Valmiki, in his description of Lanka in the Sundara-Kanda of the Ramayana, has referred to the ratna-deepa. Vyasa, in his description of war by the night in the Drona-Parva of the Mahabharata, gives a thrilling account of manoeuvres by lamplight. After describing the lamps among the elephant columns and the cavalry in minute detail, he remarks: "Yakshas, Kinnaras, Gandharvas, all of the Heavenly kingdom and the gods themselves, had congregated to witness the unprecedented battle. They had, in their turn, brought with them rows of lights". 

These ratna malas -- strings of diamond-lights -- added their light to the bright lights of the battlefield, and those who saw this unique sight, continues Vyasa, were the most fortunate on earth. The description of how Mayasura fooled the Kauravas with hidden lights in the palace which he built for the Pandavas is another luminous passage in the Mahabharata.

Indian philosophy calls the soul a self-lighted torch. The flame of the lamp is likened to the Supreme Self. Life if like a lamp and the endeavour of the enlightened should be to brighten up others' lives. Ancient texts elaborate the nature of this function. To live for oneself, like a little lamp, is the tamasa-dharma; to live for others, like the deepa-mala, is rajasa-dharma; and to live one's life in the contemplation of the Universal Power is sattvika-dharma.

Lord Krishna has expounded in the Bhagvad-Gita the nature of the perfect mind. Among the characteristics enumerated is that such a mind is steady like a flame unshaken by the wind. The ancient sutras find a symbolic parallel for every phase and every turn of man's early life in one type of lamp or another. That is how the lamp has become a symbol of Indian aspiration.

Mythology has made a powerful and continuous impact on the evolution of the lamp. The ten incarnations of Lord Vishnu have been an unfailing source of inspiration of the lamp-maker. Mythology has always fed the imagination of our artists and craftsmen. Innumerable are the lamps which depict the incarnation themes such as Matsya, Kurma and Varaha. The lamps of Gokarna-Mahabaleshwar also show us that divine emblems like the Sankha, Chakra, Gada and Padma were also frequently adapted.

Kalidasa is renowned as the 'tip of the flame' in Sanskrit literacy history. He himself never tires of using metaphors connected with lamps. Indumati, according to the poet, moved like the tip of a flame during the selection parade. The faces of the hopeful kings brightened up on her approach and darkened when she went past them.

In the Meghadoota, the Yaksha describes the lamps used in sleeping chambers in Alakanagari and calls them jewel-lamps.

Dnyaneshwar called one of his metaphysical treatise Bhavartha-Deepika. The famous poet and philosopher of Vijayanagar, Vidyaranya, in his Pancha-dashi has used the lamp metaphor of every chapter heading, for example, Jnana-deepa, Dhyana-deepa, and so on.

(To be continued)