The Rámáyan of Válmíki - 79

of the English of the present day, (Sanskrit and English are but
varieties of one and the same language,) so its thoughts and
feelings contain in reality the first roots and germs of that
intellectual growth which by an unbroken chain connects our own
generation with the ancestors of the Aryan race,—with those very
people who at the rising and setting of the sun listened with
trembling hearts to the songs of the Veda, that told them of bright
powers above, and of a life to come after the sun of their own lives
had set in the clouds of the evening. These men were the true
ancestors of our race, and the Veda is the oldest book we have in
which to study the first beginnings of our language, and of all that
is embodied in language. We are by nature Aryan, Indo-European, not
Semitic: our spiritual kith and kin are to be found in India,
Persia, Greece, Italy, Germany: not in Mesopotamia, Egypt, or
Palestine.”
_Chips from a German Workshop_, Vol. I. pp. 8. 4.
19 As with the ancient Persians and Scythians, Indian princes were
carefully instructed in archery which stands for military science in
general, of which, among Hindu heroes, it was the most important
branch.
20 Chief of the three queens of Daśaratha and mother of Ráma.
21 From _hima_ snow, (Greek χειμ-ών, Latin hiems) and _álaya_ abode,
the Mansion of snow.
22 The moon (_Soma_, _Indu_, _Chandra_ _etc._) is masculine with the
Indians as with the Germans.
23 Kuvera, the Indian Plutus, or God of Wealth.
24 The events here briefly mentioned will be related fully in the
course of the poem. The first four cantos are introductory, and are
evidently the work of a later hand than Valmiki’s.
25 “Chandra, or the Moon, is fabled to have been married to the
twenty-seven daughters of the patriarch Daksha, or Aśviní and the
rest, who are in fact personifications of the Lunar Asterisms. His
favourite amongst them was Rohiṇí to whom he so wholly devoted
himself as to neglect the rest. They complained to their father, and
Daksha repeatedly interposed, till, finding his remonstrances vain,
he denounced a curse upon his son-in-law, in consequence of which he
remained childless and became affected by consumption. The wives of
Chandra having interceded in his behalf with their father, Daksha
modified an imprecation which he could not recall, and pronounced
that the decay should be periodical only, not permanent, and that it
should alternate with periods of recovery. Hence the successive wane
and increase of the Moon. _Padma_, _Puráṇa_, _Swarga-Khaṇḍa,_ Sec.
II. _Rohiṇí_ in Astronomy is the fourth lunar mansion, containing
five stars, the principal of which is Aldebaran.” WILSON, _Specimens
of the Hindu Theatre. Vol. I. p._ 234.
The Bengal recension has a different reading:
“Shone with her husband like the light
Attendant on the Lord of Night.”
26 The garb prescribed for ascetics by Manu.
27 “Mount Meru, situated like Kailása in the lofty regions to the north
of the Himálayas, is celebrated in the traditions and myths of
India. Meru and Kailása are the two Indian Olympi. Perhaps they were
held in such veneration because the Sanskrit-speaking Indians
remembered the ancient home where they dwelt with the other
primitive peoples of their family before they descended to occupy
the vast plains which extend between the Indus and the Ganges.”
GORRESIO.
28 The third God of the Indian Triad, the God of destruction and
reproduction. See _Additional Notes_.
29 The epithet _dwija_, or _twice-born_, is usually appropriate to
Bráhmans, but is applicable to the three higher castes. Investiture
with the sacred thread and initiation of the neophyte into certain
religious mysteries are regarded as his regeneration or second
birth.
30 His shoes to be a memorial of the absent heir and to maintain his
right. Kálidása (Raghuvaṅśa, XII. 17.) says that they were to be
_adhidevate_ or guardian deities of the kingdom.
31 Jaṭáyu, a semi-divine bird, the friend of Ráma, who fought in
defence of Sítá.
32 Raghu was one of the most celebrated ancestors of Ráma whose
commonest appellation is, therefore, Rághava or descendant of Raghu.
Kálidása in the _Raghuraṇśa_ makes him the son of Dilípa and
great-grandfather of Ráma. See _Idylls from the Sanskrit_, “Aja” and
“Dilípa.”
33 Dundhubi.
34 Literally _ten yojanas_. The yojana is a measure of uncertain length
variously reckoned as equal to nine miles, five, and a little less.
35 Ceylon.
36 The Jonesia Aśoka is a most beautiful tree bearing a profusion of
red blossoms.
_ 37 Brahmá_, the Creator, is usually regarded as the first God of the
Indian Trinity, although, as Kálidása says:
“Of Brahmá, Vishṇu, Śiva, each may be
First, second, third, amid the blessed Three.”
Brahmá had guaranteed Rávaṇ’s life against all enemies except man.
38 Ocean personified.
39 The rocks lying between Ceylon and the mainland are still called
Ráma’s Bridge by the Hindus.
40 “The Bráhmans, with a system rather cosmogonical than chronological,
divide the present mundane period into four ages or _yugas_ as they
call them: the Krita, the Tretá, the Dwápara, and the Kali. The
Krita, called also the Deva-yuga or that of the Gods, is the age of
truth, the perfect age, the Tretá is the age of the three sacred
fires, domestic and sacrificial; the Dwápara is the age of doubt;
the Kali, the present age, is the age of evil.” GORRESIO.
41 The ancient kings of India enjoyed lives of more than patriarchal
length as will appear in the course of the poem.
42 Śúdras, men of the fourth and lowest pure caste, were not allowed to
read the poem, but might hear it recited.
43 The three _ślokes_ or distichs which these twelve lines represent
are evidently a still later and very awkward addition to the
introduction.
44 There are several rivers in India of this name, now corrupted into
_Tonse_. The river here spoken of is that which falls into the
Ganges a little below Allahabad.
45 “In Book II, Canto LIV, we meet with a saint of this name presiding
over a convent of disciples in his hermitage at the confluence of
the Ganges and the Jumna. Thence the later author of these
introductory cantos has borrowed the name and person, inconsistently
indeed, but with the intention of enhancing the dignity of the poet
by ascribing to him so celebrated a disciple.” SCHLEGEL.
46 The poet plays upon the similarity in sound of the two words:
_śoka_, means grief, _śloka_, the heroic measure in which the poem
is composed. It need scarcely be said that the derivation is
fanciful.
47 Brahmá, the Creator, is usually regarded as the first person of the
divine triad of India. The four heads with which he is represented
are supposed to have allusion to the four corners of the earth which
he is sometimes considered to personify. As an object of adoration
Brahmá has been entirely superseded by Śiva and Vishṇu. In the whole
of India there is, I believe, but one temple dedicated to his
worship. In this point the first of the Indian triad curiously
resembles the last of the divine fraternity of Greece, Aïdes the
brother of Zeus and Poseidon. “In all Greece, says Pausanias, there
is no single temple of Aïdes, except at a single spot in Elis.” See
Gladstone’s Juventus Mundi, p. 253.
48 The _argha_ or _arghya_ was a libation or offering to a deity, a
Bráhman, or other venerable personage. According to one authority it
consisted of water, milk, the points of Kúsa-grass, curds, clarified
butter, rice, barley, and white mustard, according to another, of
saffron, bel, unbroken grain, flowers, curds, dúrbá-grass,
kúsa-grass, and sesamum.
49 Sítá, daughter of Janak king of Míthilá.
50 “I congratulate myself,” says Schlegel in the preface to his, alas,
unfinished edition of the Rámáyan, “that, by the favour of the
Supreme Deity, I have been allowed to begin so great a work; I glory
and make my boast that I too after so many ages have helped to
confirm that ancient oracle declared to Válmíki by the Father of
Gods and men:
Dum stabunt montes, campis dum flumina current,
Usque tuum toto carmen celebrabitur orbe.”
51 “The sipping of water is a requisite introduction of all rites:
without it, says the Sámha Purána, all acts of religion are vain.”
COLEBROOKE.
52 The _darhha_ or _kuśa_ (Pea cynosuroides), a kind of grass used in
sacrifice by the Hindus as _cerbena_ was by the Romans.
53 The direction in which the grass should be placed upon the ground as
a seat for the Gods, on occasion of offerings made to them.
54 Paraśuráma or Ráma with the Axe. See Canto LXXIV.
55 Sítá. Videha was the country of which Míthilá was the capital.
56 The twin sons of Ráma and Sítá, born after Ráma had repudiated Sítá,
and brought up in the hermitage of Válmíki. As they were the first
rhapsodists the combined name Kuśílava signifies a reciter of poems,
or an improvisatore, even to the present day.
57 Perhaps the bass, tenor, and treble, or quick, slow and middle
times. we know but little of the ancient music of the Hindus.
58 Eight flavours or sentiments are usually enumerated, love, mirth,
tenderness, anger, heroism, terror, disgust, and surprise;
tranquility or content, or paternal tenderness, is sometimes
considered the ninth. WILSON. See the _Sáhitya Darpaṇa_ or _Mirror
of Composition_ translated by Dr. Ballantyne and Bábú Pramadádása
Mittra in the _Bibliotheca Indica._
59 Saccharum Munja is a plant from whose fibres is twisted the sacred
string which a Bráhman wears over one shoulder after he has been
initiated by a rite which in some respects answers to confirmation.
60 A description of an Aśvamedha or Horse Sacrifice is given in Canto
XIII. of this Book.
61 This exploit is related in Canto XL.
62 The Sarjú or Ghaghra, anciently called Sarayú, rises in the
Himalayas, and after flowing through the province of Oudh, falls
into the Ganges.
63 The ruins of the ancient capital of Ráma and the Children of the Sun
may still be traced in the present Ajudhyá near Fyzabad. Ajudhyá is
the Jerusalem or Mecca of the Hindus.
64 A legislator and saint, the son of Brahmá or a personification of
Brahmá himself, the creator of the world, and progenitor of mankind.
Derived from the root _man_ to think, the word means originally
_man_, the thinker, and is found in this sense in the Rig-veda.
Manu as a legislator is identified with the Cretan Minos, as
progenitor of mankind with the German Mannus: “Celebrant carminibus
antiquis, quod unum apud illos memoriæ et annalium genus est,
Tuisconem deum terra editum, et filium Mannum, originem gentis
conditoresque.” TACITUS, _Germania_, Cap. II.
65 The Sál (Shorea Robusta) is a valuable timber tree of considerable
height.
66 The city of Indra is called Amarávatí or Home of the Immortals.
67 Schlegel thinks that this refers to the marble of different colours
with which the houses were adorned. It seems more natural to
understand it as implying the regularity of the streets and houses.
68 The _Śataghní_ _i.e. centicide_, or slayer of a hundred, is
generally supposed to be a sort of fire-arms, or the ancient Indian
rocket; but it is also described as a stone set round with iron
spikes.
69 The Nágas (serpents) are demigods with a human face and serpent
body. They inhabit Pátála or the regions under the earth. Bhogavatí
is the name of their capital city. Serpents are still worshipped in
India. See Fergusson’s _Tree and Serpent Worship_.
70 The fourth and lowest pure caste whose duty was to serve the three
first classes.
71 By forbidden marriages between persons of different castes.
72 Váhlí or Váhlíka is Bactriana; its name is preserved in the modern
Balkh.
73 The Sanskrit word Sindhu is in the singular the name of the river
Indus, in the plural of the people and territories on its banks. The
name appears as _Hidku_ in the cuneiform inscription of Darius’ son
of Hystaspes, in which the nations tributary to that king are
enumerated.
The Hebrew form is _Hodda_ (Esther, I. 1.). In Zend it appears as
_Hendu_ in a somewhat wider sense. With the Persians later the
signification of _Hind_ seems to have co-extended with their
increasing acquaintance with the country. The weak Ionic dialect
omitted the Persian _h_, and we find in Hecatæus and Herodotus Ἴνδος
and ἡ Ἰνδική. In this form the Romans received the names and
transmitted them to us. The Arabian geographers in their ignorance
that Hind and Sind are two forms of the same word have made of them
two brothers and traced their decent from Noah. See Lassen’s
Indische Alterthumskunde Vol. I. pp. 2, 3.
74 The situation of Vanáyu is not exactly determined: it seems to have
lain to the north-west of India.
75 Kámboja was probably still further to the north-west. Lassen thinks
that the name is etymologically connected with _Cambyses_ which in
the cuneiform inscription of Behistun is written Ka(m)bujia.
76 The elephants of Indra and other deities who preside over the four
points of the compass.
77 “There are four kinds of elephants. 1 _Bhaddar_. It is well
proportioned, has an erect head, a broad chest, large ears, a long
tail, and is bold and can bear fatigue. 2 _Mand_. It is black, has
yellow eyes, a uniformly sized body, and is wild and ungovernable. 3
_Mirg_. It has a whitish skin, with black spots. 4 _Mir_. It has a
small head, and obeys readily. It gets frightened when it thunders.”
_Aín-i-Akbarí._. Translated by H. Blochmann, Aín 41, _The Imperial
Elephant Stables_.
78 Ayodhyá means _not to be fought against_.
79 Attendants of Indra, eight Gods whose names signify fire, light and
its phenomena.
80 Kaśyap was a grandson of the God Brahmá. He is supposed to have
given his name to Kashmír = Kaśyapa-míra, Kaśyap’s Lake.
81 The people of Anga. “Anga is said in the lexicons to be Bengal; but
here certainly another region is intended situated at the confluence
of the Sarjú with the Ganges, and not far distant from Daśaratha’s
dominions.” GORRESIO. It comprised part of Behar and Bhagulpur.
82 The Koïl or _kokila_ (Cuculus Indicus) as the harbinger of spring
and love is a universal favourite with Indian poets. His voice when
first heard in a glorious spring morning is not unpleasant, but
becomes in the hot season intolerably wearisome to European ears.
83 “Sons and Paradise are intimately connected in Indian belief. A man
desires above every thing to have a son to perpetuate his race, and
to assist with sacrifices and funeral rites to make him worthy to
obtain a lofty seat in heaven or to preserve that which he has
already obtained.” GORRESIO.
84 One of the Pleiades and generally regarded as the model of wifely
excellence.
85 The Hindu year is divided into six seasons of two months each,
spring, summer, rains, autumn, winter, and dews.
86 It was essential that the horse should wander free for a year before
immolation, as a sign that his master’s paramount sovereignty was
acknowledged by all neighbouring princes.
87 Called also Vidcha, later Tirabhukti, corrupted into the modern
Tirhut, a province bounded on the west and east by the Gaudakí and
Kauśikí rivers, on the south by the Ganges, and on the north by the
skirts of the Himálayas.
88 The celebrated city of Benares. See Dr. Hall’s learned and
exhaustive Monograph in the _Sacred City of the Hindus_, by the Rev.
M. A. Sherring.
89 Kekaya is supposed to have been in the Panjáb. The name of the king
was Aśvapati (Lord of Horses), father of Daśaratha’s wife Kaikeyí.
90 Surat.
91 Apparently in the west of India not far from the Indus.
92 “The Pravargya ceremony lasts for three days, and is always
performed twice a day, in the forenoon and afternoon. It precedes
the animal and Soma sacrifices. For without having undergone it, no
one is allowed to take part in the solemn Soma feast prepared for
the gods.” Haug’s _Aitareya Bráhmaṇam_. Vol. II. p. 41. note _q.v._
_ 93 Upasads_. “The Gods said, Let us perform the burnt offerings called
Upasads (_i.e._ besieging). For by means of an _Upasad_, _i.e._
besieging, they conquer a large (fortified) town.”—_Ibid._ p. 32.
94 The Soma plant, or Asclepias Acida. Its fermented juice was drunk in
sacrifice by the priests and offered to the Gods who enjoyed the
intoxicating draught.
95 “Tum in cærimoniarum intervallis Brachmanæ facundi, sollertes,
crebros sermones de rerum causis instituebant, alter alterum
vincendi cupidi. This public disputation in the assembly of Bráhmans
on the nature of things, and the almost fraternal connexion between
theology and philosophy deserves some notice; whereas the priests of
some religions are generally but little inclined to show favour to
philosophers, nay, sometimes persecute them with the most rancorous
hatred, as we are taught both by history and experience.… This śloka
is found in the MSS. of different recensions of the Rámáyan, and we
have, therefore, the most trustworthy testimony to the antiquity of
philosophy among the Indians.” SCHLEGEL.
96 The _Angas_ or appendices of the Vedas, pronunciation, prosody,
grammar, ritual, astronomy, and explanation of obscurities.
97 In Sanskrit _vilva_, the _Ægle Marmelos_. “He who desires food and
wishes to grow fat, ought to make his Yúpa (sacrificial post) of
Bilva wood.” Haug’s _Aítareya Bráhmanam. Vol. II._ p. 73.
98 The _Mimosa Catechu_. “He who desires heaven ought to make his Yúpa
of Khádira wood.”—_Ibid._
99 The _Butea Frondosa_. “He who desires beauty and sacred knowledge
ought to make his Yúpa of Paláśa wood.”—_Ibid._
100 The _Cardia Latifolia_.
101 A kind of pine. The word means literally the tree of the Gods.
Compare the Hebrew עצי יהוה “trees of the Lord.”
102 The Hindus call the constellation of Ursa Major the Seven Rishis or
Saints.
103 A minute account of these ancient ceremonies would be out of place
here. “Ágnishṭoma is the name of a sacrifice, or rather a series of
offerings to fire for five days. It is the first and principal part
of the Jyotishṭoma, one of the great sacrifices in which especially
the juice of the Soma plant is offered for the purpose of obtaining
Swarga or heaven.” GOLDSTÜCKER’S DICTIONARY. “The _Ágnishṭoma_ is
Agni. It is called so because they (the gods) praised him with this
Stoma. They called it so to hide the proper meaning of the word: for
the gods like to hide the proper meaning of words.”
“On account of four classes of gods having praised Agni with four
Stomas, the whole was called _Chatushṭoma_ (containing four
Stomas).”
“It (the Ágnishṭoma) is called _Jyotishṭoma_, for they praised Agni
when he had risen up (to the sky) in the shape of a light
(_jyotis_).”
“This (Ágnishṭoma) is a sacrificial performance which has no
beginning and no end.” HAUG’S _Aitareya Bráhmaṇam_.
The Atirátra, literally _lasting through the night_, is a division
of the service of the Jyotishṭoma.
The Abhijit, _the everywhere victorious_, is the name of a
sub-division of the great sacrifice of the Gavámanaya.
The Viśvajit, or _the all-conquering_, is a similar sub-division.
Áyus is the name of a service forming a division of the Abhiplava
sacrifice.
The _Aptoryám_, is the seventh or last part of the Jyotishṭoma, for
the performance of which it is not essentially necessary, but a
voluntary sacrifice instituted for the attainment of a specific
desire. The literal meaning of the word would be in conformity with
the _Prauḍhamanoramá_, “a sacrifice which procures the attainment of
the desired object.” GOLDSTÜCKER’S DICTIONARY.
“The _Ukthya_ is a slight modification of the Ágnishṭoma sacrifice.
The noun to be supplied to it is _kratu_. It is a Soma sacrifice
also, and one of the seven Saṇsthas or component parts of the
Jyotishṭoma. Its name indicates its nature. For _Ukthya_ means ‘what
refers to the Uktha,’ which is an older name for Shástra, _i.e._
recitation of one of the Hotri priests at the time of the Soma
libations. Thus this sacrifice is only a kind of supplement to the
Ágnishṭoma.” HAUG. _Ai. B._
104 “Four classes of priests were required in India at the most solemn
sacrifices. 1. The officiating priests, manual labourers, and
acolytes, who had chiefly to prepare the sacrificial ground, to
dress the altar, slay the victims, and pour out the libations. 2.
The choristers, who chant the sacred hymns. 3. The reciters or
readers, who repeat certain hymns. 4. The overseers or bishops, who
watch and superintend the proceedings of the other priests, and
ought to be familiar with all the Vedas. The formulas and verses to
be muttered by the first class are contained in the
Yajur-veda-sanhitá. The hymns to be sung by the second class are in
the Sama-veda-sanhitá. The Atharva-veda is said to be intended for
the Brahman or overseer, who is to watch the proceedings of the
sacrifice, and to remedy any mistake that may occur. The hymns to be
recited by the third class are contained in the Rigveda,” _Chips
from a German Workshop._
105 The Maruts are the winds, deified in the religion of the Veda like
other mighty powers and phenomena of nature.
106 A Titan or fiend whose destruction has given Vishṇu one of his
well-known titles, Mádhava.
107 The garden of Indra.
108 One of the most ancient and popular of the numerous names of Vishṇu.
The word has been derived in several ways, and may mean _he who
moved on the (primordial) waters_, or _he who pervades or influences
men or their thoughts_.
109 The Horse-Sacrifice, just described.
110 To walk round an object keeping the right side towards it is a mark
of great respect. The Sanskrit word for the observance is
_pradakshiṇá_, from pra pro, and _daksha_ right, Greek δεξίος, Latin
dexter, Gaelic deas-il. A similar ceremony is observed by the Gaels.
“In the meantime she traced around him, with wavering steps, the
propitiation, which some have thought has been derived from the
Druidical mythology. It consists, as is well known, in the person
who makes the _deasil_ walking three times round the person who is
the object of the ceremony, taking care to move according to the
course of the sun.”
SCOTT. _The Two Drovers._
111 The _Amrit_, the nectar of the Indian Gods.
_ 112 Gandharvas_ (Southey’s Glendoveers) are celestial musicians
inhabiting Indra’s heaven and forming the orchestra at all the
banquets of the principal deities.
_ 113 Yakshas_, demigods attendant especially on Kuvera, and employed by
him in the care of his garden and treasures.
_ 114 Kimpurushas_, demigods attached also to the service of Kuvera,
celestial musicians, represented like centaurs reversed with human
figures and horses’ heads.
_ 115 Siddhas_, demigods or spirits of undefined attributes, occupying
with the _Vidyádharas_ the middle air or region between the earth
and the sun.
Schlegel translates: “Divi, Sapientes, Fidicines, Præpetes,
illustres Genii, Præconesque procrearunt natos, masculos,
silvicolas; angues porro, Hippocephali Beati, Aligeri, Serpentesque
frequentes alacriter generavere prolem innumerabilem.”
116 A mountain in the south of India.
117 The preceptor of the Gods and regent of the planet Jupiter.
118 The celestial architect, the Indian Hephæstus, Mulciber, or Vulcan.
119 The God of Fire.
120 Twin children of the Sun, the physicians of Swarga or Indra’s
heaven.
121 The deity of the waters.
122 Parjanya, sometimes confounded with Indra.
123 The bird and vehicle of Vishṇu. He is generally represented as a
being something between a man and a bird and considered as the
sovereign of the feathered race. He may be compared with the Simurgh
of the Persians, the ’Anká of the Arabs, the Griffin of chivalry,
the Phœnix of Egypt, and the bird that sits upon the ash Yggdrasil
of the Edda.
124 This Canto will appear ridiculous to the European reader. But it
should be remembered that the monkeys of an Indian forest, the
“bough-deer” as the poets call them, are very different animals from
the “turpissima bestia” that accompanies the itinerant organ-grinder
or grins in the Zoological Gardens of London. Milton has made his
hero, Satan, assume the forms of a cormorant, a toad, and a serpent,
and I cannot see that this creation of semi-divine Vánars, or
monkeys, is more ridiculous or undignified.
125 The consort of Indra, called also Śachí and Indráṇí.
126 The _Michelia champaca_. It bears a scented yellow blossom:
“The maid of India blest again to hold
In her full lap the Champac’s leaves of gold.”
_Lallah Rookh._
127 Vibháṇdak, the father of Rishyaśring
128 A hemiśloka is wanting in Schlegel’s text, which he thus fills up in
his Latin translation.
129 Rishyaśring, a Bráhman, had married Śántá who was of the Kshatriya
or Warrior caste and an expiatory ceremony was necessary on account
of this violation of the law.
130 “The poet no doubt intended to indicate the vernal equinox as the
birthday of Ráma. For the month _Chaitra_ is the first of the two
months assigned to the spring; it corresponds with the latter half
of March and the former half of April in our division of the year.
_Aditi_, the mother of the Gods, is lady of the seventh lunar
mansion which is called _Punarvasu_. The five planets and their
positions in the Zodiac are thus enumerated by both commentators:
the Sun in Aries, Mars in Capricorn, Saturn in Libra, Jupiter in
Cancer, Venus in Pisces.… I leave to astronomers to examine whether
the parts of the description agree with one another, and, if this be
the case, thence to deduce the date. The Indians place the nativity
of Ráma in the confines of the second age (tretá) and the third