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

God of the sea. 1019. Mahádeva or Śiva whose ensign is a bull. 1020. The Address to Ráma, both text and commentary, will be found literally translated in the Additional Notes. A paraphrase of a portion is all that I have attempted here. 1021. Rávaṇ's queen. 1022. Or Maináka. 1023. Here, in the North-west recension, Sítá expresses a wish that Tárá and the wives of the Vánar chiefs should be invited to accompany her to Ayodhyá. The car decends, and the Vánar matrons are added to the party. The Bengal recension ignores this palpable interruption. 1024. The arghya, a respectful offering to Gods and venerable men consisting of rice, dúivá grass, flowers etc., with water. 1025. I have abridged Hanumán's outline of Ráma's adventures, with the details of which we are already sufficiently acquainted. 1026. In these respectful salutations the person who salutes his superior mentions his own name even when it is well known to the person whom he salutes. 1027. I have omitted the chieftains' names as they could not be introduced without padding. They are Mainda, Dwivid, Níla, Rishabh, Susheṇ, Nala, Gaváksha, Gandhamádan, Śarabh, and Panas. 1028. The following addition is found in the Bengal recension: But Vaiśravaṇ (Kuvera) when he beheld his chariot said unto it: “Go, and carry Ráma, and come unto me when my thought shall call thee, And the chariot returned unto Ráma;” and he honoured it when he had heard what had passed. 1029. Here follows in the original an enumeration of the chief blessings which will attend the man or woman who reads or hears read this tale of Ráma. These blessings are briefly mentioned at the end of the first Canto of the first book, and it appears unnecessary to repeat them here in their amplified form. The Bengal recension (Gorresio's edition) gives them more concisely as follows: “This is the great first poem blessed and glorious, which gives long life to men and victory to kings, the poem which Válmíki made. He who listens to this wondrous tale of Ráma unwearied in action shall be absolved from all his sins. By listening to the deeds of Ráma he who wishes for sons shall obtain his heart's desire, and to him who longs for riches shall riches be given. The virgin who asks for a husband shall obtain a husband suited to her mind, and shall meet again her dear kinsfolk who are far away. They who hear this poem which Válmíki made shall obtain all their desires and all their prayers shall be fulfilled.” 1030. The Academy, Vol. III., No 43, contains an able and interesting notice of this work from the pen of the Professor of Sanskrit in the University of Cambridge: “The Uttarakáṇḍa,” Mr. Cowell remarks, “bears the same relation to the Rámáyaṇa as the Cyclic poems to the Iliad. Just as the Cypria of Stasinus, the Æthiopis of Arctinus, and the little Iliad of Lesches completed the story of the Iliad, and not only added the series of events which preceded and followed it, but also founded episodes of their own on isolated allusions in Homer, so the Uttarakáṇḍa is intended to complete the Rámáyaṇa, and at the same time to supplement it by intervening episodes to explain casual allusions or isolated incidents which occur in it. Thus the early history of the giant Rávaṇa and his family fills nearly forty Chapters, and we have a full account of his wars with the gods and his conquest of Lanká, which all happened long before the action of the poem commences, just as the Cypria narrated the birth and early history of Helen, and the two expeditions of the Greeks against Troy; and the latter chapters continue the history of the hero Ráma after his triumphant return to his paternal kingdom, and the poem closes with his death and that of his brothers, and the founding by their descendants of various kingdoms in different parts of India.” 1031. Muir, Sanskrit Texts, Part IV., pp. 414 ff. 1032. Muir, Sanskrit Texts, Part IV., 391, 392. 1033. See Academy, III., 43. 1034. Academy, Vol. III., No. 43. 1035. E. B. Cowell. Academy, No. 43. The story of Sítá's banishment will be found roughly translated from the Raghuvaṇśa, in the Additional Notes. 1036. E. B. Cowell. Academy, Vol, III, No. 43. 1037. Muir, Sanskrit Texts, Part IV., Appendix. 1038. Ghí: clarified butter. Gur: molasses. 1039. Haridwar (Anglicè Hurdwar) where the Ganges enters the plain country. 1040. Campbell in “Journ. As. Soc. Bengal,” 1866, Part ii. p. 132; Latham, “Descr. Eth.” Vol. ii. p. 456; Tod, “Annals of Rajasthan,” Vol. i. p. 114. 1041. Said by the commentator to be an eastern people between the Himálayan and Vindhyan chains. 1042. Videha was a district in the province of Behar, the ancient Mithilá or the modern Tirhoot. 1043. The people of Malwa. 1044. “The Káśikośalas are a central nation in the Váyu Puráṇa. The Rámáyaṇa places them in the east. The combination indicates the country between Benares and Oude.… Kośala is a name variously applied. Its earliest and most celebrated application is to the country on the banks of the Sarayú, the kingdom of Ráma, of which Ayodhyá was the capital.… In the Mahábhárata we have one Kośala in the east and another in the south, besides the Prák-Kośalas and Uttara Kośalas in the east and north. The Puráṇas place the Kośalas amongst the people on the back of Vindhya; and it would appear from the Váyu that Kuśa the son of Ráma transferred his kingdom to a more central position; he ruled over Kośala at his capital of Kúśasthali of Kuśavatí, built upon the Vindhyan precipices.” Wilson's Vishnṇu Púraṇa, Vol. II. pp. 157, 172. 1045. The people of south Behar. 1046. The Puṇḍras are said to be the inhabitants of the western provinces of Bengal. “In the Aitareyabráhmaṇa, VII. 18, it is said that the elder sons of Viśvamitra were cursed to become progenitors of most abject races, such as Andhras, Puṇḍras, Śabaras, Pulindas, and Mútibas.” Wilson's Vishṇu Puráṇa Vol. II. 170. 1047. Anga is the country about Bhagulpore, of which Champá was the capital. 1048. A fabulous people, “men who use their ears as a covering.” So Sir John Maundevile says: “And in another Yle ben folk that han gret Eres and long, that hangen down to here knees,” and Pliny, lib. iv. c. 13: “In quibus nuda alioquin corpora prægrandes ipsorum aures tota contegunt.” Isidore calls them Panotii. 1049. “Those whose ears hang down to their lips.” 1050. “The Iron-faces.” 1051.

“The One-footed.”

“In that Contree,” says Sir John Maundevile, “ben folk, that han but o foot and thei gon so fast that it is marvaylle: and the foot is so large that it schadeweth alle the Body azen the Sonne, when thei wole lye and rest hem.” So Pliny, Natural History, lib. vii. c. 2: speaks of “Hominumn gens … singulis cruribus, miræ pernicitatis ad saltum; eosdemque Sciopodas vocari, quod in majori æstu, humi jacentes resupini, umbrâ se pedum protegant.”

These epithets are, as Professor Wilson remarks, “exaggerations of national ugliness, or allusions to peculiar customs, which were not literally intended, although they may have furnished the Mandevilles of ancient and modern times.”

Vishṇu Puráṇa, Vol. II. p. 162.

1052. The Kirrhadæ of Arrian: a general name for savage tribes living in woods and mountains. 1053. Said by the commentator to be half tigers half men. 1054. The kingdom seems to have corresponded with the greater part of Berar and Khandesh. 1055. The Bengal recension has Kishikas, and places them both in the south and the north. 1056. The people of Mysore. 1057. “There are two Matsyas, one of which, according to the Yantra Samráj, is identifiable with Jeypoor. In the Digvijaya of Nakula he subdues the Matsyas further to the west, or Gujerat.” Wilson's Vishṇu Puráṇa, Vol. II. 158. Dr. Hall observes: “In the Mahábhárata Sabhá-parwan, 1105 and 1108, notice is taken of the king of Matsya and of the Aparamatsyas; and, at 1082, the Matsyas figure as an eastern people. They are placed among the nations of the south in the Rámáyaṇa Kishkindhá-káṇda, XLI., II, while the Bengal recension, Kishkindhá-káṇḍa, XLIV., 12, locates them in the north.” 1058. The Kalingas were the people of the upper part of the Coromandel Coast, well known, in the traditions of the Eastern Archipelago, as Kling. Ptolemy has a city in that part, called Caliga; and Pliny Calingæ proximi mari. Wilson's Vishṇu Puráṇa, Vol. II. 156, Note. 1059. The Kauśikas do not appear to be identifiable. 1060. The Andhras probably occupied the modern Telingana. 1061. The Puṇḍras have already been mentioned in Canto XL. 1062. The inhabitants of the lower part of the Coromandel Coast; so called, after them, Cholamaṇdala. 1063. A people in the Deccan. 1064. The Keralas were the people of Malabar proper. 1065. A generic term for persons speaking any language but Sanskrit and not conforming to the usual Hindu institutions. 1066.

“Pulinda is applied to any wild or barbarous tribe. Those here named are some of the people of the deserts along the Indus; but Pulindas are met with in many other positions, especially in the mountains and forests across Central India, the haunts of the Bheels and Gonds. So Ptolemy places the Pulindas along the banks of the Narmadá, to the frontiers of Larice, the Látá or Lár of the Hindus,—Khandesh and part of Gujerat.” Wilson's Vishṇu Puráṇa, Vol. II. 159, Note.

Dr. Hall observes that “in the Bengal recension of the Rámáyaṇa the Pulindas appear both in the south and in the north. The real Rámáyaṇa K.-k., XLIII., speaks of the northern Pulindas.”

1067. The Śúrasenas were the inhabitants of Mathurá, the Suraseni of Arrian. 1068. These the Mardi of the Greeks and the two preceding tribes appear to have dwelt in the north-west of Hindustan.