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A passage for editorial review. CLASSICAL DICTIONARY OF HINDU MYTHOLOGY AND RELIGION, GEOGRAPHY, HISTORY, AND LITERATURE. BY JOHX ^)OWSON, M.K.A.S. LATE PROFESSOR OF HINDUSTANI, STAFF COLLEGE. LONDON: TKUBXEE & CO, LUDGATE HILL. 1879. [All rights reserved.] PREFACE. In this work an endeavour has been made to supply the long-felt want of a Hindu Classical Dictionary. The late Professor Wilson projected such a work, and forty years ago announced his intention of preparing one for the Oriental Translation Fund, but he never accomplished his design. This is not the first attempt to supply the void. Mr. Garrett, Director of Public Instruction in Mysore, published in India a few years ago a " Classical Dic- tionary of India," but it is of a very miscellaneous char- acter, and embraces a good deal of matter relating to the manners and customs of the present time. It has not obtained favour in Europe, and it cannot be considered as any obstacle in the way of a more complete and systematic work. The main portion of this work consists of mythology, but religion is bound up with mythology, and in many points the two are quite inseparable. Of history, in the true sense, Sanskrit possesses nothing, or next to nothing, but what little has been discovered here finds its place. The chief geographical names of the old writers also have received notice, and their localities and identifications are described so far as present knowledge extends. Lastly, short descriptions have been given of the most frequently mentioned Sanskrit books, but only of such books as h vi PREFACE. are likely to be found named in the works of European writers. It must be understood from the first that this work is derived entirely from the publications of European scholars. I have not resorted to oricjiiial Sanskrit autho- rities. My remaining span of life would at the best be quite insufficient for an investigation of their manifold and lengthy volumes. But I have gleaned from many European writers, and have sought to present a summary of the present condition of our knowledge of the religion and mythology of Ancient India. The work is no doubt very defective. The full harvest of Sanskrit learning has not yet been gathered in, but the knowledge which has been stored by former labourers ought to be made readily available for the service of their successors, to lighten their labours and strengthen them for onward progress. There is nothing in this book for which authority is not to be found in some one or more of the many works upon Hindu literature and religion, but the aim has been to condense and brins^ to<iether in a compact form that information which lies scattered in many volumes. Hindu mythology is so extensive, and the authorities are often so at variance with each other, that I cannot but feel diffident of the success of my labours. I have worked diligently and carefully, I hope also intelligently, but mistakes have no doubt been made, and it may be that matters have been passed over which ought to have been recorded, and others have been printed which miglit well have been left unnoticed. But while I have no expectation of any near approach to perfection, I do hope that a good beginning has been made, and that a basis has been laid on which a greater and more worthy structure may hereafter be raised. If the work is PREFACE. Yii received with anything like favour, I shall be constantly on the watch to improve it, and honest criticism will be welcomed and carefully considered. The book would be more valuable and interesting were it well illustrated with plates and cuts, but the work is a speculative one, and does not directly appeal to a large field of students and readers. The expense of befitting illustrations would be heavy, too great to be at once ventured upon. But if the work is approved, and illus- trations are desired, an attempt will be made to supply the want by a series of plates containing a selection of subjects from the stores of our museums and from other sources. It is unnecessary to specify all the works that have been used in the compilation of this book. Some have been referred to occasionally, but tlie mainstays through- out have been the " Original Sanskrit Texts " of Dr. Muir and the works of the late Professor H. H. Wilson, includ- ing his translation of the i^t'g-veda, and more especially that of the VishTiu Pura?ia, republished with additional notes by Dr. FitzEdward Hall. I have also levied numerous contributions from the writings of Williams, Max Mtiller, Eoth, Bohthlingk, Lassen, Weber, Whitney, WoUheim da Fonseca, and many others too numerous to mention. INTRODUCTION. The Aryan settlers on the banks of the Indus and in the land of the Five Rivers were possessors of a large number of hymns addressed to the elements and powers of nature. Some of these hymns they no doubt brought from their earlier homes to the West, but others were composed after they had reached the land of their adoption. These ancient hymns cover a long period, the length and the era of which can only be conjectured, but fifteen hundred years before Christ is about the mean of the various ages assigned to them. The hymns form what is called the i^^'g-veda Sanhita, a collection which embraces all the extant compositions of the early Aryans. It is the i^/g-veda which is of primary importance in Hindu religion and mytho- logy ; the other Vedas are later in date, and the second and third Yedas consist almost exclusively of hymns derived from the Rig, but specially arranged for religious purposes. The fourth or Atharva-veda borrows less from the i?zg-veda, but it is considerably later in date, and is of a different character. The Aryan hymns of the Veda embody the ideas of the Indian immigrants. These ideas were inherited from their forefathers. They were originally the property of the united progenitors of the Aryan races, and the offshoots of this great human stock have spread their primitive ideas over a large por- tion of the earth. In the Vedic h^nnns the ideas and myths appear in their simplest and freshest forms, directly connected with the sources from which they sprang by clear ties of lan- guage. Comparative philology and mythology go hand in hand ; and as the language of the Vedas has proved the great critical instrument in the construction of the science of philology, so the X INTRODUCTION. simple myths of the Vedic hymns furnish many clues for un- ravelling the science of mythology. For where the etymology of a mythic name or term yields a distinct sense of its mean- ing, the origin of the myth is not far to seek. The language of the Vedas has in many instances supplied this clue, and led to a definite comprehension of what was previously hidden and obscure. The Yedic hymns have preserved the myths in their primitive forms, and, says Max Midler, " JSTowhere is the wide distance which separates the ancient poems of India from the most ancient literature of Greece more clearly felt than when we compare the growing myths of the Veda with the full-grown and decayed myths on which the poetry of Homer is founded. The Veda is the real Theogony of the Aryan races, while that of Hesiod is a distorted caricature of the original image." The Aryan settlers were a pastoral and agricultural people, and they were keenly alive to those influences which affected their prosperity and comfort. They knew the effects of heat and cold, rain and drought, upon their crops and herds, and they marked the influence of warmth and cold, sunshine and rain, wind and storm, upon their own personal comfort. They invested these benign and evil influences with a personality; and behind the fire, the sun, the cloud, and the other powers of nature, they saw beings who directed them in their beneficent and evil operations. To these imaginary beings they addressed their praises, and to them they put up their prayers for temporal blessings. They observed also the movements of the sun and moon, the constant succession of day and night, the intervening periods of morn and eve, and to these also they gave personali- ties, which they invested with poetical clothing and attributes. Thus observant of nature in its various changes and operations, alive to its influences upon themselves, and perceptive of its beauties, they formed for themselves deities in whose glory and honour they exerted their poetic faculty.