The Royal Ascetic and the Hind

The Royal Ascetic¹ and the Hind²

From the Vishnu Purana. B. II. Chap. XIIL ³


MAITREYA. Of old thou gav'st a promise to relate
The deeds of Bharat⁴, that great hermit-king:
Beloved Master, now the occasion suits,
And I am all attention.

PARASARA. Brahman, hear.
With a mind fixed intently on his gods
Long reigned in Saligram of ancient fame,
The mighty monarch of the wide, wide world.
Chief of the virtuous, never in his life
Harmed he, or strove to harm, his fellow-man,
Or any creature sentient. But he left
His kingdom in the forest-shades to dwell,
And changed his sceptre for a hermit's staff,
And with ascetic rites, privations rude,
And constant prayers, endeavoured to attain

Perfect dominion on his soul.⁵ At mom,
Fuel, and flowers, and fruit, and holy grass,
He gathered for oblations ; and he passed
In stern devotions all his other hours ;
Of the world heedless, and its myriad cares,
And heedless too of wealth, and love, and fame.

Once on a time, while living thus, he went
To bathe where through the wood the river flows:
And his ablutions done, he sat him down
Upon the shelving bank to muse and play.
Thither impelled by thirst a graceful hind,
Big with its young, came fearlessly to drink.
Sudden, while yet she drank, the lion's roar.
Feared by all creatures, like a thunder-clap
Burst in that solitude from a thicket nigh.
Startled, the hind leapt up, and from her womb
Her offspring tumbled in the rushing stream.
Whelmed by the hissing waves and carried far
By the strong current swoln by recent rain,
The tiny thing still struggled for its life,
While its poor mother, in her fright and pain,
Fell down upon the bank, and breathed her last.
Up rose the hermit-monarch at the sight
Full of keen anguish ; with his pilgrim staff

He drew the new-born creature from the wave ;
'Twas panting fast, but life was in it still.
Now, as he saw its luckless mother dead,
He would not leave it in the woods alone,
But with the tenderest pity brought it home.

There, in his leafy hut, he gave it food,
And daily nourished it with patient care,
Until it grew in stature and in strength,
And to the forest skirts could venture forth
In search of sustenance. At early morn
Thenceforth it used to leave the hermitage
And with the shades of evening come again.,
And in the little courtyard of the hut
Lie down in peace, unless the tigers fierce,
Prowling about, compelled it to return
Earlier at noon. But whether near or far,
Wandering abroad, or resting in its home,
The monarch-hermit's heart was with it still,
Bound by affection's ties ; nor could he think
Of anything besides this little hind,
His nursling. Though a kingdom he had left,
And children, and a host of loving friends,
Almost without a tear, the fount of love
Sprang out anew within his blighted heart,

To greet this dumb, weak, helpless foster-child,
And so, whene'er it lingered in the wilds,
Or at the 'customed hour could not return,
His thoughts went with it;" And alas!" he cried,

"Who knows, perhaps some lion, some wolf,
Or ravenous tiger with relentless jaws
Already hath devoured it, timid thing!
Lo how the earth is dinted with its hoofs,
And variegated. Surely for my joy
It was created.⁶ When will it come back,
And rub its budding antlers on my arms
In token of its love and deep delight
To see my face? The shaven stalks of grass,
Kusha and Kasha, by its new teeth clipped,
Remind me of it, as they stand in lines
Like pious boys who chant the Samga Veds
Shorn by their vows of all their wealth of hair."
Thus passed the monarch-hermit's time; in joy,
With smiles upon his lips, whenever near
His little favourite; in bitter grief
And fear, and trouble, when it wandered far.
And he who had abandoned ease and wealth,
And friends and dearest ties, and kingly power,
Found his devotions broken by the love

He had bestowed upon a little hind
Thrown his way by chance. Years glided on
And Death, who spareth none,⁷ approached at last
The hermit-king to summon him away;
The hind was at his side, with tearful eyes
Watching his last sad moments, like a child
Beside a father. He too, watched and watched
His favourite through a blinding film of tears,
And could not think of the Beyond at hand,
So keen he felt the parting, such deep grief
O'erwhelmed him for the creature he had reared.
To it devoted was his last, last thought,
Reckless of present and of future both!⁸

Thus far the pious chronicle, writ of old
By Brahman sage; but we, who happier, live
Under the holiest⁹ dispensation, know
That God is Love, and not to be adored
By a devotion born of stoic pride,
Or with ascetic rites, or penance hard,
But with a love, in character akin
To His unselfish, all-including love.¹⁰
And therefore little can we sympathize
With what the Brahman sage would fain imply

As the concluding moral of his tale,
That for the hermit-king it was a sin
To love his nursling. What! a sin to love!
A sin to pity! Rather should we deem
Whatever Brahmans wise, or monks may hold,
That he had sinned in casting of all love
By his retirement to the forest-shades;
For that was to abandon duties high,
And, like a recreant soldier, leave the post
Where God had placed him as a sentinel.¹¹

This little hind brought strangely on his path,
This love engendered in his withered heart,
This hindrance to his rituals, might these not
Have been ordained to teach him?¹² Call him back
To ways marked out for him by Love divine?
And with a mind less self-willed to adore?
Not in seclusion, not apart from all,
Not in a place elected for its peace,
But in the heat and bustle of the world,
'Mid sorrow, sickness, suffering and sin,
Must he still labour with a loving soul
Who strives to enter through the narrow gate.¹³

1 Someone who obtains from worldly pleasures to pursue religions and spiritual goals.
2 A female red deer.
3 Toru Dutt’s narrative about Bharat, who was the first ruler to conquer Greater India and unite it, is essentially a dialogue between Magitrega and Parasara. Dutt actually reinterprets the legend of Bharat by incorporating her own Christian morals with the original Hindu ones. The last four stanzas in particular seem to grapple with this issue, as both religions have their own views as to how to become close to God.
4 The first ruler to unite India and conquer Greater India.
5 The original Hindu legend came with the belief that ascetism and renouncing all worldly pleasures is the way to achieve God’s love.
6 According to Dutt, it was God’s intervention that brought the Hindu in Bharat’s life to begin with because it would have been terrible if he would have a life without love.
7 Death, who’s personified here, comes for everyone. Many of Dutt’s poems have a theme pertaining to the inevitability of death ( see Casaurina Tree). We are all going to leave this world at some point, and it’s up to us to spread as much love as possible.
8 These lines mirror the Hindu moral that we should not become too attached to any Earthly pleasure. We are going to leave this world eventually anyway, so we should focus more on God.
9 Christianity.
10 Dutt challenges normal beliefs of asceticism and proclaims that love is what brings us closer to God. It’s not “ascetic rites or penance hard,” a Hindu belief, that brings us closer but our “unselfish all- including love.”
11 Bharat has failed his ascetism, “duties high,”because he failed to renounce all pleasures for divine thought.
12 Further emphasizes that God’s intervened to save the hermit king from having a life without love.
13 Dutt concludes with the notion that true love and happiness cannot be found in peaceful seclusion. The alliteration in the stanza highlights humanity’s sufferings. Nevertheless, despite any problems that we may face, we must find a way to endure them and find love for everyone; only then will someone find peace in Heaven.


Dutt, Toru. Ancient ballads and legends of Hindustan. 2nd Edition. London: Kegan
     Paul, Trench  & Company, 1885. 131-132. Print.