34 HOPKINS— MAGIC OBSERVANCES IN HINDU EPIC. [April 21, 



into water, as the water dried up at his approach because he had 

 become impure — another magical touch. ^- 



Among the baths and sacred watering-places, there is one which 

 goes by the name of Svavil-lomapanayana in the Bombay text and 

 Svana-lomapanayana in the South Indian recension, at 3.83.63 (also 

 -lomapaha). This should mean the " removal of hair of porcu- 

 pine " (or "of dog"), and the place probably commemorates some 

 legend now lost ; but the remark added to the name is " there 

 (nowadays) priests pluck out their hair," and "being thus purified 

 attain the blessed state." This is preceded by the mention of 

 another watering-place, apparently near by (perhaps a rival Kur- 

 haus), which "purifies merely by going to it; and one becomes 

 purified (from sin) by drenching his hair in it" (the holy water). 

 B. calls this Sitavana and the SI. text again differs slightly in 

 making the name Sitavana. This last too is the reading in C. 

 and it is probably correct as it has meaning ("the cool grove"), 

 whereas the Bombay text is either meaningless or a corruption of 

 " Sita's grove," which is unlikely. In the description of the act 

 leading to purification, kcsan ahhyiiksya vai tasniin pnto hhavati, the 

 "drenching of the hair of the head in this (water)" may imply 

 casting the hair into the water, but that is not certain ; while at the 

 other watering-place the hair is certainly plucked out and (inferen- 

 tially) sacrificed in the water.^^ No religious force lies in " arrange 

 thy hair" (in preparation for battle) in 9. 32. Co. 



The Evil Eye. 

 The " eye of wisdom," 3.209.50, etc., is a mental power. It is 

 with a glance of the eye that Sagara's sons are burned by Kapila, • 



" It is curious that this hair-born ogre does not disappear or perish when 

 he has completed the task for which he has been created. On the contrary, 

 he gets as his reward the woman created from the other lock of hair. Her 

 part in the matter was to make the man impure through tempting him, which 

 she easily did as she was very fair and he was not very virtuous. 



"Naturally, "grasping by the hair" is insulting (M. 4.83) and when the 

 heroine of the epic is basely treated this only adds to the insult. There may, 

 however, be a relic of superstition in it. At least Drona's son feels more 

 distress at the fact that his father's foe " seized him by the hair " than on 

 any other point in his manner of death, j.igs.Sf., kcsagraha(na). Pro- 

 verbially "up to hair-seizing" means to the limit, as in R.3.46.2 ("I must 

 strive ") " as hard as I can," to the last. 



