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."
_Raghuransa._
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 Chitrakút. 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 Vishnu. 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:"
"{~GREEK CAPITAL LETTER IOTA WITH DASIA AND OXIA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER PI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER PI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER DELTA~}' {~GREEK CAPITAL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA WITH PSILI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER KAPPA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA WITH OXIA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER DELTA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}, {~GREEK SMALL LETTER MU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA WITH OXIA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER CHI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ETA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER FINAL SIGMA~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA WITH PSILI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER PI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA WITH OXIA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER UPSILON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER THETA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON WITH PSILI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON WITH OXIA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER FINAL SIGMA~}, {~GREEK CAPITAL LETTER KAPPA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER LAMDA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA WITH PERISPOMENI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~}, {~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON WITH PSILI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER PI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER DELTA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ETA WITH VARIA~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER PI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER RHO~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMEGA WITH PERISPOMENI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER PI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER UPSILON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER THETA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON WITH OXIA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER SIGMA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER THETA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ETA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER ETA WITH DASIA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON WITH OXIA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER CHI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~} {~GREEK CAPITAL LETTER EPSILON WITH PSILI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER KAPPA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA WITH OXIA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER SIGMA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER PI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER SIGMA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON WITH OXIA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER FINAL SIGMA~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER UPSILON WITH DASIA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER PHI~}' {~GREEK CAPITAL LETTER EPSILON WITH DASIA AND OXIA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER KAPPA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER RHO~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER FINAL SIGMA~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA WITH PSILI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER DELTA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER RHO~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER PHI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON WITH OXIA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}"
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 Kausalyá, daughter of the king of another Kosal.
339 Rájagriha, or Girivraja was the capital of Asvapati, 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 Krishna.
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 _Vishnu Purána,_ Vol. II. p. 176. DR. HALL'S Note.
344 "The {~GREEK CAPITAL LETTER OMICRON WITH DASIA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER XI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER UPSILON WITH OXIA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER MU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER FINAL SIGMA~} of Arrian. See _As. Res._ Vol. XV. p. 420, 421, also
_Indische Alterthumskunde_, Vol. I. p. 602, first footnote." WILSON'S _Vishnu Purána_, Vol. I. p. 421. DR. HALL'S Edition. The Ikshumatí was a river in Kurukshetra.
345 "The Báhíkas are described in the Mahábhárata, Karna Parvan, with
some detail, and comprehend the different nations of the Punjab from the Sutlej to the Indus." WILSON'S _Vishnu Purána_, 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 (_Vishnu Purána_, 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.{~HORIZONTAL ELLIPSIS~} 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, Dakshineswar is metamorphosed into Duckinsore, Ulubaría into Willoughbury.{~HORIZONTAL ELLIPSIS~} 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 Satadrú, 'the hundred-channeled'--the Zaradrus of Ptolemy,
Hesydrus of Pliny--is the Sutlej." WILSON'S _Vishnu Purána_, 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 "Satrughna accompanied by the other sons of the
king."
358 Not Bharat's uncle, but some councillor.
_ 359 Satakratu_, Lord of a hundred sacrifices, the performance of a
hundred _Asvamedhas_ 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, Lakshman, 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, Varuna, 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 Vrihaspati, the preceptor of the Gods.
381 Garud, 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 Vishnu. 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 Rávan the
giant king of Lanká.
396 The spouse of Rohiní 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 Dandak forest.
400 When the saint Mándavya 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 Visvámitra.
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 Sachí 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 Vishnuu'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-tek, near
Nagpore--the scene of the Yaksha's exile in the _Messenger Cloud_.
421 A hundred _Asvamedhas_ or sacrifices of a horse raise the sacrificer
to the dignity of Indra.
422 Indra.
423 Gorresio observes that Dasaratha 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. Dasaratha 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 Siva.
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 Garud.
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 Gauda 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 Pánini 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_, _Márganapriyám_, _Anúpám_, _Subhagám_, _Bhásím iti_, _Prádhá vyajayata_. Prádhá (daughter of Daksha) bore Anavadyá, Manu, Vansá, Márganapriyá, 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 Kasyapa, "a descendant of Kasyapa," 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 Kasyapa's eight wives, we must here read Kasyap. 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 _tinisa_ (Dalbergia ougeiniensis), _punnága_ (Rottleria tinctoria), _tilaka_ (not named), _syandana_ (Dalbergia ougeiniensis again), _vandana_ (unknown), _nípa_ (Nauclea Kadamba), _lakucha_ (Artoearpus lacucha), _dhava_ (Grislea tomentosa), Asvakarna (another name for the Sál), _Samí_ (Acacia Suma), _khadira_ (Mimosa catechu), _kinsuka_ (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 Siva or Rudra.
456 Umá or Párvati, the consort of Siva.
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, Trisiras.
464 Vishnu, who bears a _chakra_ or discus.
465 Siva.
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 Trisirás.
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 Asvins and Sarasvatí that Namuchi had drunk up his strength. The Asvins 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 Garud, the King of Birds, carried off the Amrit or drink of Paradise
from Indra's custody.
477 A demon, son of Kasyap and Diti, slain by Rudra or Siva 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 Rávan.
481 Kuvera, the God of gold.
482 In the great deluge.
483 The giant Márícha, son of Tádaká. Tádaká 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 Visravas, the father of Rávan 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 Rávan; when he and his brother had
practiced austerities for a long series of years, Brahmá appeared to offer them boons: Vibhishana asked that he might never meditate any unrighteousness.{~HORIZONTAL ELLIPSIS~} On the death of Rávan Vibhishana 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 Asoka_ is compounded of _a_ not and _soka_ grief.
508 See Book I Canto XXXI.
509 An Asur or demon, king of Tripura, the modern Tipperah.
510 Siva.
511 See Book I, Canto LIX.
512 The preceptor of the Gods.
513 From the root _vid_, to find.
514 Rávan.
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, Silápidháná, 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.{~HORIZONTAL ELLIPSIS~} 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 _slokas_ 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 {~HORIZONTAL ELLIPSIS~} 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 Kasyapa 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 Lakshman.
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 {~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER DELTA~}'{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER RHO~}' {~GREEK SMALL LETTER UPSILON WITH DASIA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER PI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER DELTA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER RHO~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER DELTA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMEGA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~}, or {~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER DELTA~}'{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER PI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER MU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER BETA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER MU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER FINAL SIGMA~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER PI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER RHO~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER SIGMA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER PHI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ETA~}, &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,
Vaisyas the mercantile, and Súdras 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 Kaitabha.
"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 Vishnu 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 Siva or
Sankar.
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 Varuna is one of the oldest of the Vedic Gods, corresponding in name
and partly in character to the {~GREEK CAPITAL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER UPSILON WITH PSILI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER RHO~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON WITH OXIA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER FINAL SIGMA~} 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 Asvins 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 Dakshina, 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 Suparna, the Well-winged, is another name of Garuda 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. Asvíní 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 _Ankus_ or iron hook with which an elephant is driven and
guided.
594 Hayagríva, Horse-necked, is a form of Vishnu.
595 "Asvatara 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. Asvatarí 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 Asvatarí is, or what tradition or myth is alluded to. Vimalabodha reads Asvatarí in the nominative case, and explains, Asvatarí 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 Garuda 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 Sushena was the son of Varuna 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 Visvarúpa, a son of Twashtri or Visvakarmá the heavenly architect,
was a three-headed monster slain by Indra.
611 The Vánar chief, not to be confounded with Tárá.
612 Srávan: July-August. But the rains begin a month earlier, and what
follows must not be taken literally. The text has _púrvo' yam várshiko másah Srávanah 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 _sloka_ 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, Sarabha, Vidyunmáli, Sampáti, Súryáksa, Hanumán, Vírabáhu, Subáhu, Nala, Kúmuda, Sushena, 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 Rohiní 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 Mahásaila, &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 Vishnu 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 Mahesvar or Mighty Lord is sometimes given to Indra,
but more generally to Siva 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
Hiranyakasipu, an Asur or a Daitya son of Kasyapa and Diti and killed by Vishnu in his incarnation of the Man-Lion _Narasinha_. According to the Bhágavata Purána the Daitya or Asur Hiranyakasipu and Hiranyáksha his brother, both killed by Vishnu, were born again as Rávan and Kumbhakarna 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 Sachí 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 Sushen.
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 {~HORIZONTAL ELLIPSIS~} 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 _Rámáyanam_, 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, Sarabha, 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 Kausikí 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 Sisir is said to be a mountain ridge projecting from the base of
Meru on the south. Wilson's _Vishnu Purána_, ed. Hall, Vol. II. p. 117.
673 This appears to be some mythical stream and not the well-known Sone.
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, Sálmalí, 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 Visvakarmá, 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 Vishnu Purána. Vol. II. p. 250.
678 Said in the _Vishnu Purána_ 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 _Vishnu Purána_, 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 _Vishnu Purána_.
687 The continent in which Sudarsan 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, Sarári, Saragulma, Gayá, Gaváksha, Gavaya, Sushena,
Gandhamádana, Ulkámukha, and Ananga.
690 The modern Nerbudda.
691 Krishnavení is mentioned in the _Vishnu Purána_ as "the deep
Krishnavení" but there appears to be no clue to its identification.
692 The modern Godavery.
693 The Mekhalas or Mekalas according to the Paránas 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 _Vishnu Purána_, Vol. II. p. 160 says: "The oral traditions of the vicinity to this day assign the name of Dasárna 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 Támraparní is a river rising in Malaya.
703 The Pándyas 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 Sailúsha, Gramini, 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 Suráshtra, 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 Vishnu.
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 _Vishnu Purána_, 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. Vishnu 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 _Vishnu Purána_, Vol. II. p. 243. Note.
726 The Visvadevas 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 Purána_, 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 Sávarni 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; Sudarasan, fair to see; and Devasakhá friend of the Gods.
736 The God of Wealth.
737 The nymphs of Paradise.
738 Kuvera the son of Visravas.
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 Parasuráma.
741 "The Uttara Kurus, it should be remarked, may have been a real
people, as they are mentioned in the Aitareya Bráhmana, VIII. 14.{~HORIZONTAL ELLIPSIS~} 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 Siva, and most of their names are also names of Siva.
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 Usanas is the name of a sage mentioned in the Vedas. In the epic
poems he is identified with Sukra, 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 Merusávarni 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 Vrihaspati, Lord of Speech, the Preceptor of the Gods.
759 Sukra 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 Kusa 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 Garuda the king of
birds.
762 Vivasvat or the Sun is the father of Yáma the God of Death.
763 Book III, Canto LI.
764 Dasaratha'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 Vishnu
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 Garuda, son of Vinatá, the sovereign of the birds.
771 "The well winged one," Garuda.
772 The god of the sea.
773 Mahendra is chain of mountains generally identified with part of the
Gháts of the Peninsula.
774 Mátarisva 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 Hiranyakasipu, was a pious Datya remarkable for
his devotion to Vishnu, and was on this account persecuted by his father.
781 The Bengal recension calls him Aríshtanemi's brother. "The
commentator says 'Aríshtanemi is Aruna.' Aruna the charioteer of the sun is the son of Kasyapa and Vinatá and by consequence brother of Garuda, 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 Vishnu, the God of the Three Steps.
785 Náráyan, "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 Garuda.
795 "The children of Surasá were a thousand mighty many-headed serpents,
traversing the sky." WILSON'S _Vishnu Purána_, 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 Kasyapa 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 Rávan's stern mortifications had won for him
his trees bore flowers and fruit simultaneously.
804 Visvakarmá 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 Rávan.
809 Indra's elephant.
810 Rávan'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. Rávan'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
Rávan's expedition to carry off Sítá, Book III, Canto XXXV.
812 Lakshmí is the wife of Vishnu 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 Visvakarmá is the architect of the Gods, the Hephaestos or Mulciber
of the Indian heaven.
814 Rávan 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 Rávan 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
Varuna is the chief. The name Áditya was afterwards given to any God, specially to Súrya the Sun.
821 The Asvins 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. _Jyotishtom_, 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 Rávan 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 Rávan 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 Hiranyakasipu was a king of the Daityas celebrated for his
blasphemous impieties. When his pious son Prahlada praised Vishnu 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."
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 Rávan 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 Ashtaka I. Súkta XXXIV, the Rishi Hiranyastúpa invoking the Asvins says: Á Násatyá tribhirekádasairiha devebniryátam: 'O Násatyas (Asvins) 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 Lakshman.
844 In the south is the region of Yáma the God of Death, the place of
departed spirits.
845 Kumbhakarna was one of Rávan'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 Rámáyana 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 Vrihaspati 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 Siva.
852 The Maruts or Storm Gods.
853 Rohiní 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 Vasishtha, 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 Rávan 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 Rávan. 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 Sachí 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 Vibhishan is the wicked Rávan's good brother.
864 Her name is Kalá, or in the Bengal recension Nandá.
865 One of Rávan'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 Chitrakúta 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 Rávan 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 Kosal 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 Rávan's son.
878 Conqueror of Indra, another of Rávan's sons.
879 The _sloka_ which follows is probably an interpolation, as it is
inconsistent with the questioning in Canto L.:
He looked on Rávan 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 Rávan 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,
Mahápársva, and Nikumbha.
882 The chief attendant of Siva.
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 Vishnu 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 _Vishnu Purana_, 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-Kánda_ or _The War_,
and _Lanká-Kánda_. It is generally known at the present day by the latter title.
896 Váyu is the God of Wind.
897 Garuda 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 Trisanku 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 Visvámitra, who performed for Trisanku 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 Rávan and first possessor of
Pushpak the flying car.
911 King of the Serpents. Sankha 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, Súryasatru, Suptaghna, Yajnakopa,
Mahápársva, Mahodara, Agniketu, Rasmiketu, Durdharsha, Indrasatru, Prahasta, Virúpáksha, Vajradanshtra, 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. Vibhishan is kicked from his seat by Rávan, and then, after telling his mother what has happened, he flies to Mount Kailása where he has an interview with Siva, and by his advice seeks Ráma and the Vánar army.
928 Vrihaspati the preceptor of the Gods.
929 In Book II, Canto XXI, Kandu 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 Vrana_ 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 Kesarí 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. Rávan 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 Sárdúla to tell him the names of the Vánar chieftains whom he has seen in Ráma's army. These have already been mentioned by Suka and Sáran.
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 Suka and Sáran 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 Kinsuk, also called Palása, is Butea Frondosa, a tree that bears
beautiful red crescent shaped blossoms and is deservedly a favorite with poets. The Seemal or Sálmalí is the silk cotton tree which also bears red blossoms.
949 Varuna.
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 Yajnasatru, Mahápársva, Mahodar, Vajradanshtra, Suka, and Sáran.
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 Varun.
957 The name of one of the mystical weapons the command over which was
given by Visvámitra 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 Rávan'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 Kusadhwaja. She became an ascetic, and being
insulted by Rávan 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 Nandísvara was Siva's chief attendant. Rávan had despised and
laughed at him for appearing in the form of a monkey and the irritated Nandísvara cursed him and foretold his destruction by monkeys.
968 Rávan once upheaved and shook Mount Kailása the favourite dwelling
place of Siva 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 Rávan.
970 Punjikasthalá was the daughter of Varun. Rávan 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 Visravas or Paulastya
the father of Rávan and Kumbhakarna.
972 I omit a tedious sermon on the danger of rashness and the advantages
of prudence, sufficient to irritate a less passionate hearer than Rávan.
973 The Bengal recension assigns a very different speech to Kumbhakarna
and makes him say that Nárad the messenger of the Gods had formerly told him that Vishnu himself incarnate as Dasaratha's son should come to destroy Rávan.
974 Mahodar, Dwijihva, Sanhráda, and Vitardan.
975 A name of Vishnu.
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 Kumbhakarna, 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 Parasuráma
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, Sarabh, 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 _karsas_, and the _karsa_ to 11375 French grammes or about 176 grains troy. The spear seems very light for a warrior of Kumbhakarna'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 Lakshman.
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 sloka prak shipta iti bahavah_, "This _sloka_ 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 Sambar was a demon of drought.
986 Indra.
987 Devántak (Slayer of Gods) Narántak (Slayer of Men) Atikáya (Huge of
Frame) and Trisirás (Three Headed) were all sons of Rávan.
988 The demon of eclipse who seizes the Sun and Moon.
989 Lakshman.
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 Vishnu.
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, Varuna, 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 Rávan'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 Garud 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 Rávan.
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 Varun.
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 Varun, God of the sea.
1019 Mahádeva or Siva 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 Rávan'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, Sushen, Nala, Gaváksha, Gandhamádan, Sarabh, and Panas.
1028 The following addition is found in the Bengal recension: But
Vaisravan (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 _Uttarakánda_," Mr. Cowell remarks, "bears the same relation to the _Rámáyana_ 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 _Uttarakánda_ is intended to complete the _Rámáyana_, 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 Rávana 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 _Raghuvansa_, 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 Kásikosalas are a central nation in the Váyu Purána. The
Rámáyana places them in the east. The combination indicates the country between Benares and Oude.{~HORIZONTAL ELLIPSIS~} Kosala 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.{~HORIZONTAL ELLIPSIS~} In the Mahábhárata we have one Kosala in the east and another in the south, besides the Prák-Kosalas and Uttara Kosalas in the east and north. The Puránas place the Kosalas amongst the people on the back of Vindhya; and it would appear from the Váyu that Kusa the son of Ráma transferred his kingdom to a more central position; he ruled over Kosala at his capital of Kúsasthali of Kusavatí, built upon the Vindhyan precipices." WILSON'S _Vishnnu Púrana_, Vol. II. pp. 157, 172.
1045 The people of south Behar.
1046 The Pundras are said to be the inhabitants of the western provinces
of Bengal. "In the _Aitareyabráhmana_, VII. 18, it is said that the elder sons of Visvamitra were cursed to become progenitors of most abject races, such as Andhras, Pundras, Sabaras, Pulindas, and Mútibas." WILSON'S _Vishnu Purána_ 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
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."
_Vishnu Purána_, 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 _Vishnu Purána_, 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 _Rámáyana Kishkindhá-kánda_, XLI., II, while the Bengal recension, _Kishkindhá-kánda_, 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 _Vishnu Purána_, Vol. II. 156, Note.
1059 The Kausikas do not appear to be identifiable.
1060 The Andhras probably occupied the modern Telingana.
1061 The Pundras have already been mentioned in Canto XL.
1062 The inhabitants of the lower part of the Coromandel Coast; so
called, after them, Cholamandala.
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 _Vishnu Purána_, Vol. II. 159, Note.
Dr. Hall observes that "in the Bengal recension of the _Rámáyana_ the Pulindas appear both in the south and in the north. The real _Rámáyana_ K.-k., XLIII., speaks of the northern Pulindas."
1067 The Súrasenas 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.{~HORIZONTAL ELLIPSIS~} 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, Sakas &c., in the Rámáyana. Mahábhárata, Puránas, Manu, and in various poems and plays." WILSON'S _Vishnu Purána_ 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 (Ardhanárísvara).
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 (Pránas) 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 (Siva).
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 Vishnu, 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 Vishnu.
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, Vishnu, and Siva.
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 Vishnu, the second of the Hindu triad.
1180 Krishna, (black coloured) one of the ten incarnations of Vishnu.
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.
***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE RAMAYANA***
CREDITS
March 18, 2008