The Ramayana by Valmiki (classic reads txt) đź“–
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- Author: Valmiki
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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 Rohiṇà is the Moon: Ráhu is the demon who causes eclipses. 397. “Once,” says the Commentator TĂrtha, “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 AnasĂşyá'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. 409. Rambhá appears in Book I Canto LXIV as the temptress of ViĹ›vámitra. 410. The conclusion of this Canto is all a vain repetition: it is manifestly spurious and a very feeble imitation of VálmĂki's style. See Additional Notes. 411. “Even when he had alighted,” says the commentator: The feet of Gods do not touch the ground. 412. A name of Indra. 413. ĹšachĂ is the consort of Indra. 414. The spheres or mansions gained by those who have duly performed the sacrifices required of them. Different situations are assigned to these spheres, some placing them near the sun, others near the moon. 415. Hermits who live upon roots which they dig out of the earth: literally diggers, derived from the prefix vi and khan to dig. 416. Generally, divine personages of the height of a man's thumb, produced from Brahmá's hair: here, according to the commentator followed by Gorresio, hermits who when they have obtained fresh food throw away what they had laid up before. 417. Sprung from the washings of Vishṇuu's feet. 418. Four fires burning round them, and the sun above. 419. The tax allowed to the king by the Laws of Manu. 420. Near the celebrated Rámagiri or Ráma's Hill, now Rám-áąek, near Nagpore—the scene of the Yaksha's exile in the Messenger Cloud. 421. A hundred AĹ›vamedhas or sacrifices of a horse raise the sacrificer to the dignity of Indra. 422. Indra. 423. Gorresio observes that DaĹ›aratha was dead and that SĂtá had been informed of his death. In his translation he substitutes for the words of the text “thy relations and mine.” This is quite superfluous. DaĹ›aratha though in heaven still took a loving interest in the fortunes of his son. 424. One of the hermits who had followed Ráma. 425. The lake of the five nymphs. 426. The holy fig-tree. 427. The bread-fruit tree, Artocarpus integrifolia. 428. A fine timber tree, Shorea robusta. 429. The God of fire. 430. Kuvera, the God of riches. 431. The Sun. 432. Brahmá, the creator. 433. Ĺšiva. 434. The Wind-God. 435. The God of the sea. 436. A class of demi-gods, eight in number. 437. The holiest text of the Vedas, deified. 438. Vásuki. 439. Garuḍ. 440. The War-God. 441. One of the Pleiades generally regarded as the model of wifely excellence. 442. The MadhĂşka, or, as it is now called, Mahuwá, is the Bassia latifolia, a tree from whose blossoms a spirit is extracted. 443. “I should have doubted whether Manu could have been the right reading here, but that it occurs again in verse 29, where it is in like manner followed in verse 31 by Analá, so that it would certainly seem that the name Manu is intended to stand for a female, the daughter of Daksha. The Gauḍa recension, followed by Signor Gorresio (III 20, 12), adopts an entirely different reading at the end of
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