Chapter CDXCIX: Section XIII: Rávan Doomed (6)

409 Rambhá appears in Book I Canto LXIV as the temptress of Viśvámitra.

410 The conclusion of this Canto is all a vain repetition: it is
manifestly spurious and a very feeble imitation of Válmíki’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 Śachí 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-ṭek, near
Nagpore—the scene of the Yaksha’s exile in the _Messenger Cloud_.

421 A hundred _Aśvamedhas_ or sacrifices of a horse raise the sacrificer
to the dignity of Indra.

422 Indra.

423 Gorresio observes that Daśaratha was dead and that Sítá 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. Daśaratha 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 Śiva.

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 Madhúka, 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 the line, viz. _Balám Atibalám api_, ‘Balá and Atibilá,’
instead of Manu and Analá. I see that Professor Roth s.v. adduces
the authority of the Amara Kosha and of the Commentator on Páṇini
for stating that the word sometimes means ‘the wife of Manu.’ In the
following text of the Mahábhárata I. 2553. also, Manu appears to be
the name of a female: ‘_Anaradyam_, _Manum_, _Vañsám_, _Asurám_,
_Márgaṇapriyám_, _Anúpám_, _Subhagám_, _Bhásím iti_, _Prádhá
vyajayata_. Prádhá (daughter of Daksha) bore Anavadyá, Manu, Vanśá,
Márgaṇapriyá, Anúpá, Subhagá. and Bhásí.’ ” _Muir’s Sanskrit Text_,
Vol. I. p. 116.

444 The elephant of Indra.

_ 445 Golángúlas_, described as a kind of monkey, of a black colour, and
having a tail like a cow.

446 Eight elephants attached to the four quarters and intermediate
points of the compass, to support and guard the earth.

447 Some scholars identify the centaurs with the Gandharvas.

448 The hooded serpents, says the commentator Tírtha, were the offspring
of Surasá: all others of Kadrú.

449 The text reads Kaśyapa, “a descendant of Kaśyapa,” who according to
Rám. II. l0, 6, ought to be Vivasvat. But as it is stated in the
preceding part of this passage III. 14, 11 f. that Manu was one of
Kaśyapa’s eight wives, we must here read Kaśyap. The Ganda recension
reads (III, 20, 30) _Manur manushyáms cha tatha janayámása Rághana_,
instead of the corresponding line in the Bombay edition. _Muir’s
Sanskrit Text, Vol I, p. 117._

450 The original verses merely name the trees. I have been obliged to
amplify slightly and to omit some quas versu dicere non est; _e.g._
the _tiniśa_ (Dalbergia ougeiniensis), _punnága_ (Rottleria
tinctoria), _tilaka_ (not named), _syandana_ (Dalbergia ougeiniensis
again), _vandana_ (unknown), _nípa_ (Nauclea Kadamba), _lakucha_
(Artœarpus lacucha), _dhava_ (Grislea tomentosa), Aśvakarna (another
name for the Sál), _Śamí_ (Acacia Suma), _khadira_ (Mimosa catechu),
_kinśuka_ (Butea frondosa), _pátala_ (Bignonia suaveolens).

451 Acacia Suma.

452 The south is supposed to be the residence of the departed.

453 The sun.

454 The night is divided into three watches of four hours each.

455 The chief chamberlain and attendant of Śiva or Rudra.

456 Umá or Párvati, the consort of Śiva.

457 A star, one of the favourites of the Moon.

458 The God of love.

459 A demon slain by Indra.

460 Chitraratha, King of the Gandharvas.

461 Titanic.

462 The Sáriká is the Maina, a bird like a starling.

463 Mahákapála, Sthúláksha, Pramátha, Triśiras.

464 Vishṇu, who bears a _chakra_ or discus.

465 Śiva.

466 See _Additional Notes_—DAKSHA’S SACRIFICE.

467 Himálaya.

468 One of the mysterious weapons given to Ráma.

469 A periphrasis for the body.

470 Triśirás.

471 The Three-headed.

472 The demon who causes eclipses.

473 “This Asura was a friend of Indra, and taking advantage of his
friend’s confidence, he drank up Indra’s strength along with a
draught of wine and Soma. Indra then told the Aśvins and Sarasvatí
that Namuchi had drunk up his strength. The Aśvins in consequence
gave Indra a thunderbolt in the form of a foam, with which he smote
off the head of Namuchi.” GARRETT’S _Classical Dictionary of India_.
See also Book I. p. 39.

474 Indra.

475 Popularly supposed to cause death.

476 Garuḍ, the King of Birds, carried off the Amrit or drink of Paradise
from Indra’s custody.

477 A demon, son of Kaśyap and Diti, slain by Rudra or Śiva when he
attempted to carry off the tree of Paradise.

478 Namuchi and Vritra were two demons slain by Indra. Vritra
personifies drought, the enemy of Indra, who imprisons the rain in
the cloud.

479 Another demon slain by Indra.

480 The capital of the giant king Rávaṇ.

481 Kuvera, the God of gold.

482 In the great deluge.

483 The giant Márícha, son of Táḍaká. Táḍaká was slain by Ráma. See p.
39.

484 Indra’s elephant.

485 Bhogavatí, in Pátála in the regions under the earth, is the capital
of the serpent race whose king is Vásuki.

486 the grove of Indra.

487 Pulastya is considered as the ancestor of the Rakshases or giants,
as he is the father of Viśravas, the father of Rávaṇ and his
brethren.

488 Beings with the body of a man and the head of a horse.

489 Ájas, Maríchipas, Vaikhánasas, Máshas, and Bálakhilyas are classes
of supernatural beings who lead the lives of hermits.

490 “The younger brother of the giant Rávaṇ; when he and his brother had
practiced austerities for a long series of years, Brahmá appeared to
offer them boons: Vibhishaṇa asked that he might never meditate any
unrighteousness.… On the death of Rávaṇ Vibhishaṇa was installed as
Rája of Lanká.” GARRETT’S _Classical Dictionary of India_.

491 Serpent-gods.

492 See p. 33.

493 The Sanskrit words for car and jewels begin with _ra_.

494 A race of beings of human shape but with the heads of horses, like
centaurs reversed.

495 The favourite wife of the Moon.

496 The planet Saturn.

497 Another favourite of the Moon; one of the lunar mansions.

498 The Rudras, agents in creation, are eight in number; they sprang
from the forehead of Brahmá.

499 Maruts, the attendants of Indra.

500 Radiant demi-gods.

501 The mountain which was used by the Gods as a churning stick at the
Churning of the Ocean.

502 The story will be found in GARRETT’S _Classical Dictionary_. See
ADDITIONAL NOTES.

503 Mercury: to be carefully distinguished from Buddha.

504 The spirits of the good dwell in heaven until their store of
accumulated merit is exhausted. Then they redescend to earth in the
form of falling stars.

505 See The Descent of Gangá, Book I Canto XLIV.

506 See Book I Canto XXV.

_ 507 Aśoka_ is compounded of _a_ not and _śoka_ grief.

508 See Book I Canto XXXI.

509 An Asur or demon, king of Tripura, the modern Tipperah.

510 Śiva.

511 See Book I, Canto LIX.

512 The preceptor of the Gods.

513 From the root _vid_, to find.

514 Rávaṇ.

515 Or Curlews’ Wood.

516 Iron-faced.

517 Kabandha means a trunk.

518 A class of mythological giants. In the Epic period they were
probably personifications of the aborigines of India.

519 Peace, war, marching, halting, sowing dissensions, and seeking
protection.

520 See Book I, Canto XVI.

521 Or as the commentator Tírtha says, Śilápidháná, rock-covered, may be
the name of the cavern.

522 Pampá is said by the commentator to be the name both of a lake and a
brook which flows into it. The brook is said to rise in the hill
Rishyamúka.

523 Who was acting as Regent for Ráma and leading an ascetic life while
he mourned for his absent brother.

524 The Indian Cuckoo.

525 The Cassia Fistula or Amaltás is a splendid tree like a giant
laburnum covered with a profusion of chains and tassels of gold. Dr.
Roxburgh well describes it as “uncommonly beautiful when in flower,
few trees surpassing it in the elegance of its numerous long
pendulous racemes of large bright-yellow flowers intermixed with the
young lively green foliage.” It is remarkable also for its curious
cylindrical black seed-pods about two feet long, which are called
monkeys’ walking-sticks.

526 “The Jonesia Asoca is a tree of considerable size, native of
southern India. It blossoms in February and March with large erect
compact clusters of flowers, varying in colour from pale-orange to
scarlet, almost to be mistaken, on a hasty glance, for immense
trusses of bloom of an Ixora. Mr. Fortune considered this tree, when
in full bloom, superior in beauty even to the Amherstia.

The first time I saw the Asoc in flower was on the hill where the
famous rock-cut temple of Kárlí is situated, and a large concourse
of natives had assembled for the celebration of some Hindoo
festival. Before proceeding to the temple the Mahratta women
gathered from two trees, which were flowering somewhat below, each a
fine truss of blossom, and inserted it in the hair at the back of
her head.… As they moved about in groups it is impossible to imagine
a more delightful effect than the rich scarlet bunches of flowers
presented on their fine glossy jet-black hair.” FIRMINGER,
_Gardening for India_.

527 No other word can express the movements of peafowl under the
influence of pleasing excitement, especially when after the long
drought they hear the welcome roar of the thunder and feel that the
rain is near.

528 The Dewy Season is one of the six ancient seasons of the Indian
year, lasting from the middle of January to the middle of March.

529 Ráma appears to mean that on a former occasion a crow flying high
overhead was an omen that indicated his approaching separation from
Sítá; and that 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 the name by comparing her
beauty to that of the Lord of stars, the Moon.

582 Suparṇa, the Well-winged, is another name of Garuḍa the King of
Birds. See p. 28, Note.

583 The God of Death.

584 The flag-staff erected in honour of the God Indra is lowered when
the festival is over. Aśvíní in astronomy is the head of Aries or
the first of the twenty-eight lunar mansions or asterisms.

585 Indra the father of Báli.

586 It is believed that every creature killed by Ráma obtained in
consequence immediate beatitude.

“And blessed the hand that gave so dear a death.”

587 “Yayáti was invited to heaven by Indra, and conveyed on the way
thither by Mátali, Indra’s charioteer. He afterwards returned to
earth where, by his virtuous administration he rendered all his
subjects exempt from passion and decay.” GARRETT’S C. D. OF INDIA.

588 The ascetic’s dress which he wore during his exile.

589 There is much inconsistency in the passages of the poem in which the
Vánars are spoken of, which seems to point to two widely different
legends. The Vánars are generally represented as semi-divine beings
with preternatural powers, living in houses and eating and drinking
like men sometimes as here, as monkeys pure and simple, living is
woods and eating fruit and roots.

590 For a younger brother to marry before the elder is a gross violation
of Indian law and duty. The same law applied to daughters with the
Hebrews: “It must not be so done in our country to give the younger
before the first-born.” GENESIS xix. 26.

591 “The hedgehog and porcupine, the lizard, the rhinoceros, the
tortoise, and the rabbit or hare, wise legislators declare lawful
food among five-toed animals.” MANU, v. 18.

592 “He can not buckle his distempered cause
Within the belt of rule.”

MACBETH.

593 The _Ankuś_ or iron hook with which an elephant is driven and
guided.

594 Hayagríva, Horse-necked, is a form of Vishṇu.

595 “Aśvatara is the name of a chief of the Nágas or serpents which
inhabit the regions under the earth; it is also the name of a
Gandharva. Aśvatarí ought to be the wife of one of the two, but I am
not sure that this conjecture is right. The commentator does not say
who this Aśvatarí is, or what tradition or myth is alluded to.
Vimalabodha reads Aśvatarí in the nominative case, and explains,
Aśvatarí is the sun, and as the sun with his rays brings back the
moon which has been sunk in the ocean and the infernal regions, so
will I bring back Sítá.” GORRESIO.

596 That is, “Consider what answer you can give to your accusers when
they charge you with injustice in killing me.”

597 Manu, Book VIII. 318. “But men who have committed offences and have
received from kings the punishment due to them, go pure to heaven
and become as clear as those who have done well.”

598 Mándhátá was one of the earlier descendants of Ikshváku. His name is
mentioned in Ráma’s genealogy, p. 81.

599 I cannot understand how Válmíki could put such an excuse as this
into Ráma’s mouth. Ráma with all solemn ceremony, has made a league
of alliance with Báli’s younger brother whom he regards as a dear
friend and almost as an equal, and now he winds up his reasons for
killing Báli by coolly saying: “Besides you are only a monkey, you
know, after all, and as such I have every right to kill you how,
when, and where I like.”

600 A name of Garuḍa the king of birds, the great enemy of the Serpents.

601 Sugríva’s wife.

602 “Our deeds still follow with us from afar. And what we have been
makes us what we are.”

603 Sugríva and Angad.

604 Angad himself, being too young to govern, would be Yuvarája or
heir-apparent.

605 Susheṇa was the son of Varuṇa the God of the sea.

606 A demon with the tail of a dragon, that causes eclipses by
endeavouring to swallow the sun and moon.

607 The Lord of Stars is the Moon.

608 Or the passage may be interpreted: “Be neither too obsequious or
affectionate, nor wanting in due respect or love.”

609 Sacrifices and all religious rites begin and end with ablution, and
the wife of the officiating Bráhman takes an important part in the
performance of the holy ceremonies.

610 Viśvarúpa, a son of Twashṭri or Viśvakarmá the heavenly architect,
was a three-headed monster slain by Indra.

611 The Vánar chief, not to be confounded with Tárá.

612 Śrávaṇ: July-August. But the rains begin a month earlier, and what
follows must not be taken literally. The text has _púrvo’ yam
várshiko másah Śrávaṇah salilágamdh_. The Bengal recension has the
same, and Gorresio translates: “Equesto ilmese Srâvana
(luglio-agosto) primo della stagione piovosa, in cui dilagano le
acque.”

613 Kártik: October-November.

614 “Indras, as the nocturnal sun, hides himself, transformed, in the
starry heavens: the stars are his eyes. The hundred-eyed or
all-seeing (panoptês) Argos placed as a spy over the actions of the
cow beloved by Zeus, in the Hellenic equivalent of this form of
Indras.” DE GUBERNATIS, _Zoological Mythology_, Vol. I, p. 418.

615 Baudháyana and others.

616 Sugríva appears to have been consecrated with all the ceremonies
that attended the _Abhisheka_ or coronation of an Indian prince of
the Aryan race. Compare the preparations made for Ráma’s
consecration, Book II, Canto III. Thus Homer frequently introduces
into Troy the rites of Hellenic worship.

617 Vitex Negundo.

618 Mályavat: “The name of this mountain appears to me to be erroneous,
and I think that instead of Mályavat should be read Malayavat,
Malaya is a group of mountains situated exactly in that southern
part of India where Ráma now was, while Mályavat is placed to the
north east.” GORRESIO.

619 Mantles of the skin of the black antelope were the prescribed dress
of ascetics and religious students.

620 The sacred cord worn as the badge of religious initiation by men of
the three twice-born castes.

621 The hum with which students conduct their tasks.

622 I omit here a long general description of the rainy season which is
not found in the Bengal recension and appears to have been
interpolated by a far inferior and much later hand than Valmiki’s.
It is composed in a metre different from that of the rest of the
Canto, and contains figures of poetical rhetoric and common-places
which are the delight of more recent poets.

623 Praushthapada or Bhadra, the modern Bhadon, corresponds to half of
August and half of September.

624 The Sáman or Sáma-veda, the third of the four Vedas, is really
merely a reproduction of parts of the Rig-veda, transposed and
scattered about piece-meal, only 78 verses in the whole being, it is
said, untraceable to the present recension of the Rig-veda.

625 Áshádha is the month corresponding to parts of June and July.

626 Bharat, who was regent during Ráma’s absence.

627 Or with Gorresio, following the gloss of another commentary: “Has
completed every holy rite and accumulated stores of merit.”

628 The river on which Ayodhyá was built.

629 I omit a _śloka_ or four lines on gratitude and ingratitude repeated
word for word from the last Canto.

630 The Indian crane; a magnificent bird easily domesticated.

631 The troops who guard the frontiers on the north, south, east and
west.

632 The Chátaka, Cuculus, Melanoleucus, is supposed to drink nothing but
the water for the clouds.

633 The time for warlike expeditions began when the rains had ceased.

634 The rainbow.

635 Indra’s associates in arms, and musicians of his heaven.

636 Maireya, a spirituous liquor from the blossoms of the Lythrum
fruticosum, with sugar, &c.

637 Their names are as follows: Angad, Maínda, Dwida, Gavaya, Gaváksha,
Gaja, Śarabha, Vidyunmáli, Sampáti, Súryáksa, Hanumán, Vírabáhu,
Subáhu, Nala, Kúmuda, Susheṇa, Tára, Jámbuvatu, Dadhivakra, Níla,
Supátala, and Sunetra.

638 The Kalpadruma or Wishing-tree is one of the trees of Svarga or
Indra’s Paradise: it has the power of granting all desires.

639 The meaning is that if a man promises to give a horse and then
breaks his word he commits a sin as great as if he had killed a
hundred horses.

640 The story is told in Book I, Canto LXIII, but the charmer there is
called Menaká.

641 Rohiṇí is the name of the ninth Nakshatra or lunar asterism
personified as a daughter of Daksha, and the favourite wife of the
Moon. Aldebaran is the principal star in the constellation.

642 Válmíki and succeeding poets make the second vowel in this name long
or short at their pleasure.

643 Some of the mountains here mentioned are fabulous and others it is
impossible to identify. Sugríva means to include all the mountains
of India from Kailás the residence of the God Kuvera, regarded as
one of the loftiest peaks of the Himálayas, to Mahendra in the
extreme south, from the mountain in the east where the sun is said
to rise to Astáchal or the western mountain where he sets. The
commentators give little assistance: that Maháśaila, &c. are certain
mountains is about all the information they give.

644 One of the celestial elephants of the Gods who protect the four
quarters and intermediate points of the compass.

645 Váyu or the Wind was the father of Hanumán.

646 The path or station of Vishṇu is the space between the seven Rishis
or Ursa Major, and Dhruva or the polar star.

647 One of the seven seas which surround the earth in concentric
circles.

648 The title of Maheśvar or Mighty Lord is sometimes given to Indra,
but more generally to Śiva whom it here denotes.

649 See Book I, Canto XVI.

650 The numbers are unmanageable in English verse. The poet speaks of
hundreds of _arbudas_; and an _arbuda_ is a hundred millions.

651 Anuhláda or Anuhráda is one of the four sons of the mighty
Hiraṇyakaśipu, an Asur or a Daitya son of Kaśyapa and Diti and
killed by Vishṇu in his incarnation of the Man-Lion _Narasinha_.
According to the Bhágavata Puráṇa the Daitya or Asur Hiraṇyakaśipu
and Hiraṇyáksha his brother, both killed by Vishṇu, were born again
as Rávaṇ and Kumbhakarṇa his brother.

652 Puloma, a demon, was the father-in-law of Indra who destroyed him in
order to avert an imprecation. Paulomí is a patronymic denoting
Śachí the daughter of Puloma.

653 “Observe the variety of colours which the poem attributes to all
these inhabitants of the different mountainous regions, some white,
others yellow, &c. Such different colours were perhaps peculiar and
distinctive characteristics of those various races.” GORRESSIO.

654 Susheṇ.

655 Tára.

656 Kesarí was the husband of Hanúmán’s mother, and is here called his
father.

657 “I here unite under one heading two animals of very diverse nature
and race, but which from some gross resemblances, probably helped by
an equivoque in the language, are closely affiliated in the Hindoo
myth … a reddish colour of the skin, want of symmetry and
ungainliness of form, strength in hugging with the fore paws or
arms, the faculty of climbing, shortness of tail(?), sensuality,
capacity of instruction in dancing and in music, are all
characteristics which more or less distinguish and meet in bears as
well as in monkeys. In the _Rámáyaṇam_, the wise Jámnavant, the
Odysseus of the expedition of Lanká, is called now king of the bears
(rikshaparthivah), now great monkey (_Mahákapih_).” DE GUBERNATIS:
_Zoological Mythology_, Vol. II. p. 97.

658 Gandhamádana, Angad, Tára, Indrajánu, Rambha, Durmukha, Hanumán,
Nala, Da mukha, Śarabha, Kumuda, Vahni.

659 Daityas and Dánavas are fiends and enemies of the Gods, like the
Titans of Greek mythology.

660 I reduce the unwieldy numbers of the original to more modest
figures.

661 Sarayú now Sarjú is the river on which Ayodhyá was built.

662 Kauśikí is a river which flows through Behar, commonly called Kosi.

663 Bhagírath’s daughter is Gangá or the Ganges. The legend is told at
length in Book I Canto XLIV. _The Descent of Gangá_.

664 A mountain not identified.

665 The Jumna. The river is personified as the twin sister of Yáma, and
hence regarded as the daughter of the Sun.

666 The Sarasvatí (corruptly called Sursooty, is supposed to join the
Ganges and Jumna at Prayág or Allahabad. It rises in the mountains
bounding the north-east part of the province of Delhi, and running
in a south-westerly direction becomes lost in the sands of the great
desert.

667 The Sindhu is the Indus, the Sanskrit _s_ becoming _h_ in Persian
and being in this instance dropped by the Greeks.

668 The Sone which rises in the district of Nagpore and falls into the
Ganges above Patna.

669 Mahí is a river rising in Malwa and falling into the gulf of Cambay
after a westerly course of 280 miles.

670 There is nothing to show what parts of the country the poet intended
to denote as silk-producing and silver-producing.

671 Yavadwipa means the island of Yava, wherever that may be.

672 Śiśir is said to be a mountain ridge projecting from the base of
Meru on the south. Wilson’s _Vishnu Puráṇa_, ed. Hall, Vol. II. p.
117.

673 This appears to be some mythical stream and not the well-known Śone.
The name means red-coloured.

674 A fabulous thorny rod of the cotton tree used for torturing the
wicked in hell. The tree gives its name, Śálmalí, to one of the
seven Dwípas, or great divisions of the known continent: and also to
a hell where the wicked are tormented with the pickles of the tree.

675 The king of the feathered creation.

676 Viśvakarmá, the Mulciber of the Indian heaven.

677 “The terrific fiends named Mandehas attempt to devour the sun: for
Brahmá denounced this curse upon them, that without the power to
perish they should die every day (and revive by night) and therefore
a fierce contest occurs (daily) between them and the sun.” WILSON’S
Vishṇu Puráṇa. Vol. II. p. 250.

678 Said in the _Vishṇu Puráṇa_ to be a ridge projecting from the base
of Meru to the north.

679 Kinnars are centaurs reversed, beings with equine head and human
bodies.

680 Yakshas are demi-gods attendant on Kuvera the God of wealth.

681 Aurva was one of the descendants of Bhrigu. From his wrath proceeded
a flame that threatened to destroy the world, had not Aurva cast it
into the ocean where it remained concealed, and having the face of a
horse. The legend is told in the _Mahábhárat_. I. 6802.

682 The word Játarúpa means gold.

683 The celebrated mythological serpent king Sesha, called also Ananta
or the infinite, represented as bearing the earth on one of his
thousand heads.

684 Jambudwípa is in the centre of the seven great _dwípas_ or
continents into which the world is divided, and in the centre of
Jambudwípa is the golden mountain Meru 84,000 yojans high, and
crowned by the great city of Brahmá. See WILSON’S _Vishṇu Puráṇa_,
Vol. II. p. 110.

685 Vaikhánases are a race of hermit saints said to have sprung from the
nails of Prajápati.

686 “The wife of Kratu, Samnati, brought forth the sixty thousand
Válakhilyas, pigmy sages, no bigger than a joint of the thumb,
chaste, pious, resplendent as the rays of the Sun.” WILSON’S _Vishṇu
Puráṇa_.

687 The continent in which Sudarśan or Meru stands, _i.e._ Jambudwíp.

688 The names of some historical peoples which occur in this Canto and
in the Cantos describing the south and north will be found in the
ADDITIONAL NOTES. They are bare lists, not susceptible of a metrical
version.

689 Suhotra, Śarári, Śaragulma, Gayá, Gaváksha, Gavaya, Susheṇa,
Gandhamádana, Ulkámukha, and Ananga.

690 The modern Nerbudda.

691 Krishṇaveṇí is mentioned in the _Vishṇu Puráṇa_ as “the deep
Krishṇaveṇí” but there appears to be no clue to its identification.

692 The modern Godavery.

693 The Mekhalas or Mekalas according to the Paráṇas live in the Vindhya
hills, but here they appear among the peoples of the south.

694 Utkal is still the native name of Orissa.

695 The land of the people of the “ten forts.” Professor Hall in a note
on WILSON’S _Vishṇu Puráṇa_, Vol. II. p. 160 says: “The oral
traditions of the vicinity to this day assign the name of Daśárna to
a region lying to the east of the District of Chundeyree.”

696 Avantí is one of the ancient names of the celebrated Ujjayin or
Oujein in Central India.

697 Not identified.

698 Ayomukh means iron faced. The mountain is not identified.

699 The Káverí or modern Cauvery is well known and has always borne the
same appellation, being the Chaberis of Ptolemy.

700 One of the seven principal mountain chains: the southern portion of
the Western Gháts.

701 Agastya is the great sage who has already frequently appeared as
Ráma’s friend and benefactor.

702 Támraparṇí is a river rising in Malaya.

703 The Páṇḍyas are a people of the Deccan.

704 Mahendra is the chain of hills that extends from Orissa and the
northern Sircars to Gondwána, part of which near Ganjam is still
called Mahendra Malay or hills of Mahendra.

705 Lanká, Sinhaladvípa, Sarandib, or Ceylon.

706 The Flowery Hill of course is mythical.

707 The whole of the geography south of Lanká is of course mythical.
Súryaván means Sunny.

708 Vaidyut means connected with lightning.

709 Agastya is here placed far to the south of Lanká. Earlier in this
Canto he was said to dwell on Malaya.

710 Bhogavatí has been frequently mentioned: it is the capital of the
serpent Gods or demons, and usually represented as being in the
regions under the earth.

711 Vásuki is according to some accounts the king of the Nágas or
serpent Gods.

712 Śailúsha, Gramiṇi, Siksha, Suka, Babhru.

713 The distant south beyond the confines of the earth is the home of
departed spirits and the city of Yáma the God of Death.

714 Suráshṭra, the “good country,” is the modern Sura

715 A country north-west of Afghanistan, Baíkh.

716 The Moon-mountain here is mythical.

717 Sindhu is the Indus.

718 Páriyátra, or as more usually written Páripátra, is the central or
western portion of the Vindhya chain which skirts the province of
Malwa.

719 Vajra means both diamond and thunderbolt, the two substances being
supposed to be identical.

720 Chakraván means the discus-bearer.

721 The discus is the favourite weapon of Vishṇu.

722 The Indian Hephaistos or Vulcan.

723 Panchajan was a demon who lived in the sea in the form of a conch
shell. WILSON’S _Vishṇu Puráṇa_, V. 21.

724 Hayagríva, Horse-necked, is the name of a Daitya who at the
dissolution of the universe caused by Brahmá’s sleep, seized and
carried off the Vedas. Vishṇu slew him and recovered the sacred
treasures.

725 Meru stands in the centre of Jambudwípa and consequently of the
earth. “The sun travels round the world, keeping Meru always on his
right. To the spectator who fronts him, therefore, as he rises Meru
must be always on the north; and as the sun’s rays do not penetrate
beyond the centre of the mountain, the regions beyond, or to the
north of it must be in darkness, whilst those on the south of it
must be in light: north and south being relative, not absolute,
terms, depending on the position of the spectator with regard to the
Sun and Meru.” WILSON’S _Vishṇu Puráṇa_, Vol. II. p. 243. Note.

726 The Viśvadevas are a class of deities to whom sacrifices should be
daily offered, as part of the ordinary worship of the householder.
According to the _Váyu Puráṇa_, this is a privilege conferred on
them by Brahmá and the Pitris as a reward for religious austerities
practised by them upon Himálaya.

727 The eight Vasus were originally personifications like other Vedic
deities, of natural phenomena, such as Fire, Wind, &c. Their
appellations are variously given by different authorities.

728 The Maruts or Storm-Gods, frequently addressed and worshipped as the
attendants and allies of Indra.

729 The mountain behind which the sun sets.

730 One of the oldest and mightiest of the Vedic deities; in later
mythology regarded as the God of the sea.

731 The knotted noose with which he seizes and punishes transgressors.

732 Sávarṇi is a Manu, offspring of the Sun by Chháyá.

733 The poet has not said who the sons of Yáma are.

734 The Lodhra or Lodh (Symplocos Racemosa) and the Devadáru or Deodar
are well known trees.

735 The hills mentioned are not identifiable. Soma means the Moon. Kála,
black; Sudaraśan, fair to see; and Devasakhá friend of the Gods.

736 The God of Wealth.

737 The nymphs of Paradise.

738 Kuvera the son of Viśravas.

739 A class of demigods who, like the Yakshas, are the attendants of
Kuvera, and the guardians of his treasures.

740 Situated in the eastern part of the Himálaya chain, on the north of
Assam. The mountain was torn asunder and the pass formed by the
War-God Kártikeya and Paraśuráma.

741 “The Uttara Kurus, it should be remarked, may have been a real
people, as they are mentioned in the Aitareya Bráhmaṇa, VIII. 14.…
Wherefore the several nations who dwell in this northern quarter,
beyond the Himavat, the Uttara Kurus and the Uttara Madras are
consecrated to glorious dominion, and people term them the glorious.
In another passage of the same work, however, the Uttara Kurus are
treated as belonging to the domain of mythology.” MUIR’S _Sanskrit
Texts_. Vol. I. p. 494. See ADDITIONAL NOTES.

742 The Moon-mountain.

743 The Rudras are the same as the storm winds, more usually called
Maruts, and are often associated with Indra. In the later mythology
the Rudras are regarded as inferior manifestations of Śiva, and most
of their names are also names of Śiva.

744 Canto IX.

745 Udayagiri or the hill from which the sun rises.

746 Asta is the mountain behind which the sun sets.

747 Himálaya, the Hills of Snow.

748 Canto XI.

749 Hanumán was the leader of the army of the south which was under the
nominal command of Angad the heir apparent.

750 The Bengal recension—Gorresio’s edition—calls this Asur or demon the
son of Márícha.

751 The skin of the black antelope was the ascetic’s proper garb.

752 Uśanas is the name of a sage mentioned in the Vedas. In the epic
poems he is identified with Śukra, the regent of the planet Venus,
and described as the preceptor of the Asuras or Daityas, and
possessor of vast knowledge.

753 Hemá is one of the nymphs of Paradise.

754 Merusávarṇi is a general name for the last four of the fourteen
Manus.

755 Svayamprabhá, the “self-luminous,” is according to DE GUBERNATIS the
moon: “In the _Svayamprabhá_ too, we meet with the moon as a good
fairy who, from the golden palace which she reserves for her friend
Hemá (the golden one:) is during a month the guide, in the vast
cavern of Hanumant and his companions, who have lost their way in
the search of the dawn Sítá.” This is is not quite accurate: Hanumán
and his companions wander for a month in the cavern without a guide,
and then Svayamprabhá leads them out.

756 Purandara, the destroyer of cities; the cities being the clouds
which the God of the firmament bursts open with his thunderbolts, to
release the waters imprisoned in these fortresses of the demons of
drought.

757 Perceived that Angad had secured, through the love of the Vánars,
the reversion of Sugríva’s kingdom; or, as another commentator
explains it, perceived that Angad had obtained a new kingdom in the
enchanted cave which the Vánars, through love of him, would consent
to occupy.

758 Vṛihaspati, Lord of Speech, the Preceptor of the Gods.

759 Śukra is the regent of the planet Venus, and the preceptor of the
Daityas.

760 The name of various kinds of grass used at sacrificial ceremonies,
especially, of the Kuśa grass, Poa cynosuroides, which was used to
strew the ground in preparing for a sacrifice, the officiating
Brahmans being purified by sitting on it.

761 Sampáti is the eldest son of the celebrated Garuḍa the king of
birds.

762 Vivasvat or the Sun is the father of Yáma the God of Death.

763 Book III, Canto LI.

764 Daśaratha’s rash oath and fatal promise to his wife Kaikeyí.

765 Vritra, “the coverer, hider, obstructer (of rain)” is the name of
the Vedic personification of an imaginary malignant influence or
demon of darkness and drought supposed to take possession of the
clouds, causing them to obstruct the clearness of the sky and keep
back the waters. Indra is represented as battling with this evil
influence, and the pent-up clouds being practically represented as
mountains or castles are shattered by his thunderbolt and made to
open their receptacles.

766 Frequent mention has been made of the three steps of Vishṇu
typifying the rising, culmination, and setting of the sun.

767 For the _Churning of the Sea_, see Book I, Canto XLV.

768 Kuvera, the God of Wealth.

769 The architect of the gods.

770 Garuḍa, son of Vinatá, the sovereign of the birds.

771 “The well winged one,” Garuḍa.

772 The god of the sea.

773 Mahendra is chain of mountains generally identified with part of the
Gháts of the Peninsula.

774 Mátariśva is identified with Váyu, the wind.

775 Of course not equal to the whole earth, says the Commentator, but
equal to Janasthán.

776 This appears to be the Indian form of the stories of Phaethon and
Dædalus and Icarus.

777 According to the promise, given him by Brahmá. See Book I, Canto
XIV.

778 In the Bengal recension the fourth Book ends here, the remaining
Cantos being placed in the fifth.

779 Each chief comes forward and says how far he can leap. Gaja says he
can leap ten yojans. Gavaksha can leap twenty. Gavaya thirty, and so
on up to ninety.

780 Prahláda, the son of Hiraṇyakaśipu, was a pious Datya remarkable for
his devotion to Vishṇu, and was on this account persecuted by his
father.

781 The Bengal recension calls him Aríshṭanemi’s brother. “The
commentator says ‘Aríshṭanemi is Aruṇa.’ Aruṇa the charioteer of the
sun is the son of Kaśyapa and Vinatá and by consequence brother of
Garuḍa, called Vainateya from Vinatá, his mother.” GORRESSIO.

782 A nymph of Paradise.

783 Hanu or Hanú means jaw. Hanumán or Hanúmán means properly one with a
large jaw.

784 Vishṇu, the God of the Three Steps.

785 Náráyaṇ, “He who moved upon the waters,” is Vishnu. The allusion is
to the famous three steps of that God.

786 The Milky Way.

787 This Book is called Sundar or the Beatiful. To a European taste it
is the most intolerably tedious of the whole poem, abounding in
repetition, overloaded description, and long and useless speeches
which impede the action of the poem. Manifest interpolations of
whole Cantos also occur. I have omitted none of the action of the
Book, but have occasionally omitted long passages of common-place
description, lamentation, and long stories which have been again and
again repeated.

788 Brahmá the Self-Existent.

789 Maináka was the son of Himálaya and Mená or Menaká.

790 Thus Milton makes the hills of heaven self-moving at command:

“At his command the uprooted hills retired
Each to his place, they heard his voice and went
Obsequious”

791 The spirit of the mountain is separable from the mountain. Himalaya
has also been represented as standing in human form on one of his
own peaks.

792 Ságar or the Sea is said to have derived its name from Sagar. The
story is fully told in Book I, Cantos XLII, XLIII, and XLIV.

793 Kritu is the first of the four ages of the world, the golden age,
also called Satya.

_ 794 Parvata_ means a mountain and in the Vedas a cloud. Hence in later
mythology the mountains have taken the place of the clouds as the
objects of the attacks of Indra the Sun-God. The feathered king is
Garuḍa.

795 “The children of Surasá were a thousand mighty many-headed serpents,
traversing the sky.” WILSON’S _Vishṇu Puráṇa_, Vol. II. p. 73.

796 She means, says the Commentator, pursue thy journey if thou can.

797 If Milton’s spirits are allowed the power of infinite self-extension
and compression the same must be conceded to Válmíki’s supernatural
beings. Given the power as in Milton the result in Válmíki is
perfectly consistent.

798 “Daksha is the son of Brahmá and one of the Prajápatis or divine
progenitors. He had sixty daughters, twenty-seven of whom married to
Kaśyapa produced, according to one of the Indian cosmogonies, all
mundane beings. Does the epithet, Descendant of Daksha, given to
Surasá, mean that she is one of those daughters? I think not. This
epithet is perhaps an appellation common to all created beings as
having sprung from Daksha.” GORRESSIO.

799 Sinhiká is the mother of Ráhu the dragon’s head or ascending node,
the chief agent in eclipses.

800 According to De Gubernatis, the author of the very learned,
ingenious, and interesting though too fanciful _Zoological
Mythology_. Hanumán here represents the sun entering into and
escaping from a cloud. The biblical Jonah, according to him,
typifies the same phenomenon. Sá’dí, speaking of sunset, says _Yùnas
andar-i-dihán-imáhi shud_: Jonas was within the fish’s mouth. See
ADDITIONAL NOTES.

801 The Buchanania Latifolia.

802 The Bauhinia Variegata.

803 Through the power that Rávaṇ’s stern mortifications had won for him
his trees bore flowers and fruit simultaneously.

804 Viśvakarmá is the architect of the Gods.

805 So in Paradise Lost Satan when he has stealthily entered the garden
of Eden assumes the form of a cormorant.

806 Priests who fought only with the weapons of religion, the sacred
grass used like the verbena of the Romans at sacred rites and the
consecrated fire to consume the offering of ghee.

807 One of the Rákshas lords.

808 The brother Rávaṇ.

809 Indra’s elephant.

810 Rávaṇ’s palace appears to have occupied the whole extent of ground,
and to have contained within its outer walls the mansions of all the
great Rákshas chiefs. Rávaṇ’s own dwelling seems to have been
situated within the enchanted chariot Pushpak: but the description
is involved and confused, and it is difficult to say whether the
chariot was inside the palace or the palace inside the chariot.

811 Pushpak from _pushpa_ a flower. The car has been mentioned before in
Rávaṇ’s expedition to carry off Sítá, Book III, Canto XXXV.

812 Lakshmí is the wife of Vishṇu and the Goddess of Beauty and
Felicity. She rose, like Aphrodite, from the foam of the sea. For an
account of her birth and beauty, see Book I, Canto XLV.

813 Viśvakarmá is the architect of the Gods, the Hephaestos or Mulciber
of the Indian heaven.

814 Rávaṇ in the resistless power which his long austerities had endowed
him with, had conquered his brother Kuvera the God of Gold and taken
from him his greatest treasure this enchanted car.

815 Like Milton’s heavenly car, “Itself instinct with spirit.”

816 Women, says Válmíki. But the Commentator says that automatic figures
only are meant. Women would have seen Hanumán and given the alarm.

817 Rávaṇ had fought against Indra and the Gods, and his body was still
scarred by the wounds inflicted by the tusks of Indra’s elephant and
by the fiery bolts of the Thunderer.

818 The Vasus are a class of eight deities, originally personifications
of natural phenomena.

819 The Maruts are the winds or Storm-Gods.

820 The Ádityas originally seven deities of the heavenly sphere of whom
Varuṇa is the chief. The name Áditya was afterwards given to any
God, specially to Súrya the Sun.

821 The Aśvins are the Heavenly Twins, the Castor and Pollux of the
Hindus.

822 The poet forgets that Hanumán has reduced himself to the size of a
cat.

823 Sítá “not of woman born,” was found by King Janak as he was turning
up the ground in preparation for a sacrifice. See Book II, Canto
CXVIII.

824 The six _Angas_ or subordinate branches of the Vedas are 1.
_Sikshá_, the science of proper articulation and pronunciation: 2.
_Chhandas_, metre: 3. _Vyákarana_, linguistic analysis or grammar:
4. _Nirukta_, explanation of difficult Vedic words: 5. _Jyotishṭom_,
Astronomy, or rather the Vedic Calendar: 6. _Kalpa_, ceremonial.

825 There appears to be some confusion of time here. It was already
morning when Hanumán entered the grove, and the torches would be
needless.

826 Rávaṇ is one of those beings who can “climb them as they will,” and
can of course assume the loveliest form to please human eyes as well
as the terrific shape that suits the king of the Rákshases.

827 White and lovely as the Arant or nectar recovered from the depths of
the Milky Sea when churned by the assembled Gods. See Book I, Canto
XLV.

828 Rávaṇ in his magic car carrying off the most beautiful women reminds
us of the magician in _Orlando Furioso_, possesor of the flying
horse.

“Volando talor s’alza ne le stelle,
E poi quasi talor la terra rade;
E ne porta con lui tutte le belle
Donne che trova per quelle contrade.”