The Rámáyan of Válmíki, translated into English verse
And when alone was left him bone
He threw himself therein.
Then thundered voices through the air;
The sky grew black as night;
And fever took the earth that shook
To see that wondrous sight.
The blessed Gods, from every sphere,
By Indra led, came nigh:
While drum and flute and shell and lute
Made music in the sky.
They rained immortal chaplets down,
Which hands celestial twine,
And softly shed upon his head
Pure Amrit, drink divine.
Then God and Seraph, Bard and Nymph
Their heavenly voices raised,
And a glad throng with dance and song
The glorious monarch praised.
They set him on a golden car
That blazed with many a gem;
Then swiftly through the air they flew,
And bore him home with them.
Thus Káśí’s lord, by noble deed,
Won heaven and deathless fame:
And when the weak protection seek
From thee, do thou the same.
_Scenes from the Rámáyan, &c._
Page 108.
The ceremonies that attended the consecration of a king (_Abhikshepa lit.
Sprinkling over_) are fully described in Goldstücker’s Dictionary, from
which the following extract is made: “The type of the inauguration
ceremony as practised at the Epic period may probably be recognized in the
history of the inauguration of _Ráma_, as told in the _Rámáyana_, and in
that of the inauguration of _Yudhishṭhira_, as told in the _Mahábháratha_.
Neither ceremony is described in these poems with the full detail which is
given of the vaidik rite in the _Aitareya-Bráhmaṇam_; but the allusion
that Ráma was inaugurated by _Vaśishṭha_ and the other Bráhmanas in the
same manner as Indra by the Vasus … and the observation which is made in
some passages that a certain rite of the inauguration was performed
‘according to the sacred rule’ … admit of the conclusion that the ceremony
was supposed to have taken place in conformity with the vaidik
injunction.… As the inauguration of _Ráma_ was intended and the necessary
preparations for it were made when his father Daśaratha was still alive,
but as the ceremony itself, through the intrigues of his step-mother
_Kaikeyí_, did not take place then, but fourteen years later, after the
death of _Daśaratha_, an account of the preparatory ceremonies is given in
the _Ayodhyákáṇḍa_ (Book II) as well as in the _Yuddha-Káṇḍa_ (Book VI.)
of the Rámáyaṇa, but an account of the complete ceremony in the latter
book alone. According to the _Ayodhyákáṇḍa_, on the day preceding the
intended inauguration _Ráma_ and his wife _Sítá_ held a fast, and in the
night they performed this preliminary rite: _Ráma_ having made his
ablutions, approached the idol of _Náráyaṇa_, took a cup of clarified
butter, as the religious law prescribes, made a libation of it into the
kindled fire, and drank the remainder while wishing what was agreeable to
his heart. Then, with his mind fixed on the divinity he lay, silent and
composed, together with _Sítá_, on a bed of Kuśa-grass, which was spread
before the altar of Vishṇu, until the last watch of the night, when he
awoke and ordered the palace to be prepared for the solemnity. At
day-break reminded of the time by the voices of the bards, he performed
the usual morning devotion and praised the divinity. In the meantime the
town Ayodhyá had assumed a festive appearance and the inauguration
implements had been arranged … golden water-jars, an ornamented
throne-seat, a chariot covered with a splendid tiger-skin, water taken
from the confluence of the Ganges and Jumna, as well as from other sacred
rivers, tanks, wells, lakes, and from all oceans, honey, curd, clarified
butter, fried grain, Kuśa-grass, flowers, milk; besides, eight beautiful
damsels, and a splendid furious elephant, golden and silver jars, filled
with water, covered with _Udumbara_ branches and various lotus flowers,
besides a white jewelled _chourie_, a white splendid parasol, a white
bull, a white horse, all manner of musical instruments and bards.… In the
preceding chapter … there are mentioned _two_ white _chouries_ instead of
one, and all kinds of seeds, perfumes and jewels, a scimitar, a bow, a
litter, a golden vase, and a blazing fire, and amongst the living
implements of the pageant, instead of the bards, gaudy courtesans, and
besides the eight damsels, professors of divinity, Bráhmaṇas, cows and
pure kinds of wild beasts and birds, the chiefs of town and country-people
and the citizens with their train.”
Page 109.
_Then with the royal chaplains they_
_Took each his place in long array._
_The twice born chiefs, with zealous heed,_
_Made ready what the rite would need._
“Now about the office of a Purohita (house priest). The gods do not eat
the food offered by a king, who has no house-priest (Purohita). Thence the
king even when (not) intending to bring a sacrifice, should appoint a
Bráhman to the office of house-priest.” HAUG’S _Autareya Bráhmanam. Vol.
II. p. 528_.
Page 110.
_There by the gate the Sáras screamed._
The Sáras or Indian Crane is a magnificent bird easily domesticated and
speedily constituting himself the watchman of his master’s house and
garden. Unfortunately he soon becomes a troublesome and even dangerous
dependent, attacking strangers with his long bill and powerful wings, and
warring especially upon “small infantry” with unrelenting ferocity.
Page 120.
_My mothers or my sire the king._
All the wives of the king his father are regarded and spoken of by Ráma as
his mothers.
Page 125.
_Such blessings as the Gods o’erjoyed_
_Poured forth when Vritra was destroyed._
“Mythology regards Vritra as a demon or Asur, the implacable enemy of
Indra, but this is not the primitive idea contained in the name of Vritra.
In the hymns of the Veda Vritra appears to be the thick dark cloud which
Indra the God of the firmament attacks and disperses with his
thunderbolt.” GORRESIO.
“In that class of Rig-veda hymns which there is reason to look upon as the
oldest portion of Vedic poetry, the character of Indra is that of a mighty
ruler of the firmament, and his principal feat is that of conquering the
demon _Vritra_, a symbolical personification of the cloud which obstructs
the clearness of the sky, and withholds the fructifying rain from the
earth. In his battles with Vritra he is therefore described as ‘opening
the receptacles of the waters,’ as ‘cleaving the cloud’ with his
‘far-whirling thunderbolt,’ as ‘casting the waters down to earth,’ and
‘restoring the sun to the sky.’ He is in consequence ‘the upholder of
heaven, earth, and firmament,’ and the god ‘who has engendered the sun and
the dawn.’ ” CHAMBERS’S CYCLOPÆDIA, _Indra_.
“Throughout these hymns two images stand out before us with overpowering
distinctness. On one side is the bright god of the heaven, as beneficent
as he is irresistible: on the other the demon of night and of darkness, as
false and treachorous as he is malignant.… The latter (as his name Vritra,
from var, to veil, indicates) is pre-eminently the thief who hides away
the rain-clouds.… But the myth is yet in too early a state to allow of the
definite designations which are brought before us in the conflicts of Zeus
with Typhôn and his monstrous progeny, of Apollôn with the Pythôn, of
Bellerophôn with Chimaira of Oidipous with the Sphinx, of Hercules with
Cacus, of Sigurd with the dragon Fafnir; and thus not only is Vritra known
by many names, but he is opposed sometimes by Indra, sometimes by Agni the
fire-god, sometimes by Trita, Brihaspati, or other deities; or rather
these are all names of one and the same god.” COX’S _Mythology of the
Aryan Nations. Vol. II. p. 326_.
Page 125.
_And that prized herb whose sovereign power_
_Preserves from dark misfortune’s hour._
“And yet more medicinal is it than that Moly,
That Hermes once to wise Ulysses gave;
He called it Hæmony, and gave it me,
And bade me keep it as of sovereign use
’Gainst all enchantment, mildew, blast, or damp,
Or ghastly furies’ apparition.” _Comus._
The _Moly_ of Homer, which Dierbach considers to have been the _Mandrake_,
is probably a corruption of the Sanskrit _Múla_ a root.
Page 136.
_True is the ancient saw: the Neem_
_Can ne’er distil a honeyed stream._
The Neem tree, especially in the Rains, emits a strong unpleasant smell
like that of onions. Its leaves however make an excellent cooling
poultice, and the Extract of Neem is an admirable remedy for cutaneous
disorders.
Page 152.
_Who of Nisháda lineage came._
The following account of the origin of the Nishádas is taken from Wilson’s
_Vishṇu Puráṇa_, Book I. Chap. 15. “Afterwards the Munis beheld a great
dust arise, and they said to the people who were nigh: ‘What is this?’ And
the people answered and said: ‘Now that the kingdom is without a king, the
dishonest men have begun to seize the property of their neighbours. The
great dust that you behold, excellent Munis, is raised by troops of
clustering robbers, hastening to fall upon their prey.’ The sages, hearing
this, consulted, and together rubbed the thigh of the king (Vena), who had
left no offspring, to produce a son. From the thigh, thus rubbed, came
forth a being of the complexion of a charred stake, with flattened
features like a negro, and of dwarfish stature. ‘What am I to do,’ cried
he eagerly to the Munis. ‘Sit down (nishída),’ said they. And thence his
name was Nisháda. His descendants, the inhabitants of the Vindhyá
mountain, great Muni, are still called Nishádas and are characterized by
the exterior tokens of depravity.” Professor Wilson adds, in his note on
the passage: “The Matsya says that there were born outcast or barbarous
races, Mlechchhas, as black as collyrium. The Bhágavata describes an
individual of dwarfish stature, with short arms and legs, of a complexion
as black as a crow, with projecting chin, broad flat nose, red eyes, and
tawny hair, whose descendants were mountaineers and foresters. The Padma
(Bhúmi Khaṇḍa) has a similar deccription; adding to the dwarfish stature
and black complexion, a wide mouth, large ears, and a protuberant belly.
It also particularizes his posterity as Nishádas, Kirátas, Bhillas, and
other barbarians and Mlechchhas, living in woods and on mountains. These
passages intend, and do not much exaggerate, the uncouth appearance of the
Gonds, Koles, Bhils, and other uncivilized tribes, scattered along the
forests and mountains of Central India from Behar to Khandesh, and who
are, not improbably, the predecessors of the present occupants of the
cultivated portions of the country. They are always very black,
ill-shapen, and dwarfish, and have countenances of a very African
character.”
Manu gives a different origin of the Nishádas as the offspring of a
Bráhman father and a Súdra mother. See Muir’s _Sanskrit Texts_, Vol. I. p.
481.
Page 157.
_Beneath a fig-tree’s mighty shade,_
_With countless pendent shoots displayed._
“So counselled he, and both together went
Into the thickest wood; there soon they chose
The fig-tree: not that kind for fruit renowned,
But such as at this day, to Indians known,
In Malabar or Deccan spreads her arms
Branching so broad and long, that in the ground
The bended twigs take root, and daughters grow
About the mother tree, a pillared shade
High overarched, and echoing walks between.”
_Paradise Lost_, Book IX.
Page 161.
_Now, Lakshmaṇ, as our cot is made,_
_Must sacrifice be duly paid._
The rites performed in India on the completion of a house are represented
in modern Europe by the familiar “house-warming.”
Page 169.
_I longed with all my lawless will_
_Some elephant by night to kill._
One of the regal or military caste was forbidden to kill an elephant
except in battle.
_Thy hand has made no Bráhman bleed._