695 Take those with you.
696 Shatrughna.
697 Sudasa’s son, Mitrasaha.
698 Where the rakshasa had been killed.
699 Havishya.
700 Soudasa.
701 The rakshasa.
702 Soudasa’s name. He was thus known as Kalmashapada, because his feet (pada) had a blemish (kalmasha). The story has been recounted earlier.
703 Shatrughna.
704 The word lava means to cut off.
705 Valmiki.
706 The sages.
707 Shatrughna.
708 The trident.
709 Mandhata.
710 Madhu’s city.
711 Since shatrughna means a slayer of enemies, there is a play on words.
712 Lavanasura’s mother was Kumbhini, Madhu’s wife. Kumbhini was Ravana’s sister.
713 Vishnu.
714 Identified with Mathura.
715 Literally, shurasenas mean brave soldiers.
716 Madhupura or Mathura.
717 Shatrughna.
718 In krita yuga, there were those who did not possess bodies.
719 By implication, there were no kshatriyas in krita yuga.
720 The kshatriyas were superior to the brahmanas who had been born in krita yuga.
721 The brahmanas and kshatriyas of treta yuga.
722 Dharma declines as one goes down the cycle of four yugas. Dharma has four feet in krita yuga, three in treta yuga, two in dvapara yuga and one in kali yuga.
723 A peak in the Vindhyas.
724 Agastya’s name.
725 He washed his hands and mouth.
726 The word used is tata.
727 The word danda means both rod and punishment.
728 March–April.
729 Shukracharya.
730 The god of love.
731 Danda’s/Dandaka’s forest (aranya).
732 Literally, place where people reside.
733 That is, he wants to perform a sacrifice.
734 If they do not accept Rama’s overlordship, they will have to fight and will be killed.
735 Vritra was the son of a brahmana.
736 Indra.
737 Indra.
738 During the menstrual cycle.
739 Kartikeya.
740 Uma’s lord, Uma’s husband, Shiva.
741 Shitikantha and Kapardi are Shiva’s names, Kapardi meaning the one with matted hair.
742 Shiva.
743 Ila as man and Ilaa as woman.
744 In the singular, though it should be dual, since both Bharata and Lakshmana are being spoken to.
745 The brahmana means Budha. Avartani means a crucible, a place where things are whirled around. Specifically, it is a kind of learning that facilitates memory retention.
746 Also known as kinnaras, semi-divine species described as Kubera’s companions.
747 The month of Magha.
748 Ila, in the form of a man.
749 Having lost his memory.
750 Budha.
751 Of residing there.
752 For some time.
753 Here, both Vashatkara and Omkara are proper names.
754 Shiva.
755 Identified as Jhusi, near Prayaga.
756 This requires explanation. There are ascetics who have left for the forest. Technically, those are outside the kingdom. Those who are in the kingdom are thus in the householder stage (garhasthya).
757 Beautiful in the sense of being whole and not having cracked.
758 Mudga.
759 Meaning coins.
760 A sacred task must always be performed with one’s wife.
761 Shatrughna naturally returned for the sacrifice.
762 Lava and Kusha.
763 A long poem.
764 A sarga is a section. Since we are later told that the Valmiki Ramayana has 500 sargas, one can deduce that a sarga has roughly fifty shlokas. Therefore, sarga roughly corresponds to a chapter (adhyaya).
765 Do not accept any riches as a reward for the singing.
766 Of the musical instruments, the veena.
767 Of the chords.
768 Valmiki was the son of Prachetas, one of the Prajapatis.
769 Shukracharya’s.
770 Lava and Kusha.
771 Thus, this reply is by Kusha.
772 The ‘Uttara Kanda’ part.
773 To messengers.
774 Valmiki.
775 The vajapeya sacrifice has ten times the qualities of an ashvamedha sacrifice.
776 Bharata’s maternal uncle was Ashvapati, by extension, Rama’s maternal uncle. Yudhajit was Ashvapati’s son.
777 Since Yudhajit is not the maternal uncle, this is a misstatement.
778 Meaning Bharata.
779 Bharata.
780 Pushkara is the same as Pushkala.
781 The Malla kingdom was in between Kosala and Videha. The word malla means wrestler or boxer.
782 Kala, also Death or Destiny.
783 This world and the world hereafter.
784 The word used is tata.
785 These are Brahma’s words, being repeated.
786 The Adityas, the gods.
787 Durvasa had taken a vow not to eat for one thousand years.
788 That is, North Kosala.
789 That is, did not waste any time in resting along the way.
790 Alternatively, Shravasti.
791 Would die.
792 Non-Critical versions also mention Subahu of Madhura. In the Critical version, this is left implicit.
793 Rama.
794 That is, rule over Lanka.
795 Mahaprasthana, death.
796 Rama.
797 He did not try to avoid stones etc. and seek out the most comfortable stretch of the path.
798 In embodied form. Padma is another name for Lakshmi/Shri, since she is on a lotus.
799 The embodied form of modesty.
800 Entry into heaven.
Acknowledgements
This journey, with Penguin, started more than a decade ago. It is a journey of translating Sanskrit texts into English, in unabridged form. It commenced with the Bhagavad Gita in 2006, followed by the Mahabharata (2010 to 2014) and the Harivamsha (2016). It continues with the Valmiki Ramayana and will be followed by the Puranas. To the best of my knowledge, the great translator, Manmatha Nath Dutt (1855–1912), is the only other person who has accomplished the ‘double’ of unabridged translations of both the Valmiki Ramayana and the Mahabharata in English. In this journey with Penguin, special thanks to Meru Gokhale, Ambar Sahil Chatterjee and Paloma Dutta. All three have made this journey easier to traverse.
My wife, Suparna Banerjee (Debroy), has not only been patni, she has been grihini and sahadharmini too. Had she not provided an enabling and conducive environment, juggling professional commitments and carving out the time required for translating would have been impossible. य: तया सह स स्वर्गो निरयो यस्त्वया विना (2.27.16).
This translation is based on the Critical Edition brought out (between 1951 and 1975) by the Oriental Institute, now part of Maharaja Sayajirao University, Baroda. When I started work on translating the Mahabharata in 2009, there was a thought, however hazy, of attempting the Valmiki Ramayana too. Therefore, one had to acquire the seven published volumes of the Critical Edition. Those who have tried this acquisition will testify this is no mean task. Multiple channels and multiple efforts failed. The Oriental Institute is not known for its marketing and distribution successes. The context changed in 2015, because I joined the government. By then, I had still not been able to get copies of the Critical Edition. What with joining the government, which made finding time difficult, and an inability to get the text, I remarked to my wife that destiny willed otherwise. A few months later, on a flight, I found myself seated next to Shailendra Mehta, economist, scholar, friend, and currently president, director and distinguished professor at MICA, Ahmedabad. ‘What next, after
the Mahabharata?’ asked Shailendra and I described my frustration. A few weeks down the line, Shailendra Mehta walked into my office, lugging a trolley bag, with all seven volumes in them. ‘All yours,’ he said. What destiny willed was clear enough. The dedication of this three volume set to Shailendra is a paltry attempt to say thank you.
‘What next, after the Valmiki Ramayana?’ Life moves on to the Puranas, beginning with the Bhagavata Purana. At one point, the Mahabharata translation seemed like a mammoth task, stretching to infinity. With the major Puranas collectively amounting to four times the size of the Mahabharata, they are more monumental than the mammoth. But as always, if it so wills, destiny finds a way.
THE BEGINNING
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The Valmiki Ramayana Volume 1 (2017), The Valmiki Ramayana Volume 2 (2017), The Valmiki Ramayana Volume 3 (2017) all first published by Penguin Books.
This collection first published by Penguin Books 2018
Translation copyright © Bibek Debroy, 2017
(Jacket images © Meena Rajasekaran)
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ISBN: 978-0-143-44114-4
e-ISBN: 978-9-387-32694-1
The Valmiki Ramayana Page 154