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 cha- 

 racter, 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 Pur anas, 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 sub- 

 ject the exploits and adventures of Rama, and in which there occur 

 successively several admirable descriptions of a forest life during a term 

 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 Biele- 

 feld; 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, 



