60 AMRA. 



which for a thousand years had filled the offices of priesthood, with- 

 out descending to any meaner occupation, or mingling blood with 

 any inferior caste. He maintained habitually a cold, austere, and 

 dignified calmness of demeanour; and flattered himself that, he had 

 attained that state of perfect indifference to all worldly things, which, 

 according to the Brahminical philosophy, is the highest point of 

 human virtue ; but, though simple, grave, and austere in his per- 

 sonal habits, he lived with a splendour becoming his reputation, his 

 high rank, and vast possessions. He exercised an almost princely 

 hospitality ; a hundred mendicants were fed morning and evening 

 at his gates. He founded and supported colleges of learning for 

 the poorer Brahmans, and had numerous pupils, who had come 

 from all parts of India to study under his direction ; these were 

 lodged in separate buildings. Only Govinda, as the adopted son 

 of Sarma, dwelt under the same roof with his Gooroo, a privilege 

 which had unconsciously become most precious to his heart ; it re- 

 moved him from the constrained companionship of those he secretly 

 despised, and it placed him in delicious and familiar intercourse 

 with one who had become too dearly and fatally beloved. 



The Brahman had an only child, the daughter of his old age. 

 She had been named, at her birth, Priyamvada (or softly .v//<Wv//?j, 

 but her companions called her Amra, tin: name of a graceful tree 

 bearing blossoms of peculiar beauty and fragrance, with which the 

 Indian Cupid is said to tip his arrows. Amni was but a child 

 when (iovinda first entered the dwelling of his preceptor; but as 

 time passed on, she expanded beneath his eye into beauty and ma- 

 turity, like the lovely and odoriferous flower, the name of which she 

 bore. 



The Hindoo women of superior rank and unmixed caste are in 

 general of diminutive size, and accordingly the lovely and high-born 

 Amra was formed upon the least possible scale of female beauty : 

 but her figure, although so exquisitely delicate, had all the flowing 

 outline and rounded proportions of complete womanhood. Her 

 features were perfectly regular, and of almost infantine minuteness, 

 except her eyes : those soft oriental eyes, not sparkling, or often ani- 

 mated, but large, dark, and lustrous ; as if in their calm depth of 

 expression slept unwaked passions, like the bright deity Heri repo- 

 sing upon the coiled serpent. Her eyebrows were finely arched, and 

 most delicately pencilled ; her complexion, of a pale and transparent 

 olive, was on the slightest emotion suffused with a tint, which resem- 

 bled that of the crimson water-lily as seen through the tremulous 

 wave; her lips were like the buds of the Camalata, and unclosed 

 to display a row of teetli like seed-pearl of Manar. But one of her 



