--- title: The Descent of the Sun. — The descent of the sun: A cycle of birth · full text with trees description: The Descent of the Sun., «The descent of the sun: A cycle of birth» by Unknown: the whole chapter, every sentence with its dependency tree and pragmatics. It begins: [Sanskrit script] --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg68641/1/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The descent of the sun: A cycle of birth](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg68641/) / The Descent of the Sun. # The Descent of the Sun. The Descent of the Sun. of «The descent of the sun: A cycle of birth» by Unknown: the whole text, 111 sentences and 1749 words. The small number after every sentence leads to its own page with its syntax tree and pragmatics, parsed by Mova itself. \[Sanskrit script\][1](1/ "tree and pragmatics") (The illusion of a waking dream.)[2](2/ "tree and pragmatics") Like a Digit of the Moon In the Shadow of the Earth Spirit undergoeth Swoon In the Vestibule of Birth; Dreameth transitory trouble, Weareth Hues of Heaven, hurled Hither, thither, as a Bubble On the Ocean of the World.[3](3/ "tree and pragmatics") \[\_vide n. p.\_ xv.\][4](4/ "tree and pragmatics") THE[5](5/ "tree and pragmatics") DESCENT OF THE SUN[6](6/ "tree and pragmatics") \[Sanskrit script\][7](7/ "tree and pragmatics") \_A CYCLE OF BIRTH\_[8](8/ "tree and pragmatics") TRANSLATED FROM THE ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT.[9](9/ "tree and pragmatics") BY[10](10/ "tree and pragmatics") F.[11](11/ "tree and pragmatics") W. BAIN[12](12/ "tree and pragmatics") \[Sanskrit script\][13](13/ "tree and pragmatics") '\_and in a dream I saw a lotus fallen from heaven\_'[14](14/ "tree and pragmatics") THIRD EDITION.[15](15/ "tree and pragmatics") James Parker and Co., 31 BEDFORD-STREET, STRAND, LONDON; AND 27 BROAD-STREET, OXFORD.[16](16/ "tree and pragmatics") 1906.[17](17/ "tree and pragmatics") \_First Edition\_, 1903.[18](18/ "tree and pragmatics") \_Second Edition\_, 1903.[19](19/ "tree and pragmatics") \_Third Edition\_, 1906.[20](20/ "tree and pragmatics") DEDICATED TO MARGARET.[21](21/ "tree and pragmatics") INTRODUCTION.[22](22/ "tree and pragmatics") Here is a fairy tale which I found in an old Hindoo manuscript.[23](23/ "tree and pragmatics") As the title shows, it is a solar myth.[24](24/ "tree and pragmatics") Literally translated, its name is: \_The glory of the Going Down of the Sun\_.[25](25/ "tree and pragmatics") But this is only the exoteric, physical envelope of the inner, mystical meaning, which is: \_The Divine Lustre\[1\] of the Descent\_ (Incarnation) \_of Him Who took Three Steps\_: i.e. Wishnu, or the Sun, the later Krishna, or Hindoo Apollo.[26](26/ "tree and pragmatics") And this epithet of the Sun is explained by the well-known passage in the Rig-Weda (I. 22.[27](27/ "tree and pragmatics") 17\[2\]), '\_Three steps did Wishnu stride: thrice did he set down his foot.[28](28/ "tree and pragmatics") \_' A mythological expression for the rise, the zenith, and the set of the Sun. But the old magnificent simplicity of the Rig-Weda was perverted by subsequent Pauranik glosses; and Wishnu, according to the new legend, was said to have cheated his adversary, Bali, by striding, in his Dwarf Incarnation, over the three worlds.[29](29/ "tree and pragmatics") In our title, a different turn is given to the old idea, which we may express by saying that the steps commence, not with the rise, but the set of the Sun: his Going Down, his mysterious period of Darkness, his Rising again.[30](30/ "tree and pragmatics") This is the inverted Race, or Cycle of the Sun, which so much exercised the mind of primitive man, and seemed to be a symbol of the mystery of Birth and Death.[31](31/ "tree and pragmatics") And ours is a strange story; which seemed to the translator not unworthy of being clothed in an English dress, containing as it did so much in little bulk that, as the French say, \_donne à penser\_.[32](32/ "tree and pragmatics") Absolutely Hindoo in its form and spirit, it is for an Englishman full of associations, and instinct with that philosophical mythology, scraps and fragments of which are familiar to him in the story of the Fall and the poetry of Milton, in many an old fairy tale, in some touches of Pythagoras and Plato, and some old religious legends.[33](33/ "tree and pragmatics") \_Lux in tenebris\_: a dazzling light, in the most profound darkness: the night of the sun: a heavenly body, doomed to put on mortality and suffer for a period in this lower world of darkness, birth and death: in some such ways as these we may express its central idea.[34](34/ "tree and pragmatics") But for the reader not acquainted with Sanskrit it may be worth while to point out that there runs throughout it a veiled allegory which he would not be apt to detect, to the teaching of the Sánkhya Philosophy of Kapila, (who is older than Thales;) according to which it is the duty of PURUSHA, the archetype of the spirit of man, the Primæval Male, to hunt for and pursue PRAKRITI, the feminine personification of material Nature, the Eternal Feminine, till he finds her: when instantly she disappears 'like an actress\[3\].'[35](35/ "tree and pragmatics") In this respect, the story somewhat recalls the \_Gita-Gowind\_ of Jayadewa, which according to one school of interpreters, deals with the Soul, personified as the lovely Rádhá, in its search after the Divine.[36](36/ "tree and pragmatics") For among the Hindoos, the earthly and the heavenly love are always confounded.[37](37/ "tree and pragmatics") And let not anyone suppose, that the lesson embodied in these pages is obsolete or dead in the India of to-day.[38](38/ "tree and pragmatics") I wrote the last lines of this translation late one evening, and I walked out in the dusk to the bridge across the river, about half a mile away.[39](39/ "tree and pragmatics") There was not a breath of air.[40](40/ "tree and pragmatics") It was a night as still as that which long ago Medea chose on which to work her spells: nothing moved save the twinkling stars; all below was plunged in sleep, every tree a picture, every leaf seemed carved in stone: only, every now and then, a flying fox burst screeching from a branch.[41](41/ "tree and pragmatics") And as I stood upon the bridge, I could hear a faint din of tom-toms coming from the distant city of the Peshwas.[42](42/ "tree and pragmatics") I looked westwards, up the river.[43](43/ "tree and pragmatics") The sun had set, leaving behind it a ruddy glare which faded higher up the sky into the darkness: and exactly on the confines of the colours, in that bath of \_nilalohita\_, that \_purple-red\_, which is a favourite epithet of the god Shiwa, hung, like a thing in a dream, the lovely streak of the new moon, one day old.[44](44/ "tree and pragmatics") All was reflected in the still mirror of the broad sheet of water formed by the river \_Bund\_, or dam.[45](45/ "tree and pragmatics") I turned round.[46](46/ "tree and pragmatics") On the eastern side, below the bridge, the river runs in disconnected pools.[47](47/ "tree and pragmatics") All was buried in dark and gloom.[48](48/ "tree and pragmatics") But about two hundred yards away, on the right bank, there was a red spot and leaping flames.[49](49/ "tree and pragmatics") They were burning on the bank a corpse, whose former owner had died of plague.[50](50/ "tree and pragmatics") For here in Poona it is now, as it was of old in the days of Homer, \[Greek: aieì dè puraì nekúon kaíonto thameiaí ....\][51](51/ "tree and pragmatics") Suddenly a voice said behind me: They burn well on a cold night.[52](52/ "tree and pragmatics") I looked round.[53](53/ "tree and pragmatics") Beside me stood a Hindoo, whose real name I do not think it lawful to mention.[54](54/ "tree and pragmatics") His white clothes were stained and splashed all over with red, for the Holi festival had left its mark on him.[55](55/ "tree and pragmatics") Why, Wishwanáth, I said, what are you doing here?[56](56/ "tree and pragmatics") Or have you come, like me, merely \_dekhne ke wáste\_, to see the sun set, and 'eat air'?[57](57/ "tree and pragmatics") Wishwanáth cast a careless glance at the sky.[58](58/ "tree and pragmatics") Yes, he said, it looks well from here: but then I have seen it so often.[59](59/ "tree and pragmatics") It was a new moon yesterday.[60](60/ "tree and pragmatics") And very soon it will be old.[61](61/ "tree and pragmatics") Look, Wishwanáth, here is a strange thing.[62](62/ "tree and pragmatics") See, there on that side is the moon, following the sun to rest in a bath of fire, and they will both appear to-morrow all the better for it.[63](63/ "tree and pragmatics") But now, look down there.[64](64/ "tree and pragmatics") There is another thing passing away in the fire.[65](65/ "tree and pragmatics") But how will it be with \_that\_?[66](66/ "tree and pragmatics") And I pointed to the burning pyre on the other side.[67](67/ "tree and pragmatics") The Hindoo looked steadily at it for a moment, and then at me.[68](68/ "tree and pragmatics") It will be just the same, he said.[69](69/ "tree and pragmatics") What! you think that \_that\_ will come back again, like sun and moon?[70](70/ "tree and pragmatics") He did not answer for a moment.[71](71/ "tree and pragmatics") Then he said slowly, in a low voice, as if speaking rather to himself than me: How should it not return?[72](72/ "tree and pragmatics") \_na jáyate mriyate wa kadáchit\_\[4\].[73](73/ "tree and pragmatics") I looked at him, but said nothing.[74](74/ "tree and pragmatics") He continued to gaze steadily at the burning pyre, in silence, and I did the same.[75](75/ "tree and pragmatics") The flames were dying down: their work was done.[76](76/ "tree and pragmatics") Metempsychosis, transmigration, everlasting incarnation and re-incarnation of the immortal soul in body after body, birth after birth: all Hindoo literature is but the kaleidoscopic reiteration of this one identical idea, whose beauty is such that no logic will ever destroy it or oust it in favour of another.[77](77/ "tree and pragmatics") For the Sanskrit language is a kind of shrine, consecrated to the embodiment and immortalisation of this philosophical myth.[78](78/ "tree and pragmatics") The Hindoos are possessed by it; it is their hereditary heirloom, \_Kramágatam\_, the legacy from an immemorial past: it is all that they have left.[79](79/ "tree and pragmatics") And nations, like the characters in our story, cling desperately, in periods of degradation and eclipse, to all that reminds them of a former state of ideal prosperity, which lingers in their literature and echoes in their souls, like dim recollections of a forgotten paradise, or faint reminiscences of a former birth.[80](80/ "tree and pragmatics") Distance lends enchantment, and time effaces detail, and endows stern realities with dreamy beauty; and thus a rugged stony past fades gradually into a picture, blue, soft, and unutterably beautiful, like some low barren island, seen far away in the haze, over a hot and glittering sea.[81](81/ "tree and pragmatics") POONA, \_March\_ 21, 1903.[82](82/ "tree and pragmatics") \[1\] \_Shrí\_ also means a Sacred Lotus, and it is the name of the twelfth Digit of the Moon: thus indicating the position of this story in the series to which it belongs: for an account of which, and the manuscript, I may refer the reader to the preface to her predecessor \_Shashiní\_, entitled \_A Digit of the Moon\_.[83](83/ "tree and pragmatics") \[2\] Cp. also I. 154, 155, and elsewhere.[84](84/ "tree and pragmatics") It should be observed that learned doctors differ as to the interpretation of the \_three strides\_: but this is not the place to examine their views.[85](85/ "tree and pragmatics") \[3\] From this point of view, the period of Night would be the reign of \_Tamas\_, one of the three great categories of that philosophy: the Quality of \_Darkness\_, as opposed to \_Light\_, \_Ignorance\_, as opposed to \_Knowledge\_, \_Evil\_, as opposed to \_Good\_, the World \_Below\_, as opposed to the World \_Above\_.[86](86/ "tree and pragmatics") \[4\] From the Bhagwad-Gitá: IT \_is never born and never dies\_.[87](87/ "tree and pragmatics") CONTENTS.[88](88/ "tree and pragmatics") SUNSET.--An Evil Eye[89](89/ "tree and pragmatics") NIGHT.--A Sleep and a Dream[90](90/ "tree and pragmatics") DAWN[91](91/ "tree and pragmatics") \[\_Note\_.--As the story belongs, by its title, both to Sun and Moon, it should be observed, that the Night and the two Twilights, Dusk and Dawn, apply to both in opposite ways.[92](92/ "tree and pragmatics") The Moon rises when the Sun sets, reigns over the Night when he is buried in Darkness, and either sets or vanishes when he is risen in his light.[93](93/ "tree and pragmatics") For the Moon is the type of Night, or this lower world (\_ihaloka\_), but the Sun, of Day, that is, of the other.\][94](94/ "tree and pragmatics") NIGHT.[95](95/ "tree and pragmatics") I. A Lotus of the Day II.[96](96/ "tree and pragmatics") By Beat of Drum III.[97](97/ "tree and pragmatics") An Eclipse of the Sun IV.[98](98/ "tree and pragmatics") Inspiration V. Nightwalker VI.[99](99/ "tree and pragmatics") A Lotus of the Night VII.[100](100/ "tree and pragmatics") The Silver Swans VIII.[101](101/ "tree and pragmatics") The Land of the Lotus IX.[102](102/ "tree and pragmatics") Recognition X.[103](103/ "tree and pragmatics") Separation XI.[104](104/ "tree and pragmatics") The Lord of the Beasts XII.[105](105/ "tree and pragmatics") The Other Body XIII.[106](106/ "tree and pragmatics") A Light in Darkness XIV.[107](107/ "tree and pragmatics") Illusion XV.[108](108/ "tree and pragmatics") The Dead of Night XVI.[109](109/ "tree and pragmatics") Before Dawn[110](110/ "tree and pragmatics") Sunset[111](111/ "tree and pragmatics") - next →: [An Evil Eye.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg68641/2/) - ↑ back to [The descent of the sun: A cycle of birth](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg68641/)