Chapter 94

347 It would be lost labour to attempt to verify all the towns and streams mentioned in Cantos LXVIII and LXXII. Professor Wilson observes (_Vishṇu Puráṇa_, p. 139. Dr. Hall’s Edition) “States, and tribes, and cities have disappeared, even from recollection; and some of the natural features of the country, especially the rivers, have undergone a total alteration.… Notwithstanding these impediments, however, we should be able to identify at least mountains and rivers, to a much greater extent than is now practicable, if our maps were not so miserably defective in their nomenclature. None of our surveyors or geographers have been oriental scholars. It may be doubted if any of them have been conversant with the spoken language of the country. They have, consequently, put down names at random, according to their own inaccurate appreciation of sounds carelessly, vulgarly, and corruptly uttered; and their maps of India are crowded with appellations which bear no similitude whatever either to past or present denominations. We need not wonder that we cannot discover Sanskrit names in English maps, when, in the immediate vicinity of Calcutta, Barnagore represents Baráhanagar, Dakshineśwar is metamorphosed into Duckinsore, Ulubaría into Willoughbury.… There is scarcely a name in our Indian maps that does not afford proof of extreme indifference to accuracy in nomenclature, and of an incorrectness in estimating sounds, which is, in some degree, perhaps, a national defect.”

For further information regarding the road from Ayodhyá to Rájagriha, see _Additional Notes_.

348 “The Śatadrú, ‘the hundred-channeled’—the Zaradrus of Ptolemy, Hesydrus of Pliny—is the Sutlej.” WILSON’S _Vishṇu Puráṇa_, Vol. II. p. 130.

349 The Sarasvatí or Sursooty is a tributary of the Caggar or Guggur in Sirhind.

_ 350 Súryamcha pratimehatu_, adversus solem mingat. An offence expressly forbidden by the Laws of Manu.

351 Bharat does not intend these curses for any particular person: he merely wishes to prove his own innocence by invoking them on his own head if he had any share in banishing Ráma.

352 The Sáma-veda, the hymns of which are chanted aloud.

353 Walking from right to left.

354 Birth and death, pleasure and pain, loss and gain.

355 Erected upon a tree or high staff in honour of Indra.

356 I follow in this stanza the Bombay edition in preference to Schlegel’s which gives the tears of joy to the courtiers.

357 The commentator says “Śatrughna accompanied by the other sons of the king.”

358 Not Bharat’s uncle, but some councillor.

_ 359 Śatakratu_, Lord of a hundred sacrifices, the performance of a hundred _Aśvamedhas_ or sacrifices of a horse entitling the sacrificer to this exalted dignity.

360 The modern Malabar.

361 Now Sungroor, in the Allahabad district.

362 Ráma, Lakshmaṇ, and Sumantra.

363 The _svastika_, a little cross with a transverse line at each extremity.

364 When an army marched it was customary to burn the huts in which it had spent the night.

365 Yáma, Varuṇa, and Kuvera.

366 “A happy land in the remote north where the inhabitants enjoy a natural pefection attended with complete happiness obtained without exertion. There is there no vicissitude, nor decrepitude, nor death, nor fear: no distinction of virtue and vice, none of the inequalities denoted by the words best, worst, and intermediate, nor any change resulting from the succession of the four Yugas.” See MUIR’S _Sanskrit Texts_, Vol. I. p. 492.

367 The Moon.

368 The poet does not tell us what these lakes contained.

369 These ten lines are a substitution for, and not a translation of the text which Carey and Marshman thus render: “This mountain adorned with mango, jumboo, usuna, lodhra, piala, punusa, dhava, unkotha, bhuvya, tinisha, vilwa, tindooka, bamboo, kashmaree, urista, uruna, madhooka, tilaka, vuduree, amluka, nipa, vetra, dhunwuna, veejaka, and other trees affording flowers, and fruits, and the most delightful shade, how charming does it appear!”

_ 370 Vidyadharis_, Spirits of Air, sylphs.

371 A lake attached either to Amarávatí the residence of Indra, or Alaká that of Kuvera.

372 The Ganges of heaven.

373 Naliní, as here, may be the name of any lake covered with lotuses.

374 This canto is allowed, by Indian commentators, to be an interpolation. It cannot be the work of Válmíki.

375 A fine bird with a strong, sweet note, and great imitative powers.

376 Bauhinea variegata, a species of ebony.

377 The rainbow is called the bow of Indra.

378 Bhogavatí, the abode of the Nágas or Serpent race.

379 “The order of the procession on these occasions is that the children precede according to age, then the women and after that the men according to age, the youngest first and the eldest last: when they descend into the water this is reversed and resumed when they come out of it.” CAREY AND MARSHMAN.

380 Vṛihaspati, the preceptor of the Gods.

381 Garuḍ, the king of birds.

382 To be won by virtue.

383 The four religious orders, referable to different times of life are, that of the student, that of the householder, that of the anchorite, and that of the mendicant.

384 To Gods, men, and Manes.

385 Gayá is a very holy city in Behar. Every good Hindu ought once in his life to make funeral offerings in Gayá in honour of his ancestors.

_ 386 Put_ is the name of that region of hell to which men are doomed who leave no son to perform the funeral rites which are necessary to assure the happiness of the departed. _Putra_, the common word for a son is said by the highest authority to be derived from _Put_ and _tra_ deliverer.

387 It was the custom of Indian women when mourning for their absent husbands to bind their hair in a long single braid.

Carey and Marshman translate, “the one-tailed city.”

388 The verses in a different metre with which some cantos end are all to be regarded with suspicion. Schlegel regrets that he did not exclude them all from his edition. These lines are manifestly spurious. See _Additional Notes_.

389 This genealogy is a repetition with slight variation of that given in Book I, Canto LXX.

390 In Gorresio’s recension identified with Vishṇu. See Muir’s _Sanskrit Texts, Vol. IV. pp 29, 30_.

391 From _sa_ with, and _gara_ poison.

392 See Book I. Canto XL.

393 A practice which has frequently been described, under the name of _dherna_, by European travellers in India.

394 Compare Milton’s “_beseeching or beseiging_.”

395 Ten-headed, ten-necked, ten faced, are common epithets of Rávaṇ the giant king of Lanká.

396 The spouse of Rohiṇí is the Moon: Ráhu is the demon who causes eclipses.

397 “Once,” says the Commentator Tírtha, “in the battle between the Gods and demons the Gods were vanquished, and the sun was overthrown by Ráhu. At the request of the Gods Atri undertook the management of the sun for a week.”

398 Now Nundgaon, in Oudh.

399 A part of the great Daṇḍak forest.

400 When the saint Máṇḍavya had doomed some saint’s wife, who was Anasúyá’s friend, to become a widow on the morrow.

401 Heavenly nymphs.

402 The _ball_ or present of food to all created beings.

403 The clarified butter &c. cast into the sacred fire.

404 The Moon-God: “he is,” says the commentator, “the special deity of Bráhmans.”

405 “Because he was an incarnation of the deity,” says the commentator, “otherwise such honour paid by men of the sacerdotal caste to one of the military would be improper.”

406 The king of birds.

_ 407 Kálántakayamopamam_, resembling Yáma the destroyer.

408 Somewhat inconsistently with this part of the story Tumburu is mentioned in Book II, Canto XII as one of the Gandharvas or heavenly minstrels summoned to perform at Bharadvája’s feast.

409 Rambhá appears in Book I Canto LXIV as the temptress of Viśvámitra.

410 The conclusion of this Canto is all a vain repetition: it is manifestly spurious and a very feeble imitation of Válmíki’s style. See _Additional Notes_.

411 “Even when he had alighted,” says the commentator: The feet of Gods do not touch the ground.

412 A name of Indra.

413 Śachí is the consort of Indra.

414 The spheres or mansions gained by those who have duly performed the sacrifices required of them. Different situations are assigned to these spheres, some placing them near the sun, others near the moon.

415 Hermits who live upon roots which they dig out of the earth: literally _diggers_, derived from the prefix _vi_ and _khan_ to dig.

416 Generally, divine personages of the height of a man’s thumb, produced from Brahmá’s hair: here, according to the commentator followed by Gorresio, hermits who when they have obtained fresh food throw away what they had laid up before.

417 Sprung from the washings of Vishṇuu’s feet.

418 Four fires burning round them, and the sun above.

419 The tax allowed to the king by the Laws of Manu.

420 Near the celebrated Rámagiri or Ráma’s Hill, now Rám-ṭek, near Nagpore—the scene of the Yaksha’s exile in the _Messenger Cloud_.

421 A hundred _Aśvamedhas_ or sacrifices of a horse raise the sacrificer to the dignity of Indra.

422 Indra.

423 Gorresio observes that Daśaratha was dead and that Sítá had been informed of his death. In his translation he substitutes for the words of the text “thy relations and mine.” This is quite superfluous. Daśaratha though in heaven still took a loving interest in the fortunes of his son.

424 One of the hermits who had followed Ráma.

425 The lake of the five nymphs.

426 The holy fig-tree.

427 The bread-fruit tree, Artocarpus integrifolia.

428 A fine timber tree, Shorea robusta.

429 The God of fire.

430 Kuvera, the God of riches.

431 The Sun.

432 Brahmá, the creator.

433 Śiva.

434 The Wind-God.

435 The God of the sea.

436 A class of demi-gods, eight in number.

437 The holiest text of the Vedas, deified.

438 Vásuki.

439 Garuḍ.

440 The War-God.

441 One of the Pleiades generally regarded as the model of wifely excellence.

442 The Madhúka, or, as it is now called, Mahuwá, is the Bassia latifolia, a tree from whose blossoms a spirit is extracted.

443 “I should have doubted whether Manu could have been the right reading here, but that it occurs again in verse 29, where it is in like manner followed in verse 31 by Analá, so that it would certainly seem that the name Manu is intended to stand for a female, the daughter of Daksha. The Gauḍa recension, followed by Signor Gorresio (III 20, 12), adopts an entirely different reading at the end of the line, viz. _Balám Atibalám api_, ‘Balá and Atibilá,’ instead of Manu and Analá. I see that Professor Roth s.v. adduces the authority of the Amara Kosha and of the Commentator on Páṇini for stating that the word sometimes means ‘the wife of Manu.’ In the following text of the Mahábhárata I. 2553. also, Manu appears to be the name of a female: ‘_Anaradyam_, _Manum_, _Vañsám_, _Asurám_, _Márgaṇapriyám_, _Anúpám_, _Subhagám_, _Bhásím iti_, _Prádhá vyajayata_. Prádhá (daughter of Daksha) bore Anavadyá, Manu, Vanśá, Márgaṇapriyá, Anúpá, Subhagá. and Bhásí.’ ” _Muir’s Sanskrit Text_, Vol. I. p. 116.

444 The elephant of Indra.

_ 445 Golángúlas_, described as a kind of monkey, of a black colour, and having a tail like a cow.

446 Eight elephants attached to the four quarters and intermediate points of the compass, to support and guard the earth.

447 Some scholars identify the centaurs with the Gandharvas.

448 The hooded serpents, says the commentator Tírtha, were the offspring of Surasá: all others of Kadrú.

449 The text reads Kaśyapa, “a descendant of Kaśyapa,” who according to Rám. II. l0, 6, ought to be Vivasvat. But as it is stated in the preceding part of this passage III. 14, 11 f. that Manu was one of Kaśyapa’s eight wives, we must here read Kaśyap. The Ganda recension reads (III, 20, 30) _Manur manushyáms cha tatha janayámása Rághana_, instead of the corresponding line in the Bombay edition. _Muir’s Sanskrit Text, Vol I, p. 117._

450 The original verses merely name the trees. I have been obliged to amplify slightly and to omit some quas versu dicere non est; _e.g._ the _tiniśa_ (Dalbergia ougeiniensis), _punnága_ (Rottleria tinctoria), _tilaka_ (not named), _syandana_ (Dalbergia ougeiniensis again), _vandana_ (unknown), _nípa_ (Nauclea Kadamba), _lakucha_ (Artœarpus lacucha), _dhava_ (Grislea tomentosa), Aśvakarna (another name for the Sál), _Śamí_ (Acacia Suma), _khadira_ (Mimosa catechu), _kinśuka_ (Butea frondosa), _pátala_ (Bignonia suaveolens).

451 Acacia Suma.

452 The south is supposed to be the residence of the departed.

453 The sun.

454 The night is divided into three watches of four hours each.

455 The chief chamberlain and attendant of Śiva or Rudra.

456 Umá or Párvati, the consort of Śiva.

457 A star, one of the favourites of the Moon.

458 The God of love.

459 A demon slain by Indra.

460 Chitraratha, King of the Gandharvas.

461 Titanic.

462 The Sáriká is the Maina, a bird like a starling.

463 Mahákapála, Sthúláksha, Pramátha, Triśiras.

464 Vishṇu, who bears a _chakra_ or discus.

465 Śiva.

466 See _Additional Notes_—DAKSHA’S SACRIFICE.

467 Himálaya.

468 One of the mysterious weapons given to Ráma.

469 A periphrasis for the body.

470 Triśirás.

471 The Three-headed.

472 The demon who causes eclipses.

473 “This Asura was a friend of Indra, and taking advantage of his friend’s confidence, he drank up Indra’s strength along with a draught of wine and Soma. Indra then told the Aśvins and Sarasvatí that Namuchi had drunk up his strength. The Aśvins in consequence gave Indra a thunderbolt in the form of a foam, with which he smote off the head of Namuchi.” GARRETT’S _Classical Dictionary of India_. See also Book I. p. 39.

474 Indra.

475 Popularly supposed to cause death.

476 Garuḍ, the King of Birds, carried off the Amrit or drink of Paradise from Indra’s custody.

477 A demon, son of Kaśyap and Diti, slain by Rudra or Śiva when he attempted to carry off the tree of Paradise.

478 Namuchi and Vritra were two demons slain by Indra. Vritra personifies drought, the enemy of Indra, who imprisons the rain in the cloud.

479 Another demon slain by Indra.

480 The capital of the giant king Rávaṇ.

481 Kuvera, the God of gold.

482 In the great deluge.

483 The giant Márícha, son of Táḍaká. Táḍaká was slain by Ráma. See p. 39.

484 Indra’s elephant.

485 Bhogavatí, in Pátála in the regions under the earth, is the capital of the serpent race whose king is Vásuki.

486 the grove of Indra.

487 Pulastya is considered as the ancestor of the Rakshases or giants, as he is the father of Viśravas, the father of Rávaṇ and his brethren.

488 Beings with the body of a man and the head of a horse.

489 Ájas, Maríchipas, Vaikhánasas, Máshas, and Bálakhilyas are classes of supernatural beings who lead the lives of hermits.

490 “The younger brother of the giant Rávaṇ; when he and his brother had practiced austerities for a long series of years, Brahmá appeared to offer them boons: Vibhishaṇa asked that he might never meditate any unrighteousness.… On the death of Rávaṇ Vibhishaṇa was installed as Rája of Lanká.” GARRETT’S _Classical Dictionary of India_.

491 Serpent-gods.

492 See p. 33.

493 The Sanskrit words for car and jewels begin with _ra_.

494 A race of beings of human shape but with the heads of horses, like centaurs reversed.

495 The favourite wife of the Moon.

496 The planet Saturn.

497 Another favourite of the Moon; one of the lunar mansions.

498 The Rudras, agents in creation, are eight in number; they sprang from the forehead of Brahmá.

499 Maruts, the attendants of Indra.

500 Radiant demi-gods.

501 The mountain which was used by the Gods as a churning stick at the Churning of the Ocean.

502 The story will be found in GARRETT’S _Classical Dictionary_. See ADDITIONAL NOTES.

503 Mercury: to be carefully distinguished from Buddha.

504 The spirits of the good dwell in heaven until their store of accumulated merit is exhausted. Then they redescend to earth in the form of falling stars.

505 See The Descent of Gangá, Book I Canto XLIV.

506 See Book I Canto XXV.

_ 507 Aśoka_ is compounded of _a_ not and _śoka_ grief.

508 See Book I Canto XXXI.

509 An Asur or demon, king of Tripura, the modern Tipperah.

510 Śiva.

511 See Book I, Canto LIX.

512 The preceptor of the Gods.

513 From the root _vid_, to find.

514 Rávaṇ.

515 Or Curlews’ Wood.

516 Iron-faced.

517 Kabandha means a trunk.

518 A class of mythological giants. In the Epic period they were probably personifications of the aborigines of India.

519 Peace, war, marching, halting, sowing dissensions, and seeking protection.

520 See Book I, Canto XVI.

521 Or as the commentator Tírtha says, Śilápidháná, rock-covered, may be the name of the cavern.

522 Pampá is said by the commentator to be the name both of a lake and a brook which flows into it. The brook is said to rise in the hill Rishyamúka.

523 Who was acting as Regent for Ráma and leading an ascetic life while he mourned for his absent brother.

524 The Indian Cuckoo.

525 The Cassia Fistula or Amaltás is a splendid tree like a giant laburnum covered with a profusion of chains and tassels of gold. Dr. Roxburgh well describes it as “uncommonly beautiful when in flower, few trees surpassing it in the elegance of its numerous long pendulous racemes of large bright-yellow flowers intermixed with the young lively green foliage.” It is remarkable also for its curious cylindrical black seed-pods about two feet long, which are called monkeys’ walking-sticks.

526 “The Jonesia Asoca is a tree of considerable size, native of southern India. It blossoms in February and March with large erect compact clusters of flowers, varying in colour from pale-orange to scarlet, almost to be mistaken, on a hasty glance, for immense trusses of bloom of an Ixora. Mr. Fortune considered this tree, when in full bloom, superior in beauty even to the Amherstia.

The first time I saw the Asoc in flower was on the hill where the famous rock-cut temple of Kárlí is situated, and a large concourse of natives had assembled for the celebration of some Hindoo festival. Before proceeding to the temple the Mahratta women gathered from two trees, which were flowering somewhat below, each a fine truss of blossom, and inserted it in the hair at the back of her head.… As they moved about in groups it is impossible to imagine a more delightful effect than the rich scarlet bunches of flowers presented on their fine glossy jet-black hair.” FIRMINGER, _Gardening for India_.

527 No other word can express the movements of peafowl under the influence of pleasing excitement, especially when after the long drought they hear the welcome roar of the thunder and feel that the rain is near.

528 The Dewy Season is one of the six ancient seasons of the Indian year, lasting from the middle of January to the middle of March.

529 Ráma appears to mean that on a former occasion a crow flying high overhead was an omen that indicated his approaching separation from Sítá; and that now the same bird’s perching on a tree near him may be regarded as a happy augury that she will soon be restored to her husband.

530 A tree with beautiful and fragrant blossoms.

531 A race of semi-divine musicians attached to the service of Kuvera, represented as centaurs reversed with human figures and horses’ heads.

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.