गङ्गेच यमुने चैव गोदावरी
सरस्वति ।
नर्मदा सिन्धु कावेरी जलेऽस्मिन्
संनिधिं कुरु ॥
(O Holy Rivers Nile, Ganga and Yamuna, and also Godavari,
Saraswati,
Narmada, Sindhu and Kaveri; Please be Present in this Water
Near Me (and make it Holy).)
मी या श्लोकाला नाईल जोडेन.
नाईलेच गङ्गे यमुने चैव गोदावरी
सरस्वति ।
नर्मदा सिन्धु कावेरी जलेऽस्मिन्
संनिधिं कुरु ॥
(O Holy Rivers Nile, Ganga and Yamuna, and also Godavari,
Saraswati,
Narmada, Sindhu and Kaveri; Please be Present in this Water
Near Me (and make it Holy).)
नाईल नदीचे महत्व माहीत होते. पण खालील वाचून माझे अज्ञान किती खोल आहे याची जाणीव झाली.
स्टेसी शिफ (Stacy Schiff) त्यांच्या प्रत्येक पानावर आनंद देणाऱ्या 'Cleopatra: A Life', मध्ये लिहतात :
“...Up the Nile Cleopatra and Caesar sailed in their
“floating palace,” the wind at their backs. On shore the date trees hung thick
with fruit, the palm fronds slightly faded. Beyond the river lay a sea of
golden grain; in the trees the bananas glinted yellow. The apricots, grapes,
figs, and mulberries were nearly ripe. It was peach season; above their heads,
the pigeons visibly paired off. Everything about the landscape before Caesar
and Cleopatra reinforced the myths of Egypt’s abundance and the river’s magical
faculties. Renowned throughout the ancient world, the Nile was said to flow
with gold; extraordinary powers were ascribed to it. Its water was believed to
boil at half the temperature of other waters. Its river creatures attained
staggering proportions. Ptolemy II had sent his daughter cases of Nile water
when she married into the Syrian royal family, to ensure her fertility. (She
was already thirty. It worked.) Egyptian women were known for more efficient
pregnancies; it took them less time to produce a baby. They were said as well
to have an elevated rate of giving birth to twins, often quadruplets.
Goats—which bore two kids elsewhere—were said to bear five in Egypt, pigeons to
produce twelve broods rather than ten. The male skull was thought to be stronger
in Egypt, where baldness (and comb-overs like Caesar’s) were rare. The Nile was
believed to have spontaneously generated life; one thing Cleopatra and Caesar
did not see were the river creatures of legend, half-mice, half-dirt. Nor
presumably did they find serpents with grass sprouting on their backs, or
people who lived under turtle shells the size of boats. What they did make out
among the tufted papyrus thickets and the lotus plants were herons and storks,
hippopotami and eighteen-foot-long crocodiles, an inexhaustible supply of fish,
a rarity in Rome. The ancient historians were mistaken about the primordial
details, wholly accurate on the subject of Egypt’s fecundity. Cleopatra’s home
was the most productive agricultural land in the Mediterranean, the one in
which crops appeared to plant and water themselves.”
एवढ माहात्म्य मी गंगेचं सुद्धा कधी ऐकल नाही, पुराणात सुद्धा वाचल नाही कुठल्या नदीबद्दल.
Its water was believed to
boil at half the temperature of other waters.
Its river creatures attained
staggering proportions.
Ptolemy II had sent his daughter cases of Nile water
when she married into the Syrian royal family, to ensure her fertility. (She
was already thirty. It worked.) Egyptian women were known for more efficient
pregnancies; it took them less time to produce a baby. They were said as well
to have an elevated rate of giving birth to twins, often quadruplets.
Goats—which bore two kids elsewhere—were said to bear five in Egypt, pigeons to
produce twelve broods rather than ten.
The male skull was thought to be stronger
in Egypt, where baldness (and comb-overs like Caesar’s) were rare.
The Nile was
believed to have spontaneously generated life;
Artist: Sidney Harris, The New Yorker, March 1991
