Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, v. 1 of 3: or the Central and Western Rajput States of IndiaTod, James
History
Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, v. 1 of 3: or the Central and Western Rajput States of India
Tod, James
Rajasthan (India) -- History; Rajput (Indic people) -- History
To resume the narrative: though the flight of Bappa and its cause are
perfectly natural, we have another episode; when the bard assuming a
higher strain has recourse to celestial machinery for the _dénouement_
of this simple incident: but “an illustrious race must always be crowned
with its proper mythology.” Bappa who was the founder of a line of a
‘hundred kings,’ feared as a monarch, adored as more than mortal, and,
according to the legend, ‘still living’ (_charanjiva_), deserves to have
the source of his pre-eminent fortune disclosed, which, in Mewar, it
were sacrilege to doubt. While he pastured the sacred kine in the
valleys of Nagindra, the princely shepherd was suspected of
appropriating the milk of a favourite cow to his own use. He was
distrusted and watched, and although indignant, the youth admitted that
they had reason to suspect him, from the habitual dryness of the brown
cow when she entered the pens at even.[4.2.15] He watched, and traced
her to a narrow dell, when he beheld the udder spontaneously pouring its
stores amidst the shrubs. Under a thicket of cane a hermit was reposing
in a state of abstraction, from which the impetuosity of the shepherd
soon roused him. The mystery was revealed in the phallic symbol of the
‘great God,’ which daily received the lacteal shower, and raised such
doubts of the veracity of Bappa.
No eye had hitherto penetrated into this natural sanctuary of the rites
of the Hindu Creator, except the sages and hermits of ancient days (of
whom this was the celebrated Harita),[4.2.16] whom this bounteous cow
also fed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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