CHAPTER XIV
THE ANCIENT FLAME
So Oman took up his abode in the palace; nor were the circumstances of his settling there very surprising to himself. From the first it had seemed as if, in the natural course of things, this should become his home; and the new duties and new habits of life were acquired mechanically. His intuition of the link that bound him to the past, however, though at times it was strong on him, proved evanescent; so that there were weeks when he lived wholly in the passing hour, without any memories of bygone days. But he knew that Fate had been kind to him. He was wrapped in impenetrable serenity: the outcome, the reward, of his years of solitude; and he felt that no mischance could disturb this again.
On the first morning after his arrival, the Rajah himself introduced him to the palace school, held in that room which, in the old Rajah’s day, had been a theatre:—the place where the slave Fidá had first looked upon poppy-crowned Ahalya. Whatever its former glories, this room, on the morning that Oman first beheld it, presented a pleasanter picture. Save for a great rug upon the floor, and the teacher’s cushion on a daïs at one end of the room, the place was quite unfurnished. On the floor sat an orderly company of young men, between the ages of fifteen and twenty: all of them clad in white, with scarlet sashes around their waists, and red shoes on their otherwise bare feet. These youths were engaged in a variety of occupations: some of them studying manuscripts of various kinds, many simply sitting in meditation, still others indulging, rather surreptitiously, in games. Among them, without any distinction as to dress or position, was Bhavani’s son, Viradha, the heir of Mandu: a pleasant-faced youth, but not remarkable for any special wit or wisdom; for he had inherited the disposition of his grandfather, and was fonder of the chase and the table than of reflection on the doctrine of atoms[9] or the working of the primordial soul.
[9] The foundation of the Nyaya system, originated by Kanada.
Up to to-day, the palace school had been conducted on a very irregular plan, Bhavani bringing various men of wisdom or holiness to lecture one or two days a week, the rest of the time being occupied with indiscriminate reading from philosophic or poetical manuscripts. On this day, as soon as the youths had assembled, Bhavani and Oman made their appearance together. The Rajah offered a few words of introduction and explanation: setting forth the fact that at last they were to have a permanent master, who would reduce their hours of study to some sort of system and order. During his speech, every eye in the room was fixed upon Oman’s tall, gaunt figure, clad in white garments, his serene face, with its deep-set eyes, and his broad, lined brow, on each side of which fell masses of thick, black hair. At the end of the introduction Oman came forward a little and the young men advanced to him, and, one by one, kissed his hand. Then they returned, expectantly, to their places; and Bhavani, able to spare no more time from matters of state, hurried away, leaving Oman to his new task.
It was the most difficult morning that Oman had ever spent. He had had no preparation for his situation, no time to arrange a course of work. Hitherto he had preached in small towns, to mere handfuls of uneducated men and women. Now he stood before a critical assembly of young noblemen, all of whom had had considerable instruction in abstract thinking and reasoning: far more, no doubt, than he himself had ever known. That he impressed them all, immediately, as a man of dignity and wisdom, of wide knowledge of men and high purity of mind, was again probably due to his years of miracle-working solitude.
To his own keen satisfaction, Oman felt that he had begun well with his school; and he determined, in his heart, that the end should be better still. For a month or more, then, he was invisible to every one save his pupils. He found that a full and detailed exposition of his creed to thinking and sometimes sceptical men, demanded a new labor of thought, a new working out of little things that had hitherto been mere suggestions in his own mind; the rejection of some ideas that proved themselves impossible; and the admission of others that he had not hitherto acknowledged. This work, while difficult, gave him the keenest delight; for the breadth and fulness of his logic was coming home to him; and he perceived that this creation of his brain was no puny shadow, but a thing finely formed, capable of proper development. He, the seeker after Truth, had found it; and from the heights was bringing it to men. It was its own greatest reward.
At the end of six weeks, his labors began to be less exacting. He had reduced his own thinking to a system; and he now began to introduce other studies than philosophy into this school, where arithmetic of the simplest kind, and writing in any living language, were considered not as necessaries but as arts. Oman found time now to see something of the palace and of its Rajah, who eagerly sought his society. A few days wrought great changes in his quiet existence; and presently an incident, entirely unexpected, brought him a revelation which, for some time to come, eclipsed every other interest in his mind.
During the six weeks of close work, the circumstances attendant on his first meeting with Bhavani had slipped from Oman’s mind. He no longer thought of the scene by the parapet behind the water-palace, or of Zenaide, the woman with wonderful hair. But now, in mid-May, she was recalled to him. One noon, as he sat in his room meditating through the hot hours, a slave-boy broke in upon him and delivered to him a message to the effect that the lady Zenaide desired the presence of Oman the sage, that she might hear the creed he taught.
Oman, taken by surprise, had an impulse to refuse the request. A moment’s reflection, however, changed his mind. She had asked for his creed. Believing as he did, he had no right to refuse her the knowledge. Besides, was she not under the special protection of Bhavani? Bhavani was his patron, nay, his friend. Whom Bhavani loved, Oman would not deny. So he sent an answer by the little slave that he would come that day; and the child departed, leaving him in chaos.