Chapter 29
Part 29
833 It was the custom of Indian warriors to mark their arrows with their ciphers or names, and it seems to have been regarded as a point of honour to give an enemy the satisfaction of knowing who had shot at him. This passage however contains, if my memory serves me well, the first mention in the poem of this practice, and as arrows have been so frequently mentioned and described with almost every conceivable epithet, its occurrence here seems suspicious. No mention of, or allusion to writing has hitherto occurred in the poem.
834 This threat in the same words occurs in Book III, Canto LVI.
835 Rávaṇ carried off and kept in his palace not only earthly princesses but the daughters of Gods and Gandharvas.
836 The wife of Indra.
837 These four lines have occurred before. Book III, Canto LVI.
838 Prajápatis are the ten lords of created beings first created by Brahmá; somewhat like the Demiurgi of the Gnostics.
839 “This is the number of the Vedic divinities mentioned in the Rig-veda. In Ashṭaka I. Súkta XXXIV, the Rishi Hiraṇyastúpa invoking the Aśvins says: Á Násatyá tribhirekádaśairiha devebniryátam: ‘O Násatyas (Aśvins) come hither with the thrice eleven Gods.’ And in Súkta XLV, the Rishi Praskanva addressing his hymn to Agni (ignis, fire), thus invokes him: ‘Lord of the red steeds, propitiated by our prayers lead hither the thirty-three Gods.’ This number must certainly have been the actual number in the early days of the Vedic religion: although it appears probable enough that the thirty-three Vedic divinities could not then be found co-ordinated in so systematic a way as they were arranged more recently by the authors of the Upanishads. In the later ages of Bramanism the number went on increasing without measure by successive mythical and religious creations which peopled the Indian Olympus with abstract beings of every kind. But through lasting veneration of the word of the Veda the custom regained of giving the name of ‘the thirty-three Gods’ to the immense phalanx of the multiplied deities.” GORRESIO.
840 Serpent-Gods who dwell in the regions under the earth.
841 In the mythology of the epics the Gandharvas are the heavenly singers or musicians who form the orchestra at the banquets of the Gods, and they belong to the heaven of India in whose battles they share.
842 The mother of Ráma.
843 The mother of Lakshmaṇ.
844 In the south is the region of Yáma the God of Death, the place of departed spirits.
845 Kumbhakarṇa was one of Rávaṇ’s brothers.
846 The guards are still in the grove, but they are asleep; and Sítá has crept to a tree at some distance from them.
847 “As the reason assigned in these passages for not addressing Sítá in Sanskrit such as a Bráhman would use is not that she would not understand it, but that it would alarm her and be unsuitable to the speaker, we must take them as indicating that Sanskrit, if not spoken by women of the upper classes at the time when the Rámáyaṇa was written (whenever that may have been), was at least understood by them, and was commonly spoken by men of the priestly class, and other educated persons. By the Sanskrit proper to an [ordinary] man, alluded to in the second passage, may perhaps be understood not a language in which words different from Sanskrit were used, but the employment of formal and elaborate diction.” MUIR’S _Sanskrit Texts_, Part II. p. 166.
848 Svayambhu, the Self-existent, Brahmá.
849 Vṛihaspati or Váchaspati, the Lord of Speech and preceptor of the Gods.
850 The Asurs were the fierce enemies of the Gods.
851 The Rudras are manifestations of Śiva.
852 The Maruts or Storm Gods.
853 Rohiṇí is an asterism personified as the daughter of Daksha and the favourite wife of the Moon. The chief star in the constellation is Aldebaran.
854 Arundhatí was the wife of the great sage Vaśishṭha, and regarded as the pattern of conjugal excellence. She was raised to the heavens as one of the Pleiades.
855 The Gods do not shed tears; nor do they touch the ground when they walk or stand. Similarly Milton’s angels marched above the ground and “the passive air upbore their nimble tread.” Virgil’s “vera incessu patuit dea” may refer to the same belief.
856 That a friend of Ráma would praise him as he should be praised, and that if the stranger were Rávaṇ in disguise he would avoid the subject.
857 Kuvera the God of Gold.
858 Sítá of course knows nothing of what has happened to Ráma since the time when she was carried away by Rávaṇ. The poet therefore thinks it necessary to repeat the whole story of the meeting between Ráma and Sugríva, the defeat of Bálí, and subsequent events. I give the briefest possible outline of the story.
859 DE GUBERNATIS thinks that this ring which the Sun Ráma sends to the Dawn Sítá is a symbol of the sun’s disc.
860 Śachí is the loved and lovely wife of Indra, and she is taken as the type of a woman protected by a jealous and all-powerful husband.
861 The mountain near Kishkindhá.
862 Airávat is the mighty elephant on which Indra delights to ride.
863 Vibhishaṇ is the wicked Rávaṇ’s good brother.
864 Her name is Kalá, or in the Bengal recension Nandá.
865 One of Rávaṇ’s chief councillors.
866 Hanumán when he entered the city had in order to escape observation condensed himself to the size of a cat.
867 The brook Mandákiní, not far from Chitrakúṭa where Ráma sojourned for a time.
868 The poet here changes from the second person to the third.
869 The whole long story is repeated with some slight variations and additions from Book II, Canto XCVI. I give here only the outline.
870 The expedients to vanquish an enemy or to make him come to terms are said to be four: conciliation, gifts, disunion, and force or punishment. Hanumán considers it useless to employ the first three and resolves to punish Rávaṇ by destroying his pleasure-grounds.
871 Kinkar means the special servant of a sovereign, who receives his orders immediately from his master. The Bengal recension gives these Rákshases an epithet which the Commentator explains “as generated in the mind of Brahmá.”
872 Ráma _de jure_ King of Kośal of which Ayodhyá was the capital.
_ 873 Chaityaprásáda_ is explained by the Commentator as the place where the Gods of the Rákshases were kept. Gorresio translates it by “un grande edificio.”
874 The bow of Indra is the rainbow.
875 We were told a few lines before that the chariot of Jambumáli was drawn by asses. Here horses are spoken of. The Commentator notices the discrepancy and says that by horses asses are meant.
876 Armed with the bow of Indra, the rainbow.
877 Rávaṇ’s son.
878 Conqueror of Indra, another of Rávaṇ’s sons.
879 The _śloka_ which follows is probably an interpolation, as it is inconsistent with the questioning in Canto L.:
He looked on Rávaṇ in his pride, And boldly to the monarch cried: “I came an envoy to this place From him who rules the Vánar race.”
880 The ten heads of Rávaṇ have provoked much ridicule from European critics. It should be remembered that Spenser tells us of “two brethren giants, the one of which had two heads, the other three;” and Milton speaks of the “four-fold visaged Four,” the four Cherubic shapes each of whom had four faces.
881 Durdhar, or as the Bengal recension reads Mahodara, Prahasta, Mahápárśva, and Nikumbha.
882 The chief attendant of Śiva.
883 Bali, not to be confounded with Báli the Vánar, was a celebrated Daitya or demon who had usurped the empire of the three worlds, and who was deprived of two thirds of his dominions by Vishṇu in the Dwarf-incarnation.
884 When Hanumán was bound with cords, Indrajít released his captive from the spell laid upon him by the magic weapon.
885 “One who murders an ambassador (_rája bhata_) goes to Taptakumbha, the hell of heated caldrons.” WILSON’S _Vishṇu Puraṇa_, Vol. II. p. 217.
886 The fire which is supposed to burn beneath the sea.
887 Sítá is likened to the fire which is an emblem of purity.
888 I omit two stanzas which continue the metaphor of the sea or lake of air. The moon is its lotus, the sun its wild-duck, the clouds are its water-weeds, Mars is its shark and so on. Gorresio remarks: “This comparison of a great lake to the sky and of celestial to aquatic objects is one of those ideas which the view and qualities of natural scenery awake in lively fancies. Imagine one of those grand and splendid lakes of India covered with lotus blossoms, furrowed by wild-ducks of the most vivid colours, mantled over here and there with flowers and water weeds &c. and it will be understood how the fancy of the poet could readily compare to the sky radiant with celestial azure the blue expanse of the water, to the soft light of the moon the inner hue of the lotus, to the splendour of the sun the brilliant colours of the wild-fowl, to the stars the flowers, to the cloud the weeds that float upon the water &c.”
889 Sunábha is the mountain that rose from the sea when Hanumán passed over to Lanká.
890 Three Cantos of repetition are omitted.
_ 891 Madhuvan_ the “honey-wood.”
892 Indra’s pleasure-ground or elysium.
893 Janak was king of Videha or Mithilá in Behar.
894 The original contains two more Cantos which end the Book. Canto LXVII begins thus: “Hanumán thus addressed by the great-souled son of Raghu related to the son of Raghu all that Sítá had said.” And the two Cantos contain nothing but Hanumán’s account of his interview with Sítá, and the report of his own speeches as well as of hers.
895 The Sixth Book is called in Sanskrit _Yuddha-Káṇḍa_ or _The War_, and _Lanká-Káṇda_. It is generally known at the present day by the latter title.
896 Váyu is the God of Wind.
897 Garuḍa the King of Birds.
898 Serpent-Gods.
899 The God of the sea.
900 Indra’s elephant.
901 Kuvera, God of wealth.
902 Kuvera’s elephant.
903 The planet Venus, or its regent who is regarded as the son of Bhrigu and preceptor of the Daityas.
904 The seven _rishis_ or saints who form the constellation of the Great Bear.
905 Triśanku was raised to the skies to form a constellation in the southern hemisphere. The story in told in Book I, Canto LX.
906 The sage Viśvámitra, who performed for Triśanku the great sacrifice which raised him to the heavens.
907 One of the lunar asterisms containing four or originally two stars under the regency of a dual divinity Indrágni, Indra and Agni.
908 The lunar asterism Múla, belonging to the Rákshases.
909 The Asurs or demons dwell imprisoned in the depths beneath the sea.
910 The God of Riches, brother and enemy of Rávaṇ and first possessor of Pushpak the flying car.
911 King of the Serpents. Śankha and Takshak are two of the eight Serpent Chiefs.
912 The God of Death, the Pluto of the Hindus.
913 Literally Indra’s conqueror, so called from his victory over that God.
914 Their names are Nikumbha, Rabhasa, Súryaśatru, Suptaghna, Yajnakopa, Mahápárśva, Mahodara, Agniketu, Raśmiketu, Durdharsha, Indraśatru, Prahasta, Virúpáksha, Vajradanshṭra, Dhúmráksha, Durmukha, Mahábala.
915 Similarly Antenor urges the restoration of Helen:
“Let Sparta’s treasures be this hour restored, And Argive Helen own her ancient lord. As this advice ye practise or reject, So hope success, or dread the dire effect,”
POPE’S _Homer’s Iliad_, Book VII.
916 The _Agnisálá_ or room where the sacrificial fire was kept.
917 The exudation of a fragrant fluid from the male elephant’s temples, especially at certain seasons, is frequently spoken of in Sanskrit poetry. It is said to deceive and attract the bees, and is regarded as a sign of health and masculine vigour.
918 Consisting of warriors on elephants, warriors in chariots, charioteers, and infantry.
919 Indra, generally represented as surrounded by the Maruts or Storm-Gods.
920 Janasthán, where Ráma lived as an ascetic.
921 Máyá, regarded as the paragon of female beauty, was the creation of Maya the chief artificer of the Daityas or Dánavs.
922 One of the Nymphs of Indra’s heaven.
923 The Lotus River, a branch of the heavenly Gangá.
_ 924 Trilokanátha_, Lord of the Three Worlds, is a title of Indra.
925 The celestial elephant that carries Indra.
926 As producers of the _ghi_, clarified butter or sacrificial oil, used in fire-offerings.
927 This desertion to the enemy is somewhat abrupt, and is narrated with brevity not usual with Válmíki. In the Bengal recension the preceding speakers and speeches differ considerably from those given in the text which I follow. Vibhishaṇ is kicked from his seat by Rávaṇ, and then, after telling his mother what has happened, he flies to Mount Kailása where he has an interview with Śiva, and by his advice seeks Ráma and the Vánar army.
928 Vṛihaspati the preceptor of the Gods.
929 In Book II, Canto XXI, Kaṇdu is mentioned by Ráma as an example of filial obedience. At the command of his father he is said to have killed a cow.
930 A King of the Yakshas, or Kuvera himself, the God of Gold.
931 The brace protects the left arm from injury from the bow-string, and the guard protects the fingers of the right hand.
932 The story is told in Book I, Cantos XL, XLI, XLII.
933 Fiends and enemies of the Gods.
934 The Indus.
935 Cowherds, sprung from a Bráhman and a woman of the medical tribe, the modern Ahírs.
936 Barbarians or outcasts.
_ 937 Vraṇa_ means wound or rent.
938 Here in the Bengal recension (Gorresio’s edition), begins Book VI.
939 The Goomtee.
940 The Anglicized Nerbudda.
941 According to a Pauranik legend Keśarí Hanumán’s putative father had killed an Asur or demon who appeared in the form of an elephant, and hence arose the hostility between Vánars and elephants.
942 Here follows the enumeration of Sugríva’s forces which I do not attempt to follow. It soon reaches a hundred thousand billions.
943 I omit the rest of this canto, which is mere repetition. Rávaṇ gives in the same words his former answer that the Gods, Gandharvas and fiends combined shall not force him to give up Sítá. He then orders Śárdúla to tell him the names of the Vánar chieftains whom he has seen in Ráma’s army. These have already been mentioned by Śuka and Sáraṇ.
944 Lakshmí is the Goddess both of beauty and fortune, and is represented with a lotus in her hand.
945 The poet appears to have forgotten that Śuka and Sáraṇ were dismissed with ignominy in Canto XXIX, and have not been reinstated.
946 The four who fled with him. Their names are Anala, Panasa, Sampáti, and Pramati.
947 The numbers here are comparatively moderate: ten thousand elephants, ten thousand chariots, twenty thousand horses and ten million giants.
948 The Kinśuk, also called Paláśa, is Butea Frondosa, a tree that bears beautiful red crescent shaped blossoms and is deservedly a favorite with poets. The Seemal or Śálmalí is the silk cotton tree which also bears red blossoms.
949 Varuṇa.
950 The duty of a king to save the lives of his people and avoid bloodshed until milder methods have been tried in vain.
951 I have omitted several of these single combats, as there is little variety in the details and each duel results in the victory of the Vánar or his ally.
952 Yajnaśatru, Mahápárśva, Mahodar, Vajradanshṭra, Śuka, and Sáraṇ.
953 Angad.
954 A mysterious weapon consisting of serpents transformed to arrows which deprived the wounded object of all sense and power of motion.
955 On each foot, and at the root of each finger.
956 Varuṇ.
957 The name of one of the mystical weapons the command over which was given by Viśvámitra to Ráma, as related in Book I.
958 One of Sítá’s guard, and her comforter on a former occasion also.
959 The preceptor of the Gods.
960 Ráma’s grandfather.
961 The Gandharvas are warriors and Minstrels of Indra’s heaven.
962 “It is to be understood,” says the commentator, “that this is not the Akampan who has already been slain.”
963 Rávaṇ’s son, whom Hanumán killed when he first visited Lanká.
964 Níla was the son of Agni the God of Fire, and possessed, like Milton’s demons, the power of dilating and condensing his form at pleasure.
965 An ancient king of Ayodhyá said by some to have been Prithu’s father.
966 The daughter of King Kuśadhwaja. She became an ascetic, and being insulted by Rávaṇ in the woods where she was performing penance, destroyed herself by entering fire, but was born again as Sítá to be in turn the destruction of him who had insulted her.
967 Nandíśvara was Śiva’s chief attendant. Rávaṇ had despised and laughed at him for appearing in the form of a monkey and the irritated Nandíśvara cursed him and foretold his destruction by monkeys.
968 Rávaṇ once upheaved and shook Mount Kailása the favourite dwelling place of Śiva the consort of Umá, and was cursed in consequence by the offended Goddess.
969 Rambhá, who has several times been mentioned in the course of the poem, was one of the nymphs of heaven, and had been insulted by Rávaṇ.
970 Punjikasthalá was the daughter of Varuṇ. Rávaṇ himself has mentioned in this book his insult to her, and the curse pronounced in consequence by Brahmá.
971 Pulastya was the son of Brahmá and father of Viśravas or Paulastya the father of Rávaṇ and Kumbhakarṇa.
972 I omit a tedious sermon on the danger of rashness and the advantages of prudence, sufficient to irritate a less passionate hearer than Rávaṇ.
973 The Bengal recension assigns a very different speech to Kumbhakarṇa and makes him say that Nárad the messenger of the Gods had formerly told him that Vishṇu himself incarnate as Daśaratha’s son should come to destroy Rávaṇ.
974 Mahodar, Dwijihva, Sanhráda, and Vitardan.
975 A name of Vishṇu.
976 There is so much commonplace repetition in these Sallies of the Rákshas chieftains that omissions are frequently necessary. The usual ill omens attend the sally of Kumbhakarṇa, and the Canto ends with a description of the terrified Vánars’ flight which is briefly repeated in different words at the beginning of the next Canto.
977 Kártikeya the God of War, and the hero and incarnation Paraśuráma are said to have cut a passage through the mountain Krauncha, a part of the Himálayan range, in the same way as the immense gorge that splits the Pyrenees under the towers of Marboré was cloven at one blow of Roland’s sword Durandal.
978 Rishabh, Śarabh, Níla, Gaváksha, and Gandhamádan.
979 Angad. The text calls him the son of the son of him who holds the thunderbolt, _i.e._ the grandson of Indra.
980 Literally, weighing a thousand _bháras_. The _bhára_ is a weight equal to 2000 _palas_, the _pala_ is equal to four _karśas_, and the _karśa_ to 11375 French grammes or about 176 grains troy. The spear seems very light for a warrior of Kumbhakarṇa’s strength and stature and the work performed with it.
981 The custom of throwing parched or roasted grain, with wreaths and flowers, on the heads of kings and conquerors when they go forth to battle and return is frequently mentioned by Indian poets.
982 Lakshmaṇ.
983 I have abridged this long Canto by omitting some vain repetitions, commonplace epithets and similes and other unimportant matter. There are many verses in this Canto which European scholars would rigidly exclude as unmistakeably the work of later rhapsodists. Even the reverent Commentator whom I follow ventures to remark once or twice: _Ayam śloka prak shipta iti bahavah_, “This _śloka_ or verse is in the opinion of many interpolated.”
984 Narak was a demon, son of Bhúmi or Earth, who haunted the city Prágjyotisha.
985 Śambar was a demon of drought.
986 Indra.
987 Devántak (Slayer of Gods) Narántak (Slayer of Men) Atikáya (Huge of Frame) and Triśirás (Three Headed) were all sons of Rávaṇ.
988 The demon of eclipse who seizes the Sun and Moon.
989 Lakshmaṇ.
990 In such cases as this I am not careful to reproduce the numbers of the poet, which in the text which I follow are 670000000; the Bengal recension being content with thirty million less.
991 The discus or quoit, a sharp-edged circular missile is the favourite weapon of Vishṇu.
992 To destroy Tripura the triple city in the sky, air and earth, built by Maya for a celebrated Asur or demon, or as another commentator explains, to destroy Kandarpa or Love.
993 The Lokapálas are sometimes regarded as deities appointed by Brahmá at the creation of the word to act as guardians of different orders of beings, but more commonly they are identified with the deities presiding over the four cardinal and four intermediate points of the compass, which, according to Manu V. 96, are 1, Indra, guardian of the East; 2, Agni, of the South-east; 3, Yáma, of the South; 4, Súrya, of the South-west; 5, Varuṇa, of the West; 6, Pavana or Váyu, of the North-west; 7, Kuvera, of the North; 8, Soma or Chandra, of the North-east.
994 The chariots of Rávaṇ’s present army are said to have been one hundred and fifty million in number with three hundred million elephants, and twelve hundred million horses and asses. The footmen are merely said to have been “unnumbered.”
995 It is not very easy to see the advantage of having arrows headed in the way mentioned. Fanciful names for war-engines and weapons derived from their resemblance to various animals are not confined to India. The “War-wolf” was used by Edward I. at the siege of Brechin, the “Cat-house” and the “Sow” were used by Edward III. at the siege of Dunbar.
996 Apparently a peak of the Himalaya chain.
997 This exploit of Hanumán is related with inordinate prolixity in the Bengal recension (Gortesio’s text). Among other adventures he narrowly escapes being shot by Bharat as he passes over Nandigrama near Ayodhyá. Hanumán stays Bharat in time, and gives him an account of what has befallen Ráma and Sítá in the forest and in Lanká.
998 As Garuḍ the king of birds is the mortal enemy of serpents the weapon sacred to him is of course best calculated to destroy the serpent arrows of Rávaṇ.
999 The celebrated saint who has on former occasions assisted Ráma with his gifts and counsel.
1000 Indra.
1001 Yáma.
1002 Kártikeya.
1003 Kubera.
1004 Varuṇ.
1005 The Pitris, forefathers or spirits of the dead, are of two kinds, either the spirits of the father, grandfathers and great-grandfathers of an individual or the progenitors of mankind generally, to both of whom obsequial worship is paid and oblations of food are presented.
1006 The Maruts or Storm-Gods.
1007 The Heavenly Twins, the Castor and Pollux of the Hindus.
1008 The Man _par excellence_, the representative man and father of the human race regarded also as God.
1009 The Vasus, a class of deities originally personifications of natural phenomena.
1010 A class of celestial beings who dwell between the earth and the sun.
1011 The seven horses are supposed to symbolize the seven days of the week.
1012 One for each month in the year.
1013 The garden of Kuvera, the God of Riches.
1014 The consort of Indra.
1015 The Swayamvara, Self-choice or election of a husband by a princess or daughter of a Kshatriya at a public assembly of suitors held for the purpose. For a description of the ceremony see _Nala and Damayantí_ an episode of the Mahábhárat translated by the late Dean Milman, and _Idylls from the Sanskrit_.
1016 The Pitris or Manes, the spirits of the dead.
1017 Kuvera, the God of Wealth.
1018 Varuṇ, God of the sea.
1019 Mahádeva or Śiva whose ensign is a bull.
1020 The Address to Ráma, both text and commentary, will be found literally translated in the Additional Notes. A paraphrase of a portion is all that I have attempted here.
1021 Rávaṇ’s queen.
1022 Or Maináka.
1023 Here, in the North-west recension, Sítá expresses a wish that Tárá and the wives of the Vánar chiefs should be invited to accompany her to Ayodhyá. The car decends, and the Vánar matrons are added to the party. The Bengal recension ignores this palpable interruption.
1024 The _arghya_, a respectful offering to Gods and venerable men consisting of rice, dúivá grass, flowers etc., with water.
1025 I have abridged Hanumán’s outline of Ráma’s adventures, with the details of which we are already sufficiently acquainted.
1026 In these respectful salutations the person who salutes his superior mentions his own name even when it is well known to the person whom he salutes.
1027 I have omitted the chieftains’ names as they could not be introduced without padding. They are Mainda, Dwivid, Níla, Rishabh, Susheṇ, Nala, Gaváksha, Gandhamádan, Śarabh, and Panas.
1028 The following addition is found in the Bengal recension: But Vaiśravaṇ (Kuvera) when he beheld his chariot said unto it: “Go, and carry Ráma, and come unto me when my thought shall call thee, And the chariot returned unto Ráma;” and he honoured it when he had heard what had passed.
1029 Here follows in the original an enumeration of the chief blessings which will attend the man or woman who reads or hears read this tale of Ráma. These blessings are briefly mentioned at the end of the first Canto of the first book, and it appears unnecessary to repeat them here in their amplified form. The Bengal recension (Gorresio’s edition) gives them more concisely as follows: “This is the great first poem blessed and glorious, which gives long life to men and victory to kings, the poem which Válmíki made. He who listens to this wondrous tale of Ráma unwearied in action shall be absolved from all his sins. By listening to the deeds of Ráma he who wishes for sons shall obtain his heart’s desire, and to him who longs for riches shall riches be given. The virgin who asks for a husband shall obtain a husband suited to her mind, and shall meet again her dear kinsfolk who are far away. They who hear this poem which Válmíki made shall obtain all their desires and all their prayers shall be fulfilled.”
_ 1030 The Academy_, Vol. III., No 43, contains an able and interesting notice of this work from the pen of the Professor of Sanskrit in the University of Cambridge: “The _Uttarakáṇḍa_,” Mr. Cowell remarks, “bears the same relation to the _Rámáyaṇa_ as the Cyclic poems to the _Iliad_. Just as the _Cypria_ of Stasinus, the _Æthiopis_ of Arctinus, and the little _Iliad_ of Lesches completed the story of the _Iliad_, and not only added the series of events which preceded and followed it, but also founded episodes of their own on isolated allusions in Homer, so the _Uttarakáṇḍa_ is intended to complete the _Rámáyaṇa_, and at the same time to supplement it by intervening episodes to explain casual allusions or isolated incidents which occur in it. Thus the early history of the giant Rávaṇa and his family fills nearly forty Chapters, and we have a full account of his wars with the gods and his conquest of Lanká, which all happened long before the action of the poem commences, just as the _Cypria_ narrated the birth and early history of Helen, and the two expeditions of the Greeks against Troy; and the latter chapters continue the history of the hero Ráma after his triumphant return to his paternal kingdom, and the poem closes with his death and that of his brothers, and the founding by their descendants of various kingdoms in different parts of India.”
1031 MUIR, _Sanskrit Texts,_ Part IV., pp. 414 ff.
1032 MUIR, _Sanskrit Texts_, Part IV., 391, 392.
1033 See _Academy_, III., 43.
_ 1034 Academy_, Vol. III., No. 43.
1035 E. B. Cowell. _Academy_, No. 43. The story of Sítá’s banishment will be found roughly translated from the _Raghuvaṇśa_, in the Additional Notes.
1036 E. B. Cowell. _Academy_, Vol, III, No. 43.
1037 MUIR, _Sanskrit Texts_, Part IV., Appendix.
1038 Ghí: clarified butter. Gur: molasses.
1039 Haridwar (Anglicè Hurdwar) where the Ganges enters the plain country.
1040 Campbell in “Journ. As. Soc. Bengal,” 1866, Part ii. p. 132; Latham, “Descr. Eth.” Vol. ii. p. 456; Tod, “Annals of Rajasthan,” Vol. i. p. 114.
1041 Said by the commentator to be an eastern people between the Himálayan and Vindhyan chains.
1042 Videha was a district in the province of Behar, the ancient Mithilá or the modern Tirhoot.
1043 The people of Malwa.
1044 “The Káśikośalas are a central nation in the Váyu Puráṇa. The Rámáyaṇa places them in the east. The combination indicates the country between Benares and Oude.… Kośala is a name variously applied. Its earliest and most celebrated application is to the country on the banks of the Sarayú, the kingdom of Ráma, of which Ayodhyá was the capital.… In the Mahábhárata we have one Kośala in the east and another in the south, besides the Prák-Kośalas and Uttara Kośalas in the east and north. The Puráṇas place the Kośalas amongst the people on the back of Vindhya; and it would appear from the Váyu that Kuśa the son of Ráma transferred his kingdom to a more central position; he ruled over Kośala at his capital of Kúśasthali of Kuśavatí, built upon the Vindhyan precipices.” WILSON’S _Vishnṇu Púraṇa_, Vol. II. pp. 157, 172.
1045 The people of south Behar.
1046 The Puṇḍras are said to be the inhabitants of the western provinces of Bengal. “In the _Aitareyabráhmaṇa_, VII. 18, it is said that the elder sons of Viśvamitra were cursed to become progenitors of most abject races, such as Andhras, Puṇḍras, Śabaras, Pulindas, and Mútibas.” WILSON’S _Vishṇu Puráṇa_ Vol. II. 170.
1047 Anga is the country about Bhagulpore, of which Champá was the capital.
1048 A fabulous people, “men who use their ears as a covering.” So Sir John Maundevile says: “And in another Yle ben folk that han gret Eres and long, that hangen down to here knees,” and Pliny, lib. iv. c. 13: “In quibus nuda alioquin corpora prægrandes ipsorum aures tota contegunt.” Isidore calls them Panotii.
1049 “Those whose ears hang down to their lips.”
1050 “The Iron-faces.”
1051 “The One-footed.”
“In that Contree,” says Sir John Maundevile, “ben folk, that han but o foot and thei gon so fast that it is marvaylle: and the foot is so large that it schadeweth alle the Body azen the Sonne, when thei wole lye and rest hem.” So Pliny, Natural History, lib. vii. c. 2: speaks of “Hominumn gens … singulis cruribus, miræ pernicitatis ad saltum; eosdemque Sciopodas vocari, quod in majori æstu, humi jacentes resupini, umbrâ se pedum protegant.”
These epithets are, as Professor Wilson remarks, “exaggerations of national ugliness, or allusions to peculiar customs, which were not literally intended, although they may have furnished the Mandevilles of ancient and modern times.”
_Vishṇu Puráṇa_, Vol. II. p. 162.
1052 The Kirrhadæ of Arrian: a general name for savage tribes living in woods and mountains.
1053 Said by the commentator to be half tigers half men.
1054 The kingdom seems to have corresponded with the greater part of Berar and Khandesh.
1055 The Bengal recension has Kishikas, and places them both in the south and the north.
1056 The people of Mysore.
1057 “There are two Matsyas, one of which, according to the Yantra Samráj, is identifiable with Jeypoor. In the Digvijaya of Nakula he subdues the Matsyas further to the west, or Gujerat.” WILSON’S _Vishṇu Puráṇa_, Vol. II. 158. Dr. Hall observes: “In the _Mahábhárata Sabhá-parwan_, 1105 and 1108, notice is taken of the king of Matsya and of the Aparamatsyas; and, at 1082, the Matsyas figure as an eastern people. They are placed among the nations of the south in the _Rámáyaṇa Kishkindhá-káṇda_, XLI., II, while the Bengal recension, _Kishkindhá-káṇḍa_, XLIV., 12, locates them in the north.”
1058 The Kalingas were the people of the upper part of the Coromandel Coast, well known, in the traditions of the Eastern Archipelago, as Kling. Ptolemy has a city in that part, called Caliga; and Pliny Calingæ proximi mari. WILSON’S _Vishṇu Puráṇa_, Vol. II. 156, Note.
1059 The Kauśikas do not appear to be identifiable.
1060 The Andhras probably occupied the modern Telingana.
1061 The Puṇḍras have already been mentioned in Canto XL.
1062 The inhabitants of the lower part of the Coromandel Coast; so called, after them, Cholamaṇdala.
1063 A people in the Deccan.
1064 The Keralas were the people of Malabar proper.
1065 A generic term for persons speaking any language but Sanskrit and not conforming to the usual Hindu institutions.
1066 “Pulinda is applied to any wild or barbarous tribe. Those here named are some of the people of the deserts along the Indus; but Pulindas are met with in many other positions, especially in the mountains and forests across Central India, the haunts of the Bheels and Gonds. So Ptolemy places the Pulindas along the banks of the Narmadá, to the frontiers of Larice, the Látá or Lár of the Hindus,—Khandesh and part of Gujerat.” WILSON’S _Vishṇu Puráṇa_, Vol. II. 159, Note.
Dr. Hall observes that “in the Bengal recension of the _Rámáyaṇa_ the Pulindas appear both in the south and in the north. The real _Rámáyaṇa_ K.-k., XLIII., speaks of the northern Pulindas.”
1067 The Śúrasenas were the inhabitants of Mathurá, the Suraseni of Arrian.
1068 These the Mardi of the Greeks and the two preceding tribes appear to have dwelt in the north-west of Hindustan.
1069 The Kámbojas are said to be the people of Arachosia. They are always mentioned with the north-western tribes.
1070 “The term Yavanas, although, in later times, applied to the Mohammedans, designated formerly the Greeks.… The Greeks were known throughout Western Asia by the term Yavan, or Ion. That the Macedonian or Bactrian Greeks were most usually intended is not only probable from their position and relations with India, but from their being usually named in concurrence with the north-western tribes, Kámbojas, Daradas, Páradas, Báhlíkas, Śakas &c., in the Rámáyaṇa. Mahábhárata, Puránas, Manu, and in various poems and plays.” WILSON’S _Vishṇu Puráṇa_ Vol. II. p. 181, Note.
1071 These people, the Sakai and Sacæ of classical writers, the Indo-Scythians of Ptolemy, extended, about the commencement of our era, along the west of India, from the Hindu Kosh to the mouths of the Indus.
1072 The corresponding passage in the Bengal recension has instead of Varadas Daradas the Dards or inhabitants of the modern Dardistan along the course of the Indus, above the Himálayas, just before it descends to India.
1073 From the word yonder it would appear that the prayer is to be repeated at the rising of the Sun.
1074 The creator of the world and the first of the Hindu triad.
1075 He who pervades all beings; or the second of the Hindu triad who preserves the world.
1076 The bestower of blessings; the third of the Hindu triad and the destroyer of the world.
1077 A name of the War-God; also one who urges the senses to action.
1078 The lord of creatures; or the God of sacrifices.
1079 A name of the King of Gods; also all-powerful.
1080 The giver of wealth. A name of the God of riches.
1081 One who directly urges the mental faculties to action.
1082 One who moderates the senses, also the God of the regions of the dead.
1083 One who produces nectar (amrita) or one who is always possessed of light; or one together with Umá (Ardhanáríśvara).
1084 The names or spirits of departed ancestors.
1085 Name of a class of eight Gods, also wealthy.
1086 They who are to be served by Yogís; or a class of Gods named Sádhyas.
1087 The two physicians of the Gods: or they who pervade all beings.
1088 They who are immortal; or a class of Gods forty-nine in number.
1089 Omniscient; or the first king of the world.
1090 He that moves; life; or the God of wind.
1091 The God of fire.
1092 Lord of creatures.
1093 One who prolongs our lives.
1094 The material cause of knowledge and of the seasons.
1095 One who shines. The giver of light.
1096 The hymn entitled the Ádityahridaya begins from this verse and the words, thou art, are understood in the beginning of this verse.
1097 One who enjoys all (pleasurable) objects; The son of Aditi, the lord of the solar disk.
1098 One who creates the world, i.e., endows beings with life or soul, and by his rays causes rain and thereby produces corn.
1099 One who urges the world to action or puts the world in motion, who is omnipresent.
1100 One who walks through the sky; or pervades the soul.
1101 One who nourishes the world, i.e., is the supporter.
1102 One having rays (Gabhasti) or he who is possessed of the all-pervading goddess Lakshmí.
1103 One resembling gold.
1104 One who is resplendent or who gives light to other objects.
1105 One whose seed (Retas) is gold; or quicksilver, the material cause of gold.
1106 One who is the cause of day.
1107 One whose horses are of tawny colour; or one who pervades the whole space or quarters.
1108 One whose knowledge is boundless or who has a thousand rays.
1109 One who urges the seven (Práṇas) that is the two eyes, the two ears, the nostrils and the organ of speech, or whose chariot, is drawn by seven horses.
1110 Vide Gabhastimán.
1111 One who destroys darkness, or ignorance.
1112 One from whom our blessings or the enjoyments of Paradise come.
1113 The architect of the gods; or one who lessens the miseries of our birth and death.
1114 One who gives life to the lifeless world.
1115 One who pervades the internal and external worlds; or one who is resplendent.
1116 He who is identified with the Hindu triad, i.e. the creator (Brahmá) the supporter (Vishnu) and the destroyer (Śiva).
1117 Cold or good natured. He is so called because he allays the three sorts of pain.
1118 One who is the lord of all.
1119 Vide Divákara.
1120 One who teaches Brahmá and others the Vedas.
1121 One from whom Rudra the destroyer or the third of the Hindu triad springs.
1122 One who is knowable through Aditi, i.e., the eternal Brahmavidyá.
1123 Great happiness or the sky.
1124 The destroyer of cold or stupidity.
1125 The Lord of the sky.
1126 Vide Timironmathana.
1127 One who is known through the Upanishads.
1128 He who is the cause of heavy rain.
1129 He who is a friend to the good, or who is the cause of water.
1130 One who moves in the solar orbit.
1131 One who determines the creation of the world; or who is possessed of heat.
1132 One who has a mass of rays; or who has Kaustubha and other precious stones as his ornaments.
1133 He who urges all to action; or who is yellow in colour.
1134 One who is the destroyer of all.
1135 One who is omniscient; or a poet.
1136 One who is identified with the whole world.
1137 One who is of huge form.
1138 One who pleases all by giving nourishment; or who is red in colour.
1139 One who is the cause of the whole world.
1140 One who protects the whole world.
1141 The most glorious of all that are glorious.
1142 One who is identical with the twelve months.
1143 One who gives victory over all the worlds to those who are faithfully devoted to him; or the porter of Brahmá, named Jaya.
1144 One who is identical with the blessing which can be obtained by conquering all the worlds; or with the porter of Brahmá named Jayabhadra.
1145 One who has Hanúmán as his conveyance.
1146 One who controls the senses; or is furious with those who are not his devotees.
1147 He who is free in moving the senses; or urges all beings to action.
1148 He who can be known through the Pranava (the mystical Om-kára.)
1149 One who is the knowledge of Brahmá.
1150 One who devours all things.
1151 He who is the destroyer of all pains; and of love, and hate, the causes of pain; and ignorance which is the cause of love and hate.
1152 One who is bliss; or the mover.
1153 One who destroys ignorance and its effects.
1154 The doer of all actions.
1155 One who beholds the universe; who is a witness of good and bad actions.
1156 Sacrifice of the five sensual fires.
1157 According to Ápastamba (says the commentator) “it should have been placed on the nose: this must therefore have been done in conformity with some other Sútras.”
1158 A class of eight gods.
1159 A class of eleven gods called Rudras.
1160 Named Víryaván.
1161 A class of divine devotees named Sádhyas.
1162 One who resides in the water.
1163 The third incarnation of Vishṇu, that bore the earth on his tusk.
1164 One whose armies are everywhere.
1165 One who controls the senses.
1166 He who resides in the heart, or who is full, or all-pervading.
1167 Vámana, or the Dwarf incarnation of Vishṇu.
1168 The killer of Madhu, a demon.
1169 He from whose navel, the lotus, from which Brahmá was born, springs.
1170 He who has a thousand horns. The horns are here the Sákhás of the Sáma-veda.
1171 One who has a hundred heads. The heads are here meant to devote a hundred commandments of the Vedas.
1172 Siddhas are those who have already gained the summit of their desires.
1173 Sádhyas are those that are still trying to gain the summit.
1174 A mystic syllable uttered in Mantras.
1175 A mystic syllable made of the letters which respectively denote Brahmá, Vishṇu, and Śiva.
1176 A class of divine gods.
1177 Sanskáras are those sacred writings through which the divine commands and prohibitions are known.
1178 Bali, a demon whom Vámana confined in Pátála.
1179 Vishṇu, the second of the Hindu triad.
1180 Krishṇa, (black coloured) one of the ten incarnations of Vishṇu.
1181 A. Weber, _Akademische Vorlesungen_, p. 181.
1182 Systema brahmanicum, liturgicum, mythologicum, civile, exmonumentis Indicis, etc.
1183 Not only have the races of India translated or epitomized it, but foreign nations have appropriated it wholly or in part, Persia, Java, and Japan itself.
1184 In the third century B.C.
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