The Rámáyan of Válmíki, translated into English verse
to Ayodhyá. The car decends, and the Vánar matrons are added to the
party. The Bengal recension ignores this palpable interruption.
1024 The _arghya_, a respectful offering to Gods and venerable men
consisting of rice, dúivá grass, flowers etc., with water.
1025 I have abridged Hanumán’s outline of Ráma’s adventures, with the
details of which we are already sufficiently acquainted.
1026 In these respectful salutations the person who salutes his superior
mentions his own name even when it is well known to the person whom
he salutes.
1027 I have omitted the chieftains’ names as they could not be introduced
without padding. They are Mainda, Dwivid, Níla, Rishabh, Susheṇ,
Nala, Gaváksha, Gandhamádan, Śarabh, and Panas.
1028 The following addition is found in the Bengal recension: But
Vaiśravaṇ (Kuvera) when he beheld his chariot said unto it: “Go, and
carry Ráma, and come unto me when my thought shall call thee, And
the chariot returned unto Ráma;” and he honoured it when he had
heard what had passed.
1029 Here follows in the original an enumeration of the chief blessings
which will attend the man or woman who reads or hears read this tale
of Ráma. These blessings are briefly mentioned at the end of the
first Canto of the first book, and it appears unnecessary to repeat
them here in their amplified form. The Bengal recension (Gorresio’s
edition) gives them more concisely as follows: “This is the great
first poem blessed and glorious, which gives long life to men and
victory to kings, the poem which Válmíki made. He who listens to
this wondrous tale of Ráma unwearied in action shall be absolved
from all his sins. By listening to the deeds of Ráma he who wishes
for sons shall obtain his heart’s desire, and to him who longs for
riches shall riches be given. The virgin who asks for a husband
shall obtain a husband suited to her mind, and shall meet again her
dear kinsfolk who are far away. They who hear this poem which
Válmíki made shall obtain all their desires and all their prayers
shall be fulfilled.”
_ 1030 The Academy_, Vol. III., No 43, contains an able and interesting
notice of this work from the pen of the Professor of Sanskrit in the
University of Cambridge: “The _Uttarakáṇḍa_,” Mr. Cowell remarks,
“bears the same relation to the _Rámáyaṇa_ as the Cyclic poems to
the _Iliad_. Just as the _Cypria_ of Stasinus, the _Æthiopis_ of
Arctinus, and the little _Iliad_ of Lesches completed the story of
the _Iliad_, and not only added the series of events which preceded
and followed it, but also founded episodes of their own on isolated
allusions in Homer, so the _Uttarakáṇḍa_ is intended to complete the
_Rámáyaṇa_, and at the same time to supplement it by intervening
episodes to explain casual allusions or isolated incidents which
occur in it. Thus the early history of the giant Rávaṇa and his
family fills nearly forty Chapters, and we have a full account of
his wars with the gods and his conquest of Lanká, which all happened
long before the action of the poem commences, just as the _Cypria_
narrated the birth and early history of Helen, and the two
expeditions of the Greeks against Troy; and the latter chapters
continue the history of the hero Ráma after his triumphant return to
his paternal kingdom, and the poem closes with his death and that of
his brothers, and the founding by their descendants of various
kingdoms in different parts of India.”
1031 MUIR, _Sanskrit Texts,_ Part IV., pp. 414 ff.
1032 MUIR, _Sanskrit Texts_, Part IV., 391, 392.
1033 See _Academy_, III., 43.
_ 1034 Academy_, Vol. III., No. 43.
1035 E. B. Cowell. _Academy_, No. 43. The story of Sítá’s banishment will
be found roughly translated from the _Raghuvaṇśa_, in the Additional
Notes.
1036 E. B. Cowell. _Academy_, Vol, III, No. 43.
1037 MUIR, _Sanskrit Texts_, Part IV., Appendix.
1038 Ghí: clarified butter. Gur: molasses.
1039 Haridwar (Anglicè Hurdwar) where the Ganges enters the plain
country.
1040 Campbell in “Journ. As. Soc. Bengal,” 1866, Part ii. p. 132; Latham,
“Descr. Eth.” Vol. ii. p. 456; Tod, “Annals of Rajasthan,” Vol. i.
p. 114.
1041 Said by the commentator to be an eastern people between the
Himálayan and Vindhyan chains.
1042 Videha was a district in the province of Behar, the ancient Mithilá
or the modern Tirhoot.
1043 The people of Malwa.
1044 “The Káśikośalas are a central nation in the Váyu Puráṇa. The
Rámáyaṇa places them in the east. The combination indicates the
country between Benares and Oude.… Kośala is a name variously
applied. Its earliest and most celebrated application is to the
country on the banks of the Sarayú, the kingdom of Ráma, of which
Ayodhyá was the capital.… In the Mahábhárata we have one Kośala in
the east and another in the south, besides the Prák-Kośalas and
Uttara Kośalas in the east and north. The Puráṇas place the Kośalas
amongst the people on the back of Vindhya; and it would appear from
the Váyu that Kuśa the son of Ráma transferred his kingdom to a more
central position; he ruled over Kośala at his capital of Kúśasthali
of Kuśavatí, built upon the Vindhyan precipices.” WILSON’S _Vishnṇu
Púraṇa_, Vol. II. pp. 157, 172.
1045 The people of south Behar.
1046 The Puṇḍras are said to be the inhabitants of the western provinces
of Bengal. “In the _Aitareyabráhmaṇa_, VII. 18, it is said that the
elder sons of Viśvamitra were cursed to become progenitors of most
abject races, such as Andhras, Puṇḍras, Śabaras, Pulindas, and
Mútibas.” WILSON’S _Vishṇu Puráṇa_ Vol. II. 170.
1047 Anga is the country about Bhagulpore, of which Champá was the
capital.
1048 A fabulous people, “men who use their ears as a covering.” So Sir
John Maundevile says: “And in another Yle ben folk that han gret
Eres and long, that hangen down to here knees,” and Pliny, lib. iv.
c. 13: “In quibus nuda alioquin corpora prægrandes ipsorum aures
tota contegunt.” Isidore calls them Panotii.
1049 “Those whose ears hang down to their lips.”
1050 “The Iron-faces.”
1051 “The One-footed.”
“In that Contree,” says Sir John Maundevile, “ben folk, that han but
o foot and thei gon so fast that it is marvaylle: and the foot is so
large that it schadeweth alle the Body azen the Sonne, when thei
wole lye and rest hem.” So Pliny, Natural History, lib. vii. c. 2:
speaks of “Hominumn gens … singulis cruribus, miræ pernicitatis ad
saltum; eosdemque Sciopodas vocari, quod in majori æstu, humi
jacentes resupini, umbrâ se pedum protegant.”
These epithets are, as Professor Wilson remarks, “exaggerations of
national ugliness, or allusions to peculiar customs, which were not
literally intended, although they may have furnished the Mandevilles
of ancient and modern times.”
_Vishṇu Puráṇa_, Vol. II. p. 162.
1052 The Kirrhadæ of Arrian: a general name for savage tribes living in
woods and mountains.
1053 Said by the commentator to be half tigers half men.
1054 The kingdom seems to have corresponded with the greater part of
Berar and Khandesh.
1055 The Bengal recension has Kishikas, and places them both in the south
and the north.
1056 The people of Mysore.
1057 “There are two Matsyas, one of which, according to the Yantra
Samráj, is identifiable with Jeypoor. In the Digvijaya of Nakula he
subdues the Matsyas further to the west, or Gujerat.” WILSON’S
_Vishṇu Puráṇa_, Vol. II. 158. Dr. Hall observes: “In the
_Mahábhárata Sabhá-parwan_, 1105 and 1108, notice is taken of the
king of Matsya and of the Aparamatsyas; and, at 1082, the Matsyas
figure as an eastern people. They are placed among the nations of
the south in the _Rámáyaṇa Kishkindhá-káṇda_, XLI., II, while the
Bengal recension, _Kishkindhá-káṇḍa_, XLIV., 12, locates them in the
north.”
1058 The Kalingas were the people of the upper part of the Coromandel
Coast, well known, in the traditions of the Eastern Archipelago, as
Kling. Ptolemy has a city in that part, called Caliga; and Pliny
Calingæ proximi mari. WILSON’S _Vishṇu Puráṇa_, Vol. II. 156, Note.
1059 The Kauśikas do not appear to be identifiable.
1060 The Andhras probably occupied the modern Telingana.
1061 The Puṇḍras have already been mentioned in Canto XL.
1062 The inhabitants of the lower part of the Coromandel Coast; so
called, after them, Cholamaṇdala.
1063 A people in the Deccan.
1064 The Keralas were the people of Malabar proper.
1065 A generic term for persons speaking any language but Sanskrit and
not conforming to the usual Hindu institutions.
1066 “Pulinda is applied to any wild or barbarous tribe. Those here named
are some of the people of the deserts along the Indus; but Pulindas
are met with in many other positions, especially in the mountains
and forests across Central India, the haunts of the Bheels and
Gonds. So Ptolemy places the Pulindas along the banks of the
Narmadá, to the frontiers of Larice, the Látá or Lár of the
Hindus,—Khandesh and part of Gujerat.” WILSON’S _Vishṇu Puráṇa_,
Vol. II. 159, Note.
Dr. Hall observes that “in the Bengal recension of the _Rámáyaṇa_
the Pulindas appear both in the south and in the north. The real
_Rámáyaṇa_ K.-k., XLIII., speaks of the northern Pulindas.”
1067 The Śúrasenas were the inhabitants of Mathurá, the Suraseni of
Arrian.
1068 These the Mardi of the Greeks and the two preceding tribes appear to
have dwelt in the north-west of Hindustan.
1069 The Kámbojas are said to be the people of Arachosia. They are always
mentioned with the north-western tribes.
1070 “The term Yavanas, although, in later times, applied to the
Mohammedans, designated formerly the Greeks.… The Greeks were known
throughout Western Asia by the term Yavan, or Ion. That the
Macedonian or Bactrian Greeks were most usually intended is not only
probable from their position and relations with India, but from
their being usually named in concurrence with the north-western
tribes, Kámbojas, Daradas, Páradas, Báhlíkas, Śakas &c., in the
Rámáyaṇa. Mahábhárata, Puránas, Manu, and in various poems and
plays.” WILSON’S _Vishṇu Puráṇa_ Vol. II. p. 181, Note.
1071 These people, the Sakai and Sacæ of classical writers, the
Indo-Scythians of Ptolemy, extended, about the commencement of our
era, along the west of India, from the Hindu Kosh to the mouths of
the Indus.
1072 The corresponding passage in the Bengal recension has instead of
Varadas Daradas the Dards or inhabitants of the modern Dardistan
along the course of the Indus, above the Himálayas, just before it
descends to India.
1073 From the word yonder it would appear that the prayer is to be
repeated at the rising of the Sun.
1074 The creator of the world and the first of the Hindu triad.
1075 He who pervades all beings; or the second of the Hindu triad who
preserves the world.
1076 The bestower of blessings; the third of the Hindu triad and the
destroyer of the world.
1077 A name of the War-God; also one who urges the senses to action.
1078 The lord of creatures; or the God of sacrifices.