Chapter 92

104 “Four classes of priests were required in India at the most solemn sacrifices. 1. The officiating priests, manual labourers, and acolytes, who had chiefly to prepare the sacrificial ground, to dress the altar, slay the victims, and pour out the libations. 2. The choristers, who chant the sacred hymns. 3. The reciters or readers, who repeat certain hymns. 4. The overseers or bishops, who watch and superintend the proceedings of the other priests, and ought to be familiar with all the Vedas. The formulas and verses to be muttered by the first class are contained in the Yajur-veda-sanhitá. The hymns to be sung by the second class are in the Sama-veda-sanhitá. The Atharva-veda is said to be intended for the Brahman or overseer, who is to watch the proceedings of the sacrifice, and to remedy any mistake that may occur. The hymns to be recited by the third class are contained in the Rigveda,” _Chips from a German Workshop._

105 The Maruts are the winds, deified in the religion of the Veda like other mighty powers and phenomena of nature.

106 A Titan or fiend whose destruction has given Vishṇu one of his well-known titles, Mádhava.

107 The garden of Indra.

108 One of the most ancient and popular of the numerous names of Vishṇu. The word has been derived in several ways, and may mean _he who moved on the (primordial) waters_, or _he who pervades or influences men or their thoughts_.

109 The Horse-Sacrifice, just described.

110 To walk round an object keeping the right side towards it is a mark of great respect. The Sanskrit word for the observance is _pradakshiṇá_, from pra pro, and _daksha_ right, Greek δεξίος, Latin dexter, Gaelic deas-il. A similar ceremony is observed by the Gaels.

“In the meantime she traced around him, with wavering steps, the propitiation, which some have thought has been derived from the Druidical mythology. It consists, as is well known, in the person who makes the _deasil_ walking three times round the person who is the object of the ceremony, taking care to move according to the course of the sun.”

SCOTT. _The Two Drovers._

111 The _Amrit_, the nectar of the Indian Gods.

_ 112 Gandharvas_ (Southey’s Glendoveers) are celestial musicians inhabiting Indra’s heaven and forming the orchestra at all the banquets of the principal deities.

_ 113 Yakshas_, demigods attendant especially on Kuvera, and employed by him in the care of his garden and treasures.

_ 114 Kimpurushas_, demigods attached also to the service of Kuvera, celestial musicians, represented like centaurs reversed with human figures and horses’ heads.

_ 115 Siddhas_, demigods or spirits of undefined attributes, occupying with the _Vidyádharas_ the middle air or region between the earth and the sun.

Schlegel translates: “Divi, Sapientes, Fidicines, Præpetes, illustres Genii, Præconesque procrearunt natos, masculos, silvicolas; angues porro, Hippocephali Beati, Aligeri, Serpentesque frequentes alacriter generavere prolem innumerabilem.”

116 A mountain in the south of India.

117 The preceptor of the Gods and regent of the planet Jupiter.

118 The celestial architect, the Indian Hephæstus, Mulciber, or Vulcan.

119 The God of Fire.

120 Twin children of the Sun, the physicians of Swarga or Indra’s heaven.

121 The deity of the waters.

122 Parjanya, sometimes confounded with Indra.

123 The bird and vehicle of Vishṇu. He is generally represented as a being something between a man and a bird and considered as the sovereign of the feathered race. He may be compared with the Simurgh of the Persians, the ’Anká of the Arabs, the Griffin of chivalry, the Phœnix of Egypt, and the bird that sits upon the ash Yggdrasil of the Edda.

124 This Canto will appear ridiculous to the European reader. But it should be remembered that the monkeys of an Indian forest, the “bough-deer” as the poets call them, are very different animals from the “turpissima bestia” that accompanies the itinerant organ-grinder or grins in the Zoological Gardens of London. Milton has made his hero, Satan, assume the forms of a cormorant, a toad, and a serpent, and I cannot see that this creation of semi-divine Vánars, or monkeys, is more ridiculous or undignified.

125 The consort of Indra, called also Śachí and Indráṇí.

126 The _Michelia champaca_. It bears a scented yellow blossom:

“The maid of India blest again to hold In her full lap the Champac’s leaves of gold.”

_Lallah Rookh._

127 Vibháṇdak, the father of Rishyaśring

128 A hemiśloka is wanting in Schlegel’s text, which he thus fills up in his Latin translation.

129 Rishyaśring, a Bráhman, had married Śántá who was of the Kshatriya or Warrior caste and an expiatory ceremony was necessary on account of this violation of the law.

130 “The poet no doubt intended to indicate the vernal equinox as the birthday of Ráma. For the month _Chaitra_ is the first of the two months assigned to the spring; it corresponds with the latter half of March and the former half of April in our division of the year. _Aditi_, the mother of the Gods, is lady of the seventh lunar mansion which is called _Punarvasu_. The five planets and their positions in the Zodiac are thus enumerated by both commentators: the Sun in Aries, Mars in Capricorn, Saturn in Libra, Jupiter in Cancer, Venus in Pisces.… I leave to astronomers to examine whether the parts of the description agree with one another, and, if this be the case, thence to deduce the date. The Indians place the nativity of Ráma in the confines of the second age (tretá) and the third (dwápara): but it seems that this should be taken in an allegorical sense.… We may consider that the poet had an eye to the time in which, immediately before his own age, the aspects of the heavenly bodies were such as he has described.” SCHLEGEL.

131 The regent of the planet Jupiter.

132 Indra = Jupiter Tonans.

133 “_Pushya_ is the name of a month; but here it means the eighth mansion. The ninth is called _Asleshá_, or the snake. It is evident from this that Bharat, though his birth is mentioned before that of the twins, was the youngest of the four brothers and Ráma’s junior by eleven months.” SCHLEGEL.

134 A fish, the Zodiacal sign _Pisces_.

135 One of the constellations, containing stars in the wing of Pegasus.

136 Ráma means the Delight (of the World); Bharat, the Supporter; Lakshmaṇ, the Auspicious; Śatrughna, the Slayer of Foes.

137 Schlegel, in the _Indische Bibliothek_, remarks that the proficiency of the Indians in this art early attracted the attention of Alexander’s successors, and natives of India were so long exclusively employed in this service that the name Indian was applied to any elephant-driver, to whatever country he might belong.

138 The story of this famous saint is given at sufficient length in Cantos LI-LV.

This saint has given his name to the district and city to the east of Benares. The original name, preserved in a land-grant on copper now in the Museum of the Benares College, has been Moslemized into Ghazeepore (the City of the Soldier-martyr).

139 The son of Kuśik is Viśvámitra.

140 At the recollection of their former enmity, to be described hereafter.

141 The Indian nectar or drink of the Gods.

142 Great joy, according to the Hindu belief, has this effect, not causing each particular hair to stand on end, but gently raising all the down upon the body.

143 The Rákshasas, giants, or fiends who are represented as disturbing the sacrifice, signify here, as often elsewhere, merely the savage tribes which placed themselves in hostile opposition to Bráhmanical institutions.

144 Consisting of horse, foot, chariots, and elephants.

145 “The Gandharvas, or heavenly bards, had originally a warlike character but were afterwards reduced to the office of celestial musicians cheering the banquets of the Gods. Dr. Kuhn has shown their identity with the Centaurs in name, origin and attributes.” GORRESIO.

146 These mysterious animated weapons are enumerated in Cantos XXIX and XXX. Daksha was the son of Brahmá and one of the Prajápatis, Demiurgi, or secondary authors of creation.

147 Youths of the Kshatriya class used to leave unshorn the side locks of their hair. These were called _Káka-paksha_, or raven’s wings.

148 The Rákshas or giant Rávaṇ, king of Lanká.

149 “The meaning of Aśvins (from _aśva_ a horse, Persian asp, Greek ἵππος, Latin _equus_, Welsh ech) is Horsemen. They were twin deities of whom frequent mention is made in the Vedas and the Indian myths. The Aśvins have much in common with the Dioscuri of Greece, and their mythical genealogy seems to indicate that their origin was astronomical. They were, perhaps, at first the morning star and evening star. They are said to be the children of the sun and the nymph Aśviní, who is one of the lunar asterisms personified. In the popular mythology they are regarded as the physicians of the Gods.” GORRESIO.

150 The word Kumára (a young prince, a Childe) is also a proper name of Skanda or Kártikeya God of War, the son of Śiva and Umá. The babe was matured in the fire.

151 “At the rising of the sun as well as at noon certain observances, invocations, and prayers were prescribed which might under no circumstances be omitted. One of these observances was the recitation of the Sávitrí, a Vedic hymn to the Sun of wonderful beauty.” GORRESIO.

_ 152 Tripathaga_, _Three-path-go,_ flowing in heaven, on earth, and under the earth. See Canto XLV.

153 Tennyson’s “Indian Cama,” the God of Love, known also by many other names.

_ 154 Umá_, or _Parvatí_, was daughter of Himálaya, Monarch of mountains, and wife of Śiva. See Kálidasa’s _Kumára Sambhava_, or _Birth of the War-God_.

_ 155 Stháṇu_. The Unmoving one, a name of Śiva.

156 “The practice of austerities, voluntary tortures, and mortifications was anciently universal in India, and was held by the Indians to be of immense efficacy. Hence they mortified themselves to expiate sins, to acquire merits, and to obtain superhuman gifts and powers; the Gods themselves sometimes exercised themselves in such austerities, either to raise themselves to greater power and grandeur, or to counteract the austerities of man which threatened to prevail over them and to deprive them of heaven.… Such austerities were called in India _tapas_ (burning ardour, fervent devotion) and he who practised them _tapasvin_.” GORRESIO.

_ 157 The Bodiless one._

158 “A celebrated lake regarded in India as sacred. It lies in the lofty region between the northern highlands of the Himálayas and mount Kailása, the region of the sacred lakes. The poem, following the popular Indian belief, makes the river Sarayú (now Sarjú) flow from the Mánasa lake; the sources of the river are a little to the south about a day’s journey from the lake. See Lassen, _Indische Alterthumshunde_, page 34.” GORRESIO. _Manas_ means mind; _mánasa_, mental, mind-born.

_ 159 Sarovar_ means best of lakes. This is another of the poet’s fanciful etymologies.

160 The confluence of two or more rivers is often a venerated and holy place. The most famous is Prayág or Allahabad, where the Sarasvatí by an underground course is believed to join the Jumna and the Ganges.

161 The botanical names of the trees mentioned in the text are Grislea Tormentosa, Shorea Robusta, Echites Antidysenterica, Bignonia Suaveolens, Œgle Marmelos, and Diospyrus Glutinosa. I have omitted the _Kutaja_ (Echites) and the _Tiṇḍuka_ (Diospyrus).

162 Here we meet with a fresh myth to account for the name of these regions. _Malaja_ is probably a non-Aryan word signifying a hilly country: taken as a Sanskrit compound it means _sprung from defilement_. The word _Karúsha_ appears to have a somewhat similar meaning.

163 “This is one of those indefinable mythic personages who are found in the ancient traditions of many nations, and in whom cosmogonical or astronomical notions are generally figured. Thus it is related of Agastya that the Vindhyan mountains prostrated themselves before him; and yet the same Agastya is believed to be regent of the star Canopus.” GORRESIO.

He will appear as the friend and helper of Ráma farther on in the poem.

164 The famous pleasure-garden of Kuvera the God of Wealth.

165 “The whole of this Canto together with the following one, regards the belief, formerly prevalent in India, that by virtue of certain spells, to be learnt and muttered, secret knowledge and superhuman powers might be acquired. To this the poet has already alluded in Canto xxiii. These incorporeal weapons are partly represented according to the fashion of those ascribed to the Gods and the different orders of demi-gods, partly are the mere creations of fancy; and it would not be easy to say what idea the poet had of them in his own mind, or what powers he meant to assign to each.” SCHLEGEL.

166 “In Sanskrit _Sankára_, a word which has various significations but the primary meaning of which is _the act of seizing_. A magical power seems to be implied of employing the weapons when and where required. The remarks I have made on the preceding Canto apply with still greater force to this. The MSS. greatly vary in the enumeration of these _Sankáras_, and it is not surprising that copyists have incorrectly written the names which they did not well understand. The commentators throw no light upon the subject.” SCHLEGEL. I have taken the liberty of omitting four of these which Schlegel translates “Scleromphalum, Euomphalum, Centiventrem, and Chrysomphalum.”

167 I omit, after this line, eight _ślokes_ which, as Schlegel allows, are quite out of place.

168 This is the fifth of the _avatárs_, descents or incarnations of Vishṇu.

169 This is a solar allegory. Vishṇu is the sun, the three steps being his rising, culmination, and setting.

170 Certain ceremonies preliminary to a sacrifice.

171 A river which rises in Budelcund and falls into the Ganges near Patna. It is called also _Hiraṇyaráhu_, Golden-armed, and _Hiraṇyaráha_, Auriferous.

172 The modern Berar.

173 According to the Bengal recension the first (Kuśámba) is called Kuśáśva, and his city Kauśáśví. This name does not occur elsewhere. The reading of the northern recension is confirmed by Foê Kouê Ki; p. 385, where the city _Kiaoshangmi_ is mentioned. It lay 500 _lis_ to the south-west of _Prayága_, on the south bank of the Jumna. _Mahodaya_ is another name of Kanyakubja: _Dharmáraṇya_, the wood to which the God of Justice is said to have fled through fear of Soma the Moon-God was in Magadh. Girivraja was in the same neighbourhood. See Lasson’s I, A. Vol. I. p. 604.

174 That is, the City of the Bent Virgins, the modern Kanauj or Canouge.

175 Literally, Given by _Brahma_ or devout contemplation.

176 Now called Kośí (Cosy) corrupted from Kauśikí, daughter of Kuś]a.

“This is one of those personifications of rivers so frequent in the Grecian mythology, but in the similar myths is seen the impress of the genius of each people, austere and profoundly religious in India, graceful and devoted to the worship of external beauty in Greece.” GORRESIO.

177 One of the names of the Ganges considered as the daughter of Jahnu. See Canto XLIV.

178 The Indian Crane.

179 Or, rather, geese.

180 A name of the God Śiva.

181 Garuḍa.

182 Ikshváku, the name of a king of Ayodhyá who is regarded as the founder of the Solar race, means also a _gourd_. Hence, perhaps, the myth.

183 “The region here spoken of is called in the Laws of Manu _Madhyadeśa_ or the middle region. ‘The region situated between the Himálaya and the Vindhya Mountains … is called _Madhyadeśa_, or the middle region; the space comprised between these two mountains from the eastern to the western sea is called by sages Áryávartta, _the seat of honourable men_.’ (MANU, II, 21, 22.) The Sanskrit Indians called themselves Áryans, which means _honourable_, _noble_, to distinguish themselves from the surrounding nations of different origin.” GORRESIO.

184 Said to be so called from the Jambu, or Rose Apple, abounding in it, and signifying according to the Puránas the central division of the world, the known world.

185 Here used as a name of Vishṇu.

186 Kings are called the husbands of their kingdoms or of the earth; “She and his kingdom were his only brides.” _Raghuvaṅśa._

“Doubly divorced! Bad men, you violate A double marriage, ’twixt my crown and me, And then between me and my married wife.”

King Richard II. Act V. Sc. I.

187 The thirty-three Gods are said in the _Aitareya Bráhmaṇa_, Book I. ch. II. 10. to be the eight Vasus, the eleven Rudras, the twelve Ádityas, Prajápati, either Brahmá or Daksha, and Vashatkára or deified oblation. This must have been the actual number at the beginning of the Vedic religion gradually increased by successive mythical and religious creations till the Indian Pantheon was crowded with abstractions of every kind. Through the reverence with which the words of the Veda were regarded, the immense host of multiplied divinities, in later times, still bore the name of the Thirty-three Gods.

188 “One of the elephants which, according to an ancient belief popular in India, supported the earth with their enormous backs; when one of these elephants shook his wearied head the earth trembled with its woods and hills. An idea, or rather a mythical fancy, similar to this, but reduced to proportions less grand, is found in Virgil when he speaks of Enceladus buried under Ætna:”

“adi semiustum fulmine corpus Urgeri mole hac, ingentemque insuper Ætnam Impositam, ruptis flammam expirare caminis; Et fessum quoties mutat latus, intre mere omnem iam, et cœlum subtexere fumo.”

Æneid. Lib. III. GORRESIO.

189 “The Devas and Asuras (Gods and Titans) fought in the east, the south, the west, and the north, and the Devas were defeated by the Asuras in all these directions. They then fought in the north-eastern direction; there the Devas did not sustain defeat. This direction is _aparájitá_, _i.e._ unconquerable. Thence one should do work in this direction, and have it done there; for such a one (alone) is able to clear off his debts.” HAUG’S _Aitareya Bráhmanam_, Vol. II, p. 33.

The debts here spoken of are a man’s religious obligations to the Gods, the Pitaras or Manes, and men.

190 Vishṇu.

191 “It appears to me that this mythical story has reference to the volcanic phenomena of nature. Kapil may very possibly be that hidden fiery force which suddenly unprisons itself and bursts forth in volcanic effects. Kapil is, moreover, one of the names of Agni the God of Fire.” GORRESIO.

192 Garuḍ was the son of Kaśyap and Vinatá.

193 Garuḍ.

194 A famous and venerated region near the Malabar coast.

195 That is four fires and the sun.

196 Heaven.

197 Wind-Gods.

198 Śiva.

199 The lake Vindu does not exist. Of the seven rivers here mentioned two only, the Ganges and the Sindhu or Indus, are known to geographers. Hládiní means the Gladdener, Pávaní the Purifier, Naliní the Lotus-Clad, and Suchakshu the Fair-eyed.

200 The First or Golden Age.

201 Diti and Aditi were wives of Kaśyap, and mothers respectively of Titans and Gods.

202 One of the seven seas surrounding as many worlds in concentric rings.

203 Śankar and Rudra are names of Śiva.

204 “Śárṅgin, literally _carrying a bow of horn_, is a constantly recurring name of Vishṇu. The Indians also, therefore, knew the art of making bows out of the hons of antelopes or wild goats, which Homer ascribes to the Trojans of the heroic age.” SCHLEGEL.

205 Dhanvantari, the physician of the Gods.

206 The poet plays upon the word and fancifully derives it from _apsu_, the locative case plural of _ap_, water, and _rasa_, taste.… The word is probably derived from _ap_, water, and _sri_, to go, and seems to signify _inhabitants of the water_, nymphs of the stream; or, as Goldstücker thinks (Dict. s.v.) these divinities were originally personifications of the vapours which are attracted by the sun and form into mist or clouds.

207 “_Surá_, in the feminine comprehends all sorts of intoxicating liquors, many kinds of which the Indians from the earliest times distilled and prepared from rice, sugar-cane, the palm tree, and various flowers and plants. Nothing is considered more disgraceful among orthodox Hindus than drunkenness, and the use of wine is forbidden not only to Bráhmans but the two other orders as well.… So it clearly appears derogatory to the dignity of the Gods to have received a nymph so pernicious, who ought rather to have been made over to the Titans. However the etymological fancy has prevailed. The word _Sura_, a God, is derived from the indeclinable _Swar_ heaven.” SCHLEGEL.

208 Literally, high-eared, the horse of Indra. Compare the production of the horse from the sea by Neptune.

209 “And Kaustubha the best Of gems that burns with living light Upon Lord Vishṇu’s breast.”

_Churning of the Ocean._

210 “That this story of the birth of Lakshmí is of considerable antiquity is evident from one of her names _Kshírábdhi-tanayá_, daughter of the Milky Sea, which is found in _Amarasinha_ the most ancient of Indian lexicographers. The similarity to the Greek myth of Venus being born from the foam of the sea is remarkable.”

“In this description of Lakshmí one thing only offends me, that she is said to have four arms. Each of Vishṇu’s arms, single, as far as the elbow, there branches into two; but Lakshmí in all the brass seals that I possess or remember to have seen has two arms only. Nor does this deformity of redundant limbs suit the pattern of perfect beauty.” SCHLEGEL. I have omitted the offensive epithet.

211 Purandhar, a common title of Indra.

212 A few verses are here left untranslated on account of the subject and language being offensive to modern taste.

213 “In this myth of Indra destroying the unborn fruit of Diti with his thunderbolt, from which afterwards came the Maruts or Gods of Wind and Storm, geological phenomena are, it seems, represented under mythical images. In the great Mother of the Gods is, perhaps, figured the dry earth: Indra the God of thunder rends it open, and there issue from its rent bosom the Maruts or exhalations of the earth. But such ancient myths are difficult to interpret with absolute certainty.” GORRESIO.

214 Wind.

215 Indra, with _mahá_, great, prefixed.

216 The Heavenly Twins.

217 Not banished from heaven as the inferior Gods and demigods sometimes were.