The Sanskrit Epics, page 149
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.
