The Ramayana by Valmiki (classic reads txt) 📖

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