The Rámáyan of Válmíki, translated into English verse
reputed food of the exile. Thousands and thousands annually visit
the spot, and round the hill is a raised foot-path, on which the
devotee, with naked feet, treads full of pious awe.” _Calcutta
Review_, Vol. XXIII.
332 Deities of a particular class in which five or ten are enumerated.
They are worshipped particularly at the funeral obsequies in honour
of deceased progenitors.
333 “So in Homer the horses of Achilles lamented with many bitter tears
the death of Patroclus slain by Hector:”
“Ἵπποι δ’ Αἰακίδαο, μάχης ἀπάνευθεν ἐότες,
Κλᾶιον, ἐπειδὴ πρῶτα πυθέσθην ἡνιόχοιο
Ἐν κονίνσι πεσόντος ὑφ’ Ἕκτορος ἀνδροφόνοιο”
ILIAD. XVII. 426.
“Ancient poesy frequently associated nature with the joys and
sorrows of man.” GORRESIO.
334 The lines containing this heap of forced metaphors are marked as
spurious by Schlegel.
335 The southern region is the abode of Yama the Indian Pluto, and of
departed spirits.
336 The five elements of which the body consists, and to which it
returns.
337 So dying York cries over the body of Suffolk:
“Tarry, dear cousin Suffolk!
My soul shall thine keep company to heaven:
Tarry, sweet soul, for mine, then fly abreast.”
_King Henry V, Act IV, 6._
338 Kauśalyá, daughter of the king of another Kośal.
339 Rájagriha, or Girivraja was the capital of Aśvapati, Bharat’s
maternal grandfather.
340 The Kekayas or Kaikayas in the Punjab appear amongst the chief
nations in the war of the Mahábhárata; their king being a kinsman of
Krishṇa.
341 Hástinapura was the capital of the kingdom of Kuru, near the modern
Delhi.
342 The Panchálas occupied the upper part of the Doab.
343 “Kurujángala and its inhabitants are frequently mentioned in the
_Mahábhárata_, as in the _Ádi-parv._ 3789, 4337, _et al._” WILSON’S
_Vishṇu Puráṇa,_ Vol. II. p. 176. DR. HALL’S Note.
344 “The Ὁξύματις of Arrian. See _As. Res._ Vol. XV. p. 420, 421, also
_Indische Alterthumskunde_, Vol. I. p. 602, first footnote.”
WILSON’S _Vishṇu Puráṇa_, Vol. I. p. 421. DR. HALL’S Edition. The
Ikshumatí was a river in Kurukshetra.
345 “The Báhíkas are described in the Mahábhárata, Karṇa Parvan, with
some detail, and comprehend the different nations of the Punjab from
the Sutlej to the Indus.” WILSON’S _Vishṇu Puráṇa_, Vol. I. p. 167.
346 The Beas, Hyphasis, or Bibasis.
347 It would be lost labour to attempt to verify all the towns and
streams mentioned in Cantos LXVIII and LXXII. Professor Wilson
observes (_Vishṇu Puráṇa_, p. 139. Dr. Hall’s Edition) “States, and
tribes, and cities have disappeared, even from recollection; and
some of the natural features of the country, especially the rivers,
have undergone a total alteration.… Notwithstanding these
impediments, however, we should be able to identify at least
mountains and rivers, to a much greater extent than is now
practicable, if our maps were not so miserably defective in their
nomenclature. None of our surveyors or geographers have been
oriental scholars. It may be doubted if any of them have been
conversant with the spoken language of the country. They have,
consequently, put down names at random, according to their own
inaccurate appreciation of sounds carelessly, vulgarly, and
corruptly uttered; and their maps of India are crowded with
appellations which bear no similitude whatever either to past or
present denominations. We need not wonder that we cannot discover
Sanskrit names in English maps, when, in the immediate vicinity of
Calcutta, Barnagore represents Baráhanagar, Dakshineśwar is
metamorphosed into Duckinsore, Ulubaría into Willoughbury.… There is
scarcely a name in our Indian maps that does not afford proof of
extreme indifference to accuracy in nomenclature, and of an
incorrectness in estimating sounds, which is, in some degree,
perhaps, a national defect.”
For further information regarding the road from Ayodhyá to
Rájagriha, see _Additional Notes_.
348 “The Śatadrú, ‘the hundred-channeled’—the Zaradrus of Ptolemy,
Hesydrus of Pliny—is the Sutlej.” WILSON’S _Vishṇu Puráṇa_, Vol. II.
p. 130.
349 The Sarasvatí or Sursooty is a tributary of the Caggar or Guggur in
Sirhind.
_ 350 Súryamcha pratimehatu_, adversus solem mingat. An offence expressly
forbidden by the Laws of Manu.
351 Bharat does not intend these curses for any particular person: he
merely wishes to prove his own innocence by invoking them on his own
head if he had any share in banishing Ráma.
352 The Sáma-veda, the hymns of which are chanted aloud.
353 Walking from right to left.
354 Birth and death, pleasure and pain, loss and gain.
355 Erected upon a tree or high staff in honour of Indra.
356 I follow in this stanza the Bombay edition in preference to
Schlegel’s which gives the tears of joy to the courtiers.
357 The commentator says “Śatrughna accompanied by the other sons of the
king.”
358 Not Bharat’s uncle, but some councillor.
_ 359 Śatakratu_, Lord of a hundred sacrifices, the performance of a
hundred _Aśvamedhas_ or sacrifices of a horse entitling the
sacrificer to this exalted dignity.
360 The modern Malabar.
361 Now Sungroor, in the Allahabad district.
362 Ráma, Lakshmaṇ, and Sumantra.
363 The _svastika_, a little cross with a transverse line at each
extremity.
364 When an army marched it was customary to burn the huts in which it
had spent the night.
365 Yáma, Varuṇa, and Kuvera.
366 “A happy land in the remote north where the inhabitants enjoy a
natural pefection attended with complete happiness obtained without
exertion. There is there no vicissitude, nor decrepitude, nor death,
nor fear: no distinction of virtue and vice, none of the
inequalities denoted by the words best, worst, and intermediate, nor
any change resulting from the succession of the four Yugas.” See
MUIR’S _Sanskrit Texts_, Vol. I. p. 492.
367 The Moon.
368 The poet does not tell us what these lakes contained.
369 These ten lines are a substitution for, and not a translation of the
text which Carey and Marshman thus render: “This mountain adorned
with mango, jumboo, usuna, lodhra, piala, punusa, dhava, unkotha,
bhuvya, tinisha, vilwa, tindooka, bamboo, kashmaree, urista, uruna,
madhooka, tilaka, vuduree, amluka, nipa, vetra, dhunwuna, veejaka,
and other trees affording flowers, and fruits, and the most
delightful shade, how charming does it appear!”
_ 370 Vidyadharis_, Spirits of Air, sylphs.
371 A lake attached either to Amarávatí the residence of Indra, or Alaká
that of Kuvera.
372 The Ganges of heaven.
373 Naliní, as here, may be the name of any lake covered with lotuses.
374 This canto is allowed, by Indian commentators, to be an
interpolation. It cannot be the work of Válmíki.
375 A fine bird with a strong, sweet note, and great imitative powers.
376 Bauhinea variegata, a species of ebony.
377 The rainbow is called the bow of Indra.
378 Bhogavatí, the abode of the Nágas or Serpent race.
379 “The order of the procession on these occasions is that the children
precede according to age, then the women and after that the men
according to age, the youngest first and the eldest last: when they
descend into the water this is reversed and resumed when they come
out of it.” CAREY AND MARSHMAN.
380 Vṛihaspati, the preceptor of the Gods.
381 Garuḍ, the king of birds.
382 To be won by virtue.
383 The four religious orders, referable to different times of life are,
that of the student, that of the householder, that of the anchorite,
and that of the mendicant.
384 To Gods, men, and Manes.
385 Gayá is a very holy city in Behar. Every good Hindu ought once in
his life to make funeral offerings in Gayá in honour of his
ancestors.
_ 386 Put_ is the name of that region of hell to which men are doomed who
leave no son to perform the funeral rites which are necessary to
assure the happiness of the departed. _Putra_, the common word for a
son is said by the highest authority to be derived from _Put_ and
_tra_ deliverer.
387 It was the custom of Indian women when mourning for their absent
husbands to bind their hair in a long single braid.
Carey and Marshman translate, “the one-tailed city.”
388 The verses in a different metre with which some cantos end are all
to be regarded with suspicion. Schlegel regrets that he did not
exclude them all from his edition. These lines are manifestly
spurious. See _Additional Notes_.
389 This genealogy is a repetition with slight variation of that given
in Book I, Canto LXX.
390 In Gorresio’s recension identified with Vishṇu. See Muir’s _Sanskrit
Texts, Vol. IV. pp 29, 30_.
391 From _sa_ with, and _gara_ poison.
392 See Book I. Canto XL.
393 A practice which has frequently been described, under the name of
_dherna_, by European travellers in India.
394 Compare Milton’s “_beseeching or beseiging_.”
395 Ten-headed, ten-necked, ten faced, are common epithets of Rávaṇ the
giant king of Lanká.
396 The spouse of Rohiṇí is the Moon: Ráhu is the demon who causes
eclipses.
397 “Once,” says the Commentator Tírtha, “in the battle between the Gods
and demons the Gods were vanquished, and the sun was overthrown by
Ráhu. At the request of the Gods Atri undertook the management of
the sun for a week.”
398 Now Nundgaon, in Oudh.
399 A part of the great Daṇḍak forest.
400 When the saint Máṇḍavya had doomed some saint’s wife, who was
Anasúyá’s friend, to become a widow on the morrow.
401 Heavenly nymphs.
402 The _ball_ or present of food to all created beings.
403 The clarified butter &c. cast into the sacred fire.
404 The Moon-God: “he is,” says the commentator, “the special deity of
Bráhmans.”
405 “Because he was an incarnation of the deity,” says the commentator,
“otherwise such honour paid by men of the sacerdotal caste to one of
the military would be improper.”
406 The king of birds.
_ 407 Kálántakayamopamam_, resembling Yáma the destroyer.
408 Somewhat inconsistently with this part of the story Tumburu is
mentioned in Book II, Canto XII as one of the Gandharvas or heavenly
minstrels summoned to perform at Bharadvája’s feast.
409 Rambhá appears in Book I Canto LXIV as the temptress of Viśvámitra.
410 The conclusion of this Canto is all a vain repetition: it is
manifestly spurious and a very feeble imitation of Válmíki’s style.
See _Additional Notes_.
411 “Even when he had alighted,” says the commentator: The feet of Gods
do not touch the ground.
412 A name of Indra.
413 Śachí is the consort of Indra.
414 The spheres or mansions gained by those who have duly performed the
sacrifices required of them. Different situations are assigned to
these spheres, some placing them near the sun, others near the moon.
415 Hermits who live upon roots which they dig out of the earth:
literally _diggers_, derived from the prefix _vi_ and _khan_ to dig.
416 Generally, divine personages of the height of a man’s thumb,