Hiuen Thsang in the Si-yu-ki, transl. Beal, ii. 240 ff. That the Rakshasis (the Yakkhinīs of the Pāli) are the same as the Sirens of Homer, has been pointed out by Mr. Axon and Mr. Morris (Ind. Ant. x. 291), the first giving also a parallel from Malay mythology. It is quite clear, I think, from our version, that by the airy horse the moon is understood (candūpamā kira buddhā, Dh. 244). He comes on, or with, a moonbeam on the 15th day of the month. It becomes more evident still by the version in the Rom. Leg., where, besides, he bears the significant name of Keçin 'hairy,' which as early as in the Rig Veda is an epithet of flames and heavenly bodies (S. Pet. Dict.). But, again, it is an epithet of Vishnu, who rides on the Garuda, as is known from the Pañcatantra, Book I. tale 5. For all these divine magic animals are of the same race. Besides those noticed in Benfey's remarks on the tale, Pañc. vol. i. 159 ff., the wooden bird is found in a tale of the Transilvanian Gipsies, see ZDMG. xlii. 117 ff., and again in the second tale of the Siddhi Kür (ed. Jülg), p. 63 of the translation, where the son of gods Çuklaketu descends on it to the princess; çukla 'bright,' is, with or without paksha, the light half of the month, and also an epithet of Vishņu. He afterwards appears himself in the shape of a bird, a lark (ibid. p. 64), and, having been hurt maliciously, agrees with the princess to visit her on the 15th of every month (p. 65). Vishņu, of course, is the sun, but the difference of origin of those magic animals, from sun and moon respectively, is obliterated in these later tales. In the Buddhist tale, naturally, the divine horse is a birth of the Lord (as in the Jātaka and in the Rom. Leg.), or of Maitreya (as in the Divyavadana); while to the Tibetan he is an incarnation of the country's patron saint, Avalokiteçvara. But I cannot go farther here into this absorbing question of the divine bird or horse, which lies at the very root of comparative mythology, as already shadowed forth in A. Kuhn's "Herabkunft des Feuers." I would only call attention, in conclusion, to the latest shape the divine horse has taken in the West, in Andersen's "Flying Trunk"; for I think we can discern something of the same moral tendency in both this and the Tibetan tale-the flight from Samsara! NOTE. To valaha, of which Balaha is only a wrong Sanskritisation, cp. Divyāv. 127, 17. 19, vātavalāhakā devaputrāḥ and varshaval. dev. the angels of the wind-clouds and of the rain-clouds,' and Jat. I. 330, vassa valāhakadevarājā. Muñja-keça (Jāt. II. 129, 9, cf. also the wonderful horse Muñjakesi of king Udena, Dh. 160) 'having hair like reed,' i.e. 'having beams,' is also an epithet of Vishnu. The 'blackheaded' of the Jātaka points most likely to a cloud—so we would have the moon emerging from the black clouds. ART. XV.-Moksha, or the Vedantic Release. By DVIJADAS DATTA. 1. BANDHA, OR THE BONDAGE. NOTHING could be more important for a student of Indian thought than to have a correct notion of the Moksha of the Vedánta, which is so curfously allied to the Buddhistic Nirvána. And as there are some methods of translation which seem to me to give an inaccurate tone to some of the most scholarly treatises in Europe on the subject, I venture to submit a few remarks on one or two points of importance. Is it quite correct to treat Moksha as more a matter of metaphysical knowledge than the reward of moral improvement, as Dr. Deussen does in the following passage? "Hierauf beruht es, dass die Erlösung durch keine Art von Werk, auch nicht durch moralische Besserung, sondern allein durch die Erkenntniss (wie die christliche Erlösung allein durch den Glauben, solâ fide, welcher die hier in Rede stehende, metaphysische Erkenntniss sehr nahe kommt) vollbracht wird." The name Moksha, or release, suggests its counterpart, 'Bandha,' or bondage, which is said to arise from Avidyá. It is usual to translate Avidyá by ignorance, thus apparently giving a metaphysical colour to both the bondage and the release. But Avidya really means very much more than mere metaphysical ignorance. Arjuna, in the Gíta, does not deplore mere metaphysical bondage when he so pathetically describes it in the words, "I know the (moral) law, but am not inclined thereto; I know what is immoral, but am not disinclined therefrom;"2 1 Dr. Deussen's "Das System des Vedanta," p. 433. 2 "Jánámi dharman na ca me pravrittir VOL. XX. .—[NEW SERIES.] 35 and, again, "Under what influence does a man commit sin, as if against his own liking, as if under compulsion?" (Gíta, chap. III. verse 36). Yama in the Katha instructing Nachiketá, whom he considers a seeker after Vidyá (Vidya-bhípsinan), on the difference between the 'good' (Śreyah) and the 'pleasurable' (Preyah), does not show much reference to metaphysical knowledge: "The good is one and the pleasurable another, each leads to a contrary result according as the one or the other predominates in a man. Of these, one who follows the good, finds good; he misses the highest good of life who pursues the pleasurable. The good and the pleasurable are placed before man. The wise (man) thoroughly examines both, and separates the one from the other. The wise prefer the good to the pleasurable, but the foolish, from worldly desire, prefer the pleasurable.”1 Prayers for a deep feeling of love of Brahma, rather than a clear metaphysical understanding, are not wanting in Vedantic writings. Take this, for example: "May such unchanging love as foolish people feel for earthly pleasures, never cease, in my heart, when I call upon Thee."2 Or this other prayer in the Brihadáranyaka (chap. I. sec. ii. verse 28): "Lead me from the illusory to the real, from darkness to light, from death to immortality," on which Śankara remarks, ""from the illusory,' that is, from vain pursuits and from ignorance, 'lead me to the real,' that is, the knowledge of sacred duties, i.e., bring out the (true nature of the) Self for which (the exercise of) divine qualities is the only preparation."3 Such passages do not support the idea that the summum bonum aimed at by the Vedánta, Moksha, has no reference to moral improvement. The 1 Anyać ćhreyo(a)nyad ut aiva preya ste ubhe nánárthe purushan sinítah | Tayoh Sreya adadánasya sadhu bhavati, híyate *rthát ya u Preyo briníte || etc. (Katha, Adhyaya I. Vallí II. verses 1 and 2, p. 93, of Jivananda Vidyasagara's edition). 2 Yá príti ravivekánán vishayeshvanapayiní | (Pancadasi, chap. VII. p. 202). 3 "Asatoma sad gamaya, tamaso má Jyotir gamaya, mrityor má mritan gamaya"; on this S'ankara remarks: Asato (a) sat karmano (a)jñánáć ća má mán sać éhástríya-karma-vijñáne gamaya, devabhúva-sudhan-átma-bhávamápádaya' (p. 119, Jivananda Vidyasagara's edition). |