The Rámáyan of Válmíki, translated into English verse
killed a cow.
930 A King of the Yakshas, or Kuvera himself, the God of Gold.
931 The brace protects the left arm from injury from the bow-string, and
the guard protects the fingers of the right hand.
932 The story is told in Book I, Cantos XL, XLI, XLII.
933 Fiends and enemies of the Gods.
934 The Indus.
935 Cowherds, sprung from a Bráhman and a woman of the medical tribe,
the modern Ahírs.
936 Barbarians or outcasts.
_ 937 Vraṇa_ means wound or rent.
938 Here in the Bengal recension (Gorresio’s edition), begins Book VI.
939 The Goomtee.
940 The Anglicized Nerbudda.
941 According to a Pauranik legend Keśarí Hanumán’s putative father had
killed an Asur or demon who appeared in the form of an elephant, and
hence arose the hostility between Vánars and elephants.
942 Here follows the enumeration of Sugríva’s forces which I do not
attempt to follow. It soon reaches a hundred thousand billions.
943 I omit the rest of this canto, which is mere repetition. Rávaṇ gives
in the same words his former answer that the Gods, Gandharvas and
fiends combined shall not force him to give up Sítá. He then orders
Śárdúla to tell him the names of the Vánar chieftains whom he has
seen in Ráma’s army. These have already been mentioned by Śuka and
Sáraṇ.
944 Lakshmí is the Goddess both of beauty and fortune, and is
represented with a lotus in her hand.
945 The poet appears to have forgotten that Śuka and Sáraṇ were
dismissed with ignominy in Canto XXIX, and have not been reinstated.
946 The four who fled with him. Their names are Anala, Panasa, Sampáti,
and Pramati.
947 The numbers here are comparatively moderate: ten thousand elephants,
ten thousand chariots, twenty thousand horses and ten million
giants.
948 The Kinśuk, also called Paláśa, is Butea Frondosa, a tree that bears
beautiful red crescent shaped blossoms and is deservedly a favorite
with poets. The Seemal or Śálmalí is the silk cotton tree which also
bears red blossoms.
949 Varuṇa.
950 The duty of a king to save the lives of his people and avoid
bloodshed until milder methods have been tried in vain.
951 I have omitted several of these single combats, as there is little
variety in the details and each duel results in the victory of the
Vánar or his ally.
952 Yajnaśatru, Mahápárśva, Mahodar, Vajradanshṭra, Śuka, and Sáraṇ.
953 Angad.
954 A mysterious weapon consisting of serpents transformed to arrows
which deprived the wounded object of all sense and power of motion.
955 On each foot, and at the root of each finger.
956 Varuṇ.
957 The name of one of the mystical weapons the command over which was
given by Viśvámitra to Ráma, as related in Book I.
958 One of Sítá’s guard, and her comforter on a former occasion also.
959 The preceptor of the Gods.
960 Ráma’s grandfather.
961 The Gandharvas are warriors and Minstrels of Indra’s heaven.
962 “It is to be understood,” says the commentator, “that this is not
the Akampan who has already been slain.”
963 Rávaṇ’s son, whom Hanumán killed when he first visited Lanká.
964 Níla was the son of Agni the God of Fire, and possessed, like
Milton’s demons, the power of dilating and condensing his form at
pleasure.
965 An ancient king of Ayodhyá said by some to have been Prithu’s
father.
966 The daughter of King Kuśadhwaja. She became an ascetic, and being
insulted by Rávaṇ in the woods where she was performing penance,
destroyed herself by entering fire, but was born again as Sítá to be
in turn the destruction of him who had insulted her.
967 Nandíśvara was Śiva’s chief attendant. Rávaṇ had despised and
laughed at him for appearing in the form of a monkey and the
irritated Nandíśvara cursed him and foretold his destruction by
monkeys.
968 Rávaṇ once upheaved and shook Mount Kailása the favourite dwelling
place of Śiva the consort of Umá, and was cursed in consequence by
the offended Goddess.
969 Rambhá, who has several times been mentioned in the course of the
poem, was one of the nymphs of heaven, and had been insulted by
Rávaṇ.
970 Punjikasthalá was the daughter of Varuṇ. Rávaṇ himself has mentioned
in this book his insult to her, and the curse pronounced in
consequence by Brahmá.
971 Pulastya was the son of Brahmá and father of Viśravas or Paulastya
the father of Rávaṇ and Kumbhakarṇa.
972 I omit a tedious sermon on the danger of rashness and the advantages
of prudence, sufficient to irritate a less passionate hearer than
Rávaṇ.
973 The Bengal recension assigns a very different speech to Kumbhakarṇa
and makes him say that Nárad the messenger of the Gods had formerly
told him that Vishṇu himself incarnate as Daśaratha’s son should
come to destroy Rávaṇ.
974 Mahodar, Dwijihva, Sanhráda, and Vitardan.
975 A name of Vishṇu.
976 There is so much commonplace repetition in these Sallies of the
Rákshas chieftains that omissions are frequently necessary. The
usual ill omens attend the sally of Kumbhakarṇa, and the Canto ends
with a description of the terrified Vánars’ flight which is briefly
repeated in different words at the beginning of the next Canto.
977 Kártikeya the God of War, and the hero and incarnation Paraśuráma
are said to have cut a passage through the mountain Krauncha, a part
of the Himálayan range, in the same way as the immense gorge that
splits the Pyrenees under the towers of Marboré was cloven at one
blow of Roland’s sword Durandal.
978 Rishabh, Śarabh, Níla, Gaváksha, and Gandhamádan.
979 Angad. The text calls him the son of the son of him who holds the
thunderbolt, _i.e._ the grandson of Indra.
980 Literally, weighing a thousand _bháras_. The _bhára_ is a weight
equal to 2000 _palas_, the _pala_ is equal to four _karśas_, and the
_karśa_ to 11375 French grammes or about 176 grains troy. The spear
seems very light for a warrior of Kumbhakarṇa’s strength and stature
and the work performed with it.
981 The custom of throwing parched or roasted grain, with wreaths and
flowers, on the heads of kings and conquerors when they go forth to
battle and return is frequently mentioned by Indian poets.
982 Lakshmaṇ.
983 I have abridged this long Canto by omitting some vain repetitions,
commonplace epithets and similes and other unimportant matter. There
are many verses in this Canto which European scholars would rigidly
exclude as unmistakeably the work of later rhapsodists. Even the
reverent Commentator whom I follow ventures to remark once or twice:
_Ayam śloka prak shipta iti bahavah_, “This _śloka_ or verse is in
the opinion of many interpolated.”
984 Narak was a demon, son of Bhúmi or Earth, who haunted the city
Prágjyotisha.
985 Śambar was a demon of drought.
986 Indra.
987 Devántak (Slayer of Gods) Narántak (Slayer of Men) Atikáya (Huge of
Frame) and Triśirás (Three Headed) were all sons of Rávaṇ.
988 The demon of eclipse who seizes the Sun and Moon.
989 Lakshmaṇ.
990 In such cases as this I am not careful to reproduce the numbers of
the poet, which in the text which I follow are 670000000; the Bengal
recension being content with thirty million less.
991 The discus or quoit, a sharp-edged circular missile is the favourite
weapon of Vishṇu.
992 To destroy Tripura the triple city in the sky, air and earth, built
by Maya for a celebrated Asur or demon, or as another commentator
explains, to destroy Kandarpa or Love.
993 The Lokapálas are sometimes regarded as deities appointed by Brahmá
at the creation of the word to act as guardians of different orders
of beings, but more commonly they are identified with the deities
presiding over the four cardinal and four intermediate points of the
compass, which, according to Manu V. 96, are 1, Indra, guardian of
the East; 2, Agni, of the South-east; 3, Yáma, of the South; 4,
Súrya, of the South-west; 5, Varuṇa, of the West; 6, Pavana or Váyu,
of the North-west; 7, Kuvera, of the North; 8, Soma or Chandra, of
the North-east.
994 The chariots of Rávaṇ’s present army are said to have been one
hundred and fifty million in number with three hundred million
elephants, and twelve hundred million horses and asses. The footmen
are merely said to have been “unnumbered.”
995 It is not very easy to see the advantage of having arrows headed in
the way mentioned. Fanciful names for war-engines and weapons
derived from their resemblance to various animals are not confined
to India. The “War-wolf” was used by Edward I. at the siege of
Brechin, the “Cat-house” and the “Sow” were used by Edward III. at
the siege of Dunbar.
996 Apparently a peak of the Himalaya chain.
997 This exploit of Hanumán is related with inordinate prolixity in the
Bengal recension (Gortesio’s text). Among other adventures he
narrowly escapes being shot by Bharat as he passes over Nandigrama
near Ayodhyá. Hanumán stays Bharat in time, and gives him an account
of what has befallen Ráma and Sítá in the forest and in Lanká.
998 As Garuḍ the king of birds is the mortal enemy of serpents the
weapon sacred to him is of course best calculated to destroy the
serpent arrows of Rávaṇ.
999 The celebrated saint who has on former occasions assisted Ráma with
his gifts and counsel.
1000 Indra.
1001 Yáma.
1002 Kártikeya.
1003 Kubera.
1004 Varuṇ.
1005 The Pitris, forefathers or spirits of the dead, are of two kinds,
either the spirits of the father, grandfathers and
great-grandfathers of an individual or the progenitors of mankind
generally, to both of whom obsequial worship is paid and oblations
of food are presented.
1006 The Maruts or Storm-Gods.
1007 The Heavenly Twins, the Castor and Pollux of the Hindus.
1008 The Man _par excellence_, the representative man and father of the
human race regarded also as God.
1009 The Vasus, a class of deities originally personifications of natural
phenomena.
1010 A class of celestial beings who dwell between the earth and the sun.
1011 The seven horses are supposed to symbolize the seven days of the
week.
1012 One for each month in the year.
1013 The garden of Kuvera, the God of Riches.
1014 The consort of Indra.
1015 The Swayamvara, Self-choice or election of a husband by a princess
or daughter of a Kshatriya at a public assembly of suitors held for
the purpose. For a description of the ceremony see _Nala and
Damayantí_ an episode of the Mahábhárat translated by the late Dean
Milman, and _Idylls from the Sanskrit_.
1016 The Pitris or Manes, the spirits of the dead.
1017 Kuvera, the God of Wealth.
1018 Varuṇ, God of the sea.
1019 Mahádeva or Śiva whose ensign is a bull.
1020 The Address to Ráma, both text and commentary, will be found
literally translated in the Additional Notes. A paraphrase of a
portion is all that I have attempted here.
1021 Rávaṇ’s queen.
1022 Or Maináka.
1023 Here, in the North-west recension, Sítá expresses a wish that Tárá
and the wives of the Vánar chiefs should be invited to accompany her