Millheim Journal. [volume] (Millheim, Pa.) 1876-1984, 1882-03-30
Hindu Humor.

The Hindus have their epios, their
dramas, their popular tales. and their
poetry. Their Vedas contain passages
as sublime as any to be found in the
sacred books of other nations. Their
law-bookS are full of wise and humane
counsels. Their epics celebrate the
actions of men and women not unlike
the heroes and heroiDes of Homer: and
their dramas bear strong affinity to ours
"a fact which led Schlegel TO declare
that the English version of the Sakun.
tala OF Kalidasa presents so striking a
resemblance to our romantic drama
that we would conclude it to have been
unduly influenced by his love for Shake
speare, if hrs accuracy were not well es
tablished by all Sanskrit scholars. But
still, we cannot look to Indian literature
for aD Rdipus. Hamlet, or Faust,
nor conversely, for an Eulenspiegel, a
Panurge, or Sancho Panza. The dogma
of quiescence prevented the creation of
great types of tears or of laughter which
will live for ever. According to our
conception of the tragic, the Hlndus
have no tragedies. and the humor which
many of these writers possess is humor
distinctly their own. While the true
humorist laughs at the follies OF
mankind, and, even as he laughs loves
them because they are so human,
the Eastern humorist inspired by Brah-
.nanism or Buddhism, laughs at men
for rejoicing or despairlng in a world
which has no reality. He never could
thoroughly understand the "brotherly
sympathy with the downward side"
which was the inspiration Of Shakespeare
Rabelais and CerYantes.
1t is at first difficult for the Western
reader to define what is earnest and
what is humorous in Sanskrit works.
That which strikes us as grotesque and
ludicrous is to the Hindu sublime and
serious. The difference in the stan
dards of taste adopted by Eastern and
western Aryans is admirably exempIifed
in their types of godhead. The Greek
gods and godesses are beautiful and per-
feet in form; Hephestos, whose trade is
little suited to divinity, is mis-shapen;
and the horns, tails, and goats feet of
Pan and the satyr harmonic with their
semi-beastly natures. The Morse gods
are strong, brave, and energetic, and
are models Of complete manhood. The
gods, however are tremendous
with eight arms and three
heads, like silva; with an elephants
head, like Ganess; or black. bloody and
terrible, like the much feared, Durga.
In the Mahabarata Aryuna begs for one
glimpse OF the infinite, universal deity,
and Krishna appears. with many arms,
eyes, and mouths with pro-
iecting teeth, in which the sons of Dr1-
tarashtra are sticking, even as the piI~
yrims, concealed in the salad, were held
fast in the teeth of Gargantua. There
Is, moreover, the same wild luxnriance
in everything Indian. The Ramayana
and Mahabharata are the longest epics.
The Pansha-tantra and other popular
tales consist of stories connected by a
single thread; and there are stories,
within stories, until an uninitiated rea-
aer, before he is half way through this
labyrinth of incident, has lost the thread
hat was to guide him. 1t is in keeTlng
With the rich fertility of the Hindu i'm
sgination that the early metaphysicians
evolved the most tremendous humorous
conception that has ever entered into
.he mind OF man. When the philoso-
oher paused, in his speculation on the
infinite, to look out upon the world
about him, he saw land teeming with
life and beauty; and men and women who
lived and struggled, loved and hated,
laughed and cried. The contrast be-
tween the truth which he in his wisdom
nad OWNED and life as it seemed aroused
within him grim sense of the humor-
ous. After all he asked himself what
was the world, what was creation, but
Maya, delusion?-a joke, colossal in
design, which Brahm, the only reality
mad imagined for his own amusement.
It was even as Heine fancied it might be,
the dream of Jolly, tipsy deity.