The Sanskrit Epics, page 150
242
“Ambarísha is the twenty-ninth in descent from Ikshváku, and is therefore separated by an immense space of time from Triśanku in whose story Viśvámitra had played so important a part. Yet Richíka, who is represented as having young sons while Ambarísha was yet reigning being himself the son of Bhrigu and to be numbered with the most ancient sages, is said to have married the younger sister of Viśvámitra. But I need not again remark that there is a perpetual anachronism in Indian mythology.” Schlegel..
“In the mythical story related in this and the following Canto we may discover, I think, some indication of the epoch at which the immolation of lower animals was substituted for human sacrifice.… So when Iphigenia was about to be sacrificed at Aulis, one legend tells us that a hind was substituted for the virgin.” Gorresio.
So the ram caught in the thicket took the place of Isaac, or, as the Musalmáns say, of Ishmael.
243
The Indian Cupid.
244
“The same as she whose praises Viśvámitra has already sung in Canto XXXV, and whom the poet brings yet alive upon the scene in Canto LXI. Her proper name was Satyavatí (Truthful); the patronymic, Kauśikí was preserved by the river into which she is said to have been changed, and is still recognized in the corrupted forms Kuśa and Kuśí. The river flows from the heights of the Himálaya towards the Ganges, bounding on the east the country of Videha (Behar). The name is no doubt half hidden in the Cosoagus of Pliny and the Kossounos of Arrian. But each author has fallen into the same error in his enumeration of these rivers (Condochatem, Erannoboam, Cosoagum, Sonum). The Erannoboas, (Hiraṇyaváha) and the Sone are not different streams, but well-known names of the same river. Moreover the order is disturbed, in which on the right and left they fall into the Ganges. To be consistent with geography it should be written: Erannoboam sive Sonum, Condochatem (Gandakí), Cosoagum.” Schlegel.
245
“Daksha was one of the ancient Progenitors or Prajápatis created by Brahmá. The sacrifice which is here spoken of and in which Śankar or Śiva (called also here Rudra and Bhava) smote the Gods because he had not been invited to share the sacred oblations with them, seems to refer to the origin of the worship of Śiva, to its increase and to the struggle it maintained with other older forms of worship.” Gorresio.
246
Sítá means a furrow.
“Great Erectheus swayed,
That owed his nurture to the blue-eyed maid,
But from the teeming furrow took his birth,
The mighty offspring of the foodful earth.”
Iliad, Book II.
247
“The whole story of Sítá, as will be seen in the course of the poem has a great analogy with the ancient myth of Proserpine.” Gorresio.
248
A different lady from the Goddess of the Jumna who bears the same name.
249
This is another fanciful derivation, Sa — with, and gara — poison.
250
Purushádak means a cannibal. First called Kalmáshapáda on account of his spotted feet he is said to have been turned into a cannibal for killing the son of Vaśishṭha.
251
“In the setting forth of these royal genealogies the Bengal recension varies but slightly from the Northern. The first six names of the genealogy of the Kings of Ayodhyá are partly theogonical and partly cosmogonical; the other names are no doubt in accordance with tradition and deserve the same amount of credence as the ancient traditional genealogies of other nations.” Gorresio.
252
The tenth of the lunar asterisms, composed of five stars.
253
There are two lunar asterisms of this name, one following the other immediately, forming the eleventh and twelfth of the lunar mansions.
254
This is another Ráma, son of Jamadagni, called Paraśuráma, or Ráma with the axe, from the weapon which he carried. He was while he lived the terror of the Warrior caste, and his name recalls long and fierce struggles between the sacerdotal and military order in which the latter suffered severely at the hands of their implacable enemy.
255
“The author of the Raghuvaṅśa places the mountain Mahendra in the territory of the king of the Kalingans, whose palace commanded a view of the ocean. It is well known that the country along the coast to the south of the mouths of the Ganges was the seat of this people. Hence it may be suspected that this Mahendra is what Pliny calls ‘promontorium Calingon.’ The modern name, Cape Palmyras, from the palmyras Borassus flabelliformis, which abound there agrees remarkably with the description of the poet who speaks of the groves of these trees. Raghuvaṅśa, VI. 51.” Schlegel.
256
Śiva.
257
Siva. God of the Azure Neck.
258
Śatrughna means slayer of foes, and the word is repeated as an intensive epithet.
259
Alluding to the images of Vishṇu, which have four arms, the four princes being portions of the substance of that God.
260
Chief of the insignia of imperial dignity.
261
Whisks, usually made of the long tails of the Yak.
262
Chitraratha, King of the Gandharvas.
263
The Chandrakánta or Moonstone, a sort of crystal supposed to be composed of congealed moonbeams.
264
A customary mark of respect to a superior.
265
Ráhu, the ascending node, is in mythology a demon with the tail of a dragon whose head was severed from his body by Vishṇu, but being immortal, the head and tail retained their separate existence and being transferred to the stellar sphere became the authors of eclipses; the first especially by endeavouring to swallow the sun and moon.
266
In eclipse.
267
The seventh of the lunar asterisms.
268
Kauśalyá and Sumitrá.
269
A king of the Lunar race, and father of Yayáti.
270
Literally the chamber of wrath, a “growlery,” a small, dark, unfurnished room to which it seems, the wives and ladies of the king betook themselves when offended and sulky.
271
In these four lines I do not translate faithfully, and I do not venture to follow Kaikeyí farther in her eulogy of the hump-back’s charms.
272
These verses are evidently an interpolation. They contain nothing that has not been already related: the words only are altered. As the whole poem could not be recited at once, the rhapsodists at the beginning of a fresh recitation would naturally remind their hearers of the events immediately preceding.
273
The śloka or distich which I have been forced to expand into these nine lines is evidently spurious, but is found in all the commented MSS. which Schlegel consulted.
274
Manmatha, Mind-disturber, a name of Káma or Love.
275
This story is told in the Mahábhárat. A free version of it may be found in Scenes from the Rámáyan, etc.
276
Only the highest merit obtains a home in heaven for ever. Minor degrees of merit procure only leases of heavenly mansions terminable after periods proportioned to the fund which buys them. King Yayáti went to heaven and when his term expired was unceremoniously ejected, and thrown down to earth.
277
See Additional Notes, The Suppliant Dove.
278
Indra, called also Purandara, Town-destroyer.
279
Indra’s charioteer.
280
The elephant of Indra.
281
A star in the spike of Virgo: hence the name of the mouth Chaitra or Chait.
282
The Rain-God.
283
In a former life.
284
One of the lunar asterisms, represented as the favourite wife of the Moon. See p. 4, note.
285
The Sea.
286
The Moon.
287
The comparison may to a European reader seem a homely one. But Spenser likens an infuriate woman to a cow “That is berobbed of her youngling dere.” Shakspeare also makes King Henry VI compare himself to the calf’s mother that “Runs lowing up and down, Looking the way her harmless young one went.” “Cows,” says De Quincey, “are amongst the gentlest of breathing creatures; none show more passionate tenderness to their young, when deprived of them, and, in short, I am not ashamed to profess a deep love for these gentle creatures.”
288
The commentators say that, in a former creation, Ocean grieved his mother and suffered in consequence the pains of hell.
289
As described in Book I Canto XL.
290
Parasúráma.
291
The Sanskrit word hasta signifies both hand, and the trunk of “The beast that bears between his eyes a serpent for a head.”
292
See P. 41.
293
The first progeny of Brahmá or Brahmá himself.
294
These are three names of the Sun.
295
See P. 1.
296
The saints who form the constellation of Ursa Major.
297
The regent of the planet Venus.
298
Kuvera.
299
Bali, or the presentation of food to all created beings, is one of the five great sacraments of the Hindu religion: it consists in throwing a small parcel of the offering, Ghee, or rice, or the like, into the open air at the back of the house.
300
In mythology, a demon slain by Indra.
301
Called also Garuḍ, the King of the birds, offspring of Vinatá. See p. 53.
302
See P. 56.
303
See P. 43.
304
The story of Sávitrí, told in the Mahábhárat, has been admirably translated by Rückert, and elegantly epitomized by Mrs. Manning in India, Ancient and Mediæval. There is a free rendering of the story in Idylls from the Sanskrit.
305
Fire for sacrificial purposes is produced by the attrition of two pieces of wood.
306
Kaikeyí.
307
The chapel where the sacred fire used in worship is kept.
308
The students and teachers of the Taittiríya portion of the Yajur Veda.
309
Two of the divine personages called Prajápatis and Brahmádikas who were first created by Brahmá.
310
It was the custom of the kings of the solar dynasty to resign in their extreme old age the kingdom to the heir, and spend the remainder of their days in holy meditation in the forest:
“For such through ages in their life’s decline
Is the good custom of Ikshváku’s line.”
Raghuraṅśa.
311
See Book I, Canto XXXIX. An Indian prince in more modern times appears to have diverted himself in a similar way.
It is still reported in Belgaum that Appay Deasy was wont to amuse himself “by making several young and beautiful women stand side by side on a narrow balcony, without a parapet, overhanging the deep reservoir at the new palace in Nipani. He used then to pass along the line of trembling creatures, and suddenly thrusting one of them headlong into the water below, he used to watch her drowning, and derive pleasure from her dying agonies.” — History of the Belgaum District. By H. J. Stokes, M. S. C.
312
Chitraratha, King of the celestial choristers.
313
It is said that the bamboo dies after flowering.
314
“Thirty centuries have passed since he began this memorable journey. Every step of it is known and is annually traversed by thousands: hero worship is not extinct. What can Faith do! How strong are the ties of religion when entwined with the legends of a country! How many a cart creeps creaking and weary along the road from Ayodhyá to Chitrakúṭ. It is this that gives the Rámáyan a strange interest, the story still lives.” Calcutta Review: Vol. XXIII.
315
See p. 72.
316
Four stars of the sixteenth lunar asterism.
317
In the marriage service.
318
The husks and chaff of the rice offered to the Gods.
319
An important sacrifice at which seventeen victims were immolated.
320
The great pilgrimage to the Himálayas, in order to die there.
321
Known to Europeans as the Goomtee.
322
A tree, commonly called Ingua.
323
Sacrificial posts to which the victims were tied.
324
Daughter of Jahnu, a name of the Ganges. See p. 55.
325
The Mainá or Gracula religiosa, a favourite cage-bird, easily taught to talk.
326
The Jumna.
327
The Hindu name of Allahabad.
328
The Langúr is a large monkey.
329
A mountain said to lie to the east of Meru.
330
Another name of the Jumna, daughter of the Sun.
331
“We have often looked on that green hill: it is the holiest spot of that sect of the Hindu faith who devote themselves to this incarnation of Vishṇu. The whole neighbourhood is Ráma’s country. Every headland has some legend, every cavern is connected with his name; some of the wild fruits are still called Sítáphal, being the reputed food of the exile. Thousands and thousands annually visit the spot, and round the hill is a raised foot-path, on which the devotee, with naked feet, treads full of pious awe.” Calcutta Review, Vol. XXIII.
332
Deities of a particular class in which five or ten are enumerated. They are worshipped particularly at the funeral obsequies in honour of deceased progenitors.
333
“So in Homer the horses of Achilles lamented with many bitter tears the death of Patroclus slain by Hector:”
“Ἵπποι δ’ Αἰακίδαο, μάχης ἀπάνευθεν ἐότες,
Κλᾶιον, ἐπειδὴ πρῶτα πυθέσθην ἡνιόχοιο
Ἐν κονίνσι πεσόντος ὑφ’ Ἕκτορος ἀνδροφόνοιο”
Iliad. XVII. 426.
“Ancient poesy frequently associated nature with the joys and sorrows of man.” Gorresio.
334
The lines containing this heap of forced metaphors are marked as spurious by Schlegel.
335
The southern region is the abode of Yama the Indian Pluto, and of departed spirits.
336
The five elements of which the body consists, and to which it returns.
337
So dying York cries over the body of Suffolk:
“Tarry, dear cousin Suffolk!
My soul shall thine keep company to heaven:
Tarry, sweet soul, for mine, then fly abreast.”
King Henry V, Act IV, 6.
338
Kauśalyá, daughter of the king of another Kośal.
339
Rájagriha, or Girivraja was the capital of Aśvapati, Bharat’s maternal grandfather.
340
The Kekayas or Kaikayas in the Punjab appear amongst the chief nations in the war of the Mahábhárata; their king being a kinsman of Krishṇa.
341
Hástinapura was the capital of the kingdom of Kuru, near the modern Delhi.
342
The Panchálas occupied the upper part of the Doab.
343
“Kurujángala and its inhabitants are frequently mentioned in the Mahábhárata, as in the Ádi-parv. 3789, 4337, et al.” Wilson’s Vishṇu Puráṇa, Vol. II. p. 176. Dr. Hall’s Note.
344
“The Ὁξύματις of Arrian. See As. Res. Vol. XV. p. 420, 421, also Indische Alterthumskunde, Vol. I. p. 602, first footnote.” Wilson’s Vishṇu Puráṇa, Vol. I. p. 421. Dr. Hall’s Edition. The Ikshumatí was a river in Kurukshetra.
345
“The Báhíkas are described in the Mahábhárata, Karṇa Parvan, with some detail, and comprehend the different nations of the Punjab from the Sutlej to the Indus.” Wilson’s Vishṇu Puráṇa, Vol. I. p. 167.
346
The Beas, Hyphasis, or Bibasis.
347
It would be lost labour to attempt to verify all the towns and streams mentioned in Cantos LXVIII and LXXII. Professor Wilson observes (Vishṇu Puráṇa, p. 139. Dr. Hall’s Edition) “States, and tribes, and cities have disappeared, even from recollection; and some of the natural features of the country, especially the rivers, have undergone a total alteration.… Notwithstanding these impediments, however, we should be able to identify at least mountains and rivers, to a much greater extent than is now practicable, if our maps were not so miserably defective in their nomenclature. None of our surveyors or geographers have been oriental scholars. It may be doubted if any of them have been conversant with the spoken language of the country. They have, consequently, put down names at random, according to their own inaccurate appreciation of sounds carelessly, vulgarly, and corruptly uttered; and their maps of India are crowded with appellations which bear no similitude whatever either to past or present denominations. We need not wonder that we cannot discover Sanskrit names in English maps, when, in the immediate vicinity of Calcutta, Barnagore represents Baráhanagar, Dakshineśwar is metamorphosed into Duckinsore, Ulubaría into Willoughbury.… There is scarcely a name in our Indian maps that does not afford proof of extreme indifference to accuracy in nomenclature, and of an incorrectness in estimating sounds, which is, in some degree, perhaps, a national defect.”
For further information regarding the road from Ayodhyá to Rájagriha, see Additional Notes.
348
“The Śatadrú, ‘the hundred-channeled’ — the Zaradrus of Ptolemy, Hesydrus of Pliny — is the Sutlej.” Wilson’s Vishṇu Puráṇa, Vol. II. p. 130.
349
The Sarasvatí or Sursooty is a tributary of the Caggar or Guggur in Sirhind.
