Greece alike this is an afterthought of a self-conscious time,
which has been subsequently added to cast a gloom on the strong
cheerfulness of the heroic age.”(1036)
“The termination of Ráma’s terrestrial career is thus told in Sections 116
ff. of the Uttarakáṇda. Time, in the form of an ascetic, comes to his
palace gate, and asks, as the messenger of the great rishi (Brahmá) to see
Ráma. He is admitted and received with honour, but says, when he is asked
what he has to communicate, that his message must be delivered in private,
and that any one who witnesses the interview is to lose his life. Ráma
informs Lakshmaṇ of all this, and desires him to stand outside. Time then
tells Ráma that he has been sent by Brahmá, to say that when he (Ráma,
_i.e._ Vishṇu) after destroying the worlds was sleeping on the ocean, he
had formed him (Brahmá) from the lotus springing from his navel, and
committed to him the work of creation; that he (Brahmá) had then entreated
Ráma to assume the function of Preserver, and that the latter had in
consequence become Vishṇu, being born as the son of Aditi, and had
determined to deliver mankind by destroying Rávaṇa, and to live on earth
ten thousand and ten hundred years; that period, adds Time, was now on the
eve of expiration, and Ráma could either at his pleasure prolong his stay
on earth, or ascend to heaven and rule over the gods. Ráma replies, that
he had been born for the good of the three worlds, and would now return to
the place whence he had come, as it was his function to fulfil the
purposes of the gods. While they are speaking the irritable rishi Durvásas
comes, and insists on seeing Ráma immediately, under a threat, if refused,
of cursing Ráma and all his family.”
Lakshmaṇ, preferring to save his kinsman, though knowing that his own
death must be the consequence of interrupting the interview of Ráma with
Time, enters the palace and reports the rishi’s message to Ráma. Ráma
comes out, and when Durvásas has got the food he wished, and departed,
Ráma reflects with great distress on the words of Time, which require that
Lakshmaṇ should die. Lakshmaṇ however exhorts Ráma not to grieve, but to
abandon him and not break his own promise. The counsellors concurring in
this advice, Ráma abandons Lakshmaṇ, who goes to the river Sarayú,
suppresses all his senses, and is conveyed bodily by Indra to heaven. The
gods are delighted by the arrival of the fourth part of Vishṇu. Ráma then
resolves to install Bharata as his successor and retire to the forest and
follow Lakshmaṇ. Bharata however refuses the succession, and determines to
accompany his brother. Ráma’s subjects are filled with grief, and say they
also will follow him wherever he goes. Messengers are sent to Śatrughna,
the other brother, and he also resolves to accompany Ráma; who at length
sets out in procession from his capital with all the ceremonial
appropriate to the “great departure,” silent, indifferent to external
objects, joyless, with Śrí on his right, the goddess Earth on his left,
Energy in front, attended by all his weapons in human shapes, by the Vedas
in the forms of Bráhmans, by the Gáyatrí, the Omkára, the Vashaṭkára, by
rishis, by his women, female slaves, eunuchs, and servants. Bharata with
his family, and Śatrughna, follow together with Bráhmans bearing the
sacred fire, and the whole of the people of the country, and even with
animals, etc., etc. Ráma, with all these attendants, comes to the banks of
the Sarayú. Brahmá, with all the gods and innumerable celestial cars, now
appears, and all the sky is refulgent with the divine splendour. Pure and
fragrant breezes blow, a shower of flowers falls. Ráma enters the waters
of the Sarayú; and Brahmá utters a voice from the sky, saying: “Approach,
Vishṇu; Rághava, thou hast happily arrived, with thy godlike brothers.
Enter thine own body as Vishṇu or the eternal ether. For thou art the
abode of the worlds: no one comprehends thee, the inconceivable and
imperishable, except the large-eyed Máyá thy primeval spouse.” Hearing
these words, Ráma enters the glory of Vishṇu with his body and his
followers. He then asks Brahmá to find an abode for the people who had
accompanied him from devotion to his person, and Brahmá appoints them a
celestial residence accordingly.(1037)


ADDITIONAL NOTES.


Queen Fortune.

“A curious festival is celebrated in honour of this divinity (Lakshmî) on
the fifth lunar day of the light half of the month Mâgha (February), when
she is identified with Saraswatí the consort of Brahmá, and the goddess of
learning. In his treatise on festivals, a great modern authority,
Raghunandana, mentions, on the faith of a work called
_Samvatsara-sandipa_, that Lakshmî is to be worshipped in the forenoon of
that day with flowers, perfumes, rice, and water; that due honour is to be
paid to inkstand and writing-reed, and no writing to be done. Wilson, in
his essay on the _Religious Festivals of the Hindus_ (works, vol. ii, p.
188. ff.) adds that on the morning of the 2nd February, the whole of the
pens and inkstands, and the books, if not too numerous and bulky, are
collected, the pens or reeds cleaned, the inkstands scoured, and the books
wrapped up in new cloth, are arranged upon a platform, or a sheet, and
strewn over with flowers and blades of young barley, and that no flowers
except white are to be offered. After performing the necessary rites, …
all the members of the family assemble and make their prostrations; the
books, the pens, and ink having an entire holiday; and should any
emergency require a written communication on the day dedicated to the
divinity of scholarship, it is done with chalk or charcoal upon a black or
white board.”
CHAMBERS’S ENCYCLOPÆDIA. _Lakshmî_.


Indra.

“The Hindu Jove or Jupiter Tonans, chief of the secondary deities. He
presides over swarga or paradise, and is more particularly the god of the
atmosphere and winds. He is also regent of the east quarter of the sky. As
chief of the deities he is called Devapati, Devadeva, Surapati, etc.; as
lord of the atmosphere Divaspati; as lord of the eight Vasus or demigods,
Fire, etc., Vásava; as breaking cities into fragments, Purandara, Puranda;
as lord of a hundred sacrifices (the performance of a hundred Aśvamedhas
elevating the sacrificer to the rank of Indra) Śatakratu, Śatamakha; as
having a thousand eyes, Sahasráksha; as husband of Śachí, Śachípati. His
wife is called Śachí, Indráṇí, Sakráṇí, Maghoni, Indraśakti, Pulomajá, and
Paulomí. His son is Jayanta. His pleasure garden or elysium is Nandana;
his city, Amarávatí; his palace, Vaijayanta; his horse, Uchchaihśravas,
his elephant, Airávata; his charioteer, Mátali.”
PROFESSOR M. WILLIAMS’S English-Sanskrit Dictionary. _Indra_.


Vishnu.

“The second person of the Hindu triad, and the most celebrated and popular
of all the Indian deities. He is the personification of the preserving
power, and became incarnate in nine different forms, for the preservation
of mankind in various emergencies. Before the creation of the universe,
and after its temporary annihilation, he is supposed to sleep on the
waters, floating on the serpent Śesha, and is then identified with
Náráyaṇa. Brahmá, the creator, is fabled to spring at that time from a
lotus which grows from his navel, whilst thus asleep.… His ten avatárs or
incarnations are:
“1. The Matsya, or fish. In this avatár Vishṇu descended in the form of a
fish to save the pious king Satyavrata, who with the seven Rishis and
their wives had taken refuge in the ark to escape the deluge which then
destroyed the earth. 2, The Kúrma, or Tortoise. In this he descended in
the form of a tortoise, for the purpose of restoring to man some of the
comforts lost during the flood. To this end he stationed himself at the
bottom of the ocean, and allowed the point of the great mountain Mandara
to be placed upon his back, which served as a hard axis, whereon the gods
and demons, with the serpent Vásuki twisted round the mountain for a rope,
churned the waters for the recovery of the amrita or nectar, and fourteen
other sacred things. 3. The Varáha, or Boar. In this he descended in the
form of a boar to rescue the earth from the power of a demon called
‘golden-eyed,’ Hiraṇyáksha. This demon had seized on the earth and carried
it with him into the depths of the ocean. Vishṇu dived into the abyss, and
after a contest of a thousand years slew the monster. 4. The Narasinha, or
Man-lion. In this monstrous shape of a creature half-man, half-lion,
Vishṇu delivered the earth from the tyranny of an insolent demon called
Hiraṇyakaśipu. 5. Vámana, or Dwarf. This avatár happened in the second age
of the Hindús or Tretáyug, the four preceding are said to have occurred in
the first or Satyayug; the object of this avatár was to trick Bali out of
the dominion of the three worlds. Assuming the form of a wretched dwarf he
appeared before the king and asked, as a boon, as much land as he could
pace in three steps. This was granted; and Vishṇu immediately expanding
himself till he filled the world, deprived Bali at two steps of heaven and
earth, but in consideration of some merit, left Pátála still in his
dominion. 6. Paraśuráma. 7. Rámchandra. 8. Krishṇa, or according to some
Balaráma. 9. Buddha. In this avatár Vishṇu descended in the form of a sage
for the purpose of making some reform in the religion of the Brahmins, and
especially to reclaim them from their proneness to animal sacrifice. Many
of the Hindús will not allow this to have been an incarnation of their
favourite god. 10. Kalki, or White Horse. This is yet to come. Vishṇu
mounted on a white horse, with a drawn scimitar, blazing like a comet,
will, according to prophecy, end this present age, viz. the fourth or
Kaliyug, by destroying the world, and then renovating creation by an age
of purity.”
WILLIAM’S DICTIONARY. _Vishṇu._


Siva.

“A celebrated Hindú God, the Destroyer of creation, and therefore the most
formidable of the Hindú Triad. He also personifies reproduction, since the
Hindú philosophy excludes the idea of total annihilation without
subsequent regeneration. Hence he is sometimes confounded with Brahmá, the
creator or first person of the Triad. He is the particular God of the
Tántrikas, or followers of the books called Tantras. His worshippers are
termed Śaivas, and although not so numerous as the Vaishṇavas, exalt their
god to the highest place in the heavens, and combine in him many of the
attributes which properly belong to the other deities. According to them
Śiva is Time, Justice, Fire, Water, the Sun, the Destroyer and Creator. As
presiding over generation, his type is the Linga, or Phallus, the origin
probably of the Phallic emblem of Egypt and Greece. As the God of
generation and justice, which latter character he shares with the god
Yama, he is represented riding a white bull. His own colour, as well as
that of the bull, is generally white, referring probably to the unsullied
purity of Justice. His throat is dark-blue; his hair of a light reddish
colour, and thickly matted together, and gathered above his head like the
hair of an ascetic. He is sometimes seen with two hands, sometimes with
four, eight, or ten, and with five faces. He has three eyes, one being in
the centre of his forehead, pointing up and down. These are said to denote
his view of the three divisions of time, past, present, and future. He
holds a trident in his hand to denote, as some say, his relationship to
water, or according to others, to show that the three great attributes of
Creator, Destroyer, and Regenerator are combined in him. His loins are
enveloped in a tiger’s skin. In his character of Time, he not only
presides over its extinction, but also its astronomical regulation. A
crescent or half-moon on his forehead indicates the measure of time by the
phases of the moon; a serpent forms one of his necklaces to denote the
measure of time by years, and a second necklace of human skulls marks the
lapse and revolution of ages, and the extinction and succession of the
generations of mankind. He is often represented as entirely covered with
serpents, which are the emblems of immortality. They are bound in his
hair, round his neck, wrists, waist, arms and legs; they serve as rings
for his fingers, and earrings for his ears, and are his constant