Chapter 28
Part 28
242 “Ambarísha is the twenty-ninth in descent from Ikshváku, and is therefore separated by an immense space of time from Triśanku in whose story Viśvámitra had played so important a part. Yet Richíka, who is represented as having young sons while Ambarísha was yet reigning being himself the son of Bhrigu and to be numbered with the most ancient sages, is said to have married the younger sister of Viśvámitra. But I need not again remark that there is a perpetual anachronism in Indian mythology.” SCHLEGEL..
“In the mythical story related in this and the following Canto we may discover, I think, some indication of the epoch at which the immolation of lower animals was substituted for human sacrifice.… So when Iphigenia was about to be sacrificed at Aulis, one legend tells us that a hind was substituted for the virgin.” GORRESIO.
So the ram caught in the thicket took the place of Isaac, or, as the Musalmáns say, of Ishmael.
243 The Indian Cupid.
244 “The same as she whose praises Viśvámitra has already sung in Canto XXXV, and whom the poet brings yet alive upon the scene in Canto LXI. Her proper name was _Satyavatí_ (Truthful); the patronymic, Kauśikí was preserved by the river into which she is said to have been changed, and is still recognized in the corrupted forms Kuśa and Kuśí. The river flows from the heights of the Himálaya towards the Ganges, bounding on the east the country of Videha (Behar). The name is no doubt half hidden in the _Cosoagus_ of Pliny and the _Kossounos_ of Arrian. But each author has fallen into the same error in his enumeration of these rivers (Condochatem, Erannoboam, Cosoagum, Sonum). The Erannoboas, (Hiraṇyaváha) and the Sone are not different streams, but well-known names of the same river. Moreover the order is disturbed, in which on the right and left they fall into the Ganges. To be consistent with geography it should be written: Erannoboam sive Sonum, Condochatem (Gandakí), Cosoagum.” SCHLEGEL.
245 “Daksha was one of the ancient Progenitors or Prajápatis created by Brahmá. The sacrifice which is here spoken of and in which Śankar or Śiva (called also here Rudra and Bhava) smote the Gods because he had not been invited to share the sacred oblations with them, seems to refer to the origin of the worship of Śiva, to its increase and to the struggle it maintained with other older forms of worship.” GORRESIO.
246 Sítá means a furrow.
“Great Erectheus swayed, That owed his nurture to the blue-eyed maid, But from the teeming furrow took his birth, The mighty offspring of the foodful earth.”
Iliad, Book II.
247 “The whole story of Sítá, as will be seen in the course of the poem has a great analogy with the ancient myth of Proserpine.” GORRESIO.
248 A different lady from the Goddess of the Jumna who bears the same name.
249 This is another fanciful derivation, _Sa_—with, and _gara_—poison.
_ 250 Purushádak_ means a cannibal. First called _Kalmáshapáda_ on account of his spotted feet he is said to have been turned into a cannibal for killing the son of Vaśishṭha.
251 “In the setting forth of these royal genealogies the Bengal recension varies but slightly from the Northern. The first six names of the genealogy of the Kings of Ayodhyá are partly theogonical and partly cosmogonical; the other names are no doubt in accordance with tradition and deserve the same amount of credence as the ancient traditional genealogies of other nations.” GORRESIO.
252 The tenth of the lunar asterisms, composed of five stars.
253 There are two lunar asterisms of this name, one following the other immediately, forming the eleventh and twelfth of the lunar mansions.
254 This is another Ráma, son of Jamadagni, called Paraśuráma, or Ráma with the axe, from the weapon which he carried. He was while he lived the terror of the Warrior caste, and his name recalls long and fierce struggles between the sacerdotal and military order in which the latter suffered severely at the hands of their implacable enemy.
255 “The author of the _Raghuvaṅśa_ places the mountain Mahendra in the territory of the king of the Kalingans, whose palace commanded a view of the ocean. It is well known that the country along the coast to the south of the mouths of the Ganges was the seat of this people. Hence it may be suspected that this Mahendra is what Pliny calls ‘promontorium Calingon.’ The modern name, _Cape Palmyras_, from the palmyras Borassus flabelliformis, which abound there agrees remarkably with the description of the poet who speaks of the groves of these trees. _Raghuvaṅśa_, VI. 51.” SCHLEGEL.
256 Śiva.
257 Siva. God of the Azure Neck.
258 Śatrughna means slayer of foes, and the word is repeated as an intensive epithet.
259 Alluding to the images of Vishṇu, which have four arms, the four princes being portions of the substance of that God.
260 Chief of the insignia of imperial dignity.
261 Whisks, usually made of the long tails of the Yak.
262 Chitraratha, King of the Gandharvas.
263 The Chandrakánta or Moonstone, a sort of crystal supposed to be composed of congealed moonbeams.
264 A customary mark of respect to a superior.
265 Ráhu, the ascending node, is in mythology a demon with the tail of a dragon whose head was severed from his body by Vishṇu, but being immortal, the head and tail retained their separate existence and being transferred to the stellar sphere became the authors of eclipses; the first especially by endeavouring to swallow the sun and moon.
266 In eclipse.
267 The seventh of the lunar asterisms.
268 Kauśalyá and Sumitrá.
269 A king of the Lunar race, and father of Yayáti.
270 Literally _the chamber of wrath,_ a “_growlery_,” a small, dark, unfurnished room to which it seems, the wives and ladies of the king betook themselves when offended and sulky.
271 In these four lines I do not translate faithfully, and I do not venture to follow Kaikeyí farther in her eulogy of the hump-back’s charms.
272 These verses are evidently an interpolation. They contain nothing that has not been already related: the words only are altered. As the whole poem could not be recited at once, the rhapsodists at the beginning of a fresh recitation would naturally remind their hearers of the events immediately preceding.
273 The _śloka_ or distich which I have been forced to expand into these nine lines is evidently spurious, but is found in all the commented MSS. which Schlegel consulted.
274 Manmatha, Mind-disturber, a name of Káma or Love.
275 This story is told in the Mahábhárat. A free version of it may be found in _Scenes from the Rámáyan, etc._
276 Only the highest merit obtains a home in heaven for ever. Minor degrees of merit procure only leases of heavenly mansions terminable after periods proportioned to the fund which buys them. King Yayáti went to heaven and when his term expired was unceremoniously ejected, and thrown down to earth.
277 See _Additional Notes_, THE SUPPLIANT DOVE.
278 Indra, called also Purandara, Town-destroyer.
279 Indra’s charioteer.
280 The elephant of Indra.
281 A star in the spike of Virgo: hence the name of the mouth Chaitra or Chait.
282 The Rain-God.
283 In a former life.
284 One of the lunar asterisms, represented as the favourite wife of the Moon. See p. 4, note.
285 The Sea.
286 The Moon.
287 The comparison may to a European reader seem a homely one. But Spenser likens an infuriate woman to a cow “That is berobbed of her youngling dere.” Shakspeare also makes King Henry VI compare himself to the calf’s mother that “Runs lowing up and down, Looking the way her harmless young one went.” “Cows,” says De Quincey, “are amongst the gentlest of breathing creatures; none show more passionate tenderness to their young, when deprived of them, and, in short, I am not ashamed to profess a deep love for these gentle creatures.”
288 The commentators say that, in a former creation, Ocean grieved his mother and suffered in consequence the pains of hell.
289 As described in Book I Canto XL.
290 Parasúráma.
291 The Sanskrit word _hasta_ signifies both _hand_, and the trunk of “The beast that bears between his eyes a serpent for a head.”
292 See P. 41.
293 The first progeny of Brahmá or Brahmá himself.
294 These are three names of the Sun.
295 See P. 1.
296 The saints who form the constellation of Ursa Major.
297 The regent of the planet Venus.
298 Kuvera.
_ 299 Bali_, or the presentation of food to all created beings, is one of the five great sacraments of the Hindu religion: it consists in throwing a small parcel of the offering, _Ghee_, or rice, or the like, into the open air at the back of the house.
300 In mythology, a demon slain by Indra.
301 Called also Garuḍ, the King of the birds, offspring of Vinatá. See p. 53.
302 See P. 56.
303 See P. 43.
304 The story of Sávitrí, told in the Mahábhárat, has been admirably translated by Rückert, and elegantly epitomized by Mrs. Manning in _India, Ancient and Mediæval_. There is a free rendering of the story in _Idylls from the Sanskrit_.
305 Fire for sacrificial purposes is produced by the attrition of two pieces of wood.
306 Kaikeyí.
307 The chapel where the sacred fire used in worship is kept.
308 The students and teachers of the Taittiríya portion of the Yajur Veda.
309 Two of the divine personages called _Prajápatis_ and _Brahmádikas_ who were first created by Brahmá.
310 It was the custom of the kings of the solar dynasty to resign in their extreme old age the kingdom to the heir, and spend the remainder of their days in holy meditation in the forest:
“For such through ages in their life’s decline Is the good custom of Ikshváku’s line.”
_Raghuraṅśa._
311 See Book I, Canto XXXIX. An Indian prince in more modern times appears to have diverted himself in a similar way.
It is still reported in Belgaum that Appay Deasy was wont to amuse himself “by making several young and beautiful women stand side by side on a narrow balcony, without a parapet, overhanging the deep reservoir at the new palace in Nipani. He used then to pass along the line of trembling creatures, and suddenly thrusting one of them headlong into the water below, he used to watch her drowning, and derive pleasure from her dying agonies.”—History of the Belgaum District. By H. J. Stokes, M. S. C.
312 Chitraratha, King of the celestial choristers.
313 It is said that the bamboo dies after flowering.
314 “Thirty centuries have passed since he began this memorable journey. Every step of it is known and is annually traversed by thousands: hero worship is not extinct. What can Faith do! How strong are the ties of religion when entwined with the legends of a country! How many a cart creeps creaking and weary along the road from Ayodhyá to Chitrakúṭ. It is this that gives the Rámáyan a strange interest, the story still lives.” _Calcutta Review: Vol. XXIII._
315 See p. 72.
316 Four stars of the sixteenth lunar asterism.
317 In the marriage service.
318 The husks and chaff of the rice offered to the Gods.
319 An important sacrifice at which seventeen victims were immolated.
320 The great pilgrimage to the Himálayas, in order to die there.
321 Known to Europeans as the Goomtee.
322 A tree, commonly called _Ingua_.
323 Sacrificial posts to which the victims were tied.
324 Daughter of Jahnu, a name of the Ganges. See p. 55.
325 The _Mainá_ or Gracula religiosa, a favourite cage-bird, easily taught to talk.
326 The Jumna.
327 The Hindu name of Allahabad.
328 The Langúr is a large monkey.
329 A mountain said to lie to the east of Meru.
330 Another name of the Jumna, daughter of the Sun.
331 “We have often looked on that green hill: it is the holiest spot of that sect of the Hindu faith who devote themselves to this incarnation of Vishṇu. The whole neighbourhood is Ráma’s country. Every headland has some legend, every cavern is connected with his name; some of the wild fruits are still called _Sítáphal_, being the reputed food of the exile. Thousands and thousands annually visit the spot, and round the hill is a raised foot-path, on which the devotee, with naked feet, treads full of pious awe.” _Calcutta Review_, Vol. XXIII.
332 Deities of a particular class in which five or ten are enumerated. They are worshipped particularly at the funeral obsequies in honour of deceased progenitors.
333 “So in Homer the horses of Achilles lamented with many bitter tears the death of Patroclus slain by Hector:”
“Ἵπποι δ’ Αἰακίδαο, μάχης ἀπάνευθεν ἐότες, Κλᾶιον, ἐπειδὴ πρῶτα πυθέσθην ἡνιόχοιο Ἐν κονίνσι πεσόντος ὑφ’ Ἕκτορος ἀνδροφόνοιο”
ILIAD. XVII. 426.
“Ancient poesy frequently associated nature with the joys and sorrows of man.” GORRESIO.
334 The lines containing this heap of forced metaphors are marked as spurious by Schlegel.
335 The southern region is the abode of Yama the Indian Pluto, and of departed spirits.
336 The five elements of which the body consists, and to which it returns.
337 So dying York cries over the body of Suffolk:
“Tarry, dear cousin Suffolk! My soul shall thine keep company to heaven: Tarry, sweet soul, for mine, then fly abreast.”
_King Henry V, Act IV, 6._
338 Kauśalyá, daughter of the king of another Kośal.
339 Rájagriha, or Girivraja was the capital of Aśvapati, Bharat’s maternal grandfather.
340 The Kekayas or Kaikayas in the Punjab appear amongst the chief nations in the war of the Mahábhárata; their king being a kinsman of Krishṇa.
341 Hástinapura was the capital of the kingdom of Kuru, near the modern Delhi.
342 The Panchálas occupied the upper part of the Doab.
343 “Kurujángala and its inhabitants are frequently mentioned in the _Mahábhárata_, as in the _Ádi-parv._ 3789, 4337, _et al._” WILSON’S _Vishṇu Puráṇa,_ Vol. II. p. 176. DR. HALL’S Note.
344 “The Ὁξύματις of Arrian. See _As. Res._ Vol. XV. p. 420, 421, also _Indische Alterthumskunde_, Vol. I. p. 602, first footnote.” WILSON’S _Vishṇu Puráṇa_, Vol. I. p. 421. DR. HALL’S Edition. The Ikshumatí was a river in Kurukshetra.
345 “The Báhíkas are described in the Mahábhárata, Karṇa Parvan, with some detail, and comprehend the different nations of the Punjab from the Sutlej to the Indus.” WILSON’S _Vishṇu Puráṇa_, Vol. I. p. 167.
346 The Beas, Hyphasis, or Bibasis.
347 It would be lost labour to attempt to verify all the towns and streams mentioned in Cantos LXVIII and LXXII. Professor Wilson observes (_Vishṇu Puráṇa_, p. 139. Dr. Hall’s Edition) “States, and tribes, and cities have disappeared, even from recollection; and some of the natural features of the country, especially the rivers, have undergone a total alteration.… Notwithstanding these impediments, however, we should be able to identify at least mountains and rivers, to a much greater extent than is now practicable, if our maps were not so miserably defective in their nomenclature. None of our surveyors or geographers have been oriental scholars. It may be doubted if any of them have been conversant with the spoken language of the country. They have, consequently, put down names at random, according to their own inaccurate appreciation of sounds carelessly, vulgarly, and corruptly uttered; and their maps of India are crowded with appellations which bear no similitude whatever either to past or present denominations. We need not wonder that we cannot discover Sanskrit names in English maps, when, in the immediate vicinity of Calcutta, Barnagore represents Baráhanagar, Dakshineśwar is metamorphosed into Duckinsore, Ulubaría into Willoughbury.… There is scarcely a name in our Indian maps that does not afford proof of extreme indifference to accuracy in nomenclature, and of an incorrectness in estimating sounds, which is, in some degree, perhaps, a national defect.”
For further information regarding the road from Ayodhyá to Rájagriha, see _Additional Notes_.
348 “The Śatadrú, ‘the hundred-channeled’—the Zaradrus of Ptolemy, Hesydrus of Pliny—is the Sutlej.” WILSON’S _Vishṇu Puráṇa_, Vol. II. p. 130.
349 The Sarasvatí or Sursooty is a tributary of the Caggar or Guggur in Sirhind.
_ 350 Súryamcha pratimehatu_, adversus solem mingat. An offence expressly forbidden by the Laws of Manu.
351 Bharat does not intend these curses for any particular person: he merely wishes to prove his own innocence by invoking them on his own head if he had any share in banishing Ráma.
352 The Sáma-veda, the hymns of which are chanted aloud.
353 Walking from right to left.
354 Birth and death, pleasure and pain, loss and gain.
355 Erected upon a tree or high staff in honour of Indra.
356 I follow in this stanza the Bombay edition in preference to Schlegel’s which gives the tears of joy to the courtiers.
357 The commentator says “Śatrughna accompanied by the other sons of the king.”
358 Not Bharat’s uncle, but some councillor.
_ 359 Śatakratu_, Lord of a hundred sacrifices, the performance of a hundred _Aśvamedhas_ or sacrifices of a horse entitling the sacrificer to this exalted dignity.
360 The modern Malabar.
361 Now Sungroor, in the Allahabad district.
362 Ráma, Lakshmaṇ, and Sumantra.
363 The _svastika_, a little cross with a transverse line at each extremity.
364 When an army marched it was customary to burn the huts in which it had spent the night.
365 Yáma, Varuṇa, and Kuvera.
366 “A happy land in the remote north where the inhabitants enjoy a natural pefection attended with complete happiness obtained without exertion. There is there no vicissitude, nor decrepitude, nor death, nor fear: no distinction of virtue and vice, none of the inequalities denoted by the words best, worst, and intermediate, nor any change resulting from the succession of the four Yugas.” See MUIR’S _Sanskrit Texts_, Vol. I. p. 492.
367 The Moon.
368 The poet does not tell us what these lakes contained.
369 These ten lines are a substitution for, and not a translation of the text which Carey and Marshman thus render: “This mountain adorned with mango, jumboo, usuna, lodhra, piala, punusa, dhava, unkotha, bhuvya, tinisha, vilwa, tindooka, bamboo, kashmaree, urista, uruna, madhooka, tilaka, vuduree, amluka, nipa, vetra, dhunwuna, veejaka, and other trees affording flowers, and fruits, and the most delightful shade, how charming does it appear!”
_ 370 Vidyadharis_, Spirits of Air, sylphs.
371 A lake attached either to Amarávatí the residence of Indra, or Alaká that of Kuvera.
372 The Ganges of heaven.
373 Naliní, as here, may be the name of any lake covered with lotuses.
374 This canto is allowed, by Indian commentators, to be an interpolation. It cannot be the work of Válmíki.
375 A fine bird with a strong, sweet note, and great imitative powers.
376 Bauhinea variegata, a species of ebony.
377 The rainbow is called the bow of Indra.
378 Bhogavatí, the abode of the Nágas or Serpent race.
379 “The order of the procession on these occasions is that the children precede according to age, then the women and after that the men according to age, the youngest first and the eldest last: when they descend into the water this is reversed and resumed when they come out of it.” CAREY AND MARSHMAN.
380 Vṛihaspati, the preceptor of the Gods.
381 Garuḍ, the king of birds.
382 To be won by virtue.
383 The four religious orders, referable to different times of life are, that of the student, that of the householder, that of the anchorite, and that of the mendicant.
384 To Gods, men, and Manes.
385 Gayá is a very holy city in Behar. Every good Hindu ought once in his life to make funeral offerings in Gayá in honour of his ancestors.
_ 386 Put_ is the name of that region of hell to which men are doomed who leave no son to perform the funeral rites which are necessary to assure the happiness of the departed. _Putra_, the common word for a son is said by the highest authority to be derived from _Put_ and _tra_ deliverer.
387 It was the custom of Indian women when mourning for their absent husbands to bind their hair in a long single braid.
Carey and Marshman translate, “the one-tailed city.”
388 The verses in a different metre with which some cantos end are all to be regarded with suspicion. Schlegel regrets that he did not exclude them all from his edition. These lines are manifestly spurious. See _Additional Notes_.
389 This genealogy is a repetition with slight variation of that given in Book I, Canto LXX.
390 In Gorresio’s recension identified with Vishṇu. See Muir’s _Sanskrit Texts, Vol. IV. pp 29, 30_.
391 From _sa_ with, and _gara_ poison.
392 See Book I. Canto XL.
393 A practice which has frequently been described, under the name of _dherna_, by European travellers in India.
394 Compare Milton’s “_beseeching or beseiging_.”
395 Ten-headed, ten-necked, ten faced, are common epithets of Rávaṇ the giant king of Lanká.
396 The spouse of Rohiṇí is the Moon: Ráhu is the demon who causes eclipses.
397 “Once,” says the Commentator Tírtha, “in the battle between the Gods and demons the Gods were vanquished, and the sun was overthrown by Ráhu. At the request of the Gods Atri undertook the management of the sun for a week.”
398 Now Nundgaon, in Oudh.
399 A part of the great Daṇḍak forest.
400 When the saint Máṇḍavya had doomed some saint’s wife, who was Anasúyá’s friend, to become a widow on the morrow.
401 Heavenly nymphs.
402 The _ball_ or present of food to all created beings.
403 The clarified butter &c. cast into the sacred fire.
404 The Moon-God: “he is,” says the commentator, “the special deity of Bráhmans.”
405 “Because he was an incarnation of the deity,” says the commentator, “otherwise such honour paid by men of the sacerdotal caste to one of the military would be improper.”
406 The king of birds.
_ 407 Kálántakayamopamam_, resembling Yáma the destroyer.
408 Somewhat inconsistently with this part of the story Tumburu is mentioned in Book II, Canto XII as one of the Gandharvas or heavenly minstrels summoned to perform at Bharadvája’s feast.
409 Rambhá appears in Book I Canto LXIV as the temptress of Viśvámitra.
410 The conclusion of this Canto is all a vain repetition: it is manifestly spurious and a very feeble imitation of Válmíki’s style. See _Additional Notes_.
411 “Even when he had alighted,” says the commentator: The feet of Gods do not touch the ground.
412 A name of Indra.
413 Śachí is the consort of Indra.
414 The spheres or mansions gained by those who have duly performed the sacrifices required of them. Different situations are assigned to these spheres, some placing them near the sun, others near the moon.
415 Hermits who live upon roots which they dig out of the earth: literally _diggers_, derived from the prefix _vi_ and _khan_ to dig.
416 Generally, divine personages of the height of a man’s thumb, produced from Brahmá’s hair: here, according to the commentator followed by Gorresio, hermits who when they have obtained fresh food throw away what they had laid up before.
417 Sprung from the washings of Vishṇuu’s feet.
418 Four fires burning round them, and the sun above.
419 The tax allowed to the king by the Laws of Manu.
420 Near the celebrated Rámagiri or Ráma’s Hill, now Rám-ṭek, near Nagpore—the scene of the Yaksha’s exile in the _Messenger Cloud_.
421 A hundred _Aśvamedhas_ or sacrifices of a horse raise the sacrificer to the dignity of Indra.
422 Indra.
423 Gorresio observes that Daśaratha was dead and that Sítá had been informed of his death. In his translation he substitutes for the words of the text “thy relations and mine.” This is quite superfluous. Daśaratha though in heaven still took a loving interest in the fortunes of his son.
424 One of the hermits who had followed Ráma.
425 The lake of the five nymphs.
426 The holy fig-tree.
427 The bread-fruit tree, Artocarpus integrifolia.
428 A fine timber tree, Shorea robusta.
429 The God of fire.
430 Kuvera, the God of riches.
431 The Sun.
432 Brahmá, the creator.
433 Śiva.
434 The Wind-God.
435 The God of the sea.
436 A class of demi-gods, eight in number.
437 The holiest text of the Vedas, deified.
438 Vásuki.
439 Garuḍ.
440 The War-God.
441 One of the Pleiades generally regarded as the model of wifely excellence.
442 The Madhúka, or, as it is now called, Mahuwá, is the Bassia latifolia, a tree from whose blossoms a spirit is extracted.
443 “I should have doubted whether Manu could have been the right reading here, but that it occurs again in verse 29, where it is in like manner followed in verse 31 by Analá, so that it would certainly seem that the name Manu is intended to stand for a female, the daughter of Daksha. The Gauḍa recension, followed by Signor Gorresio (III 20, 12), adopts an entirely different reading at the end of the line, viz. _Balám Atibalám api_, ‘Balá and Atibilá,’ instead of Manu and Analá. I see that Professor Roth s.v. adduces the authority of the Amara Kosha and of the Commentator on Páṇini for stating that the word sometimes means ‘the wife of Manu.’ In the following text of the Mahábhárata I. 2553. also, Manu appears to be the name of a female: ‘_Anaradyam_, _Manum_, _Vañsám_, _Asurám_, _Márgaṇapriyám_, _Anúpám_, _Subhagám_, _Bhásím iti_, _Prádhá vyajayata_. Prádhá (daughter of Daksha) bore Anavadyá, Manu, Vanśá, Márgaṇapriyá, Anúpá, Subhagá. and Bhásí.’ ” _Muir’s Sanskrit Text_, Vol. I. p. 116.
444 The elephant of Indra.
_ 445 Golángúlas_, described as a kind of monkey, of a black colour, and having a tail like a cow.
446 Eight elephants attached to the four quarters and intermediate points of the compass, to support and guard the earth.
447 Some scholars identify the centaurs with the Gandharvas.
448 The hooded serpents, says the commentator Tírtha, were the offspring of Surasá: all others of Kadrú.
449 The text reads Kaśyapa, “a descendant of Kaśyapa,” who according to Rám. II. l0, 6, ought to be Vivasvat. But as it is stated in the preceding part of this passage III. 14, 11 f. that Manu was one of Kaśyapa’s eight wives, we must here read Kaśyap. The Ganda recension reads (III, 20, 30) _Manur manushyáms cha tatha janayámása Rághana_, instead of the corresponding line in the Bombay edition. _Muir’s Sanskrit Text, Vol I, p. 117._
450 The original verses merely name the trees. I have been obliged to amplify slightly and to omit some quas versu dicere non est; _e.g._ the _tiniśa_ (Dalbergia ougeiniensis), _punnága_ (Rottleria tinctoria), _tilaka_ (not named), _syandana_ (Dalbergia ougeiniensis again), _vandana_ (unknown), _nípa_ (Nauclea Kadamba), _lakucha_ (Artœarpus lacucha), _dhava_ (Grislea tomentosa), Aśvakarna (another name for the Sál), _Śamí_ (Acacia Suma), _khadira_ (Mimosa catechu), _kinśuka_ (Butea frondosa), _pátala_ (Bignonia suaveolens).
451 Acacia Suma.
452 The south is supposed to be the residence of the departed.
453 The sun.
454 The night is divided into three watches of four hours each.
455 The chief chamberlain and attendant of Śiva or Rudra.
456 Umá or Párvati, the consort of Śiva.
457 A star, one of the favourites of the Moon.
458 The God of love.
459 A demon slain by Indra.
460 Chitraratha, King of the Gandharvas.
461 Titanic.
462 The Sáriká is the Maina, a bird like a starling.
463 Mahákapála, Sthúláksha, Pramátha, Triśiras.
464 Vishṇu, who bears a _chakra_ or discus.
465 Śiva.
466 See _Additional Notes_—DAKSHA’S SACRIFICE.
467 Himálaya.
468 One of the mysterious weapons given to Ráma.
469 A periphrasis for the body.
470 Triśirás.
471 The Three-headed.
472 The demon who causes eclipses.
473 “This Asura was a friend of Indra, and taking advantage of his friend’s confidence, he drank up Indra’s strength along with a draught of wine and Soma. Indra then told the Aśvins and Sarasvatí that Namuchi had drunk up his strength. The Aśvins in consequence gave Indra a thunderbolt in the form of a foam, with which he smote off the head of Namuchi.” GARRETT’S _Classical Dictionary of India_. See also Book I. p. 39.
474 Indra.
475 Popularly supposed to cause death.
476 Garuḍ, the King of Birds, carried off the Amrit or drink of Paradise from Indra’s custody.
477 A demon, son of Kaśyap and Diti, slain by Rudra or Śiva when he attempted to carry off the tree of Paradise.
478 Namuchi and Vritra were two demons slain by Indra. Vritra personifies drought, the enemy of Indra, who imprisons the rain in the cloud.
479 Another demon slain by Indra.
480 The capital of the giant king Rávaṇ.
481 Kuvera, the God of gold.
482 In the great deluge.
483 The giant Márícha, son of Táḍaká. Táḍaká was slain by Ráma. See p. 39.
484 Indra’s elephant.
485 Bhogavatí, in Pátála in the regions under the earth, is the capital of the serpent race whose king is Vásuki.
486 the grove of Indra.
487 Pulastya is considered as the ancestor of the Rakshases or giants, as he is the father of Viśravas, the father of Rávaṇ and his brethren.
488 Beings with the body of a man and the head of a horse.
489 Ájas, Maríchipas, Vaikhánasas, Máshas, and Bálakhilyas are classes of supernatural beings who lead the lives of hermits.
490 “The younger brother of the giant Rávaṇ; when he and his brother had practiced austerities for a long series of years, Brahmá appeared to offer them boons: Vibhishaṇa asked that he might never meditate any unrighteousness.… On the death of Rávaṇ Vibhishaṇa was installed as Rája of Lanká.” GARRETT’S _Classical Dictionary of India_.
491 Serpent-gods.
492 See p. 33.
493 The Sanskrit words for car and jewels begin with _ra_.
494 A race of beings of human shape but with the heads of horses, like centaurs reversed.
495 The favourite wife of the Moon.
496 The planet Saturn.
497 Another favourite of the Moon; one of the lunar mansions.
498 The Rudras, agents in creation, are eight in number; they sprang from the forehead of Brahmá.
499 Maruts, the attendants of Indra.
500 Radiant demi-gods.
501 The mountain which was used by the Gods as a churning stick at the Churning of the Ocean.
502 The story will be found in GARRETT’S _Classical Dictionary_. See ADDITIONAL NOTES.
503 Mercury: to be carefully distinguished from Buddha.
504 The spirits of the good dwell in heaven until their store of accumulated merit is exhausted. Then they redescend to earth in the form of falling stars.
505 See The Descent of Gangá, Book I Canto XLIV.
506 See Book I Canto XXV.
_ 507 Aśoka_ is compounded of _a_ not and _śoka_ grief.
508 See Book I Canto XXXI.
509 An Asur or demon, king of Tripura, the modern Tipperah.
510 Śiva.
511 See Book I, Canto LIX.
512 The preceptor of the Gods.
513 From the root _vid_, to find.
514 Rávaṇ.
515 Or Curlews’ Wood.
516 Iron-faced.
517 Kabandha means a trunk.
518 A class of mythological giants. In the Epic period they were probably personifications of the aborigines of India.
519 Peace, war, marching, halting, sowing dissensions, and seeking protection.
520 See Book I, Canto XVI.
521 Or as the commentator Tírtha says, Śilápidháná, rock-covered, may be the name of the cavern.
522 Pampá is said by the commentator to be the name both of a lake and a brook which flows into it. The brook is said to rise in the hill Rishyamúka.
523 Who was acting as Regent for Ráma and leading an ascetic life while he mourned for his absent brother.
524 The Indian Cuckoo.
525 The Cassia Fistula or Amaltás is a splendid tree like a giant laburnum covered with a profusion of chains and tassels of gold. Dr. Roxburgh well describes it as “uncommonly beautiful when in flower, few trees surpassing it in the elegance of its numerous long pendulous racemes of large bright-yellow flowers intermixed with the young lively green foliage.” It is remarkable also for its curious cylindrical black seed-pods about two feet long, which are called monkeys’ walking-sticks.
526 “The Jonesia Asoca is a tree of considerable size, native of southern India. It blossoms in February and March with large erect compact clusters of flowers, varying in colour from pale-orange to scarlet, almost to be mistaken, on a hasty glance, for immense trusses of bloom of an Ixora. Mr. Fortune considered this tree, when in full bloom, superior in beauty even to the Amherstia.
The first time I saw the Asoc in flower was on the hill where the famous rock-cut temple of Kárlí is situated, and a large concourse of natives had assembled for the celebration of some Hindoo festival. Before proceeding to the temple the Mahratta women gathered from two trees, which were flowering somewhat below, each a fine truss of blossom, and inserted it in the hair at the back of her head.… As they moved about in groups it is impossible to imagine a more delightful effect than the rich scarlet bunches of flowers presented on their fine glossy jet-black hair.” FIRMINGER, _Gardening for India_.
527 No other word can express the movements of peafowl under the influence of pleasing excitement, especially when after the long drought they hear the welcome roar of the thunder and feel that the rain is near.
528 The Dewy Season is one of the six ancient seasons of the Indian year, lasting from the middle of January to the middle of March.
529 Ráma appears to mean that on a former occasion a crow flying high overhead was an omen that indicated his approaching separation from Sítá; and that now the same bird’s perching on a tree near him may be regarded as a happy augury that she will soon be restored to her husband.
530 A tree with beautiful and fragrant blossoms.
531 A race of semi-divine musicians attached to the service of Kuvera, represented as centaurs reversed with human figures and horses’ heads.
532 Butea Frondosa. A tree that bears a profusion of brilliant red flowers which appear before the leaves.
533 I omit five _ślokas_ which contain nothing but a list of trees for which, with one or two exceptions, there are no equivalent names in English. The following is Gorresio’s translation of the corresponding passage in the Bengal recension:—
“Oh come risplendono in questa stagione di primavera i vitici, le galedupe, le bassie, le dalbergie, i diospyri … le tile, le michelie, le rottlerie, le pentaptere ed i pterospermi, i bombaci, le grislee, gli abri, gli amaranti e le dalbergie; i sirii, le galedupe, le barringtonie ed i palmizi, i xanthocymi, il pepebetel, le verbosine e le ticaie, le nauclee le erythrine, gli asochi, e le tapie fanno d’ogni intorno pompa de’ lor fiori.”
534 A sacred stream often mentioned in the course of the poem. See Book II, Canto XCV.
535 A daughter of Daksha who became one of the wives of Kaśyapa and mother of the Daityas. She is termed the general mother of Titans and malignant beings. See Book I Cantos XLV, XLVI.
536 Sugríva, the ex-king of the Vánars, foresters, or monkeys, an exile from his home, wandering about the mountain Rishyamúka with his four faithful ex-ministers.
537 The hermitage of the Saint Matanga which his curse prevented Báli, the present king of the Vánars, from entering. The story is told at length in Canto XI of this Book.
538 Hanumán, Sugríva’s chief general, was the son of the God of Wind. See Book I, Canto XVI.
539 A range of hills in Malabar; the Western Ghats in the Deccan.
540 Válmíki makes the second vowel in this name long or short to suit the exigencies of the verse. Other Indian poets have followed his example, and the same licence will be used in this translation.
541 I omit a recapitulatory and interpolated verse in a different metre, which is as follows:—Reverencing with the words, So be it, the speech of the greatly terrified and unequalled monkey king, the magnanimous Hanumán then went where (stood) the very mighty Ráma with Lakshmaṇ.
542 The semi divine Hanumán possesses, like the Gods and demons, the power of wearing all shapes at will. He is one of the _Kámarúpís_.
Like Milton’s good and bad angels “as they please They limb themselves, and colour, shape, or size Assume as likes them best, condense or rare.”
543 Himálaya is of course _par excellence_ the Monarch of mountains, but the complimentary title is frequently given to other hills as here to Malaya.
544 Twisted up in a matted coil as was the custom of ascetics.
545 The sun and moon.
546 The rainbow.
547 The Vedas are four in number, the Rich or Rig-veda, the Yajush or Yajur-veda; the Sáman or Sáma-veda, and the Atharvan or Atharva-veda. See p. 3. Note.
548 The chest, the throat, and the head.
549 “In our own metrical romances, or wherever a poem is meant not for readers but for chanters and oral reciters, these _formulæ_, to meet the same recurring case, exist by scores. Thus every woman in these metrical romances who happens to be young, is described as ‘so bright of ble,’ or complexion; always a man goes ‘the mountenance of a mile’ before he overtakes or is overtaken. And so on through a vast bead-roll of cases. In the same spirit Homer has his eternal τον δ’αρ’ ὑποδρα ιδων, or τον δ’απαμειβομενος προσφη, &c.
To a reader of sensibility, such recurrences wear an air of child-like simplicity, beautifully recalling the features of Homer’s primitive age. But they would have appeared faults to all commonplace critics in literary ages.”
DE QUINCEY. _Homer and the Homeridæ_.
550 Bráhmans the sacerdotal caste. Kshatriyas the royal and military, Vaiśyas the mercantile, and Śúdras the servile.
551 A protracted sacrifice extending over several days. See Book I, p. 24 Note.
552 Possessed of all the auspicious personal marks that indicate capacity of universal sovereignty. See Book I. p. 2, and Note 3.
553 Kabandha. See Book III. Canto LXXIII.
554 Fire for sacred purposes is produced by the attrition of two pieces of wood. In marriage and other solemn covenants fire is regarded as the holy witness in whose presence the agreement is made. Spenser in a description of a marriage, has borrowed from the Roman rite what he calls the housling, or “matrimonial rite.”
“His owne two hands the holy knots did knit That none but death forever can divide. His owne two hands, for such a turn most fit, The housling fire did kindle and provide.”
Faery Queen, Book I. XII. 37.
555 Indra.
556 Báli the king _de facto_.
557 With the Indians, as with the ancient Greeks, the throbbing of the right eye in a man is an auspicious sign, the throbbing of the left eye is the opposite. In a woman the significations of signs are reversed.
558 The Vedas stolen by the demons Madhu and Kaiṭabha.
“The text has [Sanskrit text] which signifies literally ‘the lost vedic tradition.’ It seems that allusion is here made to the Vedas submerged in the depth of the sea, but promptly recovered by Vishṇu in one of his incarnations, as the brahmanic legend relates, with which the orthodoxy of the Bráhmans intended perhaps to allude to the prompt restoration and uninterrupted continuity of the ancient vedic tradition.”
GORRESIO.
559 Like the wife of a Nága or Serpent-God carried off by an eagle. The enmity between the King of birds and the serpent is of very frequent occurrence. It seems to be a modification of the strife between the Vedic Indra and the Ahi, the serpent or drought-fiend; between Apollôn and the Python, Adam and the Serpent.
560 He means that he has never ventured to raise his eyes to her arms and face, though he has ever been her devoted servant.
561 The wood in which Skanda or Kártikeva was brought up:
“The Warrior-God Whose infant steps amid the thickets strayed Where the reeds wave over the holy sod.”
See also Book I, Canto XXIX.
562 “Sugríva’s story paints in vivid colours the manners, customs and ideas of the wild mountain tribes which inhabited Kishkindhya or the southern hills of the Deccan, of the people whom the poem calls monkeys, tribes altogether different in origin and civilization from the Indo-Sanskrit race.” GORRESIO.
563 A fiend slain by Báli.
564 Báli’s mountain city.
565 The canopy or royal umbrella, one of the usual Indian regalia.
566 Whisks made of the hair of the Yak or Bos grunniers, also regal insignia.
567 Righteous because he never transgresses his bounds, and
“over his great tides Fidelity presides.”
568 Himálaya, the Lord of Snow, is the father of Umá the wife of Śiva or Śankar.
569 Indra’s celestial elephant.
570 Báli was the son of Indra. See p. 28.
571 An Asur slain by Indra. See p. 261 Note. He is, like Vritra, a form of the demon of drought destroyed by the beneficent God of the firmament.
572 Another name of Indra or Mahendra.
573 The Bengal recension makes it return in the form of a swan.
574 Varuṇa is one of the oldest of the Vedic Gods, corresponding in name and partly in character to the Οὐρανός of the Greeks and is often regarded as the supreme deity. He upholds heaven and earth, possesses extraordinary power and wisdom, sends his messengers through both worlds, numbers the very winkings of men’s eyes, punishes transgressors whom he seizes with his deadly noose, and pardons the sins of those who are penitent. In later mythology he has become the God of the sea.
575 Budha, not to be confounded with the great reformer Buddha, is the son of Soma or the Moon, and regent of the planet Mercury. Angára is the regent of Mars who is called the red or the fiery planet. The encounter between Michael and Satan is similarly said to have been as if
“Two planets rushing from aspect malign Of fiercest opposition in midsky Should combat, and their jarring spheres compound.”
_Paradise Lost._ Book VI.
576 The Aśvins or Heavenly Twins, the Dioskuri or Castor and Pollux of the Hindus, have frequently been mentioned. See p. 36, Note.
577 Called respectively Gárhapatya, Áhavaniya, and Dakshiṇa, household, sacrificial, and southern.
578 The store of merit accumulated by a holy or austere life secures only a temporary seat in the mansion of bliss. When by the lapse of time this store is exhausted, return to earth is unavoidable.
579 The conflagration which destroys the world at the end of a Yuga or age.
580 Himálaya.
581 Tárá means “star.” The poet plays upon the name by comparing her beauty to that of the Lord of stars, the Moon.
582 Suparṇa, the Well-winged, is another name of Garuḍa the King of Birds. See p. 28, Note.
583 The God of Death.
584 The flag-staff erected in honour of the God Indra is lowered when the festival is over. Aśvíní in astronomy is the head of Aries or the first of the twenty-eight lunar mansions or asterisms.
585 Indra the father of Báli.
586 It is believed that every creature killed by Ráma obtained in consequence immediate beatitude.
“And blessed the hand that gave so dear a death.”
587 “Yayáti was invited to heaven by Indra, and conveyed on the way thither by Mátali, Indra’s charioteer. He afterwards returned to earth where, by his virtuous administration he rendered all his subjects exempt from passion and decay.” GARRETT’S C. D. OF INDIA.
588 The ascetic’s dress which he wore during his exile.
589 There is much inconsistency in the passages of the poem in which the Vánars are spoken of, which seems to point to two widely different legends. The Vánars are generally represented as semi-divine beings with preternatural powers, living in houses and eating and drinking like men sometimes as here, as monkeys pure and simple, living is woods and eating fruit and roots.
590 For a younger brother to marry before the elder is a gross violation of Indian law and duty. The same law applied to daughters with the Hebrews: “It must not be so done in our country to give the younger before the first-born.” GENESIS xix. 26.
591 “The hedgehog and porcupine, the lizard, the rhinoceros, the tortoise, and the rabbit or hare, wise legislators declare lawful food among five-toed animals.” MANU, v. 18.
592 “He can not buckle his distempered cause Within the belt of rule.”
MACBETH.
593 The _Ankuś_ or iron hook with which an elephant is driven and guided.
594 Hayagríva, Horse-necked, is a form of Vishṇu.
595 “Aśvatara is the name of a chief of the Nágas or serpents which inhabit the regions under the earth; it is also the name of a Gandharva. Aśvatarí ought to be the wife of one of the two, but I am not sure that this conjecture is right. The commentator does not say who this Aśvatarí is, or what tradition or myth is alluded to. Vimalabodha reads Aśvatarí in the nominative case, and explains, Aśvatarí is the sun, and as the sun with his rays brings back the moon which has been sunk in the ocean and the infernal regions, so will I bring back Sítá.” GORRESIO.
596 That is, “Consider what answer you can give to your accusers when they charge you with injustice in killing me.”
597 Manu, Book VIII. 318. “But men who have committed offences and have received from kings the punishment due to them, go pure to heaven and become as clear as those who have done well.”
598 Mándhátá was one of the earlier descendants of Ikshváku. His name is mentioned in Ráma’s genealogy, p. 81.
599 I cannot understand how Válmíki could put such an excuse as this into Ráma’s mouth. Ráma with all solemn ceremony, has made a league of alliance with Báli’s younger brother whom he regards as a dear friend and almost as an equal, and now he winds up his reasons for killing Báli by coolly saying: “Besides you are only a monkey, you know, after all, and as such I have every right to kill you how, when, and where I like.”
600 A name of Garuḍa the king of birds, the great enemy of the Serpents.
601 Sugríva’s wife.
602 “Our deeds still follow with us from afar. And what we have been makes us what we are.”
603 Sugríva and Angad.
604 Angad himself, being too young to govern, would be Yuvarája or heir-apparent.
605 Susheṇa was the son of Varuṇa the God of the sea.
606 A demon with the tail of a dragon, that causes eclipses by endeavouring to swallow the sun and moon.
607 The Lord of Stars is the Moon.
608 Or the passage may be interpreted: “Be neither too obsequious or affectionate, nor wanting in due respect or love.”
609 Sacrifices and all religious rites begin and end with ablution, and the wife of the officiating Bráhman takes an important part in the performance of the holy ceremonies.
610 Viśvarúpa, a son of Twashṭri or Viśvakarmá the heavenly architect, was a three-headed monster slain by Indra.
611 The Vánar chief, not to be confounded with Tárá.
612 Śrávaṇ: July-August. But the rains begin a month earlier, and what follows must not be taken literally. The text has _púrvo’ yam várshiko másah Śrávaṇah salilágamdh_. The Bengal recension has the same, and Gorresio translates: “Equesto ilmese Srâvana (luglio-agosto) primo della stagione piovosa, in cui dilagano le acque.”
613 Kártik: October-November.
614 “Indras, as the nocturnal sun, hides himself, transformed, in the starry heavens: the stars are his eyes. The hundred-eyed or all-seeing (panoptês) Argos placed as a spy over the actions of the cow beloved by Zeus, in the Hellenic equivalent of this form of Indras.” DE GUBERNATIS, _Zoological Mythology_, Vol. I, p. 418.
615 Baudháyana and others.
616 Sugríva appears to have been consecrated with all the ceremonies that attended the _Abhisheka_ or coronation of an Indian prince of the Aryan race. Compare the preparations made for Ráma’s consecration, Book II, Canto III. Thus Homer frequently introduces into Troy the rites of Hellenic worship.
617 Vitex Negundo.
618 Mályavat: “The name of this mountain appears to me to be erroneous, and I think that instead of Mályavat should be read Malayavat, Malaya is a group of mountains situated exactly in that southern part of India where Ráma now was, while Mályavat is placed to the north east.” GORRESIO.
619 Mantles of the skin of the black antelope were the prescribed dress of ascetics and religious students.
620 The sacred cord worn as the badge of religious initiation by men of the three twice-born castes.
621 The hum with which students conduct their tasks.
622 I omit here a long general description of the rainy season which is not found in the Bengal recension and appears to have been interpolated by a far inferior and much later hand than Valmiki’s. It is composed in a metre different from that of the rest of the Canto, and contains figures of poetical rhetoric and common-places which are the delight of more recent poets.
623 Praushthapada or Bhadra, the modern Bhadon, corresponds to half of August and half of September.
624 The Sáman or Sáma-veda, the third of the four Vedas, is really merely a reproduction of parts of the Rig-veda, transposed and scattered about piece-meal, only 78 verses in the whole being, it is said, untraceable to the present recension of the Rig-veda.
625 Áshádha is the month corresponding to parts of June and July.
626 Bharat, who was regent during Ráma’s absence.
627 Or with Gorresio, following the gloss of another commentary: “Has completed every holy rite and accumulated stores of merit.”
628 The river on which Ayodhyá was built.
629 I omit a _śloka_ or four lines on gratitude and ingratitude repeated word for word from the last Canto.
630 The Indian crane; a magnificent bird easily domesticated.
631 The troops who guard the frontiers on the north, south, east and west.
632 The Chátaka, Cuculus, Melanoleucus, is supposed to drink nothing but the water for the clouds.
633 The time for warlike expeditions began when the rains had ceased.
634 The rainbow.
635 Indra’s associates in arms, and musicians of his heaven.
636 Maireya, a spirituous liquor from the blossoms of the Lythrum fruticosum, with sugar, &c.
637 Their names are as follows: Angad, Maínda, Dwida, Gavaya, Gaváksha, Gaja, Śarabha, Vidyunmáli, Sampáti, Súryáksa, Hanumán, Vírabáhu, Subáhu, Nala, Kúmuda, Susheṇa, Tára, Jámbuvatu, Dadhivakra, Níla, Supátala, and Sunetra.
638 The Kalpadruma or Wishing-tree is one of the trees of Svarga or Indra’s Paradise: it has the power of granting all desires.
639 The meaning is that if a man promises to give a horse and then breaks his word he commits a sin as great as if he had killed a hundred horses.
640 The story is told in Book I, Canto LXIII, but the charmer there is called Menaká.
641 Rohiṇí is the name of the ninth Nakshatra or lunar asterism personified as a daughter of Daksha, and the favourite wife of the Moon. Aldebaran is the principal star in the constellation.
642 Válmíki and succeeding poets make the second vowel in this name long or short at their pleasure.
643 Some of the mountains here mentioned are fabulous and others it is impossible to identify. Sugríva means to include all the mountains of India from Kailás the residence of the God Kuvera, regarded as one of the loftiest peaks of the Himálayas, to Mahendra in the extreme south, from the mountain in the east where the sun is said to rise to Astáchal or the western mountain where he sets. The commentators give little assistance: that Maháśaila, &c. are certain mountains is about all the information they give.
644 One of the celestial elephants of the Gods who protect the four quarters and intermediate points of the compass.
645 Váyu or the Wind was the father of Hanumán.
646 The path or station of Vishṇu is the space between the seven Rishis or Ursa Major, and Dhruva or the polar star.
647 One of the seven seas which surround the earth in concentric circles.
648 The title of Maheśvar or Mighty Lord is sometimes given to Indra, but more generally to Śiva whom it here denotes.
649 See Book I, Canto XVI.
650 The numbers are unmanageable in English verse. The poet speaks of hundreds of _arbudas_; and an _arbuda_ is a hundred millions.
651 Anuhláda or Anuhráda is one of the four sons of the mighty Hiraṇyakaśipu, an Asur or a Daitya son of Kaśyapa and Diti and killed by Vishṇu in his incarnation of the Man-Lion _Narasinha_. According to the Bhágavata Puráṇa the Daitya or Asur Hiraṇyakaśipu and Hiraṇyáksha his brother, both killed by Vishṇu, were born again as Rávaṇ and Kumbhakarṇa his brother.
652 Puloma, a demon, was the father-in-law of Indra who destroyed him in order to avert an imprecation. Paulomí is a patronymic denoting Śachí the daughter of Puloma.
653 “Observe the variety of colours which the poem attributes to all these inhabitants of the different mountainous regions, some white, others yellow, &c. Such different colours were perhaps peculiar and distinctive characteristics of those various races.” GORRESSIO.
654 Susheṇ.
655 Tára.
656 Kesarí was the husband of Hanúmán’s mother, and is here called his father.
657 “I here unite under one heading two animals of very diverse nature and race, but which from some gross resemblances, probably helped by an equivoque in the language, are closely affiliated in the Hindoo myth … a reddish colour of the skin, want of symmetry and ungainliness of form, strength in hugging with the fore paws or arms, the faculty of climbing, shortness of tail(?), sensuality, capacity of instruction in dancing and in music, are all characteristics which more or less distinguish and meet in bears as well as in monkeys. In the _Rámáyaṇam_, the wise Jámnavant, the Odysseus of the expedition of Lanká, is called now king of the bears (rikshaparthivah), now great monkey (_Mahákapih_).” DE GUBERNATIS: _Zoological Mythology_, Vol. II. p. 97.
658 Gandhamádana, Angad, Tára, Indrajánu, Rambha, Durmukha, Hanumán, Nala, Da mukha, Śarabha, Kumuda, Vahni.
659 Daityas and Dánavas are fiends and enemies of the Gods, like the Titans of Greek mythology.
660 I reduce the unwieldy numbers of the original to more modest figures.
661 Sarayú now Sarjú is the river on which Ayodhyá was built.
662 Kauśikí is a river which flows through Behar, commonly called Kosi.
663 Bhagírath’s daughter is Gangá or the Ganges. The legend is told at length in Book I Canto XLIV. _The Descent of Gangá_.
664 A mountain not identified.
665 The Jumna. The river is personified as the twin sister of Yáma, and hence regarded as the daughter of the Sun.
666 The Sarasvatí (corruptly called Sursooty, is supposed to join the Ganges and Jumna at Prayág or Allahabad. It rises in the mountains bounding the north-east part of the province of Delhi, and running in a south-westerly direction becomes lost in the sands of the great desert.
667 The Sindhu is the Indus, the Sanskrit _s_ becoming _h_ in Persian and being in this instance dropped by the Greeks.
668 The Sone which rises in the district of Nagpore and falls into the Ganges above Patna.
669 Mahí is a river rising in Malwa and falling into the gulf of Cambay after a westerly course of 280 miles.
670 There is nothing to show what parts of the country the poet intended to denote as silk-producing and silver-producing.
671 Yavadwipa means the island of Yava, wherever that may be.
672 Śiśir is said to be a mountain ridge projecting from the base of Meru on the south. Wilson’s _Vishnu Puráṇa_, ed. Hall, Vol. II. p. 117.
673 This appears to be some mythical stream and not the well-known Śone. The name means red-coloured.
674 A fabulous thorny rod of the cotton tree used for torturing the wicked in hell. The tree gives its name, Śálmalí, to one of the seven Dwípas, or great divisions of the known continent: and also to a hell where the wicked are tormented with the pickles of the tree.
675 The king of the feathered creation.
676 Viśvakarmá, the Mulciber of the Indian heaven.
677 “The terrific fiends named Mandehas attempt to devour the sun: for Brahmá denounced this curse upon them, that without the power to perish they should die every day (and revive by night) and therefore a fierce contest occurs (daily) between them and the sun.” WILSON’S Vishṇu Puráṇa. Vol. II. p. 250.
678 Said in the _Vishṇu Puráṇa_ to be a ridge projecting from the base of Meru to the north.
679 Kinnars are centaurs reversed, beings with equine head and human bodies.
680 Yakshas are demi-gods attendant on Kuvera the God of wealth.
681 Aurva was one of the descendants of Bhrigu. From his wrath proceeded a flame that threatened to destroy the world, had not Aurva cast it into the ocean where it remained concealed, and having the face of a horse. The legend is told in the _Mahábhárat_. I. 6802.
682 The word Játarúpa means gold.
683 The celebrated mythological serpent king Sesha, called also Ananta or the infinite, represented as bearing the earth on one of his thousand heads.
684 Jambudwípa is in the centre of the seven great _dwípas_ or continents into which the world is divided, and in the centre of Jambudwípa is the golden mountain Meru 84,000 yojans high, and crowned by the great city of Brahmá. See WILSON’S _Vishṇu Puráṇa_, Vol. II. p. 110.
685 Vaikhánases are a race of hermit saints said to have sprung from the nails of Prajápati.
686 “The wife of Kratu, Samnati, brought forth the sixty thousand Válakhilyas, pigmy sages, no bigger than a joint of the thumb, chaste, pious, resplendent as the rays of the Sun.” WILSON’S _Vishṇu Puráṇa_.
687 The continent in which Sudarśan or Meru stands, _i.e._ Jambudwíp.
688 The names of some historical peoples which occur in this Canto and in the Cantos describing the south and north will be found in the ADDITIONAL NOTES. They are bare lists, not susceptible of a metrical version.
689 Suhotra, Śarári, Śaragulma, Gayá, Gaváksha, Gavaya, Susheṇa, Gandhamádana, Ulkámukha, and Ananga.
690 The modern Nerbudda.
691 Krishṇaveṇí is mentioned in the _Vishṇu Puráṇa_ as “the deep Krishṇaveṇí” but there appears to be no clue to its identification.
692 The modern Godavery.
693 The Mekhalas or Mekalas according to the Paráṇas live in the Vindhya hills, but here they appear among the peoples of the south.
694 Utkal is still the native name of Orissa.
695 The land of the people of the “ten forts.” Professor Hall in a note on WILSON’S _Vishṇu Puráṇa_, Vol. II. p. 160 says: “The oral traditions of the vicinity to this day assign the name of Daśárna to a region lying to the east of the District of Chundeyree.”
696 Avantí is one of the ancient names of the celebrated Ujjayin or Oujein in Central India.
697 Not identified.
698 Ayomukh means iron faced. The mountain is not identified.
699 The Káverí or modern Cauvery is well known and has always borne the same appellation, being the Chaberis of Ptolemy.
700 One of the seven principal mountain chains: the southern portion of the Western Gháts.
701 Agastya is the great sage who has already frequently appeared as Ráma’s friend and benefactor.
702 Támraparṇí is a river rising in Malaya.
703 The Páṇḍyas are a people of the Deccan.
704 Mahendra is the chain of hills that extends from Orissa and the northern Sircars to Gondwána, part of which near Ganjam is still called Mahendra Malay or hills of Mahendra.
705 Lanká, Sinhaladvípa, Sarandib, or Ceylon.
706 The Flowery Hill of course is mythical.
707 The whole of the geography south of Lanká is of course mythical. Súryaván means Sunny.
708 Vaidyut means connected with lightning.
709 Agastya is here placed far to the south of Lanká. Earlier in this Canto he was said to dwell on Malaya.
710 Bhogavatí has been frequently mentioned: it is the capital of the serpent Gods or demons, and usually represented as being in the regions under the earth.
711 Vásuki is according to some accounts the king of the Nágas or serpent Gods.
712 Śailúsha, Gramiṇi, Siksha, Suka, Babhru.
713 The distant south beyond the confines of the earth is the home of departed spirits and the city of Yáma the God of Death.
714 Suráshṭra, the “good country,” is the modern Sura
715 A country north-west of Afghanistan, Baíkh.
716 The Moon-mountain here is mythical.
717 Sindhu is the Indus.
718 Páriyátra, or as more usually written Páripátra, is the central or western portion of the Vindhya chain which skirts the province of Malwa.
719 Vajra means both diamond and thunderbolt, the two substances being supposed to be identical.
720 Chakraván means the discus-bearer.
721 The discus is the favourite weapon of Vishṇu.
722 The Indian Hephaistos or Vulcan.
723 Panchajan was a demon who lived in the sea in the form of a conch shell. WILSON’S _Vishṇu Puráṇa_, V. 21.
724 Hayagríva, Horse-necked, is the name of a Daitya who at the dissolution of the universe caused by Brahmá’s sleep, seized and carried off the Vedas. Vishṇu slew him and recovered the sacred treasures.
725 Meru stands in the centre of Jambudwípa and consequently of the earth. “The sun travels round the world, keeping Meru always on his right. To the spectator who fronts him, therefore, as he rises Meru must be always on the north; and as the sun’s rays do not penetrate beyond the centre of the mountain, the regions beyond, or to the north of it must be in darkness, whilst those on the south of it must be in light: north and south being relative, not absolute, terms, depending on the position of the spectator with regard to the Sun and Meru.” WILSON’S _Vishṇu Puráṇa_, Vol. II. p. 243. Note.
726 The Viśvadevas are a class of deities to whom sacrifices should be daily offered, as part of the ordinary worship of the householder. According to the _Váyu Puráṇa_, this is a privilege conferred on them by Brahmá and the Pitris as a reward for religious austerities practised by them upon Himálaya.
727 The eight Vasus were originally personifications like other Vedic deities, of natural phenomena, such as Fire, Wind, &c. Their appellations are variously given by different authorities.
728 The Maruts or Storm-Gods, frequently addressed and worshipped as the attendants and allies of Indra.
729 The mountain behind which the sun sets.
730 One of the oldest and mightiest of the Vedic deities; in later mythology regarded as the God of the sea.
731 The knotted noose with which he seizes and punishes transgressors.
732 Sávarṇi is a Manu, offspring of the Sun by Chháyá.
733 The poet has not said who the sons of Yáma are.
734 The Lodhra or Lodh (Symplocos Racemosa) and the Devadáru or Deodar are well known trees.
735 The hills mentioned are not identifiable. Soma means the Moon. Kála, black; Sudaraśan, fair to see; and Devasakhá friend of the Gods.
736 The God of Wealth.
737 The nymphs of Paradise.
738 Kuvera the son of Viśravas.
739 A class of demigods who, like the Yakshas, are the attendants of Kuvera, and the guardians of his treasures.
740 Situated in the eastern part of the Himálaya chain, on the north of Assam. The mountain was torn asunder and the pass formed by the War-God Kártikeya and Paraśuráma.
741 “The Uttara Kurus, it should be remarked, may have been a real people, as they are mentioned in the Aitareya Bráhmaṇa, VIII. 14.… Wherefore the several nations who dwell in this northern quarter, beyond the Himavat, the Uttara Kurus and the Uttara Madras are consecrated to glorious dominion, and people term them the glorious. In another passage of the same work, however, the Uttara Kurus are treated as belonging to the domain of mythology.” MUIR’S _Sanskrit Texts_. Vol. I. p. 494. See ADDITIONAL NOTES.
742 The Moon-mountain.
743 The Rudras are the same as the storm winds, more usually called Maruts, and are often associated with Indra. In the later mythology the Rudras are regarded as inferior manifestations of Śiva, and most of their names are also names of Śiva.
744 Canto IX.
745 Udayagiri or the hill from which the sun rises.
746 Asta is the mountain behind which the sun sets.
747 Himálaya, the Hills of Snow.
748 Canto XI.
749 Hanumán was the leader of the army of the south which was under the nominal command of Angad the heir apparent.
750 The Bengal recension—Gorresio’s edition—calls this Asur or demon the son of Márícha.
751 The skin of the black antelope was the ascetic’s proper garb.
752 Uśanas is the name of a sage mentioned in the Vedas. In the epic poems he is identified with Śukra, the regent of the planet Venus, and described as the preceptor of the Asuras or Daityas, and possessor of vast knowledge.
753 Hemá is one of the nymphs of Paradise.
754 Merusávarṇi is a general name for the last four of the fourteen Manus.
755 Svayamprabhá, the “self-luminous,” is according to DE GUBERNATIS the moon: “In the _Svayamprabhá_ too, we meet with the moon as a good fairy who, from the golden palace which she reserves for her friend Hemá (the golden one:) is during a month the guide, in the vast cavern of Hanumant and his companions, who have lost their way in the search of the dawn Sítá.” This is is not quite accurate: Hanumán and his companions wander for a month in the cavern without a guide, and then Svayamprabhá leads them out.
756 Purandara, the destroyer of cities; the cities being the clouds which the God of the firmament bursts open with his thunderbolts, to release the waters imprisoned in these fortresses of the demons of drought.
757 Perceived that Angad had secured, through the love of the Vánars, the reversion of Sugríva’s kingdom; or, as another commentator explains it, perceived that Angad had obtained a new kingdom in the enchanted cave which the Vánars, through love of him, would consent to occupy.
758 Vṛihaspati, Lord of Speech, the Preceptor of the Gods.
759 Śukra is the regent of the planet Venus, and the preceptor of the Daityas.
760 The name of various kinds of grass used at sacrificial ceremonies, especially, of the Kuśa grass, Poa cynosuroides, which was used to strew the ground in preparing for a sacrifice, the officiating Brahmans being purified by sitting on it.
761 Sampáti is the eldest son of the celebrated Garuḍa the king of birds.
762 Vivasvat or the Sun is the father of Yáma the God of Death.
763 Book III, Canto LI.
764 Daśaratha’s rash oath and fatal promise to his wife Kaikeyí.
765 Vritra, “the coverer, hider, obstructer (of rain)” is the name of the Vedic personification of an imaginary malignant influence or demon of darkness and drought supposed to take possession of the clouds, causing them to obstruct the clearness of the sky and keep back the waters. Indra is represented as battling with this evil influence, and the pent-up clouds being practically represented as mountains or castles are shattered by his thunderbolt and made to open their receptacles.
766 Frequent mention has been made of the three steps of Vishṇu typifying the rising, culmination, and setting of the sun.
767 For the _Churning of the Sea_, see Book I, Canto XLV.
768 Kuvera, the God of Wealth.
769 The architect of the gods.
770 Garuḍa, son of Vinatá, the sovereign of the birds.
771 “The well winged one,” Garuḍa.
772 The god of the sea.
773 Mahendra is chain of mountains generally identified with part of the Gháts of the Peninsula.
774 Mátariśva is identified with Váyu, the wind.
775 Of course not equal to the whole earth, says the Commentator, but equal to Janasthán.
776 This appears to be the Indian form of the stories of Phaethon and Dædalus and Icarus.
777 According to the promise, given him by Brahmá. See Book I, Canto XIV.
778 In the Bengal recension the fourth Book ends here, the remaining Cantos being placed in the fifth.
779 Each chief comes forward and says how far he can leap. Gaja says he can leap ten yojans. Gavaksha can leap twenty. Gavaya thirty, and so on up to ninety.
780 Prahláda, the son of Hiraṇyakaśipu, was a pious Datya remarkable for his devotion to Vishṇu, and was on this account persecuted by his father.
781 The Bengal recension calls him Aríshṭanemi’s brother. “The commentator says ‘Aríshṭanemi is Aruṇa.’ Aruṇa the charioteer of the sun is the son of Kaśyapa and Vinatá and by consequence brother of Garuḍa, called Vainateya from Vinatá, his mother.” GORRESSIO.
782 A nymph of Paradise.
783 Hanu or Hanú means jaw. Hanumán or Hanúmán means properly one with a large jaw.
784 Vishṇu, the God of the Three Steps.
785 Náráyaṇ, “He who moved upon the waters,” is Vishnu. The allusion is to the famous three steps of that God.
786 The Milky Way.
787 This Book is called Sundar or the Beatiful. To a European taste it is the most intolerably tedious of the whole poem, abounding in repetition, overloaded description, and long and useless speeches which impede the action of the poem. Manifest interpolations of whole Cantos also occur. I have omitted none of the action of the Book, but have occasionally omitted long passages of common-place description, lamentation, and long stories which have been again and again repeated.
788 Brahmá the Self-Existent.
789 Maináka was the son of Himálaya and Mená or Menaká.
790 Thus Milton makes the hills of heaven self-moving at command:
“At his command the uprooted hills retired Each to his place, they heard his voice and went Obsequious”
791 The spirit of the mountain is separable from the mountain. Himalaya has also been represented as standing in human form on one of his own peaks.
792 Ságar or the Sea is said to have derived its name from Sagar. The story is fully told in Book I, Cantos XLII, XLIII, and XLIV.
793 Kritu is the first of the four ages of the world, the golden age, also called Satya.
_ 794 Parvata_ means a mountain and in the Vedas a cloud. Hence in later mythology the mountains have taken the place of the clouds as the objects of the attacks of Indra the Sun-God. The feathered king is Garuḍa.
795 “The children of Surasá were a thousand mighty many-headed serpents, traversing the sky.” WILSON’S _Vishṇu Puráṇa_, Vol. II. p. 73.
796 She means, says the Commentator, pursue thy journey if thou can.
797 If Milton’s spirits are allowed the power of infinite self-extension and compression the same must be conceded to Válmíki’s supernatural beings. Given the power as in Milton the result in Válmíki is perfectly consistent.
798 “Daksha is the son of Brahmá and one of the Prajápatis or divine progenitors. He had sixty daughters, twenty-seven of whom married to Kaśyapa produced, according to one of the Indian cosmogonies, all mundane beings. Does the epithet, Descendant of Daksha, given to Surasá, mean that she is one of those daughters? I think not. This epithet is perhaps an appellation common to all created beings as having sprung from Daksha.” GORRESSIO.
799 Sinhiká is the mother of Ráhu the dragon’s head or ascending node, the chief agent in eclipses.
800 According to De Gubernatis, the author of the very learned, ingenious, and interesting though too fanciful _Zoological Mythology_. Hanumán here represents the sun entering into and escaping from a cloud. The biblical Jonah, according to him, typifies the same phenomenon. Sá’dí, speaking of sunset, says _Yùnas andar-i-dihán-imáhi shud_: Jonas was within the fish’s mouth. See ADDITIONAL NOTES.
801 The Buchanania Latifolia.
802 The Bauhinia Variegata.
803 Through the power that Rávaṇ’s stern mortifications had won for him his trees bore flowers and fruit simultaneously.
804 Viśvakarmá is the architect of the Gods.
805 So in Paradise Lost Satan when he has stealthily entered the garden of Eden assumes the form of a cormorant.
806 Priests who fought only with the weapons of religion, the sacred grass used like the verbena of the Romans at sacred rites and the consecrated fire to consume the offering of ghee.
807 One of the Rákshas lords.
808 The brother Rávaṇ.
809 Indra’s elephant.
810 Rávaṇ’s palace appears to have occupied the whole extent of ground, and to have contained within its outer walls the mansions of all the great Rákshas chiefs. Rávaṇ’s own dwelling seems to have been situated within the enchanted chariot Pushpak: but the description is involved and confused, and it is difficult to say whether the chariot was inside the palace or the palace inside the chariot.
811 Pushpak from _pushpa_ a flower. The car has been mentioned before in Rávaṇ’s expedition to carry off Sítá, Book III, Canto XXXV.
812 Lakshmí is the wife of Vishṇu and the Goddess of Beauty and Felicity. She rose, like Aphrodite, from the foam of the sea. For an account of her birth and beauty, see Book I, Canto XLV.
813 Viśvakarmá is the architect of the Gods, the Hephaestos or Mulciber of the Indian heaven.
814 Rávaṇ in the resistless power which his long austerities had endowed him with, had conquered his brother Kuvera the God of Gold and taken from him his greatest treasure this enchanted car.
815 Like Milton’s heavenly car, “Itself instinct with spirit.”
816 Women, says Válmíki. But the Commentator says that automatic figures only are meant. Women would have seen Hanumán and given the alarm.
817 Rávaṇ had fought against Indra and the Gods, and his body was still scarred by the wounds inflicted by the tusks of Indra’s elephant and by the fiery bolts of the Thunderer.
818 The Vasus are a class of eight deities, originally personifications of natural phenomena.
819 The Maruts are the winds or Storm-Gods.
820 The Ádityas originally seven deities of the heavenly sphere of whom Varuṇa is the chief. The name Áditya was afterwards given to any God, specially to Súrya the Sun.
821 The Aśvins are the Heavenly Twins, the Castor and Pollux of the Hindus.
822 The poet forgets that Hanumán has reduced himself to the size of a cat.
823 Sítá “not of woman born,” was found by King Janak as he was turning up the ground in preparation for a sacrifice. See Book II, Canto CXVIII.
824 The six _Angas_ or subordinate branches of the Vedas are 1. _Sikshá_, the science of proper articulation and pronunciation: 2. _Chhandas_, metre: 3. _Vyákarana_, linguistic analysis or grammar: 4. _Nirukta_, explanation of difficult Vedic words: 5. _Jyotishṭom_, Astronomy, or rather the Vedic Calendar: 6. _Kalpa_, ceremonial.
825 There appears to be some confusion of time here. It was already morning when Hanumán entered the grove, and the torches would be needless.
826 Rávaṇ is one of those beings who can “climb them as they will,” and can of course assume the loveliest form to please human eyes as well as the terrific shape that suits the king of the Rákshases.
827 White and lovely as the Arant or nectar recovered from the depths of the Milky Sea when churned by the assembled Gods. See Book I, Canto XLV.
828 Rávaṇ in his magic car carrying off the most beautiful women reminds us of the magician in _Orlando Furioso_, possesor of the flying horse.
“Volando talor s’alza ne le stelle, E poi quasi talor la terra rade; E ne porta con lui tutte le belle Donne che trova per quelle contrade.”
829 Indian women twisted their long hair in a single braid as a sign of mourning for their absent husbands.
830 Janak, king of Míthilá, was Sítá’s father.
831 Hiraṇyakaśipu was a king of the Daityas celebrated for his blasphemous impieties. When his pious son Prahlada praised Vishṇu the Daitya tried to kill him, when the God appeared in the incarnation of the man-lion and tore the tyrant to pieces.
832 Do unto others as thou wouldst they should do unto thee, is a precept frequently occurring in the old Indian poems. This charity is to embrace not human beings only, but bird and beast as well: “He prayeth best who loveth best all things both great and small.”