Dakshina

“ Parāçara said:—Do thou hear, O thou of a high-mind, how commanded by Brahmā, Daksha created living creatures. At first Daksha created his will-born progeny—the deities, the Rishis, the Gandharvas, the demons and the snake-gods. When he found, O twice-born one, that his mind-born progeny did not multiply he began to meditate upon some other means of increasing the living creatures, Then desirous of multiplying the race by means of sexual intercourse he married the daughter of the Patriarch Veerana by name Ashikni who was devotee! to austerities and the eminent supportress of the world. ”

“ Therefore, Daksha's sacrifice to the Gods is shown to have been interfered with by Shiva—the Destroying Deity, Evolution and Progress personified, who is the Regenerator at the same time; who destroys things under one form but to recall them to life [pg 193] under another more perfect type. Shiva-Rudra creates the terrible Vîrabhadra, born of his breath, the “thousand-headed, thousand-armed” monster, and commissions him to destroy the sacrifice prepared by Daksha. ”

“ Nareda then appears and tells Daksha to prepare for the consequences of his folly. Virabhadra, Siva's attendant, then enters and plays some antics. Shaking the earth with his tread, and filling space with his extended arms, he rolls his eyes in wrath. Some of the gods he casts on the ground and tramples on them; he knocks out the teeth of some with his fists, plucks out the beards of some, and cuts off the ears, arms, and noses of others; he smites some, and he tosses others into the sacrificial fire. He decapitates the cause of his master's indignation, the haughty Daksha. ”

“ Dakianos, whose pride this flattered, and who had nothing more to desire of human greatness, promised him to consent to everything.
"Let your throne be placed upon the shore of the sea," pursued the old man.
What he desired was executed. And when Dakianos was placed there, "Prince," said the genie to him, "there is at the bottom of the sea a fish, the bigness of which is known only to Allah, and which every day comes to land. It remains there till noon to adore the Almighty. No person interrupts its prayers: when they are finished, it plunges again to the bottom of the sea." ”

“ No one term can express the full meaning of the Dakota's Wakan. It comprehends all mystery, secret power and divinity. Awe and reverence are its due, and it is as unlimited in manifestation as it is in idea. All life is Wakan; so also is everything which exhibits power, whether in action, as the winds and drifting clouds; or in passive endurance, as the boulder by the wayside. For even the commonest sticks and stones have a spiritual essence which must be reverenced as a manifestation of the all-pervading, mysterious power that fills the universe. ”

“ Having heard the advice of his instructors, the king, calling his sixty thousand sons into the assembly, said, I perceive that the Rakshuses have not been to this great sacrifice. A sacrifice of the Nagas is now performing by the sages, and some god, in the form of a serpent, {214} has stolen the devoted horse. Whoever he be, who, at the time of the Deeksha, has been the cause of this afflictive circumstance, this unhappy event, whether he be gone to Patala, or whether he remain in the waters, kill him, O sons! and bring back my victim. May success attend you, O my sons! ”

“ We know of Daksha, first as the son of Brahmâ, the creative Prajâpati when the life-process rapidly worked itself out in Elemental forms. Then there was no sexual procreation. Creation meant the materialisation of the Jiva. Satî, the daughter of Daksha, was the guiding energy of life-evolution. She became wedded to Śiva, the Lord of Bhûtas, Pretas and Pisâchas who by the infusion of their Tâmasic energies could bring down Jivas from their high spiritual plane. ”

“ Re-born in every Kalpa, they generally try to impede the work of human procreation. When Daksha, the chief of the Prajâpatis or Creators, brings forth 10,000 sons for the purpose of peopling the world, Nârada—a son of Brahmâ, the great Rishi, and virtually a Kumâra, if not so in name—interferes with, and twice frustrates Daksha's aim, by persuading those Sons to remain holy Ascetics and eschew marriage. For this, Daksha curses Nârada to be “re-born as a man,” as Brahmâ had cursed him before for refusing to marry, and obtain progeny, saying: “Perish in thy (present [Deva or Angelic] form) ”

“ He is aided by the Khereecha people openly; and secretly, I fear, by some of the Powar Thakoors of Gigree under the rose. There are four small fortified places between thirty and forty miles west of Jhansee, and not far from the Sinde, held by Powar Thakoors, who are a shade higher in caste than the Bondeylas; and, in consequence, all the principal chiefs take their daughters in marriage. They are needy, and as proud as Lucifer, and will always eke out their means by robbery if they can. The Jhansee chief cannot keep them in order without our aid. ”

“ Their subordinates are the serpent, lizard, frog, ghosts, owl and eagle. These all obey their will. The Onktehi made the earth and men, and gave the Dakotas the medicine-sack, and also prescribed the manner in which some of those pigments must be applied, which are daubed over the bodies of his votaries in the medicine-dance, and on the warrior when he goes into action. They are believed to possess a wakan and an amuletic power.
Among all the myriads of the Dakota gods, there are none more respectable, or more respected, than the one above mentioned. ”

“ At length Dakianos departed with his numerous army.
The day after the King's departure they put in execution what they had projected. The eunuchs pursued them, and would have forced them to return back to the palace; but they answered them,
"We are tired of our King: he endeavours to pass for the God of the earth, and we adore Him alone who has created all that we behold."
The young men had already drawn their sabres, and in a moment they put the eunuchs out of a condition of following them. Then Jemlikha said to them, "My friends, we are ruined if we do not use all possible expedition." ”

“ One day, as Dakianos was at table, Jemlikha held a fan to drive away the flies that might incommode him: there came one which settled itself with so much obstinacy upon the dish he was eating that he was obliged to give it up. Jemlikha, struck with this slight event, thought it ridiculous that a man who could not drive away even a fly that troubled him, should pretend to divinity. ”

“ Of these there are fourteen families: one sprung from the mind of Brahmā, another from the Vedas, another from fire, [102] another from the wind, another from nectar when it was churned, another from water, another from the sun’s rays, another from the moon’s beams, another from earth, and another from lightning; one was fashioned by Death, and another created by Love; besides, Daksha, father of all, had among his many daughters two, Muni and Arishṭā, and from their union with the Gandharvas were sprung the other two families. These are, in sum, the fourteen races. ”

“ He was obliged to inform Taikosama, saying, “He feared that these religious, who call themselves embassadors from the Philippines, intend to preach like the rest.” “They won’t,” replied he, in a passion, “if they be wise; for if they do, I’ll teach them to laugh at me.”
These Franciscans, thinking they were most successful, wrote to Manila for others to come over to assist them. They opened a church at Osaka, and designed to erect a third at Nagasaki. To this end they desired the governor would obtain leave of Taikosama for two sick to change air. ”

“ Gorky’s earlier play, Miestchanye, had painted the manners and sentiment of the petits bourgeois of Russian towns. The purpose of Datchniki was to expose the manners and sentiments of the “intelligent” class; and this purpose it accomplished with a brutality and frankness which made the more sensitive half of the “intelligents” dance with wrath.
Datchniki (which a respectable St. Petersburg News Agency mistranslates The Suburbians) are known only to Russia. They are a product of climate. Nobody lives in the Russian capital (or in any other large city) in summer. ”

“ Unwilling to thrust himself forward, he could bide his time, and was prepared for any emergency. He was born of a good family, but had cut out for himself a position; and, in the general scramble for landed possessions at this period, had laid a solid foundation in the province of Suruga and Mikawa and some portions of other provinces. He had already been advanced to high rank by the Emperor. He resided at Hamamatz, in Towotomi, where he held over the Kwan to supreme sway, with which Taikosama did not think it wise to interfere. ”

“ Skandha. The Devas and Astrals were brought into manifestation by Daksha, whose position in creation was next to that of Brahmâ. Therefore all stood up to receive him at the sacrifice except Brahmâ.
Śiva first appeared as Kumâra Nîla Lohita or Rudra. And all beings thereafter got the potentiality of dissolution, phenomenal change, death and decay. But in the first stage of life process, phenomenal change, decay or dissolution was not in requisition, as Monads went on in their downward journey, not by dissolution, but by evolution. ”

“ In their external form, the Onktehi are said to resemble the ox, only that they are of immense proportions. This god has power to extend his horns and tail so as to reach the skies. These are the organs of his power. The dwelling place of the male is in the water, and the spirit of the female animates the earth. Hence, when the Dakota seems to be praying, chanting or offering sacrifices to the water or to the earth, it is to this family of the gods that the worship is rendered. ”

“ If he can spit upon a man, or touch any article belonging to him with his teeth, he is Dakhal, unless of course, in case of theft, it be the person who caught him. A woman can protect any number of persons, or even of tents. [134] If a [Pg 265] horseman ride into a tent, he and his horse are Dakhal. A stranger who has eaten with a Shammar, can give Dakheel to his enemy; for instance, I could protect an Aneyza, though there is blood between his tribe and the Shammar. According to Mijwell, any person, by previously calling out “Nuffo” (I renounce) , may reject an application for Dakheel. ”

“ Then was he turned into stone, as also was the body of the slain man, and they remain to this day on the hillside of Qamana, that all men may know how great a man was Dakodako and how true are the words which he spake. ”

“ Compare my ‘Buddhism,’ p. 187.
20 The Yakshas, products of witchcraft and cannibalism, are beings of magical power, who feed on human flesh. The male Yaksha occupies in Buddhist stories a position similar to that of the wicked genius in the Arabian Nights; the female Yakshiṇī, who occurs more frequently, usually plays the part of siren.
21 Not quite the same as Jupiter. Sakka is a very harmless and gentle kind of a god, not a jealous god, nor given to lasciviousness or spite. Neither is he immortal: he dies from time to time; and, if he has behaved well, is reborn under happy conditions. ”

“ The body remains on the spot where life left it, until the nassesalars appear, their arms hidden to the shoulders under old bags, to take it away. Having deposited it in an iron coffin—the same for everyone—they carry it to the dakhma. If any one, who has once been carried thither, should happen to regain consciousness, the nassesalars are bound to kill him; for such a person, who has been polluted by one touch of the dead bodies in the dakhma, has thereby lost all right to return to the living, by doing so he would contaminate the whole community. ”

“ He was a progenitor on a magnificent scale, as he is considered to have been the father of the gods, demons, man, fish, reptiles, and all animals, by the thirteen daughters of Daksha. The eldest of the thirteen, his favourite wife, was Adití, from whom were born Indra and all the inferior gods, and particularly the twelve Ádityas, or forms of the sun, which represent him in the several months of the year. From Diti, Danu, and others of the remaining twelve, came the Daityas, Dánavas, and other demons.
115. No sacred cord is twined. ”

“ Being highly pleased at this, the gods endowed the backbone with life, and the son went to his father Jāmbuvadu, who failed to recognise him, and refused to admit him. He was told that he must live as a beggar attached to the Mādigas, and was called Dakkala because he was brought to life from a vertebral column (dakka) .
The Dakkalas wander from place to place. They may not enter Mādiga houses, outside which meals are given to them by males only, as females are not allowed to serve them. Mādiga women may not tread on the footsteps of the Dakkalas. ”

“ I have just heard some bad news about Thakchacha. Is there not likely to be some trouble?" Bahulya had no wish to tell any of his secrets, so shaking his head from side to side he replied in a light sententious manner: "Man is encompassed about with every danger; why should you be in any fear?" Another man remarked: "That is all very true, but Thakchacha is a very clever man: he will escape from the danger by the mere force of his intelligence. ”

“ It was not an easy thing to find Daikoku, even though every one worshipped him. So the oni had to travel a long way, and ask a great many questions of people, and often lose his way before he got any clue. One day he met a sparrow who directed him to Daikoku's palace, where among all his money-bags and treasure piled to the [Pg 90] ceiling, the fat and lop-eared fellow was accustomed to sit eating daikon radish, and amuse himself with his favorite pets, the rats. Around him was stored in straw bags his rice which he considered more precious than money. ”