The Rámáyan of Válmíki, translated into English verse
evening star. They are said to be the children of the sun and the
nymph Aśviní, who is one of the lunar asterisms personified. In the
popular mythology they are regarded as the physicians of the Gods.”
GORRESIO.
150 The word Kumára (a young prince, a Childe) is also a proper name of
Skanda or Kártikeya God of War, the son of Śiva and Umá. The babe
was matured in the fire.
151 “At the rising of the sun as well as at noon certain observances,
invocations, and prayers were prescribed which might under no
circumstances be omitted. One of these observances was the
recitation of the Sávitrí, a Vedic hymn to the Sun of wonderful
beauty.” GORRESIO.
_ 152 Tripathaga_, _Three-path-go,_ flowing in heaven, on earth, and
under the earth. See Canto XLV.
153 Tennyson’s “Indian Cama,” the God of Love, known also by many other
names.
_ 154 Umá_, or _Parvatí_, was daughter of Himálaya, Monarch of mountains,
and wife of Śiva. See Kálidasa’s _Kumára Sambhava_, or _Birth of the
War-God_.
_ 155 Stháṇu_. The Unmoving one, a name of Śiva.
156 “The practice of austerities, voluntary tortures, and mortifications
was anciently universal in India, and was held by the Indians to be
of immense efficacy. Hence they mortified themselves to expiate
sins, to acquire merits, and to obtain superhuman gifts and powers;
the Gods themselves sometimes exercised themselves in such
austerities, either to raise themselves to greater power and
grandeur, or to counteract the austerities of man which threatened
to prevail over them and to deprive them of heaven.… Such
austerities were called in India _tapas_ (burning ardour, fervent
devotion) and he who practised them _tapasvin_.” GORRESIO.
_ 157 The Bodiless one._
158 “A celebrated lake regarded in India as sacred. It lies in the lofty
region between the northern highlands of the Himálayas and mount
Kailása, the region of the sacred lakes. The poem, following the
popular Indian belief, makes the river Sarayú (now Sarjú) flow from
the Mánasa lake; the sources of the river are a little to the south
about a day’s journey from the lake. See Lassen, _Indische
Alterthumshunde_, page 34.” GORRESIO. _Manas_ means mind; _mánasa_,
mental, mind-born.
_ 159 Sarovar_ means best of lakes. This is another of the poet’s
fanciful etymologies.
160 The confluence of two or more rivers is often a venerated and holy
place. The most famous is Prayág or Allahabad, where the Sarasvatí
by an underground course is believed to join the Jumna and the
Ganges.
161 The botanical names of the trees mentioned in the text are Grislea
Tormentosa, Shorea Robusta, Echites Antidysenterica, Bignonia
Suaveolens, Œgle Marmelos, and Diospyrus Glutinosa. I have omitted
the _Kutaja_ (Echites) and the _Tiṇḍuka_ (Diospyrus).
162 Here we meet with a fresh myth to account for the name of these
regions. _Malaja_ is probably a non-Aryan word signifying a hilly
country: taken as a Sanskrit compound it means _sprung from
defilement_. The word _Karúsha_ appears to have a somewhat similar
meaning.
163 “This is one of those indefinable mythic personages who are found in
the ancient traditions of many nations, and in whom cosmogonical or
astronomical notions are generally figured. Thus it is related of
Agastya that the Vindhyan mountains prostrated themselves before
him; and yet the same Agastya is believed to be regent of the star
Canopus.” GORRESIO.
He will appear as the friend and helper of Ráma farther on in the
poem.
164 The famous pleasure-garden of Kuvera the God of Wealth.
165 “The whole of this Canto together with the following one, regards
the belief, formerly prevalent in India, that by virtue of certain
spells, to be learnt and muttered, secret knowledge and superhuman
powers might be acquired. To this the poet has already alluded in
Canto xxiii. These incorporeal weapons are partly represented
according to the fashion of those ascribed to the Gods and the
different orders of demi-gods, partly are the mere creations of
fancy; and it would not be easy to say what idea the poet had of
them in his own mind, or what powers he meant to assign to each.”
SCHLEGEL.
166 “In Sanskrit _Sankára_, a word which has various significations but
the primary meaning of which is _the act of seizing_. A magical
power seems to be implied of employing the weapons when and where
required. The remarks I have made on the preceding Canto apply with
still greater force to this. The MSS. greatly vary in the
enumeration of these _Sankáras_, and it is not surprising that
copyists have incorrectly written the names which they did not well
understand. The commentators throw no light upon the subject.”
SCHLEGEL. I have taken the liberty of omitting four of these which
Schlegel translates “Scleromphalum, Euomphalum, Centiventrem, and
Chrysomphalum.”
167 I omit, after this line, eight _ślokes_ which, as Schlegel allows,
are quite out of place.
168 This is the fifth of the _avatárs_, descents or incarnations of
Vishṇu.
169 This is a solar allegory. Vishṇu is the sun, the three steps being
his rising, culmination, and setting.
170 Certain ceremonies preliminary to a sacrifice.
171 A river which rises in Budelcund and falls into the Ganges near
Patna. It is called also _Hiraṇyaráhu_, Golden-armed, and
_Hiraṇyaráha_, Auriferous.
172 The modern Berar.
173 According to the Bengal recension the first (Kuśámba) is called
Kuśáśva, and his city Kauśáśví. This name does not occur elsewhere.
The reading of the northern recension is confirmed by Foê Kouê Ki;
p. 385, where the city _Kiaoshangmi_ is mentioned. It lay 500 _lis_
to the south-west of _Prayága_, on the south bank of the Jumna.
_Mahodaya_ is another name of Kanyakubja: _Dharmáraṇya_, the wood to
which the God of Justice is said to have fled through fear of Soma
the Moon-God was in Magadh. Girivraja was in the same neighbourhood.
See Lasson’s I, A. Vol. I. p. 604.
174 That is, the City of the Bent Virgins, the modern Kanauj or Canouge.
175 Literally, Given by _Brahma_ or devout contemplation.
176 Now called Kośí (Cosy) corrupted from Kauśikí, daughter of Kuś]a.
“This is one of those personifications of rivers so frequent in the
Grecian mythology, but in the similar myths is seen the impress of
the genius of each people, austere and profoundly religious in
India, graceful and devoted to the worship of external beauty in
Greece.” GORRESIO.
177 One of the names of the Ganges considered as the daughter of Jahnu.
See Canto XLIV.
178 The Indian Crane.
179 Or, rather, geese.
180 A name of the God Śiva.
181 Garuḍa.
182 Ikshváku, the name of a king of Ayodhyá who is regarded as the
founder of the Solar race, means also a _gourd_. Hence, perhaps, the
myth.
183 “The region here spoken of is called in the Laws of Manu
_Madhyadeśa_ or the middle region. ‘The region situated between the
Himálaya and the Vindhya Mountains … is called _Madhyadeśa_, or the
middle region; the space comprised between these two mountains from
the eastern to the western sea is called by sages Áryávartta, _the
seat of honourable men_.’ (MANU, II, 21, 22.) The Sanskrit Indians
called themselves Áryans, which means _honourable_, _noble_, to
distinguish themselves from the surrounding nations of different
origin.” GORRESIO.
184 Said to be so called from the Jambu, or Rose Apple, abounding in it,
and signifying according to the Puránas the central division of the
world, the known world.
185 Here used as a name of Vishṇu.
186 Kings are called the husbands of their kingdoms or of the earth;
“She and his kingdom were his only brides.” _Raghuvaṅśa._
“Doubly divorced! Bad men, you violate
A double marriage, ’twixt my crown and me,
And then between me and my married wife.”
King Richard II. Act V. Sc. I.
187 The thirty-three Gods are said in the _Aitareya Bráhmaṇa_, Book I.
ch. II. 10. to be the eight Vasus, the eleven Rudras, the twelve
Ádityas, Prajápati, either Brahmá or Daksha, and Vashatkára or
deified oblation. This must have been the actual number at the
beginning of the Vedic religion gradually increased by successive
mythical and religious creations till the Indian Pantheon was
crowded with abstractions of every kind. Through the reverence with
which the words of the Veda were regarded, the immense host of
multiplied divinities, in later times, still bore the name of the
Thirty-three Gods.
188 “One of the elephants which, according to an ancient belief popular
in India, supported the earth with their enormous backs; when one of
these elephants shook his wearied head the earth trembled with its
woods and hills. An idea, or rather a mythical fancy, similar to
this, but reduced to proportions less grand, is found in Virgil when
he speaks of Enceladus buried under Ætna:”
“adi semiustum fulmine corpus
Urgeri mole hac, ingentemque insuper Ætnam
Impositam, ruptis flammam expirare caminis;
Et fessum quoties mutat latus, intre mere omnem
iam, et cœlum subtexere fumo.”
Æneid. Lib. III. GORRESIO.
189 “The Devas and Asuras (Gods and Titans) fought in the east, the
south, the west, and the north, and the Devas were defeated by the
Asuras in all these directions. They then fought in the
north-eastern direction; there the Devas did not sustain defeat.
This direction is _aparájitá_, _i.e._ unconquerable. Thence one
should do work in this direction, and have it done there; for such a
one (alone) is able to clear off his debts.” HAUG’S _Aitareya
Bráhmanam_, Vol. II, p. 33.
The debts here spoken of are a man’s religious obligations to the
Gods, the Pitaras or Manes, and men.
190 Vishṇu.
191 “It appears to me that this mythical story has reference to the
volcanic phenomena of nature. Kapil may very possibly be that hidden
fiery force which suddenly unprisons itself and bursts forth in
volcanic effects. Kapil is, moreover, one of the names of Agni the
God of Fire.” GORRESIO.
192 Garuḍ was the son of Kaśyap and Vinatá.
193 Garuḍ.
194 A famous and venerated region near the Malabar coast.
195 That is four fires and the sun.
196 Heaven.
197 Wind-Gods.
198 Śiva.
199 The lake Vindu does not exist. Of the seven rivers here mentioned
two only, the Ganges and the Sindhu or Indus, are known to
geographers. Hládiní means the Gladdener, Pávaní the Purifier,
Naliní the Lotus-Clad, and Suchakshu the Fair-eyed.
200 The First or Golden Age.
201 Diti and Aditi were wives of Kaśyap, and mothers respectively of
Titans and Gods.
202 One of the seven seas surrounding as many worlds in concentric
rings.
203 Śankar and Rudra are names of Śiva.
204 “Śárṅgin, literally _carrying a bow of horn_, is a constantly
recurring name of Vishṇu. The Indians also, therefore, knew the art
of making bows out of the hons of antelopes or wild goats, which
Homer ascribes to the Trojans of the heroic age.” SCHLEGEL.