Book 6 — Footnotes (continued 2)

563.

A fiend slain by Báli.

564.

Báli's mountain city.

565.

The canopy or royal umbrella, one of the usual Indian regalia.

566.

Whisks made of the hair of the Yak or Bos grunniers, also regal insignia.

567.

Righteous because he never transgresses his bounds, and “over his great tides Fidelity presides.”

568.

Himálaya, the Lord of Snow, is the father of Umá the wife of Śiva or Śankar.

569.

Indra's celestial elephant.

570.

Báli was the son of Indra. See p. 28.

571.

An Asur slain by Indra. See p. 261 Note. He is, like Vritra, a form of the demon of drought destroyed by the beneficent God of the firmament.

572.

Another name of Indra or Mahendra.

573.

The Bengal recension makes it return in the form of a swan.

574.

Varuṇa is one of the oldest of the Vedic Gods, corresponding in name and partly in character to the Οὐρανός of the Greeks and is often regarded as the supreme deity. He upholds heaven and earth, possesses extraordinary power and wisdom, sends his messengers through both worlds, numbers the very winkings of men's eyes, punishes transgressors whom he seizes with his deadly noose, and pardons the sins of those who are penitent. In later mythology he has become the God of the sea.

575.

Budha, not to be confounded with the great reformer Buddha, is the son of Soma or the Moon, and regent of the planet Mercury. Angára is the regent of Mars who is called the red or the fiery planet. The encounter between Michael and Satan is similarly said to have been as if “Two planets rushing from aspect malign Of fiercest opposition in midsky Should combat, and their jarring spheres compound.” Paradise Lost. Book VI.

576.

The Aśvins or Heavenly Twins, the Dioskuri or Castor and Pollux of the Hindus, have frequently been mentioned. See p. 36, Note.

577.

Called respectively Gárhapatya, Áhavaniya, and Dakshiṇa, household, sacrificial, and southern.

578.

The store of merit accumulated by a holy or austere life secures only a temporary seat in the mansion of bliss. When by the lapse of time this store is exhausted, return to earth is unavoidable.

579.

The conflagration which destroys the world at the end of a Yuga or age.

580.

Himálaya.

581.

Tárá means “star.” The poet plays upon the name by comparing her beauty to that of the Lord of stars, the Moon.

582.

Suparṇa, the Well-winged, is another name of Garuḍa the King of Birds. See p. 28, Note.

583.

The God of Death.

584.

The flag-staff erected in honour of the God Indra is lowered when the festival is over. Aśvíní in astronomy is the head of Aries or the first of the twenty-eight lunar mansions or asterisms.

585.

Indra the father of Báli.

586.

It is believed that every creature killed by Ráma obtained in consequence immediate beatitude. “And blessed the hand that gave so dear a death.”

587.

“Yayáti was invited to heaven by Indra, and conveyed on the way thither by Mátali, Indra's charioteer. He afterwards returned to earth where, by his virtuous administration he rendered all his subjects exempt from passion and decay.” Garrett's C. D. of India.

588.

The ascetic's dress which he wore during his exile.

589.

There is much inconsistency in the passages of the poem in which the Vánars are spoken of, which seems to point to two widely different legends. The Vánars are generally represented as semi-divine beings with preternatural powers, living in houses and eating and drinking like men sometimes as here, as monkeys pure and simple, living is woods and eating fruit and roots.

590.

For a younger brother to marry before the elder is a gross violation of Indian law and duty. The same law applied to daughters with the Hebrews: “It must not be so done in our country to give the younger before the first-born.” Genesis xix. 26.

591.

“The hedgehog and porcupine, the lizard, the rhinoceros, the tortoise, and the rabbit or hare, wise legislators declare lawful food among five-toed animals.” Manu, v. 18.

592.

“He can not buckle his distempered cause Within the belt of rule.” Macbeth.

593.

The Ankuś or iron hook with which an elephant is driven and guided.

594.

Hayagríva, Horse-necked, is a form of Vishṇu.

595.

“Aśvatara is the name of a chief of the Nágas or serpents which inhabit the regions under the earth; it is also the name of a Gandharva. Aśvatarí ought to be the wife of one of the two, but I am not sure that this conjecture is right. The commentator does not say who this Aśvatarí is, or what tradition or myth is alluded to. Vimalabodha reads Aśvatarí in the nominative case, and explains, Aśvatarí is the sun, and as the sun with his rays brings back the moon which has been sunk in the ocean and the infernal regions, so will I bring back Sítá.” Gorresio.

596.

That is, “Consider what answer you can give to your accusers when they charge you with injustice in killing me.”

597.

Manu, Book VIII. 318. “But men who have committed offences and have received from kings the punishment due to them, go pure to heaven and become as clear as those who have done well.”

598.

Mándhátá was one of the earlier descendants of Ikshváku. His name is mentioned in Ráma's genealogy, p. 81.

599.

I cannot understand how Válmíki could put such an excuse as this into Ráma's mouth. Ráma with all solemn ceremony, has made a league of alliance with Báli's younger brother whom he regards as a dear friend and almost as an equal, and now he winds up his reasons for killing Báli by coolly saying: “Besides you are only a monkey, you know, after all, and as such I have every right to kill you how, when, and where I like.”

600.

A name of Garuḍa the king of birds, the great enemy of the Serpents.

601.

Sugríva's wife.

602.

“Our deeds still follow with us from afar. And what we have been makes us what we are.”

603.

Sugríva and Angad.

604.

Angad himself, being too young to govern, would be Yuvarája or heir-apparent.

605.

Susheṇa was the son of Varuṇa the God of the sea.

606.

A demon with the tail of a dragon, that causes eclipses by endeavouring to swallow the sun and moon.

607.

The Lord of Stars is the Moon.

608.

Or the passage may be interpreted: “Be neither too obsequious or affectionate, nor wanting in due respect or love.”

609.

Sacrifices and all religious rites begin and end with ablution, and the wife of the officiating Bráhman takes an important part in the performance of the holy ceremonies.

610.

Viśvarúpa, a son of Twashṭri or Viśvakarmá the heavenly architect, was a three-headed monster slain by Indra.

611.

The Vánar chief, not to be confounded with Tárá.

612.

Śrávaṇ: July-August. But the rains begin a month earlier, and what follows must not be taken literally. The text has púrvo' yam várshiko másah Śrávaṇah salilágamdh. The Bengal recension has the same, and Gorresio translates: “Equesto ilmese Srâvana (luglio-agosto) primo della stagione piovosa, in cui dilagano le acque.”

613.

Kártik: October-November.

614.

“Indras, as the nocturnal sun, hides himself, transformed, in the starry heavens: the stars are his eyes. The hundred-eyed or all-seeing (panoptês) Argos placed as a spy over the actions of the cow beloved by Zeus, in the Hellenic equivalent of this form of Indras.” De Gubernatis, Zoological Mythology, Vol. I, p. 418.

615.

Baudháyana and others.

616.

Sugríva appears to have been consecrated with all the ceremonies that attended the Abhisheka or coronation of an Indian prince of the Aryan race. Compare the preparations made for Ráma's consecration, Book II, Canto III. Thus Homer frequently introduces into Troy the rites of Hellenic worship.

617.

Vitex Negundo.

618.

Mályavat: “The name of this mountain appears to me to be erroneous, and I think that instead of Mályavat should be read Malayavat, Malaya is a group of mountains situated exactly in that southern part of India where Ráma now was, while Mályavat is placed to the north east.” Gorresio.

619.

Mantles of the skin of the black antelope were the prescribed dress of ascetics and religious students.

620.

The sacred cord worn as the badge of religious initiation by men of the three twice-born castes.

621.

The hum with which students conduct their tasks.

622.

I omit here a long general description of the rainy season which is not found in the Bengal recension and appears to have been interpolated by a far inferior and much later hand than Valmiki's. It is composed in a metre different from that of the rest of the Canto, and contains figures of poetical rhetoric and common-places which are the delight of more recent poets.

623.

Praushthapada or Bhadra, the modern Bhadon, corresponds to half of August and half of September.

624.

The Sáman or Sáma-veda, the third of the four Vedas, is really merely a reproduction of parts of the Rig-veda, transposed and scattered about piece-meal, only 78 verses in the whole being, it is said, untraceable to the present recension of the Rig-veda.

625.

Áshádha is the month corresponding to parts of June and July.

626.

Bharat, who was regent during Ráma's absence.

627.

Or with Gorresio, following the gloss of another commentary: “Has completed every holy rite and accumulated stores of merit.”

628.

The river on which Ayodhyá was built.

629.

I omit a śloka or four lines on gratitude and ingratitude repeated word for word from the last Canto.

630.

The Indian crane; a magnificent bird easily domesticated.

631.

The troops who guard the frontiers on the north, south, east and west.

632.

The Chátaka, Cuculus, Melanoleucus, is supposed to drink nothing but the water for the clouds.

633.

The time for warlike expeditions began when the rains had ceased.

634.

The rainbow.

635.

Indra's associates in arms, and musicians of his heaven.

636.

Maireya, a spirituous liquor from the blossoms of the Lythrum fruticosum, with sugar, &c.

637.

Their names are as follows: Angad, Maínda, Dwida, Gavaya, Gaváksha, Gaja, Śarabha, Vidyunmáli, Sampáti, Súryáksa, Hanumán, Vírabáhu, Subáhu, Nala, Kúmuda, Susheṇa, Tára, Jámbuvatu, Dadhivakra, Níla, Supátala, and Sunetra.

638.

The Kalpadruma or Wishing-tree is one of the trees of Svarga or Indra's Paradise: it has the power of granting all desires.

639.

The meaning is that if a man promises to give a horse and then breaks his word he commits a sin as great as if he had killed a hundred horses.

640.

The story is told in Book I, Canto LXIII, but the charmer there is called Menaká.

641.

Rohiṇí is the name of the ninth Nakshatra or lunar asterism personified as a daughter of Daksha, and the favourite wife of the Moon. Aldebaran is the principal star in the constellation.

642.

Válmíki and succeeding poets make the second vowel in this name long or short at their pleasure.

643.

Some of the mountains here mentioned are fabulous and others it is impossible to identify. Sugríva means to include all the mountains of India from Kailás the residence of the God Kuvera, regarded as one of the loftiest peaks of the Himálayas, to Mahendra in the extreme south, from the mountain in the east where the sun is said to rise to Astáchal or the western mountain where he sets. The commentators give little assistance: that Maháśaila, &c. are certain mountains is about all the information they give.

644.

One of the celestial elephants of the Gods who protect the four quarters and intermediate points of the compass.

645.

Váyu or the Wind was the father of Hanumán.

646.

The path or station of Vishṇu is the space between the seven Rishis or Ursa Major, and Dhruva or the polar star.

647.

One of the seven seas which surround the earth in concentric circles.

648.

The title of Maheśvar or Mighty Lord is sometimes given to Indra, but more generally to Śiva whom it here denotes.

649.

See Book I, Canto XVI.

650.

The numbers are unmanageable in English verse. The poet speaks of hundreds of arbudas; and an arbuda is a hundred millions.

651.

Anuhláda or Anuhráda is one of the four sons of the mighty Hiraṇyakaśipu, an Asur or a Daitya son of Kaśyapa and Diti and killed by Vishṇu in his incarnation of the Man-Lion Narasinha. According to the Bhágavata Puráṇa the Daitya or Asur Hiraṇyakaśipu and Hiraṇyáksha his brother, both killed by Vishṇu, were born again as Rávaṇ and Kumbhakarṇa his brother.

652.

Puloma, a demon, was the father-in-law of Indra who destroyed him in order to avert an imprecation. Paulomí is a patronymic denoting Śachí the daughter of Puloma.

653.

“Observe the variety of colours which the poem attributes to all these inhabitants of the different mountainous regions, some white, others yellow, &c. Such different colours were perhaps peculiar and distinctive characteristics of those various races.” Gorressio.

654.

Susheṇ.

655.

Tára.

656.

Kesarí was the husband of Hanúmán's mother, and is here called his father.

657.

“I here unite under one heading two animals of very diverse nature and race, but which from some gross resemblances, probably helped by an equivoque in the language, are closely affiliated in the Hindoo myth … a reddish colour of the skin, want of symmetry and ungainliness of form, strength in hugging with the fore paws or arms, the faculty of climbing, shortness of tail(?), sensuality, capacity of instruction in dancing and in music, are all characteristics which more or less distinguish and meet in bears as well as in monkeys. In the Rámáyaṇam, the wise Jámnavant, the Odysseus of the expedition of Lanká, is called now king of the bears (rikshaparthivah), now great monkey (Mahákapih).” De Gubernatis: Zoological Mythology, Vol. II. p. 97.

658.

Gandhamádana, Angad, Tára, Indrajánu, Rambha, Durmukha, Hanumán, Nala, Da mukha, Śarabha, Kumuda, Vahni.

659.

Daityas and Dánavas are fiends and enemies of the Gods, like the Titans of Greek mythology.

660.

I reduce the unwieldy numbers of the original to more modest figures.

661.

Sarayú now Sarjú is the river on which Ayodhyá was built.

662.

Kauśikí is a river which flows through Behar, commonly called Kosi.

663.

Bhagírath's daughter is Gangá or the Ganges. The legend is told at length in Book I Canto XLIV. The Descent of Gangá.

664.

A mountain not identified.

665.

The Jumna. The river is personified as the twin sister of Yáma, and hence regarded as the daughter of the Sun.

666.

The Sarasvatí (corruptly called Sursooty, is supposed to join the Ganges and Jumna at Prayág or Allahabad. It rises in the mountains bounding the north-east part of the province of Delhi, and running in a south-westerly direction becomes lost in the sands of the great desert.

667.

The Sindhu is the Indus, the Sanskrit s becoming h in Persian and being in this instance dropped by the Greeks.

668.

The Sone which rises in the district of Nagpore and falls into the Ganges above Patna.

669.

Mahí is a river rising in Malwa and falling into the gulf of Cambay after a westerly course of 280 miles.

670.

There is nothing to show what parts of the country the poet intended to denote as silk-producing and silver-producing.

671.

Yavadwipa means the island of Yava, wherever that may be.

672.

Śiśir is said to be a mountain ridge projecting from the base of Meru on the south. Wilson's Vishnu Puráṇa, ed. Hall, Vol. II. p. 117.

673.

This appears to be some mythical stream and not the well-known Śone. The name means red-coloured.

674.

A fabulous thorny rod of the cotton tree used for torturing the wicked in hell. The tree gives its name, Śálmalí, to one of the seven Dwípas, or great divisions of the known continent: and also to a hell where the wicked are tormented with the pickles of the tree.

675.

The king of the feathered creation.

676.

Viśvakarmá, the Mulciber of the Indian heaven.

677.

“The terrific fiends named Mandehas attempt to devour the sun: for Brahmá denounced this curse upon them, that without the power to perish they should die every day (and revive by night) and therefore a fierce contest occurs (daily) between them and the sun.” Wilson's Vishṇu Puráṇa. Vol. II. p. 250.

678.

Said in the Vishṇu Puráṇa to be a ridge projecting from the base of Meru to the north.

679.

Kinnars are centaurs reversed, beings with equine head and human bodies.

680.

Yakshas are demi-gods attendant on Kuvera the God of wealth.

681.

Aurva was one of the descendants of Bhrigu. From his wrath proceeded a flame that threatened to destroy the world, had not Aurva cast it into the ocean where it remained concealed, and having the face of a horse. The legend is told in the Mahábhárat. I. 6802.

682.

The word Játarúpa means gold.

683.

The celebrated mythological serpent king Sesha, called also Ananta or the infinite, represented as bearing the earth on one of his thousand heads.

684.

Jambudwípa is in the centre of the seven great dwípas or continents into which the world is divided, and in the centre of Jambudwípa is the golden mountain Meru 84,000 yojans high, and crowned by the great city of Brahmá. See Wilson's Vishṇu Puráṇa, Vol. II. p. 110.

685.

Vaikhánases are a race of hermit saints said to have sprung from the nails of Prajápati.

686.

“The wife of Kratu, Samnati, brought forth the sixty thousand Válakhilyas, pigmy sages, no bigger than a joint of the thumb, chaste, pious, resplendent as the rays of the Sun.” Wilson's Vishṇu Puráṇa.

687.

The continent in which Sudarśan or Meru stands, i.e. Jambudwíp.

688.

The names of some historical peoples which occur in this Canto and in the Cantos describing the south and north will be found in the Additional Notes. They are bare lists, not susceptible of a metrical version.

689.

Suhotra, Śarári, Śaragulma, Gayá, Gaváksha, Gavaya, Susheṇa, Gandhamádana, Ulkámukha, and Ananga.

690.

The modern Nerbudda.

691.

Krishṇaveṇí is mentioned in the Vishṇu Puráṇa as “the deep Krishṇaveṇí” but there appears to be no clue to its identification.

692.

The modern Godavery.

693.

The Mekhalas or Mekalas according to the Paráṇas live in the Vindhya hills, but here they appear among the peoples of the south.

694.

Utkal is still the native name of Orissa.

695.

The land of the people of the “ten forts.” Professor Hall in a note on Wilson's Vishṇu Puráṇa, Vol. II. p. 160 says: “The oral traditions of the vicinity to this day assign the name of Daśárna to a region lying to the east of the District of Chundeyree.”

696.

Avantí is one of the ancient names of the celebrated Ujjayin or Oujein in Central India.

697.

Not identified.

698.

Ayomukh means iron faced. The mountain is not identified.

699.

The Káverí or modern Cauvery is well known and has always borne the same appellation, being the Chaberis of Ptolemy.

700.

One of the seven principal mountain chains: the southern portion of the Western Gháts.

701.

Agastya is the great sage who has already frequently appeared as Ráma's friend and benefactor.

702.

Támraparṇí is a river rising in Malaya.

703.

The Páṇḍyas are a people of the Deccan.

704.

Mahendra is the chain of hills that extends from Orissa and the northern Sircars to Gondwána, part of which near Ganjam is still called Mahendra Malay or hills of Mahendra.

705.

Lanká, Sinhaladvípa, Sarandib, or Ceylon.

706.

The Flowery Hill of course is mythical.

707.

The whole of the geography south of Lanká is of course mythical. Súryaván means Sunny.

708.

Vaidyut means connected with lightning.

709.

Agastya is here placed far to the south of Lanká. Earlier in this Canto he was said to dwell on Malaya.

710.

Bhogavatí has been frequently mentioned: it is the capital of the serpent Gods or demons, and usually represented as being in the regions under the earth.

711.

Vásuki is according to some accounts the king of the Nágas or serpent Gods.

712.

Śailúsha, Gramiṇi, Siksha, Suka, Babhru.

713.

The distant south beyond the confines of the earth is the home of departed spirits and the city of Yáma the God of Death.

714.

Suráshṭra, the “good country,” is the modern Sura

715.

A country north-west of Afghanistan, Baíkh.

716.

The Moon-mountain here is mythical.

717.

Sindhu is the Indus.

718.

Páriyátra, or as more usually written Páripátra, is the central or western portion of the Vindhya chain which skirts the province of Malwa.

719.

Vajra means both diamond and thunderbolt, the two substances being supposed to be identical.

720.

Chakraván means the discus-bearer.

721.

The discus is the favourite weapon of Vishṇu.

722.

The Indian Hephaistos or Vulcan.

723.

Panchajan was a demon who lived in the sea in the form of a conch shell. Wilson's Vishṇu Puráṇa, V. 21.

724.

Hayagríva, Horse-necked, is the name of a Daitya who at the dissolution of the universe caused by Brahmá's sleep, seized and carried off the Vedas. Vishṇu slew him and recovered the sacred treasures.

725.

Meru stands in the centre of Jambudwípa and consequently of the earth. “The sun travels round the world, keeping Meru always on his right. To the spectator who fronts him, therefore, as he rises Meru must be always on the north; and as the sun's rays do not penetrate beyond the centre of the mountain, the regions beyond, or to the north of it must be in darkness, whilst those on the south of it must be in light: north and south being relative, not absolute, terms, depending on the position of the spectator with regard to the Sun and Meru.” Wilson's Vishṇu Puráṇa, Vol. II. p. 243. Note.

726.

The Viśvadevas are a class of deities to whom sacrifices should be daily offered, as part of the ordinary worship of the householder. According to the Váyu Puráṇa, this is a privilege conferred on them by Brahmá and the Pitris as a reward for religious austerities practised by them upon Himálaya.

727.

The eight Vasus were originally personifications like other Vedic deities, of natural phenomena, such as Fire, Wind, &c. Their appellations are variously given by different authorities.

728.

The Maruts or Storm-Gods, frequently addressed and worshipped as the attendants and allies of Indra.

729.

The mountain behind which the sun sets.

730.

One of the oldest and mightiest of the Vedic deities; in later mythology regarded as the God of the sea.

731.

The knotted noose with which he seizes and punishes transgressors.

732.

Sávarṇi is a Manu, offspring of the Sun by Chháyá.

733.

The poet has not said who the sons of Yáma are.

734.

The Lodhra or Lodh (Symplocos Racemosa) and the Devadáru or Deodar are well known trees.

735.

The hills mentioned are not identifiable. Soma means the Moon. Kála, black; Sudaraśan, fair to see; and Devasakhá friend of the Gods.

736.

The God of Wealth.

737.

The nymphs of Paradise.

738.

Kuvera the son of Viśravas.

739.

A class of demigods who, like the Yakshas, are the attendants of Kuvera, and the guardians of his treasures.

740.

Situated in the eastern part of the Himálaya chain, on the north of Assam. The mountain was torn asunder and the pass formed by the War-God Kártikeya and Paraśuráma.

741.

“The Uttara Kurus, it should be remarked, may have been a real people, as they are mentioned in the Aitareya Bráhmaṇa, VIII. 14.… Wherefore the several nations who dwell in this northern quarter, beyond the Himavat, the Uttara Kurus and the Uttara Madras are consecrated to glorious dominion, and people term them the glorious. In another passage of the same work, however, the Uttara Kurus are treated as belonging to the domain of mythology.” Muir's Sanskrit Texts. Vol. I. p. 494. See Additional Notes.

742.

The Moon-mountain.

743.

The Rudras are the same as the storm winds, more usually called Maruts, and are often associated with Indra. In the later mythology the Rudras are regarded as inferior manifestations of Śiva, and most of their names are also names of Śiva.

744.

Canto IX.

745.

Udayagiri or the hill from which the sun rises.

746.

Asta is the mountain behind which the sun sets.

747.

Himálaya, the Hills of Snow.

748.

Canto XI.

749.

Hanumán was the leader of the army of the south which was under the nominal command of Angad the heir apparent.

750.

The Bengal recension—Gorresio's edition—calls this Asur or demon the son of Márícha.

751.

The skin of the black antelope was the ascetic's proper garb.

752.

Uśanas is the name of a sage mentioned in the Vedas. In the epic poems he is identified with Śukra, the regent of the planet Venus, and described as the preceptor of the Asuras or Daityas, and possessor of vast knowledge.

753.

Hemá is one of the nymphs of Paradise.

754.

Merusávarṇi is a general name for the last four of the fourteen Manus.

755.

Svayamprabhá, the “self-luminous,” is according to De Gubernatis the moon: “In the Svayamprabhá too, we meet with the moon as a good fairy who, from the golden palace which she reserves for her friend Hemá (the golden one:) is during a month the guide, in the vast cavern of Hanumant and his companions, who have lost their way in the search of the dawn Sítá.” This is is not quite accurate: Hanumán and his companions wander for a month in the cavern without a guide, and then Svayamprabhá leads them out.

756.

Purandara, the destroyer of cities; the cities being the clouds which the God of the firmament bursts open with his thunderbolts, to release the waters imprisoned in these fortresses of the demons of drought.

757.

Perceived that Angad had secured, through the love of the Vánars, the reversion of Sugríva's kingdom; or, as another commentator explains it, perceived that Angad had obtained a new kingdom in the enchanted cave which the Vánars, through love of him, would consent to occupy.

758.

Vṛihaspati, Lord of Speech, the Preceptor of the Gods.

759.

Śukra is the regent of the planet Venus, and the preceptor of the Daityas.

760.

The name of various kinds of grass used at sacrificial ceremonies, especially, of the Kuśa grass, Poa cynosuroides, which was used to strew the ground in preparing for a sacrifice, the officiating Brahmans being purified by sitting on it.

761.

Sampáti is the eldest son of the celebrated Garuḍa the king of birds.

762.

Vivasvat or the Sun is the father of Yáma the God of Death.

763.

Book III, Canto LI.

764.

Daśaratha's rash oath and fatal promise to his wife Kaikeyí.

765.

Vritra, “the coverer, hider, obstructer (of rain)” is the name of the Vedic personification of an imaginary malignant influence or demon of darkness and drought supposed to take possession of the clouds, causing them to obstruct the clearness of the sky and keep back the waters. Indra is represented as battling with this evil influence, and the pent-up clouds being practically represented as mountains or castles are shattered by his thunderbolt and made to open their receptacles.

766.

Frequent mention has been made of the three steps of Vishṇu typifying the rising, culmination, and setting of the sun.

767.

For the Churning of the Sea, see Book I, Canto XLV.

768.

Kuvera, the God of Wealth.

769.

The architect of the gods.

770.

Garuḍa, son of Vinatá, the sovereign of the birds.

771.

“The well winged one,” Garuḍa.

772.

The god of the sea.

773.

Mahendra is chain of mountains generally identified with part of the Gháts of the Peninsula.

774.

Mátariśva is identified with Váyu, the wind.

775.

Of course not equal to the whole earth, says the Commentator, but equal to Janasthán.

776.

This appears to be the Indian form of the stories of Phaethon and Dædalus and Icarus.

777.

According to the promise, given him by Brahmá. See Book I, Canto XIV.

778.

In the Bengal recension the fourth Book ends here, the remaining Cantos being placed in the fifth.

779.

Each chief comes forward and says how far he can leap. Gaja says he can leap ten yojans. Gavaksha can leap twenty. Gavaya thirty, and so on up to ninety.

780.

Prahláda, the son of Hiraṇyakaśipu, was a pious Datya remarkable for his devotion to Vishṇu, and was on this account persecuted by his father.

781.

The Bengal recension calls him Aríshṭanemi's brother. “The commentator says ‘Aríshṭanemi is Aruṇa.’ Aruṇa the charioteer of the sun is the son of Kaśyapa and Vinatá and by consequence brother of Garuḍa, called Vainateya from Vinatá, his mother.” Gorressio.

782.

A nymph of Paradise.

783.

Hanu or Hanú means jaw. Hanumán or Hanúmán means properly one with a large jaw.

784.

Vishṇu, the God of the Three Steps.

785.

Náráyaṇ, “He who moved upon the waters,” is Vishnu. The allusion is to the famous three steps of that God.

786.

The Milky Way.

787.

This Book is called Sundar or the Beatiful. To a European taste it is the most intolerably tedious of the whole poem, abounding in repetition, overloaded description, and long and useless speeches which impede the action of the poem. Manifest interpolations of whole Cantos also occur. I have omitted none of the action of the Book, but have occasionally omitted long passages of common-place description, lamentation, and long stories which have been again and again repeated.

788.

Brahmá the Self-Existent.

789.

Maináka was the son of Himálaya and Mená or Menaká.

790.

Thus Milton makes the hills of heaven self-moving at command: “At his command the uprooted hills retired Each to his place, they heard his voice and went Obsequious”

791.

The spirit of the mountain is separable from the mountain. Himalaya has also been represented as standing in human form on one of his own peaks.

792.

Ságar or the Sea is said to have derived its name from Sagar. The story is fully told in Book I, Cantos XLII, XLIII, and XLIV.

793.

Kritu is the first of the four ages of the world, the golden age, also called Satya.

794.

Parvata means a mountain and in the Vedas a cloud. Hence in later mythology the mountains have taken the place of the clouds as the objects of the attacks of Indra the Sun-God. The feathered king is Garuḍa.

795.

“The children of Surasá were a thousand mighty many-headed serpents, traversing the sky.” Wilson's Vishṇu Puráṇa, Vol. II. p. 73.

796.

She means, says the Commentator, pursue thy journey if thou can.

797.

If Milton's spirits are allowed the power of infinite self-extension and compression the same must be conceded to Válmíki's supernatural beings. Given the power as in Milton the result in Válmíki is perfectly consistent.

798.

“Daksha is the son of Brahmá and one of the Prajápatis or divine progenitors. He had sixty daughters, twenty-seven of whom married to Kaśyapa produced, according to one of the Indian cosmogonies, all mundane beings. Does the epithet, Descendant of Daksha, given to Surasá, mean that she is one of those daughters? I think not. This epithet is perhaps an appellation common to all created beings as having sprung from Daksha.” Gorressio.

799.

Sinhiká is the mother of Ráhu the dragon's head or ascending node, the chief agent in eclipses.

800.

According to De Gubernatis, the author of the very learned, ingenious, and interesting though too fanciful Zoological Mythology. Hanumán here represents the sun entering into and escaping from a cloud. The biblical Jonah, according to him, typifies the same phenomenon. Sá'dí, speaking of sunset, says Yùnas andar-i-dihán-imáhi shud: Jonas was within the fish's mouth. See Additional Notes.

801.

The Buchanania Latifolia.

802.

The Bauhinia Variegata.

803.

Through the power that Rávaṇ's stern mortifications had won for him his trees bore flowers and fruit simultaneously.

804.

Viśvakarmá is the architect of the Gods.

805.

So in Paradise Lost Satan when he has stealthily entered the garden of Eden assumes the form of a cormorant.

806.

Priests who fought only with the weapons of religion, the sacred grass used like the verbena of the Romans at sacred rites and the consecrated fire to consume the offering of ghee.

807.

One of the Rákshas lords.

808.

The brother Rávaṇ.

809.

Indra's elephant.

810.

Rávaṇ's palace appears to have occupied the whole extent of ground, and to have contained within its outer walls the mansions of all the great Rákshas chiefs. Rávaṇ's own dwelling seems to have been situated within the enchanted chariot Pushpak: but the description is involved and confused, and it is difficult to say whether the chariot was inside the palace or the palace inside the chariot.

811.

Pushpak from pushpa a flower. The car has been mentioned before in Rávaṇ's expedition to carry off Sítá, Book III, Canto XXXV.

812.

Lakshmí is the wife of Vishṇu and the Goddess of Beauty and Felicity. She rose, like Aphrodite, from the foam of the sea. For an account of her birth and beauty, see Book I, Canto XLV.

813.

Viśvakarmá is the architect of the Gods, the Hephaestos or Mulciber of the Indian heaven.

814.

Rávaṇ in the resistless power which his long austerities had endowed him with, had conquered his brother Kuvera the God of Gold and taken from him his greatest treasure this enchanted car.

815.

Like Milton's heavenly car, “Itself instinct with spirit.”

816.

Women, says Válmíki. But the Commentator says that automatic figures only are meant. Women would have seen Hanumán and given the alarm.

817.

Rávaṇ had fought against Indra and the Gods, and his body was still scarred by the wounds inflicted by the tusks of Indra's elephant and by the fiery bolts of the Thunderer.

818.

The Vasus are a class of eight deities, originally personifications of natural phenomena.

819.

The Maruts are the winds or Storm-Gods.

820.

The Ádityas originally seven deities of the heavenly sphere of whom Varuṇa is the chief. The name Áditya was afterwards given to any God, specially to Súrya the Sun.

821.

The Aśvins are the Heavenly Twins, the Castor and Pollux of the Hindus.

822.

The poet forgets that Hanumán has reduced himself to the size of a cat.

823.

Sítá “not of woman born,” was found by King Janak as he was turning up the ground in preparation for a sacrifice. See Book II, Canto CXVIII.

824.

The six Angas or subordinate branches of the Vedas are 1. Sikshá, the science of proper articulation and pronunciation: 2. Chhandas, metre: 3. Vyákarana, linguistic analysis or grammar: 4. Nirukta, explanation of difficult Vedic words: 5. Jyotishṭom, Astronomy, or rather the Vedic Calendar: 6. Kalpa, ceremonial.

825.

There appears to be some confusion of time here. It was already morning when Hanumán entered the grove, and the torches would be needless.

826.

Rávaṇ is one of those beings who can “climb them as they will,” and can of course assume the loveliest form to please human eyes as well as the terrific shape that suits the king of the Rákshases.

827.

White and lovely as the Arant or nectar recovered from the depths of the Milky Sea when churned by the assembled Gods. See Book I, Canto XLV.

828.

Rávaṇ in his magic car carrying off the most beautiful women reminds us of the magician in Orlando Furioso, possesor of the flying horse. “Volando talor s'alza ne le stelle, E poi quasi talor la terra rade; E ne porta con lui tutte le belle Donne che trova per quelle contrade.”

829.

Indian women twisted their long hair in a single braid as a sign of mourning for their absent husbands.

830.

Janak, king of Míthilá, was Sítá's father.

831.

Hiraṇyakaśipu was a king of the Daityas celebrated for his blasphemous impieties. When his pious son Prahlada praised Vishṇu the Daitya tried to kill him, when the God appeared in the incarnation of the man-lion and tore the tyrant to pieces.

832.

Do unto others as thou wouldst they should do unto thee, is a precept frequently occurring in the old Indian poems. This charity is to embrace not human beings only, but bird and beast as well: “He prayeth best who loveth best all things both great and small.”

833.

It was the custom of Indian warriors to mark their arrows with their ciphers or names, and it seems to have been regarded as a point of honour to give an enemy the satisfaction of knowing who had shot at him. This passage however contains, if my memory serves me well, the first mention in the poem of this practice, and as arrows have been so frequently mentioned and described with almost every conceivable epithet, its occurrence here seems suspicious. No mention of, or allusion to writing has hitherto occurred in the poem.

834.

This threat in the same words occurs in Book III, Canto LVI.

835.

Rávaṇ carried off and kept in his palace not only earthly princesses but the daughters of Gods and Gandharvas.

836.

The wife of Indra.

837.

These four lines have occurred before. Book III, Canto LVI.

838.

Prajápatis are the ten lords of created beings first created by Brahmá; somewhat like the Demiurgi of the Gnostics.

839.

“This is the number of the Vedic divinities mentioned in the Rig-veda. In Ashṭaka I. Súkta XXXIV, the Rishi Hiraṇyastúpa invoking the Aśvins says: Á Násatyá tribhirekádaśairiha devebniryátam: ‘O Násatyas (Aśvins) come hither with the thrice eleven Gods.’ And in Súkta XLV, the Rishi Praskanva addressing his hymn to Agni (ignis, fire), thus invokes him: ‘Lord of the red steeds, propitiated by our prayers lead hither the thirty-three Gods.’ This number must certainly have been the actual number in the early days of the Vedic religion: although it appears probable enough that the thirty-three Vedic divinities could not then be found co-ordinated in so systematic a way as they were arranged more recently by the authors of the Upanishads. In the later ages of Bramanism the number went on increasing without measure by successive mythical and religious creations which peopled the Indian Olympus with abstract beings of every kind. But through lasting veneration of the word of the Veda the custom regained of giving the name of ‘the thirty-three Gods’ to the immense phalanx of the multiplied deities.” Gorresio.

840.

Serpent-Gods who dwell in the regions under the earth.

841.

In the mythology of the epics the Gandharvas are the heavenly singers or musicians who form the orchestra at the banquets of the Gods, and they belong to the heaven of India in whose battles they share.

842.

The mother of Ráma.

843.

The mother of Lakshmaṇ.

844.

In the south is the region of Yáma the God of Death, the place of departed spirits.

845.

Kumbhakarṇa was one of Rávaṇ's brothers.

846.

The guards are still in the grove, but they are asleep; and Sítá has crept to a tree at some distance from them.

847.

“As the reason assigned in these passages for not addressing Sítá in Sanskrit such as a Bráhman would use is not that she would not understand it, but that it would alarm her and be unsuitable to the speaker, we must take them as indicating that Sanskrit, if not spoken by women of the upper classes at the time when the Rámáyaṇa was written (whenever that may have been), was at least understood by them, and was commonly spoken by men of the priestly class, and other educated persons. By the Sanskrit proper to an [ordinary] man, alluded to in the second passage, may perhaps be understood not a language in which words different from Sanskrit were used, but the employment of formal and elaborate diction.” Muir's Sanskrit Texts, Part II. p. 166.

848.

Svayambhu, the Self-existent, Brahmá.

849.

Vṛihaspati or Váchaspati, the Lord of Speech and preceptor of the Gods.

850.

The Asurs were the fierce enemies of the Gods.

851.

The Rudras are manifestations of Śiva.

852.

The Maruts or Storm Gods.

853.

Rohiṇí is an asterism personified as the daughter of Daksha and the favourite wife of the Moon. The chief star in the constellation is Aldebaran.

854.

Arundhatí was the wife of the great sage Vaśishṭha, and regarded as the pattern of conjugal excellence. She was raised to the heavens as one of the Pleiades.

855.

The Gods do not shed tears; nor do they touch the ground when they walk or stand. Similarly Milton's angels marched above the ground and “the passive air upbore their nimble tread.” Virgil's “vera incessu patuit dea” may refer to the same belief.

856.

That a friend of Ráma would praise him as he should be praised, and that if the stranger were Rávaṇ in disguise he would avoid the subject.

857.

Kuvera the God of Gold.

858.

Sítá of course knows nothing of what has happened to Ráma since the time when she was carried away by Rávaṇ. The poet therefore thinks it necessary to repeat the whole story of the meeting between Ráma and Sugríva, the defeat of Bálí, and subsequent events. I give the briefest possible outline of the story.

859.

De Gubernatis thinks that this ring which the Sun Ráma sends to the Dawn Sítá is a symbol of the sun's disc.

860.

Śachí is the loved and lovely wife of Indra, and she is taken as the type of a woman protected by a jealous and all-powerful husband.

861.

The mountain near Kishkindhá.

862.

Airávat is the mighty elephant on which Indra delights to ride.

863.

Vibhishaṇ is the wicked Rávaṇ's good brother.

864.

Her name is Kalá, or in the Bengal recension Nandá.

865.

One of Rávaṇ's chief councillors.

866.

Hanumán when he entered the city had in order to escape observation condensed himself to the size of a cat.

867.

The brook Mandákiní, not far from Chitrakúṭa where Ráma sojourned for a time.

868.

The poet here changes from the second person to the third.

869.

The whole long story is repeated with some slight variations and additions from Book II, Canto XCVI. I give here only the outline.

870.

The expedients to vanquish an enemy or to make him come to terms are said to be four: conciliation, gifts, disunion, and force or punishment. Hanumán considers it useless to employ the first three and resolves to punish Rávaṇ by destroying his pleasure-grounds.

871.

Kinkar means the special servant of a sovereign, who receives his orders immediately from his master. The Bengal recension gives these Rákshases an epithet which the Commentator explains “as generated in the mind of Brahmá.”

872.

Ráma de jure King of Kośal of which Ayodhyá was the capital.

873.

Chaityaprásáda is explained by the Commentator as the place where the Gods of the Rákshases were kept. Gorresio translates it by “un grande edificio.”

874.

The bow of Indra is the rainbow.

875.

We were told a few lines before that the chariot of Jambumáli was drawn by asses. Here horses are spoken of. The Commentator notices the discrepancy and says that by horses asses are meant.

876.

Armed with the bow of Indra, the rainbow.

877.

Rávaṇ's son.

878.

Conqueror of Indra, another of Rávaṇ's sons.

879.

The śloka which follows is probably an interpolation, as it is inconsistent with the questioning in Canto L.: He looked on Rávaṇ in his pride, And boldly to the monarch cried: “I came an envoy to this place From him who rules the Vánar race.”

880.

The ten heads of Rávaṇ have provoked much ridicule from European critics. It should be remembered that Spenser tells us of “two brethren giants, the one of which had two heads, the other three;” and Milton speaks of the “four-fold visaged Four,” the four Cherubic shapes each of whom had four faces.

881.

Durdhar, or as the Bengal recension reads Mahodara, Prahasta, Mahápárśva, and Nikumbha.

882.

The chief attendant of Śiva.

883.

Bali, not to be confounded with Báli the Vánar, was a celebrated Daitya or demon who had usurped the empire of the three worlds, and who was deprived of two thirds of his dominions by Vishṇu in the Dwarf-incarnation.

884.

When Hanumán was bound with cords, Indrajít released his captive from the spell laid upon him by the magic weapon.

885.

“One who murders an ambassador (rája bhata) goes to Taptakumbha, the hell of heated caldrons.” Wilson's Vishṇu Puraṇa, Vol. II. p. 217.

886.

The fire which is supposed to burn beneath the sea.

887.

Sítá is likened to the fire which is an emblem of purity.

888.

I omit two stanzas which continue the metaphor of the sea or lake of air. The moon is its lotus, the sun its wild-duck, the clouds are its water-weeds, Mars is its shark and so on. Gorresio remarks: “This comparison of a great lake to the sky and of celestial to aquatic objects is one of those ideas which the view and qualities of natural scenery awake in lively fancies. Imagine one of those grand and splendid lakes of India covered with lotus blossoms, furrowed by wild-ducks of the most vivid colours, mantled over here and there with flowers and water weeds &c. and it will be understood how the fancy of the poet could readily compare to the sky radiant with celestial azure the blue expanse of the water, to the soft light of the moon the inner hue of the lotus, to the splendour of the sun the brilliant colours of the wild-fowl, to the stars the flowers, to the cloud the weeds that float upon the water &c.”

889.

Sunábha is the mountain that rose from the sea when Hanumán passed over to Lanká.

890.

Three Cantos of repetition are omitted.

891.

Madhuvan the “honey-wood.”

892.

Indra's pleasure-ground or elysium.

893.

Janak was king of Videha or Mithilá in Behar.

894.

The original contains two more Cantos which end the Book. Canto LXVII begins thus: “Hanumán thus addressed by the great-souled son of Raghu related to the son of Raghu all that Sítá had said.” And the two Cantos contain nothing but Hanumán's account of his interview with Sítá, and the report of his own speeches as well as of hers.

895.

The Sixth Book is called in Sanskrit Yuddha-Káṇḍa or The War, and Lanká-Káṇda. It is generally known at the present day by the latter title.

896.

Váyu is the God of Wind.

897.

Garuḍa the King of Birds.

898.

Serpent-Gods.

899.

The God of the sea.

900.

Indra's elephant.

901.

Kuvera, God of wealth.

902.

Kuvera's elephant.

903.

The planet Venus, or its regent who is regarded as the son of Bhrigu and preceptor of the Daityas.

904.

The seven rishis or saints who form the constellation of the Great Bear.

905.

Triśanku was raised to the skies to form a constellation in the southern hemisphere. The story in told in Book I, Canto LX.

906.

The sage Viśvámitra, who performed for Triśanku the great sacrifice which raised him to the heavens.

907.

One of the lunar asterisms containing four or originally two stars under the regency of a dual divinity Indrágni, Indra and Agni.

908.

The lunar asterism Múla, belonging to the Rákshases.

909.

The Asurs or demons dwell imprisoned in the depths beneath the sea.

910.

The God of Riches, brother and enemy of Rávaṇ and first possessor of Pushpak the flying car.

911.

King of the Serpents. Śankha and Takshak are two of the eight Serpent Chiefs.

912.

The God of Death, the Pluto of the Hindus.

913.

Literally Indra's conqueror, so called from his victory over that God.

914.

Their names are Nikumbha, Rabhasa, Súryaśatru, Suptaghna, Yajnakopa, Mahápárśva, Mahodara, Agniketu, Raśmiketu, Durdharsha, Indraśatru, Prahasta, Virúpáksha, Vajradanshṭra, Dhúmráksha, Durmukha, Mahábala.

915.

Similarly Antenor urges the restoration of Helen: “Let Sparta's treasures be this hour restored, And Argive Helen own her ancient lord. As this advice ye practise or reject, So hope success, or dread the dire effect,” Pope's Homer's Iliad, Book VII.

916.

The Agnisálá or room where the sacrificial fire was kept.

917.

The exudation of a fragrant fluid from the male elephant's temples, especially at certain seasons, is frequently spoken of in Sanskrit poetry. It is said to deceive and attract the bees, and is regarded as a sign of health and masculine vigour.

918.

Consisting of warriors on elephants, warriors in chariots, charioteers, and infantry.

919.

Indra, generally represented as surrounded by the Maruts or Storm-Gods.

920.

Janasthán, where Ráma lived as an ascetic.

921.

Máyá, regarded as the paragon of female beauty, was the creation of Maya the chief artificer of the Daityas or Dánavs.

922.

One of the Nymphs of Indra's heaven.

923.

The Lotus River, a branch of the heavenly Gangá.

924.

Trilokanátha, Lord of the Three Worlds, is a title of Indra.

925.

The celestial elephant that carries Indra.

926.

As producers of the ghi, clarified butter or sacrificial oil, used in fire-offerings.

927.

This desertion to the enemy is somewhat abrupt, and is narrated with brevity not usual with Válmíki. In the Bengal recension the preceding speakers and speeches differ considerably from those given in the text which I follow. Vibhishaṇ is kicked from his seat by Rávaṇ, and then, after telling his mother what has happened, he flies to Mount Kailása where he has an interview with Śiva, and by his advice seeks Ráma and the Vánar army.

928.

Vṛihaspati the preceptor of the Gods.

929.

In Book II, Canto XXI, Kaṇdu is mentioned by Ráma as an example of filial obedience. At the command of his father he is said to have killed a cow.

930.

A King of the Yakshas, or Kuvera himself, the God of Gold.

931.

The brace protects the left arm from injury from the bow-string, and the guard protects the fingers of the right hand.

932.

The story is told in Book I, Cantos XL, XLI, XLII.

933.

Fiends and enemies of the Gods.

934.

The Indus.

935.

Cowherds, sprung from a Bráhman and a woman of the medical tribe, the modern Ahírs.

936.

Barbarians or outcasts.

937.

Vraṇa means wound or rent.

938.

Here in the Bengal recension (Gorresio's edition), begins Book VI.

939.

The Goomtee.

940.

The Anglicized Nerbudda.

941.

According to a Pauranik legend Keśarí Hanumán's putative father had killed an Asur or demon who appeared in the form of an elephant, and hence arose the hostility between Vánars and elephants.

942.

Here follows the enumeration of Sugríva's forces which I do not attempt to follow. It soon reaches a hundred thousand billions.

943.

I omit the rest of this canto, which is mere repetition. Rávaṇ gives in the same words his former answer that the Gods, Gandharvas and fiends combined shall not force him to give up Sítá. He then orders Śárdúla to tell him the names of the Vánar chieftains whom he has seen in Ráma's army. These have already been mentioned by Śuka and Sáraṇ.

944.

Lakshmí is the Goddess both of beauty and fortune, and is represented with a lotus in her hand.

945.

The poet appears to have forgotten that Śuka and Sáraṇ were dismissed with ignominy in Canto XXIX, and have not been reinstated.

946.

The four who fled with him. Their names are Anala, Panasa, Sampáti, and Pramati.

947.

The numbers here are comparatively moderate: ten thousand elephants, ten thousand chariots, twenty thousand horses and ten million giants.

948.

The Kinśuk, also called Paláśa, is Butea Frondosa, a tree that bears beautiful red crescent shaped blossoms and is deservedly a favorite with poets. The Seemal or Śálmalí is the silk cotton tree which also bears red blossoms.

949.

Varuṇa.

950.

The duty of a king to save the lives of his people and avoid bloodshed until milder methods have been tried in vain.

951.

I have omitted several of these single combats, as there is little variety in the details and each duel results in the victory of the Vánar or his ally.

952.

Yajnaśatru, Mahápárśva, Mahodar, Vajradanshṭra, Śuka, and Sáraṇ.

953.

Angad.

954.

A mysterious weapon consisting of serpents transformed to arrows which deprived the wounded object of all sense and power of motion.

955.

On each foot, and at the root of each finger.

956.

Varuṇ.

957.

The name of one of the mystical weapons the command over which was given by Viśvámitra to Ráma, as related in Book I.

958.

One of Sítá's guard, and her comforter on a former occasion also.

959.

The preceptor of the Gods.

960.

Ráma's grandfather.

961.

The Gandharvas are warriors and Minstrels of Indra's heaven.

962.

“It is to be understood,” says the commentator, “that this is not the Akampan who has already been slain.”

963.

Rávaṇ's son, whom Hanumán killed when he first visited Lanká.

964.

Níla was the son of Agni the God of Fire, and possessed, like Milton's demons, the power of dilating and condensing his form at pleasure.

965.

An ancient king of Ayodhyá said by some to have been Prithu's father.

966.

The daughter of King Kuśadhwaja. She became an ascetic, and being insulted by Rávaṇ in the woods where she was performing penance, destroyed herself by entering fire, but was born again as Sítá to be in turn the destruction of him who had insulted her.

967.

Nandíśvara was Śiva's chief attendant. Rávaṇ had despised and laughed at him for appearing in the form of a monkey and the irritated Nandíśvara cursed him and foretold his destruction by monkeys.

968.

Rávaṇ once upheaved and shook Mount Kailása the favourite dwelling place of Śiva the consort of Umá, and was cursed in consequence by the offended Goddess.

969.

Rambhá, who has several times been mentioned in the course of the poem, was one of the nymphs of heaven, and had been insulted by Rávaṇ.

970.

Punjikasthalá was the daughter of Varuṇ. Rávaṇ himself has mentioned in this book his insult to her, and the curse pronounced in consequence by Brahmá.

971.

Pulastya was the son of Brahmá and father of Viśravas or Paulastya the father of Rávaṇ and Kumbhakarṇa.

972.

I omit a tedious sermon on the danger of rashness and the advantages of prudence, sufficient to irritate a less passionate hearer than Rávaṇ.

973.

The Bengal recension assigns a very different speech to Kumbhakarṇa and makes him say that Nárad the messenger of the Gods had formerly told him that Vishṇu himself incarnate as Daśaratha's son should come to destroy Rávaṇ.

974.

Mahodar, Dwijihva, Sanhráda, and Vitardan.

975.

A name of Vishṇu.

976.

There is so much commonplace repetition in these Sallies of the Rákshas chieftains that omissions are frequently necessary. The usual ill omens attend the sally of Kumbhakarṇa, and the Canto ends with a description of the terrified Vánars' flight which is briefly repeated in different words at the beginning of the next Canto.

977.

Kártikeya the God of War, and the hero and incarnation Paraśuráma are said to have cut a passage through the mountain Krauncha, a part of the Himálayan range, in the same way as the immense gorge that splits the Pyrenees under the towers of Marboré was cloven at one blow of Roland's sword Durandal.

978.

Rishabh, Śarabh, Níla, Gaváksha, and Gandhamádan.

979.

Angad. The text calls him the son of the son of him who holds the thunderbolt, i.e. the grandson of Indra.

980.

Literally, weighing a thousand bháras. The bhára is a weight equal to 2000 palas, the pala is equal to four karśas, and the karśa to 11375 French grammes or about 176 grains troy. The spear seems very light for a warrior of Kumbhakarṇa's strength and stature and the work performed with it.

981.

The custom of throwing parched or roasted grain, with wreaths and flowers, on the heads of kings and conquerors when they go forth to battle and return is frequently mentioned by Indian poets.

982.

Lakshmaṇ.

983.

I have abridged this long Canto by omitting some vain repetitions, commonplace epithets and similes and other unimportant matter. There are many verses in this Canto which European scholars would rigidly exclude as unmistakeably the work of later rhapsodists. Even the reverent Commentator whom I follow ventures to remark once or twice: Ayam śloka prak shipta iti bahavah, “This śloka or verse is in the opinion of many interpolated.”

984.

Narak was a demon, son of Bhúmi or Earth, who haunted the city Prágjyotisha.

985.

Śambar was a demon of drought.

986.

Indra.

987.

Devántak (Slayer of Gods) Narántak (Slayer of Men) Atikáya (Huge of Frame) and Triśirás (Three Headed) were all sons of Rávaṇ.

988.

The demon of eclipse who seizes the Sun and Moon.

989.

Lakshmaṇ.

990.

In such cases as this I am not careful to reproduce the numbers of the poet, which in the text which I follow are 670000000; the Bengal recension being content with thirty million less.

991.

The discus or quoit, a sharp-edged circular missile is the favourite weapon of Vishṇu.

992.

To destroy Tripura the triple city in the sky, air and earth, built by Maya for a celebrated Asur or demon, or as another commentator explains, to destroy Kandarpa or Love.

993.

The Lokapálas are sometimes regarded as deities appointed by Brahmá at the creation of the word to act as guardians of different orders of beings, but more commonly they are identified with the deities presiding over the four cardinal and four intermediate points of the compass, which, according to Manu V. 96, are 1, Indra, guardian of the East; 2, Agni, of the South-east; 3, Yáma, of the South; 4, Súrya, of the South-west; 5, Varuṇa, of the West; 6, Pavana or Váyu, of the North-west; 7, Kuvera, of the North; 8, Soma or Chandra, of the North-east.

994.

The chariots of Rávaṇ's present army are said to have been one hundred and fifty million in number with three hundred million elephants, and twelve hundred million horses and asses. The footmen are merely said to have been “unnumbered.”

995.

It is not very easy to see the advantage of having arrows headed in the way mentioned. Fanciful names for war-engines and weapons derived from their resemblance to various animals are not confined to India. The “War-wolf” was used by Edward I. at the siege of Brechin, the “Cat-house” and the “Sow” were used by Edward III. at the siege of Dunbar.

996.

Apparently a peak of the Himalaya chain.

997.

This exploit of Hanumán is related with inordinate prolixity in the Bengal recension (Gortesio's text). Among other adventures he narrowly escapes being shot by Bharat as he passes over Nandigrama near Ayodhyá. Hanumán stays Bharat in time, and gives him an account of what has befallen Ráma and Sítá in the forest and in Lanká.

998.

As Garuḍ the king of birds is the mortal enemy of serpents the weapon sacred to him is of course best calculated to destroy the serpent arrows of Rávaṇ.

999.

The celebrated saint who has on former occasions assisted Ráma with his gifts and counsel.

1000.

Indra.

1001.

Yáma.

1002.

Kártikeya.

1003.

Kubera.

1004.

Varuṇ.

1005.

The Pitris, forefathers or spirits of the dead, are of two kinds, either the spirits of the father, grandfathers and great-grandfathers of an individual or the progenitors of mankind generally, to both of whom obsequial worship is paid and oblations of food are presented.

1006.

The Maruts or Storm-Gods.

1007.

The Heavenly Twins, the Castor and Pollux of the Hindus.

1008.

The Man par excellence, the representative man and father of the human race regarded also as God.

1009.

The Vasus, a class of deities originally personifications of natural phenomena.

1010.

A class of celestial beings who dwell between the earth and the sun.

1011.

The seven horses are supposed to symbolize the seven days of the week.

1012.

One for each month in the year.

1013.

The garden of Kuvera, the God of Riches.

1014.

The consort of Indra.

1015.

The Swayamvara, Self-choice or election of a husband by a princess or daughter of a Kshatriya at a public assembly of suitors held for the purpose. For a description of the ceremony see Nala and Damayantí an episode of the Mahábhárat translated by the late Dean Milman, and Idylls from the Sanskrit.

1016.

The Pitris or Manes, the spirits of the dead.

1017.

Kuvera, the God of Wealth.

1018.

Varuṇ, God of the sea.

1019.

Mahádeva or Śiva whose ensign is a bull.

1020.

The Address to Ráma, both text and commentary, will be found literally translated in the Additional Notes. A paraphrase of a portion is all that I have attempted here.

1021.

Rávaṇ's queen.

1022.

Or Maináka.

1023.

Here, in the North-west recension, Sítá expresses a wish that Tárá and the wives of the Vánar chiefs should be invited to accompany her to Ayodhyá. The car decends, and the Vánar matrons are added to the party. The Bengal recension ignores this palpable interruption.

1024.

The arghya, a respectful offering to Gods and venerable men consisting of rice, dúivá grass, flowers etc., with water.

1025.

I have abridged Hanumán's outline of Ráma's adventures, with the details of which we are already sufficiently acquainted.

1026.

In these respectful salutations the person who salutes his superior mentions his own name even when it is well known to the person whom he salutes.

1027.

I have omitted the chieftains' names as they could not be introduced without padding. They are Mainda, Dwivid, Níla, Rishabh, Susheṇ, Nala, Gaváksha, Gandhamádan, Śarabh, and Panas.

1028.

The following addition is found in the Bengal recension: But Vaiśravaṇ (Kuvera) when he beheld his chariot said unto it: “Go, and carry Ráma, and come unto me when my thought shall call thee, And the chariot returned unto Ráma;” and he honoured it when he had heard what had passed.

1029.

Here follows in the original an enumeration of the chief blessings which will attend the man or woman who reads or hears read this tale of Ráma. These blessings are briefly mentioned at the end of the first Canto of the first book, and it appears unnecessary to repeat them here in their amplified form. The Bengal recension (Gorresio's edition) gives them more concisely as follows: “This is the great first poem blessed and glorious, which gives long life to men and victory to kings, the poem which Válmíki made. He who listens to this wondrous tale of Ráma unwearied in action shall be absolved from all his sins. By listening to the deeds of Ráma he who wishes for sons shall obtain his heart's desire, and to him who longs for riches shall riches be given. The virgin who asks for a husband shall obtain a husband suited to her mind, and shall meet again her dear kinsfolk who are far away. They who hear this poem which Válmíki made shall obtain all their desires and all their prayers shall be fulfilled.”

1030.

The Academy, Vol. III., No 43, contains an able and interesting notice of this work from the pen of the Professor of Sanskrit in the University of Cambridge: “The Uttarakáṇḍa,” Mr. Cowell remarks, “bears the same relation to the Rámáyaṇa as the Cyclic poems to the Iliad. Just as the Cypria of Stasinus, the Æthiopis of Arctinus, and the little Iliad of Lesches completed the story of the Iliad, and not only added the series of events which preceded and followed it, but also founded episodes of their own on isolated allusions in Homer, so the Uttarakáṇḍa is intended to complete the Rámáyaṇa, and at the same time to supplement it by intervening episodes to explain casual allusions or isolated incidents which occur in it. Thus the early history of the giant Rávaṇa and his family fills nearly forty Chapters, and we have a full account of his wars with the gods and his conquest of Lanká, which all happened long before the action of the poem commences, just as the Cypria narrated the birth and early history of Helen, and the two expeditions of the Greeks against Troy; and the latter chapters continue the history of the hero Ráma after his triumphant return to his paternal kingdom, and the poem closes with his death and that of his brothers, and the founding by their descendants of various kingdoms in different parts of India.”

1031.

Muir, Sanskrit Texts, Part IV., pp. 414 ff.

1032.

Muir, Sanskrit Texts, Part IV., 391, 392.

1033.

See Academy, III., 43.

1034.

Academy, Vol. III., No. 43.

1035.

E. B. Cowell. Academy, No. 43. The story of Sítá's banishment will be found roughly translated from the Raghuvaṇśa, in the Additional Notes.

1036.

E. B. Cowell. Academy, Vol, III, No. 43.

1037.

Muir, Sanskrit Texts, Part IV., Appendix.

1038.

Ghí: clarified butter. Gur: molasses.

1039.

Haridwar (Anglicè Hurdwar) where the Ganges enters the plain country.

1040.

Campbell in “Journ. As. Soc. Bengal,” 1866, Part ii. p. 132; Latham, “Descr. Eth.” Vol. ii. p. 456; Tod, “Annals of Rajasthan,” Vol. i. p. 114.

1041.

Said by the commentator to be an eastern people between the Himálayan and Vindhyan chains.

1042.

Videha was a district in the province of Behar, the ancient Mithilá or the modern Tirhoot.

1043.

The people of Malwa.

1044.

“The Káśikośalas are a central nation in the Váyu Puráṇa. The Rámáyaṇa places them in the east. The combination indicates the country between Benares and Oude.… Kośala is a name variously applied. Its earliest and most celebrated application is to the country on the banks of the Sarayú, the kingdom of Ráma, of which Ayodhyá was the capital.… In the Mahábhárata we have one Kośala in the east and another in the south, besides the Prák-Kośalas and Uttara Kośalas in the east and north. The Puráṇas place the Kośalas amongst the people on the back of Vindhya; and it would appear from the Váyu that Kuśa the son of Ráma transferred his kingdom to a more central position; he ruled over Kośala at his capital of Kúśasthali of Kuśavatí, built upon the Vindhyan precipices.” Wilson's Vishnṇu Púraṇa, Vol. II. pp. 157, 172.

1045.

The people of south Behar.

1046.

The Puṇḍras are said to be the inhabitants of the western provinces of Bengal. “In the Aitareyabráhmaṇa, VII. 18, it is said that the elder sons of Viśvamitra were cursed to become progenitors of most abject races, such as Andhras, Puṇḍras, Śabaras, Pulindas, and Mútibas.” Wilson's Vishṇu Puráṇa Vol. II. 170.

1047.

Anga is the country about Bhagulpore, of which Champá was the capital.

1048.

A fabulous people, “men who use their ears as a covering.” So Sir John Maundevile says: “And in another Yle ben folk that han gret Eres and long, that hangen down to here knees,” and Pliny, lib. iv. c. 13: “In quibus nuda alioquin corpora prægrandes ipsorum aures tota contegunt.” Isidore calls them Panotii.

1049.

“Those whose ears hang down to their lips.”

1050.

“The Iron-faces.”

1051.

“The One-footed.” “In that Contree,” says Sir John Maundevile, “ben folk, that han but o foot and thei gon so fast that it is marvaylle: and the foot is so large that it schadeweth alle the Body azen the Sonne, when thei wole lye and rest hem.” So Pliny, Natural History, lib. vii. c. 2: speaks of “Hominumn gens … singulis cruribus, miræ pernicitatis ad saltum; eosdemque Sciopodas vocari, quod in majori æstu, humi jacentes resupini, umbrâ se pedum protegant.” These epithets are, as Professor Wilson remarks, “exaggerations of national ugliness, or allusions to peculiar customs, which were not literally intended, although they may have furnished the Mandevilles of ancient and modern times.” Vishṇu Puráṇa, Vol. II. p. 162.

1052.

The Kirrhadæ of Arrian: a general name for savage tribes living in woods and mountains.

1053.

Said by the commentator to be half tigers half men.

1054.

The kingdom seems to have corresponded with the greater part of Berar and Khandesh.

1055.

The Bengal recension has Kishikas, and places them both in the south and the north.

1056.

The people of Mysore.

1057.

“There are two Matsyas, one of which, according to the Yantra Samráj, is identifiable with Jeypoor. In the Digvijaya of Nakula he subdues the Matsyas further to the west, or Gujerat.” Wilson's Vishṇu Puráṇa, Vol. II. 158. Dr. Hall observes: “In the Mahábhárata Sabhá-parwan, 1105 and 1108, notice is taken of the king of Matsya and of the Aparamatsyas; and, at 1082, the Matsyas figure as an eastern people. They are placed among the nations of the south in the Rámáyaṇa Kishkindhá-káṇda, XLI., II, while the Bengal recension, Kishkindhá-káṇḍa, XLIV., 12, locates them in the north.”

1058.

The Kalingas were the people of the upper part of the Coromandel Coast, well known, in the traditions of the Eastern Archipelago, as Kling. Ptolemy has a city in that part, called Caliga; and Pliny Calingæ proximi mari. Wilson's Vishṇu Puráṇa, Vol. II. 156, Note.

1059.

The Kauśikas do not appear to be identifiable.

1060.

The Andhras probably occupied the modern Telingana.

1061.

The Puṇḍras have already been mentioned in Canto XL.

1062.

The inhabitants of the lower part of the Coromandel Coast; so called, after them, Cholamaṇdala.

1063.

A people in the Deccan.

1064.

The Keralas were the people of Malabar proper.

1065.

A generic term for persons speaking any language but Sanskrit and not conforming to the usual Hindu institutions.

1066.

“Pulinda is applied to any wild or barbarous tribe. Those here named are some of the people of the deserts along the Indus; but Pulindas are met with in many other positions, especially in the mountains and forests across Central India, the haunts of the Bheels and Gonds. So Ptolemy places the Pulindas along the banks of the Narmadá, to the frontiers of Larice, the Látá or Lár of the Hindus,—Khandesh and part of Gujerat.” Wilson's Vishṇu Puráṇa, Vol. II. 159, Note. Dr. Hall observes that “in the Bengal recension of the Rámáyaṇa the Pulindas appear both in the south and in the north. The real Rámáyaṇa K.-k., XLIII., speaks of the northern Pulindas.”

1067.

The Śúrasenas were the inhabitants of Mathurá, the Suraseni of Arrian.

1068.

These the Mardi of the Greeks and the two preceding tribes appear to have dwelt in the north-west of Hindustan.

1069.

The Kámbojas are said to be the people of Arachosia. They are always mentioned with the north-western tribes.

1070.

“The term Yavanas, although, in later times, applied to the Mohammedans, designated formerly the Greeks.… The Greeks were known throughout Western Asia by the term Yavan, or Ion. That the Macedonian or Bactrian Greeks were most usually intended is not only probable from their position and relations with India, but from their being usually named in concurrence with the north-western tribes, Kámbojas, Daradas, Páradas, Báhlíkas, Śakas &c., in the Rámáyaṇa. Mahábhárata, Puránas, Manu, and in various poems and plays.” Wilson's Vishṇu Puráṇa Vol. II. p. 181, Note.

1071.

These people, the Sakai and Sacæ of classical writers, the Indo-Scythians of Ptolemy, extended, about the commencement of our era, along the west of India, from the Hindu Kosh to the mouths of the Indus.

1072.

The corresponding passage in the Bengal recension has instead of Varadas Daradas the Dards or inhabitants of the modern Dardistan along the course of the Indus, above the Himálayas, just before it descends to India.

1073.

From the word yonder it would appear that the prayer is to be repeated at the rising of the Sun.

1074.

The creator of the world and the first of the Hindu triad.

1075.

He who pervades all beings; or the second of the Hindu triad who preserves the world.

1076.

The bestower of blessings; the third of the Hindu triad and the destroyer of the world.

1077.

A name of the War-God; also one who urges the senses to action.

1078.

The lord of creatures; or the God of sacrifices.

1079.

A name of the King of Gods; also all-powerful.

1080.

The giver of wealth. A name of the God of riches.

1081.

One who directly urges the mental faculties to action.

1082.

One who moderates the senses, also the God of the regions of the dead.

1083.

One who produces nectar (amrita) or one who is always possessed of light; or one together with Umá (Ardhanáríśvara).

1084.

The names or spirits of departed ancestors.

1085.

Name of a class of eight Gods, also wealthy.

1086.

They who are to be served by Yogís; or a class of Gods named Sádhyas.

1087.

The two physicians of the Gods: or they who pervade all beings.

1088.

They who are immortal; or a class of Gods forty-nine in number.

1089.

Omniscient; or the first king of the world.

1090.

He that moves; life; or the God of wind.

1091.

The God of fire.

1092.

Lord of creatures.

1093.

One who prolongs our lives.

1094.

The material cause of knowledge and of the seasons.

1095.

One who shines. The giver of light.

1096.

The hymn entitled the Ádityahridaya begins from this verse and the words, thou art, are understood in the beginning of this verse.

1097.

One who enjoys all (pleasurable) objects; The son of Aditi, the lord of the solar disk.

1098.

One who creates the world, i.e., endows beings with life or soul, and by his rays causes rain and thereby produces corn.

1099.

One who urges the world to action or puts the world in motion, who is omnipresent.

1100.

One who walks through the sky; or pervades the soul.

1101.

One who nourishes the world, i.e., is the supporter.

1102.

One having rays (Gabhasti) or he who is possessed of the all-pervading goddess Lakshmí.

1103.

One resembling gold.

1104.

One who is resplendent or who gives light to other objects.

1105.

One whose seed (Retas) is gold; or quicksilver, the material cause of gold.

1106.

One who is the cause of day.

1107.

One whose horses are of tawny colour; or one who pervades the whole space or quarters.

1108.

One whose knowledge is boundless or who has a thousand rays.

1109.

One who urges the seven (Práṇas) that is the two eyes, the two ears, the nostrils and the organ of speech, or whose chariot, is drawn by seven horses.

1110.

Vide Gabhastimán.

1111.

One who destroys darkness, or ignorance.

1112.

One from whom our blessings or the enjoyments of Paradise come.

1113.

The architect of the gods; or one who lessens the miseries of our birth and death.

1114.

One who gives life to the lifeless world.

1115.

One who pervades the internal and external worlds; or one who is resplendent.

1116.

He who is identified with the Hindu triad, i.e. the creator (Brahmá) the supporter (Vishnu) and the destroyer (Śiva).

1117.

Cold or good natured. He is so called because he allays the three sorts of pain.

1118.

One who is the lord of all.

1119.

Vide Divákara.

1120.

One who teaches Brahmá and others the Vedas.

1121.

One from whom Rudra the destroyer or the third of the Hindu triad springs.

1122.

One who is knowable through Aditi, i.e., the eternal Brahmavidyá.

1123.

Great happiness or the sky.

1124.

The destroyer of cold or stupidity.

1125.

The Lord of the sky.

1126.

Vide Timironmathana.

1127.

One who is known through the Upanishads.

1128.

He who is the cause of heavy rain.

1129.

He who is a friend to the good, or who is the cause of water.

1130.

One who moves in the solar orbit.

1131.

One who determines the creation of the world; or who is possessed of heat.

1132.

One who has a mass of rays; or who has Kaustubha and other precious stones as his ornaments.

1133.

He who urges all to action; or who is yellow in colour.

1134.

One who is the destroyer of all.

1135.

One who is omniscient; or a poet.

1136.

One who is identified with the whole world.

1137.

One who is of huge form.

1138.

One who pleases all by giving nourishment; or who is red in colour.

1139.

One who is the cause of the whole world.

1140.

One who protects the whole world.

1141.

The most glorious of all that are glorious.

1142.

One who is identical with the twelve months.

1143.

One who gives victory over all the worlds to those who are faithfully devoted to him; or the porter of Brahmá, named Jaya.

1144.

One who is identical with the blessing which can be obtained by conquering all the worlds; or with the porter of Brahmá named Jayabhadra.

1145.

One who has Hanúmán as his conveyance.

1146.

One who controls the senses; or is furious with those who are not his devotees.

1147.

He who is free in moving the senses; or urges all beings to action.

1148.

He who can be known through the Pranava (the mystical Om-kára.)

1149.

One who is the knowledge of Brahmá.

1150.

One who devours all things.

1151.

He who is the destroyer of all pains; and of love, and hate, the causes of pain; and ignorance which is the cause of love and hate.

1152.

One who is bliss; or the mover.

1153.

One who destroys ignorance and its effects.

1154.

The doer of all actions.

1155.

One who beholds the universe; who is a witness of good and bad actions.

1156.

Sacrifice of the five sensual fires.

1157.

According to Ápastamba (says the commentator) “it should have been placed on the nose: this must therefore have been done in conformity with some other Sútras.”

1158.

A class of eight gods.

1159.

A class of eleven gods called Rudras.

1160.

Named Víryaván.

1161.

A class of divine devotees named Sádhyas.

1162.

One who resides in the water.

1163.

The third incarnation of Vishṇu, that bore the earth on his tusk.

1164.

One whose armies are everywhere.

1165.

One who controls the senses.

1166.

He who resides in the heart, or who is full, or all-pervading.

1167.

Vámana, or the Dwarf incarnation of Vishṇu.

1168.

The killer of Madhu, a demon.

1169.

He from whose navel, the lotus, from which Brahmá was born, springs.

1170.

He who has a thousand horns. The horns are here the Sákhás of the Sáma-veda.

1171.

One who has a hundred heads. The heads are here meant to devote a hundred commandments of the Vedas.

1172.

Siddhas are those who have already gained the summit of their desires.

1173.

Sádhyas are those that are still trying to gain the summit.

1174.

A mystic syllable uttered in Mantras.

1175.

A mystic syllable made of the letters which respectively denote Brahmá, Vishṇu, and Śiva.

1176.

A class of divine gods.

1177.

Sanskáras are those sacred writings through which the divine commands and prohibitions are known.

1178.

Bali, a demon whom Vámana confined in Pátála.

1179.

Vishṇu, the second of the Hindu triad.

1180.

Krishṇa, (black coloured) one of the ten incarnations of Vishṇu.

1181.

A. Weber, Akademische Vorlesungen, p. 181.

1182.

Systema brahmanicum, liturgicum, mythologicum, civile, exmonumentis Indicis, etc.

1183.

Not only have the races of India translated or epitomized it, but foreign nations have appropriated it wholly or in part, Persia, Java, and Japan itself.

1184.

In the third century B.C.