Pram

“ They claim to be a branch of the great Pramár clan, which in ancient times was the most powerful of all the Rájput tribes; "The world is the Pramár's" being quoted by Col. Tod as a proverbial saying to illustrate their extensive sway. They represent their ancestor to have been a Pramár Rája of Mainpuri, who cut off his own head for a sacrifice to the divinity; whence his descendants were styled Ḍunḍ, 'the headless,' afterwards corrupted into Ḍoṛ. ”

“ Arriving home Pramathanath called together all the children of the household and lighting up a big bonfire, threw one by one all his European clothes into it. The children began to dance round and round it and the higher the flames shot up, the greater was their merriment. After that Pramathanath gave up his sip of tea and bits of toast in Anglo-Indian houses and once again sat inaccessible within his castle of a house, while the insulted title-holders aforesaid went about from the door of one Englishman to that of another, bending their turbaned heads as before. ”

“ SECTION IX (Pauloma Parva continued)
Sauti said, "While those illustrious Brahmanas were sitting around the dead body of Pramadvara, Ruru, sorely afflicted, retired into a deep wood and wept aloud. And overwhelmed with grief he indulged in much piteous lamentation. And, remembering his beloved Pramadvara, he gave vent to his sorrow in the following words, 'Alas! The delicate fair one that increaseth my affliction lieth upon the bare ground. What can be more deplorable to us, her friends? ”

“ On arriving at the Pramane, the urn is placed upon the pagoda, there to remain for seven days. The silver ribbon is fastened in the middle to the urn, and at the ends to the east and west sides of the room, thus indicating the path traversed by the sun in his daily round, and symbolising the life of man in its passage from the cradle to the grave. The priests assemble in great numbers to recite stanzas bearing upon life and death, and upon the mysteries of Nirvana and the hereafter. ”

“ We learn from a passage in Strabo that the Pramnai regarded the Brahmans as boasters and mad because they were interested in physiology and astronomy. Now, there really exists an ancient Buddhist treatise in which the predictions by the Brahmans of eclipses of the sun and of the conjunctions and oppositions of the planets, and their discussions of the appearance of comets and meteors, are treated as despicable arts and lies.
It was just at this age that Hellenic culture was developed in northwest India. It held astronomy, and astrology too, in great esteem. ”

“ And because she surpassed all of her sex in goodness, beauty, and every quality, the great Rishi called her by the name of Pramadvara. And the pious Ruru having seen Pramadvara in the hermitage of Sthula-kesha became one whose heart was pursued by the god of love. And Ruru by means of his companions made his father Pramati, the son of Bhrigu, acquainted with his passion. And Pramati demanded her of the far-famed Sthula-kesha for his son. And her foster-father betrothed the virgin Pramadvara to Ruru fixing the nuptials for the day when the star Varga-Daivata (Purva-phalguni) would be ascendant. ”

“ Now this verb, especially when compounded with the preposition pra, gained the signification ‘to tear off, snatch to oneself, rob.’ Thus the fetching of Agni became a robbery of the fire, and the pramantha a fire-robber. The gods had intended, for some reason or other, to withhold fire from men; a benefactor of mankind stole it from the gods. This robbery was called pramâtha; pramâthyu-s is ‘he who loves boring or robbery,’ a Borer or a Robber. From the latter word, according to the peculiarities of Greek phonology, is formed Προμηθεύ-ς, Prometheus. ”

“ The name, and resemblance of the images which surround this temple to the figure of Budha, has induced an opinion that it was exclusively confined to the worship of that deity; but it should be noticed, that in the immediate vicinity of this large temple, and evidently connected with it, are the remains of several smaller temples, constructed much after the fashion of the temples at Prambanan, and containing a variety of sculptures and images of the Brahminical worship. A large but mutilated stone figure of Brahma was found in a field hard by ”

“ Prajapati, the creator, his mystic sacrifice in the daily ritual of the Brahmans, ix. 411
Pramantha, the upper part of the Brahman fire-drill, ii. 249
Prättigau in Switzerland, Lenten fire-customat, x. 119
Pratz, Le Page du, on the festival of new corn among the Natchez Indians, viii. 77 sqq.
Prauss, in Silesia, race of girls at harvest at, vii. 76
Prayer to the tulasi plant, ii. 26;
the Roman shepherd's, ii. 327;
to Pergrubius, [pg 420] ii. 347;
the materialization of, ix. 22 n. 2;
at sowing, ix. 138
Prayer, the Place of, viii. 113
—— and spell, vii. ”

“ Next morning ten stalwart young men strike the people with branches, which have been previously dipped in an earthen pot of water. As soon as they have done so, they run down to the beach, put the branches on board the prao, launch another prao in great haste, and tow the disease-burdened prao far out to sea. ”

“ So he pulled the tiger out.
Next the monkey said: "Holy sir, pull me out too." And the Brahman pulled him out too. Then the snake said: "Brahman, pull me out too." But the Brahman answered: "One shudders at the mere sound of your name, how much more at touching you!" "But," said the snake, "we are not free agents. We bite only under orders. I bind myself by a triple oath that you need have no fear of me." After listening to this, the Brahman pulled him out too. Then the animals said: "The man down there is a shrine of every sin. Beware. Do not pull him out. Do not trust him." ”

“ One evening, when I came home late, having been out nearly all day, I found on my doorstep a messenger who had been waiting for me, with the inexhaustible patience of an Oriental, for many hours. The plague had remembered my old Brahman at last, and he had sent to ask me to come and see him, 'on business of importance.' I went off accordingly to a segregate camp, whither he had been removed, and, much to my relief, arrived in time to find him conscious: for he was a fine old gentleman, and when a Brahman is a gentleman, he is a striking type of humanity. ”

“ For a passage on the raft these pilgrims take a turn at the oar, and help the owners to guide her through the shoals.
In the praams the life is a little less bleak and rough than it is on board the rafts. In form the praam is like the toy called a Noah's ark; a huge hull of coarse pine logs, riveted and clamped with iron, covered by a peaked plank roof. A big one will cost from six to seven hundred rubles (the ruble may be reckoned for the moment as half a crown) , and will carry from six to eight hundred tons of oats and rye. ”

“ The pharaoh fell to thinking.
"Thou art right," said he. "A spear will not harm him who knows how to ward it off, and a deceitful road will not lead astray the sage who knows the word of truth. But how wilt Thou manage to make stones in the wall move apart before thee, and columns change into doors of entrance?"
Samentu shrugged his shoulders contemptuously.
"In my temple," replied he, "there are imperceptible entrances even more difficult to open than those in the labyrinth. Whoso knows the key to a mystery can go everywhere, as Thou hast said justly, O holiness." ”

“ On the sands below the fort, the Bura Mela, or great fair, is held annually; it lasts about two months, and attracts devotees and merchants from all parts of India. At that period, also, lākhs and lākhs of natives come to Prag; they make pūja, shave, give money to the Fakīrs, and bathe at the sacred junction. Suicide committed at the Benī is meritorious in persons of a certain caste, but a sin for a Brahman! The ancient city of Prag, acquired the name of Allahabad from the Musalmān conquerors of India. ”

“ I helped her into the boat, then I launched it; [Pg 338] when it floated clear on the water of the cave I jumped in myself and took the sculls. Phroso sat silent and now pale-faced in the stern. I struck the water with my blades and the boat moved. A couple of strokes took us across the cave. We reached the mouth. I felt the sun on my neck with its faint early warmth: that is a good feeling and puts heart in a man.
‘Ah, but the sea and the air are good,’ said Phroso. ‘And it is good to be free, my lord.’
I looked at her. The sun had caught her eyes now, and the gleam in them seemed to fire me. ”

“ So they made their plans and ran on ahead of the Brahman through the woods, and seated themselves at the foot of three different trees by the side of the road, that the Brahman was following.
Presently the Brahman came up with the first of the three rogues, who said to him: "Master, why are you carrying that dog on your shoulders?"
"Dog!" said the Brahman, "it is no dog, but a goat for sacrifice." And he continued on his way home. A mile or two further he came upon the second rogue, who called out. "Master, what are you doing with that dog that you carry on your shoulder?" ”

“ The Brahman thanked his son-in-law, and took away the chattee; but he found it hard to believe all that had been said. So, going through the jungle on his way home, he uncovered it just to peep in and see if the stick were really there. No sooner had he done this, than out jumped the rope, out jumped the stick; the rope seized him and bound him to a tree, and the stick beat him, and beat him, and beat him, until he was nearly killed. 'Oh dear! oh dear!' screamed the Brahman, 'what an unlucky man I am! Oh dear! oh dear! stop, please stop! good stick, stop! ”

“ Prajapati becomes the great mythical hero, and inherits the wildest myths of the savage heroic beasts and birds.
The priests are now Brahmans, a hereditary divine caste, who possess all the vast and puerile knowledge of ritual and sacrificial minutiae. As life in the opera is a series of songs, so life in the Brahmanas is a sequence of sacrifices. Sacrifice makes the sun rise and set, and the rivers run this way or that. ”

“ Pentuer touched the amulet which he wore on his breast, and uttered a prayer.
"I have read," said he, "in sacred books that more than once to the suffering of people it became night at midday. But what is that? I do not understand."
"Dost Thou see the pyramid?" asked Menes on a sudden, pointing toward the desert.
"I see it."
"Now put thy hand before thy eyes. Dost Thou see the pyramid? Thou dost not. Well, the eclipse of the sun is the same kind of thing; the moon passes between the sun and us, hides the father of light and makes night in the daytime." ”

“ All those things round me—the primeval forest, and the sacred stream of Ganga, the mighty Himalaya, mount of God, ay, the illimitable vault of heaven above me, sun and stars—what are they but “such stuff as dreams are made of”? Brahm thought, and they became something and somewhere. He may think again, and they will become nothing and nowhere. Are these eternal, greater than I, worth troubling my mind about? Nothing is eternal, but the Thought which made them, and will unmake them. They are only venerable in my eyes, because each of them is a thought of Brahm’s. ”

“ In front of the temple within which sat the god, was a conical black stone daubed with red, the Linga, the generative function of Siva, and before it, the symbol of reproduction, women made offering of cocoanuts, and sweets, and garlands of flowers,—generally marigolds,—and prayed for the bestowal of a son; even their postures, carried away as they were by desire, showing a complete abandon to the sex idea. A Brahmin priest sat cross-legged upon a stone platform repeating in a sing-song cadence prayers, and from somewhere beyond a deep-toned bell boomed out an admonishing call. ”

“ When the poor Brahman’s children saw this they went home and said to their mother, “Mummy, Mummy, please buy us little images of Parwati like the other little boys and girls have.” But their mother said, “What is the use of my buying images of Parwati? If I do we shall have to make offerings, and there is absolutely nothing in the house. You run to papa and tell him to go into the bazaar and buy grain. If he buys grain I’ll buy you images of Parwati.” ”

“ If Thou permit, I will tell how priests look on this matter."
"Of course, speak."
"Well, a very wise priest who from the summit of the temple of Amon examines celestial movements, has thought out this statement: 'The pharaoh is the sun, the heir to the throne the moon. When the moon follows the god of light from afar, we have brightness in the daytime and clearness at night. When the moon wishes to be too near the sun, it disappears itself and the nights are dark. But if the moon stands before the sun there is an eclipse, and in the world great terror '." ”

“ One day, when stooping to drink from a cool, clear stream, near a forest, I saw something bright under the water, and having taken it up, found it to be a ruby of very great value.
Exhausted by fatigue and the scorching heat of the sun, I went into a small temple to rest, and saw there a brahman with a number of children, all looking wretched and half-starved. ”

“ Now this is the tale which is told every Sunday1 in Shravan: Once upon a time there [3] was a town called Atpat, and in it there lived a poor Brahman. Every day he used to go into the woods to fetch sticks and to cut grass. One day he met there some nymphs and wood-fairies, who said that they were performing holy rites in honour of the sun. He asked, “What are these rites?” They replied, “If we tell you, you will become proud and vain and you will not perform them properly.” But the Brahman promised, “No, I shall not become proud or vain and I shall observe the rites you tell me.” ”