Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1880-06-19
The Phososype Of the uliaa.


More than three hundred years before "the
blind old man Of Scios rocky islen sung 1.-THE
tale OF Troy divine to his Hellenic countrymen
on the Egean shores, valmika wrote in San
scr1t the epic story Of the Ramayuna, comment
oratfye OF the contest OF Rama, the hero OF the
so.cailed Solar Race OF Hindustan, with the gi-
Rsntfc Ravan OF Lanca, In which all the powers
Of nature, Heaven. earth and hell participated.
Tie Ramayuna is a poem as long as Homer's
ullad-and as grand. II we can only look at It.
not from the point OF Grecian taste, but with
the ferv1d eyes OF a tropical imagination. AS in
the story of the Illiad the contest celebrated In
the Ramayuna was occasioned by the unlawful
abduction of a woman OF marvellous beauty, "a
daughter OF the gods. divinely tall and most oil.
v1hely fair" But it is greatly to the credit Of
the morality Of Hindustan and the moral grand
eur OF the poem that Sta, the wife OF Rama and
herofne OF the Ramayuna, was not a wanton
like the Homeric Helen, but a faithful wife and
pure MINDED woman, who resisted alike the
Threats and Establishments of her alb iuctOr and
returned such to her husband, when the rock
terrible enginery. Lanca the Hindu Troy, was
on the Island OF CeylOn; and the natural seem
cry around that island and the neignboring
continent gave the Hindu poet opportunities
for description not less magnificent than those
OF Homer.
1t is, perhaps, worth while to mention that
the earliest recorded statement OF the ordeal by
fire, familiar enough to us In the history of the
Middle and Dark Ages OF Europe, is to be found
IN the Ramay una. The ordeal was undergone
by Sta, after her deliverance and return to her
husband. TO prove her innocence of any compli-
city with the tyrant Ravan in the affair OF her
abduction.
Later than Valmika, yet still apparently much
anterior to Homer, another great Epic Poet Of
HlbcuStan. Nyasa, worthy disciple and sue
cessor OF Valm1ka. wrote the Mahabharata, or
Story Of the Great War. The war referred to
was the contest, memorable in Hindu history,
between the Pandu and the Kuru princes. ri.
val and nearly related families OF the so-called
Lunar Race for the possession Of the Imperial
crown of Hindustan, which seems to have &C.
CURED about thirteen centuries before the
Christian era, and consequently some time be-
tore the Trojan war. 1t was the epoch of the
appearance OF the hero Christina, the eighth
0tdtdr or incarnation OF VlShnu, who, in his
champion Of the PanduS, and whose exploits
more than rival those OF Achilles before Troy
The war Is stated to have eliminated in ire
mendous battle of eighteen days duration on
the plains OF Agra, and to have resulted in the
almost total determination of one party and
ultimately in the voluntary withdrawal OF the
other from the country.
long as Millions Paradise Lost. Like the Ra-
may una. it is not, In all respects, consistent
with our canons of literary TASTE Yet it is a
wonderful poem, in which the manners and
customs of the time are as wildly delineated as
are those OF the heroic ages OF Greece In the
pages OF Homer; and beautiful episodes of deeds
OF love and war alternate with profound spec
lig1on.
TO make the parallel with Homer and Milton
complete there is tradition. apparently as un-
supported by testimony as in the case Of the
Greek poet, that VyaSa became blind in his old
age.
The remarkable similarity between the Ho-
meric legends and the poems of the Ramayuna
and Nahabharata, together with some other
curious condolences between early Greece and
Hindustan. has given occasion for a theory that
the heroes OF the Trojan war, and Troy itself,
were but pigments of Homer's brain; and that
his poems were but the echoes of events of ear
lier date and far distant regions, the memories
OF which had been brought westward by the
self exiled heroes Of the Great War. But this
theory, like many others, not utterly devoid of
by the discoveries OF Schliemann on the hill of
Hissirlik. and the unwilling to the light of day
Of the long buried city of Hector and Priam.
The similarity u.s. in all probability, ma1nly due
to the sameness of human thought In all ages
and all nations.