but we should say that a thousand years would be a period rather too short than too long to cover all the uncertainties involved.

As is pointed out by Sir T. E. Colebrooke in the note already referred to, the author has, in other of his writings, recognized the uncertain character of the astronomical data afforded by the ancient Hindu works, and the impossibility of deriving exact dates from them. Had his design in publishing his Essays been to make anything more than a collection and unaltered reprint of them, he would probably have guarded, by a note at this point, against too strict a construction of his statement, or too confident an inference from it.

It remains only to apologize for the extreme length to which this note has been allowed to extend itself—a length excusable only by the interest of the subject discussed, and the intricacy of the conditions involved. Some of the points here touched upon are more fully treated in the paper by Prof. Whitney in vol. i. of the Journ. Roy. As. Soc., already more than once referred to. For the asterisma] system and its relations, see also the Essay "On the Indian and Arabian Divisions of the Zodiac," in the next volume: and, among later discussions, especially Biot's Recherches sur l'Astronomie Indienne et l'Astronomie Chinoise (Paris, 1862; made up of articles originally published in the Journal des Savants for 1839-40, 18591861); Prof. Whitney's notes to the eighth chapter of the translation of the Súrya Siddhánta, published by the American Oriental Society (their Journal, vol. vi., 1860), and his articles in a later volume of the Society's Journal (vol. viii., 1866); and Weber's articles on the Vedic notices of the nakshatras, in the Berlin Academy's Transactions for 1860-61.

P. 99, 1. 25. The Ráma-Tápaníya Upanishad is published, translated, and commented by Weber, in Trans. Berlin Acad. for 1864, p. 271 sq. The Gopála-Tápaníya is published, with Viśveśvara's commentary, in the Bibl. Indica (Calcutta, 1870).

P. 99, 1. 29.

p. 286.

For the summary referred to, see Weber, as above,

P. 100, 1. 4. Weber (as above, p. 271) calls the tápanya Upanishads "the latest runners which have attached themselves as parasites to the branches of the Veda-tree.' But he pronounces the Nrsinha-tápaniya, the oldest of them, to be at least as early as the seventh century of our era. As to the age of the worship of Ráma, see the same authority, at p. 275 sq.

P. 100, 1. 18. For the character of the religion represented in the earliest parts of the Vedas, see previous notes: thus, for their monotheism, the note to p. 24, 1. 25; for the worship of stars and planets, the note to p. 25, marg. note 1. Of the grand triad of

gods of the later religion, Brahman is no divinity in the Veda; Vishnu is not at all prominent; the name Siva is not known, and Rudra, the nearest correspondent of the modern Siva, is of quite a different character from the latter. See Muir's Original Sanskrit Texts, vols. iv. v., and the same scholar's articles on the Vedic Theogony and Mythology, in Journ. Roy. As. Soc. vols. i. ii.

P. 101, 1. 13. Respecting the Atmabodha or Atmaprabodha Upanishad, see Weber's Ind. Stud. vol. ii. p. 8 sq.

P. 101, note. The Sundarí Upanishad is identified by Weber with the Tripurá; see his Ráma-tápaníya Upanishad, as above, p.

272.

P. 102, end. As was altogether natural in the case of one who was the first investigator in so wide and difficult a field, and hence compelled to rely in part upon Hindu commentators and Hindu assistants, Colebrooke failed to classify distinctly in his own mind the enormous mass of works included under the name Veda, and to apprehend the relative value of the different parts of it; he therefore did not fully appreciate the transcendent importance of the original hymn-collections (especially the Rig-Veda), the nuclei about which the whole literature had grown up, as containing the germs of the whole after-development of Indian religion and polity, which are unintelligible without their aid—as, moreover, illustrating a phase of human history of a rare and most instructive primitiveness, and as casting light upon the mythologies of other races, proved by the evidence of language to belong to the same great family. Had it been otherwise, he would have been careful not to put into his closing paragraph words which sound so much like a discouragement to other scholars from following where he had led the way; he would rather have earnestly commended to them the diligent study of works which constitute, in their bearing upon the history both of India and of Europe, the most interesting and repaying portion of all the Hindu literature.

133

III.

ON THE DUTIES OF A FAITHFUL HINDU

WIDOW.1

[From the Asiatic Researches, vol. iv. pp. 209-219.
Calcutta, 1795. 4to.]

[114] WHILE the light which the labours of the Asiatic Society have thrown on the sciences and religion of the Hindus has drawn the attention of the literary world to that subject, the hint thrown out by the President for rejecting the authority of every publication preceding the translation of the Gitá does not appear to have made sufficient impression. Several late compilations in Europe betray great want of judgment in the selection of authorities; and their motley dress of true and false colours tends to perpetuate error; for this reason it seems necessary on every topic to revert to original authorities, for the purpose of cancelling error or verifying facts already published; and this object will no way be more readily attained than by the communication of detached essays on each topic, as it may present itself to the Orientalist in the progress of his researches.

From this or any other motive for indulgence, should the. following authorities from Sanskrit books be thought worthy of a place in the next volume of the Society's Transactions, I shall be rewarded for the pains taken in collecting them.

1 [On this paper, cf. Prof. Wilson's Essay on the supposed Vaidik authority for the burning of Hindu widows, and Raja Rádhákánt Deb's remarks, originally published in the Journ. R.A.S., vols. xvi., xvii.; and republished in Wilson's works, vol. ii. pp. 270-309; Prof. Roth, Zeitschr. d. D. M. G., vol. viii.; Prof. Max Müller, ibid. vol. ix. Cf. also Dr. Hall, Journ. R.A.S., 1867, and Prof. Müller, Chips, vol. ii. (2nd ed.), p. 35.]

'Having first bathed, the widow, dressed in two clean gar'ments, and holding some kuśa grass, sips water from the 'palm of her hand. Bearing kusa and tila1 on her hand, she 'looks towards the east or north, while the Bráh[115]mana "utters the mystic word Om. Bowing to Nárayaṇa, she next declares: "On this month, so named in such a paksha, on ‘such a tithi, I (naming herself and her family 3) that I may 'meet Arundhatí and reside in Swarga; that the years of 'my stay may be numerous as the hairs on the human body; 'that I may enjoy with my husband the felicity of heaven, ' and sanctify my paternal and maternal progenitors, and the ' ancestry of my husband's father; that lauded by the Ap'sarasas, I may be happy with my lord, through the reigns ' of fourteen Indras; that expiation be made for my husband's offences, whether he has killed a Bráhmaṇa, broken the 'ties of gratitude, or murdered his friend, thus I ascend my 'husband's burning pile. I call on you, ye guardians of the 'eight regions of the world; Sun and Moon! Air, Fire, 'Ether,5 Earth, and Water! My own soul! Yama! 'Day, Night, and Twilight! And thou, Conscience, bear 'witness: I follow my husband's corpse on the funeral pile."'6 [116] Having repeated the Sankalpa, she walks thrice 'round the pile; and the Brahmana utters the following

'mantras:

6

1 Sesamum.

2 This declaration is called the Sankalpa.

3 Gotra, the family or race. Four great families of Bráhmaņas are now extant, and have branched into many distinct races. Since the memorable massacre of the Kshatriyas, by Paras'u-Ráma, the Kshatriyas describe themselves from the same Gotras as the Brahmanas. [For the Gotras, cf. Müller's Ancient Sansk. Lit. pp. 379-388.]

4 Wife of Vasishtha.

5 Akáśa.

6 In several publications the woman has been described as placing herself on the pile before it be lighted; but the ritual quoted is conformable to the text of the Bhagavata.

"When the corpse is about to be consumed in the sahoṭaja, the faithful wife who stood without, rushes on the fire.”—Nárada to Yudhishṭhira, announcing the death and funeral of Dhritarashtra. See Bhagavata, book i., ch. 13.

The sahoṭaja is a cabin of grass or leaves, sometimes erected on the funeral pile. "The shed on the funeral pile of a Muni is [called] parņoṭaja and sahoṭaja.” See the vocabulary entitled Hárávalí.

"“Om! Let these women, not to be widowed, good wives, adorned with collyrium, holding clarified butter, consign 'themselves to the fire. Immortal, not childless, nor hus'bandless, well adorned with gems, let them pass into fire, 'whose original element is water." (From the Rigveda.)1

""Om! Let these faithful wives, pure, beautiful, commit 'themselves to the fire, with their husband's corpse."

(A Pauráņika mantra.)

With this benediction, and uttering the mystic Namo Namaḥ, she ascends the flaming pile.'

While the prescribed ceremonies are performed by the widow, the son, or other near kinsman, of the deceased, applies the first torch, with the forms directed for funeral rites in the Grihya, by which his tribe is governed.

The Sankalpa is evidently formed on the words of Angiras:

"The wife who commits herself to the flames with her hus"band's corpse shall equal Arundhatí, and reside in Swarga ; Accompanying her husband, she shall reside so long in Swarga as are the thirty-five millions of hairs on the human "body.

66

"As the snake-catcher forcibly drags the serpent from his earth, so, bearing her husband [from hell], with him she "shall enjoy heavenly bliss.

66

66

66

'Dying with her husband, she sanctifies her maternal and paternal ancestors; and the ancestry of him to whom she gave her virginity.

[117] "Such a wife, adoring her husband, in celestial "felicity with him, greatest, most admired,3 with him shall "enjoy the delights of heaven, while fourteen Indras reign.

1 [On this memorable verse, cf. the authorities previously mentioned, and also Bábú Rajendralála Mitra, Journ. B.A.S., 1870, pp. 257-262.]

2 Extracts or compilations from the sacred books, containing the particular forms for religious ceremonies, to be observed by the race or family for whom that portion of the sacred writings has been adopted, which composes their Gṛihya. 3 The word in the text is expounded "lauded by the choirs of heaven, Gandharvas," etc.