The Golden Legend of India - Preface - William Henry Robinson

The work, herein styled GOLDEN LEGEND OF INDIA, is entirely based upon an ancient narrative of human life, contained in the very oldest—and therefore purest—sacred writings of Indian Antiquity. It is therein called "THE STORY OF SUNAHSEPHA," a Sanskrit name corresponding exactly to the Greek word "Cynosure," which, passing through most of the Western Aryan family of languages into English, denotes the northern Polar Star. From that star’s use as a guide by sea and land in the early migrations of mankind, the name has acquired in daily speech and metaphor the secondary meaning of a safe Celestial Guide. In both these senses it was evidently used in this story. The personage who bore it acquired the added name DEVARATA, i.e., "God-given"; under which, slightly modified, he is commemorated to this day as an ancestor, at family gatherings of the highest Brahman Castes of India. Hence, the sub-title in English, STORY OF INDIA’S GOD GIVEN CYNOSURE; and this title, as will be seen, represents the ancient scope and inner spirit of the whole Legend.

The Story (save for a brief poetic variant in Valmiki’s Ramayana), was first published in modern languages, through separate prose translations, by English (HH Wilson) and German (Roth) professors, in the year 1850 AD. It has been very much admired by all ever since, for its great literary merits; being "full of genuine thought and feeling," according to Max Muller, "and most valuable as a picture of life." All this is perfectly true, and is represented to the best of the present writer’s ability herein.

But no one, until the present publication, has treated of the Legend as a whole, i.e., including the text of its "Hundred verses from the sacred Rig-veda" with the succession of hours and ritual forms which they necessarily involve; although the original authors refer to them as prime factors of the legend’s efficiency.

Neither have previous writers considered—though cursorily mentioning as a fact—the Recitation of the legend, as an Ordained Rite at the grand Coronation Ceremonials, called RAJASUYAS, or "King-makings." These were always deemed necessary and very important, to inaugurate the successive kings who exercised suzerainty over ancient India’s varied and differing nationalities. They are minutely described in the Sanskrit books; and events at their recurrence form turning points in India’s two famous epic poems, and in the long subsequent periods of her written history.

The whole story, indeed, is framed upon the achievement, under divine guidance, of such a Rajasuya Celebration by Harischandra, a hero-king in the semi-mythic ages, whose name and fame in various aspects form inexhaustible themes for both classic and popular Indian stories, from ancient times to the present day.

The great sages of antiquity, who formulated the still enduring civil and religious laws of India—and were thus the real founders of Indian civilization—took the old traditions of Harischandra’s Rajasuya, and grouped around them a series of associated incidents. These were selected and specially adapted briefly to illustrate all, or nearly all, the fundamental principles whereon the peculiar customs, laws, and institutions that regulate the daily life of India’s princes and peoples were then based, and which still remain immovable. Chief among them are the germ principles of Family Kinship, Laws of Adoption, Caste Rules, Training of Brahmans and Princes, Righteous Civil Laws and Governments, with Rites and Ceremonies—all being founded on the early spiritual religion of India, before polytheism, image-worship, and general debasement prevailed in later ages.

© "The Golden Legend of India" by William Henry Robinson, published (2003) by Rupa & Co, 7/16, Ansari Road, Daryaganj, New Delhi 110 002. Reprinted with permission.

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