COSMOS, VOL. II - World eBook Library

NATURAL DESCRIPTIONS BY THE INDIANS. 407
to combine a spiritualised adoration of nature with the dual-
istic belief in Ahrimanes and Ormuzd. What we usually
term Persian literature does not go further back than the
time of the Sassanidcs ; the most ancient monuments of their
as for instance, according to Wilhelm von Schlegel,
in the first book of the
Ramayana, or Balakanda, and in the second book, or A yodliyalcanda :
see also on the differences between these two great epics Lassen,
Ind. Alterthumskunde, bd. i. s. 482. The next point, closely connected
with the first, refers to the subject which has enriched the natural
description. Mythical narration, especially when of a historical character,
necessarily gave rise to greater distinctness and localisation in
the description of nature. All the writers of great epics, whether it be
Valmiki, who sings the deeds of Rama, or the authors of the MahalJia^
rata, who collected the national traditions under the collective title of
Vyasa, show themselves overpowered, as it were, by emotions con-
nected with their descriptions of external nature. Rama's journey from
Ayodhya to Dschanaka's capital, his life in the forest, his expedition to
Lanka (Ceylon), where the savage Ravana, the robber of his bride,
Sita, dwells, and the hermit life of the Panduides, furnish the poet
with the opportunity of following the original bent of the Indian mind,
and of blending with the narration of heroic deeds the rich pictures of
a luxuriant nature. (Ramayana, ed. Schlegel, lib. i. cap. 26, v. 13-15:
lib. ii. cap. 56, v. 6-11: compare Nalus, ed. Bopp, 1832, Ges. xii. v.
1-10). Another point in which the second epoch differs from that of
the Vedas in regard to the feeling for external nature, is in the greater
richness of the subject treated of, which is not like the first limited to
the phenomena of the heavenly powers, but comprehends the whole of
nature, the heavens and the earth, with the world of plants and of ani-
mals, in all its luxuriance and variety, and in its influence on the mind
of men. In the third epoch of the poetic literature of India, if we
except the Puranas, which have the particular object of developing the
religious principle in the minds of the different sects, external nature
exercises undivided sway, but the descriptive portion of the poems is
based on scientific and local observation. By way of specifying some of
the great poems belonging to this epoch, we will mention the Bhatti-
Icdvya (or Bhatti's poem), which, like the Ramayana, has for its subject
the exploits and adventures of Rama, and in which there occur
a term
successively several admirable descriptions of a forest life during
of banishment, of the sea and of its beautiful shores, and of the breaking
of the day in Ceylon (Lanka). (Bhatti-kdvya, ed. Calc. P. i. canto
vii. p. 432; canto x. p. 715; canto xi. p. 814. Compare also Fiinf
Gesange des Bhatti-lcdvya, 1837, s. 1-18, by Professor Schutz of Bielefeld;
the agreeable description of the different periods of the day in
Magha's Sisupalabdha, and the Naiscliada-tscltarita of Sri Harscha,
where, however, in the story of Nalus and Damayanti, the expression of
the feeling for external nature passes into a vague exaggeration. This
extravagance contrasts with the noble simplicity of the Ramayana,