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. 11851185 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.
To a reader of sensibility, such recurrences wear an air of child-like simplicity, beautifully recalling the features of Homer’s primitive age. But they would have appeared faults to all commonplace critics in literary ages.”
De Quincey. Homer and the Homeridæ.
550
Bráhmans the sacerdotal caste. Kshatriyas the royal and military, Vaiśyas the mercantile, and Śúdras the servile.
551
A protracted sacrifice extending over several days. See Book I, p. 24 Note.
552
Possessed of all the auspicious personal marks that indicate capacity of universal sovereignty. See Book I. p. 2, and Note 3.
553
Kabandha. See Book III. Canto LXXIII.
554
Fire for sacred purposes is produced by the attrition of two pieces of wood. In marriage and other solemn covenants fire is regarded as the holy witness in whose presence the agreement is made. Spenser in a description of a marriage, has borrowed from the Roman rite what he calls the housling, or “matrimonial rite.”
“His owne two hands the holy knots did knit
That none but death forever can divide.
His owne two hands, for such a turn most fit,
The housling fire did kindle and provide.”
Faery Queen, Book I. XII. 37.
555
Indra.
556
Báli the king de facto.
&n
bsp; 557
With the Indians, as with the ancient Greeks, the throbbing of the right eye in a man is an auspicious sign, the throbbing of the left eye is the opposite. In a woman the significations of signs are reversed.
558
The Vedas stolen by the demons Madhu and Kaiṭabha.
“The text has [Sanskrit text] which signifies literally ‘the lost vedic tradition.’ It seems that allusion is here made to the Vedas submerged in the depth of the sea, but promptly recovered by Vishṇu in one of his incarnations, as the brahmanic legend relates, with which the orthodoxy of the Bráhmans intended perhaps to allude to the prompt restoration and uninterrupted continuity of the ancient vedic tradition.”
Gorresio.
559
Like the wife of a Nága or Serpent-God carried off by an eagle. The enmity between the King of birds and the serpent is of very frequent occurrence. It seems to be a modification of the strife between the Vedic Indra and the Ahi, the serpent or drought-fiend; between Apollôn and the Python, Adam and the Serpent.
560
He means that he has never ventured to raise his eyes to her arms and face, though he has ever been her devoted servant.
561
The wood in which Skanda or Kártikeva was brought up:
“The Warrior-God
Whose infant steps amid the thickets strayed
Where the reeds wave over the holy sod.”
See also Book I, Canto XXIX.
562
“Sugríva’s story paints in vivid colours the manners, customs and ideas of the wild mountain tribes which inhabited Kishkindhya or the southern hills of the Deccan, of the people whom the poem calls monkeys, tribes altogether different in origin and civilization from the Indo-Sanskrit race.” Gorresio.
563
A fiend slain by Báli.
564
Báli’s mountain city.
565
The canopy or royal umbrella, one of the usual Indian regalia.
566
Whisks made of the hair of the Yak or Bos grunniers, also regal insignia.
567
Righteous because he never transgresses his bounds, and
“over his great tides
Fidelity presides.”
568
Himálaya, the Lord of Snow, is the father of Umá the wife of Śiva or Śankar.
569
Indra’s celestial elephant.
570
Báli was the son of Indra. See p. 28.
571
An Asur slain by Indra. See p. 261 Note. He is, like Vritra, a form of the demon of drought destroyed by the beneficent God of the firmament.
572
Another name of Indra or Mahendra.
573
The Bengal recension makes it return in the form of a swan.
574
Varuṇa is one of the oldest of the Vedic Gods, corresponding in name and partly in character to the Οὐρανός of the Greeks and is often regarded as the supreme deity. He upholds heaven and earth, possesses extraordinary power and wisdom, sends his messengers through both worlds, numbers the very winkings of men’s eyes, punishes transgressors whom he seizes with his deadly noose, and pardons the sins of those who are penitent. In later mythology he has become the God of the sea.
575
Budha, not to be confounded with the great reformer Buddha, is the son of Soma or the Moon, and regent of the planet Mercury. Angára is the regent of Mars who is called the red or the fiery planet. The encounter between Michael and Satan is similarly said to have been as if
“Two planets rushing from aspect malign
Of fiercest opposition in midsky
Should combat, and their jarring spheres compound.”
Paradise Lost. Book VI.
576
The Aśvins or Heavenly Twins, the Dioskuri or Castor and Pollux of the Hindus, have frequently been mentioned. See p. 36, Note.
577
Called respectively Gárhapatya, Áhavaniya, and Dakshiṇa, household, sacrificial, and southern.
578
The store of merit accumulated by a holy or austere life secures only a temporary seat in the mansion of bliss. When by the lapse of time this store is exhausted, return to earth is unavoidable.
579
The conflagration which destroys the world at the end of a Yuga or age.
580
Himálaya.
581
Tárá means “star.” The poet plays upon the name by comparing her beauty to that of the Lord of stars, the Moon.
582
Suparṇa, the Well-winged, is another name of Garuḍa the King of Birds. See p. 28, Note.
583
The God of Death.
584
The flag-staff erected in honour of the God Indra is lowered when the festival is over. Aśvíní in astronomy is the head of Aries or the first of the twenty-eight lunar mansions or asterisms.
585
Indra the father of Báli.
586
It is believed that every creature killed by Ráma obtained in consequence immediate beatitude.
“And blessed the hand that gave so dear a death.”
587
“Yayáti was invited to heaven by Indra, and conveyed on the way thither by Mátali, Indra’s charioteer. He afterwards returned to earth where, by his virtuous administration he rendered all his subjects exempt from passion and decay.” Garrett’s C. D. of India.
588
The ascetic’s dress which he wore during his exile.
589
There is much inconsistency in the passages of the poem in which the Vánars are spoken of, which seems to point to two widely different legends. The Vánars are generally represented as semi-divine beings with preternatural powers, living in houses and eating and drinking like men sometimes as here, as monkeys pure and simple, living is woods and eating fruit and roots.
590
For a younger brother to marry before the elder is a gross violation of Indian law and duty. The same law applied to daughters with the Hebrews: “It must not be so done in our country to give the younger before the first-born.” Genesis xix. 26.
591
“The hedgehog and porcupine, the lizard, the rhinoceros, the tortoise, and the rabbit or hare, wise legislators declare lawful food among five-toed animals.” Manu, v. 18.
592
“He can not buckle his distempered cause
Within the belt of rule.”
Macbeth.
593
The Ankuś or iron hook with which an elephant is driven and guided.
594
Hayagríva, Horse-necked, is a form of Vishṇu.
595
“Aśvatara is the name of a chief of the Nágas or serpents which inhabit the regions under the earth; it is also the name of a Gandharva. Aśvatarí ought to be the wife of one of the two, but I am not sure that this conjecture is right. The commentator does not say who this Aśvatarí is, or what tradition or myth is alluded to. Vimalabodha reads Aśvatarí in the nominative case, and explains, Aśvatarí is the sun, and as the sun with his rays brings back the moon which has been sunk in the ocean and the infernal regions, so will I bring back Sítá.” Gorresio.
596
That is, “Consider what answer you can give to your accusers when they charge you with injustice in killing me.”
597
Manu, Book VIII. 318. “But men who have committed offences and have received from kings the punishment due to them, go pure to heaven and become as clear as those who have done well.”
598
Mándhátá was one of the earlier descendants of Ikshváku. His name is mentioned in Ráma’s genealogy, p. 81.
599
I cannot understand how Válmíki could put such an excuse as this into Ráma’s mouth. Ráma with all solemn ceremony, has made a league of alliance with Báli’s younger brother whom he regards as a dear friend and almost as an equal, and now he winds up his re
asons for killing Báli by coolly saying: “Besides you are only a monkey, you know, after all, and as such I have every right to kill you how, when, and where I like.”
600
A name of Garuḍa the king of birds, the great enemy of the Serpents.
601
Sugríva’s wife.
602
“Our deeds still follow with us from afar. And what we have been makes us what we are.”
603
Sugríva and Angad.
604
Angad himself, being too young to govern, would be Yuvarája or heir-apparent.
605
Susheṇa was the son of Varuṇa the God of the sea.
606
A demon with the tail of a dragon, that causes eclipses by endeavouring to swallow the sun and moon.
607
The Lord of Stars is the Moon.
608
Or the passage may be interpreted: “Be neither too obsequious or affectionate, nor wanting in due respect or love.”
609
Sacrifices and all religious rites begin and end with ablution, and the wife of the officiating Bráhman takes an important part in the performance of the holy ceremonies.
610
Viśvarúpa, a son of Twashṭri or Viśvakarmá the heavenly architect, was a three-headed monster slain by Indra.
611
The Vánar chief, not to be confounded with Tárá.
612
Śrávaṇ: July-August. But the rains begin a month earlier, and what follows must not be taken literally. The text has púrvo’ yam várshiko másah Śrávaṇah salilágamdh. The Bengal recension has the same, and Gorresio translates: “Equesto ilmese Srâvana (luglio-agosto) primo della stagione piovosa, in cui dilagano le acque.”
613
Kártik: October-November.
614
“Indras, as the nocturnal sun, hides himself, transformed, in the starry heavens: the stars are his eyes. The hundred-eyed or all-seeing (panoptês) Argos placed as a spy over the actions of the cow beloved by Zeus, in the Hellenic equivalent of this form of Indras.” De Gubernatis, Zoological Mythology, Vol. I, p. 418.
615
Baudháyana and others.
616
Sugríva appears to have been consecrated with all the ceremonies that attended the Abhisheka or coronation of an Indian prince of the Aryan race. Compare the preparations made for Ráma’s consecration, Book II, Canto III. Thus Homer frequently introduces into Troy the rites of Hellenic worship.
617
Vitex Negundo.
The Sanskrit Epics Page 152