50 COSMOS. 



tute one of the most remarkable phenomena of Indian life, 

 and must have exercised a special influence on the mental 

 development of the w^hole race ?" 



In referring here, as I did in my public lectures, under the 

 guidance of my brother and other learned Sanscrit scholars, 

 to individual instances of that animated and frequently-ex- 

 pressed feeling for nature which breathes through the descrip- 

 tive portions of Indian poetry, I would begin with the Vedas, 

 the most ancient and most valuable memorials of the civiliza- 

 tion of the East Arian nations. The main subject of these 

 writings is the veneration and praise of nature. The hymns 

 of the Rig- Veda contain the most charming descriptions of 

 the " roseate hue of early dawn," and of the aspect of the 

 ** golden-handed sun." The great heroic poems of Ramayana 

 and Mahabharata are of more recent date than the Vedas, 

 but more ancient than the Puranas ; the adoration of nature 

 being associated with the narrative in accordance with the 

 character of epic creations. In, the Vedas, the locality of the 

 scenes which had been glorified by holy beings was seldom 

 indicated, but in the heroic poems the descriptions of nature 

 are mostly individual, and refer to definite localities, from 

 whence they derive that animation and life which is ever im- 

 parted when the writer draws his materials from the impres- 

 sions he has himself experienced. There is a rich tone of 

 coloring throughout the description of the journey of Rama 

 from Ayodhya to the residence of Dschanaka, in his life in 

 the primitive forest, and in the picture of the anchorite life of 

 the Panduides. 



The name of Kalidasa was early and widely known among 

 the Western nations. This great poet flourished in the highly- 

 cultivated court of Vikramaditya, and was consequently the 

 cotemporary of Virgil and Horace. The English and German 

 translations of the Sacontala hav6 added to the admiration 

 which has been so freely yielded to this poet,* whose tender- 



puellas VasvaJcienses (Humboldt, Examen Crit. de la Giographie, t. i. 

 p. 53). 



* Kalidasa lived at the court of Vikramaditya about fifty-six year 

 before our era. It is highly probable that the age of the two great 

 heroic poems, Ramayana and Mahabharata, is much more ancient than 

 that of the appearance of Buddha, that is to say, prior to the middle ol 

 the sixth century before Christ. (Buri.ouf, Bhagavata-Purana, t. i., 

 p. cxi. and cxviii.; Lassen, Ind. Alterthnmskunde, bd. i., s. 356 and 492.) 

 George Forster, by the translation of Sakuntala, i. e., by his elegant 

 German translation of the English version of Sir William Jones (179J X 

 contributed very considerably to the enthusiasm for Indian poetry 



