The Ramayana, Valmiki [best authors to read txt] 📗

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 reasons 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. 618. Mályavat: “The name of this mountain appears to me to be erroneous, and I think that instead of Mályavat should be read Malayavat, Malaya is a group of mountains situated exactly in that southern part of India where Ráma now was, while Mályavat is placed to the north east.” Gorresio. 619. Mantles of the skin of the black antelope were the prescribed dress of ascetics and religious students. 620. The sacred cord worn as the badge of religious initiation by men of the three twice-born castes. 621. The hum with which students conduct their tasks. 622. I omit here a long general description of the rainy season which is not found in the Bengal recension and appears to have been interpolated by a far inferior and much later hand than Valmiki's. It is composed in a metre different from that of the rest of the Canto, and contains figures of poetical rhetoric and common-places which are the delight of more recent poets. 623. Praushthapada or Bhadra, the modern Bhadon, corresponds to half of August and half of September. 624. The Sáman or Sáma-veda, the third of the four Vedas, is really merely a reproduction of parts of the Rig-veda, transposed and scattered about piece-meal, only 78 verses in the whole being, it is said, untraceable to the present recension of the Rig-veda. 625. Áshádha is the month corresponding to parts of June and July. 626. Bharat, who was regent during Ráma's absence. 627. Or with Gorresio, following the gloss of another commentary: “Has completed every holy rite and accumulated stores of merit.” 628. The river on which Ayodhyá was built. 629. I omit a śloka or four lines on gratitude and ingratitude repeated word for word from the last Canto. 630. The Indian crane; a magnificent bird easily domesticated. 631. The troops who guard the frontiers on the north, south, east and west. 632. The Chátaka, Cuculus, Melanoleucus, is supposed to drink nothing but the water for the clouds. 633. The time for warlike expeditions began when the rains had ceased. 634. The rainbow. 635. Indra's associates in arms, and musicians of his heaven. 636. Maireya, a spirituous liquor from the blossoms of the Lythrum fruticosum, with sugar, &c. 637. Their names are as follows: Angad, Maínda, Dwida, Gavaya, Gaváksha, Gaja, Śarabha, Vidyunmáli, Sampáti, Súryáksa, Hanumán, Vírabáhu, Subáhu, Nala, Kúmuda, Susheṇa, Tára, Jámbuvatu, Dadhivakra, Níla, Supátala, and Sunetra. 638. The Kalpadruma or Wishing-tree is one of the trees of Svarga or Indra's Paradise: it has the power of granting all desires. 639. The meaning is that if a man promises to give a horse and then breaks his word he commits a sin as great as if he had killed a hundred horses. 640. The story is told in Book I, Canto LXIII, but the charmer there is called Menaká. 641. Rohiṇí is the name of the ninth Nakshatra or lunar asterism personified as a daughter of Daksha, and the favourite wife of the Moon. Aldebaran is the principal star in the constellation. 642. Válmíki and succeeding poets make the second vowel in this name long or short at their pleasure. 643. Some of the mountains here mentioned are fabulous and others it is impossible to identify. Sugríva means to include all the mountains of India from Kailás the residence of the God Kuvera, regarded as one of the loftiest peaks of the Himálayas, to Mahendra in the extreme south, from the mountain in the east where the sun is said to rise to Astáchal or the western mountain where he sets. The commentators give little assistance: that Maháśaila, &c. are certain mountains is about all the information they give. 644. One of the celestial elephants of the Gods who protect the four quarters and intermediate points of the compass. 645. Váyu or the Wind was the father of Hanumán. 646. The path or station of Vishṇu is the space between the seven Rishis or Ursa Major, and Dhruva or the polar star. 647. One of the seven seas which surround the earth in concentric circles. 648. The title of Maheśvar or Mighty Lord is sometimes given to Indra, but more generally to Śiva whom it here denotes. 649. See Book I, Canto XVI. 650. The numbers are unmanageable in English verse. The poet speaks of hundreds of arbudas; and an