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Meghanādbadhkāvya, canto viii: descensus Averno

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 December 2009

T. W. Clark
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Extract

Michael Madhusudan Datta (1824–73) wrote Meghanādbadhkāvya‘ The death of Meghanād’, a nine-canto epic, in 1861. Being a Rāma story, the poem naturally owes much of its substance to the Rāmāyaṇa tradition, which is represented in Sanskrit by Vālmīki's mahākāvya and in Bengali by Krittibās's work; but it differs from that tradition, widely and in a most original way, in the characterization of the persons, the selection and presentation of the episodes, and above all in sentiment and sympathy. This divergence was the result of deliberate choice. ‘I despise Ram and his rabble (i.e. the monkeys); but the idea of Ravan elevates and kindles my imagination’ Datta wrote to R. N. Basu. In other letters he gave further indications of his thinking about the approach to his subject. ‘I mean to give free scope to my Inventing powers and to borrow as little as I can from Vahniki’; and,' If the father of our poetry (i.e. Vāhmīki) had given Ram human companions I could have made a regular Iliad of the death of Meghanad.

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Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , Volume 30 , Issue 2 , June 1967 , pp. 337 - 352
Copyright
Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London 1967

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References

1 Som, N. N., Madhusmṛiti, Calcutta, 1917, 618. This book is a biography of the poet, and contains most of his letters. Datta usually wrote letters in English.Google Scholar

2 Som, op. cit., 605.

3 ibid., 604–5.

4 ibid., 609. The reference is to canto ii in Datta's poem.

5 ibid., 600.

6 ibid., 592. Letter to Gaurdas Basak from Madras, 1849.

7 ibid., 585. Letter to same, 1849.

8 ibid., 599. Letter to R. N. Basu, 1860.

9 This word is written in the Bengali script.

10 Som, op. cit., 603. Letter to Basu, 1860.

11 ibid., 606.

12 ibid., 574.

13 ibid., 612.

14 Datta does not mention which translation he used, but it was probably that of H. F. Cary, which was published in London in 1805–6.

15 Som, op. cit., 613.

16 The Bengali translations are mine; the Latin translations are quoted from The works of Virgil, by A. Hamilton Bryce (Bohn's Classical Library), London, G. Bell and Sons, Ltd., 1914. ‘Send the hero, Rāghava's offspring, to the City of Yama, with Māyā. Through my power the warrior son of Daśaratha will be able to enter the country of the pretas in human form. His father, King Daśaratha, will tell him how his brother can regain his life. Leave off thy grief, my moon-like love. Give this my trident to Māyā, O lovely one. It will shine in the black realm of Yama, illumining the land, like a pillar of fire. The pretas will worship it as subjects do their monarch's sceptre.’

17 sāhase ‘with courage’; hand timidis passibus ‘with fearless steps’.

18 ‘They moved along amid the gloom, in stillness of the night beneath the shade, and through the empty halls and shadowy realms of Pluto; such as is a journey in the woods under an unsteady moon, with faint and glimmering light, when Jupiter has wrapt the heavens in darkness, and sable night has robbed the earth of colour. (Note. Observe the accumulation of epithets, all denoting excessive darkness: obscuri, soles nocte, per umbram.)’

19 ‘As when at night a wayfarer walks along a path in a dark forest and the rays of the moon break through and laugh.’

20 ‘Illusion goes before him like a golden lamp illumining the horrid land.’

21 ‘Hence is a path which to Tartarean Acheron conducts. Here a seething eddy, turbid and impure, boils up with mire and vast abyss, and into dark Cocytus vomits all its filthy sand.’

22 ‘The river Vaitarani rushes with a noise of thunder as through a gorge; the waves, in terror of the heat, boil violently, as hot milk in a vessel pours over the edge with smoke-like froth.’

23 ‘In that sky the orb of day shines not, nor the moon, nor the stars, and the clouds are black.’

24 ‘There is no light of moon or sun, (only) great darkness.’

25 ‘It was a strange bridge, sometimes fiery, sometimes covered with dense smoke, and sometimes beautiful as if made of gold.’

26 ‘Night and day the sinners swim the river in great torment. The messenger of Yama drives them in with his club, and they burn in the water as in boiling oil.’

27 ‘Aeneas, moved with wonder and with pity by the scene, thus speaks: 0 virgin, say what means this flocking to the river? what do the spirits wish? or by what principle of choice must these desert the banks, and those sweep with oars the darkling flood?’

28 ‘Those there are a helpless and unburied crowd: that is the boatman Charon: those whom the stream now bears across already have been buried; for it is not permitted to transport them o'er the horrid banks and murmuring waters before that in their resting-place their bones are laid. They wander for a hundred years, and flit about these shores: then at length admitted, they behold again the stream for which they yearned.’

29 ‘Whoe'er you be who now approach our river under arms, say quick, just where you are; what is your business and call a halt.’

30 ‘Who are you? By what right, 0 reckless one, do you come in human form into this land of spirits? Say quickly.’

31 ‘Then after passion's storm, his swollen heart is still. No more was said. With reverence admiring Fate's bough, not seen for many a day, he turns to shore the dingy stern and nears the bank.’

32 ‘The messenger bowing low to the maiden spake. “What power have I to stay your passage? Lo, the bridge itself shines gold with joy like the sky at the touch of dawn.”’

33 ‘Above the dread portals the hero saw, inscribed in letters of fire, “This is the way where sinners pass into the land of grief to suffer unending grief. 0 you who enter, abandon desire before you enter this land”.’

34 Ll. 274–9.

35 L. 192: ‘those who walk the path of righteousness’.

36 L. 277: ‘the plight of the spirits who live in the land of spirits’.

37 Sanyal, v., Meghanābadh, Calcutta, 1907, p. 542, n.Google Scholar

38 Mukhopadhyay, v. Rangalal and Mukhopadhyay, Trailokyanath, Vigyakoṣa, 22 vols., Calcutta(?), 1886, Ix, 567–74.Google Scholar

39 L. 307: suvidhi vidhira vidhi vidita jagate.

40 Inferno, canto iii, 11.65–6.

41 ‘and the frightful vulture, with his crooked beak, preying on his liver unconsumed’.

42 L. 343: abhedya kavace dharmma ārena tāre.

43 ‘like bees round the honey-store’.

44 ‘even as when, on a peaceful summer's day, bees in the meadows settle on the various flowers, and swarm around the snow-white lilies; the whole plain buzzes with their humming noise’.

46 ‘they flee like dry leaves when the storm blows’.

46 Inferno, canto ix, 1. 49.

47 ‘Terrifying snakes hissed in her hair. Her nails were sharp as swords. Her lips both dripped with blood, and her repulsive breasts hung heavily down to her navel. Her nostrils belched forth flames of fire which mingled with those from her eyes.’

48 Inferno, canto ix, 1. 41.

41 ‘and frantic Discord, her viper's locks entwined with bloody fillets’.

50 ‘If we wandered through Yama's city for twelve years, 0 hero, we should not see the whole of it.’

51 ‘This city is unsurpassed in heaven or on earth.’

52 ‘In this blessed land the smile of God shines day after day like a lamp, bright as sun, moon, and stars.’

53 ‘In one place spears like a sāl forest, vast; here war-steeds neigh, decked with the caparison of war; here lordly elephants trumpet; warriors contend with sword and shield; wrestlers strive for a fall, shaking the earth; charioteers in their cars twang their bow-strings; and standards of battle fly. …’

54 ‘Some on the grassy sward their limbs exert, in sports contend, and wrestle on the yellow sand. At a distance (Aeneas) views with wonder the arms and ghostly chariots of the chiefs. Their spears stand fixed in earth, and up and down their loosened horses feed through all the plain.... Here is a band of those who in defence of fatherland their wounds received.’

55 Ll. 585 ff.

56 ‘Here Earth's first progeny, the sons of Titan, hurled down by thunderbolts, welter in the bottomless abyss. Here, too, I saw the two sons of Aloeus, of colossal size, who tried by strength of arms to tear down highest heaven, and from his throne above to hurl almighty Jove. I saw Salmoneus too, suffering his awful punishment, in act of mimicking the lightning and the thunder of Olympus.’

57 ‘There is no passage into this city without the funeral rites.’

58 ‘In unfair combat you struck me down to please Sugriva: but be not afraid. In Yama's city we know not anger, being masters of our senses.’

59 ‘At the foot of the tree your father constantly worships the King of Righteousness on your behalf.’

60 ‘Soon as he beheld Aeneas coming straight across the grassy plain, with eager joy he stretched out both his hands, and bathed his cheeks with tears, and from his mouth these words let fall: You have arrived at last: and has your dutiful affection, long looked for by your father, o'ercome your arduous journey? Is it really given me to see you face to face, to hear your well-known tones and to return my own?’

61 ‘Seeing his noble son the royal sage stretched out both his arms—his breast with tears was wet—and said: Have you come at last, 0 dearer to me than life, to this inaccessible land, to gladden by the grace of God these eyes of mine? Do I really see you now, you who are dearer to me than wealth?’

62 ‘Over what lands, 0 son, and over what stormy seas, have you, I hear, been tossed!’

63 ‘Your son is adrift on an endless sea, O father.’

64 ‘He will bring the medicine in a moment.’

65 According to VālmIki, Yuddhakāṇḍa, aarga 101, four healing herbs grew on Glandhamālana, viśalyakaraṇī, sābarṇyakaraṇī, sañjīvakaraṇi, saṃdhānīkaraṇī; and it was sañjīvakaraṇī, not viślyakaraṇī, which restored Laksmaoa to life.

66 ‘Permit me, father, to clasp your hand; and withdraw not from my fond embrace. Thrice he essayed to throw his arms around his neck; thrice the phantom, grasped at in vain, escaped his hold, light as the air, and like as may be to a fleeting dream.’

67 ‘The son came forward to take the dust from his father's feet, and stretched forth his lotus hand to touch those lotus feet. In vain! He could not touch them … This is not the body I had before, this body that now you see, 0 dearer to me than life. It is only a shadow. And how can you, having a human body, touch a shadow? My body is like a reflection in a glass or in water.’

68 LI. 126–9: … facilis descensus Averno est … Sed revocare gradum, superasgue evadere ad auras, Hoc opus, hic labor est ‘… easy is the path that to Avernus leads, … but to retrace one's steps, and escape to upper earth, that is the task and that the toil’.