The Rámáyan of Válmíki, translated into English verse
532 Butea Frondosa. A tree that bears a profusion of brilliant red
flowers which appear before the leaves.
533 I omit five _ślokas_ which contain nothing but a list of trees for
which, with one or two exceptions, there are no equivalent names in
English. The following is Gorresio’s translation of the
corresponding passage in the Bengal recension:—
“Oh come risplendono in questa stagione di primavera i vitici, le
galedupe, le bassie, le dalbergie, i diospyri … le tile, le
michelie, le rottlerie, le pentaptere ed i pterospermi, i bombaci,
le grislee, gli abri, gli amaranti e le dalbergie; i sirii, le
galedupe, le barringtonie ed i palmizi, i xanthocymi, il pepebetel,
le verbosine e le ticaie, le nauclee le erythrine, gli asochi, e le
tapie fanno d’ogni intorno pompa de’ lor fiori.”
534 A sacred stream often mentioned in the course of the poem. See Book
II, Canto XCV.
535 A daughter of Daksha who became one of the wives of Kaśyapa and
mother of the Daityas. She is termed the general mother of Titans
and malignant beings. See Book I Cantos XLV, XLVI.
536 Sugríva, the ex-king of the Vánars, foresters, or monkeys, an exile
from his home, wandering about the mountain Rishyamúka with his four
faithful ex-ministers.
537 The hermitage of the Saint Matanga which his curse prevented Báli,
the present king of the Vánars, from entering. The story is told at
length in Canto XI of this Book.
538 Hanumán, Sugríva’s chief general, was the son of the God of Wind.
See Book I, Canto XVI.
539 A range of hills in Malabar; the Western Ghats in the Deccan.
540 Válmíki makes the second vowel in this name long or short to suit
the exigencies of the verse. Other Indian poets have followed his
example, and the same licence will be used in this translation.
541 I omit a recapitulatory and interpolated verse in a different metre,
which is as follows:—Reverencing with the words, So be it, the
speech of the greatly terrified and unequalled monkey king, the
magnanimous Hanumán then went where (stood) the very mighty Ráma
with Lakshmaṇ.
542 The semi divine Hanumán possesses, like the Gods and demons, the
power of wearing all shapes at will. He is one of the _Kámarúpís_.
Like Milton’s good and bad angels “as they please
They limb themselves, and colour, shape, or size
Assume as likes them best, condense or rare.”
543 Himálaya is of course _par excellence_ the Monarch of mountains, but
the complimentary title is frequently given to other hills as here
to Malaya.
544 Twisted up in a matted coil as was the custom of ascetics.
545 The sun and moon.
546 The rainbow.
547 The Vedas are four in number, the Rich or Rig-veda, the Yajush or
Yajur-veda; the Sáman or Sáma-veda, and the Atharvan or
Atharva-veda. See p. 3. Note.
548 The chest, the throat, and the head.
549 “In our own metrical romances, or wherever a poem is meant not for
readers but for chanters and oral reciters, these _formulæ_, to meet
the same recurring case, exist by scores. Thus every woman in these
metrical romances who happens to be young, is described as ‘so
bright of ble,’ or complexion; always a man goes ‘the mountenance of
a mile’ before he overtakes or is overtaken. And so on through a
vast bead-roll of cases. In the same spirit Homer has his eternal
τον δ’αρ’ ὑποδρα ιδων, or τον δ’απαμειβομενος προσφη, &c.
To a reader of sensibility, such recurrences wear an air of
child-like simplicity, beautifully recalling the features of Homer’s
primitive age. But they would have appeared faults to all
commonplace critics in literary ages.”
DE QUINCEY. _Homer and the Homeridæ_.
550 Bráhmans the sacerdotal caste. Kshatriyas the royal and military,
Vaiśyas the mercantile, and Śúdras the servile.
551 A protracted sacrifice extending over several days. See Book I, p.
24 Note.
552 Possessed of all the auspicious personal marks that indicate
capacity of universal sovereignty. See Book I. p. 2, and Note 3.
553 Kabandha. See Book III. Canto LXXIII.
554 Fire for sacred purposes is produced by the attrition of two pieces
of wood. In marriage and other solemn covenants fire is regarded as
the holy witness in whose presence the agreement is made. Spenser in
a description of a marriage, has borrowed from the Roman rite what
he calls the housling, or “matrimonial rite.”
“His owne two hands the holy knots did knit
That none but death forever can divide.
His owne two hands, for such a turn most fit,
The housling fire did kindle and provide.”
Faery Queen, Book I. XII. 37.
555 Indra.
556 Báli the king _de facto_.
557 With the Indians, as with the ancient Greeks, the throbbing of the
right eye in a man is an auspicious sign, the throbbing of the left
eye is the opposite. In a woman the significations of signs are
reversed.
558 The Vedas stolen by the demons Madhu and Kaiṭabha.
“The text has [Sanskrit text] which signifies literally ‘the lost
vedic tradition.’ It seems that allusion is here made to the Vedas
submerged in the depth of the sea, but promptly recovered by Vishṇu
in one of his incarnations, as the brahmanic legend relates, with
which the orthodoxy of the Bráhmans intended perhaps to allude to
the prompt restoration and uninterrupted continuity of the ancient
vedic tradition.”
GORRESIO.
559 Like the wife of a Nága or Serpent-God carried off by an eagle. The
enmity between the King of birds and the serpent is of very frequent
occurrence. It seems to be a modification of the strife between the
Vedic Indra and the Ahi, the serpent or drought-fiend; between
Apollôn and the Python, Adam and the Serpent.
560 He means that he has never ventured to raise his eyes to her arms
and face, though he has ever been her devoted servant.
561 The wood in which Skanda or Kártikeva was brought up:
“The Warrior-God
Whose infant steps amid the thickets strayed
Where the reeds wave over the holy sod.”
See also Book I, Canto XXIX.
562 “Sugríva’s story paints in vivid colours the manners, customs and
ideas of the wild mountain tribes which inhabited Kishkindhya or the
southern hills of the Deccan, of the people whom the poem calls
monkeys, tribes altogether different in origin and civilization from
the Indo-Sanskrit race.” GORRESIO.
563 A fiend slain by Báli.
564 Báli’s mountain city.
565 The canopy or royal umbrella, one of the usual Indian regalia.
566 Whisks made of the hair of the Yak or Bos grunniers, also regal
insignia.
567 Righteous because he never transgresses his bounds, and
“over his great tides
Fidelity presides.”
568 Himálaya, the Lord of Snow, is the father of Umá the wife of 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