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Red Hat RHCSA™ 9 Cert Guide

EX200

Sander van Vugt

Red Hat RHCSA™ 9 Cert Guide: EX200

Copyright © 2023 by Pearson Education, Inc.

All rights reserved. No part of this book shall be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or
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Contents at a Glance

Introduction
Part I Performing Basic System Management Tasks
CHAPTER 1 Installing Red Hat Enterprise Linux
CHAPTER 2 Using Essential Tools
CHAPTER 3 Essential File Management Tools
CHAPTER 4 Working with Text Files
CHAPTER 5 Connecting to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9
CHAPTER 6 User and Group Management
CHAPTER 7 Permissions Management
CHAPTER 8 Configuring Networking
Part II Operating Running Systems
CHAPTER 9 Managing Software
CHAPTER 10 Managing Processes
CHAPTER 11 Working with Systemd
CHAPTER 12 Scheduling Tasks
CHAPTER 13 Configuring Logging
CHAPTER 14 Managing Storage
CHAPTER 15 Managing Advanced Storage
Part III Performing Advanced System Administration Tasks
CHAPTER 16 Basic Kernel Management
CHAPTER 17 Managing and Understanding the Boot Procedure
CHAPTER 18 Essential Troubleshooting Skills
CHAPTER 19 An Introduction to Automation with Bash Shell Scripting
Part IV Managing Network Services
CHAPTER 20 Configuring SSH
CHAPTER 21 Managing Apache HTTP Services
CHAPTER 22 Managing SELinux
CHAPTER 23 Configuring a Firewall
CHAPTER 24 Accessing Network Storage
CHAPTER 25 Configuring Time Services
CHAPTER 26 Managing Containers
CHAPTER 27 Final Preparation
CHAPTER 28 Theoretical Pre-Assessment Exam
Part V RHCSA 9 Practice Exams
RHCSA Practice Exam A
RHCSA Practice Exam B
APPENDIX A: Answers to the “Do I Know This Already?” Quizzes and Review Questions
APPENDIX B: Red Hat RHCSA 9 Cert Guide: EX200 Exam Updates
 Glossary
Index
Online Elements
RHCSA Practice Exam C
RHCSA Practice Exam D
APPENDIX C: Memory Tables
APPENDIX D: Memory Tables Answer Key
APPENDIX E: Study Planner
Glossary
 Table of Contents

Introduction
Part I Performing Basic System Management Tasks
Chapter 1 Installing Red Hat Enterprise Linux
“Do I Know This Already?” Quiz
Foundation Topics
Preparing to Install Red Hat Enterprise Linux
What Is Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 Server?
Getting the Software
Using Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Using CentOS Stream
Other Distributions
Understanding Access to Repositories
Setup Requirements
Cert Guide Environment Description
Performing an Installation
Summary
Exam Preparation Tasks
Review All Key Topics
Define Key Terms
Review Questions
End-of-Chapter Lab
Lab 1.1
Chapter 2 Using Essential Tools
“Do I Know This Already?” Quiz
Foundation Topics
Basic Shell Skills
Understanding Commands
Executing Commands
I/O Redirection
Using Pipes
History
Bash Completion
Editing Files with vim
Understanding the Shell Environment
Understanding Variables
Recognizing Environment Configuration Files
Using /etc/motd and /etc/issue
Finding Help
 Using --help
Using man
Finding the Right man Page
Updating mandb
Using info
Using /usr/share/doc Documentation Files
Summary
Exam Preparation Tasks
Review All Key Topics
Complete Tables and Lists from Memory
Define Key Terms
Review Questions
End-of-Chapter Lab
Lab 2.1
Chapter 3 Essential File Management Tools
“Do I Know This Already?” Quiz
Foundation Topics
Working with the File System Hierarchy
Defining the File System Hierarchy
Understanding Mounts
Managing Files
Working with Wildcards
Managing and Working with Directories
Working with Absolute and Relative Pathnames
Listing Files and Directories
Copying Files and Directories
Moving Files and Directories
Deleting Files and Directories
Using Links
Understanding Hard Links
Understanding Symbolic Links
Creating Links
Removing Links
Working with Archives and Compressed Files
Managing Archives with tar
Creating Archives with tar
Monitoring and Extracting tar Files
Using Compression
Summary
Exam Preparation Tasks
Review All Key Topics
 Complete Tables and Lists from Memory
Define Key Terms
Review Questions
End-of-Chapter Lab
Lab 3.1
Chapter 4 Working with Text Files
“Do I Know This Already?” Quiz
Foundation Topics
Using Common Text File–Related Tools
Doing More with less
Showing File Contents with cat
Displaying the First or Last Lines of a File with head and tail
Filtering Specific Columns with cut
Sorting File Contents and Output with sort
Counting Lines, Words, and Characters with wc
A Primer to Using Regular Expressions
Using Line Anchors
Using Escaping in Regular Expressions
Using Wildcards and Multipliers
Using Extended Regular Expressions
Using grep to Analyze Text
Working with Other Useful Text Processing Utilities
Summary
Exam Preparation Tasks
Review All Key Topics
Complete Tables and Lists from Memory
Define Key Terms
Review Questions
End-of-Chapter Lab
Lab 4.1
Chapter 5 Connecting to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9
“Do I Know This Already?” Quiz
Foundation Topics
Working on Local Consoles
Logging In to a Local Console
Switching Between Terminals in a Graphical Environment
Working with Multiple Terminals in a Nongraphical Environment
Understanding Pseudo Terminal Devices
Booting, Rebooting, and Shutting Down Systems
Using SSH and Related Utilities
Accessing Remote Systems Using SSH
 Using Graphical Applications in an SSH Environment
Securely Transferring Files Between Systems
Using scp to Securely Copy Files
Using sftp to Securely Transfer Files
Using rsync to Synchronize Files
Configuring Key-Based Authentication for SSH
Using Passphrases or Not?
Summary
Exam Preparation Tasks
Review All Key Topics
Complete Tables and Lists from Memory
Define Key Terms
Review Questions
End-of-Chapter Labs
Lab 5.1
Lab 5.2
Chapter 6 User and Group Management
“Do I Know This Already?” Quiz
Foundation Topics
Understanding Different User Types
Users on Linux
Working as Root
Using su
sudo
PolicyKit
Creating and Managing User Accounts
System Accounts and Normal Accounts
Creating Users
Modifying the Configuration Files
Using useradd
Home Directories
Default Shell
Managing User Properties
Configuration Files for User Management Defaults
Managing Password Properties
Creating a User Environment
Creating and Managing Group Accounts
Understanding Linux Groups
Creating Groups
Creating Groups with vigr
Using groupadd to Create Groups
 Managing Group Properties
Summary
Exam Preparation Tasks
Review All Key Topics
Complete Tables and Lists from Memory
Define Key Terms
Review Questions
End-of-Chapter Labs
Lab 6.1
Lab 6.2
Chapter 7 Permissions Management
“Do I Know This Already?” Quiz
Foundation Topics
Managing File Ownership
Displaying Ownership
Changing User Ownership
Changing Group Ownership
Understanding Default Ownership
Managing Basic Permissions
Understanding Read, Write, and Execute Permissions
Applying Read, Write, and Execute Permissions
Managing Advanced Permissions
Understanding Advanced Permissions
Applying Advanced Permissions
Setting Default Permissions with umask
Working with User-Extended Attributes
Summary
Exam Preparation Tasks
Review All Key Topics
Complete Tables and Lists from Memory
Define Key Terms
Review Questions
End-of-Chapter Lab
Lab 7.1
Chapter 8 Configuring Networking
“Do I Know This Already?” Quiz
Foundation Topics
Networking Fundamentals
IP Addresses
IPv6 Addresses
IPv4 Network Masks
Exploring the Variety of Random
Documents with Different Content
turning his back to his foes. At length the demigods made a furious
and altogether successful onslaught. The black warriors were
supposed to have been completely exterminated. They lay stretched
on the field dead and dying for a minute or two, and then, in the most
inconsistent manner, got up and squatted on the grass to watch the
further proceedings. When Ravana’s forces were thus destroyed, a
number of fireworks were lighted all over the field. Then the fort of
Lanka was given over to the flames, and as it was well-filled with
fireworks it made a brilliant display. Next perished Kumbhakarna,
similarly in a blaze of rockets, and amidst the thunder of exploding
bombs. And last of all, the gigantic Ravana disappeared, by what to
any bystander would seem a process of spontaneous combustion.
All the time the drama lasted a regimental brass band played
European music; so that Rama’s forces may be said to have been
animated to the assault of Lanka by the soul-stirring music of
European composers.
This was all! Sita the patient, faithful, loving wife was never brought
forward. The woman’s part was a quite subordinate one and was left
to the imagination of the spectators. The conquering Rama was
everything; the long-suffering Sita was forgotten on this occasion.
However, the gentle wife of Rama has a place of her own in the
affectionate regard of the people of her native land and her history is
well remembered. I have seen a picture of the car in which Sita was
abducted tattooed on the arm of an ignorant woman of the lower
classes, and found on inquiry that she knew the old old story well.
The Ram Lila I have just described was a particularly good example
of the annual celebration. Ordinarily, huge figures, stuffed with straw,
represent the demons. Rama and Lakshmana, seated on a stage,
are carried about on the shoulders of men and, after traversing the
ground, hither and thither, without any apparent object, at length set
fire to the effigies, whose combustion concludes the play, if such it
can be called; whereupon the crowds assembled to see the sport
depart in clouds of dust and smoke. Often several sets of demons
and Ramas may be seen on the same field, got up by rival parties,
by different sections of a city, or by separate villages.
It appears that there is some difficulty in getting boys to personate
Rama and his brother on the occasion of the Ram Lila festival, as it
is the popular belief that they never live to attain manhood.[48] There
is also another, if less superstitious reason for the difficulty in
question, and it is this: At the close of the festival Rama and
Lakshmana have to feast the Brahmans, and that involves no
inconsiderable outlay of money. Hence, in the somewhat lawless
border districts on the Indus, it is the usual thing for the sons of well-
to-do persons to be actually kidnapped and carried off to play Rama
and Lakshmana at the annual festival.
For ten days during the feast they are believed to be literally
possessed by the god and are worshipped as Vishnu. But the
worship of these boys creates, I was told, a curious and interesting
difficulty about the selection of Rama and Lakshmana. The two
heroes were men of the warrior caste, and so should their modern
representatives be, but, as they have divine honours paid to them
during the festival, it would not suit the Brahmans to bow down to
and touch the feet of youths of inferior caste, while even personating
demigods, and so, in defiance of history, Brahman youths are
generally selected to represent the Kshatriya heroes in the Ram Lila.
What the Indian artist’s conception of the form and appearance of
Rama is, may be partially understood from the statuettes in stone
made at the present day and frequently to be met with, at least in
Northern India. They are usually sculptured in white marble, but
painted (I may say enamelled) jet black, the only unblackened
portion being the whites of the eyes. The eyebrows are gilded and so
is the loin-cloth or dhoty, which is the only piece of clothing on the
person of the god-man. Two big ornaments, shaped like stumpy
reels, fill big holes in the lobes of the ears, and make them stick out
on either side. On the forehead is the Vishnu caste-mark, the central
line in red, and the two side lines, diverging from the top of the nose,
in gold. These figures chiselled by the Indian sculptor are always stiff
and somewhat conventional.
The Dasahra festival of Northern India is replaced in Bengal by the
Durga Puja, and consequently the Bengalees do not perform the
Ram Lila; but I remember to have seen, years ago, in Bengal, a
large collection of colossal groups of figures representing favourite
incidents in the “Mahabharata” and “Ramayana,” prepared at the
expense of the Maharajah of Burdwan, to which show, an annual
one, I believe, the public were freely admitted. The grotesque forms
of the monsters of the Indian epics were reproduced in huge clay
statues, variously coloured and clothed. Some, armed with the
strange weapons which the poets had imagined, were engaged in
deadly combat. Gigantic arrows were conspicuous, and some of
them, with the aid of thread supports, were shown in the air on their
way to some ill-fated warrior or other. More peaceful scenes were
also represented, as where Ravana, in the disguise of a Brahman,
visits Sita in the forest. Various holy hermits were also there in all the
repulsiveness of dirt and emaciation. The figures were coloured
yellow, blue, green, brown, or black, according to the text of the poet,
the conventional notions of the people, or the taste and fancy of the
artists. Some of these clay statues were decidedly well modelled.
They had real hair on their heads, faces and breasts; they were
clothed in cotton fabrics, according to the not very elaborate fashions
of the country, and, in some cases, were by no means unartistic
representations of the men, demons and demigods of the sacred
epics of India.
 APPENDIX
The Story of the Descent of Ganga (the Ganges), as
related in the “Ramayana”
In ancient times lived Sangara, a virtuous king of Ayodhya. He had
two wives but no children. As he and his consorts longed for
offspring, the three of them went to the Himalayas and practised
austerities there. When they had been thus engaged for a hundred
years, a Brahman ascetic of great power granted this boon to
Sangara; that one of his wives should give birth to a son who should
perpetuate his race and the other should be the mother of sixty
thousand manly and high-spirited sons. In due time the elder wife
bore the promised son, who was named Asamanja, and the younger
wife a gourd. From this gourd, when it burst open, came forth sixty
thousand tiny sons, who were fostered, during their helpless infancy,
by keeping them in jars filled with clarified butter. When his
numerous sons had grown to man’s estate the king, their father,
determined to offer a horse-sacrifice. In accordance with this
resolution a horse was, in the usual way, set free to wander where it
listed, attended, for its protection, by mighty warriors of Sangara’s
army.
Now it came to pass that one day Vasava, assuming the form of a
Rakshasa, stole the horse away. The sixty thousand sons of the King
of Ayodhya thereupon commenced, at their father’s command, a
diligent search for the missing animal. They scoured the world in
vain for the stolen horse and then set about making a rigorous
search in the bowels of the earth, digging downwards some sixty
thousand yojanas. In these subterranean explorations they
committed great havoc amongst the dwellers in the under-world; but
they persevered in their quest and presently, in the Southern
Quarter, came upon a huge elephant resembling a hill. This colossal
elephant, named Verupaksha, supported the entire earth upon his
head and caused earthquakes whenever he happened to move his
head from fatigue. Going round this mighty beast, the sons of
Sangara continued their search in the interior of the earth. They at
last found the stolen horse and observed, quite close to it, “the
eternal Vasudeva in the guise of Kapila,” upon whom they rushed
with blind but impotent fury; for he, uttering a tremendous roar,
instantly reduced them all to ashes.
As the princes did not return home Sangara became alarmed for
their safety and sent his grandson—Asamanja’s son—to look for
tidings of them. This heroic prince, following the traces they had left
of their eventful journey, at length reached the spot where the
missing horse was detained and there discovered also the ashes of
his sixty thousand uncles. Being piously desirous of making the
usual oblations of water to the ashes of his deceased relatives,
Asamanja’s son looked about for water but could find none.
However, he met, in these nether regions, Suparna, a maternal uncle
of his, “resembling the wind,” and from him he learned that the sixty
thousand dead princes would be translated to heaven if only the
waters of Ganga could be brought down from the celestial regions to
lave their dust.
Seeing there was nothing that he could do for the manes of his dead
relatives, the young prince took the horse, and returning with it to
Ayodhya helped to complete Sangara’s sacrifice.
Sangara himself died after a reign of thirty thousand years. Ançumat,
who succeeded him, practised rigid austerities, “on the romantic
summit of Himavat,” for thirty-two thousand years, and left the
kingdom to Dilipa, whose constant thought was how he should bring
Ganga down from heaven for the benefit of his dead ancestors; but
though he performed numerous sacrifices during his long reign of
thirty thousand years, he made no progress in this matter. Dilipa’s
son, Bhagiratha, earnestly devoted himself to the same object, and
practised severe austerities with the view of obtaining the wished-for
boon. “Restraining his senses and eating once a month and
surrounding himself with five fires and with arms uplifted, he for a
long lapse of time performed austerities at Gokara.” Brahma,
pleased with the king’s asceticism, appeared before him and granted
his wish, advising him, at the same time, to invoke the aid of Siva to
accomplish it, as the earth would not be able to sustain the direct
shock of the descent of Ganga from the celestial regions.
To obtain the assistance of Siva, Bhagiratha spent a whole year in
adoring that god, who at the end of that period was graciously
pleased to say to the king: “O foremost of men, I am well-pleased
with thee. I will do what will be for thy welfare—I will hold the
Mountain’s daughter on my head.” Upon this Ganga precipitated
herself from the heavens upon Siva’s head, arrogantly thinking to
reach the earth without delay, but Siva, vexed by her proud thought,
caused her to wander for many a year amongst the tangles of his
long hair. It was only when Bhagiratha had recourse to fresh
austerities that Siva “cast Ganga off in the direction of the Vindu
lake,” and she flowed in many channels over the joyful earth, to the
delight and admiration of the celestials who witnessed her wonderful
descent from the sky.
Ganga, following the royal ascetic Bhagiratha, flooded with her
waters the “sacrificial ground of the high-souled Jahna of wonderful
deeds, as he was performing a sacrifice.” The saint drank up her
waters in a rage. When this occurred the deities and Gandharvas
began to worship the angry Jahna, who, being propitiated by their
attentions, allowed the river to flow off through his ears. Proceeding
again in the wake of Bhagiratha’s chariot, Ganga, having reached
the ocean, entered the under-world where the ashes of the sixty
thousand sons of Sangara still lay. Her sanctifying waters flowed
over their earthly remains and their spirits ascended to heaven.
Such is the history of the most sacred river of the Hindus, into whose
heaven-descended waters millions upon millions of men and women
crowd annually to have their sins washed away.
 NOTES
I. Antiquity of the “Ramayana.”—Older than the “Ramayana”
ascribed to Valmiki is the “Ramasaga” itself, which exists as a
Buddhist story, known as the “Dasahrathajataka.” This is
substantially the history of Rama and Sita, with the important
omission of the rape of Sita and the expedition against Lanka, which
incidents the poet of the “Ramayana” is believed by Dr. Albrecht
Weber to have borrowed from the Homeric legends.[49] If this
conjecture be correct, the treatment of the incidents in question by
Valmiki is no slavish imitation of that of Homer. In the “Mahabharata”
the story of Rama and Sita is narrated to Yudhisthira as an example,
taken from the olden time, by way of consolation on a certain
occasion, and agrees so closely with the work of Valmiki that it
certainly looks very much like an epitome of that work. In regard to
the age of this epic, Sir Monier Williams says: “We cannot be far
wrong in asserting that a great portion of the ‘Ramayana,’ if not the
entire ‘Ramayana,’ before us, must have been current in India as
early as the fifth century b.c.”[50]
II. English versions of the “Ramayana.”—The English reader
desirous of learning more of the details of the “Ramayana” than is
contained in this epitome, may consult the following works: (1) The
excellent metrical version of Mr. Ralph Griffith, in five volumes; (2)
the prose translation now in course of publication by Babu
Manmatha Nath Dutt, M.A.; (3) Mr. Taiboys Wheeler’s “History of
India,” vol. iii.; and (4) The “Ramayana” of Tulsi Das, translated by
Mr. F. T. Growse.
III. The “Ramayana” only a nature myth.—While one scholar finds
history in the pages of the “Ramayana,” and discovers in its
interesting details a poetical version of the conquest of Southern
India by the Aryans, another, with a turn for mythological
interpretation, assures us that it is only a nature myth. “The whole
story,” he writes, “is clearly an account of how the full moon wanes
and finally disappears from sight during the last fourteen days of the
lunar month, which are the fourteen years of Rama and Sita’s exile.
Her final disappearance is represented by her rape by Ravana, and
her rescue means the return of the new moon. In the course of the
story the triumph of the dark night, lightened by the moon and stars,
is further represented by the conquest of Vali, the god of tempests of
the monkey race, who had obscured the stars.”[51]
 PART II
THE MAHABHARATA
THE MAHABHARATA
 CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTORY REMARKS
Standing on the beautiful fluted column of red sandstone, known as
the Kutub Minar, which towers loftily above the lifeless quietude of
ancient Delhi, the eye surveys a landscape which embraces one of
the most classic regions in Hindustan.
Across the ruin-strewn plain, towards the lordly minarets and cupolas
of modern Delhi, the spectator may note, just a little towards the
east, the massive remains of the Poorana killa, or old fort, which still
preserves, in its traditionary name of Indrapat or Indraprasta, a
suggestion of the glory it enjoyed some fifteen centuries before
Christ.
Not only in India and to the Hindus is the Indraprasta a name of
reverence; for, away in distant Cambodia, the people believe that
they are descended from colonists who immigrated into the southern
peninsula from the far-off banks of the Jumna, and the stupendous
remains of Angkor and Battambang, near the great lake of Toulé-
sap, point unmistakably to Hindu and Buddhist origin, and bear silent
witness to the existence, in the remote past, of a powerful and
flourishing kingdom of Indian origin.[52]
Delhi, and the great plain north of it, are associated with the most
stirring events in both the ancient and modern history of India, and
have witnessed the most decisive struggles for empire which have
occurred south of the Himalayas.
Perhaps the “Mahabharata” was based on simple Aryan sagas like
those of the Norsemen—historical traditions of deeds performed by
gallant warriors to whose nervous hands the spear and axe were
more familiar than the plough and the pen,[53] but, if so, the poets
who have used the materials of the sagas of their ancestors to build
up the great national epic, have been not too careful to preserve the
strict accuracy of the traditions, and when the narrative of events is
interrupted by long disquisitions and endless palavers, we discern
unmistakably the hand of the Brahman compiler and his contribution
to the record. We may, then, as well admit at once that little real
history can be gleaned out of the one hundred thousand verses of
the “Mahabharata.” Yet a very great deal of valuable matter, that
does not fall under the usual denomination of history, may be readily
found in this voluminous epic, giving it a high value for all time.
The authorship of the “Mahabharata” is ascribed to the sage Vyasa,
or the compiler, and its production is, at least, as remarkable as that
of the “Ramayana” already referred to. We are told in the
introduction to the poem itself that, “The son of Satyavati (Vyasa)
having by penance and meditation analyzed the eternal Veda
afterwards compiled this holy history.” When he had completed the
vast epic, without, however, committing any portion of it to writing, he
began to consider how he could teach it to his disciples.
Sympathizing with his desire to extend to others the benefits of this
most sacred and interesting poem, Brahma, the Supreme Being,
appeared before the saint. “And when Vyasa, surrounded by all the
tribes of Munis, saw him, he was surprised; and standing with joined
palms, he bowed and he ordered a seat to be brought. And Vyasa
having gone round him, who is called Hiranyagarbha, seated on that
distinguished seat, stood near it, and, being commanded by Brahma
Parameshti, he sat down near the seat full of affection and smiling in
joy” (P. C. Roy).[54] After expressing his entire approval of the poem
Vyasa had composed, the Supreme Being said: “Let Ganesa be
thought of, O Muni, for the purpose of writing the poem,” and then
“retired to his own abode.” Ganesa, the god of wisdom, being
invoked by Vyasa, repaired at once to his hermitage and consented
to commit the wondrous tale to writing, provided his pen were not
allowed to cease its work for a single moment. This condition was
agreed to and observed. Thus was the “Mahabharata” recorded, as
undying and infallible scripture, from the lips of its inspired bard.
In respect of its importance and sanctity we need only cite the
following passages from the poem itself. “There is not a story current
in this world, but doth depend upon this history, even as the body
upon the food that it taketh.”
“The study of the ‘Bharata’ is an act of piety. He that readeth even
one foot believing hath his sins entirely purged away.”
“The man who with reverence daily listeneth to this sacred work
acquireth long life and renown and ascendeth to heaven.”
“A Brahmana whatever sins he may commit during the day through
his senses, is freed from them all by reading the ‘Bharata’ in the
evening. Whatever sins he may commit also in the night by deed,
words, or mind, he is freed from them all by reading the ‘Bharata’ in
the first twilight (morning).”
What effects such beliefs were likely to have upon the morals of a
people we do not stop to inquire.
“Chaque peuple,” says Prévost-Paradol, “a dans son histoire un
grand fait, auquel il rattache tout son passé et tout son avenir, et
dont la mémoire est un mot de ralliement, une promesse de salut. La
fuite d’Egypte, disaient les Juifs; le renversement des Mèdes,
disaient les Perses; les guerres Médiques, disent à leur tour les
Grecs. On les rappellera à tout propos pour en tirer des arguments,
des prétentions politiques, des mouvements oratoires, des
encouragements patriotiques dans les grandes crises, et plus tard,
les regrets éternels.”[55]
For the Indian people it is the great war ending with Kurukshetra,
which is the central event of their history. It closes for them their
golden age. Before that was a world of transcendent knowledge and
heroic deeds; since then intellectual decay and physical degeneracy.
Nor is this merely a sentiment, it is a deeply-rooted belief, which the
highly-educated Indian holds in common with his ignorant
countryman. I have known an educated Hindu to maintain with much
warmth that in the golden age the Rishis and others were well
acquainted with the art of aërial navigation, and probably with other
rapid modes of locomotion unknown to us moderns. I have heard
him assert boldly that even the telephone, microphone, and
phonograph had been known to the Hindu sages up to the time
when the sciences and arts of the ancient world perished, wholesale
and for ever, with the heroes of the “Mahabharata” on the fatal field
of Kurukshetra. However little one might be disposed to import such
romantic statements into a sober history of science, they are, at any
rate, true as regards the non-existence of anything like even the
germs of progressive science among the people of India from a very
remote date up to the present time.
Of the one hundred thousand verses of the “Mahabharata” not more
than a fourth part is concerned with the main story of the epic—the
rest consists of more or less irrelevant, though often beautiful
episodes, and of disquisitions on government, morals and theology.
It is the main story that I have endeavoured to reproduce in brief
outline in this volume, and I have also attempted to preserve, as far
as possible, the important doctrinal features of the great epic.
 CHAPTER II
THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
Amongst the long line of kings descended from Chandra, the Moon,
who reigned in Northern India, was Shantanu, with whom our
narrative may conveniently commence. This king was, like most of
the sovereigns of his house, a pious man and an able administrator,
whose sway, we are told, was owned by the whole world. He had
two wives in succession, first the goddess Ganga, afterwards
Satyavati, and the story of his loves is worth recording.
Strange as it may seem, his marriage with the lovely Ganga, the
divinity of the sacred river Ganges, resulted from a curse uttered by
one of those terrible saints, so common in Indian poetry, whose
irritability of temper seems to have been in direct proportion to the
importance of their austerities. The saint in question, Vasishta by
name, was once engaged in his devotions when a party of celestial
beings, known as Vasus, unwittingly passed between him and the
rising or setting sun. “Be born among men!” exclaimed the irate Rishi
to the unwelcome intruders, and his malediction, once uttered was,
of course, irrevocable.[56] Expelled from Heaven, these unfortunate
Vasus were met by the goddess Ganga to whom they explained their
sad destiny, imploring of her to become a woman, so that they might
be born of her and not of a mere mortal. The goddess who, on
account of a slight indiscretion on her part, was herself under the
obligation of assuming the human form, agreed to their proposal,
and made choice of Shantanu to be their father. The goddess
promised the Vasus that as each one of them was born of her, he
should be thrown, as a mere infant, into the water and destroyed, so
that all might regain their celestial home as speedily as possible. But
Ganga stipulated that each one of the Vasus should contribute an
eighth part of his energy for the production of a son who should be
allowed to live his life on earth, but should himself die childless.
These preliminaries being settled amongst the gods, behind the
scenes as it were, the play had to be played out on the terrestrial
stage with men as the puppets. To this end Ganga took an
opportunity of presenting herself before Shantanu for the purpose of
captivating his heart,—no difficult task for the goddess. So, one day
as he was wandering along the banks of the Ganges, “he saw a
lovely maiden of blazing beauty and like unto another Sree herself.
Of faultless and pearly teeth and decked with celestial ornaments,
she was attired in garments of fine texture, and resembled in
splendour the filaments of the lotus. And the monarch beholding that
damsel became surprised. With steadfast gaze he seemed to be
drinking her charms, but repeated draughts failed to quench his
thirst. The damsel also beholding the monarch of blazing splendour
moving about in great agitation, was moved herself, and experienced
an affection for him. She gazed and gazed and longed to gaze at
him evermore. The monarch then in soft words addressed her and
said: ‘O thou slender-waisted one, beest thou a goddess or the
daughter of a Danava, beest thou of the race of the Gandharvas, or
Apsaras, beest thou of the Yakshas or of the Nagas or beest thou of
human origin, O thou of celestial beauty, I solicit thee to be my wife.’”
This wooing, simple enough in form and very much to the point, was,
we need not say, entirely successful; the goddess without revealing
her identity, consenting at once to become the king’s wife, on
condition that she should be free to leave him the moment he
interfered with her actions or addressed an unkind word to her. The
enamoured prince readily agreed to these terms, and Ganga
became his wife. Seven beautiful children born of this union were, to
the king’s intense horror, thrown by their mother, each in its turn, into
the waters of the Ganges with the words “This is for thy good.”
Shantanu’s dread of losing the companionship of his lovely wife, of
whom he was dotingly fond, kept him tongue-tied even in presence
of such enormities; but when the eighth child was about to be
destroyed like the others, his paternal feelings could not be
controlled, and he broke out in remonstrance and upbraidings which
saved his son’s life, but lost him his wife’s society for ever. Ganga,
with much dignity, revealed herself to the king, explained to him the
real circumstances of the case, and the motives which had
influenced her actions and, reminding him of the stipulations of the
contract between them, took a kind but final farewell of the husband
of so many years. She thereupon disappeared, carrying the child
away with her.
Later on, the river-goddess appeared once more to King Shantanu,
and made over to him his half-celestial son, a youth of the most
wonderful intellect, learning, strength and daring. This son,
indifferently named Ganga-datta and Deva-bratta, was eventually
best-known as Bhisma, or the terrible, for a reason to be explained
immediately.
In the foregoing legend about the incarnations of the Vasus, we have
an instructive and interesting illustration of the ideas of the Hindus
with respect to the soul in man, which, as in this case, might be a
spirit from the celestial regions. We also learn how the poor mortal’s
destiny on earth is but the fulfilment of predestined events.
Shantanu, deserted by the goddess-queen, seems to have had a
heart ready for the reception of another love, and, as his romantic
fortune would have it, he was one day rambling on the banks of the
Jumna when his attention was attracted by a delicious perfume. To
trace this fragrance to its source the king roamed hither and thither
through the woods, “and, in the course of his rambles, he beheld a
black-eyed maiden of celestial beauty, the daughter of a fisherman.”
In those primitive times, when men carried their hearts on their
sleeves and the forms of social life were simple and natural, no
tedious courtship was necessary; so, “the king addressing her said:
‘Who art thou, and whose daughter? What dost thou do here, O timid
one?’ She answered, ‘Blest be thou, I am the daughter of the chief of
the fishermen. At his command for religious merit I am engaged in
rowing the passengers across this river in my boat.’ And Shantanu
beholding that maiden of celestial form endued with beauty,
amiableness and such fragrance, desired her for wife. And repairing
unto her father the king solicited his consent to the proposed match.”
The fisherman was willing to bestow his daughter on the king, but
only on condition that the son born to her should occupy the throne
to the exclusion of all others. This was a difficulty that staggered the
king, for he could not find it in his heart to set aside Deva-bratta, the
glorious son of Ganga. The matter accordingly dropped, but his
disappointment was very great, and he could not conceal from the
world that there was something preying upon his mind. Deva-bratta,
being much concerned about Shantanu’s unhappiness, found out the
cause of it, and going to the father of the sweet-scented maiden,
Satyavati, he formally renounced his own right to the succession,
and recorded a vow of perpetual celibacy.
Upon this “the Apsaras and the gods with the tribes of the Rishis
began to rain down flowers from the firmament upon the head of
Deva-bratta, and exclaimed 'This one is Bhisma’ (the terrible).”
Everything was now arranged to the satisfaction of the contracting
parties, and Satyavati, the ferry-girl, became the proud queen of
Bharatvarsha. But this beauteous and odoriferous damsel had
already a history, which, though unknown to the king her husband,
may be unfolded here.
In the discharge of her pious office of ferrying across the Jumna
those who desired it, the maiden on one occasion had as her
companion in the boat “the great and wise Rishi Parashara, foremost
of all virtuous men.” This illustrious saint, who seems to have had an
eye for a pretty wench, immediately made advances to the boat-girl.
Dread of her father, and a natural disinclination of being seen from
the shore, made Satyavati coy; but, on the other hand, she was also
in terror of the Rishi’s curse, in case she disobliged him. The sage
Parashara was not to be denied. He enveloped the boat in a mist,
and, promising the boat-girl that her virginity should be restored, and
that a certain fishy smell which emanated from her person should be
changed into a sweet perfume, had his way with her. The offspring of
this union was no other than the renowned Vyasa, who arranged the
Vedas and wrote the “Mahabharata,” and of whom we shall hear
more very soon.
Satyavati by her union with King Shantanu became the mother of
two sons, Chitrangada and Vichitra-virya. The former was after a
short reign killed, in a three years’ combat, by the King of the
Gandharvas, and Vichitra-virya was placed on the throne; but being
a minor the kingdom was ruled by Bhisma, in subordination to
Queen Satyavati. When the king was old enough to be married
Bhisma set about finding a wife for him. Learning that the three
lovely daughters of the King of Kasi would elect husbands in a public
swayamvara, or maiden’s choice, he repaired thither and, acting in
accordance with the lawless customs of the times, carried the fair
princesses off in his chariot, challenging anyone and everyone to
fight him for the coveted prize. A desperate battle ensued, of the kind
familiar to the reader of the previous portion of this volume. Bhisma,
alone and unaided, assailed by ten thousand arrows at the same
time, was able to check these missiles in mid-air by showers of
innumerable darts from his own bow, and after prodigious slaughter
effected the object he had in view.[57] Of the three captured
princesses one, named Amba, was allowed to go back to her people,
as she explained that she had fully made up her mind to elect the
King of Sanva for her husband, that he had given her his heart, and
that her father was willing. The Rajah, however, coldly rejected
Amba, on the ground that she had been in another man’s house; so,
after undergoing painful austerities, with the object of being avenged
for the humiliations she had suffered, the unhappy princess
immolated herself on the funeral pile. In her case the swayamvara
was, it would appear, only intended to be a formal ceremony. The
other two princesses became the wives of Vichitra-virya; but, after a
short reign, he died, leaving behind him no heirs of his body.
This failure of issue threatened the extinction of the Lunar dynasty.
But, according to the ideas of those primitive times, the deficiency of
heirs might still be supplied, for Vichitra-virya’s two widows, Amvika
and Amvalika, still survived, and some kinsman might raise up seed
to the dead man. Queen Satyavati pressed Bhisma to undertake the
duty, but he, unwittingly fulfilling his destiny, held his vow of celibacy
too sacred to be broken even in such a dynastic emergency. On his
refusal Satyavati thought of her son Vyasa as perpetuator of the
Lunar race, and the sage, nothing loth, undertook the family duty and
visited the widows in turn. Now this celebrated sage had, by reason
of his austerities, a terrible and repulsive appearance. The elder
widow, Amvika, shut her eyes when she saw him, as he approached
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