Chapter CDXCVIII: Section XIII: Rávan Doomed (5)

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
(dwápara): but it seems that this should be taken in an allegorical
sense.… We may consider that the poet had an eye to the time in
which, immediately before his own age, the aspects of the heavenly
bodies were such as he has described.” SCHLEGEL.

131 The regent of the planet Jupiter.

132 Indra = Jupiter Tonans.

133 “_Pushya_ is the name of a month; but here it means the eighth
mansion. The ninth is called _Asleshá_, or the snake. It is evident
from this that Bharat, though his birth is mentioned before that of
the twins, was the youngest of the four brothers and Ráma’s junior
by eleven months.” SCHLEGEL.

134 A fish, the Zodiacal sign _Pisces_.

135 One of the constellations, containing stars in the wing of Pegasus.

136 Ráma means the Delight (of the World); Bharat, the Supporter;
Lakshmaṇ, the Auspicious; Śatrughna, the Slayer of Foes.

137 Schlegel, in the _Indische Bibliothek_, remarks that the proficiency
of the Indians in this art early attracted the attention of
Alexander’s successors, and natives of India were so long
exclusively employed in this service that the name Indian was
applied to any elephant-driver, to whatever country he might belong.

138 The story of this famous saint is given at sufficient length in
Cantos LI-LV.

This saint has given his name to the district and city to the east
of Benares. The original name, preserved in a land-grant on copper
now in the Museum of the Benares College, has been Moslemized into
Ghazeepore (the City of the Soldier-martyr).

139 The son of Kuśik is Viśvámitra.

140 At the recollection of their former enmity, to be described
hereafter.

141 The Indian nectar or drink of the Gods.

142 Great joy, according to the Hindu belief, has this effect, not
causing each particular hair to stand on end, but gently raising all
the down upon the body.

143 The Rákshasas, giants, or fiends who are represented as disturbing
the sacrifice, signify here, as often elsewhere, merely the savage
tribes which placed themselves in hostile opposition to Bráhmanical
institutions.

144 Consisting of horse, foot, chariots, and elephants.

145 “The Gandharvas, or heavenly bards, had originally a warlike
character but were afterwards reduced to the office of celestial
musicians cheering the banquets of the Gods. Dr. Kuhn has shown
their identity with the Centaurs in name, origin and attributes.”
GORRESIO.

146 These mysterious animated weapons are enumerated in Cantos XXIX and
XXX. Daksha was the son of Brahmá and one of the Prajápatis,
Demiurgi, or secondary authors of creation.

147 Youths of the Kshatriya class used to leave unshorn the side locks
of their hair. These were called _Káka-paksha_, or raven’s wings.

148 The Rákshas or giant Rávaṇ, king of Lanká.

149 “The meaning of Aśvins (from _aśva_ a horse, Persian asp, Greek
ἵππος, Latin _equus_, Welsh ech) is Horsemen. They were twin deities
of whom frequent mention is made in the Vedas and the Indian myths.
The Aśvins have much in common with the Dioscuri of Greece, and
their mythical genealogy seems to indicate that their origin was
astronomical. They were, perhaps, at first the morning star and
evening star. They are said to be the children of the sun and the
nymph Aśviní, who is one of the lunar asterisms personified. In the
popular mythology they are regarded as the physicians of the Gods.”
GORRESIO.

150 The word Kumára (a young prince, a Childe) is also a proper name of
Skanda or Kártikeya God of War, the son of Śiva and Umá. The babe
was matured in the fire.

151 “At the rising of the sun as well as at noon certain observances,
invocations, and prayers were prescribed which might under no
circumstances be omitted. One of these observances was the
recitation of the Sávitrí, a Vedic hymn to the Sun of wonderful
beauty.” GORRESIO.

_ 152 Tripathaga_, _Three-path-go,_ flowing in heaven, on earth, and
under the earth. See Canto XLV.

153 Tennyson’s “Indian Cama,” the God of Love, known also by many other
names.

_ 154 Umá_, or _Parvatí_, was daughter of Himálaya, Monarch of mountains,
and wife of Śiva. See Kálidasa’s _Kumára Sambhava_, or _Birth of the
War-God_.

_ 155 Stháṇu_. The Unmoving one, a name of Śiva.

156 “The practice of austerities, voluntary tortures, and mortifications
was anciently universal in India, and was held by the Indians to be
of immense efficacy. Hence they mortified themselves to expiate
sins, to acquire merits, and to obtain superhuman gifts and powers;
the Gods themselves sometimes exercised themselves in such
austerities, either to raise themselves to greater power and
grandeur, or to counteract the austerities of man which threatened
to prevail over them and to deprive them of heaven.… Such
austerities were called in India _tapas_ (burning ardour, fervent
devotion) and he who practised them _tapasvin_.” GORRESIO.

_ 157 The Bodiless one._

158 “A celebrated lake regarded in India as sacred. It lies in the lofty
region between the northern highlands of the Himálayas and mount
Kailása, the region of the sacred lakes. The poem, following the
popular Indian belief, makes the river Sarayú (now Sarjú) flow from
the Mánasa lake; the sources of the river are a little to the south
about a day’s journey from the lake. See Lassen, _Indische
Alterthumshunde_, page 34.” GORRESIO. _Manas_ means mind; _mánasa_,
mental, mind-born.

_ 159 Sarovar_ means best of lakes. This is another of the poet’s
fanciful etymologies.

160 The confluence of two or more rivers is often a venerated and holy
place. The most famous is Prayág or Allahabad, where the Sarasvatí
by an underground course is believed to join the Jumna and the
Ganges.

161 The botanical names of the trees mentioned in the text are Grislea
Tormentosa, Shorea Robusta, Echites Antidysenterica, Bignonia
Suaveolens, Œgle Marmelos, and Diospyrus Glutinosa. I have omitted
the _Kutaja_ (Echites) and the _Tiṇḍuka_ (Diospyrus).

162 Here we meet with a fresh myth to account for the name of these
regions. _Malaja_ is probably a non-Aryan word signifying a hilly
country: taken as a Sanskrit compound it means _sprung from
defilement_. The word _Karúsha_ appears to have a somewhat similar
meaning.

163 “This is one of those indefinable mythic personages who are found in
the ancient traditions of many nations, and in whom cosmogonical or
astronomical notions are generally figured. Thus it is related of
Agastya that the Vindhyan mountains prostrated themselves before
him; and yet the same Agastya is believed to be regent of the star
Canopus.” GORRESIO.

He will appear as the friend and helper of Ráma farther on in the
poem.

164 The famous pleasure-garden of Kuvera the God of Wealth.

165 “The whole of this Canto together with the following one, regards
the belief, formerly prevalent in India, that by virtue of certain
spells, to be learnt and muttered, secret knowledge and superhuman
powers might be acquired. To this the poet has already alluded in
Canto xxiii. These incorporeal weapons are partly represented
according to the fashion of those ascribed to the Gods and the
different orders of demi-gods, partly are the mere creations of
fancy; and it would not be easy to say what idea the poet had of
them in his own mind, or what powers he meant to assign to each.”
SCHLEGEL.

166 “In Sanskrit _Sankára_, a word which has various significations but
the primary meaning of which is _the act of seizing_. A magical
power seems to be implied of employing the weapons when and where
required. The remarks I have made on the preceding Canto apply with
still greater force to this. The MSS. greatly vary in the
enumeration of these _Sankáras_, and it is not surprising that
copyists have incorrectly written the names which they did not well
understand. The commentators throw no light upon the subject.”
SCHLEGEL. I have taken the liberty of omitting four of these which
Schlegel translates “Scleromphalum, Euomphalum, Centiventrem, and
Chrysomphalum.”

167 I omit, after this line, eight _ślokes_ which, as Schlegel allows,
are quite out of place.

168 This is the fifth of the _avatárs_, descents or incarnations of
Vishṇu.

169 This is a solar allegory. Vishṇu is the sun, the three steps being
his rising, culmination, and setting.

170 Certain ceremonies preliminary to a sacrifice.

171 A river which rises in Budelcund and falls into the Ganges near
Patna. It is called also _Hiraṇyaráhu_, Golden-armed, and
_Hiraṇyaráha_, Auriferous.

172 The modern Berar.

173 According to the Bengal recension the first (Kuśámba) is called
Kuśáśva, and his city Kauśáśví. This name does not occur elsewhere.
The reading of the northern recension is confirmed by Foê Kouê Ki;
p. 385, where the city _Kiaoshangmi_ is mentioned. It lay 500 _lis_
to the south-west of _Prayága_, on the south bank of the Jumna.
_Mahodaya_ is another name of Kanyakubja: _Dharmáraṇya_, the wood to
which the God of Justice is said to have fled through fear of Soma
the Moon-God was in Magadh. Girivraja was in the same neighbourhood.
See Lasson’s I, A. Vol. I. p. 604.

174 That is, the City of the Bent Virgins, the modern Kanauj or Canouge.

175 Literally, Given by _Brahma_ or devout contemplation.

176 Now called Kośí (Cosy) corrupted from Kauśikí, daughter of Kuś]a.

“This is one of those personifications of rivers so frequent in the
Grecian mythology, but in the similar myths is seen the impress of
the genius of each people, austere and profoundly religious in
India, graceful and devoted to the worship of external beauty in
Greece.” GORRESIO.

177 One of the names of the Ganges considered as the daughter of Jahnu.
See Canto XLIV.

178 The Indian Crane.

179 Or, rather, geese.

180 A name of the God Śiva.

181 Garuḍa.

182 Ikshváku, the name of a king of Ayodhyá who is regarded as the
founder of the Solar race, means also a _gourd_. Hence, perhaps, the
myth.

183 “The region here spoken of is called in the Laws of Manu
_Madhyadeśa_ or the middle region. ‘The region situated between the
Himálaya and the Vindhya Mountains … is called _Madhyadeśa_, or the
middle region; the space comprised between these two mountains from
the eastern to the western sea is called by sages Áryávartta, _the
seat of honourable men_.’ (MANU, II, 21, 22.) The Sanskrit Indians
called themselves Áryans, which means _honourable_, _noble_, to
distinguish themselves from the surrounding nations of different
origin.” GORRESIO.

184 Said to be so called from the Jambu, or Rose Apple, abounding in it,
and signifying according to the Puránas the central division of the
world, the known world.

185 Here used as a name of Vishṇu.

186 Kings are called the husbands of their kingdoms or of the earth;
“She and his kingdom were his only brides.” _Raghuvaṅśa._

“Doubly divorced! Bad men, you violate
A double marriage, ’twixt my crown and me,
And then between me and my married wife.”

King Richard II. Act V. Sc. I.

187 The thirty-three Gods are said in the _Aitareya Bráhmaṇa_, Book I.
ch. II. 10. to be the eight Vasus, the eleven Rudras, the twelve
Ádityas, Prajápati, either Brahmá or Daksha, and Vashatkára or
deified oblation. This must have been the actual number at the
beginning of the Vedic religion gradually increased by successive
mythical and religious creations till the Indian Pantheon was
crowded with abstractions of every kind. Through the reverence with
which the words of the Veda were regarded, the immense host of
multiplied divinities, in later times, still bore the name of the
Thirty-three Gods.

188 “One of the elephants which, according to an ancient belief popular
in India, supported the earth with their enormous backs; when one of
these elephants shook his wearied head the earth trembled with its
woods and hills. An idea, or rather a mythical fancy, similar to
this, but reduced to proportions less grand, is found in Virgil when
he speaks of Enceladus buried under Ætna:”

“adi semiustum fulmine corpus
Urgeri mole hac, ingentemque insuper Ætnam
Impositam, ruptis flammam expirare caminis;
Et fessum quoties mutat latus, intre mere omnem
iam, et cœlum subtexere fumo.”

Æneid. Lib. III. GORRESIO.

189 “The Devas and Asuras (Gods and Titans) fought in the east, the
south, the west, and the north, and the Devas were defeated by the
Asuras in all these directions. They then fought in the
north-eastern direction; there the Devas did not sustain defeat.
This direction is _aparájitá_, _i.e._ unconquerable. Thence one
should do work in this direction, and have it done there; for such a
one (alone) is able to clear off his debts.” HAUG’S _Aitareya
Bráhmanam_, Vol. II, p. 33.

The debts here spoken of are a man’s religious obligations to the
Gods, the Pitaras or Manes, and men.

190 Vishṇu.

191 “It appears to me that this mythical story has reference to the
volcanic phenomena of nature. Kapil may very possibly be that hidden
fiery force which suddenly unprisons itself and bursts forth in
volcanic effects. Kapil is, moreover, one of the names of Agni the
God of Fire.” GORRESIO.

192 Garuḍ was the son of Kaśyap and Vinatá.

193 Garuḍ.

194 A famous and venerated region near the Malabar coast.

195 That is four fires and the sun.

196 Heaven.

197 Wind-Gods.

198 Śiva.

199 The lake Vindu does not exist. Of the seven rivers here mentioned
two only, the Ganges and the Sindhu or Indus, are known to
geographers. Hládiní means the Gladdener, Pávaní the Purifier,
Naliní the Lotus-Clad, and Suchakshu the Fair-eyed.

200 The First or Golden Age.

201 Diti and Aditi were wives of Kaśyap, and mothers respectively of
Titans and Gods.

202 One of the seven seas surrounding as many worlds in concentric
rings.

203 Śankar and Rudra are names of Śiva.

204 “Śárṅgin, literally _carrying a bow of horn_, is a constantly
recurring name of Vishṇu. The Indians also, therefore, knew the art
of making bows out of the hons of antelopes or wild goats, which
Homer ascribes to the Trojans of the heroic age.” SCHLEGEL.

205 Dhanvantari, the physician of the Gods.

206 The poet plays upon the word and fancifully derives it from _apsu_,
the locative case plural of _ap_, water, and _rasa_, taste.… The
word is probably derived from _ap_, water, and _sri_, to go, and
seems to signify _inhabitants of the water_, nymphs of the stream;
or, as Goldstücker thinks (Dict. s.v.) these divinities were
originally personifications of the vapours which are attracted by
the sun and form into mist or clouds.

207 “_Surá_, in the feminine comprehends all sorts of intoxicating
liquors, many kinds of which the Indians from the earliest times
distilled and prepared from rice, sugar-cane, the palm tree, and
various flowers and plants. Nothing is considered more disgraceful
among orthodox Hindus than drunkenness, and the use of wine is
forbidden not only to Bráhmans but the two other orders as well.… So
it clearly appears derogatory to the dignity of the Gods to have
received a nymph so pernicious, who ought rather to have been made
over to the Titans. However the etymological fancy has prevailed.
The word _Sura_, a God, is derived from the indeclinable _Swar_
heaven.” SCHLEGEL.

208 Literally, high-eared, the horse of Indra. Compare the production of
the horse from the sea by Neptune.

209 “And Kaustubha the best
Of gems that burns with living light
Upon Lord Vishṇu’s breast.”

_Churning of the Ocean._

210 “That this story of the birth of Lakshmí is of considerable
antiquity is evident from one of her names _Kshírábdhi-tanayá_,
daughter of the Milky Sea, which is found in _Amarasinha_ the most
ancient of Indian lexicographers. The similarity to the Greek myth
of Venus being born from the foam of the sea is remarkable.”

“In this description of Lakshmí one thing only offends me, that she
is said to have four arms. Each of Vishṇu’s arms, single, as far as
the elbow, there branches into two; but Lakshmí in all the brass
seals that I possess or remember to have seen has two arms only. Nor
does this deformity of redundant limbs suit the pattern of perfect
beauty.” SCHLEGEL. I have omitted the offensive epithet.

211 Purandhar, a common title of Indra.

212 A few verses are here left untranslated on account of the subject
and language being offensive to modern taste.

213 “In this myth of Indra destroying the unborn fruit of Diti with his
thunderbolt, from which afterwards came the Maruts or Gods of Wind
and Storm, geological phenomena are, it seems, represented under
mythical images. In the great Mother of the Gods is, perhaps,
figured the dry earth: Indra the God of thunder rends it open, and
there issue from its rent bosom the Maruts or exhalations of the
earth. But such ancient myths are difficult to interpret with
absolute certainty.” GORRESIO.

214 Wind.

215 Indra, with _mahá_, great, prefixed.

216 The Heavenly Twins.

217 Not banished from heaven as the inferior Gods and demigods sometimes
were.

218 Kumárila says: “In the same manner, if it is said that Indra was the
seducer of Ahalyá this does not imply that the God Indra committed
such a crime, but Indra means the sun, and Ahalyá (from ahan and lí)
the night; and as the night is seduced and ruined by the sun of the
morning, therefore is Indra called the paramour of Ahalyá.” MAX
MULLER, _History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature, p. 530_.

219 “The preceding sixteen lines have occurred before in Canto XLVIII.
This Homeric custom of repeating a passage of several lines is
strange to our poet. This is the only instance I remember. The
repetition of single lines is common enough.” SCHLEGEL.

220 Divine personages of minute size produced from the hair of Brahmá,
and probably the origin of

“That small infantry
Warred on by cranes.”

221 Sweet, salt, pungent, bitter, acid, and astringent.

222 “Of old hoards and minerals in the earth, the king is entitled to
half by reason of his general protection, and because he is the lord
paramount of the soil.” MANU, Book VIII. 39.

223 Ghí or clarified butter, “holy oil,” being one of the essentials of
sacrifice.

224 “A Bráhman had five principal duties to discharge every day: study
and teaching the Veda, oblations to the manes or spirits of the
departed, sacrifice to the Gods, hospitable offerings to men, and _a
gift of food to all creatures_. The last consisted of rice or other
grain which the Bráhman was to offer every day outside his house in
the open air. MANU, Book III. 70.” GORRESIO.

225 These were certain sacred words of invocation such a _sváhá_,
_vashaṭ_, etc., pronounced at the time of sacrifice.

226 “It is well known that the Persians were called Pahlavas by the
Indians. The _Śakas_ are nomad tribes inhabiting Central Asia, the
Scythes of the Greeks, whom the Persians also, as Herodotus tells
us, called Sakæ just as the Indians did. Lib. VII 64 ὁι γὰρ Πέρσαι
πάντας τοὺς Σύθας. καλέουσι Σάκας. The name Yavans seems to be used
rather indefinitely for nations situated beyond Persia to the west.…
After the time of Alexander the Great the Indians as well as the
Persians called the Greeks also Yavans.” SCHLEGEL.

Lassen thinks that the Pahlavas were the same people as the Πάκτυες
of Herodotus, and that this non-Indian people dwelt on the
north-west confines of India.

227 See page 13, note 6.

228 Barbarians, non-Sanskrit-speaking tribes.

229 A comprehensive term for foreign or outcast races of different faith
and language from the Hindus.

230 The Kirátas and Hárítas are savage aborigines of India who occupy
hills and jungles and are altogether different in race and character
from the Hindus. Dr. Muir remarks in his Sanskrit Texts, Vol. I. p.
488 (second edition) that it does not appear that it is the object
of this legend to represent this miraculous creation as the origin
of these tribes, and that nothing more may have been intended than
that the cow called into existence large armies, of the same stock
with particular tribes previously existing.

231 The Great God, Śiva.

232 Nandi, the snow-white bull, the attendant and favourite vehicle of
Śiva.

233 “The names of many of these weapons which are mythical and partly
allegorical have occurred in Canto XXIX. The general signification
of the story is clear enough. It is a contest for supremacy between
the regal or military order and Bráhmanical or priestly authority,
like one of those struggles which our own Europe saw in the middle
ages when without employing warlike weapons the priesthood
frequently gained the victory.” SCHLEGEL.

For a full account of the early contests between the Bráhmans and
the Kshattriyas, see Muir’s Original Sanskrit Texts (Second edition)
Vol. I. Ch. IV.

234 “Triśanku, king of Ayodhyá, was seventh in descent from Ikshváku,
and Daśaratha holds the thirty-fourth place in the same genealogy.
See Canto LXX. We are thrown back, therefore, to very ancient times,
and it occasions some surprise to find Vaśishṭha and Viśvámitra,
actors in these occurences, still alive in Rama’s time.”

235 “It does not appear how Triśanku, in asking the aid of Vaśishṭha’s
sons after applying in vain to their father, could be charged with
resorting to another _śákhá_ (School) in the ordinary sense of that
word; as it is not conceivable that the sons should have been of
another Śákhá from the father, whose cause they espouse with so much
warmth. The commentator in the Bombay edition explains the word
_Śákhantaram_ as Yájanádiná rakshántaram, ‘one who by sacrificing
for thee, etc., will be another protector.’ Gorresio’s Gauḍa text,
which may often be used as a commentary on the older one, has the
following paraphrase of the words in question, ch. 60, 3. Múlam
utsṛijya kasmát tvam sákhásv ichhasi lambitum. ‘Why, forsaking the
root, dost thou desire to hang upon the branches?’ ” MUIR, Sanskrit
Texts, Vol. I., p. 401.

236 A Chaṇḍála was a man born of the illegal and impure union of a Śúdra
with a woman of one of the three higher castes.

237 “The Chaṇḍála was regarded as the vilest and most abject of the men
sprung from wedlock forbidden by the law (Mánavadharmaśástra, Lib.
X. 12.); a kind of social malediction weighed upon his head and
rejected him from human society.” GORRESIO.

238 This appellation, occuring nowhere else in the poem except as the
name of a city, appears twice in this Canto as a name of Vaśishṭha.

239 “The seven ancient rishis or saints, as has been said before, were
the seven stars of Ursa Major. The seven other new saints which are
here said to have been created by Viśvámitra should be seven new
southern stars, a sort of new Ursa. Von Schlegel thinks that this
mythical fiction of new stars created by Viśvámitra may signify that
these southern stars, unknown to the Indians as long as they
remained in the neighbourhood of the Ganges, became known to them at
a later date when they colonized the southern regions of India.”
GORRESIO.

240 “This cannot refer to the events just related: for Viśvámitra was
successful in the sacrifice performed for Triśanku. And yet no other
impediment is mentioned. Still his restless mind would not allow him
to remain longer in the same spot. So the character of Viśvámitra is
ingeniously and skilfully shadowed forth: as he had been formerly a
most warlike king, loving battle and glory, bold, active, sometimes
unjust, and more frequently magnanimous, such also he always shows
himself in his character of anchorite and ascetic.” SCHLEGEL.

241 Near the modern city of Ajmere. The place is sacred still, and the
name is preserved in the Hindí. Lassen, however, says that this
Pushkala or Pushkara, called by the Grecian writers Πευκελίτις, the
earliest place of pilgrimage mentioned by name, is not to be
confounded with the modern Pushkara in Ajmere.

242 “Ambarísha is the twenty-ninth in descent from Ikshváku, and is
therefore separated by an immense space of time from Triśanku in
whose story Viśvámitra had played so important a part. Yet Richíka,
who is represented as having young sons while Ambarísha was yet
reigning being himself the son of Bhrigu and to be numbered with the
most ancient sages, is said to have married the younger sister of
Viśvámitra. But I need not again remark that there is a perpetual
anachronism in Indian mythology.” SCHLEGEL..

“In the mythical story related in this and the following Canto we
may discover, I think, some indication of the epoch at which the
immolation of lower animals was substituted for human sacrifice.… So
when Iphigenia was about to be sacrificed at Aulis, one legend tells
us that a hind was substituted for the virgin.” GORRESIO.

So the ram caught in the thicket took the place of Isaac, or, as the
Musalmáns say, of Ishmael.

243 The Indian Cupid.

244 “The same as she whose praises Viśvámitra has already sung in Canto
XXXV, and whom the poet brings yet alive upon the scene in Canto
LXI. Her proper name was _Satyavatí_ (Truthful); the patronymic,
Kauśikí was preserved by the river into which she is said to have
been changed, and is still recognized in the corrupted forms Kuśa
and Kuśí. The river flows from the heights of the Himálaya towards
the Ganges, bounding on the east the country of Videha (Behar). The
name is no doubt half hidden in the _Cosoagus_ of Pliny and the
_Kossounos_ of Arrian. But each author has fallen into the same
error in his enumeration of these rivers (Condochatem, Erannoboam,
Cosoagum, Sonum). The Erannoboas, (Hiraṇyaváha) and the Sone are not
different streams, but well-known names of the same river. Moreover
the order is disturbed, in which on the right and left they fall
into the Ganges. To be consistent with geography it should be
written: Erannoboam sive Sonum, Condochatem (Gandakí), Cosoagum.”
SCHLEGEL.

245 “Daksha was one of the ancient Progenitors or Prajápatis created by
Brahmá. The sacrifice which is here spoken of and in which Śankar or
Śiva (called also here Rudra and Bhava) smote the Gods because he
had not been invited to share the sacred oblations with them, seems
to refer to the origin of the worship of Śiva, to its increase and
to the struggle it maintained with other older forms of worship.”
GORRESIO.

246 Sítá means a furrow.

“Great Erectheus swayed,
That owed his nurture to the blue-eyed maid,
But from the teeming furrow took his birth,
The mighty offspring of the foodful earth.”

Iliad, Book II.

247 “The whole story of Sítá, as will be seen in the course of the poem
has a great analogy with the ancient myth of Proserpine.” GORRESIO.

248 A different lady from the Goddess of the Jumna who bears the same
name.

249 This is another fanciful derivation, _Sa_—with, and _gara_—poison.

_ 250 Purushádak_ means a cannibal. First called _Kalmáshapáda_ on
account of his spotted feet he is said to have been turned into a
cannibal for killing the son of Vaśishṭha.

251 “In the setting forth of these royal genealogies the Bengal
recension varies but slightly from the Northern. The first six names
of the genealogy of the Kings of Ayodhyá are partly theogonical and
partly cosmogonical; the other names are no doubt in accordance with
tradition and deserve the same amount of credence as the ancient
traditional genealogies of other nations.” GORRESIO.

252 The tenth of the lunar asterisms, composed of five stars.

253 There are two lunar asterisms of this name, one following the other
immediately, forming the eleventh and twelfth of the lunar mansions.

254 This is another Ráma, son of Jamadagni, called Paraśuráma, or Ráma
with the axe, from the weapon which he carried. He was while he
lived the terror of the Warrior caste, and his name recalls long and
fierce struggles between the sacerdotal and military order in which
the latter suffered severely at the hands of their implacable enemy.

255 “The author of the _Raghuvaṅśa_ places the mountain Mahendra in the
territory of the king of the Kalingans, whose palace commanded a
view of the ocean. It is well known that the country along the coast
to the south of the mouths of the Ganges was the seat of this
people. Hence it may be suspected that this Mahendra is what Pliny
calls ‘promontorium Calingon.’ The modern name, _Cape Palmyras_,
from the palmyras Borassus flabelliformis, which abound there agrees
remarkably with the description of the poet who speaks of the groves
of these trees. _Raghuvaṅśa_, VI. 51.” SCHLEGEL.

256 Śiva.

257 Siva. God of the Azure Neck.

258 Śatrughna means slayer of foes, and the word is repeated as an
intensive epithet.

259 Alluding to the images of Vishṇu, which have four arms, the four
princes being portions of the substance of that God.

260 Chief of the insignia of imperial dignity.

261 Whisks, usually made of the long tails of the Yak.

262 Chitraratha, King of the Gandharvas.

263 The Chandrakánta or Moonstone, a sort of crystal supposed to be
composed of congealed moonbeams.

264 A customary mark of respect to a superior.

265 Ráhu, the ascending node, is in mythology a demon with the tail of a
dragon whose head was severed from his body by Vishṇu, but being
immortal, the head and tail retained their separate existence and
being transferred to the stellar sphere became the authors of
eclipses; the first especially by endeavouring to swallow the sun
and moon.

266 In eclipse.

267 The seventh of the lunar asterisms.

268 Kauśalyá and Sumitrá.

269 A king of the Lunar race, and father of Yayáti.

270 Literally _the chamber of wrath,_ a “_growlery_,” a small, dark,
unfurnished room to which it seems, the wives and ladies of the king
betook themselves when offended and sulky.

271 In these four lines I do not translate faithfully, and I do not
venture to follow Kaikeyí farther in her eulogy of the hump-back’s
charms.

272 These verses are evidently an interpolation. They contain nothing
that has not been already related: the words only are altered. As
the whole poem could not be recited at once, the rhapsodists at the
beginning of a fresh recitation would naturally remind their hearers
of the events immediately preceding.

273 The _śloka_ or distich which I have been forced to expand into these
nine lines is evidently spurious, but is found in all the commented
MSS. which Schlegel consulted.

274 Manmatha, Mind-disturber, a name of Káma or Love.

275 This story is told in the Mahábhárat. A free version of it may be
found in _Scenes from the Rámáyan, etc._

276 Only the highest merit obtains a home in heaven for ever. Minor
degrees of merit procure only leases of heavenly mansions terminable
after periods proportioned to the fund which buys them. King Yayáti
went to heaven and when his term expired was unceremoniously
ejected, and thrown down to earth.

277 See _Additional Notes_, THE SUPPLIANT DOVE.

278 Indra, called also Purandara, Town-destroyer.

279 Indra’s charioteer.

280 The elephant of Indra.

281 A star in the spike of Virgo: hence the name of the mouth Chaitra or
Chait.

282 The Rain-God.

283 In a former life.

284 One of the lunar asterisms, represented as the favourite wife of the
Moon. See p. 4, note.

285 The Sea.

286 The Moon.

287 The comparison may to a European reader seem a homely one. But
Spenser likens an infuriate woman to a cow “That is berobbed of her
youngling dere.” Shakspeare also makes King Henry VI compare himself
to the calf’s mother that “Runs lowing up and down, Looking the way
her harmless young one went.” “Cows,” says De Quincey, “are amongst
the gentlest of breathing creatures; none show more passionate
tenderness to their young, when deprived of them, and, in short, I
am not ashamed to profess a deep love for these gentle creatures.”

288 The commentators say that, in a former creation, Ocean grieved his
mother and suffered in consequence the pains of hell.

289 As described in Book I Canto XL.

290 Parasúráma.

291 The Sanskrit word _hasta_ signifies both _hand_, and the trunk of
“The beast that bears between his eyes a serpent for a head.”

292 See P. 41.

293 The first progeny of Brahmá or Brahmá himself.

294 These are three names of the Sun.

295 See P. 1.

296 The saints who form the constellation of Ursa Major.

297 The regent of the planet Venus.

298 Kuvera.

_ 299 Bali_, or the presentation of food to all created beings, is one of
the five great sacraments of the Hindu religion: it consists in
throwing a small parcel of the offering, _Ghee_, or rice, or the
like, into the open air at the back of the house.

300 In mythology, a demon slain by Indra.

301 Called also Garuḍ, the King of the birds, offspring of Vinatá. See
p. 53.

302 See P. 56.

303 See P. 43.

304 The story of Sávitrí, told in the Mahábhárat, has been admirably
translated by Rückert, and elegantly epitomized by Mrs. Manning in
_India, Ancient and Mediæval_. There is a free rendering of the
story in _Idylls from the Sanskrit_.

305 Fire for sacrificial purposes is produced by the attrition of two
pieces of wood.

306 Kaikeyí.

307 The chapel where the sacred fire used in worship is kept.

308 The students and teachers of the Taittiríya portion of the Yajur
Veda.

309 Two of the divine personages called _Prajápatis_ and _Brahmádikas_
who were first created by Brahmá.

310 It was the custom of the kings of the solar dynasty to resign in
their extreme old age the kingdom to the heir, and spend the
remainder of their days in holy meditation in the forest:

“For such through ages in their life’s decline
Is the good custom of Ikshváku’s line.”

_Raghuraṅśa._

311 See Book I, Canto XXXIX. An Indian prince in more modern times
appears to have diverted himself in a similar way.

It is still reported in Belgaum that Appay Deasy was wont to amuse
himself “by making several young and beautiful women stand side by
side on a narrow balcony, without a parapet, overhanging the deep
reservoir at the new palace in Nipani. He used then to pass along
the line of trembling creatures, and suddenly thrusting one of them
headlong into the water below, he used to watch her drowning, and
derive pleasure from her dying agonies.”—History of the Belgaum
District. By H. J. Stokes, M. S. C.

312 Chitraratha, King of the celestial choristers.

313 It is said that the bamboo dies after flowering.

314 “Thirty centuries have passed since he began this memorable journey.
Every step of it is known and is annually traversed by thousands:
hero worship is not extinct. What can Faith do! How strong are the
ties of religion when entwined with the legends of a country! How
many a cart creeps creaking and weary along the road from Ayodhyá to
Chitrakúṭ. It is this that gives the Rámáyan a strange interest, the
story still lives.” _Calcutta Review: Vol. XXIII._

315 See p. 72.

316 Four stars of the sixteenth lunar asterism.

317 In the marriage service.

318 The husks and chaff of the rice offered to the Gods.

319 An important sacrifice at which seventeen victims were immolated.

320 The great pilgrimage to the Himálayas, in order to die there.

321 Known to Europeans as the Goomtee.

322 A tree, commonly called _Ingua_.

323 Sacrificial posts to which the victims were tied.

324 Daughter of Jahnu, a name of the Ganges. See p. 55.

325 The _Mainá_ or Gracula religiosa, a favourite cage-bird, easily
taught to talk.

326 The Jumna.

327 The Hindu name of Allahabad.

328 The Langúr is a large monkey.

329 A mountain said to lie to the east of Meru.

330 Another name of the Jumna, daughter of the Sun.

331 “We have often looked on that green hill: it is the holiest spot of
that sect of the Hindu faith who devote themselves to this
incarnation of Vishṇu. The whole neighbourhood is Ráma’s country.
Every headland has some legend, every cavern is connected with his
name; some of the wild fruits are still called _Sítáphal_, being the
reputed food of the exile. Thousands and thousands annually visit
the spot, and round the hill is a raised foot-path, on which the
devotee, with naked feet, treads full of pious awe.” _Calcutta
Review_, Vol. XXIII.

332 Deities of a particular class in which five or ten are enumerated.
They are worshipped particularly at the funeral obsequies in honour
of deceased progenitors.

333 “So in Homer the horses of Achilles lamented with many bitter tears
the death of Patroclus slain by Hector:”

“Ἵπποι δ’ Αἰακίδαο, μάχης ἀπάνευθεν ἐότες,
Κλᾶιον, ἐπειδὴ πρῶτα πυθέσθην ἡνιόχοιο
Ἐν κονίνσι πεσόντος ὑφ’ Ἕκτορος ἀνδροφόνοιο”

ILIAD. XVII. 426.

“Ancient poesy frequently associated nature with the joys and
sorrows of man.” GORRESIO.

334 The lines containing this heap of forced metaphors are marked as
spurious by Schlegel.

335 The southern region is the abode of Yama the Indian Pluto, and of
departed spirits.

336 The five elements of which the body consists, and to which it
returns.

337 So dying York cries over the body of Suffolk:

“Tarry, dear cousin Suffolk!
My soul shall thine keep company to heaven:
Tarry, sweet soul, for mine, then fly abreast.”

_King Henry V, Act IV, 6._

338 Kauśalyá, daughter of the king of another Kośal.

339 Rájagriha, or Girivraja was the capital of Aśvapati, Bharat’s
maternal grandfather.

340 The Kekayas or Kaikayas in the Punjab appear amongst the chief
nations in the war of the Mahábhárata; their king being a kinsman of
Krishṇa.

341 Hástinapura was the capital of the kingdom of Kuru, near the modern
Delhi.

342 The Panchálas occupied the upper part of the Doab.

343 “Kurujángala and its inhabitants are frequently mentioned in the
_Mahábhárata_, as in the _Ádi-parv._ 3789, 4337, _et al._” WILSON’S
_Vishṇu Puráṇa,_ Vol. II. p. 176. DR. HALL’S Note.

344 “The Ὁξύματις of Arrian. See _As. Res._ Vol. XV. p. 420, 421, also
_Indische Alterthumskunde_, Vol. I. p. 602, first footnote.”
WILSON’S _Vishṇu Puráṇa_, Vol. I. p. 421. DR. HALL’S Edition. The
Ikshumatí was a river in Kurukshetra.

345 “The Báhíkas are described in the Mahábhárata, Karṇa Parvan, with
some detail, and comprehend the different nations of the Punjab from
the Sutlej to the Indus.” WILSON’S _Vishṇu Puráṇa_, Vol. I. p. 167.

346 The Beas, Hyphasis, or Bibasis.

347 It would be lost labour to attempt to verify all the towns and
streams mentioned in Cantos LXVIII and LXXII. Professor Wilson
observes (_Vishṇu Puráṇa_, p. 139. Dr. Hall’s Edition) “States, and
tribes, and cities have disappeared, even from recollection; and
some of the natural features of the country, especially the rivers,
have undergone a total alteration.… Notwithstanding these
impediments, however, we should be able to identify at least
mountains and rivers, to a much greater extent than is now
practicable, if our maps were not so miserably defective in their
nomenclature. None of our surveyors or geographers have been
oriental scholars. It may be doubted if any of them have been
conversant with the spoken language of the country. They have,
consequently, put down names at random, according to their own
inaccurate appreciation of sounds carelessly, vulgarly, and
corruptly uttered; and their maps of India are crowded with
appellations which bear no similitude whatever either to past or
present denominations. We need not wonder that we cannot discover
Sanskrit names in English maps, when, in the immediate vicinity of
Calcutta, Barnagore represents Baráhanagar, Dakshineśwar is
metamorphosed into Duckinsore, Ulubaría into Willoughbury.… There is
scarcely a name in our Indian maps that does not afford proof of
extreme indifference to accuracy in nomenclature, and of an
incorrectness in estimating sounds, which is, in some degree,
perhaps, a national defect.”

For further information regarding the road from Ayodhyá to
Rájagriha, see _Additional Notes_.

348 “The Śatadrú, ‘the hundred-channeled’—the Zaradrus of Ptolemy,
Hesydrus of Pliny—is the Sutlej.” WILSON’S _Vishṇu Puráṇa_, Vol. II.
p. 130.

349 The Sarasvatí or Sursooty is a tributary of the Caggar or Guggur in
Sirhind.

_ 350 Súryamcha pratimehatu_, adversus solem mingat. An offence expressly
forbidden by the Laws of Manu.

351 Bharat does not intend these curses for any particular person: he
merely wishes to prove his own innocence by invoking them on his own
head if he had any share in banishing Ráma.

352 The Sáma-veda, the hymns of which are chanted aloud.

353 Walking from right to left.

354 Birth and death, pleasure and pain, loss and gain.

355 Erected upon a tree or high staff in honour of Indra.

356 I follow in this stanza the Bombay edition in preference to
Schlegel’s which gives the tears of joy to the courtiers.

357 The commentator says “Śatrughna accompanied by the other sons of the
king.”

358 Not Bharat’s uncle, but some councillor.

_ 359 Śatakratu_, Lord of a hundred sacrifices, the performance of a
hundred _Aśvamedhas_ or sacrifices of a horse entitling the
sacrificer to this exalted dignity.

360 The modern Malabar.

361 Now Sungroor, in the Allahabad district.

362 Ráma, Lakshmaṇ, and Sumantra.

363 The _svastika_, a little cross with a transverse line at each
extremity.

364 When an army marched it was customary to burn the huts in which it
had spent the night.

365 Yáma, Varuṇa, and Kuvera.

366 “A happy land in the remote north where the inhabitants enjoy a
natural pefection attended with complete happiness obtained without
exertion. There is there no vicissitude, nor decrepitude, nor death,
nor fear: no distinction of virtue and vice, none of the
inequalities denoted by the words best, worst, and intermediate, nor
any change resulting from the succession of the four Yugas.” See
MUIR’S _Sanskrit Texts_, Vol. I. p. 492.

367 The Moon.

368 The poet does not tell us what these lakes contained.

369 These ten lines are a substitution for, and not a translation of the
text which Carey and Marshman thus render: “This mountain adorned
with mango, jumboo, usuna, lodhra, piala, punusa, dhava, unkotha,
bhuvya, tinisha, vilwa, tindooka, bamboo, kashmaree, urista, uruna,
madhooka, tilaka, vuduree, amluka, nipa, vetra, dhunwuna, veejaka,
and other trees affording flowers, and fruits, and the most
delightful shade, how charming does it appear!”

_ 370 Vidyadharis_, Spirits of Air, sylphs.

371 A lake attached either to Amarávatí the residence of Indra, or Alaká
that of Kuvera.

372 The Ganges of heaven.

373 Naliní, as here, may be the name of any lake covered with lotuses.

374 This canto is allowed, by Indian commentators, to be an
interpolation. It cannot be the work of Válmíki.

375 A fine bird with a strong, sweet note, and great imitative powers.

376 Bauhinea variegata, a species of ebony.

377 The rainbow is called the bow of Indra.

378 Bhogavatí, the abode of the Nágas or Serpent race.

379 “The order of the procession on these occasions is that the children
precede according to age, then the women and after that the men
according to age, the youngest first and the eldest last: when they
descend into the water this is reversed and resumed when they come
out of it.” CAREY AND MARSHMAN.

380 Vṛihaspati, the preceptor of the Gods.

381 Garuḍ, the king of birds.

382 To be won by virtue.

383 The four religious orders, referable to different times of life are,
that of the student, that of the householder, that of the anchorite,
and that of the mendicant.

384 To Gods, men, and Manes.

385 Gayá is a very holy city in Behar. Every good Hindu ought once in
his life to make funeral offerings in Gayá in honour of his
ancestors.

_ 386 Put_ is the name of that region of hell to which men are doomed who
leave no son to perform the funeral rites which are necessary to
assure the happiness of the departed. _Putra_, the common word for a
son is said by the highest authority to be derived from _Put_ and
_tra_ deliverer.

387 It was the custom of Indian women when mourning for their absent
husbands to bind their hair in a long single braid.

Carey and Marshman translate, “the one-tailed city.”

388 The verses in a different metre with which some cantos end are all
to be regarded with suspicion. Schlegel regrets that he did not
exclude them all from his edition. These lines are manifestly
spurious. See _Additional Notes_.

389 This genealogy is a repetition with slight variation of that given
in Book I, Canto LXX.

390 In Gorresio’s recension identified with Vishṇu. See Muir’s _Sanskrit
Texts, Vol. IV. pp 29, 30_.

391 From _sa_ with, and _gara_ poison.

392 See Book I. Canto XL.

393 A practice which has frequently been described, under the name of
_dherna_, by European travellers in India.

394 Compare Milton’s “_beseeching or beseiging_.”

395 Ten-headed, ten-necked, ten faced, are common epithets of Rávaṇ the
giant king of Lanká.

396 The spouse of Rohiṇí is the Moon: Ráhu is the demon who causes
eclipses.

397 “Once,” says the Commentator Tírtha, “in the battle between the Gods
and demons the Gods were vanquished, and the sun was overthrown by
Ráhu. At the request of the Gods Atri undertook the management of
the sun for a week.”

398 Now Nundgaon, in Oudh.

399 A part of the great Daṇḍak forest.

400 When the saint Máṇḍavya had doomed some saint’s wife, who was
Anasúyá’s friend, to become a widow on the morrow.

401 Heavenly nymphs.

402 The _ball_ or present of food to all created beings.

403 The clarified butter &c. cast into the sacred fire.

404 The Moon-God: “he is,” says the commentator, “the special deity of
Bráhmans.”

405 “Because he was an incarnation of the deity,” says the commentator,
“otherwise such honour paid by men of the sacerdotal caste to one of
the military would be improper.”

406 The king of birds.

_ 407 Kálántakayamopamam_, resembling Yáma the destroyer.

408 Somewhat inconsistently with this part of the story Tumburu is
mentioned in Book II, Canto XII as one of the Gandharvas or heavenly
minstrels summoned to perform at Bharadvája’s feast.