Cox, George - Aryan Mythology Vol 2.pdf

330 MYTHOLOGY OF THE ARYAN NATIONS.
BOOK
II.
step three paces, we see the germ of that short-sightedness
to their own interests which has imparted a burlesque character
to the trolls and fairies of Northern Europe. 1 No
sooner is the prayer granted than the dwarf, who is none
other than the sun, measures the whole heaven with his
three strides, and sends Bali to his fit abode in the dark
Patala. But Bali himself is closely akin, or rather identical,
with the giant Ravana, who steals away Sita, the bride of
Rama, by whom he is himself slain, as Paris falls by the
arrows of Philoktetes. This story is modified in the Yishnu
Purana to suit the idea of the transmigration of souls, and
Ravana we are here told had been in a former birth Sisupala,
the great enemy of Yishnu, whom he daily curses with all
the force of relentless hatred. But these maledictions had,
nevertheless, the effect of keeping the name of the god con-
stantly before his mind ; and thus, when he was slain by
Vishnu, he beheld the deity in his true character, and
became united with his divine adversary. 2 But Yishnu, the
discus-bearing god, has another enemy in Graha, in whom we
see again only a new form of Ravana and Bali. 3 Against
this wise and powerful being, for the Panis are possessed of
a hidden treasure which passes for the possession of know-
ledge, not even the discus of Yishnu nor a thousand thunder-
bolts have the least effect. The darkness is at the least as
difficult to subdue as is the dawn or the day.
The three names, Pani, Yritra, and Ahi, which are
specially used to denote the antagonist of Indra, reappear in
the mythology of other tribes, sometimes under a strange
disguise, which has invested a being originally dark and
sombre, with not a little of the beauty and glory of his
conqueror. With these modified names appear others which
1 The Pani appears in the German
story of the Feather Bird as a sorcerer,
who went begging from house to
house that he might steal little girls,
lie is, in short, Paris Gynaimanes, the
Bluebeard of modern stories, who gives
each successive wife the keys of his
house, charging her not to look into a
certain chamber. At last he is cheated
by the Helen whom he carries to his
dwelling, and who dresses up a turnip to
deceive him. The brothers and kinsfolk
of the bride now come to rescue
her ;
' they immediately closed up all
the doors of the house, and then set tire
to it; and the sorcerer and all his ac-
complices were burnt to ashes ;
' a burning
which is manifestly the destruction
of Ilion.
2 Muir. Sanskrit Texts, 180, note,
s 76. 159.