270 Remarks on the Inscription, No. 2, %c. [June, 



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But Bhi'shma, O chief of the Bharatas, with firmness suppressing the sense of 

 pain, while hurning witli the arrows that pierced him, and breathing hardly like 

 a serpent — nor only with body inflamed, but with mind also maddened with the 

 wounds of those sharp weapons, exclaimed only " Water 1" when he saw the 

 princes approaching. Then, O king, did those Xattriyas collect immediately 

 from every quarter food of various kinds, and goblets of cold water : upon seeing 

 which the son of Santanu sadly exclaimed, " Not now can such ordinary human 

 pleasures be tasted by me : for now cut off from mankind, I am stretched upon 

 my arrowy* bed, and lie expecting the hour when the sun and moon shall be 

 closed to me." But having spoken thus, O Bharata ! chiding by his words the 

 assembled chiefs, the son of Santanu added, "I would see Arjuna." Upon which, 

 he of the mighty arm approaching with salutation his grand-uncle, and standing 

 with hands joined and body bent forward, said, " What shall I do ?" And the 

 pious Bhishma, with pleasure beholding the great Pandava chief standing before 

 him, answered, " My body burns, covered as I am with thy arrows, my vitals 

 are racked, my mouth is dry : bring some water, Arjuna, to my tortured frame, 

 for thou of the great bow art able to give me such streams as I require." The 

 brave Arjuna thus addressed, having mounted his car, and fitted his bow-string, 

 bent his strong bow called Gandiva, for the intended shot : and on hearing the twang 

 of that bow-string, a sound as if bursting from the thunder-bolt of Indra — all crea- 

 tures trembled, even all those chiefs themselves. Then he, the best of charioteers, 

 having wheeled his car in a reverential circle round Bhishma on his right, the 

 prostrate sou of BHARA.TA,bestof allhurlers of weapons — and having taken a flaming 

 arrow, and breathed a magical sentence (mantra) over it, and fitted it to his bow — 

 the whole world looking on — did with that dart of thunder pierce the whole earth 

 close on the right side of Bhishma — and thence sprung up a pure beauteous stream 

 of cold water, like the nectar of the immortals, of divine scent and flavour: and with 

 this cold stream did he powerfully refresh Bhishma, prince of the Curus, of god- 

 like works and prowess. With this work of the prince ARJUNA,as of a mighty trans- 

 forming magician, the lords of the earth were seized with extreme astonishment, 

 beholding it as a deed equally compassionate and transcending all human power. 



* The sara-sayyd, or arrowy bed, was assumed as a voluntary penance in imitation 

 of Bhishma by a singular devotee, who was living at Benares in the year 1792, a 

 curious account of whose travels and adventures, together with a portrait of him 

 stretched on his pointed bed, was given by Mr. Jonathan Duncan in the 5th vo- 

 lume of the Society's Transactions. [In that account, p. 5, Bhikma Pitamaha, is 

 merely the Hindui mode (*§ for Tf) of writing " Bhishma the grandsire," or rather 

 grand-uncle of the contending chiefs of the houses of Dhritarashtra and Pandu. 



