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Read books online » Fiction » The Ramayana by Valmiki (classic reads txt) 📖

Book online «The Ramayana by Valmiki (classic reads txt) 📖». Author Valmiki



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now the same bird's perching on a tree near him may be regarded as a happy augury that she will soon be restored to her husband. 530. A tree with beautiful and fragrant blossoms. 531. A race of semi-divine musicians attached to the service of Kuvera, represented as centaurs reversed with human figures and horses' heads. 532. Butea Frondosa. A tree that bears a profusion of brilliant red flowers which appear before the leaves. 533.

I omit five ślokas which contain nothing but a list of trees for which, with one or two exceptions, there are no equivalent names in English. The following is Gorresio's translation of the corresponding passage in the Bengal recension:—

“Oh come risplendono in questa stagione di primavera i vitici, le galedupe, le bassie, le dalbergie, i diospyri … le tile, le michelie, le rottlerie, le pentaptere ed i pterospermi, i bombaci, le grislee, gli abri, gli amaranti e le dalbergie; i sirii, le galedupe, le barringtonie ed i palmizi, i xanthocymi, il pepebetel, le verbosine e le ticaie, le nauclee le erythrine, gli asochi, e le tapie fanno d'ogni intorno pompa de' lor fiori.”

534. A sacred stream often mentioned in the course of the poem. See Book II, Canto XCV. 535. A daughter of Daksha who became one of the wives of Kaśyapa and mother of the Daityas. She is termed the general mother of Titans and malignant beings. See Book I Cantos XLV, XLVI. 536. Sugríva, the ex-king of the Vánars, foresters, or monkeys, an exile from his home, wandering about the mountain Rishyamúka with his four faithful ex-ministers. 537.
The hermitage of the Saint Matanga which his curse prevented Báli, the present king of the Vánars, from entering. The story is told at length in Canto XI of this Book. 538. Hanumán, Sugríva's chief general, was the son of the God of Wind. See Book I, Canto XVI. 539. A range of hills in Malabar; the Western Ghats in the Deccan. 540. Válmíki makes the second vowel in this name long or short to suit the exigencies of the verse. Other Indian poets have followed his example, and the same licence will be used in this translation. 541. I omit a recapitulatory and interpolated verse in a different metre, which is as follows:—Reverencing with the words, So be it, the speech of the greatly terrified and unequalled monkey king, the magnanimous Hanumán then went where (stood) the very mighty Ráma with Lakshmaṇ. 542.

The semi divine Hanumán possesses, like the Gods and demons, the power of wearing all shapes at will. He is one of the Kámarúpís.

Like Milton's good and bad angels “as they please
They limb themselves, and colour, shape, or size
Assume as likes them best, condense or rare.” 543. Himálaya is of course par excellence the Monarch of mountains, but the complimentary title is frequently given to other hills as here to Malaya. 544. Twisted up in a matted coil as was the custom of ascetics. 545. The sun and moon. 546. The rainbow. 547. The Vedas are four in number, the Rich or Rig-veda, the Yajush or Yajur-veda; the Sáman or Sáma-veda, and the Atharvan or Atharva-veda. See p. 3. Note. 548. The chest, the throat, and the head. 549.

“In our own metrical romances, or wherever a poem is meant not for readers but for chanters and oral reciters, these formulæ, to meet the same recurring case, exist by scores. Thus every woman in these metrical romances who happens to be young, is described as ‘so bright of ble,’ or complexion; always a man goes ‘the mountenance of a mile’ before he overtakes or is overtaken. And so on through a vast bead-roll of cases. In the same spirit Homer has his eternal τον δ'αρ' ὑποδρα ιδων, or τον δ'απαμειβομενος προσφη, &c.

To a reader of sensibility, such recurrences wear an air of child-like simplicity, beautifully recalling the features of Homer's primitive age. But they would have appeared faults to all commonplace critics in literary ages.”

De Quincey. Homer and the Homeridæ.

550. Bráhmans the sacerdotal caste. Kshatriyas the royal and military, Vaiśyas the mercantile, and Śúdras the servile. 551. A protracted sacrifice extending over several days. See Book I, p. 24 Note. 552. Possessed of all the auspicious personal marks that indicate capacity of universal sovereignty. See Book I. p. 2, and Note 3. 553. Kabandha. See Book III. Canto LXXIII. 554.

Fire for sacred purposes is produced by the attrition of two pieces of wood. In marriage and other solemn covenants fire is regarded as the holy witness in whose presence the agreement is made. Spenser in a description of a marriage, has borrowed from the Roman rite what he calls the housling, or “matrimonial rite.”

“His owne two hands the holy knots did knit
That none but death forever can divide.
His owne two hands, for such a turn most fit,
The housling fire did kindle and provide.”

Faery Queen, Book I. XII. 37.

555. Indra. 556. Báli the king de facto. 557. With the Indians, as with the ancient Greeks, the throbbing of the right eye in a man is an auspicious sign, the throbbing of the left eye is the opposite. In a woman the significations of signs are reversed. 558.

The Vedas stolen by the demons Madhu and Kaiṭabha.

“The text has [Sanskrit text] which signifies literally ‘the lost vedic tradition.’ It seems that allusion is here made to the Vedas submerged in the depth of the sea, but promptly recovered by Vishṇu in one of his incarnations, as the brahmanic legend relates, with which the orthodoxy of the Bráhmans intended perhaps to allude to the prompt restoration and uninterrupted continuity of the ancient vedic tradition.”

Gorresio.

559. Like the wife of a Nága or Serpent-God carried off by an eagle. The enmity between the King of birds and the serpent is of very frequent occurrence. It seems to be a modification of the strife between the Vedic Indra and the Ahi, the serpent or drought-fiend; between Apollôn and the Python, Adam and the Serpent. 560. He means that he has never ventured to raise his eyes to her arms and face, though he has ever been her devoted servant. 561.

The wood in which Skanda or Kártikeva was brought up:

“The Warrior-God
Whose infant steps amid the thickets strayed
Where the reeds wave over the holy sod.”

See also Book I, Canto XXIX.

562. “Sugríva's story paints in vivid colours the manners, customs and ideas of the wild mountain tribes which inhabited Kishkindhya or the southern hills of the Deccan, of the people whom the poem calls monkeys, tribes altogether different in origin and civilization from the Indo-Sanskrit race.” Gorresio. 563. A fiend slain by Báli. 564. Báli's mountain city. 565. The canopy or royal umbrella, one of the usual Indian regalia. 566. Whisks made of the hair of the Yak or Bos grunniers, also regal insignia. 567.

Righteous because he never transgresses his bounds, and

“over his great tides
Fidelity presides.” 568. Himálaya, the Lord of Snow, is the father of Umá the wife of Śiva or Śankar. 569. Indra's celestial elephant. 570. Báli was the son of Indra. See p. 28. 571. An Asur slain by Indra. See p. 261 Note. He is, like Vritra, a form of the demon of drought destroyed by the beneficent God of the firmament. 572. Another name of Indra or Mahendra. 573. The Bengal recension makes it return in the form of a swan. 574. Varuṇa is one of the oldest of the Vedic Gods, corresponding in name and partly in character to the Οὐρανός of the Greeks and is often regarded as the supreme deity. He upholds heaven and earth, possesses extraordinary power and wisdom, sends his messengers through both worlds, numbers the very winkings of men's eyes, punishes transgressors whom he seizes with his deadly noose, and pardons the sins of those who are penitent. In later mythology he has become the God of the sea. 575.

Budha, not to be confounded with the great reformer Buddha, is the son of Soma or the Moon, and regent of the planet Mercury. Angára is the regent of Mars who is called the red or the fiery planet. The encounter between Michael and Satan is similarly said to have been as if

“Two planets rushing from aspect malign
Of fiercest opposition in midsky
Should combat, and their jarring spheres compound.”

Paradise Lost. Book VI.

576. The Aśvins or Heavenly Twins, the Dioskuri or Castor and Pollux of the Hindus, have frequently been mentioned. See p. 36, Note. 577. Called respectively Gárhapatya, Áhavaniya, and Dakshiṇa, household, sacrificial, and southern. 578. The store of merit accumulated by a holy or austere life secures only a temporary seat in the mansion of bliss. When by the lapse of time this store is exhausted, return to earth is unavoidable. 579. The conflagration which destroys the world at the end of a Yuga or age. 580. Himálaya. 581. Tárá means “star.” The poet plays upon
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