NARAD.* To sainted Narad, prince of those Whose lore in words of wisdom flosvs, Whose constant care and chief delight Were Scripture and ascetic rite, The good Valmiki, first and best 1 Comparison with the Ganges is implied, that river being called the purifier of the world.
2 'This name may have been given to the father of Valmiki allegorically. If we look at the derivation of the word (pra, before, and chetas, mind) it is as if the poet were called the son of Prometheus, the Forethinker.' SCHLEQEL.
3 Called in Sanskrit also Bdla-Kdnda, and in Hindi Bdl-Kdnd, i. e. the Book describing Rama's childhood, bdla mean- ing a boy up to his sixteenth year.
4 A divine saint, son of Brahma. He is the eloquent messenger of the Gods, a musician of exquisite skill, and the in- ventor of the vind or Indian lute. He bears a strong resemblance to Hermes or Mercury.
3 This mystic syllable, said to typify the supreme Deity, the Gods collectively, the Vedas, the three spheres of the world, the three holy fires, the three steps of Vishnu etc., prefaces the prayers and most venerated writings of the Hindus.
TIIE RAM AY AN.
Hook 1.
Of hcnr.it sa'"nta, these words addressed:1 * In a:i tlii.s -.vor'id, 1 pray tiiee, wiio Js virtuous, heroic, true? Firm in his vows, of grateful mind, To every creature good and kind? Bounteous, and holy, just, and wise, Alone most fair to all men's eyes? Devoid of envy, firm, and sage, Whose tranquil soul ne'er yields to rage? "Whom, when his warrior wrath is high, Do Gods embattled fear and fly? Whose noble might and gentle skill The triple world can guard from ill T Who is the best of princes, he Who loves his people's good to see? The store of bliss, the living mine Where brightest joys and virtues shine? Queen Fortune's" best and dearest friend, Whose steps her choicest gifts attend? Who may with Sun and Moon compare, With Indra,3 Vishnu,* Fire, and Air? Grant, Saint divine',5 the boon I ask, For thee, I ween, an easy task, To whom the power is given to know If such a man breathe here below.'
1 This colloquy is supposed to have taken place about sixteen years after Kama's return from his wanderings and occupation of his ancestral throne.
2 Called also £ri and Lakshmi, the consort of Vishnu, the Queen of Beauty as well as the Dea Fortuna. Her birth 'from the full-flushed wave' is described in Canto XLV of this Book.
3 One of the most prominent objects of worship in the Rig-veda, Indra was super- seded in later times by the more popular deities Vishnu and £iva. He is the God of the firmament, and answers in many respects to the Jupiter Pluvius of the Romans. See Additional Notes.
4 The second God of the Trimurti or Indian Trinity. Derived from the root vis to penetrate, the meaning of the name appears to be he who penetrates or pervades all things. An embodiment of the preserv- ing power of nature, he is worshipped as a Saviour who has nine times been in- carnate for the good of the world and will descend on earth once more. See Additional Notes and Muir's Sanskrit Texts passim.
5 In Sanskrit devarshi. Rishi is the general appellation of sages, and another word is frequently prefixed to distinguish the degrees. A Brahmarshi is a theolo- gian or Brahmanical sage; a Rajarshi is a royal sage or sainted king; a Devarshi is a divine or deified sage or saint.
Then Narad, clear before wh ose eye The present, past, and future lie,1 Made ready answer: * Hen nit, where Are graces found BO high and rare? Vet listen, and my tongue shall tell In whom alone these virtues dwell. From old Ikshvaku's* line he came, Known to the world by Kama's name: With soul subdued, a chief of might, In Scripture versed, in glory bright. His steps in virtue's paths are bent, Obedient, pure, and eloquent. In each emprise he wins success, And dying foes his power confess. Tall and broad-shouldered, strong of limb, Fortune has set her mark on him. Graced with a conch -shell's triple line, His throat displays the auspicious sign.3 1 TrlMlajha. Literally knower of the three times. Both Schlegel and Gorresio quote Homer's.
r? ra r ra T Trpo r ovra.
* That sacred seer, whose comprehensive view The past, the present, and the future knew.
The Bombay edition reads trilokajna, who knows the three worlds (earth, air and heaven.) * It is by tapas (austere fervour) that rishis of subdued souls, subsisting on roots, fruits and air, obtain a vision of the three worlds with all things moving and stationary.' MANU, XI. 236.
2 Son of Manu, the first king of Kosala and founder of the solar dynasty or family of the Children of the Sun, the God of that luminary being the father of Manu.
3 The Indians paid great attention to the art of physiognomy and believed that character and fortune could be foretold not from the face only but from marks upon the neck and hands. Three lines under the chin like those at the mouth of a conch (Sankha) were regarded as a peculiarly auspicious sign indicating, as did also the mark of Vishnu's discus on the hand, one born to be a chakravartin or universal emperor. In the palmistry of Europe the line of fortune, as well as the line of life, is in the hand. Cardan says that marks on the nails and teeth also show what is to happen to us: 'Sunt etiam in nobis vestigia quaedam futurorum eventuum in unguibus atque etiam in den- tibus.' Though the palmy days of Indian chiromancy have passed away, the art is still to some extent studied and be- lieved in, Canto THE RAM AY AN.
High destiny is clear impressed On massive jaw and ample chest, His mighty shafts he truly aims, And foymen in the battle tames.
Deep in the muscle, scarcely shown, Embedded lies his collar-bone.
His lordly steps are linn and free, His strong arms reach below his knee:l All fairest graces join to deck His head, his brow, his stately neck, And limbs in fair proportion set: The manliest form e'er fashioned yet.
Graced with each high imperial mark, His skin is soft and lustrous dark.
Large are his eyes that sweetly shine With majesty almost divine.
His plighted word he ne'er forgets; On erring sense a watch he sets.
By nature wise, his teacher's skill Has trained him to subdue his will.
Good, resolute and pure, and strong, He guards mankind from scathe and wrong, And lends his aid, and ne'er in vain, The cause of justice to maintain.
Well has he studied o'er and o'er The Vedas* and their kindred lore.
1 Long arms were regarded as a sign of heroic strength.
2 ' Veda means originally knowing or knowledge, and this name is given by the Brahman* not to one work, but to the whole body of their most ancient sacred literature. Veda is the same word which appears in the Greek olSa, I know, and in the English wise, wisdom, to wit. The name of Veda is commonly given to four collections of hymns, which are respec- tively known by the names of Rig-veda, Yajiir-veda, Sama-veda, and Atharva- veda.'
4 As the language of the Veda, the Sans- krit, is the most ancient type of the Eng- lish of the present day, (Sanskrit and English are but varieties of one and the same language,) so its thoughts and feel- ings contain in reality the first roots and germs of that intellectual growth which by an unbroken chain connects our own generation with the ancestors of the Aryan race, — with those very people who at the rising and setting of the sun listened with trembling hearts to the songs of the Veda, that told them of bright powers above, and of a life to come after the sun of their own lives had set in the clouds of the evening. These men were the true ancestors of our race, and the Veda is the oldest book we have in which to study the tirst beginning; of our language, and of all that is em- bodied in language, We are by nature Well skilled is he the bow to draw,1 Well trained in arts and versed in law; High-souled and meet for happy fate, Most tender and compassionate; The noblest of all lordly givers, Whom good men follow, as the rivers Follow the King of Floods, the sea: So liberal, so just is he. The joy of Queen Kausalya's2 heart, In every virtue he has part: Firm as Himalaya's3 snowy steep, Dnfathomed like the mighty deep; The peer of Vishnu's power and might, And lovely as the Lord of Night;4 Patient as Earth, but, roused to ire, Fierce as the world -destroying fire; In bounty like the Lord of Gold,5 And Justice' self in human mould.
With him, his best and eldest son, By all his princely virtues won King Daaaratha6 willed.to share His kingdom as the Ketrent Heir. But when Kaikeyi, youngest queen, With eyes of envious hate had seen ThM solemn pomp and regal state Prepared the prince to consecrate, She bade the hapless king bestow Two gifts he promised long ago, That Kama to the woods should flee, And that her child the heir should be.
By chains of duty firmly tied, The wretched king perforce complied.
Aryan, Indo-European, not Semitic: our spiritual kith and kin are to be found in India, Persia, Greece, Italy, Germany; not in Mesopotamia, Egypt, or Palestine.'
Chips from a German Workshop.
1 As with the ancient Persians and Scythians, Indian princes were carefully instructed in archery which stands for military science in general, of which, among Hindu heroes, it was the most im- portant branch, 2 Chief of the three queensof Dasaratha and mother of Rama.
3 From him a snow, (Greek Y£t/J-CUV Latin hiems) and dlaya abode; the Man- sion of JSnow.
4 The moon (Soma.lndu, Chandra eta.) is masculine with the Indians as with the Germans.
5 Kuvera, the Indian Plutus, or God of Wealth.
6 The events here briefly mentioned will be related fully in the course of the poem. The first four cantos are introductory, and are evidently the work of a later hand thaii Valiniki's.
THE RAM AY AN.
Boole I Kama, to please Kaikefi went Obedient forth to banishment.
Then Lakshman's truth was nobly shown, Then were his love and courage known, When for his brother's sake he dared All perils, and his exile shared.
And Sita, Kama's darling wife, Loved even as he loved his life, Whom happy marks combined to bless, A miracle of loveliness, Of Janak's royal lineage sprung, Most excellent of women, clung To her dear lord, like Rohini Kejoicing with the Moon to be.1 The King and people, sad of mood, The hero's car awhile pursued.
But when Prince Rama lighted down At Sringavera'a pleasant town, Where Ganga's holy waters flow, He bade his driver turn and go.
Guha, Nishadas' king, he met, And on the farther bank was set.
Then on from wood to wood they strayed, O'er many a stream,through constant shade, As Bharadvtija bade them, till They came to Chitrakuta's hill.
And Rama there, with Lakshman's aid, A pleasant little cottage made, And spent his days with {Sita, dressed 1 'Chandra, or the Moon, is fabled to have been married to the twenty-seven daughters of the patriarch Daksha, or Asvini and the rest, who are in fact personifications of the Lunar Asterisms. His favourite amongst them was Rohini to whom he so wholly devoted himself as to neglect the rest. They complained to their father, and Daksha repeatedly interposed, till, tinding his remonstrances vain, he denounced a curse upon his son-in-law, in consequence of which he remained childless and became affected by consumption. The wives of Chandra having interceded in his behalf with their father, Daksha modified an imprecation which he could not recall, and pronounced that the decay should be periodical only, not permanent, and that it should alternate with periods of recovery. Hence the successive wane and increase of the Moon. Padma Purdna, temarga- lihanda,) Sec. II. Rohini in Astronomy is the fourth lunar mansion, containing live Starr?, the principal of which is Aldebaran.' WILSON, Specimens of the Hindu Theatre. Vol. I. p. 234.
The Bengal recension has a different reading: * Shone with her husband like the light Attendant ou the Lord of.Night.'
In coat of bark and deerskin vest.1 And Chitrakuta grew to be As bright with those illustrious three As Meru's* sacred peaks that shine With glory, when the Gods recline Beneath them: Diva's3 self between The Lord of Gold and Beauty's Queen.
The aged king for Rama pined, And for the skies the earth resigned. Bharat, his son, refused to reign, Though urged by all the twice-born4 train. Forth to the woods he fared to meet His brother, fell before his feet, And cried, ' Thy clain all men allow: O come, our lord and king be thou.' But Kama nobly chose to be Observant of his sire's decree. He placed his sandals5 in his hand A pledge that he would rule the land: And bade his brother turn again. Then Bharat, finding prayer was vain, The sandals took and went away; Nor in Ayodhya would he stay. But turned to Nandigrama. where He ruled the realm with watchful care, Still longing eagerly to learn Tidings of Rama's safe return.
Then lest the people should repeat Their visit to his calm retreat, Away from Chitrakuta's hill Fared Rama ever onward till 'The garb prescribed for ascetics by Manu.
2 'Mount Meru, situated like Kailasa in the lofty regions to the north of the Himalayas, is celebrated in the traditions and myths of India. Meru and Kailasa are the two Indian Olympi. Perhaps they were held in such veneration because the Sanskrit-speaking Indians remembered the ancient home where they dwelt with the other primitive peoples of their family before they descended to occupy the vast plains which extend between the Indus and the Ganges. ' GORRESIO.
3 The third God of the Indian Triad, the God of destruction and reproduction. See Additional i\otes.
4 The epithet dwija, or twice-born, is usually appropriate to B rah mans, but is applicable to the three higher castes. Investiture with the sacred thread and initiation of the neophyte into certain religious mysteries are regarded as his regeneration or second birth.
6 His shoes to be a memorial of the absent heir and to maintain his right. Kalidasa (liaghuvansa, XII. 17.) says that they were to be adhidevate or guardian deitiea of the kingdom.
Canto I.
THE RAMAYAN.
Beneath the shady trees he stood Of Dandaka's primeval wood, Viradha, giant fiend, he slew, And then Agastya's friendship knew. Counselled by him he gained the sword And bow of Indra, heavenly lord: A pair of quivers too, that bore Of arrows an exhaustless store. While there he dwelt in greenwood shade The trembling hermits sought his aid, And bade him with his sword and bow Destroy the tiends who worked them woe: To come like Indra strong and brave, A guardian God to help and save. And Kama's falchion left its trace Deep cut on ^urpanakha's face: A hideous giantess who came Burning for him with lawless flame. Their sister's cries the giants heard. And vengeance in each bosom stirred: The monster of the triple head. And Dushan to the contest sped. But they and myriad fiends beside Beneath the might of Kama died.
When Ravan. dreaded warrior, knew The slaughter of his giant crew: Ravan, the kin°f, whose name of fear Earth, hell, and heaven all shook to hear: He bade the fiend Maricha aid The vengeful plot his fury laid. In vain the wise Maricha tried To turn him from his course aside: Not Ravan's self, he said, might hope With Kama and his strength to cope. Impelled by fate and blind with rage He came to Kama's hermitage. There, by Marie ha' s magic art, He wiled the princely youths apart, The vulture1 slew, and bore away The wife of Rama as his prey. The son of Raghu* came and found Jatayu slain upon the ground. He rushed within his leafy cot; He sought his wife, but found her not. Then, then the hero's senses failed; In mad despair he wept and wailed. Upon the pile that bird he laid, And still in quest of Sita strayed, A hideous giant then he saw, Kabandha named, a shape of awe.
1 Jatayu, a semi -divine bird, the friend of Kama, who fought in defence of Sita.
* Raglm was one of the most celebrated ancestors of Rama whose commonest appellation is, therefore, Kaghava or descendant of Raghu. Kalidasa in the Raghuvahsa makes him the son of Dilipa and great-grandfather of Kama. See Idylh from the 8an*kritt * Aja' and 4 inlipu,' The monstrous fiend he smote and slew, And in the flame the body threw; When straight from out the funeral flame In lovely form Kabandha came, And bade him seek in his distress A wise and holy hermitess.
By counsel of this saintly dame To Tampa's pleasant flood he came, And there the steadfast friendship won Of Hanuman the Wind-God's son.
Counselled by him he told his grief To great Sugriva, Vanar chief, Who, knowing all the tale, before The sacred flame alliance swore.
Sugriva to his new-found friend Told his own story to the end: His hate of Bali for the wrong And insult he had borne so long.
And Rama lent a willing ear And promised to allay his fear.
Sugriva warned him of the might Of Bali, matchless in the fight, And, credence for his tale to gain, Showed the huge fiend1 by Bali slain.
The prostrate corse of mountain size Seemed nothing in the hero's eyes; He lightlv kicked it, as it lay, And cast it twenty leagues2 away.
To prove his might his arrows through Seven palms in line, uninjured, flew.
He cleft a mighty hill apart, And down to hell he hurled his dart.
Then high Sugrjva's spirit rose, Assured of conquest o'er his foes.
With his new champion by his side To vast Kishkindha's cave he hied.
Then, summoned by his awful shout, King Bali came in fury out, First comforted his trembling wife, Then sought Sugriva in the strife.
One shaft from Rama's deadly bow The monarch in the dust laid low.
Then Kama bade Sugriva reign In place of royal Bali slain.
Then speedy envoys hurried forth Eastward and westward, south and north, Commanded by the grateful king Tidings of Rama's spouse to bring.
Then by Sarnpati's counsel led, Brave Hanuman, who mocked at dread, Sprang at one wild tremendous leap Two hundred leagues across the deep, To Lanka's3 town he urged his way, Where Ravan held his royal sway.
1 Dundhubi.
2 Literally ten yojanas. The yojana is a measure of uncertain length variously reckoned as equal to nine miles, five, and a little less.
3 Ceylon.
THE RAM AY AN.
Bool I.
There pensive 'neath Asoka1 boughs He found poor Sita, Kama's spouse.
He gave the hapless girl a ring, A token from, her lord and king, A pledge from her fair hand he bore; Then battered down the garden door.
Five captains of the host he slew, Seven sons of councillors o'erthrew; Crushed youthful Aksha on the field, Then to his captors chose to yield.
Soon from their bonds his limbs were free, But honouring the high decree "Which Brahma2 had pronounced of yore, He calmly all their insults bore, The town he burnt with hostile flame, And spoke again with Kama's dame, Then swiftly back to Kama flew With tidings of the interview.
Then with Sugriva for his guide, Came Kama to the ocean side. He smote tiie sea with shafts as bright As sunbeams in their summer height, And quick appeared the Rivers' King3 Obedient to the summoning. A bridge was thrown by Nala o'er The narrow sea from shore to shore.4 They crossed to Lanka's golden town, Where Kama's hand smote Kavan down. Vibhishan there was left to reign Over his brother's wide domain. To meet her husband Sita came; But Kama, stung with ire and shame, With bitter words his wife addressed Before the crowd that round her pressed. But Sita, touched with noble ire, Gave her fair body to the tire. Then straight the God of Wind appeared, And words from heaven her honour cleared. And Rama clasped his wife again, Uninjured, pure from spot and stain, Obedient to the Lord of Fire And the high mandate of his sire. Led by the Lord who rules the sky, The Gods arid heavenly saints drew nigh, And honoured him with worthy meed, Rejoicing in each glorious deed. His task achieved, his foe removed, 1 The Jonesia Asoka is a most beautiful tree bearing a profusion of red blossoms.
58 Brahma, the Creator, is usually re- garded as tiie first Gool of the Indian' Tri- nity, although, as Kalidasa says: * Of Brahma, Vishnu, $iva, each may be First, second, third, amid the blessed Three.
Brahma had guaranteed Kavan's lift against all enemies except man.
3 Ocean personified.
4 The rocks lying between Ceylon and the mainland are still called Kama'i Bridge by the Hindus, le triumphed, by the Gods approved, ty grace of Heaven he raised to life The chieftains slain in mortal strife; Chen in tiie magic chariot through The clouds to Nandigrama Mew. Met by his faithful brothers there, lie loosed his votive coil of hair: Thence fair Ayodhya's town he gained, And o'er his father's kingdom reigned. Disease or famine ne'er oppressed His happy people, richly blest With all the joys of ample wealth, Of sweet content and perfect health. No widow mourned her well -loved mate, No sire his son's untimely fate. They feared not storm or robber's haud: No lire or flood laid waste the land; The Golden Age1 had come again To bless the days of Kama's reign.
From him, the great and glorious king, Shall many a princely scion spring. And he shall rule, beloved by men, Ten thousand years and hundreds ten,2 And when his life on earth is past To Brahma's world shall go at last.'
Whoe'er this noble poem reads That tells the tale of Kama's deeds, Good as the Scriptures, he shall be From every sin and blemish free. Whoever reads the saving strain, With all his kin the heavens shall gain. Brahmans who read shall gather hence The highest praise for eloquence. The warrior, o'er the land shall reign, The merchant, luck in trade obtain; And ^udras listening3 ne'er shall fail To reap advantage from the tale.4 1 'The Brahmans, with H system rather cosmogonical than chronological, divide the present mundane period into four ages or yngas as they call them: the Krita, the Treta, the Dwapara, and the Kali. The Krita, called also the Deva-yuga or that of the Gods, is the age of truth, the perfect age, the Treta is the age of the three sacred fires, domestic and sacrificial; the Dwapara is the age of doubt; the Kali, the present age, is the age of evil.' GofiRESio.
a The ancient kings of India enjoyed lives of more than patriarchal length as will appear in the course of the poem.
3 £udras, men of the fourth and lowest pure caste, were not allowed to read the poem, but might hear it recited.
4 The three slokes or distichs which these twelve lines represent are evidently a still later and very awkward addition to the introduction.
Canto II.
THE RAM AY AN.
CANTO II.
BRAHMA'S VISIT.
Vafmiki, graceful speaker, heard, To highest admiration stirred.
To him whose fame the tale rehearsed He paid his mental worship first; Then with his pupil humbly bent Before the saint most eloquent.
Thus honoured and dismissed the seer Departed to his heavenly sphere.
Then from his cot Valmiki hied 'To TamasaV sequestered side.
Not far remote from Ganga's tide.
He stood and saw the ripples roll Pellucid o'er a pebbly shoal.
To Bharadvaja* by his side He turned in ecstasy, and cried: 'See, pupil dear, this lovely sight, The smooth- floored shallow,pure and bright With not a speck or shade to mar, And clear as good men's bosoms are.
Here on the brink thy pitcher lay, And bring my zone of bark, I pray.
Here will I bathe: the rill has not, To lave the limbs, a fairer spot.
Do quickly as I bid, nor waste The precious time; away, and haste,' Obedient to his master's hest Quick from the cot he brought the vest; The hermit took it from his hand, And tightened round his waist the band; Then duly dipped and bathed him there, And muttered low his secret prayer. To spirits and to Gods he made Libation of the stream, and strayed Viewing the forest deep and wide That spread its shade on every side. Close by the bank he saw a pair Of curlews sporting fearless there. Hut suddenly with evil mind An outcast fowler stole behind, And, with an aim. too sure and true, The male bird near the hermit slew.
1 There are several rivers in India of this name, now corrupted into Tonse, The river here spoken of is that which falls into the Ganges a little below Allahabad.
2 'In Book II,, Canto LIV., we meet with a saint of this name presiding over a convent of disciples in his hermitage at the confluence of the Ganges and the Jumna. Thence the later author of these introductory cantos has borrowed the name and person, inconsistently indeed, but with the intention of enhancing the dignity of the poet by ascribing to him so celebrated a disciple.' SCHLEGEL, The wretched hen in wild despair With fluttering pinions beat the air, And shrieked a long and bitter cry When low on earth she saw him lie, Her loved companion, quivering, dead, His dear wings with his lifeblood red; And for her golden crested mate She mourned, and was disconsolate.
The hermit saw the slaughtered bird, And all his heart with ruth was stirred. The fowler's impious deed distressed His gentle sympathetic breast, And while the curlew's sad cries rang Within his ears, the hermit sang: * No fame be thine for endless time, Because, base outcast, of thy crime, Whose cruel hand was fain to slay One of this gentle pair at play! ' E'en as he spoke his bosom wrought And laboured with the wondering thought What was the speech his ready tongue Had uttered when his heart was wrung. He pondered long upon the speech, Recalled the words and measured each, And thus exclaimed the saintly guide To Bharadvaja by his side: * With equal lines of even feet, With rhythm and time and tone complete, The measured form of words I spoke In shock of grief be termed a sloke.'1 And Bharadvaja, nothing slow His faithful love and zeal to show, Answered those words of wisdom, ' Be The name, my lord, as pleases thee.' As rules prescribe the hermit took Some lustral water from the brook. But still on this his constant thought Kept brooding, as his home he sought; While Bharadvaja paced behind, A pupil sage of lowly mind, And in his hand a pitcher bore With pure fresh water brimming o'er. Soon as they reached their calm retreat The holy hermit took his seat; iis mind from worldly cares recalled, And mused in deepest thought enthralled. Then glorious Brahma,2 Lord Most High, Creator of the earth and sky, 1 The poet plays upon the similarity in sound of the two words: soha, means ^rief, sloka, the heroic measure in which he poem is composed. It need scarcely je said that the derivation is fanciful.
z Brahma, the Creator, is usually regarded as the first person of the divine triad of ndia. The four heads with which he is epresented are supposed to have allusion o the four corners of the earth which he s sometimes considered to personify. As an object of adoration Brahma has been 8 8 THE RAM AY AN.
Book I.
The four-faced God, to meet the sage Came to Valmiki's hermitage. Soon as the mighty God he saw, Up sprang the saint in wandering awe. Mute, with clasped hands, Ins head he bent, And stood before him reverent. His honoured guest he greeted well, Who bade him of his welfare tell; Gave water for his blessed feet, Brought offerings,1 and prepared a seat, In honoured place the God Most High Sate down, and bade the saint sit nigh. There sate before Valmiki's eyes The Father of the earth and skies; But still the hermit's thoughts were bent On one thing only, all intent On that poor curlew's mournful fate Lamenting for her slaughtered mate; And still his lips, in absent mood, The verse that told his grief, renewed: ' Woe to the fowler's impious hand That did the deed that folly planned; That could to needless death devote The curlew of the tuneful throat 1 ' The heavenly Father smiled in glee, And saiil, '0 best of hermits, see, A verse, unconscious, thou hast made; ^No longer be the task delayed. Seek not to trace, with labour vain, The unpremeditated strain. The tuneful lines thy lips rehearsed Spontaneous from thy bosom burst. Then come, 0 best of seers, relate The life of Rama good and great, The tale that saintly Narad told, In all its glorious length unfold. Of all the deeds his arm ha? done "Upon this earth, omit not one, And thus the noble life record Of that wise, brave, aiid virtuous lord.
entirely superseded by $iva and Vishnu. In the whole of India there is, I believe, but one temple dedicated to his worship. In this point the first of the Indian triad curiously resembles the last of the divine fraternity of Greece, Aides the brother of Zeus and Poseidon. * In all Greece, says fausanias, there is no single temple of Aides, except at a single spot in Elis.' See Gladstone's Juventus Alundi, p. 253.
1 The arglia or arghya was a libation or offering to a deity, a Brahman, or other venerable personage. According to one authority it consisted of water, milk, the points of Kusa-grass, curds, clarified butter, rice, barley, and white mustard; according to another, of saffron, bel, unbroken grain, flowers, curds, durba-grass, kusa-graas, and sesamum, His every act to day displayed, His secret life to none betrayed: How Lakshinan, how the giants fought; With high emprise and hidden thought: And all that Janak's child1 befell Where all could see, where none could tell, The whole of this shall truly be Made known, O best of saints, to thee. In all thy poem, through my grace, No word of falsehood shall have place. Begin the story, and rehearse The tale divine in charming verse. As long as in this firm -set land The streams shall flow,the mountains stand, So long throughout the world, be sure, The great Ramayan shall endure.2 While the Ramayan 's ancient strain Shall glorious in the earth remain, To higher spheres shalt thou arise And dwell with me above the skies.'