60 BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY soctEry. 
Count Gubernatis, that distinguished Oriental scholar who was among 
us some timeago. He has dramatized the story in Italian, which our 
learned antiquarian scholar, Dr. Gerson DaCunha, has rendered into 
English. There the story is given graphically though different from 
mine. Suffice it to say here, that Nirad fi gures in this story also. 
Here it was through his instrumentality that Sivitri know the mode 
of recovering her husband from the Yama Rajah, King of the Infer- 
nal Regions (the Indian Pluto). After having worshipped the plant 
in the usual manner prescribed by the ritual, s anding by the side of 
her husband’s body that had just breathed its last, she invoked the 
lord of the nether world that her busband’s life might be restored. 
‘The force of the worship of the banyan tree was so great that the King 
of Hell was obliged to give up the spirit of the deceased husband. 
Tt was no unmerited reward to a dutiful wife who had abandoned 
her parents and all her dear belongings, her country, and her com- 
forts, to wander in the jungles with her husband—a companion in 
life to him as well as his deliverer, or regenerator after death, 
What woman with her beliefs trained in this direction, will not simi- 
larly worship a banyan tree if it is only to escape the sorrows and 
miseries of a widowed life? And yet how many an Indian woman is 
there at this day who has most devoutly worshipped the banyan every 
year with renewed faith, and yetin the end not escaped the crushing 
calamities of perpetual and relentless widowhood! If it had been in 
the power of plants and bushes to avert human sorrow and lessen the 
burden of human misery, the world would have been different! There 
would have been no misery af all. 
There are two or three plants which are connected with the life 
history of the amorous god Krishna. They are the Tulsi (Ocymwm 
sanctum), Kadamba (Nauclea Cadamba), and Pairijtak (Nyecanthes 
Arbor-Tristis). The mythological character of Krishna is one of the 
most marvellously complex that has ever been created, or even 
attempted by any classical or modern writer. It is the leading 
character of the great epic of the Mahibharat. The mainsprings of 
his action are not simply dictated by a. life of sensual pleasure, but 
if | may speak as a student of poetry, some parts of the life of 
Krishna afford an illustration of undying personal attachment to. his 
devotees and astounding self-sacrifice in the interest. of those who 
trusted in him, 
The birth of the Tulsi plant has a story of its own. The plant 
wherever it grows or exists, assures us of the presence of Vishnu, and 
