Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

give her any tidings of her faithless lord. So fared the hapless woman for three days and nights, when suddenly there appeared before her a holy grove overshadowing a crystal stream. The pious hermits gave her welcome, and promised her home and countless joys in the coming years. And in the twinkling of an eye, by some wondrous magic, all vanished from her sight,-rishis, and sacred fire, and quiet hermitage. Damayanti, bewildered by this strange vision, sojourned still northward, and after tedious travel she overtook a caravan of merchants, who, with a long train of elephants and camels and horses, were wending their way to the city of Subâhu, King of C'êdi. One evening they had encamped near a clear, cool lake, fragrant with lotos blossoms, and whose grassy banks were gay with many-coloured flowers and fruits. At the silent hour of midnight, a herd of wild elephants, rushing down like huge cliffs leaping from the summit of a mouutain, burst thundering into the midst of the sleeping troop, and spread death and terror all around. Damayantî, cursed by the frantic travellers as the bringer of this misfortune, escaped with difficulty from the carnage, and fleeing she knew not whither, soon reached the city of Subâhu. Around her entering with dishevelled hair and wasted form, the boys and citizens all ran, deeming her some weird lady of the woods. But the Queenmother, pitying her forlorn state, brought her into the palace, and having heard her sad story, though knowing not her name, assigned her as companion to her own daughter Sunandâ.

Meanwhile, O Bhârata! scarce had Nala fled from his wife, when he beheld a great fire burning in the thick wood. And from the midst of the flames he heard a voice of some living creature crying out,

"Nala! Punyaçlôka! hasten hither!"

Then, rushing into the heart of the fire, he saw, coiled up in a ring, the King of the Serpents, who trembling, and with folded hands, said:"O Nala, know that I am the Serpent Karkôtaka, doomed by the wrath of a Sage to remain here motionless until thou shouldst deliver Free me, therefore, O King! and all happiness shall attend thee." So Nala carried him out of the fire, but at the tenth step the serpent bit him, and at once his old shape vanished, and he became deformed in his limbs. To him amazed thereat, Karkôtaka, having now recovered his proper form, thus spake,

me.

"Henceforward, O Râjâ! no danger shall come near thee. Hie thee therefore to the pleasant city of Ayodhyâa, and become charioteer to the

a Lit., "The Invincible"-the modern Oude.

King Rituparna. From him thou shalt receive the knowledge of the dice, in exchange for thy skill in horsemanship. So shalt thou win back thy wife and thy kingdom. And when thou wouldst recover thine own shape, think upon me, and don this garment."

With these words the King of the Serpents vanished. So Nala, becoming the charioteer Vâhuka, dwelt in the palace at Ayôdhyâ, and at evening evermore sang he this solitary stanza :

"Where now dwells that pious lady? At what stranger's friendly board, Wayworn, faint with thirst and hunger, dreaming of her foolish lord ?”

Now when this royal pair had been driven from their kingdom, Bhima sent Brâhmans everywhere in search of them. And as Sudêva rambled through the city of C'êdi, he spied Bhaimî in the palace, in this her lowest estate, shining like a beam of the sun veiled in a net of mist; yet even still making the dark places light by the brightness of her presence. She, in her misery, now seemed to him like a fair river whose waters were gone-the leaves of the lotos lying withered in its channel-the voice of the singing birds unheard on its banks; or like a fragrant lotos-lake sullied by the trampling of wild elephants; or like the young moon-sickle in the sky overshadowed by dark clouds. The Brahman made himself known to her, and the Queen-mother, having discovered by a sacred mole between her eyebrows that she was her own sister's daughter, sent her joyful away to her parents and children, in a palanquin escorted by a numerous army. But Damayanti, still disconsolate, sent Brâhmans into all lands in search of Nala, and bade them speak these words in all gatherings of men :—

"Whither, O gambler, hast thou gone, having cut off the half of my robe, and leaving thy dear wife asleep in the fearful forest ?"

Many weary months had already passed, when Parnâda came back and told the anxious lady that, after he had to no purpose uttered her words in the royal court of Ayodhyâ, Vâhaka, the king's charioteer, deformed, with short arms, met him, and with many sighs and tears sang a lay that spake of fond women's tried devotion to their faithless lords. So fluttering hope sprang up in the bosom of Damayantî, and, devising a cunning wile, she sent this summons to Rituparna.

"At to-morrow's dawn, O King! Bhaimî will choose a second husband, for she knoweth not whether the hero Nala is alive or not."

Then Rituparna hastened to Kundini, driven furiously by Vâhuka all woe-begone at the fickleness of his Queen. Swiftly they passed by

mountains and rivers and woods, like a bird shooting through the air. With the speed of their flight the King's mantle fell to the earth, and in a moment the horses had flown through the space of eleven miles. Thereat amazed, the King said to Vâhuka,

"Seest thou yon dense-foliaged fruit-tree? I can tell thee the number of the leaves and the fruit thereon."

And when Vâhuka had checked the steeds and reckoned all the branches, behold! the number was even as the King had said. So they severally exchanged their peculiar gifts, and straightway the demon Kali flew from the body of Vâhuka, and Nala was thus freed from the rankling poison of the Serpent's bite. Then Vâhuka drove furiously into the city, and Damayanti, hearing the well-known sound, said,

"Surely this is the driving of my lord."

And the horses of Nala, and the elephants, and the peacocks, at the thundering of the chariot-wheels rejoiced with loud cries, as at the sound of the rain-clouds. So the princess sent her handmaid Kêçinî to Vâhuka to prove him, and at her request he sang the ballad of loving wives and faithless lords; but his heart was afflicted with grief, and he wept bitterly. Again the handmaid drew nigh, but Damayantî looked on from the roof of the palace. And lo! unearthly portents! at the approach of Vâhuka the gates lift up their heads; vessels are filled with water at his glance; he holds up to the sun a handful of grass, and it burns; he touches fire, and it harms him not; water flows at his will, and as suddenly vanishes; flowers gently rubbed by his hands shed a richer fragrance, and bloom with fresher beauty than in their native gardens. Then Damayanti secretly tasted the food prepared by Vâhuka, and with a joyful cry she hastened to the fulfilment of her hope. As a last trial, she sent the two children of Nala to the deformed charioteer, and when he saw them, all the father's heart was stirred within him, and folding them tenderly in his bosom, he wept aloud. Then, turning to Kêçinî, he said,

"O lady! at sight of this lovely pair I wept, for I thought of my own dear children."

(To be continued.)

श्री

INDIA: THE LIBERTY OF THE PRESS AND THE LIBERTY

[merged small][merged small][ocr errors]

Two very great difficulties beset every attempt to improve the administration of justice in India; one arises from the nature of the means to be used, and the other (which, indeed, is almost a part of the first) from the character of the parties amongst whom justice has to be done. On the one hand, the natives of India are singularly unfit instruments of justice; and, on the other, the juxtaposition of different races and religions immensely enhances the difficulty.

The natives of India, as a general rule, are very fond of money, and very regardless of principle. They are under the influence of many prejudices and superstitions, which in their minds take the place of religion and morality. But perhaps the most conspicuous and most mischievous fault in the native character is its utter indifference to truth. No native conceives himself under any obligation to speak truly; and no native thinks himself insulted by the imputation of falsehood. There is, consequently, no mutual confidence among them. All their words are tinged with falsehood; all their actions are influenced by distrust.

This fault vitiates a character which contains many really good elements. The native of Hindostan sometimes displays some physical courage; the native of Bengal is gifted with considerable intellectual acuteness. But the courage of the one does not set him above the temptations of lying; the cleverness of the other does not teach him its inutility.

This is the great obstacle to the administration of justice in India. Out of this grow the causes of all the complaints of inefficiency in the courts, and cruelty in the officers of justice. It is because of the disregard of truth that we have every now and then in the courts of justice throughout India in cases civil or criminal, in which the charge is trumped up, the plaintiff a man of straw, the witnesses bribed on both sides, the palm of every native officer plentifully greased, the defendant put to the torture, and the magistrate compelled by law to give a judgment he well knows to be wrong.

The problem set before Indian reformers, then, is this:-To frame

VOL. I.-NO. II.

F

a system of administration suited to a people who, as a general rule, are devoid of public spirit; very open to the influences of self-interest, fear, and prejudice; of acute intellect, and of dull conscience; who, as regards law in particular, are very ready in mastering its minute technicalities, but quite incapable of appreciating its higher principles; who are, moreover, unscrupulous in the use of means to attain their objects; and who never hesitate at the sacrifice of truth.

It may aid us in the solution of this problem to study briefly the existing system, and those which are proposed to remedy the admitted defects in that system.

Our limits, of course, admit of only a very brief sketch of the judicial arrangements existing or proposed; fortunately no minute detail is required.

The criminal law in India is administered by judges of what are called the Sudder and Zillah Courts, magistrates, and police officials. The Sudder is the High Court of Justice for the Presidency, and is the last Court of Appeal in all cases which come under the jurisdiction of the Company's Courts. The Zillah Courts are presided over by a single officer, called the Civil and Sessions Judge; their jurisdiction extends over a zillah or county, being a district extending over from three to four thousand square miles, and having a population varying from six hundred thousand to a million. Before the judge of this district are tried all cases involving a penalty beyond that of imprisonment for three years within this limit the magistrate, his deputy, and assistants, try various classes of cases, their limit of jurisdiction being arranged according to their rank. But in all cases there is an appeal from the inferior to the superior magistrate, from him to the judge, and from the judge to the Sudder Court.

Of course the magistracy has under it a staff of police-officers, who are almost, as a matter of necessity, natives. Subordinate police-officers have a certain small jurisdiction of their own; but it is limited to the most trifling cases. The functions of the Government police can be most easily characterized as thief-catching; that is, they do not, except in large towns, patrol the streets or roads, or act as watchmen or peaceofficers. This duty is performed by the chowkeedars, or watchmen, who form part of the ordinary village" community in India, and of the house

a It will be remembered that, throughout India, the natives universally live in villages; detached houses are scarcely known. If a planter or zemindar sets up a detached house at a distance, a village pretty soon springs up, from the number of employés who must be under any one engaged in trade or agriculture.

« AnteriorContinuar »