On roots and fruit which branches give.* 1 The ascetic's dress which he wore during his exile.
* There is much inconsistency in the passages of the poem in which the Vanara are spoken of, which seems to poiut to two Canto XVI I.
THE RAM AY AN.
Thus nature framed our harmless race: Thou art a man supreme in place. Silver and gold and land provoke The fierce attack, the robber's stroke. Canst thou desire this wild retreat, The berries and the fruit we eat? 'Tis not for mighty kings to tread The flowery path, by pleasure led. Theirs be the arm that crushes sin, Theirs the soft grace to woo and win: The steadfast will that guides the state, Wise favour to the good and great; And for all time are kings renowned Who blend these arts and ne'er confound But thou art weak and swift to ire, Unstable, slave of each desire. Thou tramplest duty in the dust, And in thy bow is all thy trust. 1 hou carest naught for noble gain, And treatest virtue with disdain, While every sense its captive draws To follow pleasure's changing laws. I wronged thee not in word or deed, But by thy deadly dart I bleed. What wilt thou, mid the virtuous, say To purge thy lasting stain away? All these, O King, must sink to hell, The regicide, the infidel, He who in blood and slaughter joys, A Brahman or a cow destroys, Untimely weds in law's despite Scorning an elder brother's right,1 Who dares his Teacher's bed ascend, The miser, spy, and treacherous friend. These impious wretches, one and all, Must to the hell of sinners fall.
My skin the holy may not wear, Useless to thee my bones and hair; Nor may my slaughtered body be The food of devotees like thee. These five-toed things a man may slay And feed upon the fallen prey; The mailed rhinoceros may die, And, with the hare his food supply. Iguanas he may kill and eat, widely different legends. The Vanars are generally represented as semi-divine beings with preternatural powers, living in houses and eating and drinking like men, some- times as here, as monkeys pure and simple, living in woods and eating fruit and roots.
1 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-burn." GENESIS.
With porcupine and tortoise meat.1 But all the wise account it sin To touch my bones and hair and skin.
My flesh they may not eat; and I A useless prey, O Rama, die.
In vain my Tara reasoned well, On dull deaf ears her counsel fell.
J scorned her words though sooth and sweet, And hither rushed my fate to meet.
Ah for the land thou rulest! she Finds no protection, lord, from thee, Neglected like some noble dame By a vile husband dead to shame.
Mean -hearted coward, false and vile, Whose cruel soul delights in guile, Could Dasaratha, noblest king, Beget so mean and base a thing?
Alas! an elephant, in form Of Rama, in a maddening storm Of passion casting to the ground The girth of law2 that clipped him round, Too wildly passionate to feel The prick of duty's guiding steel,5 Has charged me unawares, and dead I fall beneath his murderous tread.
How, stained with this my base defeat, How wilt thou dare, where good men meet, To speak, when every tongue will blame With keen reproach this deed of shame?
Such hero strength and valour, shown Upon the innocent alone, Thou hast not proved in manly strife On him who robbed thee of thy wife.
Hadst thou but fought in open field And met me boldly unconcealed, This day had been thy fate to fall, Slain by this hand, to Yama's hall.
In vain I strove, and struck by thee Fell by a hand 1 could not see.
Thus bites a snake, for sins of yore, A sleeping man who wakes no more.
Sugriva's foeman thou hast killed, And thus his heart's desire fulfilled: But, Rama, hadst thou sought me first, And told the hope thy soul has nursed, That very day had I restored The Maithil lady to her lord; And, binding Ravan with a chain, Had laid him at thy feet unslain.
1 " The hedgehog and porcupine, the lizard, the rhinoceros, the tortoise, and the rabbit or hare, wise legislators delare law- ful food among five-toed animals."
2 " He can not buckle his distempered cause Within the belt of rule." MACBETH% 3 The A-nkus or iron hook with which an elephant is driven and guided.
THE RAM AY AX.
Boo* IV.
Yea, were she sunk in deepest hell, Or whelmed beneath the ocean's swell, I would have followed on her track And brought the rescued lady back, As Hayagriva1 once set free From hell the white Asvatari.8 That when my spirit wings its flight Sugriva reign, is just and right.
But mo.st unjust, O King, that I, Slain by thy treacherous hand, should lie.
Be still, my heart: this earthly state Is darkly ruled by sovereign Fate.
The realm is lost and won: def y Thy questioners with apt reply.'3 CANTO XVIII.
KAMA'S REPLY.
He ceased: and Rama's heart was stirred At every keen reproach he heard. There Bali lay, a dim dark sun, His course of light and glory run: Or hke the bed of Ocean dried Of his broad floods from side to side, or l)elpless, as the dying tire, Hushed his last words of righteous ire. Then Rama, with his spirit moved, The Vanar king in turn reproved: ' Why dost tl)ou Bali, thus revile, And castest not a glance the whije On claims of duty, love, and gain, And customs o'er the world that reign? Why dost thou blame me, rash and blind, Fickle as all thy Vanar kind. Slighting each rule of ancient days Which all the good and prudent praise? Phis land, each hill and woody chase, Belongs to old Ikshvaku's race: 1 Hayagriva, Horse-necked, is a form 3f Vishnu.
3 " 4svatara is the name of a chief of /he Nagas or serpents which inhabit the •egions under the earth; it is also the lame of a Gandharva. 4-svatari ought o be the wife of one of the two, but 1 am iot sure that this conjecture is right. The 'oinraentator does not say who this Asva- ari is, or what tradition or myth is al- uded to. Yimalabodha reads Asvatari n the nominative case, and explains, Asva- ari is the sun, and as the sun with his ays brings back the moon which has been unk in the ocean and the infernal regions, o will I bring back Sita." GoRRESio.
3 That if, ' Consider what answer 37ou an give to your accusers when they barge you with injustice ill killing me,: With bird and beast and man, the whole Is ours to cherish and control.
Now Bbarat, prompt at duty's call, Wise, just, and true, is lord of all.
Each claim of law, love, gain he knows, And wrath and favour duly shows.
A king from truth who never bends.
And grace with vigour wisely blends; With valour worthy of his race, He knows the claims of time and place.
Now we and other kings of might, By his ensample taught aright, The lands of every region tread That justice may increase and spread.
While royal Bharat, wise and just, Rules the broad earth, his glorious trust, Who shall attempt, while he is lord, A deed by Justice held abhorred?
We now, as Bharat has decreed, Let justice guide our every deed, And toil each sinner to repress Who scorns the way of righteousness.
Thou from that path hast turned aside, A.nd virtue's holy law defied.
Left the fair path which kin^s should tread, And followed pleasure's voice instead.
The man who cleaves to duty's law Regards these three with h'lial awe— The sire, the elder brother, third Him from whose lips his lore he heard.
Thus too, for duty's sake, the wise .Regard with fond paternal eyes The well-loved younger brother, one Their lore has ripened, and a son.
Fine are the laws which guide the good, Abstruse, and hardly understood: Only the soul, enthroned within The breast of each, knows right from sin, But thou art wild and weak of soul, And spurnest, like thy race, control; The true and right thou canst not find.
The blind consulting with the blind.
Incline thine ear and I will teach The cause that prompts my present speech.
This tempest of thy soul assuage, Nor blame me in thine idle rage.
On this great sin thy thoughts bestow, The sin for wtyich I lay thee low.
Thou, Bali, in thy brother's life Hast robbed him of his wedded wife, And keepest, scorning ancient right, His Ruma for thine own delight.
Thy son's own wife should scarcely be More sacred in thine eyes than she.
AH duty thou hast scorned, and hence Comes punishment for dire offence.
For those who blindly c]o amiss There is, I ween, no way but this: To check the rash who dare to stray From customs which the good obey, I may nut, sprung o.t iishatriya lines Canto XVf/I.
THE RAM AY AN.
Forgive this heinous sin of thine: The' laws for those who sin like thee The penalty of death decree. Now Bharat rules with sovereign sway, And we his royal word obey. There was no hope of pardon, none, For the vile deed that thou hast done, That wisest monarch dooms to die. The wretch whose crimes the law defy; And we, chastising those who err, His righteous doom administer. My soul accounts Sugriva dear E'en as my brother Lakshman here. He brings me blessing, and I swore His wife and kingdom to restore: A bond in solemn honour bound When Vanar chieftains stood around. And can a king like me forsake His friend, and plighted promise break? Reflect, O Vanar, on the cause, The sanction of eternal laws, And, justly smitten down, confess Thou diest for thy wickedness. By honour was 1 bound to lend Assistance to a faithful friend; And thou hast met a righteous fate Thy former sins to expiate. And thus wilt thou some merit win And make atonement for thy sin. Fofc* hear me, Vanar King, rehearse What Manu1 spake in ancient verse, — This holy law, which all accept Who honour duty, have I kept: ' Pure grow the sinners kings chastise, And, like the virtuous, gain the skies; By pain or full atonement freed, They reap the fruit of righteous deed, While kings who punish not incur The penalties of those who err.' Mandhata* once, a noble king, Light of the line from which I spring, Punished with death a devotee When he had stooped to sin like thee; And many a king in ancient time Has punished frantic sinners' crime, And, when their impious blood was spilt, Has washed away the stain of guilt. Cease, Bali, cease: no more complain: Reproaches and laments are vain, For thou art justly punished: we Obey our king and are not free. Once more, O Bali, lend thine ear 1 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."
a Mandhata was one of the earlier des- cendants of Ikshvaku. His name is men- tioned in llama's genealogy, p, 81, Another weightiest plea to hear. For this, when heard and pondered well, Will all complaint and rage dispel. My soul will ne'er this deed repent, Nor was my shaft in anger sent. We take the silvan tribes beset With snare and trap and gin and net, And many a heedless deer we smite From thickest shade, concealed from sight. Wild for the slaughter of the game, At stately stags our shafts we aim. We strike them bounding scared away, We strike them as they stand at bay, When careless in the shade they lie, Or scan the plain with watchful eye. They turn away their heads: we aim, And none the eager hunter blame. Each royal saint, well trained in law Of duty, loves his bow to draw And strike the quarry* e'en as thou Hast fallen by mine arrow now, Fighting with him or unaware, — A Vanar thou.— I little care.1 But yet, O best of Vanars, know That kings who rule the earth bestow Fruit of pure life and virtuous deed> And lofty duty's hard- won meed* Harm not thy lord the king: abstain From act and word that cause him pain; For kings are children of the skies Who walk this earth in men's disguise. But thou, in duty's claims untaught, Thy breast with blinding passion fraught, Assailest me who still have clung To duty, with thy bitter tongue.'
He ceased: and Bali sore distressed The sovereign claims of law confessed, And freed, o'erwhelmed with woe and shame.
The lord of Raghu's race from blame. Then, reverent palm to palm applied, To Rama thus trie Vanar cried: 1 True, best of men, is every word That from thy lips these ears have heard, It ill beseems a wretch like me To bandy empty words with thee. Forgive the angry taunts that broke From my wild bosom as I spoke. And lay not to my charge, 0 King, 1 I cannot understand how Valmlki could put such an excuse as this into Rama's mouth. Rama with all solemn ceremony, has made a league of alliance with Bali's younger brother whom he regards as a dear friend and almost as an equal, and now he. winds up his reasons for killing Bali 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.'
THE RAM AY AN.
fiook JV.
My mad reproaches' idle sting. Thou, in the truth by trial trained, Best knowledge of the right hast gained: And layest, just and pure within, The meetest penalty on sin, Through every bond of law I burst, The boldest sinner and the worst. O let thy right-instructing speech Console my heart and wisely teach.'
Like some sad elephant who stands Fast sinking in the treacherous sands, Thus Bali raised despairing eyes; Then spake again with sobs and sighs: ' Not for myself, O King, I grieve, For Tara or the friends I leave, As for sweet Angad, my dear son, My noble, only little one. For, nursed in luxury and bliss, His father he will mourn and miss, And like a stream whose fount is dry Will waste away and sink and die,— My own dear child, my only boy, His mother Taras hope and joy. Spare him, O son of Raghu, spare The child entrusted to thy care. My Angad and Sugriva treat E'en as thy heart considers meet, For thou, O chief of men, art strong To guard the right and punish wrong. O, if thou wilt thine ear incline To hear these dying words of mine, He and Sugriva will to thee As Bharat and as Lakshman be. Let not my Tara, left forlorn, Weep for Sugriva's wrathful scorn; Nor let him, for her lord's offence, Condemn her faithful innocence. And well and wisely may he reign If thy dear grace his power sustain: If, following thee his friend and guide, He turn not from thy best aside; Thus may he reign with glory, nay Thus to the skies will win his way, Though stayed by Tara's fond recall, By thy dear hand I longed to fall. Against my brother rushed and fought, And gained the death I long have sought.'
Then Kama thus the prince consoled From whose clear eyes the mists were rolled: ' Grieve not for those thou leavest thus, Nor tremble for thyself or us, For we will deal with thine and thee As duty and the laws decree. He who exacts and he who pays, Is justly slain or justly slays, Shall in the life to come have bliss; For each has done his task in this. Thou, wandering from the right, art made Pure by the forfeit thou hast paid, Thy weight of sins is cast aside, And duty's claim is satisfied, Then grieve no more, O Prince, but clear Thy bosom from all doubt and fear, For fate, inexorably stern, Thou hast no power to move or turn. Thy princely Angad still will share My tender love, Sugriva's care; Arid to thy offspring shall be shown Affection that shall match thine own.'
CANTO XIX.
TARA'S GRIEF.
No answer gave the Vanar king To Rama's prudent counselling. Battered and bruised by tree and stone, By Rama's arrow overthrown, Fainting upon the ground he lay, Gasping his troubled life away. But Tara in the Vanar's hall Heard tidings of her husband's fall; Heard that a shaft from Rama's bow Had laid the royal Bali low. Her darling Angad by her side, Distracted from her home she hied. Then nigh the place of battle drew The Vanars, Angad's retinue. They saw the bow- armed Rama: dread Fell on them, and they turned and fled. Like helpless deer, their leaders slain, So wildly fled the startled train. But Tar£ saw, and nearer pressed. And thus the flying band addressed: * O Vanars, ye who ever stand About our king, a trusty band, Where is the lion master? why Forsake ye thus your lord and fly? Say, lies he dead upon the plain, A brother by a brother slain, Or pierced by shafts from Rama's bow That rain from far upon the foe?'
Thus Tara questioned, and was still: Then, wearers of each shape at will, The Vanars thus with one accord Answered the Lady of their lord: * Turn, Tara turn, and half undone Save Angad thy beloved son.
Tnere Rama stands in death's disguise, And conquered Bali faints and dies. He by whose strong arm, thick and fast, Uprooted trees and rocks were cast, Lies smitten by a shaft that came Resistless as the lightning flame. When he, whose splendour once could vie With Indra's, regent of the sky, Fell by that deadly arrow, all The Vanars fled who marked his fall. Let all our chiefs their succours bring, And Angad be anointed king; Canto XX.
THE RAM AY AN.
For all who corae of Vanar race Will serve him set in Bali's place.
Or else our conquering foes to-day Within our wall will force their way, Polluting with their hostile feet The chambers of thy loved retreat.
Great fear is on us. all and one.
Those who have wives and who have none, They lust for power, are fierce and bold, Or hate us for the strife of old.'
She heard their speech as, sore afraid, Arrested in their flight, they stayed, A rid gave her answer as became The spirit of so true a dame: ° Nay, what have I to do with pelf, With son, with kingdom, or with self, When he, my noble lord, who leads The Vanars'like a loin, bleeds? His high-souled victor will I meet, And throw me prostrate at his feet.'
She hastened forth, her bosom rent With anguish, weeping as she went, And.striking, mastered by her woes, Her head and breast with frantic blows. Siie hurried to the field and found Her husband postrate on the ground, Who quelled the hostile Vanars' might, Whose back was never turned in flight: Whose arm a massy rock could throw As Indra hurls his bolts below: Fierce as the rushing tempest, loud As thunder from a labouring cloud: Whene'er he roared his voice of fear Struck terror on the boldest ear: Now slain, as. hungry for the prey, A tiger might a lion slay: Or when, his serpent foe to seek, Suparna1 with his furious beak Tears up a sacred hillock, long The reverence of a village throng, Its altar witli their offerings spread, And the gay flag that waved o'erhead. She looked and saw the victor stand Resting upon his bow his hand: And fierce Sugriva she descried, And Lakshman by Ids brother's side. {She passed them by, nor stayed to view, Swift to her husband's side she flew; Then as she looked, her strength gave way. And in the dust she fell and lay. Then, as if startled ere the close Of slumber, from the earth she roae. Upon her dying husband, round Whose soul the coils of Death were wound, Her eyes in agony she bent And called him with a shrill lament.
Sugriva, when he heard her cries, And saw the queen with weeping eyes, 1 A name of Garuda the king of birds, the great enemy of the Serpents.
And youthful Angad standing there, iiis load of grief could hardly bear.
CANTO XX.
TARA'S LAMENT, Again she bent her to the ground, Her arms about her husband wound. Sobbed on his breast, and sick and faint With anguish poured her wild complaint: Brave in the charge of battle, boast And glory of the Vaiiar host, Why on the cold earth wilt thou lie And give no answer when 1 cry? Up, warrior, from thy lowly bed! A meeter couch for thee is spread. It ill beseems a glorious king On the bare ground his linihs to fling. Ah, surely must thy love be strong For her whom thou hast governed long, If thou, my hero, canst recline On her cold breast forsaking mine. Or, famed for justice through the land, Thou on the road to heaven hast planned Some city fairer far than this To be thy new metropolis. Are all our pleasures ended now, With those delicious hours which thou And I, dear lord, together spent In woods that breathed the honey's scent? Whelmed in my sorrow's boundless sea, There is no joy. no hope, for me, When my beloved lord, who led The Vanars to the fight, is dead, My widowed heart is stern and cold, Or, at the sightjinine eyes behold, O'ermastered would it end this ache And in a thousand fragments break. Ah noble Vanar, doomed to pay The penalty of all to-day— Sugriva from his home expelled. And Riuna1 from his arms withheld. Our Vanar race and thee to save, Wise counsel for thy weal I gave; But thou, by wildest folly stirred, Wouldst give no credence to my word, And now wilt woo the nymphs above, And shake their souls with pangs of love. Ah, never could it be that thou Beneath Sugriva's power shouldst bow, Thy conqueror is none but Fate Whose mandates all who breathe await, And does no thrill of anguish run Through the stern breast of Raghu's son, Whose base hand dealt a coward's blow, And srnote thee fighting with thy foe? lie ft of my lord my days, alas!
1 Sugriva's wife.
THE In bitter bitter woe will pass: And I, long blest with every good, ftlust bear my dreary widowhood. And when his uncle's brow is stern, When his fierce eyes with fury burn, Ah, what will be my Angad's fate, So fair and young and delicate? Come, darling, for the last sad sight. Of thy dear sire who loved the right; For soon thine eyes will long in vain A look at that loved face to gain. And, hero, as thy child draws near, With tender words his spirit cheer; Thy dying wishes gently speak, And kiss him on the brows and cheek. High fame, 1 ween, has Rama won By this great deed his hand has done, His debt to brave Sugriva paid And kept the promise that he made. Be happy. King Sugriva, lord Of Rum& to thine arms restored: Enjoy uninterrupted reign, For he, thy foe, at length is slain. Dost thou not hear me speak, and why Hast thou no word of soft reply? Will thou not lift thine eyes and see These dames who look to none but thee?'
From their sad eyes, as Tfira spoke, The floods of bitter sorrow broke: Theo, pressing close to Angad's side, Each lifted up her voice and cried: ' How couldat thou leave thine Angad thus, And go, for ever go, from us — Thy child so dear in brave attire, Graced with the virtues of his sire? If e'er in want of thought, O chief, One deed of mine have caused thee grief, Forgive my folly, I entreat, And with my head I touch thy feet.1 Again the hapless Tara wept As to her husband's side she crept, And wild with sorrow and dismay Sat on the ground where Bali lay.
CANTO XXL HANUMAN'S SPEECH.
There, like a fallen star, the dame Fell by her lord's half lifeless frame: And Hanuman drew softly near, And strove her grieving heart to chear: * By changeless law our bliss and woe From ancient worth and folly rlow. What fruits soe'er we cull, the seeds Were scattered by our former deeds.1 >^V. Book IV Why mourn another's mournful fate, And weep, thyself unfortunate / Be calm, O thou whose heart is wise, For none deserves another's sighs.
Look up, with idle sorrow strive: Thy child, his heir, is vet alive.
Let needful rites be duly done, Nor in thy woe forget thy son.
Regard the law which all obey: They spring to life, they pass away.
Begin the task that bids thee rise, And stay these tears, fur thou art wise, Our lord the king is doomed to die, On whom leq million hearts rely.
Kind, liberal, patient, true, and just Was he in whom they place their trust, And now he seeks the land of those Who for the right subdue their foes.
Each Vaiiar lord with all his tram, Each ranger of this wild domain, And Angad here, thy darling, see A governor and friend in thee.
These twain1 whose hearts witii sorrow ache The funeral rices shall undertake, And Angad by his mother's care Be king, his father's rightful heir.
Now lee him pay, as laws requue, His sacred duty to his sire, Nor one solemnity omit Of all that mighty kings betit.
And when thy loud e) e sees thine own Dear Angad on his father's throne, Then, lightened of its load of pain, Thy spirit will have rest again.'
6iie heard hisspeech,. she heaved her head, Looked upon Hauuinun and said: 'Sweeter my slain lord's limbs to touch, Than Angad or a hundred such. No rule or right, a widowed dame, O'er Angad or the realm I claim. •Sugriva is the uncle, he In every act supreme must be. I pray thee, chief, this plan resign, Nor claim from me what ne'er is mine. The father with his tender care Guards the dear child the mother bare, Where'er I be, no sweeter task, No happier joy I hope or ask Than thus to sit with loving eyes And watch the bed where Bali lies.'
CANTO XXII.
1 "Our deeds still follow with us from afar. And what we have been makes us what we are," * BALI DEAD.
There breathing still with slow faint sighs Lay Bali on the ground: his eyes, 1 Sugriva and Augad, Canto XXII.
Till: RAMA r/i.V.