The Rámáyan of Válmíki, translated into English verse
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