Coleridge Vishnu Infinite

Coleridge, Vishnu, and the Infinite
Author(s): Aparajita Mazumder

Source: Comparative Literature Studies, Vol. 30, No. 1 (1993), pp. 32-52
Published by: Penn State University Press
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Coleridge, Vishnu, and the Infinite
APARAJITA MAZUMDER
During the English Romantic period, creative writers often felt the allure
of India. That allure is evident in poems like Robert Southey's The Curse
of Kehama, Thomas Moore's Lalla Rookh, "The Indian Boat," "The East
Indian," and "The Young Indian Maid"; Lord Gordon Byron's "The Irish
Avatar" and "Stanzas to a Hindoo Air"; Percy Bysshe Shelley's "Zeinab
and Kathema," Prometheus Unbound, Alastor, and the "Indian Serenade";
John Keats's Endymion; and Samuel Taylor Coleridge's fragments from the
The Night Scene and Osorio. The writings of the minor writers of the pre^
Romantic and Romantic periods give further insight into the intensity of
the literary interest in India. Few readers have heard of poems like "I'm
going to Bombay" by Thomas Hood (1759-1845), "The Indian City" by
Felicia Dorothea Hemans (1794-1835), "The Bramin" by James Mont-
gomery (1771-1854), The Missionary by Lady Morgan (1776?-1859), or
even The Spirit of Discovery by Sea by Reverend Lisle Bowles (1762-
1850). Collectively, these works exemplify a literary characteristic of the
Romantic period that results from the cross-cultural relationship of British
and Indian colonization and the "Oriental Renaissance" of the eighteenth
century.1 In isolation, each work relates a personal story of a writer's cross-
cultural encounter with Indian civilization.
This paper explores how India inspired the creative imagination of
COMPARATIVE LITERATURE STUDIES, Vol. 30, No. 1, 1993.

Copyright © 1993. The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA.
COLERIDGE AND VISHNU 33
Samuel Taylor Coleridge through Coleridg

the Hindu deity Vishnu the Preserver. T
ridge's works are of two kinds. On the on
image of a Vishnu floating on a lotus leaf on
The God, who floats upon a Lotos le

Dreams for a thousand ages; then awa
Creates a world, and smiling at the b
Relapses into bliss.
("The Night Scene: A Dramatic Fra
And on the other, there is Vishnu from the

totality of the universe in one body "with
many arms, and legs, and breasts; . . . touch
with such glory. "2
My particular aim is to examine the proces
India to England through Coleridge's sourc
are illustrations of Vishnu floating on "Se
Infinity in Thomas Maurice's History of Hin
Hindu Pantheon and "Brum on a beetle leaf"
Interesting Historical Events relative to the Pro
of Indostan; lines from Sir William Jone
Charles Wilkins's first translation of the Bh
significant questions. Is there a difference
Vishnu of the creation myth from the Bhâg
the extract from Wilkins's translation of
Vishnu give a new dimension to Coleridge
why is there an almost spiritual identificati
image of Vishnu floating on the lotus leaf?
on the phenomena of cross-cultural refracti
process of cultural migration and cultural as
of one Romantic poet's relationship with Vis
tive of intercivilizational encounters, is also
ideas from India to England and of the ass
English culture.
I derived the term "cross-cultural refractio
fractions. Levin begins with a commonly
tion ... is the fact or phenomenon of a r
34 COMPARATIVE LITERATURE STUDIES
etc. being diverted or deflected from its previous c

obliquely out of one medium into another of differe
traversing a medium not of uniform density" (ix-x).4
cross-cultural encounters, the term aptly describes th
curs when elements belonging to one culture leave th
and enter a foreign culture. The importance of the medi
ing the nature of the refraction is quite evident fro
passage from Levin's Refractions:
If we let that ray of light or heat stand for com

expression, then we may assume that whatever t
determined by the nature of the medium. If we wan
factual truth of what is communicated or expressed,
the angle by which it has been refracted; and then t
of misunderstandings can teach us something about
languages, (x)
The significance of cultural refraction and the importance of the control-

ling medium will become clearer when we examine the many ways in
which the Indian elements, while retaining some of their original charac-
teristics, have been transformed through Coleridge's sources and his own
representation of Vishnu.
II
Coleridge's sources for the two images of Vishnu illustrate how important
the Indie research done during the Oriental Renaissance of the eigh-
teenth century was for the formation of his perception of the Hindu deity.
For the image of Vishnu from the Bhâgavatapurâna, how did Coleridge
learn of this particular image of Vishnu floating on the infinite ocean?
Illustrations were available in contemporary books - in Volume One of
Thomas Maurice's History of Hindustan: Its Arts, and its Sciences (1795), in
John Zephaniah HolwelPs Interesting Historical Events relative to the Prov-
inces of Bengal and the Empire of Indostan (1767), and in Edward Moor's
Hindu Pantheon (1810).
John Drew in India and the Romantic Imagination believes that the "sin-
gle most important literary source [for Coleridge's] conception of the god
on the lotus is almost certainly the first volume of Thomas Maurice's
Vishnu reposing during a period of a thousand A

Hindostan, vol. 1., opp. p. 401.) Courtesy of the Rare
Urbana-Champaign.
History of Hindustan" (Figure I).5 Drew sa

most graphic plate of Vishnu 'reposing du
The plate depicting Vishnu is used by way o
duced by Maurice) from the Bhagavata Pu
Brahma out of the flower of the lotus" (191
However, the plate in the first volume of M
does not depict Brahma on the lotus flow
serpent symbolizing Infinity, as in the Bhàgavatapurân

(see Fig. 1) has the caption, "VEESHNU reposing du
Astronomical period of a thousand Ages . . . copied
Rock in the Ganges." Maurice dedicates the illustrat
kins, with the words: "To Charles Wilkins Esq. who
Mine of Sanscreet Literature, this Plate, a humble
respect for Talents & Virtue united, is gratefully ins
dedication expresses the collective Western effort in pr
Oriental Renaissance to understand Hinduism.
The first volume of Maurice's History of Hindostan points to a further
textual and visual source for this image in HolwelPs Interesting Historical
Events relative to the Provinces of Bengal and the Empire of Indostan: "There
Brahma is represented recumbent on a lotos leaf, and floating upon the
boundless waters of the chaos, while Veeshnu and Seeva are depicted
attendant, in postures of devout admiration ... for what is Brahma float'
ing on the chaos, and recumbent upon the sacred lotos, or water lily, but
the spirit of God moving upon the face of the waters?" (53- 54). 6 HolwelPs
work, dedicated "To the Honourable, The Court of Directors of the East
India Company," contains a section on "Creation," where there is more
than one reference to the God floating on the ocean:
The Eternal ONE spoke again,

And said to Birmah, Do thou begin
the creation and formation of the
eighth Boboon, of punishment and probaton,
even the Boboon of Murto,
according to the powers of the spirit
wherewith I have endued thee, and
do thou Biftnoo proceed to execute
thy part.
And when Brum heard the

command, which the mouth of the
Eternal ONE had uttered; he straight-
ways formed a leaf of beetle, and he
floated on the beetle leaf over the surface
ofthejhoale. . . . (108-9)
Plate one in HolwelPs work is an illustrat

which "was drawn by the instructions and
Bramin of the Bahezaar tribe, the tribe .
pounding the Shastahs" (112-13). The illus
in detail. It is "Brum, the spirit or essence
represented "lying and floating on a leaf
surface of the abyss of Jhoale" with Brahm
posture of adoration. A further passage lin
act of creation: "His spirit floats upon the sur
or fluid matter, - creation takes place ..."
work also explains that the betel-leaf on
sacred to the Hindus (115). HolwelPs "be
garded as a "mistake," the output of a "ba
and Sir William Jones. Maurice's note (1:5
as saying "that it should be the leaf of the
not the betel that is considered to be sacr
deed, it is the lotus flower that carries
NERAYENA, or moving on the water," in J
one of a series of hymns to the Hindu de
between 1784 and 1788:
First an all-potent all-pervading sound

Bade flow the waters - and the waters flo
Exulting in their measureless abode . . .
Diffusive, multitudinous, profound,
Above, beneath, around;
Then o'er the vast expanse primordial wi
Breath'd gently, till a lucid bubble rose
Above the warring waves it danc'd elate,
Till from its bursting shell with lovely
A form cerulean flutter'd o'er the deep,
Brightest of beings, greatest of the grea
Who, not as mortals steep,
Their eyes in dewy sleep,
But, heav'nly pensive, on the Lotos lay
That blossom'd at his touch and shed a g
"Brum floating on a beetle-leaf." Plate 1 in John Zephaniah Holwe

Events Relative to the Provinces of Bengal and the Empire of Indost
Books Room, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
In Edward Moor's depiction of the image in The Hin

both the hooded serpent "Ananta Naga" and the lotu
picture. Moor provides these details for his sketch o
(Fig. 3):
Vishnu reclining on the serpent Sesha with Brah

The Hindu Pantheon Plate 7.) Courtesy of the Libr
Champaign.
Vishnu reposing on the vast thousand-headed serpent, SESHA,

contemplating and willing the creation of the world: the creative
power, BRAHMA, is seen springing from his navel on a lotos to
the face of the ocean, in which SESHA forms a couch for the
contemplative Deity. BRAHMA is in his usual four-faced form: in
three of his hands are the three Vedas, and the lustral spoon
(Sruva) . . . the divine LACSHMI . . . (chafing) the foot of her
heavenly Lord. . . . SESHA seems floating in a sea of silver or
milk, just above the margin of which are BRAHMA's heads: lotos
and fish abound in the sea; and ducks and other aquatic birds,
peacocks, &x. sport on its banks, which are of lively green: rocks
and tress fill the back and fore grounds. VISHNU is, as usual, of a
dark blue colour . . . (26).
Plate 8 features "Vishnu with Lakshmi and Satyavama on Ananta Naga

(eternity)" (Fig. 4). In Plate 20 Moor presents a variation of the floating
Vishnu with Lakshmi and Satyavama on Ananta Naga (eternity). (S

Hindu Pantheon, Plate 8.) Courtesy of Library, University of Illinois a
deity with a sketch of "Vat patra Sayi BHAGAVAN; w

VAN reposing on the Vat leaf: Vat is the Ficus Indicus, com
Banian tree."
These sources not only give an insight into the collective nature of the
Orientalists' effort to understand Hindu myths, sculptures and drawings,
but they reveal how easy it is for refractions to transform the material they
were transmitting to England under the conditions in which they con-
ducted their Indie research. Maurice knew no Sanskrit and depended on
the authority of Holwell and Jones when he wrote of the creation myth.
Holwell followed the instructions of a Brahmin

of the floating deity on a "beetle leaf," which
changing to a "lotos leaf" on the authority of
ing Vishnu reclining on the hooded serpent
blown lotus are an accurate portrayal of th
depend on other Orientalists like Jones for int
We have come across various representatives of
on a beetle leaf," "Bhagavan on a Vat leaf,"
Vishnu on the hooded serpent, and Nârâye
share in common the infinite ocean and the m
less, it is due to the efforts of these Orient
Hindu creation myth from the Bhâgavatapu
prose, poetry, and artistic sketches, that Coler
his poetry. 7
Drew uses the epithet "Coleridge as Vishnu" (
a spiritual identification with the Hindu deity
Why was Coleridge intrigued by this particular
to the point of self- identification? When we th
ber poetic journeys into the inferno of the silen
the Ancient Mariner; Géraldine, who had cr
(Christabel 1. 88); Kubla's romantic chasm; the
caves of ice; gardens with sinuous rills and inc
inspired poet who is an object of fear for his r
Beware! Beware!
His flashing eyes, his floating hair!
Weave a circle round him thrice.
For he on honey dew hath fed,
And drunk the milk of Paradise. (49-54)8
Indeed, Coleridge's best poems seem to have come to us from the realm of
dreams. Coleridge himself claims that Kubla Khan, written in the summer
of 1797, was the result of an opium dream.
Coleridge's letters and biographies reveal that as an opium addict, he
often suffered terrible hallucinations. In a letter to Thomas Poole (5
November 1796) he describes how a giant fiend with a hundred hands
plagued him and how a wolf gnawed at his bones one night: "I am not
mad, most noble Festus! - but in sober sadness I have suffered this day
more bodily pain than I had before a conception of." He a

60 to 70 drops of laudanum to relieve his pain. To Rob
August 1803), he writes of "frightful Dreams with scream
Terror blowing from the Stomach up thro' the Brain.
Adair observes that "by 1817, the nightmare horrors of o
had given Coleridge every reason to dread the power o
mind."10 In my view, Coleridge, acutely aware of the nig
his imagination was capable of taking him to, found in th
and distant image of Vishnu floating on the sea of Infini
the worst of his dreams and a source of inspiration.
In Coleridge's writings, the image of Vishnu on a lotus m
ance as early as 1797 when in a letter to John Thelwall
1797, Coleridge expresses his wish to be like the Indian V
a lotus:
I should much wish, like the Indian Vishna [Vishnu] to float about
along an infinite ocean cradled in the flower of the Lotos, and
wake once in a million years for a few minutes - just to know that
I was going to sleep a million years more. I have put this feeling in
the mouth of Allhadra, my Moorish woman.11
The influence of Coleridge's sources is evident in these lines. The idea

of the "infinite ocean" is there in Maurice's "boundless waters of the
chaos" (54), Holwell's "surface of the abyss of Jhoale or fluid matter"
(114), and Jones's "water flowing above, beneath, around" ("Hymn to
Nârâyena"). The notion of Vishnu sleeping through a long period of time
is inherent in Maurice's plate depicting "VEESHNU reposing during a
CALPA, an Astronomical period of a thousand Ages." The expression
"cradled in the flower" describes aptly the image of "Brahma" on a full
blown lotus as portrayed in Plates 7 and 8 in Moor's The Hindu Pantheon.
Coleridge's choice of Vishnu on a lotus indicates that while the floating
deity is a common element in all the sources, Jones' "Hymn to Nârâyena,"
where a pensive Vishnu floats on a lotus, may have been his main source
of inspiration. If so, Jones' "Hymn to Nârâyena" may have led Coleridge
to confuse Vishnu and Brahma, for the hymn contains two central stanzas
hailing Brahma and the lotus. Apparent changes, such as Coleridge's use
of the lotus instead of the hooded serpent are thus visible in his sources.
The use of the lotus instead of the serpent changes the significance of the
image. There is the obvious difference in th

hooded snake is replaced by a lotus. Furtherm
tive, when Vishnu is on the coiled serpent "Se
in the illustration in Maurice's History of Hin
Pantheon, one image of infinity, Shesha, is
infinite ocean. Of the "padma" or "lotus" Marga
In Hinduism [the lotus] is a symbol of the

also, as in Jainism and Buddhism, of perfe
its flowers grow on long stalks high abo
roots remain in the mud. Its origin is g
primeval waters (Taittiriya Brahmana,
emerged on the eve of creation or cosm
leafed plant from Visnu's navel (represe
energy of the universe). Seated on the ope
Brahma. Thus in Hinduism the lotus becam
tation of the womb of creation."12
Whether Coleridge knew the symbolic value o

creation" cannot be ascertained, but his letter
into the personal significance of the Hindu
Coleridge. His desire to be like Vishnu is th
thought process that begins with his contra
"parts" with "immense," "great," and "one," as
and know something great, something on
1:349). For a while nothing in this visible wor
magnitude of the infinite. All the knowledge
play - even the universe was "an immense
ridge then begins to think of definite objects
tains, and caverns - in order to realize the s
experience where, through silent contemplatio
landscape, he realizes the presence of the "Alm
perception of the Infinite is in the last image
on the infinite ocean cradled on the flower of
in a million years for a few moments and then
more.
The very fact that the image of Vishnu occurs at the end of a
which Coleridge describes as a "spiritualization of his intellect" e
the deep significance of the image for him. When his

know something "one and indivisible," he thought of
floating on the "infinite ocean," contemplating throu
time composed of millions and millions of years. The
the few waking moments of Vishnu with the limitless flow
sizes the concept of timelessness even further. The solitar
vast ocean symbolically expresses contemplation, with
and awakening - all conditions congenial for poetical c
Coleridge finds a place for Vishnu in English poetry wh
feeling in the mouth of Allhadra, [his] Moorish woman":
Oh would to Alia,
The raven and the sea-mew were appointed
To bring me food, or rather that my soul
Could drink in life from the universal air!
It were a lot divine, in some small skiff,
Along some ocean's boundless solitude,
To float for ever with a careless course,
And think myself the only Being alive.
(Osorio v. i. 49-56)
Though no reference is made to Vishnu, Coleridge creates

synthesis in this extract when a Muslim woman calling u
same time identifies herself with Vishnu. Without ackno
source, these lines give further insight into Coleridge's int
image of Vishnu floating on the ocean. What Coleridge ha
solitude and individual spiritual communion with the
these lines, Allhadra had recreated a scene of supreme bea
woods, that touched by autumn seem'd / As they were bl
fire and gold," "the many clouds, the sea, the rock, the s
the silent moonshine." It had dawned upon her then that
who was awake was the "sole voice, sole eye of all that
(Osorio v. i. 37-49). Like the owl, Allhadra sees herself as
alive" on the boundless ocean, drinking in "life from t
floating without any destination in mind.
The Vishnu image recurs in Coleridge's dramatic fragme
Scene" in an exchange between Sandoval and Earl Hen
describes his farewell of Oropeza, Daughter

before his departure for the army;
Life was in us:

We were all life, each atom of our fram
A living soul - I vow'd to die for her:
Oh! there is joy above the name of pl
Deep self-possession, an intense repos
Sandoval answers "with a sarcastic smile":
No other than as eastern sages paint,

The God, who floats upon a Lotus leaf
Dreams for a thousand ages; then awake
Creates a world, and smiling at the bub
Relapses into bliss. 13
Sandoval offers the image of Vishnu on his

symbol for the "intense repose" he desired.
ridge views the solitude on the "boundless o
for creation. The God is not asleep; he is in a r
state of bliss. He awakes to create a world
comparison to all that can be created. Vishnu's
smile of the Buddha who has gained enligh
ceives his creation to be a bubble possesses an i
nature of Infinity.
Ill
While Coleridge's response to the slumbering Vishnu on the vast ocean

was almost spiritual by nature, he was at the same time sceptical about the
representation of Vishnu in the fragment from the Bhagavadgîtâ. Charles
Wilkins's translation of the Bhagavadgitâ (1785) became a key source for
Coleridge when he selected the following passage for Lecture III of his
Philosophical Lectures, which he delivered between 14 December 1818
and 29 March 1819:
O mighty spirit! behold the wonders of thy awful cou

troubled minds. Of the celestial bands some I see f
refuge; whilst some, afraid, with joined hands sing fo
The Maharshees, holy bands, hail thee, and glorify th
adorating praises. The Roodras, the Adeetyas, the
those beings the world esteemeth good; Asween an
Maroots and the Ooshmapas; the Gandharvs and the Y
the holy tribes of Soors, all stand gazing on the
amazed! The worlds, alike with me, are terrified
wondrous form gigantic; with many mouths and eye
arms, and legs, and breasts; with many bellies and
dreadful teeth! Thus as I see thee, touching the heave
ing with such glory; of such various hues, with w
mouths, and bright expanded eyes, I am disturbed w
resolution faileth me, O Veeshnoo! and I find no
beholden thy dreadful teeth, and gazed on thy cou
blem of Time's last fire, I know not which way I t
peace! Have mercy then, O God of Gods! thou m
universe! the sons of Dhreetarashtra, now, with all t
the land, Bheeshma, Dron, the son of Soot, and even
our army, seem to be precipitating themselves ha
mouths, discovering such frightful rows of teeth! whi
to stick between thy teeth with their bodies sorely m
rapid streams of full flowing rivers roll on to meet t
even so these heroes of the human race rush on towar
mouths. As troops of insects, with increasing speed,
destruction in the flaming fire; even so these people
fury, seek their own destruction. Thou involvest
them altogether, even unto the last, with thy fla
whilst the whole world is filled with thy glory, as thy
Veeshnoo, shine forth on all sides! Reverence be u
most exalted! Deign to make known unto me who
awful figure! I am anxious to learn thy source, and ig
thy presence here portendeth.
Kreeshna.
I am Time, the destroyer of mankind, matured, co
seize at once all these who stand before us. Except th
Coleridge uses this passage to illustrate to his E

name of pantheism mankind might sink int
blindest superstition." He asks his audience:
extract from the Bhagavadgîtâ] with the feelin
in [their] catechism" (Coburn 126-27):
We have in this work which I have now be

a great poem of India where pantheism h
and waved in victory over three hundred m
has been published in England as a proof of
excellence of Milton in the true adoration
is an address to the pantheistic God. Comp
you have all been taught in your catechi
Some in Coleridge's audience may have read

Coleridge's extract from the Bhagavadgitâ nev
ger of presenting a fragmentary picture of a c
with it. Here the fragment is taken out of con
loses much of its original significance. Is Coler
central issues of the Bhagavadgitâ when they a
the text to Milton's works and the feeli
cathechism? How much does the audience know about the war of
Kurukshetra between the Pandavas and Kauravas? This is, of course, a
family feud which assumes cosmic proportions. What does the audience
know of Arjuna's dilemma when he sees his cousins, teachers, and friends
on the battlefield, or of the consequent paralysis of action as he lays down
his weapons and finds that he cannot fight? What has the audience heard
before of the incarnation of Vishnu the Preserver as Krishna, Arjuna's
charioteer, at this moment of crisis? What does it know of the philosophi-
cal discussions through which Arjuna is persuaded to fight? Krishna's
philosophical arguments form an important part of this Hindu text. He
tells Arjuna that it is his duty as a warrior to fight, that the soul is
indestructible, that he should not to worry about the fruits of his actions
and should perform his actions with detachment. Then through a divine
revelation in which Arjuna sees the "universal form of God," Krishna
reveals that there is a greater power than man determining the course of
actions. 15 Many in Coleridge's audience may not have known these facts
about the teachings of the Bhagavadgitâ. If that is the case

of the Bhagavadgitâ is as fragmentary as Coleridge's fr
Coleridge's audience may have been startled by this image
Gods," "the mansion of the Universe" with multiple he
mouths. Coleridge's audience, used to another scheme o
doubtedly found its own Christian faith more appealing.
Another example of refraction is apparent when Colerid
compared with J. A. B van Buitenen's modern verse tr
Bhagavadgitâ.16 The Bhagavadgitâ literally means "The Son
the text Coleridge presents to his audience should be seen
effort at translating the Sanskrit text for Europeans. The m
Sanskrit verses, the sound of the Sanskrit words, are of c
English translation. And much of the meaning may be los
sense of the difference comes through in van Buitenen's r
final lines of the passage:
The Lord said:

I am Time grown old to destroy the world,
Embarked on the course of world annihilation:
Except for yourself none of these will survive. . . .
(VanBuitenen 115-17)
Van Buitenen's translation not only differs in format fro

differences are evident in the English vocabulary use
control the translator has over the language of expression
lates the Sanskrit "dr$tvâdbhutam rûpam idam tavogram" a
wonders of Krishna's "awful countenance," whereas van
of his "dreadful and wondrous form." The Sanskrit word "
translated as "mansion of the universe" by Wilkins and as
world" by van Buitenen. Wilkins writes of "troops of i
Buitenen of "moths on the wing." Wilkins translates "v
bhavantam âdyam I nahi prajânâmi tava pravrttimt " as "I am
thy source, and ignorant of what thy presence here porte
Buitenen translates the same line as "I seek to encompa
primeval, / For I comprehend not the course you are takin
of Wilkins's text with van Buitenen's reveals many subtle
meaning due to each translator's choice of diction and
the Sanskrit text.
Wilkins controls the degree of change the Bha

moves from its native to its foreign context
responsible for changing the meaning of the pa
ping at mid-sentence of Wilkins's translation
place as far as the original verse is concerned, h
meaning and purpose of the passage to his aud
following part of Wilkin's text:
. . . not one of all these warriors, destin

numerous ranks, shall live. Wherefore, ar
nown! defeat the foe, and enjoy the full-gro
already, as it were, destroyed by me. Be tho
agent
When Coleridge quotes Wilkins's "I am T

kind. . . ," the Infinite God appears rut
stroyer of mankind. Had Coleridge quot
destruction of Arjuna's enemies would h
scheme of events in the passage of time.
instrument carrying out actions that hav
Despite his truncation of Wilkin's text, Co
introduce new concepts of the Infinite. Bef
Bhagavadgitâ he abstractly contemplates th
Conceive at once that that immense u

worlds with all their infinite varietie
destinations, births, deaths, that these
power, as they originated in the will, of
Being who possesses in itself what was a
plation of which we alone know w
when it did seize hold of the mind of
species of inspiration. So without oth
man reason could give it appears never
of man - and yet it might seem wond
He uses the Bhagavadgitâ to give concrete f

naturalism of Vishnu is conveyed through
mouths and eyes, many arms and legs,
mouths by means of which He devours the "heroes o

Where man has one head and two arms, the Infinite Vi
heads and arms. Vishnu, "the God of Gods," is also
mansion of the Universe." Thus Infinity takes a con
contain the whole universe. Vishnu also takes on a form
than the form of evil in order to defeat it. He is re
preserving and destroying.
Through his lecture and poetry, Coleridge expresses t
perceptions of Infinity from India. While he reacts
image of the gigantic deity with a multiplicity of b
trigued by the concept of Infinity embodied in the im
Vishnu, who sees his own creations as a bubble in th
IV
Changes inevitably occur when two cultures meet. I have explored a

number of ways in which the Indian elements, while retaining some of
their original characteristics, have been refracted in Coleridge's sources,
lecture, and poetry. What the changes were, of course, depended on
Coleridge's assimilation of sources and his perception of India during the
process of creation. The selection and treatment of the Indian material
was a choice based on his own poetical interests and personal background.
Perhaps Coleridge, who knew the horrors of nightmares, longed for the
bliss of Vishnu, who smiled in his sleep. The solitude, silence, and calm
withdrawal not only seemed to him to be an ideal state for poetical
creation, but through Vishnu, he also gained a perception of the infinite
possibilities of creation. Even Vishnu's creation is a bubble in the ocean of
Infinity.
While the materials belonging to India took a new path after their
absorption into English literature, changes became apparent in this new
literary dimension itself. Many aspects of Indian religion, myths, texts,
and diction became part of English Romantic poetry because of Cole-
ridge's poetical encounter with India. Coleridge's sources for Vishnu, such
as drawings by Orientalists and Wilkins's translation of the Bhagavadgïtâ,
point toward the role played by the many individuals who furthered the
cross-cultural migration of ideas from India to England. Voyagers, mission-
aries, translators, and scholars all facilitated a cultural translation. "Cole-
ridge, Vishnu, and the Infinite" chronic

history of the migration of ideas.
University of Illin
Urbana-Champai
NOTES
1 . The term "The Oriental Renaissance" is from the English translation of Raymond
Schwab's, La Renaissance Orientale (Paris: Payot, 1950), entitled, The Oriental Renaissance:
Europe's Rediscovery of India and the East, Î680-1880 (New York: Columbia UP, 1984).
During the "Oriental Renaissance," not only England but Europe became aware of the
cultural and literary heritage of India. Some of the English pioneers of the "Indie Renais-
sance" are William Jones (1746-1794), Charles Wilkins (1750-1833), Henry Thomas
Colebrooke (1765-1837), and Horace Hayman Wilson (1784-1860). The timing of the
Oriental Renaissance meant that the English Romantics had a new wealth of material from
India for their literary inspiration.
2. See James Dykes Campbell, ed. , The Complete Poetical and Dramatic works of Samuel
Taylor Coleridge (London: Macmillan, 1907) 184, for "The Night Scene" and Kathleen
Coburn, The Philosophical Lectures of Samuel Taylor Coleridge (New York: Philosophical
Library, 1949) 128, for the passage from the BhagavadgM.
3. The following editions have been used for Coleridge's sources for the two images of
Vishnu: Thomas Maurice, History of Hindustan, Vol. 1 of 2 vols. (London, 1795; New
Delhi: Navrang, 1973); Edward Moor, The Hindu Pantheon (London, 1810; New York:
Garland Publishing, 1984); John Zephaniah Holwell, Interesting Historical Events Relative to
the Provinces of Bengal and the Empire of Indostan, 2nd éd., (London: T Becket, 1769);
William Jones, The Poetical Works of Sir William Jones, Vol. 2 of 2 vols. (1799; London: J.
Nichols, 1810); and Charles Wilkins, The Bhagvat-Geeta (1785; New York: Scholars' Fac-
similes & Reprints, 1972).
4. Harry Levin, Refractions (New York: Oxford UP, 1966) ix-x.
5. John Drew, India and the Romantic Imagination (Delhi: Oxford UP, 1987) 190-93,
mentions Reverend Bowles's The Spirit of Discovery by Sea (where Vishnu is the protector of
Noah's ark) and William Jones's "Hymn to Nârâyena" as sources for Vishnu.
6. See John Livingston Lowes, The Road to Xanadu: A Study in the Ways of the Imagina-
tion (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1927) 33-34, 379-84, for Coleridge's reading of Maurice's
History of Hindustan. In his Note-Book Coleridge mentions having read Maurice's
"Indostan" ("Read the whole 107th page of Maurice's Indostan"), The Road to Xanadu 33.
7. See P. J. Marshall, ed. , The British Discovery of Hinduism in the Eighteenth Century
(Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1970) 1-44. The introduction gives an insight into the
English effort to understand Hinduism in the eighteenth century through an exploration of
works by individuals such as John Zephaniah Holwell, Alexander Dow, Charles Wilkins,
Sir William Jones, and Nathaniel Brassey Halhed.
8. Donald A. Staufter, Selected Poetry and Prose of Coleridge (New York: Random, 1951)
28, 45.
9. Earl Leslie Griggs, ed. , Collected Letters of Samuel Taylor Coler

Clarendon, 1971), 1: 250, 2: 976.
10. Patricia M. Adair, The Waking Dream: A Study of Coleridge's
Barnes and Noble, 1967)5.
11. Griggs 1:349-50.
12. Margaret and James Stutley, A Dictionary of Hinduism: Its My
Development 1500 B.C. -AD. 1500 (London: Routledge, 1977) 215
13. Campbell 184.
14. Charles Wilkins, trans. , Bhagavadgitâ, qtd. in Coburn, The Philosophical Lectures of
Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
15. S. Radhakrishnan, Bhaxavadgitâ (New Delhi: Blackie, 1975) 269.
16. J. A. B van Buitenen, The Bhagavadgitâ in the Mahâbhàrata (Chicago: U of Chicago
P, 1981) 115-17.

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Coleridge, Vishnu, and the Infinite

Author(s): Aparajita Mazumder

COMPARATIVE LITERATURE STUDIES, Vol. 30, No. 1, 1993.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge through Coleridg

The God, who floats upon a Lotos le

And on the other, there is Vishnu from the

etc. being diverted or deflected from its previous c

If we let that ray of light or heat stand for com

The significance of cultural refraction and the importance of the control-

Vishnu reposing during a period of a thousand A

History of Hindustan" (Figure I).5 Drew sa

serpent symbolizing Infinity, as in the Bhàgavatapurân

The Eternal ONE spoke again,

And when Brum heard the

Plate one in HolwelPs work is an illustrat

First an all-potent all-pervading sound

"Brum floating on a beetle-leaf." Plate 1 in John Zephaniah Holwe

In Edward Moor's depiction of the image in The Hin

Vishnu reclining on the serpent Sesha with Brah

Vishnu reposing on the vast thousand-headed serpent, SESHA,

Plate 8 features "Vishnu with Lakshmi and Satyavama on Ananta Naga

Vishnu with Lakshmi and Satyavama on Ananta Naga (eternity). (S

deity with a sketch of "Vat patra Sayi BHAGAVAN; w

Holwell followed the instructions of a Brahmin

more bodily pain than I had before a conception of." He a

The influence of Coleridge's sources is evident in these lines. The idea

image. There is the obvious difference in th

In Hinduism [the lotus] is a symbol of the

Whether Coleridge knew the symbolic value o

the deep significance of the image for him. When his

Though no reference is made to Vishnu, Coleridge creates

describes his farewell of Oropeza, Daughter

Life was in us:

Sandoval answers "with a sarcastic smile":

No other than as eastern sages paint,

Sandoval offers the image of Vishnu on his

While Coleridge's response to the slumbering Vishnu on the vast ocean

O mighty spirit! behold the wonders of thy awful cou

Coleridge uses this passage to illustrate to his E

We have in this work which I have now be

Some in Coleridge's audience may have read

about the teachings of the Bhagavadgitâ. If that is the case

The Lord said:

Van Buitenen's translation not only differs in format fro

Wilkins controls the degree of change the Bha

. . . not one of all these warriors, destin

When Coleridge quotes Wilkins's "I am T

Conceive at once that that immense u

He uses the Bhagavadgitâ to give concrete f

mouths by means of which He devours the "heroes o

Changes inevitably occur when two cultures meet. I have explored a

ridge, Vishnu, and the Infinite" chronic

9. Earl Leslie Griggs, ed. , Collected Letters of Samuel Taylor Coler

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