University of Oregon

Hindu Myths in Mallarm: Un Coup de Ds

Author(s): Richard Anderson
Source: Comparative Literature, Vol. 19, No. 1 (Winter, 1967), pp. 28-35
Published by: Duke University Press on behalf of the University of Oregon
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RICHARD ANDERSON

Hindu
Un

Myths
Coup

De

in

Mallarme:

Des

ALLARMfi'S Un Coup de des jamais n'abolira le hasard, because of its abstruseness and its relevance to an intimate human
experience-the paradoxical delight and pain of creating-lends itself to
a variety of speculative interpretations. Robert Greer Cohn has published a brilliant exegesis of this odd masterpiece.' Professor Cohn provides linguistic, philosophical, and even geometric tools, along with the
customary biographical ones, to arrive at an understanding of Mallarme's metaphysics, aesthetics, and in a summary fashion the story
of the Master-Poet-Captain's disastrous adventure. No commentary
has yet been made to crystallize the poet's sparkling word patterns into
a formal poetic "argument," for lack, I believe, of knowledge of his
mythological sources. In the course of studies of Hinduism, aimed at
determining its effects on nineteenth-century French writing, I have
come across materials which can give body to a new understanding of
both story and metaphysics.
In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, philosophers and historians ranged widely in their studies among ancient civilizations, equipped with new techniques of research, reports of travelers, and an
eagerness to broaden their horizons to include a romantically idealized
past. Even a cursory look at the subjects dwelt upon by Mallarme and
his associates leaves scarcely any doubt of the prevalence of India
among their Oriental interests. The works of the closest associate of
Mallarme, Henri Cazalis, known as Jean Lahor,2 and of other acquaintances, notably Leconte de Lisle, reveal an intimate familiarity
with Hindu mythology and religion.

1 M1allarmn'sUn Coup de des, An, Exegesis, Yale French Studies, 1949.

1872; L'Illusion, 1875; Hist. de la litterature
hindoue, 1888.
2 Jean Lahor, Le Livre du neat,

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HINDU

MYTHS

IN MALLARME

There is evidence, circumstantial (i.e., personal associations and

known reading) and literary (in Mallarme's etymological notes and
other writings), to indicate that he followed in the wake of Lamartine,
Leconte de Lisle, Thales Bernard, Louis Menard, Jean Lahor, and
others who were fascinated by the myths, sensibilities, and language of
the primitive "Aryans" as recorded in the ancient literature of India.
Toward the end of the eighteenth century, Sir William Jones announced to the Western world that early tribes, now known as "IndoEuropeans," had migrated westward from Asia in prehistoric times,
bringing with them a common fund of customs and of language. Scholars and poets alike, indulging in the miscegenation of science and art
popular at the time, set out to track down the ancestral myths and symbols. The earliest to have been written down were found in the Vedas
of India, true "mots de la tribu," in Mallarme's phrase. In the Vedas
and subsequent Sanskrit documents, they professed to find the spontaneous penetration supposed to be the gift of ancient tribes, which the
romantics liked to imagine unspoiled by the materialism and hyperintellectualism of modern times. It was popular to believe that for the
early Aryans language was, as Mallarme attempted (with some success) to make it, a system of connotative symbols not only expressing
the sacred truths of experience, but inseparable from these truths-the
name as a thing.
Mallarme rewrote four Indian fables, in cryptic, jeweled style.3 His
interest seems, on the evidence of Un Coup de des, to have carried him
even further, into the mythology and the formal philosophies of India.
For, if one compares Un Coup de des with Leconte de Lisle's Vision
de Brahma4 and with its source material in the Bhagavata Purana,5
one almost inevitably surmises that in devising the skeletal plot, Mallarme had in mind the Puranic myth of Brahma, creative phase of the
Hindu trinity,6 in the first moments of the creation of the universe.
Several times in this Purana, Brahma is described as rising up from
the "Ocean of Causes," in the calice of a sacred lotus which has sprung
from the navel of Hari, the Great God, source of wisdom, at the inception of a World Period (Mahayuga.) Drowsy from the rest of a thousand years intervening between periods, Brahma is temporarily incompetent to fulfil his duties as Creator; Maya obscures his consciousness. He "practices ascetic endeavor," sees in his heart a dazzling
vision of Hari, perceives the "beginning and the end" of things, and
3 From Mary Summer, Contes et legendes de l'Inde ancienne. See the Pleiade

edition of Mallarme'sworks.

4 Po'emes antiques, ed. Lemerre, 1939.

5 Translationby Eugene Burnouf, 3 vols. in fol., 1840, 1844, 1847.

6 With Vishnu, preserver,and Siva, destroyer.
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COMPARATIVE

LITERATURE

finds his powers revived. The poet added at least one other touch to
the legend, but the outline of this story seems clearly present in Un
Coup de des.
The title itself may well have been suggested by the four ages
7
(Yuga) making up the total World Period, named for the four throws
of the Hindu dice game: Krita, Treta, Dvapara, and Kali. Like the
names of the four classical ages: Gold, Silver, Bronze, and Iron, they
indicate the decline in relative virtue as the universe wheels on toward
destruction.
On the level of metaphysics, the terms of Mallarme's creative dialectic correspond quite closely with those of the oldest and most widely
studied of the six principal systems of Hindu philosophy, Kapila's
Samkhya; this was discussed and put before the public eye by a number
of the nineteenth-century philosophers.8
My assumption of the presence of the Samkhya among Mallarme's
sources is based on the coincidence of similar elements or forces of
creation, similarity of purpose, and the likelihood that Mallarme could
have become familiar with it from the associations mentioned above.
The word samkhya means both "number" and "reason." The system
is an epistemology, like Mallarme's "expression generale de notre
esprit."9 It places trust in the reason, and explains the universe in
mathematical terms, as does Mallarme in his poem: "anciens calculs,"
"l'unique nombre," "en reployer la division," "la somme," "le compte."
It would naturally be an absurd project to make of Mallarme a latter-day Hindu saint, but the reader will judge from the following concordance whether a comparison of the poem with the Samkhya and
with the Puranic myth is not more than a curiosity. For the moment
I will assume that it is a retelling of the myth of Brahma, in Samkhya
terms.
"LE MAITRE" is Brahma, Poet-God, "hors d'anciens calculs" because of drowsiness as he awakens in the lotus, growing, in the grotesque manner of Hindu myths, from the navel of Hari, as he floats
on the Ocean of Causes. Having been a "vieillard" a thousand years
ago, he is still potentially wise as an old man, though the wisdom is
temporarily clouded: "ou la manceuvre avec l'age oubliee." The sea
7 Yugameansyoke,whenceLatinjungereandMallarme's
avecla
"conjonction
Mallarmewas an amateuretymologistand knew some Sanskrit
probabilite."
words.
8 Samkhyadoctrineswere to be found in Colebrooke'sMemoirs; Victor Cousin,

Nouveaux
Hist. de la philosophiedu XVIIIe siecle,1829,vol. I; Abel-Remusat,
melangesasiatiques,1829,vol. II; BarthelemySaint-Hilaire,"Le Sankyha,"
Memoiresde l'Academiedes sciencesmoraleset politiques,1852.
9 See Cohn,op. cit.,p. 10,note 16.
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HINDU

MYTHS

IN MALLARMfI

images are appropriate to the Hindu notion that he has come out of
the ocean.
Brahma is vaguely conscious (surgi / inferant) that he was at one
time able to create, to throw man into the tempest of life: "jadis il empoignait la barre / de cette conflagration a ses pieds" The "conflagration" (besides its reference to the storm-lashed ocean) sets forth the
cause of destruction at the end of the World Period: the world is
destroyed by fire, quenched by water. The "barre"-one of Mallarme's
many all-purpose words-whether one takes it as the helm of the ship,
grasped by the Master, or as the reef destined to wreck the vessel, is
the element which will break the life-stuff into fragments; this is, in
Samkhya, the Cosmic Will or Intelligence, called Mahatattva or Mahat,
the origin of Schopenhauer's theory of the Will. Looking at it darkly,
as would the German pessimist and Mallarme, it is the error which will
at a given moment cause Brahma to create. In the brighter view of
the Hindus, it is an energetic imbalance serving as catalyst in the
fecundation of Prakriti (Nature, Material) by Purucha (Soul.) Prakriti is the first of twenty-five categories constituting reality, identified in Samkhya with Brahma himself. At times it is considered a female force or goddess; in the present case, Brahma is "female" in the
sense that he must be inseminated with energy and knowledge by Purucha (as Hari). Purucha is the male, last of the twenty-five categories,
Hari is his primary status as Spirit. In the poem, Prakriti-Brahma is
"Nombre," Purucha-Hari is "Esprit": "l'unique Nombre qui ne peut
pas etre un autre / Esprit / pour le jeter dans la tempete / en reployer
la division." Their "fiangailles" in the presence of Mahat, the fatal
error, will give meaning to the other categories, unleashing the "tempest" of the casual nexus, i.e., Maya. Maya is sometimes indistinguishable from the Will, but not in Samkhya. It is what Schopenhauer knew
as "Representation." The meaning varies for Orient and Occident
alike according to one's reaction to life. Gandhi said it should be translated "appearances,"a less bilious term than the "illusion" so popular
in France in the last half of the nineteenth century. Mallarme echoes
Louis Menard, Jean Lahor, and Leconte de Lisle in calling it "le voile
d'illusion," the deceptive mist at this point responsible for Brahma's
sterility: "COMME SI plume solitaire eperdue." The Will has now
become the Pen; Brahma will learn how to grasp it when he escapes
the veil of Maya.
In the Bhagavata Purana the key to Brahma's dilemma will be held
out by Hari. Also called Vishnu or Bhagavat, he is the personal god,
the "present help in trouble." He is said to have come down into the
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COMPARATIVE

LITERATURE

human sphere in ten principal avatars to assist men in troubled times.10

He is often called upon by Brahma and the various sages in the Bhagavata Purana. Thus when Mallarme's paralyzed poet or Master seeks
aid, one might expect him to turn to the source of wisdom and compassion, Hari. But Mallarme has complicated the myth, apparently
taking a leaf from the hagiography of Siva, God of Destruction, and of
his "wife" Kali, Queen of the underworld.
Hari-Purucha has effected Brahma's manifestation in the lotus, and
can doubtless be said to appear here as "l'ulterieur demon ayant / de
contres nulles / induit / le vieillard vers cette conjonction avec la probabilite." Mr. Cohn says that the demon is probably Kali, "malin genie
of dice players."" This is certainly not impossible, since Kali could as
well as not inspire Brahma with the evil urge to make the fatal error
of yearning for wisdom.
I choose, however, to assume that it is Siva rather than Kali who
appears to the poet. The veil of ignorance afflicting Brahma-MasterPoet is pierced by what at first might seem to be the Pen as Will: "La
lucide et seigneuriale aigrette de vertige / au front invisible / scintille."
As the vision rises out of the mist, the "aigrette" is revealed as the crest
on the head of a divine being. The crest "ombrage / une stature mignonne tenebreuse." Hari is usually described as seated under an asvattha tree; this god is standing and dancing: "debout / en sa torsion de
sirene." What could be a picture more suggestive of Siva Nataraja,
Lord of Dancers, with four arms, ringed with flames, performing the
Natanda dance? This is the Indian icon seen most often by Westerners. His crest of cassia leaves is here called an "aigrette."
There are excellent reasons for Mallarme's recourse to the Shaivite
myth. Siva is, as dancer, the "demon" of the arts. The dance is considered by the Hindus as the least inhibited, the most sublime form of
expression, a magic rite achieving perfect harmony between body and
soul, the "still point" of T. S. Eliot and W. B. Yeats.l2 Then, too, Siva
is Absolute Male; as the maleness of Purucha, he can serve here to
fecundate Prakriti as Brahma. Siva is worshipped with amulets and
in temples all over India in the form of the lingam or male sex organ.
10Krishna of the Bhagavad Gita is the eighth avatar of Vishnu. Avatar means
"down-goer,"cf. Nietzsche'sZarathustra.
11Cohn, p. 59, note 99.
12 The theme of the dance in W. B. Yeats and T. S. Eliot is inspiredby the idea
of Siva Nataraja. W. B. Yeats wrote:
"O body swayed to music, o brighteningglance,
How can we know the dancerfrom the dance?"
And T. S. Eliot:
"At the still point, there the dance is."

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HINDU

MYTHS

IN MALLARMN

The comparison between the lingam and the Pen is significant. One
final stroke in this portrait of Siva, God of Death and Artistic Creation, Absolute Male, and the picture of his attractions for Mallarme
is complete: as the husband of Kali, Goddess of Evil (worshipped by
the Thugs, subject of many articles in nineteenth-century reviews,)
Brahma's discovery or recovery of the Cosmic Intelligence in his presence is an expression of the poet's half-believed notion that science is
sinful.
Brahma cannot be prevented from fulfilling the doomed cycle. Again
as master of a ship, he suddenly sees a rock: "un roc / faux manoir /
tout de suite / evapore en brumes / qui imposa une borne a l'infini."
The rock is the fatal error, intelligence or will, cleared of the mists
of Maya but too late; the ship crashes into the rock; Maya becomes the
bursting wreckage, the finite world as an immense catastrophe "limiting the infinite" as the rock had set up the first finite barrier in the
vastness of the Ocean of Causes.
"C'ETAIT LE NOMBRE"-these are the words following directly
after. Brahma realizes, illumined by Mahat, that he is Prakriti, now
"divided." The syntax seems to indicate that the rock is "le Nombre,"
and it can be explained in this way: Brahma sees his own Self
projected in the rock, both rock and Self to be feared.
To keep the symbols in order, the rock's place as Will should not
be forgotten. This seems patent, given the extraordinary use of the
imperfect subjunctive for the verbs describing Brahma's mental turmoil in the cataclysm: "EXISTAT-IL / autrement qu'hallucination
eparse d'agonie / COMMENCAT-IL ET CESSAT-IL / . . . SE
CHIFFRAT-IL / ... ILLUMINAT-IL." The volitional aspect of
the subjunctive conveys the ardent desire to know the answers to the
classic questions always asked by the Hindu sages; the position of
these verbs at the climax shows that the questions are answered.
Brahma knows not if and how he exists. The traditional problem of the
nature of evil is elliptically superimposed on the question of existence;
it seems to be concerned with "essence" as well as existence-does he
enjoy any other sort of reality than this that he sees now in his suddenly
differentiated, suffering, mortal form? Here, as in the Bhagavata Purana, Brahma (to quote from Leconte de Lisle's Vision de Brahma)
"cherchait en soi l'origine et la fin." He is successfully "illumined."
Knowledge of the "beginning and the end" makes him Creator: "Choit
la plume"-ambivalent phrase meaning both "the pen descends to the
paper" and "the pen falls from his hand." The storm of life is quelled
by the action that impelled it: "rythmique suspens du sinistre." Death
-return into the ocean-puts an end to creation, "delire," and the rest.
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COMPARATIVE

LITERATURE

The end result of the creative act in Un Coup de des points up the
difference between the psychological conditioning of Mallarme and that
of his ancient sources. Mallarme may well have made his abstraction
of the creative act classically universal, by his many levels of metaphor
-marine, biological, stellar, metaphysical, artistic-by his showers
of ambiguous words, his clever manipulation of the typography, his
absolute exclusion of the unnecessary, all calculated to sing "un hymne
des relations entre tout" that should exist almost outside of time by
the simultaneity of events. The fact remains that too much water has
flowed down the river for Mallarme to emphasize the same vital factors
as the Puranic sages. It is understood in Hindu cosmology that the
universe is created and destroyed at every moment, but the "moment"
is outside mortal time and need not cause alarm. While Brahma rejoices at the success of his mission to Kailasa, the sacred mountain,
Mallarme's poet is heartsick at the thought of the sterility that sent
him on the mission. He is more egocentric than Brahma, more easily
wounded in the vanity that tells him he should, as poet, have some immunity from the fate of other mortals. As he looks back on the abyss
like Lot's wife on Sodom, a sense of monotony, not the inevitable rush
of events, plunges him again into the "enchafed flood": "S'ensevelir
aux ecumes originelles / nagueres d'ou sursauta son delire jusqu'a
une cime / fletrie / par la neutralite du gouffre."
Although the emphasis is on the negative, the categories of Mallarme's cosmology do not differ essentially from those of the Hindus.
The three primary data are almost synonymous: Prakriti (Nombre),
Purucha (Esprit), Mahat (la barre, la plume, le roc), though in Mallarme's figures of speech Mahat is something else than a fatal exercise of a spiritual factor; it is more like a weapon fated to turn upon
the warrior.
In the all-important figure or symbol of the ocean, also, Mallarme
seems closely allied with the Hindus in their view of the origin and
the final goal of gods and man (see above, "ecumes originelles.") Nineteenth-century writing teems with "abimes," "gouffres," "vides," and
"neants," grossly speaking interchangeable when they signify the primeval universal matrix, and usually interchangeable with the sky or
ocean or a combination of these. It is customary to consider it an expression of dark pessimism that these writers should have despaired
of finding any place of final rest other than a cold void-as it was,
no doubt, many times-but various degrees of warmth and hope are
attached on occasion by different writers to this "nothingness." For
Victor Hugo, Leconte de Lisle, and Baudelaire, as well as Mallarme
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HINDU

MYTHS

IN MALLARMRI

(although they, like the Orientals, do not succinctly define their terms)
I do not believe that the "vide" or "neant" meant what they seemed to
say. They entertained doubts about their final goal, and still kept a
little flame of hope burning that their romantic souls would not find
complete oblivion at the end.
In Buddhism, the concept of Nirvana is often something like Leconte de Lisle's feeling about eternity, offering some of the attractions
of a sun bath in the rays of Leconte de Lisle's own brilliant Midi. In
Un Coup de des, the final dissolution seems destined, as would be more
likely in Hinduism, for a neutral zone, rather than for extinction, suffering, bliss, or any other erotic situation. The end of the poem, as
attention is led off into the atmosphere where a few stars twinkle,
leaves the expectation that the cycle will start again from the same
ocean, with Brahma's meditations in the sacred lotus.
San Francisco

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